You are currently experiencing one of the most beautiful and life-changing moments, as you’ll learn so many new and interesting things wherever the road takes you. So, how to decide where to live with so many exciting places to explore? This isn’t easy, as living somewhere is always different from visiting it as a tourist. Learn about important factors that you should consider when making this decision.
How Do You Determine Where You Should Live? It’s Not Only Important to Pick What You Like
How do you decide where to live to be happy? Happiness can be found in various places – at least, they say so, but the truth is that happiness is a state of mind. If you are satisfied with your life and surround yourself with people and things that matter to you, you can be happy, no matter where you are.
On the other hand, if you are not happy with yourself and don’t like who you’re becoming, there is no place in the world you can go to mask this. All that glam and glitters you can find in some of the best metropolitan cities in the world won’t be enough to hide from your true self.
When choosing where to live, you need to focus on your priorities, such as things you find important and that make you happy. For example, staying in a small mountain town could have always been your dream, even though you spend your whole life in the busy streets of a big city with millions of residents. Maybe you feel scared of the way things are going to develop if you decide to move there, but every move carries a certain amount of risk.
This is why you have to stay brave when following your heart, but also, don’t turn your mind off completely. Apart from the feeling about the things you want and believe will make you happy and fulfilled, there are some factors you should include in your decision.
What Are 5 Things You Should Consider Before Deciding on Where to Live?
One of the most important things to consider when choosing a place to live should be the affordability of that area or, more precisely, how the lifestyle costs in that city fit into your budget. It is important to be informed about the real estate market and rent prices, as well as all the other significant living costs.
You should check the safety of the area you are relocating to and the crime rates. It is also important to learn more about the traffic, especially if you’ll be commuting every day. If you are a student or have children who are about to attend school, education options should be another topic of interest.
You should also be considerate about the climate, especially if it affects your health and general functioning. These are only some of the factors to consider when relocating across the world, but we’ll explain each of these factors precisely in the following text.
Cost of Living Always Plays an Important Role When Deciding Where to Move
How to decide where to move? You should plan a relocation budget in advance and check if the relocation pays off. There is no point in relocating if that’s going to lead you to bankruptcy. This is why it is essential to plan the budget promptly if you want to move efficiently. People often make a common relocation mistake and forget to calculate everything carefully before jumping into something new and unexplored, which causes them to experience terrible financial losses.
For example, foreign countries may have different health insurance systems, different job markets and pay, or their real estate market is currently at its highest peak, so buying real estate might cost you more than ever. You might expect higher incomes only to discover that you can’t even find a decent place to work. You also should count on taxes, transportation costs, food, utilities, and so on.
Use Some Convenient Online Tools to Explore the Expenses in Specific Areas
So, how do you check out an area you want to move to when it comes to potential costs of living? It is recommended that you try finding a place where you can work before you relocate and gather as much information as you can about house hunting in the desired area. Apart from this, you should also check some reputable websites about the cost of living in different places around the world. You can find all the important information on websites such as:
- Numbeo,
- BestPlaces,
- NerdWallet,
- PayScale.
These allow you to find information about most of the common costs for an average person, such as food, home utilities, health, transportation, and so on. You can also check the prices of real estate depending on the size of the home you are planning to buy or rent. Some of this information also shows prices between different areas within the same country or neighborhoods within a specific city.
Since you’re just learning how to pick a place to live when moving internationally, we highly suggest you go further with your little investigation. After all, you still have to find out more about other significant factors if you are to find the perfect area for your home.
Check Out the Safety and Crime Rates of the Chosen City
Unfortunately, we don’t inhabit a perfect world, so when learning how to choose where to live, you should pay close attention to the safety of the area you choose. Crime does not have to be a part of your everyday life – unless you choose some really dangerous area. You can find statistics about crimes and their specific types in any location on the previously mentioned websites or Niche.com.
This is great because some of the more popular cities in the world have higher crime rates than average only because of small thefts that are common in places visited by many tourists. On the other hand, you can also find that some areas face rather more difficult crimes, so these are probably places you should avoid, especially if you plan to have a quiet family life abroad. Check out this video to learn more about the safest cities in the world.
You Also Want to Get Familiar With Transportation Options and Traffic in a Specific Area
In the modern era, people spend a lot of time commuting, especially if they stay in big cities, no matter where in the world. Although some more developed areas have good underground trains that can speed up your transportation from one point of the city to another, many still don’t offer these options, so you should find another method of transportation. If you plan on living overseas, you probably want to get familiar with traffic options in the chosen city to know what to expect once you start living there.
Every City Has Specific Rules and Common Transportation Options That Everybody Use
In the Netherlands, people often choose to drive bicycles, so this is one of the most popular transportation methods. If you decide to move to Europe, you probably wonder if you should ship your vehicle beside your other belongings. Shipping a car overseas makes sense if you are going to drive it, but if you’re relocating to Amsterdam, you probably won’t.
Accepting this and similar changes will definitely help you overcome the culture shock, which can be a pretty serious problem if you don’t know what changes are expected there. Adjusting to a new country is a slow and complex process, but learning important information about traffic and transportation options is a great way to start this process and save yourself from relocation stress.
Climate and Weather Can Also Affect Your Decision When Moving Overseas
When planning to move overseas and learning how to choose a place to live, there is another important factor to consider – climate. If you spend a whole lifetime in the same place, or at least in the same part of the world, you probably never experienced severe climate changes and differences, so you might not be prepared for what lies ahead. Different parts of the world have different climates, which is geographically completely natural. Still, the important thing to figure out is whether you’re ok with these differences and if you can adapt to changes.
People with certain health issues might have trouble adapting to some severe changes, so relocating to an area with a completely different climate is not highly recommended. You can also be a person who doesn’t like low temperatures and simply plan to move somewhere where you can enjoy the sun and warm temperatures all year long.
Education Options Are Very Important for Students and Parents
In case you plan on starting a family soon or relocating for studies, you probably want to get familiar with educational options in the chosen area. Some specific places and cities are world-known for their academic programs, so you can easily find all the information about good schooling programs before relocating somewhere at the last minute. Most of the best cities to live in Europe offer great opportunities for students of all ages, so there is no need to worry about your or your children’s education when relocating there.
If you plan to relocate as a student in a short time, you probably need to gather some documents needed to travel abroad, such as a student visa, so this is just another thing to consider. If you can’t get a visa, you’ll be unable to legally attend a schooling program in a foreign country. This might as well motivate you to consider relocating somewhere else.
Another common reason to move can be to stay close to your children, who might attend some of the prestigious boarding schools in Europe. No matter the case, if relocating for better education options motivates you, you can definitely experience many benefits of relocation.
Now That You Know How to Decide Where to Live, Consider Getting Help From an International Moving Company
Now that you know how to pick where to live when moving abroad, the only thing left is to organize your relocation with the help of professional movers. Wonder what to pack when moving abroad? This can be your only worry if you get packing services and let professionals take care of your belongings. No need to stress out if you don’t know how to pack fragile items – professional movers will do this for you in no time.
Apart from regular relocation services, you can also get incredible storage services and deal with all the extra belongings in the best way possible. Your only goal should be to choose from one of the best countries to live in, and movers can handle all the relocation needs and requirements.
