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17 Best Expat Books About Moving Abroad (Family, Retire, Work Abroad, Travel Blogging…)

Thinking about a move abroad? In this post, you’ll learn about the best books about moving abroad. When we relocated for the first time, the set of expat books we purchased helped us make a smooth transition.

Books about moving abroad

17 Best Expat Books About Moving Abroad

expat-planning-books

As we began planning our move abroad, we didn’t have much help. At least not from friends and family. Now, that’s not to say that they didn’t help – but they had never moved abroad before.

We were breaking new ground – at least from our perspective. None of our close friends had ever lived abroad – with only a few even having traveled outside of North America and the Caribbean.

We depended on books and sites to give us the needed direction in our planning and in the actual move.

To help our readers who are in the planning stage we are sharing the books that we bought and some new ones that we’ve found since then. A number of these are now on our reading list, with a few specifically for our daughter. We would love to hear your comments about these different titles.

Are we missing any? Please share your favorites in the comment section.

17 Expat Books About Moving Abroad

1. The Family Sabbatical Handbook

What’s it like living in another country? It can be a little hard to picture. While many readers are satisfied with a vicarious literary experience, a growing number want to live it for themselves.

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Elisa Bernick offers readers the book she wished she’d had when she and her husband and children were planning their 18-month family sabbatical. This book was one of the first that we purchased as we began our plans. The book covers different family experiences in moving abroad. We actually brought this one with us when we moved!

2. Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Moving to a new country is certainly not as hard as it may seem, but it does take a concrete decision, followed by decisive action.

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his book helps you make that decision and points you firmly in the right direction to not only move but to live successfully in your new home. Once you’ve read this book you will be able to confidently answer all-important questions such as…

  1. Is moving abroad really right for me?
  2. Do I have a temperament suited to the expatriate life?
  3. Am I considering emigrating for the right reasons?
  4. Would I be best placed staying where I am?
  5. Where in the world, home or away, am I likely to be happiest?
  6. What factors should I consider when choosing my new country?

Now is the time to make up your mind and really start living.

3. Retirement Without Borders: How to Retire Abroad

Barry Golson knows all about retiring abroad — he and his wife, Thia, have lived in six different countries. Now they choose expatriate-friendly locales around the world for their low cost and their high quality of living and explain how to investigate and settle in each country with minimum hassle and maximum pleasure.

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Taking you step-by-step through the process of researching, testing, and finally living abroad, the Golsons’ practical how-to guide covers all the major issues, including health care, finances, real estate, taxes, and immigration.

Each location is profiled by an expatriate writer who has made that country his or her home and who knows how to answer all the questions about living richly and economically in some of the world’s most beautiful places.

4. How to Retire Overseas

Whether motivated by a desire for adventure, or the need to make the most of a diminished nest egg, more and more Americans are considering an overseas retirement. Drawing on her more than three decades of experience helping people relocate happily and successfully, Kathleen Peddicord shows how living in an unconventional retirement destination can cost less than a traditional home in Florida or Arizona.

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Peddicord addresses all of the essential issues, including Death, Taxes, Health Care and Bank Accounts.

Whether readers are interested in relatively unknown havens like Nicaragua, well-traveled areas in Italy, or need some help deciding, How to Retire Overseas is the ultimate guide to making retirement dreams come true.

5. The 4-Hour Workweek

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

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This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:

  • How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
  • How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
  • How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
  • How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
  • How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

6. Club Expat: A Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas

Club Expat: A Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas is a comprehensive guidebook for any young adult or family moving overseas. Written by two former expatriate teenagers, this book is the culmination of experiences of students all around the world and of broad consultations with dozens of experts in the field of international relocation.

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Covering topics ranging from culture shock to the intricacies of overseas life, this guidebook will serve as the knowledgeable “companion” for young adults embarking on a new journey overseas. Aniket and Akash Shah are brothers who lived with their family in Europe and Asia for several years as expatriates. They were born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and lived in different parts of the United States before moving abroad. Aniket and Akash are members of the Class of 2009 and the Class of 2006, respectively, at Yale University.

7. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds

Nearly a decade ago, Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds introduced the concept of and has been the authority on the experiences of TCKs-children who grow up or spend a significant part of their childhood living abroad. Early on, TCKs were identified as the prototype citizen of the future. That future is now, as more and more children are growing up among worlds, creating a culturally rich and diverse world.

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Rich with real-life anecdotes, Third Culture Kids, Revised Edition examines the nature of the TCK experience and its effect on maturing, developing a sense of identity and adjusting to one’s passport country upon return. For many third culture kids, this book will be their first opportunity to discover that they share a common heritage with countless others around the world.

