Steve Lopes and his wife have lived in Thailand, Mexico and Malaysia, among other places. Steve Lopes
Steve Lopes and his wife left California in 2018 and have since lived in nearly a dozen countries.
They spent over a year in Sint Maarten, months in Thailand and shorter stays in Asia and the Caribbean.
Lopes misses his five children. However, his new lifestyle means he can now get by with less money and can explore the world.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by an editor.
After six decades in California, Steve Lopes, 65, decided to move for a more comfortable life.
Little did he know that over the next five years he and his wife Mila would be living in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Indonesia, Mexico, Sint Maarten and Thailand.
Lopes, a third-generation native born and raised in San Jose, moved with his five children to Los Gatos in Silicon Valley two decades ago. However, as the years went by, the cost of living became more and more prohibitive. During the last three years he lived there, he and his wife no longer made enough to pay the bills and had to drain their savings.
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“A few years before our last child graduated, we decided we wanted to leave and look for places that were more financially advantageous,” said Lopes, who is now retired. “If I earned $300,000 a year, I would live in my hometown. But we’ve found a pretty good alternative to our life at home, other than being away from our family.”
That’s a decision more and more Californians are making these days. Almost 818,000 people left California between 2021 and 2022. However, 475,800 moved in. Many of those leaving the state cite rising living costs and a desire for a more decelerated life. Over 100,000 of them moved to Texas, Arizona and Florida are also popular destinations. Some, however, moved to other countries.
“The hardest thing is being away from my children because I am very attached to them,” he said, adding that his mother is 87 years old. “It’s difficult to go back to the U.S. for a month and hope to experience a lot together.”
Departure from California
Lopes, whose great-uncle was once mayor of San Jose, worked in real estate for several decades and ran a mortgage company while also playing poker. But when he took over the company, many of his customers were getting older. So he decided to close the business and prepare for retirement.
A few years before he left California, he sold his house and rented a condo that cost about $5,000 a month. According to his estimates, that would be around 8,000 dollars (around 7,300 euros) a month today. As he neared retirement, he knew he could no longer afford the area as his other daily expenses continued to rise.
“You have to expect living costs of 180,000 to 200,000 dollars (around 160,000 to 180,000 euros) and that was not feasible for me as a pensioner. As a professional, I wouldn’t have been able to do that and my income would have only fallen even further,” says Lopes.
He and his wife now have a low six-figure income made up of investments and Social Security. In his opinion, it does not allow them to maintain their standard of living in Silicon Valley. He also feels like his quality of life is decreasing as the San Francisco area appears to be becoming more and more unsafe.
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“We joked that we could go to Missouri, that we could retire in Alabama, since our money would take care of us in many places within the United States,” Lopes said. “Or we could try Costa Rica, go to the Caribbean, spend some time in Thailand, whatever sounds more exciting.”
He compared the cost of living between the United States and various countries and attended a seminar about living abroad. He knew he wanted to live near a beach; he is an amateur diver. After selling most of their possessions, they traveled around the Caribbean and Latin America for a few months, staying in Airbnbs and other short-term rentals. Lopes acknowledged that while this was cheaper than a hotel, it was still quite expensive.
Seen almost a dozen countries
He and his wife moved to Santa Marta, Colombia for a few months. From there they moved to Jaco and Guanacaste in Costa Rica and then to Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. They then spent several months in Curacao and then in Sint Maarten.
In their second year abroad, they spent a few months in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia. Part of their success in their second year was making contacts with locals who helped them find cheaper accommodation in each country. He said locals referred them to properties owned by them or their friends. This proved to be life-saving as property managers were hesitant to rent for anything less than four to six months.
When the pandemic hit, they moved back to the US for a few months and spent some time in Miami and Las Vegas until Sint Maarten reopened. They stayed there for two years.
The couple now lives in Thailand and travels through dozens of countries, where they stay for a few weeks to months at a time. They want to move to Singapore for a few months at the beginning of 2024.
“The hardest thing is letting go of your things. We are absolute minimalists, although I never saw myself that way and never wanted to be that way,” said Lopes. He added that none of what he owns was worth the storage fees to keep it. The hardest part was selling his furniture on consignment for 10 to 15 cents on the dollar.
Since he only stays in most countries for a few weeks, he doesn’t need a visa for his moves. In Thailand, his passport allows him to stay for 30 days. But that resets every time he leaves the country and returns for a maximum of 180 days. He stayed in Sint Maarten for a year because the island has signed a friendship treaty with the USA. He could only stay in some other Asian countries for a few months with a US passport.
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Through a network, the couple found a 92 square meter one-bedroom apartment in Sint Maarten, just 70 meters from the beach, and costs around $2,200 (around €2,000) per month. He bought a cheap car that he left with a friend in the US while he was in other countries. This turned out to be cheaper than renting a car every time I visited home. Lopes estimates he would have to pay four to five times more rent for the apartment if it were in California.
His food costs in Sint Maarten are about 30 percent less than what he paid in California. He is considering buying a condo in Sint Maarten in a few years when he is done with his frequent moves.
Networking also helped him find a 51-square-meter unit in Phuket, Thailand, for just over $1,000. He also rents a scooter for $115 (around 100 euros) per month and a meal at a local restaurant costs him and his wife the equivalent of around six to twelve dollars (around five to ten euros).
Sometimes there is a big change between different countries with different costs of living. Thailand is much cheaper than Playa Del Carmen, observed Lopes. It’s also difficult to adapt to cultural differences and norms, from traffic rules to restaurant etiquette. In Thailand, for example, he pays some bills at his local 7-Eleven.
Still, Lopes says that living in these countries is much cheaper than in California, as long as he makes his purchases consciously. The most important thing is to stay in each country for at least three or four months to avoid frequent expensive flights.
“You can’t live permanently in a three-room apartment opposite the Eiffel Tower. But if you don’t demand five-star accommodations in prime areas, you can go anywhere you want, stay as long as you want and visit as many places as you want in a year,” said Lopes.
His children are now largely independent, which makes this lifestyle possible for him and his wife. However, he warns that it may no longer make sense for him and his wife in a few years as they get older.
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“The advice I would give is to just do it for two or three months, put your stuff in storage and see if you can handle it,” Lopes said. “Don’t buy real estate, just rent and see how you feel in a neighborhood. Stay down to earth, eat with the locals and see how you feel about this place.”
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2024-01-02 15:49:53
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