2023 is slowly coming to an end and we are planning ahead for the year 2024. For me this year was the year to create a foundation for a new business or income stream. At the moment I am an online contractor for four days per week for a British company – fixed days and fixed times. As the work is remote I can work anywhere as long as the time zone is relatively compatible with British office hours. I have worked in several different countries and it is close to an ideal situation.
I said close, as I am not keen on the fixed hours and because I work from France, my day ends rather late. My goal is to create side hustles that over time can replace my current income. You know that passive income that keeps on coming while we sleep. Hey, but a girl can dream and have goals, can’t she?
I have been self employed for over 20 years and most of those years were spent in Australia. It is very easy to be self employed in Australia and several of my business ventures have had moderate success. I have been a remedial massage therapist, a counsellor, an interior designer and had a garden business which was by far the most successful gig.
At the moment I am also self employed – sole trader or auto-entrepreneur as they call it in France, where we have lived since 2017. Being self employed in France is a bit harder to set up but once you are in the French system, it runs quite smoothly. France has changed the rules around being a sole trader during the last 10 years but unfortunately they still hit sole traders hard with social contributions.
We may be considering leaving France…..
The big disadvantage of being in France is not being able to access our Australian pension. The countries do not seem to like each other enough to facilitate that exchange. For that reason – and a few more in fact, we are thinking of moving to Spain as Spain is one of the countries where you can receive an Australian pension. Actually you would be able to receive it in most countries in western Europe except the UK and France.
As a result we have started to research Spain and do a bit of planning ahead. Another reason we want to leave our home town Limoux, is the climate during the winter. It may be in the South of France but we find the winter too long and too cold. One of the main reasons we moved to Australia was the weather and good weather we have had. We spent 17 years in Brisbane and 9 months of the year the climate is close to perfect there. The three other months, summer, are the problem!
So researching Spain means thinking about the weather and in contrary to France, we have to be aware of areas that are too hot. Andalusia for instance, sounds fabulous in the winter, but the summers seem just too much of the good thing. Climate change is making many areas uncomfortably hot. On the other hand we would like the winter to be mild.
Limoux drops to similar temperatures as the winters in The Netherlands, where I am from. And, that, is the country I left because of the weather. I feel I have gone full circle and I am back in what I left. Twenty years ago this part of France may have been true to the claim of having over 300 sunny days per year. At the moment it is far from the truth as the amount of grey days is quite astonishing.
The beach at Roses, Spain
Could a move to Spain be the answer?
We have spent a fair amount of time in different parts of Spain. Mostly visiting my sister who used to own a house near Roses and doing housesits. We have done several housesits in Cataluña and in Denia, both very nice destinations. Unfortunately both are not our cup of tea to settle. Cataluña has the wind we like to avoid – the Tramontana and Denia is comfortable but has too much of everything in a negative way.
Following the climate, reading blogs and talking to people, we have found that Castellón might be an area of interest. Castellón sits in between Valencia and Cataluña. It is quite pretty, is not overly touristy and the climate seems to tick the boxes. So we have decided to check it out.
So here is our planning ahead itinerary
It started with a housesit in the centre of Valencia over the Christmas period. Usually we find housesits during specific housesit sites but this was organised via friends. Thus our Christmas was be in Spain, in Valencia with my husband, myself, one of our daughters and two cute cats. To be honest I was quite excited to say the least. I seem to hear more and more interesting things about this city. In fact it has become the latest ‘in’ destination for people to retire. And I am not sure if this is a good thing, by the way.
After the Christmas period, we will start our research and the first target area will be the area in between Castellón and Valencia. When we search for a destination in France, we created a list with criteria that were important to us. We simply dismissed everything that did not have some of those criteria. It is not easy to create a list like that as you have to anticipate and imagine through planning ahead. You can’t let yourself be blinded by pretty villages that seem perfect. If they don’t have the criteria, they are not perfect nor suitable.
