My name is Randy Berg. My wife and I sold our printing company last year, retired five years early and moved to Costa Rica. Reactions ranged from "are you insane?" to "how can you leave the United States?" to "where is Costa Rica and does it have electricity and running water?"

My goal here is not to educate you on Costa Rica but to tell you why WE moved here:

• because we can live VERY well on less than $2000 per month.

• our home, located on two acres of coffee, on a mountainside at the edge of a town about a half hour away from the international airport, will cost us less than $40,000 to build. ( 3 BR, 2 baths, double garage, about 1500 sq. ft ) See http://www.geocities.com/rhondarlbinc/costarica.html

• our average food bill is about $30 per week. ( our weekly trip to the market, stocking up on fruits and vegetables, and a pound of fresh coffee, costs us less than $10 )

• rentals of unfurnished homes start at $125.00 per month. ( 3 BR, one bath, great view )

• Medical insurance - government health insurance costs about $50.00 per month. And virtually all medical doctors here are U.S. educated.

• Costa Rica has it all – from rain forests, two oceans, coral reefs, magnificent stretches of beach, volcanoes, to some of the most magnificent national forests on the planet ( 25% of the country's area )

• the Costa Rican government is stable, is pro-U.S., and has a literacy rate which parallels the U.S.'s ; if we are to feel comfortable buying property here and investing in the country we want a track record of stability. Costa Rica has been a democracy longer than any country in Latin America.

Of course there are negatives . To us, they now seem minor as we are used to them: the governmental bureaucracies can be maddening at times and even bordering on the absurd ; the country's infrastructure is not as good as the U.S.'s – the roads are not as good, the public utilities not as good ( they are government owned ) And sometimes the Costa Rican attitude of manyana can drive one crazy. ( at least in the beginning ). Things really do move at a different pace in Costa Rica.

Take the first step toward making your dreams come true! Please take just a moment to fill out the following questionnaire: