South African Ex-Pats

Jo Galloway is a professional actress, singer, dancer, writer and international voice artist. 

In 2012 she moved to Los Angeles to take her career to the next level. 

Ten years and far too many productions to name later, Jo has worked with Hollywood luminaries like Jimmy Fallon and Seth MacFarlane, and is now back in SA, intending to shuttle between LA and Cape Town depending on where the work takes her. 

Jo gives us an amazing insight into Los Angeles, California, and the USA in general. 

Although there's something here for everyone, I think listeners in the performing arts will find her story particularly valuable. 

Enjoy. 

You can support this show by supporting ⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠Build-a-Set⁠ and ⁠Luggage Glove⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

As a minor celebration of the 20th episode of South African Ex-Pats, I'd like to tell you about what it's like to move to and live in Barcelona, Spain.

And in my case, why I decided to come back to South Africa. 

Barcelona is a city for those who love the good life. Work is secondary to living, there's a brilliant restaurant on every block, and the city itself features many architectural masterpieces. It's a place of high culture and drunken stag weekends. Elegant dance clubs and underground marijuana bars. It's warm-water beaches and leafy boulevards offer something for everyone. 

However, it's not all sunshine and roses. There are a few challenges to moving to Spain and living in Barcelona that I experienced and would like to share with you. 

Here are some resources for those wishing to relocate to Barcelona:

Idealista is one of the most popular property search sites for Barcelona.

There's a South Africans in Barcelona community Facebook page you can check out, although I haven't explored it much. 

A nice summary of the various visas and paths to residency from a law firm I have no affiliation with :P

You can support this show by supporting ⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠Build-a-Set⁠ and ⁠Luggage Glove⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

Sven is a technician who became a financial planner who became a technician again in order to emigrate to Canada. It turns out that they have enough financial planners. 

Sven is originally from Bulgaria, but lived in South Africa for 13 years and the visa process he and his South African wife went through is an interesting journey. 

About 30 minutes into the interview, Sven mentioned a government programme aimed at helping parents save for their children's tertiary education. Unfortunately he overestimated the amount the Canadian government would contribute, but $7200 is still a pretty handy amount considering it's free. Here is a link to the RESP Savings Plan offered in Canada. 

Enjoy. 

You can support this show by supporting ⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠Build-a-Set⁠ and ⁠Luggage Glove⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

Sherianne Kramer is an ex-pat post-doc criminal psychologist who moved to Amsterdam to complete her research, and still hasn't come home after 5 years. 

She loves the beautiful canals and the calm, safe, stable nature of the city and the country. She describes the Dutch as gentle, deeply traditional, and possessing a secret sense of fun and appreciation for beauty that belies their somewhat dour, pragmatic exterior. Also, they're very tall. 

When she's not teaching university student, Sherianne is working on her side hustle, Home.Made, a bespoke relocation business that helps South Africans relocate to the Netherlands. 

If you want to check out what she's doing, you can find her website here, her instagram here, and FB here.

Also, she mentioned the Genius Premium, a company in SA that bridges the education gap between South African kids and the schooling system in the country they're moving to. Their website is here. 

 Enjoy

You can support this show by supporting ⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠Build-a-Set⁠ and ⁠Luggage Glove⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

Simon is an old friend whose work in the hotel industry has taken him across the world. He and his family are now settled down in Brisbane, Australia, or Brizzo, or Brizza, or Brisby, probably. Australians can't call anything by their actual name. 

Simon paints an attractive portrait of the River City, and it certainly made me consider it. Between the access to nature, thriving food scene, safety, great schooling, relative scarcity of deadly animals (compared to the poisonous animals exhibit in any zoo), Brisbane sounds great.

As I mention in the upfront of the show, we got some sponsorship! Reeva Cutting, who was my first guest, has just released a cost-of-living calculator on her website, Proudly South African in Perth. Many of my guests have stressed the importance of working out a budget before you move to your new home, and this calculator will do exactly that. It's only 9 Ozbucks, so a small investment compared to literally everything else you're going to have to do to emigrate. :P

Enjoy.

