Living it up in the Third World.

[Sycamore]

I toy with the idea of moving to the likes of Thailand, Indonesia quite often. Not even to 'live it up', but more so to get new life experiences etc and add some flair to life.

I'm 21 and work as a Design Engineer in the construction industry (steel framing), so while on paper things sound great, I fear I don't have the experience or life skills to actually make the leap. Even then, with no commitments etc here in the UK, it seems it'd be a lot easier for me to move away than those with kids, property, general old people things

I can't imagine there's too big of a market for secondary steel framing in Thailand ... so it leaves me wondering what I could actually do to support myself.

[EarlOfHazard]

simoid said:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Decent site to start ruling out some places

[EarlOfHazard]

Sycamore said:

I toy with the idea of moving to the likes of Thailand, Indonesia quite often. Not even to 'live it up', but more so to get new life experiences etc and add some flair to life.

I'm 21 and work as a Design Engineer in the construction industry (steel framing), so while on paper things sound great, I fear I don't have the experience or life skills to actually make the leap. Even then, with no commitments etc here in the UK, it seems it'd be a lot easier for me to move away than those with kids, property, general old people things

I can't imagine there's too big of a market for secondary steel framing in Thailand ... so it leaves me wondering what I could actually do to support myself.

Suggestions:
Learn how to teach English
Learn how to Thai box
Learn how to ladyboy

[Shnozz]

A few inspiring stories here..

[Defcon5]

Surely to teach English, you need to speak the persons native language?

If my French teacher could only speak French, we wouldn't have got very far

[schmalex]

Defcon5 said:

Surely to teach English, you need to speak the persons native language?

If my French teacher could only speak French, we wouldn't have got very far

Good god, man. Did you not learn anything? IF. YOU. TALK. SLOWLY. AND. SHOUT., THEY. ALL. UNDERSTAND

[Shoegrip]

If you can get your head around just how much the £ has collapsed then there are options.

You don't even have to go third world.

I'm pissed off with myself for not putting a few £000K overseas when I saw the £ was riding on the strength of the UK economic recovery. I told others to do so and didn't myself.

Brexit has put on hold an exit sadly.

[55palfers]

Have a look at Goa

[Adam B]

RC1807 said:

jdw100 said:

I live in Bali.

Probably the most expensive place in Indo, outside of Jakarta.

Wife and I could easily live here on less than £1k a month and still have a great lifestyle....

Out of interest, what do you do in Bali?
I'd like to think that, I can sell up and fk off somewhere warmer.

+1 to that question as I am big fan of SE Asia

[schmalex]

Shoegrip said:

If you can get your head around just how much the £ has collapsed then there are options.

You don't even have to go third world.

I'm pissed off with myself for not putting a few £000K overseas when I saw the £ was riding on the strength of the UK economic recovery. I told others to do so and didn't myself.

Brexit has put on hold an exit sadly.

Agreed. I'm currently in Singapore, finishing 10 days of meetings around SE Asia. When I was here back in May, you could live very well without worrying about getting anywhere near our expenses limit; August was a little tighter, but now is the first time I've really had to read through restaurant menus etc to ensure I don't breach our limits (which are pretty bloody generous!)

Sterling has tanked against every currency since we took the clever decision to Brexit.

We're off on holiday to New York on Saturday and prices are going to be frightening!

[jdw100]

RC1807 said:

Out of interest, what do you do in Bali?
I'd like to think that, once our girls have finished school/Uni, Mrs RC & I can sell up and fk off somewhere warmer. I fancy being a diving instructor.

Well I had planned to retire (at 48) but have actually picked up assignments back in Europe, that I can operate remotely from here. I'm in a fortunate position in that I can make a fair bit of cash with minimal effort.

Just billed £xxk this month; probably do an hour or two a day max. No longer having fancy offices to support, admin people, PA etc means it's pretty much all profit.

Working here would be a massive pain in the arse though. I would never buy or set up a business here. Others have mentioned 'cultural stuff' in posts above. I know that I would not be able to deal with having locals working for me.

Living here though is absolutely fantastic really. I have friends arriving on Thursday from uk - we'll be going snorkelling, white water rafting, monkey forest, beaches and clubbing!

We live in a mixed area - so Bulle (like me) and locals. Drive a 1.2l Suzuki splash and a Honda scoopy moped - its pistonheads so thought that would be important info.

[carreauchompeur]

Defcon5 said:

Surely to teach English, you need to speak the persons native language?

If my French teacher could only speak French, we wouldn't have got very far

Nope, completely unnecessary, we teach even beginner classes entirely in English. Sometimes takes some really basic language and miming but we get there.

I speak pretty good Spanish but it's not good practice to use it in the classroom.

[carreauchompeur]

jkh112 said:

carreauchompeur said:

It's definitely doable, I have been very comfortably living in Galapagos, Ecuador for the past 6 months on a modest income.

That explains why I have not seen you driving around Bristol for a while.

Indeed! My lovely M3 is now sold too.

[All that jazz]

jdw100 said:

Just billed £xxk this month; probably do an hour or two a day max.

[jock mcsporran]

Don't come to Angola. You can easily rack up a £100 bill for a couple of sandwiches and cokes at lunchtime. Not to mention then 2 bed apartments for 6 or 7k USD per month rent.
Still, it's bearable if you can change money at street rates and apartment rents have dropped from the 20kUSD/month before the oil price crash.

[Shnozz]

Fookin hell Andy. I wasn't expecting you to say that!

[jamoor]

schmalex said:

Agreed. I'm currently in Singapore, finishing 10 days of meetings around SE Asia. When I was here back in May, you could live very well without worrying about getting anywhere near our expenses limit; August was a little tighter, but now is the first time I've really had to read through restaurant menus etc to ensure I don't breach our limits (which are pretty bloody generous!)

Sterling has tanked against every currency since we took the clever decision to Brexit.

We're off on holiday to New York on Saturday and prices are going to be frightening!

Just go to the food courts, impossible to spend too much there and the food is generally excellent as it's monitored by the government.

[northwest monkey]

55palfers said:

Have a look at Goa

We looked at a few properties when we were out there - some nice places but aren't there restrictions on foreign ownership?

You can certainly make your £ go a long way over there though that's for sure...

[Shoegrip]

northwest monkey said:

55palfers said:

Have a look at Goa

We looked at a few properties when we were out there - some nice places but aren't there restrictions on foreign ownership?

You can certainly make your £ go a long way over there though that's for sure...

Why the need to own. Surely renting gives you more mobility.

[98elise]

schmalex said:

98elise said:

What are the visa restrictions for doing something like that?

I'm retiring in 4 years and want to spend the winter months in various hot countries, and possibly even settle somewhere for maybe a decade.

Have a look at Belize. British colony, lots of tax breaks and dirt cheap to live - depending on what your looking for, there are some small rural properties inland around Belmopan, or your typical massive seaside villas full of orange Americans on Caye Caulker and then pretty much everything in between

Thanks, I will do.