Expatriate Lifestyle & Global Nomads

Introduction

Are you interesting in living and working abroad?  In employment, either operating a business or finding a job overseas?  This is the page for you.  We tell some of our personal experiences and provide links to other expat life articles and websites.  We have been collecting this international travel information for many years. 

I saved this cartoon from our local newspaper in 1995, the year we chose rural Ireland over about to boom Washington County, Oregon.  At the time it was an easy decision for us, but life is never easy which ever road you choose.

2020 Update

"the times they are a-changing.":   Coronavirus Will Create Nomads tells about both corporations and countries adopting new policies to accommodate work-at-home from anywhere. A Hawaii group is even offering free airfares to attract remote workers.  Plus the internet is full of features about desireable places to live and work in our new global age.  This one sings the praises of 20 European locatons, including the one we chose, Cork.

You are not alone

Earth has always seen people migrating for a better life elsewhere and every nation has people immigrating and emigrating--I still don't know which is which.  In modern mythology the USA has been the land of of golden opportunity.  But in recent years that tide is turning.  The US State Department estimates in 2011 that  6.3 million citizens are studying or working abroad--more than ever before.  Marketing consultants America Wave have run annual surveys and stated the percentage of Americans aged 25 to 34 actively planning to relocate outside the U.S. has increased from less than 1 percent to 5.1 percent in just the last two years.

Read more at Where is the Land of Opportunity Now?

Do You Have The Right Stuff?

My advice to would be expats is defer concerns about the economics of relocating until you have looked into your own character and personality.

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Our Experience

Ireland

We, Michael and Karin, began our international living and working in 1996.  After raising our family, selling our home and closing down a real estate business we relocated to Ireland from Portland, Oregon.  We invested our meager assets in a 200+ year old stone building in the small West Cork tourist village of Ballydehob. For five years we operated a Mom & Pop general store and lived above the shop.  The shop was only closed two days a year but we took time off every Thursday to explore every road we could reach that day.  We also made every excuse possible to justify touring all of Ireland "on business".

Now after years in Greece and Czechia we are back on the Emerald Isle . . .

Greece

Then economic forces caused us to sell the property.  So we escaped the Irish mist to the sun of Greece for one summer.  Back in Ireland for the winter we thought of our Paros island paradise and began looking for expatriate employment there.  We managed to lease a small hotel which provided a job and a two room apartment but no profit.  So after a few years of the same situation we decided we loved the expatriate lifestyle but not making beds and cleaning toilets.  We retired to a beach house in the fishing village of Aliki and became internet entrepreneurs.

Time marches on and circumstances change so after 11 years we have again moved on to a new location but continue to market private villa rentals and host Greek island workshops.

Prague

Since winters on a small Greek island tend to be quite quiet we usually travel elsewhere for a few months.  We try to alternate between visiting family and friends in the USA and somewhere new.  However, since our first visit to Prague, Czech Republic for Christmas 2008 we have not been able to get enough of that fabulous city.  Read about our three months in 2009/2010 in early posts at  CzechMates.  In October 2011 we returned and didn't leave for years--endless discoveries in this unlimited city.  We love Prague!

Prague is also a great base for exploring central Europe.  We have taken side trips to Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia and small towns in Poland and the Czech Republic.  Check out are photo-journals of these travel adventures.

During our first several years on Paros we wrote regular newsletters about our expatriate living.  The links start here Paros Shepherd Newsletter #1, April 2002

If you are interested in knowing more about how we chose our expat lifestyle, see the r article "Inside Our or Outside In"

Here is our previous web page for the expatriate lifestyle:

https://www.parosparadise.com/expat/

More about us

Expatriate or Nomad ?

For the purposes of our personalized international travel advice our definition of expatriate is one who lives in a country other than his native one for an extended period--whether employed, retired, or looking for work.

Our definition of global or world nomad is a person who has no fixed residence and all the attendant paraphernalia but moves from country to country and continent to continent as the fancy strikes and financial resources allow.

This term is frequently applied to children of globe trotting parents but all the nomads that we know are adults.  We have been expatriates for the last 15 years and will now be nomads until . . .

Our first attempt to move abroad ended in failure because by the time we had our financial ducks in a row our children had reached the mid-teens and were no longer eager for new experiences away from their forever best friends.  Younger children are much easier to transplant.

There are some good books to help both adults and children in the process.  Use Amazon U.K. for all of Europe and Amazon.com for lower shipping in the USA.  If you like to support the independent book seller, most of these books can also be found at Powell's.

There are several good expat organizations worldwide with helpful information on the internet.  One that I have enjoyed for the social and networking aspects--you actually have the opportunity to attend off line events--is InterNations   For example see the interest groups in Prague 

More Advice and Tips for International Travelling

Transfer Money

Long term travelers, expats and nomads are always looking for more convenient and cheaper ways to get funds from their home country to their current residence country.  Now in 2014 electronics have come to the rescue in a new company backed by Richard Branson and others.  I have used them and been quite satisfied.  My Czech bank charges 1% and takes 28 to 30 days to process a draft on my US account (wire transfers cost much more); TransferWise charges the same 1% but takes only 5 to 7 days.  Please use this link to check them out.  The first transfer is free.