I won’t mention her by name here on my blog because she has her own blog and you’ll be doing both yourself and her a favour if you jump on Google and search for her story, but yeah, we’re going to check-in with a lovely lady who took the leap and actually moved to the Bahamas. The first hand experiences of a newly-minted islander will definitely go a long way in keeping those budding islanders informed as to what the life that awaits them in the tropics has in store for them.

A financial hurdle to scale

Any which way you look at it, finding yourself living the life of an islander will require a sizeable financial sacrifice. Our newly-minted island lady was lucky enough to find love which blossomed with an islander, so she didn’t have to go through something like the citizenship by investment programme. She still had to jump over some major financial hurdles though, one of which is finding a way to make a living locally to sustain herself.

Packing up your entire life and starting anew has major financial implications, so you’ll have to brace yourself if you’re determined to live out your new life as an islander. You don’t necessarily have to be rich, but you will definitely feel it in your pocket.

A lifelong financial challenge

Life on an island is expensive, something which was attested to by our newly-minted islander lady, but it’s all relative really. If you compare it with life on the mainland country from whence you came then it will definitely appear to be expensive, but immerse yourself in the local islander way of life and you’ll get a whole new perspective on just how affordable and perhaps even downright cheap island life can be.

Most of the things you’ve probably become accustomed to will definitely come at a cost though, but that’s simple economics in that pretty much everything has to be imported. Most island countries do indeed have some sort of tax-free or low-tax structure, but this low or zero income tax is compensated for in other areas, such as through much higher import duties and VAT.

A higher quality of life

Switch your fizzy drinks for the local island coconuts and you’ll be solving two problems with one action. Refreshment will be much cheaper but it will also make for a much healthier life, two areas of your life which make for a higher quality of life in general.

There are many centenarians who live the island life and this only bears testimony to the higher quality of life they enjoy. Additionally, the slower rate at which life generally moves vastly reduces what are otherwise the daily stresses we’ve all become used to in our daily lives as mainlanders, so that’s perhaps another reason why islanders enjoy a higher quality of life and live longer.

So, does she want to go back to the USA? The answer is a big fat NO and I for one really don’t blame her for taking the leap and making her move to a tropical island a more permanent one.