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Kipplinger on Belize: (May
2005 -- see my comment at the bottom)
Kiplinger Magazine
Belize It or Not
Friday May 19, 8:18 pm ET
By Mary Beth Franklin
It seems like the ideal solution for someone with a sense
of adventure: Retire to a tropical paradise where the
weather is always warm, the living is cheap, and the locals
speak English. So when a letter arrived from Bill and
Claire Gray, authors of the self-published Belize
Retirement Guide, promoting a guided tour of the little
Central American country formerly known as British
Honduras, we decided to take a closer look.
Although the Caribbean washes up on its sandy beaches, this
tiny country more closely resembles its Central American
neighbors Mexico and Guatemala than the island playgrounds
that many Americans favor for winter getaways. Belize is
popular with divers, who are attracted by the
second-largest barrier reef in the world, and eco-tourists,
who come armed with binoculars to catalog the country's
exotic birds and butterflies.
But what would it be like to live there: to rent or buy a
house, to shop in the markets, and to negotiate the daily
details of life, such as going to the doctor or gassing up
the car?
We spent a week touring the diverse country, from its
palm-tree-studded beaches to the lush rolling hills of its
interior, home to spectacular 2,000-year-old Mayan ruins.
Bottom line: It's an intriguing place to visit, but you
wouldn't want to live there. Yes, it's warm--downright hot
in fact. The daytime temperatures are generally in the 80s
or 90s most of the year, and it's humid all year round,
although the coastal areas are tempered by cool breezes.
Throughout most of the country, the rainy season generally
lasts from June to November.
Life can be cheaper than in the States. But if you insist
on air conditioning, a car, and American-style food and
appliances, it could cost you more. In fact, U.S. embassy
personnel receive a 5% cost-of-living raise when they move
to Belize because the State Department considers it more
expensive than the U.S. If you never leave Belize, which is
about the size of Massachusetts, you'll get along just fine
speaking English. But if you want to cross into nearby
Mexico, where most gringos do their shopping and visit
top-notch medical and dental clinics, you had better learn
to speak Spanish or bring along a friend who does.
Make no mistake: Belize is not an undiscovered Florida or
Arizona. It's the third world (and after a tour of a local
market where a butcher displays hacked-off cow's feet in
the afternoon heat, you may wonder if there is a "fourth
world"). The country is shrouded in an aura of postcolonial
decay and looks as if nothing has been painted or repaired
since the British packed up in 1981. It's a place with few
rules, and even some of those are negotiable. If you want
to get away from crowds, Belize may be your kind of place.
There are fewer than 250,000 people in the entire
country--about the population of Louisville, Ky.
TEMPTATION ISLAND
Most American expatriates settle in Ambergris Caye
(pronounced key), the largest of a series of atolls off the
coast. Hundreds of Americans (no one knows for sure how
many) live part-time or year-round on the 25-mile-long
island, which boasts some of the most expensive real estate
in the country. Thanks in part to exposure by the TV show
Temptation Island, which was filmed here two years ago,
half-acre beachfront lots now sell for $120,000 and up, and
two-bedroom condos and townhouses typically cost $130,000
or more.
San Pedro, the island's only town, is about a 20-minute
flight from the mainland. It is reminiscent of Key West 30
years ago, with ramshackle clapboard buildings and souvenir
shops lining the town's sandy streets. There are few cars
on the island; most people get around in battery-powered
golf carts, by bicycle or on foot. But there are plenty of
stray dogs around; you'll find at least one under your
table at any local open-air restaurant.
Lane Llewellyn, a relocation specialist with Belize
Business Development, says it costs a minimum of $1,500 a
month to live in San Pedro, where everything from groceries
to building materials has to be imported. Her own upscale
lifestyle (which includes a full-time housekeeper whom she
pays $75 a week) costs twice that amount. A two-bedroom
apartment with air conditioning rents for $500 to $1,000 a
month in San Pedro, compared with about $200 to $300 on the
mainland. Water and electricity are extra, and power bills
can climb to $250 a month if you run the air conditioning
full-time and recharge the battery on your golf cart.
There are some real estate bargains, says Diane Campbell, a
real estate agent who moved from Los Angeles to Ambergris
Caye ten years ago. For example, in the Mata Grande area
about five miles north of town, beachfront lots with 100
feet of beach frontage sell for about $160,000. A similarly
sized parcel one row back from the beach--about 200 feet
from the water's edge and with beach access--sells for
about $32,000. The land has access to electricity but no
roads. Residents rely on rainwater for most washing and
household needs. To get to town, you must take a boat, call
a water taxi or ride a bike along the beach.
Michael Fox, an American CPA who has lived in San Pedro
since 1996, cautions real estate investors about potential
pitfalls. Although there are no restrictions on foreigners
buying land in Belize, there is also no regulation or
licensing of real estate agents. He also warns people who
move to Belize not to bring all their money with them.
