7 Things to Know Before You Move Abroad

Sneak Peek: 

Kristin:    00:00:00    There is a risk that the longer that you stay abroad, the less you will feel like you fit in in your home country, but you also will likely never 100% feel like you fit in in your adopted country.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:    00:00:36    Hey there, Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 242 of Badass Digital Nomads. Quick disclaimer, there is a rooster living next door to me, or rather, I am in Miami, renting an Airbnb next to a rooster and he likes to express himself at different times of the day, <laugh>. So if you hear a rooster in the background, that's what that is. If you're new to this podcast, my name is Kristin. I've been traveling or living abroad for the past 20 years and I've been to 63 countries now and helped over a thousand people relocate to different countries worldwide. I've lived as an expat, I've lived as a digital nomad, I've been a perpetual tourist, all of the things. And this podcast is to help you live life on your terms, whatever that looks like, working online, retiring abroad, moving with your family.  

Kristin:    00:01:37    We cover all of that and more in this weekly podcast. Before we kick things off today, thank you so much for everyone who filled out our annual feedback form. Almost 200 people filled it out. So if you haven't done that yet, then in just a minute or so you can leave us your feedback on the podcast. Let me know what you want to hear more about and what are your least favorite topics that we cover so that I can customize this podcast to you so that you know that every week that you're tuning in, you're getting the maximum value possible. I also have another Google form that I'll leave in the show notes that is kind of on a sad note actually, not kind of, but it is. And some of you might have seen this news already in my newsletter, which you can join at TravelingwithKristin.com/subscribe if you didn't know about it.  

Kristin:    00:02:32    And also I posted about this on my YouTube community wall, but the Trip to Portugal that we've been talking about since around September, we actually had to cancel it last week. So this was a group trip with me to Portugal in May or in April, April 15th to the 21st. And we had a pretty short window to book. It was actually a lot shorter than what the tour operators usually provide, but because of the large response from people who filled out surveys and registered to get more information about this trip, we thought that we could do a bit of a shorter planning horizon and still have enough people join to be able to go on the trip. And the reason for this was because so many people, hundreds of people who filled out our trip survey met most people chose to travel in April. So we were looking for dates in April that we could have the trip.  

Kristin:    00:03:36    And it turned out that maybe that was too soon. We're not really sure exactly what the challenges were. And so that's why I wanted to talk with you about it here on the podcast. You know, in entrepreneurship and online business, you try things and sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes even if you spend years planning and doing market research, it might not work out the way that you plan. And this was one of those scenarios where I've been wanting to have a Traveling with Kristin Retreat since around 2018. A lot of people have asked about it if we could go on a trip somewhere and have like a hosted guided trip. And then I found a tour provider that could organize everything and I could just go with you and have fun. Portugal is one of the most popular countries for the types of content that I make about living overseas and working remotely.  

Kristin:    00:04:38    And that was the number one country that people reported that they wanted to travel to on this trip. So that's why we chose Portugal first. But right on the payment deadline, we had about four or five people that had to drop out for various reasons and actually personal reasons unrelated to the trip. And so we were one person short of the minimum number of people to be able to have the trip in April. And so we did need to postpone this first trip. And in doing so, I really wanted to just talk with you directly and see what was it about this trip that didn't resonate. Was it the dates? Were the dates too soon? Did the dates not fit with your calendar? Was it the budget for the trip? Was it the the destination of Portugal or the itinerary within the country? Was it the activities, was it something else?  

Kristin:    00:05:36    Uh, so I created a short Google form just to get your feedback so that when we plan the next one, because if you don't succeed, try, try again, right? There's thousands of people that have expressed interest in wanting to do a trip like this. It just seems that we got something wrong in the planning, the itinerary, the packaging, something. So we're trying to figure out what that is to design a better trip that's more valuable and more attractive, even if at a lower price point or a different destination. And you know, it doesn't really matter where we go as long as we're going together and we're having fun. It's not like one country's better than the other. And if the next trip is a success, we can do trips every year going to different countries like Italy, Spain, Croatia, Mexico, Thailand, Costa Rica, you name it.  

