Picking a Town, Finding a Home, & Creating a Budget in Costa Rica
Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Picking a Town, Finding a Home, and Creating a Budget in Costa Rica —Kindle $9.99, Paperback $15.99
My new book is available!
Happier Than A Billionaire: Picking a Town, Finding a Home, and Creating a Budget in Costa Rica. It’s the perfect companion to The Costa Rica Escape Manual and will guide you through finding the perfect spot to start your own Pura Vida lifestyle.
To celebrate, I made mango cobbler in a cocktail dress. You may be wondering if I always cook in cocktail dresses, and yes. Yes, I do.
My husband advised me to wear heels because I looked taller when compared to the countertop. He’s the Don Draper of the Happier Production Company. So instead of five feet in height, I’m a whopping 5’4”. It’s shocking how little that detail made in my appearance or in my confidence overall.
I’m sure nobody cares about my height or even the mango cobbler. But the new book is great if you’re dreaming of moving to Costa Rica and want a better understanding of how much rent costs, the average monthly grocery expense, or even what a suicide shower is.
Electricity AND water? Who knew? (not a feature in The Happier House)
But I think the most important piece of this video is the montage of the happiest moments Rob and I have made in Costa Rica. This filmstrip plays in my mind every day — flashes of crazy adventures we had after quitting our jobs and trying to forge a completely new life.
Now when people ask, “You left everything behind? What were you looking for?” I can point them to this video. The answer is simply…
- I longed to see my husband smile after climbing behind a waterfall and looking all but twenty-four again.
- I wanted to sit on a beach with a dog under my legs as mama turtles swam back to the place where they were born to lay their eggs.
- I wished to bathe in orange sunsets and marvel at lightning bolts flashing across the horizon.
Perhaps I wanted too much. But I remembered the person I was when I was my happiest. She smiled a lot, and I missed her. It turns out the things I needed back were the richest things I owned.
I hope all of you can visit this lovely country and bear witness to a capuchin monkey stealing a lemon. It’s never too late to replace your frayed and yellowed filmstrip with a happier one. There is an endless supply of unprocessed film tucked away in your head. It could be buried in your cerebral attic, or maybe you moved it to an overpriced grey matter storage facility.
I eventually found my box of film hidden in a mental shoe box. It smelled of my grandmother’s Italian cookies and was the color of the yellow dandelions that wildly grew in my parents’ yard.
Inside I found a treasure map pointing to bluer skies with air that smelled of coconuts. Your map could take you to a Himalayan mountaintop or a Bali yoga retreat. The only thing I’m sure is you have to reach inside to get out and dip back to go forward.
And moving forward, whether in flip-flops or four-inch heels, is a happier place to be.
***Happier Than A Billionaire: Picking a Town, Finding a Home, and Creating a Budget in Costa Rica is available at:
