Living The Freelance Writing Life: How & Why I Moved to Jamaica

This is a guest post from Yuwanda Black of Inkwell Editorial . Her and I both took the leap, and decided to run our businesses from abroad. While I am in the beautiful country of Thailand, Yuwanda is living the good life and running a successful business from the Paradise we know as Jamaica. Read her inspiring post on how she finally took the leap and what life is like for in Jamaica!

Living The Freelance Writing Life: How & Why I Moved to Jamaica – and You Can Too!

I’m an American freelance writer. In October of 2013, I unofficially made the move to Jamaica (Negril). In October of this year, the move became official.

Why did it take so long to make the transition official? Well, mainly because I had to shed possessions back in the states; find a place I could really see myself living in for at least the next three to five years in Jamaica; and most importantly, register my freelance writing business in order to be able to live and work here legally full-time.

Why Jamaica? Why Now?

Oh boy, this is a story – so bear with me.

I’ve been visiting Negril regularly since 2009. When I first visited, I had no preconceived plans or desire to live here. I was happily ensconced in a big house in suburbia back in Atlanta. But when I lost my corporate job in 2007, I careened into some financial difficulties that it took me a couple of years to dig myself out of. I ran through savings, had to borrow from family to pay the mortgage some months, and it was just really stressful.

I’ve freelanced since 1993; full-time from 1997 to 2006, and from 2007 until now. After I lost my last corporate position in 2007, I tried to find a new job again – one that paid me enough to meet my monthly expenses. But, it wasn’t happening. I was overqualified for a lot of jobs I applied for, and under-qualified for a lot.

There were jobs that I could have landed, but they didn’t pay nearly enough to meet my expenses. So, in a fit of frustration one day, I deleted my resume from my hard drive and decided to make a go of freelancing full-time. I haven’t looked back since. But those difficult financial years – from 2007 to 2009 in particular – really got me to thinking about life and what I wanted from it as I got older. And you know what? Stressing about paying bills wasn’t on the agenda.

I’m 48 and retirement is an ever-present concern. I crunched some numbers and realized that I was way behind in saving for my golden years. Yeah, I could pay off my house, but it was depreciating in value (the real estate bust in 2007/2008 really hit Atlanta hard), and I didn’t know if it would regain its value any time soon. And, my mortgage payment was money I could have been socking into retirement – not a depreciating asset like a mortgage.

All of this got me to thinking about simplifying life. My house was way too big (5 bedrooms, over 4,000 square feet and it was just me). I was also spending more and more time away from it. One of my bucket list items was to live in a foreign country for at least a year, and coming to Jamaica made me realize that I could make up for lost time financially by cutting expenses.

So I took the leap – and while I do miss the states terribly some days, financially this is the best move I could have made. I’m saving more for retirement (making up for lost time) and am growing my company faster (just started a publishing division of Inkwell Editorial where I buy work from ghostwriters).

3 Things You Should Know If You Want to Live and Work in Jamaica as a Foreigner

1. Getting a job in Jamaica as a foreigner is not easy. Preference is given to Jamaican citizens (of course). So unless you have a special skill (eg, being bilingual) that a qualified Jamaican wouldn’t normally have, you have to bring your own job, so to speak.

Luckily, I’ve been a freelance writer for years. It’s the ideal portable career. BUT, that was the easy part. You still have to …

2. Register a business and become your own employee if you’re unable to find a job here – which again, most likely you won’t without a special skill. Let me tell ya, registering a business is a p-r-o-c-e-s-s!, which is a subject for another post.

It took four trips to Kingston, one out of the country for two months, and one to a neighboring town (Sav-La-Mar) to the police station to get all the paperwork done. FYI, Kingston is 4-5 hours away from Negril, which meant getting up in the middle of the night to catch a bus to be at the right offices on time – and coming back, all in the same day.

I went to Kingston like three times in three weeks when I first got back in September. Talk about exhausting! Like I said, it’s a process. But I can come and go as often as I like to Jamaica – and stay as long as I like; so it’s worth it now that it’s all done.

FYI, here is a link to one of the best explanations I’ve read about how to create your own job in Jamaica (scroll down to #3, “Working in Jamaica”).

3. The cost of housing can be cheap here, but the cost of household goods that we can get very cheaply in the states is more expensive here; eg, things like soft home furnishings (curtains, rugs, throw pillows, etc.). Also, the selection is not what we’re used to in the states – at least not here in Negril. I haven’t shopped in Kingston or Montego Bay, which are larger cities ad have more shopping outlets.

Cost of Living in Jamaica: My Monthly Expenses

I pay $30,000 Jamaican dollars for a studio apartment with a balcony overlooking the ocean (270-degree views). With the current exchange rate, this is less than $270. Total monthly expenses including cable, internet and electricity work out to roughly $430.

FYI, you don’t need a car in Negril, which is really just a small country beach town, and you can walk everywhere or take a taxi. I’m buying myself a bike for Christmas. I walk everywhere and only take taxis when I absolutely have to.

As for entertainment, you can spend $10 and get a simple chicken and rice/peas meal and have two or three drinks at a local bar. So when I say living in Negril can be cheap, I mean it.

Note: I say housing “can” be cheap here in Negril. You have to do your homework to find a deal like the one I have, but it’s rare that you’ll have to pay more than $500 for a nice, safe place (studio to 2-bedroom).

How Much Does Food Cost in Jamaica

Food can be expensive here – if you don’t know how to shop. I gave up a lot of stuff I usually eat in the states because they’re just too expensive here; for example, grapes. I love grapes. But here in Jamaica, you pay like $4 or $5 for just a few – you’re lucky if there are 20 or 25 grapes in the package. Back home at Walmart, they’re like $1.99 a pound.

So I’ve learned to eat like the locals – get lots of fresh fish and vegetables (which are sold on the side of the road by vendors for very reasonable prices (eg, a pound of fresh tomatoes for $100 JMD, which is about 90 cents in US currency).

I spend roughly $40 per week on groceries; less when I don’t have to buy coffee and cream; those things are hella expensive here, but I’m an addict; can’t do without it.

So again, if you adjust what you eat, you don’t have to spend a lot on food. And by the way, I eat way more healthy here because junk food is expensive, I cook a lot more at home than I did in the states and there aren’t fast food establishments on every corner.

For example, I love Cheetos. A little bag here – like the ones you pay 25 cents for in the states – cost roughly a dollar here. Guess who’s eating less Cheetos? And, I eat a lot more fresh fish, chicken and vegetables, which again are available all over here – in the grocery store, and by independent vendors who set up on street corners and outside local stores.

Total Monthly Daily Expenses Living in Jamaica: Roughly $600

FYI, the fees for my work visa work out to about $200 per month. Now, this is paid up all at one time when you go through the business registration process, so it’s not money that’s coming out of my bank account monthly, but I just wanted you to know that you have to account for that as a foreigner.

Once I’m a resident, I won’t have to pay these fees. Another way to avoid them – fall in love and marry a Jamaican.

Total Monthly Expenses Living in Jamaica (Including Work Visa): Roughly $800

If you include miscellaneous expenses like personal grooming (manicures, hair braiding, etc.); doing tourist things (eg, paragliding on the beach); eating out at more expensive (usually beach) establishments; etc., it’s easy to spend several hundred dollars more per month (and I usually do).

But if I really, really needed to, it’s comforting to know that I can pay all of my necessary expenses for less than $1,000 per month – way less. But I want to drive this message home again …

Beware of “Cheap”

Where you can get in trouble here is that some things are so cheap (eg, drinking at local bars), that you wind up going out way more than you should and spending more than you should. This adds up quickly if you’re not keeping a close eye on your finances. It’s kinda like going to the 99 cent store. You go in for a few things, and come out having spent $20 or $30. So you just have to watch this.

Conclusion

Thanks to financial shows like Suze Orman, I realized that I had to “get real” about what my golden years were going to look like if I didn’t start saving way more for retirement. This is what really started the ball to rolling in my head about making drastic changes so I would be ok.

In the article, What Baby Boomers Are Getting So Wrong About Retirement, Suze had the following to say about saving for retirement. The article is aimed at the 60+ crowd, but again, I’m 48 – not so far away from 60. This mirrored what I was thinking as I contemplated making the move to Jamaica:

I know you want to stay in the house. But please be realistic. Even if you are mortgage-free there will always be insurance, and property tax and maintenance. If the cost of those expenses is going to be too much, the best retirement planning move you can make today is to start thinking about where and when you will downsize. It may be to a smaller home in your neighborhood, or perhaps an entirely different state [or in my case, a different country], where you can live easily by living debt free.

And this is exactly why and how I find myself living the freelance life in Jamaica – for at least the next three to five years. Why three to five years? Because I plan to apply for residency, and that’s a rough estimate of the amount of time I have to be in the country before I can apply and (hopefully) get approved.

In the meantime, I’m working, growing my company, saving as much as possible – and enjoying immersing myself in the beauty of this island.

Jamaica truly is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been (and I’ve done some travelling). I always describe it this way when people ask me what it’s like … I say, “When God created the word ‘paradise,’ he had Jamaica in mind.”

Yeah, it’s THAT gorgeous – a perfect place to live the freelance life, stress free.

What Does Your Future Look Like?

Have you thought about your future? Do you know where you’re going to be financially in 10, 15 or 20 years? Are you on track to achieve those goals? It’s never too early (or too late) to start thinking about these things – and making moves to get on track if you’ve veered off.

P.S.: Want to know what it’s like to “live the freelance life” in another cheap country? This is a “trade off” post I did with Nina Lewis, who obviously lives in Thailand. We talked about doing this this past summer since we both get so many questions about how and why we made the move as Americans to live in other countries. Here’s her story on my blog about how and why she made the move to Thailand – and what it costs to live there.