Moving Nationally or Internationally
 

If you were going to move would you consider an international move ever? If you were going to pick another spot in the good old USA where would you like to be? For me I could see Austin in my not too distant future. If our country goes hard left I would have to look at the options at that time but I am going to start the process next year. I would love to look at Panama. I have seen several clients and friends move over the years. The most popular places have been Costa Rica, Philippines, Equador and Brazil but I know a lot of Brazilians. i can't forget Monaco for those with a lot of cash.

Canada would be a really easy transition. Obviously.

Could live in most places in Europe or Australia. Any place I could communicate would be good, as long as it doesn't get unbearably hot and humid.

I am going to Sydney next year. Europe has too many taxes as does Canada and I don't like the cold all that much.

I’ve traveled most of the world. I missed the good ole USA too much. It’s not just home but where I feel most comfortable with the society and culture.

If it’s just one place you can live in this hypothetical situation, I guess there is no where in the USA I would like to live except where I’m already living.

I visited Colorado for the first time ever (32 years old) and was blown away, so Colorado.

If(when?)I move, it would be back to KC. Then, one day, to Maui to live out my days.

I'm not interested in the tropics, other than Hawaii. Too hot. So no Brazil, Philippines, Caribbean, etc. Plus, all of the Caribbean islands I've been to have been rather dumpy in terms of infrastructure.

No place with lots of corruption.

No place in the eastern USA. I love the western landscape and culture. If I'm in America, I'll be in the west.

No place where the Americans have weird accents. Give me a prime-time television accent, please.

No third world countries where I get hassled on the street by people trying to sell me stuff. On my recent freighter journey, I was physically grabbed by people on the street in both Hong Kong and Vietnam, trying to stop me to give me their sales pitch. Any country where people do that can go to h-e-double-toothpicks.

I could live in a country where English isn't the main language, as long as it's widely spoken. I'm too old to learn a new language.

With those rules in place, here are my top ten places to live on this particular summer day, taking into account general cost of living.

1. Denver. Hey, I like it. It's ideal in a lot of respects.
2. A beach city in the LA area, e.g., Laguna Beach. Small-town living in a major metro area.
3. Juneau or Kodiak in Alaska. Just because it's gorgeous. My wife would veto this, but I would vote for it.
4. Paris, France. I'd deal with the language just to live there.
5. Some place in Utah or western Colorado near the cool parks and rocks.
6. The central coast of California, perhaps.
7. Hawaii, though I'd worry that I'd miss the seasons.
8. Maybe Santa Fe.
9. I'm running out of options. Sydney? Sydney's nice, but it's expensive.
10. Maybe Toronto or Quebec City?

I really liked Japan when I was there, but realistically I wouldn't live there. Cambodia was intriguing, because you could get services there and it was still cheap, but it was really hot. I could probably do London or Scotland.

Edit: ideally, I'd be a vagabond and move to different places for six months at a time. I could really enjoy that type of existence.

I really don't understand why the entire US population doesn't live in Colorado and southern California.

I really would like to move to Colorado but I hate winter and I think Missouri winter is bad enough.

Our winters in Denver are overrated. Cold weather isn't bad when there's low humidity, and the snow is often really light and fluffy.

Most places, you can't just go and live there because you want to. You have to immigrate legally and it isn't always easy, particularly if you need to work.

That being said I have met people a few times who were moving to Costa Rica. Not sure what the draw is for Costa Rica specifically. One woman I was on a long flight with was moving there from South Africa, she was an Afrikaner and had enough of that country being run into the ground, people's land and homes being taken from them, etc. I think she was wealthy because she mentioned they were taking their nanny and housekeeper too, they also wanted to get out.

I also met another guy in Florida who said he was in the process of moving to CR because the land was cheap and the climate was great. He was of the stripe who thought the US was headed for a calamity or a financial collapse and what all so he didn't want to be here for it.

But I have family in Canada and spend a lot of time there. Quite a few extended family members have either moved to the US or lived in the US for a time. Many of them achieved a personal goal in becoming a dual citizen so they have the option of living in either place.

I've only known one American who settled in Canada, but he was kind of placed there since he's a minister. Mostly the Canadians talk to me about how they want to live here to escape the taxes.

