Future Expats Forum» UK

Leaving the Country – is it Worth the Hassle?

FutureExpat — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:30:08 +0000

Guest Post by Steve Harris

New Year is a time when people take stock of their lot, with many pondering “would I be better off somewhere else?” Millions of Brits live abroad both temporarily and permanently, and if you are considering joining them for an exciting new life in the sun — or just an exciting new life — there’s a lot of not-so-exciting planning that needs to be done.

Some people move because they are offered a career opportunity that’s too good to turn down, while others pack their lives up into boxes and hop, skip and jump towards what they hope will be a better lifestyle for them and their families. Of course, many hope to bag both.

You’ll Need Enough Cash (or Income)

Whatever your reasons are for heading overseas, ensuring you have enough cash to enjoy the life you want when you get there is extremely important.

In recent years, some retired ex-pats have found themselves struggling financially due to inflation in the Eurozone where they’ve resettled, highlighting the need to plan for every eventuality.

If you’ve been offered a job you’ll need to check the wage you’ve been offered and see if you have the purchasing power or potential rent money to get the pad you want. Or, if you are retired, you ought to make sure everything is in place for you to collect your pension or other investments while you are abroad.

The current state of the UK housing market could put a real spanner in the works for anyone wanting to access the cash invested in their home, and playing a waiting game to find a buyer can put paid to even the best laid plans. One possible solution is to sell your house fast with a property buyer.

For those with school-age children a bit of good honest research is required. You’ll need to investigate whether the kids can go to public or private school in the area and if that is within your means. Your employer or future colleagues are likely to be the best people to go to for advice on this, but don’t dismiss review resources available on the web.

Once you’ve made sure you can afford the lifestyle you have, or want to become accustomed to, there are a few other things to put in order.

You’ll Settle in Faster if you Learn the Language

Take the responsibility to learn the local lingo ahead of arriving in your new home and you will be able to settle in far faster, so plan time to practice; don’t be afraid to put what you are learning to the test on any pre-move visits. Spend as much time as you can getting a feel for the place before you relocate and you’ll find it far less of a culture shock and hopefully meet some friends to help you when you arrive.

Tie Up Loose Ends

Finally, before you ship out, tie up any loose ends and notify people of your move. This should include your relatives and bank and also the likes of HMRC (That’s the UK version of the IRS for my American readers.)

Be ruthless about what you take with you — shipping does not come cheap, though if you get a series of quotes you are likely to net a better deal. It’s also worth remembering a lot of electrical goods won’t work outside of the UK, so it’s better to buy afresh when you get there, giving you a chance to practice your conversation skills.

There is a lot involved with planning a move, but ultimately, when you see the plan coming together and you are safely in your new home or starting the job of your dreams, dealing with all of those little things along the way will have been worth it.

Steve Harris works for Gateway Homes, who help people in the UK sell their house to follow their dreams of moving abroad.

Best Places to Find Expat Life Information, Ideas and Tips

FutureExpat — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:30:19 +0000

Blogs by and about expats are a great place to find information, ideas, tips, and get a general feel for what it might be like to live elsewhere. Here are a dozen interesting expat blogs I’ve found recently.

Europe

Expat in Germany provides information about living in Germany (and a little bit about Canada). The author is a Canadian serial expat who’s also lived in Thailand, S. Korea and the US.

Not From Around Here, subtitled “Stranger in a Strange Land” is all about the adventures of a US transplant to the UK.

Emtpy Nest Expat is an American who seized the moment (kids grown, no grandkids yet) to lace up her traveling shoes. She’s lived in the Czech Republic and is currently in Istanbul, Turkey.

Adventures in Expat Land is the blog of an American writer living in the Netherlands, where her husband works with an international organization.

Latin America

Monday or Something is not an expat blog, per se, but an interesting account of what it’s like to live in a place for one month, then move on. So far the author’s published from several locations in Panama, Nicaragua, Belize and Honduras.

The Mexile looks at Mexico and the UK from a British point of view. Back in England now, he lived in Mexico for five years and loved it.

