These are questions, not advice. A decision like this usually turns on things nobody thinks to ask about, while everyone argues about the cost. Answer at your own pace.
1. 你真正會失去的是什麼
What you would actually be leaving
決定搬過去會不會過得好的關鍵,也是最少人問的一段。 The part that decides whether a move works, and the part nobody asks about.
★ 平常一個星期,你會遇到哪些「不用約」的人?
In a normal week, who do you see without arranging it?
Not family or planned visits. The man in the coffee shop, the neighbour in the lift,
the person at the shop who knows you. This is the thing people lose in a move and do not
miss until it is gone, and it predicts how well someone settles better than anything else.
下午兩點到五點,你通常在做什麼?
What do you do between two and five in the afternoon?
Everyone plans the mornings. The empty afternoons are what make people say
they do not like a place, without being able to say why.
第一個月你會想念什麼?第一年呢?
What would you miss in the first month, and what in the first year?
They are usually different answers, and the second one matters more.
2. 行動
Getting around
你不開車,下面每一題都是從這件事來的。 You do not drive. Everything below follows from that.
你現在走路能到哪些地方?各要幾分鐘?
What do you walk to now, and how long does each take?
Write the real times. Anywhere new has to match this list, or it is a downgrade
however nice it looks.
★ 你考慮要去的地方,人行道好走嗎?
How are the pavements where you are thinking of going?
Taipei pavements are not Vancouver pavements. Scooters park on them, arcades are
uneven, the surface changes height without warning. Worth walking for an hour before
committing to anything.
你會用到的每個捷運站都有電梯嗎?住的大樓有嗎?
Is there a lift at every station you would use, and one in the building?
A single unavoidable step at a front door undoes everything else.
3. 萬一出事的時候
If something went wrong
★ 如果半夜三點跌倒,誰會來?
If you fell at three in the morning, who would come?
如果兩天沒接電話,有人會發現嗎?
Would anyone notice if you did not answer the phone for two days?
Ask it plainly. The answer changes where it makes sense to live more than the rent does.
最近的大醫院多遠?你自己去得了嗎?
How far is the nearest large hospital, and could you get there alone?
Not "is there a hospital" — how you personally would reach it at night.
4. 語言 — 在真的用得到的地方
Language, in the places it matters
藥袋上的說明看得懂嗎?醫院的表格填得起來嗎?
Can you read a prescription label? Fill in a hospital form?
Speaking a language well and reading medical or legal forms in it are different
skills. Worth testing rather than assuming.
需要的時候,誰可以陪你去看診?
Who would go with you to an appointment if you needed them to?
5. 房子
The flat
這一段最花錢,而且先後順序很重要。 This is the expensive one, and the order you do things in matters.
★ 出租、賣掉,還是空著?
Rent it, sell it, or leave it empty?
Leaving it empty is usually the worst of the three. Vancouver charges an Empty
Homes Tax and British Columbia adds a Speculation and Vacancy Tax, and they stack. "Keep
it just in case" can quietly cost the most.
★ 如果要賣,是搬家之前賣,還是之後?
If you sell, would you sell BEFORE moving, or after?
Before is usually much simpler. Selling a principal residence while still
resident in Canada is normally exempt from capital gains tax, and selling as a
non-resident brings withholding and a clearance certificate process. Worth an hour with
a cross-border accountant before anything is signed.
如果想回來,回得來嗎?
Could you come back if you wanted to?
A rented flat is an experiment. A sold one is a decision. Both are fine —
but it helps to know which one you are making.
Questions to take to an accountant
Ask these by name and you will get precise answers:
• The principal residence exemption, and what happens to it if the flat is rented out
• Non-resident withholding on rent, and the election to be taxed on net rather than gross
• Whether keeping the flat makes you still a Canadian tax resident
• The clearance certificate process if selling as a non-resident
• Whether the timing of a sale affects tax on the other side
6. 一個比較小的做法
A smaller version of the question
Renting somewhere for three months before selling anything answers most of this for the
price of three months' rent. You would know within a fortnight whether the air, the
pavements and the afternoons suit you. That is a far cheaper way to find out than
discovering it afterwards.
📝 我想弄清楚的事
Things I want to find out
想到什麼就記下來。只存在這支手機裡。 Write them down as they occur to you. Only stored on this phone.
💭 我自己的想法
What I actually think
有時候想去,有時候不想。日期會自動記。 Days you feel like going, days you don't. Dates are added automatically.
📤 備份
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