How To Live Internationally
Knowing how to live internationally is a difficult lesson to learn. It is a terrifying thought to move to a different country, away from your friends and family. However, many of us secretly love the idea of living abroad. It is a great way to experience different cultures, see different places, and sample different ways of life. It can be incredibly rewarding, and you may find that if you make the plunge, your family will travel to visit you because you are having such a blast!
Is Living Internationally For You?
So where do you begin? First, you need to decide if it is really something you are eager to do. It is a huge decision. Leaving your family behind is something we all do eventually, however living abroad can be much different. The distance makes coming home on the holidays pretty difficult.
Still, living internationally is also life-changing. You experience different ways of living that expand your horizons, usually for the better. You begin to see the world through a different lens. It is a great way to broaden your horizons and grow as an individual.
Travelling is my personal favorite aspect of living internationally. I love being able to just go see a new place I’ve never been to before. Currently, I live in Germany. There are castles everywhere here. My wife and I will pick a weekend where we are free and go castle hunting. That is the coolest thing in the world. I can just go and see a castle I’ve never seen before.
The EU has really cheap transportation, and since everything is pretty close together, travelling can be very affordable. Read my other article here to learn how to travel on a budget. It is easy to make a weekend trip for less than $100 in travel expenses if you know where to look.
How To Start
Finding A Way To Make Money
So if you’ve decided that you want to live internationally, I would recommend looking at various jobs you could do with your current level of experience/education. Making a living can be difficult if you don’t have a game plan for how to make money. As long as you know the language, you can potentially be hired at any place of business (as long as you have a visa). That said, I would personally recommend you develop a skill that will earn you passive income before moving. That way you can move with the confidence that you will be making money regardless of where you stay, which is a huge weight off your shoulders. Read more on the best ways to make passive income here.
Finding A Country With Low Cost Of Living
The next step to living internationally is to find countries that offer a lower cost of living as a place to start. You can do some research on YouTube for videos about which countries are the best to retire/live abroad in for a lower cost of living. Most of these countries will be in South America, Asia, or Europe. You can generally expect to pay between $1K-$2.5K per month in these countries to live comfortably. The reason I recommend searching for a place with a lower cost of living is because your money will go farther there. This will allow for the following things to happen:
- Travelling becomes much less stressful, easier, and more enjoyable. You have more money to spend on yourself and on seeing the world. You will be able to dedicate more time to travelling. Also, by saving more money, you can go to see more expensive places like resorts because you have more disposable income.
- If you earn passive income, you can put more money into your business. This is important because it will increase your net worth much faster than if you live in a country where you have to spend more on living expenses. By living in a place where your living expenses are lower, you have more capital to invest in yourself and your business. This is my favorite reason for living in a country with a low cost of living. Just by changing my location I increase my wealth.
- You get way more bang for your buck. In Spain, you can live on around $2000 per month comfortably. You get way more local food for a very low cost and it tastes great. There are not any crazy preservatives or food additives in the general food. You can get locally grown food that is great quality for a very low cost. The lower cost of living is why my wife and I are planning on moving to Spain when her enlistment is over.
Keep in mind, anywhere you decide to live is also a place you can leave later if you want. You don’t have to be tied down to a certain country once you move there. Nothing is absolute. If you move to a country that you find difficult to tolerate, you can always move somewhere else. Again, travel is much cheaper outside the U.S. Don’t be afraid to travel to different places and find a place you just love.
Learning The Language
Definitely learn the language when you live internationally. Certain countries are not as English-speaking as we would like, and to fully enjoy your expected place of residence you will need to learn the language. For $200, you can get access to Rosetta Stone for life, with their entire library of languages. Definitely check that out if you are serious about living internationally.
By learning the language you can really get in touch with the locals. You have a wider range of possibilities and will be in much fewer awkward situations. It is definitely worthwhile to learn the language. It makes your life easier and more tolerable.
Conclusion
When you live internationally, it is an incredibly rewarding experience. You grow as an individual, travel the world, and see new places and people. It gives you the ability to grow your wealth while also travelling to places you’ve always dreamed of. If you are interested in travelling, living abroad is definitely something you should seriously consider. Even if it is only for a few years, it would be such a rewarding experience I cannot imagine why you wouldn’t want to give it a shot.
I hope you have found this article rewarding in some way. Thank you for reading and may God bless you on your journey towards financial independence.
May God Bless,
Will Moody
