RESOURCES
Tools you’ll actually use.
Practical guides and checklists to help you think through relocating abroad with clarity and less overwhelm. Some resources are free. Some are paid. All come from what we’ve actually used.
START HERE
START HERE, FREE
Two guides we built first.
Before logistics take over, these two help you think more clearly about whether to move and what to ask. Send your email and we'll send the PDF.
Should I Move Abroad Midlife?
A grounded look at the personal, financial, and emotional factors that matter most at this stage of life. Designed to help you think clearly before jumping into logistics.
Questions to Ask Before Leaving the US
A checklist of conversations and considerations most people skip until it's too late. Covers money, relationships, healthcare, and long-term implications.
FLAGSHIP · MOST COMPREHENSIVE TOOL
The Move Abroad Prep Kit
Twenty-one tabs. One interactive planner. The single most comprehensive tool we offer.
Built from what we actually used to plan and make the move ourselves. Covers destination research, financial readiness, healthcare, housing, logistics, the first ninety days, and what comes after. With fields most relocation planners skip, including welcoming to Black people as a destination-research priority alongside cost, visa rules, and healthcare access.
21
INTERACTIVE TABS
1
SELF-CONTAINED FILE
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LIFETIME UPDATES
TOOLKIT BUNDLES
Curated sets, grouped by phase.
Resources we kept reaching for at the same time, packaged for better value than à la carte. Buy a bundle, or browse individual items in the library below.
All-Access Bundle
Everything we've made for the move. The interactive Prep Kit, every checklist and worksheet, and the full Cuenca library, in one purchase.
INCLUDES
The Move Abroad Prep Kit (interactive planner)
All 9 worksheets and checklists
All 14 Cuenca Living Starter guides, including map
Free lifetime updates to every resource
$197
4 toolkits + Prep Kit
Individual price $344 · Save $197 (57%)
Decision Toolkit
Tools to understand cost of living, budgeting, and healthcare realities before committing to a move.
$29
4 resources · individual price $36
INCLUDES
Cost of Living Comparison Worksheet
Budget Worksheet: Current vs Abroad Monthly
Budget Worksheet: One-Time Relocation + First 90 Days
Healthcare Checklist
Relocation Planning Toolkit
Step-by-step checklists to help you plan, move, and settle without rushing decisions.
$34
5 resources · individual price $45
INCLUDES
Housing Search Checklist
Moving Abroad with Pets Checklist
Relocation Planning Checklist
Packing Checklist
First 90 Days Abroad Checklist
Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Local, experience-based resources to help you navigate daily life in Cuenca with fewer surprises.
$107
14 resources · individual price $196
INCLUDES
Cuenca Neighborhood Guide & Map
Ecuador Visa & Bureaucracy
Importing & Shipping
Housing: Search, Pricing, Negotiation
Cuenca Service Providers
Utilities, Banks, and Phone
Hospitals, Pharmacies, Doctors
Pets in Cuenca
Shopping in Cuenca: Home & Goods
Shopping in Cuenca: Food
Culture and Courtesy Basics
Top Places to Meet Expats
Spanish You'll Actually Use in Cuenca
Expat is a privilege. Immigrant is the truth. We use both honestly.
EDITORIAL STANDPOINT · JONATHAN & KARENThe Full Library
Browse by category.
Twenty-seven resources across eight categories. Free articles for thinking; paid worksheets and checklists for doing.
01 / Eight
Planning & Decision Making
Start here if you're still sorting through whether relocating abroad is right for you.
What Actually Changes When You Move Abroad
ARTICLE
An honest look at what really shifts, and what doesn't, once you relocate. Focuses on daily life, identity, and expectations beyond the highlight reel.
Free
Coming soon →
The Midlife Expat Reality Check
ARTICLE
A counterbalance to relocation enthusiasm. Names the hard parts most expat content skips, especially for people moving in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.
Free
Coming soon →
Should I Move Abroad Midlife? & Questions to Ask Before Leaving the US
FREE PDFS
Both available at the top of this page via email. Two foundational guides we built first.
02 / Eight
Race, Power & Identity
Foundational, not optional. This section exists because most expat content treats whiteness as the default. We're publishing here from our own lives. Jonathan on race, Karen on gender, and both of us on what the move has been like together. Not a roadmap. A starting point you can build from.
