Any Expats here?

I’m young but have a desire to do this one day. Have a client who just moved from Seattle to Costa Rica and that’s one destination in my mind. Chile is another feasible place as well.

Crete, Greece has always been one our favorite places we’ve traveled to though, but I dunno if that’s really a feasible option. Their economic situation and tax system doesn’t seem as favorable.

Checking In. 38/male

I have settled down in Pereira, Colombia and Barranquilla, Colombia.

I still travel quite a bit and also spend a lot of time on the beaches in Mexico.

How do I make money?

Real Estate back in USA, SEO was a hobby at first and now I have a few content websites that pay me a few thousand per month.

My main source of income is my government contracting company.

I still have a home in USA that I airbnb while i am gone.

My advice is to jump in man. Life is so much better here than USA.

Happy to share my contact information if needed.

We did Europe for a while, me my wife and a toddler. We both worked for a US company on a pretty shitty ex-pat deal but we figured the experience and resume builder would offset the 52% effective tax rate there.

Overall it was pretty cool and I'd do it again. Can't really place a value on life experience

Positives:
* For the first year everything you do is new, from sights to grocery stores. You can knock out a hundred vacations worth of experiences in a short time.
* easier to get friends and family to visit than it is to get them to a TX suburb.

Negatives:
*you realize (depending on where you're at, both home and abroad) how shitty quality of life is outside the US if your metric is in material things. I didn't mind, wife sure as frick did
*Also working abroad was harder, the bar was so much lower in terms of talent and work ethic. Part of that can be an advantage though. Much easier to enjoy life outside of work with a European vacation schedule.
* eventually your day to day becomes exactly that and the novelty wears off. So pick somewhere better in some way than where you're at now, don't just settle for "different"

Middle:
*Uncle Sam will get his cut of your paycheck regardless. Not really a factor in EU countries though.

Family and I have been in the Middle East for 6 months now, I was in Kazakhstan prior. O&G.

Family wishes we would have moved abroad years ago.

Work in O/G. Lived in Dubai for over 3 years. Travelled to most ME countries for work. My wife cried when I told her we were moving there and cried when I told her we were moving back stateside. It was a great experience and we loved it there. I encourage everyone to experience life outside the states.

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how did family react to your decision to live abroad? How often do you see them/was it a factor in your decision to move abroad?

Did you retain your US citizenship?

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No issues at all. I get my mom a flight to visit whenever she wants and I go home often to see them. People think moving abroad is this dramatic goodbye but there are tons of flights home every day. I can wake up in the morning, decide to go home and be back at my parents house by sunset.

Yes, I would never give up citizenship. Simply for the fact that Uncle Sam is who writes my checks.


I am in the process of becoming a Spanish and a Colombian citizen as well.

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She is a Trader of Options

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I just have to be next to water for fishing and diving. Any suggestions on where to start looking.

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You sound perfect for Belize.

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Crete, Greece has always been one our favorite places we’ve traveled to though

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Getting a coffee or meal next to the water at the Port of Chania is incredible

If you are young certainly healthcare doesn’t matter. If you are 60s plus big difference.

If you can find work and make a living, that’s great. But there’s a reason why way more people try to come to the USA to find work then leave to work elsewhere.

I think you’d be a little crazy to look for a job somewhere that’s serious work outside of like bartending.