Okay, I am 40 years old and preparing myself to move overseas when I am 50. Before arranging my money and passive income, I first need to configure my brain to live overseas life.
Living overseas can be vastly different from living in the United States, United Kingdom, etc. Depending on the country we decide to move to, we may not have the same “luxuries” as in these more prominent first-world countries.
In America, we have plenty of things to spend our time on throughout retirement. We can go on a boat, join a club, or visit all of the national parks. We have toys like RVs, boats, motorcycles, sandrails, and more.
Don’t Gamble Your Retirement Away 2
When we were in Turkey in 2019, we spent most of our time hanging out with family. When Kris and I went to the coffee shop, we sat there for 1-2 hours. There was no rush, no schedule, and no appointments.
Yes, we were on leave from work, but we left the hustle and bustle of American life in America. When we ate meals at home, we would hang out for another hour afterward, drinking tea and conversing. (I don’t speak Russian or Turkish, so I was just smiling and nodding my head, but you get the idea).
One of the first steps for preparing our mindset is to slow our lives down before we leave America. Many people cannot sit still, and America is the land of the busy. We are in the business of being busy.
I just spent a year away from my wife and kids living in a barracks room in Japan. Luckily, I found something that kept me occupied throughout that entire time—blogging for financial independence.
Indeed, I recommend anyone who is considering moving overseas to find and start an income stream. Notice that I did not say a hobby. You can convert anything you love into an income stream; you should love what you do for your cash.
We get into trouble when we try to over-monetize our passion for a business. Let me explain. If we love to write one daily article about flowers, we need to build our income stream around that concept.
Become the CEO of Your Life
If we go work for a flower company writing blog posts about things we care nothing about, then, of course, we will be miserable. Know yourself, your goals, and your rich life. Next, put steps in place to achieve your goals on a reasonable timeline.
The second mindset shift we need to make before going overseas is financial security vs. financial freedom. If we choose the financial security route, we may lock ourselves into a prison called “a fixed income.” Say we need $2,000/month to be content living in The Philippines. Does that mean we move there as soon as we achieve this amount of passive income?
I hope not. Financial freedom means making a ton of passive income. If I know I need $2,000/month passive income for a comfortable life, I aim for at least $10,000/month in passive income. Heck, I may even aim for $20,000/month of passive income.
I do not ever want to worry about money. Ever. So not only do I want to make a ton of it passively, but I also want to diversify my passive income across my different asset classes. Then, and only then, can I truly be at peace—Welcome to Stress Freedom.
6 Types of Income Streams
I want to shift gears a little and talk about relationships. I know, I know, I can already hear it. “Josh, stick to talking about money and passive income. Those are things we can control.” I get it, but relationships are vital to the total life concept.
Working 20-40 years in America, building your wealth, and retiring overseas alone, may seem like a dream, but what is so great about being independent? Have you seen the Mediterranean Sea from the shores of Turkey? The view is impressive, but it is even better with my wife next to my side.
I just want to throw that out there while you are still in the preparation phase. I have friends that have retired from the military and have no spouse. They still have the foundation of life—exercise, cutting grass, going to movies—but something is missing. There is no enjoyment of basic things like sitting outside or watching the sunset. Just keep these thoughts to the back of your head for now.
So, we have begun to slow our life down and build up vast amounts of passive income; what’s next? We need to settle down for the long haul, stay motivated on our passive income grind, and stay on course with our dream.
Can You Achieve Work-Life Balance 2?
Remember, we need to also plan for worst-case scenarios as well. If we reach $2,000/month passive income and run away to Turkey, that would be amazing. But what if we need to return to America for 2-4 years? Do we now live paycheck to paycheck?
Happiness isn’t free, so running away as soon as we reach bare minimum numbers isn’t in our best interests. There are still so many things that can affect our future lives, such as inflation, children, and health.
There, our final step is to become lifelong learners. We can never stop reading books about business, real estate, cryptocurrencies, retirement planning, and investing. Not only does our money compound exponentially, so do our brains.
The more information we have floating in our heads, the more likely we will see opportunities before and after moving overseas. You may be walking around Turkey and see a shop struggling. Maybe you can offer to assist with their bookkeeping in exchange for free groceries.
How Much Do I Need for Retirement?
What if you like to knit garments? Maybe you can put some of your wares on consignment in some boutiques. Little things like this can help you earn some income, make new friends, and be part of the community. I believe reading is the most important thing we can do for ourselves.
There you have it—three steps to prepare ourselves for life overseas. 1) Slow our lives down 2) set ourselves up to become financially free 3) become lifelong learners. If we can understand the principle of adding value to someone else, we will never have to worry about money.
Please download the free PDF of this article, which includes all the related pieces. I am making a push away from big companies and going at this thing in my own way. Please share my PDFs with family and friends. Thank you, and see you in the following article in the Living Overseas Passively series (101).
- Build Passive Income: 21 Passive Income Ideas (book)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself (book)
- Retirement Planning: Retirement Planning at Any Age (book)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends (book)
- Cryptocurrencies: My First Book on Cryptocurrencies (book)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate (book)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business (book)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever! (book)(Web Edition)(Art Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
- Sign up to Access our “Hidden” Free Kindle Book Schedule
- My first Children’s book: A Child’s First Book on Passive Income (book)
- Book Reviews: 54 Takeaways from 54 Books (book)
- Want to Build Passive Income from Books and Affiliate Marketing? (Learn here)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer? (direct)
- My Favorite Chromebook: The Ultimate Chromebook (direct)
- Follow us: On our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group
- Amazon Author Page: Check out my author page on Amazon
- Monthly Dividend Planner: Check it out on Etsy
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
Leave a Reply