Margarita Island—after the Vote.

By Scott Boswell:
Well, the excitement has calmed after the “referendum” and things look bright as the country breathes a sigh of relief after the “NO” vote on Chavez's constitutional changes. People smile and say Buenos Dias or Buenos Noches, real estate is once again booming and apartment buildings are going up. Reminds me of the Miami of the 1960's. Prices are still lower here than they were for many Florida properties way back then. The banks will lend money on apartment purchase and some contractors will give 15 year financing—even to foreigners. This is the “new” Venezuela. You must have a Residence Visa and Cedula (Venezuelan I.D. Card) to obtain any of this financing. There is a nice discount on pre-completion prices if you pay cash, and you only need your passport to buy with cash. There will be no “nationalization” of your private property, so relax.

Personally, I prefer to live in a house or townhouse. But a Condo apartment does offer more security if you don't live here full time or don't want to deal with maintenance.
Right now I have a big 2 bedroom/2 bath Apartment for sale here in Playa El Angel. You'll find photos and more information on my website http://www.discovermargaritaisland.com.
It's fully furnished, (even linens, pots & pans, t.v., air conditioning—everything!) It has a pool and is in walking distance to all the shopping, medical care, restaurants and is located in the most convenient and popular area on the entire island. The price is $58,000 U.S.D. This could also be an income property for you. It was rented for last year at $800.00 a month.

I get lots of e-mails from people who want to live on a Caribbean island...or at least think they do. Living on an island can be fun, and at times a real “pain”. Many goods and food items are imported so once in a while some things are in short supply or temporarily unavailable. Occasionally finding eggs, chicken, pork, milk, cooking oil, etc. can be a real challenge, but everyone soon learns to 'make do' and eventually most of the staples manage to re-appear in the markets. We tend to pay more for groceries than the locals do because we buy a lot of imported brands which are more expensive. Even so, food is cheap, liquor is cheap and beer is almost free-about 16 cents a bottle! Sometimes the power goes out for a few minutes or a few hours. When we lived in Mississippi the electricity went off every time we had an electric storm, so it's nothing new to us. At this writing there are ice storms in parts of the Northern U.S., and they can cause power outages for days and weeks. The only ice you'll find here is in your cocktail—which might cost up to a whopping $2 U.S.
We don't have hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, large earthquakes or tornadoes. We occasionally get tired of the same beautiful weather day after day after day... Sometimes we wake up and say, “Damn, another #$!% sunny day in Paradise!”
Our rainy season is Nov. & Dec., plus some summer showers in July/August—those are really welcome!

Living Expenses--
We totaled our expenditures for food, cleaning supplies for the house and 4 rental apartments, liquor, beer, gas for the car and “miscellaneous stuff” and for all this it's about $500 U.S. per month. We don't 'skimp' on food or anything else, for that matter. This did not include car repairs, marina fees and supplies for our boat, insurance, imported appliances, and clothes. Well, not actually that much on clothes...”formal dress” here is when you wear shoes. You could go year 'round in your bathing suit and nobody would pay much attention...unless you happen to look like Pam Anderson, of course!
However, the locals dress well and you must wear proper attire (long pants for men) if you go to any government building.

The rest of the story- It is very difficult and frustrating to try to get anything done here. People do not keep appointments or are habitually late for them . Workers are not skilled and it is darned difficult to find anyone who takes pride in his job. You can find some good workers but it is an on-going search. The same is true for mechanics, roofers, electricians, in short, all the 'trades'. Not just my opinion...many people who have lived here for years (and all over the world, too) say that Venezuelans in general and Margaritenos in particular are basically lazy. Maybe it's the climate, but most Caribbean people just aren't very work-oriented. They're like some welfare people in the States...wouldn't take a job no matter what the pay. I don't care if saying this isn't politically correct—to me, politically correct is an oxymoron anyway. A friend of mine used to do a lot of boat repairs in the Bahamas. He says you could leave your shoes and tools on the dock and they'd steal your shoes but leave your tools, because they couldn't sell the tools (nobody wanted to work). It's not quite that bad here—they'd steal your tools too! Almost every place here has a security guard so both your shoes and tools are reasonably safe.

I get inquiries from lots of people wanting to know “can I work/make a living there?” Not knowing these people, that's an impossible question to answer. All I can say is I came here with a very small nest egg to invest and I've done quite well over the last few years. And I've seen others bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and go broke..contact Scott
at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com