Valencian beach on a sunny winter day with a perfect blue sky
Our list of criteria
Our list of criteria for Spain is different than the list we had for France. After all, we are almost 10 years older and now proximity to hospitals is high up the list. We experienced how important this is when we did an off-the-grid housesit in rural Cataluña. Our car broke down and the French road service could not find our coordinates and we had to meet the Catalan mechanic in a nearby town. Imagine having to do that when you need an ambulance.
I mentioned the weather being one of the criteria, health facilities is surely amongst them and proximity to the sea and hiking areas. Although we will be expats ourselves, we don’t like too many of them and we want the town to be alive all year ’round. Many pretty towns are only alive in the summer and in the winter they turn into ghosts towns. The target is a normal Spanish town where Spanish people live and work with facilities that are open all year.
Limoux is one of those towns and we can conclude that we stayed faithful to our criteria list. It ticked many of the boxes and it still does apart from a few things that I mentioned before. Climate was actually never on the list and we knew about the pension but were not ready to start planning ahead for our pension at the time.
To sum this up, we are preparing and planning ahead our next move abroad. Our oldest daughter reckons that we will never settle as we like to move and explore new places. Fortunately our current lifestyle supports that kind of attitude and lifestyle.
Are you good at planning ahead or does this totally not resonate with you?
Have you ever dreamt about relocating within your country or abroad? Chances are many of you may be perfectly happy with where you are. On the other hand there will be some of you who can’t help having an image of seeing yourself living in a different state or country.
Longing for a different and better life is often an inspiration for a move to a different location. Maybe you like a cultural or climate change or want to immerse yourself in another language or just crave for an adventure.
Relocating from a romantic perspective
Many people from the ‘New World’ countries have a romantic expectation about moving to older cultures. Australians tend to see spending a period in France or Italy as one of the ultimate achievements in life. Many retired Americans move interstate, to Mexico or to Europe for a longer period to find out whether such a move could be off permanent nature. British people have a reputation of seeking out a new beginning in many South European countries.
Such moves are usually driven by positive motives. Yet on countless occasions more critical reasons come into play – war, recession and wanting to escape a political regime can all be reasons to move elsewhere.
The practical reality
Aside from the romantic notion, the practical consequences of ‘relocating’ can be daunting. As a matter of fact settling in another state may separate you from loved ones. Moving countries could strip you from your professional credibility and your qualifications may not have the same status as they have at home.
If your new country has a different language, it is likely to cause you severe stress. It will frustrate you that you don’t know how to do things. Your new local community might not immediately accept you or with great hesitation. Obviously, these are just some of the ‘issues’ that may arise after settling in a new country.
Whatever your motives are for relocating it is wise to spend time reflecting on a couple of essential things. Moving requires a lot of preparation, organisation and the willingness to start from scratch. In other words, take your time to prepare yourself mentally and physically.
Challenge yourself before relocating:
Firstly, take time to assess your big ‘WHY. Brainstorm your motives, emotionally and rationally. Assess the things you will lose or gain and how you and your family will handle that.
Secondly, plan a temporary move. Rent a house in the location of your choice. Live the local life for 6 months and see how you fit in.
Thirdly, consider the practical and emotional consequences for you, your partner, your kids, your jobs and other essential things in life.
Having gone through a handful of moves myself, I urge you to take the above tips seriously. In conclusion, explore your motives, consider the consequences and try it out without committing or burning bridges.
I can totally see that moving abroad seems attractive to many people, as I have done it five times myself. Our last move was in 2017 and we moved from Australia to France. As we are originally from Europe, it felt a bit like going home although France is not our home country.
After more than 5 years in France, we can conclude that our move was successful. We have settled in a lovely small town in the Aude surrounded by vineyards and gorgeous countryside. There is plenty to do in this area although covid threw a huge spanner in the works.
