Cost of living in Mexican cities

Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I got a story from yahoo news (http://mx.news.yahoo.com/...-mas-cara-vivir.html) about a report on the cost of living in Mexican cities. Supposedly 42 cities were included, but not all were specified in the story. The "costs" were not clearly defined, but here goes:

Mexico City was used as the baseline city:

1 Monterrey 103.9%
2 Los Cabos 103%
3 Cancún 101.7%
4 DF (Ciudad base) 100%
5 Tijuana 89.27%
6 Guadalajara 86.63%

Least expensive cities:
Tlaxcala 64.4%;
Tepic 69.2%;
Durango 69.3%;
Pachuca 69.6%
Chetumal 69.9%.

Anybody planning to move?

(This post was edited by tonyburton on Feb 3, 2010, 1:04 PM)

Feb 3, 2010, 11:58 AM

Post #2 of 47 (6041 views)

Re: [gpkisner] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I doubt that the cost of living for a Mexican in México has much to do with the cost of living for an NOB expat in México, even the ones like me who have nearly completely "gone native".

Starcradle

Feb 3, 2010, 2:05 PM

Post #3 of 47 (5992 views)

Re: [gpkisner] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Yes, I shall be moving imminently--to Monterrey (haha.)

Feb 3, 2010, 3:05 PM

Post #4 of 47 (5967 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

gpkgto

Feb 3, 2010, 3:53 PM

Post #5 of 47 (5947 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I disagree--I think the cost of living info is relative, therefore useful. Obviously it does not tell you all you need to know.

lostinmex

Feb 3, 2010, 4:18 PM

Post #6 of 47 (5935 views)

Re: [cynthrod] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post |

I'd also like to hear what "going native" means. Our Mexican friends all wear shoes,own houses, have university degrees,and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US.

joaquinx

Feb 3, 2010, 4:30 PM

Post #7 of 47 (5926 views)

Re: [lostinmex] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

In Reply To

I'd also like to hear what "going native" means. Our Mexican friends all wear shoes,own houses, have university degrees,and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US.

Perhaps they don't live in gated communities, make trips to the US to buy just about everything, shop only at Costco, Sam's, Walmart, Superama, and Home Depot. The don't eat a US franchised restaurants. The learn to speak Spanish.

I happy to hear that your friends here wear shoes.
_______
My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.

Hound Dog

Feb 3, 2010, 4:52 PM

Post #8 of 47 (5916 views)

Re: [cynthrod] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

What do you mean when you say you have almost gone native... how do you live that makes that so, if I may ask? If you'd rather anwer off line, please send me a private email... I am truly trying to figure how I might "fit in" in Mexico as an expat.

I´m sure all Mazbook meant was that she is living in sync with the Mexican community with which she has become associated since having moved here. There is no such thing as "(going) native" generally speaking in Mexico or France or Ouagadougou.

When I say I go native in France, I mean I spend up to four hours eating lunch and dinner daily and drinking wine all the while scarfing down great seafood and cheeses and, when not engaging in such decadence, I´m out sightseeing or visiting great museums or napping. If the average "native" Frenchman lived that way, they would all be dead by age 35.

When I say I go native in Chiapas I mean eating tamales and visiting indigenous villages and beautiful places, not living in a primitive hut on a mountaintop scratching out a living in my tiny milpa while taking care of 10 kids who work the streets of San Cristóbal 12 hours a day selling chiclets and hoping to survive another day.

When I say I go native in my native Alabama, I mean I work down at the bank where my assistant does all the real work while I take hour long coffee breaks with the other ole boys down at the Alabama Grill and two hour lunches (known as dinners) at home from noon to 2:00PM eating fried chicken and drinking sweet tea and napping and spending Wednesday afternoon on the golf course much of it at the 19th hole; not that I take time from my hardscabble farm duties growing okra and collards and feeding the hogs to run my still out on the back 40 which brings in the real cash (along with my wife´s job down at the cotton mill) and dress up for klan meetings on Saturday night.

When I say I´m going native in San Francisco, I mean drinking double vodka martinis and playing liar's dice down at Vanessi's in the Financial District with bank clients all afternoon, not heading out from Fishermans Wharf onto that freezing cold bay every morning at dawn hoping to return with my dungeness crab quota for the day while my wife waits on the dock to make sure I don't spend my day´s earnings on booze before she can head for the Safeway and feed the kids.