This expanded edition profiles the personal challenges that TCKs experience, from feelings of rootlessness and unresolved grief to struggles with maturity and identity.

8. Expat Women: Confessions

If you have ever wondered what it is like to live abroad, work abroad or accompany your working partner abroad, this book is for you. If you are already living the expat life but have mixed emotions about settling in, rebuilding your identity, relationship changes, successfully managing your money and career, raising children far from home or repatriating, this book is also for you.

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In Expat Women: Confessions – 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad, experienced expats Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth share a wealth of wisdom and positive tips to motivate you at every stage of your expat journey.

They cover popular topics like leaving family back home, transitioning quickly, intercultural relationships, parenting bilingual children and work-life balance. They also address the difficult issues, this unique book is the perfect addition to every expat bookshelf.

9. The Expert Expat: Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad

Trusted by thousands of families and individuals, The Expert Expat: Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad is essential reading for anyone moving overseas. Personal stories drawn directly from the authors’ dozens of years abroad as well as the experience of countless expats worldwide help prepare readers for the exhilarating and daunting task of establishing a life far from home.

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Now more than ever, The Expert Expat’s practical advice and encouragement help to ease challenges and create rewarding experiences while living abroad.

New to this edition is an important chapter on safety, including expert advice on preventing identity theft and responding to terrorist threats. And for those increasing numbers going solo, The Expert Expat gives guidance on networking, establishing a home, and traveling alone.

10. Raising Global Nomads

A lot has changed since well-known Canadian author Robin Pascoe wrote Culture Shock! A Parent’s Guide. The world has become globalized, digitalized, and sadly, terrorized. That’s the big picture that Pascoe examines in Raising Global Nomads.

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In her own life, the author’s day job raising her two children has ended as her daughter begins a career as an environmental activist and her son heads to university.

In her fifth book for expatriate families, the author recounts with honesty and trademark humor what worked for her family and shares the hard lessons learned. Parenting styles in general, and of third culture kids in particular, have changed dramatically, prompting this timely and comprehensive reexamination of the challenges of parenting abroad.

11. The Kids’ Guide to Living Abroad

The author asked third culture kids around the world to write about their experiences for other children going through similar situations (moving, adapting to a new country, making friends etc.).

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It is a book by kids for kids with the purpose of helping them to learn from others, reflect and prepare to adapt to new international living experiences.

12. Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child

The only thing you can be sure you can move around the world is your child’s ability to increase his or her interpersonal skills. In today’s global world, each of us is searching for effective tools that can help our children to thrive.

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Emotional Resilience for the Expat Child provides a step-by-step guide that is designed to increase a child’s emotional vocabulary and emotional intelligence. Doing this will enable your child to achieve his or her fullest potential. The bond between an adult and child is key to the psychological health of the child. For the expatriate child, this bond is more vital than ever. This workbook has been created for you to use together and will provide the perfect place to connect for you and your family.

With easily understood and practical steps any parent can apply, you can start to create and enjoy your family’s ’emotion stories’. When a child feels happy and confident, he will be more likely to construct and communicate his emotions.

Well-written in an engaging, conversational tone, this book is sensible, straightforward and based on the experiences of expat families. It will give your child what he or she needs to understand and express today in order to grow into a caring, emotional intelligent adult tomorrow.

13. GenXpat: The Young Professional’s Guide to Making a Successful Life Abroad

Are you a young, mobile professional looking to start a life abroad? Then GenXpat, The Young Professional’s Guide to Making a Successful Life Abroad is the guide for you!

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Wrapped up in fast-paced careers that increasingly involve travel and frequent international relocation, many young people find themselves bouncing from one exotic assignment to another at the cost of meaningful relationships and a true sense of connection and rootedness.

This book is designed to help GenXpats embrace the opportunities and challenges of an overseas assignment while still holding on to the personal fulfillment they need to succeed in their international careers. GenXpat answers questions such as how to optimize contracts, deal with culture shock, build social networks, find romance and prepare to return home smoothly.

14. The Big Guide To Living And Working Overseas

The BIG Guide to Living and Working Overseas is THE WORLD’S BEST international career guide, written mainly for college students and young professionals, it also applies to career changers and world travelers. The Fourth Edition Revised (Sept 2007) contains 34 new articles on the CD-ROM plus 2 news chapters 50+ Workers Abroad and Spousal Employment Abroad.

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At a whopping 1,800 pages (including CD-ROM), The BIG Guide contains expert advice on gaining experience through study and internships, succeeding and adapting to overseas living, career planning, job searching, international resumes, international interviews, specific professions abroad and 3,045 carefully researched organizations offering professional jobs and international career resources. The BIG Guide is your ticket to success and adventure!

