Seven Reasons Not to Become an Expat

We love living the expat life. The following is from "Adventures in Expat Land" and is a great post for anyone thinking of being an expat. We are living the dream, so can you, you just need to make it possible to do so. Where there is a will, there is a way. As in our case, having God on your side and it being His will also helps a lot. 

 

Oh, the picture is me standing up at the crater at Poas Volcano. There is a lot to see and do here, you just got to do it.

So please enjoy the following post... 

Seven Reasons Not to Become an Expat

 

Many people harbor a secret dream of trading in their current life to become an expat. Making a break and moving abroad.

 

Not surprisingly, the frequency of such dreams tends to spike after you return from a wonderful vacation overseas.

 

Who doesn’t know someone who has sighed and murmured, ‘What I wouldn’t give to live in such an amazing place like Provence/Rome/Tahiti/fill-in-the-blank?’

 

But before you decide to chuck it all and head for a new life overseas, you might want to consider what’s really going on.

 

Here are my top seven reasons NOT to become an expat: 

 

1. You’re ready for the ‘easy’ life. Sorry, for most of us, it doesn’t exist. If you live in Fairbanks Alaska or Aberdeen Scotland, I totally get how too many hard winters might drive you to a warmer locale. Why do you think we refer to Americans and Canadians who head south in winter ‘snow birds’?

Maybe you’ve bought into the idea that life in a tropical paradise is everything you’ll ever want: relaxing, rejuvenating, stress-free. Or you want to move to a quaint country village with the idea of living life at a slower pace. Admirable goals. But behind the easy going facade of most places, the day to day reality can be quite different. What you thought was relaxing might actually turn out to be boring; what you once considered a leisurely pace may be more of a snail’s pace.
Life is rarely what it seems. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have all of the people who thought it would be great to own a bar/restaurant/bed-and-breakfast only to learn it really meant long hours, hard work, miniscule profits, rare days off, getting up early, staying up late, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, and so on. 

2. You expect to replicate your current life, and just add travel. Not going to happen. Oh sure, depending on where you move, you may be able to achieve a similar lifestyle. And for the lucky few, you may find a higher quality of life than you left behind. But for many, perhaps most, their way of life changes quite a bit. So if you dream of moving overseas and still living exactly as you do now, doing exactly the same activities, you may be disappointed.
What seems like a ‘must have, must do’ in one culture may not even be an option in another.  Which means recognizing that you probably have to leave behind your former way of life. 

3. You’re unhappy with your life. Whether it’s your never-satisfied boss in your demanding drudge of a job, your inability to stomach one more day of carpooling through bumper-to-bumper traffic, or your irritating next-door neighbor that has put you over the edge, it probably isn’t enough to justify turning your world upside down, packing up and moving halfway around the world to start over. Not if you expect everything to magically straighten itself out.
Running away sounds good in theory, but rarely works in real life. Regardless of the origin of that famous quote (Buddhism? Confucius? Buckaroo Bonzai?) it’s absolutely true: no matter where you go, there you are. 

4. You can live cheaply and save a ton of money. Perhaps in some places. But more than likely, this won’t be the case. In some areas, costs are considerably higher than ‘back home,’ or the taxes are more onerous.
For those places where the cost of living really is significantly lower, then you need to ask yourself why that’s the case. You may find that things are cheaper, but the selection is poor. Or local jobs pay significantly less than you’d hoped.
Maybe you’re hoping you can choose the right place abroad to make more money doing the same type of job you’re currently doing. Possibly. Just remember that when salaries and wages are higher, there’s usually a good reason: the weather is atrocious part/some/all of the year, rental/sales options on property may be limited, there’s a lack of decent schools, traffic is horrendous, the air and/or water quality are iffy, it’s challenging/boring/dangerous to live there. There’s some reason why employers have to pay more, other than out of the goodness of their hearts.
Oh, and if average earnings are high, you can bet that costs for available consumer and other goods are higher, too. Funny how the marketplace works like that. 

