A Houston couple is happier in Costa Rica, even though they only earn $30,000 a year instead of six figures like in the United States.

In 2018, Kema Ward-Hopper and Nicholas Hopper moved their family to Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula after Hurricane Harvey destroyed their home in Houston the previous year.

They have no intention of ever coming back.

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“I’m absolutely happier here than in the States,” Ward-Hopper, 41, told CNBC’s Make It. “In the States we were making six figures, but we were both doing jobs we didn’t like.”

The couple says their love for Costa Rica goes beyond just affordability: it’s also about the quality of life and sense of community they enjoy there.

“I’ve had great experiences in the United States, but we can’t deny the way people of color are treated there, and we haven’t had that experience here at all,” Ward-Hopper said.

“In Costa Rica I feel like people are treated like humans first, people here are incredibly respectful and kind.”

Lower cost of living

The couple got married in Costa Rica in 2016 and had an incredible experience planning the wedding in the tropical country.

“I was eating more, moving more and really felt like I was healing while we were here,” said Ward-Hopper, who was diagnosed with breast cancer that same year.

After losing their home in Houston in 2017, the couple struggled with an extremely competitive real estate market and ultimately decided to leave the country.

About a year later, they signed a one-year lease for a two-bedroom house in the middle of the jungle near Playa San Miguel, paying just $500 a month to rent seven acres of property.

For comparison, the median rent in Houston for a two-bedroom house is $1,700, according to Zillow.

Ward-Hopper says it took some time to adjust to their new surroundings – noting encounters with “jungle creatures” like snakes and insects – but insists they live better in Nicoya than they ever did in the United States.

Last year, the couple decided to move to a three-bedroom house in Nicoya to be closer to their daughter’s public school, which is free. They say they spend about $2,900 a month on monthly expenses, including $628 for rent and utilities and $1,200 for food – their biggest expense.

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“We spare no expense when it comes to our food,” Ward-Hopper added.

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Explore their passions

Ward-Hopper and Hopper say they previously made around six figures working as a research analyst and mortgage broker, respectively, but are now chasing their entrepreneurial dreams for less money.

“The biggest change, financially, coming from the United States is being able to work for ourselves,” Ward-Hopper said.

Ward-Hopper juggles several part-time jobs as a health and fitness coach, Spanish teacher, and wellness retreat organizer. She also recently self-published her first book.

Hopper, 43, runs his own remote logistics business, and together the couple earned about $30,000 last year.

“We make less money, but we still live pretty comfortably,” Ward-Hopper said. “Our money definitely goes further here than in the United States”

The couple also say that while Costa Rica will always be their home base, they also plan to travel – with places like Colombia, Ghana, Tanzania and Europe on their bucket list .

A better lifestyle, with affordable healthcare

The birth of the couple’s second child in Costa Rica gave the family the opportunity to apply for permanent resident status and obtain government-run health coverage. This plan covers all medical procedures, appointments, hospital visits and prescription medications.

The couple says they spend about $83 a month on their family health care plan. But even before then, their medical costs were negligible compared to what they would have to pay out-of-pocket in America – a country known for having one of the highest healthcare costs in the world.

“I remember going to the emergency room for chest pain and expecting a bill that would cost thousands of dollars, like in the United States, and it was less than $200,” Ward-Hopper said.

Despite stopping cancer treatments before her wedding and vacation to Costa Rica, Ward-Hopper’s doctors have not detected cancer cells in her body since 2017.

She has since lived cancer-free, which she attributes in part to her lifestyle and diet in Costa Rica.

“Health-wise, I did a complete 180 after moving here,” Ward-Hopper said. “I have healed physically and emotionally.”

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