An Expat Life in Nicaragua, an American in San Juan del Sur for the past four years.

Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua, another couple who moved from the US to Nicaragua, in this case a tiny island. They’ve been happy there for seven years.

North America

With more than a dollop of the dry wit and self-deprecation the British are famous for, Culturally Discombobulated looks at the Big Apple. His take on Pop Tarts and hurricanes is hilarious. . .

Expatlogue chronicles the adventures of a British family newly arrived in Ontario, Canada.

Asia / Pacific Rim

Expatria, Baby is a tongue-in-cheek look at living in Japan with a small child. The author is Canadian, her husband is Swiss, and they’ve been in Japan for about four years.

In Search of a Life Less Ordinary follows a Brit married to an Australian who lived in Canada for a while and are now located in Sydney.

Do I Regret Moving Overseas?

FutureExpat — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:30:44 +0000

Guest Post by Michelle Garrett

Moving overseas was one of the best things I could have done.

The Author in Paris

I am frequently asked by the British ‘why do you stay in Britain?’ as if I’m half crazy. They say it like that because of the weather.

My short answer is that I live in Britain for love: my husband is British. They always reply ‘awwww,’ because it sounds so romantic.

But the full answer is of course much longer than that, and predates my husband’s entry into my life.

I grew up in a small university town in Northern Minnesota. By the time I was 18 I was fed up with the small town. When my drama club decided to take a trip to England I signed up immediately. England!

Many car washes and garage sales later, our small group were boarding a 747 in July 1988, on our way to London. When we began our descent to Heathrow and the clouds gradually parted, I saw the little squiggly, crazy quilt pattern of fields below—so unlike the giant grids of Mid-West America. This was my first real view of the world outside the States. At 18 I was hungry for all new experiences and I was thrilled (almost overwhelmed with excitement) to see this green and pleasant land waiting for me to explore.

We did a whirlwind tour of sites in and around London. I was agitated because I was the oldest in the group. I had graduated a month previous and I wanted to be independent, free to explore the world. I was standing by myself at Windsor Castle (possibly in a sulk), near a wall overlooking the valley across to Eton School. The wind gusted and I could smell things that I had never smelled in Minnesota—a combination of the fresh, woody willows along the river, the old lichen covered stone of the castle walls, even the short cut green grass held a different scent in the misty air.

My drama teacher walked up beside me and looked at the view. She could sense my restlessness. ‘You’ll be back,’ she said, as if reassuring me. ‘You’ll come back one day.’ She was certain.

When I went to university that autumn, I learned that the university had a Study Abroad programme in England. I signed up. I spent seven months of my junior year in a castle owned by the Duke of Northumberland. He rents out the servants quarters to the students of my university. It was an amazing experience, cold, but amazing.

While there I fell in love with a local who was about to go to medical school. I went home to finish my degree, he moved to London to start his training and when I finished university I moved to London to be with him. We got married perhaps a bit too early, but my work permit ran out and I assumed I would be with him forever.

I’m no longer with him, but I am still in England. When my marriage was breaking down my dad expected me to move home. I didn’t. How could I? I didn’t even know how to pay a bill in the States. The culture shock of repatriation on top of a divorce would have been more than I could have coped with at that time.

I had been in England for 10 years, I had a circle of friends and good support. I still had friends in Minnesota but they had got on with their lives—it would be a lot to expect them to suddenly fit me and my emotional baggage in again. So I stayed in England.

Eventually I remarried—another Englishman. And I’m still here.

Do I miss the States? Of course. Would I move back? Well… We talk about a retirement home in the States one day, but I don’t see a move back to the States before then. If I had known back in ’88 on the walls of Windsor Castle that not only would I return, as my teacher said, but that my future would be dominated by a life in England, would I have done anything differently?

The answer is yes, probably…possibly. I never planned on making a life here. It has been full of emotional hardship and heartache. And yet, I don’t regret moving overseas. Of course I could have made a life anywhere, but moving overseas helped me grow into the person I was meant to be by pushing my boundaries, testing me and helping me develop in ways that I would not have been able to while surrounded by people and influences back home.