You can support this show by supporting ⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠Build-a-Set⁠ and ⁠Luggage Glove⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

It was a huge pleasure to talk to Steve Reardon, a Durban boy who moved to America and obtained citizenship through a somewhat complex series of misadventures. His point about looking for pull factors of a possible new home rather than focusing on the push factors that are making you want to leave South Africa has stuck with me. 

Although I don't see myself as a person who lives in America, I think Steve's positivity makes it feel far more relatable, and his insight into the living and working in the US is profound. If you have any questions after listening to this episode, Steve has said that he's happy to help if you look him up on LinkedIn. 

Enjoy.

You can support this show by supporting ⁠⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠⁠Build-a-Set⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Luggage Glove⁠⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

In case you're wondering, St. Albans is one of those towns outside of London, but close enough to commute in for work. 

Nicole and Warren moved to the UK with their dog, Tyson (not 'Tyrone', as I so cringingly misspeak) and have been there for about 2 years. 

You can support this show by supporting ⁠⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠⁠Build-a-Set⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Luggage Glove⁠⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

My guest, David Ansara from the "Solutions with David Ansara" podcast, is the Chief Operating Office of the Centre for Risk Analysis.  In this episode he gives us a view of the short and long term risks to South Africa and its citizens, and offers us some strategic advice on setting up your plan B. 

A plan B is all about making sure that you have as many options as possible. If you don't want to emigrate now, look into obtaining an ancestral passport you may have access to. 

Build your business profile so that you have the best chance of getting job offers that come with visa sponsorship. Offshore part of your investment portfolio (more info on how to do that can be found here).   

Personally, I found this to be a fascinating conversation. David takes out the clickbait and the drama, and gives us a very level-headed appraisal of the situation in our country that goes beyond clickbait and outrage. Additionally, plan B gives me something to work on while the idea of emigrating continues to percolate in the background. 

If you want to hear more from David, you can listen to his podcast here and watch the video version on YouTube here. 

We reference David's conversation with Frans Cronje quite a bit. Here's the podcast link and here's the YouTube link.

You can support this show by supporting ⁠⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠⁠Build-a-Set⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Luggage Glove⁠⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

Rita is a copywriter from Cape Town who was offered a job in the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn. 

Most people (me included), don't know much about Estonia, and group it vaguely as "one of those eastern bloc countries". 

That's correct, but there's far more to it. Here's the first paragraph of its Wikipedia page to get you started: 

Officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland and of 2,222 islands on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), the land area is 43,432 km², and is influenced by a humid continental climate. Estonia belongs to the Baltic states with Latvia and Lithuania, and it is the smallest of the states both in land area and population. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and Tartu are the largest cities and urban areas in the country. Other notable cities include Narva, Pärnu, Kohtla-Järve and Viljandi. The official language of the country, Estonian, is the second-most-spoken Finnic language.

Rita loves the old world atmosphere and culture, combined with a huge focus on digital entrepreneurship. To me, Tallinn sounds very worthy of investigating if you don't want to (or can't) emigrate to one of the more usual South African destinations. 

You can support this show by supporting ⁠⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠⁠Build-a-Set⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Luggage Glove⁠⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.

In this episode my guests are Hailey Roos, managing director at Carrick Global Wealth Limited, and Candice Koenig, business consultant at Currency Partners. 

Together Hailey and Candice boil down the basics of moving your money offshore, whether you're planning to emigrate or not. We talk about the how much you're allowed to move, what it will cost you, and what the process is. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it's a much simpler process than I had imagined. 

Note: I've set up an affiliate partnership with Currency Partners here, who are very well-known and trusted in the forex space. If you decide to work with them in sending money abroad, using that link will pay me a small commission and cost you nothing. Any support for the show would be deeply appreciated by my fat dog, who insists she is on the edge of starvation and requires expensive kibble. 

You can support this show by supporting ⁠⁠Luggage Warehouse⁠⁠, the business my father started in the 80s, and my brother currently helms.

Two products of particular interest for emigration-curious South Africans: ⁠⁠Build-a-Set⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Luggage Glove⁠⁠.

If you need luggage, accessories, handbags, leather goods, noise-cancelling headphones and other awesome travel stuff, please check out Luggage Warehouse. We deliver nationwide and are just better than the competition.