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Notes From South of the Border
Let me get the philosophical thing out of the way right now. If you lived extravagantly in America and expect to come to Mexico and live in the same way, only bigger and better, then you will pay dearly for that expectation. Therein is the vast deception of almost every website and book on living in Mexico (except our books, of course) that will tell you about the costs here.
Almost every American expat we've met comes to Mexico with the idea that they will be able to live even bigger and brighter than they did when in the States. They come thinking that if they had a two-car garage in Chicago that they will be able to have a four-car garage in Mexico. I am not quite sure how they reason but they think that if they could buy "X" number of things in America with an annual income of a $100,000.00 that they will be able to buy ten times "X" when they arrive here. It isn't so.
If you lived an upper middle-class existence in America, with all the trimmings, and then come to Mexico and live the equivalent of an upper middle-class Mexican existence, then you will do very well. If this sounds a bit confusing then don't worry. Work with me here.
An upper middle-class existence in Mexico is not the same in buying power as is an upper middle-class existence in America. If doctors, let's assume, in America are economically in an upper middle-class buying class, then in Mexico they would be considered fabulously wealthy. However, doctors in Mexico do not make anything close to what they make in the States. Therefore, what I am saying is that you can do well in Mexico if you change gears when you get here. You have to switch your economic mental gears.
Your American dollar will stretch much farther here but not if you want to live like the Queen of Sheba. A lot of retirees come to Mexico with a retirement income that puts them into the top 6% of equivalent Mexican incomes. One of the results is seen in San Miguel de Allende. Decades ago it was as cheap to live there as it still is in Guanajuato and other surrounding colonial towns. However, they came wanting to live like King and Queens driving the price of real estate through the roof. Now, you would be lucky to find a one-bedroom house for under a quarter of a million dollars. You would be fortunate to find a rental for less than $800.00 a months—I am talking dollars and not pesos. Prices for everything else are outrageous.
You could not move to San Miguel de Allende and live as you did in the States unless your income really did rival that of kings. That is what I am saying. The same goes for most of the Gold Coast expat enclaves as well. It is getting so expensive in Puerto Vallarta to live that our expat friends there are thinking of moving to central Mexico where it is, for now anyways, still affordable.
Having said this, there are still Mexicans living in San Miguel de Allende who are middle class to lower class economically. They live as Mexican nationals do within a certain economic class. But, they live like Mexicans and not like American expats. Do you get this? It is still possible to live in areas like San Miguel de Allende and in areas on the Gold Coast cheaply but you would be forced to live like a native.
If you want the four-car garage instead of the one-car garage it will cost you. If you want a full compliment of servants, even one or two living-in, instead of the one lady that comes in maybe twice a week, then it will cost you. If you want to eat out three or four times a week at the most expensive and trendy places, instead of maybe twice a month at a "nice" place, then it will cost you. If you want only the best New York designed clothes, instead of something from Wall-mart, then it will cost you. And, it will cost you dearly.
My wife and I live better on less than we did when we lived in the States. We can do this because we've gone native. That is the secret. If what you want is to transport the life you had in America to the life you want in Mexico then it will cost you. If you go native, you can live better than you did when in America. But, as an anthropologist we met said, "How many Americans would want to do that?" To which I say, precisely my point....Click Here to Read More
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