15. Bloggers Boot Camp

Many expats run personal blogs with the goal of keeping in touch with family and friends back home. Others find satisfaction in helping others who are planning a similar move.

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There is a therapeutic benefit to blogging – it helps put experiences in perspective. What many expats and travelers find, is that while blogging isn’t hard to do – simply write and post – it is another thing to create posts and a site that attracts readers and creates revenue.

Bloggers Boot Camp is a complete guide to creating and running a popular and profitable travel/expat blog. 

16. Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish

This book was referred to us by one of the first Ecuadorian friends we made, the first week we arrived in Ecuador. He actually had a copy in his house and he lent it to us (out of pity, I think).

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We didn’t even know how or when to say buenas tardes when we arrived. In the first few chapters, the book covers hundreds of Spanish words that you already know.

Check out the other books and courses we used to learn Spanish.

17. Lonely Planet Healthy Travel: Central & South America

This book was helpful in dispelling many of the myths that we had read about online. In fact, this was another of the books that we actually moved with us. It is small and thick – and helpful in understanding some of the health risks and how to avoid them.

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It also covers the prevention of common problems like sunburn, high altitude, first aid, and wildlife hazards (like leeches and tarantulas). Definitely worth buying and bringing to your new home.

Expat books

Are we missing any? Please share your favorites in the comment section.

Medium.com noted

Tuesday 22nd of September 2020

Medium.com noted

17 Best Expat Books About Moving Abroad (Family, Retire, Work Abroad, Travel Blogging...) - Storyteller Travel

Irene Perali

Saturday 9th of May 2020

Hi Bryan! This is an amazing list! I noticed that many books about expat life are self-help books and the fiction category is not represented. I recently published a novel about wives following their husbands in California. For many expats it can be reassuring to read about stories similar to theirs, with all the challenges and also all the mistakes that every expats make. The book is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Followives-Irene-Perali-ebook/dp/B086WYB3ZG/

Bryan Haines

Tuesday 12th of May 2020

Thanks Irene!

Norm Bour

Wednesday 2nd of October 2019

Bryan, I am doing some competitive analysis in advance of submitting my book to a publishing house. It is called "Traveling the World Six Weeks at a Time, Volume I," and shares my 51 blogs from the day we left the US on February 17, 2019, until I finished my last blog entry in Croatia seven months later; Volume Two begins now.

During those seven months we lived in Valencia Spain, Tivoli Italy, and Split Croatia, plus spend several to as many as 20 days in eight different countries. Our goal is to stay "six weeks at a time" which allows time to learn the culture, the area and the restaurants. Anyway, I cannot find any books that teach Baby Boomers how to "travel like a Millennial" which is my tagline. Have you seen any books similar?? Thanks in advance.

Norm Bour (Travel Younger on Facebook)

Bryan Haines

Monday 7th of October 2019

No, I haven't seen a book like this. Let me know when this publishes.

Lasairiona McMaster

Friday 21st of June 2019

Hey! You said to suggest other books in the comments - I've recently published a book about life as an expat if you're interested!

Bloom Where You're Planted: Life the Expat Way

Bryan Haines

Wednesday 26th of June 2019

Thanks Lasairiona!

Jana Dietsch Wingels

Tuesday 11th of June 2019

If anyone is looking for a children's book about moving abroad, please feel free to check out "Jamie and the Big Move" - A story to empower kids coping with change.  It is a wonderful story that helps to prepare children for a big move and is available as paperback and kindle through amazon.

Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Jamie-Big-Move-empower-coping/dp/1095794159/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=jamie+and+the+big+move&qid=1560263729&s=books&sr=1-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=storytellertravel-20&linkId=3c87b10a4385505facdfba6dbe0512dc&language=en_US

I was inspired to write this book because our family recently moved from Germany to the US.  Our two kids have struggled with all the typical challenges of moving abroad.  Now we want to help other children dealing with the heartache of leaving their home. 

"Jamie and the Big Move," is the story of Jamie, a girl moving to a new country with her family.  As she says good-bye to her friends, school and neighborhood, Jamie is faced with FEAR, who persuades her to leave pieces of her broken heart behind as well.  Fortunately, Jamie meets EXCITEMENT, who helps her to collect all the missing pieces so she can travel to her new country with a heart full of optimism. This book is recommended for children ages 4-10.

I hope you enjoy reading our book! Please feel free to share this link with anyone else in the expat community who might benefit.  Best wishes: J. D. Wingels

Bryan Haines

Friday 21st of June 2019

Thanks Jana!