Is 60K/yr enough?

Enough for what , Norman? Do you want to spend your entire paycheck each month? Do you want to save? Will your wife be working?
There have been many discussions on this subject -have a look through past posts.
In my humble etc......if you have to rent a dog friendly place, you may have to rent a house and eating out a lot as well, then 60K may well not be as much as you think. St T is a very expensive place to live. Will you be able to afford to fly to see your kids etc? Will you have to provide your own health insurance. 60K total income without benefits is not going to go very far , but if your needs are modest then it may well be more than enough.

Kim Lucas in the post below has a pet friendly house available on St X (the cheaper island) for almost 3k per month, I believe. That would be over 50% of your GROSS income right there.

We are not looking to set the world on fire, just a modest living. I will have insurance at about $150/month Blue Cross. Thanks Norman Paperman

You need to do your own math. As mentioned above, having dogs means you will probably need to rent a house or an attached apartment. The annual cost might be as low as $15000.00, but could be double that. I am sure you have researched this website and now have a better idea what utilities and food and will cost you.

Add in transportation ( a car is the only real option) and things such as eating out (often very expensive) and trips back home. You mentioned $150 a month for blue cross. We don't have any major medical issues, but my wife and I declared a medical deduction on our taxes last year of over $13,000. (mostly premiums and co-pays).

Expect to pay $15,000 or more to move you and your stuff from the states to the islands.

Norman, you can do it, but be very realistic with yourself. figure a "worst possible scenario" and then do the math.

I usually am very conservative when discussing what income it takes to live in the VI. However, I have to say that Ric and I live very comfortably on an income not very much higher than you mention, but we do live on STX.

On STX, there is much less expensive, nice housing available, but it does take a little time and trouble to find it. We live on the North Shore, near Cane Bay in a 2 BR/2BA home. We use cistern water, have no A/C and take our laundry out. Our rent is $875 a month and our average WAPA bill is right around $100.

We own two older vehicles outright. We eat out at 2 nights a week and I eat breakfast out once or twice a week. Our health insurance comes from work and we pay no premiums, only co-pay. Our largest single expense and the one that has eaten into our savings this year is travel. I had a knee replacement in the states and have been back and forth with that 4 times. I was off work for almost 4 months total. We've also paid for our kids to visit, twice. If we had not had those expenses, we would have been able to save money on our salaries. Of course we probably would have just had OTHER expenses. As it is, we're living within our means.

The dogs add to the hassle factor. The bigger they are, the greater the problem.

If I were in your position, I would pack a few boxes of favorite household goods, put everything else in storage, find someone to keep the dogs for a month or two and come on down. Stay in temp housing until you find something. While one of you works, the other can work at finding a place. There will be people at work who know of apartments/houses coming available and will generally be able to give you advice and counsel. When you are settled, pay for the kid(s) to come visit and bring the dogs with them.

That's what we did 3 years ago (minus the dogs) and we've not regretted it. But you'll have to research and decide for yourself.

Good Luck.

Norman,

Good luck and everything, but if it doesn't work out for you please let me know what job ya got there.

No sense letting a good job go to waste!

Norman,

Check your BCBS preferred provider/participating pharmacy list and the details about your out of network benefits over thoroughly. BCBS policies are not available AT ALL in the USVI. Should you lose coverage through your employer or violate any regional/residential restrictions on participation under your current BCBS plan, you will be required to obtain local coverage from one of two companies or get ex-pat coverage. Doing so if you have any health conditions -- even one considered pretty acceptable for full coverage by most BCBS policies -- you are likely to end up paying a huge co-pay on local coverage, having your condition excluded by ex-pat coverage, or being outright denied coverage at any cost

When I came here to STX, my spouse and I had PPO-top of line policies through my DC based employer for a nominal fee. While our hospital and one physician I found direct-billed my BCBS plan for the benefits available and required only my co-pay before balance billing me for anything beyond what BCBS reimbursed them, every other doctor and pharmacy on island that I used required me to pay the full expense out of pocket and submit my own claims to BCBS. Sometimes I waited (and fought) for more than a year to get reimbursed and get consistent rates of reimbursement, especially on prescription drugs. Doing this required me to have a really healthy ability to have enough cash on hand until my claims were paid in order to avoid carrying them on a credit card.

The high cost of medical care and Rx drugs today is well-known. Including the loss of your extremely affordable BCBS policy and COBRA coverage -- which I never dreamed would happen before I could find coverage by another provider -- in your "worst case" budgeting scenario will protect you from a lot of anxiety at best, and might even prevent financial ruin if, heavens forbid, the medical worst ever comes your way.