5. Let’s just go, we’ll find work once we’re there. Maybe. But maybe not. I recognize that some expats have the luxury of being able to work anywhere in the world. (And for many of them, the caveat is ‘as long as the internet connection holds up’, which may prove to be a little dicey.)
For others, they figure it will be easier to approach employment agencies, contact companies, apply for positions and get interviews if they are actually there. That may well be true. But for every expat-to-be who has taken this tactic and succeeded, there are another dozen who run out of time, money or patience and head home.
Keep in mind that it isn’t always easy to get approval to work in a foreign country, let alone find actual work. That nasty credit crisis that has wracked the economies of so many countries is global. Companies in many countries have cut back hiring or been forced to lay off employees.
And those companies that have traditionally employed lots of expats? Many have cut back on expat packages – forcing current expats to choose between converting to ‘local hire’ status and losing some of their previous benefits and allowances for such things as housing, school and transportation costs or being let go. 

6. It’ll be just like it was on vacation. No, it won’t. Not to say that it might not be great, but you can’t expect to replicate the carefree relaxation of vacation because it isn’t vacation. By definition a vacation is an escape from everyday life; if this is your new daily life, it isn’t always going to seem vacation-like.
When you’re soaking up the rays poolside at that great rental property in Tuscany, shuttling by Vespa into town for casual dinners of handmade pasta and a carafe of the local red wine, it’s easy to assume you could live like that all the time. Until you find out that riding a scooter the 3 miles into town isn’t fun mid-winter with howling frigid winds, and the darn thing only seems to work on alternating weekdays anyway.
Or that you don’t become best friends with your neighbors because they’re too busy farming the land or working in town to hang out with you, let alone spend hours helping you improve your language skills.
When you were on vacation, you never had to worry about fixing the leaky water heater or maintaining the yard or garden or paying the confusing tax bill or trying to find a reputable local contractor to help with the repairs and renovations you find yourself knee-deep in. 

7. It sounds like fun, so why not try it? Well, yes and no. It can be fun. And exciting, educational, eye-opening, energizing, amazing.
It can also be uprooting, disruptive, alienating, challenging, lonely and just plain hard work.
Much has been written about the transitional phases of dealing with expat life. Labels differ according to various experts, but essentially the stages are:

• honeymoon: everything’s so new and exciting!
• disillusion: why do they do it this way? back home we always/never…, why is everything so hard?
• bottoming out: feeling anything from moody to irritable to withdrawn to unhappy to angry to mildly depressed, and occasionally worse
• acceptance: it is what it is so I’d better make peace with it, learning to appreciate the differences, looking for the positives and not dwelling on the negatives
• flourishing: embracing what makes your expat home unique, making the most of what it has to offer, building a life that is engaging and satisfying and rewarding

These stages have been identified and discussed precisely because most people tend to go through them. Maybe not in exactly the same sequence or for the same amount of time. It may take one person six months to work their way through the phases,  another a year, someone else longer.
So in light of all this, would I still recommend becoming an expat? That depends.
IF you can:

• let go of the fantasy of the seven reasons I’ve listed above;
• conduct the necessary research about the potential places you’re seriously considering both to evaluate and then to prepare;
• carry out the personal soul-searching about your motivations and whether you’re truly ready, willing AND able to embrace the roller coaster of change coming your way;
• commit to riding out the tough times with a sense of humor or zen-like acceptance (and preferably both);
• realize that you will likely have to give up some of the old (the familiarity of your routine, the closeness of existing friendships, seeing family as often as you may like, etc.) in order to pave the way for the new;
• understand that it may not be forever, but just a phase in your life;
• and you STILL feel a sense of excitement and wonder at seeing life through the lens of another country and culture…

Then welcome to Expat Land!

Source = http://www.adventuresinexpatland.com/wp/2011/03/26/seven-reasons-not-to-become-an-expat/

Day 14 - Hey Ray - Should We Leave? Wife Thinks So!

I got an email from an old friend of mine with a big concern. His wife believes they need to get the heck out of dodge and pronto. He on the other hand as not felt such an urgency.

I wanted to take the time to really answer his question give him something to chew on. 

Now I want to preface this in saying that I am writing this response from a biblical point of view and from the aspect of a biblical marriage.