Instead, he says, you should transfer only as much cash as
needed each month. "Belize has a stable government, but the
country is hugely in debt," Fox says. If you brought all
your money to Belize and the long-rumored devaluation
actually took place, you could suffer a major financial
loss.
CALLING SOME RETIREES
To attract U.S. retirees, and their dollars, Belize
launched its Qualified Retired Persons (QRP) program in
1999. If you are 45 or older and have at least $2,000 in
monthly income from any source--pension, social security or
earnings outside the country--you can import household
goods, a car or a boat duty-free, and pay no income taxes
in Belize. You retain U.S. citizenship.
If you visit Belize, you'll undoubtedly hear about luscious
tax breaks available to Americans. But the IRS gets a crack
at a citizen's worldwide income, so any pension income,
retirement-plan withdrawals and social security benefits
will be taxed as if you lived in Boise, Idaho. Still,
Stephen Thompson, an American lawyer specializing in
international tax law who has lived in Belize City with his
wife, Laura, and two children for the past six years,
claims that moving to Belize may allow you to leave part of
the tax burden behind.
Although using private banks in the Caribbean has long
appealed to the world's wealthy, even retirees with more
modest incomes can benefit from this strategy, he says.
Thompson suggests moving your assets--including, say, up to
$500,000 of tax-free profit from the sale of your U.S.
home--into a limited liability corporation (LLC) set up on
the island of Nevis and managed by you from your new home
in Belize. The LLC then pays you a salary for running the
business--which, Thompson says, qualifies you for a break
that allows Americans working abroad to earn up to $80,000
a year tax-free. Thompson says he has set up LLCs--for a
fee of about $2,500 each--for several Americans and, so
far, none has been challenged by the IRS.
As part of the QRP program, retirees must deposit at least
$2,000 a month in a Belize bank account, and then withdraw
the money in Belizean dollars as needed. The government
benefits from the infusion of U.S. dollars because its own
currency isn't accepted anywhere else in the world. The
Belizean dollar is officially pegged two-to-one to the
greenback. But most Americans use private money changers
for their banking needs because they can get a better
exchange rate. The government has been cracking down on
this shadow economy.
"You can live a good life on $2,000 down here--and that
includes domestic help," says Thompson. "It's beautiful and
the people are friendly, but it takes a certain mind-set to
live in a place like this. If you are looking for a 24/7
supermarket, forget it."
So far, only about 200 people have enrolled in the QRP
program, says Gina Anderson, who administers the plan for
the Belize Tourism Board. (The three-page application is
online at www.belizeretirement.org; the program charges a
$710 processing fee.)
NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED
Living in Belize requires self-sufficiency, patience and
ingenuity. That's partly what attracted Tom McMaken, 55,
and Chris Wilkonski, 49, when they visited on a diving trip
four years ago. The Montana natives fell in love with the
warm weather and coastal living, and wound up buying two
and a half acres of jungle situated on a freshwater lagoon
on the mainland. The lot cost $12,000, and they spent
another $20,000 to clear it, carve out a boat slip and
connect electrical lines. Tom and Chris spent $45,000 to
build a three-bedroom cement house that relies on ceiling
fans rather than on air conditioning to tame the local
heat.
More typical land prices can be found at Consejo Shores,
about seven miles outside of town, where one-half-acre lots
on the Bay of Chetumal sell for $35,000 to $50,000, and
interior lots with water views for $16,000 and up. Only
about 40 homes exist so far in the sparsely populated
community of full-time retirees and part-time snowbirds.
During our visit, the only sign of life was a spiny-backed
iguana crawling across a dilapidated tennis court.
Tom and Chris are now full-time residents under Belize's
retiree program and enjoy a slow-paced life that revolves
around fishing and water sports. They are convinced that
the retiree program is a good deal, particularly after
Chris's experience crossing the border in her 1996 Jeep
last summer when she moved to Belize, driving all the way
from Montana through Mexico accompanied only by the
couple's two dogs. Before the Belizean border guards
realized that she was part of the duty-free retiree
program, they demanded $8,000 to bring her car into the
country.
Tom and Chris spend about $1,000 a month to live on the
mainland. They don't carry health insurance because
excellent, inexpensive medical care is available in
Chetumal, Mexico, about 20 miles away. A visit to the
doctor costs about $20, lab tests and X-rays are available
on the premises, and a stay in an adjacent hospital costs
$40 a day. Many Americans in Belize do buy international
health insurance in case they need to be evacuated to the
States for emergency care.
