Great video with good info
We left the US for good in 2018 when our oldest graduated HS. We found a true melting pot community (52 registered nationalities in the town hall) in what is a very spanish town.
We found what we couldn’t achieve in the US, and it is actually feasible for us to retire in a few years, but we are enjoying what we do run a mom & pop bbq joint, and we enjoy where we are, 500M from the beach.
My siblings all live baçk home and have stable jobs/retire but my career as a chef wasn’t built to withstand the constant financial downturns.
Our children returned to the US- one to get work experience in a friends factory, the other to get a "US High School " experience.
Both returned in a year and now share a flat in a nearby city attending local college & US online school.
It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, even though covid (lol, we opened our restaurant 6 months before lockdown) but we cannot imagine going back.
Feel free to AMA.
A few Q’s. What is the country you moved to? How much debt did you have when you got ready to leave? What are/were your professions, and how much did it cost from start to finish?
The reason I ask all this, is because the overwhelming majority of families, not single individuals, but couples/families, that want to move outside the US have too much debt and couldn’t afford it anyway. At least not legally immigrating. Also, many desirable countries outside the US have strict admission policies around what degree fields and professions they’re willing to give a work visa to. “Move to another country like we did” is a statement I frequently hear from people that don’t actually understand what an immense privilege and undertaking it is to accomplish that.
There’s also the issue that while I’d like to pack my family up and leave, many places aren’t much better off than here overall. At least not enough that moving to get away from social issues like homophobia or transphobia makes it worthwhile. Many countries, even “progressive” ones struggle desperately with bigotry even if the overall economic situation is currently better. It makes much more sense for me to stay put and try to actively make my community better than it does to abandon it.
Anyway, curious to hear how you made it out, where you went, and what you do for a living.
We moved to Spain, and there are a couple things we had to our advantage:
Both of us have traveled (for work, school).
I have always been in the culinary industry (I figured I was going to work my ass off so I might as well do it in exotic locations)
The industry also taught us to be frugal (any hiccup in the economy and the highest paid in the kitchen get the boot.
There is a huge push RN for remote workers in Spain, Portugal & Ireland (that I know of), so we know a lot of remote employees.
Spain has a couple options to migrate: entrepreneurs is one where you need about 500k for investing (not us); the route we took was to get a 90 day visa, then apply for reafter 1 year we could work as "self employed ", we opened the restaurant. we were ineligible to work for other people during this time, and each renewal careies fees (less than 300€, fam of 4), renewals after years 1, 2, 4, 5 (after 5 we get a 10 yr permanent residence, and can apply for passport).
1st year was “non lucrativo” meaning you cannot work but must have means of support, we had family members submit their bank info to “support us” in case we needed money, and wé had to carry private insurance (50€ month for each of us) but after we dropped it for social insurance.
We sold our house and moved with about 175k, lived for a year, opened the restaurant with about 25k all in.
We have been able to maintain a good lifestyle with "very little "…IMO money has more value in EU than in the US, in the US there are a lot of hidden cost to living and you don’t realize it. We don’t own vehicles and let our licenses expire (ĺol), I have a “eurotrash bike” with cart and thats all i need to supply a 70 seat restaurant
as far as racism etc, yeah old school Spain is like “if you’re not from this town you are a foreigner”, but when you integrate yourself into the community & show that you respect the culture (speaking spanish helps in this regard) ,Our sons in Valencia go to the pride parades because they are fun, and regardless of anything else we fly the trans flag at our joint, because we are all out of shits to give.
I want out. I want out so bad. I fear for mine and my husband’s safety in the US, safety from the government that is meant to be a service to us. It is scary how bad it is in a lot of places.
