She was writing an article on the pros and cons of moving abroad, and wanted my “expert opinion” on the topic … which naturally I was more than happy to provide (not least since the magazine has a monthly circulation of half a million readers!).

The article has just come out. And – aside from my own contribution – it makes for fascinating reading.

Expat Challenges

The piece features case studies of people who have moved from the UK to some of the world’s most popular expat destinations: France, Italy, Spain, Australia and the United States. Each highlights the issues they have faced, and offers pointers to anyone following in their footsteps (much of which echoes the topics I address in my book).

Among the biggest challenges the expats encountered were:

• Housing problems
• Unfamiliarity with local legal processes and requirements
• Acclimatising to the local weather
• Finding social outlets and integrating into the community
• Having a viable way to earn money
• Missing family and friends

Hopefully the tips and advice contained in the article will prove a valuable primer for those readers also dreaming of a life overseas!

Related posts:

1. Moving Abroad for Love
2. Living Abroad and the Joys of Family Support
3. Mass British Exodus Waiting to Happen?

She will be joining the thousands of doctors and nurses who have left the UK in the last decade to practice in the Antipodes. Many have gone willingly. Disenchanted by the NHS, they are eager to take up positions on the other side of the world that will be relatively better paid, and offer the lifestyle benefits that come from living in Australia or New Zealand.

The doctor I spoke to is moving for similar reasons: she can’t find a job pursuing her specialism in England, but has the chance to do so if she goes abroad. And as she has family in New Zealand already it makes the relocation that much easier.

Nevertheless, she hopes it will only be temporary, and that within five years she’ll be back in the UK, which is where she said she really wants to be.

It makes for a tricky choice – stay at home and compromise your chosen career path, or leave the country and the life you know for a better job and its future prospects.

And it is not just medics in the UK grappling with this quandary. Many people in many professions in many countries around the world face similar dilemmas.

Which would you prioritise?

Related posts:

1. The Beauty of a Portable Career
2. Mass British Exodus Waiting to Happen?
3. Living Abroad and the Joys of Family Support

So what are your priorities?

Most of us – myself included – get batted around like a pinball from one activity to the next. Our days are spent finishing up that urgent project at work for which the boss is breathing down our necks … seeing to the needs of our kids … phoning parents to check how they are … dashing to the shops to pick up a last-minute birthday present.

We go to bed exhausted, only to get up tomorrow and do it all over again. Lives spent scuttling from one weekend to the next, firefighting whatever today’s most pressing need happens to be.

But what about that life you’d really like to be leading? The one you keep nestled somewhere close to your heart?

We all have one, don’t we? That ‘if I won the Lottery …’ vision of how things would be in a perfect world. Where you’d like to live. How you’d like to spend your time. And with whom. The long-term dream.

Making that vision reality though takes consistent action, and time. Progressive, daily steps. And to do anything on a daily basis means prioritising.

It’s something with which I still struggle. But by persevering it’s starting to pay off. In fact I’m feeling pretty good, for I’ve finally finished revising and proofing the print version of my book on the pros and cons of moving abroad. It is now with the printer, the last step before public release next week!

It’s not been easy mind.

As with so many other people around the world, it’s been a tough 18 months.

The financial crisis has forced me to scramble for work like never before. And outside of the long work hours are my commitments as a husband and father.

As a result, it’s not always easy to find time to do the ‘non-urgent’ writing I really want, the books and screenplays that one day I hope will be my full-time occupation.

I realised though that unless I made the time, prioritised the writing in my day, it would never get done. And my dreams of being an author would go the same way.

It’s the same in all aspects of life. We all have to find time to pursue our dreams, whatever they are.

If you want to learn the piano it’s never going to happen unless you sit at the keyboard on a regular basis – preferably every day – and hammer out the notes.

How are you ever going to get your golf handicap down if you don’t go to the driving range, or get out on the course?

Ditto moving abroad. There may never be a great time to up-sticks. There are always other financial pressures, kids about to change schools, new job promotions in the offing. Valid obstacles that keep you from taking action, from grabbing that life you want.

But that’s the choice you must make. You have to seize the moment – take the requisite steps, however small, and make progress. Without it, your life will never become what you want it to be.

