“Well it’s been ten years and a thousand tears,
And look at the mess I’m in - a broken nose and a broken heart,
And an empty bottle of gin.
Well I sit and I pray,
In my broken down Chevrolet,
While I’m singing to myself,
There’s got to be another way.”
“Take Away this Ball and Chain,” by Social Distortion.
When I was young and crazy I moved around all the time. The moment I graduated high school I bounced to North Carolina, then back to the University of Connecticut for college, skipping my graduation ceremony to instead move out to Colorado for a couple years, then on to San Francisco, then back to Connecticut, backpacked around the world for a year, back to New Haven, Connecticut, down to South America for my winters, and finally settling in Sacramento, California. I changed states every two years, and lived in different apartments or houses almost every semester. My possessions were meager, items that I could fit in my beat-up old car and transport within an afternoon; an old sleeping bag, some clothes, one potted plant, an electric word processor (those were the shit back in the day!), an boom box radio with a CD player and tape deck adorned by a WHUS radio sticker, and my books. Lots of books. The first thing I did when I moved into any place, before I headed down to the Goodwill to look for kitchen stuff and a solid used sofa, I plugged in my radio and played this one song; “Take away this ball and chain,” by Social Distortion. My mohawked friend Johnny Carson (real name) turned me on to punk music in my North Carolina days, and this song always stuck with me. It was a perfect testament to the grittiness of a drifter’s freedom, an anthem to being unburdened and starting over.
So what does this song mean to me now? I think getting rid of all of my material possessions and moving down to Costa Rica is going to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. But it certainly wasn’t an easy one – it comes with a price and huge sacrifices. By no means did I just jump at this without years of deliberation and calculated planning. Living by the beach in a little surf town in the tropics sounds perfect, but believe me there are problems everywhere – no place is perfect. Instead of fighting boredom here in the states I’ll be dodging robbers and thieves down there. Instead of traffic jams I’ll be working my way through washed-out dirt roads and traffic accidents due to cattle stampedes down there. Instead of corrupt cops and greedy politicians here in the states I’ll have to deal with really corrupt cops and really greedy politicians down there! Of course there is the whole “how the hell do I make money and survive” issue that rears its ugly head because believe it or not it’s not as cheap as you may think to live comfortably in an international tourist town.
When I first tell someone that I am moving to Costa Rica the initial reaction people have is interesting. At first they express shock that I am leaving, like I was some sort of permanent fixture in Sacramento similar to a statue at a local park that is covered with so much bird shit and they didn’t even fathom it could me moved. The next thing that slips out of their mouths is usually an expression of how my move will affect them. As they personalize this information what they say next consistently fascinates me – “I wish I could do that.”
That line is followed by a stream of excuses they tell themselves, feeling they need to disqualify themselves from being able to do something like this. The biggest one is “I couldn’t do that because I have kids.” I understand that it is a lot more difficult to make a big move when you have kids, and more careful planning goes into it, but does that mean it’s impossible? Is that a free pass not to live your life? The last I checked they had children in Costa Rica. They have families and schools and a lot of people who live there who aren’t from there. Do people say the same thing about moving to the US? “I wish I could move there but I have kids.” If that were true then none of us would be here because I’m guessing most of our parents or grandparents, etc. at one point came over here as immigrants. Not to go on a tangent, but kids living or traveling to foreign countries will learn more in a week then they will sitting in any school. There are other excuses people tell themselves, like “If I weren’t married I would do something like that,” which doesn’t even make sense because there are plenty of married people in Costa Rica, or my favorite general excuse “I’m jealous - I wish I could.” The reality is that people choose where to live, and how to live. Sacramento, California is a place just like New Haven, Connecticut is a place, just like Tamarindo is a place, just like Paris, France is a place. Ok, maybe not Paris – they suck. Live wherever you want – it doesn’t matter to me - but don’t act like you are a victim of circumstances or that these things just “happen” to you. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CONSTRUCT YOUR LIFE ANYWAY YOU WANT! It may not be easy, or happen overnight, and there certainly will be sacrifices and risk that goes along with the upside, but don’t tell yourself that you are disqualified from chasing your dreams. Maybe your dream is to live by the beach, maybe it’s to pursue your passion of painting, maybe you have a fetish for midgets and want to live in one of those creepy tiny villages, I don’t know – that’s not my journey – but either way don’t consciously push the “Opt Out” button on your own life because you DO have choices. And that is true freedom, and unfortunately most people don’t even realize it until it’s gone.
