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– Just because, it sounds fun to do for a while
– Somewhere cheap, probably. But still safe
– I don’t have any, I’ve never gotten the chance to actually do it
– idk my mom? She sucks. I’d probably miss just about everything else, but I’d live with it since it would be temporary
mostly for fun
There’s rad people and cool stuff to see all over.
Somewhere warm and laid back. I’m not interested in living somewhere entirely modern, western, and uptight. I’ve already got that here.
I’d consider it almost on an extended 3 month vacation kind of basis, but live? probably not.
I’d miss all the conveniences of the US, but a lot of those conveniences are oddly at the expense of charm.
I’m pretty well-traveled — I’ve been all over the world — but I’ve never *lived* abroad. I’d like to have that experience. I suspect there are some things you can never really understand about a foreign country until you’ve lived there for at least a few years, and I’d like to understand some of those things about another country.
> Why would you want to live outside of the US?
I immigrated to Germany for personal reasons.
> What countries do you feel like you’d like to live in?
I’m not opposed to living in any western country.
> What’s your experience of living in other countries and how does it compare to living in the US?
I think people everywhere are mostly the same.
I have lived abroad. In China in fact. I did it for an internship opportunity.
I miss the communal stuff China had like better public parks, public squares, transport, and the food was more suited to my tastes.
What I don’t miss is having the internet be completely locked down and the increasing amount of totalitarian control the country is going through. Also not a fan of the constant “rage-baiting” the CCP does.
I’d love to live somewhere that I don’t need a car
My fiancee and I are entertaining the idea of moving to London. It would be great for our careers to add global leadership experience to our resumes and would be a fun adventure for a few years.
There’s nothing magical about London. The choice of London is more about convenience and opportunity. No language barrier, relatively close to the US w/ great connections if we need to get home quickly, lots of opportunity for people in our fields (advertising & journalism), would be a great opportunity to explore parts of the UK & Europe we might not otherwise explore.
I’m sure we’d miss lots about the US. Life is all about tradeoffs though.
Why? Because I’m currently doing it and it’s working out quite well for me.
I currently live in Germany.
The US will always be my home regardless of where I end up long term.
But… other than the language barrier, I find Germany a much better place to live (for me, based on what I value and what I want my life to be like).
Too many things have changed in my life and in the US, and sometimes it’s easier to go someplace new than to try to cope with the changes.
EDIT:
what I don’t miss –
I don’t miss the cut-throat, everyone’s out to get one over on you attitude and the general wishy-washiness of people.
I don’t miss the fact that it’s all about money and status all the time.
I don’t miss that the wealth gap is extreme and more in your face than here in Germany.
I don’t miss the poor quality of food.
What I miss –
Convenience. Abundance of anything you want and need. Communicating effortlessly. The beaches. My family.
Germany is not better than the US, it just works better for me right now.
My wife and I considered moving to Canada because her parents live there and her brother is unreliable, but we decided against it based on pay. We did live in Thailand for about a year and a half on an extended vacation though.
My wife’s job was moved to Switzerland. It was pretty clear they just expected to lay off the department, but she’s a German citizen, so she’d have the right to work in Switzerland anyway.
So, we went to Basel on vacation to determine if we wanted to make the move. And Basel was nice, but in the end we decided we’d still have better future employment opportunities in the US.
(Also, her boss was terrible, and not worth uprooting ourselves for.)
The lovely convenience of a European city was a big positive, but we recognized that we wouldn’t have been able to live as well as in the States.
We have sucky public transportation. I went abroad and was amazed that I could live life without a car for the most part. The food quality and portions were healthier as well.
If money is no object I’d move to the south of France and get a house high on the hills of the Côte d’Azur overlooking the ocean.
I went late last summer and absolutely loved it. It’s so beautiful there. Depending exactly where you are… it’s not that outrageously expensive.
I already lived in Thailand and missed how orderly things really were in the USA. Bangkok is quite chaotic though I still enjoy visiting.
