Hi, I’m glad you're here.
You've got the guide now, the real numbers, the ones nobody shows you before you move. I hope it does its job: sends you in with your eyes open.
Before the weekly emails start properly, one honest thing, then one small ask.
The honest thing. Everyone worries about the money, and they should, the guide is full of it. But the cost that caught me hardest wasn't money at all. It was freedom.
We had the villa, the pool, the land, chickens and goats at one point. Sounds like the dream, and some days it was. But a pool needs looking after whether you swim or not. Animals need feeding whether you want to travel or not. Slowly, quietly, the life we bought to feel free started tying us to the house. We stopped going to the beach. We stopped exploring. The thing you buy for freedom can become the thing that holds you in place.
Nobody warns you about that one, because it never shows up on a bill. But it's real, and it's worth thinking about before you buy, not after.
Now the small ask.
The guide covers the big costs, but there's a lot more I've been through that didn't fit in it. Rather than guess which bit to share next, I'd rather you tell me. Which of these do you most want me to open up about first?
Where we chose to live, and how we landed on it with two kids
How we actually got residency, and what I'd know before doing it again
What we paid for healthcare, in Cyprus and now Dubai, and what caught us out
Getting de-banked when we moved, and what I did about it
What happened when we sold up, and getting the money out
Just hit reply and send me the number. One number, that's it. And if the thing you're wrestling with isn't on the list, tell me that instead.
I read every reply this early on. I'm not going to give you advice, I'll just tell you honestly what we did, what it cost, and what I'd do differently. Right now it's you telling me which story to tell next.
Talk soon,
James Hopkins