"Reasonable Income" - Cost of Living

[Wafudude]

Hi everyone! I am new to this forum and have enjoyed picking through the threads for the last hour or two. It looks as though people are prepared to give an honest opinion, which is good, so please don't be too harsh with my question:
I notice that a lot of advice is given to "rent for 6 months to a year" before buying and also that you really need to have a "reasonable source of income" in order to live in the dominican Republic. This is obviously sound advice but my question is (and it's been a long time coming I know)... With no mortgage to pay...what is the general concensus of the figure that represents "a reasonable amount"? My wife and I are looking at various options around the Caribbean for an early retirement and the Dominican Republic is one of those options.
Many thanks!

[SamanaJon]

A very difficult question to answer for anyone, as each persons standard of living is distinct. Since nobody has given you a reply, it trust they are thinking the same...

I can only refer to my particular case and outline the expense I incur routinely and I have left out Mortage/Rent as you indicated (cost are annualized and given monthly below):

Hired help ....................... $9,000/ea. person
Fuel (gas,LPG,diesel)......... $12,000
Electricity........................ $10,000
Food...............................$16,000
Beer................................$3,600
Rest. (1/week)..................$4,500
Insurance(auto)................$1,000
Insurance (all others). .......$5,000 (ARS Humano Platinum Plan & Dental for 1)
Misc. Household expenses...$1,500 (pool chems., maint items, fertilizer, etc.)
Tel/internet.....................$4000 (2 cels.)
Auto maint......................$2,000 (oil service, tires, repairs, brakes, wash)
Misc. expenses.................$5,000

I drive to Santo Domingo (from Samana) weekly and live ~20km out in the countryside. My electric bill is based on my usage at home for 2 people and 2 live-in domestic employees (rate of 13 pesos/kwh). Beer is 4 cases/month. Eat out once per week (nothing fancy). Full coverage medical and dental for one person (not two). Again, I have left out the cost of home/apt (assume you will pay cash for your place, as I did). Misc. expenses cover all out of pocket monthly expenses (newspapers, beggers, coffees, tolls, sodas, colmados, candy, parking, gun permit etc.)

I also did not include any of my travel expense to the USA (done frequently) or cost of lodging in Santo Domingo when I travel. I do not go to bars/discotecs and live a quite lifestyle. Hope this helps.

[drtampa]

Where, how and what brand of beer are you importing at $75.00 a case?
(Four cases a month for $3600 annually)

[SamanaJon]

All my figures are monthly (based on annualized cost)... beer is Presidente Light small ones in case @$900 pesos per case or $900 x 4 cases per month = $3,600 pesos per month.. again my figures are mine..this is what I spend approx... it is really a bit more..

[planner]

I will add my two cents and give you my figures: I rent I do not own, 2 bedroom large apartment, unfurnished:

Rent...............................$6,000
Hired help .......................$1,200 (1 day per week to clean)
Fuel (gas,LPG,diesel)......... $5,000
Electricity........................ $2,000
Food...............................$4,500
Beer................................$0
Rest. (1/week)..................$700
Insurance(auto)................$75
Insurance (all others). .......$595 Group coverage, with dental
Misc. Household expenses...$500
Tel/internet.....................$3,500 Highspeed inet and 1 cell
Auto maint......................$500
Misc. expenses.................$500
Entertainment...................$1,200

I travel in and around Puerto Plata and the north coast, go dancing 2 times a week, live fairly simple. I have an a/c but our electricity is at 3.12 per KW. We have a backup generator but never run the a/c on it.

[BushBaby]

Originally Posted by drtampa

Where, how and what brand of beer are you importing at $75.00 a case?
(Four cases a month for $3600 annually)

Just to clarify & so that some newcomers don't get scared witless at these figure ,.... we are talking RD $ (pesos) here NOT US Dollars!!

One US dollar = (variable but +/-) RD $33.00!
(My, your electricity is expensive down there SamanaJon - My top whack rate is 11.00 per KwH but as I keep my consumption below 700 KwH per month I pay the variable rate of UP to RD $7.00 per KwH. i.e. around RD $3,500 per month!!)

~ Grahame.

[Hillbilly]

I find $9000 for help to be outrageously high!! They saw you coming!!!

We pay our lead cook and housekeeper very well, and she makes slightly less than $5000 a month, Plus food. Her assistant gets $150 a day up to 6 days a week. The part time gardener gets $300 a day. No live in help...

And by local standards, we pay well. Our cook has been with us for more than 15 years. But, and this is important, we are not ex-pats.....

HB

[SamanaJon]

Ok Guys & Girls..read carefully.... I pay my help well at $8,000/mo. They have been with me 6 years, plus Christmas Sueldo of 1 month. That makes 13 pay months/year + I give them each $600 per month for Cel cards (I bought them each a cel long time ago). They pay their food. I provide them electricity, water coffee, sugar, laundry detergent, bath soap and toiletries. Again the figures are monthly, but I have annualized my "gastos". No, they did not see me coming, Hillbilly. I give them raises about every 1.5 years. That is very decent pay for workers in this area. I do not live in town... and now it cost 50 pesos for the guagua to Samana each way. If my help did not live on the property, they would have to pay transportation and @$5000/mo sueldo, it doesn't leave much to eat with....btw my property ~ 18,000 m2 which all is cared for (no monte). I don't expect everyone to have these expenses, but they are real for my situation. Again HB, I do pay well by Dominican standards.

Yes Grahame, my electrical service is extremely expensive @$13/kwh (basically $0.40/kwh USD). It is Luz y Fuerza, a private electric utility who provide 24 hour service. It is still less expensive than operating my diesel generators (have two). I have two a/cs (18,000 BTU/ea), pool, 2 refridgerators and 1 chest freezer, and two water pumps (two independant water systems, a submersible Myers well pump and a cistern water pump) and I do have an inverter but rarely use it, as the electrical service is excellent thus far.

Oh I almost forgot, my three dogs eat 2 large bags/month (54 lb) dogfood plus medicine, another $3,000/mo. needs to be added to my list.

[drtampa]

"We are not ex-pats"?????
Asuncion is not an ex-pat.
However, eventhough you have been gone for 45 years, you were born in America (mom - North American, dad - Central American), reared in America, educated in America, speak American and act American (all good qualities).
Based on the above, I'm certain that Asuncion hired the help.

[Lambada]

We are expats, I think you'd agree, HB? Our cleaning lady gets 2,400 pesos per month plus 100 pesos a day in transport costs plus snack lunch. She works 3 mornings a week so for comparison purposes it works out at 200 pesos a morning. She does the cleaning, not the cooking, which I do. I consider her to be well paid & more importantly, so does she - she's been with us 12 years. And she's worth every peso! If you were to total up her hours to a fulltime job it would work out similarly to what SamanaJon pays, except that we never would have a fulltime person because there is only so much cleaning needed! However, during her morning our cleaning lady has no down time: other than her snack lunch, she works continuously. Fulltime staff by the nature of a full days work have more down time.

I don't know that it's so much 'they saw you coming' but it might be that those of us who pay above the odds do so deliberately, with eyes wide open, knowing what the price of essential food items is and wanting to help out if we can. I agree that it is higher than many Dominicans would pay but it doesn't necessarily mean we are foolish. Could be something to do with our political philosophy..........but I won't get into that!