What kind of Expat are you?

Republished with permission from Simon Black, sovereignman.com

People ask me this question all the time:

“Simon, I really want to leave the country, but where should I go?”

Quite literally, there is a world of possibilities out there, each full of richness and opportunity. But as you could imagine, it depends on what kind of person you are. What would be a great expat haven for some seems like a hellish nightmare to others.

Over the years I have seen thousands of expats roaming in and out of different countries around the world. In my opinion, most expats fall into seven categories… and chances are you probably fit one of the molds as well: (more…)

A World of Possibilities

The young and the not-so-young look for greener pastures

Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook is choosing to move his assets, and perhaps his residence to Singapore in advance of the IPO.  Saverin’s share of the IPO is valued at 3.84 Billion – a  move many believe is a wealth retention strategy in response to U.S. taxes and financial uncertainty.

Once again, we are learning that people see the world as flat – when it comes to looking for favorable living destinations, whether you’re a young entrepreneur or a retiree.

The sad truth is that the U.S. doesn’t stack up to be a very economical or thriving place to live for the young or the old.

This increasing common view of the U.S. as being a place where lifestyle is declining rings true to adventurous Baby Boomers who tend, by nature, to rail against all threats to their potential as individuals, whether that threat be financial or emotional repression.

Certainly economic restraints can mask one’s potential in life.  And there is a tendency to see the wealthy, like Saverin, and famous like ……., as people who have “all” the choices in life.

It isn’t true, of course, but if surrounded by people who are not themselves adventurous and cannot envision success beyond their current station in life, it can get lonely for the isolated visionary, the dreamer, the “wild Uncle Fred”.

If you recognize yourself as an ugly duckling amongst your family and peers, allow me to validate your angst and encourage you to travel for find that next best place to live.

The Baby Boomer Ugly Duckling

In the face of provincial bias that those aged 65 and older should turn their attention to planning for proximity to “home” and a continuum of care that ends in a nursing home, many intrepid citizens of the world and fellow travelers find themselves willing to fight for more from their encore years; more for themselves, more for the people they interact with and, as an example, to those they love.

If you’re at that stage of life where you find a “sensible pumps” financial plan appealing, one that ends with you laying it all down at an all-inclusive nursing home, then I’m not talking to you.

Live like you’re rich and famous

And who’s to say you’re not?  A bookmaker friend of mine once told me “Poor is a state of mind.  It’s only temporary unless you choose it to be.”  No one’s life is perfect, no one lives without outward stress from others exerting tiresome even if loving influence.

If you haven’t been wealthy at least once and lost a fortune at least once, then you’re really not trying to achieve anything of significance.  You’re playing not to lose, not to win.

Ah, but with the Internet you can learn from others experiences, find your footing at less of a personal cost; not perfect, but nothing is.

I encourage you to search the interactive overseas retirement map on the Traveling 4Health & Retirement (THR) home page and start learning about Baby Boomers retiring overseas.  I think you’ll find the THR Community a reprieve from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” international living and expat websites practicing the tiresome art of teasing you with content only to turn into an online version of a time-share salesman.

Researching Best Places To Live

By creating a free account, you can post your questions and interact with other members without disclosing personal contact information.  You can also tweet me @Traveler4Health.   Interacting with Expats on THR is a good first-step in making a personal connection so that when you go to a country you know someone who can “show you the ropes”.

Why Saverin chose Singapore

The rich, famous and wealthy have always had the choice, at least financially, to live where it makes most sense to live for them personally.  We can learn from that example. The great thing about traveling is that as you mix and mingle with people the world does become flatter and more welcoming.

Of course, if you’re idea of traveling is to go to Disneyland, Las Vegas, or some all-inclusive and gated resort, then you’re still in Kansas, Dorothy.

Why Singapore?  Read about Living in Singapore.  It’s a fantastic fit for anyone who is invigorated by growth and high energy.  And, of course the healthcare is excellent and affordable, and so the prospects for a healthier lifestyle for retirees is also excellent.

How Expats Use Medicare

Seniors are starting to shed the illusion that Medicare is the end-all of healthcare.  Many are coming face-to-face with the fact that Medicare is subsistence care to be regulated by one-size-fits-all procedures.

Medicare has it’s uses for Expats who might fly home for certain procedures or medical treatments, but by and large the preventative focus of healthcare and the quality of primary care in many places Expats choose to live is perceptively better than patient care in the U.S.

For example, an American healthcare executive and friend of mine living in Panama City Panama recently fell quite ill.  He called an ambulance service that responded to his call for help —  but that “service” is a far cry from what we expect from ambulance service in the states, and amazingly inexpensive.

Apparently in Panama City, Panama, a $10.00/month subscription buys an ambulance service that includes doctor care in your home.  The services’ first-responder EMT’s are qualified to administer medications, hook up IV’s, etc. so that expensive hospital visits are minimized.

So, are you beginning to see that Medicare may not be the only or even necessarily the best option for your health after retirement?

What Kind of Expat Would You Be?

