One of the factors in determining our move timing is the lifespan of our akita. He’s 8, which is getting up there in age for this breed, as they typically only live to 10-12 years. He has absolutely horrible separation anxiety, so i fear how he would handle the flight. And there’s a very good chance that we’ll end up with a house with your typical Dutch tall narrow stairs, which would be difficult with a 100-lb mobility-impaired dog. So we’re going to spend the rest of his life here in the States prepping for the move.

In the meantime, that’s giving us a ton of time to learn the language and squirrel-away money.

Thank you for this post. Every time someone posts their experience, I take a little something from it and keep it in my mind when making our plans. Husband and I are coming over via DAFT in a few years, and sometimes I think I’m over-planning. But when I see everything that’s involved in such a move (as laid-out in your post), I know it’s probably prudent to be overprepared.

I’m glad that using the airlines/checked baggage to move your stuff worked pretty smoothly. Our plan has always been to bring 6-8 suitcases of belongings with us (no furniture, no bulky items), so that we don’t have to use a shipping company. I love that you’ve confirmed my hunch that this is a good way to handle that aspect of the move.

And now I have to start looking into Airtags. Dankjewel!

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.