My significant other and your truly are contemplating the evenience of moving out of CH, for a number of reasons including general cost of living.

Many ticinesi seem to have found a pleasant buen retiro in Costa Rica.
I'd like to hear something from folks who have lived in the country for some time (if I ask local acquaintances who have recently, I'll get positively biased replies).

The idea is to buy a small parcel of land and open a B&B or something...

Thank you!

Apparently there is a discussion starting among swiss politicians to adapt the AHV/retirement monthly payment to the country where you'll be living.
So going to thailand, morocco and costa-rica with swiss level of pension will probably not be possible anymore in the future.

Coincidentally, I found out last week, that some colleague's parents are currently retiring in Costa Rica and own a B&B there. Seems like a decent place to be.

Yeah, the discussion started. So in the worst case a retiree has to come back in a decade...

Seriously: You paid into an account, the money is yours... All the politicians can discuss about are the taxation of the money. So what we will probably see is that people who move aborad will get less money out - not none. There is no way that the Swiss government can prevent you from moving to another country.

Some taxes (up to 10%) are involved if you get the whole money out of the country.

Which I think is fair. You have a very balanced system set up here. As all models, it needs some pre-requisties for the government to calculate weather or not this is system is good for the society or not. One of those prerequisites is that the money will circulate within Switzerland generating jobs as well as tax income. If you leave, you should therefore get a (fair) tax on it. Given that you would pay 7.6% VAT on everything you buy here and that the other 92.4% generate local jobs, a 10% tax for taking the money out sounds very fair to me.

Yes, they mention that depending on the country you plan to go to, if there is a tax agreement they may not tax you in CH. So one has to carefully select the country and make all calculations. Costa Rica does not appear on the list.

My wife and I are from Costa Rica. We have been living in Switzerland for almost 3 years, so maybe I can provide to you my point of view of living/retiring in Costa Rica:
PROS:
- Everything is cheaper compared to CH. So I bet that even if you get taxed by the CH goverment, the remaining money will allow you to live quite well.
- In general people are friendlier and happier than most Swiss people I have come across.
- Quite a lot of the people speak basic or good English. So if learning Spanish is not your #1 priority, I believe that you should be ok with English (most of the times).
- Awesome beaches, national parks and even active volcanos (not dangerous).
- Well connected to/from the US wth daily flights from AA, Delta, Continental,...U and also there is a daily flight to/from Madrid, Spain.
- More and more US retired couples are relocating to Costa Rica, and they live in the Pacific Coast...so for this reason there are many well-equipped condos and apartments: (swimming pool, completely furnished, 24 hour security,...).
- The weather is really nice. There are only 2 seasons: rainny and sunny. The inner section of the country tends to be colder, and over there the minimum temperature recorded this year was around 14 degrees (C).
- People like to party and have fun, so you can be sure that there plenty of places open until late, even on Sundays! The same goes for the supermarkets, some of them are open until 23:00.

CONS:
- Eventhough the public transport network/system covers almost all of the country, the roads are in really bad condition. Lots and lots of holes and even craters that force drivers to zig-zag...this is also a main reason for accidents.
- People tend to drive dangerously. A lot of people are involved in accidents because of drunk drivers.
- The capital is an unsafe place to be. Sadly since 25-30 years ago, people have had to put steel bars around their homes in order to avoid being robbed. We say that "families live in jails, while the criminals roam free in the streets"
- Again, in the capital, some people try to take advantage of the slightest slip to steal something from you...as an example: early this week there were 2 of the surviving Chilenian miners telling their story to some students at a University, and in the mean time someone stole their passports and their laptop!!!

In general, I believe that Costa Rica is a great place to retire if you intend to live away from the capital...so this means to find a nice condo on the coast. My wife and I also plan to return to Costa Rica once we retire.
As with any other country, there are plenty of pros and cons, so maybe the best advice I can give you is to do a small research trip to Costa Rica before taking your final decision.
Oh and one more thing: be confident that every year you can feel 2 or 3 mid-tremors (nothing to worry about) and every now and then (maybe every 12-20 years) there might be an earthquake, but the construction quality of new buildings/homes is very good and resistant.

I hope this helps a bit...

I lived in Costa Rica for a year - but about 12 years ago and as a 17 year old exchange student.

Even though it was a few years ago, I have to agree with just about everything Zoni said. It's a beautiful country - so cheap, so friendly, with a lot more going for it than its neighbours - but it has it's issues too. I lived in the suburbs of the capital San Jose, but having said that, I steered clear of San Jose as much as I could. I never felt particularly safe in the city itself. The suburbs are (mostly) fine though.

If you're going to retire, head to one of the coasts - I found the coast near Manuel Antonio National Park to be a great area.

It's always struck me as a bit funny... is a B&B the automatic "idea filler" for people who can't really think what they want to do in their retirement? Seems like I always see: "Yeah, think i'll move somewhere and open a B&B...".

Ok, off topic, but I can't resist. It reminds me of my Mom, who once said to Dad, "If one of us ever dies, I'll open a B&B."

Oh, and it was Dad who called it a "Bread & Bakefast" (intentional spoonerism).

Back to the topic: A friend of mine, US citizen, got all the medical help with her cancer in Costa Rica that she had been refused in the USA, prompt, efficient and affordable.

The current discussion is limited to invalidity pensions (IV) only, it did not cover the 'normal' retirement pension. And it was stated that adapting these IV pensions to the cost of living in foreign countries might result in an IV-pension increase for places even more expensive than Switzerland (Singapore was quoted, Norway comes to my mind).

LOL yeah.. I agree... :-)

But you see - there could be a distinct business advantage in opening a B&B where the cook is a pro-chef with experience in the 4 star swiss hotel industry

We could call it "Helvético" or "Suiça" or "Gottardo" and try to exploit our swissness ...

Hasta pronto...

Pablo