In this report, I discuss my overseas retirement adventure.
But why should you listen to me about how to create the perfect overseas retirement adventure?
I left the USA and have been living my overseas retirement adventure for 15+ years, 67 countries so far. I have over 100 reports on VagabondBuddha.com that help people decide where to start their adventures in paradise based upon their lifestyle and needs.
So I know a thing or two about turning your retirement into an adventure. But fair warning, adventures are not all fun and games. There are some risks involved. What level of risk are you prepared to accept in retirement?
I will show you pictures of my overseas adventures while I describe my path to personal freedom and adventure. I will share my early thoughts and then the top three kinds of travel freedom I finally achieved. Then I will conclude by sharing how my favorite hobby pays for my world travels.
My earliest memories of adventures always included the freedom to go wherever I wanted, for as long as I wanted, and leave whenever I wanted. I never really understood where to draw the line between freedom and adventure.
I wanted to be a rock star
When I was 15 years old, I wanted to be a rock star. I admired bands like Led Zepplin, Aerosmith, and Jimmy Hendricks. Retirement never crossed my mind at that time, it was their geographical freedom I admired. I figured everyone cool would be dead before retirement.
The rock stars seemed to have life figured out. They had beautiful girlfriends, loads of money, and they toured the world endlessly. London one day, New York the next, and Jamaica after that. By comparison, slaving away at a corporate job until retirement never appealed to me.
But I never learned to sing or play the guitar, so my life was headed nowhere. My mother gave me a book called “Think and Grow Rich,” by Napolean Hill. That book inspired me to go into business for myself. The money would buy me the same kind of freedom that rock stars had.
Millionaire by age 25?
So, at age 16, I set a goal to be a millionaire by age 25. I started flipping cars at age 16. By age 21, I was flipping houses. Just when things started to look promising for me, the housing market imploded in 1982. I was broke within 6 months.
So I set a new goal to retire by age 30. But, I promised myself that if I wasn’t retired by age 30, I would start going to college. A few businesses did well, but I wasn’t a millionaire by age 30. So, I started going to college.
10 years later I had two college degrees and a desk job. After 7 years riding that desk, I was daydreaming about retiring early and traveling the world. And by age 46, I wasn’t sure if I could get myself to ride that desk job much longer.
But, I wasn’t old enough to collect social security, and my investments were not large enough for retiring early. Adventure or freedom were nowhere in sight. I was financially chained to that desk, … or so I thought.
Adventure Came Knocking
But luck has a habit of finding people that are well prepared and willing to accept risk if the right opportunity strikes. On that day, I received a phone call from a job recruiter that wanted me to leave the USA for a job in Asia. Adventure came knocking. I took that job and never looked back.
So my overseas adventure started 20 years before retirement age. I traveled all over Asia and Europe for 3 years while I worked for that company. I loved the freedom the new job gave me. With 7 weeks of vacation per year, I was able to I visit over 20 countries in 3 years.
I loved the travel adventure so much, I wanted more. I read a book called “The 4 Hour Work Week,” by Tim Ferris. In that book, he talked about starting an online business that would throw money at you no matter where you were in the world.
I visualized the online businesses in my future as an Internet Money Machine. You just build them and get them running. Once operational, they throw money at you whether you are working, laying on the beach, flying between countries, or sleeping. I wanted one bad.
I set a personal goal to build an Internet Money Machine. But, I was too busy working full time. I didn’t have time to learn how to build an Internet Money Machine.
So I asked my boss if I could quit my job and work part time as an independent consultant working remotely. Luckily he said yes. You see, I only needed a part time income to survive. After traveling to 20 countries, I knew where to live on half as much money.
Once I was working part time, for half pay, I had free time to build my Internet Money Machine. I started by taking training courses I found online. Most of the courses were too expensive and were a disappointment. They were overpriced and under delivered.
But after a few years of failing at one course after another, I was finally able to piece together my personal Frankenstein of an Internet Money Machine. And it eventually started making enough money to pay for my costs to slow travel the world. I no longer needed my part time job.
I was finally free
I had reached total freedom and independence. My overseas retirement adventure had no remaining limitations. I could be anywhere in the world and the money followed me.
My Internet Money Machine was throwing money for merely doing my favorite thing in the world. I had transformed my travel hobby into an Internet Money Machine. It was throwing more money at me than I needed to travel the world all year long. I was done being someone else’s bitch. I was finally free.
In a moment, I will explain how my overseas retirement adventure pays for itself. I will also explain how others might be able to use the same machine I built to turn their favorite hobby into an income stream that pays for their overseas retirement adventures.
But first, I want to share three of the reasons why my particular species of overseas retirement adventure is the best one I know about in the entire world.
Top Three Kinds of Travel Freedoms
Geographical Freedom: I define freedom as going where I want for as long as I want. That is the first and most important sign of freedom. At first, geographical freedom may sound like just a money issue. But how long you can stay in each country is also a function of their visa programs. So, your home country passport plays a large role in how easy it is for you to enter a country and how long you are allowed to stay once you enter. But, by avoiding retirement visas, work visas, and business visas, my kind of retirement adventure, reduces the chance that some foreign government official will approach me for taxation or request a bribe. To give you an example of the power of this kind of freedom, read my report, How to Retire on a Tourist Visa for 14 years, link provided.
