Welcome!

If this is your first visit, here’s a brief explanation of what you can find here at the Future Expats Forum.

The Future Expats Forum looks at two issues near and dear to the expat (and future expat) heart — how to support yourself overseas, with emphasis on portable careers and prepping the move. We also look at what it’s like to live in Panama, since I lived there for 2-1/2 years.

We’re not so much an informational “what and where” site — there are plenty of those available. (Although we do have plenty of information.)

This all started because I found tons of the information-type sites available when I became interested in retiring in another country, but I couldn’t find anyplace that would help me handle a conversation about it with my mother-in-law.

Portable Careers

So we talk about things like developing an untethered career as a

• • writer
  • blogger or website owner
  • photographer
  • teacher
  • life coach

As part of that, I’ve started a series of articles called “Blogging for Expats,” which takes you through the nuts and bolts of starting and running a WordPress blog. Later I spun it off onto a site of its own, called WordPress Building Blocks.

Prepping the Move

Prepping the Move covers a lot of territory. It includes general topics like:

• • • Narrowing Your City/Country Search
    • Health care overseas
    • language learning
    • technology for the expat

Under this general heading we talk about things like what you should take with you to your new country, and what you should sell or get rid of (and how to do it!). Do you take along 40 pounds of family photos? How do you plan your first trip to the new country?

I’m still hoping someone can help with that mother-in-law question, too.

Panama

I share bits and pieces of useful information about moving here and living here, covering everything from how to find a place to live, to where to eat and shop, how to get around, finding a vet, whatever I think will be of interest. You can find all the Panama articles here.

Resources

I’ve gathered together a lot of resources to help you research, plan and execute your move overseas as well. I’m always adding to them, and if you’ve discovered a helpful resource that’s not listed, let me know about it (please!) using the contact form.

OK, I’m here. What next?

You can read more about me on the About page.

Or click here to go straight to the front page.

Of course, you can follow me on Twitter, or join the discussion on Google Plus. You can also follow me on Pinterest to get beautiful images of the places I go (and want to). I used to recommend you fan me on Facebook, but they show stuff to such a tiny percentage of people now it’s just not worth it. (Seriously — if you “Like” a Facebook page, you’ll only ever see about 3-8% of what they post in your feed. It’s ridiculous.)

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I always appreciate your (non-spammy) comments and emails.