So not counting Denver where would you live in Colorado?

Denver seems pretty great, from what I've seen of it. The city and surrounding areas are nice without being ridiculously expensive, there's lot of things to do, and they have a great airport, with lots of flights elsewhere.

I moved to San Diego a year and a half ago after living in the midwest my entire life, and I consider this pretty much living in a real-world paradise, assuming that I also have to live somewhere that I can make a good living. I can't see myself moving anywhere else in the US, outside of a mountain city (Denver, SLC), but I'd rather just buy a getaway in the mountains, and have the best of both worlds.

I've traveled the world a good bit, but I do regret not having ever lived outside the US. I'd still like to do so at some point in my life, which would probably mean in retirement at this point. Europe would probably be my first choice - Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, France. AUS/NZ would be fun, but I'd prefer somewhere that didn't speak english as a primary language. Maybe somewhere like Costa Rica.

When the time comes, I'm seriously considering retiring in Roatán Honduras.

https://internationalliving.com/coun...atan-honduras/

I have lived all over the world. The USA is IT for me. :thumb:

Overseas - Bavaria near the Danube somewhere.

US - The only other place I would consider other than KC or LA is NYC. But I work for a movie studio and live with an actress so my hands are kind of tied. If work was no issue I'd consider anywhere up the coast.

Since we're talking Colorado I'd live in Durango if I could afford it. Weirdly I'd consider Park City, UT but I like to ski a lot.

I live in SoCal and I'm not sure they don't.

Not weird at all - PC is awesome. Would love to have a place there.

I have to wonder how many of those saying Colorado have looked at housing prices there. I'd love to live there, but it only took about 5 minutes of looking at homes online to eliminate it.

With that said, we're actually looking at Cheyenne right now. It's an hour from the front range and housing is a little less outrageous. It's still more expensive than Pigsknuckle though. Guess that's the downside of living in one of the most affordable housing markets in the country.

BECAUSE WE CAN'T ****ING AFFORD IT

Looks awesome. Might have to make a stop there when I check out Panama. That's exactly what I am looking for.

Yeah the cost of living is very reasonable. I know several people formally from Billings living there now and they love it.

Taking costs into account, if I was banned from Denver (the city), I'd live in ...

Palisade (Nice little town with lavender crops and orchards that's near a wicked big mesa, and isn't in the mountains with the major snow)

Frisco (Little mountain town near the Continental Divide. It's very high which means snow, but it's pleasant and you can climb 1,000 feet or so inside town if you want exercise)

Salida (Little town in the high valley that shouldn't be anything special, but it's got a great art and culture feel. It's getting to be Denver-area expensive, but it's nice.)

Golden (It's in the metro area, but it's got a small-town feel with lots of amenities.)

Fort Collins (It's a bigger city, but it's a college town with a nice feel.)

Fort Morgan (It's a small farming town on the eastern plains, so it's cheap and it's convenient to stuff in Denver, plus it's big enough to have some services.)

There are lots of nice resort towns, of which Vail is my favorite. But the prices are stratospheric and I don't want to pay $1,500,000 for a 1-BR condo.

Well, yeah, that's a potential factor.

I'm already working on setting up a base in the Cayman Islands. It has first world banking and internet. It rarely gets hit by hurricanes... It's CST time zone... the beaches are pristine. It's a 2 hour flight to Miami... 3.5 hour flight to Houston.

I am going to look for an income property in an area like that next year. I am going to lose the one I have now and locking down a nice house with a pool on the water with a dock sounds perfect to me.

This looks great. I'm going to check into this spot... Love the location.

Why's that?

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and improve your life.

I'm in Spokane right now. Not my kind of town but seems like it's up your alley. It's "almost" in Wyoming.

Smokey as shit due to the fires.

I was originally considering San Pedro Belize, but the cost of living has gone through the roof over there at this point. Roatán is basically the same thing at half the cost.

God I love Alaska. I think if I'd first gone up there 30 years ago instead of 2016 I'd be living there now.

You can't migrate to Canada very easily as an American. :shake:

Australia is also very, very difficult.