ADVENTURE
>Why would you want to live outside of the US?
For the experience. What better way to learn about another culture than by living it?
>What countries do you feel like you’d like to live in?
I’ve lived in Australia. I wouldn’t mind spending some time in New Zealand, Europe, the Caribbean.
>What’s your experience of living in other countries and how does it compare to living in the US?
Overall it was a positive experience. I was able to settle into daily life easily and was doing fine for myself. It wasn’t that different from the US in that regard. The hard part was the immigration, visa, citizenship and obviously I don’t have to deal with that here.
>What is it about the US You wouldn’t miss ?
I didn’t miss all the news and politics. At this point, I still don’t have a clear picture of what was going on in this country between 2015 and 2020. Even living in a major city, my life abroad was less hectic than here. But there are trade-offs and I wouldn’t call one place definitively “better” than the other.
I haven’t, but my parents did. They considered retiring in Italy, they e been many times and love it there. But my dad didn’t want to leave the US. My mom prolly would have regretted being so far from me. They ended up in FL, I stayed in CT, and she often says she regrets moving so far from me. And that’s only a three hour plane ride lol
I lived in Germany for awhile. Most of the Americans I met just saw government social services as a get out of jail free card for shitty life decisions under the guise of ‘my personal values just align better with Germans’.
If you’re genuinely curious, I recommend browsing r/AmerExit or r/IWantOut
From my side, I moved to the EU nearly a decade ago for university and stayed for the higher quality of life. Salaries are lower, but for me the trade off is more than worth the increased safety, better labor laws and work life balance, more easily accessible healthcare, and more.
I do visit friends and family in the US every few years. I think the big unique thing that’s nice stateside is all the national parks and wild areas.
I have a 3 year old and I’m scared of school shootings. Not even just the ones you see in the news, but all the violence that happens in inner city schools (where we live) as well. This isn’t even limited to schools though, my child is a toddler and has already seen someone get shot, and seen someone get robbed at knifepoint, while we were waiting for public transit. Also, if he grows up to be LGBTQ, (I don’t think he is but it could happen) I would worry about him hating himself or being discriminated against. I’m sure other countries have similar problems, but if I knew a country where we would feel safe, and I had the money, I would go in a heartbeat. Also, it’d be nice to have universal healthcare. The healthcare given by my employer don’t cover a lot of specialists, and I need specialists for preexisting conditions, and my son needs therapy for developmental stuff caused by traumatic birth, as well as most likely PTSD from what he has seen already.
I’m diabetic
When I went on vacation to Australia, I didn’t want to come back. Fantastic place
I got out for awhile. It was nice living with less rules even if the lack of rules was more from neglect than design.
I left the US for work and it became a lot more authoritarian and a lot more intolerant while I was gone. I had to leave my home state to be comfortable in the US again and even then, the tendrils of that same monochromatic authoritarianism creep in.
If I leave again, it will be to get away from the triumph of that new WEF authoritarianism over Americanism. That means I have to stay out of the other WEF states. I was in Asia before. I’d probably pick a place that has Islam as an extra barrier to the WEF. Maybe somewhere in Central Asia.
Living in Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Thailand and Serbia was ok. The more corrupt the more you need local assistance to navigate.
Japan sucks balls. It’s the best possible state for being authoritarian but it sucks balls for a foreigner and I know a lot of Japanese nationals who also bailed out. I totally understand why their population is dying.
Indonesia is a vibrant but insane place to live. The law is enforced to varying degrees but your employees don’t rob you blind like some countries. This is definitely a top option. It’s very easy to get around now that all the young people speak English. I’ve watched it go from donkey carts to too many cars(scooters mostly) for the roads. The food rules and it’s just the right amount of Islam. It’s a huge country with a lot of people in it so you get choices internally. Balikpapan and Surabaya tend to have a lot of opportunity. Jakarta is one of the most insanely overpopulated Asian mega cities I’ve ever been in.
