Why Sensato Living

In our late 40s, life doesn't seem make sense anymore: we work 10-16 hours a day, CRA takes half of our income, the rest goes to property taxes, utility bills, mortgage, and food. We never know if we could ever afford to retire.

Our life has to be more meaningful than this!

Dan always wanted to move to somewhere warmer, safer, a place without heavy taxation, too much regulation, or too much materialistic or entitlement thinking and doing. He said there has to be a place where everything makes sense and where you can have a simple happy living. So he travelled to different places to find this place.

7 years ago, couple of his friends moved to Mexico. Quit their corporate jobs, sold their houses and cars and moved without any hesitation.

Dan and I visited Dave and Jennifer 2 years ago. They live in Merida, Mexico. I have never seen a mid-aged couple so happy, content, and relaxed.

We visited them again in Dec’2015. They are still the same, happy, content, and relaxed. Dave even started a farm selling organic eggs and lamb. We bought some for our Christmas Eve. The taste is heavenly simple and sweet.

Then there is the beach, the land, and the happy friendly local people. Dan had this vision that we would build our own community on a piece of land somewhere in Mexico. 10 single bungalows with 2 master bedrooms on both sides and a guest room in the back, an open kitchen leads to a covered patio by a private swimming pool. The house will be surrounded by lots of fruit trees, self-sufficient system including pool, water and an organic vegetable garden.

The he found this land in Akmual. A piece of green gem in the jungle, 5 minutes away from an amazing cenato, and 15 minutes’ drive from the most amazing white sanded beach between Playa da Carmen and Tulum, Mexico.

We decided to call this dream community we are building Sensato Living, meaning sensible simple living, happy being.

Without a million dollars in our bank, we know we can comfortably retire and start a much happier life there.

So can you. Come join us.

I can't believe it's so easy to grow fruit here!

Our neighbor Stephanie grows nice papaya and other fruits on her property. She said whenever she buys the fruit from grocery store, she just sun dry the seeds and plant them. That's where she got all the fruit trees going in her garden. And the papaya tree with 20+ huge papaya is only 6 months old!

 
I can't believe it! First of all, you suppose to buy seeds from the stores every year in Canada because it's not encouraged to use seeds from your own crop. Secondary, whatever you plant any seeds in Calgary, you probably will get 50% of them growing into something, the other 50% either will be eaten by rabbits/ squirrels or they were frozen to death before they sprout. So harvest 20 huge papayas from one tree in 6 months, I am ok with that! And I am super excited about growing watermelons, oranges, pineapples, bananas at our backyard in Sensato Living.
 
As a matter of fact, we will have fruit, veggies and herbs growing at the garden in front of each house so when you come to your home on Sensato Living, you will always have fresh produce for your dinner, breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack!
 
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General - about Mexico

From the time talking about the possibility of buying a piece of property in Mexico to actually action on it, it took us 2 years. We knew we wanted to buy a piece of land, not a condo, or a lot on a developed resort, but a piece of land that we can build our own home.
 
So we found the land, now what? As Canadians, you can't buy land in Mexico directly. The most common practice is to open a bank trust. In order to do that, you need to have immigrant status in Mexico.
 
We wanted to move fast so we used different approach: set up a corporation in Mexico then buy the land under the Mexican corporation.
 
In order to do that, you need following:
1. Hire a Mexican Lawyer (PM me if you want his contact)
2. Copy of Canadian passports, and Utility bills (Yes they love utilities), and US$ in your bank to wire to the lawyer before he starts the process
3. Once lawyer notifies you to sign the corporation document in front of notaries (that's another interesting part of Mexico, everything official will have to go through the notary), fly there and don't forget to bring more cash (US$ for lawyer, Peso for Notary)
4. Sign the deal, now the corporation is set up. The Lawyer needs to register it with Foreign Affair Department. It's free service but takes time, so pay lawyer more fees to get it done for you.
5. Now you can use the corporation to buy the land.
 
In Canadian, set up a corporation takes a visit to registry office and then you get a GST number pretty quick. The steps are more complex in Mexico.
 
More fun stuff to follow.
 
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