Grenada: As A LIP Location

We’ve still got 3 weeks left until we leave Grenada but having now been here for what feels like months, I think we’re in a good position to review it…

So how does Caribbean-living in Grenada live up to our usual LIP standards?

Based on our original list of criteria below, here is how it measured up…

1) Has a lower cost of living
2) Is English-speaking, or at least we could get by in English
3) Is a bit more ‘exotic’ and different from the usual expat places
4) Has good internet & telecoms structure
5) Is politically stable & safe
6) Has a decent infrastructure that wouldn’t require us to ‘rough it’

1)
The cost of living in Grenada is both high and low. It can be as expensive as a major city if you choose to buy the brand-name, imported goods from the supermarket, eat out all the time (especially at the more upscale places like the Calabash) and hire a car for the whole time.

On the other hand, it can be a very reasonable place to live if you choose to eat & shop more locally – buying local fruits & veg from the market & stalls, eating locally-caught fish and staying away from the popular US/UK brand named goods.

In this respect, I think Grenada is a great L.I.P place because it gives you this wide range of choice and you can mix it up depending upon how flush you are feeling. Basically, whatever you want, is pretty much available (at the right price).

The only thing that isn’t perhaps a ‘lower cost’ than the UK is the accommodation – but it is affordable and we are living in the Caribbean. Given the choice between paying the same amount for a flat in Nottingham or an apartment in the Caribbean, I know which I’d pick!

2) Definitely English-speaking, although sometimes the strong local accent can be a challenge to understand. There is also a contingent of Europeans here (Germans, French, Italians).

3) Grenada is lovely, exotic, tropical paradise. Most definitely a little more exotic than typical expat places in Majorca, France etc. and there is of course, that laid-back, Caribbean vibe to the place which you just don’t get anywhere else.

4) High speed internet access is fine – no better or worse than anywhere else we’ve been. Our apartment has high speed wireless internet (although frustratingly my P.C. doesn’t seem to work but Jonathan’s MAC does – it has been the other way round before any of you MAC-addicts use this as another reason to trump up a MAC over a P.C.!!). We’ve had just one power cut so far and it lasted about 20 minutes.

There are a couple of internet cafes too for emergencies (including a new one just opened up in the complex behind Spiceland Mall – the Marquise Complex, I think it is) but we have so far not needed to use these.

5) Politically stable & safe – the locals are generally good-natured, friendly & peaceful and too busy “limin” (chilling out!). The biggest hazard here is the weather – although outside the hurricane belt, the island is still recovering from the effects of Ivan & Emily in 2004/5 and it is the financial repercussions of this which are still dominating the political scene.

6) Apparently one of the more developed islands of the Windward chain, Grenada isn’t quite a 1st world country but it is certainly not 3rd world. Whilst you do see poverty & other signs of under-development (pot-holed roads, dogs wandering about everywhere, rubbish dumps), these are minimal and the backward nature of the island has a real charm about it. In addition, there are some very-much 1st world aspects of the island which again give you the ideal choice.

In Summary

Grenada is a fantastic place – I don’t think it’s much of a secret that we’ve loved our time here.

As a L.I.P location if Caribbean/island living is what you are looking for, then you can stop looking – it’s almost perfect.

There is an abundance of affordable accommodation, great local food, friendly (except in most restaurants, cafes & shops) people and of course the beautiful beaches & azure ocean to keep you amused when you’re not working. Technology-wise you can also stay connected easily.

As far as getting ‘island fever’ goes, I think that’s a personal preference as to how much of a variation you like in your environment. One of the only drawbacks about Grenada is that it isn’t the most easily-accessible island to get to – usually requiring a stop-over or change of plane from most places.

And the best measure of Grenada as a L.I.P location?….we will be coming back!!

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The Characteristics of a Happy LIP

Flexible and adaptable – you can’t be a stressball about having to have your life planned out 12 months in advance, you’ll hate being a LIP (this used to be me, it isn’t now!).

Organised & a careful researcher/planner – working out flights, layover hotels, pre-booked accommodation etc. etc. requires some careful research, planning & forethought. You learn as you go along but the more organised you are about it to begin with the less time you’ll spend re-visiting that same site over & over & over again looking for that nugget of information you knew you saw once.

Good at making decisions – this is a MUST have. It can get very tiring & draining having to make constant decisions about where to next (obviously this only happens if you’re not really happy with where you are). The important thing we’ve learned is to make a decision and then action it.

