Who? Why? How?

We’re here to look at who decides to live overseas, why they do, and how they accomplish it. There are probably as many reasons to live outside of your native country as there are people who do so. In my case, 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. But that’s not the only reason, not by a long shot! More

Panama, Sweet Panama

If you plan to start a business overseas — and most of you indicated you’ll have to generate some income to finance your overseas lifestyle — Panama is the country to look at. According to Kathleen Peddicord, publisher of the Overseas Retirement Letter, the country’s friendliness to business is why she and her

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The Flip Side of Expat Guilt

Eiffel Tower, Paris at dusk

Photo by Catherine Perkins

Guest Post by Barbara Diggs

Lucky is the expat that has no lingering guilt associated with his or her decision to live abroad. But, I think, rare is that expat also.

Maybe you feel a bit guilty about how living abroad will affect your children, or you worry about the feelings

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Top Quality of Living Cities for 2010

Gloriette, Vienna Austria

Every year, Mercer conducts a Quality of Living survey. Results for 2010 were announced a couple of days ago.

Vienna, Austria, keeps its #1 spot for another year. Top 10 cities worldwide for quality of living are:

Vienna, Austria
Zurich, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Vancouver, Canada
Auckland, New Zealand
Dusseldorf, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
Munich, Germany
Bern, Switzerland
Sydney, Australia

The first US city on the list

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Totally Unprepared for the French

The author in Paris, April 2010

Guest Post by Catherine Perkins

The author in Paris, April 2010

When I left the United States in February for a two month stay in France, I was very prepared. I had a bag loaded with French language resources (a dictionary, a phrase book, a traveler’s guide), and some new cold-weather clothing. Living in

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Is France Affordable?

Arlempdes_France

Recently, the Live and Invest Overseas e-letter has been talking about France in the run-up to their upcoming conference about living and investing there. France is not one of the countries we’ve been considering as a retirement destination because of the expense. But with headlines like, “Your Second Home In France (Could Cost

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9 Expat Blogs to Follow

It’s been a while since I’ve done any kind of list, so I thought I’d give you a look today at some of the expat blogs I follow, and that you might find helpful, too.

Empty Nest Expat. Currently living in Prague, the blogger describes herself as “an American expatriate bursting with enthusiasm to

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It's Not the Easter Bunny, It's the Easter Bell!

gifts from the French Easter bell

Gifts from the Easter Bell

My youngest daughter is halfway through a 2-1/2 month sojourn in France. This Easter, she was fortunate to spend the weekend with a French family in the village of Soissons.

The village is northeast of Paris, about halfway to the Belgian border. The Cathedral Saint-Gervais & Saint-Protais dates from

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Almost French/I'll Never Be French

Paris_brasserie
This entry is part 16 of 19 in the series Expat Books and Movies

Last week my youngest daughter flew from Orlando, FL to Europe. She’ll be spending about 2-1/2 months in Lille, France to round out her gap year between high school and college. In honor of her French adventure, I decided to review a couple of books by expats in France.

Almost French, subtitled Love and

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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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