What I mean is, anywhere I´ve ever lived, "going native" has been hard to define.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Feb 3, 2010, 5:09 PM)

BajaGringo

Feb 3, 2010, 4:57 PM

Post #9 of 47 (5910 views)

Re: [lostinmex] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Our House Building Project in Mexico...
Lomas de San Martin
Loving Life on the Baja Peninsula

morgaine7

Feb 3, 2010, 5:05 PM

Post #10 of 47 (5899 views)

Re: [cynthrod] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I recently got a clue as to what "going native" is not. While grocery shopping with a Mexican friend, I picked up a package of salad croutons or something and she said, "Kate, don't buy that, it's gringo food!!"

Kate

Feb 3, 2010, 7:16 PM

Post #11 of 47 (5858 views)

Re: [cynthrod] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

cynthrod first,

1. When I MOVED to México full-time, twelve years ago, even though I had a LOT more than a passing acquaintance with the country and Mazatlán where I moved to, I STILL rented for 6 months before buying a SMALL house in a lower middle-class/working-class neighborhood where NO ONE spoke English (but the street was at least paved).

2. I gradually learned Spanish up to the point where now I can honestly say, «me defiendo», but at my age (OLD!) I doubt that I’ll ever become a sparkling conversationalist in Spanish, even though I use (and improve) my Spanish every day at home.

3. After I had been here four years an employee , mexicana, introduced me to a lady , mexicana también, who, after four more years agreed to marry me ¡POR FIN!, so we got married and now that I’m a Mexican citizen, I have adopted all four of her children. When I asked my employee (ex, by this time) why she hadn’t introduced us sooner, she said that my Spanish wasn’t good enough any earlier. :-(

4. I quickly discovered that even having a Mexican girlfriend (long before we got married) who didn’t speak English immediately made me “suspect” to the local, small gringo community, which made it impossible for us to attend the numerous in and out-of-tourist season gringo activities. The minute that ANY gringo discovered that la doña Mary didn’t speak English, they totally ignored her and directed their conversation solely to me. Let me tell you, that didn’t go over well with a beautiful, intelligent Mexican woman. Beautiful, intelligent women in ANY culture don’t accept being pointedly ignored!!! As a result, we stopped attending ANY event dominated by gringos, and I started concentrating on improving my Spanish so I could move more comfortably within her circle of family and friends and have never, not one minute, regretted the change. Mexicans know how to live, gringos know how to exist, and I prefer the latter.

5. Even though before la doña Mary I had begun adjusting my inner clock to a Mexican schedule, something that most gringos either can’t, don’t or refuse to do, now I fully live on a Mexican schedule, i.e., parties don’t start until about 10:30 PM and go until 5:00 AM, and meals are taken on a totally different schedule. Kids have to be in school by 7:00 or 7:30 AM and have to be picked up from school at 2:30 PM. My business has to open at 9:00 AM and doesn’t close until 7:00 PM, but since it’s a tourist business, we don’t have the Mexican luxury of closing from 2 until 4 for comida y siesta, darn it!

6. Since I’m a pretty good cook and enjoy cooking, I rarely went out to eat before and now only go out to eat when the whole family can go (Yep! All six of us and maybe the grandparents and the occasional in-law, niece or nephew, cousin or even just friend who happened to stop by) can go along with us. I had gradually adjusted all my recipes to use easily obtainable and inexpensive Mexican ingredients—or dropped them from my repertoire—so I slowly started cooking for the family and now that la doña Mary is a full-time university student pursuing a 5 yr. degree, do most of the cooking at my house (gracias a Dios for BIG crock pots!!!) My family enjoys my Mexican adaptations of gringo recipes and keeps my ego stroked so that I won’t stop doing the cooking. jejejeje

7. For many reasons, the top one being the ability to adopt Mary’s children, something that a non-Mexican cannot do, I applied for Mexican citizenship under the old regulation of at least 5 years legal residence in México regardless of visa (FM3 or FM2) and was finally accepted and allowed to take the test—which I aced, as I had just finished editing the new English language history of México, Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico by writer Richard Grabman (see the review right here on MexConnect).

