Every young person dreams of living abroad. Working in London, building a life in Singapore, exploring opportunities in Dubai, settling in Portugal.
The internet tells you the path is simple: “Just build wealth! Create a business! Be an entrepreneur! Make money and live wherever you want!”
That’s technically true. It’s also catastrophically bad advice for 99% of people.
Here’s the truth nobody wants to hear:
Education and professional credentials are what actually enable international mobility for most people. Wealth creation is extremely rare, extremely difficult, and an unrealistic path for the vast majority.
The Wealth Creation Myth
The internet is full of 25-year-olds claiming they built six-figure businesses that let them work from Bali. Some of these stories are real. Most are exaggerated or outright fabrications. Nearly all are survivorship bias.Here’s what they don’t tell you:### Creating Significant Wealth Is Statistically Rare
The numbers:
Only about 10-15% of small businesses survive past 5 years
Of those that survive, fewer than 5% generate significant wealth- The median small business owner makes roughly the same as a salaried employee
Building a business that generates $100K+ per year in passive income? Maybe 1-2% of people who try achieve thisIf you’re 22 years old planning to “build wealth” as your strategy for international mobility, you’re betting on winning a lottery. Yes, some people win. Most don’t.
It Takes Longer Than You ThinkThe entrepreneurs who successfully build wealth-generating businesses typically take 5-10 years to reach meaningful income levels. Many take longer.
If you’re 23 and decide to “build a business” instead of getting educated, you might be 30-35 before you have reliable income—if you succeed at all. That’s a decade of your youth spent with no guaranteed outcome.
Meanwhile, someone who spent 4 years getting educated and 2 years gaining experience is already living abroad by age 28, earning well, with a stable visa.
Most “Location-Independent” Income Is Fragile
Even if you do build an online business that generates income, it’s often:
Unstable (algorithm changes, platform bans, market shifts)
Difficult to prove to immigration authorities- Insufficient for most skilled worker visa programs
Not respected by banks when trying to get mortgages or loans internationally
Immigration systems are built around traditional employment and education credentials, not entrepreneurship.
Education: The Proven Path to International Mobility
While wealth creation is rare and unpredictable, education provides a clear, reliable path to living and working internationally.
1. Student Visas Are the Easiest Entry Point
Almost every desirable country has straightforward student visa programs. If you get admitted to a university, you can move there. It’s that simple.
What student visas give you:
Legal right to live in a foreign country for 2-4 years- Often include work rights (part-time during studies, full-time during breaks)- Provide a pathway to post-graduation work visas- Allow you to build local networks and experience- Give you time to explore whether you want to stay long-term
Countries with excellent student visa → work visa → permanent residence pathways:
Canada (extremely straightforward)
Australia (clear points-based system)
UK (2-year post-study work visa)
Germany (18-month job search visa after graduation)
Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan (all have post-study work options)
Going to university abroad is literally a paid pathway to international mobility. You’re not just getting educated—you’re getting legal residence, cultural integration time, and a launching pad for long-term immigration.
2. Professional Credentials Open Skilled Worker Visas
The primary way most people legally work abroad long-term is through skilled worker visa programs. These programs have one thing in common: they require professional qualifications and credentials.
Professions with strong international mobility:
Software engineering (degree or bootcamp certificate + portfolio)
Medicine and nursing (degree + local licensing)
Engineering (accredited degree)
Accounting (CPA or equivalent)
Finance (degrees + certifications like CFA)
Teaching (degree + teaching certification)
Research and academia (advanced degrees)
Architecture (accredited degree + licensing)
Notice the pattern?
All of these require formal education or professional certifications.
You can’t just “create wealth” and qualify for a skilled worker visa. You need credentials that immigration systems recognize.
3. Education Signals Competence Internationally
When you apply for jobs abroad, employers need to quickly assess whether you’re qualified. In your home country, they might look at your work history, network, or portfolio.Internationally, when employers don’t know your previous companies or can’t easily verify your background, education credentials become the primary signal of competence.
A degree from a recognized university tells an international employer:
You can complete long-term commitments
You have foundational knowledge in your field
You meet a standardized level of competency
You’ve been vetted by an institution they recognize
Saying “I built a $50K/year online business” doesn’t carry the same weight because it’s impossible to verify and doesn’t signal standardized competence.
4. Education Unlocks Points-Based Immigration Systems
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries use points-based immigration systems for skilled workers and permanent residence.
In these systems, education is worth significant points:
Bachelor’s degree: 15-20 points
Master’s degree: 20-25 points
PhD: 25-30 points
Education in the destination country: Bonus points
Age, work experience, and language skills also matter, but education is often the single biggest factor in whether you qualify.Without formal education credentials, it’s extremely difficult to accumulate enough points to qualify for permanent residence in these countries.
5. Intra-Company Transfers (L-1 Visas)One of the most common ways professionals move internationally is through intra-company transfers. You work for a multinational company in your home country, then transfer to an office abroad.
How you get hired by multinationals that enable transfers:
Education. Large international companies recruiting for roles that can lead to transfers almost universally require degrees.Without education credentials, you’re unlikely to get hired by the companies that facilitate international mobility through transfers.
The Brutal Reality of Wealth-Based Immigration
Yes, there are investor visas and golden visas that allow wealthy people to move to other countries. Here’s why they’re not realistic for most young people:
Minimum investment requirements:
Portugal Golden Visa: €250,000-500,000
Spain Golden Visa: €500,000
US EB-5 Investor Visa: $800,000-1,050,000
UK Innovator Visa: £50,000 + approval (extremely difficult)-
Singapore: Typically need $2M+ for permanent residence
UAE: Can be done cheaper, but limited pathway to permanent residence
For the vast majority of young people, accumulating $250,000-$1,000,000 to invest in real estate or businesses abroad is completely unrealistic.
