Originally Posted by Floy

I did this for about a year and a half. I stopped because it was having a seriously negative impact on my physical and mental health and well being. Here are my takeaways to add to this interesting and sometime not so interesting discussion:

1) I lived in the south of Germany and commuted in to the mountain west. Very senior and easily getting exact early morning schedule I wanted with bunched upped trips. Still a good commute was 23-27 hours and that wrecked me.

2) I worked early morning and would go to sleep at 5pm to stay on Europe time. My body knew especially in summer when it was bright outside until 9pm. I was even more wrecked when I got home due to the lack of quality sleep.

3) Commute was never easy. Sometimes it was simple but regardless of jump seat option, which I didn't have, that length of time sitting in anything short of a lie down suite is just brutal. Add in delays which were common, bad weather, schedule interruptions etc and it was, as I say, never easy.

4) I would lose a full day going home leaving at 5-9pm and arriving the next afternoon. One full day lost going to work leaving at 5am and arriving at 3-6pm. So 2 days gone on my commute.

5) I could have made it easier by living in Amsterdam or London and commuting to DTW, ORD, NYC or the like. My commute was from the western US to any gateway, followed by a ZED to BSL and the a train home. Very long and complex. But I couldn't convince my wife to become Dutch.

6) Aside from the ra ra posted about 'Merica love it or leave it, living abroad was amazing and I'd do it again in a second for a variety of reasons that make life there far superior in many ways to what I have here. But not at the expense of my health. And my wife and kids quickly realized that I was a ghost in their lives.

7) Another poster described beautifully about the tax ramifications so I wont. I'll only add that I'd do what he did if I had to do over. Divest of all US assets (which is really difficult and super expensive if you already have some decent assets here. I kept a home in the US and maintained residency in Germany and 6 years after moving back I'm still dealing with tax issues.

Overall I'm glad I did it but I wont do it again. When I retire I'll probably buy a cool RV and leave it at my BIL's house. I'll spend 2-3 months in Europe and keep my assets here. Of course I continue to watch where the wind is blowing and if continues to look more and more like Germany in 1934, I'll retire early and jump. (cue predictable backlash)

Good luck.