There is an old saying in the form of a question: "How do you leave Costa Rica with three million dollars? Come with four!" Yes, my friend, it's a bit of a myth to think you could come here and live lavishly on $1,000 and have "servants." But then again, I guess everything is relative / subjective. So what might be lavish to you might be totally different to me....

On the subject of the whole servant thing....I have to say it kind of makes me sick to see foreigners come here to hire local Costa Ricans at ridiculous wages and make "slaves" out of them. They are not jungle animals after all. I assume you were just joking, but I have to say I've seen plenty of people (mostly North Americans sadly) move to Costa Rica, hire nationals, pay them crap and then treat them like dogs. As you can tell, it's a sore spot with me.

Can you live on $1,000 / month? Sure! Pretty easily actually. But maybe not as lavishly as you might think. My suggestion is to come down for a month or two and check it out first. Good luck and be well!