Why I left America in 2016 & How I Did it

After the US election in 2016, I was stunned to find that the America I had come to know still had a lot of work to do to elect genuine leaders whose message resonated with my core beliefs. Having achieved every personal goal I had imagined for myself by then, I realized that there was a whole world out there to explore and find my perfect vibe.

In March of 2016, I put myself on a 3-month countdown to leave America to explore the world and rebuild the success I enjoyed stateside. I took some time to research different countries based on languages, climate, culture, economy and what adventure I was looking to pursue. 3 months later, after reconnecting with a childhood friend who moved back to his home country in Trinidad and Tobago, I decided to move there too. I visited for a few weeks, picked out my neighborhood and house then I packed up and flew out with my family. We began our life in the Caribbean on June 1st.

My first place was a rental in Carenage, a small city near the capital of Port of Spain. It was a magnificent mansion in a gated community with a pool and a view of the Gulf of Paria. My son was 12 at the time and my neighbor (the only one with no perimeter walls) told us about dragon boating – a competitive boating sport that uses oars. Although he was homeschooled, he was part of a local dragon boating team and built a nice social circle of friends with some great mansion parties.

We were there on a visitor visa which required us to leave every 3 months, but as I was still working and had a requirement to meet in-person monthly, we made the transit often. While this was an excellent way to dive into living abroad, it isn’t the ideal way to migrate to a new country. In fact, this isn’t technically migrating at all, its more like being a never-ending guest. After 8 years of living abroad in Trinidad and Tobago, I’ve learned so much about how to migrate to the Caribbean properly and I love utilizing this knowledge on my new journey in Guyana.

Important lessons:

• Decide to do it and put yourself on a timer – you don’t need to know the steps, you need to commit to taking them
• Move within a few hours flight away from your home country – make it easy for visitors to see you, supply runs, cut travel expenses
• Move where you speak the language – do NOT move where you can’t speak the commonly spoken language where you are going to live, period.
• If where you choose to go becomes unsuitable, repeat the process with move experience and less mistakes 🙂

Come with me on my Guyana journey where we start with a business registration and business visa, office in Georgetown and BnB outside of the city center for transitional accommodations and visits. I’ve also started contributing as a speaker at various conferences in Guyana on subjects like migrating to the Caribbean and fintech opportunities in Guyana. Begin with a consultation and start the fire.