Customer Reviews

Falling...in Love with San Miguel: Retiring to Mexico on Social Security

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By chance, we were in San Miguel when this book first was published and visited a private home where the authors were discussing this book. We bought the book on the spot (sorry, Amazon). Based on that experience, I can say that the authors are giving you their honest story about two brave women who decided to forgo life on a limited budget in the United States for a more colorful and richer life in Mexico. If you are thinking about living abroad, this book gets down in the trenches and gives you some idea of the actual experience. It is not a how-to book, with details on getting visas, and so on. Instead, it it similar to a daily journal, based on actual letters written to friends, that deals honestly with their experience. Read this book first. If you are still interested, then go find yourself a how-to book. Dip your toes in the living abroad experience with this book. You may decide to move too!

I picked up this book with interest and some preveious experience with San Migue de Allende, having spent time there over the past few years. However, I am not able to be there for the heavy festival times since I continue to be a full time wage earner, so it was very interesting to learn what the city is like in September and for the Day of the Dead celebrations etc. Norma and Carol have provided colorful pictures of life in a new location, with the good, and the not so good clearly stated. Yes, learning a new language is not easy in the second half of a person's life, some of the other customs of a foreign land are also hard to adjust to. What I think Norma and Carol capture perfectly is the feel of the people there, their generosity of spirit and the warmth with which they make the outsiders feel welcome. As Norma and Carol said, it isn't Disneyland; there is poverty, there are problems; there are frequent small scenes on the streets that remind me how lucky I have been due to accident of birth in a comfortable place and opportunities provided by family members who had been given greater opportunites themselves, but there is much beauty and much joy as well. I am sure that there are many who do not share all of Norma and Carol's opinions about lifestyle or politics (I certainly do not share their love of hot and spicy foods!) but no matter what a person's personal codes may find acceptable, they will find good insight and advice on an area and a way of life that we certainly don't see here in the northern United States.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who would like the feel of living in a totally new enviornment as well as anyone considering the lovely city of San Miguel de Allende.

Reading this book is very much like listening to a charming, somewhat eccentric neighbor give you her detailed impressions and opinions after an extended vacation. Sometimes it gets pretty boring, at other times it's what you actually might want to know, depending greatly on who you are and what you are looking for. There are many descriptions of festivals from the point of view of a confused gringa for example. For me, that got tiring. At times the author's personal concerns have very little to do with San Miguel de Allende.

My biggest problem with the book was that other reviews made it seem as though this book would give me a great insider view of SMA and help me to decide whether to travel there to consider retirement. What it actually does is give a very personal look at living there rather than a general slice of life. There is nothing wrong with that, except it wasn't what I was hoping for.

There were items of general interest that had value to me, especially at the end.

Have you ever thought of going to live in a different country, of learning to understand and enjoy another culture, or of finding an affordable place to retire to?
Read this book.It isn't exactly a 'how to' book, not exactly a memoir, not exactly an account of a love affair. It's a combination of all three: a love affair with a Mexican town, memories of a couple's first few years living there and all the discoveries they make about adapting to life in a new country.
It's a must have if you're thinking of going to San Miguel de Allende or if you want to convince your family that your retirement in Mexico is not going to open you up to a life of poverty, crime and loneliness. It's a good read if you're considering changing your life totally - if two women of a certain age can have an adventure like this and find true happiness then it can happen to you too. Why not? This book is saying: Don't be afraid. Take a chance. Be open to new experience, new people, new cultures and if you approach everything with an open heart your life will be renewed and you can find happiness too.
Does this make it sound too wishy washy, new agey? It isn't! There's also a very practical side to the book which will give you information about the costs and the difficulties of living in this colonial city. It's also written in a chronological way so that whichever month you're going to be there you can pick up the book and find out some of the events and highlights of that particular month.
(And I was especially pleased to read about the book club Carol and Norma went to - I've already used Amazon to order two of the books they mention!)

I have had the privilege of learning to love this book as it was being born, reading fragments of it here and there, learning about the authors' love for their chosen haven of love and colour and peace in a world that is full of trouble and pain.

Let me just say that I have been waiting for this volume for a long time, so that I can sit back and read it all again, in full now and complete and still full of light and love and insight and delight. Carol writes with an artist's eye for detail, and I can see Norma's vision filling in the canvas. We aren't always given the privilege of finding our own piece of heaven, let alone living in it - but these two women have done it, and this book is a testament to their achievement. It's a joy to read, and a joy to share their lives in this amazing place called San Miguel de Allende.