Related posts:

1. Expat Living By the Book
2. Searching for a Better Life Abroad?
3. Book Publishing: The Future … Part I

At the time I remember thinking ‘Blimey, that’s the life.’ Writing a few hours a day and then trailing around the French countryside the rest of the time.

Hardly a deep, or unique reaction I know. Everyone thought the same, which was why the book went on to sell so many copies and turned Peter Mayle into a rich and famous man.

What was perhaps different was my next thought – ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Become a writer, first and foremost. And live abroad.

Well, I’ve done the moving bit all right – first to the States, and then six years ago to Spain. But now, at last, I’ve got a book coming out too, which I hope will be the start of an even more wonderful journey.

There is, after all, a certain kudos to being a writer.

Millionaire novelists like J.K. Rowling, John Grisham and Stephen King spring to mind. Or perhaps the literary cool of an Ernest Hemingway, Jay McInerney or Zadie Smith.

And the non-fiction arena is an even bigger market. Self-help bibles, business success stories, health and fitness guides, even cookery books have the power to turn their authors into celebrity figures.

And even if it doesn’t make the New York Times bestseller lists, a book can act as a badge of status that a writer can leverage for speaking engagements, workshops, coaching programmes and a host of other money-spinning activities.

No wonder so many people dream of becoming an author.

But the traditional publishing world has an uncertain future.

There are the big success stories of course, with millions of copies of certain titles – not least the Harry Potter series – flying off the shelves.

Nevertheless, reports indicate that for years the general public as a whole has been reading less and less. It doesn’t bode well for your business then if demand for your product is steadily falling.

Plus publishing has an idiosyncratic business model. For while the publishers bear the expense of producing and – less frequently these days – promoting their books, any unsold ones can be returned by the retailer without having to pay for them. The publisher then has to find warehouse space to store them, or pay for them to be pulped.

In other words, they face all the risk for the success or otherwise of their products. Can you imagine any other business working that way?

So it’s no wonder publishers are keen to focus on what they think will be surefire successes – the celebrity writers with marketable names, and established literary big guns with a track record.

Which isn’t to say new writers can’t break in. Arguably those that are good enough, and keep submitting, will get noticed by agents and publishers, who are full of talented people as keen to sign the next literary superstar as the writer is to be one.

But it’s not easy for the aspiring debutant. And the rewards for all that work are often pitiful.

Meanwhile a mass of mediocre books continue to hit the display stands, largely on the strength of the author’s name blazoned across the top.

But an alternative future is emerging … which I’ll come to in Part II.

Related posts:

1. Expat Book: The Long and Winding Road
2. Expat Living By the Book
3. Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

Mike Harling - author of Postcards From Across the Pond

I started this tour just as summer was beginning, so it seems fitting to end it just as summer draws to a close and autumn takes over.  It’s been fun and I’ve met a lot of great people, but touring is tiring, even in the virtual world, so I’m taking advantage of that magic we call the Internet to round up the Kindness of Strangers Tour by relying on the kindness of several strangers at once.  In a way, making my final tour stop to ten locations simultaneously seems the perfect ending for it – one big autumnal burst before quietly fading away.

This tour began as a means of promoting my book, but it soon became an end in itself and took on a life of its own.  Very often, I found myself having such a good time “visiting” people around the globe that I forgot to mention the book.  To date, my trip has taken me from Britain to Canada, Australia, Tenerife and even back to my own hometown, ending up here in sunny Spain with Paul.

It’s a fitting final stop, as this is where the book started out, sort of.  My publisher lives in Spain and she was one of the first stops on the tour.  Additionally, Paul has the same publisher, so after I finish this post we’re going to load up the car with Coronas on ice and head over to her place.  I’m sure Lean Marketing Press won’t mind two of their authors showing up just to say, “Hi!”

I have to say, of all the adventures I might have imagined for my life as a young boy, touring the blogsphere on other people’s blogs was not a contender.  But then the idea of leaving my quiet, rural life, moving to England, marrying a foreigner and writing a book about it never occurred to me, either.  I’m glad and grateful for having done both, however, and although the tour is coming to an end, the adventure continues.

May yours continue as well.

Thanks and Good-bye from
The 2009 KINDNESS of STRANGERS TOUR
Visit the Tour Page for the latest Tour updates.

Michael Harling is the author of Postcards From Across the Pond - dispatches from an accidental expat.

