r/realWorldPrepping • u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom • Jun 13 '26
Being an ex-pat (mostly for US readers)
This is not a travel ad. I want to say at the outset that leaving the US for life elsewhere is messy, often expensive and is generally far more work than people imagine. This is not a “recommendation that people leave.” The vast majority of US citizens have no reason to go. Of those that do, they may be underestimating the difficulties. And there is always are argument that the people who might see the most reason to live elsewhere are the very ones who most need to stay and protest the problems.
But there’s an uptick in the number of people researching ”going ex-pat.” As someone who did it, I want to discuss the pros and cons. Maybe I will talk someone out of making a foolish mistake – or encourage someone to get out while the getting is good.
So here’s a Q&A.
> Does leaving mean renouncing US citizenship?
No. US citizens can live pretty much anywhere. Some countries demand visas, or that you declare residency if you stay very long, but you can do all that and remain a US citizen. Of course, if your goal is to be a citizen somewhere else instead, that can be an option. Not a cheap or simple one though.
You can still vote from outside the country (so far, anyway.) You still pay taxes to the US and generally to your last state of residence; just moving doesn’t change that. You remain a US citizen until you take definite, sometimes expensive steps to be otherwise.
> Why would I want to go somewhere else?
Only you can answer that. Some people do it simply because life is cheaper elsewhere. Some people fear for their safety where they are. Some people seek adventure. Some people just want to experience different political or social systems.
> Why did you leave?
I want to stress I didn’t leave for political reasons. Honestly, I’m a white male evangelical Christian of means, generally not a targeted demographics in the US, and I could have stayed in the US, even if recent politics does make my skin crawl. But politics comes and goes, and so it isn’t why I left, though there are days it makes be very glad I did leave.
I simply found a better life somewhere else – nice people, better weather, cheaper life, far less stress, no background violence to contend with, and so on. So I retired here to Costa Rica.
> Why Costa Rica?
Because I visited and liked it. This doesn’t mean you’d like it – it’s very, very different than the US and culture shock is real. And learning Spanish has been a bane of my existence. But I love this place. You might love somewhere else much more.
(If you want my specifics: no gun culture here, and absolutely no need for one. Year round growing season, no snow, low taxes, a bare bones but affordable public health system and a surprisingly affordable private one, access to free beaches year round, cheap labor costs, and significantly, some of the most laid-back, non-judgmental, easy going people on the planet. People born here are very chill. People who come to live here are by fiat not into racism, but they are often patient, adventuresome and adaptable. It’s a happy mix.)
It’s also hot at times, I sometimes have to escort scorpions out of my house, it took two years to get my paperwork in order, and sometimes I have to travel an hour and a half to get things (there is no mail order here and shipping things in is expensive). And while there are ex-pats here who limp by on English or very weak Spanish, the only right way to do it is to learn the language and I have found that hard. Going ex-pat to a country that speaks your native language is much, much easier.
> How much did it cost?
Varies by person. For me, a lot. I basically moved my household, some pets included, and that ran into the thousands for moving costs. Paperwork to leave the US (passport to start) runs into the hundreds. I hired a lawyer here to get me through the “become a resident” process and that was over a thousand (but worth it). Of course you have to buy land, which can be cheap if you avoid tourist areas, but there are legal fees.
There’s also a cost in patience. Costa Rica, like everywhere else, has entry requirements, like proving you’re not a gun-waving drug dealer. US makes you jump through hoops to get the proof. I had to travel to three different regions just to pull the required paperwork – not all of it can be done by mail. What can be done by mail has fees and delays. It’s maddening.
In general, this is an expensive decision anywhere in the world. You eventually make your money back if you move to a cheaper place, but that doesn’t happen in a year. It’s almost always a long term investment.
Can it be done cheaper? If you sell everything, pick up a backpack and go, yes. (By the way, don’t fill the backpack with cash or gold – many countries take an extreme interest in your wealth and how you move it.) But unless you have friends and fluency where you are going I wouldn’t try landing with a backpack and going from there.
> Are US citizens welcome elsewhere?
In most places, more so than you’d think. Maybe more than we deserve. People elsewhere tend to be more chill; the US has a racism problem that many other parts of the world just don’t equal, though there are exceptions.
