So, after a short (Imust admit) look at the subjects of making money i Dr, which seems impossible, what do You people do to make money then?
Tom
Tom
- Thread starter sirkusartisten
- Start date
Are You making money?
Making Money
If I thought I could approach what I make here in the US I would have moved down there a long time ago. That's why I make my money up here while taking some of it down there.
If I thought I could approach what I make here in the US I would have moved down there a long time ago. That's why I make my money up here while taking some of it down there.
Like anywhere in the world those who strive for success can find it but it is not easy.Find a ervice that is needed and not provided.
J.H.
J.H.
Make it there,spend it here!
If you are 20 to 30 years old,and plan on coming to the DR to make your fortune,I hold out very little hope for you!The interest rate on borrowed money is in the 20%(Very Low) to 30,40,and even 50 % range per year! If you come with money to start a business every dominican who knows that you have $$$$$ will try to "GET" them from you.They don't want to be your partner in a successful business,they would much rather "Take" all your money!I would never in a million years become a business partner with any,repeat ANY dominican! The list of those who did,and lost,is endless! I have never lost a penny in a business deal here,but then I have never made a business deal here! Luckily I heard the HORROR stories before I brought my money down!CRIS
If you are 20 to 30 years old,and plan on coming to the DR to make your fortune,I hold out very little hope for you!The interest rate on borrowed money is in the 20%(Very Low) to 30,40,and even 50 % range per year! If you come with money to start a business every dominican who knows that you have $$$$$ will try to "GET" them from you.They don't want to be your partner in a successful business,they would much rather "Take" all your money!I would never in a million years become a business partner with any,repeat ANY dominican! The list of those who did,and lost,is endless! I have never lost a penny in a business deal here,but then I have never made a business deal here! Luckily I heard the HORROR stories before I brought my money down!CRIS
Hey dude
To make money in DR you have to be sleek, smart, fast,wise, experienced, arrogant, personable, fast talker, and a hard worker at what you do. You have to wake up before everybody else does, just to see what nobody sees, and go to bed late at night to see everything everybody sees. It does not matter if you are Dominican, but it may help in some areas.
As to what Criss said about getting involved with Dominicans....he is right. I have never gotten into a deal or trusted a Dominican in my whole life. I dont trust women. I dont trust anybody but me. Dominicans dont have a monopoly on deceit. There are a high number of Italian, German, French and English con men in DR who are cleaning up everybodys pockets. Italians are specially shrewd and can easily mingle into Dominican crowds like sankies in a beach full of tourists.
I made a deal for instance with an Italian and he thought he got over me because he made money unexpectedly from me on this deal. He made $15,000 in one day just signing some papers for me. I tried to get him for only $5000. What he did not know was that I made $150,000 on the same deal. But I cried and cried and made him believe he was taking me to the cleaners. We both won.
If you do business by yourself and dont tell anybody your secret you will never run out of money in DR. Only take cash in advance. No credit. Dont lend anybody your money unless you do it as a business and you know how to do it. Dont get married. Have a concubine and let her go before two years or less. Absolutely no children in DR. Dependents are for fools. Let somebody else support everybody else. Support yourself.
TW
To make money in DR you have to be sleek, smart, fast,wise, experienced, arrogant, personable, fast talker, and a hard worker at what you do. You have to wake up before everybody else does, just to see what nobody sees, and go to bed late at night to see everything everybody sees. It does not matter if you are Dominican, but it may help in some areas.
As to what Criss said about getting involved with Dominicans....he is right. I have never gotten into a deal or trusted a Dominican in my whole life. I dont trust women. I dont trust anybody but me. Dominicans dont have a monopoly on deceit. There are a high number of Italian, German, French and English con men in DR who are cleaning up everybodys pockets. Italians are specially shrewd and can easily mingle into Dominican crowds like sankies in a beach full of tourists.
