I am a tradesman with a lot of technical skills with some specialized skills in short supply (at least in the US) with a little less than a decade of experience. My partner is a skilled social worker with more than a decade of experience.
We cannot afford a golden visa in any country.
We are at least 3rd generation Americans, and do not have the right to claim citizenship in any other country without going through the immigration and naturalization process there.
Neither of us is very good at picking up a new language (lord how I’ve tried)
Where could we realistically look to go?
I think this is both easy on the sense that there are a lot of feasible options, and difficult in the sense of selecting the most suitable one for you. English alone opens up many places to you. But besides language, culture is a major factor. I remember a story about immigrants in Finland feeling excluded and had difficulties building social relationships. But in Finland, even the locals don’t have so many local friends. So, the way of life is just not suitable to many.
Other than that, try to see this not only as a negative thing, but also as an opportunity. Don’t just ask where you would do okay, but include questions like where you would feel comfortable.
Final thought: often the “most popular option” is not necessarily the best. In Europe, many countries that are not Germany or France are nice, sometimes the QoL is even higher. So, consider Austria besides Germany, for example.