When I tell people that I am moving out of the area they ask me what I am doing with my house, my cars, my backyard bar, my stripper poles (I’m telling you – they’re load-bearing structural supports, dammit!), my furniture, etc. Some of that is interest and most of that is thinking of an angle how they can get some really nice shit for dirt cheap. I don’t blame them – I would do the same thing.
So I wanted to share some of the logistics of the move with you:
House: This was the toughest decision I’ve had to make in a long time. I love my house – I’ve put my heart and soul into fixing it up, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s been such a fun blessing in my life and I’ve tried to use it for the greater good to help out others through charity events, art showings, parties for friends and their families, and business mixers. For a couple years I struggled with the possibility of having to give it up for financial reasons. In the end I could have kept it, but decided to short sale it instead. You’ve heard of a short sale, right? Well this is going to be a midget sale. Actually I considered renting it out and was even fielding offers, but even best case scenario I would be negative $600 or more a month and then I have to worry about managing crazy renters, people trashing the place, repairs and replacing the AC unit and roof in the future, and vacancies. It starts to add up quickly for a house that I’m not even living in or enjoying. At a certain point it dawned on me that it was just not worth it – the mental energy I would have to expend would defeat the purpose of changing my life and moving. The amazing times I’ve had here with friends and the incredible learning experience of buying it and fixing it up will never be wasted time, and this house will always hold a place in my heart. It turns out the thing I was holding onto tightest was also the healthiest to give up. It’s an important lesson about not letting possessions becoming part of your identity, and already I’m having so much fun preparing to move on. I’m fixing up the house nicely, emptying it out, and will be putting it on the market for sale June 1. I’ll write more in the future just about the One Love house.
Job: The reality is that being a beach bum and living in paradise sounds great, but it’s damn expensive to do something like this if you’re not careful. Dreams and enthusiasm don’t pay your bills, and you will get your ass kicked trying to live internationally without the right funding. So the puzzle piece that fit perfectly for me was that I could keep my current job even when I moved down to Costa Rica. I’ve spent years of 80 hour weeks building up momentum and a great business model with sustainability.
Time for a cheesy commercial: I’m the President of a company called Unity Financial Solutions, which helps educate and counsel people about their debt and financial issues – credit cards, real estate, taxes, and business debt – and what solutions are available to help them fix these problems. My job then is to get them set up with a wonderful local law firm who handles the nuts and bolts of these solutions. So the beautiful thing is that no client pays me anything – I get paid by the law firm – and I get to help people save money all day long. It’s extremely gratifying for me, though it can be just as challenging. It makes me enough money to live on comfortably but definitely I’m not rolling in it. We do things the right way and very ethically, unlike most debt relief companies and attorneys, so we work twice as hard and make half as much as most of our peers. I’ve put my blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of my own work and money into this company and our campaign to help people. I’m very proud of the work we do and I don’t think I’d be so quick to walk away from that as I would to discard material possessions. Ok the cheesy commercial is over. You see – I even resisted the temptation to mention that I can be reached at 916-548-6350 for help with all of your debt problems. That would have been really slimy so I’m glad I didn’t go there.
The awesome thing is that I can still do my job to full capacity remotely, whether it’s over the phone, via video conferencing, or over the web and email. I can still perform my duties of marketing, educating, and counseling consumers and homeowners. Ostensibly once its set up correctly it wouldn’t matter if I were at home in Sacramento wearing pajamas and eating Peanut Butter Captain Crunch, back east visiting family, or on the beach in Costa Rica; anywhere there is internet and a phone signal I can work.
In the states I need to make about 8k a month just to break even with all of the crazy bills, expenses, and taxes I have. Once I get down to Costa Rica my total monthly budget, including rent, phone, health insurance, food, etc. will be around $850 a month. Big difference! You see why I feel like a 1,000 lbs weight has lifted off my shoulders?! It will be very easy to make a few grand a month and get by comfortably, but I’m sure I’ll be working hard down there. I’m not really not that motivated by money (as long as I have some!) and don’t have a lazy bone in my body. I LOVE to work when I’m helping others and getting creative and utilizing passion for learning, so I bet I’ll be very productive without the pressure of having to do it just to pay bills.
