My Mission
I’d like to take a minute to tell you the goal behind this site – my mission.
I want to help 1000 people live a better life overseas.
You see, I have several friends back in the United States who are not happy with the way things are going there. Unfortunately, they have a mental block that prevents them from considering moving to a new country. So they keep living unhappy lives and spending their time complaining to each other.
I’m going to keep working on them, but I also want to help you with your desire to move overseas.
Not that moving to a new country is the only way to lead a good life. You may find that you are happiest where you are right now – and that’s great. But, at least open yourself up to the possibilities available and explore your options. Then you can be satisfied that you made the right choice for yourself.
However, I can say with 100% certainty that moving overseas has led to me living a happier life. It feels like I’m 20 years old again, and have a whole new world of possibilities in front of me.
What really gets to me is when people let artificial limits prevent them from living the best lives they can.
Removing those limits is what I want this site to help with.
The biggest thing that limits many people is fear of the unknown. It doesn’t help that the media has been broadcasting fear for decades. And it really doesn’t help that some of the big “living overseas” websites use fear as a sales tactic.
So I’ll focus on getting you the facts you need about other countries – information you can really use to help you make your decisions.
But some people get lost in the process of moving abroad. They get so involved with looking for all the answers that they lose sight of their goal, and never get overseas. It seems like they’re waiting for that one final answer to that one final question. Once they know that, then they’ll act. However, for many of these people, they always come up with one more question.
So I’ll also write some articles to help “push them out of the nest”.
My promises to you
- I will provide you with information that is as accurate as I can get. We all have our own biases and preferences (that’s why ice cream comes in so many flavors), but I want the information here to be something you can rely on.
- I won’t use scare tactics to sell anything to you. Of course, if something is bad, I will let you know (see promise #1). However, I’d rather that we spend most of our time and energy focusing on the positive.
- I also won’t use false promises on the site. If I tell you it’s possible to live somewhere cheaply, it will be current information – not something that was only possible six years ago.
- If I suggest anything for you to buy, I’ll let you know if I get any sort of commission from it. I do write books that I sell here. But my goal for any book I write is for you to receive at least time times more value from it than you paid.
- For anything I sell on this website, I will try to keep it affordable. Instead of selling $1000 conferences to tell you about moving overseas, I’d rather have you spend that money actually visiting the country yourself. Living overseas isn’t something that is only for the wealthy.
What you can do to help
If you have any questions, please ask at the Contact Me page. If you have a question, there are probably ten other people out there with the same question. If I write an article with the answer to your question, you’ve led to helping those other people.
And if you do find the information here helps you move overseas, please let me know. I’d really like to know if I reach my goal of helping 1000 people live a better life overseas.
Thank you.
Buena Suerte!
Scott Lilly
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the reasonable pricing on your books. (And LOL about the $1000 conferences. Seen quite a few promotions for those…)
Hike
You’re welcome. I’d rather see everyone spend their big money on airline tickets to visit the country where they want to live – and see if they really like it there.
I kind of agree with you on the conferences. Most are held in an American style hotel and are designed to sell you stuff including real estate at hyper inflated prices. I think a person would be better off getting plane tickets to a country of interest, checking into an aparthotel with kitchen, livingroom, bath, washer/dryer arrangements and that is within walking distance of a grocery store and easy access to taxi. The hotel should also have personnel who can speak some English as well. Live like a native for a month, pick up a copy of the local English language newspaper. Eat in local restaurants, stroll in the parks. Pretend you live there and not act like a vacationer trying to see every site in the country. This can be a wonderful learning experience. You will meet people and find that you have things in common that you never examined. Start with a country like Panama where they use the U.S. dollar and get comfortable. You can travel on their bus system for little money. Don’t spend your time looking at real estate. The last thing you need is to waste your money on something inappropriate. I know of people who maintain a modest home or condo in Florida and experience Latin American countries in this way a couple of times a year. They don’t consider the trips to be vacations but rather a chance to experience another culture through imersion. You can save a bundle of money exploring in this way. We just returned from two weeks in Buenos Aires Argentina. Stayed in an apart hotel, shopped at the local grocery, went to the weekend craft market in the plaza Francia, ate some excellent meals and drank some great wine. Sure glad I didn’t go to one of those live and invest conferences as many suckers do. Just a thought. Your advice is sage.
Exactly. The best person to decide if you’d be happy in a country is you. And the best way to know is to spend time in that country, living like a local – and not in the protective bubble of the Hilton or Sheraton.
Scott, Your posts are really valuable. As an expat that has been living in sAm for 5 years, I think your observations are on the mark. You’ve pointed out that countries with welcome mats for foreigners eventually roll them up once resentment builds among locals. Absolutely true. Permanent residency used to be a breeze in Argentina and now it’s near impossible to get. Thanks to Argentina’s rampant inflation and capital flight, I am considering Paraguay as well. Began looking towards Uruguay but reached similar conclusions as you. I think many of us are just looking for a country with a government that will leave us in peace. Will be following your posts to hear your thoughts on Paraguay. All the best, Matthew
Thanks Matthew.
I expect that Paraguay is still very early in the cycle of “accepting residents versus not wanting them”. Because of all the bad things many people say about Paraguay (mostly said by people who’ve never visited it), it may help prevent a huge rush of new residents, along with the ultimate resentment of them.
Let me know if you come to Asuncion.
Thanks Scott. I plan to visit Asuncion in the next months and look forward to being in contact then.