Expat Community > Belize

sundevil3
Joined 2017
Posts: 8

Planning our move to Belize

7 years ago

Hello all!

Just joined the forum after reading the posts off and on for quite some time.

My wife and I are in the early stages of planning a move to Belize from Arizona. We had considered making the move a few years ago but then my wife got pregnant with our second child and those plans went on hold. In the interim, my wife has actually taken a job as an Executive Assistant (via the web) for a company developing a resort and residences in Belize and we are finally taking our first steps to make the move.

In spite of many months of reading on this forum and other locations, we still have a million questions so I thought I might write up a little about us and our plans and see what advice anyone may feel like offering (or what holes you can poke in our existing plans.)

Us: My wife and I are both in our mid-30s with two kids under the age of 7. We have not visited Belize yet but we are planning a trip there in the next 1-2 months to do some initial evaluation.

Location: We are primarily looking in Placencia at this point (as that is the primary development location for my wife's employer) but certainly still considering other locations. Proximity to the beach is a big priority for us though.

Income: My wife is working for a property developer in Belize so she will be keeping that job (or perhaps taking a different one within that company.) I currently work an IT job in the United States that can be done entirely remote (with some limited travel to US sites) so my biggest concern right now is consistency of internet connectivity in Belize (as I am not yet sure if I will be telling my employer that I am moving to another country.) From what i have read on here, it sounds like there are a variety of Mi-Fi and other options available for consistent and decent-bandwidth internet connectivity but I would love to hear some more opinions on that.

Education: We have one daughter in Kindergarten and another in pre-school. I am thinking we would home school (perhaps via some web-based school program) once in Belize but am certainly open to local schools as well if anyone can provide any advice there.

Healthcare: Looking for some advice here. I am a little lacking on my health research but am considering leaving my current full-time job in favor of a long-term contract position as this would provide greater monetary compensation to be used to purchase health insurance/care (rather than getting health benefits through my current FT job which, I suspect, will not be of much use in Belize.)

Housing: We have a pretty good network of knowledgeable folks in country given my wife's job but have not delved too deeply into this topic yet. Renting seems pricey (at least in Plancencia) and most places I could locate in an internet search appear to be catering to vacationers renting for 1-2 months at the most-- I suspect there are cheaper options for 6-12 month rentals but that is just an assumption. If anyone can provide some general pricing info on longer rental options, I would love to hear whatever you can offer.

There are obviously a million other factors and questions but I think i have written enough of a book for a moment and don't want to scare anyone off by writing a novel for my first post on the forum.

As I said up-front-- we am soliciting whatever advice/guidance/warnings that anyone here would like to offer and greatly appreciate anything you can teach us about our upcoming journey.

Thanks!

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