Kristin:    00:06:32    But another thing I was thinking is, you know, this was a trip for fun, for leisure, just like many other tours that you could take to Europe. It's just different because it's with our community. So it's people that are like-minded people, not complete strangers that just signed up for a random tour to Ireland online. You don't know who it's gonna be when you get there. In this case, it's part of our family, our community. And so that's an obvious benefit. But also I was curious if there was something more educational that you wanted to do versus a leisure trip. So if you fill out this form, can you also leave feedback about that? Are you looking for something where you can hear from speakers, go to workshops, learn new things other than just hiking and food tours, wine tastings, boat cruises, and the leisure activities that we had for Portugal.  

Kristin:    00:07:31    So just brainstorming here, but would really, really appreciate you leaving your 2 cents about how you saw the trip, why you did or didn't sign up to go. And we'll just use your feedback to make the next one even better. Maybe make it more of an exploratory trip of a country looking at real estate. Talking to residency attorneys and other types of professionals in that country could also be an option as well. Also, of course, everybody who signed up for the trip was notified before I made this news public and everyone is receiving a full refund, so no problems there. But I wanted to talk about this on the podcast because I actually dedicated a whole episode of the podcast to talking about it and we've been talking about it for the past few months. So wanted to bring you up to speed with that. Speaking of Portugal though, Bordr, if you remember them from previous episodes that we, we had the co-founders of Bordr on the podcast.  

Kristin:    00:08:37    This is a husband and wife team who helps people move to Portugal and they just told me that they have a new service to help you get your NISS number. So your Portuguese NISS number, this is your Portuguese social security number. And it's one of those things that is infamous for being a bit of a bureaucratic challenge. And so they are now offering this service for $150. Well worth it to get that headache away from trying to get your NISS number. And if you assign up using our affiliate link in the show notes, you can get $10 off of that or any service. They also have a service to help you get your NIF number, NIF, not NISS. And the NIF number is your personal ID number. So you can check them out at BRDR.com or get $10 off any service using our link in the show notes.  

Kristin:    00:09:37    Today's podcast is all about 7 things to know before moving abroad. So after 20 years of doing this of living in other countries myself and also helping other people move abroad, these are seven things that I wish I knew before I went overseas for the first time. We'll cover everything from emotional considerations to practical issues like taxes, banking, changing your citizenship. So I hope today's podcast gives you some food for thought. And if there are any other things that you're curious about before moving abroad or things that you wish you knew before moving abroad, then head over to the video and leave your comments there. I will link to that in the show notes as well. So we'll have links to bordr to get your NIF or NISS number, a link to apply for relocation support through Ready to Relocate and also the link to this video.  

Kristin:    00:10:36    Hi, welcome to another video where I walk in nature talking about very personal, yet practical topics that are applicable to your life. I'm Kristin. I've been living abroad for 20 years and there are a lot of things that I wish I knew when I first started. So in this video I'm gonna share with you 7 things I wish I knew before I moved abroad. Now the first thing to know is that you can go abroad at any time. When I first moved abroad, it was to study abroad and I was only 20 years old and I just assumed that the only time that you could live in other countries voluntarily was if you were either studying abroad or if you waited until after your career and you retired abroad. But what I found when I moved to Costa Rica was that there were people of all ages living abroad.  

Kristin:    00:11:30    I met people who were teaching English, teaching surf lessons, selling real estate. And so it really opened my eyes to the ability to be able to live in different countries at any phase of your life. It's not something that you have to do at a certain age, it's not something that you have to ask for permission for. It's something that you can choose to do whether you are 20 or 30 or 80. And I actually just had a woman on my podcast who decided to move from California to Italy to teach English. And while she was there, she met her future husband who is French, and they ended up moving to France where they now have a daughter and live happily ever after in the south of France. And she basically never went back. And so that is something that can happen to you. You can decide to go abroad and then you can decide to stay there.  

Kristin:    00:12:27    Everyone has a different timeline and there's no set date that you have to wait until, until you can start living the life that you want. And on that same token, the other thing I wish I knew is that you don't have to go home. So for the first seven years that I lived in other countries, I saw it as temporary. And so I kind of was living in this like waiting period to where I was just living abroad for a year or so, and then I would come back to my home country and start my real life. But what I wish that I knew was that that was my real life. I was already living my real life and I didn't have to tell people when I was coming back to resume my old life. My life was changing little by little day by day.  

