@diegovsky Sure.

About ten years ago my health started failing. My wife and I had virtually no savings and were in debt up to our eyeballs. Since my health was continuing to decline, I knew I could not keep up a breakneck pace just to be left with starving to death in my old age.

At the time, I was commuting weekly 150 miles from my house and we spent a few years buying a small piece of property with a nearly collapsed trailer on it so that I was not doing that drive every day.

Eventually, I lost that job (health) and we sold the property. That became "savings".

My wife and I started researching places that we might be able to move if we sold our (not yet paid for) house in Portland, Oregon.

France was one of the more affordable countries with services, and it was a nice benefit that they have laws against working yourself to death. My wife is of French descent and it seemed like a good pick, so we picked it.

My wife was still working; we bought a house in France (for much much less than a house in the US would have cost) using the money from my work-property.

Then, we had a big falling out. We agreed to divorce. I asked for the French house and let her keep the house in the US (still not paid for, but worth a whole lot more money).

I drew out what little retirement I had available (something like $10k, so not nothing, but definitely not enough to retire on) and used that to send most of my stuff to France, as well as get me there for a couple of trips.

During all of this, I had a heart attack, which should have lead to Social Security benefits. They denied me, I appealed. The lawyers took a huge chunk and my wife took a chunk but that left me with enough money to stretch out for maybe two or three years, if I'm frugal.

I also do odd jobs for people around town in exchange for meals and stuff like that.

This winter I will be applying for University, which will drain the last of my bank account. With a Student Visa (which I hope to obtain), I will be allowed to work part time, which should give me just enough money to eat and pay my electric bill (the French house is paid for, so the only 'big' hit is taxes).

Once I've finished my degree, I should be allowed to work full time as well as apply for some version of French citizenship.

All of that to say this: Every step of the way has been a terrifying process of hoping like hell that nothing goes wrong, because I have virtually no wiggle room.

The only thing that I've been holding back, and I will probably have to draw it out this winter, is a handful of Amazon stocks that I got from when I worked there. That "should" bridge the gaps in covering for school, keeping transportation, and *maybe* getting around to building up some sort of safety net.

Right now? I do not have one of those. If the US pisses off France and I'm prevented from going? I'm fucked. If I have another major medical issue? Fucked. Fail out of school? Fucked. Car accident? Fucked. Etc.

I have literally been playing things one day at a time because I basically don't have any guarantee of enough for two days away.

Oh, also, my family has been extremely generous and have helped when they can. They have purchased some cheap furniture for me (and I was gifted some from my neighbors in France) and have occasionally been able to help with things like flights. But they are fixed income and aren't exactly swimming in cash either.