Cost of Living in Mexico: Lake Chapala Edition

Episode Transcript
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Speaker (00:00):
Have you been thinking about possibly moving to the

(00:02):
Lake Chip Paul, Mexico area, andyou're curious what are the
costs of living in this area?
In today's video, we're gonnatalk about what it actually
costs for a couple, with acouple of pets, as well as for
a.
Family of four to live in theLake Jal area.
We have a couple different townsin the area.

(00:24):
As an example, I'm Justin, andon this channel entrepreneur,
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looking to move.
To Mexico, uh, or anywhere elsein Latin America for that

(01:06):
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Definitely book a free consultwith our team.
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And you can also download ourMoving to Mexico guide right
below this video.

(01:27):
Now let's dive in and talk aboutthree different towns in the
Lake Chapala area.
Uh, that would be Kopec, AHI,and Chapala, and some of the
surrounding towns and thedifferent lifestyles in those
towns and what the costs ofliving are in those different
places so that you can actuallysee where a good fit.
For you might be.

(01:48):
Now, first I'd like to talkabout what our actual monthly
spend is right now we'recurrently a couple, we're two
people, myself and my wifeAmanda, and we've got two pets
as well.
We've got a dog and a cat.
We're living in the Dakota PETarea in a gated community.
And uh, we've got a view of thelake.
It's very nice.
There's security, everything.
We're paying about$600 US permonth in rent.

(02:11):
Now our utilities, includingelectricity, gas.
Water and two internet linesjust so that we have a backup
because we do so much uploadingand zoom calls and different
things like that, so we've gottahave it on all the time.
For all of those utilitiescombined, we're paying about$200
per month.
Most people could probably cutthis roughly in half.
Uh, because we do use a lot ofelectricity.

(02:33):
We've got servers and things athome, and we also have that
second internet like Imentioned.
So, uh, the average couple, uh,of two people might only spend
about a hundred dollars permonth in utilities, including
gas and electric and all.
Of that other stuff.
We also spend about$350 permonth in groceries.
We eat pretty well.
We like to eat aera uh, steak.

(02:54):
We get fresh chicken, uh, eggs,different types of fruits and,
and things like that for dessertvegetables.
Uh, so we eat very, very well onabout$350 per month of
groceries.
We'll spend around$50 per monthin home maintenance.
Unfortunately, with Mexico,sometimes you do have to
actually maintain properties alittle bit yourself, whether

(03:14):
that's.
Uh, replacing a light switch ormaybe having someone come and
fix the plumbing.
Sometimes if you get a goodlandlord, uh, they will
reimburse you for those things,but I wouldn't necessarily count
on it.
Uh, we certainly don't.
So that's why we're includingthat in our estimate here.
Realistically, it might even bea little bit lower.
It might be actually closer to20 or$30 a month now that we've
gotten, uh, some of the kinksout.

(03:36):
But I think it averaged to about$50 per month, roughly.
Uh, car expenses, including gasis about$50 per month.
We don't really drive too much.
Other than to go into town everyweek or so.
Uh, and then occasionally we'llgo to Chip, uh, we'll go to
Chip, we'll go to Ahi.
We'll go to Guadalajara likemaybe, uh, every month or two.
We spend roughly$150 per monthon going out.

(03:59):
That's maybe going down to the,to the coffee shop near where we
live, or going out to arestaurant in town.
Uh, things like that.
We maybe will go out on averagelike two times, uh, a week or
so.
Uh, so that's about$150.
I think that actually has gonedown quite a lot.
Realistically, maybe we'respending around a hundred
dollars a month now on goingout, because we have a cleaning

(04:21):
lady that comes here twice aweek.
She cooks pretty much all of ourmeals.
Amanda likes to cook at home alot.
I cook occasionally when I'm notsuper, super busy.
Uh, so that may have even gonedown slightly.
Now, cell phones, this isactually, uh, again for two
people.
This is including our T-Mobile,uh, our T-Mobile prepaid lines
back home because we just keepthose active just so that we can

(04:42):
use the wifi calling and stillget incoming calls and text
messages and two factorauthentication messages and
things like that through our USnumbers.
And we also have.
Uh, Mexican cell phone lineshere.
We don't really go out too muchother than when we're traveling,
uh, to use a bunch of data.
So we're only, we're only using,on average about three or four
gigabytes per month of data.

(05:04):
So total between the two of us,we're spending around$50 US per
month on cell phones.
I mentioned the housekeeper aswell.
Uh, she comes twice a week tohelp us clean and cook and those
sorts of things, and that costsus around$200 per month.
She'll come for about a half aday, or a little more than half
a day, twice per week.
And then personal care, sothings like nail hairs, biweekly

(05:26):
massages, uh uh, sometimes goingto the spa, things like that,
that cost us about$300.
Again, a lot of these things arelike very.
Uh, just kind of personalexpenses, like most people
won't, won't necessarily spendas much on personal care as we
do, or maybe they're gonna cleantheir own apartment or cook
their own food.
Uh, your costs for sure will belower in a lot of those areas.

