"The longing to move abroad will likely be unsurprising to anyone who has recently gasped over their weekly grocery bill or chipped in on an acquaintance's medical GoFundMe with a six-figure goal," writes Kelli María Korducki in her Insider article, titled, "Priced out of America."
From digital nomads to early retirees, people are escaping the stresses and unsustainable expenses of life in the US. Amelia Basista and JP Stonestreet, moved from Denver to Ecuador after being crushed by $1,200 monthly insurance premiums, slashing expenses by 70%. Others like 22-year-old Maliya Fale are "genuinely going crazy having to live in a toxic American capitalist society." She leverages remote work to embrace a nomadic lifestyle abroad, saying "The cost of America is not going to allow me to do that." One woman saved over $1 million by leaving Pennsylvania for Belize.
The article looks at the rising trend of Americans fleeing the nation's outrageously high costs of living to relocate abroad. Korducki reports that a growing number are seeking out cheaper destinations through "geoarbitrage" — moving somewhere less expensive to stretch their dollar further:
Basista and Stonestreet are part of an emerging cohort of Americans who, fed up with the cost of living at home, are seeking a better quality of life elsewhere. They swap advice on Reddit boards like AmerExit (57,000 members) and I Want Out (2 million members), consult with concierge relocation-service providers that cost a few hundred to several thousand dollars a pop, and teach others how to follow in their footsteps. They toss around terms like "geoarbitrage" (the notion of saving money by moving somewhere cheaper) and acronyms like FIRE (short for "financial independence, retire early," which is equal parts target and mantra).…
In a recent poll from Monmouth University, one-third of Americans said they'd like to settle in another country, compared with just 12% who said the same in a 1995 Gallup poll.
Korducki concludes, "If money's tight but you're craving more from life, living abroad could be your answer."
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