My job will change a little bit because a lot of my work is based on referrals and the marketing is face-to-face. But with a little shift in my systems I actually think I can provide a better value and service to the clients. From a marketing standpoint instead of just relying on word of mouth referrals here in small Sacramento, I will start focusing on reaching a national audience via education on the web. Basically I will be fishing off a much bigger dock.
Every morning in Costa Rica I plan on getting my writing done first, then work out on the beach in beast mode, then sit at the local hotel bar by the beach alongside Pistol Pete and work away on my Ipad and phone. The really cool thing is that the attorney I work with is involved with a lot of international real estate and finance projects. So there is the opportunity to work on some big development deals in Costa Rica and fly to places like Brazil and Panama to be the meet-and-greet guy to consumate some international banking deals. I’ve also been researching the viability of my team – my amazing CPA, the attorney I work with, and an attorney friend down there offering tax haven and offshore banking setups to US companies. I’m really excited for the opportunities that emerge from opening my mind and vision on an international scale.
Possessions: I will be taking a couple suitcases with clothes and an Ipad and my phone. I was considering renting my house and then putting all of my possessions in storage, but quickly came to the realization that this would create more problems, not take them away. The last thing I wanted to do in the tropics was wake up every morning and say “oh shit I have to work, work, work to keep up with my bills in the US.” So instead I am completely downsizing.
All of the possessions in my life are going bye bye. The furniture, electronics, and big stuff I’ve been selling through Facebook and Craigs List. I’ve had fun going through my clothing and keeping only the essentials that I really love and have worn in the last six months. If someone else would get more use out of them then I pack them up and donate to charity, and that’s been about half of my clothing so far. My cars are being sold, though it hurts to see how much everything has gone down in value. I think all of that big stuff will be gone by May 1st. Once that is all gone I’ll take all the smaller stuff and throw a huge yard sale and donate the proceeds to charity. I want to give something back to the people who really need it in the community that’s been so good to me. A few things I’m giving away to friends who I think deserve it and who don’t ask for it. It’s interesting that some people come out of the woodwork and want you to get my stuff for free or waste my time looking at it and asking questions with the only intention of trying to get it dirt cheap. I would rather give it to charity than get taken advantage of from the people like that. The only things I’m not selling or giving away are my books and artwork. My books are like treasures to me, and I have some artwork from when I traveled around the world or to other countries, so all of that I’m going to pack up and ship back to Connecticut to store at my mom’s house. It will be expensive but the Post Office has a book rate for about 50 cents every pound.
Insurance: Insurance is so friggin expensive for me here in the states – probably about $700 a month between auto, medical, and homeowners. Medical care is dirt cheap down there; I met a gringo once who had jumped into the bull ring and got gored in the back by the bull - he was taken by ambulance to the hospital where they stitched up his muscle and skin and he stayed for the night – his total bill was only $230. But you never want to go completely without insurance in case something major happens or for when I’m back in the states 2-4 months a year, so I shopped around and got a basic major medical policy for about $140 a month. You just don’t volunteer information to them that you’ll be living in a foreign country or what proportion of the year you’re spending down there because that might give them a reason to disqualify you from coverage. If something happens as far as they know you were on vacation in Costa Rica.
Phones: This is where it gets complicated. Ok, so I’ll need to keep my same phone number for work, and be able to receive those calls on my phone in Costa Rica. I will also be calling the US every day, mostly for work but also to keep up with family and friends. So after careful research and a lot of input from friends of mine who live down there and a techie friend of mine here in Sacramento, this is what we came up with: I will port my number and change my service over to Verizon. I’ll keep a very basic plan with a simple cheap cell phone with my current number. Then I’ll take my IPhone down there and load it with the SIM card of the local carrier, ICE. I’ll have my cell phone plan with ICE for local calls most importantly internet connection. I’ll set up a call forwarding service from my Verizon US phone to a international online phone number, and then AGAIN forward that number to my Costa Rican cell phone. If I forwarded it directly from Verizon I would have been charged $2.99 per international minute even if I answered on the phone down there. For outgoing calls I’ll use Skype and get a Skype International subscription for only $19 per month, allowing me to call the states anytime and anywhere from my laptop or from my IPhone with the Skype app. I’ll also have a national 800 number that forwards into my CR phone and keep my efax number. Whewww! I need a drink.
