an offer from St. Croix

I'd say your STX income would have to be about 30% more than your mainland income to support the same lifestyle. But a 30% increase isn't always realistic here. Figure on making less, spending more, and doing without certain luxuries.

Children are more expensive here than in the states. Most new residents with kids opt for private schools.

But you shouldn't accept such an offer without first coming in person and checking things out. Will the prospective employer send you over for a pre-move visit?

PMV! PMV, PMV, PMV!!!!! IMPERATIVE!!!

Thanks I gues I should have mentioned no kids little dog, This maybe a stupid question but PMV??? whats that

PMV is a pre move visit. Most people advocate coming here to check the place out before moving here. Personally I don't know if a PMV does much good if you don't stay for at least a month which most people can't do. However with at least a week visit you can at least get a feel of the expense of living here. My advice to people I know who want to move here permantly is to visit a few times before making the move. If you are coming here for short term for a job, less than 5 years then it is just an adventure and go for it.

And, it's been my experience that most that come for a PMV don't really do what they need to...they go to the beach, they go snorkeling, they go out to dinner, they sightsee...guys, that's a VACATION! A PMV is where you actually act like you live here...you drive in the rush hour traffic, you go to the post office, the grocery store, the BMV, you stand in line at WAPA, at the bank, you go grocery shopping to 5 different stores to get the best deals on the items you need, you buy gas at $4.60 gallon and refill every other day, you sit in traffic, you answer tourist's ridiculous questions ("Do you live here?" "No, I commute from MN everyday for work!"). you go to get your health card and have to return 7 times to get it all done, when it would be so easy for it to be done in one trip, but that's not how it's done and you accept it, cuz you can't change it, you identify the zillions of common sense changes that should be made and you just let it slide. A PMV is about finding out if you can really make it here....if you'll 'fit in'...most move with grand ideas of paradise, but, within six months, 90% of them have moved back to the States, due to an ineffective PMV. JMHO, mind you.

As far as income is concerned, it's been my experience that moving down with less than 7 or 8 grand in cash is a mistake, and the $6 gallon of milk is going to eat up your salary quicker here than it would in the States. The $3 rum helps, but then AA becomes a distinct possibility. Some frugal people, with no debt, can make it on $40K/yr...I find it difficult to make it on $70K, but I have expensive tastes in some areas that most people spend almost nothing. Eliminating the $25K/yr I was spending on drinking has certainly helped! God Bless AA!

The 1st time we moved here (been off n on island due to illness or personal reasons) was after a week vacation. We came we saw & thought we conquered...............that meaning we put a dwn pymt on a lil chunk of dirt here. Checked out some of the neighborhoods, some obvious not to venture, others not so plain sight. Saw a cheap place to rent & drove over to check it out. The places were a lil run down, but the view was to die for....................we 'd dream of the islands until we decided to make it our home. Called the place back to see if he had any other rentals available, sent him a check for a place sight unseen.............thank goodness I arrived a week after my hub!!!
The windows wouldn't crank open, the kitchen was 3 or 4 different colors, appliances were rust buckets & only 1/2 worked, there was more bugs dead inside the cabinets to fit into a small trash can, mold in the shower, tiles missing from the floors & hooked up to a cistern that hadn't been used since Hugo & those were the positive qualities!!!! The landlord was some drunken wife beater who ram sacked your place while you were gone (not ours had 2 large dogs then). If he couldn't yell at or beat the wife, he'd start fights with the tenants.
Local thugs would bring their bony pit bulls down to the beach & force them to swim as to build up strength & confidence.....others would bring their horses to run the beach........isn't that illegal due to sea turtle nesting?? Also the lanlord would give your dogs laxatives or try hoping they would defecate in your house while gone (he thought this was toooooooo funny). We stayed a couple months in fear of the crime (gun shots heard from the complex nxt door nightly) and mostly our landlord.....and ticks the size of elephants,hundreds of them!!!! Luckily we found some place nicer!!!!! And since then the drunken fool I think followed his wife back to the states & the run down cottages are now bulldozed.
The prop is for sell for a couple mil......
Any way, I guess the moral of this story is do some hard core checking out prior to moving, things here are different & rules smules for renter rights! Just remember you're not in Kansas any more Dorothy!

Thanks to all for the info I am actually moving from the bahamas to the island via fla to see some family. Will take all comments into consideration. Oh milk and gas in tha same in the bahamas

if you are already used to island life in the Bahamas, then you have much less of a learning curve than new arrivals from the mainland. If you have no kids and don't need to factor in private schools, then $50K-$60K is a reasonably easy living wage. The more you want, the higher wage you need. Young 20-somethings make do on much less but also live more rustically and with multiple roommates while going job to job.