What's retirement in Managua, Nicaragua like?

The answer to what it would be like to retire in Managua is different, depending on whether you’re talking about the city of Managua, or out at the beach, 42 miles away (about an hour by car), which is where I live, at Gran Pacifica.

 

In Managua itself, if you need to be close to shopping and to browse for clothing at one of the nice stores, you should check out Siman, which would be very comparable to a Neiman Marcus.  It would not be quite as...

The answer to what it would be like to retire in Managua is different, depending on whether you’re talking about the city of Managua, or out at the beach, 42 miles away (about an hour by car), which is where I live, at Gran Pacifica.

 

In Managua itself, if you need to be close to shopping and to browse for clothing at one of the nice stores, you should check out Siman, which would be very comparable to a Neiman Marcus.  It would not be quite as expensive as Niman Marcus but it would certainly be upscale for Nicaragua. To give you an idea of the prices there, Levis are $75 each.  If you really like the city and its shopping, then it’s a great place to go.

 

For a nice place for expats to live, in a nice neighborhood, rents run from US $1,200 - $1,500 / month for a furnished place, plus you pay your own utilities.

 

The city of Managua has a little higher elevation, so it’s a little bit cooler than we are right here at the ocean.  A family of two could live fairly comfortably somewhere in the neighborhood of probably $3,000 / month for everything, all in. it’s about the same for us out here at Gran Pacifica.

 

If you live in town, you can catch a taxi where you want to go, because it seems like there are millions of them. None of them have shocks and none of them have headliners, but you can get taxis everywhere.

 

Retirement in Managua town itself is not my cup of tea just because of the amount of traffic and the fact that you have to live behind razor wire and that kind of goes against my way of wanting to live.   When it was being rebuild in the 1970s the town went through some difficult political times. So, every home and every neighborhood built walls to protect themselves from people from the outside. Here at Gran Pacifica, its just the opposite. We don’t even allow walls. Retaining walls are all that’s allowed and there has to be a variance from the architectural committee to put up any type of wall.

 

Gran Pacifica is a planned urban development that was planned by the same people responsible for Walt Disney Celebration, what many regard as a perfect American town, in Florida. For Gran Pacifica, however, they planned the town with Nicaraguan flavor instead of picket fences and big front porches with stoops like they did in Florida. Here, we have lots of outdoor terraces and lots of green space because we have the room for it.

 

I know about four or five couples who have decided to retire here in the city of Managua. They are renting a house similar to what they had in the US for about half the price, so that has reduced their expenses by half and they still have some money left over for recreational purposes. That is why they decided to move here. They want to save a little more money and to have a better quality of life.

 

The quality of life here is easy going and stress free....

I know about four or five couples who have decided to retire here in the city of Managua. They are renting a house similar to what they had in the US for about half the price, so that has reduced their expenses by half and they still have some money left over for recreational purposes. That is why they decided to move here. They want to save a little more money and to have a better quality of life.

 

The quality of life here is easy going and stress free. You don’t have to fear anything. You won’t worry about not having enough money by the end of the month. They don’t fear about running out of money when they get older. Because of the dollar exchange rate, people here can buy more and spend less on expenses.

 

It is another thing if you retire in the Pacific areas of Nicaragua because those places were designed and patterned after the US, so they are a bit more expensive.  In general, retirement and what you can buy with your money is different in the greater areas of Managua, with the most expensive being the planned Pacific beach communities. The city of Managua is in the middle. The fishing villages on the Pacific coast that are not part of the big communities are even cheaper than Managua.