My September investment income rose to $83.28 from $82.51 the month before. This isn’t much of a rise but at least my income is going in the right direction. I didn’t add any money to my investments in September so the rise was from investment portfolio increasing in value. I plan to add a little money to my portfolio this month so I should have another rise in my investment income unless my stocks tank.
Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income.
September was not a good month for income. This isn’t too surprising since I was traveling for most of the month. On the positive side $385.07 isn’t bad income since most of it was passive income. I’ve already passed September’s income this month so October should be a much better month for income.
I'm thinking the special rate isn't a discount.
Based on my past experience living in Guatemala for three months I have long thought that living in a foreign country would be a good way to live cheaply. This would allow you to live on a small retirement income or perhaps allow you to take an extended amount of time off each year. After my recent trip through Central America I have some more thoughts on this subject.
It is true that you can live on less in Central America. My experience in Guatemala though was that you usually would also have a lower standard of living than in the U.S. While trying to find a private apartment in Guatemala the only ones that I considered acceptable cost almost as much as I would pay here in Kansas City.
Since I am able to have a comfortable lifestyle here in the U.S. for about a $1000 a month it is difficult to save much money by living elsewhere. I often see ads for books or guides on how you can live in a foreign country for as little as $1000 a month which wouldn’t be a savings for me. That would only be a good deal for me if I had a better standard of living there or at least a different but similar standard of living.
One of my problems was that the places I was looking at were targeted towards foreigners and were priced accordingly. Generally, any goods or services in a foreign country that are being marketed to gringos will come with a gringo price tag. If I would have spent some more time searching for an apartment I probably could have found a better deal on a place that wasn’t being marketed for foreigners. This just takes more time and some knowledge of the area you would be living in would be helpful.
I still think that someday I will be living in Central America at least part of the year. This won’t be because it is cheap but because I like it there. My recommendation to anyone who is thinking of living abroad is not to live somewhere just because it is cheap. If you can find a place that is cheap and it is an area you want to live in as well then you have found a good combination.
My expenses were higher than I would prefer in September but not too bad considering I was traveling most of the month. The travel expense was the budget killer. This amount was what I spent on airfare, hotel rooms, taxis, and buses. I find it hard to believe I spent that much but I did. I probably won’t travel at all this month so this category will go down to zero. The food budget was also high since I ate out for most of my meals. My food expense should go back to normal this month. My household expense was low this month since my GF allowed me to not pay rent while I was gone. This amount will go back to normal this month. My transportation expense was low this month since most of my transportation costs were included in the travel category. That expense will go up this month but it should still be fairly low. My other categories should remain about the same.
It is now obvious that I will not meet my goal of keeping my expenses to under $10,000 for the year. I may have already passed that expense level but I haven’t added up my monthly expenses yet to be sure. I will still try to keep my expenses low for the rest of the year and I will probably set a similar goal next year.
The typical Central American meal consists of a piece of meat (usually chicken), rice, beans, and some corn tortillas. In Guatemala they seem to like refried black beans while the other countries just had regular black beans. Although I like this meal fine – other than the corn tortillas – I don’t find it too interesting so I usually ate at fast food restaurants or when staying at a hostel cooked my own meals.
American fast food place are common in the larger cities in Central America. The cost is only slightly cheaper than in the United States. Given that the average income is only about $500 I’m not sure how they can afford to eat in these restaurants but they are usually very busy. I suppose I’m seeing the richer people at the fast food places. I’m also pretty sure that people in Central America spend a much larger percentage of their income on food than here in the United States.
There are also some Central American fast food chains that I tried. They were Pollo Campero, Biggest, and Pio Pio. Pollo Campero makes chicken that is just as greasy and salty as KFC. Their breakfast of eggs with salsa and a side of refried black beans with tortilla chips was pretty good too. They also serve pizza although I didn’t try that. They have locations throughout Central America.
Biggest is an El Salvador fast food chain. They have burgers and chicken. The burger I had wasn’t too great. The meat in burgers in Central America tastes different. The prices were about the same as a U.S fast food place. El Salvador uses the American dollar as their currency so it is easy to compare prices.
Pio Pio is a fast food chain in Panama. They serve chicken. Almost all restaurants in Central America serve chicken. Even McDonalds, Wendys, and Burger King have fried chicken on the menu in Central America. I only had chicken nuggets at Pio Pio and they were not the best. On the plus side my combo meal was only $2.40. Panama also uses the American dollar as their currency making it easy to compare prices.
The cities I visited in Central America had supermarkets that were about the same as you would find in the U.S. This isn’t too surprising since Wal-Mart owns many of them. People there do lots of their shopping at the street markets though so the supermarkets have smaller produce sections. The street markets are much more interesting than the supermarkets but I didn’t do any shopping at them during this trip. The street markets are usually cheaper than the supermarket even if you pay a special gringo price.
There are probably some regional foods that I didn’t find. If I visit again I will have to make it a point to visit more of the local restaurants.
