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Archive for the ‘Retirement & Living Abroad’ Category

I am currently traveling on a working holiday visa through Australia. With this particular visa in Australia there is an option to extend the visa for another year if you meet the criteria. This is something I am seriously considering as I’m looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and have no intention of rushing back to England any time soon.

To extend your working holiday visa in Australia, you need to do do three months of specified work in areas classed as Regional Australia.

The main options open are farm work and fruit picking, but there are other sectors to work in like mining or construction. The list of specified work goes into this in more detail.

Whilst working you will need to complete a form or provide evidence of the work to qualify for the second year, so bear that in mind when you start. To extend your visa, or for more information regarding specified work and qualifying regions in Australia, download the second year working holiday visa form, which you will need to take to work with you when you start.

That is all you need to do. Australia is obviously short of workers in certain areas so this is an excellent opportunity for all travelers to extend their stay, and one I think people should seriously consider if they have no commitments back home.

I am writing this post because I am looking to extend my working holiday visa. This work can be done at anytime within your first year and I still have eleven months to go. However personally I would like to do it soon if I can, before the weather gets too hot, and so that I am not rushing around panicking in my last few months.

I am looking to settle down somewhere soon and find a “real job”. Until I do this I will not be able to work on this blog as much as I would like. As I have said before, if I appear to stop blogging in the near future, it probably means I am stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no internet access.

Some people may be put off by the idea of living abroad, so I thought I’d write a list of reasons why living in Thailand can actually be better than life back home. This list could apply to other countries, but I chose to write about life in Thailand vs life in the UK as they are countries I know well.

1.   Prices - One of the most obvious reasons to choose a life in Thailand over the UK is the cheap prices and cost of living. Everything from accommodation to food can be found at rock bottom prices if you look in the right places. The cost of living in Thailand can be a fraction of what it is in the west and you do not have to sacrifice as much as you may think.

2.   Food - Thai food may not be for everyone but personally I love it. The flavours are great and the cost can be next to nothing if you go to the right places. Yes it can be a bit spicy at times but if you know what to ask for then Thai cuisine is some of the best food you can get.

3.   Land of Smiles – Thais are well known for their smiles and for being very friendly people. Looking at a Thai will nearly always result in a smile, unlike back home where looking at someone at best will get you a frown or a look of confusion (why is this person smiling at me, what does he want?). If you smile or even look at the wrong person in London then it can land you in trouble, in Thailand you will nearly always get a smile.

4.   Unpredictable – Life back home is so predictable, nothing exciting ever seems to happen, but with life in Thailand the opposite is true. Something as simple as going for a walk can become a great adventure where you’re never sure what is going to happen or what is waiting for you around the next corner.

5.   Culture – Unfortunately the UK and many western societies seem to have lost their sense of culture, and if you were to ask me about British culture I’m not too sure what my reply would be. Thailand has a real sense of culture whether you’re in the middle of the countryside or in the heart of Bangkok. You cannot escape Thai culture living in Thailand and personally I think that’s great.

6.   Open 24 hours – This mainly refers to Bangkok but is also prevalent in other parts of Thailand, I love the way there is always stuff going on 24 hours a day. Back home after 5pm all the shops seem to shut and after about 10pm the only people your likely to meet are drunks. In Bangkok you have street stalls and night markets etc. that run all night where plenty of normal (non-drunk) Thais seem to go and enjoy the cooler evenings. Also the the local 7 Eleven is never too far away.

7.   Weather – Thailand is a tropical country not too far from the equator, and therefore never really gets cold. For some people, including myself, it may get too hot at times, but personally I’d rather be too hot than freezing cold. Besides most places have air conditioning or at very least a fan.

8.   Landscape – Thailand is a beautiful country and the landscape is very varied depending where you go. Whether you want mountains, rainforests, beautiful beaches or cultural cities, Thailand has something for everybody, and getting around is cheap and easy if you fancy something different.

9.   Women – Thai women are some of the most beautiful in the world and Bangkok is said to be the best city in the world for a young single male (moi) to live in. Sorry ladies but I had to include this one.

10.   Mai pen rai – A favourite phrase of the Thai’s that translates as “never mind” or “it doesn’t matter”. Thai people are extremely easy going and laid back, sometimes a little too much maybe, and this is reflected in the Thai way of life. Some westerners find this a problem and prefer the western way where everything seems to be done at 100mph, but personally I prefer the Thai way, a slow and relaxed way of life suits me just fine!

So there you have it, 10 reasons why I’d prefer to live my life in Thailand. Don’t get me wrong, Thailand is not perfect and it does have its problems. Some of the points I’ve listed above may actually be a negative for some people, but for me there are plenty of reasons why moving to a country like Thailand can have great advantages over life back home. Many of these points could be applied to other countries apart from the UK and Thailand, but these are two countries I know well, and at the moment for me Thailand is looking like a good place to retire young.

I wrote in my About page that I believe I could retire once I’m earning around $500 a month. Now if you are not particularly well traveled in the developing world, you may think I have lost the plot. But it really is possible to live on as little as this, in fact you could live on a lot less if you really wanted to live on the cheap, it all comes down to how many sacrifices you are prepared to make.

