Expat Focus: For anyone moving or living abroad

When it came time to think about retiring, Ben Zabulis and his partner Hillary quickly realised that the typical European expat retiree destinations, like Spain, weren't quite right for them.

Instead, they sold up in the UK and moved to Hong Kong; a place that had captured their hearts years before.

Ben's a regular columnist for Expat Focus, and he joins us in this episode to talk about how he's settled back into expat life.

In this week's podcast, Expat Focus talks to John Siskar about his experience of teaching in Germany. Having moved from being a kindergarten teacher all the way through to secondary school, John has a wealth of experience to share!

What can you expect as a foreign teacher working in Germany? And what do you do when your school goes bankrupt? American expat John Siskar wasn't planning to dive into an international teaching career when he went travelling six years ago. And he certainly wasn't expecting to later find himself with an almost empty bank account. Today on the show, John shares his insights into teaching in Germany, and explains how he navigated a really difficult situation.

What was your biggest struggle when you moved to your new country? For Melanie Aronson, an American in Sweden, it was overcoming this unexpectedly deep sense of loneliness. She felt it so strongly, she decided to make a friend-finding app called Panion to help others who were feeling the same way she was. Keep listening to hear all about Panion, and Melanie's experiences in Sweden.

Remote working has definitely hit the mainstream … and around the world, more and more people are taking the opportunity to be 'temporary locals.' Combining their jobs with longer-term travel, staying in one country for a month, or a few months at a time. Longer than the typical annual holiday allowance.

But how do longer stints abroad – when you're working – impact your tax situation? Today on the show, Oliver Heslop joins me again. He's the owner of GETS – Global Expatriate Tax Services,based in the UK. But he works with tax experts all over the world.

He's going to talk through some things to consider if you're living the digital nomad life. I should point out, Oliver's not giving any specific advice in this episode, but you can ask him directly if you have a burning question; just go to the 'financial' tab at expatfocus.com and then click to 'UK tax advice.'

American Ashley Bartner can tell you all about it – and she's going to, today on the Expat Focus Podcast.

10 years ago, she and her husband Jason left the hustle and bustle of New York for a big old farmhouse in the beautiful Marche region of Italy. They've turned it into a very successful organic farm, inn and cooking school – called La Tavola Marche. But that's not all - Ashley and Jason are also helping other expats lay the groundwork to realise their own dreams of 'living the sweet life' in Italy, after experiencing first-hand, the consequences of being unprepared.

What's your motivation for moving abroad? British expat Melanie Haynes was ready for an adventure, and it led her and her husband to move to Denmark. More than eight years later, they're still there, living in the capital of Copenhagen. And Melanie's blog dejligedays has become a go-to for many English-speaking expats in the city; she shares her discoveries, recommendations and gives newcomers advice for settling in. In this episode, Melanie shares her relocation story, and provides a little insight into the Danish way of life.

For a lot of us when we move abroad, the last thing we really want to think about is our tax situation; getting paperwork in order, remembering reporting dates and deadlines for a country we're no longer living in.

It might not be exciting, but it's necessary, and our guest in this episode is going to run through some common scenarios for UK expats.

OLIVER HESLOP is the owner of GETS – Global Expatriate Tax Services, and his company has tax specialists based in the UK, the US and Australia.

During our chat, Oliver will provide some interesting tips and examples, but it's important to point out that what he talks about here is not meant to be specific advice – for that, you should get in touch with him or another tax advisor.