In this report, I explain How Tom ruined his retirement in paradise overseas.
If you know what Tom did wrong, you may be able to avoid his mistakes. I have been trying to figure out how to talk about Tom for months. I wanted to get it right.
How to talk about Tom came to me when I received a question from someone named Frank.
Frank’s question helped me figure out how to talk about Tom. So I will talk about Frank first so you will better understand what Tom did wrong.
Frank asked if I knew of a perfect place in the world to retire in paradise overseas that satisfies his 4 requirements. Frank said he needed 4 things for his perfect retirement.
I will share Frank’s exact question including his 4 requirements and I will tell you the exact words I used in my answer.
But more importantly, after reading Frank’s question and typing my answer, I realized I needed to share how both Frank and Tom or anyone else, could find their own unique paradise overseas. You see, paradise should consider your unique personal needs
The method I used to answer Frank’s question, based on his 4 personal requirements, would work for anyone.
My answer, and the method I used, reminds me of an old Chinese proverb that you and I have known about for decades: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
After sharing Frank’s question and my answer, I will talk about the method. This method needs to be performed by you. You are in the best position to do this right. Not me or anyone else.
In fact, Tom ruined his retirement in paradise, because he ate fish caught by others instead of learning how to fish. But I will talk about Frank first.
Someone is listening to me for the first time right now. And they need to know I left the United States 17 years ago and have never moved back. I have lived in 72 countries so far. So, this is not my first Rodeo.
The method I use is more important than the answer I gave Frank because your exact requirements will not be identical to Frank’s. If you use the method yourself, you are much more likely to enjoy your own personal paradise because you will catch it yourself.
Okay, it is time to share Frank’s question. But remember, don’t pay any attention at all to what Frank requires for his personal paradise. You have a different list of exact requirements for paradise, even if you don’t yet know all of them yet.
Some of your requirements will be the opposite of Frank’s. Just pay attention to the method and then use it for your own requirements.
Okay, here is the question Frank left in one of the comments below one of my YouTube videos.
Frand Wrote: Can you name a place anywhere in the Philippines that does not have skyscrapers, nightlife, expat drama, or significant tourism?
But before I give you my answer, I want to talk about something that I have never explained to you in any great detail. You see, after I typed my answer to his question, I realized that my answer applied to every single one of you.
I will break it down for you and explain why my answer applies to you personally, no matter what you are looking for in the world, whether beaches or mountains, whether you are looking for love or already have a partner.
Whether you are an action sports lover or you want to spend most days relaxing in a hammock under a palm tree.
Whether you are looking for an expat community to establish new friendships or you want to be the only expat in a remote community, or you want to live in a place so remote that your nearest neighbor is 10 miles away.
Whether you like bustling large cities, small towns, jungles, a surfer’s paradise, or anything else, the method will work if your paradise place exists anywhere in the world on your proposed budget.
Now I will give you my answer to Frank’s question, and I will explain how I got to it.
My Answer: There are 7000 islands in the Philippines. 90% of them have a place like that somewhere on the island. Just throw a dart at a map of the Philippines and go. Then drive around the island on a scooter until you see your personal heaven. You probably think I am kidding. 🙂
Why is that my answer? Frank will likely be happy in the provinces where there are no tourists, skyscrapers, expats, or nightlife. And 90% of the Philippines are provinces so he is in great luck.
I will talk about the method I used for Frank in a moment, but first I want to share the method Tom used to ruin his retirement. Tom is using the same method most people use.
But first, I should say that Tom is really a few different people all rolled into one so I can talk about them without disclosing their real names. I don’t want to expose anyone to public ridicule. So I squished a few stories together and called them Tom.
Tom was not old enough to retire and he wasn’t willing to wait any longer. He had watched YouTube and learned how much cheaper it was overseas. He saw a few different YouTubers that were living a dream life. They had found love with beautiful locals and were living simple lives that he would rather live than keep working.
So he quit his job and moved overseas to the same town where many of the YouTubers lived figuring if they could do it, so could he. Everything went well for a while. He found an apartment, he had a new love, and he had made some new friends.
But after a few years, he started to get bored. He had tried all of the restaurants in town and was getting bored of the choices. He had a few hobbies back home that he loved doing with friends, but nobody seemed interested in those hobbies in his new town and he couldn’t easily find all the materials he needed to do that hobby.
So after about 2 years, he started to think about other places where it might be more fun for him to move. He wondered if there was a place that had more people interested in his hobbies and more of the nearby amenities that he would need to enjoy life on a day-to-day basis.
Luckily, Tom only ruined his retirement in paradise temporarily. What did Tom do wrong? Tom imagined himself living the life of the YouTubers instead of imagining his own personal paradise dreams.
On the surface, the Tuber’s lives seemed like heaven, but once Tom was living their dreams, he realized that he needed other things in his life that were not sufficiently present. After a few years, it became abundantly clear that he needed other things.
The moral of the story is that it is not enough to just imagine yourself living in someone else’s dreams. You have to personalize the dreams so they are your personal dreams.
It is okay to use a Tubers life to get ideas about how your life could change living overseas, but you also need to personalize the search so it includes things that you love that those Tubers could care less about.
Okay, so here is the short version of my method to make this more clear to you.
Imagine Your Dream Life: Take the time to imagine your wildest dreams about what your personal retirement paradise and life look like and put all of your personal requirements on a list to remind you.
Imagine many different dream days that include your present life and your new life. Imagine colors, smells, textures, everything. Make real days in your mind. Look at what’s around you in those dream days. Details are key.
-Hobbies, Sports, Activities, Entertainment, Terrain, Food, Safety, Healthcare, Living Conditions, Friendships, Nature, Intellectual Needs, Physical Needs, etc.
-Make lists of those conditions, services, and materials,
Research Where Those Dreams Live: Do those dreams live in big cities, rural areas, or remote locations? Do those dreams exist in cooler regions, warm regions, hot regions, beaches, mountains, or snow? Watch YouTube videos to look for places where those dreams exist. Google searches where those dreams live such as materials, environment, conditions, products, services, shipping if not present, and costs.
Exploratory Visits: Visit the parts of the world where those dreams exist. See how it feels to live there. Visit multiple places nearby and around to see which is your favorite in places where those dreams exist.
-Buffet Visits: Visit many places like you would sample food in a buffet restaurant. Taste many different places quickly to eliminate feelings and places that don’t feel and taste right to you. Of those tastes, pick your favorite 2 or 3 places.
-Extended Verification: Go back and spend a few months in each of your favorite places you picked on the buffet visits. Pig out on your favorite few places and decide which one is your favorite. The one that allows more of your imagined dream days. Not a Tubers dream days, but your dream days.
Luckily, Tom can head out for some Buffet visits and before you know it, he will have a few places that he loves more than his present location. Then he can pig out on his extended visits and decide which one is his favorite.
So, how did I apply my method to Frank’s question? I have already completed my exploratory visits to the Philippines. I knew there were no skyscrapers in the Provinces. I also knew there were very few expats and very few tourists in the provinces.
But what I don’t know is what province will feel right to Frank once his feet are on the ground. Feeling is something we can’t really know for other people. That is why I told him to rent a scooter and drive around until he found a province that felt right to him.
And the feeling is the most important part. A place that doesn’t feel right will not be your paradise even if it has everything you need to live your best dream days. And that is why you are the best person in the world to follow this method to find your dream paradise overseas.
Now this is the short version of my method. If you’re curious about my retire overseas course that includes the longer detailed version of my methods, watch the video in the upper right-hand corner of your screen right now.
That video is at the top of this page and includes the syllabus for my retire-overseas course.