“Laugh out loud funny regardless of which side of the pond you call home.  Bill Bryson move over, there’s a new American expat in town with a keen sense of humor.” — Jeff Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate.

Buy the Book: http://www.lindenwald.com/booksale.htm
Follow the Tour: http://www.lindenwald.com/thetour.htm
Visit the Home Page: http://postcardsfromacrossthepond.blogspot.com/

Related posts:

1. Expat Book: The Long and Winding Road
2. Book Publishing: The Future … Part I
3. Mass British Exodus Waiting to Happen?

According to HSBC Bank International’s new Expat Existence survey, the best place to be an expatriate is in fact Singapore, followed by the United Arab Emirates and the US.

The HSBC report sought to investigate the opportunities and challenges that expats face in their new locations. To this end it ranked the countries according to a variety of factors that assessed expats’ ability to earn and save, their quality of accommodation, the level of luxury enjoyed (such as access to private healthcare, pool ownership, and the ability to employ staff), and a country’s popularity in terms of how long expats live there.

I wouldn’t disagree with the findings. I haven’t been to Singapore since the early 90s, but at the time I found it a clean and pleasant (if somewhat sterile) city.

It’s got an equable – albeit humid – climate, high education standards, low unemployment and good job opportunities, superb restaurants, low tax and living costs, and it serves as a convenient hub for travel in the wider region.

I can’t directly comment on the UAE, having never been there. However, as the CIA World Factbook notes, it has a high per capita income, strong economic growth and zero taxes in its Free Trade Zones. The money-earning potential therefore must be a particular lure. On the flip side I would imagine its climate is a significant drawback though.

The US has evident advantages too. My wife and I lived in New York for a year and loved it: the bustle and excitement, the opportunity to pursue the ‘American Dream,’ the chance to travel around what is an enormous and extremely varied country. I can therefore well-understand the allure it holds (which will no doubt increase once President Bush finally leaves office!).

By contrast, some traditional expat locations fared less well in the HSBC survey.

Australia came in 10^th, having received high marks for levels of luxury, accommodation, and the ability to earn and save, but with a low score for longevity. Spain, meanwhile, was 12^th and France 13^th.

The UK, which trailed in 14^th, proved the most expensive expat location for accommodation. It also ranked as the least luxurious, with decreases reported in nine of the 11 luxury categories. This will come as no surprise to the millions of British citizens who indicate they are planning their own escape from the country.

However, before you get carried away with the overall rankings and start changing your plans, it’s worth paying attention to the longevity scores. And here Europe came out triumphant.

The report found 82 percent of the expat respondents in the Netherlands have been there three or more years. Germany had the next highest figure, with 77 percent, while Spain was close behind with 76 percent.

No doubt there are a whole slew of reasons to account for this. Factors such as a reasonable year-round climate, ease of accessibility for trips back home, decent infrastructure (including transport, telecommunications, healthcare and education), political stability and a rich cultural heritage.

So although a hefty pay package and an army of domestic staff may be appealing, the financials of your move should not be the be-all and end-all. Rather, relocating abroad should be about improving your overall quality of life. Ultimately that is what will make it an enjoyable, and successful, experience.

Related posts:

1. Good Housekeeping Article on Moving Abroad
2. Language Learning
3. Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

Coincidentally I had watched Michael Clayton, which Pollack produced and acted in, only the night before. The story follows the struggles of two men, the eponymous hero (played by George Clooney) and his colleague, lawyer Arthur Edens, who are caught up in a class-action lawsuit against an agrochemical production company. Both feel trapped in their current situations. Both desperately want to change their lives, to make them better, to be the people they want to be.

It seems a fitting testament to Pollack. While he may not have had the public status of the likes of a Clooney or Spielberg, in the industry he was a highly-regarded and influential director and producer. And as George Clooney’s tribute put it: “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.”

Could any of us hope for a better eulogy? To feel perhaps we’ve contributed in some small way to making the world a better place, to have pursued our dreams and ideals in our careers and lives, and to have brought some happiness to the people around us along the way.

So think about what it is that you truly want for your life. What would make you feel happy and fulfilled? Perhaps it’s that move abroad you’ve been dreaming about. Or a new job. Whatever it is, now is the time to shoot for it. Sure it may take a struggle, but aren’t the rewards worth fighting for? After all, it is your life.

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