Gary Swensen - My life in Ecuador

FREEDOM

You say that you don’t have enough Money to retire?
We have huge mortgages and stress to pay those mortgages. Other people tell you that you need millions of dollars to retire.
We think that we are locked into living inside the USA until the day we die.
IT´S A LIE! We (Americans) have been brainwashed into thinking that we have to have a brand new huge house. Two new SUV’s, Every toy known to man, with huge mortgages and stress to make those payments until we are 80 years old….This is not freedom.
The truth is that a person can retire much sooner then they are led to believe. I for one am living proof that it can be done. And I live wherever I like!
One way is to sell all of the things that create stress in your life, and buy a sailboat as I did in the mid 90s and travel the pacific. Or you can keep all or most of your stuff and retire in a place where things cost much less than the USA.
While I was cruising the Pacific from 98 to 02, I spent 1 year and a half in Mexico, a year in Central America, and a year and a half in South America and the French Polynesian Islands of the South Pacific. In that 4 year period I spent 5 months in the Small country of Ecuador. Its climate, beaches, mountains, and mostly its people are what took hold of me, and hasn’t let go. I fell in love with the place and its people. I sold my boat after crossing the Pacific to Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora, and returned to the place that I had fallen in love with to live.
I have been here for over 7 years now. Have a beautiful Ecuadorian wife with which I have been married for almost 6 years, and a 2 ½ year old boy. We live on a beautiful 10 mile long beach with a sea that is warm, people that are friendly, and fresh foods every day. Wow, what a difference all these things make in the stress level….

One of the things about the lifestyle that I have here, is that even a person on social security, can live like a king! For example. We have a very nice house, with a guest house, a caretakers house, garage, shop, pickelball court, swim pool, all on a half acre right on the beach. My taxes are $32 per year! My electric bill for the entire property is around $20 per month! We cook with propane, and the exchangeable 10 gallon bottles are $1.60. Yes, that is $1.60 for the whole 10 gallon bottle exchange, not $1.60 per gallon! We eat out quite often, and a huge lunch of fresh fish, shrimp, chicken or beef, with fresh soups, rice, salad, menestra, and a fresh fruit juice, is $1 to $1.50! A quart of beer is .60 cents. Fillet mignon is $1.80 per lb. We make hamburger and stew with it! Fresh shrimp and fish from the fisherman on my beach is $1.00 per lb.!
When traveling, we go on the 1st class busses called ejecutivos (executive) that run $1 per hour of travel. A nice clean hotel runs between $5 to $15 per night per person.
Basically my family and I with our house paid for, live here very very well, including travel, eating out, hotels, paying the caretaker, electric, etc etc. for less than $700 per month! Others live on much less. By the way, the caretaker does everything from painting the house to taking care of our extensive flower and plant gardens, and lawn, to maintaining and building whatever pops up for $45 per week.
The cost of labor here is low. A maestro (journeyman type) is around $15 a day, and a laborer is around $7 per day. Building costs are also very low depending of course, on how lavish you want to build it. I have a small Polynesian style house that I built for my caretaker that is around 500 Square feet, and finished nicely for $2000. Yes that is two thousand dollars.
By the way, the currency here is Ecuador is the United States dollar! It is very easy to access your money from the states from cash machines. I use bill pay on my bank account in the states, or pay pal to send money to whomever I want in the states. My credit card bill is automatically withdrawn from my bank account and air miles credited at the same time. It is all so easy to do. We do have a home in the states. It has 6 tires and a motor so that we can live wherever we want when we want. We put insurance on it when we are there and cancel when we are not. We have no telephone bill, no house insurance, and no car insurance, except when we are there in the U.S.A. NO BILLS!
Here in Ecuador, we have pay as you go cell phones, wireless internet, DirecTV, a car that we use for local trips, and that is about it.
We work on things when we want, we play in the waves, we walk almost every afternoon on the beach with little Archie, walk into town and have lunch and or dinner when we don’t feel like cooking, and we enjoy evening sunsets from the terrace or beach. There is a town close by called Bahia De Caraquez that has some cultural things, theater, an international marina ( that Mercy and I started a few years ago) high-rise condos, etc.
A few friends with sail boats here from the states have purchased penthouse condos with views of the ocean and river, for $30k to $70k. The same thing in California would be millions, and we have a warm ocean!
It is very easy here to get a retirement visa, and costs around $800. It allows you to come and go as you please. You only need to show proof of income of $700 per month or more to qualify. There are also other types of visas which don’t require income verification, but do require an investment.
Anyway, back to the main subject of retirement. The truth is that you DO NOT NEED to have millions of dollars to retire. You do need to have the desire to change your life and maybe live in paradise, do a little planning, and make the decision when you are ready.
There are many foreigners here that live full time, and many that come to 2nd homes here for vacations. Some that lives here part time and then goes home to work a few months and then live here comfortably for the rest of the year.
I have a neighbor here that has a small hotel and they go to the states and drive long haul truck for 2 months and make 20k and then come and live here for the other 10 months on the $ that they made, and the extra they put into their construction and upgrade their hotel. They watch their money and live comfortably. What do you need millions of dollars for anyway? To have your kids fight over it when you’re gone? To go to court and try and protect it from all the people who want to sue you for it….. The real truth is that it isn’t worth it. Do something that you love to do, go somewhere with your wife or husband and family, and enjoy time, not be stressed out about it. Do it while you have your health, and your bones aren’t fragile…
I am reminding you to enjoy your life, whether you are retired or not. And that there are options available. Have a plan on how you can achieve your financial goals, and work toward those goals. Part of that is becoming debt free. I am here to tell you that it can be done. Wow, what a concept…. Debt free. Now that is freedom!
Gary, Mercy, and little Archie

Contact Gary at gary@ecuadoredg.com

The Difference Between Pipe Dreams and Reality is the Amount of Effort You Put Into It...Dream Big