74: Before You Move Abroad… Do THIS First!

What if you move abroad and realize you don’t actually like it? The wrong country, wrong city, wrong neighborhood—or it's just not as perfect of a fit as it could have been. There’s a simple way to avoid these regrets:

In this episode, we’re diving into why spending time in a potential new home before moving is a game-changer. You’ll learn:

•  Why testing a city first can save time, money, and frustration
•  How to evaluate if a place truly fits your lifestyle, work, and visa options
• The exact steps to plan a ‘trial run’ trip that gives you real insights—not just a vacation experience

If you’ve ever worried about making the wrong choice when moving abroad, this episode is for you. Tune in now!

👉Take the free quiz: Which European city should you move to? 🤔

Grab my free guide: 5 Exact Steps to Move Abroad

Website: jordangiberson.com
Instagram: @jordan.giberson

Transcript

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Make a checklist of must haves, like safety and healthcare options. And what is the community like and the lifestyle. So you can figure out what are your musts that you have to have in your city abroad or in the neighborhood specifically that you're looking for Hey, my name is Jordan Giberson. I'm a Texas girl living and thriving in London. The best thing I've ever done? Moving abroad, hands down. And I'm passionate about helping others do the same. Are you curious about finding a job abroad? You're in the right place, friend. I'll teach you the tried and true secrets of how to make moving abroad a reality for you and how to live a fulfilling life once you get there. We'll cover topics like choosing the best visa for you, how to get a job offer in another country, how to get over your fear of moving abroad, and how to live a life you love once you get there, this is The Move Abroad Podcast. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the move abroad podcast. Have you ever dreamed about moving abroad, but you're really worried about picking the wrong country, the wrong city, or even the wrong neighborhood? What if you get there and then it's just not what you envision, it just doesn't feel right. Today we're gonna be talking about strategies to help you avoid that regret, which is basically, try before you buy. Before you make the big move, spending time in your potential new home, can give you a real sense of what life will actually be like in this episode, we'll cover why testing a city first is so important. What to look for while you're there and how to plan a trial trip that gives you real useful insights, not just a vacation experience. So if you've ever thought about what, if I move and I realize I don't like it, then this episode is perfect for you. Let's go ahead and dive on in. Now when talking about this episode, sometimes I feel like a bit of a poser because I was actually in London for just 4 days and I fell in love with the city and I said, I'm gonna move here someday. So sometimes I feel like I'm being a bit of a poser by like telling you that you should do a trial run abroad. But I do think that in some circumstances, maybe you don't know. If you want to be in that location, maybe you still have questions about what life could actually feel like. Maybe you are still trying to decide between a couple different locations and maybe you just want to figure out what neighborhood you want to move to. You know, you really want to be there, but you just don't know exactly where in the city is best for you. So I do think that doing a trial run for your location abroad would be really helpful. Like I said, sometimes I feel a little bit like I don't actually do this. Well actually I kind of did, whenever I was going to move to London, I did do another trip to visit London, just to do a vacation though it wasn't really as a trial run, I had already had plans to come visit London. So I don't think that everyone has to do a trial run abroad if you already know exactly where you want to be. But, I do think that it's helpful depending on your circumstances, so I don't think that every single person has to do this, but if you're a person that likes to check all of your boxes and just feel really secure about where you're going, or make that final decision between 2 different locations, or to figure out which neighborhood is best for you, or to just start kind of getting a feel for the city and start connecting with people, start interviewing for jobs, which I actually did the second time I came to visit London. I applied and, interviewed for some jobs. I think that there are a lot of valuable things that you can do with this trial run abroad. So let's go ahead and start talking about that. So the 1st thing I think we should cover are the benefits of trying before you move. The 1st thing I wanted to mention is that visiting a place as a tourist and living there is completely different. This is not the same thing, so take this with a grain of salt. But whenever I was trying to decide which neighborhood I was going to move to next, I did what I called scouting trips, where I would go to a different neighborhood and I would see how many coffee shops there were. I would see what the station was like, which underground line wasn't on in London. I would see if it was nearby parks and nature, because that was something that I realized was important to me. I was seeing how close it was to work. So those are very different questions that I was asking myself because I was seeing would I want to move here and live here? I wasn't looking at, is this fun being here as a tourist, because I think that those are very different things, so I had a very different lens. So I do think that it is valuable to go to a place with a lens of, could I live here and would I be happy living in this location? Is this best for the lifestyle that I want? And not just where is best for a vacation? Where is fun to go visit? And like I mentioned earlier in the episode, I also think that try before you buy in quotation, so just trying your new location abroad is really great if you're trying to decide between a couple different cities. So maybe you still have been figuring out exactly which city is going to be best for you, and your partner, and your family. And I think that trying the locations, with the lens of could I actually live here would be really helpful. Another benefit of trying before moving there is testing the lifestyle fit. Just seeing if that city aligns with your personality. Your work and your daily needs. Another reason is just an opportunity to check into the visa and job feasibility. Could you realistically move there based on the visas that are available and the job opportunities? One way to dig into this while you're visiting that city abroad is to network a bit to understand the job market. It would be amazing if you're able to meet up with someone who has the job and the visa that you want. I think that it could be great to connect with someone just so you have another contact in that location abroad, but to also just hear about the job market, how it was for them to get their