Lately Puerto Rico has really been in our mind. We are MORE THAN READY to move mentally/emotionally. So we have been thinking about getting ready to move physically. We wrote up all the things we will need to do in the next few months so that we can just up and move there. A lot of this is a general checklist for moving pretty much anywhere, but some of it is specific to moving to Rincon Puerto Rico. After living somewhere for so long (Greeley) there are things we just don’t think about much. We have lived here in our first home for 10 years. Things like car titles, using up old stuff, medical and school transcripts/records , making sure we have Social Security cards, etc. Also we don’t really have an “address” to ship stuff to, so that will be something to figure out.
For those of you who have already made the move to Puerto Rico (or elsewhere), are there any other things we should think about/take care of before we ship out?
- Banks (change over address and ensure future bank cards are delivered to us)
- Open new Bank Account inPuerto Rico
- Cars (get titles together, sell)
- Buy new car inPuerto Rico
- Go thru all Stuff/Junk (to friends/family, charity, sell or toss). *Question: How much should we take with or replace?
- Find new homes for the chickens
- Get Kitty’s vet records and learn what it will take to bring him with us on the airplane
- Get house cleaned professionally (carpet, bathrooms, kitchen, etc)
- Put remaining properties under managment(2)
- Host a going away party!
- Put together all personal / professional records
- Call insurance agents to cancel car insurance and change home policies to rental and update address
- Sell assets we can’t manage from afar
- Use up old stuff and don’t buy new stuff (Frozen food, cleaners, canned food, bathroom supplies, etc)
- Look for boxes and pack up / label and have family ship to us when we get there
- Buy airline tickets and line up rental car for appx 1 month while we look for a new car
- Find new homes for our plants (coffee, banana, orchids)
- Get tax documents together for 2012 filing
- Update address with property tax assessor, 401k, IRA, etc
- Setup things we need down there (we already have water and electric. Mayyyybe internet? Cell phone? )
- Find new server / hosting for website and promote
We have been thinking about this a lot more lately as it appears we will be moving our date up. We don’t have an exact new deadline but we figure we can take care of a lot of these things now in preparation. Stay tuned for posts on many of the items in the above list!
Exciting isn’t it? A couple of things about PR. The furniture available here is of terrible quality and expensive. We were warned, but didn’t really believe it. And second-hand furniture is unheard of. It’s worth considering having any nice furniture you have shipped. The same goes for vehicles. Actually, the same goes for everything here. For the cost of shipping your quality stuff, you’ll buy crappy stuff here.
Thanks Sage! We really don’t own super high quality stuff here either…I think we paid about $900 for a couch, loveseat, coffee table and two end tables. And the furniture I do own that is nice, I got from my parents as a kid and will be going back to my mom. Is there a better selection in San Juan perhaps? They have that huge mall…could maybe rent a U-Haul van and pick out some stuff. Did you try that or just around the west coast? Also, we met a Russian guy that lived in the middle of the jungle there on one trip and he made custom wood furniture and carvings. We thought that would be pretty cool too. Not sure on price though, but would definitely be unique.
As for the cars…the newest is Britton’s ’98 Honda with like 295,000 miles on it. And the oldest is his ’75 Corvette. None are really practical for PR or for paying the $2000+ to ship over. Stuff we’re not sure on are: bicycles, kitchen gadgets and plates, tools, sentimental stuff, books, computers (we have like 4 with the servers and everything).
Stuff that will be easy sells: treadmill, guitar amps/equipment, plasma TV, furniture. I will probably get rid of near all my clothes…not sure on wedding dress. It’s going to tough for sure. We have accumulated more than I think we realize over these past 10 + years plus all our stuff pre “us”. And while I am not a shopaholic by any stretch (in fact the opposite), the stuff we do have I have a hard time letting go of.
I definitely understand. Selling everything we owned was a very liberating experience for us! Of course now I miss that copper cookware! And Naomi terribly regrets selling so much of her crafting supplies.
Our clothing choices here are certainly different. I think I’ve worn a pair of pants once in the last year. I only wear real shoes when I’m mowing the lawn. And I only buy quick dry/sweat wicking type shirts.
How exciting that you guys are coming sooner than planned! Here are some of our hits and misses (you asked!):
Make sure you know the EXACT mailing address you will be using in PR, for your USPS forwarding order. It will be good for a year. We knew all the components of our new address, but one element was out of order, according to the addressing conventions used in PR. I repeatedly spoke with everyone from the manager at our old post office to the head of the PR postal service, and was never able to correct it. No, wait, they did correct it, probably five times–all wrong. I spent a year contacting all entities (financial, pensions, subscriptions, etc etc etc) trying to get them to change our address in a manner that’s suitable to the PR USPS. It got so convoluted I ended up creating a spreadsheet to track entities and all actions taken, with dates. Thank you Excel.
