Costa Rica Cost of Living for Foreigners and Expats

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Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin Wilson, Host: Hey there, Kristin from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 157 of Badass Digital Nomads. I'm very excited this week because it is the first time that I have left the country since the pandemic started and it's a pretty surreal feeling. In some ways it feels like just a regular day, but in other ways it feels like a huge deal because it's been so long since I've traveled overseas. And um, I'm headed to Montreal, Canada for the Running Remote Conference. So this is the world's largest remote work conference with companies from all over the world. Remote companies, right with no headquarters or many of them are fully remote, some of them are partially remote and I was very much looking forward to going to Running Remote in Austin, Texas back in spring of 2020, but like almost everything else that was canceled that year.  

So it's been two years since they've been able to hold the event. And so I'm very excited to be headed up to Montreal for the week to talk remote work and meet with some remote work friends including Chase Warrington who we had on the podcast last week. And also Liam Martin, the head of Running Remote who has also been a guest on the podcast years ago. So I'll link to their episodes in the show notes in case you want to check those out. And it's going to be somewhat of a quick trip, of course full of conference events, networking and also the last week of my book review deadline. So I've been editing my book for this past month so I don't know if I'll be able to make a video about Montreal, but it is such a beautiful city. If any of you live there or you've been there before, you definitely know.  

And I first went to Montreal when I was just a high school student. Went with my parents to upstate New York and we ended up driving over the border to Canada. And one of the things that struck me when I was there was really how diverse the city was and how many languages people spoke. I remember hearing the waiter at our restaurant where we were having breakfast or lunch one day and he was speaking different languages at different tables of guests and that just really blew my mind. I was 16 at the time, it was my first time going outside of the United States. It was only for a few days and it was to be another year until my first overseas trip to Italy. So it's funny how these very first travel memories and so many travel memories stick with you. People have asked before if I have a photographic memory because I remember so many details so many times and places where I've been in the past, I can tell you where I was at a specific month of a specific year and who I was with and what we were doing.  

And it's really hard to do that when you stay in the same place. I mean being in Miami for the past two years, it's almost like the days and the weeks and the months all sort of blend together. And when you travel you get to associate different places with a different time in your life. Like I'm sure that you remember the first time you ever traveled somewhere and I'm sure you remember all of your trips that you've ever been on. And I think that the reason for this is because there's an emotional and a personal connection with travel also because it gets us out of our daily lives and our daily routines. It's something new, it's something different. And I've talked before on the podcast about how travel really brings all of your senses to life. Where as when you're at home in your daily routine, so many things are automated in your brain. 

So many activities, so many places you know, you might drive to work and not really remember getting there because everything is on autopilot. But when you get out of your normal environment, when you get out of the country, when you get out of your comfort zone, it's like your senses have to go into overdrive and your brain is trying to figure everything out for the first time. Uh, knowing where to go, understanding the language, tasting different foods, like that's one of the beauties of travel. And so I've just been reflecting on that since I remember my exact first time going to Canada, my first time leaving the country and my first time visiting so many places in the world. And that is something that I think ties us all together with the experience of travel is that when you travel, you feel alive, you feel aware, you feel more deeply connected to the present moment and to yourself what you're thinking, how you're feeling, how you're adapting, who you're talking to and who you're meeting.  

And it brings a deeper significance to life. And so that's one of the things that I'm so grateful for, for travel and one of the many ways that it's so important to us in our self-development as humans in enriching our lives and and bringing meaning, meaning to our lives and to those of the people that we meet along the way. It's also interesting once you've been to a place more than once, it's almost like revisiting a time in your life but at a different phase of your life. It's always interesting to see how a place changes, but also to see a place with a fresh perspective because of how much you've changed since the last time that you were in that place. And so that's something that's been on my mind as well that I wanted to share with you. I also wanted to thank you so much for filling out the form that I mentioned a few weeks ago on the podcast.  

That's called What Can I Help You with? 

And I've gotten almost a hundred responses to that form. There's still time for you to fill it out. I'm going to keep the form open because it's been so insightful, so enlightening and so valuable to me to get to hear from you one-on-one because in the podcast format there's really not many ways for us to communicate directly. You can leave a review, you can send me an email, but it's different than other types of content like written content or videos where you can leave comments below. So this has really been one of the only ways that I've been able to connect with —with you one-on-one. And so it's been a lot of fun to read what you have to say. Um, the messages and the responses have made me smile. They've made me laugh, they've made me think and many of them have also made me emotional, like actually brought tears to my eyes.  

