1. Culture: I consider the compatibility of a culture one of my top priorities. For us, we gravitated toward Latin America because my husband is Hispanic, we love the language, we’re Catholic and we already dance salsa at home. In other words, we feel quite comfortable in that setting. How a society socializes and interacts, how they eat, sleep, worship, and how open they are to immigrants can really determine how happy you will be.
2. Location: How far away will you be from the people you love? If you really don’t have too many connections in the U.S. or you can’t stand your relatives, then no need to worry. But most of will be returning to see loved ones or do business, and surely you will want visitors. Consider the logistics of travel as well as the costs. Will you be near a major airline hub? Or will you need to connect from a smaller, outdated airport? How often will you be traveling and to where?
3. Infrastructure:Yes, there are some cheap places to live and retire, but there may be reasons why they’re so cheap. Aside from electricity and water availability, most of us have come to expect cheap, dependable phone, internet and cable. What are you willing to live without? What are you willing to pay more for? Balance your priorities against everything else.
4. Cost of Living: Carefully research how much you will need to live on in your new home. Take nothing for granted, and overestimate your budget. Yes, many countries are far cheaper to live in than others, but if you cannot live without some products you’re used to in the U.S., you might be paying double or triple to get them imported somewhere else. Also, you may get different ideas of costs from different sources. Electricity costs in hotter climates will solely depend on how often you use your air conditioner. Most locals don’t run them or run them rarely, so look at price per kilowatt and figure out how often you will probably run it.
5. Safety: Muggings and kidnappings should not be on your “Things To Do & See” itinerary in a new country. From my experience, it can be hard determining the safety of a place just on paper, especially if you’re reading horror stories online. Always take anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt and consider how the U.S. would look to an outsider if he just read the daily headlines riddled with gory crimes. On the other hand, don’t always trust what someone has to tell who has something to sell. Many international real estate companies gloss over the hard truth. What you ultimately decide will mostly depend on how you feel in that country, how you handle yourself and careful observation.
6. System of Government: What kind of rights does the country afford its residents and citizens? What about the justice system? What is likely to happen to you if you do get arrested? Can you own property as a non-citizen? Are the police generally corrupt? What level of corruption can you handle in the government? If you’re from the U.S., then you’re not used to seeing the actual corruption right in front of your face. It’s carefully hidden and distant from you because only the very elite and wealthy can buy politicians and write laws. In other countries, you may be faced with “equal-opportunity-corruption” that even you can be a part of, like paying off a police officer to ignore a ticket. When you think about it, which system is more equitable?
7. Language: If you can’t speak the language, prepare yourself for some isolation. But if there are reasonable numbers of other ex-pats around and/or the locals tend to speak English, you could do just fine. Just be aware that if you don’t intend to learn the local language, you will be limited in how well you assimilate into the culture.
8. Schools:If you have children, you will want to make sure there are appropriate schools. It may be tempting to send them to the local public school, but if your child isn’t fluent in the language, he or she will always be considered “behind” which puts a lot of pressure on a child. Ex-pat parents I’ve talked to usually find a good bi-lingual private school or homeschool with added language lessons. Are there any reputable universities in your new country? If not, realize that your child might be leaving you in a few years to study somewhere else.
9. Climate: Some like it hot. Others do not. Usually you like what you like and even if you think you can adjust to a foreign climate; most people wear out eventually and return home. Thankfully God made mountains in tropics, or I would not ever consider moving there.
10. Residency Programs/Tax Laws: Find out if the country in which you’re interested taxes your world-wide income. Take a peek at their overall tax structure. What about the requirements to become a resident? All of these things should factor greatly into your decision.
Best,
Mels