Christmas is coming. Buy this book for all your friends who want a touch of South-of-the-Border sunshine to pierce winter's gloom.

Falling...in Love With San Miguel by Carol Schmidt and Norma Hair is a beautiful book, inside and out. On the cover is a breathtaking view of the colorful town, and inside is a lively account of the authors' first year there, complete with favorite restaurants and shopping spots and the prices paid, converted to U.S. dollars.

San Miguel is an artists' haven, and Schmidt, who tells the story from her viewpoint, is a student of art. But she is also an artist with words. Her vibrant descriptions of the parades, festivals, marketplaces and food tantalize all the senses. I felt like I was there.

Anyone who is thinking of retiring to Mexico, or merely visiting, should read this book. With their frank assessment of things they love (so much to do and see, inexpensive produce, the moderate climate) and things they don't, (the unavailability of favorite brands, rough sidewalks, the language challenge) Schmidt and Hair will either dissuade you or have you calling for a expedited TripTik. ...Anne Seale, author of the Jo Jacuzzo mysteries

Falling...in Love with San Miguel: Retiring to Mexico on Social Security, is an amazing book. I read the book non-stop and was upset when I had to stop for things like eating and sleeping. The humour was so wonderful I had to stop reading to clear the tears from my eyes. The journey that these two amazing women took, shows others that the trip is do-able. As my husband and I approach retirement age and our own trip to San Miguel, we have a blueprint for a start-up in that magical colonial Mexican city.

Bravo Carol Schmidt and Norma Hair, you have shown your courage, humanity and joy for life in this terrific book.

We plan to use the lessons from your book on our move to San Miguel.

Falling... in Love with San Miguel: Retiring to Mexico on Social Security is a simple testimony to the joys of retiring in San Miguel de Allende, an art and cultural center 165 miles northwest of Mexico City, named one of the top ten cities in the world to retire by "Money Magazine". Written by Carol Schmidt and Norma Hair, two women who came to escape the sweltering Phoenix summer and stayed when they became captivated by the joy of daily life. Falling... in Love with San Miguel is part memoir, part practical guide, as it details the first year of the authors' retirement life in San Miguel including their expenses on the costs of average Social Security, the problems they encountered and the adjustments they had to make, language issues in a Spanish-speaking country, the excitement of celebrating the fiestas of the Mexican calendar, and much more. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone considering vacationing in or moving to San Miguel, as well as for armchair travelers.

I am not going to outline the contents of this delightful book about Falling...in love with San Miguel de Allende by Carol Schmidt and Norma Hair. I am on my second reading. Not that this is some sort of important reference document that I refer to from time to time, or is it? I read it and re-read it because it psyches me up and charges my motivations, validates and confirms the decision I made some six or seven years ago to retire early and healthy in Mexico.

This book reminds me that I can, that I must retire early, that I must make the most of the remaining years, and that it can be done even on my reduced (at age 62) Social Security income and paltry retirement savings.

This book and the attitude of its authors about Mexico and Mexicans matches what I expect will soon be own. I feel so akin to these two ladies. I know each day is going to be an adventure, people watching, exploring, tasting. I even expect to lose some of the weight that has kept my blood pressure high for the last 35 years, walking a lot, eating more natural, fresher, less processed food, all in a de-stressed environment.

I am not deluded about some of the less happy and possibly difficult facts of life in Mexico. But I have lived abroad before, for extended periods of time (Southern Italy in the '60s was probably not terribly different than some parts of Mexico today), and I am pre-loaded, thanks in part to this book, about what to anticipate in respect to those issues.

I am not retiring in San Miguel de Allende and I am sure those already there don't necessarily want to be joined by hoards of newcomers. This book is good preparatory, motivational reading for anyone even entertaining the notion of retiring anywhere in Mexico. That's what it is to me.

If nothing else, it is fun to read, easy to read. And it makes me hungry. Not just because of the frequent descriptions of wonderful food that Carol and Norma have discovered there, but hungry for this final adventure of mine, hungry for the sights, sounds, smells, the magic of Mexico, which is what the book promises.

I recently finished this book in an enjoyable and straight-thru read. I had the opportunity last year to read some of Carol and Norma's "letters home" that served as the grist for this tale because they knew I was interested in retirement in Mexico. I am now living in San Miguel de Allende and they truly tell it "like it is." Mexico has numerous wonderful places to retire, but this town is very special to me. Read the book, come visit us.