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Moving abroad is a fantastic adventure, that can give you many fun experiences, friendships, and new exciting knowledge. But it is also a big step, so you must figure out where to settle down and start an exciting new life, and the timing also must be right as well. Maybe you want to travel with a friend, family, or your partner? No matter what, it is always a good idea to do some research about your dream location and the cost of living there.

7 months ago, I took a big step and moved from Copenhagen in Denmark to live and work in my dream location, Malaga in Spain. Before I moved, I did some thorough research. I had already visited Spain many times before with my family and I had completely fallen in love with Malaga, so I knew that I wanted to live here. I was also very aware that the cost of living is different depending on which country you live in, so I did some research to get more information about the cost of living in Southern Europe, and here are some of the things I did:

• I joined various network groups on social media and read a lot about how the prices were for housing, food, public transport etc.

• I saved up some money while I was planning to move abroad. It is always good to have some extra money in case of an emergency or unexpected bills.

• I looked at different areas for renting an apartment and how the distance would be to my workplace. I made sure to rent an apartment that was in close distance to my workplace, so I wouldn’t have to buy a car.

• I also visited the website https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/. This is a database, where you can search for different statistics about the cost of living in a certain country, housing indicators, transport quality, or other statistics in countries all over the world.

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While doing all this research I was already applying for a job and luckily, I got it and I quickly found a nice apartment in the center of Malaga without much trouble. It is much easier to find an apartment here in the south than in Scandinavia. With a basic customer service salary, you can live very well here in the south. You can go out for a nice meal regularly, go shopping and you can also afford a plane ticket to visit your home country occasionally. It is also possible to save a small amount of money while working. I definitely haven’t regret anything, and I am very happy that I took this step and started this amazing adventure.