When stories of the rich and famous moving abroad start to gain the attention of the media, you have to wonder what you’re missing by not traveling to explore your own options.  Ask yourself, are you living off the table scraps of life, financially or emotionally, by living where you live?

The 7 Expat Categories

1.  You are an opportunity-focused expatriate, and you are willing to relocate solely for the prospect of making a great deal of money and doing something interesting. You think nothing of charging in to an almost native, potentially dangerous environment and care nothing of dilapidated infrastructure, squalor.

You are willing to learn the local language and don’t care if anyone else speaks English there… you love the almost lawless, wild west persona and can literally smell the money everywhere.

2.  You are a classical traveler in the mold of British merchants and explorers– you want to make the journey overseas, but you want your amenities too, complete with a triple mocha latte.

You want to storm the plains of the Serengeti… with an armed guide. You want to see India up close and personal… then go back to your five star hotel.

In short, you want the richness of the expat experience, but you want it to be easy and painless.

3.  You have had a full career and are looking for a switch… it’s not about playing golf every day (though there will be plenty of that), it’s about finding a new direction in life, taking new steps, and getting energized again.

You are looking for something worthwhile to throw your time and effort into, and you want to be surrounded by like minded people who are in a similar position in life.  In a way, you want to turn back the clock and find a place that reminds you of home years ago– 1950s America, for example.

4.  You are a permanent traveler. You roam the globe because there are simply too many amazing places to see, and abundant opportunities in each.  You perhaps have a ‘home base’ somewhere, but you don’t see it for months at a time.  You know people all over the world and enjoy making new connections and trying new things.

You count air miles as an asset and talk about ‘running down to Panama for a few days’ as if you were going down the street to pick up a quart of milk at the grocery store.

5.  You shun contact with most of the world because they just don’t get it.  You are passionate about your beliefs and are looking for a place where you can execute an agenda– growing organic food, preparing for social chaos, etc.

You are possibly interested in setting up a small community with like-minded souls, preferably away from major civilization where you can live your life without bother or interference from governments or corrupt social institutions.

6.  You are a smart, educated, opportunistic professional that is a cross between the pioneer and expeditioner– you thrive on opportunity but need some basic structure to feel comfortable… probably because you have a family or some other obligations beyond yourself.

As long as basic needs are met– safety, schools, healthcare, etc., you are happy and can focus on building a life and a new business.

7.  You have been successful in life and simply want to enjoy the fruits of your efforts over the years– wine, women, whatever else seems interesting. You almost feel like a kid again, free to jump on a plane to follow your favorite team, see an old friend, or make new ones.

You pick a country because of its opportunities for pleasure, and are always willing to explore new ones.

… so there you have it. In all honesty, most people can find elements of several categories but are generally dominant in one. (Source:  Republished with permission from Simon Black, sovereignman.com )

Medical Tourism Facilitator, Christi deMoras, surrounded by a group of patients she took to Brazil

Medical Travel – Medical Tourism – Medical Vacation

Medical Tourism is an umbrella label covering the variations of Medical Travel, Health Travel, and Medical Vacations.

Medical Tourism Tip; Before you start planning a trip for medical treatment overseas, understand what a Medical Tourism Facilitator (MTF) can do for you and how to distinguish between an excellent and mediocre (or worse) MTF.

There is a whole range of medical and concierge services that a competent MTF can provide, but because the industry is not standardized, not all provide the same services or the same quality of service which often confuses patients researching medical travel, health travel, medical vacation or medical tourism.

Listen to the archived 5/13/12 interview of Christina deMoraes, a consultant for the Medical Tourism Industry as well as a Patient Advocate and Plastic Surgery Consultant.

Learn what you need to know to pick a MTF company qualified to provide the level of services you require; patient advocacy, hands-on concierge services, or even complex case-management to include medical and financial oversight by healthcare professionals.

Christina deMoraes, CEO of MedNet Brazil is a subject expert and an example of a MTF with an established track record of offering patient advocacy and concierge services to patients traveling for medical treatment.

She  is joined on the program by two of her clients; a registered nurse and an executive assistant who traveled to Brazil for Bariatric and Plastic Surgery.   Their candid discussion offers many insights into what it means to travel overseas for medical treatment.

I think this is one of the most informative programs on medical tourism facilitators I have heard; no marketing hype, just straight talk about what patients should know about preparing for medical travel.

If patients understand the value of patient-advocacy services provided by qualified MTF’s, they will be better informed to make decisions about medical travel.  And that’s what the discussion on this program is about.

You are invited to contact Christina deMoraes and of show guests, Andrea Schmitz, who posted an independent review of her experiences on the Traveling4Health & Retirement Patient Reviews page.

Read the patient review:  Brazil: Christi:Go With Someone You Can Trust!

Visit Christina deMoraes user profile or her website MedNet Brazil .  Today, MedNet is steadily evolving into a Patient Advocacy and Provider Consulting & Training organization.  Her expertise and company have been highlighted and have appeared in four Medical Tourism guidebooks including “How to Plan a Successful Medical Tourism Trip“.