I made a deal for instance with an Italian and he thought he got over me because he made money unexpectedly from me on this deal. He made $15,000 in one day just signing some papers for me. I tried to get him for only $5000. What he did not know was that I made $150,000 on the same deal. But I cried and cried and made him believe he was taking me to the cleaners. We both won.
If you do business by yourself and dont tell anybody your secret you will never run out of money in DR. Only take cash in advance. No credit. Dont lend anybody your money unless you do it as a business and you know how to do it. Dont get married. Have a concubine and let her go before two years or less. Absolutely no children in DR. Dependents are for fools. Let somebody else support everybody else. Support yourself.
TW
Words to live by Golo,couldnt have said it better except I will add one thing more expats have been screwed over by other expats than by Dominicans I oonly trust my mother and thats because she doesnt know my bank accout #
J.H.
J.H.
This is just perfect for me..*S* You guys are truly honest. I tried to make money on exporting fish to Spain once. The took the fish and never had any money, or they kept their marked closed for non spaniards. Looks like the same goes for DR.
I must admit my question was more of a qurious matter than sorting moneymaking out. I already made my money.
Please post more of Your experiences !
Tom
I must admit my question was more of a qurious matter than sorting moneymaking out. I already made my money.
Please post more of Your experiences !
Tom
Here's another opinion
Arelis Pe?a Brito an economics writer for the "El Caribe" newspaper just wrote this in her column today.
"CONSUMPTION the rent and the services swallow the monthly fixed income
"The lower middle-class" makes magic with their familiar budget ? More than magicians ": As authentic magicians of the domestic economy is how necessarily you define the Dominican lower middle class, which every month turns to incredible tricks to extend what until very recently used to be a manageable situation for families who appeared to have a comfortable margin.Today that comfortable budget appears meager before the long list of personal and familiar necessities. There were those who thought that an income of RD$20,000, that would be more or less the average of the monthly income of a person of lower middle class, was a "luxury wage" , but a simple mathematical calculation leads to a crude reality.
If you really sit down, think this thru and review the balance sheet for a family of hardly four members residing in a modest house, the payment of the school for the children (including transport and meals), rent, electrical energy, water, telephone, telecable; and the expenses for consumption of food, fuel, propane gas, entertainments, domestic service and many others, you will find that their entire budget will be" swallowed ". And they will be short more money.
Good bye pennies: At the present time, the rent of a modest house is quoted around RD$4,000 a month. Two children in a more or less regular school would pay RD$2,500. The telephone, RD$700. Electrical energy, RD$600. and RD$450 for water and telecable. The food consumption (approximated) would be monthly RD$4,000, and domestic service(a must for working families), a minimum of RD$1,500 If the family lives in an apartment, the maintenance required is RD$500, and between propane gas and fuel consumption, a car of four cylinders, RD$2,500. These monthly fixed expenses, without including the increases that will come as of this month, arrive monthly about RD$16,000. But there is more.
To these list it would be necessary to add the personal grooming. Both the woman as much as the man - if they work outside the home must fulfill certain requirements in relation to their appearance and cover additional expenses other than the home. They must pay for the lunch in the street at the rate of at least daily RD$50 each one. She spends an average of weekly RD$100 in the beauty parlor (without including skin treatment, manicures, dyes, " cellophans ", nor uncurled processings).
The family head must go to the barber shop bi-weekly at RD$50 to RD$75. Here one does not include the cost in medicines, diversion for the family, maintenance of the vehicle, purchase of accessories or equipment for the home, clothes, footwear, and unforeseen expenses. The nutritional habits are not taken either into account.
The situation can be complicated or not depending if the family lives in a rented house or pays a financing for the purchase of their home, in which case, the RD$4,000 of the monthly rent would rise to a minimum of RD$6,000. If the vehicle is financed, then would be necessary to add the monthly amortization of the loan, with interest rates that are on the increase".
