Everything You Need to Move Abroad
The fastest-growing free community for Americans planning their move abroad. Real resources. Vetted experts.
And a community of people who are doing exactly what you're planning to do.
100% Free to Join
33+ Expert Guides
5 Countries, 13 City Guides
Community of Expats
- Join the Free Community
- Free forever
- Start your relocation research today
- Free forever
- Unsubscribe anytime
- Start your relocation research today
100% Free to Join
33+ Expert Guides
5 Countries, 13 City Guides
Community of Expats
- Join the Free Community
- Free forever
- Start your relocation research today
- Free forever
- Unsubscribe anytime
- Start your relocation research today
What's Inside
Built to Replace the 47 Tabs You Have Open Right Now.
Every resource, every expert connection, every community conversation organized in one place on Skool. This is the infrastructure your relocation research has been missing.
Destination Guides: Deep-dive guides for every covered destination neighborhoods, cost of living, and what life actually looks like on the ground for Americans making the move.
Visa & Residency Roadmaps: Current, accurate visa guides for Colombia, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, and beyond covering Digital Nomad visas, temporary residency, retirement visas, and more.
Housing Market Guides: How to find housing without getting burned. Neighborhood breakdowns, lease red flags, average rental costs by city, and how to search remotely before you arrive.
Healthcare Navigation: Country-by-country healthcare guides EPS vs. private in Colombia, IMSS in Mexico, JCI-accredited hospitals in Panama, and how to pre-plan your health coverage before you move.
Budgets & Cost of Living: Real monthly budget breakdowns for every destination. What $2,000/month actually gets you in Medellin vs. Panama City vs. Cape Town real numbers, no guessing.
Vetted Expert Directory: Access to the MOOD Expert network: vetted immigration attorneys, real estate advisors, healthcare navigators, and banking specialists in every destination country.
Active Community: Connect with Americans at every stage of the relocation journey the ones doing research, the ones mid-move, and the ones already living the life. Real conversations, real answers.
Banking & Wealth Abroad: How to bank internationally, manage currency risk, access US accounts from abroad, and start building real wealth property, investment, and income in your destination country
Room to Go Deeper When You Are Ready: Everything above is on the free Scout tier. Members who want more can upgrade to Pathfinder or Rooted, and members at any tier get first access to MOOD 1:1 consulting and full relocation packages when they want hands on help.
DESTINATIONS
Where Americans Are Moving, and What It Costs
Monthly budget ranges below reflect what members actually report spending, not tourist estimates. Every city links to a full guide.
| City | Country | Main visa route | Monthly budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medellín | Colombia | Digital Nomad Visa | $800 to $2,500 |
| Cartagena | Colombia | Digital Nomad Visa | $900 to $2,200 |
| Cali | Colombia | Digital Nomad Visa | $700 to $1,800 |
| Santa Marta | Colombia | Digital Nomad Visa | $700 to $1,900 |
| Puerto Vallarta | Mexico | Temporary Residency | $1,200 to $3,000 |
| Playa del Carmen | Mexico | Temporary Residency | $1,000 to $2,500 |
| Panama City | Panama | Pensionado Visa | $1,500 to $3,500 |
| Cape Town | South Africa | Digital Nomad Visa | $1,200 to $2,800 |
More Resources You May Find Useful
- Volunteer Opportunities Abroad: ethical, purpose-driven relocation
- Remote Work Abroad: building remote income to fund your move
- Black Expat Relocation Guide: moving abroad as a Black American
- Mood Communities: connect with the broader MOOD community
- MOOD Travel Club: curated group trips and experiences
HOW IT WORKS
1. Join Free on Skool
Click the link, create your free account, and you’re in. No credit card. No trial period. No catch. Full access starts immediately.
2. Find Your Destination
Navigate the resource library to your target destination. Deep-dive guides, visa breakdowns, housing data, and budget numbers all organized and current.
3. Connect & Move Forward
Ask questions in the community, connect with members who’ve done it, and access the MOOD Expert network when you’re ready for personalized 1:1 support.
FOUNDER
Founder, MOOD Travel Abroad · MOOD Travel Club · Black Cruisers Club
Founder Bio
RJ MOOD is a Philadelphia native who started guiding Americans through Colombia in 2018 and moved to Medellín permanently in 2023.
He has navigated visas, housing, healthcare, banking, and cultural integration in real time, in a second language, in a country most Americans only visit. Along the way he built three interconnected brands: MOOD Travel Abroad for relocation, MOOD Travel Club for group travel, and Black Cruisers Club for sailing.
MOOD Travel Abroad exists because the organized, reliable resources he needed did not exist when he made the move himself. Now they do, and joining costs nothing.
One mission: helping Americans move abroad with clarity, confidence, and community.
Guiding Americans Since 2018
Living in Medellín Since 2023
5 Countries Covered
1,000+ Travelers Served
The Problem
You have spent hours on Reddit threads, YouTube rabbit holes, and Facebook groups that are half outdated and half full of people who don’t have the answers you actually need. Getting clear, current, organized information about building a real life abroad as an American should not feel like a second job.
- Information Overload With No Filter: Generic expat content was not built around the American experience of relocating it skips the financial, legal, and practical questions that actually determine whether your move succeeds or fails.
- Scattered Resources, No System: Visa info here. Housing tips there. Healthcare questions unanswered. You are stitching together a plan from twenty different sources with no way to know what is current.
- No Reliable Starting Point: Most relocation content on the internet is either too generic to be useful or too specific to someone else’s situation. You need resources built around Americans making the move not expats from other countries or digital nomads passing through.
