I realize this may not be the forum for an extended answer, but as I am seriously considering moving to Mexico in retirement, I was curious about how you bought your house. I have heard conflicting stories about owning property in Mexico, in that property rights can be slippery sometimes and the government can be whimsical in who gets to purchase property. Can you speak very generally about that?

I think this article is great and I would be interested in more of them from Louisa.

You make a very good point. The very nature of being Canadian, American, or European automically puts someone (for the most part) in a privilged position in a developing or poorer country.

I moved to Mexico with nothing. I mean nothing. I had to scrimp for the security deposit on the house I’m renting.

My entire family died (three people in less than three months), I lost my house, and I went through my savings trying to save my house and get myself emotionally together enough to maintain my business. I failed and lost that too.

I am also in the process of getting work papers to open a store here and will be more entrenched in the local life. I have no retirement income, salary, and not much safety net. I will be living as any other proprietor of a store who has good days and bad days. Luckily, I have made high-speed Internet access a priority (something not all Mexicans have) so I am able to make a few dollars online. Right now it is less than $400 a month.

I will also be tightening my lifestyle a bit to open this store. Even with that, I will be living well (comparatively) on about 40% what it cost me to live in the United States.

There is excellent medical care and world-class hospitals an hour away. There is little/no violence here, and good food is plentiful. High speed Internet is a luxury, and inexpensive Internet cafes abound for those who cannot afford having it at their home.

Am I privileged and lucky? Yes. Am I gallivanting around as a rich gringa? No. The rat race is a choice. It doesn’t take wealth to get out of it and move elsewhere. It takes other qualities. For me, it took a few hundred dollars to load up my car, pay for gas, and drive for several days. It appears to be working. In six months, I will certainly know more.

There is nothing preventing a Mexican with Internet access to earn the same dollars I do online. There is nothing to prevent them from having a Paypal account and a debit card they can use at a local ATM. Opportunity now exists all over the world, and it is not nearly as discriminatory as it used to be. I have met a number of enterprising Mexicans who live what would qualify as a perfectly middle-class lifestyle in the United States. It just takes less money to have that life here.

Other people have brought up the trade-offs for safety, legal and medical protections, etc., so I won’t bring those points up again. But it would be nice to see a reader story that had someone moving to a less-affluent country, working at a job for the local rates, and still ‘getting rich slowly’, instead of repeated stories from people who are effectively snowbirding and/or vacationing from the rat race the rest of us are running. There’s nothing wrong with that, don’t get me wrong–but it’s a very privileged position to be in, IMHO, which I think needs to be acknowledged.

I feel much safer and more free here than I did in any place I lived in the US. I am less stressed, more at ease, and enjoy social interaction more. What is lost in terms of some perceived conveniences are made up for by the warm and generous Mexican people, by saying “Buenos dias” and smiling at every person I pass on the sidewalk, by buying just-picked vegetables and fresh cheese from my favorite vendors at the local market.

I believe part of the reason the benefits are about more than just moving to a less expensive town are because the culture of the United Stated becomes embedded into our very beings, and it is fairly impossible to understand the impact that has on our lives and our thoughts until one is immersed into a different culture. I am a guest and a foreigner here. While I feel I have an obligation to act respectfully, I do not have to know all the subtleties of the culture. I am welcomed as a guest. It was the opposite in the US, especially in the very affluent and materialistic area I most recently moved from. The opportunity to live away from one’s own culture can be an incredibly eye-opening and freedom-inspiring experience.

This lifestyle is most certainly not for everybody and I wouldn’t casually recommend it. I am grateful I was born and grew up in the United States. I am also happy here and understand very well the joys the poster so delightfully dishes out for us about her life in Guanajuato.

Thanks for writing about living in Guanajuato, bring back a lot of good memory – like Callejon de Besos. I love Mexico as well, lived and studied in San Miguel de Allende for a while. I agree with you, SMA has lots of expats, and some of them live a separate life from the Mexicans and don’t attempt to speak Spanish at all. But if one put an attempt to connect with the locals, one can, and that’s what I did. It was tiring in the beginning but the reward is so wonderful.

