Life in the Caymans

[DonkeyGreatness]

Anyone ever thought about moving down there?

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

Every time the wind blows my to and from the parking garage to my work building and is freezing cold. Plus every time they say the word snow.

 

[Kimberly]

No... never thought of moving there.

(PM me if you have any questions)

 

[dislaney]

Anyone ever thought about moving down there?

Yes!

 

[gina2000]

Every time the wind blows my to and from the parking garage to my work building and is freezing cold. Plus every time they say the word snow.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[crz4mm2]

No... never thought of moving there.

(PM me if you have any questions)

 

[KinziePooh]

Not specifically the Cayman Islands but I often think about moving to an island. I live near the beach now but it does me no good when it's 30 degrees and snowing

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

No... never thought of moving there.

(PM me if you have any questions)

Ohhh - you are such a tease! Remind us what you do there, what your typical days are like - come on, throw us poor souls a bone!

 

[Kimberly]

Ohhh - you are such a tease! Remind us what you do there, what your typical days are like - come on, throw us poor souls a bone!

Depends on the day. I live right near 7 mile beach, so when cruises are in town, things can get a big hecktic here. Storm season also prevents me from going out on my boat too much, other than for a day cruise, and I travel a lot in the wintertime to ski, and visit family in the States. I also make a lot of time for SCUBA, which is probably the most interesting part about living in the Caymans. We have the clearest water on the planet.

I do play a lot, but I also work a lot too, make no mistake. I currently have no plans to move back to the States at this time. The benefits for me here are just far too great.

Edit: Colorado is one of my favorite places to visit. Aspen, Telluride, and Steamboat Springs.

 

[crz4mm2]

Depends on the day. I live right near 7 mile beach, so when cruises are in town, things can get a big hecktic here. Storm season also prevents me from going out on my boat too much, other than for a day cruise, and I travel a lot in the wintertime to ski, and visit family in the States. I also make a lot of time for SCUBA, which is probably the most interesting part about living in the Caymans. We have the clearest water on the planet.

I do play a lot, but I also work a lot too, make no mistake. I currently have no plans to move back to the States at this time. The benefits for me here are just far too great.

Edit: Colorado is one of my favorite places to visit. Aspen, Telluride, and Steamboat Springs.

Do you mind sharing what kind of work you do?

 

[CruiserMom]

Depends on the day. I live right near 7 mile beach, so when cruises are in town, things can get a big hecktic here. Storm season also prevents me from going out on my boat too much, other than for a day cruise, and I travel a lot in the wintertime to ski, and visit family in the States. I also make a lot of time for SCUBA, which is probably the most interesting part about living in the Caymans. We have the clearest water on the planet.

I do play a lot, but I also work a lot too, make no mistake. I currently have no plans to move back to the States at this time. The benefits for me here are just far too great.

Edit: Colorado is one of my favorite places to visit. Aspen, Telluride, and Steamboat Springs.

You lucky devil you! Grand Cayman is my favorite place on earth! We have vacationed there several times, plus visited on cruises. We try to visit once every 2 years.

 

[Kimberly]

Do you mind sharing what kind of work you do?

Private equities trader. That's about as specific as I can go.

 

[crz4mm2]

Private equities trader. That's about as specific as I can go.

Thanks.

 

[tammymacb]

Love, love, love Grand Cayman. DH and I dive there when we can and it's never enough. I've done some checking into moving there at some point, but I don't make enough money from what I've learned, to get a full time citizenship.

 

[jlder72]

No... never thought of moving there.

(PM me if you have any questions)

Can you tell me about the cost of living there as well as safety and health care?

 

[Kimberly]

Can you tell me about the cost of living there as well as safety and health care?

Cost of living (http://www.caymannewresident.com/page_id_10.html); if you make under 250,000 USD a year, I wouldn't exactly call living here worth it. We don't have any income tax, but we do have something called VAT (Value added tax), which currently is set at 22 (Automobiles can yield 40 percent) some odd percent. This tax is applied to just about everything to fund the government here on the island. While it does put a damper on spending, it does allow people to allocate a ton of money to capital investments rather than spending. While real estate is relatively inexpensive, rent is relatively high, some places on par with New York City. Grocercies sans tax are also much higher, and then add the tax, myself living alone can rack up 500 dollars in groceries per month.

I chose 250,000 USD a month, because the first 130,000 dollars or so working as an expatriate from the US is TAX FREE (all of it is subject to local taxes, this goes for EVERYWHERE). However, the additional amount is subject to double taxation. As a result, investment accounts paid to American exptriates is generally the most favorable.

Real estate here is relatively inexpensive compared to homes in Florida, and that is not a joke. My home cost me about 1.4 MM, directly on a canal in a very nice area of Grand Cayman. That same home in Florida would probably run about twice that. There are no property taxes on homes in the Caymans, however flood/storm/disaster insurance does run pretty high, as high as 2.5 percent each year (so it is basically, like a property tax). There was really no real estate bubble here either. When demand for homes stopped, builders just stopped building them, so there are quite a few empty cleared lots in the residential areas on the island. Most builders are expatriates, so it didn't really hurt our economy.

Jobs here are hard to find unless you know someone. Caymanians get first pick of absolutely everything on the island.

Health care is just like any other country, we're in the midst of building a new hospital though (starts in 2011), and will probably make ER waits long. I've never had a problem though, nor heard of anyone have a problem with our medical system. Health insurance is required here, and costs about as much as it does in the States, too.

Safety. Debateable. The news says crime is increasing in Cayman, but it really hasn't. It really has just been brought to the attention of the people recently with stepped up efforts of the RCIP (Royal Cayman Islands Police). We have a crime rate that is comparable with many local towns in the States. Petty theft against tourists is the most common. We also have storm season (generally the end of June to the end of November), and this year was a particularly active one. We had 6 tropical lows form directly over us in about a 4 week period in October. Nothing larger than a tropical depression hit us, but it leaves a lot of rain, and problems with run off.

Hope that helped. The link posted above has some more valuable information, even though it is a few years old.