Yeah but it's so cheap to visit it might not even be worth it to own. Bonus: the weird alcohol laws would prevent me from getting as drunk as I do in other places. Go up to the bar order a shot and a beer and you get the beer. What gives? Oh you can have the shot when you're done with your beer. Thanks, Mormon Dad!



I always stay in Frisco, Silverthorne or Dillon when I'm in skiing the Summit.

I would love to and plan on moving from the midwest when my kids are grown and on their own. I'd love to live in Europe, but will probably settle somewhere closer to the west-coast. Ideally Montana, Idaho, Utah or Nevada.

You also can't order alcohol when children our present. Save the childrens!

I lived up there for a year in the mid 80's. I think the guy to girl ratio was like 100/1 and generally the 1 was nothing to write home about. I have been up there a few times since and it has really changed. There were plenty of good looking ladies running around. I remembered thinking, if it would have been like this when I lived here, I never would have left and that's the truth.

With that said, the summer was great with all the sun, but the winter was a real bitch with no sun. There were a lot of people depressed walking around sucking on the gun barrel.

Yeah, I can see that. I was there for a week in September, so the day/night ratio was normal.

I just got through at looking at some of the luxury houses there you can get for under a million. WOW I imagine the rental income off that would be huge until you got there.

My cousin moved to australia and he loves it.

Yeah, the UT liquor laws are a bit ridiculous. The curtain of Zion is my favorite - how they thought that was somehow useful, I'll never understand. The tap/bottle beers with regard to ABV make no sense, either - I can't have draft beer > 4% ABV, but I can get higher ABV bottles to drink at the same establishment. Mormons are funny.

My daughter was there about a year ago and that was by far her favorite place she has ever visited. And she has traveled quite a bit.

This guy has some good YouTube videos that will give you an insiders look at the area.

TJ Lynch

If you’re some kind of a tradesman, you might get rubber stamped. There are shortages of people to do that kind of work, and some countries fast track people with skills they are short on.

I’ll have a house in either Austria or Belgium when I retire. I have an office in Belgium but frequent Austria...both great people, great food, great culture, and most importantly...great beer.

Austria is awesome. Bonus: all the girls are into butt stuff

ive been there several times. They have canyons of coral right off the beach you can see snorkeling. Totally amazing.

There are major parts of the area controlled by gangs. The police are unable or unwilling to rein them in from the crimes as long as it’s not on tourists.

The issue with living there is such a wide discrepancy between the have and have nots. I would not trust living there and investing money in property when a government change happens and confiscates your property.

I Know a lot of people who live there now, they all absolutely love it and have had zero issues with anything. Would I live on the main land of Honduras, hell no, the same goes for Belize, but I would have no issue living in Roatán.

I’ve lived in enough cold places in my life. Not interested in cold enviotments anymore. It gets below 60, I’m cold now.

So Cal weather is obviously perfect. But, even if I won the lottery and could afford to buy a house in SoCal, I wouldn’t live there.

I'll be there all next week……Need an Ulu knife? :)

You don't mind bumper to bumper traffic all day, do you? :thumb:

I actually debated whether to include Fort Collins, but at the end of the day I want to live in a place where I can go to restaurants and grocery stores and stuff, and where there's a college so I can have a place to hang out. Fort Collins fits that bill.

I lived in Spokane a few years.

My defintition of mediocre.

My acceptable non-LA SoCal places to live if you can afford to spend $1m on a house:

#1 Santa Barbara. Don't argue here, it's the best place in the country. Just don't.

#2 Big Bear / Lake Arrowhead. Mountain living in SoCal is so nice. There's a bit of a meth problem but I'm from KC so I'm used to that element.

#3 Pasadena. Okay it's pretty much LA but doesn't feel like it.

#4 Solvang / Buelton / Santa Ynez. Wine country speaks for itself. Watch Sideways.

#5 Cambria / Paso Robles / San Luis Obispo. Small town living without the screaming racism and MAGA hats? Awesome.

#6 Palm Springs. Desert and hot as hell but I like that. Imagina Marilyn Monroe laying by the pool in a mid-century house with big white sunglasses on.

#7 Pacific Grove / Monterey A+ schools and family atmosphere.

You realize poop comes out of there, right?

