I’m 30 years old, from Salt Lake City, Utah, and am currently living in Grecia, Costa Rica with my wife and two little girls (ages 6 and 4). We decided to move to Costa Rica for a number of reasons, including the great climate, the chance to experience a different culture and learn a new language (Spanish), and an excuse to take life at a slower pace. For a more detailed response about why we moved here, check out the post on my blog entitled “We’re Moving to Costa Rica”
How long have you lived there and how long will you stay? What keeps you there?
We’ve been in Costa Rica for almost 5 months now, and plan to stay for probably another year or so. We want to stay long enough for us all to become comfortably fluent in Spanish. My wife is already pretty fluent, having served an LDS mission in the Canary Islands for 18 months, but the rest of us want to get better. We’re also renting a house for a year, so we’ll be staying at least until the lease is up.
It’s been a great adventure here so far, and we’ve made some good friends. There’s also a lot more of the country we still want to explore before moving on to other parts of the world.
What do you do to make a living?
I created an on-line business called Music Teacher’s Helper that helps private music teachers manage the business side of their studios, such as billing and scheduling. Right now, I mostly just manage that business, which takes me about 5 hours a week thanks to my excellent team of programmers, support staff, and bloggers. I also recently started Studio Helper, which is a sister product to Music Teacher’s Helper, but for larger studios with multiple teachers, including non-music studios.
I love the freedom that having an on-line business brings. I continue getting paid each month no matter where I’m at or what I’m doing. And having it automated frees up my time to do more of the things I love.
Describe your average weekday and weekend day.
My average weekday usually starts with me getting up around 7am to shower and then go pick up our maid. I don’t use an alarm because the light from the windows gets me up just fine. After that, I’ll do a little exercise and tai chi, read for 30-60 minutes – usually on our balcony overlooking the garden, have breakfast, then work for an hour or two on whatever tasks I feel most pressed to accomplish. Lately, I’ve been balancing mostly been writing my book about how to create an on-line business, and composing hymn arrangements for piano.
After that, I’ll start working on my business, which includes answering e-mails (I try to clear my inbox every day), and deciding what features and bugs to have my programmers work on next. I usually finish this around 11am or so, and then either finish up with other “to-do” items, play with my kids, or go for a walk in the garden. (Or sometimes I’ll get sucked into Facebook and blogs.)
My wife loves to cook, and I’ll usually read to her while she’s making lunch. Our maid leaves at 11:30am, so in the afternoon, we often do something as a family, such as go to town for groceries, or go somewhere else fun, play a game together, learn something new together, or just do our own things. Twice a week, we also have a Spanish tutor come.
After dinner, we’ll come back home (unless we stayed home for dinner), maybe watch a movie together and have a treat, or do something else as a family until the girls go to bed around 8pm.
On the weekends, our maid doesn’t come, and our friends are off work, so we’ll often do things with our friends on Saturdays, or venture out a little farther from home on an all-day adventure. Sundays we go to church in the morning and come back home to relax and read or write the rest of the day.
What skills have you learned while living abroad?
Patience. Costa Rica seems to run on its own unique clock. I’ve learned not to expect things to get done on time, but just to appreciate each moment and be happy when things do work out well.
Spanish. I’ve been really pleased with how well my Spanish has improved in 5 months. I communicate with our friends completely in Spanish, and have even given talks and taught lessons at church in Spanish! I still make mistakes all over the place, but people can understand me and I’m learning.
Caution. Being in a foreign place makes one a little more aware of potential dangers. I’ve learned to be a little more skeptical of promises from others, more cautious of where I put my belongings, and have tried to cover my bases in matters of security.
Fearlessness: On the other side of caution, I’ve learned not to be afraid of dangers beyond my control because… they’re beyond my control. Having fear only makes bad things worse, and most bad experiences aren’t as bad as we imagine they’ll be. I’ve learned that enjoying life and rolling with the punches is much more fun than living with fear.
Gratitude: Not just for the small conveniences of more developed countries, but for the beauties of nature, time to spend with family and do other things that bring me fulfillment.
What are you missing (professionally) by not being in your home country?
Absolutely nothing! Well, I guess being here does make it a little more difficult to go to music teacher conferences or business seminars, etc., but there are affiliates who go to conferences in my place, and there is plenty of business advice on the web and in books. With the digital world we live in and everyone being able to communicate on-line, I don’t see the point of having a physical location for my business. All my employees work from home. Why waste money on office space?
If you could live anywhere, where would that be and why?
It depends on how I’m feeling. Right now, I want to live right here in Costa Rica. But I’m sure the time will come when I feel ready to move on. I would love to experience more of Asia and Europe, and maybe South America as well. I don’t know when or if I’ll want to settle down and live somewhere permanently. For now, I’m content staying a short while in various places. Maybe once I’ve seen more of the world I’ll have a better idea of where I want to create a home base.
What is your favorite gadget that makes your work life abroad better?
Definitely my Macbook Pro. My iPad and iPhone are nice, but it really takes the Macbook Pro for me to efficiently do my work, compose music, edit photos and videos, and more. We also use it to watch movies as a family.
Do you have a favorite book that inspired you to travel or consider a different way of living?
There are a few books that really influenced me. I think the first one that really opened my eyes to the possibility of long-term international travel was The 4-hour Workweek. We tested out our first “mini retirement” with a 6-week trip to Panama, and it was a life-changing experience. Also, The New Global Student helped us envision how education could work for our family, and gave us hope in seeing how other families had made this work for them. I also really enjoyed Vagabonding by Rolf Potts.
Other than yours, do you have a favorite expat blog?
Wow, that’s a hard one. There are so many good ones! I really like JetSetCitizen.com and ExpatAlley.com because the articles are consistently good. They also both recently interviewed me. 
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nice interview:o)
I really enjoyed reading this Brandon. Love to all. xxx
Is there an expat community of condo’s / townhomes very near Grecia? Will I need air conditioning in Grecia?
Thanks!
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