8. Now I’m just leading la vida buena mexicana, that revolves around family, work, family, books, family, and an occasional reunión—often with more family—for entertainment.

9. BTW, that “work” isn’t just my little bookstore but now includes the only English-language publishing company in México and probably the only registered U.S. publishing company headquartered in México. We even have a U.S. office and an U.S. phone number that’s answered in Mazatlán.

10. Oh, forgot to mention that we bought a bigger house in the same neighborhood as the little house and poco a poco turned it into a much bigger house that would comfortably hold all six of us and LOTS of visiting family. Since we are the only ones in my extended Mexican family that both lives in a beach town AND has a big house, LOTS of relatives come to visit us—we even have several blow-up mattresses so they don’t have to sleep on the floor, as is common when Mexican family visits Mexican family.

Now THAT’S what I mean by going native; unfortunately, to their great loss, the expat community thought that “going native” meant speaking Spanish with a Mexican girlfriend.

lostinmex, I’m glad for you that you have wealthy, educated, English speaking Mexican friends. Unfortunately I don’t run in those social circles. But I have a question for you? Are you invited to their all-night, mostly Spanish-speaking, parties that start at 10 PM (or later), and if so, do you attend?

joaquinx, You obviously understand what I’m speaking of, but here in Mazatlán, MOST residents of those fancy, expensive gated communities are wealthy CHILANGOS!! We don’t get invited to their parties, either.

Hound Dog, Sorry, as you might have gathered by now I’m a he rather than a she and since “retiring” to México haven’t had the time or money to travel like I used to do on vacation. Come to think of it, I haven’t even had a vacation since I moved to México. It’s pretty difficult to find trustworthy, English-speaking Mexican employees who will work for the pittance a small English language (mostly used books) bookstore in Mazatlán can afford to pay after paying the rent necessary to be in the tourist zone where the bookstore has to be (outrageous).

morgaine7, You too get the idea with a little help from your friends! That was a GOOD friend that gave you the advice.

Feb 3, 2010, 9:09 PM

Post #12 of 47 (5825 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Hi Mazbook1,
First let me say thank you for sharing so much about your most interesting life. I really enjoyed reading about your family... all of them!! Having them in your life sounds like a warm and embracing experience.

The only area where I still would like to hear a bit more is when you say "live" versus "exist."
It sounds as though you work very hard... no vacation and not even the 2 to 4 siesta break, and running two businesses... sorry to say this but in that respect you sound like any of my workaholic friends...

so obviously you mean something I'm not quite grasping... it is perhaps an attitude? Busyness... but not raw ambition where everything else takes second place?

I may be really grasping at straws... so please, if you don't mind a little further probing, help me understand better what you mean there.

I enjoyed looking at your website and will be sure to stop by your bookstore one day.
Thank you in advance!!

Feb 3, 2010, 10:24 PM

Post #13 of 47 (5811 views)

Re: [cynthrod] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

cynthrod, You say, "The only area where I still would like to hear a bit more is when you say 'live' versus 'exist'.
It sounds as though you work very hard... no vacation and not even the 2 to 4 siesta break, and running two businesses... sorry to say this but in that respect you sound like any of my workaholic friends...

so obviously you mean something I'm not quite grasping... it is perhaps an attitude? Busyness... but not raw ambition where everything else takes second place? "

I WAS one of those workaholics like your friends. 5, 6 and even 7 days a week and a goodly number of all nighters too. And I got decent paid vacations, most of which were taken up by just "depressurizing".

Now it's more of a Mexican lifestyle, yes, an attitude, but much more than just an attitude. You almost got it right with your last sentence, but even then there's more to it than that.

First of all, gracias de Dios, I sure don't work all the hours we're open. I drift in usually sometimes between noon and 3 PM when my son, who is now in university too, knocks off to go home for comida, tarea and then to class (he chose the afternoon/evening shift so he could open the bookstore at 9 and earn his spending money too, AND he discovered that other employers of student help didn't allow them to sit at the computer and do homework between customers or other chores. Once he discovered that, he was more than happy to work for papi who truly hates having to get up and be at work by 9 AM (well, he does too, but tough!).

