“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden
Since we are just starting our expat journey, we thought it would be best to make a list of things that are factors in our decision making process. This is not an all encompassing list, but it is a starting point for us. I encourage you to make your own list and share what is important to you in the comments below.
We expect our list to change multiple times as we go through this but right now the things ranking highest for us:
- Location
- Low cost of living
- Activities
- Proximity to places we want to visit
- Safety
- Health Care
- Climate
Right now, we aren’t listing real estate on the list as we don’t know what type of expat we want to be and we know in some countries we can’t buy real estate. We will certainly add it when (or if) we decide to settle down in a location for a longer period of time. For right now, we plan on renting
Here is the meatball chart we are using to visualize the things that are important to us. I will put Jason’s Microsoft Excel skills to use and weight the importance of those factors. Some of them (low cost of living) are substantially more important than others (climate).
Researching Locations for Expats to Retire
I have been scouring this site a lot and love it! They do a great job of providing details of locations, things to consider and true costs of living. I definitely recommend bookmarking this one for later. You’ll need a lot of time to read these. Impressive work there!
https://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/best-places-to-retire/
What is Important to You?
How do you see your day-to-day life as an expat after the honeymoon stage is over and reality sinks in? Are you staying home, enjoying the climate and relaxing? Or are you out walking around the town, enjoying the markets and visiting historical sites? Are you a hiker and plan on spending your days outdoors, exploring a hard-to-reach mountain? Or are you a night-owl and want to spend your time in the high-intensity night life of a city?
We picture spending three to six months in a location and then moving to the next one. This idea of slow-tourism really attracts us. When we have visited places for a few days, we spent our time at the most popular tourist places, and visited the common historical sites. Those were great, but we usually find that our favorite things to do are those that are a bit more eclectic.
We visited a local Hawaiian on Kauai and he taught us how to use coconut fronds to weave a basket as he told us about his family’s life. That was one of our favorite, not-too-mainstream activity that really helped us get a better understanding of the culture.
If we spent a bit more time in each location, we would be able to find those experiences, stalk a favorite coffee shop, and really get immersed in an area. We anticipate moving every three to six months. After two years or so, we may settle down in a location. A lot will depend on our health and how much we end up feeling at home in a location.
Location, Location, Location
Location matters. Right? Well, maybe.
We both agree we want somewhere relatively warm and temperate where we can be outside most of the year. We love to hike, bike, snorkel, garden, cook, and take photos. We have a lot of different interests (ok – maybe WAY too many!) but those are the main ones we consider when we talk about the expat lifestyle.
As you’ll see in the following sections, location isn’t as important to us as the other factors. We aren’t limiting ourselves to any place – heck, we aren’t limiting ourselves to any continent. So, location won’t be weighted as heavily as the other attributes.
Low Cost of Living
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this. One of the big reasons we want to be expats is to retire early, explore the world and stretch our dollars as far as possible. We’ll still visit higher cost areas, but the focus will be on those fantastic experiences we can enjoy in lower cost of living areas.
Activities
In Northern Virginia, we ride bikes, hike, kayak and sail with our son. I quilt. Jason and Spencer fly RC planes and we all enjoy growing vegetables on our deck in container gardens.
We love to cook out on our grill but find that we don’t use our gorgeous deck hardly at all in the summer because of the heat/humidity (looking at you Thailand!). We tend to be outside a lot more in fall, winter and spring.
We would like to continue playing with our cameras, hike and bike when we are expats. Without having to worry about running our son to his activities, and Jason working long hours and fighting the traffic, we’ll have a lot more time to enjoy these things.
I am super-excited to take local cooking and language classes.
Proximity to Places We Want to Visit
Portugal, based on my research so far, you own my heart on this one. Budapest, you’re a close second as well! Heck, the entire European continent is at my fingertips!!! I drool at the thought! We are a quick flight or train ride away so much history!
I think Southeast Asia could win my heart. The videos and my research lead me to believe we could make a home there and visit an area of the world that we just don’t know a lot about. What a fun learning experience!
Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize are a little lower on my list so far. I don’t have a bucket list of places I want to explore in that region, but I want to go visit there anyway. I definitely like the proximity to the United States, if we need to fly back for anything.
Safety
This is huge for me. I want to feel safe….as safe as I do in the US at least. All of the places that we are considering are considered safe.
I know, I know…poor Mexico is getting a bad rap right now. I’m sure that one will be questioned by some of you, but there are some incredibly tempting expat communities that are look to be real hidden gems. I think the media portrays Mexico as being dangerous with the cartels and such, but if I were visiting America and didn’t know any better, I doubt I would ever go to Chicago or Baltimore.
My point is that there are bad places out there. Do your due diligence and make intelligent decisions. Don’t just listen to news reports.
Articles we found important in our research:
Health Care
Health care is pretty important to both of us as we will be 53 when we make this move. I want to make sure we have access to decent care if something were to happen to us.
Jason is retired Military and has Tricare. We’ll post some articles on how to use Tricare overseas, and how to get medications. But right now, we want to make sure that high quality health care is available. The VA has a Foreign Medical Program for vets living overseas. We’ll be exploring that a lot more as well.
In some locations, we might just use local private medical insurance. From the research we have done so far, this looks to be fairly inexpensive and might just be easier to use than submitting Tricare claims. We’ll see.
I would prefer not to pay for insurance if we are already covered by Tricare, but it will be an option, just in case.
https://www.va.gov/COMMUNITYCARE/programs/veterans/fmp/index.asp
Climate
I do not like continuous heat and humidity. Humidity and I are not friends. Allergies are another concern for me. I have had allergy shots for several years, and they help a ton, but I would prefer to find an area where I won’t be sneezing and sniffling all day long throughout the year.
Those are the two main reasons we hesitate about having Thailand high on our list. We will visit there this summer and I hope it isn’t too bad. Beach weather seems to be fine because the ocean breeze usually cuts the humidity down a bit.
We’ll see how things shake out to see how big of a factor the humidity and allergies will play for me.
What’s important to you?