The percentage of younger women in the U.S. who express a desire to migrate permanently has surged in the past decade.

But why?! The USA is a paradise for women! Isn’t that what Margaret Atwood taught us!?

  • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    121·
    11 days ago

    Hi folks, I’ve been living abroad for 15 years-ish. If you’re curious about leaving the US, please ask your questions here or in the Travel community.

    Living abroad costs about $500 USD per month in most countries.

      • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
        41·
        11 days ago

        Traveling costs about $500 USD per month in most countries.

        Living abroad is a great way to mitigate financial burden.

        • ZDL@lazysoci.alOPEnglish
          4·
          11 days ago

          I’ve been living in China for 25 years. My salary is 1/10 of what I made in Canada (Ottawa) but I’m much better off than the colleagues I left behind right now.

          • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
            3·
            11 days ago

            Congrats, it’s a lot easier to save money and live a comfortable life in China.

            I haven’t been to Canada, but I understand the cost of living is not exactly equitable to pay.

            Which province are you in?

            • ZDL@lazysoci.alOPEnglish
              3·
              11 days ago

              I live in that city basically nobody outside of China ever heard of until 2020. 😉

              Cost of living in Canada has shot up stupidly in Canada in the past two years on top of the already pretty stupid costs vs. salaries. I was making quite a bit of money, but I still had to pay close attention to my budget.

              In China my salary is a tenth of what my Canadian salary was 25 years ago and I rarely have to worry about money. It’s quite liberating.

              • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
                2·
                11 days ago

                Ha, down in Hubei?

                Since you mentioned your salary twice, I’ll play without trying to pry. My guess is you’re doing scientific/industrial work, since there’s no way you could have taken that much of a pay cut if you were an English teacher these days.

                Congratulations again on your reduced CoL; it’s the most salient fact about living abroad for most people and the one they find least credible until they’re actually living abroad.

                Not having to think about money is the best.

                • ZDL@lazysoci.alOPEnglish
                  3·
                  10 days ago

                  Talking of cost of living, however…

                  In … I want to say 2007? … an old colleague and his wife visited my SO and me for six weeks. When he got back home he started going over their finances, cringing at the anticipated expenses.

                  They’d saved money.

                  They spent a ridiculous sum on airfare. They lived in a hotel near my home for the entire six weeks. We ate out for each meal daily. And yet, when they got home, between the drastic reduction in their utilities usage over the period and the zero cost in groceries for six weeks they came out ahead (by about two weeks, according to his analysis).

                  • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
                    3·
                    10 days ago

                    I more than believe it, that’s great! I lived in China for ~7 years, constantly taking trains around the country, buying scooters, gaming computers, going to restaurants constantly, new shoes, haircuts and massages, and literal boxes of 200 pc. nori or yak jerky, and just by saving what was left each month, retired by thirty. What are your favorite snacks in China? I miss so many of them!

                    The CoL savings are crazy. Twice I was offered housing for less than $300 USD per year if I paid annually. One mountain house, one beach house, very modern, utilities included, but slightly remote so 220 for the mountain house per year, 300 per year for the beach house.

                    Anytime I visited the US, my friends would be working in the same sandwich shop I used to assistant-manage or a bar, double the hours per week I was working, exhausted, with zero savings or in debt. I owned two english schools in China and told my friends all the time I would hire them the next day and they’d instantly be solvent, and nobody I personally knew took me up on it. I hired one girl from California with 30k of medical debt and she paid it off in less than 2 years, living the life the entire time.

                    English teaching paychecks are $3-10k USD now(250-400 RMB/hr) for 10-40 hr workweeks, so I keep wondering if I should go back for a year and generate some more passive income capital.

                    That’s got to be pretty fun to be the cultural expert, I had some friends in international sales who did a lot of trade shows. Are you fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese? I never got good at Cantonese.

                • ZDL@lazysoci.alOPEnglish
                  2·
                  10 days ago

                  No, weirdly. I worked in tech firms, but I did marketing. Switching to teaching English in China was a huge step down in my salary. Now I’m back in marketing, as of 2016, working for a local company as their “cultural expert”. (Officially on paper I’m a PA, but in reality I tend to lead all the stuff related to international things.)