Considering to Live & Work in a new country ?

This article came up after a brief discussion on Facebook and I believed I have some experiences worth sharing. I do believe the single most important aspect of the question can be answered in five words.

It Is Always About You.

Everything is relative. Fortunately or Unfortunately.
So,
If you are planning to move to a new country to start afresh,
If you are planning to move to a new country to start continue a career,
If you are planning to move to a new country because you want to.
Then,
Are you seeking a better life?

Define what is “a better life”…

However,

Here are 3 factors used to analyse each of my points.
(a) Time-horizon
(b) Professional & Personal Experiences (Always together!)

The top 3 points that I have in mind (right now),

Salary #

If it is not the salary alone, it is probably because of the relative perception that your new salary will be in a higher valued currency, globally.

Most people, especially young graduates, would use salary as their #1 factor in choosing to work overseas.

You should consider how much your professional experience is valued. And also what kind of personal experiences you would like to buy “with your salary.”

Does it balance out? Or is there a surplus or deficit?

Several cost of living comparison websites are available nowadays. Most information seems to be crowd-sourced.

Ask a local person, or a highly localised foreign person.

New city or new town #

A new city or a new town does not really matter in the short-term. Living in Hong Kong, it was always so cool to have quick and easy access to a myriad of restaurants, bars and clubs. At 24, single and awesome, what else could I wish for?

A new city or a new town does matter in the long-term. Whether you are a family person or single, it would eventually make sense to choose a city/town where you can live comfortably and still have access to things that please you or that you really need on a regular basis.

Don’t make the city/town the most important reason to move. Do consider it in the long-term. You may even end up living outside the city where you work.

What do make a city/town important is the professional experience you available to you there. The company offering a job that suits you professionally - this is of timeless importance.

Life Strategy #

This is a whole set. An entire package on its own. Yet, it is not the #1 because I don’t expect most people to have a life strategy.

At 25, I have lived in 4 major cities: Kuala Lumpur (actually it was a small village about 40km away), Hong Kong, Singapore and Porto (Portugal). I gained tremendous perspectives on living, studying and working in Asia and now in Europe. I face and have faced similar challenges to what most people of my generation are facing. As for the younger generation, their challenges would actually be a remake with new variations.

At 21 years old, I figured out that I truly wanted to live outside of my home country. At 23, I started living in Hong Kong to work and one thing led to another, I ended in Singapore for a while. Back home in 2013, I started rethinking of my life strategy (actually, my preferred term is Personal Vision).

Part of my life strategy contains this goal

• I should gain professional (and eventually, personal) experiences in over 5 cities by the age of 30. I’m hitting the goal soon enough.

How useful is this goal to my life strategy?

It would help me identify where I would eventually want to settle (for 5 or 10 consecutive years). Also helps in many other aspects but keeping it short here.

So, have you got a life strategy?

I am writing a whole set of articles about life strategy.