To introduce my friends, I have changed their names to protect the innocent. So, lets call my friends "Bob" and his wife "Nancy."

Here is how the email started...

Ray - Nancy  is convinced that we need to leave the country... But I'm not so convinced. I'm not arguing with her but don't feel the same urge right now...I don't wan to be foolish with my family but would God have us divided on a issue like this? Interested what your thoughts are. -- Bob

Hi ya Bob --

Something that I have learned in my years of marriage is to lean on Tracye when it comes to her "gut feeling." God gave women a 6th sense in just knowing when something bad or their security is in danger.

Tracye was the one who's red flags were getting raised and she began pushing us moving as well. I balanced out her "we need to get the heck out now" with my "lets remain calm, collected and get out of here in the best manner possible."

We both made sure we did our due diligence and made sure God was in it.

Here are some good marching orders....

1 - If you go to my blog " Unpacking Costa Rica" there is a good article by Michael Snyder titled " Should You Move To Another Country To Escape The Collapse Of America? 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First "

Both you and Nancy please read this article.

After that, I just wrote a response to this and I answered the 10 questions publicly. Read that as well. 

See where you guys are after reading these.

2 - If you do not have your passports, get them now. Make this a top priority. As things get bad, more people are going to flee. Getting ones passport will become harder and will take longer to get. Right now the waiting time is about 3-4 weeks to process.

3 - Take a trip to see where you want to relocate. You guys are more than welcome to come down and stay with us. We can pick you up, show you around, etc etc. We can also talk to you about the ins and outs of living here.

If Costa Rica does not fit, check out Belize. I have a good network of people there that can help you. I also have a great contact with a person who is helping Christians get out of the US. He is selling half acre plots with gardens, livestock, ect on the property. All one has to do is pack the bags and show up. Here is his website -- http://www.biospharms.com/ Darin Smith is his name and he is doing some great things down there in Belize. I already have 3 readers who have set up shop thanks to Darin.

4- This is probably the most important. Start creating a means to earn income over the Internet. Next to getting a passport, this needs to be your top priority. Try to figure out something that you can do to garner an income. Do something where you are providing information, writing a blog and getting affiliate dollars, Google advertising, etc

KEY POINT - No matter where you go, you will not be able to work on the local economy till you gain residency.

In Panama you can dump $7K in the bank for you and your wife, do paperwork and you are pretty much residents.

In Belize, you need to live there for a year and then you can apply. You can gain instant residency also by dumping some $$ in the bank as well. I am not sure the amount, but with that, you get a passport too. So I think it is expensive.

Costa Rica is easy yet hard. There are three means where you can start residency. Two official, one un-official.

Pension - retiree.. You need to have $1K coming in monthly for the rest of your life. Be it Social Security, Annuity or trust fund. If you can show this. You can qualify. No age requirement.

Rentista - you need to deposit $60K in the bank and then do paperwork for residency. It takes two years to do this and they will dole out your 60K back to you $2500 a month. Once you do your two years, you can then apply for residency and get it sometime in the third year. Once you have full residency you can work on the economy.

Tourista - perpetual tourist - There are a LOT of people doing this in Costa Rica. You have to leave the country every 90 days, spend 3.5 hours outside the country and then come back in. They stamp your passport for another 90 days and you do it all over again.

This is what Tracye and I are going to do in the beginning as we try to earn / save the 60K. IF you have a home to sell, you can take your earning from your home and you have the 60K., That is if you are not upside down. Tracye and I rent so we do not have a home to sell. This is why we have to save up for it.

Thing is Bob is that no matter what, things are going from bad to worse.

I know you see the writing on the wall.

What I see is history repeating itself. The days today remind me of Europe prior to WWII, Christians and Jews were getting out as fast as they were able in three distinctive phases of exodus.

Those phases are taking place right now.

We are currently in what I call "phase one" of the exodus. Those in phase one have the time to get out, take their belonging, and do it comfortably.

Phase two are those people who will get out only with  their suitcases in hand.

Phase three are those who get out with the clothes on their back. Things will be very bad by this phase and the exodus will be at a critical mass at this point. It is this critical mass that you want to avoid because that is when things will get locked down tighter than a drum.