Kristin:    00:13:19    And so if you decide to go abroad, you don't have to tell anyone when you're going to go home and you don't actually have to have a fixed date to when you stop traveling or stop living an overseas lifestyle and decide to go back to the way things were. Because the truth of the matter is that once you live overseas and once you live in a different culture, you will change and your life will never go back a hundred percent to the way that it was before. Nor would you really want that because life is all about growth and learning and evolution. And so if you go abroad, sure you can say, okay, I'm gonna go for one year, see how it goes, go back home if it doesn't work out. But just know that you don't have to <laugh>. You can find a home away from home where you get permanent residency or citizenship or you can live a slow travel lifestyle where you kind of move around the world traveling on different types of tourist visas or with your passport.  

Kristin:    00:14:24    So if this is something that you want to do, know that <laugh>, you don't have to set an end date. Something that prevents a lot of people from going abroad is that they think that they have to give up their citizenship or change their citizenship, but that's actually not the case. So many countries will allow you to hold dual citizenship anyway. So you can have citizenship in multiple countries, but for the most part, when you're going abroad, especially for the first time, you might just be trying it out and you might only want to go for three months or six months or one year. And so in that case, it's probably not necessary to do much of anything unless you wanna stay in one country for a long period of time. So if you're just going one place per month, then you can probably go on just your passport or depending on which country you're from, maybe you need to apply for a temporary visa, a short term tourist visa.  

Kristin:    00:15:19    But it's very unlikely if you are living in other countries that there would be any reason to give up your actual citizenship unless you're doing it for tax or other reasons. And so even if you do decide to stay permanently in another country and apply for permanent residency, you can still keep your home country citizenship and your home country's passport, uh, even if you do ultimately get a second or third citizenship or passport. But the vast majority of people who are living abroad, um, aren't giving up their citizenship and may not even be getting a second citizenship because there's so many ways now that you can live in another place without even getting permanent residency. Since 2020, there are also a host of new types of digital nomad and remote work visas that never existed before. So in countries where previously you could only stay three months or maybe six months at best with a passport, there are now low cost options with a low barriers to apply for these types of visas where you can say from six months to one year to even five years in many cases. And so definitely take advantage of that, which is a product that has never existed before the pandemic. So I'll link to my Digital Nomad Visa Database in the video description so you can get an idea of all the different countries out there that will let you live there and what you need to apply.  

Ready to Relocate

Kristin:    00:16:52    Kristin here, my group relocation coaching program Ready to Relocate is officially reopening for the year on February 1st. So if you've been thinking about going overseas for a while now, maybe months, maybe years, and you felt like you've kind of been going around in circles, spinning your wheels, wasting time, researching a lot of stuff, but not knowing exactly how to put it together and finding a lot of holes in your research or roadblocks, then you could be a great candidate to join my program. We're in the fourth year of ready to relocate and you can apply by going to TravelingwithKristin.com/relocation. And I'll also leave that link in the show notes through this program. I teach you step by step, my eight step process for moving to any country in the world, plus lots of other bonuses, including a full relocation plan mailed to your house and biweekly live q and a calls with me, plus unlimited access to direct message text or email me through our platform and inner circle group. So if you're planning a big move abroad and you don't wanna go it alone, you don't wanna have to do it all by yourself, then apply today for support at TravelingwithKristin.com/relocation.  

Kristin:    00:18:16    Another thing that people are often wrong about is how to file taxes or even if you have to file at all. When I first moved abroad as a college student, I was shocked by the number of other foreigners who were telling me that I didn't have to file a tax return or I didn't have to pay taxes in the US. And that is certainly not the case. I think that no matter which country you're from, if you go overseas for a little while, you will still have to file a tax return in your home country unless you go through a process of changing your tax base or changing your tax domicile. And this is something that US citizens can't do. Even if you live abroad forever and you never go back to the us, you still have to file an annual tax return and pay taxes if you owe them.  

Kristin:    00:19:06    And the only way to stop filing is if you renounce your citizenship, which many people don't want to do. So if you're from a non-US country, then there is a path to changing your tax base, which usually includes proof of residents in another country, at least living there for a certain number of days per year. But uh, you do need to file tax returns and that's something that I wish I had all the information on from the beginning because it's a very complex topic and you're often going to get very misleading or flat out wrong and incorrect information. So if you wanna know more about this topic, then I'll link to some podcasts that I have in the description where I'm interviewing CPAs and accountants who specialize and helping expats and travelers and digital nomads with their tax situation so you can get the correct information from the very beginning and not be led astray for years or even decades.  

