Living on St. Croix?

Click on what to expect and apartment and then cost of living, etc... Read the moving stories. Keep reading the posts all the way back. To give you a better idea of what island living is really like. I would say a family of four should come with at least 10k. Do not bring all your stuff if you decide to come, leave most of it in storage the first year to see if island life is really for you. Most go back within 6 months to a year and shipping is very expensive.

Cost of living is high and wages are low. You need to incomes here with 2 kids to support. Also public schooling is horrible here. So add in the cost of private school. It just gets worse. Some people wait till their kids are grown, some come down anyways.

Do you work for the Federal govt? Take a look at usa.jobs.gov. There maybe something there that you could do.

In our case, we had my pension, which is substantial and counts as a "third job" for Ric and me. We both started out with low paying jobs, Ric 5 days a week, me 3 or 4 days a week. I still work hourly, but Ric was promoted and now makes about the same as he did in Kentucky.

Still, on our income, we couldn't afford to live here with two kids in private school.

Gasp what are you guys doing up so early
lol

We have a stateside business that we run via the internet and have employees that do the physical work. One of us flys back and forth every few months.

We vacationed here with our kids until they left. Then started our quest for the endless summer. It's expensive to live here. You have to love it. Everything is difficult. It may take trips to 3 stores to get your groceries. You may have to wait a week or ore for a part for your car. I have 2 grandkids here and their parents spend a lot of $ on school and a lot of time running them around the island.
I work full time managing property and have a part time business. My SO works 30 hours a week and makes our food $. Health insurance is expensive

Thank you for the information. I have read all the moving stories but almost all of them said they found jobs and houses but gave no example on the wages and cost of the houses. Not really my buisness I guess I was just curious. We are actually going to wait until the boys graduate ( a couple years ) and then it will just be my wife and I and our daughter. Again thanks for the info and keep it up. You all have a great thing going here, hope to be down there one day.

Glad you read the moving stories now try some of the others, click on cost of living for example and you'll get examples of everything. Middle class homes range between 300k to 600k. Are you looking for a middle class home or starter home? But yeah getting everyone to confess their salary is probably not going to happen, but say you want to know what a teacher or a mechanic makes, just ask. I don't think anyone has a problem with answering that.

My wife and I moved to the island almost two years ago, we both work at the refinery and though the salaries are comparable with industry averages, the benefits make it worthwhile for us to work here. The individual situation you are moving from makes the difference as to whether you can expect a drastic change in perceived wealth. For instance coming from the Northeast I saw large reduction in my tax burden from lower property taxes, no more state and city tax, no sales tax, which were offset by increases in my insurance costs both vehicle and homeowners. I feel that rents here are high compared to average home prices which were surprisingly reasonable when you take in consideration the fact that you are living in the Caribbean. For instance for comparison I looked for a similar sized home that I purchased here in the Florida Keys and found that Keys home cost was ~30% greater with 75% less land. Food costs increased ~%50 but we also don't spend as much on "stuff" because shopping here isn't a recreational sport or "just something to do" (I think I'd move if they ever built a mall here). My electricity costs doubled and temporarily tripled but that was offset by no heating costs and some simple lifestyle adjustments. There are additional costs you have to budget for while living down here, I have to always prepare for the cost of flight home in case of family emergency plus somewhat regular visits since it is difficult leaving everyone behind. School districts are what they are down here, so you may need to budget for private or parochial school.
In the end you do get less for your dollar down here, some people can easily make the transition to a lower standard of living...if you define standard of living by the size of your house and the amount of stuff you have, some seem down right ecstatic about it. Few have the unique opportunity that I and my wife were blessed with and able to improve our financial situation, because our specific skill set was highly desired and the isolated location creates a restricted pool of applicants to fulfill those jobs. I will say that if either of us would loose our current position for whatever reason we would have very difficult time finding comparable salaries since opportunities are also very restricted here and in that case we would seriously have to reevaluate costs of staying.

I question how much "less for your dollar" you get down here than 'up there.'

I just returned from a week long visit with family back up in Ohio.
A modest cart of groceries was $225. Gas was $2.10. Weather was cold and crappy.

If you take into account property taxes, sales taxes, and state taxes....
If you take into account that you don't need a lot of expensive nice seasonal clothes here....
If you adjust your attitude on what you drive and how you live....
If you can put a value on your soul, sunshine, and scenery, ...I think you get MORE for your dollar here.

I question how much "less for your dollar" you get down here than 'up there.'

I just returned from a week long visit with family back up in Ohio.
A modest cart of groceries was $225. Gas was $2.10. Weather was cold and crappy.

If you take into account property taxes, sales taxes, and state taxes....
If you take into account that you don't need a lot of expensive nice seasonal clothes here....
If you adjust your attitude on what you drive and how you live....
If you can put a value on your soul, sunshine, and scenery, ...I think you get MORE for your dollar here.

I tend to agree with Neil. While there are major differences in the cost of food and utilities and private schools, I found the cost of housing to be no more than in the high cost areas in the states (California & northeast).

It is all about changing "how you live". If you do not have children and can live simply, you can live here on retirement and social security. For most couples, that would be about $50,000 a year. For that amount, you have a basic house or condo, an older car, medicare, no eating out, and very little travel.

