Are you currently living the dream abroad? Did you find that the grass really is greener once you retired overseas? Or was the move a mistake? Perhaps things could just have gone more smoothly if you’d known more about your chosen destination? Would you consider helping others who are considering making such a move by offering them the facts rather than the rose tinted fiction?
Age Concern and Help the Aged are working on a project to produce 11 country specific information sheets for Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal. These will contain the pithy and relevant information about moving to live abroad, and the charities would love to hear from you if you’ve moved to live in any one of these nations.
Aimed at older people thinking about retiring overseas, it’s hoped that these information sheets will assist would-be expat retirees in making more informed decisions; and as stated, the charities involved in producing these guides would love your feedback. So why not share your experience of retiring abroad, and in so doing, help others.
The idea is that the information sheets will not be a comprehensive or legal guide to retiring to a foreign country, they will be more like a piece of advice from a critical but fair friend who has experience in moving to live abroad in the given country.
The charities are particularly keen to hear from people who have already made the move and who can therefore offer true insight to others thinking about following in their footsteps. Websites like ShelterOffshore.com can fill in all the information gaps about how to plan and make the move, but these information sheets are going to act as the first point of reference for anyone in the contemplation stages about moving to retire to a given country.
If you feel you can help with the production of the information sheets by adding your own experiences of what it’s really like to try and integrate and start a new life abroad in retirement, please click here to fill in an online survey for the charities involved in this project.
You will be redirected to an online questionnaire that is being used as a start point for the research necessary to produce these country specific informative guides. The questionnaire is fairly lengthy - but please don’t let that put you off filling it in – think about those you want to help, they really will benefit from the information you can supply them with! Even if you only feel able to answer one question in detail, the information provided will be invaluable in helping someone else make one of the biggest decisions of their lives.
If you prefer to discuss the project or give your feedback directly to someone associated with the project, as an alternative you can either .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) who is handling the guide production for Australia, Canada, France, Italy and New Zealand. Or you can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece and Portugal.
Please note, the final date for the completion of online questionnaires is Friday the 21st of August 2009! So hurry up and get contributing! Just think how valuable your advice and the benefit of your hindsight would have been when you were thinking about making the move abroad!
