Expats in the know will tell you this was their stupidest mistake. It was to have sought first to buy rather than rent a place. Why was this a mistake?
The need for security in your home country may seem fulfilled by owning a house or a condo. But this manifestation of security doesn’t instantly apply well where you don’t know your surroundings well enough yet.
When you first move to live abroad, you are uncertain where you may end up liking to live best. You do lots of research trying to avoid how not to be too ignorant before living abroad. Yet you ought take a couple of months or more, and try different cities or towns that may interest you.
Explore climates, infrastructure, surrounding sounds and noises, neighborhoods and local cultures, conveniences and safety, banking, postal, and utilities available, shopping, medical, and educational services, plus legal treatment.
This is all part of the adventure and the transition to a better lifestyle abroad.
Therefore, rent. Don’t buy.
Realize you might have to rent several times before you make a final decision where to set your nest abroad. Thus, don’t be rash.
Why Take Your Time?
There is so much to clear through first before you decide to buy. From financial and legal matters to architectural and styling choices. Don’t be in a rush.
Transition quickly to get there. But once there, don’t rush to set roots in a place you’ve yet to come to know well. Meet the neighbors, then decide.
You might realize you’d prefer elsewhere and will be able quickly to move there next without dragging a house ownership headache with you down the way.
By contrast, don’t leave without having started a solopreneur project to make you location-independent regarding your income. The last concern you ever wish to have abroad, believe me, is monetary worry.
Even if you were choosing to move to a First World-type of economy, you may face restrictions as a foreigner, both legally and culturally. Some countries simply won’t let you work.
You may be able to start a local business to employ nationals in it, but you won’t be able to practice as a professional employee yourself against local competitors unless you become a citizen. And you never know how challenging it may be to launch something abroad.
In some cultures, foreigners are honored guests especially if they have financial means to pay for what locally may be deemed to be luxury products and services. But if you arrive to ask locals for a job, you may be seen more like a threat than a blessing.
Instead, have your income follow after you regardless where you decide to live on Earth. Have an online business that generates proceeds with you and moves with your own migration patterns. This offers you true freedom.
Start it well before you decide to move abroad to rent your housing first, rather than purchase it outright.