The MOOD solution
One Community. Everything You Actually Need.
MOOD Travel Abroad is not a Facebook group. It is not a YouTube channel. It is a structured, fully equipped Skool community built for Americans who are serious about moving abroad connecting you with the vetted resources, expert guidance, and real peer community you need to make a confident, informed decision about where and how to build your life overseas.
Join Free. Upgrade Only If You Want To.
Every guide, every destination, every discussion, and the full expert directory are on the free tier. Nothing on the free tier expires.
| Tier | Price | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Scout | Free | Everyone starts here. Full resource library, all destination and visa guides, community discussions, and the MOOD Expert directory. No credit card, no time limit. |
Paid tiers available inside.
Need one on one help with your specific visa, housing search, or timeline? That is consulting, and it is separate from membership. Members get first access.
What Is MOOD Travel Abroad?
MOOD Travel Abroad is a free relocation community for Americans moving abroad, hosted on Skool. The community is open and accepting new members now. Members get destination guides, visa and residency roadmaps, housing and healthcare navigation, real monthly budget breakdowns, and a vetted directory of immigration attorneys, real estate advisors, healthcare navigators, and banking specialists. Coverage spans Colombia, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, and Thailand. It was founded by RJ MOOD, a Philadelphia native who has been guiding Americans through Colombia since 2018 and has lived in Medellín since 2023. Joining is free and requires no credit card, with optional paid membership tiers for members who want more.
Who it is for: Americans researching a move abroad, Americans with a move already booked, and Americans already living abroad who are evaluating a second country.
Wherever You Are in the Move, There Is a Room for You Here
You Are Still Deciding If You Can Actually Do This
You have the tabs open. You have watched the videos. You still do not know what a visa actually requires, what $2,000 a month really buys, or whether the numbers work for your situation. Inside, you get organized answers instead of forty conflicting opinions, and you can ask the specific question about your job, your kids, or your income without getting a sales pitch back.
You Have a Date and Now You Need It to Go Right
The decision is made. Now it is paperwork, timelines, and a hundred small choices you cannot afford to get wrong from six thousand miles away. Members walk you through what they submitted and when, which neighborhoods they would pick again, and what they wish someone had told them in the last ninety days before the flight. When you need a professional, the vetted expert directory means you are not googling immigration attorneys and hoping.
You Already Left, and You Are Looking at Your Next Country
You made the jump. Now the residency is up for renewal, the city stopped fitting, or you are scouting a second base. You already know how much a move costs when you get it wrong. Members living in Medellín, Panama City, Cape Town, Playa del Carmen, and Chiang Mai trade current on the ground intel every week: which lawyer returns calls, which neighborhood turned over this year, what a second residency actually costs in practice, and how to move money between two countries without losing a fortune to it. You should not have to start from zero twice.
All three groups are in the same community, which is the point. The person two steps ahead of you is the one who can actually help.
How MOOD Compares to Where You Are Getting Answers Now
| Facebook groups | YouTube | Paid relocation firm | MOOD community | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | $3,000 and up | Free to join |
| Organized by destination | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Kept current | Rarely | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| Built for Americans | Sometimes | Sometimes | Sometimes | Yes |
| Vetted local professionals | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Ask a real person who did it | Sometimes | No | No | Yes |
| Covers life after you arrive | Sometimes | No | No | Yes |
If you eventually want hands on help, MOOD offers that too. But you should not have to pay to find out whether this move is even right for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
MOOD Travel Abroad currently covers Colombia, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, and Thailand.
Current destination guides include:
Colombia: Medellín, Cartagena, Cali, Santa Marta
Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, Playa del Carmen
Panama: Panama City
South Africa: Cape Town
Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Koh Samui, and more
New destinations are added regularly based on community interest and demand.
Skool is a community and learning platform that combines a structured resource library with active discussion, events, and member-to-member connection.
It works on desktop and mobile. When you join MOOD's Skool community, you get access to guides, posts, community discussions, and live events, all organized in one place.
Think of it as a knowledge base and community forum built specifically for learning, planning, and connection.
Not at all.
Most community members are in the research phase when they join, exploring options, running the numbers, and figuring out if moving abroad is right for them.
The MOOD community is designed for every stage: curious, actively planning, preparing to move, and already living abroad.
MOOD Travel Abroad is built for Americans who are considering or actively planning a move abroad.
That includes remote workers, retirees, entrepreneurs, couples, families, and people who are simply ready to explore life outside the U.S.
The community covers the full relocation journey, from early research to life on the ground.
MOOD Travel Abroad was built by RJ MOOD, who has been guiding Americans through Colombia since 2018 and has lived in Medellín full time since 2023.
It is not generic expat content, a travel blog, or another noisy social group. The guides, resources, and expert network are based on real lived experience across Colombia, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, and Thailand.
It is a structured relocation resource system built by someone who has navigated the process firsthand.
The free community gives you access to MOOD's educational resource library, destination guides, peer discussions, and the MOOD Expert directory.
The paid consulting packages provide personalized 1:1 support with RJ MOOD and vetted MOOD Experts for visa strategy, housing search support, and hands-on relocation planning based on your timeline, goals, and situation.
Yes.
The community library includes visa and housing guides for every covered destination. You can also post questions in the community and hear from members who have navigated similar situations.
For personalized or jurisdiction-specific advice, the MOOD Expert network includes vetted immigration attorneys and relocation professionals available through consulting package referrals.