We’re here to look at who decides to live overseas, why they do, and how they accomplish it. There are many reasons to live outside of your native country, in my case, the USA. My husband and I realized several years ago that, if we stay here, we will never be able to afford to retire. Add to this my lifelong desire to spend significant time in another country, and we began looking at the possibilities of retiring overseas. More

Where's Your Fave Social Media Hangout?

I’m trying to find out more about you, Future Expat readers. What social media are you most active with? Where do you like to hang out? We’ll let this run for a couple of weeks, then publish the results.

You can find me mostly on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Special: One Heaping Portion of Regret

Two days ago, my almost-86-year-old father died. It happened peacefully at home before breakfast on Monday morning. It was not unexpected — on the contrary, he’d been battling MRSA for several years, and undergoing thrice-weekly kidney dialysis for over two years.

He’d had a pretty full life: he served in the Army in Germany during WWII, got married, had 4 children, 14 grandchildren and 1 great-granddaughter (so far). He won photography awards year after year. Professionally, he was a geologist, with a side foray into archaeology in his later years. He was active in volunteer and professional organizations.

He had a wonderful, dry wit and he loved puns.

At the end, he lived with his wife of 58 years (my mother) and his grandson, who had moved in with them a couple of years ago to help with his care (my youngest son. I’m so proud of him!).

Those of us who loved him had watched him deteriorate physically, sometimes in giant plunges and sometimes in baby stumbles. It was scary and terribly sad to watch a man who loved to read, a talented photographer, unable to do either as macular degeneration took its toll. It was horrifying to see a man who’d been active and engaged in scientific pursuits letting his microscope and other instruments collect dust as he didn’t have the energy to continue his research and consulting work. As his physical capacity shrank, so did his conversation.

Now, even that is gone.

Regrets: The Road Not Taken

According to an article at AARP:

“Researchers have noticed age-related distinctions in how and why we experience regret. The young are more likely to regret things they did rather than things they didn’t do. After all, at that stage in life there’s still time to see Australia, climb K2, or write a novel. But as we age, this tendency reverses, and it’s what you didn’t do that stings. When you look back and see all the mountains left unclimbed, the sense of loss can be devastating.” Read the entire article

My father’s death has reminded me — viciously and viscerally — just how short life is. If you delay your plans, hopes and dreams too long, you may never experience their reality.

Moving Abroad

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to live in another country. I didn’t do it when I was young and unencumbered. I didn’t do it when I had a young family, or a growing family.

Now I’m rapidly approaching an empty nest, and I’ve been making plans to finally make the move. I don’t want that particular missed opportunity to remain on my stockpile of regrets.

My father’s passing has reminded me that I need to hurry.

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Which Countries Have the Best Health Care?

In the Expat Web group on LinkedIn, a member asked recently, “As an Expat, which countries do you think have the best and worst healthcare systems?”

Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Malta and France all received positive comments. One poster said Japan’s was “the worst I ever experienced.” The US was mentioned favorably, but “only

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Where in the World Do Employees Get the Most Time Off?

According to a survey by Mercer, it’s not who you might think! By looking at a country’s statutory annual leave, statutory holidays and public holidays, they compiled a list of where employees get the most time off. One caveat: it’s based on what an employee working a five-day week for 10 years is

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Two Big Fat Greek Movies

This entry is part 13 of 13 in the series Expat Books and Movies

My Life in Ruins, starring Nia Vardalos, looked like the perfect choice for an expat movie review: American-Greek classical scholar takes a job at Athens University, gets downsized, does a stint as a tour guide. Perfect!

Well, not so much. Great idea, good cast which includes Richard Dreyfuss, one of my all-time favorite actors,

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How I'm Going to Finance My New Life Overseas

Last September, I started a series of posts talking about how you can finance your new overseas life if you’ll need to generate income. I stated:

“In our recent poll, we discovered that most — at least 80% — of our readers will have to generate some income when they move overseas. None

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Learning from Art: Expat Books and Movies

I’ve been posting reviews of books and movies with an expat theme every month for the past six months or so, and I really enjoy this feature of the Future Expats Forum. It forces me to think about books and films in a new way, and to exercise all those writing skills I

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Finance Your Life Overseas with a French B&B

I’ve written previously about ways to finance your new life abroad if you’re not ready or able to retire yet. Here’s a delightful discussion of running a B&B, or gite, in France.

Guest Post by Steenie Harvey, International Living

There’s more to sunny southern France than Provence and the Cote d’Azur. One of its most

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2010 Technology for the Expat

A while ago, I wrote that there are two gadgets absolutely necessary to my happiness and well being when I move abroad: my Amazon Kindle and my iPod. Since then, there have also been some advances in telephone technology which will make the expat’s life much easier as well. You can read the

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End-of-Year Lists

International Living’s annual Quality of Life Index. Every year, IL produces a Quality of Life index, which usually differs quite a bit from their recommendations on best places to retire. France has topped the list for several years running.

France (was #1 last year as well)
Australia (moved up from #5 in 2009)
Switzerland (down one

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