Living By The Beach For $420/Month In Mexico | Unlocked

i think we all want to be happy and unfortunately what they tell you in the u.s the the money you need to retire on this many millions or this many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year i am a living example you don't need all that money and you can be happy hi welcome to my apartment in mazatlan mexico i'm janet blazer i'm 65. i live in mazalan mexico in a two-bedroom apartment about half a minute from the beach my rent is 420 a month which is about 8 500 pesos i'm a retired journalist i still do a little bit of freelance writing here and there but mostly my time is my own i like to surf i go to the beach i hang out with friends and i just do whatever i want my monthly income is a combination of social security some royalties from book sales and a little bit of freelance writing and it's between twelve hundred and fourteen hundred dollars a month i was born in new york but spent most of my adult life in santa cruz california once my kids were grown and i was 50 i was looking at what was ahead of me in my life and i wanted to change i really wanted to be happy and i needed to find work because the internet had upended my career in journalism so i tried to think outside the box and i went on a random vacation to mexico and while i was there i saw a business opportunity i saw that i could start an english magazine and support myself and live in a simpler way i went back home and talked to my kids who were all grown by then about this idea and so my kids were completely supportive they said yes mom go for it go and do your dream let's see i get a little choked up thinking about that but that was 15 years ago and this is home now my apartment now is 1100 square feet it's two big bedrooms a bath and a half there's an extra room in the back that is like a maids quarters that i use as a laundry room because i don't have a maid it has 10 foot ceilings beautiful windows and it has more space than i ever thought i would need what makes this place worth it to me the proximity to the beach is a big deal for me and the ability to walk to my favorite coffee shops and restaurants having two friends so close by is also important socializing and also in case of emergencies this apartment that i have now that i pay 420 a month for is the most expensive place i've ever lived in mazatlan in 15 years usually my rent has been around 200 so this was a big step for me to double my rent to my american friends my rent of 420 dollars may seem very low but for an average mazette laken living here some blocks from the ocean and a small house my rent is astronomical when i was looking for a place to rent i had certain parameters of what i wanted i wanted to be in central historical i wanted to be close to the ocean i wanted to be able to walk to restaurants and cafes that i wanted to go to a good friend of mine told me about an apartment across the hall from her that was available so when i first looked at it i thought oh my gosh that's enormous i don't need all that space i'll just keep looking for something smaller but as i looked i saw that even smaller places farther from the beach were going to be at least the same cost so this one started looking better and better i realized what a good deal this was and i called the landlord and insisted that he take a deposit so my move-in costs were basically first month's rent and i'm on security so 840 total that was okay for my budget and an expected expense and especially because i'd been staying in a friend's house for three months and not having to pay any rent or any utilities so i had some a nice bulk of money saved in mexico when you rent something that's unfurnished what that means is that there's no appliances so i had to buy a refrigerator a stove a washing machine hot water heater ceiling fans air conditioners all that stuff was part of my startup cost before i went to the states in 2020 you know i had been here 14 years so i had acquired all of those things over time it was quite a shock this time to have to buy it all at once all over again is a pretty big city it's a city on the pacific coast kind of opposite the tip of baja what i love about here i love the ocean i'm really a water baby you know i surf i swim i walk on the beach and the water is very clean there's great seafood another thing that attracted me about mazatlan when i first came on vacation and then when i decided to move here is that the muzzet lakens are known throughout mexico as being really friendly people and they really are the apartment building that i live in was made in the 1950s i don't know what i would call this style as kind of old-fashioned which i love because it's enabled me to kind of make this eclectic mixture of modern and then some traditional mexican in a way that works for me in my lifestyle so when you come in the front door you're in the living room there's lots of windows it's got great light i love that it opens into the dining area so it's a nice place to entertain i love to cook and have friends over the living room opens up into a dining room that extends back into a kitchen on one side and my bedroom on the other side this is my bedroom i love the corner windows they let in lots of light but it's very cozy the other thing i really like is the headboard the headboard is actually shutters from one of the oldest hotels here in mazatlan so it's a little bit of history in my life so i feel very lucky that i have closets in my apartment because many of the older homes in mazatlan don't have closets so to not only have a closet but to have a spacious closet with a light and shelves and enough room for everything is pretty great the kitchen is a galley kitchen long and narrow not my favorite but it does the job and then behind the kitchen is what was the maids quarters and i've made it kind of my laundry room prep room and here is also where my cats have access to their outdoor catio so they can go in and out as they like but they're contained on the other side of the living room is my office the office also has great big windows that open out to a really sweet balcony where i have coffee every morning and sometimes enjoy happy hour with my friends from one corner there's a little ocean view and i love to sit there and in between the office and the back bedroom is the full bathroom so it's like a jack and jill bathroom [Music] i think where i'm at now is that my perfect life is that i could be kind of like a snowbird in reverse that i could go up to the states for a few months every year and have time with my kids and my grandkids but still have my main life down here the truth is that i wouldn't be able to afford to live in the u.s anymore not on just my social security and the little bit of extra money i get so to live here in mexico and be happy and be able to afford the things i want in my life is a blessing you

Channel: CNBC Make It

Views: 1,161,819

Keywords: CNBC Make It, Make It, How To Make It, Entrepreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Business Success, Money Management, living on 50k a year, living on 100k a year, living on 200k a year, r29 money diaries, millennial money cnbc, 200K salary, 75K salary, millennial money, what i spend in a week, what i spend in a day, mazatlan cost of living, Mexico salary, Mexico rent, make it unlocked, moving to mexico, expats in mexico, cost of living in mexico, mexico, retire in mexico

Id: 71bpe4dsAIc

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021