36-year-old left the U.S. for China—now pays $1,000 rent and $100 for groceries for family of 4: It's my 'version of the American Dream’

As a kid, I moved around a lot. I was born in California, but I've lived in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Montana and Oklahoma. I never had the chance to call anywhere "home" for too long. So if you'd told me back then that I'd end up in China, I would've laughed.

I visited China for the first time in 2016. I was 27 years old and got a job as an English teacher in Shenzhen, a fast-growing tech hub just across the border from Hong Kong. I sold my car and used the money to buy a plane ticket from North Carolina. I had never been outside the U.S. before.