I have been doing a lot of research and understand you can live in Costa Rica and own a business but you can not work in it. So where are the best places legally to start a business and live and work? Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, San Salvador, Mexico? Do the rules change if you are married to someone? Thanks.

I have alot of respect for the guys who have done it already from Bang Bang, ****, Castillo Jeff, and BlueDevil. I hope when I get to my time to retire their are still options.

Hi,
Check out a web site called retirement wave. It features all the details you will ever need about Panama.

From a lifestyle standpoint- you have a modern and vibrant city

Now, I'll grant you, a lot of people enjoy that slower pace of life, and that's cool. But if biz is what you're here for, mop up for 10 or 15 years and you're set for life.

What attracted so many people to CR was indeed the "slower pace" and "Pura Vida" lifestyle and the "reasonable" cost of living. Clearly the luster is in the process of disappearing as prices rise and more and more "investors" Chinese...etc. begin to pollute the landscape in search of $$. Sad.

And to further that point (about which I absolutely agree with you), even if you don't have that "pura vida" relaxed attitude, it doesn't take long to catch the fever. Actually, I haven't lived in CR that long, and I'm starting to regret getting an expensive ($1500/month) apartment in Escazu. CR is not cheap, but it can certainly be done cheap. My buddy who talked me into coming down here in the first place is completely hooked up with the locals and shops where they shop, away from the tourist traps. They average at least one huge blow-out party a week and generally never seem to be working. I'm jealous. My bud nets over $15K per month and lives in a very modest place, drives a 10-year-old hyundai, and eats at home most of the time. Pretty much 90% of his income is disposable, but he socks most of it away in hopes of a very early retirement -- looking for that "pura vida" lifestyle. I agree, it's hard to live with that all around you and still work 40-hour workweeks living paycheck to paycheck.

On the other hand, capitalism will eventually take over wherever the laws allow it.

commercial rent is astronomical...you can partner up with a silent partner or tico sponsor...Colombians are buying a lot of things on paper...but its still basically owned by ticos..if youre not laundering or partnered up with someone doing it ...youll be pissing in the wind..everything from a hot dog stand to a hotel...competing with a property washing money under 10 or 15 different corporate entities..ones only real advantage has been the competent gringo execution of an idea..concept..process....but....the younger poor to middlin ticos have in the process of learning a little English started assimilating a little of the light at the end of the tunnel mentality and are becoming lightly imbued with a conceptual grasp of how to circumvent the omnipresent oligarchal gauntlet...after working your ass off...figure about 5 per cent of the gross in most service oriented ventures...your tico distributors will play you against your competitors to sell more ..cheaper..to move their product...all the time youre balancing your 80 to a 100 hours a week against some guy pencil whipping sales.laundering 75k a week.sitting at the beach or the country club.. you can marry into or partner up into one of the really necessary services...of course one can always don ones tico garb...buy yourself a nice suv stolen from the states and given the arreglada...immerse yourself in corruption ...steal from your relatives..revel in the accepted concept of fecal familial lasciviousness..the weathers good .."love" is reasonable....enjoy it while you can...all too soon well be fighting tooth and nail to save these morons from a deadly monster buttfucking by a couple million starving nicas... otay buttwheat?