Where To Start?

So, you might be wondering, if all these countries sound equally appealing in one way or another, how can you know where you’d be happy?

Well, frankly, you won’t know. Not until you get there. And likely not for some time after that. That’s why we always advocate for spending significant time in country before making any commitment to it. Internet research, books, and educational courses can only get you so far. The next step is getting on a plane…

But you can certainly narrow down your choices beforehand.

The first and perhaps most important step you must take to make sure that you arrive where you want to be in your new life in Europe is to understand what, really, you want your new life overseas to be.

What’s important to you? What are your priorities? Your agendas? Your preferences?

What are you not willing to give up from your current lifestyle… and what would make you miserable in your new one?

You need to be clear in your own mind what your situation is.

And, critically, if you’re intending to make your move with a significant other, you need to come to these understandings jointly. If you and your significant other have different ideas about what constitutes a dream life in Europe, you want to identify the differences and address them now rather than later.

Here are the fundamental issues you must consider at this getting-started stage of your go-overseas process:

Critical Issue #1: Are you planning to move alone? With a significant other? With other family members? With children?

Again, if you’re moving with a significant other or with other family members, you must work to consider every issue and to address every question together, and you must allow all sides a voice. Making a success of a new life overseas requires energy, commitment, and a positive attitude. You don’t want to force someone into it.

If you’re planning to move with children, then at least one of your priorities is clear: the children. You’ll want to take their comfort, care, security, and education into account above all else.

Critical Issue #2: How concerned are you with what your family and friends think?

Your family and friends may surprise you (and us). They may be nothing but supportive and enthusiastic about your plan to launch a new life in a new country.

And surely at least some of them will be.

Others, though, will think you’ve lost your mind. They’ll forward you media links and State Department warnings to show you how dangerous and ridiculous an idea it is to think about leaving the safety of home and heading off alone to some exotic foreign land, where you’ll be at the mercy, they’ll assure you, of non-English-speaking thieves and scallywags. Plus you’ll be lonely… homesick…

You need to make up your mind right now that you won’t be dissuaded by any of it. Stay the course. You’re on the road to a future better and brighter than your nay-saying friends could ever imagine.

Critical Issue #3: Do you want to live among the locals or in a more private, perhaps gated setting with fellow expats for your neighbors?

If you choose to relocate to an established expatriate community, you’ll have no trouble slipping in to the local social scene and finding English-speakers who share your interests.

On the other hand, going that route, you might end up with little real experience of the new culture you’re adopting.

This important early decision may not have occurred to you. But we encourage you to consider the question directly, for the answer sets you on one track or another, and they lead very different places.

Head to Spain’s Costa del Sol or a handful of other famous destinations and you’ll find the Euro version of a gated community for gringos—condo buildings populated almost entirely by Brits. Especially around the Mediterranean Coast, you’ll stumble across developments intended exclusively for foreigners or even for English speakers.

And it can be easier, frankly, to seek out a place like this, where your neighbors would might include fellow North Americans, where you’d hear more English on the street than the local language, and where you’d have like-minded compatriots to commiserate with over the trials and tribulations of daily life in a foreign country.

This can make it a terrific first step for some, a chance to dip your toe in European waters rather than diving in headfirst. You’re living overseas and enjoying many of the benefits (great weather, affordable cost of living), but the surroundings and the neighbors are familiar in many ways.

On the other hand, life in Spain would be a very different experience residing in a little fishing village or a small city in the mountains where you’re the only foreigner in town. Settling among the locals means you must learn to live like a local.

Is the thought of that appealing, exciting, and invigorating? Or terrifying? Be honest with yourself as you consider your response.

There is no right or wrong reply, and there are pluses and minuses either way.

Living in a European city, the question is less about your living situation than how you go about making friends. You can choose to plug into the local expat scene and make friends exclusively with fellow foreigners… you could plunge headfirst into the local friend pool… or you could find some kind of compromise between the two.

In a capital city with a large foreigner population, you can surround yourself with English-speaking friends and get by entirely in your mother tongue. It’s such an easy thing to do, that we’ve known expats who’ve lived in Paris, for example, for a decade without learning to speak French.

During our nearly 30 years living outside the States, we’ve gone local, first in Waterford, Ireland, then in Paris, then in Panama.

In fact, in Panama, we have experience going both routes…

Out at our development, Los Islotes, on Panama’s very undeveloped Azuero Peninsula, not a single local speaks any English. We’ve struggled to manage communication with our property managers, construction workers, and neighbors over the years. Every time we spend a few weeks out there, we come back with improved Spanish skills. When spending time at Los Islotes, we wear boots and we eat local foods only. It’s about as local as you can go out there…

In Panama City, on the other hand, we have a little apartment in a condo building… here, many of our neighbors and friends speak English. Here we have access to a swimming pool and other amenities. Security at the gate keeps out anyone without permission to enter. In a previous apartment, we also had access to a clubhouse and tennis courts… comparable gated communities might offer riding stables or a golf course. When we’re in the city we wear business clothes and we eat foods imported from the States. In the city, we avail ourselves of the more international community and lifestyle.

