Thinking About Living Abroad?

I have been living as an ExPat for a year and a half now, visiting different countries as that countries visitor visas allow. Here are some general tips based upon my experience.

If you are interested in moving to another country, please do your research and homework. I will share some links at the end of this post that I found very helpful and informative, so here we go.

Plan an exploratory trip or even two to a destination you are considering. These trips should be at least 2 weeks, I found that a 4-6 week trip allowed me to experience the culture, visit different parts of a country, and get a genuine feel for the country.

It is very advantageous to learn some basic language skills for the country you are considering. There are a lot of blogs and websites out there that may try to downplay the need to learn the local language, but don’t fall into the trap that if you stay in larger cities where there may be a large ExPat community that you don’t need to. I have found that if I attempt to communicate in the native language and fumble my way through, it becomes a much friendlier experience and a lot of the time, the locals will help you stumble through the conversation. It actually is a great way to expand and learn the language.

Speaking of areas with large ExPat communities, I am not really looking to meet people from the US while I am living abroad. I want to learn and experience everything about the country I am in. However, I will share that part of my research and homework involve connecting on FaceBook with expat groups and asking questions, in that sense it is a great resource.

It is essential that you become familiar with the visa requirements and limitations of each country you are exploring or visiting. These are changing frequently and a lot of information sites are not up to date. I recommend finding the official government website for each country you are exploring and get the most recent information. For example, Spain in 2025 changed the requirements for their Non-Lucrative (Retirement) visa making it more difficult to get. Mexico in the last 2 years has increased the financial requirements for a resident visa by almost doubling the monthly income requirement to obtain it.

It has become more necessary in the past 12 months to pay attention to the exchange rates and exchange rate volatility of the USD to the currency of the country you are considering. In the last 12 months the USD has across most major currencies lost purchasing power. For example, in January 2025 you could exchange $1USD for .96 Euro, in January 2026 $1USD only got you .84 Euro. During that same period the cost of living across most European countries increased on average by 10%. My point is, become familiar with FX rates and cost of living rates in the country you are examining.

Here are some links to sites I have found to be very useful as I explore new places, cultures and people”

NUMBEO: A good resource to get cost of living information. They update frequently and I have found them to be pretty accurate.    Cost of Living

INTERNATIONAL LIVING: Their publications are very informative and good for an overall perspective of different countries. I have found that it is a starting place but not the definitive resource.   International Living - #1 Resource for Retiring, Living and Investing Overseas

There are numerous videos on YouTube for a lot of different countries. Again these are good as a starting point for your research. YouTube

The United States Department of State is another good resource for information regarding travel to specific countries.   U.S. Department of State – Home

I'm R. Simon Kent, and that is My View from the Cheap Seats.