We were out looking for furniture yesterday. Everyone was right, the stores near Ajijic are way too expensive. We went into one store that had an ordinary, indistinct, american-looking couch-loveseat combo for $1000. Hardly worth the money.

So we went into Chapala looking for a furniture store. We found one with a beautiful 3 piece sofa, love seat, and chair combo in startingly beautiful dark wood and fabric. Something utterly distinctive and Spanish/Mexican! We both fell instantly in love with it. It was less than $600!!! San Francisco Muebles, at Moreles #198, at the corner of Madero is the place to go. Coming in from Ajijic, make a right at the light onto Madero, find a place to park (it’s easy to just drive to the end of Madero, make a turn to the left, then go into the large public parking) and walk back up Madero to San Francisco. It’s on the east (away from Ajijic) side of the street. Check it out, you’ll be glad you did.

Les and I had read over and over that there were import duties on new electronics taken in to Mexico.  But we’d never bothered to ask anyone how much.

A few months ago, we got rid of our 12-15 year old rear-projection tv. we just didnt think it would make the trip down there. Best Buy had a great offer on a new plasma set, so we bought it, and a speaker system, and a blue ray player. I’d seen prices for tv’s in mexico, and they were higher than those in the states. so i thought the import duty would be something like the difference or a little more.

NOW I’M TOLD IT’S NOT!! our broker told us to expect 50% duties bringing the tv system across the boarder! That’s a lot of tacos! If we’d made the decision to buy the tv just 3 or 4 months earlier – there wouldnt have been any import duties. And if we’d asked what the duties were just 2 weeks earlier, we would have been able to return it to the store!

So the sad story – if you are going to buy anything – buy it long in advance. if you think you might need to return it, do so before the store’s return limit runs out. We’d only had the tv for 36 days, but Best Buy’s return policy was 30 days from the date on the reciept.  We’re just hoping that maybe, for some strange reason and act of God, the import duty won’t be so much.

Hi all. I bet you didn’t expect to see me again after my long absence. I’ve been trying to put the numbers together for selling my business.

It was strange – I had always thought that I was the business. I was the David Lawrence in David Lawrence Photography, Inc., after all.  Not being a businessman – it had never dawned on me that it had any value without me. The one afternoon – It Did!! Praise God for the little lightbulbs he lights up over our heads. I’ve got a website that generates quite a lot of money, and a good contact list. These things are worth something! Hallelujah!  I don’t know how much I can get for them – but it’s going to be a lot more than the $0 I’d been expecting all my life.

I hope you aren’t offended by my talking about money, but money is one of the reasons Les and I are heading South.

I’m a photographer and an overall creative kind of guy, so I’ve been looking for some ways to make a little extra money while Les and I are in Mexico. Every so often I invent some utilitraian device that makes my life a little easier. Les and I are trying to learn how to produce the last two items I came up with, a sock-like case to protect a pocket camera from scratches and dust, and a device to keep iPod ear buds from getting so tangled. It’s easy to make something for myself – it doesn’t have to be a finished product, something else to make it to sell. Hopefully, we’ll be able to sell some of these items on eBay and make a little extra cash. They really are quite handy. I’ll post some pictures when the finished products are ready.

I got my yearly Social Security statement a few days ago. Retiring at 62 (this August) I’ll get something like $1150. Les is already getting around $1375, so between us, we should be getting around $2500/month. That sounds pretty good. If the cost of living in Mexico is a conservative half of what it is in the States, and many say it’s more like a third, the we should have the equivalent of $60K to live on. That’s fantastic! We sure couldn’t get by on only $30K in the States.

But the numbers can be deceiving. We have debts back here in the States, car loans, credit cards, etc., and they have to be paid in US Dollars. So, for every dollar we have to pay in the States, we effectively lose two dollars of income in Mexico. I’m trying to get those debt payments down before we go.

We just got a comment on the post ‘Rental Prices in San Miguel’.  Cheryl, who lives right here in Dallas, wrote to say that she and her husband bought a lot in San Miguel and plan to build on it and move there in 5 years. She writes ‘Go to “Falling in Love with San Miguel” which is a forum for people interested in San Miguel. Quite frequently, there are a lot of casas and casitas posted for rent and they are cheap!’

Sounds like a great resource, and Les and I are grateful for it. We don’t have the time or money to make an extra trip to Mexico just now – it’s going to take 2 more trips just to move – 1 to rent a place, the second to actually move. But we’ll be checking out San Miguel when we get to Mexico. It’s great to know there are some affordable places.

Check out Cheryl’s complete comment under ‘Where to move’.

Les and I are moving in 4 months now! Time is moving quickly, and there is a lot to be done. We’ve got friends and family to visit back in Wisconsin. We’ve got a small wedding. There are forms and changes of name and new passports and all sorts of paperwork to be done. We have to divest ourself of all this stuff we’re not taking to Mexico. We have to find a way to get what we are keeping down to Mexico. We have to take a trip to Chapala to rent a place, then come back to Dallas to get the stuff ready to ship. I have to get some social security income coming in. It just seems like a whole bunch to do. All that in addition to trying to get some work to come in here in Dallas so we’ll have the money for all this.

Les and I don’t have a cushion of money to fall back on. We just have a few thousand dollars in savings, plus some money I borrowed at an extremely low interest rate. Basically, we’ll be living on our Social Security income. So I’ve been looking for ways to supplement that income. We’re pretty sure that Les can earn an income doing something down there, but for me, a photographer who doesn’t speak Spanish, the options look a little more limited. So I’ve been inventing simple little home-made products that maybe we can sell on eBay, all sorts of other stuff.

Which leads me to say this: THIS WHOLE MOVE THING CAN BE PRETTY STRESSFUL!!! even 4 months out. I’d advise anyone who is doing this, and especially so quickly, or on the cheap, to make sure they spend some extra time de-compressing and realizing that it will all work out and someday, God willing, they’ll be in Mexico!! Now if only I can take my own medicine!

The entrance to a very nice 12,000/month casita in San Miguel

I’ve always heard that San Miguel de Allende was the most beautiful spot in Mexico, and the place to retire to if you didn’t choose Lake Chapala.  So I thought I’d check out rental prices there. I couldn’t find any in the $500-600month  range, but there were some fairly nice ones in the $2400/month range, and at $10,000/month and more, they got downright nice.

With our budget, I think we’ll be living in Lake Chapala and visit San Miguel.

A $1000/month apartment

Here are some pictures and prices of places outside Chapala. As you can see,  for the most part, you get more for your money outside the Ajijic area. San Nicolas is a small village just a few miles from Ajijic. F or the same price, I’d take the Hacienda in San Nicolas, even though it is outside of town.

$600 Upper Ajijjic

$600 in San Nicolas

Small $500 home in Ajijic

Another $500 house just outside Ajijic

Here are some pictures and prices of homes I found on the www.casamexicorealestate.com website.