| Business & Wall Street Weekly |
| Retire Like a King In The Caribbean On $800 A Month |
| by Lorene Collier |
Mexico is not as cheap as it used to be, however, liquor and cigarettes are still the exception. Retirement living here is definately out. The Bahamas and Virgin Islands are right up there with Hawaii. So, where does one go to retire on just $800 a month? On Margarita Island, of course!
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The inhabitants of Margarita Island enjoy a temperate climate year round. It is located outside the hurricane corridor, with beautiful Caribbean beaches, great restaurants, casinos and much more. Situated just off the coast of Venezuela in line with Trinadad, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. According to my sources, a bottle of beer at a beach bar is only $.40 and dinner at a great Italian restaurant is just $20 (with a bottle of wine). And get this: You can buy a nice 3bed / 3bath house for $40,000. Or, how about a nice high-rise condo for $25,000? For those who can afford to splurge, you can have a cute full time maid to clean up your mess for another $4 a day.
Maybe you don’t want to buy? You can rent a nice apartment for $100 a month. You can rent a very nice security gated apartment for $200, and for $300 you will have the penthouse. So maybe rent for a year?
The island is quite developed. They have a version of Home Depot, too. It is very modern, nicely stocked with almost everything you would need to build or re-model a house. There are many very nice shopping centers on the island, along with clinics and pharmacies, rivaling the cheap prices of Canada and Mexico (or even cheaper), to fill prescription drugs. Even better - many drugs which require a prescription in the United States do not require one here.
Sambil is a local third world mall, or should I say third world MEGAMALL! It is huge and beautiful, like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, which has everything that we have in the US and far more. Hundreds of stores, beautiful tropical restaurants with bridges over water ponds, and a food court to satisfy all your cravings for grease. McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Domino’s and Pizza Hut are all situated here, as well as other world cuisine.
Now to get to this gem of a island, its quite simple. Airfare from Las Vegas is only $530 round trip to Caracas. For another $56, take a short hop on a 737 to the island. So, for $586, you can take two giant steps backwards into time. The island is about 40x60 miles with hundreds of white sandy beaches and turquoise water. The airport is nicely appointed, very clean and air-conditioned that make many US airports look bad. If you are 65 or over, the airlines have a “senior discount” with round trip airfare from Caracas to Miami for only $125, a mere 3.5 hours away. Direct flights from Margarita to Miami added in early 2005 have made the time even shorter.
The exchange rate is 1920 Bolivar's to the Dollar (which fluctuates) so your dollar automatically is worth more. My sources said they needed to exchange some money. They cashed in $400 US Dollars and received 1,000,000 Bolivar’s in exchange. One million of anything can, and will, go a long ways. And it did. For 50,000 B’s a day you can live very comfortably. $800 a month in Social Security is 1,536,000 Bolivar’s at the official exchange rate. With $800 in the US, you will be pushing a shopping cart and eating cat food out of a can. |
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