Willing to have your brain drained? :)

I am now 65 and I've been living in the DR for 5 1/2 years. My original objective was to find a location that I was able to live in relative comfort on what amounted to $1,500 a month.

I've been a traveler/visitor & resident to many countries over the years. In fact I spent more than 15 years in the Caribbean, mostly in the British Virgin Islands. True, at the time I was employed and earning enough to stay afloat in that woefully expensive country. I lived aboard my sailboat for the most part, thankfully reducing my monthly housing expenses.

I have been to Central America, Japan, Canada and a few others. All of which proved to be FAR easier to adapt than here in the DR.

The first two years proved that I was woefully ill equipped to accept the inherently corrupt standards of the general society here. The learning curve is steep and long. The social structure is built upon a model of its own government... LIE, Cheat and steal. The petty but omnipresent mentality is to strip the Gringo (even your neighbor or family) of anything that is not nailed down or is green and folds.

I opened a pizzeria in town a few years back and did quite well. The food was lauded everywhere but the employees found ways to increase costs by 100% within only a few months. I closed the doors and retired once again.

I married a Dominican woman who is about 30 years my junior and quite savvy... her objective is to take very good care of HER meal-ticket and be sure no-one else manages to part me from HER money.

It may sound as if I am bitter. Well, I'm not. My father min-quoted some one accurately when he said 'ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances'. I did, I do and I find that I'm less of a target now but the soaring costs resulting from a government that makes the US Congress spending, appropriating and trickery look like school children...I need almost $2,300 a month now TO LIVE ON RICE AND BEANS. just THE food costs have risen generally about 30% in the last 18 months.

The is a fine line between the "benefits" of Residency and your wide open liability once you've been granted that privilege.

If you wish to make a living in the computer business I suggest you be prepared for competition. There is competition you can see and the subversive competition you cannot. If you intention is to be an Internet mogul you will find that the reliability of ISP(s) is generally terrible and slow unless you settle in one of the three main cities where is is tolerable.

Electrical service is worse... many areas average about 4-hours of fluctuating voltage service followed by four-hours OR MORE of no service. I have installed an expensive 5KW inverter, a 7.5KW voltage regulator and 8ea. 6-volt batteries (almost $3,200 US dollars)in my house and still I have frequent need of my Honda 5KW generator ... Three gallons of either propane or gasoline may provide 5-6 hours of battery charging during the periods of NO service following some frequent failure of the service to return (often 12-15 hours). gasoline is currently (this week) about $5.80 a gallon and propane about $3.50. My generator consumes about $30 a month of gasoline and/or nearly $20 to ensure back up power for my 3BDRM, 2Bath house...It's actually quite cheap as the rent is about $200.00 US a month. Electric service is about another $100.00 for metered service (and is reported to increase 18$ annually very soon.

Needless to say... and oddly so... I've been inquiring about Argentina lately...Cuba too.

There are many reasons to visit here, even some that might attract a hearty entrepreneur but BUYER BEWARE...!

Don, thanks so much for the reply and the effort that you put into providing so much information. After living in Argentina for five years, nothing you said scares me that much except for the electricity issues and "soaring" costs. I would intend to locate in one of the major cities, most likely Santo Domingo. But if so, I need reliable power. I can't afford to let developers to be sitting around staring at the ceiling waiting for the lights to come back on. Electricity in Argentina is not reliable relative to the U.S., but sounds like it may be heaven compared to DR. In the city, we lose power for anywhere from an hour to 4 or 5 hours maybe 6-8 times a year. Even that is barely tolerable when your revenue depends on billing resources out by the hour.

Regarding increased costs, when I researched the inflation rate in DR, it didn't look that bad, but I'm wondering if the government is playing games with it as they are in Argentina. The "official" inflation rate here is about 12% which is high relative to the rest of Central/Latin America excluding Venezuela. But in reality, the president fired the head of the statistical agency here a couple of years ago and replaced him with a patsy willing to play with the numbers. The real inflation is about 25-30 percent annually. In five years, the exchange rate has moved from 3:1 to 4.26:1, so about a 40% improvement, but all of our costs have increased 2 times to 5 times in pesos. Our rent has gone from 1800 to 3700. Our weekly grocery bill has gone from 120 to 600. The 3 of us eating out in a casual restaurant (think Denny's) has gone from under 30 pesos to about 90 pesos. Gasoline has become much more expensive, but not like in DR.

Net starting pay for a very junior programmer has gone from 1200 pesos to about 3700 pesos.

This is what I'm looking to fix while not sacrificing too much in lifestyle. So, what's the inflation really like there?

Thanks again!

Sam,

The electrical issue in Santiago is reasonable, and always better than here in the campo. But without backup power in the form of inverter/charger and a bank of batteries protected by a voltage regulator you will spend a lot of time pulling at your hair.

Unless I miss my guess... the actual inflation % here has been well hidden in omnipresent government lies... I'm sure it is teetering upon an all out collapse. I see 40% within two years but the election next spring will accelerate it as it usually does.

There is NO work here and it is exacerbated by a very noticeable influx of Haitians who dilute the actual, physical-labor, market by working far too cheap. Anyone interested in history will point out the precursors to revolution exist in the DR....

Subscribe to DR1.com and DominicanToday.com for a daily look at what I hint herein.

Oh, one other thing that confused me...
You mentioned renting a 3BR2BA house for 200 dollars a month. I've been looking on line for a 3BR 2BA house of about 240-280 metros in a decent area and I haven't found anything less than about 1500 dollars a month which really concerned me. Any insight about the discrepancy?