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    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

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  • 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

    Greece 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

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    Overseas Havens Reports

    • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

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

    Services

    overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
    The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
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    Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

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Home Retirement/Living

How To Love Your Life Abroad After The Honeymoon Period Is Over

How To Keep The Love Alive In Your New Life Overseas… After The Honeymoon Is Over

by Louisa Rogers
Jun 24, 2022
in Retirement/Living
0 0
Guanajuato, scenic city lookout near Pipila

Adobe Stock/ eskystudio

After living abroad part-time in Guanajuato, Mexico, for 15 years, I’ve noticed that, for many expats, the relationship of living in a foreign country is a bit like falling in love.

Just as with a new lover, intoxication and infatuation are wonderful at first… but don’t last.

And, after the early tender blush of living in a foreign culture fades, irritations can set in. Ironically, sometimes it’s the very things you fell in love with at first that begin to annoy you.

Maybe you should move? Maybe some other town might be a better choice?

I understand this impulse well. Barry, my husband, has lived with what he calls my “town charming” syndrome for more than 30 years. Forget Prince Charming. Even though I love Guanajuato, I can’t stop lusting after, not other men… but other towns.

Just as in a long-term relationship, though, “falling out of love” with your chosen location doesn’t mean it’s over. You don’t need to pack your bags and go home. You are home!

But it does mean you need to navigate the transition from “in love” to the more prosaic aspects of sticking with a relationship, no matter what. And you need to remind yourself what brought you here and make more of an effort to appreciate the lasting joys of your new culture.

Here are eight suggestions to deepen your connection to your adopted home:

#1. Go Back To The States For A Visit

Nothing like being back in the partisan, consumerist, media-saturated, traffic-choked culture of the States to remind yourself that you’re very happy not to live there.

While there, you can enjoy your children and grandchildren, see friends, eat in your favorite restaurant, pick up a few specialties you can’t easily buy overseas, and then head back joyfully to where you live.

#2. Focus On The Sensory

The less structured, more immediate, fluid, and colorful lifestyle is what attracts many expats to a foreign country in the first place.

The taste and smell of markets, the live music, the fragrance of the honeysuckle, the bright bougainvillea, the stone arches and doorways…

Over time you may have begun to take these beauties for granted. If so, make a point of revisiting your favorite urban rincón (nook), listening to the saxophonist playing on the street, and exploring the artisans’ market.

#3. Get To Know Your Neighborhood

Your street is your most intimate geography. Do you know your neighbors by name? Studies reveal that people who know their neighbors’ names and trust them are less likely to have a heart attack or a stroke.

In our case, we invite our Mexican neighbors to our annual Boxing Day party, where we celebrate Barry’s British roots. We also invest “sweat equity” in our local area by cleaning up the nearby graffiti.

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#4. Cultivate Loose Ties

“Loose ties” is a sociological term for the people who are not your closest friends with whom you share deep heartfelt conversations, but rather the familiar faces you see regularly, like the cashier at your local grocery, the florist on the plaza, or the guy who sells newspapers at the kiosk.

Barry is always touched, when after being away for half the year, he returns to his favorite Guanajuato café and the barista shouts out, “Hola, Barry!” The need to be seen and known is intrinsic to human nature.

I was devastated when I found out, soon after returning to Guanajuato, that Juan, the owner of the sandwich shop a block away, had died of COVID-19. His wife told me when I passed her on the street. I used to stop in his shop almost every morning, and he was always so simpático. Mexico doesn’t sell sympathy cards, so I wrote Juan’s family members a condolence letter, describing all our warm memories of him.

#5. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Taking any kind of a risk will give you a burst of adrenaline and help disrupt your routine and the rut you may be in. Small risks yield big dividends. You could approach a stranger, invite an acquaintance to have coffee, or hop on a city bus that will take you to an area of town you don’t know, where you can explore the neighborhood on foot.

#6. Learn Something New

Most communities offer classes for seniors. Here in Guanajuato, you can take singing, sketching, and tango classes. You can even get certified in thanatology, which concerns itself with supporting the dying and the bereaved.

#7. Go On A Treasure Hunt

Pick a theme—say, alcoves, courtyards, statues, or murals—and use it to explore your town. For example, thanks to a request by a friend in the States who spent her childhood in Guanajuato, I went on a mission searching for all the historic chapels in town. This led me not only to the oldest chapels, but to quirky neighborhoodsI’d never visited.

#8. Affirm That You Belong

In the book “This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live,” Melody Warnick discusses the concept of place attachment, which is the emotional bond between person and place, when you feel connected to where you live, a sense that this location is your home and where you belong.

According to Warnick, place attachment is not a feeling, but rather the result of specific actions you take over a period of time, such as getting to know your neighborhood.

It’s also a choice. You make an active decision to commit to where you are. Just as you choose to stay married even during challenging times, you can choose to make this town your home.

Stand tall, plant your feet, and announce to yourself, “This is where I belong, this is where I am, and this is where I need to be.”

Welcome home!

Louisa Rogers
Mexico Insider

Tags: 'Expat Life''moving overseas'expatslife abroadLife Overseaslive overseasMove abroad
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Louisa Rogers

Louisa Rogers

Louisa Rogers grew up living in Hungary, Argentina, Ecuador, and Pakistan. The daughter of a diplomat, she considers the Washington, D.C. suburbs her most difficult "posting." Today, she and her husband divide their lives between Eureka, CA, and Guanajuato, Mexico. Louisa writes articles and essays on travel, expat life, physical and psychological wellness, spirituality, and the arts. When not writing, she enjoys watercolor and her inflatable paddleboard.

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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
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