5 Must-Know Essentials to Launch the Perfect Escape Plan for Life Abroad!

Depending on where you choose to move to, living costs can vary greatly. Dig deep and do the research. I’ve seen people come here and run out of money and have to return back to where they came from.

How much will you spend on rent (mortgage)? What do you estimate your transportation costs will be (will you buy a new car or get around with ride-sharing apps)? How much will that cost…

Factor in utility bills like electricity … I live in a region where it’s extremely hot and I run my air conditioner a lot; and that could easily cut into your budget if you didn’t factor that in.

Know what your numbers are and work hard to stick to it. This is especially true to those on a fixed-income.

It’s easy to overspend, especially when things seem cheap and you buy and buy and buy more of it; and the cost of that sneaks up on you and now you’re over budget.

Knowing your numbers in advance could easily help you determine if a particular country is ideal for you to move too. 

One of my primary goals is to significantly reduce my cost of living expenses so I could save and invest; trying to move to Dubai probably isn’t a great idea with the budget I’m trying to live within. 

Realistically, one can live quite comfortably on a pension or fixed retirement income; but you must live by the numbers. So please, know your numbers! There are a bunch of unknowns to factor into this equation (and that’s for another topic).

This should be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people show up without a job or source of income.

Because some places are significantly cheaper than others to live, folks assume they can live comfortably for a long period of time without working. Or they convince themselves that their spouse can fly back and forth to the States every few months to work

I haven’t seen that work out for anyone yet!

Thanks to the pandemic, there are more opportunities than ever to work a remote job … Working remotely is becoming the norm.

There are a bunch of companies out there that’ll allow you to work from anywhere. You must do the research to find these jobs.

Depending on where you choose to live, a job paying you $12.00 per hour could provide you with a very comfortable lifestyle (think Colombia, Thailand, Mexico, Vietnam, etc).

Many countries will not allow you to work in the country you’re living in, unless you have a special type of work visa, or were sponsored by a company that hired you.

Don’t try to do this illegally because it can get you thrown out and banned from ever coming back into the country.

We’ve had 3 medical emergencies since living in Mexico. Two of those required emergency surgeries and an extended stay in the hospital. While the costs of these emergencies weren’t super costly, they did hit my pockets pretty hard because I didn’t factor these into my budget.

While in Mexico, my daughter ended up being diagnosed with Schizophrenia. We had to go through multiple psychiatrist until we found the one we liked, and many more months of treatment until they found the right combination of drugs and medicines that worked for her (it took over a year)

All of those visits, plus emergency visits to the hospital added up quickly, especially when I didn’t allocate for it.

Fortunately, my health insurance covered my ‘emergency’, but it didn’t cover my daughter's surgery and it didn’t cover mental health services.

In Mexico, you have to pay for services upfront if you don’t have insurance (and while you're waiting on a guarantee of payment from your health insurer back in the States, the hospitals here in Mexico will still require upfront payments each day until they get that confirmation of guaranteed payment from your insurance company).

I bring all of this up to say … Look over your insurance policies and see what they cover. If they don’t provide you with the coverage you need, investigate other options.

The clause that paid for my surgery was the part indicating they’d cover me in an emergency situation (when I was admitted by the emergency department, that put me into a status where my insurance covered it).

So triple check what you got and what’s entailed. My wife and I have a Cigna policy, while the kids have a State health insurance plan for children ages 0-18. While Cigna covered my surgery, the kids' plan did not pay out.

Knowing what I know now, especially if you have kids traveling with you, keep a separate ‘medical emergency fund’ on-hand. Because in most cases, you will have to pay out of pocket, upfront, before you’re treated.

It’s not like the USA where you go to the hospital and they must stabilize you. It doesn’t work that way in other parts of the world.

If you buy travelers insurance, make sure it’s with a reputable company. Again, you don’t want to find yourself in an emergency and can’t use it.

I’d go a step further and would verify if the insurance you’re thinking about getting would cover emergencies at the hospital you’ll be living near. 

Many hospitals in tourist destinations will have a representative who will check if your insurance will cover you.

Go pull out everyone’s passport who will be traveling with you. While my passport came with 10-years, I totally forgot my kids' passports only came with 5-years on it.

So when it was time to go, they had less than 5-months left on their passports before they expired.

Many airlines will not allow you on the plane if you have less than 6-months on your passport. And while some countries make it clear you can enter with less than 6-months, the major airlines won’t let you board the plane if you have less than 6-months.

So double check that and get those passports up to date. Delivery time for getting new or renewed passports are taking much longer now. There are some workarounds for getting approved for emergency passports, but if you plan in advance, this could save you time, money and stress.

I got my daughters’ passports the same day, but that required me driving from Greenville, SC to a passport center in Miami, Florida. I don’t wish that drive on anybody, lol…

But I had to do what I had to do … 

‘Lack of clarity’ will tend to cause fear, stress, worry and frustration. You’ll generally see this when family members and friends get in your head and tell you what a bad idea it is to move abroad.

If you don’t have the facts and information to make an informed decision about living abroad, it’s easy to succumb to the fear and doubt of others.

So do the research and get real feedback from people actively living on the ground in the country you’re thinking about living in.

Websites like Facebook provide unfettered access to specialized groups of people with similar interests.

If you want to get information from people living in Danang, Vietnam, there’s a group for that.

Want feedback from people living in Guatemala City, Guatemala, there’s a group for that.

These groups are easy to join and you can get all the information you need about a city, its people, average cost of rentals, etc… 

Search a combination of phrases to find the group you want. Something like this is a starting point from inside the 'Facebook Groups' section:

'Expats living in Thailand' will yield results like these:

This search brought back a listing of about 25 groups related to living in Thailand. The more specific your search is, the better.

If you’re wanting to live in Guatemala City, a search like this could yield more detailed information about the area: Living in Guatemala City

Once you join and are accepted into a group, you can post and research the information you need.

Want to know what the schools are like in that town, post and ask; and people will respond and share their real life experiences.

As you start to get information back from those actively living in the city, you’ll start to feel better about your decision. And once you get all of the information you need, your confidence will increase. It’ll be more difficult for others to sway you now that you have clarity!