(05:48):
Health insurance is roughly$200per month.
It's a little under a hundreddollars a month each for private
health insurance with reallysolid deductibles.
In total, we're spending for acouple$2,200 US per month.
Obviously, like I mentioned, welike certain extras, like
massages, like getting our nailsdone and things like that at
home so we don't have to leavetoo much because it's beautiful

(06:10):
here.
We don't really like to leaveall that much, and of course our
backup internet because we runbusinesses from home.
So we wanna just have, uh, extrareassurance that things are
gonna work a hundred percent ofthe time.
With that said, plenty ofcouples can live comfortably in
the area on a thousand to$1,500per month, depending on your
town and lifestyle, especiallyif you're around this area in

(06:32):
the Kopec area.
Uh, you don't really need tospend that much.
You can, you can.
Conceivably rent a, a house ifyou're okay with maybe a little
bit more noise or being likeright in downtown, you could
rent an apartment or a house foras little as$300 US per month.
And then a lot of those otherelective expenses might be
significantly lower.

(06:54):
Uh, now let's talk about whatmost couples spend in some of
the other areas.
So, like I mentioned, Beck, uh,is around.
300 all the way up topotentially$800 for a one or two
bedroom home.
Uh, you would see roughly thesame prices if you're in a town
like San Juan Sala, which ispretty close to here, as long as
you're outside the touristyareas.

(07:15):
In some cases, your rent mightbe even lower if you're in
Chapala or you're, you're in SanAntonio.
Uh, Ayaan, which is another townnear us.
It's like sort of between usand, and Chapala.
Uh, you can find houses to rentthere for about six to$900 per
month.
For like a two bedroom apartmentor small home.
And then Ahe is one of the moredesirable areas.

(07:37):
This is like a super premiumarea, so rent is gonna be higher
because it's so much morewalkable.
Uh, it's got a lot moreamenities and like coffee shops
nearby a lot of differentrestaurants.
And Aha, for those of you thatdon't know, is actually the
largest.
Settlement of North Americans,outside of their home countries
in the entire world.
So there's a ton of Americansand Canadians here, mostly

(07:59):
retirees, but the demographicsare starting to get a little bit
younger as time goes on as well.
So the rent in the Ahah areatypically ranges from about 900
to$1,500 per month or more.
Definitely more.
If you're talking like gatedcommunity, you want an entire
house instead of, uh, instead ofjust an apartment, you want
some, some land or some, uh,yard around you.

(08:22):
It could be upwards of$1,500 permonth because it's such a high
in demand area.
Now we're gonna be looking atdifferent places around Lake Al
as well, uh, like kind of thatway we're, you know, we're going
towards Sokoto back here.
Is Beck on this side.
If you go kind of past aroundthe bend, uh, to the other side
of the lake, there's a lot moreup and coming developments and

(08:44):
things like that.
So we're gonna be doing somevideos on some other less
discovered areas, but these aresome of the areas you're more
likely to find yourself livingif you're an expat, especially
if you don't speak Spanish.
Ah, he is pretty good becauseeverybody speaks English.
Al is also fairly touristic, soa lot of people speak it.
English there as well.
And then depending on where youare, utilities without the

(09:05):
backup internet might be in that$8,220 per month range unless
you run heavy AC in one of thesetowns because.
You can run, uh, ac up to acertain level and the costs are
reasonable.
But once you go up into like thehigher tier of electricity
called dock, which we try veryhard to avoid going into, um,

(09:26):
then the, the prices start to goup very, very, very quickly.
The good news though, is thatit's.
It's a pretty temperate climate,so we don't tend to need to run
AC all that often.
We, we run it a lot, especiallyin the summer.
And up until these months, likeright now, we're, we're coming
into, uh, the middle ofSeptember, so we're still
running a little bit of AC nowin the past, like two months

(09:46):
here.
But it's, it's also, I mean,because it does heat up a lot on
the second floor, uh, dependingon where you live, it might not
be as, as warm inside, so youmight not even need to run AC at
night.
Most people don't.
And during the day, during thesummer.
Sometimes it's better to run acespecially if you're, if you're
working and, uh, maybe you're,you're really breaking a sweat.
You're used to cooler climates.

(10:07):
Um, but most people here don'thave acs.
Uh, like where we live in ourgated community, probably about
a 10th of the houses actuallyhave air conditioning.
Um, so that is one of the thingsdefinitely that will, that will,
uh, change the variables interms of the, the expenses.
Because if you're running AC 247 for whatever reason, you might
be spending two or$300 a monthin electricity.

