Three years ago, my wife and I sold our house in Ohio, put everything else in a 10x10 storage unit, and moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Our friends thought we were having a crisis. Our financial planner thought we were geniuses. Our kids thought both things at the same time.
Here's what life actually looks like.
Why We Did It
The math was straightforward: our Social Security checks, combined, gave us about $3,400 a month. In suburban Ohio, that covered the bills with little left over. In San Miguel, $3,400 a month puts you solidly in the middle class. We live in a 2-bedroom colonial home with a courtyard, eat out several times a week, and have never once stressed about money the way we did constantly back in Ohio.
The lifestyle reason was less straightforward but equally real: we were bored. Retired at 65 in a suburb with cold winters and not much to walk to, we found ourselves watching a lot of television and becoming slowly, imperceptibly smaller.
What the Brochure Gets Right
**The cost of living is genuinely low.** Our all-in monthly expenses average $2,100, including rent, food, utilities, health insurance, and entertainment. Our healthcare, through a combination of Mexico's IMSS public system and a private plan, costs us $280/month combined, and the quality of care at the private hospitals in the city is excellent.
**The community is extraordinary.** San Miguel has a large expat population, many of whom are retired Americans and Canadians. We found our people within two months. There are more social invitations than we can accept.
**The beauty is real.** This is a UNESCO World Heritage city. Every street is genuinely gorgeous. We never got over it.
What the Brochure Leaves Out
**Bureaucracy is real.** Obtaining residency status took six months and more paperwork than I anticipated. Renewing it is an annual adventure.
**You will miss things.** Not things, actually. People. Our grandchildren are in Ohio. The flights are manageable, but distance is distance. We budgeted for four trips home per year and end up taking five or six.
**Healthcare has a ceiling.** For routine and moderate care, Mexico is excellent. For major procedures or highly specialized treatment, we'd return to the U.S. We have a plan for that, and the National Institute on Aging offers helpful guidance on thinking through healthcare decisions before making a move like this.
Would We Do It Again?
Without a single hesitation.
The life we have here, the warmth, the color, the community, the financial ease, the daily sense that we are truly living rather than waiting, is better than anything we'd imagined from that cold Ohio living room.
We're not running away from anything. We moved toward something. There's a difference, and it matters.
