5 questions that helped us choose Mexico

The answers to 5 questions that lead us to Mexico as our new home

We’re in our early 50s. Our son has grown and flown the nest. We had paid off our debt, lived on one income, and were building a nest egg. This led us to explore options for moving out of California and abroad. Here are the questions we had to answer:

1. What was our budget? Since we were in our early 50s, accessing retirement accounts wasn’t an option. The goal was to find a place we could afford where part-time work for both of us would allow us to live comfortably. We were willing to sell our home in California to buy a small place outright. and decided not to keep any household in the States.

2. What trade-offs would we make? Our lifestyle in California allowed us to buy what we wanted (within reason), eat out, and enjoy fun activities without really watching our budget. Initially, we hoped to maintain that lifestyle, but soon realized neither of us wanted to work full-time, or at all for that matter. So, we examined our spending habits and created a list of “wants” vs. “needs.” We were surprised by how little we actually needed.

3. What climate did we want? While I love snow, my partner isn’t too keen on it. The thought of dealing with the extra work needed to live in a cold climate — like plowing the driveway, making sure we had all-wheel-drive tires, keeping an eye on our pipes to prevent freezing, and generally being cold part of the year — soon ruled that out.

4. How far from “home” did we want to be? We knew we’d want to come back and visit friends and family and make it easy for them to visit us. Both Spain and Portugal were on our list, but after long visits, we realized the distance from California was too great. We decided to focus on places within a four-hour flight from California.

5. Where we looked: We considered Vancouver, British Columbia, but housing prices, cost of living, and Pacific Northwest winters crossed that off the list. We also looked at the Hawaiian Islands, but my partner was concerned we’d get island fever, and the cost of living was a bit high as well. We even considered the Florida Keys.

Where we chose: Our search soon led us to Mexico, and we started researching options there.