Can you cut your living expenses in half?

Is it possible to live in a foreign country for half of what it costs to live in the US?

The simple answer is that it depends on how you live.

My living expenses in Costa Rica are about half of what I was spending living in the US. But it's not all because of living here.

Costa Rica is the most expensive country in Central America to live in, but it can still be a lot less expensive than living in the US. It's cheaper to live in Panama, and even less expensive to live in Nicaragua, but I like Costa Rica better.

A word of caution

Living in Costa Rica can be more expensive than living in the US. It depends on how you live, where you live, and what you spend your money on. Let me explain.

• Cars are at least 50% more expensive here, but with a bus coming by every hour (every 30 minutes in the mornings), I don't need a car. The cost to ride the bus down the mountain, about eight miles to town, is a dollar. If I become a resident, the buses will be free since I'm over 65. Not owning a car saves me a lot of money.

• Gas is more expensive.

• Grocery items that are not grown or made locally are way more expensive. For example, they make a lot of cheese here, but I don't like it. To get cheddar cheese, you have to pay two times what it would cost in the US. If you buy your food at a farmer's market, local food is cheap.

• If you buy items from Amazon, you have to pay shipping plus tariffs. Most items end up costing at least 25% more.

• Medical and dental expenses are way less here.

• Houses and rent are a lot less expensive here. I rent a new two-bedroom, two-bath house for $500 a month, which is about half of what I was paying a month to rent an RV campsite in the US. My rent includes electricity, fiber optic Wi-Fi, cable TV, water, and trash pickup.

  One of the things that makes housing cost less here is that the houses don't have heat or air conditioning, and insulation is not required, so half of my house is made of glass. (With all the beautiful birds and jungle vegetation, why not build your house out of glass?) The outside temperature is always in the mid-70s up here on the mountain. If you go down the mountain to the beaches and the tourist areas, A/C is required, and rent and houses are way more expensive.

Bottom line: My living expenses are about half of what I was spending in the US, but my lifestyle has changed. If I wanted a car, wanted to eat mostly US food, live at the beach, and buy a lot of items from Amazon, I could run my living expenses up a lot and maybe even up to more than I was spending in the US.

Whether it's cheaper to live in Costa Rica or any other foreign country depends on how you live. It can be much less expensive, but only if you change your lifestyle and live like a local.