But yeah, if you haven't filled out the form yet, please do. I will link to it in the show notes below. It only takes two minutes. It's just what you like about my content, what you don't like, what you like to hear more of so that you can make sure that what you hear on this podcast is based around what you want to learn about. And you know, one of the exercises that I recommend often to my coaching clients who are either looking for remote jobs or looking to get into freelancing or start an online business but they aren't sure what they're good at or they aren't sure what they can do to work online is I tell them to do two things. Well, three things actually. 

First is to write down all of the things that you're good at or that you think you're good at. 

Second is to ask other people what they think you're good at, what they think your strengths and weaknesses are. And third is to think about what people ask you for help with. And these are three clues, what you're good at and what you like to do, what other people think you're good at, and what people ask you for help with. These are three very clear signs towards things that you can do that have value to other people. And this is something that you can keep doing your whole life. You can keep reevaluating what you're doing, what you're good at, where you can improve and how you can make a bigger impact. And I like to, you know, walk the talk and do this in my own life and checking in with myself and with other people, with friends, family members, colleagues, clients and asking these simple questions has helped me find my way in life and helped that path become a bit clearer.  

And now it's something that I had an idea to do it with the podcast, um, and with YouTube to just make sure that my content is on a track that works for you and that's valuable for you. And so that's what I'm doing here today. So if you're listening right now and you haven't filled out the feedback form, please do, I'd love to hear from you and don't be surprised if I text you or email you to reach out and chat further. So you can fill out the survey at the link in the show notes and you can leave your name in contact info or you can leave it anonymous. Both work for me. There's no deadline or timeline for when to fill it out, but it just takes a couple minutes and you can do it right now. I also did a little raffle with winners for the first people who filled out the form.  

And so I selected, uh, 10 people at random for a free phone call with me and these winners are, or actually 11 cuz I also picked the first person who filled the form out <laugh>. So the first person who filled the form out was Jerry Z. Thank you so much Jerry for taking action. So you win a free phone call with me. We also have Derek, Stan, Gabriel, Daryl, Adrian, Andrew, Bruce, Alex, Rachel, and Matt. And I just realized that those are mostly men, <laugh>. So I'm probably gonna add, I'm gonna add some more, uh, women for the free calls as well. Let's add Kate, Andrea, Marion, and Sandra to the list. So for everyone who filled out the form or if you fill it out today or in the future, I will reach out to you over email and to the winners of the free calls.  

 I will reach out to you as well to set that call time up. And also to my Patreon patrons. You guys get a phone call as well. You already know that, but I will be reaching out to you one-on-one to book that and I look forward to speaking with so many more of you in person. So let's get into today's episode. 

This is a breakdown of the cost of living in Costa Rica. The cost of living videos that I've done about living in Portugal, living in Spain, living in Buenos Aires and living in other places around the world have been really popular. And so I posted a poll on my YouTube channel to see which other countries or destinations you want me to do a cost of living breakdown on. And um, this one with Costa Rica was really fun to make because I lived in Costa Rica for so long, so I had a lot of information on my cost of living there.  

 And I also did a poll on Facebook and got a lot of responses from more than 300 people about what their cost of living is in Costa Rica. So it's partially my personal expenses and cost of living. It's partially crowdsourced information and then it's partially researched, um, just to verify that the information was up to date and accurate. And I hope that this is helpful for you, even if you're not moving to Costa Rica, just knowing about the different categories of expenses that you can expect when you move abroad. So enjoy this breakdown of the cost of living in Costa Rica and see you again next week. 

What is the real cost of living in Costa Rica? Let's start with one of the biggest expenses housing. Now your exact cost for housing will depend on where you move within the country, the type of housing you choose and how long you stay. But let's start with just a one bedroom furnished apartment in the Central Valley that will run you between 500 and a thousand dollars per month. But one of the things that you'll notice when you get to Costa Rica is that the cost of a one, two, or three bedroom property might not be that much different. You could rent a really nice one bedroom condo in a luxury building for the same price as a two or three bedroom town, home or single family home. Here we have a one bedroom condo in Las Havana, which is just outside of downtown San Jose, and it's fully furnished for a thousand dollars per month. But just down the street in Los Yo's, we have a two bedroom apartment for only $150 more. And then in Heredia, which is just to the north of the city, we have a three bedroom townhome for only 950 per month.  