Cuenca for Black Expats: Jonathan's Experience
ARTICLE
Cuenca after one year, from a Black man with a specific history. What the move actually feels like, where the harder moments come from, and why I'd still recommend it.
Free
What Whiteness Looks Like in Cuenca
ARTICLE
What whiteness looks like in Cuenca, from a white woman who's been paying attention for thirty-three years. The patterns, the costs, the contradictions.
Free
What Doesn't Get Checked at Customs
ARTICLE
Two views from the same move. Jonathan on race and visibility abroad, Karen on whiteness from inside it, both on the systems that don't disappear when you cross a border.
Free
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Cost of Living & Budgeting
Tools to map what life will actually cost, side by side with what it costs now.
Cost of Living Comparison Worksheet
WORKSHEET
in Decision Toolkit
A side-by-side worksheet for comparing what life costs where you live now versus where you're considering. Built around the categories that actually move the needle: housing, healthcare, food, transportation, and the small recurring costs that quietly add up. Run the math before the move, not after.
Budget Worksheet: Current vs Abroad Monthly
WORKSHEET
in Decision Toolkit
A structured way to map your current monthly budget against what your monthly budget could look like after the move. Not a generic budget template. Built specifically to surface the costs that change in surprising ways when you cross a border, and the ones you assume will be cheaper but aren't.
Budget Worksheet: One-Time Relocation + First 90 Days
WORKSHEET
in Decision Toolkit
The costs that hit once or only at the start: visa fees, shipping, deposits, scouting trips, setup expenses, and the bridge spend that fills the first 90 days before life settles. Built from our own actual move and the ones we watched. Most plans underestimate this number by half.
04 / Eight
Housing
What to expect when finding and renting a home abroad.
Housing Search Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Relocation Planning Toolkit
Step-by-step considerations for searching, viewing, and evaluating housing in a country you don't fully know yet. The questions to ask, the things to inspect, the patterns to watch for, and the assumptions from back home that don't translate. Use it before signing anything.
Renting Abroad: What Surprised Us
ARTICLE
Lessons learned from our own rental experience, including things listings don't tell you and expectations that often don't translate.
Free
Coming soon →
05 / Eight
Healthcare
Planning for medical care before and after your move.
Healthcare Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Decision Toolkit
A practical checklist for the healthcare decisions most expats wish they'd made before moving instead of after. Insurance options abroad, prescription continuity, medical records to bring, vaccinations, and the routine and unexpected care planning that gets forgotten until it's urgent.
06 / Eight
Pets
For people relocating with animals and trying to plan responsibly.
Moving Abroad with Pets Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Relocation Planning Toolkit
A timeline-based checklist for the documentation, travel planning, veterinary care, and practical realities of relocating with pets. Starts further out than most people think it needs to, because pet relocation often takes longer than the human paperwork. Built for cats, dogs, and the occasional reptile.
07 / Eight
Relocation & Settling In
Structured tools to help you plan, move, and adjust without rushing decisions.
Relocation Planning Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Relocation Planning Toolkit
A timeline-based master checklist for the months leading up to an international move. The sequencing matters more than the items, and most generic relocation guides get the order wrong. Built around what actually needs to happen first, second, and last, and what gets people stuck if they skip steps.
Packing Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Relocation Planning Toolkit
What to bring, what to ship, what to sell, and what to leave behind. Built for international moves where airline weight limits, customs rules, and the reality of buying things abroad all matter. Not the apartment-move checklist you've seen a hundred times.
First 90 Days Abroad Checklist
CHECKLIST
in Relocation Planning Toolkit
The setup tasks most people don't think about until they're already overwhelmed. Banking, paperwork, basic systems, social anchoring, and the small things that determine whether your first three months feel like adventure or chaos. Open it before you arrive; you'll be glad to know what's coming.
Where We Actually Live
08 / Eight
Cuenca: Living Here Daily
The deepest section in the library, because this is where our days actually happen. Lived-experience resources for navigating Cuenca, not scraped lists.
