How to Choose Where to Move Abroad (Beyond Cost of Living)
6 min read. By Aalijah Herron. Updated 2026-10-03.
Lists of the best countries to live in are fun to read, but they cannot tell you where you will be happy. Your answer depends on your income, your visa options, your values and how you want to feel in your daily life.
Instead of asking which country is best, ask which country is best for you. A scorecard makes that question concrete.
Build your scorecard
List the factors below, give each one a weight from 1 (nice to have) to 5 (non-negotiable), then score each country from 1 to 5. Multiply, add it up, and see which places rise to the top.
- Visa feasibility: is there a realistic pathway you qualify for?
- Cost of living compared with your income or savings.
- Safety, including how safe women feel and how people of color are treated day to day.
- Community: existing groups of women of color, expats and locals who are welcoming.
- Healthcare: quality, cost and whether you can see providers you trust.
- Daily life: climate, language, internet, transit, and access to food, hair care and skin care you love.
- Work: remote-work friendliness, time zone overlap with your clients or family, and local job options.
- Taxes and money: how your income will be taxed and how easy it is to bank and transfer money.
- Connection: flight time and cost to visit family and friends.
Look past the headlines
Rankings and travel articles are a starting point, not a verdict. A country can rank well overall and still feel hard for you in a specific city, or the reverse. Look for lived experience from women who share parts of your identity, and read for specifics: which neighborhoods, which situations, which surprises.
How to research real, lived experience
- Join online communities for expats and for women of color abroad, and ask pointed questions.
- Follow creators who live in your target city and watch how they describe ordinary days, not only highlights.
- Ask about the hard parts: bureaucracy, loneliness, how long it took to make friends.
- Book a call with someone who made the move and ask what they wish they had known.
Test it with a scouting trip
Your scorecard gets you to a shortlist. Time on the ground picks the winner. Stay at least two to four weeks if you can, live like a local, and score the city again after your visit. Gut feeling counts as data too.
Plan for more than one destination
Your first choice might fall through because of a visa rule, a budget change or a bad scouting trip. Keep a backup, and consider a written plan for each destination so you can pivot without starting over.
Baby Abroad shares planning guidance, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, fees and requirements change often, so always confirm details with the official government or embassy website for your destination.