Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Ebook

Mexico: The Trick is Living Here

Live or Retire in Mexico:
A Practical, Detailed Guide

So you want to learn the trick to retire in Mexico? I've lived in Mexico on a budget for 7 years and after accumulating a set of hard-earned how-to knowledge, I developed a helpful e-book. My book Mexico: The Trick is Living Here will help you live or retire (or travel extensively) in Mexico. It will help you answer the questions you have about cost of living by giving example costs and clear descriptions of what you get for your peso in Mexico. This book will help you envision what your life might be like once you retire in Mexico.

To be honest, when you live or retire in Mexico, the first year is especially difficult -- worth it, but difficult. I found my first year full of challenges and culture shock. Everything seemed so hard as I figured it out for myself. A practical guidebook full of how-to details would have been a huge help for me.

Now, I have expanded Mexico: The Trick is Living Here and created a second edition. Many of my readers are Canadian, so I have added two sections just for Canadian snow birds looking to live in Mexico. I have also added more information about the cost of living, driving in Mexico, health care and doing paperwork in Mexico, among other things.

Here is the table of contents of Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Second Edition so that you can see the types of practical things I've included. (Notice the unique section on cultural information, available nowhere else in print or on the web.)

For a few dollars you can have this detailed handbook at your side during the months of planning as well as the first year of your stay in Mexico. It's a lot cheaper than a failed move to Mexico! Lots of my readers contact me and tell me how they have read and re-read sections that were particularily useful to them.

There is no other source like Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Second Edition

I read things written by others who had supposedly "lived" here. I wanted affirmation that the culture shock I was experiencing was normal, strategies for handling new experiences, and to know how to get my household set up.

I got none of this. I found that what others wrote showed them living as Americans in Mexico--apart from the Mexicans that surrounded them. But I hadn't moved to Mexico to remain separate from Mexicans and I didn't have the money to live the same way I had lived in the U.S.

I finally decided to write the book I needed, so that I could share what I learned with others. The result is Mexico: The Trick is Living Here and I'm confident that it will give you the practical "how-to" information you need and truly enrich your experience in Mexico. And it's funny, too!

Getting Beyond the Hype

I'm sure you've noticed that most of what you read about Mexico on the Internet and in books is all about how cheap it is or how perfect the weather is. But you're not cheap. That's no reason to move to another country. Is weather really that important? After all, you could just move to New Mexico or Hawaii and have good weather without the international experience.

You would embark on the international experience because Mexico itself has something to offer you, right?

But it's hard to know what exactly it is that Mexico has to offer. You recognize the "cheap Mexico" and "Mexico is paradise" hype for what it is. Hype. You are left with a desire to get beneath the surface and find out more about what it is really like to live or retire in Mexico.

Getting Underneath the Shallow Images of Mexico

Let's face it, we get two opposite messages about Mexico. Message number 1 is sponsored by the tourism industry. They want to sell us piña coladas under palapas. For them Mexico is a "cheap paradise." Hmmm. Not your idea of a real life? Do you suspect some ulterior motive behind this message?

The Trick's Unique Approach to Cost of Living:

Well, YOU ARE RIGHT to be suspicious. Yes, you can live for less in Mexico, but you may not want to. I include real cost estimates throughout my book for things such as doctor visits. I also have an entire sub-section dedicated to a clear, detailed description of the cost of living and what you get for your peso. I use a holistic "lifestyle" concept that first gives a cost range for each "lifestyle level," then gives specific details -- such as having to buy your own kitchen cupboards -- that let the reader figure out which cost of living range they would like to be in.

Message number 2 is a little scary. This one comes from the news media. Mexico is a poor, third-world country where the government is corrupt. ...Oh, and lots of drugs are grown and sold here. Not your idea of a comfortable life?

I deal with the issue of safety and give tips for safety that work in Mexico. They are things I learned from my Mexican husband and neighbors and are really special for my readers because they are not things that people from the U.S. and Canada would normally think of.

Do you know what a croquis is?

Those questions and many more like them are what I address in Mexico: The Trick is Living Here. I'm not employed by either the tourism industry nor the news media. The "how-to" information I include in my e-book is based on my real-life experiences. I know what a person needs when they live or retire in Mexico because I've lived the experience.

The book covers the things that you will experience in the first months when you live or retire in Mexico. It includes the information you will need if you are going to stay on your own. It is ideal for those living at least 2 to 12 months in Mexico. If you are going to live here, it will be invaluable in getting your home set up and making you comfortable in your new Mexican residence.

If you are just coming for an extended stay, it is still highly recommendable because of its focus on getting around, communicating with family and friends back home, eating well and safely, connecting with the community, etc.
Will you need more information in order to figure out how to move to Mexico? Of course. Any move, especially one to a new country, requires planning in many areas of your life.

And guess what? Mexico is a place where planning is practically futile. Mexico can pull apart the most carefully made plans in minutes! This e-book shows you how to roll with the punches and take Mexico in stride. If you decide to read Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Second Edition it will help you through the difficult first months when everything is new and culture shock can get you down.

When You Purchase Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Second Edition you get...

• Over 140 pages of original, richly descriptive text.
• 16 pages devoted entirely to cultural information.
• Useful descriptions of the cost of living in Mexico.
  • A unique "lifestyle" approach is employed in which the cost of living is discussed in a holistic framework. It helps the reader to figure out the difference between the cost of basic necessities and the cost for certain "luxuries" they may wish to enjoy in Mexico.
  • This book is a God-send to all those who write and ask me something along the lines of "I have a fixed income of such and such. Can I live on that in Mexico and maintain my current standard of living?"
  • How-to information on getting necessities such as...
  choosing a house
  choosing a health care "plan"
  getting a telephone
  traveling by bus
  driving (includes navegating turnabouts)
  doing laundry,banking
• Direct, honest discussion of culture-shock not found anywhere else (additional to what is on this web site).
• A unique, humorous insider's view of Mexico.
• The author's first-hand anecdotes, demonstrating the points made in the book.
• Special comments on Mexico's unique neighborhood festivals by the author's Mexican husband.
• The all new section titled "Documents" on doing paperwork and a variety of official transactions in Mexico including...
  • getting your FM3 (no matter where you are from)
  • getting birth certificates for children born in Mexico (U.S. and Canada)
  • receiving your social security benefits (for expats from the United States)
  • All new special sections just for Canadians discussing...
  • residency
  • planning to move to Mexico
  • birth certificates
  • other issues unique to Canadians
  • All new section on health care in Mexico.
  • 13 full-color photographs of real life in Mexico that help bring the text alive.
  • A special Day of the Dead photo gallery with photos taken during the 2005 celebration in Cuernavaca and surrounding areas.
  • Easy to read Adobe Acrobat format with hyperlinks in the table of contents that allow you to jump directly to the section you want.

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