Now....this is Golo again:
I still believe the writer is very conservative in her figures. Interest rates for loans exceed 22%-26% for home loans and car loans exceed 30% now. Not only that, but banks no longer offer fixed rates and loans now are flexibilized to meet the currency exchange and rise in interest rates. No one has had a decrease in the original interest rate in any loan taken in the last two years. All loans have increased gradually by a high margin. She also stated that the lower-middle class rent is $4000. Well, I personally do not consider a house or apartment renting for that amount as lower middle class. I believe that would be closer to the poverty line. Only in ghetto areas those rents are possible. Even worse is her $6000 a month mortgage figure. I would guess that would be closer to $10,000. In the personal grooming area, nails are now $170 pesos and at worst $50 done by a student with a guarantee they will fall off after the weekend is over. I don't recall the last time I saw a phone bill for under $1000, even for a lower middle class family. Most have somehow gotten into the VIP plan anyway at $795 plus taxes, not including long distance calls and cellular calls. Has anyone seen a $600 electric bill lately? Did you also know that the average worker who does not own a car spends close to $50 pesos daily for public transportation? That amounts to a $1000 a month. You figure this out in a country where the minimum salary is $2500 pesos a month.
So, I stick by my figures and those who don't believe me, come to DR and give it a try.
TW
Arelis Pe?a Brito an economics writer for the "El Caribe" newspaper just wrote this in her column today.
"CONSUMPTION the rent and the services swallow the monthly fixed income
"The lower middle-class" makes magic with their familiar budget ? More than magicians ": As authentic magicians of the domestic economy is how necessarily you define the Dominican lower middle class, which every month turns to incredible tricks to extend what until very recently used to be a manageable situation for families who appeared to have a comfortable margin.Today that comfortable budget appears meager before the long list of personal and familiar necessities. There were those who thought that an income of RD$20,000, that would be more or less the average of the monthly income of a person of lower middle class, was a "luxury wage" , but a simple mathematical calculation leads to a crude reality.
If you really sit down, think this thru and review the balance sheet for a family of hardly four members residing in a modest house, the payment of the school for the children (including transport and meals), rent, electrical energy, water, telephone, telecable; and the expenses for consumption of food, fuel, propane gas, entertainments, domestic service and many others, you will find that their entire budget will be" swallowed ". And they will be short more money.
Good bye pennies: At the present time, the rent of a modest house is quoted around RD$4,000 a month. Two children in a more or less regular school would pay RD$2,500. The telephone, RD$700. Electrical energy, RD$600. and RD$450 for water and telecable. The food consumption (approximated) would be monthly RD$4,000, and domestic service(a must for working families), a minimum of RD$1,500 If the family lives in an apartment, the maintenance required is RD$500, and between propane gas and fuel consumption, a car of four cylinders, RD$2,500. These monthly fixed expenses, without including the increases that will come as of this month, arrive monthly about RD$16,000. But there is more.
To these list it would be necessary to add the personal grooming. Both the woman as much as the man - if they work outside the home must fulfill certain requirements in relation to their appearance and cover additional expenses other than the home. They must pay for the lunch in the street at the rate of at least daily RD$50 each one. She spends an average of weekly RD$100 in the beauty parlor (without including skin treatment, manicures, dyes, " cellophans ", nor uncurled processings).
The family head must go to the barber shop bi-weekly at RD$50 to RD$75. Here one does not include the cost in medicines, diversion for the family, maintenance of the vehicle, purchase of accessories or equipment for the home, clothes, footwear, and unforeseen expenses. The nutritional habits are not taken either into account.
The situation can be complicated or not depending if the family lives in a rented house or pays a financing for the purchase of their home, in which case, the RD$4,000 of the monthly rent would rise to a minimum of RD$6,000. If the vehicle is financed, then would be necessary to add the monthly amortization of the loan, with interest rates that are on the increase".