More and more people are starting to exodus out of the US. It has not hit critical mass yet, but it is getting there. As things get worse, more and more people will look to get out.

What you need to ask yourself is what phase do you want to be part of?

Like it or not, sooner or later persecution will come to this country. You know and I know that the fema camps being built are not just for looks. They will be used to house and detain people. Most likely folks like us.

We can learn from history and bail out like the Jews and Christians did prior to WWII Germany or we can hang around and see what happens.

Even MTV has been waking up to the fact -- WATCH NOW >>> http://youtu.be/P2ZhQrWQj7k

God put our wives in our lives for a reason. They are our helpmates. A lot of times our own pride causes us to not to listen to the wisdom God gave them to help protect the family.

Over the years I have learned to listen to Tracye when she has her radar on high. She has it on high for a reason.

Nancy is the same way. God has blessed Godly women with this ability. We as Godly men need to heed it. In the end the responsibility falls on our shoulders because we are the leader of the family and we will stand before God for the decision or lack there of that we made on behalf of our family.

Often God answers my prayers through Tracye. She confirms what I have asked for or asked wisdom in.

In our relocation I was praying hard.

God used Tracye to confirm an answer and a direction we should go. This is how a marriage works. Kind of like a form of check and balance.

Work diligently on what I have given you. Even if you do not move, it is a wise thing to do because it will help you and your family survive the coming storm and give you things to fall back on.

If you guys want, get on the phone with us and we will be more than happy to help you guys with some answers.

46 Days and counting - OUR SHIPPER

If you are coming to Costa Rica, then by all means you want to hire a reputable shipper.

We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people on the forums.

One name kept coming up.

That company was "Ship Costa Rica"

The owner of the company is named Barry, but our contact was Arden Brink.

What is wonderful about Arden is that she is also the author of a very well known expat book

"Unraveling the Mysteries of Moving to Costa Rica: Real stories from real people, what we've learned and how it can help you!"

You can ORDER HERE from Amazon

Arden has been a HUGE help and I want to recommend her book. It is full of great information and detail for anyone who is moving to Costa Rica.

In fact, I recommend it if you are moving anywhere in Central America. It will give you a lot to think about and information that you can us no matter where you are moving.

I wanted to share with you what "Ship Costa Rica" is going to do for us....

-- bring the container on the chassis to your door in New Braunfels
-- wait three hours while you load it,
-- take it to the port,
-- ship it to San Jose,
-- provide US customs export papers,
-- provide all shipping and import papers,
-- obtain MAG and Minae permits as needed,
-- arrange dock transfers,
-- manage the Costa Rican duty calculations,
-- pay the duty on the household goods,
-- handle customs inspection and release,
-- pay the bonded warehouse fees, and
-- deliver to you with men to unload the truck into your house in Atenas
-- All inclusive, no extras, no surprises.

Folks, when you think about it, they are doing a lot.

We know of other expats who have used "Ship Costa Rica" and they were very pleased as well.

There are a lot of ways you can get your personal items down to Costa Rica and yes you can save a buck or two too. But you really want to find someone who will take care of the details for you.

I am one who believes in hiring a professional to do a professional job. You do not want your personal items to be held up in customs or waiting on duty or such. Barry, Arden and the great staff at "Ship Costa Rica" have that covered.

They are truly "All Inclusive, No Extra and NO  SURPRISES."

At least we hope so. We have been really pleased with the personal service we have gotten from them so far.

What Arden and the folks at "Ship Costa Rica" have done is allowed us to place our faith in them and their word that they will see that out items we are taking to Costa Rica will safely get there.

Continue to follow Tracye and I as we will blog more about our personal effects, as well as everything else involved in our relocation to Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!

A MAJOR Answer To Our Prayer Requests

Tracye and I wanted to report that major prayer has been answered.

As many of you know, Tracye and I have been praying for direction for a long time.

It seems that for the last couple of years we have been in what I describe as a holding pattern.

