Where?

If you are going to move to a new place on the planet, where is clearly a very important consideration. In this section of the site we offer a list of some possible destinations with some basic information about each one. Within that basic information we will include any special considerations that could make a difference. For example, if your move would take you from one sort of electrical power to another (120VAC, 60HZ to 240VAC, 50Hz or vice versa) it could significantly change what to bring and what the move would cost.

Not Bad, Just Different

You are going to hear this a lot on this site.  Really understanding this is the key to a success in any move. It is the case even without moving from one country to another. Compare life in New York City to a small town in Alabama or Montana and you will see amazing differences. You need to be open to change if you want to be happy in your new home. Remember, you are the new kid on the block so don't try to change things. Just try to understand why things are as they are.

If  you are moving from a more developed country to a less developed one you generally will see less government involvement in your life. Let's take security. When I was growing up, I lived in a city of about 70,000. At night there were ten police cars out patrolling the city. In Estelí Nicaragua, a city of over 100,000, there is one police car available to be dispatched at night if necessary. So, yes, crime is more likely in Estelí. But, the local solution is to hire private security if needed. That varies from paying less than $2/week to have a person on a bicycle with a whistle add your house to the list of places he passes by to hiring a full-time guard to stay in front of your house or business all night for about $200/month.

Access to health care is something else which will be different in different places. There are lots of possible models, some depending on affordable care, others on insurance. What you need to do is understand how the system works in your potential new home. To offer a concrete example, in 2002 it would have cost me $300/month to get a typical insurance plan in the US where 80% of costs at in-plan facilities were reimbursed, 70% for others. A virtually identical plan in Costa Rica cost $40/month. Why? A number of reasons including:

• Costa Rica has lower wages in general plus such things as liability insurance for physicians pretty much is not used.
• There is only one insurance provider in Costa Rica (run by the government) so the doctor overhead for doing filings is significantly decreased.
• With only one insurance provider, there is no cost for competing with others.
• There are actually hospitals in Costa Rica run by US universities where costs are only 25% of what they would be in the US.

Before you say it is just socialized medicine, think a bit. There are public as well as private medical providers. Insurance is optional -- you can just pay for care if you wish and it is affordable. If anything, it is just more efficient.

Evaluating Your Options

If you find a particular destination interesting, you will certainly need to do more homework. We will be adding links to where you can obtain more information about each destination.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that what you may want for a permanent home may be quite different than what seems like a good vacation spot. For example, you may love to go to the beach for a day once a week or even more often. But, does that mean you want to live where it is always hot? The same goes for wanting to go skiing but would you want to live year round in a ski resort?

You certainly need to make a trip and probably more than one before you make a serious decision and there is no reason to not have fun. If you have a lot of money you be able to dine out in nice restaurants every day and live pretty much a tourist lifestyle. But, if you are of more modest means, you need to separate a week or a month of fun from a sustainable lifestyle.

The sub-pages are divided up in accordance with the seven continent model as depicted in the image.

The first image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unisphere-cc.jpg

The second image is also from Wikipedia but is in the public domain.