The Philippines is the nicest corrupt place you’ll ever go. Your employees will steal everything that isn’t nailed down though. What a pain in the ass. Totally cool place for a vacation and I’m married to one. The women are absolute tops if you are looking for something more traditional and patient enough to actually get to know the locals.
Kazakhstan is the best place you’ve never heard of. It was basically a Soviet industrial center so it has a ton of overbuilt commercial real estate and educated people. It’s by far one of the easiest places I’ve worked because of how easy Kazakhs are to work with. I know a few people who married a local and stayed. I totally get it.
Liberia is a man made hell. Everything is either built by foreigners or from the colonial era. They steal or destroy everything. Those Motherfuckers will break a pipeline to steal fuel AND file environmental claims. They’ll steal fuel out of the running generator they need to do the jobs they were hired for. The whole place is a total shitshow.
Thailand is one of the few places on earth that seems to actually be getting better. The infrastructure improvements in the last 20 years have been amazing. I’ve seen quality of life improvements for everyone I deal with there. The corruption seems to be abating. You have to ignore the cities’ propensity for prostitutes and drugs but it’s pretty easy to avoid. You don’t accidentally end up in a go-go bar. The wildlife is a little aggressive with hornets, snakes, and damned giant ants. Not a bad choice really and things considered.
Serbia rules. Well it ruled. I read things I don’t like and I haven’t been there in 10 years. My Serb friends tend to come to me when I’m even remotely close. I hope you like Silvovich and plums. I want to see it again but I wouldn’t blindly move back.
It’s hard to miss the US because you can miss the US living in the US. It’s changes so much in the last 20 years that large parts of the US aren’t the US anymore. My hometown Main Street was literally bulldozed. The character and physical town is gone. The name is there, but it’s no longer filled with Americans. The people there live an alien existence.
The US calls itself “fee” but it’s put more and more chains on itself where I feel more free in a lot of other countries. Like I said before I moved states and it’s gotten a little better but the amount of ridiculous permitting I need for mundane things even here is so fucking stupid. You really appreciate the absurdity of it when you’ve lived elsewhere and you could easily just commit to action. Everything goes faster and smoother.
That and the never ending social/political assault in the US. Some countries never talk politics because it almost isn’t relevant. There are exceptions like Thailand having a coup every ten years and the Kazakhs recently overthrowing their western aligned government. None of these places seem to suffer from the force feeding of alien values the way the US does. I guess that’s my point.
I could see myself regulated right out of the US. It depends who wins the social/political struggle. I won’t be a slave to authoritarian bureaucrats when I’m a flight away from prosperity and freedom of action. Since 9/11 my most valuable possessions have been passports.
The risk of a mass shooting is greater than in any other western country. The politics.
I will be moving back to the UK.
I haven’t lived for a long period of time in another country.
The politics and the attitude of America being the best.
My boyfriend and I are considering living in Europe for a year. We both like history and travel, and Europe has a ton of historical things, but it’s also small. So, it’s easy to travel around countries and between countries, and you can see a lot of stuff in a relatively short amount of time.
Out of the two dozen European cities we’ve visited, we’ve liked Berlin the most, so that would be our first choice.
As far as experience living abroad, I’ve spent half a year in Singapore, and a couple months in Berlin.
Singapore was cleaner, safer, and easier to get around, with amazing food, but super tiny and I didn’t like the culture there. I found it to be oppressive, conformist, super materialistic (if you think US materialism is bad, Asian materialism is on another level), and all of that made it feel, well, bland there. No real arts scene to be found. Eating and shopping is 99% of what there is to do. Everyone is chasing the same lifestyle and lot of that lifestyle is just taking posed pictures at the same cafes.
Berlin is pretty great. Safer, calmer, easier to get around, full of history and things to do. The only downside there was really the food. Food in Europe is generally a little more bland and a little less diverse than in North America, and Berlin’s food was more meh than the UK or Southern Europe.