Many countries in South-East Asia like Thailand or The Philippines are good options, with a cheap cost of living and a good lifestyle, but Asia isn’t the only option, other suggestions I have heard include Costa Rica and parts of South America. But if you want to live on the cheap then you are going to have to adapt your living standards and live like the locals to some extent. On $500 a month you wont be able to get a big house, a car, eat western food, or certain other luxuries that you may be used to.

Accommodation can be found for $100 or less in quite a few countries, but it wont be anything like your home back in the west. A cramped apartment in the cities or a very simple house/bungalow in the country is about the best you can hope for. Location is an important factor to consider when retiring abroad, not just which country but whereabouts in that particular country. The capital cities, the tourist areas, and the areas with nicer beaches are going to be more expensive than the rural areas, but this will mean going off the beaten track where you may be the only westerner in town and will find very few people who can speak good English. Once again it comes down to what kind of sacrifices you are prepared to make.

Ken Baylis, who has lived all over Asia and knows what he is talking about, wrote on his site on EscapeArtist.com, his own guide to retiring on $500 per month (Part 1, Part 2), and included the following breakdown of costs for living in certain asian countries:

Approximate expenses for apartment living on the cheap in Cambodia.

Rent: $90
Electric: $15
Water: $10
Cable: $35
Groceries: $130
Transport: $30
Miscellaneous  – Visa Insurance etc. $75
Total monthly expenses – $310

Approximate expenses for apartment living on the cheap in Thailand.

Rent: 4,000 B
Electric: 1,500 B
Water: 250 B
Cable: 500 B
Groceries: 4,000 B
Transport: 1,500 B
Miscellaneous – Visa Insurance etc. 2,500 B
Total monthly expenses 14,250 B – $401.00

As you can see these totals actually come to less than $500, however these are extremes and you would have to do a hell of a lot of adapting to live like this. If I don’t end up making as much as I’m hoping from this site, I may end up living like this, but to live relatively comfortably I would say I’d like to have at least $500 coming in each month, and hopefully build up from there.

Life in developing countries is not like it is back home. Things move much more slowly, power outages are common, and facilities can be poor to say the least. Certain things that you take for granted back home are not going to be around, and you are just going to have to get used to it. Moving abroad isn’t for everybody, but things do get easier as time goes by and you adapt to your new surroundings.

Doing voluntary work is another option you could consider as some of these programs offer to cover all your living expenses and allow you to live virtually for free. Obviously this will involve working, however it could turn out to be a hell of a lot more satisfying than sitting in an office each day, and as I’ve said if you enjoy what your doing each day it doesn’t really count as work.

I hope this shows that it really is possible to retire on $500 or less, IF you are willing to make certain sacrifices and adapt. You may have to give up some of those material possessions that you think you need, adapt to a warmer climate (if you want to live on the cheap air con can have a big drain on your electricity bill so you may need to stick with a fan), and learn to live like the locals do, then you really can retire on $500 a month.

So this is my first blog post. I wasn’t quite sure how to start this, but have decided the best way would be to tell you a bit more about what this blog is about and what it is I am trying to do.

Before I get too carried away writing this blog, its important that I emphasise exactly what I mean when I say that I want to retire young, as retirement can mean different things to different people. If your only idea of retirement is when you reach a certain age and start living off your pension, then I’m afraid I can’t help you, you’re just going to have to wait until you get old.

However for me retirement doesn’t have to be like this, when I talk about retiring young I simply mean being able to live my life the way I want to, doing the things I want to do. In the matrix of the real world we are brought up to believe that retirement comes at the end of our lives, when we are too old to continue working. But by then our best years have already passed us by and we are probably too old to do a lot of the things that we have always wanted to do.

Retirement does usually mean that we no longer work, but what people define as “work” can also vary a lot. If I succeed in what I’m doing and manage to retire in about two years from now that does not mean I will close this blog and spend the rest of my life doing nothing. For me, building up this blog does not really count as work because so far I’m finding it quite enjoyable. For me work is the 9-5 routine in a job that we don’t like, a trap that so many of us fall into, and for most people becomes impossible to escape.

If you enjoy your job and turn up for work each day with a smile on our face then that’s great, perhaps you could already consider yourself semi-retired and don’t really count it as work, but sadly for most people, that is not the case.

That’s why I’m getting into blogging, because I enjoy writing and do not really count it as work. Today there are more and more people making money from their blogs and I want to become one of them. This site will introduce you to different ways of doing this, and any money that I make from this blog I will consider as my pension.

Of course blogging is not the only option, if you do not consider yourself a writer then there are plenty of other options that I will talk about later. Perhaps you could consider a different style of website or some kind of web-based business. I personally believe that an internet based business is the way to go because they can be run from anywhere in the world, do not require much work (anything you do consider as work can be outsourced these days where you can get some talented people at great rates), and the internet is only going to get bigger and better as time goes by.

I know its not going to happen overnight, as blogs, as with all websites, take time to build up and attract an audience. But I know it is not impossible as there are bloggers out there making thousands a month. Right now I’m not setting my sights that high, in fact I personally believe I can retire on about $500 a month if I’m living a simple life in a country where the cost of living is not so high.

So what I’m saying is retirement does not have to be something reserved only for old people, if you can think outside the box and come up with a way of making an income doing something you enjoy that doesn’t involve too much “work”, then you too could retire young.