It has been a strange few weeks.
We’ve slowly been settling into married life, while also settling Baby Way into the reality that he can now see other humans!
Meanwhile, I’ve been becoming increasingly tired of my job. My boss is treating me really badly, and I miss being able to work from home.
3 Day Week
I took the decision to go down to 3 days a week so I can help with childcare. This means not only do I get to spend more time with Baby Way, but Mrs Way also gets to return to the work she loves.
Due to my work-related stresses, Mrs Way had told me to apply for new jobs each time my boss frustrates me.
One such incident occurred, and was swiftly followed by a visit to job advert sites.
Most were sounding rather boring until one mentioned the location – The Caribbean!
I promptly sent a short email with my CV attached and got back to the day job.
Just a couple of days later the company contacted me. They wanted to interview me! Another few days and they confirmed they were going to make me an offer.
Decision Time
So here we are – trying to decide whether to take the plunge.
We don’t know the financial details yet, but the decision is much bigger than that.
Can we justify taking Baby Way there when he’s only 1?
It will be tough to move so far from family and friends.
The population is only around 25k – will we find enough to do?
We’ve both wanted to work abroad for a long time and we finally have a realistic opportunity to do so.
Is now the right time? Is this opportunity too good to miss?
There are so many factors involved that we’ll struggle to make this decision. We’re notoriously bad at decision making so something this important will be agonising!
Finances
We’re hoping that the financial side of things is enough to more than cover our living expenses – which will be incredibly high. We would be happy to put our FI goals on hold for a while in order to take such an opportunity to live in the Caribbean!
Of course, if we could maintain anything like our previous savings rates of ~60%, that would be even better!Living in a tax haven, there may well be advantages to be had. We would aim to keep our expenses as low as practicable – despite being in an incredibly expensive place.
We haven’t yet felt comfortable putting Baby Way into childcare so we would be on a single salary – mine! We don’t know how childcare will look there but at the moment we have to assume Mrs Way won’t work yet.
Another negative aspect for myself is giving up my 3 day week. I would lose some precious time with Baby Way, but is it a sacrifice worth taking?
Decision Time!
It really is decision time for us.
If you have any advice for us we would be incredibly grateful!
In terms of Baby Way I would say that it would be easier for him now than taking him out of school in the future to move across the world and have to go to a new school in a foreign country. If you don’t like it you can always come back!
Thanks Sam, that’s a fair point. He would probably love it! I think the biggest worry is him missing out on time with our family and friends.
Hello. Long term reader here. It’s great to see a new post away from the monthly ones.
This is obviously a very difficult decision but it’s also an incredibly exciting moment.
As Sam has mentioned above it’s probably the perfect time for you to take a child. They are at the age where they learn from their environment so they are likely to thrive vs struggle.
I guess it’s hard to offer advice when there’s still many factors unknown (financial compensation, Mrs Way’s work etc).
Is she not able to continue some teaching on the Island? and or some remote work potentially?
The fact you went down to three days a week so you could both work suggests she enjoys her work. This could make the move difficult if shes unable to work. You will be working all day and she’s the one who will be isolated.
This is not a reason to reject the opportunity I just think more clarity would enable you to make the decision. It sounds like (cliche) a once in a lifetime opportunity and something which would be great for a number of years. It may be something you live to regret if you don’t accept it and the fact you have three days a week now shouldn’t be a reason not to take it. Your boss sounds awful.
I am excited to see how this pans out. You have a potentially amazing opportunity to take right now; especially given the pandemic any further lockdowns/restrictions. It could be a great time to make the move.
Keep posting. I am excited to find out more.
Thanks Ryan.
Firstly apologies for the lack of posts recently. We’ve been finding life with Baby Way tough so struggling to find the time/motivation!
Ideally Miss Way would be able to do something part time. We’ll look into this as soon as my offer comes through and we know it’s feasible.
Still lots of unknowns but hopefully everything falls into place – it would be a great opportunity if we can make it work!
Hi there! I spent three years in my late twenties in the Turks and Caicos. Loved it and met my wife there. We decided that three years was enough for us and came to London. No regrets on that decision either. Hypothetically, if we’d had the opportunity to go with a baby, I’d like to think we would have and it seemed a great place to bring up young kids from the people we knew there. I suspect we may have come back again for schooling. I’m sure you’d love it. Our eldest has a medical condition that would have made it tricky – ongoing trips to a prosthetist would have been a pain. Good luck with your decision making! Stuart
Hi Stuart. Thank you so much for this message, it’s really helpful. Is there any particular reason for thinking you would have returned for schooling? How did you find cost of living in Turks and Caicos? Any other tips/tricks you don’t mind sharing? Thanks again 🙂
Hi there. Slow in responding, sorry. On the schooling point, a lot of our friends were sending their kids to boarding school, at least for secondary school. That wasn’t something we would have wanted to do. We were there 25 years ago (feeling old). I’m sure the on-island school choices are better now than they were. I suspect you’ll find when your child is getting close to primary school age, that that will trigger a take stock moment for you and your partner. Cost of living was eye-watering! Everything had to be imported and hefty duties on most things. But we were both on good salaries and virtually no tax taken off. Other thoughts: my alcohol consumption went through the roof! If I don’t taste another Corona for the rest of my life, I’ll be happy. Having a baby should insulate you from that. Really easy place to meet people and felt welcome. Learnt to dive, windsurf. Played loads of other sports. You just had to force yourself to make the most of it. I see from your recent blog that you’ve decided to go. Congratulations! I’m sure the three of you will love it. The kind of people that can make out of the comfort zone decisions like that are the kind of people that will make the most of the adventure.