www.CostaRicaTicas.com

As another guy who lives here I will throw in my two colonies worth!! As others have pointed out, it all depends on how much you need to live per year/month the way you want to live (a variable that only you can answer). I know guys who live here on nothing but SS (me) and are having a ball and enjoying the hell out of life here. I know guys who are living on and spending $5000-$6000 a month and are very happy. I ALSO KNOW GUYS IN BOTH GROUPS WHO ARE MISERABLE LIVING HERE!! To determine what YOU need, you must first decide how you want to live, and how much it will take to live that way. The most important facter and the one hardest to figure is inflation. Remember, this is CR, not the USA and inflation over the last 20 years here has run much higher than in the USA (some estimates run as high as 15% per year). The whole problem with trying to figure all this out is not how much to save to have xx$ per month when you retire; that is easy to figure. The problem is the "HOW MUCH PER MONTH WILL YOU NEED 10-20-30 or more years from now!! In my opinion this is impossible to figure because of the inflation factor and the fact that your own life style needs will probably change over the years.

Virtually every guy I have known here will tell you they spent at least double what they should have the first year (or two) and many, even after 2-3 years, are still living well above their means. My suggestion would be to figure out as best as you can how much you think you need, then double (at least) that figure for the unexpected.

_________________
Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

From 31 to 40, how much are you going to spend on mongering? that very big expense over 9 years will affect your savings rate in a very big way. i remember one other guy on here thinking out loud... enjoy himself now with a trip here and there or stop mongering, be frugal, and retire later. if you are in an average job or even an above average job, your savings do mount up at about 40 if you are frugal, but you can't keep spending on mongering while you are saving if you are working a normal job. i'm frugal, very frugal, but i know i spent 3000 dollars every time i went anywhere mongering. CR is nearly the most expensive place to monger and in my opinion it is by far much less enjoyable so i switched up to asian mongering but i still spent at least 3000 each trip (living on the west coast made it easier to monger in asia). hotel, air, tips, food, taxis, girls, not just in the destination country, but expenses just getting in and out of each country adds up very quickly. some guys tend to ignore the total cost - that is the cost of everything you encounter from the time you leave your house to the time you get back to your house (that coffee at the airport is part of your cost).

i think a lot of guys forget about retiring, they just put it out of their mind and live for the next trip.

I agree with Orange on this one . If you plan to maybe see 80 years of age and want $ 90.00 per day to live on its 1,344,000.

_________________
Always nice to wake up and see what will happen today