I am not sure about the cost of Internet by itself in Mexico. I have an Internet-TV-landline bundle so I am not sure what the breakdown is. For the entire bundle, I pay $32 USD a month. The Internet is probably $18 USD. The Internet is fast and clean enough that you can use Skype with video and it works fine.
(Street in Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)
I am not sure about the cost of Internet by itself in Mexico. I have an Internet-TV-landline bundle so I am not sure what the breakdown is. For the entire bundle, I pay $32 USD a month. The Internet is probably $18 USD. The Internet is fast and clean enough that you can use Skype with video and it works fine.
(Street in Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)
Dental care is cheaper in Portugal than anywhere else comparable. I have heard that there is a move by the government towards trying to get the Algarve to be a health holiday place but this is still in its early stages. Compared to India and other places like that, dental tourism in Portugal is still highly negligible.
(An early Celt settlement, Obidos, Portugal, pictured.)
Dental care is cheaper in Portugal than anywhere else comparable. I have heard that there is a move by the government towards trying to get the Algarve to be a health holiday place but this is still in its early stages. Compared to India and other places like that, dental tourism in Portugal is still highly negligible.
(An early Celt settlement, Obidos, Portugal, pictured.)
In one word, doing business in Nicaragua is "frustrating." You have to exhibit an extreme amount of patience if you’re doing business in Nicaragua. In Latin America, if I have an 11:00 meeting, it might mean 11:00, 11:30 or 11:45 and chances are we will not go immediately to the meat of the matter. Chances are we will have a coffee, a meal, or a lunch and it will not last for only 15 minutes; it will last for 2 hours. There is an old saying, “Mañana” which...
In one word, doing business in Nicaragua is "frustrating." You have to exhibit an extreme amount of patience if you’re doing business in Nicaragua. In Latin America, if I have an 11:00 meeting, it might mean 11:00, 11:30 or 11:45 and chances are we will not go immediately to the meat of the matter. Chances are we will have a coffee, a meal, or a lunch and it will not last for only 15 minutes; it will last for 2 hours. There is an old saying, “Mañana” which literally means “tomorrow” but in this culture what Mañana means is “It’s not going to happen today”. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, either, but it just means it’s not going to happen today. So if you ask “Are you going to do this; are we going to have a meeting?” the other person may respond by saying, “Mañana”, which literally means “tomorrow”, but they don’t really mean “tomorrow”. What they really mean is that they do not know for certain when it will happen or when it will get done, but it certainly will not get done today.
How they treat time is different here in Nicaragua. We live by the clock in the US but we do not live that way here in Nicaragua. So doing business here was frustrating for expats until we learn that an 11:00 AM meeting (for example) does not necessarily mean it will start at 11:00 AM. It could start at noon today or tomorrow. So as long as you have patience and flexibility and as long as you understand the culture, frustration will not set in. But your initial feeling will be frustration because things do not happen in a timely fashion. Things do not happen when you want them to. They happen when they happen and that is something that a lot of people cannot get used to, especially when you come from a corporate world and you have meetings scheduled at 9:00 AM and again at 10:00 AM and another one at 11:00 AM, then you break for lunch, and then you have another meeting at 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM. We cannot live like that here in Nicaragua. You cannot operate on that system here.
Therefore, one phrase to describe doing business in Nicaragua is “initially frustrating”.
Also, you have to be careful when doing cross-cultural business transactions. I do not think this is specific only to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. I have been taught that the best model for a business transaction is “win-win”. If we both win and shake hands and win, everyone is happy. That is not the norm here. I am not saying that someone is trying to stab you in the back, just that business here does not always adhere to the win-win strategy. A lot of times, business here is “win-lose.” In order for me to win, you have to lose. So negotiations are different. It is not always about, “do we both win?”, it is usually, “I am winning and I am happy and if you are losing, I am happy.” So you have to be careful because you are not playing by the same rules and you are not playing on the same battlefield and it is not always a win-win situation. Many local business people do not necessarily feel that to conclude a business transaction, both parties have to win. The win-win situation is not in their vocabulary. In my business dealings, in the world I come from, it should be a win-win situation but that is not always the case here.
In the US, it would occur to you that, if you have a long-term business relationship with someone, it may hurt that relationship if one of the parties felt like they “lost” in the last transaction. That does not occur to a lot of people in Nicaragua. That is another difference here in Nicaragua, and it may or may not be cultural. It could result from past experiences or the nature of the concept of the rich versus the poor, I am not sure why.
In my description of Nicaraguan business transactions, I am not talking about the nature of business transactions between the president of Exxon Mobile with the president of Nicaraguan National Bank. When I say business transactions, as an expat, it’s between you and the guy who is cleaning your pool, you and the guy you are buying your car from, you and the person you are buying vegetables from on the street. Their lives are so revolved around day-to-day issues that the concept of “long-term” does not exist for them. For the president of Exxon Mobile with the president of Nicaraguan National Bank, yes, they would tend to think more long-term about business transactions and business relationships. But how many presidents of Exxon Mobile are actually in my community? Not too many.