Local produce is cheap. You can buy eight bananas or a
half-dozen oranges for 50 cents. But you'll pay dearly if
you crave American grocery items such as canned peaches
($2.50) or Oscar Mayer hot dogs ($5)--assuming you can find
them. Electricity, which runs on the same voltage as in the
U.S., costs about two to three times what you'd pay in the
States. The Belizean government controls gasoline prices,
and Internet and telephone service. Gas costs $3 a gallon;
Internet dial-up service, $2 an hour. A five-minute phone
call to the U.S. costs about $20. But American-style cable
television--including movie channels--is a bargain at $16 a
month.
One American says she stretches her budget by buying gas
from local residents who fill their tanks across the border
and siphon it off into buckets for resale. Why put up with
such an inconvenience? She and her husband ended up in
Belize eight years ago after their business failed in the
U.S. They skipped out on their debts and slipped over the
border. "It was bankruptcy or Belize," she explains
matter-of-factly.
It seems everyone in Belize has a story--or an angle--and
even photographs can be deceiving. Glaring white-hot days
translate into azure skies and turquoise water on film.
Scenes of desperate poverty--a lean-to, outhouse and yard
full of chickens next to a premier hotel--look primitively
picturesque. It is typical of the feast-or-famine sense you
get in Belize. Or consider the symbiotic relationship
between a hotel and a neighbor with a private pool. The
hotel doesn't have a pool, so guests who want to swim pay
the neighbor $5 to use his.
A SLICE OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Tour guides and authors Bill and Claire Gray moved to
Belize more than ten years ago, escapees from the Hollywood
rat race. They settled in Corozal when their son, now 16,
was a little boy and wrote letters home about pioneer life
in Belize. The response was so positive that they decided
to write a series of books and reports about their
experiences.
Their Belize Retirement Guide (Preview Publishing, $29.95)
is partially responsible for raising the nation's
visibility as a retirement destination. The Grays (an alias
they say they use to cut down on the number of uninvited
guests who turn up at their front door) occasionally
conduct personal tours of Belize. Their most recent one, in
January 2002, cost $2,000, including round-trip airfare
from Miami. The January tour attracted more than 30 people,
ranging in age from 34 to 73. Most were looking for a warm
and cheap place to retire. A few were just looking for a
place to disappear.
The Grays were eager to showcase the natural beauty as well
as the warts of the tiny country they now call home. And
they weren't selling anything. Although several tour
members found Belize more primitive than they had expected
and not nearly as cheap as they had hoped, about half of
the group said they would return for a second look. Those
wanting to try Belize on for size can enter the country on
a tourist visa and stay for as long as six months. If
Belize appeals to you as a retirement destination, take the
tour (www.belizeretire.com ). The next one leaves in July.
We won't be on it. Once was enough.
--Reporter: MATT POPOWSKY
>>
>>--- BZEFIRST@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>>>I think most of this article was written two or three
>>>>years ago.
>>>>
>>>>--Lan Sluder
>>>>
I remember the very article that Lan is thinking about. It was more
like four years ago, and it sounded like it was written by someone who
couldn't go a week without their regular fix at Bloomingdale's. They
talked about "white hot heat" and complained the whole time about it.
In fact, the temp in Corozal never broke 100 in the entire time I was
there. When I came back the second time -- it did once hit 102! But
take it from me, It is MUCH HOTTER in the Heartland in the summer than
it is in Belize!! Perhaps if we didn't have the "Rainy Season" -- which
breaks off the hottest part of the summer, -- it would be different.
But the days here in the heartland, right now, are all in the Hundreds,
and the humidity is higher than it was in Belize!! Fortunately, it gets
down in the low 70's at night.
The article is interesting because it basically says that if you're
looking for an "undiscovered Florida or Arizona" you won't find it in
Belize. Duuuuhhh!! Gawlee, New Yorkers. You probably wouldn't like
South Padre Island either -- which would be my recommendation to people
who want A/C, fast food and a Wal-mart minutes away. And -- gasp --
it's cheap. Actually, Manhattan can be a cheap place to live if you
live like a Belizean, or even like a non-New Yorker! I spent two summers
in Manhattan in the 70's, living on about $10 a day, but you can't go to
the Palms every week on that. Maybe Gallagher's once a year!! (I could
usually find somebody else to foot the bill for that. <hee, hee>)
Belize is cheap, if you live in a place like Corozal. I could -- and did
-- live quite nicely on a thousand a month. And I could make a little
extra pocket money doing things that Belizeans may not be able to do as
well. Fix things (including computers); play Gringo music. But I
didn't live like a New Yorker. I didnt' live "like a rasta" either, as
one person accused me. I drank beer and rum, ate good food (mostly home
cooked) and even saved a little money.
So, anyway, consider the source. The well is poisoned, from the outset.
And, believe me, you don't WANT a bunch of New Yorkers f**king up Belize!!
RZ
Can you imagine someone complaining about Cow Feet at the market???
Obviously someone who never walked thru a Tokyo Fish Market in the
summer!! Philistines!
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