Smile-y – another MUST have if you want to make friends, have people be nice & friendly to you and give a good impression of yourself to the locals whose country you’re in.

Adventurous - with food, with language, with experiences. There’s no point going somewhere new if you’re going to be scared to try new things & stay in your apartment all the time. Left to my own devices I can go for days without leaving my house (my record when we lived in our apartment in Nottingham was 5 straight days without leaving it – it was a very nice apartment) – but living in Grenada at the moment I live for the times we can jump in the jeep, go exploring for a new beach or down to our favourite coffee place.

Easygoing & go-with-the-flow – again, not really a natural one for me although the Caribbean influence is definitely rubbing off. Things will sometimes go wrong – flights will be delayed, plans won’t work out – as a L.I.P it generally really doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t cost you tons more money. We find nowadays that if we miss a flight (not that we have yet) or things don’t quite fit together, it really doesn’t bother us – we have plenty of time, are generally never in a rush for anything and it’s all part of the journey.

How Much Money Do You Need…

…to live the life of a Location Independent Professional?

What Tim Ferriss (from the 4 Hour Work Week) says is very true. You can live like a millionaire on a lot less than a million. As a LIP one of the benefits is being able to enjoy a much higher quality of living for a much lower cost than you might pay in your home town (if of course your home town is in the US or the UK or any other 1st world, commercialised nation).

If you want a ball park figure, I would say that you can get by in some places very happily on approx. £1,200-1,500 per month (Approx. US$3,000). This would easily suffice in somewhere like Buenos Aires where you could afford a comfortable 1, maybe 2 bedroom apartment in some of the nicest areas, dinner at least twice a week in some of the nicest restaurants in town and transport in taxis. You could also afford the trappings of a fairly decent cultural & social life – cinema visits, theatre visits, weekend or day trips.

It would also just about be enough in Panama for a pretty nice life too – again covering dinners out, transport by taxis, social activities and some decent accommodation.

Not quite enough for Toronto however to live a comfortable life and afford all the stuff you probably don’t need but you’re surrounded by it, see it and therefore want it. I’d say here you’re looking at more like £2,500 to £3,000 per month to do the things you’d like to do and even then you’d probably need more than that to live like a millionaire.

But £1,500 is just about enough for Grenada, although again, it will depend upon your accommodation costs and also whether you choose to hire a car. I’d say in Grenada you’d be more comfortable on about £2,000+ per month.

Of course, you can live for less – and to some people this may sound a lot of money if they live in their small home town on a lot less than this. But remember, I’m talking about a higher quality of life – being able to live in the Caribbean for example (and do your morning workout on a paradise beach for free instead of paying through the nose for a gym) on about the same amount of money it would cost you to live a comfortable life in a ‘decent’ city in the UK. And of course, you could manage on less if you didn’t go out to eat, cooked for yourself all the time and didn’t experience everything on offer.

But where’s the fun in that? Who wants to just ‘manage’?

I’d much rather choose to live somewhere that allows my money to go a lot further and affords me a much better quality of living than I could have at ‘home’. That’s the benefit of being a LIP.

And another thing…if at any time your business or finances take a turn for the worse, you are free to go to an even cheaper country (for example, Bolivia) where your money will stretch even further until you get yourself on an even keel again.

Foods For LIPs: One of the Many LIP Benefits…

…is that you get to try a huge variety of foods around the world.

As a former health coach & BIG organic fan, one of the many benefits of living the Location Independent life is that you can try the local, seasonal food of the country you’re staying in.

On our journey we’ve tried:

In Panama

• Sancocho (type of chicken soup)
• Empanadas (pastry things stuffed with meat & veg)
• Plantains
• Local corvina (sea bass)
• Balboa, Atlas & Panama beer

In Buenos Aires

• Grass-fed, Pampas-pastured beef
• Pizzas almost as good as in Italy
• Red wine
• Dulce de leche (sweet, sickly, caramelly & (over) used in desserts & cakes)
• Yerba mate (’sociable’ tea)

In Grenada

• Coconut water & tender flesh straight from the tree (we drink/eat this daily after our morning jog & swim)
• Avocados picked from the tree
• Mangoes
• Chin ups (try as I might, I can’t find much info about these little, round, green fruits – sucked like sweets and from the lychee family)
• Organic, award-winning chocolate (grown & made right here on the island in a solar-powered ‘factory’)
• Rotis – flat, ‘chapati’-like bread stuffed with curried potato & meat or conch.