My friends,
You have probably seen that I have not been very active on the blog lately, well the reason is simple I have been focusing on other things.
What are these “other things”, Jonathan?
Well, I am glad you asked Trevor, in the last months and following my wish to both pursue my location independent career and relocate closer to my family (read my interview here) I have been on job interviews and will actually relocate!
Career
I had been working for 5+ years at my previous company and without going into all the details I felt my next move was to find a new job and as well take the chance to move closer to Belgium at the same time. I have hence been looking at several job opportunities and went on interviews in Belgium, France (was considering a comeback to the City of Lights as well) and Luxembourg (which was actually not on my radar at first). I also applied for job openings in Norway in the beginning since I live here already but even if there were some great options, in the end, it did not fit with my wish to relocate. So after a few months of applying and evaluating the countless opportunities (I gave myself quite the flexibility), I happily landed a senior procurement role in Luxembourg and will start on the 16th of May. Challenge accepted!
Leaving Norway
Trevor was telling me: “But Jonathan, will you not miss Norway? What about your friends? The excellent quality of life?… “. Well Trevor is right, Norway being one of the richest countries in the world offers an excellent quality of life and having spent my late 20s and early 30s there I have built a great network of people from Norway and from all over the world (France, Venezuela, Belarus, Brazil, Indonesia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Россия/Russia,…). I realize I have been lucky to be here as a foreigner and am grateful for all the opportunities and culture shocks I have experienced in Norway. Living in another country, in general, might not be easy every day but through all the experiences and the people you meet along your path you will experience personal growth. Back to Trevor´s concern, I will say this: The year I have spent in Paris in 2016 was actually a pretty good test to see if I was ready for a permanent move outside of Norway or not. During my time there I realized 2 things: Yes there are some aspects from my life in Norway that I will miss (but can do without) and my friends and ex-colleagues in Norway are absolutely fantastic people! This friendship with all of you is the single thing I will miss from here. Wherever I go I will always have the great memories of all the laughter, the drama, the fun times and also the difficult times we shared together, no one can ever take that away from us, I will definitely miss you all!
Nevertheless and thanks to technology we for sure will keep in touch and definitely meet again, it will just be on a less frequent basis.
For the Oslo friends (and Trevor), I now have 3,5 weeks left so let´s connect so we can have a last dinner/drinks/hang out before I leave!
Administration and sell/rent the apartment?
Living in the digital age and having done it before, the administration part of the moving is quite simple. By administration I mean cancelling my phone subscription, the gym membership, mentioning to the authorities I am moving out, opening a bank account in Luxembourg,… Most of it can be done online, the key is to list everything. The one thing that took most of my energy was to decide on whether to sell or rent out the apartment I own in Oslo. My initial thought was to keep the apartment in order to rent it out. As a numbers and excel nerd, I had evaluated both situations and it made sense provided that I kept it for the long term (10+ years from now). However, in the end, I made up my mind to sell it. What gave me the extra push in that direction were the taxes on profit in case I would want to sell it in less than 10 years and as well a discussion with my Whatsapp group of experienced real estate investors (rule: always do your own research and reach for info with more experienced people).
For my personal finance friends now
For you who love to read my stories on various investment opportunities (Bitcoin, Legos, garages,..), financial tips and like to grasp the essentials of best-selling books and courses. Do not worry, nothing much will change for you, on the contrary now that most of the hard work is done (securing a new job, preparing the apartment for the showings, organizing the move,…) I see this journey as an opportunity to write three new articles :
- My job search experience with a location-independent mindset: Get a job where you want (including salary negotiation tips).
- The adventures of leaving a country and moving to a new one.
- To sell or to rent out your property when moving abroad.
I will publish them in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! And I would, of course, love to connect with you through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (whichever channel you prefer).
New is always better
Having lived in Norway for a total of almost 11 years, this will be quite the change for me personally but I am very excited and ready for my new life: new country, new people, new culinary discoveries, new job and closer to the family. I would not dare to say that “New is always better” like Barney but it sounds good, right? What do you reckon?
Nandato! Sir, looking forward to discuss memories about the best hostel in the world, evergreen, 2 minutes to midnight and have a last ooone in Lux, the time is now, na nana nana saturday night..
Sir! I know looking forward to add the Iron Maiden concert, the “shitty” hostel in Iceland, enchufala lessons to the above while having the last oooone (come oooooon). The time is the time! 😉
Congratulations on your move!! (And wow your apartment is lovely. I know it will be hard to see it go!). Here’s to moving closer to family!!! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Laurie! Yep big changes coming ahead, the Oslo apartment is fantastic but in Paris I had a lovely place too while renting it out so as long I find a new nice one in Luxembourg I will be fine with selling this one :)!