Cuenca Neighborhood Map
GUIDE & MAP
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
A color-coded reference map of Cuenca's neighborhoods with malls, mercados, rivers, and landmarks labeled. The companion piece to the Neighborhood Guide. Print it, save it to your phone, and use it to orient yourself before you arrive and after.
Cuenca Neighborhood Guide
GUIDE & MAP
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
What each Cuenca neighborhood actually feels like to live in, beyond the tourist labels. The character, the trade-offs, who tends to land where, the noise-versus-quiet calculations, and the questions to ask before signing a lease. Pair with the Neighborhood Map.
Ecuador Visa & Bureaucracy
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
The current state of Ecuadorian residency options, document requirements, and the tramite process, with the honest detail most expat content skips. What to do from the US before you arrive, what waits for you here, and how to keep your patience intact along the way.
Importing & Shipping to Ecuador
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
The bring-versus-buy decision and the logistics that follow, before the move and after. Customs categories, AGROCALIDAD, household goods importation, tariffs, plus the ongoing ways expats get things from abroad now that Amazon ships direct to Ecuador, the mule network is still active, and the workarounds for what's harder to source.
Cuenca Housing: Searching, Pricing, & Negotiation
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
The biggest financial decision of the move, demystified. How rentals are actually priced in Cuenca, what to expect on deposits and contracts, how to negotiate without offending, what to inspect before signing, and the patterns expats fall into that cost them money.
Utilities, Banks, and Phone
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
How to set up the boring but essential infrastructure of daily life in Cuenca: electricity, water, internet, a local SIM, and a bank account. The steps that aren't obvious until you're stuck, the documents you'll need, and the order to do them in.
Hospitals, Pharmacies, Doctors
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
The healthcare landscape in Cuenca, who uses what, and how to navigate the system in another language. Public versus private, what to expect at each, where to find English-speaking doctors, and the pharmacy practicalities that aren't in any general expat guide.
Cuenca for Black Expats: Jonathan's Experience
ARTICLE
Cuenca after one year, from a Black man with a specific history. What the move actually feels like, where the harder moments come from, and why I'd still recommend it.
Free
Top Places to Meet Expats
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Where the community actually gathers, beyond the obvious. The anchor venues, the Facebook groups worth joining, the recurring weekly meetups, the interest-based groups, and a few honest notes on which crowds we've found rewarding versus draining.
Cuenca Service Providers (coming in July 2026)
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
A working list of the cleaners, drivers, handypeople, translators, and other service providers worth knowing about. Names we'd actually pass to a friend, with notes on what each is good for and how to find your own when ours are booked.
Shopping in Cuenca: Home & Goods
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Furniture, appliances, hardware, and household supplies. The shops we use, the ones worth crossing the city for, and the district system that explains why every store of one kind sits on the same street. Includes the new Mall del Alto and the established anchors.
Shopping in Cuenca: Food & Markets
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Mercados, supermarkets, specialty stores, and where to find the things you can't. With pricing reality and seasonality notes, the Tipti delivery app workflow, the WhatsApp restaurant ordering workaround, and a working understanding of the two-dollar almuerzo.
Pets in Cuenca
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Vets, food sources, walking routes, altitude considerations, and the practical realities of pet life in a high-altitude city. Vet visits run $15-30, specialty food is the genuine gap, and there are no fenced off-leash parks. Written from our own experience with our pitbull Soluna.
Culture and Courtesy Basics
GUIDE
in Cuenca Living Starter Kit
Small things that matter in daily interactions, from greetings to volume to timing. The usted default, the soft no, the personal questions that aren't intrusive, the tipping that signals respect, and the unwritten stuff that makes the difference between living here and visiting.
Spanish You'll Actually Use in Cuenca
GUIDE
in Decision Toolkit
The Spanish phrases you'll actually use day-one in Cuenca: taxis, mercado bargaining, intercom calls, building guards, grocery checkout, directions. With the local Cuencano words and phrasing real people use, not textbook Spanish. Built from what we wished we'd practiced before we landed.
Cuenca Daily Life: What We Wish We'd Known
ARTICLE
The texture of living here that isn't in the relocation guides. Slower mornings, louder afternoons, and the rhythms that took us months to read.
Free
Coming soon →
Still Standing. Just Somewhere Else. More Life. Less Noise.