Broke in the US and in tons of debt. Couldn’t get a proper job that would provide for whole family. Just welcomed a second child. Ended up living with in laws (wife’s parents) for a few months while looking for jobs (still paying for our own groceries - family of 4)

In laws said if I didn’t find a job soon they’d put us on the street - they fucking suck.

So we left and got a job in Asia that pays us USD.

Early forties, married, school aged kids. It happened almost by accident: everyone in the family was quite content with their situation, professional and personal. And then I saw an advertisement for a job abroad that asked for exactly my (very niche) specialization. Been there one year, Thinking about staying longer now.

43, high earner / small biz owner in Miami, hated Miami lifestyle and growing cost.

no kids no marriage.

was visiting Colombia a lot and one day walked into a house and made an offer and 25 days later was living here with my dogs.

I was 39, single, no pets, mortgage, or anything to tie me down. Was living in Oregon and got two job offers in the UK. After a bunch of paperwork, I move to Nottingham in 2006. Been living in Europe ever since (currently the south of France near the Italian border).

As for the job offers, I have a deep specialty in building and fixing large-scale database-driven software products written in Perl. It’s getting harder to find people with my skills and I’ve authored a couple of books on the topic, so it made it easy to get offers.

Honestly all the school shootings pushed us over the edge. My husband was able to work for the same company abroad and they moved our family (two young kids and a dog) to London earlier this year. We’re so grateful for the opportunity but the reason why it came together is sad 😔

I was 44m when we decided, about 1.5 years ago. Been with my husband for 26 years, no kids. We spoke with a financial advisor about retirement planning and realized that if we liquidate everything (sell our real estate, sell collectibles we’ve acquired over the years, cash-out 20+ years of 401k savings once I reach the proper age, etc), we’d be able to buy a cozy little place in Europe and retire comfortably right around when I turn 51. For the next few years, we’re saving our money to make sure we have more than enough margin-of-error funding when the big GTFO date comes. And I’m spending a lot of time studying a new language; I want to be one of those freaks who walks into the immigration office and can immediately respond in their language when they start asking me questions.😅

We’ve always batted around the idea of retiring overseas (husband was stationed there in the 90s, we still travel there often for work and pleasure), but when we took a hard look at how we want to spend the later phases of life, we decided that the US isn’t for us, for a variety of personal, political, and financial reasons.

Early 40s, married to a SAHD, twins in early elementary school. We’d always talked about living abroad and then a job came up in my MNC that I knew I could get. Moved from San Francisco to Switzerland. I’ve been here for 5 years now but considering going back soon; my kids did not manage to learn the local language fluently and the option is stay here and pay 60K / year for the next 6 years of private school, or go back to the states where I will make more money and school will be free. It’s been a lovely, grand adventure but I don’t think Switzerland is our “forever home.” We might move back for retirement but not CH— somewhere a little more lively like Spain, Portugal, or Italy.

Realized America is just a capitalist machine and I a cog in it destined to live in fear, debt, and positioned to play a game of social climbing in a polarised political climate with status and actual freedoms being awarded to those with significant money and objects you own.

23, single no kids, Brexit/tired of England

My mother brought me with her when her job relocated her?

We were 40. Our daughter was eight. My wife had always wanted to live abroad, so she asked her employer (multinational advertising agency) for an expat assignment. I’d say the process (from when she first made the request to when we were overseas) took about two years. I had a flexible job and like adventure, though, so that helped.

I was 21 moved from the UK to Central Europe because I wasn’t ready to settle after uni and want to explore Europe and it was easy pre-brexit. Stayed now for 9 years because it’s my home and I love it here.

I was 46 when I made the decision. Divorced for about 3 years after having been married for over 20. One adult daughter living on her own.

I was tired of a great many things about the US. I realized I was going to be lonely regardless of where I lived and figured I’d rather be lonely in Portugal.

Sold my 2 bedroom gated community condo on an island in Charleston, SC along with my car and 99% of my personal belongings.

I was 26, married no kids and for the reason I was in France, so wanted a bit more money and international exposure.

Decent job, decent salary, in a long-term relationship, in a decent country.

Never regretted for a day I changed. I wasn’t happy.