Foreign Entanglement Freedom: Another kind of freedom present in my overseas retirement adventure is the freedom from foreign officials becoming entangled in my finances. By having the cashflow from my Internet Money Machine flowing into my home country bank, I avoid foreign government entanglements that attach through local foreign banking laws. If I instead established accounts in one or more foreign banks, I might trip over some taxation rule I am not familiar with. I am not interested in knowing the tax laws of the 6 to 10 countries I pass through each year as I slow travel the world. Instead, I just visit ATM machines where ever I am in the world whenever I need local cash. Since I trust banks in my home country, I don’t need to learn or know the rules for banking in any of the countries I spend time in each year. And by not having money in foreign banks, I reduce the chance that some foreign government will decide I need to pay a tax I don’t know about. Or worse, decide I can take my money with me when I move onto greener pastures. For more on this kind of freedom, read my report, Top Banking Mistakes I Learned Living Internationally, link provided.
Foreign Ownership Entanglements: The first thing many people do when they arrive in a new country is to buy real estate. In many parts of the world, the costs are so low that you will be tempted to buy real estate. People will tell you that prices are going up 20 or 30% per year and you will get screwed if you wait another minute. Many retire cheap overseas gurus will try to get you to buy real estate immediately. Sadly, some of them are pushing you because they will receive a kickback if they can influence you to buy. But if you take the time to speak to other expats that bought years ago in that country, you might hear a more complete story of the pros and cons. In many parts of the world, corruption and government mismanagment will cause you troubles that are not familiar with in your home country. Also, land use zoning rules are different all over the world. You could end up with a business moving in right next door that makes your new home unlivable. For more information on what can go wrong and why you should wait before buying real estate in a foreign country, read my report, Why Retired Expats Should Not Buy Real Estate Overseas, link provided.
How My Overseas Retirement Adventure is Different
Most people are looking for the perfect paradise to retiree to overseas. They only visit one or two countries before deciding where to retire overseas. They go home and get ready, they sell things, they pack things, and they move to the first or second place they visited.
Some of them live happily ever after. Some of them move home in a few years.
My philosophy and my methodology are different. I don’t believe you have enough information to pick after just spending a few weeks or months in one or two places. I believe you need to spend more time in more places.
I believe you will make a better choice when you have compared more places, each over a longer period of time. More time in more places will help you get clear about what feels right for you, and why it feels right.
I believe you need to slow travel the world for a few months or years before you will really know your favorite place in the world. Not everyone agrees with me, but I think you should spend more time and get more exposure to various parts of the world.
With more experience under your belt, you are more likely to make an accurate assessment of the best place for you to live or retired cheap in paradise overseas.
But I have heard a few counter arguments along the way. Dan, I don’t have enough money to travel the world like you have for 15 years before deciding where to retire cheap in paradise. I agree. Very few people have 15 years to decide where to retire overseas.
But with our eBook membership resources, I think you will be able to identify five to ten places that are most likely to be the best fit for you. Then spend a few months in each place before deciding where to live your overseas retirement adventure. Using our slow travel for cheap techniques, you may be able to accomplish this for much less than you may initially think.
You maybe even be able to get it done in less than a year. Plus, you will live the adventure of a life as you slow travel the world for a year. And you may end up settling down in one place, or you may find out that you want to slow travel the world for the rest of you life, like we do.
I call this on the ground research an exploratory visit. And we provide the best tools to help you identify and slow travel through the parts of the world that you are most interested in. We have blazed the trail in front of you and created many resources that may help you.
Many people have used our retire cheap in paradise eBooks and planning tools. Many people people have watched our Youtube videos showcasing the various parts of the world that we beleive are best for retiring cheap in paradise.
Other people have watched us travel around the world and asked how we are able to pay for our travels. Some have asked me directly to teach them how to make money online without having a job, without having a boss, without meetings, without phone calls, without shipping, without inventory, without employees, without set hours, and without having an office anywhere in the world.
So I created a video course showing how to use my Internet Money Machine to make money teaching people about your favorite hobby. So I created a video course showing how I built my money machine sharing information about my favorite hobby.
Plus, I was so grateful to my paid members for making all of my dreams come true, I gave my paid members access to the video course, at no extra charge.
Hobby Income Course
The course shows me setting up the third-party software I used to create my Internet Money Machine. I have also created a video showing you how the money machine works and how it throws money at me no matter where I am in the world. You can watch that video here, “The Hobby Income Course,” link provided.
So, that is the story of my overseas retirement adventure.
Thank you for watching this video. Visit VagabondBuddha.com if you would like to see our catalog of over 100 eBooks we have created teaching you how and where to retire cheap in paradise all over the world. While you are there, make sure to grab a free copy of my eBook, How I Fired My Boss and Traveled the World for 15+ Years.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is your home, what time will you be home for dinner?