Even successful entrepreneurs often don’t have that kind of liquid capital until their 40s or 50s.
The Education Strategy: What Actually Works
Here’s the practical path that actually results in international mobility for normal people:
Step 1: Get Educated (Ages 18-25)
Option A:
Study abroad for your entire degree
Attend university in Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, etc.
Graduate with local degree + work rights- Transition directly to skilled worker visa
This is the single most straightforward path to permanent international relocation
Option B: Get educated in your home country, then pursue graduate school abroad
Complete bachelor’s in home country (cheaper)
Apply for master’s programs abroad (1-2 years)
Use post-study work visa to find employment
Transition to skilled worker visa
Option C:*
Get educated in home country, build experience, then transfer
Complete degree in home country
Work for multinational company for 2-3 years
Request intra-company transfer to foreign office
Transition to local skilled worker visa
Step 2: Build Credentials and Experience (Ages 22-28)
While working in your field:
Pursue professional certifications (CPA, CFA, PE license, teaching certification, etc.)
Build specialized skills that are internationally in demand
Learn languages if targeting specific countries
Save money for the eventual move
Step 3: Make the Move (Ages 25-30)With education + experience + credentials:
Apply for skilled worker visas in target countries
Or apply for graduate programs abroad and use post-study work visas
Or request intra-company transfer
Or apply for points-based immigration programs
This path has a >50% success rate if you execute properly.
Compare that to “build wealth and move abroad,” which has maybe a 5-10% success rate.
Why Entrepreneurs Still Need Education
Even if you do want to pursue entrepreneurship, **education still matters for international mobility.
Scenario 1:
Your business succeeds and generates good income, but it’s online/remote. You still need a visa to legally live in another country long-term. Without education credentials, your visa options are severely limited.
Scenario 2:
Your business succeeds and you want to expand internationally or establish a physical presence abroad. Having education credentials makes business visas, local business registration, and partnership opportunities much easier.
Scenario 3:
Your business fails or you want to pivot. Having education credentials means you have a fallback—you can get a traditional job abroad using skilled worker visas.
Education provides optionality. Pure wealth creation without credentials leaves you dependent on continuing business success with no backup plan.
The Common Counterarguments (And Why They’re Wrong)
“But I know someone who moved abroad without a degree!”
Exceptions exist. They’re exceptions because they’re rare. Maybe they married a citizen. Maybe they had extraordinary skills in a niche field. Maybe they got lucky with timing.Betting your international mobility on being an exception is foolish.
“Education is expensive and puts you in debt!”
Some countries offer free or very cheap university education (Germany, Norway, parts of Europe). Even expensive education in countries like the US, UK, Canada, or Australia typically costs less than trying and failing at 3-4 business ventures over a decade.
Moreover, education is an investment with predictable returns. Entrepreneurship is a gamble with unpredictable returns.
“I’ll just create wealth first, then get educated later if needed!”
By the time you’re 35 and have finally built wealth (if you succeed), you’ve aged out of many student visa programs, accumulated responsibilities that make moving difficult, and lost the flexibility that makes international education attractive.The time to get educated is when you’re young and unattached, not after you’ve spent a decade trying to get rich.
“Plenty of successful people dropped out of college!”
Yes. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Extraordinary outliers whose success had nothing to do with dropping out and everything to do with exceptional talent, timing, and luck.
For every successful dropout, there are 10,000 unsuccessful ones you never hear about. Survivorship bias is a hell of a drug.
The Hybrid Approach: Education + Entrepreneurship
The smartest path isn’t education OR entrepreneurship—it’s both.
Ages 18-25:
Get educated, preferably abroad or in a globally recognized program. This gives you credentials and potentially initial international experience.
Ages 25-35:
Build your career in a traditional field while pursuing entrepreneurial ventures on the side. This gives you income stability, visa options, and the ability to take calculated risks.
Ages 35+:
If your entrepreneurial ventures succeed, great—you have options. If they don’t, you still have credentials that enable international mobility through traditional employment.
This approach gives you two pathways to international mobility instead of one.
The Bottom Line
If you’re young and want the freedom to live and work internationally, here’s the hierarchy of realistic strategies:
Tier 1 (Highest success rate):**- Study abroad → post-study work visa → skilled worker visa → permanent residence- Get educated at home → build credentials → skilled worker visa abroa
Tier 2 (Moderate success rate):
Get educated → work for multinational → intra-company transfer- Get educated → pursue graduate school abroad → stay
Tier 3 (Low success rate):
Build online business → try to get business/investor visas- Create wealth → investor visa programs
Tier 4 (Extremely low success rate):
No education, no credentials, try to build wealth and move abroad
The young people who successfully achieve international mobility overwhelmingly come from Tiers 1 and 2. They used education as their foundation.The people who advocate skipping education to “build wealth” are either exceptionally successful outliers (survivorship bias) or people who haven’t actually achieved sustainable international mobility yet.
The Uncomfortable TruthCreating wealth is hard. Building a successful business is hard. Achieving financial independence through entrepreneurship is hard.
Getting educated and using those credentials to work internationally is comparatively easy.
It’s not effortless. It requires work, planning, and sacrifice. But it’s a proven, well-worn path with clear steps and predictable outcomes.
If your goal is international mobility, education is the tool that actually works for most people.
Wealth creation is the dream. Education is the reality.
Choose accordingly.
Dream of building wealth, but don’t bet your entire future on it. Get educated first. It’s your most reliable ticket to living wherever you want.*