Second, I can do things that I would NEVER have been allowed to do NOB. If my wife calls at 2:25 and says she's tied up and can I go pick up the kids, I gladly immediately chase out the customers, lock the doors and go pick up the kids at school. If there is a birthday party for one of the kids at 5 PM, I chase out the customers, pick up the pizzas (or whatever) and go home and join the party without a second thought. If we go out to a Saturday night party that doesn't end until 4 or 5 in the morning and I forget to set the alarm and don't get to open the store until noon (my son's day off), so what? So I lost a few customers, but if they really want an English-language book, a map or anything else that only I sell in all Mazatlán, they'll be back, so why worry? If I had done ANY of those things NOB, I would have caught a ration of S--T from someone, but particularly my wife (ex). Here I get a hug from my wife for being so attentive to the needs of the family. If a little less money comes in that month than usual, we'll eat a few more beans and tortillas (and we eat plenty of those already, since NO Mexican meal is complete without frijoles refritos y tortillas de maíz no matter what the main course is).

Those mornings that I don't work, I have a couple of cups of coffee and desayuno with my wife, assuming that she has neither homework or anything else on her schedule, then go sit down at the computer and edit the latest book that I'm working on for publication (soon, I hope) until I get tired of looking at the computer screen or I just shower and go to the bookstore a little early, whatever I WANT to do…well, that's assuming my wife doesn't have a "to get" list for me. At least she learned early on that "to do" lists only meant that I would find someone "to do" those things, so she goes ahead and finds someone "to do" them without bugging me, except for the money to pay them with, since that doesn't come out of HER budget, not when it's my "to do" list.

I really don't need or want a vacation any longer, as every day is a vacation from that previous "existence" and I depressurized a LONG time ago, almost 12 years ago in fact—la vida buena mexicana, something that few gringos truly get to appreciate. I look at all the other old expat farts (and fartesses) wandering around wondering what to do and drinking themselves into oblivion or turning into a blob of masa sitting and watching TV and bitching about the NOB programs that (name the Mexican cable or satelite company) no longer supplies them with and think how wonderfully happy, fulfilled and busy I am, and what a wonderful life I enjoy. I sure don't envy a one of them.

My email is in my profile, so if you still want to know more, look it up and write me there, as this is probably getting a little boring for others on this forum who already know it and the ones who couldn't care less about what some gringo that "went native" does. Fie on them, fie, I say!

Feb 4, 2010, 4:11 AM

Post #14 of 47 (5790 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Mazbook1,
Thank you for helping me to understand....I think I do... and in so doing, I'll better appreciate life in Mexico. So, for example, when my plumber is late, I'll understand he was living his life and loving his family... and those are good things.
I'll try to do the same.

Friday will be my first visit. I'm both nervous and excited.

Feb 4, 2010, 4:57 AM

Post #15 of 47 (5785 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I do hope what I wrote about a hypothetical plumber didn't sound facetious... I meant it sincerely.
I think in the US.. and I don't mean to sound overly critical, as I do love my country... we have forgotten how to live... and I wonder if that is why so many families are falling apart... could it be that if everyone put the family first, more families would be happy?

La Isla

Feb 4, 2010, 9:09 AM

Post #16 of 47 (5716 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Quote

I'd also like to hear what "going native" means. Our Mexican friends all wear shoes,own houses, have university degrees,and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US.

lostinmex, I’m glad for you that you have wealthy, educated, English speaking Mexican friends. Unfortunately I don’t run in those social circles. But I have a question for you? Are you invited to their all-night, mostly Spanish-speaking, parties that start at 10 PM (or later), and if so, do you attend?

Mazbook1, why does the fact that lostinmex's Mexican friends "wear shoes, own houses and have university degrees" means that they're wealthy and speak English? I have Mexican friends here who also fit the shoe-wearing, house-owning, university-educated description: none of them speak English particularly well, if at all, and none of them are wealthy. Just curious why you came to that conclusion....

Hound Dog

Feb 4, 2010, 9:45 AM

Post #17 of 47 (5702 views)

Re: [mazbook1] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Mazbook writes:

"Hound, Dog, sorry, I´m a he rather than a she as you might have guessed by now...."

