When Paul Kurtzweil and his wife Linda moved from Orlando to Cancun, they had no plans to return to the United States. But then “life got in the way.”
Kurtzweil, known on social media as Qroo Paul, explained in a viral YouTube video that they returned to Florida to care for Linda’s aging mother.
The retired deputy sheriff and his wife had been living off his pension since moving to Mexico in 2015. After returning to the United States, he found a job with the police again.
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“I have to do this because this third of his income (his pension) in the States is not enough,” he said in his YouTube video.
Kurtzweil added that he and Linda were able to live “debt free” in Mexico, but are now back in the red in Florida due to the high cost of living in America. Their experience has shown that the warm weather and great food aren’t the only reasons why so many Americans look enviously south.
Living in Mexico offers a cheaper alternative
Kurtzweil had only returned to Florida to help his mother-in-law, but was shocked by the high prices of goods and health care compared to Mexico.
He said his pension was enough to buy a condo in Cancun and had enough left over to travel with Linda. However, after returning to Florida, he had to go into debt to buy a larger home for himself, Linda and her mother. He said someone once told him debt was “just part of being an American.”
When comparing the US to Mexico, this comment is not a complete exaggeration. OECD data from 2022 show that Mexico has the lowest private debt among 31 developed and developing countries at 16.6%, while the US ranks 17th in lowest private debt at 74.4%.
Angel De La Rosa, a Mexican with US citizenship, emphasized this in a viral TikTok video: “Being in debt your whole life should be considered poverty, but it is not… At least here in Mexico, we own our things. We own our houses. We own our cars. We have no debt.”
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Migration in Mexico
The lower cost of living in Mexico has prompted more Americans, like the Kurtzweils, to move there. In fact, one TikToker said the “new” American dream is to leave the country.
According to CNBC, there was a 70% increase in the number of Americans applying for or renewing residency visas between 2019 and 2022, according to figures from Mexico’s Migration Policy Unit.
Another person who took this step was Adalia Aborisade. Previously, the 48-year-old worked 60 hours a week as a teacher in Houston and earned $60,000 a year. In 2020, she moved to Mexico City for a more relaxed lifestyle.
Now she works 15 hours a week running her own financial coaching, relocation assistance and retreat business, Picky Girl Travels the World, and makes $38,000 a year.
“I make significantly less money than I did in the U.S., but I work fewer hours, I’m less stressed, and overall my life is just filled with a lot more positivity and joy,” Adorisade told CNBC’s “Make It.”
But with the influx of U.S. citizens seeking cheaper living in Mexico, the country now faces a very American problem: high housing prices. Mexico saw the second-largest housing price increase in the world from 2023 to 2024, at 4.72%, according to the International Monetary Fund.
According to a 2022 MIT study, Mexico will need to build more than 800,000 new homes annually over the next two decades to meet demand.
— with files from Serah Louis
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This article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
