Am I Making the Right Decision to Move Abroad?

I have just been chatting to a local London friend of mine on the phone. “Are you missing your South African friend now that she’s returned home after her two week stay?” was her question to me. I found it difficult to answer – yes…and no! Truth is I am utterly exhausted - I fair wore myself out!

There is so much to do in London: I have a friend with a longboat so we sailed from Windsor to Hampton Court – it was wonderful. We also attended a colleague’s hen party and behaved rather badly! Plus saw Martin Shaw in a play at Richmond, went to the musical ‘Wicked’, paid a fiver to watch ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ at the Globe and attended a memorial to ‘The Few’ of the Battle of Britain outside the Churchill War Rooms which ended with a fly past of a Hurricane and a Spitfire: what a way to end two weeks of London fun. I now need a holiday…!

Talking to my friend, I was trying to persuade her to move abroad. She’s quite keen but scared of the unknown factors…and who of us who have moved weren’t? Most people have the idea and the initial spark, but soon lose their drive. These are the people live to say “If only” in their old age! Then there are those who have the passion and desire to carry their plans to fruition…but inevitably, at some stage, find themselves stopping to catch their breath and to wonder if they are making the right decision.

An OGC reader I spoke to, when planning her move abroad, found exactly that: “I spent all my spare time planning, preparing and ticking off endless lists. After a few months I felt overwhelmed – was I merely caught up in ‘living the dream’ or did I truly understand what lay ahead? And how could I make sure that I wasn’t making a big mistake?”

I have chatted to people who have found that the move wasn’t right for them and they moved back to the UK almost immediately – at massive cost needless to say. So how do you make sure that the decision is right for you?

One way is to ‘play house’ at your overseas location. Try to make arrangements to stay for as long as possible on your next visit. Then plan to experience the place as someone who lives there would. This means that, rather than staying in a hotel, you rent an apartment or a villa or – first prize - do a house swap. Instead of visiting the main attractions, check out all the things that the locals do. Go grocery shopping, look at employment adverts and do everything you would normally do if you were moving from one town to another in the UK.

My afore-mentioned OGC reader decided to book a two week trip to her intended relocation destination. Although she had spent several holidays there, she had never done so with the intention of one day calling it home. She said it was the best decision ever: “By spending two weeks in my future town I was able to better set my expectations. I visited the doctor, paid a visit to a community centre, made enquiries about a local art class and made sure to eat most of my meals at home. By the end of the two weeks, I realised that some of my expectations were a bit too high whereas others were too low. Overall, the holiday gave me what I needed to get back on track.”

You might want to test public transport to see how reliable it is, stroll through the area at different times of the day to listen out for noise, buy the type of groceries you normally purchase to determine if they are available and at what price – and definitely check out health services. How far away are they and will they cater to all your needs?

By giving yourself time as a resident rather than a tourist, you will get a more realistic idea of daily life in your desired location. Of course there will be pros and cons but, without experiencing life as a local, you will be making the move without knowing exactly what those pros and cons are. The more you match your requirements and your expectations to your overseas destination, the less likely you will be to ask, “Am I making the right decision to move abroad?”