visa, what, how many opportunities there are in the industry that you like to work in. Some ideas for ways that you can meet these people in real life whenever you go travel to your potential destination abroad, is to chat with someone while you're in a coffee shop. Maybe they're also working on a laptop. If you're able to work there remotely for a little bit, maybe you get to chatting with them. Maybe you meet someone through an alumni Facebook group or through LinkedIn. Maybe they're from your university and you can connect with them on LinkedIn because you know you graduated from the same university. Or maybe you just reach out to somebody from your dream company that you really want to work for, or there's also meetup.com. I have gone to several networking events with Meetup and it's a great opportunity to meet people in your local city. So there are so many different opportunities and ways to connect with people in person. I do think that networking opportunities are a really great way to meet people, and I think people are also very open to meeting new people because they go there specifically to network. So I think that that's probably one of the easiest ways to meet people and learn about the job market and visa options and things like that. And another benefit of trying before you move somewhere is to find the neighborhood or area that you really want to live in. You could think this apartment is a great deal. And then you move there and it's the crappiest area ever. And you feel like you might get stabbed if you walk outside at night. Or you move somewhere that has really terrible public transportation, or there are just no people your age or things like that. So I think visiting that neighborhood that you want to live in is a great way to see if you would actually want to move there and to start thinking about those things like schools for your kids and public transportation if that's something that's important to you, or just making sure that the area has the feel that you're looking for, for the lifestyle that you want. So I do think that visiting different neighborhoods is really helpful. And if you know that you're going to be moving abroad really soon and you're able to see actual properties that you could potentially move into, then that would be amazing as well. So I'd say that those are some of the biggest benefits of trying before you move abroad somewhere. And then I think what's also important is just to figure out exactly what you need to do whenever you get there. What are the main goals of testing a city abroad? So one of the things is exploring different neighborhoods like we just talked about. Spend time in different areas and different neighborhoods to figure out what is the best fit and feel for your lifestyle and what you are looking for and what feels good to you and what hits your price point as well. You'll also want to talk to other expats and locals if you're able to. You can join Facebook groups or attend different meetups, to get different opinions from different people. So if you're able to connect with people and that way you have a friendly face and a friendly friend. Whenever you do actually move abroad, I think that that would be helpful as well. Another thing is to test the daily life logistics, like public transportation. Are there grocery shops nearby in which grocery stores do I like the best? What are the bank options? Can I go in and talk to a local bank and see what the process of getting an accounts would look like? And just any other everyday task that would be helpful to kind of figure out the logistics and what some of those things in life would look like for you. So to get a feel for the transportation, your grocery store, where's the pharmacy? What does that look like? Just to kind of feel like you can know what to expect whenever you actually move there to give you some peace of mind. So I think that testing daily life logistics would be really helpful as well. Another thing is to research the job or business opportunities. So if you're planning to work, check what the local job listings are. Go to networking events. Maybe you want to try out co-working spaces if you are working independently. So those could be good options as well. And then 1 other thing that I think is really interesting to consider is the weather and seasons. Maybe you're moving from somewhere that is bright and sunny and warm all the time, and you're considering moving somewhere that is cold and wet and, dark in the winter. So it might be a good opportunity to visit in the wintertime, for example, to see, you know, could I actually live here in the wintertime? Would I be happy here? Or if it's somewhere that's really hot and you're used to being somewhere really cold, see if you would really enjoy that hot weather in the summertime. So I think seeing what the seasons are like and making sure that that's something that you are content with would be really helpful. So we've talked about the benefits of trying before you move abroad, and then we've talked about what to do whenever you're testing that city abroad. And the 3rd thing that I wanted to discuss is how to plan this trial run trip. I'd say the number 1 thing is just figure out how long you can stay, so this will really depend on your work situation and your responsibilities back home. If you have an office job or you have a job where you don't really work in an office, like let's say you're a nurse for instance, then it'll be really hard to go abroad for a longer period of time. Or let's say that you have kids back home so you can't just up and go stay in London or Madrid for several weeks without going back home. So I do think it depends on your responsibilities back in your home country, but I think figuring out how long is potential for you based on your work situation and your responsibilities back home would be really helpful. If your current job allows, if you can go to that country for a test run of 2 weeks up to even 3 months, depending on your work situation and your life situation. I think that that could be really useful just to get a really good feel for the life that you want there and what that could look like. So 1 option would be to look into different Airbnbs, or maybe you can look into a sublease for 1 to 3 months, or maybe it's just a week or 2. And in that instance, maybe you want to stay in an Airbnb. So just figuring out what that will look like for you, and then also how you're going to be making money. Maybe if you're going for a longer period of time, you can just live off of savings or any passive or side income that you might have, or maybe you can pick up some freelancing jobs if that applies to you, like copywriting or website building or designing or virtual assistant or financial consultant. I mean, the list can go on for freelancing or if you're employed, maybe you can ask your manager if you can work from. You know, X specific country for a few weeks and see if that would be an opportunity. But as I said, it really depends on your responsibilities in your work situation, how long you're able to go and what that can look like