Mail: Since I’ll be gone for a semi-permanent stay in Costa Rica (whatever the hell that means) it wouldn’t make sense for me to have the Post Office put a vacation hold on my mail – that’s only good for a month or two. I could get a PO Box in Sacramento but then someone has to come empty it. I considered getting all of my mail forwarded to my mom’s house in Connecticut but the last thing I want to do is burden her with all of my junk mail. So what I concluded was that I was going cancel as many bills and services as possible, switch over to online statements for as many bills as possible (like banking), and switch a small number of bills to her mailing address in Connecticut (health insurance, cell phone, etc.). I’ll set them up on auto bill pay so I can take care of them from my laptop in Costa Rica, and she can just throw them in a big box. I’m not going to forward all my mail or change my official address with the post office, which I think should reduce my mail by about 90%. I feel sorry for the people who buy my house and keep getting my crap mail for years, and I’ll be rife for identity theft, but who the hell would want my identity anyway? If someone wants to serve me a paternity suit then they’re gonna have to come down to Costa Rica to find me!
I will have a mailing address in Costa Rica, but they only use rudimentary directions to land their mail. When I lived in Costa Rica for a few months in ’99 my apartment mailing address was literally: “Apartmentos William, tres cientos metres Sur y cinquenta Oeste de Iglesia San Pedro,” or “Apartment William, three hundred meters south and fifty west of the Church of San Pedro.” Believe it or not I did receive some mail from an adventurous family member. Once I’m down in Tamarindo it will be ok to send stuff via the US post office – I recently mailed a laptop down there and it arrived fine – but get it sent to a business address and put lots of insurance on it.
What to bring? I can’t wait to be a road warrior once again! When considering the details of what to bring I consider two things: space and availability. Space is an obvious criteria – I only have two suitcases to fill with all of the things I’ll need to live. I mention Availability because some things you can get down there easily and some things you can’t. For instance, I was going to schlep a small printer down there for work, but then I found out I can get one easily for $200, so I’ll just buy it down there if needed, but there are plenty of things it’s really difficult to find. Of course I’ll bring basic clothes – mostly shorts, t shirts, golf shirts, workout clothes, etc. I’ll probably throw in one suit or pair of nice clothes just in case they are required for business at some point. For work I’m going to bring an Ipad because it’s small and has a great battery life, and a good portion of my day will be working or writing on it. I’ll bring my normal laptop and an external memory stick to back everything up and in case something gets damaged or stolen. I’m going to bring my exercise bands for a good workout and use a beach towel as a yoga matt for pushups and situps. I’m not bringing any books – those I can view on my ipad, and likewise music can be small speakers set up through my Ipad or Iphone. I’ll bring hair clippers, an electric toothbrush, and six months worth of razor blade cartridges. Pistol Pete already has a basketball and a football I brought down last time to throw on the beach.
Where to live? It’s really easy to find a place down there, the trick is just to stay out of the expensive tourist-trap condos. I could stay with Pistol Pete, who’s renting a sweet place with lots of land and room from Leyden, our friend who is an attorney in town, but that is about twenty minutes out on the road towards Liberia. I want to be as close to the beach as possible and able to just jump on my bike and get everywhere in town easily, at least to start. I looked into renting my own condo and saw several that were really nice – two beds, three baths, some furnishings, with pools right in town for $500-$800 per month. But I wanted to get even more Spartan that that and not worry about a lease or utilities in my name. So I think I found a room I could rent from a local friend at her condo that is only four blocks from the beach for a great price. It will be a good place to start and from there I can always look more or get my own place once I’m settled. I plan on spending a ton of time on the beach and writing in Costa Rica so I don’t need much to be happy.
Transportation: I am selling two nice cars with all of the insurance, maintenance, parking, etc. and getting down to just buying a nice used beach cruiser bike to get around. My buddy Pistol Pete has a truck in case I needed to roll somewhere out of town, and it’s pretty cheap to get a cab (I once took a cab to the Nicaraguan border for only $80!). I don’t really want to buy a car down there, nor do I need one, but if I had to get something for around Tamarindo it would probably be an ATV four wheeler to cruise around!
