Divorce essentially implies a loss of home. When that happens, the consequences for expats are much more dramatic.
Did Santa put an engagement ring in your stocking this Christmas? Or maybe you celebrated 2016 with a kiss and a wedding date. If these marriage proposals will include a move overseas, between talk of champagne, flowers, and packing, don't forget the most important discussion: Money.
First off, there is a HUGE difference between being on vacation and living abroad. That image you have of sitting around on a beach chair all day with a coconut drink in your hand at a luxurious resort?
"I'm thinking about moving to Costa Rica," are words I hear every day. So what advice do I have for them? Let's break down that plan.
Every year 6.6 million U.S. citizens call another country home. Whatever the reason for buying a one-way ticket to being an expatriate, they have some important choices to make once they get there.
In a few short days, droves of people busting at the seams (mostly from a few too many sugar cookies) will be trying to shift and shimmy into airline seats fit for a 10-year-old child. Singles, couples and families will jet across this vast country for joyous holiday feasts and festivities. But mixed in amongst these "home for the holiday" travelers is a completely different breed of traveler: the expat.
Lying on a humidity-soaked bed near Galata Tower, hacking up the contents of my lungs grown by the ever-spreading ceiling mold and picking at a red line of bedbug bites on my ankles and wrists with a curved Uzbek knife, I finally resolved to change direction.
Now that President Obama has helped get health care for all Americans, let him remember his mother once again and focus on great public education.
As I pack up my papers and pictures of the grandchildren, big skies and trees behind them, I long to go home even more. I dream, every night now, of driving through the canyons.