I lived in the United States for fourteen years, give or take. It was the majority of my childhood. I left a long time ago, and I don’t plan on coming back. It’s an interesting situation, because now I’m just a normal guy in a poor country, on his grind. I’m taking fairly big risks with my life, but I don’t think I will end up regretting it. The global economy is growing, and I only plan on being cash-poor for another two years at most. I’m young and I work hard. I have the support of my family. My country has free healthcare. I should be fine. Overall, life is way better overseas, if you’re doing the work.
I am not American, and I moved overseas before the digital nomad/passport bro phenomenon took over etc.
This means I didn’t optimize my life to be a digital nomad. I moved back to my home country of Canada, and life came at me fast. I was in a random new place, just doing whatever. I “crashed out” in 2020 and decided I wanted to get my life together. I moved to the Caribbean, and quickly realized that the cost of living is quite high in the region. There’s money to be made here, but you have to hunker down in the early years if you want to win. Once you do, you’re surprisingly wealthy, all-things considered. I came here by surprise, but it’s been a great region to find myself and get work done. Now I’m getting ready to leave for the country of my choice, but I don’t want to ever go back to North America.
I had a lot of issues, it’s still better
I tend to feel insanely paranoid, and I don’t trust a lot of people. I was depressed when I was younger. I also wasn’t focused for the first two years in which I lived overseas. I was still struggling up until I turned 25, but after 2020 I was more on the right path. Now, I’m just hunkered down and saving up to move out. I wanted to go to Southeast Asia at first, but now I’m considering going to Europe and Latin America again. The fact of the matter is that right now, America and Canada are uniquely expensive and toxic. It’s actually so bad, that the wealth of poor countries is understated. If you’re looking at the GDP per capita of a “poor” country in an attempt to see how people live, double whatever number you see. A lot of poor countries are filled with young people. Additionally, a lot of the people in poor countries aren’t competition if you have a degree and are working in a white collar field. They didn’t have the same opportunities you do, because the world was much poorer even a decade ago.
Once you start getting money overseas, the game changes.
The main problem with living outside of the United States is that salaries can get quite low. Nowadays outside of a few select countries, you’re going to want to have a side-hustle if you want to live outside of the US and live a life of relative luxury. That being said, you’re winning once you have everything set up. A dollar overseas is equivalent to two at home. This is for a variety of reasons, but mainly that the west has a lot of middle men. AFTER THAT, life overseas is also much cheaper. This means that generally speaking, your money goes 3,4, or 5 times as far in other countries as in the US or Canada. This has a huge impact on your quality of life. If you’re earning $2,000 a month or less, you can now live a middle class life. If you’re making more than that you can start thinking of bodyguards and drivers as a single man, or raising a family in a beautiful home if that’s your style.
What about dating?
Dating overseas is easy but hard. You can get numbers really easily just by being a foreigner. But depending on the country you live in you may be viewed as soft and seen as a mark. This is the truth in all countries, whether they’re first world or third world. You’ll need money for long term relationships, it’s just easier to run a household when you’re well off. I’m not super into dating. I don’t like talking to a lot of people. I just want to go Southeast Asia or Brazil and start a family. But if dating around is your thing, you can do it in every country. It doesn’t matter what your race is if you have enough money to live a middle class life. I noticed that white guys get the most attention in some countries, but I’ve seen all sorts of racial/looks combinations abroad. Brazil is a big score for black men, by the way.
Overall, life is better overseas. You have to put in the work though. Because to be alive is to be active and do stuff. But overall, you meet better people and have a higher quality of life once you figure out what you’re doing. It isn’t a fairy tale, you’re still you. But it’s definitely worth all the hard work and effort of making money, learning new skills, and learning new languages. The difference in quality of life between abroad and in the United States is very large if and when you succeed.
I want to go overseas, where should I move and where should I go?
I would recommend somewhere in Europe to start. There’s a lot of cool places in Central and Eastern Europe that have a reasonable cost of living and are semi first world. Western Europe is great because of the benefits like free healthcare. Asia has a low cost of living, but it’s tougher to move there because of how competitive it is. Latin America is dangerous, but if you have money you’re avoiding all of that. Basically if you plan on being lower middle class or middle class, find another fist world country. Otherwise, the world is your oyster.
If you’re on the fence about moving overseas, I think you should do it. The fact that you’re considering it means that you’ll probably see a massive benefit. Just don’t go abroad with a fairy tale in mind. That’s when you’ll find yourself disappointed.
