ILA Magazine: The World’s Best Places to Retire Overseas Subscribe Now and Save 35% about subscribing to International Living Magazine Originally from Brisbane, my wife Vivien and I now call Thailand, and more specifically Hua Hin, a Royal Resort just 200 kilometres south of Bangkok, home. We’ve been here nearly two years and every day we find a new reason to love our lives here.
A few years back, my wife Vivien and I decided to retire early and move from Brisbane to Hua Hin, Thailand for a more affordable retirement. Here in Hua Hin life can be as busy or as relaxed as we want and these days we have the time to savour a diverse and satisfying life in the Land of Smiles.
When my wife Vivien and I first began looking into an overseas retirement we looked everywhere for information. We wanted to know about the costs, climate, safety…how easy it was to make friends…would we be bored…
By the time I hit 56, I’d had more than enough of the 9-to-5 grind but official retirement was still a long way off for me…and further away still for my wife, Vivien. It was a depressing reality but the fact was, we didn’t think we had the means to retire early....
Low-key and uncrowded, fronted by a five-kilometre beach, Hua Hin, the Thai beach town my wife Vivien and I call home is also surrounded by three of the country’s biggest national parks. Its central location on the gulf coast means easy access to plenty of out-of-town beaches, too.
In November 2015, my wife Vivien and I arrived from Brisbane, sight unseen, to Hua Hin, Thailand. We reassured ourselves that if it didn’t turn out to be the right spot for us, we had other options… We needn’t have worried.
Seat-belts secured, flight attendants going through final departure checks and our plane is pushing back—Europe here we come! My wife Vivien and I were jetting off to tour Austria and Italy. On our hitlist was Vienna, Lake Garda, Milan, Florence and Rome. It was a holiday we had long-saved for and an escape from the daily grind of working life.
When my wife and I decided to retire in our mid-50s, the cost of living was a big factor in choosing our perfect destination. We didn’t have buckets of cash stashed away–just our meagre savings, Superannuation and proceeds from the sale of our home and other assets.
Melbourne couple Leigh Higgins and Shane O’Sullivan were both in their 50s when they started to think about their options for the next chapter of their lives. With a lot of life left to live, they wanted to spend their time and talent engaged in a business they felt passionate about...
My wife Vivien and I bought a beach-town home in Thailand’s Royal resort, Hua Hin. It had been a long-held dream to retire early overseas but purchasing our house wasn’t all plain sailing. So here's some lessons we learnt along the way…