How this information benefits THR Members

This program aligns with three of our Six Big Goals:

1)      Be the trusted source of unbiased information about medical travel and retirement overseas,

2)      Promote only the services of providers who have been recommended by their patients (or clients), and

3)      Facilitate private and unfiltered patient-to-patient and patient-to-provider discussions.

Pictured from left to right, Dudley and a tour participant enjoy lively discussion about Berber culture with a German anthropologist

Overseas Retirement – International Living

Listen to the archived interview of Kendall Dudley 5/6/12 on the Know Before You Go radio show.

Kendall Dudley is a career and life design consultant in private practice for over 25 years.  He presents at academic and professional settings including Harvard, Lesley and Tufts Universities, the National Career Development Association’s annual conferences, the Life Planning Network and Pendle Hill.  He’s also the recipient of several arts grants for his work on issues of war and peace in the Middle East.

An artist with a background in Middle East Studies and a penchant for Marrakech, he recently led a group of eight people to Morocco on a cultural and self-discovery tour as part of a special program in life design for people at points of change in their lives.

In the interview, Dudley describes how intentional, purposeful travel can help you discover what is newly emerging in you.  For example, what you discover about yourself when actively traveling and processing what you are experiencing can guide your choice of an overseas retirement destination and the expectations surrounding it.

“Traveling puts us in a state of heightened awareness,” says Dudley, “Our attention to detail is stronger when we are traveling than in daily life.  If we think of our lives as a journey and look at what we have done in a way that is constructive and useful, our past has a lot to say about what we are yet to do.”

“No matter where my journeys take me,” says Dudley, a former PCV in Iran,  “I’m always asking ‘is this a place for me to live?’.  So I always travel with an adventurer’s mindset looking at the things I like about a place and asking myself what parts of me would come alive in this environment.”

­ “When considering where you ultimately want to live, there needs to be something that calls to your spirit. It needs to have the capacity to fuel your imagination and help you rediscover yourself.” Dudley adds, lamenting the tendency for people to consult their practical natures at the expense of their creative intelligence, “We are constantly changing and there are parts of ourselves that are yet to be developed because we just haven’t had the opportunity of shining the light on those different aspects of ourselves.

“As we age,” he says, “many people start claiming more and more of their artistic, creative capacities.  Traveling to and living in a place that can foster that process can be a liberating experience.”

Dudley teaches travelers “how-to” skills like writing autobiography and designing journeys of remembrance that focus on the unfinished or uncompleted aspects of their personal journey.  By using structured exercises that highlight the emotional, spiritual and creative “work” yet to be done in life, people are better able to make a “map” of their future.  This “map” can be the central organizing document around which many life affirming decisions are made, including where to live and what to expect from that choice.,

One question he asked his group at various points in Morocco was: What are the rules you live by and how may some of those rules have to change in order for you to live a more fulfilling life?  There were few “answers” but many people reflected on the number of “rules” they had that were designed around their anxieties and inherited values from parents.

International Living in Marrakech

“A place like Marrakech is extraordinary.  I could live to be 1,000 years old and still never explore all that Marrakech could stimulate in me.   It is so dense and rich and complicated a place,” he said and points to the psychologist Carl Jung’s  idea that a person has an inner landscape that reflects an external landscape.   “When I was very young, I had an experience that introduced me to the desert, and I have realized that a desert landscape, like Morocco, is a match with my inner landscape,” said Dudley.

Many expats in Marrakech must have a similar “inner landscape” Dudley says. “There is a significant expatriate community there comprised of seasonal residents and those there for the duration.  One such expat was the guide Dudley had on his trip who lives in Marrakech.  He knew the culture and the history, everything about the country we were traveling through. He was an amazing resource who had gotten a head start on other expats by starting 30 years ago in the Peace Corps in northern Morocco. Instead of going home, he stayed!“

Dudley’s own volunteer experience in Iran in 1970’s shifted his view on many things and left him with the desire to return one day to Iran. “I became much more of an anthropologist than the political scientist I arrived as; much more of an artist and an appreciator of architecture and culture than I had been before living in Iran.  I saw a culture of 36 million people who were living their lives perfectly well; people who were deriving a whole lot of pleasure from their lives in ways different from my own,” he said.  “If you didn’t have such an experience when younger,” Dudley asserts, “try to spend time away for a long enough period to feel a shift taking place.  Then decide where and when to plant your own flag.”

The Imagery of Travel as a Path to Self-Discovery

Later in life, the things we choose to do are often a new weaving of experiences from our past.  The trick can be naming those events with which to weave and the design that the weaving should take.

“Intentional traveling is one way to discover which destinations are a fit for your inner culture and landscape,” said Dudley, “You want to design an environment where things can happen; where you are not so tightly wound that you won’t let innovative or new ideas enter.” The traveler-philospher, Pico Iyer says we loose ourselves in travel in order to find ourselves again. We are changed through that proccss of letting go.  Dudley is practicing that letting go process and invites others to as well.

To contact Kendall Dudley, visit www.kendalldudley.com .