People have asked WHY we left, as Australia is an attractive country to visit and settle. It certainly is or maybe better, it was. We arrived in Australia in 1991 and at that time, it was a great country but it has changed and not entirely for the better.
Our reasons for leaving Australia
Cost of living
Since we migrated to Australia, the country has become increasingly more expensive. Consequently, a reason why we left was the high cost of living.
Easy to settle
France is part of the EC and that makes it relatively easy to settle there. At least for me with a Dutch passport and it would have been for my British husband before UK left the EU. Fortunately, he has been able to get French residency status because of being married to me.
More variety
Being able to see other countries and spend longer periods in other EU countries was part of our decision to leave Australia. Distances in Australia are huge, and it takes time to get a change of scenery. The landscape is stunning but relatively similar and it usually requires a plane trip to immerse yourself into a different type of landscape.
Closer to family and friends
An important factor was to see family and friends more regular although we found out that travelling in Europe is not without hiccups. A flight from Australia to Europe takes 24 hours if you are lucky. As a result, you don’t hop over for a weekend. It requires planning and realistically you may see loved ones only every couple of years. A few people came to visit us, but we often heard that a visit was too costly or would require their total annual holiday.
Climate
If you like it hot, you can have it that way Down Under. After having lived through 17 subtropical Brisbane summers, I can honestly say that I had enough.
What you must consider before moving abroad
Understandably there is a lot to consider before moving abroad. A mistake many people make is not knowing how they could support themselves. It is important to know to find out in advance if you are allowed to work and if there is work available.
If you are thinking of setting up a business, you must find out if there is a demand. Since we moved to Limoux, the offer of holiday accommodation has at least doubled. For example, a bed and breakfast business is not an automatic ticket to success.
Those who plan to retire, they need to check whether it is possible to receive your pension. Do your old country and the country you are going to, have an agreement to pay out pensions. Many Australian have found out that they won’t be able to receive their pension in France.
All in all, moving abroad can be an exciting adventure but it needs realistic planning. You need to assess your reasons why and become clear about the things you will leave behind.
I hope that give you some food for thought!
Feel free to reach out if you want to explore this further.
Ever thought about what would be your perfect lifestyle? I certainly have. In fact it started in my late teens when I wanted a summer job abroad. One of my high school friend’s worked a summer season in Switzerland and that seemed the ultimate dream to me. So I found a summer job in Zurich and returned for five summers while I studied in The Netherlands.
Working in Zurich created a hunger in me for exotic and foreign. Switzerland seemed to have better summer weather, the scenery was more appealing and it was foreign. A long story short, I had planted the seeds that caused me to change my lifestyle several times.
What is my perfect lifestyle
Without realising it before, I discovered that nature was important to me and so were sunny days. Growing up in The Netherlands, grey skies, drizzle and wind is part of life. I was no fan.
Jumping ahead several decades, I have moved abroad a handful of times. I have lived in Switzerland, UK, Australia and had some shorter stints in Greece and Norway. Nowadays I live in southwest France. The reasons for moving vary but work, opportunity, relationship and lifestyle choice have been some of them.
Lake of Zurich – one of my favourite places. Picture taken by IG friend @123_just_lucy_you_see
I grew up in the Netherlands and went for summer jobs to Switzerland. I joined a man in London and with him I created a new life in Australia. 25 years later we moved to France for lifestyle purposes. And believe me, I don’t think we are not done yet!
Still searching
I feel we are still on the search for the perfect lifestyle – one that would suit us. I say ‘us’ as not everyone will have the same idea about ‘perfect’. Admittedly we are still searching but are finding more answers with every adventure we have.
Some of our recent adventures have been housesits in different countries. We have added working online, managing a holiday rental and a guardian role for a large French property . While doing such things we discovered what we like and don’t like. Above all we learned new things about ourselves.
We love France and have been here since 2017. Being Dutch, I can live in France while my British husband qualifies for residency because of being married to me. Understandably Brexit caused a little stir for the Brits that live abroad in Europe.