Hard to judge places by day trips, but my cruises have taken me to interesting cities (Barcelona, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm). Pretty sure I’d love a lot of the U.K. as well. In this country I’d be happy to try any place it doesn’t get above 70° for the most part so I’m thinking upper New England (NH, VT, Maine coast), upper Southwest (Oregon, Washington) or coastal Alaska.

"Almost" as in only 400+ miles away. LMAO


I've heard it's a fantastic area. Looks like a lot of great bike trails too. But I just want a change of scenery, not necessarily a witness protection program.

6 people already booked trips to Austria before they read the spoiler.

I'd move just about anywhere at this point. I'm sick to death of the upper midwest.

Good to see you buddy

You mentioned a couple that I really like. My wife and I have passed through both Cambria and Palm Desert/Springs, and really liked them both.

Unless money was no object, I doubt there's anywhere that would be significantly better at this point in life.

In the US, I'd definitely stay in the Mountain or Pacific time zone.

Outside of the US, not sure... Germany has always sounded cool, but haven't ever visited to really have an idea if I'd want to live there. Don't think I'd have much of an issue living in another country.

I stuck here in houston because of my job. I love to move back to kansas and enjoy being in a state that gets me

****. Not sure where you are, but right now I'd take DSM or anywhere in eastern IA over Omaha.

I would love to live in Iceland.

:clap:

It's beautiful but it's CRAZY expensive.

Like 100 dollars for a "cheap" meal. Booze is off the charts. Everything has to be imported.

At some point you just have to start looking. Take a week and go where you want and see if you can make something happen. Good to see you.

i left when the country did have problems. November 2008 :thumb: :D

Florida or Texas. I don't think I would ever want to leave the good ole USA. Sure, we have our problems, but no other country can compare. Although I'll admit that some of the suggestions of tropical islands are intriguing.

I grew up in Des Moines, lived in Virginia in college, and live in Atlanta now. Planning to move up to the PNW (probably Whidbey Island) in the next couple of years.

I think Austin, TX would be cool here in the US. Wipe out tax burdens and Santa Cruz CA looks pretty sweet too.

I looked into migrating to Vancouver BC, what a PITA. If I moved overseas I'd want somewhere beautiful, with a more laid back way of life. We're going to travel all over Asia in the next few years, could see a lot of the spots we're looking at being a great place to spend a lot of time. I'd also be totally cool along the Cote de Azur along the Med. :)

Me and the wife are working on a move to NC. I actually tried to push her on a move to Australia but she wasn't going for it.

Leaving Iowa is the best decision I ever made. It's not a bad place to visit every couple of years during the summer only. :)

The first time I was in Raleigh and especially in Durham I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Highly, highly, highly underrated part of the US.

So where is the new Ranch Nickhead located?

Australia is super expensive. How steep is it in NC?

I agree with Austin but Santa Cruz has changed drastically over the years. Super overcrowded now and they refuse to do anything about the homeless some of which are super aggressive. The last time I had dinner there outside on a patio some smelly ass homeless dude and his dog walked right up to our table which was positioned against the fenced area so he literally standing right over us. Long story short he refused to leave unless we gave him money or food. The waiter said the restaurant could do nothing. Ended with me getting volatile and telling him I would remove him. Cops came and we were with another couple. It was very uncomfortable for everyone involved. The couple that lived there said that kind of thing happens all the time.

All I know is, really warm weather (like Florida or Texas) and beaches are WAAAAY overrated and overvalued at least to me. Give me weather like San Fran or Seattle, and I'm perfectly good. I hate the heat, once it hits June in Kansas City I yearn for the winter and fall. Anything over 80 and I hate it. 60 degrees>50 degrees>70 degrees>40 degrees>80 degrees>30 degrees>20 degrees>90+ degrees.

If I lived in So Cal or even Hawaii I wouldn't go to the beach more than one time a year anyway. So it would be a waste. Pay all that money for housing for no reason.

I think living in the mountains would be cool - but only if they figure out how to have fast internet, have good roads, and civilization close.

LMAO

After reading this, I would strongly suggest you avoid the mountains. You would die up there.

Most definitely. Bears, avalanches, and no internet. My biggest fears.