“A sense of belonging.”
Two different readers used exactly those words to describe what they wanted from a life abroad. Not a tax rate. Not a visa. Friends, a place, a routine that’s theirs. Everything in this piece exists to get you there while keeping what you’ve built here intact. One reader named the risk in the sentence I’d put over the door: “We have money, but not enough to survive a massive mistake.” Another named the frustration: “We’ve read everything and still don’t know what to actually do.”
This piece is the answer to the second line, built to protect the first. After November 3, the next federal election is November 7, 2028. That’s two years with nothing federal on the ballot, which is about as much calm planning time as this country hands out. Below is what to do with it, quarter by quarter, in the order that keeps a plan from blowing up: what to settle in each quarter, what to leave alone until it’s settled, and what it costs to get it backwards.