Although we love France we are still looking at other options. Unfortunately, if we stay in France we cannot receive a retirement pension from Australia. Yet, we can if we move to Spain or Portugal. For some reason France and Australia have decided to cut strings when it comes to pensions.
There are a few disgruntled Aussies in France who may not have been aware of that. We knew but as it was so many years ahead we still bought a house in France and settled there. After living here for 5 years we realised that the sun is not always shining in this part of France. The winters can be quite nasty and do really not differ that much from those in Northern Europe.
Climate change seems to be for real. Many places in the South of Spain have become unbearable during the summer months. Even in France where we are, the temperatures rise to high thirties for days on end.
What we have discovered….
While doing housesits and jobs in different locations we slowly find what our perfect lifestyle should and should not have. We have discovered the aspects that are important to us. Consequently we are now researching locations in Spain and Portugal on increasingly more factors. Examples are weather, unpleasant winds, sun aspects, proximity to medical services, public transport, work and costs.
There is obviously no perfect fit for everyone and people differ in needs, likes and dislikes. However after seeing ourselves and others make mistakes, we learned a few lessons. So start with considering the following.
My interest in moving abroad may have been part of my genes. After all what other child would decide to learn German with eight years of age??
I grew up in the Netherlands with more German tv stations than Dutch. Germany synchronises all content on tv and this means that you get to see everything in German. To give you an idea, I grew up thinking John Wayne was a native German speaker as I always saw him speaking German.
In The Netherlands on the other hand, we had subtitles and everything we see on TV is in the original language. As a result many Dutch people pick up some English. Some generations learned to speak English purely because of the subtitles. Often, they have an American accent as we had more programs from the USA.
So as a result of hearing a lot of German on tv and living only 20 km from the German border I developed this interest in learning German when I was eight. On top of that my father took me on shopping trips to Germany to stock up on photography supplies. They were substantially cheaper in Germany.
My father was a keen amateur photographer and he had a dark room in our attic. He taught me to print my own black and white pictures so I could create little albums. How nice would it be to still have these albums!
An early interest in anything abroad
To sum it up, I learned to speak German as a kid and I had summer jobs in Switzerland for 5 years while I was studying. One of my best friends lived in Milan so guess where I hang out regularly? My first real job after graduation was for an American company in Switzerland.
It seems that from a young age I was standing with one foot abroad. So, it is not surprising to see that I ended up living in five different countries.
Another interesting thing is that I never showed much interest in Dutch boyfriends. I had a teenage fling for about 3 years but after that I tended to have boy friends abroad. The result was that I never really had ‘real’ relationships as I hardly ever saw these guys. But it stopped me creating any ties to the Netherlands.
My sister once said to me that I seemed only interested in finding a reason for going abroad. Looking back at my life, I realise she had a point. When I met my future husband in Australia, I certainly did not hold back then. In fact I thought he was an Australian, and secretly I hoped for an easy entry in the land down under.
Moving abroad multiple times
Since my twenties I have lived in Switzerland, UK, Australia, and France with short stints in Greece and Norway.
My first move was when I was single and the second and third while I was in a relationship. I moved with a four-year-old child, then with a seven-year-old plus a baby and in 2017 as an empty nester. I have experienced moving within the whole range of age categories and have surely accrued some wisdom over the decades
My last move abroad was after the kids left home and this move was my favourite. It was purely a lifestyle choice, and it feels like I am now perfecting the circumstances of the last chapter of my life.
Let me ask you something!
If a move abroad or relocation has been on your mind, but you think it is only a silly dream. Or if you reckon you would love to have such an adventure but you have no idea where to start…….
In that case, I like to invite you to tap in to my experience. I would love to help you unlock your dream and explore if a move abroad could be within your reach.
All you need to do is let me know and we can schedule a free 30 minute chat.