Smiling to know you prefer STX,
HC

BTW, tip for all -- I discovered that paying full-price for certain drugs through drugstore.com was actually cheaper than paying the co-pay though my BCBS Rx mail order service.

--HC

$60k can be enough it just depends on how bad you want to live here. Granted you will have to be more flexible when it comes to housing. I had friends with a big dog that rented a pretty decent 2b house on the Northside for $1600. Nothing fancy but it was clean and safe so it can be done.
Worse case scenario if you get in a pinch your wife can work. Here on STT if you can fog up a miror you should be able to make 25-$30k and if you have any kind of marketable skill and a work ethic there is no reason you should not make $40k+. So as a family you could easily have a combined income of $85k-$100k which should get you by.
Best of luck.

Good morning, Norman Paperman.

Have you been making PMVs over the last five years for job interviews with various potential employers, or just with the one which has currently offered you the 60K position? I would assume the latter.

Anyway, the caveat to NOT bring everything with you initially is wise and has been repeated many times on this forum. But let me get to my point!

"Snowbirds" only come for a season and most younger newbies coming solo are just looking to make ends meet for a short stay in "Paradise." You, of course, fall into a different category. Will you have a valid/legal job contract for the position offered you?

The reason I ask is that over the years I've met scores of people who have been wooed by employers here, have brought everything with them on a handshake promise and have then been fired for one reason or another after just a few months. With no legal binding contract in place, they have no recourse against the employer and, given the difficulty of any newbie finding a "real job" have been stuck in a real bind. Some were fortunate enough to "luck into" something but the majority were not.

Maybe I should just relate my own story which is as relevant today as it was over two decades ago. I was 39 years old with an excellent and diverse employment history, came to visit recently re-located friends and was offered a job in the short duration of my visit. Went back to the mainland, the prospective VI employer kept 'phoning me and upping the ante and, given that I was being offered both accomodation and a vehicle, it became an offer I pretty much considered I couldn't refuse. So I arrived in due course with a dog and a cat, shipped a bunch of personal belongings and settled in to my new life adventure.

Within three months the bubble burst and I was fired - the first and ONLY time I had or have since ever been terminated from a job. I had dared to question my employer's business practice in an area which involved complete disregard of FDA rules and was, to say the least, hazardous to public health and I was fired for something completlely unrelated and bogus.

I was already in my "own" apartment but the car was taken away, I had no income and I sent out over 30 resumes to different island businesses, receiving but ONE reply from a large corporation which was really interested but currently had no openings. It was only total serendipity that I was finally able, by word of mouth, to land a wonderful (unadvertised) position with a well-respected company for whom I most happily, nay "joyously" worked for the next ten years.

When I was fired by this first employer I went to the Labor Board and filed an abundance of related paperwork. At that time the Labor laws weren't as tight as they now are and the personnel there were unable to legally help me get any sort of restitution. I didn't have an employment contract and although they (people at Labor) totally empathised with my situation - indeed even apologized for not being able to help - it was a horrible situation in which to be placed.

It all worked for me and over two decades later I'm still here. But, as I said, a properly executed job contract is something I think that for someone in your position should be a must. Doesn't matter if it's for six months or a year but it will save you a lot of grief if things don't work out and at least enable you to get settled without any immediate worries.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

STT Res said..."It all worked for me and over two decades later I'm still here. But, as I said, a properly executed job contract is something I think that for someone in your position should be a must. Doesn't matter if it's for six months or a year but it will save you a lot of grief if things don't work out and at least enable you to get settled without any immediate worries".

Norm, don't know what your field is - but you might try setting that contract for the period of time STT Res has recommended - it gives you an opportunity to find out if island life is for you and if $60K is indeed enough for you and your wife. Although a longer contract could look tempting on the front end, it could come back to bite you if for some reason you felt it necessary to leave. If they love you, which I am sure they will, they will keep you and you will keep them and life will percolate along - but if, as STT Res says, things don't work out and you decide you hate them, better to only have a short term investment than try to wiggle out on the back end. Besides, if it's a short contract and they love you, you'll be in a much better bargaining position when your contract draws to a close. Also, if you hope in time to relocate to STX, make sure you can bring your STT salary with you - surprise, surprise, there is a pay differential with some companies that does not reciprocate to STX.

Good luck with your decision!

Thanks to all who replied, yes there is a contract ( finally got it opened) but it's for 2 years and there are a few descrepancy's compared to our verbal conversations. I think it would be quite do-able if not for the 2 dogs. Two years would be a loooong time if it turned out to be miserable.
Alexandra.... it's back to plan (A)
Norman Paperman

Just let me know what you're ready to do and when and I'll do what I can to help!