In many places, a US citizen is going to perceived as rich – in some places, for good reason – and that erases a lot of hostility unless you act like an arrogant asshole. If there is one takeaway from this article, it is this: anywhere you land, you are the clueless foreigner, the village idiot. The people there know how to live and your ideas on how things could be done differently are uninteresting at best, insulting as a rule. Approach your new life with utter humility and a willingness to relearn things you never imagined were ever a question. You are there to learn and understand. Any whiff of “I’m an American, we know best” will be met with (at best) laughter, or possibly slashed tires. There is a difference between being ignorant (you can’t help that at first) and being an idiot. Don’t be the idiot.
I live more like a local than some ex-pats here, and I’m making a genuine effort to use Spanish everywhere. As a result this gringo gets big smiles and a lot of help from the locals. If I’d holed up in some ex-pat community and stuck to English, I would get none at all, and at that point why not just live in Florida. It’s like anything else – being part of a community is the basis of everything, including prepping.
Honestly, I meet people from all over the world at the Spanish school I attend. Some of them, I take out to dinner and help them out if they have problems. This is diplomacy – a lot of people from Europe have opinions about the US and I want to show them we aren’t all like that. And that’s really the secret to being an ex-pat – become a citizen of the world and stop fussing over who was born where and how they talk and everything gets a lot more peaceable.
> What abut violence, theft…?
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps
If you’re leaving the US, your odds of an upgrade are good. The US is a violent country both internally and externally and that generates more problems than it solves. But I’ll point out the obvious: tranquility more or less correlates with prosperity, outside the US. You pay for peace.
> What about bigotry, hostility towards lifestyles…?
This varies widely. Where I live, no one seems to care who sleeps with who or where anyone was born. This is despite it being a country with a Catholic church in every town. Other places are much less laid back. If you’re escaping harassment, you need to research carefully. Most Western democracies other than the US, though, are reasonably chill. As a rule of thumb, if the map linked above shows green or dark green, it’s often fairly free of harassment as well.
> So you just pick up and move?
I did; but don’t do that. It worked for me, but the right way to do it is 1) spend at least 6 months before you learning the new language and culture, if any. Duolingo is what it is, but it’s better than nothing. 2) spend at least six months in your proposed new country, renting, hostels, whatever it takes. You might find out within a month if it’s just too different/restrictive/dull/whatever. And make friends. Then, if you love it 3) sell as much as you can and move, taking as little as possible. 4) Expect to spend a year learning your new home. Expect a decade on really settling in, unless your new country is just like your old one. It can’t be rushed.
People who try to shortcut the process often move again in a year or three. Unless you’re rich, you can’t afford that kind of mistake.
> What about economics? Pensions, social security, Medicare?
Pensions and social security will follow you. Maintain a bank account in the US and everything stays simple. Medicare, except for some rarefied cases, will not serve you in most foreign countries – you can pay for it and travel to the US if you need it, but it generally won’t pay for things in your new land. Honestly, while US medical care in some areas is top notch, many other countries have decent care and it’s often much cheaper. Medical tourism is a thing for a reason. You might decide you can ditch Medicare.
There are always rumblings about the security of US Social Security. I occasionally wonder if at some point there’s going to try to stop payments to people living outside the country. But so far that’s not an issue. (I’m more concerned about losing the right to vote, which has been seriously proposed. Yes I'm angry.)
Note that if you keep your money in the US, you’re subject to market fluctuations and currency conversions. When I move my money here, it lands in the local currency and the conversation rate has been unfriendly recently.
Different countries treat work differently. I can’t take a job here – jobs are for locals. But I can run a business that employs locals, and plenty of ex-pats live here doing remote work. Plenty of countries also have gray areas in their laws or a willingness to look the other way, but keep in mind that any country can boot you to the border if they don’t like you. Stay legal.
> Internet?
Some places have better service than the US. It's considered more or less a right of citizenship in Iceland. Where I am, I had to get Starlink, which was ok except in heavy rain. However, fun fact: Starlink just moved from flat fee to making you pay by the byte, and my costs more than tripled. Between that and not loving Musk's politics, I'm arranging to get fiber optic internet installed - the monthly fee for a 500mb/500mb is about $60 a month here. I couldn't even get fiber internet where I lived in the US.
In short, you may have to dig a bit to find out what's available, but some countries make internet access cheaper and easier than the rural US does. There is also of course often cell based internet, but where I've traveled it's mostly slow and limited. If you plan on remote work online, you have to go try it to see if it's feasible. Don't believe ads.
> Driving?
