Just joined …looking for advice… recommendations regarding retiring in Honduras.
Our story – we have already purchased a home in Roatan and are renting it out and getting down there a couple times a year for brief visits. We are using our trips down there to assess life there. We have made friends in our neighborhood and have been asking lots of questions. We think we will want to retire there , We are several years away but increasingly are worried about the specifics of this phase of our lives. We think we would be “snow birds” ie spend some time (weeks to months) in the US. Below our some of our thoughts / questions /potential plans. We are looking to get advice from anyone who has been through this to confirm we are headed in the right direction or not…
1. USA “base” – we think we will want to establish state residency in Texas – near Houston. There are direct flights from Houston and it would not be too bad of drive from there to Colorado where we currently live and most of our children / grandchildren are. After retirement we would move (rent) for 3 months in Texas then get drivers licenses and register the car there which would establish us as Texas residents (no state income tax)
2. We would store some stuff in Houston – the car, old financial records, warm clothes, etc. The stuff we would take to Honduras we would ? put in a container and get itemized and approved through the Honduran consulate in Houston for importation into Honduras. That container has to be shipped to Miami to go by boat by Hyde shipping - ? how?
3. We would leave a small car in storage in Houston – turn on the liability insurance coverage when we return to US (probably a couple times a year) _ ? best company to be able to do this?? We would purchase a car in Honduras (?main land vs Roatan?)
4. When we return to US we would rent – i.e. not keep a house in US
5. I would use Medicare for twice yearly doctor visits in Houston for checkups - may wife would have to purchase private insurance until she qualified for Medicare.
6. We would open a bank account in Honduras to transfer money to from US bank - ?best combination (US- Honduran bank) to do this? We would wait till we are closer to retirement to do this in case we change our minds
7. We are still sorting out how much money we need to live on – we have a pretty good handle on the house there – RECO bills, insurance, yard maintenance ,etc. Not sure we have a good handle yet on cost of owning a car – insurance, upkeep . groceries ( buying for a week is different than living for months…) and lastly costs of living for a few months in the US.

Do you think the above is realistic – what are we missing??

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