My wife and I lived in New England since pretty much day one, so we decided when we found that we could retire at an earlier age than most we started to look around at much more warmer climates to possibly move to. My wife had an aunt that had recently passed away and we had the option of keeping her condo which is in Clearwater Florida, but it isn't that close to the beach or anything and the problem with Florida is that it is very hot in the summer, like right now it's like 100, and there are tourists everywhere, the beaches are crowded, everything is twice as expensive as many other places, etc. Then in the winter months it is still chilly enough so you can't really enjoy swimming in the water, walking on the beach without wearing a sweater and all that. My wife and I really wanted to move to a place where it was nice
all year long and where our kids and family could then visit and it would be like an exotic vacation for them.
We had been to PR before and really liked it so we looked into moving there. We found that since it is still part of the U.S. you kind of get your cake and eat it to, with being a U.S. citizen and all that, but with many extra advantages as well. We found a really nice place on the western half of the island and away from the large city of San Juan and all the noise, city life and tourists. Though it is still only a few hours away if we want to go and visit that area
Plus the house we bought is a 5 bedroom two bath house with large backyard filled with palm trees, Mango trees, Avacado trees, etc
We have plenty of room for my stang, my wifes new (to her) Suzuki Sidekick vert and a few other cars and we got the whole place for a fraction of what it would have cost for even a crappy two bedroom one bath place anywhere else. We have a beautiful view of the ocean and the the first of many beaches near us is minutes away. The beaches here are uncrowded, with most of the time you have them almost all to yourself which still blows me away even now having lived here for over a year now.
Plus, in PR, if it is your primary residence you pay no property tax. That saved us over $6000 a year (and going up) right there, plus everything in PR is cheaper. Some things are just barely a bit cheaper (like gas, milk, and such) but somethings are much cheaper (like food, household goods and even many car parts). Our cost of living is about half what it was in states. We use those savings to help pay for trips to the states to visit family and to pay for family to fly down and visit.
We also used part of the new savings to take a trip to Paris France for 6 days this past week (just got back this past Saturday) which was awesome. I had always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, the Arc of Triumph, many of the famouse artwork like the Mona Lisa, Whistlers Mother nd many others from famouse artists like Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Leonardo Davinci and one of my favorites, Toulouse-Lautrec. We also visited many other historic Paris places as well. Very romantic city and we had such a blast.
Anyway, that is why we chose to move to PR.
Being a Mustang lover I of course had to get a Mustang for down here since I decided to not try and bring my 17k black 95 GT vert down to PR due to the many costs and hasstles, like getting it shipped to the island and then through customs with all of the fee's, etc.
As I was looking around at the many stangs for sale once we arrived, I really wanted a GT vert with a 5 speed, but after seeing this yellow 33k '01 GT vert auto I just couldn't find anything else at the time I liked even half as much as this one. I did see a nice red '02 vert 5 speed with 56k on the odo for sale for just a bit more than I paid for my '01, but of course I saw that a few months after I bought the yellow vert. I think we have all had that happen to us at one point or another. If not, it will but I am very happy with my stang
I know of another person down here who recently had their auto converted to a 5 speed so you never know