That growth and development are the reasons why a move overseas was the best thing for me.

The author is an American freelance writer who has lived in the UK for 20 years. She blogs about life as an expat at Mid-Atlantic English.

9 Expat Blogs to Follow

FutureExpat — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:00:44 +0000

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 GET OUT AND EXPERIENCE OUR GLOBE! ”
Living In the Sun. This is a website with four offshoot blogs, each dealing with a European/Mediterranean country. There’s one for France, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Soul Travelers 3. Two fifty-something parents and a nine-year old travel the world in “an epic odyssey: open-ended, years long slow trip around the world as a family adventure, unschool, spiritual journey and lifestyle.”
Expat+Harem. A Berkely, CA native living in Istanbul with her Turkish husband.
My Several Worlds. The author is a traveler and photographer. Originally from Ottawa, Canada, she currently lives and works in Taipei. Her site features gorgeous photos, as well as information about teaching English abroad.
Career by Choice. Megan Fitzgerald helps expats develop their careers abroad.
Traveling4Health. While not specifically an expat blog, this is a terrific resource for anyone interested in health care abroad.
Mid-Atlantic English, the blog of an American who’s lived for an extended time in the UK.
The Cranky Yank. This is the personal blog of Dan Prescher from International Living, and he always has a unique perspective.
Do you have a favorite expat blog? Share it by clicking on the Comment link below.

Which Countries Have the Best Health Care?

FutureExpat — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:50:10 +0000

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 if you have good insurance. Prices are about 5 to 10 times the costs of France or Belgium.” This kind of anecdotal information is interesting, but not all that useful.

Of course to most expats and would-be expats, especially those of us who are approaching retirement age, health care is an important consideration in where we choose to live. What is its quality? Is it at least as good as what I’m used to? How expensive is it? How accessible is it? Will I have to be in a major city to have quality care available?

So what’s a concerned health care consumer to do?

There’s an interesting bubble chart on the Columbia University website, showing the average life expectancy and health care spending by country.

The US is way off by itself as the biggest spender. But our life expectancy (77 years) lags behind Japan (85), Switzerland, Australia, France, Canada, Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Austria, Korea, Portugal, UK, Luxembourg and Denmark, all of whom spend considerably less (around half!) than we do per capita.

The WHO (World Health Organization) has published a listing of medical care by country. Compiled in the year 2000, it’s a bit outdated, but might provide a good starting point. You can see it here.

A Few Considerations

First, I think it’s safe to assume that the care you’ll receive in rural areas will not be as up-to-date or comprehensive as the care you can receive in major cities. That’s true in the US just as much as anywhere else.

If living in a bustling metro area is not your taste, how fast and easy is transportation to those areas you’re considering? Use your common sense – if your dream retirement is on a remote beach or mountain-top retreat that’s an 8-hour drive over mostly dirt roads to get to the nearest city, that will be an issue in accessing quality health care. If it’s an hour or two over good roads, you’ll have significantly better access.

Are there hot spots of medical tourism in the country you’re considering? If so, you can be pretty well assured those doctors will speak English, have up-to-date training and use modern equipment. According to Business Week:

“The low cost and high quality of medical service is a big selling point for Singapore and Thailand, which have heavily promoted medical tourism in recent years. Hospital costs are as much as one-half what they would cost in the U.S.” Read the entire article here

Other popular medical tourism destinations include Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea, India and Israel. There are plenty of websites which discuss medical tourism, as any Google search will show.

Once you’ve narrowed down some possible destinations with health care facilities that will meet your needs, conduct your own research. When you visit the area, ask a lot of questions, find out what other expats do for health care, visit the hospitals and clinics if you can.

Ultimately, as with any other aspect of your move, you need to just do it.

Health Care and Expatriation

FutureExpat — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:57:59 +0000

A few days ago, I asked the question, “Is US health care driving Americans to move abroad?” The response was swift.