We shipped 80% of our household goods, and gave away the other 20%. It cost $17,000 from N. Calif., but it was worth it. We could not have replaced all our stuff for $17k. We also USPS’d about 10 $15 boxes and we traveled with about 10 suitcases. Again, worth the expense. Sage is right. Mostly crappy furniture, with the nice stuff being prohibitively expensive (e.g., solid mahogany). Even nice rattan is pricey. Furniture is available here at Sears, Macys, West Elm, Ashley, and more–same quality as stateside. Don’t buy or bring anything made of pine or other soft wood (termite issues).
We shipped Steve’s old Santa Fe a couple of weeks before departure, and sold my nice Maxima, turning it over to the new owner the day before. It cost about $3,500 (shipping and import tax) to get Steve’s car here, but…. Steve had taken excellent care of his steed. It had over 230k miles on it and now has over 250k. There was no way he could get a reliable beater for $3500. He figured it would last about a year and we would just use one car before we both had to buy cars. Well, here it is 20 months later and it’s still going strong. If anything, the salt air will take its toll on the chassis before the engine or transmission or AC fail. We wound up renting a car for less than a week before the Santa Fe arrived. Car rentals are expensive here; we felt the $$ was better spent in getting Steve’s car here. Again, totally worth the shipping cost. BTW, I ended up buying a car for myself a year ago, which was probably a mistake. We rarely go our separate ways and we could have made it work with just Steve’s car. If you do ship a car, make it a rugged one. The potholes here are called craters.
Taxes … what can I say. Get your ducks in a row, especially with your stateside rental income. Try to get it right from the start. It’s very hard to fix anything here, once it’s been screwed up. The first year you file will be the most complicated. We went with a recommended local CPA who charged waaay too much (like most everything here). Big mistake. Next year we’ll go with an H&R Block enrolled agent who’s familiar with stateside income.
I set up bill paying for virtually everything, through a travel rewards credit card. That ensured all bills were being paid even if our address was wrong. We never closed our stateside bank accounts, which automatically paid the total credit card bills every month. Once our automatic deposits started hitting our new PR accounts, I changed the paying bank to the new accounts. This whole process took some tracking (another spreadsheet) but eventually got squared away, and most importantly, no payments were missed.
Besides your SSA cards, if you don’t already have passports, get them. Better there than here. No, you don’t need one to travel here, but it’s another form of ID. You’ll get asked for IDs a lot. Also, get your “original” (stamped or with a seal) birth certificates. Also, “original” marriage certificate. Take all with you to all govt. agencies. It sucks to wait in line for hours, only to be told you’re missing one document.
You probably know this or it may not be pertinent, but you are not allowed to bring over any firearms, unless they come in a sealed household shipment(*), which can only be opened by the state police, who will hold the firearms until you’ve jumped through the dozens of flaming hoops, including paying hundreds of dollars in stamps, vouchers, and notaries to get a license for possession. You also need sworn statements from 3 bona fide residents who have known you for a long time and can vouch for your character. Here, only the gangsters can easily get guns. Just sayin’.
(*or other approved shipment where firearms are declared)
Sorry this is so long. Hope it helps…… — Fran
Furniture – wood will mold and there are termites. Don’t ship anything nice or buy anything nice. Clothes – you should get everything here since it is cheap and you won’t ever wear real shoes or clothes. Buy hiking/work boots (for the property) in the states – there are none for women here and limited selection for men. Pots and pans – caphalon stuff is too heavy and takes too long to heat up on gas stoves and don’t bring any spatulas etc with wood handles (gross mold). Get hard drives in the states (no selection here). Cars – cost more here but get one with the longest warranty (Kia) even though they are crap since everything will break down. I wish I had brought a few of my favorite gardening tools and more art stuff (sold most of it). Cats and dog need certain paperwork and shots a certain number of days before flying (check airline requirements). They will search them so bring a soft leash to prevent escape. Tuck them under your seat. When Britton comes have him work out with the Post Office a “hold.” San German already had boxes here on hold when we got here. We shipped everything (scuba tanks, art, pots/pans, clothes (limited), towels, USPS for $5000 or so. A lot was tools (priority boxes – strap them up with duc tape or things will shoot out). A better suggestion is to get a private mail box (we have one in Aguadilla at Post and Shop) so you never have to wait in lines to get or send stuff. There is a person there 9-5 every day and we never have to worry that UPS or FEDEX will zoom past our house or just not come and send stuff back. It does cost a lot to restock a house but honestly, your needs here will be different. Most cost will be appliances, beds, matresses and tools. Rent a car for only one week and make sure you can return it somewhere other than San Juan. A week will force you to make a decision but you will have seen the limited choices by then anyway.
If you ship your things on a freight ship, you can do it yourself and pick it up when u get there because it takes about a month+ to get to PR. I used Rosa del Monte. Their prices were pretty good. You can use conway or anyone who will do it. We picked our stuff up in Toa Baja. You have to pay taxes when you pick it up. You can ship a car if it’s worth it. A Honda in PR is worth more than in the US, but you pay for shipping and then pay a tax to pick it up which iis $750+ depending on the cars value. Also in PR your car must have all the original parts (body, windows, etc) or you need a receipt to prove the part isn’t stolen. I recomend getting a stick shift car or 4X4 for PR because of all the mountains, but I am sure you are familiar being from CO. Good Luck