So when I am talking business, I am talking about the average person dealing with the guy who is painting his house, repairing his roof, fixing his faucet, delivering his milk. These people live on such a day-to-day existence that to think “I need to not extort twice the value of my vegetables from this person today so that he buys vegetables from me for the next 20 years and buys vegetables from my children when my children takes over my business” does not occur to them. Life is in the “immediate “lane” here.
They think something like this: What is it that I need today? If I am going to sell my bananas on the street to a local for a penny and an American walks by and he will pay a quarter, I am going to charge the American the quarter and even though he is paying 25 times the price I charge a local, he still thinks that he is paying a good price for the banana because a banana in the US is a dollar. My banana is worth a penny and I am charging the Gringo 25 cents, the Gringo is going to pay it and he loves paying that amount because he is still paying one quarter of what he was paying in the States but he is paying 25 times more than his Nicaraguan neighbor and that is ok for both parties.
It’s OK with the Gringo because he is still getting a good deal but the person selling the bananas is not thinking 20 years down the line. He is thinking about today. He is thinking “What can I bring my family by the end of the day? If I can sell a banana to the Gringo for a quarter that I usually take a penny for, I will take it and I am going to win. The Gringo is going to lose.” But the Gringo is still happy even though he knows that he paid a quarter for a banana that is worth a penny to the Nicaraguan. So the Gringo will not lose sleep over it. The Gringo eventually knows that he got taken advantage of but he feels that it is for a good cause. And to him, it’s OK to pay more for the banana because he can afford it and the poor Nicaraguan street seller needs the extra cash, even though it’s not a win-win situation if you would look purely at the business ethics of it. It’s not a long-term strategy and it may not even be sustainable, but it exists. We all accept the Nicaraguan price and Gringo price in a business transaction. We still pay a lot less than what we would pay for the same thing in the US but we’re probably paying up to 25 times more for something in Nicaragua than a Nicaraguan because the Nicaraguans know we have the money to pay for it, we know we can pay for it, and the price is still less than what we pay for it in the States. It is not a win-win situation but we have learned to accept the win-lose situation.
Here’s an example: Every Saturday morning, I walk to the park on my way to the bank and I get my shoes shined, normally for 20 cordoba, which is US 75 cents. I always tip 10 cordoba, so I pay 30 cordoba in total, which is about $1.10. Every one in town knows that a shoe shine is 20 cordoba. I go to the same man every week for two years. Last week, I went to his shoe shining stall, and I sat down and said “Good morning” and he says “Good morning” and he shines my shoes. When he’s done, he says “$3.” I said, “$3? I get my shoes shined from you every week for the last 2 years for 20 Cordoba.” He starts to smile and laugh. I ended up paying $2.50 for my shoes, which is twice what I would normally pay. Now, I am not going to go back to him or I am going to go back to him and ask how much is the shoe shine ahead of time, and when he comes back down to his normal price, I’ll continue getting my shoes shined from him. He is not thinking of the win-win situation. He might be thinking, “Oh here’s an American.” Or maybe he didn’t recognize me because he is old and may have poor eyesight, or maybe I was dressed differently that day. He didn’t recognize me as the usual Saturday 10 o’clock client and he tried to get three and a half times what he normally charges, if I am silly enough to pay for it (even though a shoe shine in the US may be $7 to $10). So to me, $3 is still half the price or less than what I would pay in the US, but it’s 4 times the price of my standard shoe shine in Nicaragua. In this situation, the man shining my shoes is a businessman as am I. It was not a win-win situation and he tried to get more from me because of who I am, an “estrangero” (stranger or tourist), or a Gringo. So you constantly want to be on guard so as not to be over-charged.
The same type of situation is common with taxi drivers. When a Gringo gets in their cab, they will say, “OK, that’s $5.” A 20-minute cab ride in New York City for $20 is cheap but in reality, that cab ride in Nicaragua should be $.50. I know many Gringos who paid $5 for a $.50 cab ride and we all laugh about it.
It is the same thing in Nicaragua when dealing with other business transactions such as buying houses or dealing with contractors. In addition, this does not happen only in Nicaragua. I have lived in Costa Rica and they have what we call “the Gringo price.” There is a “local price” and a “Gringo price” for almost everything. The good news is that, in Costa Rica, the Gringo price is still a little cheaper than what we will pay in the States, anyway. We are not complaining about it. You just have to be aware. Most of us are OK with that. There are times when we blow our tops and say, “Wait a minute, I know you only charge $1 for that. Why are you charging me $4?”. Then the seller gets a big smile on his face as if to say something like, “Well, I tried!” If you tell him that you would only pay 80 cordoba then he would just laugh it off and agree.
You don’t have to pay the Gringo price if you don’t want to. You can walk away at any time. If you bargain hard enough, you will pay the local price. That sounds easy but many expats do not understand how to do that because when we see a price, we think that that price is the same for everybody. In Nicaragua, the general thinking is, “How can I get as much as I can for what I sell for today? If this guy finds out that he paid more and he doesn’t come back, I wouldn’t care.” It is not always a win-win situation. Nevertheless, they are thinking that you will come back because that is just how things are. You always take a shot at people and if it does not work, there are no hard feelings. You just move on.
