Every year millions of Americans choose to relocate overseas. Some want to take advantage of job opportunities abroad, and others go in search of a new life or the chance to take early retirement. Some have simply always wanted the opportunity to travel and are keen to get started. There are many reasons why people go, but here are some of the benefits of relocating abroad.
Career Possibilities
Many people are offered great opportunities and salaries to work abroad. For some, the chance to head up the European or Asian division of the company they already work for is enticing. Others go in search of a new job, a higher salary, or the benefit of the career move. After all, Head of Asian Marketing is a fantastic job title to be able to put on your resume.
These days it is easier to relocate and work. There has been a huge rise in the number of people working from home in the last couple of years. Companies have embraced this because it means that their overheads are less expensive and there are fewer reasons for employers to be in the office due to modern technology.
This means that employees can work from anywhere in the world and many people are taking the opportunities they have to relocate. The wonderful thing is that if you keep your existing job and move it online, you can work from a base that is much cheaper to live in and still maintain your old salary, job continuity, and pension rights.
A Different Pace of Life
America is a huge country where everyone is rushing around all the time and there is never enough time to take a vacation, plan days off, or even just stop and smell the roses. This is not the case in other countries. For example, in the Netherlands, the average working week is only 29 hours, and parts of Scandinavia are trialing a four-day week. Compared to the average American week of 40.5 days worked over five days, other countries don’t have it so bad.
Cheaper Cost of Living
It can be beneficial to relocate overseas to make the most of a cheaper cost of living. For example, it is estimated that the cost of living in Malaysia is 47% of the cost of living in America. Of course, it does depend on which part of each country you are living or planning to live in, but this is a huge average difference and can matter a great deal to your standard of living.
If you want to work fewer hours, or even take the opportunity to retire early, then your cost of living is going to be a huge factor. You could retire a lot earlier than you had planned to if you can make your pension pot go further. For example, if you are currently renting an apartment in Manhattan, owning your own home may seem like a pipe dream. You may have always wanted to build your own home so that you could organize and design it in the way that best suits you, but to buy land to build on in Manhattan, you would have to win the lottery.
However, if you packed your bags for Malaysia, the story could be quite different. The land for sale in Miri, for example, is high quality and relatively cheap to build on. Add the comparative cost of labor to that and you could realize your dream. PropertyGuru is a pioneering property tech company in the South East Asian Market and will help to simplify your land-buying process. Check out their site if you are interested in land for sale in Miri.
Opportunities to Travel
Many people think about traveling but never get around to doing it. There are too many ties in our own countries and enough to do on vacation to keep us here. However, if you upped and moved to a new location, the opportunities to travel further afield could be greater – especially if you did not need to spend as much time at work or as much money maintaining an average standard of living.
Once abroad, lots of other countries are a lot closer. For example, many of the capital cities of Europe are located within a 3-hour plane trip of each other. This is great if you want to get away for the weekend. You can travel all over Southeast Asia from Malaysia. The world becomes a much easier and smaller place to explore. If you have always wanted to travel, living abroad could give you a brilliant opportunity to do so.
There are lots of benefits to relocating overseas, so it is no wonder why so many people are opting to do it. Whether you stay away for a year or a lifetime, if you have wanderlust, it is an experience worth trying, even if it is so that you can say with certainty that ‘there is no place like home.’
