The Freedom Abroad Manifesto
The Escape Plan
We keep hearing the same thing: people with good jobs, families, roots — quietly researching what it would take to live somewhere else. Not running away. Building optionality.
Who We Are
A collective of people who actually live abroad
Freedom Abroad is built by expats, nomads, and people who've been living between cultures for years — some for decades.
We've navigated the visa paperwork, figured out the healthcare systems, learned which neighborhoods actually work for daily life. We know what the blogs get wrong.
Now we're sharing what we've learned.
Contributors across six continents
Something Has Changed
The conversation around moving abroad has changed
Then: Retirees
Cashing out after forty years, looking for somewhere warm and cheap
Then: Digital Nomads
Laptops on beaches. "Work from anywhere" as an aesthetic
Now: Everyone
Good jobs. Families. Roots. People building optionality
They're not running toward something. They're not escaping. They're asking: what if I had options?
The Problem
Most content about moving abroad is useless
Cost breakdowns
Numbers from 2019
Visa guides
Copy-pasted requirements
City rankings
"Best places to live"
Food content
"Best tacos in Tulum"
That stuff matters. But here's what it never answers:
Should I actually do this?
The Framework
Four questions. One platform.
When someone's thinking about moving abroad, they're usually stuck on one of four questions.
Question 1
Should I do this?
The inspiration question. Not "is it cheap" — but what has this culture figured out that mine hasn't? What would change in me if I lived there?
Inspire Abroad → Documentaries that go deeper
Question 2
Can I afford it?
The earn question. How do I make money that travels with me? Can I go remote? Build something location-independent?
Earn Abroad → Building portable income
Question 3
How do I make it happen?
The live question. Visas. Taxes. Healthcare. Banking. The unsexy logistics that determine whether this works or falls apart.
Live Abroad → Practical guides & tools
Question 4
What's life actually like?
The enjoy question. The food. The people. The random Tuesday that makes you realize you made the right call.
Enjoy Abroad → Real life, documented
Most channels pick one and ignore the rest. Travel influencers do "enjoy." Finance bros do "earn." Visa consultants do "live."We're trying to answer all four.
The Question No One Wants to Answer
But should you?
There are real tensions. Real displacement. Moving abroad without thinking about these things means not paying attention.
But guilt doesn't help anyone. Paralysis doesn't help anyone. What helps is understanding. Knowing the history of where you're going. Knowing how to participate in a culture rather than just consume it.
The privilege of mobility isn't distributed equally. Some people get to call it an "escape plan." Others, fleeing the same instability, get called refugees. Same act. Completely different reception.
We can't change border policy. But we can change what it looks like when someone shows up somewhere new.
The Sterling Standard
Stirling Dickinson was a Chicago heir who arrived in San Miguel de Allende by mule cart in 1937. The town was a ghost town — population crashed from 80,000 to 7,000.
He didn't just move there. He built it. Art schools. Cultural institutions. He brought Diego Rivera and Siqueiros to teach. Despite inheriting serious wealth, "if you saw him on the street, you wouldn't think he had a dime."
He wore the same huaraches as the guys who delivered firewood. Ate breakfast at the same market stalls. He spent his final years running library programs for villages and providing free medical care to children.
When Stirling died, four hundred mourners came. Mexicans and foreigners alike.
The question becomes: if you're going to move, if you have the privilege to choose — what kind of arrival do you want to be?
Who This Is For
Not daydreamers. People actually considering reshaping their life.
Maybe you're done with the grind, and you want to know if there's another way to live.
Maybe you're raising kids and want them to see more than one country.
Maybe something feels off and you can't name it yet.
Maybe you just want to know: is this even possible for someone like me?
Moving abroad isn't the answer for everyone. It's harder than the thumbnails make it look.
But for those who do it, we want them to do it with eyes open. And to be the kind of person their new home would be glad to have.
The math works for a lot of people.They just don't know it yet.
Nobody should feel like they need to be rich to leave. Nobody should feel like this is only for trust funders. It's not.
The more ways you understand how people live, the more freedom you have to design your own life.
That's Freedom Abroad.
Start Exploring
Recommended PartnerDon't skip health insurance
Cost estimates are great for budgeting, but real coverage protects you when something goes wrong.
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See you somewhere in the world.