Now....this is Golo again:
I still believe the writer is very conservative in her figures. Interest rates for loans exceed 22%-26% for home loans and car loans exceed 30% now. Not only that, but banks no longer offer fixed rates and loans now are flexibilized to meet the currency exchange and rise in interest rates. No one has had a decrease in the original interest rate in any loan taken in the last two years. All loans have increased gradually by a high margin. She also stated that the lower-middle class rent is $4000. Well, I personally do not consider a house or apartment renting for that amount as lower middle class. I believe that would be closer to the poverty line. Only in ghetto areas those rents are possible. Even worse is her $6000 a month mortgage figure. I would guess that would be closer to $10,000. In the personal grooming area, nails are now $170 pesos and at worst $50 done by a student with a guarantee they will fall off after the weekend is over. I don't recall the last time I saw a phone bill for under $1000, even for a lower middle class family. Most have somehow gotten into the VIP plan anyway at $795 plus taxes, not including long distance calls and cellular calls. Has anyone seen a $600 electric bill lately? Did you also know that the average worker who does not own a car spends close to $50 pesos daily for public transportation? That amounts to a $1000 a month. You figure this out in a country where the minimum salary is $2500 pesos a month.
So, I stick by my figures and those who don't believe me, come to DR and give it a try.
TW
Re: Make it there,spend it here!
That's not true in my case. I have a Dominican partner and things are working out just fine!
Let me add. Let's not paint all Dominican businessmen/woman with the same brush. This country has some very smart and very successful people.
Criss Colon said:
That's not true in my case. I have a Dominican partner and things are working out just fine!
Let me add. Let's not paint all Dominican businessmen/woman with the same brush. This country has some very smart and very successful people.
I have good friends that are in partnership with a Dominican - a six year old partnership - things are working just fine.
Generalizations don't always prove out to be true. Anyone ever thought about being very, very careful in terms of who to go into business with? This is true everywhere, not just here. So, choose your friends, your partners (and your women! golo) carefully.aranoid:
Generalizations don't always prove out to be true. Anyone ever thought about being very, very careful in terms of who to go into business with? This is true everywhere, not just here. So, choose your friends, your partners (and your women! golo) carefully.
aranoid:I work at a modern,State-Of-The-Art medical center in Santo Domingo!
But that doesn't mean that I would tell someone that there is great medical care available in the Dominican Republic! If 90% of Dominican business men are out to take your money,and you happen to work with one of the 10% who are honorable,I would not tell someone that the climate for foreign businessmen and investment in the DR is Favorable!...Chris,what business are your friends in? Tell me that and I will tell you why they are successful.Being smart and sucessful,doesn't preclude you from also being dishonest! Robert is in the "Information" business.It is hard to steal your brains! I am refering to companies that have bank accounts and equipment,and real properties.CRIS
But that doesn't mean that I would tell someone that there is great medical care available in the Dominican Republic! If 90% of Dominican business men are out to take your money,and you happen to work with one of the 10% who are honorable,I would not tell someone that the climate for foreign businessmen and investment in the DR is Favorable!...Chris,what business are your friends in? Tell me that and I will tell you why they are successful.Being smart and sucessful,doesn't preclude you from also being dishonest! Robert is in the "Information" business.It is hard to steal your brains! I am refering to companies that have bank accounts and equipment,and real properties.CRIS
Criss, the partnership that I referred to, involves real property and real long term rentals and real buildings.
This thread is about making money in the DR - and I think there are still opportunities here. In terms of who to do business with, I do not think that it is worse here than in other comparable (sp?) island economies. Corruption is everywhere. Folks that will do you a bad deal are everywhere. We all know the term 'due diligence' and we all know that if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.
I agree with Robert, this country has smart and successful people. I'm sure there are a few honest ones around also. And many many dishonest ones. I don't think we must 'throw out the baby with the bathwater'
This thread is about making money in the DR - and I think there are still opportunities here. In terms of who to do business with, I do not think that it is worse here than in other comparable (sp?) island economies. Corruption is everywhere. Folks that will do you a bad deal are everywhere. We all know the term 'due diligence' and we all know that if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.
I agree with Robert, this country has smart and successful people. I'm sure there are a few honest ones around also. And many many dishonest ones. I don't think we must 'throw out the baby with the bathwater'