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Achieving financial independence before committing to long-term overseas living provides freedom, stability, and enhances the overall expat experience.
The video emphasizes the critical importance of achieving financial independence before making long-term commitments overseas. The first key reason is to avoid being forced to return home due to financial constraints. The author uses the example of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, describing the sadness of departure when it's due to financial necessity, contrasting it with the happiness of returning home to visit friends, which is a finite and chosen duration.
Financial independence also enables the pursuit of genuine long-term relationships abroad. Without financial stability, it's difficult to commit to a partner or family, as the need to return home for work can create significant stress and uncertainty. This financial pressure can strain relationships and lead to prolonged long-distance situations, which are often challenging.
Furthermore, financial independence facilitates more stable living arrangements, such as securing year-long leases instead of frequently moving between Airbnbs or hotels. This stability can lead to cost savings on essentials like water and laundry detergent when purchased in bulk. It also opens up possibilities for certain visas, especially retirement visas, which require proof of financial self-sufficiency. Ultimately, financial freedom allows individuals to live abroad without the constant worry of their dream life ending, providing a more enjoyable and certain expat experience.
A bonus reason highlights the advantage of not having to return home during inopportune times, such as periods of political instability or civil unrest in one's home country. Financial independence provides the flexibility to postpone a return until conditions have stabilized, ensuring a safer and more peaceful experience. This overall financial security contributes to greater freedom, better relationships, and increased happiness for expatriates.
Achieving financial independence before living abroad prevents forced returns home due to lack of funds, allowing for voluntary visits to friends and family. It also enables the formation of genuine long-term relationships overseas by removing the stress of uncertain departures. This stability enhances the overall expat experience.
Financial stability allows you to commit to partners or family without the looming pressure of needing to return home for work. Without this financial security, the stress of uncertain departures can strain relationships and lead to prolonged long-distance situations. Genuine connections are easier to build when you can offer stability.
With financial independence, you can secure more stable housing arrangements, such as year-long leases, instead of constantly moving between short-term options. This stability can also lead to cost savings on utilities and supplies when purchased in bulk. It provides a sense of permanence and comfort in your new environment.
Yes, financial independence can be a key factor in qualifying for specific visas, particularly retirement visas. These visas often require proof of sustained financial support to ensure you can support yourself without needing local employment. Demonstrating financial self-sufficiency is crucial for many long-term overseas residency applications.
Financial freedom eliminates the constant worry that your dream life abroad will end prematurely due to financial constraints. It provides greater certainty and happiness, allowing you to fully enjoy your experience. You can also avoid returning home during potentially chaotic or unstable periods, ensuring a safer and more peaceful life.
Financial independence is crucial for living abroad because it prevents forced returns home due to lack of funds. It allows for genuine long-term relationships and more stable living arrangements, such as year-long leases. This financial security ensures your dream life abroad doesn't end prematurely, providing greater certainty and happiness.
Yes, financial independence can help with obtaining certain visas abroad. Specifically, retirement visas often require proof of sustained financial support. Having financial self-sufficiency can open doors to these types of long-term residency options.
Financial independence provides the flexibility to avoid returning home during potentially chaotic or unstable periods. This includes situations like political unrest or civil unrest in your home country. You can postpone your return until conditions stabilize, ensuring a safer experience.
0:10 Hey YouTube, Alex here. And in today's video, I wanted to discuss the five reasons that you should pursue Financial Independence before making long-term commitments overseas. Number one reason here is if you're financially independent, you won't have to go back home.
0:31 For those who have been to Thailand, most visitors call Suvarnabhumi Airport the happiest place on Earth upon arrival. They call it the saddest place on Earth upon exit. It's so sad, in fact, they've had to put up some nets. You can imagine what those nets are for, but needless to say, most people see the escalator to International Departures as being one of the saddest places on Earth. I can agree with that; I've had that sight several times. It doesn't seem to get better with time; it seems to get more depressing to think about each time I have to go to that terminal via that escalator.
1:11 I would like to be in that position one day where I don't have to go back home because I'm out of money or running low on money, but because I miss my friends back home. The former reason is a sad reason to go home; the latter is a much happier reason to go home. If you're going back home to make more money, it's an indefinite thing; you have no idea how long you're going to be back home. Whereas if you're going back to visit friends, you could probably say, 'I'm going to go back for two weeks,' or 'I'm going to go back for three weeks,' or 'I'm going to go back for a month.' It's a finite amount of time.
1:42 Number two, if you're financially independent, you can actually start a long-term relationship overseas. You can let them know, 'Hey, I'm going to be able to afford to stay here for an indeterminate amount of time.' It's a bit disingenuous to go with money to stay for say, six months, and then say, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to live here forever.' You have a child or start a family somewhere in there, and now you're having to go back home. They're having to stay. I think that adds a lot of stress to the equation. I'm personally waiting to get into a serious relationship until I know I'm not going to have to go back home, until I know that I'm not going to have to leave, go back home, find a job, and basically have an LDR for an extended period of time.
