Geography Arbitrage

Geography Arbitrage: The more difficult life becomes in Germany, the more attractive it is to look for opportunities in other countries.

One Year of Workation and Exploration

I traveled a lot last year and met a lot of people from all kinds of countries on my trip. Some of them were traveling like me and some of them had left their home country to settle in another country. With these conversations and experiences, I will take a slightly different and more open view of our lives and perhaps give some of you new ideas.

Seeking a Minimalistic Lifestyle

In total, I traveled for a year, during that time I was in 11 European countries and in Morocco. I spent the winter months in Andalusia, Spain. I was outside of Germany for a whole year.

With me I had my 3 kids and our camper. We each had a backpack full of clothes and shoes, a few books, a few toys and my computer so I could work.

The Quest for Freedom

There wasn’t much administrative stuff to do in advance, apart from signing the kids out of school and a few documents so that I could continue working remotely.

The camper had a kitchen and beds for all of us. We lived minimalistically – often on campsites and sometimes we also rented an apartment – and we lived really good… also because we were completely free in all our decisions about where we wanted to be and how we wanted to spend our days.

Reflections on Life’s Choices

What is a good life? What is prosperity? I have answered this question for myself long ago… My main focus is to be free, with as little everyday life and as few limiting rules as possible.

I remember reading an article last winter in Spiegel or Handelsblatt – I forgot which one it was – about how everything was so bad again in Germany: war in a neighbor country, inflation and price increases for all kinds of goods, and the author asked whether it was still possible to go on vacation this year given the situation. Some of the people interviewed said no, they couldn’t do that this year, others said they only wanted to go on a short vacation.

At the time, we were in the south of Spain, our living costs were half of what they were in Germany and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Food was 30-50% cheaper, the week before I went to the hairdresser for 15 EUR, the children for 10 EUR, we repaired our broken exhaust on the car including installation and spare parts for 85 EUR – that would be completely unimaginable in Germany – the gasoline prices are on average 20-50 cents cheaper per liter, etc. These are just a few examples, the list can be extended.

Why shouldn’t people go on vacation with these conditions? It made absolutely no sense. On the contrary, it made perfect sense to spend as much time as possible outside of Germany and do all the shopping, car repairs and beauty appointments at the same time. And don’t forget to fill up your car with gas before you come back.

These are the little things I’ve been thinking about. But what if…? After that, my head started to smoke ;D

Exploring Life’s Opportunities

  • Does it make sense to insure my car in Germany or is it cheaper elsewhere? Not to mention that I could have fewer costs and requirements for TÜV and AU?
  • How is the quality of school education in Germany compared to other countries? Where is it perhaps better and at the same time more relaxed – for the kids and the parents? In any case, the Pisa results speak for themselves and this corresponds with my previous experiences with the school system.
  • Where do I want to live considerung the weather, hours of sun, mindset and cultural advantages?
  • In which country do I want to work? With a suitable home office arrangement, this could well be a completely different country to where I live and also with different income opportunities.
  • Where do I want to pay taxes? This does not necessarily have to be the place where I live and here too we have a choice.

There are so many possibilities in our globalized world and. One of my goals this year is to reorganize some of these things for myself and make better use of the available opportunities. What do you think? What opportunities do you see?

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👋🏽 Hi, I’m Bianka & I help employees to create a life beyond the 9-5 routine, build a business that matters and gives them all the freedom they want.

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