Retire early on $981 Per Month in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
These links are everything we have on Puerta Vallarta!
Puerto Vallarta Mexico Low Cost of Living
Puerto Vallarta Mexico Retire Cheap in Paradise
Puerto Vallarta Romantic Zone Walking Tour
Puerto Vallarta Waterfront Bronze Sculpture Walking Tour
Puerto Vallarta Bar Hopping Tour
Cheap Puerto Vallarta Accommodations Restaurants and Transportation
Best Travel or Retire Cheap to Paradise Locations in the World
Retire early on $981 Per Month in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. Yes, the adjustments described in this post show a bare-bones living cost of $981 per month on Puerto Vallarta in the Romantic Zone. It is even temporarily cheaper at $629 per month during the coronavirus market conditions.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for Vagabond Buddha.com. We teach people how to retire cheap in paradise and how to slow travel the world for cheap.
If you are like me, you might be thinking about going somewhere close by and cheap for a long break after the coronavirus lockdown? Are you in the USA now?
We are presently locked down in the Philippines in the city of Dumaguete during the coronavirus. But today I would like to talk about living cheap in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
We spent about 6 months in Mexico starting in late in 2017 and we visited about 18 cities there and generated cost of living data for most of them. During that tour of Mexico, we spent time in Puerta Vallarta so we could generate estimated costs of living and the feasibility of living there.
We loved Puerto Vallarta. At that time we were focusing only on our favorite neighborhood in Puerto Vallarta called the romantic zone. But since that time we have learned some new tricks about saving money would like to share some of those ideas with you now.
At that time our cost of living table showed a range of living costs for a single person of about $1180 USD to $1222 USD. That range included a 2 bedroom apartment right in the romantic zone including utilities, 2 meals a day at restaurants, and local transportations costs (link provided).
Our cost of living estimates includes only the cheapest food, rent, and local transportation. It does not include medical insurance or any other expenses. Plus, you should have significant savings available for emergencies. Before moving here, you must do a temporary exploratory site visit in order to accurately calculate your personal cost of living here for all costs for your lifestyle and needs.
Since medical insurance and any other expenses vary widely for each person based upon their age, lifestyle, and needs we cover how to estimate those expenses in other reports, but you will still need to do an exploratory site visit to firm up your estimates.
Today, I would like to suggest some adjustments that could reduce those numbers substantially. I will start by sharing prices as if they have not dropped substantially over the last few months during the coronavirus. Since prices may rebound quickly once there is a vaccine, it is better to refer to present conditions as temporary. After I ignore the significant drop in prices, I will tell you about prices on the ground there today. I will give you the cheap prices last.
Part 1: Assume Prices Will Rebound Quickly
First, the earlier higher range estimate of $1180 to $1350 Month (link provided) uses the $25 per night rate that we actually paid for our 2 Bedroom Airbnb apartment (link provided). Just the apartment translates to $750 USD per month including utilities.
Adjustment 1 ($400 month): If you were willing to ride a bus 20 minutes to nearby communities, you could find rents starting at about $300 per month. That would be for a long term lease of 6 to 12 months. But you would have to pay your utilities for about $50 a month. So your savings would only be about $400 per month over the previous estimate as compared to the earlier estimate.
Adjustment 2 ($175 Month): Personally, I am a big fan of the romantic zone, so I would rather stay close in and pay more. I call that livability factor walkability (link provided). I believe I would be able to find a 1 bedroom apartment in the romantic zone for about $475 per month by committing to a 6 or 12 month lease. But since I would have to pay the utilities myself, I would only save about $175 per month as compared to the high range in the table estimate. (link provided) I would just walk the neighborhood further back in the romantic zone and look for rent signs. (source).
Adjustment 3 ($166 Month): The high range in the table allows 48 neighborhood restaurant meals, 8 high-end restaurant meals, and 4 food cart meals per month, at the cost of $5, $15, and $2.50 per meal, respectively. (link provided). I would drop that to 10 neighborhood restaurant meals, 4 high-end restaurant meals, and stay with 4 food cart meals per month. That would drop my total eating out budget by $250 USD per month. I would do that by cooking those meals at home. Since the groceries would cost about $2 per meal to replace those 42 meals, or $84 USD per month, I would only save about $166 per month.
Thus, I could save $241 per month if I decided to live in a 1 bedroom with a lease in the romantic zone, or $566 per month if I decided to leave 20 minutes by bus away from the romantic zone.
Since I would pick the 1 bedroom in the romantic zone with a 6 month lease, I would be able to save about $241 per month as compared to my earlier estimate of the high range of $1222 USD per month. My adjusted cost would be about $981 per month. Thus for the big three, rent, food, and transportation, I could retire early on $981 per month in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
Part 2: Examine Today’s Coronavirus Prices
The prices have dropped substantially. You can get a complete 1 bedroom apartment in the best part of the romantic zone for $10 USD per night today including utilities if you book for a full month. That includes the Airbnb and the cleaning fee if you booked today for one month.
Who knows what prices will be a month from now?
Adjustment 4 ($427 Month): If this price holds for a few months then you would be able to live in Mexico for $427 per month cheaper than my earlier quote of $1222 per month. That means you could pay for the big three of rent, food, and local transportation for $795 per month at todays prices.
Further, you could use adjustment 3 above and cook at home to save another $166 per month. That would reduce your cost of living to $629 per month.
I also noticed that a flight down to Puerta Vallarta from San Francisco is $139 one way. That would be added since it is not in the local transportation quoted above.
Plus, last time I was there in 2018, Americans can stay in Mexico for 6 months without getting a visa.
Warning: However, the US Embassy website says only essential travel is allowed in Jalisco Mexico presently so you will need to find out what that means. The Mexican government is probably not going to let you go there if your purpose is a holiday. That sounds like nonessential travel to me.
Thanks for listening This is Dan of Vagabond Awake. Please subscribe, like, or comment if you feel we provided any value. Also, if you would like to learn how to live internationally possibly with less money than you spend at home, please subscribe to Vagabond Buddha or get a free copy of my Ebook.
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