Kristin:    00:20:10    As I have seen some people do, and I actually know some people who have lived abroad and just stopped filing their tax returns for years, but who knows what the repercussions of that will be in the future. The good news when it comes to the topic of finances though, is that you don't need an offshore bank account to be able to travel long term or live abroad. Now, this was the case previously before technology was as good as it is today and I can't tell you how many hours, weeks, months of my life I have spent opening bank accounts in different countries and standing in lines and collecting requirements. And I am so glad that we don't need to do that anymore. So if you have spent a lot of time researching how to open bank accounts in different countries and being uncertain about what you might need when you go there, then rest assured that that is not really a thing anymore unless you're going to be living in another country permanently or very long term where you want to be able to pay your rent and utilities from a local bank account or you're going to be transacting for a long time in one country and you know, using the local ATMs and things like that.  

Kristin:    00:21:26    But for those of us who aren't getting permanent residency or long-term residency in a country, there are a lot of other options. Now you can start with an international bank account that is friendly to travelers and expats and digital nomads. One of the more popular ones is the HSBC Premier account that can give you some benefits at different banks. And if you actually want me to make a dedicated video on bank accounts for expats and travelers, then comment below because this could be a whole another topic in itself. But HSBC Premier is one, Charles Schwab is another one for us based travelers and expats and people like this one because you can get refunds on your ATM fees, uh, in other countries and there's no foreign transaction fees. But the account that really changed my life and helped make travel and operating my online international business easier was opening a Wise account.  

Kristin:    00:22:26    And I'll also link to this account in the description below. But basically what this allows you to do is connect your home country bank with this account that allows you to send money in different currencies so you can hold money in different currencies. I believe it's 40 or 50 different currencies now, you can send money to like 150 countries around the world and you can also get a debit card that has low fees and that you can use in almost any country in the world. And you even get a certain amount per month in free ATM withdrawals. And so if you need to send money anywhere, instead of going to the bank and making a wire transfer, which is such an outdated thing, you can just send it abroad with a few taps in the app and you get the best exchange rates and also very low fees to send money internationally.  

Kristin:    00:23:19    And so by using that, I actually closed most of my offshore bank accounts because I simply no longer needed them. And there's no fee for having a Wise account. So if you are concerned about getting an offshore bank account, then don't worry because you don't really need it anymore unless you're gonna be living somewhere permanently. Another thing that I wish I knew before I moved abroad was how easy it actually is to make friends. I was extremely apprehensive when I first moved abroad because all I could think about was how many years and decades I had spent building the friendships and the relationships that I had in my home country. And I just couldn't conceive that I could go to another country and just make friends so quickly. But actually I found that that is the case because in many countries and pretty much every country around the world, you'll find great people and you'll also meet a lot of other travelers and potentially foreigners and immigrants and people who have relocated there or moved there permanently.  

Kristin:    00:24:24    And if you are making friends with people from other countries, you're automatically going to have that in common, being a little bit different from everyone else and having to go through that process of adapting to a foreign culture. But you'll also find that locals are quite friendly and that you're able to make friends really easily. One of the best ways to meet people is in person. Of course, we can always use, you know, dating apps and connecting with people online, but I found that going to one event in person and meeting people face to face can really open you to their entire friend group, countless other people that you wouldn't have met before. So if you use an app like meetup.com or even looking at events on Facebook groups or Eventbrite, any sort of event that you can go to in person, I've been to cooking events, I've been to bar crawls, I've been to uh, InterNations meetups, which is where people from around the world all get together.  

Kristin:    00:25:27    Actually, just this week I went to an international meetup and I met people from, uh, Brazil, Poland, Lebanon, Croatia, Latvia, the US, Canada, so many countries, the UK and that was all in one hour. So just put yourself out there, even if you're introverted. Uh, I went to a sushi making class once in Costa Rica and met a bunch of people that way. It's really quite easy to make friends, and I wish that I didn't spend so much time worrying before I moved abroad that I wouldn't be able to make friends and, and just being, uh, concerned and afraid that I was going to be lonely there and just feel very alone. Another thing that happens when you stay in your hometown or your home country is that you might have your friends for life, but you might end up meeting less people because you've already lived in the same place for a while and so maybe you're not necessarily looking to grow your friend circle.  