So you can see how you can get a lot for your money depending on where you live within the Central Valley or the country as a whole. Some beach towns like Playa Flamingo,

Brasilito and Nosara for instance, can be much more expensive to rent in with less availability compared to some of the bigger towns like Tamarindo, Playa del Coco and Jaco. If you live in Jaco on Costa Rica Central coast, you can get a studio or one bedroom apartment for as little as $500 or $650 per month. And you can also get a house or a bungalow for less than a thousand per month. Now if you want to go really high end, some of the nicest properties in the area, beachfront oceanview go from between $1500 a month up to $3,000 per month or more. Here we have a studio in Jaco for $500 per month, A house in Hermosa down the road for $900 per month and a luxury condo in Jaco for $3000 per month.  

However, compared to Jaco, a studio or one bedroom apartment in the beaches of Nosara could go for $4,000 per month. When renting in Costa Rica, always make sure to ask your landlord which utilities will be included, if any. Sometimes water can be included, but it won't cost you that much either way, could be $10, $20 or $30 per month. And also condo fees and security. If you're living in a building or a gated community, that should be included in your rent as well. The big expense when it comes to utilities is electricity. Now if you live in an area of Costa Rica with a milder or cooler climate like in the Central Valley for instance, then your electricity bill might only be around $75 per month up to a hundred dollars per month. But if you live on the beach and if you're running your air conditioning all day, your electricity bill can easily be $200, $400 or more.  

I once had a client who had a $1,000 electricity bill, but that's because he lived in a big house that he was air conditioning all day. So if you wanna save money when you live in Costa Rica, make sure to turn off the lights, turn off the AC when you're not using it. The price of internet has dropped a lot in recent years for pretty decent speeds today for only $30 or $40 per month, you can get speeds for up to 100 megabits per second, and for $40 to $50 you can get packages including cable and internet together. Some of the biggest internet companies in the country include Cabletica and Kolbi. Now you're also going to want internet on your phone and you can get that using a prepaid sim card. Now, as you can see here on Kolbi's website for 30 days, it says it's only 4,000 colonies, but that's only for two gigs of data.  

So you could burn through that pretty quickly, so could cost you between $20 to $30 a month for your prepaid sim card. Getting around Costa Rica is pretty affordable. If you don't buy a car, there are plenty of taxis, buses, shared shuttles, private drivers, and Uber is available. The cheapest way to get around by far is the local bus. A fair within town can cost you maybe only a dollar or two, and to get all the way from San Jose to the beach for example, Jaco might cost you only $5 or $10. Likewise, if you were to take a shared shuttle from the airport, it could cost you $45 or if you wanted your own private driver around $150. Ubers are pretty cheap as well, but they're mostly only available in the Central Valley. So if you have to take a taxi, make sure that's the last resort because that is the most expensive of all the options.  

Now, you can also fly around the country with one of the local domestic airlines like Sansa or Nature Air, but it's not cheap. A one-way ticket could cost you between a hundred and $200 and there's also hefty baggage fees. But if you qualify for temporary or permanent residency in Costa Rica, you could access some of the local deals, which can sometimes be as low as $40 or $50. If you plan to buy a used car in Costa Rica, it's going to cost you to the tune of 10 or 15 grand. The good news is you can usually sell it for the same price that you bought it for. The bad news is be prepared to spend around $500 per month on gas and maintenance for the least amount of headaches opt for one of the most well known car brands like Nissan, Toyota, or Hyandai. Many people also invest in motorbikes or four-wheelers.  

If you live on the beach, you can pick up a motorbike for around a thousand dollars or so, but four by four can go up to 5K or more. I don't necessarily recommend renting a car, but if you have to, it could cost around a thousand dollars per month. 

There are four levels of grocery shopping in Costa Rica and the cheapest option is to shop at one of the local weekend markets. You can usually walk out of there with two hefty bags of produce, maybe some local eggs and cheeses for around $20 or $30, and that includes organic produce. The next level up from there is to shop at the local Costa Rican chain Pali then comes Maspormenos. And the most expensive supermarket is Auto Mercado as well as some of the specialty stores where that $20 or $30 on produce can easily double or triple. 

