Alright, that's it. I'm moving to Canada.

So our dream of expatriating isn't dead, it's just on pause until we have more money. Ultimately, that's the barrier for pretty much anything these days, and it's only getting worse. My wife is preparing to be a surrogate mother, which will raise a large sum of money--honestly, we can't buy a house without that money. The end of Roe v. Wade is very concerning, though. Also, that along with comments Clarence Thomas has made just makes us want to leave even more. The problem with Canada, of course, is money. The housing market in Canada is pretty bonkers. 

Over the weekend I had three separate people mention Spain to me, so I finally looked into it. It checks an awful lot of boxes, and most importantly it's affordable. A nice flat in Malaga with a view of the water can run 4-600 euros. Food is cheap, wine is cheap, and there's lots of auto racing in Spain. The thought of moving to a different continent is mildly terrifying to me, but overall it looks like Spain is probably a better choice than Canada. Honestly, there's probably a LOT of places that would be a better fit for us than Canada, language requirements aside.

Once my wife completes the surrogacy, we'll be in a better financial position to seriously check this sort of thing out. All we can really do now is watch lots of youtube videos and talk to expatriates and try to learn as much as possible.

Just missed an Ops director role for Walmart in Canada....  

Wife says.. see what happens.. 

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

I think Walmarts in Canada were some of the most shocking differences to me. I'm used to places like Baltimore and Cleveland, not to mention a small town in Florida, so it's common for me to walk into Walmart and hear employees swearing up a storm, talking about how they just got in a (physical) fight with a customer, for trash to be on the floor, etc. When I went to a Walmart in Canada, I was absolutely astounded. It was spotless, everything was in perfect order, and the employees were incredibly nice.

infinitenexus said:

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

I think Walmarts in Canada were some of the most shocking differences to me. I'm used to places like Baltimore and Cleveland, not to mention a small town in Florida, so it's common for me to walk into Walmart and hear employees swearing up a storm, talking about how they just got in a (physical) fight with a customer, for trash to be on the floor, etc. When I went to a Walmart in Canada, I was absolutely astounded. It was spotless, everything was in perfect order, and the employees were incredibly nice.

I never used to get the jokes about Walmart, until I went into a Walmart in Florida, then it suddenly all made sense.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

That's probably more Florida than Walmart.  Florida is a bit of a lawless hellscape. 

infinitenexus said:

So our dream of expatriating isn't dead, it's just on pause until we have more money. Ultimately, that's the barrier for pretty much anything these days, and it's only getting worse. My wife is preparing to be a surrogate mother, which will raise a large sum of money--honestly, we can't buy a house without that money. The end of Roe v. Wade is very concerning, though. Also, that along with comments Clarence Thomas has made just makes us want to leave even more. The problem with Canada, of course, is money. The housing market in Canada is pretty bonkers. 

Over the weekend I had three separate people mention Spain to me, so I finally looked into it. It checks an awful lot of boxes, and most importantly it's affordable. A nice flat in Malaga with a view of the water can run 4-600 euros. Food is cheap, wine is cheap, and there's lots of auto racing in Spain. The thought of moving to a different continent is mildly terrifying to me, but overall it looks like Spain is probably a better choice than Canada. Honestly, there's probably a LOT of places that would be a better fit for us than Canada, language requirements aside.

Once my wife completes the surrogacy, we'll be in a better financial position to seriously check this sort of thing out. All we can really do now is watch lots of youtube videos and talk to expatriates and try to learn as much as possible.

You're sounding a LOT like where Mrs. Hungary and I were 8 years ago.  (like "a lot" a lot).

I would also recommend taking a good look at Portugal (we were impressed with Obidos, but there is lots of coast for you to explore) and Sicily as well.

One thing we Mrs. Hungary and I agreed on when we drove through Spain (we were looking at the north coast and were nowhere near Malaga), was that it looked great on paper but we weren't anywhere near as in love with it as we thought we would be when we actually got there.

But back to that first sentence.  You and I are tracking a lot on the same path.  If my geographical location and quasi-local resources can be of help then don't hesitate to send me a PM.

Since this thread is back, I will add that over the last two years the cost of housing has become unafordable for anyone but speculators; real estate is  too valuable to be used for housing people.

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I have friends that wanted to move to Spain. The time it was going to take to actually be able to live there was so long they went to Portugal temporarily. When they were finally allowed to make their permanent move to Spain they tried it and went back to Portugal.

This thread was an interesting read.

In reply to NOHOME :

You're not wrong.

