Any expats/potential expats out there?

[yepyepwoah]

I do not know if this is the best subforum, if not move it I guess.

I really just wanna get the fuck out of america. Maybe it will change nothing, maybe it will change everything. Im giving it a shot or I will probably suicide. I cant do 30 more years in this country.

I KNOW bluelight is full of travelers so tell your tales.

I think I will personally look central/south america as I have shit for real skills and the qualifications for things like teaching english seem lower than euro/asia.

I am really feeling paraguay because if you deposit $5k in a bank or buy $5k in land, stay three years and do some shit, boom citizen. They accept Duel so no need to renounce. That seems like some ahit that could come in handy. I did see something about "clean police record". Perhaps that just means $6k instead

I have about 8 months-1year, but by then its time to be somewhere else.

 

[malakaix]

I've lived overseas but I was never properly established like most expat's are, I just winged it and knew how to manage money.

I bought a one-way ticket to Europe and travelled around for a while before settling down in Hungary. I really clicked with it's capital Budapest and the people there. I worked hospitality jobs that paid almost nothing but I had savings and the cost of living was very low relative to my home currency. I spent about a year in that city, had a local girlfriend and built up a wide social circle of expats, digital nomads, locals and other travellers.

I've been back almost 3 years now and I want to go back abroad again. I make a bit of money from investments as a source of remote income but it's not enough to survive on even in cheaper countries. I don't have the technical skills to make money online which would be the most ideal scenario for moving abroad, especially to a lower CoL country. I have a friend who's been doing this in Thailand with web developing but I just don't have the hustle-mind set or discipline he has.

I would just make sure you have a plan. I didn't the first time.. but I had to see the world and I didn't want my time to be restricted so I just took off with the savings I had. The reality is unless you have a sustainable source of income you will eventually run out of money and then returning home with nothing can be somewhat of a traumatic experience. The flip side is I've met people who got stuck somewhere in the world, just scraping by, turned bitter and cynical over time but they've been gone so long there's nothing for them back in their home countries.

I did meet an American in Hungary who went over with a one-way ticket in 2009? and he still lives there today. He ended up applying for a residency permit after 3 years, last I heard from him he has a girlfriend and son. He had no marketable skills AFAIK, i'm not actually sure what he does at the moment.. they do a lot of filming in the city for Hollywood movies because it's super cheap and the architecture is very similar to most European cities so I think he was doing some extras work with that.

 

[thujone]

i have wanderlust but even with a dual citizenship a remote-friendly profession i find it difficult to just fuck off for real. financial affairs and healthcare are the major hurdles. i have options in a stable low-CoL country but either as a nomad or as a local, opportunities and support are not up to par. social differences can also be an incredible wall to scale. i actually get some respect at home but in many countries it can be very difficult to integrate without being treated as some kind of low-level fungus if you don't happen to have <x> credentials or <x> connections. i've had to extend the distance of my financial runway before re-evaluating my exit plan because the sad truth is if you have no ends at home then you definitely don't want to find out what it's like to have no ends elsewhere with a bunch of disadvantages to cope with as well.

i guess my outlook is more critical now that i'm a bit older and don't have as much time to just roam freely but even looking back i'm still grateful for sticking out the grinds i had to do at home just to get a few months of travel and fun overseas. even if i could turn back the clock i don't think i would volunteer to be an expat long-term.

 

[yepyepwoah]

It's best to make sure you're in a good mental state when you go to another country..especially a 3rd world one with a foreign language

Well I guess I have been out of luck for the past 18 years and see no hope for the future? So who really cares...

Everyone else interesting views, thanks.