How's the standard of living in Cayo, Belize, including San Ignacio and Belmopan?

For locals I would say that the standard of living here in the Cayo district would be mostly like in the middle or lower middle.  There is some poverty here, but not a whole lot as I've seen in other countries, especially in Central America.

 

For example, the standard of living would probably be a little bit better for the locals here in Cayo as compared to the locals in Mexico. From what I’ve seen in Central America and even in Mexico there is...

For locals I would say that the standard of living here in the Cayo district would be mostly like in the middle or lower middle.  There is some poverty here, but not a whole lot as I've seen in other countries, especially in Central America.

 

For example, the standard of living would probably be a little bit better for the locals here in Cayo as compared to the locals in Mexico. From what I’ve seen in Central America and even in Mexico there is a higher class but that class is very tiny and then there are many poor people. So the standard of living for most people here in Cayo is sort of like in the middle.

 

The poverty here in Cayo is miniscule; very, very tiny.  Everyone has enough to eat. They have housing, water and healthcare; all the basic needs.

 

The population of native Belizeans who are middle class exists in Cayo, but it is very small.  These are the people who could afford to travel, and to dine out several times a week. They would have nice houses and fancy cars.  They would have a good job or own a business. Some of them own businesses that have been in their family for many years. Some of them work in private enterprise. Some work with the government. They may be attorneys and doctors. There are not a whole lot of these types of people in San Ignacio (the largest town in the Cayo District) compared to how many there are in Belize City, but there are still some.

 

Using US standards, most foreigners (expats) in the Cayo District are middle class, and some (but not many) are upper class. Some of them buy property here to earn residual income, or maybe they still own a business back in the US or Canada. Some work via the Internet so they could get paid here for those who are not retired.

 

We can then discuss the expats here in the Cayo District who are retired. They usually get a social security check or a pension check and maybe some residual income, which is what they use in order to cover their expenses to live here.

 

As an example, let's say that a couple was receiving a check of US $2,500 check a month. This would translate to BZ $5,000 (the official exchange rate in Belize is 2 Belize dollars to 1 US dollar). So if you have BZ $5,000 every month, that's pretty good. With this amount you could cover your living expenses; your food, your fuel, your insurance, dining out and paying utilities, provided you have a house already and that rent wasn't a part of your expenses.  So US $2,500 goes a long way. Even if a couple had US $1,500 to live on each month, they can still pull it off provided that they weren't paying the rent.  (Rentals range between US $500 to $1,200 a month.)

 

To give you an idea of how far your money goes here, the picture in this answer are of a three bedroom / four bathroom home on over five acres with 800 feet frontage on teh Macal riverfront, fully furnished.  The price: US $299,000, fully furnished.

The standard of living in the Cayo District is good.

 

In the US, having amenities is a big thing and convenience is really big. Being able to go shopping 24/7 in the US is what it’s all about. It is not that way here in Belize. The stores here open at a certain hour and close for lunch, open back up at around 1 PM, then they close at around 5 PM. So being able to shop until 9 PM is not going to happen. Being able to say, “I’ll just go down...

The standard of living in the Cayo District is good.

 

In the US, having amenities is a big thing and convenience is really big. Being able to go shopping 24/7 in the US is what it’s all about. It is not that way here in Belize. The stores here open at a certain hour and close for lunch, open back up at around 1 PM, then they close at around 5 PM. So being able to shop until 9 PM is not going to happen. Being able to say, “I’ll just go down the street to pick up something…” is not going to happen but it is getting better.

 

The conveniences are just not there, which is a huge difference compared to living in the US. People might say that we live in a Third World country. Yes, that is true but I have all the conveniences that I want available to me. I have just as good TV channels as there are in the US. I have whatever I want to watch on TV. I have Internet, so I can go online and have anything I want shipped to me and it’s no big deal. There are several different ways that you can get what you want shipped here in Belize and they get here in just a short period of time. So I don’t miss all the stores that are in the US because I can just go online and order whatever what I want and get it here within in a week. 

 

So the standard of living in the Cayo District really all depends on you and how you want to live and that is what you need to make it. Our house is fully air-conditioned. Not everybody’s house here in Belize is air-conditioned. Although some have air-conditioning in their bedrooms but not everybody has central air-conditioning and it’s not a big deal. We have a couple of vehicles and we need a couple of vehicles but not everybody has vehicles here and that is okay. We have a fenced yard and we have a dog and not everybody might have that so it really all depends on what you want. You can have it all if you want to have it all. In a nutshell, your standard of living here in Belize depends on how you want to live and what things you want. If you want a simple life, you can have it. If you want to have an elaborate life, you can have it. You are just not going to have the ability to run to the mall in a minute or do a lot of shopping. Maybe you have to go to two or three stores just to find everything that you need but then you learn how to do that.

