My Plan to Move to South East Asia

Posted by Dan on June 06, 2009 in The Voyage

Reading the PPP in PP

My goal is to move overseas, initially to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam or outsider, the Philippines. I would like to spend 6 months to 1 year (possibly longer) living in each of these countries to start with, and travel through more of Asia during that time, eg; India, Nepal, China, Laos. After Asia I will travel to Central and South America and do the same there. That could keep me going for the next 10 years and even further so I only have vague goals beyond this.

What will I do once I’m over there? Other than sustaining this lifestyle of travel I have a strong interest in learning Asian languages. Get fit and practice martial arts. Starting a “real” business, although I have no idea what that might be for now. Working to better poor communities in these countries and with organisations like PEPY where travel and charity intersect. I’d like to do some video too, there doesn’t seem to be much travel blogging going on where there is a good commentary with it or that follows a journey.

For most of us, especially those of us who are in “stable” employment, the opportunity to move overseas with our work comes along very very rarely, so rarely in fact that hoping or waiting for it to happen is beyond naive. In my position it has no chance of coming from my employer, so…

We need a plan. This is my plan.

There are two main things I have to consider. Debt, Income and Expenses.

Debt: What’s stopping me?

I have to clear about $10,000 AUD in Credit Card and personal loans. My current reduction plan has this payed off in September next year but I’m confident I can bring this forward a few months by reducing my monthly expenses. I’m currently housed in a unit that is well beyond my needs, it’s much bigger and more expensive than I would now like. In October my lease ends and I will find a smaller and more affordable place to rent. This will save me between $200 and $400 a month. Taking the $300 medium this will bring my reduction date forward to April/May. I’ve put together a Google spreadsheet that calculates this and pumps out a graph so I can track my progress, it will also adjust my monthly goals so that I always have an attainable goal to target each month to avoid a situation where I fall short one month and can never seem to catch up again, or where I get ahead and then get lazy with the next month.

Now just a few days before the new tax year, I’m hoping for a return that will bring that date forward by yet another month or more. I’m estimating that will put me firmly in April.

Income & Expenses: The Nuts and Bolts

This is the hardest part really, while I’m working on building this website and a few others to cover my monthly expenses once I have moved my current online income is dismal and will need to improve a lot. I have an income goal of $1500-$2000USD a month. I’m willing to make that up by teaching English as a fallback but I’m beginning to question how realistic that is. I don’t have a degree and it seems a lot of schools in Thailand are now requiring one. I like working online, depending on what I’m doing much of the time it doesn’t really feel like work. $30 a day in these countries is reasonable to live on (ex rent) 31*30=$930 a month. I’ve discussed my daily income goals on my personal blog not so long ago however I didn’t put it in the perspective of this $30 a day number, the numbers I am aiming for there would make me quite comfortable.

Talking to some people living in Thailand already they are spending about 30,000 THB a month which is about $1000 USD and that allows for fairly regular fun as well.

Other Considerations
In December of this year I’m planning on spending a month in some of these countries, this will probably cost me about $2000 or more, however it will be a good chance for me to get a good plan in place for the actual move. I’ll try to find some renting options in advance and other groundwork to make it all go as smoothly as possible.
I’m going to have to sort out a laptop too, I have one provided by work currently and that will have to be returned when I resign. I would like to get a Macbook but something else may be a better option in the interim. Why a Mac, iMovie, Time Machine, I could go on and on. It just does the things I want without paying for expensive add-on software.

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