Kristin:    00:26:23    And so what ends up happening is that the people that you're friends with the most are either the people that you work with, the people that you know from school, maybe your kids' parents, and um, you know, maybe the people from the gym or something like that. But when you go abroad and you start trying a lot of different experiences and you put yourself in a different geographical location, you will naturally meet a wider range of people and just have a lot of new experiences. So if I could go back 20 years ago, I would tell myself not to worry about making friends because if you travel or if you live abroad, you'll surely make friends for life. Another thing that I wish I knew is how much you change when you move abroad. And this is something that I didn't anticipate at all, and I really didn't even think about it.  

Kristin:    00:27:13    I just assumed I would be myself. I would go abroad for a few months or a year and I would just continue my life as normal. But going abroad really shook my entire worldview. I changed the way that I eat, I changed my religious and political beliefs. I changed my mind about so many different things and, and I think that you become a lot more open-minded. So if you don't want to change, then don't move abroad because you surely will. But regardless of what happens, it's usually for the best because when you're exposed to so many different ways of living and and so many different perspectives and other people's beliefs and cultures, then you're going to pick up a little bit of that in each place that you go. So if you go to just one country and you stay there for a long time, you might start to subconsciously or consciously adopt a lot of their beliefs and cultural norms.  

Kristin:    00:28:11    But if you're moving around to a lot of different countries, then something even more interesting happens as you begin to adopt little pieces of the lifestyle and the belief systems of each country. And it's a little bit weird because you can start to sense how programmed we are and how we can change as people, humans are very adaptable. But I think that I underestimated the degree to which I would change when I lived abroad and then how challenging that would be when I did come back to my home country. So I did a video about reverse culture shock that you can watch in this card here after this video, but it's a really a real thing. And so there is a risk that the longer that you stay abroad, the less you will feel like you fit in in your home country, but you also will likely never 100% feel like you fit in in your adopted country. I have some videos here on what I love the most about living abroad and actually what I dislike the most about living abroad so that you can get a balanced perspective if this is something that you're thinking about doing. But I hope this video was helpful for you. Subscribe if you love videos about travel culture and living abroad. And if you want help with moving overseas, you can also contact me at travelingwithKristin.com/relocation.  

Kristin:    00:29:42    Thanks for spending time with me today. I hope that this video gave you a lot to think about. If you're already living abroad, maybe you could relate to some of the things that I talked about today. And if you haven't moved abroad yet, then hopefully this gives you some things to keep in mind. And note that maybe you hadn't thought of before one person wrote. I could totally relate. I left France when I was 21 and came to live in Georgia in the United States. I was an au pair, but decided to stay longer. When I met my husband, we had three beautiful children, but now that my children are older and live on their own, I would like to travel again. I'm thinking about visiting Costa Rica and plus it would double as a good vacation spot for my kids. I love that because just a couple months ago I wrote an article for International Living about how living abroad can actually bring you closer to your family members, whether you're just leaving high school or college and you're taking a gap year or if you are retiring, moving overseas, but also want your children and grandchildren to come visit you.  

Kristin:    00:30:51    I'm just coming off of a month of hanging out with my family. My parents' dog in Florida had some really good quality time with them, and that is something I look forward to every year. Expat Mama wrote, oh yes, I lived abroad for 16 straight years. The reverse culture shock of coming back to the US was absolutely brutal for me. Thanks for that comment, Expat Mama and I actually have a podcast on culture shock and reverse culture shock, so I'll also link to that in the show notes in case you've ever experienced reverse culture shock or if you're apprehensive about it. And then Patrick said, thank you for another great video. Can you do a segment on banking for expats and whether or not the money is insured as it is in the USA by the FDIC? Thanks for that comment, Patrick. And we got a lot of comments, people asking about banking for this. So I will think if we should do a podcast or a YouTube video or both on banking abroad. As always, all of the resources are in the show notes, including our annual review feedback form, our Portugal trip form and links to get $10 off of any service with Bordr Plus to apply for relocation support through Ready to Relocate. Thanks again for being here and spending time with me today. No roosters interrupted us either bonus, and I'll see you again next week.