Moving Abroad Is About Financial Survival.
Last week, a headline in The New York Times was pure clickbait for me, given what I write about: “These Americans Want Out.”
The Times had got feedback from readers about their plans to leave the US and selected 30 of them for detailed interviews.
Most people who take advantage of my consultation service “want out” too. The reason they want it, and how they’ll go about it, varies from person to person.
But like the author of the Times article, I see common trends.
1. Toxic Politics
The first is that regardless of their own politics, many believe America is just too divided and angry to be stable, or as prosperous as it once was.
Remarkably, people with strong views about a particular issue in the US—say the size and role of the central government—do not judge foreign countries in the same way. What matters to you as an expat is certainly different than what matters to you in your home country. A Virginia real estate developer quoted by the Times, for example, fell in love with the laidback lifestyle in Paris, even though he doesn’t like French politics. And yet politics is the reason he’s moving out of America.
That confirms something I’ve realized as a long-time expat. South Africa, where I live, has enormous political and social problems, and people have strong opinions on all sorts of things. For all the country’s faults, though, most South Africans feel they have more in common than not. Americans no longer feel they have much in common with other Americans.
That suggests something uniquely problematic about US political culture… It’s US political culture that drives people abroad, not political differences per se.
The bottom line is that you can go to a country with more practical problems than the US and have a more relaxed lifestyle! Because society is more cohesive… People generally feel they’re “in it together” rather than fighting a war against an enemy within.
2. Discrimination
The second trend that jumps out is the number of people concerned about discrimination in the US.
The percentage of Jewish Americans who consult me is higher than the Jewish proportion of the US population. They all say they’re concerned about rising anti-Semitism at home.
The same thing motivates many LGBTQ people I speak with.
3. Money Worries
The number one concern, however, is America’s sky-high cost of living. Many Americans just don’t see why they should have to pay so much more for something like healthcare compared to people everywhere else in the world.
For those who just have Social Security and a little bit of retirement income to look forward to, moving abroad isn’t about relaxation or safety—it’s about financial survival.
The most important commonality between the people the Times interviewed and my consultees is this…
They’ve all faced up to the challenges they face living in the US, and they’ve decided to do something about it.
Whether you do that on your own or with my help, that’s the thing that must happen first, before anything else can fall into place.
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