According to the most recent demographic study, over 20% of all US citizens are classified as within the Boomer age range. Every year, many decide to make Costa Rica their part-time or full-time home. While they inject money into the local economies, they also ratchet up the cost of living with each new expat arrival. And the truth is, on many occasions, they are buying from other Boomers who are departing the country with the proceeds from the sale. The actual benefits to the local Tico economy are minuscule in comparison.
I am a Boomer myself, though I often feel like I am what might be called an Uncle Tom Boomer. I am in sympathy with the younger generations who are tired of us hoarding the money, tired of us talking about how our music was better, our movies were better, our cars were better, our food was better. Tired of us being old and in the way! I don’t blame you youngsters. But I do feel sorry for you.
Our parents were part of what is called The Greatest Generation, and one of the things they were really great at was reproduction. I was one of five kids and grew up around many other families with a like number of offspring. There are still millions of us out there. You all just need to be patient and wait another 25 years or so, and by then we will all have died off—or we will be so old that you can kill us and make it look like it was an accident. (I can hear a news reader in the year 2050: “For the fifth year in a row, the leading cause of death among the surviving Boomers was falling down the steps. Followed by falling out of moving cars and falling out of second story windows.”)
As for myself, I have very little money to hoard. So don’t blame me. I did not come to Costa Rica to get rich, and man, have I stayed true to my word. And it is too late for me to go back and establish myself in the States. My credit score number is probably lower than my body weight. Not a good thing unless you are one of those whales you see puttering around Walmart on their electric carts.
The beat goes on. Every day the various Costa Rica pages I follow on Facebook show Boomers ready to retire to Costa Rica, asking about the best places to live. The vast majority want to be on or near the beach, which is one of the reasons this Boomer chooses to live inland, in the foothills of the mountains, where I can go weeks at a time without speaking a word of English.
As for Costa Rica, about 10% of the population is over 65. That Boomer label does not really extend outside of the US. This is one of the many things I love about Ticolandia. Here I am not thought of as a Boomer, but just another old fart out walking around the barrio.