What should I be most concerned about regarding retiring abroad?
Lissy Lezcano - Lissy Lezcano Attorney & Mediator
I think that, when retiring abroad, you should be most concerned about the culture, the area and the language. You need to know that every country is different and with its own rules. For example, in Panama things take more time than in North America and you need to be patient.
Also, make certain that you have a realistic budget. Some people think they can come to Panama and live on $500 per month, but they don't do...
I think that, when retiring abroad, you should be most concerned about the culture, the area and the language. You need to know that every country is different and with its own rules. For example, in Panama things take more time than in North America and you need to be patient.
Also, make certain that you have a realistic budget. Some people think they can come to Panama and live on $500 per month, but they don't do enough research and this is no longer true. Make certain that you know what things really cost.
I think you should move to the place you're considering for a couple of months and try it or you will never know.
The economy of Belize is down a little bit this year. We have a higher crime rate due to the immigration of criminal elements from other countries. These people generally fight amongst themselves but it does raise the overall crime and murder rate for the country. Very little of this crime element is against expats or tourists.
The US is also putting a lot of sanctions on the banks and cutting off affiliations, which is making it...
The economy of Belize is down a little bit this year. We have a higher crime rate due to the immigration of criminal elements from other countries. These people generally fight amongst themselves but it does raise the overall crime and murder rate for the country. Very little of this crime element is against expats or tourists.
The US is also putting a lot of sanctions on the banks and cutting off affiliations, which is making it difficult for the banks to function.
As an example, Belize Bank had a relationship with Bank of America where they interchanged money and credit freely with Belize. Bank America cut off their relationship with Belize and the all of the Belize Banks had to scramble to find other US bank affiliates. What that does to a business in Belize can be as simple as making it difficult to accept a US credit card. I can run the card and get approval but the bank has to get the money for you or it is just a piece of paper.
The US doesn’t want any big money leaving the States yet people are selling out and putting their money in offshore accounts in the Caymans, here in Belize, Panama, etc. Overall, most of the economy of Belize is tourism, which requires banking. If banking is affected, so is the whole economy.
(Canadian multinational bank, Scotiabank, Belize, pictured.)
Will Panama make me pay income tax on money I earn outside of Panama?
Howard Jones - The Haven Hotel and Health Spa, Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama
In short, the answer to if Panama will make you pay income tax on money you earn outside of Panama is "no". This is great news for us European citizens because our governments don't tax us once you leave the country. Howz that!!
In short, the answer to if Panama will make you pay income tax on money you earn outside of Panama is "no". This is great news for us European citizens because our governments don't tax us once you leave the country. Howz that!!
I came to San Miguel in 2011 to do a presentation to a group of dentists who belong to the local dental association and fell in love with the people (the indigenous Mexicans), so I returned to the USA and decided to retire and come back to live in San Miguel.
My initial plans were to retire to San Tropez in the South of France, but fate has a way of planning dreams and for some reason not revealed clearly to me, I decided to move to San Miguel de...
Editor’s note: We had the privilege in early March, 2017 to talk with Michael Eager. The Eager family is a bit of an institution in the Ajijic area, where Michael’s brother Mark owns a real estate sales company and Michael runs the business that started it all in the 1970s, formerly the Posada, and now the Nueva Posada. In this interview, Michael tells us the unlikely set of events that started it all when Ajijic was just a small, out of the way village and well...
Jet Metier first heard of the term “tail twisting” from Kent Payne, who explained that it’s a way to get a cow to move where it should go by twisting its tail. Kent expounded that the same principle could be applied to people. Jet learns it did not take much tail twisting for Kent and his wife to settle down in beautiful Gran Pacifica, Nicaragua.
Jet Metier: Good morning, Kent! This interview is our way on behalf of our visitors to thank you for all...
I am not sure about the cost of Internet by itself in Mexico. I have an Internet-TV-landline bundle so I am not sure what the breakdown is. For the entire bundle, I pay $32 USD a month. The Internet is probably $18 USD. The Internet is fast and clean enough that you can use Skype with video and it works fine. 
Dental care is cheaper in Portugal than anywhere else comparable. I have heard that there is a move by the government towards trying to get the Algarve to be a health holiday place but this is still in its early stages. Compared to India and other places like that, dental tourism in Portugal is still highly negligible. 
The economy of Belize is down a little bit this year. We have a higher crime rate due to the immigration of criminal elements from other countries. These people generally fight amongst themselves but it does raise the overall crime and murder rate for the country. Very little of this crime element is against e
I came to San Miguel in 2011 to do a presentation to a group of dentists who belong to the local dental association and fell in love with the people (the indigenous Mexicans), so I returned to the USA and decided to retire and come back to live in San Miguel. 
Editor’s note: We had the privilege in early March, 2017 to talk with Michael Eager. The Eager family is a bit of an institution in the Ajijic area, where Michael’s brother Mark owns a real estate sales company and Michael runs the business that started it all in the 1970s, formerly the Posada, and now the Nueva Posada. In this interview, Michael tells us the unlikely set of events that started it all when Ajijic was just a small, out of the way village and well...