 

I think that the lifestyle and the needs that are available to me here are probably better than what I would have in the US because in the US, I would probably live in a subdivision and I would have neighbors that are all around me and I couldn’t play my music very loud because we would have some neighbor who doesn’t like the kind of music that I’m playing or it’s too loud and they would complain.  I don’t have to deal with any of that here in Belize because basically, nobody cares. 

 

One of the good things about living here in Belize is that we don’t have a rush hour. There are laws in place but there are not a lot of laws. If you learn what the laws are, then you won’t break them.

 

Belize might be a little bit backwards and a little bit slow. Sometimes, when you are dealing with the government, it could be frustrating because they are on a different timetable than you are but besides all that, it’s slower, better, the people here are very nice and you get to know everybody. So it’s a clearer way to live life. I don’t have any complaints. The shopping may be missing here in Belize but I am not really into shopping anyway, so I don’t miss that. If you are an individual who needs to be shopping all the time, then you would have a little bit of an issue here because there is no shopping. 

 

For families who have kids who are in their early teens and older, it might be a little bit more difficult because there is not a lot of culture like what you would have in the US. My daughter-in-law lives in the US and has two kids. Their lives are so jammed that when we go to visit them, we only get to see them for dinner because they are all on the go. From the moment they wake up until when they go to bed at night, they are always on the go. The kids have softball, baseball, volleyball, etc. They are so full of activities. It’s a little bit different here in Belize.

 

In Belize, there are events but there are not a lot of cultural events. Some people look for ballet or going to the opera, or plays that you could go to every week but there is not a lot of that here so you have to find things to keep your kids busy. If you are retiring you might not want to be doing these kinds of things, anyway. As for us, Howard and I go to Guatemala to spend a weekend and to visit and do some nice things there. Guatemala is about an hour and a half drive and we go to Flores, which is a little island that sits on a lagoon. They have great food and activities. We have some friends there who we hang out and spend the weekend with. Then we drive back and it’s great.

 

Sometimes we go to the north of Belize and go over the border to Mexico, where they have Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and Burger King. So if you need those kinds of things, you can go to Chetumal, which is a city in Mexico across the border from Belize with roughly 450,000 people (which is more than the entire population of Belize!). You can spend a weekend there to do all that you want to do such as shopping.

 

Another thing we do on our weekends is take time to go to the beach and dip our feet in the salt water. We go fishing.  I love fishing! There are so many different types of fishing here in Belize. We go to the north and go river fishing, which is different than going fishing in the sea. Sometimes we go fly fishing, which is different than spin casting. 

 

We also like meeting up with friends. We were in Hopkins (on the coast of Belize, about half way between Placencia and Belize City) recently and lo and behold, a whole bunch of our friends showed up, too.  It was great that we had a party that was not planned, but it happened that way.  

 

(Friends of Howard and Wilana Oldham on a dock in Hopkins Caye, Belize, pictured.)

The standard of living in the Cayo district in Belize has a wide range. You will meet people here who are very poor and some who are very rich. You see very run-down houses here and also see very nice mansions and villas with huge pools. 

 

The average expat, who has an income of $4,000 Belize (US $2,000), would rent a house that costs around $1,000 to $1,200 Belize (US $500 to $600). In that range, there are some nice, decent homes. It wouldn’t...

The standard of living in the Cayo district in Belize has a wide range. You will meet people here who are very poor and some who are very rich. You see very run-down houses here and also see very nice mansions and villas with huge pools. 

 

The average expat, who has an income of $4,000 Belize (US $2,000), would rent a house that costs around $1,000 to $1,200 Belize (US $500 to $600). In that range, there are some nice, decent homes. It wouldn’t have a pool but it would be a decent home.

 

You can eat pretty healthy in Cayo. We have the biggest farmers market in the country with lots of fresh produce. If you focus on local products you can definitely live on a small budget.

 

What is expensive here is Internet. If you want to have a decent Internet connection, you have to pay between $120 and $180 Belize (US $60 and $90) per month. There is cable available in urban areas. 

 

The amount that you pay on electricity depends on your lifestyle. If you are used to air-conditioning and you have an old refrigerator and some equipment that needs a lot of energy to run, you can easily pay around $300 Belize (US $150) per month just for electricity.

 

What is really expensive here in Belize is driving a car. The price of gas and diesel is way above the States. Also, the roads are not in good condition so you have to do a lot of replacements on your car such as shocks and tires. 

 

All this said, overall, if you have US $2,000 available per month, you would be able to live a pretty decent life in Cayo.  

 

(Hummingbird Highway, Belize, pictured.)