for you. If you're only able to swing it for 1 week or 2 weeks max because you don't have the time off of work, or your life circumstances won't allow you to go longer, then that is completely fine. I think you don't need to be there for weeks and weeks and weeks. I think the longer you stay, the more confident you can be that it will be a good fit for you because then you're actually living there. But to do a shorter visit is also fine as well. I don't think that you have to stay there for a super long time. Also in terms of planning your trial run abroad, I would say a tip would be to stay in a rental and not in a hotel. You'll want to live like a local as much as possible, and not as a tourist because you're trying to get a really good feel for what it will actually be like to live there. So make sure you're not staying in a hotel, stay in an Airbnb or something that would be as close to a home as possible so that you can live like a local in the neighborhood amongst people in that community as well. Another thing is just setting a budget for realistic living costs. You don't want to be overspending like you're on vacation and going to a million restaurants and not ever going to the grocery store for instance, and experiencing what is the local food like, or can I cook things that are here? What would that feel like? It might be worth trying to do some of those things while you're doing this trial run abroad as well. You could also make a checklist of must haves, like safety and healthcare options. And what is the community like and the lifestyle. So you can figure out what are your musts that you have to have in your city abroad or in the neighborhood specifically that you're looking for, to make sure that it does have all those things that are the most important to you. So I would make that list ahead of visiting this city abroad to figure out, what the most important things are to you. And to take notes on, what is the safety like in this neighborhood, or what does the community feel here? Or what are the schools like in this area? Whatever is most important to you. And as we talked about earlier, timing your visit really well can also be really important as we talked about earlier. Visiting during different seasons would be helpful, especially if there's a certain season that you've heard could be quite difficult there. As in, London for instance. It can be really rainy and cold and dark in the winter time, so it might be worth visiting in the winter time to see if you'd really like it. The same would be for most European cities in the north. You'll want to see if the weather would be, something that you're happy with and maybe you're from, a northern state in the U.S and you're like, oh, like I have experienced much worse. I am not really worried about the weather, or maybe weather doesn't really affect you and that's not something that's really important to you, then that's totally fine. But just something to consider whenever you're planning your trip abroad. And the last tip on planning your trial run trip might be to document your thoughts. So you might wanna keep a journal or notes, maybe it's on your phone or you have a notepad or whatever works best for you so that you can take notes on what feels right or what feels wrong, and to take pictures as well and to take videos. You will think that you'll remember everything, but you will not. It is important to document your thoughts. I did this whenever I was looking at different neighborhoods around London recently. I took videos and I recorded the areas and I recorded myself and I stalked about what my thoughts were and how I was feeling there because I cared a lot about the feel of the community. So I think that it is important to document your thoughts. You might think that you'll remember, but in truth, you will forget a lot more than you think. So before you move abroad, make sure to do a test drive of the city or cities that you're considering moving to, to help you have more confidence that this will be a good move for you and a good experience for you in moving abroad, and to help you figure out which neighborhood you want to move to as well. So we talked about the benefits of trying before you move. We talked about visiting a place as a tourist versus living there can be quite different. We talked about trying before you buy. It's a great experience if you're thinking about a couple different cities to make that decision. To also test your lifestyle fit, to make sure it's a good fit for you to check on the visa and job feasibility and to find the neighborhood or the area that you want to live in. We also talked about what to do whenever you're actually testing out that city. You might want to explore different neighborhoods. You might want to talk to expats and locals. You might want to test the daily life logistics like transportation and grocery shops and banking, and the everyday tasks like that. You might want to research jobs or business opportunities. And you might want to consider the weather and seasons. So that's what to do whenever you're testing out the city and then how to plan that trial run trip. You'll want to figure out how long you can stay, what is feasible for your work situation and your responsibilities back home. You'll want to make sure you're staying in a rental of some sort, like Airbnb, for instance, and not in a hotel. So it feels more like a local experience and not as a tourist. You'll also want to set a budget for realistic living costs and not overspending like you're on vacation. You want to see what it's actually like to live there. You'll also want to make a checklist of your must-haves. What are your most important priorities like. Safety or healthcare or community, and take note of those things as you're visiting there. And you might also want to consider timing your visit well, maybe it's a different season that might be quite difficult for you and living there. And also to document your thoughts to keep a journal or notes on your phone, for instance, to make sure that you're remembering all the different things that you're seeing as you are trying your new potential city abroad. So moving abroad is a huge decision, and doing a trial run first can save you from potential regrets. And as I said at the beginning of the episode, sometimes when I mean, I knew that I wanted to live in London after only visiting here for 4 days. So that might be you, but if you want to have even more confidence and to just get a better feel for the city and making friends and finding your local pharmacy and making sure you're moving to the right neighborhood that has a good feel for you and whatever you're looking for, to have a bit more confidence in where you're wanting to move to, and especially if you don't know exactly where you want to be and you want to try out a couple different locations. I do think that doing a trial run abroad would be extremely useful for you. So that is it for me for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the move abroad podcast. I will catch you here again next week, same time, same place. I'll catch you then.