Visas, passport, etc: The cool thing about living in Costa Rica is that you don’t need to arrange a Visa beforehand – as long as you have a US passport that’s good for at least nine months more they’ll let you in the country. I’ll be living there on a tourist Visa but not establishing permanent residency (shhhh….don’t tell.) Getting permanent residency is a nightmare with applications, legal paperwork, fees and costs, and possibly a several year wait. I would have to pay taxes down there, but I would be eligible to work, though every immigrant down there just works under the table.
Since I’ll be on a tourist Visa I’ll have to leave the country every three months and then come back in to renew it. It’s easy to take a weekend trip to nearby Nicaragua and have them stamp my passport, or Panama, or jump over to Columbia for some good clean family fun. I’ve even heard of people sending a friend to the border with their passport just to get it stamped, even though they weren’t there, which will be conveniently overlooked by the border officer with a nice little bribe.
How often will I be back to the states? I plan on coming back to the states 2-3 times a year. I’ll split that time between the east coast visiting my family and Sacramento checking in with friends and work. Obviously it will be just as easy work from the states as it will be from CR. Even though I can very ably do my job via phone and laptop, it will be nice to get some face time with the law firm I work with, any clients I want to look up, and my friends and business partners who refer me cleints. I anticipate being back to the states 3-4 months a year total, probably during the really hot season (February/March) and especially the rainy season (October/November) when it’s really nice on the East Coast anyway. If work requires me to be back more than that it will be no problem to hop on a plane at a moment’s notice and cruise back. I think I’ll leave a suitcase in Sacramento at a friend’s house containing a business suit, several shirts, a jacket, workout clothes, etc. That way I can travel light and have the basics here when I come back, and of course I’ll do the same in Connecticut.
Banking and Money: They use US dollars and Costa Rican Colones pretty interchangeably down there. I can keep my Wells Fargo bank account in the US and keep a little chunk of money in there at all times, and use the ATM machines at the local banks to take out scratch. I’ll put the bulk of my savings in a separate account so that if my card was lost, stolen, or I got kidnapped my Columbian drug lords and forced to divulge my PIN code, there wouldn’t be too much money to lose at any given time.
When I’ve travelled around Third World countries in the past I used to fold up a large-denomination bill and put it under the sole of my shoes so in case there was an emergency or I lost my wallet I would have something stashed to bail me out. I’ll probably do that again. I think I can get my total monthly budget for all the necessities and work expenses to about $1,000 a month. That excludes beer money, so that budget may swell to $15,000 per month if I’m not careful. My work will automatically deposit my paycheck into my US bank account every month, and for the bills that I can't pay online I'll leave my mom pre-signed checks to send out monthly.
Safety: Peoples’ perceptions are a very interesting thing. The first thing most people think about, and comment on, is the concern that Costa Rica is not safe, based on preconceived notions of Third World countries or what you might see on TV or the movies. Is Costa Rica safe? No. Is the US safe? Hell no. While I was down there for a month this winter every time I turned on CNN I saw school shootings, Walmart massacres, and school-board shootings back here in the US. The difference is that in the US the violence is much more random – anyone can flip out and try to burn down the mall or shoot up their workplace. Down in Costa Rica when someone gets fired or disgruntled with work they go sit on the beach and smoke a fatty and watch the sunset.
I’ve found that in other countries the violence is at least predictable – people will jack you because they want what you have. Most crime is based on theft. So the best way you can be safe is not to be in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time. You have to be careful out of your neighborhood or in the sketchy bars around coke dealers late at night. Sound familiar? It’s really just common sense, but travelling all around the world in places that would make US hoods look like Beverly Hills, I’ve learned that the best way to remain safe is…to know people, have lots of friends, and respect everyone. That’s it. Then again you have to worry about the cops shaking you down, but they’re just looking for a little bribe so that’s where my shoe money comes into play!
Where will I be in 5 years? I have absolutely no clue what my life will look like in 5 years. I couldn’t even start to make a guess, and that’s the beautiful part of this move; I’m staring at a blank canvas and I can paint any picture I wish and figure it out as I go along. But one thing I can guarantee is that I won’t look back and have regrets that I didn’t go for it and chase my dreams. So I guess I’ll get rid of all my stuff and move down to the beach in Costa Rica and put on this song and then start writing my ass off, and see what happens.
“Well I searched and I searched, to find a perfect life,
A brand new suit and a brand new car, I even got me a little wife.
But wherever I have gone, I was sure to find myself there –
You can run all your life but not go anywhere.”
“Take Away this Ball and Chain,” by Social Distortion.
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