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Little background info on Fiance and I. Mid 30's, no children yet but coming soon, I work from home / she's a teacher that's unhappy with her current place of employment. My income ~ $70k / hers ~ $45k. Neither of us are fluent Spanish speakers, but I was conversationally proficient a decade ago in college (between HS and College I took 6-7 years of Spanish). With a full year of remedial Spanish I imagine I could re-gain nearly that same proficiency. We both currently live in Ohio and love the beach, and while I can work anywhere I would prefer to stay in EST time zone for ease of communication with my customers. We've been kicking the tires on moving somewhere closer to the eastern seaboard for at least a few years to try it out. Most recently, we visited San Juan for the first time and we both fell in love. It has beautiful beaches, it's a similar size as Cincinnati - which means plenty of shops/restaurants/events, my cursory research on rents pegs it at a similar cost of living (a 10% increase is nothing), and just seems like a great place to live. Concerns / Questions I would love to have addressed that I haven't been easily able to determine so far: - How the hell do people get their stuff moved over there? Or is it just not cost-effective? I am noticing a LOT of apartments are fully furnished. - My job requires steady internet/cell service. I do understand that Hurricanes and global warming are realities. That said, what areas are prioritized/closest to these hubs after rebuilding? Personal experiences and timelines for people that have lived there? - What is the job market for an English speaking Science teacher? Zero? What about other jobs in the education industry (McGraw Hill / tutoring / etc?) Hell - what about jobs in general? Will she be able to find a job in the Hotel industry? - What are the "best" areas for us to consider moving to? The plan is to return and spend a couple weeks to get a better lay of the land. Our last visit we stayed just off of Calle Loiza and it felt very much like home. Something similar to that with city vibes would be ideal for us, or barring that - a suburb with quick/easy transportation to take us to a similar place. - What is the situation getting stuff shipped there? Can I just buy crap on Amazon like I currently do? I have heard some online shops simply don't ship there? Do people use a US based re-shipper? What else am I missing? In case it wasn't clear, we are OK with this just being a 3-5 year experience. We have no immediate plans to buy a house or anything of permanence, just looking for a change of pace and something we can look back on fondly. It's not impossible we would consider staying forever though - if anyone has thoughts/comments on that front (daycare / children education / etc) it would be welcomed, just not of priority. If anyone wants to plug their own personal East Coast city that they love I guess I'd be open to suggestions there as well. The biggest issue I've found with most of them is that cost of living is like 2x where I currently live and I won't be getting a pay raise.
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Jul 2, 2019 16:15
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| # ? May 6, 2024 13:42 |
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We left the west coast and moved to rural Hawaii, so some similarities, but I have no information for PR directly... 1. Contact a shipping/freight company and ask if they do household goods to PR. We used Matson here on the west coast (for the Pacific side) and the cost for a 20' container (filled with our poo poo) was like north of $3000 with trucking on-island when we got there. We did have to do all the packing of said container prior to it being loaded at the docks... Our F150 was an additional $1500 as it was an oversized vehicle and had to go on an auto-frame rather than inside a container. 2. You will absolutely be unprepared for island living, island life and island weather. It's all fun and games on vacation, but learning to keep your food and belongings from rusting, molding and generally falling the gently caress apart in the humidity and heat is another thing you have yet to learn. Including dealing with BUGS. You're not going to be living out of a loving cabana/hotel on the beach, you'll likely end up in some dump apartment or run-down house damaged by hurricanes back in the lovely neighborhoods no tourist ever sees. You need to have some serious lowered expectations regarding living conditions. Regarding 1 and 2 - You may just want to consider storing your poo poo in Ohio (or selling it all) and find a long-term rental in PR on like VRBO/Air BnB with one of those already furnished places. You're not going to be wanting to go about buying/shipping in furniture generally speaking. Most of the people here in Hawaii stick with poo poo they brought over from the mainland for many years until it gives out. 3. Job market is going to be poo poo like any island economy. Expect to be unemployed unless you line up a job prior to moving. That being said, all the jobs are going to be in Tourism or in Construction. If you are unsuited/inexperienced in either, rethink your plans or just go be a beach bum. Expecting to find work without being there and looking locally is unrealistic. Don't speak Spanish, then you're hosed for anything local, such as education. 6. Internet can be had with cellular or satellite connections generally, you should just ask your hosts/rental about that when you go back to visit or call up a local PC repair place and ask, they'll usually have that kind of info. 7. Amazon ships everywhere man, just expect it to take longer and cost more. USPS ships to PR too. Some issues getting like Li-On batteries and some other things they dont want to send, but i just have my family re-box and re-ship them over with UPS to Hawaii usually 
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Jul 3, 2019 02:48
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