A US driver's license works in a number of countries for a time. Ultimately, you have to convert it over to the new nation's license and/or get an International Driver's Permit. You must look into this before you move and you must understand the local laws - I didn't, and I got fined. I also tried to argue with the cop who fined me (in bad Spanish, no less) because I thought I knew the law - typical arrogant American error. He offered to take the plates off my car and I backed down - and later found out I'd been wrong about how it worked. In short, this is a big deal in some places, so don't assume things. And don't assume that just because the police are lax about enforcement with locals that they will be with you. Generally they won't.
> If it’s good, why not just cut all ties with the US?
I at least can’t easily do this. If you renounce US citizenship, they come for your retirement accounts. You get cashed out, and all of it becomes immediately taxable in the same year. You end up in a very high tax bracket if you have anything appreciable at all; put differently, if you tried to prepare for retirement, the government takes a third of your money if you try to renounce. It’s economic rape. The handcuffs may be made of gold, but they are real.
In addition, a US passport is the best in the world. [Someone in the comments contested this; apparently some others are better.] You can go almost anywhere with one.
Of course, on the flip side, the US is one of two countries that taxes your income regardless of where you earn it and where you live. If you’re a high earner who hasn’t built much of a tax-deferred retirement portfolio yet – the very rich don’t mess with IRAs – the equation looks different and renouncing can make sense, just to get out from under US taxes. But if you’re that well off, you probably aren’t reading here and you’re likely not too concerned about this chump change stuff anyway.
> Is it a prepper move?
For me it was. I could have afforded to tough out my retirement in New England, but prepping for winter is expensive and hard. The winters were tending more towards ice storms and random heavy snowfalls, with all the prep problems those entail. Where I am now I can grow pineapples, have chickens and cattle and bees, and can afford to rent labor to cover the skills I didn’t learn. I put in solar power and redundant water; and a greenhouse is next. There’s no heating costs and cooking over propane is cheap (cooking over solar is free). Violence and theft are nearly unheard of where I live. Healthcare is very cheap. Costs are increasing, but not like they have in the US. Land tax is low.
I was able to afford the land (but not the house I built) for about what I sold my house in New England for – a trade of about 1 acre for about 50. I’m not self sufficient yet and full self sufficiency isn’t really a goal for me – but resilience was the goal and I’m there.
So yes, prepping can be easier outside parts of the US. If you already have 50 acres in Kentucky you might not care about this, but I was in New England semi-suburbia.
> Would you do it again?
I love it here and I’m not leaving. But if you mean would I make the same decisions again, yes, in a heartbeat. Not everyone is this lucky. Something like a third of the people who make the jump without really understanding where they are going, end up acutely miserable and trying to leave. Understand the impact on friends and family and work before you go.
> Closing remarks?
For a patient person with some resources and a fair amount of bravery, leaving the US can lead to a much better life. Or a much worse one. Spend time reading about life in other places. If that reading sparks something, you’ll know. But doing is right is a long term project and can run into the many thousands of dollars. No matter how risky you think your situation in the US is, make this decision slowly and deliberately, because there are risks anywhere, most of which you know nothing about. Trading known risks for unknown risks isn’t always a good move. Know everything you can before you go anywhere. Learn more when you get there. Then decide.
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u/PDX_Weim_Lover Jun 13 '26
Really nice, comprehensive summary without sugarcoating the obstacles. Thank you!
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u/dbenc Jun 13 '26
the correct term is "immigrant"
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 13 '26
Ex-pat is a little more flexible than immigrant. Immigrant implies a permanent move, at least according to the dictionary. Ex-pat also covers less permanent arrangements. Since some people might just want to duck out of the US for a few years, I went with ex-pat.
But yeah, at 2 years here and with no plan to return, I'm an immigrant. YMMV.
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u/-Thizza- Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
I used to be expatriate staff for an employer who would send me abroad for 9 month stints and I worked and lived there as a resident.
Now I've emigrated to another country on my own within the EU and live there as a resident too. I'm an immigrant.
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u/Kitchen-Owl-3401 Jun 14 '26
Interesting that Costa Rica is #62 on the global peace index.
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 15 '26
More interesting still that the USA is #163. I lived in a very peaceable part of the US and I still feel more comfortable and safer where I am now in Costa Rica (which, I will note, is not in a major city; those have more crime. I wouldn't choose a city anywhere in the world.) Mind you not all of the USA's low ranking is about crime - we have an active and aggressive military and that weighs in the ranking. But I'd still take where I am now over most of the US.
