The First Year

The first year is when you set up your new home with all those bills and service providers. If you’re in a new region or country you won’t yet have formed any opinions or ideas regarding which companies will provide the service you’re looking for. How do you choose between competitors? And sometimes you’ll be facing bills you’ve never even heard of. Did you know England has a TV licence?!

On top of setting up your home, over the first year you’ll probably need to find other professionals:  a doctor, dentist, accountant maybe, lawyer, realtor, and so on. This is very challenging if you don’t have a network of friends or family in your new home to help guide you and refer you to professionals they trust. You will likely have some false starts. I saw 2 other dentists before I found one I now see regularly. Unfortunately, being disappointed in some of your early choices in a new home is to be expected. Hopefully, if you expect some setbacks they’ll be less frustrating and you won’t feel that you just aren’t managing well. Moving means you’ll be making many lots of big decisions in a short period of time. It’s stressful.