2:27 This isn't to say nobody should do an LDR or nobody should go unless they can afford to live there long-term, but rather, I think it's hard on relationships and it's hard on people to have this uncertainty that comes with needing to go back home and make money. There were numerous flings I've had in my trips to Southeast Asia over the years, and it's always kind of a sad thing when you got to go back because you don't know when you're going to see them again. You can't commit to them some time frame.
2:57 For most people, anyway, that are career-oriented, you're not going to be able to go get a good tech job for like three months or six months. They're going to want like a year or two out of you at least. Additionally, I found that when it comes to LDRs, typically one person always cares more than the other. In my case, I think I've been the person that unfortunately cared a bit less. It's just really hard on the people.
3:19 I think some of this stuff, thinking short-term, 'I've got enough funds for a month, that's enough time to get a girlfriend,' then they're not really thinking about that other person's feelings or perceptions.
3:40 You can sign a one-year lease; you're not going to be bouncing from Airbnb or hotel to Airbnb or hotel. You can pick an area to settle down in. If you know you have that money coming in, you'll be able to say, 'Yes, I can afford $300 a month for a year,' or 'I can't afford $400 a month for a year, maybe more.' Not sure what your FIRE number is. If you're not worried about having to go home early, then you have a little bit more confidence that you'll get your deposit back. By no means is it a guarantee, depending on local rules, laws, regulations, etc.
4:11 If you know that you'll be there for a year, you can count on being able to pay your bills there for a year. You can rest assured that it'll be easier to get that money back. If you're having to bounce around a lot and you're having to pay higher rates per night, you're having to spend time checking in, checking out. For me, the first time I check in overseas, not so bad. By the 10th or 15th or 20th time, it can get a little bit old. I even feel that way on my trips to Bangkok where I'm like, 'Okay, got to leave my nice, cozy, comfortable condo, be prepared to go through the check-in process, hand over my passport, sign some papers, and do that kind of thing.'
4:45 Alongside that, there are some things that are cheaper if you're oriented toward the long term. I know for me, when I'm running around traveling from location to location, I have to buy bottled water by the unit. Where if I'm in a condo building, I know that it's more likely that I'll be able to buy water a case at a time. At some places, there are refill companies that can help you with that. There's a lot of things that you can have at better pricing. I know laundry detergent is another one. When I'm running around, I've got to buy single-use laundry detergent because the larger sizes don't fit through airport security. But if I'm in one place long-term, I can buy those larger sizes of laundry detergent, I can buy those larger containers, can buy those water refills. All these things that may not seem like a lot, but they can really add up over the long term.
5:33 Number four, you may qualify for certain types of visas. There are certain types of visas that require you to have a certain amount of money in the bank or a certain amount of monthly income. I'm by no means a visa legal expert, but if you are financially independent, some of these options open up for you. I think they're a little bit more important for people of retirement age because I typically seem to see this a lot with retirement visas where they're comfortable with you retiring in their country. They want to know you can pay your bills in perpetuity in their country.
5:59 For the specific specifics of retirement visas, I recommend you reach out to local attorneys and send them an email. Ask them questions; they'll be able to better assist you on that one. The fifth and final reason is that you can be financially worry-free. You're not going to be sitting there wondering when your dream life is going to come to an end. You're not going to be sitting there wondering how you're going to go back home.
6:20 You know, the only reason I'm going back home is because I want to go back home, not because I have to go back home for financial reasons. We all as humans like a certain degree of uncertainty. I think that's why we come to the developing world to travel; it's a lot more spontaneous and exciting feeling. But on the other hand, we also like some degree of certainty. And too much of one and not enough of the other, it could cause the expat a lot of unhappiness.
6:41 This has been just a quick video, five reasons as to why you should pursue Financial Independence before making long-term commitments overseas. Doing it this way will give you more freedom and allow for you to have better relationships, more happiness, a more enjoyable expat experience.
6:59 The sixth and bonus reason that we have for you here is that you may not have to go back home at an inopportune time. There are certain times in our home countries that are better than others. One thing that's come up a lot, a lot of people have been warning me about the upcoming election back in the United States. They've been telling me, 'Hey, if so-and-so wins, it's going to be utter chaos and really bad.' If the other guy wins, 'It's going to be chaos and really, really bad.'
7:26 I'm not really concerned about who wins or loses; I don't really care about the competition aspect. If it does cause strain on the system or different kinds of incidents, if it causes instability back in the US, probably not going to be a great time having to deal with that, deal with potentially people demonstrating or people doing things that people tend to do when the US is unstable. That's not really stuff I want to be around. If I were financially independent, then I would not come back until well into 2025 after things have been settled. That's something to think about.
7:57 There is, if you are financially free, you don't have to go back home during inopportune times. So I hope this video has been helpful. Let me know what you think down below. Subscribe to the channel if you want to see more content like this. Give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and we will see you next time.
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