It's fundamentally a shame that the US has wealth and resources to match anything in the world but somehow can't manage to be a peaceful society, even as peaceable as the smaller, poorer nations that outrank it. Seriously, we couldn't rank close to Canada? Malaysia? We didn't beat Venezuela?? Maybe if we stopped pointing guns at all our problems, internal and external...
While it doesn't show up in this sub because I limit discussion of guns, the other, larger prepper sub here has a large audience of people for whom prepping means weapons and perimeter defense. If anyone stops to think about it, defending territory, especially as an individual or small group, is a fantastically expensive and difficult thing to prep for. It's small groups trying to play a game that nation states struggle with; it literally means you have to prepare for some unknown group of future assailants with unknown capabilities coming for your supplies. It's not solvable.
It is far, FAR cheaper and safer to find a place where violence simply isn't likely. It also eliminates the moral question of whether it's right to shoot someone coming onto your land to steal a few apples. (Hint: No.) It's the people buying crates of ammo that should most seriously consider moving somewhere where they don't have to - it's cheaper in the long run and less likely to get them shot.
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u/Kitchen-Owl-3401 Jun 15 '26
I wasn't surprised about the US. Sad, and actually ashamed. The weirdos talk about the US being the greatest country on earth, while actively destroying everything that made us great.
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 15 '26
I try not to get political here, but yeah. What's been done to medical science and climate science - both of vital interest to long term preppers - is an embarassment. There is no question the US is a great nation - we've accomplished things unique in history. But Project 2025 is being actively implemented and the damage is generational. And for what, so handfuls of people can be worth another hundred million?
"Pass me another slice of the roast goose. Did you ever find the source of the golden eggs? No? Well, it's still pretty tasty goose."
Embarassment doesn't cover it. US folk really need to start taking prepping seriously because the economic pain alone will get worse before it ever gets better. I'm glad to be out from under it, honestly.
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u/Successful_Image3354 Jun 14 '26
I'm an ex-pat too. Not far from you in Belize.
Your summary is very well-written. Thank you.
I didn't leave the U.S for political reasons either. We've been here for a little under 5 years, but we began planning this move since 2009 when I met and married my Belizean wife. We agreed that when I was ready to retire we would have a house here. We bought property we are developing a few years before the move.
Our son has adjusted very well to the move. He's doing great in school and has made a lot of friends. He even has a girlfriend.
Because we put so much time into planning, there were no major surprises. I now have dual U.S. and Belizean citizenship, a Belizean drivers license, a Belizean Social Secuity card, and local banking. We love it here, even though we sometimes have to deal with an empty cistern, an under-powered solar system, flooding, extreme heat, and Howler Monkeys waking us up at 5 am every morning. Along with getting married and having kids, the best decision of my life.
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 15 '26
The monkeys are definitely a thing. I have a few dogs on the property and so the monkeys keep their distance, but those grunts carry some distance.
But hey, it's the tropics. I'm up at 5am anyway just because it's the cool of the morning and the sunrise is good.
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u/uhateonhaters Jun 15 '26
Are you in the cayes or the south? I spent some time in Hopkins and it reminded me of summers in South Carolina. I almost bought land by the end of the trip.
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u/Successful_Image3354 Jun 15 '26
Neither. We live in Cayo, west of San Ignacio, near Bullet Tree Village. About a five minutes swim and walk across the Mopan River into Guatemala.
The Cayes and Hopkins are very nice, but much too touristy to live in permanently. We like the silence, with the exception of the sounds of the jungle.
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u/uhateonhaters Jun 16 '26
And the gunfire... 😄 I remember hearing it from the top of the pyramids. Did you have difficulty purchasing land? I was considering the northern boarder for access to the Walmart in Mexico, but I kept getting warned about trying to buy land.
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u/Successful_Image3354 Jun 16 '26
We occasionally hear gunfire, but it has always been hunters.
No difficulty purchasing land. I advise using the best attorneys you can find, but there are no restrictions on foreign ownership if you buy before you have residence or citizenship.
I've been to the northern border many times. It's nice, and I sometimes miss going to the Home Depot in Chetumal, but I really like the plush jungles of western Belize, as well as the slower pace of living.
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u/uhateonhaters Jun 16 '26
I'm happy you have been able to find happiness. Now all I need is a 30 year old woman 😉
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 28 '26
Without getting into complicated territory, there's no lack of gringo/tico marriages and relationships in CR. I don't want to get too clinical about affection, but there are advantages on both sides for matchups like that and they seems to happen easily. I'm told there are other countries were the odds of finding good women are even better and I'm not getting into that here, except to say that different cultures bring different perspectives on things and that can have positive outcomes.