Enjoy your time in Guanajuato, it is great that you can split your time between there and CA.

I’ve seen statistics showing Cancun as being safer than most US cities of the same size. I think the Yucatan Peninsula in general has less murders than the state of Montana.

Yes, there are terrible things happening in Mexico right now and it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, but for me I’ve never felt safer, and I’m guessing by the tone of the article that Louisa can say the same.

I’m actually planning a trip to New Orleans next year with a bunch of friends– the main organizer is a Louisiana native, so she’ll take us to all the good places. I can’t wait to dig into a muffuletta!

Add the perks of the USA… a non-corrupt police force, a generally non-corrupt government, and no mental worry that someday your dear neighbors or relatives will be victim to a ruthless drug-related crime. Sure, these things could happen to you in the US too, but it’s much less likely. I would never, ever move my children to a country where the top 9 of 10 news stories are violent crimes committed. I’d pay 3x more in cost of living to feel safe. I admire her for sharing her story, but I certainly would not follow those steps to save money. It’s just as easily done in rural Texas.

I love your observations on life in Mexico… they’re dead on!

I’ve mentioned a few times on here that I make a Mexican salary, which is teeny by American standards, but I’m still able to save.

I’m with you on the furniture though! Expensive! We have a carpinter friend who has helped us out a lot, but other than that it’s been tough. Luckily rent is dirt cheap haha

#6–disinfectant. You soak the veggies in a bowl of water with a couple of drops of iodine or bleach

#8– the drug wars are a serious concern, of course. However, they are concentrated in certain parts of the country. This is not to minimize their impact on the entire country through the drop of tourism, for example, but as far as I know, none of my friends in Guanajuato (Mexican or expat) have ever felt unsafe because of this.

#10 and #11– I have known a number of foreigners who returned to the US or other native country due to health concerns, so you have a good point. That said, Mexico DOES have a public health care system, and most of the routine medical procedures that middle-aged people face can be taken care of there, by (I have heard) excellent specialists in Guanajuato or the nearby city of Leon.

#13– yes, our maintenance man and all other workers who worked on our home have insurance. We paid for it via our architect, as do any reputable employers hiring Mexican workers.

#17– San Miguel is just over an hour away from Guanajuato. It is a lovely town, but it is full of foreigners and sadly no longer ‘Mexican’. You don’t have to speak Spanish at all. We prefer Guanajuato where out of a city of about 120,000, only about 400 are foreign.

#25– Guanajuato has grown more expensive over the last ten years, but almost of the residents in the center of Guanajuato remain local Mexicans.

#27– I am very involved in public life in Eureka. I work on walkability issues in Eureka and fight for a bike path.

Thanks for the reminders of what really makes life worth living and how to simplify.

In response to #2 Pamela, it sounds like two major factors would help based on Louisa’s experiment in Guanjuato: (1) eliminate yard work associated with living in a suburban single-family house; and (2) eliminate auto travel, commuting, auto maintenance, and auto-related payments — also associated with living in a suburban single-family house.

The trick is to find an affordable yet livable dwelling near the center of a place, yet a central location that still has some connection to the ground/outdoors and is not dominated by vehicle traffic. THAT, I agree, is quite a trick to find in the US.

Walkably yours, Betsy

#5– about water: purifying ALL water to be potable in the US–whether you’re fighting fires with it, or washing your car, or flushing the toilet–is a huge and unnecessary expense.

The system used in Mexico and many Latin countries is much more efficient by dividing water into non-potable (that comes into your “tinaco” storage tank on the roof via small, low-pressure pipes) and potable (that comes in five-gallon refillable plastic bottles from the guys on the street). One two-dollar bottle lasts a week for a family of two.

Louisa

I prefer the U.S. My family is multicultural and we’ve definitely traveled quite a bit. I just like living in the U.S. much better. I’m also a naturalized U.S. citizen, anyway I really think its funny when Americans go to latin american countries to retire.