That´s OK with me Mazbook. I´m from San Francisco where this whole gender thing is a nebulous concept anyway.

Your expanded comments on what you meant by "going native" were entertaining to read and informative - especially as those comments provided some insights as to what it is like to become a part of a family in a foreign culture. I have similar stories about assimilating through marriage into an extended French family spread all about France and a fun and enlightening experience it has been over the past 30 plus years but this e-magazine is about Mexico so I´ll lay off my yarns. I do think, however, that we can agree that going native infers modifying the way we live to become immensely enriched by living with the family and community values of whatever culture we are living with or among and defining as "native". Sounds like we´ve both had a helluva ride.

It´s not normally so easy for those not fortunate enough to marry into a foreign culture to assimilate into that culture. I lived in Paris for a year in the 1960s and had a lot of fun but I spoke no French and learned squat about the French culture during that year. Later, ironically enough, I met and married a French woman in Mobile and my next trip to France was an eye opener. Of course, the French culture is not really generally that open to strangers so this assimilation idea is more difficult than one might think and, I believe, the same is true to a lesser extent in Mexico.

That´s just the way it is. If assimilation is one´s primary goal then one has one´s work cut out for one. My wife has an anthropologist´s flair for this as witness her having stayed with Dawg for all these years. She has worked very hard to learn the customs and achieve a rudimentary grasp of indigenous languages in Oaxaca and Chiapas and it has taken her years to gain some acceptance. She was shopping in a Zapoteco market one day a year or so ago when she overheard one villager say to another, not that she spoke the language but that she "understands our ways". That was a breakthrough. There is no easy way to arrive at that point and that is just the beginning.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Feb 4, 2010, 10:00 AM)

Peter

Feb 4, 2010, 10:06 AM

Post #18 of 47 (5678 views)

Re: [lostinmex] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

In Reply To

I'd also like to hear what "going native" means. Our Mexican friends all wear shoes,own houses, have university degrees,and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US.

Cool! Many of my old friends from the beach community of southern California, to this day, neither own their own houses, have university degrees, nor wear shoes any more than they have to. I can´t tell if they live any better or worse for that though, they seem happy enough.

Gringal

Feb 4, 2010, 10:28 AM

Post #19 of 47 (5660 views)

Re: [Hound Dog] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Hi Dawg,
Good comments on "assimilating" or "assumilating".

I'll make my usual, by now dogeared (no offense) comment about foreigners (gringos, expats, ets.) who seem to feel that those who cling to their native culture; live in expat-intensive communities and can only "get by" in Spanish are somehow inferior to those who boldly go forth to become assimilated into Mexican culture. Why?

The tired old comment: Most foreigners, everywhere, seek out foreigner enclaves when they move to a new country. This is normal behavior and was true of most of our ancestors, as it is true of most Mexicans who move to the U.S. at an age considered "retirement" territory. It is the second and third generation or the young immigrants who assimilate.
What's the problem? Some people, like your extraordinary wife, are good at this sort of thing. Some are lucky to just manage in the new culture. No God-figure is passing out medals or demerits, one way or the other. Being ashamed of preferring one thing or the other is allowing someone else to define your value.

I once knew a bright teenager who was a very quiet girl. She said: "Everyone knows what everyone else is thinking anyway, so speech isn't really very important." This statement has haunted me for years.
I believe we should bring a good heart and an open mind with us. Nearly everyone we encounter, anywhere, will perceive this.

Cost of living? Not that important either. Pick a place you feel good. Adjust the budget accordingly. Thinking about living in some of those bargain spots gives me the willies.

Rolly

Feb 4, 2010, 10:36 AM

Post #20 of 47 (5653 views)

Re: [Gringal] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

"Everyone knows what everyone else is thinking anyway, so speech isn't really very important."

That goes with my contention that silence is hard to improve upon.

Rolly Pirate

richmx2

Feb 4, 2010, 11:36 AM

Post #21 of 47 (5628 views)

Re: [Gringal] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Cost of living? Not that important either. Pick a place you feel good.

Somehow this thread was assimilated into something else. Having been fairly active in pro-immigrant activities in the United States, I'm not going to suddenly become one of those who demands every foreigner learn the national language (and, in Mexico, that usually means Spanish, but there's 267 national languages to chose from), give up their eccentric foreign ways and adopt the Mexican Way of Life.