The one thing that we knew is that where we are now was going to change; in fact around April 2012 we felt a "releasing" of sorts. We are not ones to just move on a whim so we have waited on God to give us clear direction.

We have been checking out many areas here in the US from N Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina. 
We even took a trip to Belize.

Because Belize has been on our radar for so long, we had to rule it in or rule it out. Well God let us know that Belize was not for us personally. But that does not mean it is not right for others.

I have been working with a ministry down there that is helping Christians relocate, and I even know of a few PZ Insider families who have been called to Belize and are now setting up down there.  


A Phone Call

We have been asking all of you to please pray for us and that God give us direction. Things are taking place in this nation that are absolutely mind boggling.

I believe that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

It was about the beginning of August and I got a phone call from my good friend Gary Kah.

Gary Kah - Ray Gano - John Price

For those of you who do not know, Gary is the author of several books including the best seller "En Route To Global Occupation." We have known each other now for about 25 years and always looked forward to the fellowship at conferences and such.

Gary and his wife have been working pretty hard with speaking engagements all over the US and even in Europe. But something came up and Gary had to have an operation on his shoulder. That meant a lot of down time.

So they took advantage of this and saw it as the Lord telling them to take a much needed sabbatical. So they packed up their bags and headed south.

That is when I got the phone call.

"Hey Ray -- This is Gary, can you guess where we are… Costa Rica!! You have got to come down here, it is incredible, God is doing some incredible things."

So Tracye and I prayed about it and asked God to help us go visit.

As many of you may know who are linked into our Facebook, this past September we went down to Costa Rica and we were very pleased.

But what is interesting is that not only was Gary Kah there, we found out that John Price, author of "The End of America" just recently relocated down there.

The Big News? Prophezine is Moving To Costa Rica

We believe that God is calling us to Costa Rica and He has opened the doors for us.

With this relocation, Me and Tracye see our work here at Prophezine actually expanding.

Just so you know, nothing is going to change, PZ Insider Report, PZ News Watch, PZ Survival News will still go out like clockwork.

In fact because we are there, I believe that we will have a little more of a "free voice" to report on things that we observe.

One thing I would like to put back on the front burner is getting PZ Radio back up and running with a focus again on Preaching, Teaching and looking at what is going on Globally.

It is my desire to see Prophezine become a voice of encouragement to "The Remnant" not only in the US but an encouragement globally. Christians will need it in the coming days.

God Has Opened Up a Home and a Vehicle To Us

God has paved the way so that we can rent a 2 bedroom house, but that is not all. He has provided a car that we can purchase at a very good price.

We say that "He paved the way" because our new landlord loves the Lord and is a Christian also. She has been praying for a good family to move into her home, and she has been trying to rent it for over a year. She told us if we were not the ones, she would finally take it off the market and accept it is not in His will to rent.

So it is neat to see when we ourselves are an answer to someone else's prayers.

Again that is just half of it, He also provided a car so we can get around.

Our new landlord had a car and we just happen to ask her if it was for sale.

She told us that she brought it back from the US and really did not drive it much. She gave me the key and I started poking around.

The more I looked, the more I noticed that this car was hardly driven. I finally checked the mileage and I could not believe what I saw. Only 36,000.

So we asked her the price and she came back with $6500.00.

Tracye and I could not believe what we were hearing. See, in Costa Rica you cannot pick up a reliable, low mileage, never been in an accident , well taken care of car for under $10K.

This was a HUGE answer to prayer for us and the second big thing that we asked God to do if He wanted us down there.

More Details To Come

In the coming days and weeks we are going to be putting out more details like…

- The many reasons WHY we are relocating
- How we are getting down to Costa Rica
- Prophezine's role in supporting "The Remnant" both in the US and abroad
- Getting Residency in Costa Rica
- Cost of living in Costa Rica vs here in Texas
- What other ministries are doing and how we are getting involved
- What is going on in other countries
- Prophezine's role in reaching even more people for Christ globally.
- How PZ Insiders can benefit with us in Costa Rica

In His Service,

Ray & Tracye Gano
Prophezine



This is a picture of the hills outside of Grecia or Sarchi Costa Rica
photo by Tracye Gano