The big problem is "transition". that is moving and getting established. Once those costs are paid for, the day to day living will take care of itself.

Medical care can be a deal breaker. Many doctors don't take Medicare & the medical costs here are so expensive, my insurance company almost forces me to go to Puerto Rico where they'll cover almost everything including half the air fare to get there & back. My latest eye surgery cost 1/3 there what it did here when I had it done a few years ago & at that time the cost was also 2/3 higher than it was in the States. So for someone retired, they really need to check that out. You can be healthy all your life but when you start falling apart, forget about it. Dental care here is also very expensive comparatively.

I dunno Trade, we've found medical expenses quite comparable. But the point about "what" insurance you have is an excellent one.

Wife and I were wondering about this factor the other day: how much of what people here consider to be "expensive" is based on what they remember costing YEARS AGO when they lived up in the states. A lot of stateside costs have gone up in the past couple of years.

All that said, you do pay a sunshine tax down here.
And if you have to remodel or ship business product here, you pay a premium.

You may be correct but I based my cost comparisons on friends experiences in 3 different areas of the States.

There is a strong possibility that I WILL move to St. Croix and I'm heading down for the first time to check it out. Like Tuggs I would really like to know how people make it on the island. I've read all the advice and feedback and I'm looking for some words of encouragement. I am not even close to retirement age (40) so no social security. I don't have kids so not worried about that. I do however need a job to survive and from my research online there don't appear to be any jobs. I live in a big city so the prices don't scare me. Convenience however is something else to completely give up.
Does the Island become a ghost town during hurricane season? I read an article about hospitality workers coming to the mainland to work during off season. If this is true how does the economy sustain itself especially now? Do I really have to lower my standard of living just to leave the cold behind??

Do I really have to lower my standard of living just to leave the cold behind??

In short - Yes. When I lived stateside I owned a nice condo that was 1/2 mile from a large mall and had every conceivable store/restaurant within walking distance (if it wasn't too cold or snowy to walk). I owned a new car and had a good corporate management job. I decided to "chuck it all and move to the caribbean". A friend moved with me. After 6 months she moved back because she did not like living without the conveniences. I'm still here over 7 years later. It has not always been easy but I would not change the experience. I went from living in a nice condo to a small studio apartment, having a new car to walking everywhere (eventually getting an "island car") and having a good corporate job to working in retail making one fifth of what I used to.
The economy is not great right now and "good" jobs are hard to find. Everything is a choice. The choice to live here is not all beaches and sunshine...but some days it is. As for words of encouragement....people do make a living here but we make certain choices in order to do it and you are the only one who can decide if those choices are right for you.

Finding a good job or a job period right now is going to be hard. Did anyone even look at the classifieds this Sunday? 2 pages for rentals and a column and a half for job openings. Now that summer is starting to hit we are definitely going to feel the stateside fallout.

Standard of living is lower here. You make less and things cost more. Nothing is convenient about island living, but the weather is perfect (except for hurricanes), scenery gorgeous and the people friendly (except for the high crime rate). No place is without faults even an island paradise. Screw New York if you can make it here, you'll be fine anywhere.

Like my neighbor says " it is paradise, not heaven".
I have had friends who could not wait to get off the island (job commitments kept her husband) and back to shopping and entertainment. I have friends who came for a week PMV and NEVER left. Had their friends sell their house and bring their cats.

If you are a hard worker with a good work ethic you should be able to find a decent job. It seems that is a hard thing to find, good work ethic and hard worker. However it will not pay what you are used to. But it may not have to. You may be paying more to live in NY especially if you consider heating bills.
It will also depend on where you live. If you can stand the humidity, and live on a hill on near the ocean, you can save thousands a year on electric bills. We live in a condo (STC) which is on a cliff 35' out and 60' up from the ocean. There is a ocean breeze 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time we will just use our fans. At times it can be a little uncomfortable, but nothing compared to AZ in the summer or the cold areas of the country. However my neighbor who dislikes any humidity runs her A/C 24/7. Her bill is over $900 / month. Ours in March was $75. In the summer when we run the fans it will increase to about $125. In az in the summer time we pay over $500 / month.

Seriously guys its not just about the hard work ethic anymore, the recession is hitting us too now. Jobs are becoming very hard to come by and its going to get worse this summer. I actually have handyman offering me very reasonable rates now, and I haven't seen that in 10 years.

I agree with Betty. I was laid off over a year ago and made a decision to find a "good" job - not just a job. They don't exist right now (except maybe for accountants - which I am not) and the few that might be an "OK" job just don't pay plus there are a lot of applicants after the Stanford shut down. If you are willing and able to do any job for any pay you might find a couple of jobs that can pay the bills but the days of having a good resume and good work ethic be all you needed are gone for now. Hopefully that will change in the not too distant future but who can tell?

The conveniences are not the big thing for us. Currently we live in the mountains with a tiny general store that thinks they are the only ones left within a thousand miles so they charge for it. Otherwise the nearest grocery store is 35 miles away, malls and a wall mart are at least 60 miles. That does not bother us a bit. I actually prefer it.

Like betty, I agree unfortunatly the economy is so bad right know that jobs anywhere not just the islands are hard to find. Luckily I currently work with the government and it is a very secure job. It also pays WAY better then I could expect in the islands.