IMO the quality of life is higher in the U.S. and that’s why I love living here. I don’t even have dual citizenship, once I became a U.S. citizen that was it for me, because I never want to go back and that’s how much I love my life here.

The quality of life is so high here even if you’re not rich. Whereas the class divisions were much more obvious there. I feel rich living here even though I’m not at all rich.

To each their own right?

Just please remember that México is a large and varied country and each region is very different.

I was born here in México but raised as a Gringo just outside of Los Ángeles, CA. I’ve lived and worked on both sides of the border all my life (65yrs). I came back to México for good a few years ago and am content to stay here.

I was going to comment on the whole article and the interesting comments but I think I’ll save it for a later post.

Meanwhile, I’ll just pass on an old story that, hopefully, you will enjoy:

THE MEXICAN FISHERMAN STORY

An American investment banker was on the beach of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman came ashore. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?”, asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

From down México way.

I could never just earn a pile of money and then relocate to some place that I deem suitably walkable and livable.

I’d much rather be part of making my own city walkable and livable. It’s harder than just buying into a place that’s already nice, but I believe it’s more respectable and certainly more grounded.

Who wants to be a corporate nomad and just pick a city from a top-lifestyle list? Then the few, nice, destination cities get ruined by interlopers.

Better to create a great place to live right where you are, working with other people. It’s called civic life.

REAL citizens participate in implementing change in their own corner of the world.

Portland is a cheap small town? Portland Oregon? Bicycle capital of America? Population 600,000? Great beer, bookstores, record stores? Cost of living about 25% over the national average? Sounds great, I’m just not sure it qualifies as a “money saver”.

Flagstaff has a nice downtown, yes, but that’s not where people live. Try getting home without a car on a Friday night. Flagstaff has a lot of dark roads with no sidewalk when you leave downtown, and no bus to take you there. I’ve been to Flagstaff a lot. Driving required.

Never been to Monterrey, CA (only Monterrey, Nuevo León), so I can’t say.

I have lived in Mexico (a small town and the DF), a couple of cities in Peru, Tel Aviv, Washington DC & suburbs (both MD and VA), a small town in New Mexico, and currently Albuquerque NM. That’s not counting places visited as a tourist. So I think I have enough information to compare different cities and cultures.

The grass is not always greener provided you have sufficient information. There is no perfect place of course, and there are tradeoffs wherever you go, but you can find the best place for you according to your priorities.

The OP is about living cheaply and car-free in a lively town. The answer: Mexico. The problem is that lively towns/cities in America are *expensive*. Suburbs are cheaper but you need a car. And in the cheap places, you’re stranded without a car.

So in the U.S. it’s a pretty rigid tradeoff: if you want a car-free life your rent will be astronomical. I loved living car-free in DC but after getting married moved away due to the high cost of living– and had to get a car (now truck), and even though we live now in a walkable neighborhood, it’s pretty dead at night. A friend we met here in Albuquerque moved back to San Francisco and loves it there, but she barely makes ends meet. Tradeoff.

New Mexico is very dull by comparison to other places where I’ve lived, but at this point in my life I am highly focused on work, so I have stopped caring too much about my surroundings– I’m just taking advantage of a low cost of living in order to build a business without undue financial pressure. It’s a conscious tradeoff. Some day when we’re ready we’ll return to a city that we love–and the means to enjoy it.

What cities abroad can offer someone who has achieved wealth independence is a third way that I really think we don’t have here: a lively city life without the hefty price tag. Sure, there are other tradeoffs to consider, but that’s the point– they are different tradeoffs for you to choose.

So, now that I think about it, perhaps only New Orleans is both cheap and amazing, but I haven’t been (yet), so I can’t attest– then again, Jim Jarmusch claims that neither New York nor New Orleans are part of the USA (of course he doesn’t mean this literally– he means they are really different from the rest of the country).

Hmm…. New Orleans… good food too…