Both lifestyles are completely different… we enjoy them both.

Again, always keep in mind the fact that all these ideas are customizable… if you enjoy the city and the country, you don’t necessarily need to limit yourself to just one.

Critical Issue #4: Do you want to learn a new language?

If the answer is no, your situation is simplified considerably. If you don’t want to learn a new language, your options are immediately limited.

You’ll need to learn to speak at least a little of a new language in most of the havens we’re going to introduce you to… but not all.

In Malta, for example, English is the official language, spoken everywhere… English is so widely spoken in Portugal that it would be feasible to live there without learning Portuguese… And pockets of Spain are so used to accommodating English speakers that it would be likewise easy to settle in without Spanish.

Critical Issue #5: Do you have a health concern?

If the answer is yes, again, your job is simplified, because a number of destinations that might otherwise appeal to you will have to be taken off your list. Like moving with children and being certain that you don’t want to learn to speak even a little of a new language, having a health issue sets your top priority for you.

Critical Issue #6: Are you disabled in any way?

The reality is that this is perhaps the most limiting situation of all. If you have a health concern like diabetes or a heart condition, you’ll want to be sure that you’re within quick access of international-standard medical care. That’s possible many places around the world.

However, if you have a disability, certainly if you rely on a wheelchair for getting around, your options can be fewer. Most of Europe, for example, is at least as handicapped-accessible as the United States, but this is truer in cities than in rural regions, so careful scouting will be required on your part.

Critical Issue #7: What are the things you refuse to scrimp on? What do you absolutely not want to give up?

Make a list. Put the most important things, the things you have to admit to yourself you would be very unhappy to live without, at the top.

Then don’t allow yourself to be persuaded (by yourself, your significant other, or anyone else) to compromise on the two or three things at the top of this list.

You’ll have to compromise. No place is perfect, and no place is going to deliver everything you want. If you’re moving with a partner or with family, the challenge is greater; you’re trying to find a place that satisfies more than one What I Want list.

So, again, you’re going to have to make concessions. But don’t concede on your top priorities, the two or three things you identify as being most important to you.

If you do, your entire adventure could be doomed.

Critical Issue #8: Are you ready to move full time… or would you like to take the idea of living overseas for a test run first by spending part of a year someplace foreign?

This doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You could “go overseas” and still spend part or even lots of your time back home.

The idea of moving to a new country, full stop, full time, can be intimidating. Selling your current home… off-loading your car, your furniture, your lawn-care equipment… flying off to a new country where you know no one and where everyone you meet speaks another language? Boiled down like that, this move-overseas agenda can seem foolish, even terrifying.

So don’t sell your home. Keep your car if you like it. Lock the lawn mower in the garage. Pack a few bags and head off to someplace that’s got your attention for, say, a month or two. Don’t even think about buying a house or anything else. Rent small and modest. Or arrange an extended stay in a B&B or guesthouse. Keep it low-key and low pressure.

Because this doesn’t have to be like jumping off a cliff. You can ease into the idea. Then, if you find the place you take for a test spin disappointing in some way, you can return home (remember, your car’s waiting for you in the driveway)… and begin planning your next “go-overseas” holiday. Give someplace else a chance.

You could continue like this for years. You’d be enjoying some of the benefits of a new life in a new country (a maybe dramatically reduced cost of living, better weather, cheap medical care, new friends, grand adventures, plus little luxuries you probably can’t afford now—full-time household help, for example), but you’d have a safety net. What you’ll find is that, with each retire-overseas foray, your confidence will build. And your plan will evolve.

Next step, maybe extend the length of each go-overseas vacation. You could spend three or even up to six months at a time in each new place, depending on the jurisdiction’s tourist-visa restrictions, thereby avoiding the residency permit issue altogether.

You could begin renting out your place back home when you’re not using it. This income would help to subsidize the expense of your retire-overseas wanderings.

You could, eventually, invest in new digs in a place you decide you like well enough to want to return to regularly. Again, rent out this apartment or beach house when you’re elsewhere to further supplement your retirement income.

Maybe, eventually, you find you’re ready to sell your place back home, because, as time passes, your connection there seems less and less important. More interesting are the new places you’re discovering, the new friends you’re making, the new adventures you’re having.

Take it one step at a time and let your move-overseas plan develop organically. Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all overseas haven, neither is there a move-overseas plan that suits everyone. This idea is infinitely customizable.