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    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

    Global Living

    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

    Upcoming Events

    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Argentina Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

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  • My Library
Live and Invest Overseas
  • Home
  • Countries

    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

    Global Living

    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

    Upcoming Events

    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Argentina Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    Learn More About This Event
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    • MORE EVENTS

    Contact Our Events Team

    Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
    1 (888) 627 8834
    From Outside North America:
    1 (443) 599 1221
    Working Hours
    Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

    Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

  • Store

    Unlock The World

    • Access Your Library

    Overseas Havens Reports

    • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

    Conference Kits

    • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

    Lahardan Books

    • Titles on living and investing around the world
    • Explore Our Store
    Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

    Services

    overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
    The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
    Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

    Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

  • My Library
Live and Invest Overseas
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Home Lifestyle

Moving Overseas Will Affect Your Family But It Can Be For The Better

What If You And Your Significant Other Aren’t On The Same Page When It Comes To Making A Move

by Kat Kalashian
Jan 05, 2021
in Lifestyle, Retirement/Living
0 0
Family watching sunrise on beach.

iStock/imtmphoto

As I celebrated my daughter’s first holiday season, the idea of legacy was strong in my mind.

As all new parents do, I became nostalgic for my own childhood holiday traditions as I thought about the celebrations upcoming for her.

And I thought about how different my own childhood was from that of my brother—who came 10 years after me—and now for my daughter.

Our Life Decisions Impact So Many More People Than Ourselves

A fact we are so often oblivious to until long after the fact.

The decision to move anywhere, let alone across a border, is a deeply personal one. Motivations are, necessarily, selfish. We move for our job, for our partner, to be closer to something that makes us happy… we move for ourselves.

It’s something that makes a move so much harder when you do it as a couple. For such a subjective thing, can two people ever really be fully on the same page?

Taking my own example, I know Harry and I are not of a mind on the idea of living overseas. He moved to Panama purely for work; he had never had any desire to leave the States on a permanent basis. When it became clear we were going to move on from Panama, France was all my idea. He’d rather have moved back to D.C.

We’ve compromised and talked about the near future… our 10-year plan is here in France, but after that, who knows. It’s likely I’ll have to take my turn living in a place I didn’t personally plan to (though I’m secretly hoping some other alternative that’s equally appealing to my all-American man pops up in the meantime).

Moving With A Family Is Harder Than Moving Alone

The bigger the family, the more personalities at play and the more preferences to please. If you’re moving as a younger family, yes, everyone should be involved, but, frankly, someone will have to make the overriding decision. You won’t ever make everyone happy, so you do your best.

My mother made a decision more than 20 years ago to move us overseas. It was tough going for many of those years… I hated life in Ireland and I made no secret of it. She worried about how her decision would play itself out for me. Was my life ruined? Was my brother’s? Would we ever be happy with our lots?

Now, having the hindsight to see how her decision affected me, my brother, my husband, his family, my daughter, her future family, and all the people in between… I can’t imagine living any other life. It would seem so small.

So think beyond yourself.

You Need To Look Beyond Yourself

What effect will your move have on not just you for now, but you forever. Your immediate and extended family, your descendants—maybe even those you’ll never have the chance to meet—will feel the ripples of your decision… or maybe a tidal wave. Even your friends will be touched.

Not everyone will be happy about or supportive of your move. Some may come around. Some may not. If you’re lucky, though, you will find a contingent of your loved ones who celebrate your decision and get excited with you—they’ll be the first guests in your new home, I bet. Perhaps you’re only thinking of dipping a toe in the overseas pool… maybe a holiday home in Mexico, not far from where you are now. Even that can have a wonderful domino effect on your whole family who will, no doubt, want to come for visits. Perhaps your new vacation home becomes the future family vacation home.

If you’re thinking more drastically—to move farther or permanently—then, yes, it will be harder for your family to swallow, but give them time. It may take a few years in the worst cases, but, in my experience, most of these family ruptures are temporary. Time heals all wounds.

