Just remember the chance of getting聽 paid employment聽 in Belize is close to ZERO, so If you feel you need to add to your benefits to be able to live comfortably you need to have some form of self employment, with a legal self employed work permit, or external, Possibly online paying position.
If you want to live comfortably you have to decide what you need for聽 your comfort . If you wish to eat only american branded foods, Have all聽 your fruits and vegetables available all year round and like to drink nice wine with all your evening meals then you will need a good income.
In Belize聽 fruits and vegetables that grow here are seasonal聽 for instance Avocados are not available out of season. If things do not grow here then they will be more expensive than in the US as they will all be imported.聽 Chicken is the most common meat in Belize prices are good and the quality of the meat is good. also plenty of pork and Bacon, Many complain about the quality of the beef ( comparing to shoe leather I believe) but if you are a good cook and treat it accordingly it is a well flavoured meat. Fish and seafood are good but where ever you live you may have to look and ask around for the best retailers, or market stall holders.
To be fair one contributer to this forum has always detested the beef , been affronted at the lack of ready made pie shells, and the聽 high cost of imported wine and Mushrooms, back to the time when he still lived in Belize.
Housing costs again depends on your expectations, simple houses rent or buying will cost less than a concrete McMansion. Beach property will cost more than inland village property. Cayes property will be the most expensive.
Electricity is often Quoted聽 as聽 expensive but聽 again depends on how much you use, and what the cost is in your present Locality outside of Belize.聽 If you NEED 24 hour air conditioning year round then you will have a very high bills. If you are happy with fans for much of the time with aircon as a short boost from time to time then much more manageable bills.聽 Ideally a home using聽 solar energy will be virtually bill free after installation聽 costs.聽 AND You will not have winter heating bills to contend with.
Mains water and sewerage聽 is only available in larger towns and cities, Most other homes will use water catchment tanks and septic systems.聽 As we are in the most other homes category I have no idea if the Water and Sewerage charges are expensive or not.
Transportation, well depending on where you decide to live, busses are cheap bone shakers,聽 If in聽 town/city taxis are cheap, good idea to get to know a regular cab driver, they can be fonts of local knowledge.聽
Vehicles to buy are expensive for what you can get.聽 If you decide to buy a vehicle it is Essential you quickly find a car mechanic that knows that make of vehicle so聽 you can聽 have some faith聽 or trust, he knows what he is doing, you will need one sooner or later, just kidding, it WILL be sooner.聽 聽 聽Belize roads eat cars. Gas is about $5us per gallon,聽 at the moment, but Belize is small so probably not driving nearly as many miles anyway.聽
From time to time folks聽 put up shopping lists for direct comparison costs, only useful if it is the sort of stuff you would buy in either country, one showed an聽 incredibly high price for Velveeta cheese products n Belize compared to Canada or the USA, I would not buy it in ANY place so to me the comparison not useful. Nescafe Instant Coffee is cheaper in Belize than California, funny as both import it from Mexico.
Also for some reason the quality of the toilet paper seems to get people excited, again Imported things will cost more, so if you must only have the softest triple ply US brands they will cost a lot more than the locally produced brand. One of the very few things actually manufactured within Belize聽 is Rose Toilet paper, and expats are still willing to pay 3聽 or 4 times as much聽 for not supporting this local Business as they think it's聽 product is too rough for the tush.
Now just wait a while and you will get advice to go any where else but Belize from lots of ex expats or some who are presently not happy with the choices they made so it must be the countries fault.
Heads up Belize used to be different,聽 some want it to go back to what it was then, quieter less crowded, because obviously no other place has changed in the last 20 years or so.
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