One of my friends is an artist, so he relocated permanently to Berlin to take advantage of the artist benefits. Even he will tell you that Berlin is an island though. The rest of Germany doesn’t feel the way Berlin does.
For countries like Germany, it’s mentally really hard to go from a very diverse country where there are always people who look like you (we’re both visibly East Asian) to less diverse countries where there’s virtually no one who looks like you. You really *feel* the minority status. Hard to find your preferred cooking ingredients, for example.
I also like outdoor pursuits (hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, kite surfing, kayaking, white water rafting, etc) and you can’t do that in Europe to anywhere near the same degree as you can in North America. The geographic diversity and vast wilderness here is unparalleled.
That’s part of why I’d permanently relocate to Canada before Europe.
I wouldn’t miss US crime rates or hustle culture though. Plus, while we have good transit in major urban areas (I didn’t own a car in San Francisco or Chicago), similar to Canada, the suburbs and mid-sized cities are spread out and you need a car. I don’t like car culture.
Everywhere has trade offs though.
I applied for a job as an English Teacher in Japan earlier this year. It would have been a two year deal and I was looking forward to it, but unfortunately I didn’t get it.
Why? Better safety, education, healthcare, culture, opportunities in my field of work.
Where? Pretty much everywhere would love to travel the world
Never lived anywhere else
I wouldn’t miss our media
I moved to Mexico City.
I moved from Houston, and honestly, Mexico City feels a lot more like Texas than Connecticut and Upstate New York did. I like mega-cities and found it more inviting and homey than New York, and I had an easier time finding a job here than London or Shanghai.
Between my fiancée and I, we speak English, Spanish, mandarin, and Italian. We have no desire to learn any more, so we’re not going outside of the UK, US, China, Taiwan, Italy, Spain, and Latin America.
The main thing I miss is actually spicy food. The food in Mexico City is weak as fuck. Other than that, I’m happy.
I’ve never lived abroad or exited the US. But I’ve been feeling pretty consistently underwhelmed by the racism, classism and general idiocy present in this country over the past 3 years. I also dislike the ultra-individualist culture here to a large extent, I mean passing Obamacare (literally proposed by the Heritage Foundation and exceptionally moderate) was like extracting a wisdom tooth with a toothpick and no anesthetic; then the Republicans complained.nonstop about it for nearly a decade. I truly don’t understand the rabid opposition a large portion of this country has towards the government helping people and it frustrates me to no end.
If I could move anywhere, I’d probably move to Denmark. Their laws reflect my values far more closely, and it’s just a really great place to live from what I’ve heard. Yes they have problems with bigotry against refugees, but frankly we have that here as well; and once I (hopefully) get Danish citizenship I could take action to stop it.
Love.
BALI INDONESIA
Cheap, gorgeous beaches, beers are $1.
Conservatives are trying to make me illegal essentially. Also the Healthcare system here is fucking garbage unless you’re rich.
I’m a “considered but decided not to” case.
> Why would you want to live outside of the US?
When I was considering it, it was always going to be a temporary thing for a year or two just for the experience/being in a location that was more centrally located for traveling purposes.
> What countries do you feel like you’d like to live in?
Germany, because I have some family and family friends either living there or with ties there. Another in consideration was New Zealand because they had a tax benefit thing for people in my career field.
But ultimately decided against both because it was just going to cost me way too much money (combination of increased costs, costs of the move and paperwork, and reduced salaries in my job field). It would’ve been a really cool experience but it wasn’t worth an opportunity cost of $40-60k+ per year to me.
Unfortunately I can’t answer the other two since I’ve never actually lived abroad!
I want to experience new places to live
I lived in Italy but would be open to the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, denmark, Germany, and Ireland
There were some pros and cons living in Italy. I liked it for the most part
I missed a lot of things when living abroad. Idk how I could live without nfl and college game day and March madness
I trade forex and crypto and I have seriously considered at least getting a second citizenship in Hungary specifically because I can likely get a citizenship by descent there. The reason why is the US regulations are almost antithetical to forex and crypto traders.
