A REFRESHER ON WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER MEXICO AS A PLACE TO LIVE

I've said before, but it's always worth repeating.  Consider Mexico as a home, regardless of what your age is or what you do for a living.  It all starts with:

1) Abandon the notion that you just can't do it.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and you might need to leave here for a better situation somewhere else.  Mexico is the best option.

2) Purge your mind of almost everything you know about Mexico through American news sources.  It's mostly all bogus.  They have crime, yes, but many places there have far less crime than you live around here.  Their government is corrupt, you say?  Can you hear me laughing?  Like the one you live under here isn't?  Mexico is poor, you say?  Have you looked around lately?  It's here too, you know, and it affects upwards of half our population.  Mexico is backward?  Think of it this way: They didn't just elect a misogynist, xenophobic jerk to the highest office in the land, and we did.  I could go on and on about this, but the bottom line is:  Don't believe what you hear here, not from our press. Do your own research, go take a look for yourself.

3) Don't dive into the deep end of the pool without your floaties.  Plan adequately, make contacts, form alliances, and again, do the research.  You'll find out some interesting things.  All of them won't be good, but you'll know what you're up against and can weigh the costs of moving there against the benefits.  You'll find the benefits enticing.  I did, and it only took a short while to do that.  We all have different situations and circumstances to deal with.  I'll reveal mine, show you the difference, and you can go from there.

I live in a nice house in central Texas and am on a fixed retirement income.  We, the wife and I, have a steady bankable income of about $4,600 a month, but she still works to help make ends meet.  On a monthly basis we spend about a thousand a month just on various insurances.  A move to a nice town in Mexico cuts that in half, even a little more, and we're just as well insured.  We spend over five thousand a year here on just property taxes, and for the same kind of house in Mexico, that goes down to more like two hundred.  Utilities here can run as much as $1,000 a month, almost always around $800 (that's for a home and my wife's business), and in Mexico that would be no more than $100 a month.  Three things, folks, just those three things would save this family around $20,000 a year.  With other reduced cost of living there, that number edges up close to $30,000 a year.  I fact checked it all; it's not a myth.

4) Be prepared to give up some things, and one of them is your spoiled American attitude.  Be prepared to change and adjust to another culture.  Mexico is mostly a pay as you go society, and if you go there and try to live like you do here (credit cards and big debt), you're very little better off. You won't have to sacrifice in lifestyle, just mostly in your style.  Don't be the ugly American.  One of the hardest adjustments you'll face is to shake your fearfulness, something you've been trained to be here.  You can't be fearful of people who're not like you and get along well anywhere.

5) Relish the adventure.  What do you really have to lose?  Nobody leaves a place that's working well for them.  They go looking for a better life, and that doesn't just land in you lap.  I'm trying to make that move, and I'm 75 years old.  If I can do it, anybody can . . . if they need to, and want to.  My need to move there is greater than my wanting to be there.  In in a position to say, "I'd love to stay, but they won't let me."  Too many people want to take too much here.  I want out from under that.

MORE ON THE LOGIC OF LIVING IN MEXICO

I'm absolutely amazed at the number of people who refuse to move anywhere, even away from a city that's been treating them unkindly for a long time.  "But I grew up here.  I have friends and family here.  My roots are here," I've been told time and time again.  And my response is usually, "What are you, a tree?"  Well, apparently, most people are indeed trees, too rooted to move . . . and they suffer lots of indignities to keep their roots firmly planted.  If you use logic, face facts, you come to the conclusion you need to be more like a bird that's free to fly.  A tree is a wonderful thing, but it has lots of limitations.  It can't move, for one thing, and that means it must stay put . . . and at the pleasure of things that want to use it.  Trees, squirrels, cats, and a bevy of other creatures love trees, but so does the lumberman.  He'll chop you ass down in a heartbeat and saw you into lumber, and why? Because in the spurious society you live in a tree is worth more dead than alive.

So, consider yourself a tree and take note of what happens to you.  Unlike the real tree, you're a tree that can be chopped down slowly, a limb at a time.  You're there for the taking.  Government, corporate American, and the society you live in are going to chop away at you, leaving perhaps only enough of you to stay alive so you can grow new parts to chop off.  Government is going to tax and regulate the shit out of you, and Corporate America is going to whittle away at your income like drug crazed termites.  As for society, it gives up very little that's free.  Getting an education is costly, and churches always want money, and those pesky charities are always after your bleeding heart money. The grocer is going to gouge you with price increases, and the mechanic is going to rip you off when you need a car repaired . . . and it goes on and one.  Is it any different anywhere else?  Well, not many places, but at least you can cut into the amount of loss you'll incur by leaving this country.  I've investigated costs of living all over the world, have taken note of where expats have gone, and have made some startling discoveries.  After all the research, I've found the best place for cutting back on oppressive costs of living is right in our own back yard - Mexico.

You won't save much, if anything, buying property in Mexico.  Americans have pretty much taken over the real estate business in Mexico, and wherever Americans go, the dollar becomes the bottom line.  Yeah, that's more of corporate America at work, even if you leave home for Mexico.  You won't save money buying automobiles there either, and your savings in food costs will be only marginal . . . if you keep up the same lifestyle you lead here.  But, you can kiss the other outrageous costs of living goodbye.  Mexico doesn't bleed it's citizenry for taxes, especially property taxes.  The cost reductions are drastic.  You could easily go from paying ten grand a year here to just a few hundred bucks a year there.  Bye, bye big utility bills too.  Cost there are a fraction of what they are here.  You can actually afford to see a doctor regularly, and dental care is much cheaper there.  And the care aspect of medical care there is just as good or better than it is here.  But will I be safe in Mexico?  In most Mexican states, the answer is yes.  The states that run up crime statistics in Mexico are close to our border, usually, and many places there are safer than you can find here in the U.S.  Will I be treated well there?  Most expats say yes, exceptionally well in most cases.  But don't believe me, do your own research.  You'll find a completely different story than the constant bullshit our news agencies here have been feeding you.  And then stop being a tree.