Maybe that is a goal for some, and maybe its actually achievable. But, the point is that that relative cost of living indices are irrelevant to choosing a destination.

First of all, how many of you are migrants, not "expats"? Migrants expect to adjust to the country, expats expect the country to adjust to them. Me ... I'm a political exile from imperialism, but that's another story. In any case, one is going to try to do things the way that's most comfortable to them, and -- pay some kind of "import duty", whether it's directly (bread is very expensive, even in gringo ghettos, compared to tortillas) or indirectly (lacking "Familia Net"means NOT having a brother-in-law, whose compadre has the good deal on the used Tsuru -- or even thinking you need a Tsuru rather than ride the bus).

And, even among the migrants, it's rare to assimilate to their physical situation. My one-bedroom house only has myself and two dogs. My neighbors, with the same size houses, generally have four or five people living in them. For a couple of months, I lived in a two and a half square meter cuarto amublado in DF. This was "normal" housing, but I couldn't get used to it. And, while among my eccentricities is a relative indifference to food, which eliminates most of the costs I would rack up if I had to eat some peculiar dish native to my homeland, there are those "familiar" foods I tend to buy, which cost much more here (like bread) ... and are even more expensive in less gringo-centric communities than the one I'm in now.

I guess there are some advantages to living in a gringo ghetto, but have never lived in one, so couldn't tell you. But, like most migrants in this country, I depend on the gringos for my income, so wouldn't be able to live in some back of the back village anyway. And, when you come down to it, sure, housing may be cheaper in Fulanotitlan, but who wants to be the village alien? Of course, I'm going to venture into the gringo ghetto for certain comfort zone activities -- which are going to be more expensive than the same things back in the old country. And, much, much more expensive when one has to factor in more travel to the ghetto than a five peso bus ride.

http://mexfiles.net
http://voiceofmexico.com
http://editorialmazatlan.com

Hound Dog

Feb 4, 2010, 11:43 AM

Post #22 of 47 (5623 views)

Re: [Gringal] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

I once knew a bright teenager who was a very quiet girl. She said: "Everyone knows what everyone else is thinking anyway, so speech isn't really very important."

Ah, yes, Gringal. After 30 plus years in the corporate world, Dawg has learned the hard way that:

"No one knows what anyone else is really thinking anyway, so what one says is not as important as what it is perceived that one meant by what one said in order to worm one´s way to the top while screwing any colleagues interfering with one´s progress."

Or something like that.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Feb 4, 2010, 11:44 AM)

Gringal

Feb 4, 2010, 11:46 AM

Post #23 of 47 (5617 views)

Re: [richmx2] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

Good post, although I think the following is a bit too black and white a designation:

"First of all, how many of you are migrants, not "expats"? Migrants expect to adjust to the country, expats expect the country to adjust to them. "

I have met those who expect the country to adjust to them.
They don't usually stay long. lol.

Feb 4, 2010, 12:12 PM

Post #24 of 47 (5607 views)

Re: [La Isla] Cost of living in Mexican cities

Can't Post | Private Reply

La Isla, we too have many friends "who wear shoes (¿?), own houses, have university degrees" but I made the assumption "wealthy" because of this "and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US." Maybe it was a bad assumption, but in my experience, expats who have friends in this latter category don't speak much Spanish so only know Mexicans (who have ALL of the above) who speak English. Stereotyping? Sure it is, and I'm as guilty of it as anyone.

My friends who wear shoes, own houses and have university degrees ALL speak good to excellent English, something that any intelligent, educated person anywhere in the world realizes has become a necessity in today's world. But they sure don't exist better than the folks I know NOB. They work their butts off just to maintain a reasonably decent, lower middle-class MEXICAN standard of living…but by God, they live, have loving, caring families and everything that's important; they don't just exist!

It's pretty hard for those who come from a poor working-class family in México to achieve what my friends have achieved without "and for the most part live better than virtually all of our friends in the US." To do that usually requires family money and that's why I said wealthy and should have added, "by Mexican standards".

Manuel Dexterity

Feb 4, 2010, 12:15 PM

Post #25 of 47 (5602 views)