If you expect to be eating out.  Then if you were to have breakfast at one of the local sodas, maybe a gallop pinto with some tortillas, eggs, coffee and fruit, that could run you between five to $8. But going to breakfast at a fancier place can easily cost you $10 to $15. The cost of a local Costa Rican cup of coffee is $1, and we all know how much it costs at Starbucks. Same goes for lunch. If you eat a cassada, which is a typical plate at one of the local sodas which has some salad, rice and meats, then that could cost you around seven to $10 or $12. But if you go to a nicer restaurant, then you can easily spend $20 to $30 on lunch. Dinners at local spots could cost you $15 or $20 per person, but you can also spend $30 to $50, even a hundred dollars per person on a nice meal out, especially in a touristy area.  

And when alcohol is included, the cheapest alcohol in Costa Rica is the local beer and also Guaro. But you can also get some pretty affordable bottles of wine at the supermarkets and some nice happy hour specials for your sunset drinks. Also, remember that Costa Rica charges a 13% sales tax and a 10% service charge at restaurants. So always check the menu to see if eva is included or ask your waiter. So there are no surprises when you get your bill. 

Entertainment costs in Costa Rica vary. It depends on what you're looking for. You can save a lot of money on service-based businesses. For example, a massage that could cost $50 or a hundred dollars or more in the US could cost you only $20 or $30 in Costa Rica. Same with maid service instead of $20 or $30 per hour, it could cost that much for the whole day.  

And I've also found that spa services can be about 30% less than in the US. And when it comes to tours, it depends on what you're going to do. But a coffee tour could cost you $25, whitewater rafting, $50 or $75, and the entry for the day to the hot springs at Tabacon, for example, could cost you up to a hundred dollars. There's also golfing, zip lining, sport fishing, all kinds of fun stuff in Costa Rica. We also can't forget about the casinos, which Costa Rica is famous for, but there's really no limit to the amount of money you could win or lose there. Gym memberships are pretty affordable in Costa Rica, you could pay between $20 to $40 per month, but some of the nicer chains like World Gym might cost you $80 or $90 a month. Costa Rica is known for its medical tourism industry. So you have plenty of options when it comes to healthcare.  

Now you might wanna keep your policy back at home, especially if you aren't going to be there very long. But in either case, you should have an international travel medical insurance policy to cover you wherever you go. I use Safety Wing, I'll link to it in a comment below, but you can also get local Costa Rican health insurance. The company's INS and Sagicor both offer tourist insurance for foreigners good for up to 90 days at a time. A 90 day policy with Sagicor starts at $540 for a people aged 70 and below, or $1,400 for people over 70.  INS is around the same rate at about $7 per day. You can also pay out of pocket for medical procedures. A dental cleaning or a basic checkup with a physician could cost you between $50 and a hundred dollars and you can even get a home visit for around $85.  

So if we add everything up, even before accounting for miscellaneous expenses like banking, ATM fees, clothing, and other purchases, taxes that you might pay in your home country, you can expect to have a cost of living of around $2,500 to $3,000 per month. Of course, locals can live a bit cheaper and if you live in Costa Rica long term, you can certainly cut your cost of living down by renting unfurnished and renting long term. But if you're gonna be there a shorter amount of time, if you wanna keep a really high quality of life, then it gets a little pricier. If you buy a car or if your rent is more, then you can easily expect a cost of living of around four or $5,000 per month. 

Hey there, just wanted to interrupt my own video for a minute to bring you some new information. I do this sometimes when I'm editing my videos, but I decided to post a Facebook poll to ask other foreigners who are living in Costa Rica how much they spend and I got over 300 responses, and this was fascinating. The range of people's costs of living in Costa Rica goes from $175 per month up to $10,000 per month. So on the low end, this guy with his $200 a month budget, he's living on a sustainable farm. He's bartering his food, he's growing his own food, he's doing his thing. And then somewhere in the middle, I would say the average cost of living that people reported for a single or a couple was anywhere from $1,500 per month to $3,000 per month, which is about the range that I was discussing in this video. And then for a family, it was around $4,500 per month up to $6,000 per month because they have their kids in private school quite often, which can go for a thousand dollars per kid per month. And then there were people on the higher end with the eight to $10,000 range.  

And I also found it interesting that most people said that they were spending around half of what they paid in the United States, especially for rent. And then other people said they were spending the same amount of money, but they just had a way better quality of life. Many of my friends who live on the beaches in Costa Rica spend between three and $5,000 per month. I spent around 2,500 to 5,000 per month depending on how many repairs my car needed and how much I was traveling within the country and in the region. But I hope that this helps with your planning and let us know in the comments below if these figures are higher or lower than what you're spending now and where you're living

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