About that Costa Rican retirement...

...just how is that going to work now?

A lot of Americans have been planning on retiring overseas because the dollar traditionally has stretched farther in "developing countries," a major consideration for folks on fixed incomes. The game has changed, though, folks. The dollar has dropped against all other major (and most minor) currencies like a shot quail, and even those currencies that have traditionally pegged their value to the Yankee Dollah have been taking extreme evasive maneuvers to minimize exposure to this decline. That means your money is worth less, a lot less, just about everywhere. To put the value decline in perspective, just about the entire run-up in petroleum prices and the overwhelming bulk of the run-up in food prices have been the result of the declining value of the dollar.

If this continues, you folks who have been planning that cottage in Central America for the last 20 years may be compelled to conclude there's no place like home.