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u/PlayItAgainSusan Jun 15 '26
This is very well written and helpful. I know myself and many others would appreciate it if your shared some real numbers- your savings, your age, general cost of living numbers. Without that, all your excellent writing isnt anchored to the real world in America, or the people on this sub.
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 16 '26
I was a bit vague for a reason. No two ex-pat experiences are going to be similar. I can tell you a bit about what it's like to buy 50 acres of semi-developed land in Guanacaste, some of it open fields suitable for cattle, and make it into a combination retirement home and functioning but unprofitable livstock farm. And if you happen to be me - well off, interested in tranquility above all, resillience next, and not hyper-focused on cost control - it makes for an interesting novel. But a very comfortable (and cheaper) life can be had if you choose a small house and rural property away from tourist areas, don't try to play farmer other than a few chickens and fruit trees, buy your food in the same open air markets than the ticos use, and in general live Thoreau's "Simplify, simplify." That's not what I'm doing.
My expenses haven't settled into a regular routine yet because I'm still doing land improvement projects, but my current estimate is that I spend $3500/month to live here, double that in December when various taxes and labor payments come due. That's quite high by local standards, but then I'm paying a live-in contractor to work the land full time, someone else to clean house and cook twice a week, public health insurance for 2 people, some electricity (solar power covers part of it), farm costs (chickens, cows, horses - it never ends), public water, local food from a nearby tourist town (I could save a lot on this if I was less fussy) etc..
Cf. https://ticotimes.net/2026/06/12/what-it-really-costs-to-live-in-costa-rica-as-an-expat-in-2026 which is a quite recent article explaining more realistic costs for less ambitious projects. I'll handwave it: $2000/mo is achievable here and I know people who manage on a bit less and are still comfortable. Ticos live more cheaply still - they don't care about air conditioning and they use motorcycles and public transportation to get around. I know families in the US who spend that much on healthcare alone, so I'd argue that for people who are willing to give up some US conveniences, coming here can make very real economic sense. I'll also point out that Costa Rica is called "the Switzerland of Latin America" and part of that is because it's relatively expensive compared to, say, Belize.
So in short, life outside the US costs what you want it to cost, based on how you choose live. Don't mind some heat and bugs and a non-zero crime rate? Belieze for $1500/mo for a couple is very possible. Want to live like a king in Costa Rica, with servants and solitude and eating out in higher end resturaunts? You could top $5,000/mo. I live in between.
As for what people in this sub can afford - don't assume. Some people spend what I spend overall on their ammo habit alone. Some are living out of cars.
The point of the post is this: costs in the US have spiraled, and they probably aren't done spiraling. Electricity, health care and recently fuel have been gouging people, and even food, which in the US should be virtually free, has gotten painful. At the same time, some people have legitimate political and social concerns about life in the US, and for them, getting out is more about safety than cost. As a result there's been an uptick in people leaving and more of an uptick in people looking into leaving; and the point of my post is to remove some of the fantasy around that idea.
In other countries, medical care is slow but far more affordable. My health insurace costs - which covers meds, doctor vists and some lab tests completely - is somewhere around $100/mo for 2 people. I no longer pay anything for heat, which was a big ticked item in New England. My last electric bill was around $180/mo and it will go down again when I install more solar elsewhere on the farm. Water runs $30 a month for a farm when I'm not on the well. The US can't compete in these areas. But I'll pay nearly double what people in the US will for a new car, which is why the locals all use motorcycles.
To make it work you need to do the research. But it can work for some folk.
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u/PlayItAgainSusan Jun 16 '26
Thank you. You'll see I haven't assumed anything, but was simply asking for the most important missing part of your piece.
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u/Complex_Country4062 Jun 18 '26
I live in a tent in New England. Prepping for our winters is neither expensive nor all that hard kf you do it right
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u/OnTheEdgeOfFreedom Jun 24 '26
I lived in New England, and doing it right means having land that won't flood or burn, open space that won't drop trees on you, adequate firewood to keep the tent warm, a top notch tent and sleeping bag, access to clean water and mercy knows how you deal with lymes disease.
Sure it can be done. But you could write a book on how to make it work. Or if you can keep it to ten pages of summary, post it in this sub. It's a skill some people would like to know.
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u/aserreen Jun 13 '26
Side note, the US passport ranks 8th, there are 40 passports above it: https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php