Thought Experiment - Leave Your Current Country - Where do you go? What do you do for income?

Thought Experiment - You Have to Leave Your Current Country for at least a year.

I'm not sure why, but for reasons out of your control, you must leave your current country. If you're American, you could move to Canada and vice versa. If you're living in Europe like Hungary Bill, you could move to the USA. You just can't move WITHIN your current country. 

Territories are fair game (Puerto Rico, Guam, etc). 

You can take your current household with you. You can't come back at all for at least a year. You will be granted a visa, work visa, citizenship, etc. 

Where do you go?

What do you do for income? Do you even try to find work? Do you take a year long sabbatical? Take income from investments made here in the USA? 

Do you sell your current residence, or rent it? 

Costa Rica. Work remote. Rent my current home. 

Abu Dhabi and work for ADNOC. I can do that now but the social constraints make it  not the best fit for me and my family. But if I had to that's my best realistic option. 

If I were solo, I think I'd load my 4-Runner up with tools and drive into Ukraine.

I figure an organization like the Hospitallers Battalion could use someone who's handy with a wrench and didn't need anything in return.  I'd go there and see if there was a corner of their shop available to work their vehicle repairs, maintenance, and possibly mods/battle damage for a year.  My only bills would be food, and Ukraine is so darn cheap I could probably live there an entire year with just my available credit card balance.  Failing that, I'm sure some of the guys in the shop would feed me.

If I were with the family, I think we'd load up that same 4-Runner and overland Spain.  You always hear about those mountain villages for sale for $150,000, and I think it'd be cool to check them out.  No idea what I'd do for work though. 

Either way, the house is paid for so we'd keep it and possibly come back to it.

I'd probably go to Scotland and try to find an engineering job up there. Probably rent the house.

First choice would be Africa. I'd live on the coast of Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria or Ghana. Outside of Africa but on the same side of the world, I'd pick Izmir Turkey, Southern France, Italian coast. If I were to stay in this hemisphere it would be Brasil, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Guyana and Cuba. No matter what, I'd want to be near a large body of water. I have no interest in living in Asia to be honest.

I'd probably try to do the same thing I do here minus the military. And if not, probably own a business that specializes in clothing or leather work.

I'd rent my home.

Sell the house. Move to Dawson's creek Canada and spin wrenches while the wife teaches. Maybe never come back 

Assuming I have access to my current funds, I'd exchange all my screamin' eagle bucks for dollary-doos and head to Australia.  Yes it's more expensive, but it's also only for a year.  I can make due.  Just buy a used Maloo and pick up odd jobs when I need the extra money.  And when I don't need the money, find a nice beach to enjoy.  

Belize maybe? I don't fly, Canada is too cold & Mexico seems too iffy & violent. Plus I butcher the food on Mexican restaurant menus, so communication would be problematic. 

I'm going to Canada and seeing if Shawn will let me work for room and board on the farm. 

Easy, sell the house and move back to Ontario. Not sure where in the province. Take my investments with me. Stay 'til I die.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Sell the house. Move to Dawson's creek Canada and spin wrenches while the wife teaches. Maybe never come back 

Dawson Creek? Do you like the cold that much?

I would wonder what a mercenary could make in the Ukraine?  I mean since things have quieted down in the Congo.

https://norselandsrock.com/roland-the-headless-thompson-gunner-warren-zevon/

For me I'd be heading to lake havasu Arizona. Well that's where my parents spend winter anyway.

I would do consulting and potentially API development and data point mapping for $$$. Specifically around IT cloud marketplace integration. I already do some of that on the side and what I earn there would make me comfy in a lot of places. 

Now the location is the tough one. I love Asia and mountains so Chang Mei, Thailand is very attractive. I love Medellin, Colombia with the perfect weather year round and the vibrant culture. But I think I would go back to the ancestral homeland of Krakow, Poland.  Be close enough to offer Bill a hand with the wrench if needed. 

For the house, I already rent two out so probably just rent the third as well. One of these days I'll sell them all for a house when I retire. 

Bermuda and make a living with some combination of float plane pilot, sport fishing boat captain, cougar escort.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Sell the house. Move to Dawson's creek Canada and spin wrenches while the wife teaches. Maybe never come back 

Dawson Creek? Do you like the cold that much?

Nope.  Love frontier areas. And it's more or less the last wide spot before the start of the AL can Highway so I think you're it's the perfect spot to do a repair business and recovery business. Additionally the town last time I looked only had a couple thousand people there and that sounds quite nice to me. Pretty sure Canada would grant us visas with my wife being a teacher and me being a hack of all trades

Probably Portugal or Spain and keep my current job. Maybe Montevideo. I could do that now, but I'm not really interested in moving out of the country at the moment. 

Would consider other options, but my company adjusts your salary to meet local conditions, which means a lower SOL vs the US. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Not going to lie. I thought about Montevideo. Uruguay seems like a great country.

But I can barely speak English so learning Spanish seems difficult.

Two scenarios I have kicked around. 

Work remote in the same job and move the family to the US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico.  Wiffee would spend time in hospitality and I'd bounce around doing my plastics thing.  Kids would learn to surf and kick it on the beach.

Work locally in a different company same industry in Europe, preferably Spain or Portugal.  Wiffee would figure something out.  The family would grow up having a free run at the EU and learn a bunch of languages.

Both are unlikely, I think of them often as I shovel snow and freeze my butt off here in midwest winter.

I think it's interesting how many folks would either work themselves in a mechanic type job, or lean on their partner's globally employable skills. 

Also interesting is how many of us are confident in our abilities to work remotely for a US-based employer. My company wouldn't allow it (they don't allow us to work out of the state), but my wife's company probably would. 

Probably France, Italy, or Spain.  But we would do our current "jobs"- as it's translatable all over the world.

Somewhere north of Gananoque, Ontario.  Like Seelys Bay.   Live on the pension, IRAs, and SS.

Soon their winters will be like North Georgia.  There is a reason French wineries are buying up land in northern England.

The good news is that I could probably keep doing what I'm doing since I pretty much work entirely remotely.

Canada seems like the easy choice, though Scandinavia sounds fun.

The only hard parts that I might have to overcome would be finding work for my wife and childcare for our two-year-old.

I'd have to find another career.  Extremely difficult for me to get licensed in another country.  I've always thought it'd be fun to live in Australia tho and did apply for a dental position there.  Got an email back asking if I was an Aussie ex-pat, when he found out I was American he said he'd love to hire me but couldn't due to work visa issues.