“Of course it is,” wrote Lya Sorano, Atlanta businesswoman. “Hardly a month passes in which I do not hear about a friend-of-a-friend or former neighbor decamping to Mexico or Costa Rica. I may be next . . . ”

Mary Duckworth, who blogs as Expat Abroad, responded:

“It was one of the major factors prompting me to move overseas in 1993 when I did with my foreign husband. We had no health insurance in the United States, and an uncomplicated one night delivery in the hospital at that time, plus about eight pre-natal visits was running $10,000. In Morocco, at that time, specialists were charging $10 a visit, and three nights in the hospital with the slightly complicated delivery (vacuum extraction) cost about $500.

“However, if I had not been ready to consider a move overseas anyway, it might not have happened. However, I cannot see how I could ever come back unless they do something about health care.
A real estate agent in Mexico commented, “I would have to say yes. Many US expats I have talked with share the same view on the US health care system.”

Carol Schmidt, who blogs about San Miguel de Allende wrote:

“US and Canadian citizens aren’t moving to Mexico specifically for cheaper health care but for an overall lower cost of living and improved way of life, in which lower medical costs are a big part.

“I don’t think anyone is flocking to Mexico just to get treated at Mexican general hospitals and sign up for the Mexican social security health insurance, IMSS.”

Michelle, expat in the UK who blogs as Mid-Atlantic English wrote:

“I greatly appreciate the NHS [National Health Service] in Britain and with aging parents I hear a lot of the downsides to the US system. It’s frustrating at best and really enraging at worst. Pathetic that such a great country has got this wrong for so long–or more accurately, that such a great country has let Big Business rule their decision making for so long.”

One site visitor went even farther:

“You have got it right on. This country is no longer by the people and for the people. It’s by the big corps and for the big corps! We are planning our move within the next year and it’s out of here.”

However, a journalist living in the Netherlands disagrees.

“How many people can just pick up and move, obtain live/work visas, get jobs, and organize their lives in a new country just like that? How many have the money to do this? Do they sell their homes in the US? Can they speak the language of the new country? Are they willing to accept third-world health care?

“No, I don’t think this is happening at all.”

“. . . 6.6 million Americans do not live overseas because of health care. There are other reasons to go abroad. Moreover, as I said before, it’s not like you can just pick up and move to another country at whim. It doesn’t work that way. “

We’ll be looking at this topic more in the next few months, I’m sure. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss it further, please fan the Future Expats Forum page I started on Facebook, where it’s a little easier to carry on an actual conversation.

Happy Labor Day! Here Are a Few Expat Blogs to Enjoy

FutureExpat — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:00:58 +0000

I thought I’d post a list of some well known and not-so-well known personal expat blogs to enjoy over the long Labor Day (in the US anyway) weekend. In no particular order. . .

Bleeding Espresso, by an American who moved from Pennsylvania to her ancestors’ village in Italy.
Chris Winchester, who moved very recently from the UK to New Zealand, and who promised to write a guest post here but hasn’t gotten around to it yet. (Wink!)
Mid-Atlantic English, subtitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Host Culture.
Jim & Carole’s Mexico Adventure. A former community organizer and his wife moved to Ajicic, Mexico and photo-blog about it.
Cuenca, Ecuador, New Life in Retirement. A CPA and an acupuncturist retire to Cuenca. I especially like his commentary about their multi-year process of deciding where to retire, and then implementing their plan!
I’ll try to post more links to expat blogs once a month or so. I find them fascinating, and hope you do too.

If you have a favorite blog you’d like to recommend, contact me or click the Comment link below to pass along the information.

Doing Business Abroad

FutureExpat — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:00:53 +0000

If your overseas move will include doing business, the World Bank has just published a list that might help you narrow your search. According to their annual Doing Business report, the countries most favorable to starting a small- to medium-sized business are:

Singapore
New Zealand
United States
Hong Kong
Denmark
United Kingdom
Ireland
Canada
Australia
Norway

Obviously, ease of starting a business is not the only criterion for choosing where in the world to live, but if you have years of your working life ahead of you, it’s something to consider. With the exception of Singapore, all the other countries on the list are in Europe and North America.