My grandmother was livid at my being moved across the Atlantic more than 20 years ago… but she nevertheless came over to help us renovate our home, then to help when my brother was born… and she soon came to love Ireland and her excuses to spend time there more than anything, I think.

I won’t say she’s ever come to embrace the idea of us being so far away—what matriarch ever could? But she comes to visit us all over the world, and, above all, she appreciates how happy we are with the life we’ve built. It makes her happy vicariously.

When my family extended to include my husband’s, most of whom didn’t have passports before we got married, the distance between us didn’t mean much. Now, having a daughter, I do worry that she is too far away from all her extended family, especially his side. They aren’t travelers and I doubt that that will change over my daughter’s lifetime. They won’t come to visit much, and if we travel for holidays, it likely means we’ll be on our own.

My hope, though, is that in 50 years, looking back, I’ll laugh at this pessimistic attitude. I hope that we all evolve together as a new family, as I saw my own family evolve to suit our changing lifestyles when I was young. I hope we all travel together… that they visit us, we visit them, but that we also plan vacations abroad together.

No matter how it all plays out, my daughter and any future children’s lives are being nudged every day by the decisions we make—and I’m not talking about the million choices we make for her every day, I mean those we make for ourselves, without even a thought to how they could impact her.

No matter how you set your life up, there will always be challenges… mothers will always worry about their kids, grandparents will always miss their grandkids. These things are, of course, exacerbated by distance… but distance is also a prime mover… a catalyst for changes that you might hope for or never imagine.

Maybe grandma decides to buy a house down the street to spend a few months of the year in your new home with you… maybe your entire family starts a new tradition of coming to you for the holidays. You’ll figure out the best way to stay in each other’s lives and make your new home a part of it.

One thing I can say for sure… your children… and their children… and their children’s children… will have lives so much bigger than you could have fathomed thanks to you opening up your own world.

No better time than now!

Kat Kalashian
Editor, Live and Invest Overseas Confidential

Tags: live overseasmove overseasMove with a familyPanamaParis
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Kat Kalashian

Kat Kalashian

Kat Kalashian has grown up around the world, living in the United States, Ireland, France, and Panama, and has traveled extensively in her few years. Growing up as a young expat she is familiar with the trials and tribulations of an overseas move and the adjustments that must be made in every new destination. After living in Panama for seven years, she and her husband relocated back to Paris, France, in 2018 where they now live full-time with their American-born cat, Panamanian-born dog, and two French-born daughters. She's now been living in Paris for over 10 cumulative years, and enjoys being able to explore France and the rest of Europe at every opportunity. As head of Live And Invest Overseas’ European Division, she is Editorial Director of Europe Uncovered, a monthly subscription service, MCs the Europe based Live And Invest Conferences, and scouts out new locations for coverage on the Continent.

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HOME

Top Countries

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Panama
  • Belize
  • Colombia
  • Cyprus
  • Mexico
  • France
  • Montenegro

Best For:

  • Health Care Abroad
  • Retirement Living
  • Cost Of Living
  • Investing in Real Estate
  • Establishing Residency
  • Gun Ownership
  • English Speakers
  • Safety
BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

Resources

Global Living

  • Living & Retiring Overseas
  • Raising A Family Abroad
  • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
  • Offshore & Diversification

Making Money

  • International Real Estate
  • Banking
  • Employment
  • Investing
Meet Our Experts

Real Estate

Overseas Property Alert 

 

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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

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Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

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Live and Invest In Spain Conference

VALENCIA, SPAIN Sep. 17-19, 2025
Learn More About This Event

Offshore Wealth Summit

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA Oct. 15-17, 2025
Learn More About This Event
PRE-REGISTER

Argentina Workshop

VIRTUAL Nov. 13, 2025
Learn More About This Event
PRE-REGISTER
MORE EVENTS

Contact Our Events Team:

Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
1 (888) 627 8834

From Outside North America:
1 (443) 599 1221

Working Hours
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Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

Store

Overseas Havens Reports

  • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

Conference Kits

  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

Lahardan Books

  • Titles on living and investing around the world

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