Posted by: Tom Peifer in sustainable community, sustainability, retirement, retirees, retiree program, pueblo verde, pensionado, immigration, green development, ecological, costa rica, blog, baby boomers on
Mar 26, 2010
"The hunt begins for the foreign retiree"-Headline, La Republica
In mid-February, at the national level, Costa Rica launched a high profile initiative. To the fanfare of articles in national papers, a special government edict, web articles and enthusiastic reverberations through the real estate blogosphere, a plan was unveiled to promote retirement communities for some of the 60 million baby boomers who are starting to sail off into their golden years. It was a classic example of rediscovering the obvious.
Better late than never, I chuckled, recalling a conversation with a prominent politician almost 6 years ago. I argued that the wave of retirees in Guanacaste was bringing in at least $2500/mo. per couple, generating plenty of employment and was worth pursuing as an option for this country given the approaching retirement of the baby boomers. "It would be very interesting to run some numbers on that," he commented. Well, somebody finally did and came up with the goal of 10,000 retirees per year, synchronizing with the current trend of medical tourism and building whole ‘clusters'-or retirement communities-in a number of zones that have been identified as desirable for a variety of reasons.
The greatest force in the universe is the power of compound interest--Einstein
Call it ‘Blowback.'
I recently read a piece on US foreign policy where an analyst used the term to describe what's happening in the Middle East. He boiled it down to the nitty gritty.
Two riders were approaching, and the wind begins to howl.....
The howling winds of February visited many parts of Guanacaste with a level of damage that made you sit up and take note. One neighbor lost a temporary house. Branches and whole trees were down everywhere and green mangoes literally carpeted the yards and streets. In the next town an elderly gent had his morning routine interrupted when the outhouse blew away from around the throne.
For me it has been a windfall of sorts. One the one hand it provides a convenient excuse to harvest all the bananas that were almost ready anyway. On the other, wherever a tree came down or a big branch snapped, there's a new space on the ground, or a bit more light that will get through the canopy. It's just a question of figuring out what to plant.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem
Last month I recounted a lifelong odyssey of environmental learning that led to putting down roots in Guanacaste. (Environmentalist to developer-an Eco-logical Progression, The Howler.......) The surprise in store was the speed at which the sprawling development I thought I had left far behind would catch up with me. I had no idea that tropical tracts, Mediterranean-style MacMansions and neo-New Mexico condos would come to replace the fields and forests of my adopted paradise.
Learning to think like a watershed
Admit it. Rumors can be a great source of local information.