(10:28):
It's just something to be.
Aware of now in terms ofgroceries.
Groceries for two usually runaround 300 to$400 per month.
Depending on, uh, whether you'rebuying a lot of imported food
and on your diet and things likethat, restaurants are pretty
affordable.
So mid-range dinner for two andahah might be around the$35
range.
And then couples will usuallyspend anywhere from a hundred to

(10:50):
about$250 per month going out,depending on your preferences
and lifestyle and things likethat.
And then housekeepers prettysimilar range to what we're
paying, you know, in that like150 to$250 per month.
Uh, range depending on thefrequency.
And then cell, cell phone plansper person, you're paying
anywhere from about, uh, 15 to$20 per person at a base level,

(11:12):
and that's going up if you needa ton more data, uh, and things
like that.
So gas right now it's, it'saround on par with what Gases
and California, it's around$4and 90 cents US per gallon.
Uh, which if you're pretty lowmileage like us, maybe you're
spending 40 or$50, uh, permonth.
Now let's talk about a littlebit of additional context that

(11:35):
you should know.
So the current exchange rate isapproximately 18.7 pesos per US
dollar.
But you always wanna be aware ofthings like currency swings
because of course when you'reliving internationally, your
budget can change based on theexchange rate, and you also want
to factor in the inflation rateof Mexico.
So it's definitely lower than inthe US right now, at least

(11:56):
according to the real numbers.
Uh, Mexico's inflation rate iscurrently around 3.5%.
Per year.
So just make sure to build abouta five to 10% buffer into your
plan.
So now in terms of total budgetscenarios for a couple, uh, the,
the Lakeside, you know, ifyou're, you're kind of trying to
save some money and maybe youwanna live somewhere like Dakota
back, uh, that's one of the moreaffordable towns or chapala in

(12:19):
the non touristy areas, youmight be budgeting in total
around 1100 to$1,500 per monthif you are in somewhere like Al
or San Antonio.
Uh, then it might be closer toaround 1600 to 21, 2200 a month,
and it's gonna go up prettysignificantly if you wanna live
somewhere where, like in aah,where there's a lot more
foreigners.

(12:39):
Uh, it's a much higher demandarea.
So perhaps you might spendanywhere from 2000 all the way
up, two,$3,000 per month or morefor a couple.
Uh, these are some of the thingsthat push the cost up or down.
If you're in somewhere likeAhhe, it kind of commands a
premium because it's verywalkable.
There's a ton of, uh, there's aton of amenities if you like,

(13:01):
having additional internet likeus, or for example, uh, backup
batteries, that's more of a, aone time investment.
But you might buy, like backupbatteries have, have extra power
and then power, you know, asecond modem and then have an
extra internet plan.
So things like that,redundancies, uh, might add a
little bit of cost.
Overall, obviously running acs.
Could potentially drive up yourexpenses as well.

(13:24):
We're fortunate enough to have afew solar panels here that I
installed on the roof, so itkeeps us, at least under the
dock level, which is the, the,uh, Mexican Power Company's very
expensive tier once you passthat threshold.
So where we stay comfortablyunder that every month and we
still get to use AC during theday when we need it, and, uh,
probably about half the time atnight as well.

(13:46):
Of course, if you're driving alot, that means higher gas bills
or if you're taking a lot ofUber.
Lifestyle things like massages,imported groceries and dining
out can also add up.
Um, but if you cut those out andyou're living in a town that's
maybe not, if you're livingsomewhere a little more
affordable, you definitely couldland for a couple closer to the
thousand to$1,500 per monthrange.

(14:15):
So those are our cost of livingexamples for the lake chip area.
You really can live herecomfortably as a couple for
anywhere from 1100 up to about22, 20$500 per month, depending
on your lifestyle.
So it's pretty cool, especiallywhen you're coming from a town
or a city like, like la, likeMiami, like New York, where you
might be spending closer to.

(14:35):
Four, five,$6,000 per month as acouple, if not more, depending
on your lifestyle.
So we love it here.
Uh, we think it, that it's, thatit's super worth it.
We get a really good bang forour buck, uh, and we're able to
invest and we're able to focuson growing our businesses
without all of that overhead andthat stress of constantly having

(14:56):
to make that monthly nut.
So if you're interested inworking with our team and
helping you and your familyrelocate to the lake chip area,
anywhere else in Mexico orperhaps somewhere else in the
world,'cause we have partnersall over the world now,
especially Latin America, we'regrowing our presence in Europe
as well.
Just go to entrepreneur xpa.com.
Slash consult, book a consultwith our team, and you can also

(15:19):
check out some of the free andpaid resources below this video,
including our eBooks and onlinecourses.
They can help you if you're alittle bit more in the decision
making phase.
So we'll pop those links on thescreen and below the video, and
we look forward to having you asa continued part of our journey.
Don't forget to like andsubscribe, and I'll see you
again soon.

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Cost of Living in Mexico: Lake Chapala Edition

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