It's come down in the last year, but not nearly enough. There have been so many people making such bad decisions the last few years these next few could be very interesting.

My brother in law moved his whole family to Spain a few years ago. His wife was born there so he had connections. Mrs Snowdoggie has talked about moving there, so it is a possibility. I am curious about what kind of racing they have there. We are going for a visit next year.

I've watched a lot of YouTube videos about expats living in Portugal and it's very appealing to me. I'd really have to spend a lot of time there before I committed to moving there. 

The black sheep of my family is an aunt who was caught by the Spanish Navy in the Bay of Biscay on a boat load of cocaine. After her 10 years in a Spanish prison were up, she ended up staying in Spain for a further 20 years because it was cheap to live there and no one was hiring x drug smugglers in Britain. She only moved back to Britain a few years ago when she reached retirement age and a very accommodating British government gave her a pension and a subsidized apartment.

Some friends from one of the MINI groups are working on a move to Portugal.  I think one of them is there full-time and the other is still mostly in the US.   One of my coworkers is from Portugal and still has family there so she goes there for about a month every year or so.  From what I've seen, looks like a pretty country with decent weather. 

There are so many places I've considered living.  Problem is, most of them are too cold.  Something Scandanavian, Canada or UK.

But Costa Rica is looking pretty sexy these days.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

If I don't move to Florida eventually I'll buy a condo in Costa Rica. Love it there. Best people on the planet as well. 

We'd like to leave Oklahoma, but the housing situation is one large barrier. Our house has increased about 75% in value the last few years and our mortgage is sub-3%. 

But we would both need dramatic salary increases to maintain our current standard of living in a more expensive city. 

Scotty Con Queso said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

If I don't move to Florida eventually I'll buy a condo in Costa Rica. Love it there. Best people on the planet as well. 

Much truth.  Really great people.

... and the foooood

I think it's interesting how the narrative around healthcare has changed over the years on this forum.

I want to go back to Panama and have a look. Not to live full time, but possibly winters

infinitenexus said:

Over the weekend I had three separate people mention Spain to me, so I finally looked into it. It checks an awful lot of boxes, and most importantly it's affordable. A nice flat in Malaga with a view of the water can run 4-600 euros. Food is cheap, wine is cheap, and there's lots of auto racing in Spain. The thought of moving to a different continent is mildly terrifying to me, but overall it looks like Spain is probably a better choice than Canada. Honestly, there's probably a LOT of places that would be a better fit for us than Canada, language requirements aside.

Spain just started the process of killing off their golden visa program, though it was probably a moot point unless you had a spare $500k laying around. 

They just spun up a digital nomad visa, though it's surprisingly convoluted to successfully apply for.

I've been planning our move to Spain for 2+ years, if you'd like some insights, PM me.

Portugal effectively killed off their golden visa program last year, though the non-lucrative visa is relatively cheap if you have passive income

NOHOME said:

Since this thread is back, I will add that over the last two years the cost of housing has become unafordable for anyone but speculators; real estate is  too valuable to be used for housing people.

 

You're not kidding.  For perspective:

We bought a house in Tacoma  (A cute 100-year-old Craftsman, nothing special) for $260,000 in 2012.  We knew it was a good deal, and we ended up selling it in 2016 when we moved to Kuwait for $360,000.  That was about the correct value for the house.

It just sold for $760,000 a couple years ago.

If we wanted to move back to the states, we literally could not afford our old house unlesss we won the lottery.

Here in Hungary, we bought a house for $66,000.  It was old and not really liveable.  I can't really describe it as it's a type of floor plan that we don't have in the states.  Anyhoo, it's currently demolished down to the bones.  The floors are all broken up and we've dug half a meter into the dirt.  It's basically a skeleton at this point but it's ready to be built back up.  We could sell it in this condition for almost 50% more than we bought it for.  Had we not bought it right before COVID, we couldn't afford to buy the house we own.

it's nuts.

Back on subject:

But I do see LOTS of liveable properties in Sicily for under $120k.  All single family homes with gardens (and some acerage in the middle of the island that looks absolutely beautiful!)

Some examples of the above:
https://www.aplaceinthesun.com/property/details/ap3158395/sh-603-land-plot-caccamo-sicily-

https://www.aplaceinthesun.com/property/details/ap3158400/sh-631-villa-caccamo-sicily-

https://www.aplaceinthesun.com/property/details/ap3158333/sh-393-villa-caccamo-sicily-

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I say this a lot. I couldn't afford my own home. The only saving grace is I bought the place 8 years ago and now have an insane amount of equity.