What kind of move is this?

Every household that comes through this program says some version of "we're moving to Costa Rica," and every household means something different by it. One family means selling the house and never looking back. Another means six months here, six months there, indefinitely. Another means a trial year with a real decision point at the end. Another already owns a place on the Pacific coast and is asking whether it's time to make it permanent.

This is decision one for a reason. It's the one everything else hangs off of, even though it's far from the most complicated decision in this program. Your residency pathway, your housing structure, your tax exposure, even how you budget: all of it depends on whether you're relocating outright, testing the water, or splitting your year. Skip this and you end up making decision four or six on an assumption nobody actually checked.

I see people jump straight to logistics because logistics feel productive. Which region, which visa, which school. Those questions matter, but they're downstream of a simpler one: what are you actually building here, and what happens if it doesn't work?

This lesson has three jobs. Name the kind of move you're making. Take inventory of anything you already have in Costa Rica, because that changes your starting point. And name your exit plan, not because you're expecting to need it, but because deciding it now is what lets you commit fully instead of half-committing out of fear.