I like to travel and see new places and cultures.
There are many. I’ve lived in Korea, Germany, France, Croatia and Chile so far and I enjoyed them.
> Why would you want to live outside of the US?
To experience life somewhere else
> what countries do you feel like you’d like to live in?
Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain
> What’s your experience of living in other countries and how does it compare to living in the US?
In most ways they are much more comparable than most Europeans would be comfortable hearing. Differences were more structural (urban/rural/cold/hot) than cultural.
I would love to move out of the US! I appreciate the healthier work/life balance in many other countries. Hustle culture is oppressive here in the US. If you’re ever doing something other than work, you’re lazy. Many jobs require uncompensated overtime. Hobbies aren’t for enjoyment and relaxation – you’re supposed to get good enough to monetize and then start your side hustle.
The extreme capitalist treadmill seems rigged. In my town for example, the median household income is $67k/ year, which qualifies you for around $220k mortgage. However, the median home price is $460k (and it’s considered to be a moderate cost of living location). It’s getting impossible to survive, even with two adults working full time. The lack of a social safety net is terrifying. Most Americans are one illness or car accident away from bankruptcy. Every other industrialized country provides some sort of socialized healthcare, family leave, and childcare assistance.
The influx of white, Christo-fascism is very concerning as well. Discriminatory, regressive, yet statistically unpopular laws are being passed by a small number of bible-thumping bigots, while the bias Supreme Court upholds their validity. Gun violence is the #1 cause of death for children. There are 1.2 guns for every single person alive in the US.
There is a long list of reasons why the United States is objectively becoming worse than it was for our parent’s and grandparent’s generations. I know every country has their problems, but at least most “western” countries are TRYING to progress towards a more egalitarian ideal.
I have lived outside the US twice for work, and enjoyed the experiences a lot. Lately, the cost of living has gotten unmanageable here, and I wonder how I’ll be able to afford life when I retire. I’m kind of imagining living overseas somewhere more affordable, but it hasn’t gotten beyond the daydream stage yet.
American here. I’ve been living outside the US for the past 15 years in different countries. Have been residing in the United Arab Emirates for the past 9 years. Living and working for a company that hires expats. I make 150k a year, mostly tax-free. I have a very good job in a management position, but I’ve been feeling homesick for trees, forests, and a bit of cooler weather lately. I’m tired of looking at sand dunes.
It’s a very comfortable life here, safe, tourists, with many of the same comforts we have in the US. With the ability to travel to other interesting countries about twice a year.
Im very blessed to have this job and be in this position. But, I’ve been overseas long enough and am ready to come back to the US in a year’s time or so.
It’s been mostly positive. One of the best things is not having to be bombarded by politics and left or right agendas. It simply doesn’t exist here.
Other than the US, the UAE is where many people from oppressed countries dream to be. There are very good opportunities here to open a private business and be successful. Plus, Dubai and the UAE have the most American fast food franchises outside of the US!
I’d love to spend some time living in the UK or Ireland. My degree is in history, with a lot of time and interest dedicated to the British Isles. I haven’t done it because of my health and also I’m a ‘fraidy cat.
I’ve always thought it would be nice to retire in Canada for at least part of the year, but my bank account suggests that’s an unlikely dream
I like the personality and diversity of the UK
I know American is technically the land of immigrants it doesn’t really matter what your ethnicity is here, culturally we are all very American.
When I was living in the UK everyone was incredibly different. If you have a conversation with someone who’s polish or Spanish the personalities and mannerisms are going to be vastly different.
Also I do like how the UK is a bit more family and community based and typically just like to go out to bars and talk(even though they say they don’t and are mean anti social people). I live in the east coast and literally everyone is very cliquey and you need to schedule a outlook meeting 3 weeks in advance in order to do anything with friends