Fund A New, Better Life With These 6 Portable Careers

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Pocket up to $50 an Hour as an Online English Teacher
If you had complete freedom to transform your life, what would you do? Where would you live? How would you spend your days? Maybe you’d like to live next to a tropical beach so you could spend your mornings and evenings strolling barefoot on the sand. Or perhaps you’d prefer a house amid a lush […]
Find Out MoreThe Easiest Way to Earn a Good Online Income
My day usually starts at the ocean around sunrise, which this time of year, is right about 7 a.m. here on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. The sun sets about 11 hours later, and there’s nothing but sunshine in between. I can’t imagine a better environment. But my days weren’t always like this. Years ago, […]
Find Out MoreHow to Be Good at Literally Anything
You ever watch a movie and a character does something that literally makes you cringe—makes you feel uncomfortable, even though it’s only make believe? I had that moment recently while cataloging several screenplays I’ve written over the years. I currently have a script in play in Hollywood—a romantic comedy I finished over the holiday break. […]
Find Out More“Better Than a Maserati”—A Laidback Life in a Tropical Paradise
When Ian Douglass struck up a friendship with David Konwiser in grade school in Los Angeles, he didn’t realize it would change his whole life. David’s mother Cecilia is from Costa Rica and, when she saw how much Ian loved surfing and nature, she was adamant he visit her home country. After a decade of […]
Find Out MoreThe Top 3 Digital Nomad Destinations in Costa Rica
If there is a silver lining to this dreadful pandemic, it might just be the work-from-home, work-from-anywhere revolution. Over the past year, companies have learned—much to their surprise, it seems—that workers are just as committed and productive outside of the confines of their cubicles. Meanwhile, workers have discovered a new, more flexible way of earning […]
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Jeff D. Opdyke is The Savvy Retiree, your guide to a richer life in retirement. An American expat based in Prague, he spent 17 years as a financial writer at The Wall Street Journal, and has written several books on personal finance, investing, and alternative assets. Today, he travels globally as a freelancer writer and has visited nearly 70 countries while writing about the best ways to earn money, save money, and live a vibrant, adventurous retirement.
I Travel the World as a Food Blogger…and You Could Do the Same
For almost five years, I’ve been earning a living online and traveling the world through blogging. In that time, I’ve visited more than 60 countries across five continents, all the while working with companies, brands, and tourism boards to promote services and destinations that I believe would be favorable to my audience. I’ve worked with […]
Find Out More3 Steps for Turning Your Existing Skills Into an Online Income
Despite the massive boom in freelancing, many baby boomers and Gen Xers still have the impression that developing an online income is unrealistic or somehow out of reach for them. Their thinking goes that you need to have advanced skills in a technical field like programming or web design to build an online income. But […]
Find Out MoreForget the 9-to-5—Get Ready for the 3-2-2…or Something Even Better
Harvard thinks that the 9-to-5 is dead—that we’re heading for a 3-2-2 world. I think Harvard’s on the right track, just a bit off with the math. The way I see it, we’re heading for 24-7. Some of us, in fact, are already there. And I can tell you from experience, it’s a good place […]
Find Out MoreThe End of America…and What You Should Do About It
I was born on Jan. 27, 1966. In a few weeks, I’ll be 55. I’ve seen firsthand a lot of the events that defined the U.S. over those intervening years. But Jan. 6, 2021…that’s the day America as I know it ended. Let’s call it Insurrection Day. Understand that what I am about to write […]
Find Out MoreHow to Make Money as an Expat in France
Expats around the world are an enterprising bunch, and perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in France. When you’re surrounded by so much natural beauty, and some pretty amazing food and wine to boot, you tend to want to stick around. I’ve been able to carve out a niche for myself by working as […]
Find Out MorePaid Trips to Barcelona and Las Vegas: The Hidden Benefits of Freelancing
In 2006, Jennifer Choban moved from Portland, Oregon to Guanajuato, Mexico. She’d gotten divorced about a year before and was looking for a change of scenery and a renewed sense of adventure. So, when a coworker told her she was buying a house in Guanajuato, “I suggested to her that I take care of it,” […]
Find Out MoreEarning Remotely From the World’s Top Retirement Haven
U.S. expat Bill Cotter was drawn to Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast by his love for surfing and his desire for a more laidback, nature-filled life. The unspoiled, biodiverse region, which includes beachfront communities such as Dominical, Uvita, and Ojochal, combines affordability and spectacular scenery with modern infrastructure and amenities. This helps explain its growing […]
Find Out MoreThe Freelancing Income Ladder: What It Is and How to Climb It
Arthur Ashe, the famous tennis champion, offered a quote that, to me, rings so true for baby boomers and Gen Xers who want to begin freelancing online: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Ashe may have uttered those words long before the online gig economy became popular, but they […]
Find Out MoreDigital Nomad Life in a Costa Rican Beach Town
My love affair with Costa Rica started 20 years ago. Trudging through the snow in Boston to the office of my first job, I peered into a fogged-up travel agent’s window and saw an ad for a last-minute tour to Costa Rica. It was my first and last organized tour—I hated being on someone else’s […]
Find Out MoreHow to Teach English Abroad
Do you dream of living in another country long enough to truly explore the depths of its culture, but haven’t figured out a way to do it without draining your bank account? If you answered “yes” to that question, then I have the solution for you. It’s one of the best ways to earn abroad, […]
Find Out MorePut Part of Your Nest Egg in This Asset Right Now
At the moment, the U.S. is home to about 18.6 million millionaires. If every one of those millionaires wanted to buy just one bitcoin…they couldn’t. There aren’t enough bitcoins to go around. There’s a bigger lesson there that we’ll return to in a moment. Here in the 21st century’s third decade, we—society, writ large—sit on […]
Find Out MoreA Fresh Start in Costa Rica
For decades, Costa Rica has drawn enterprising expats and part-time retirees who want to earn an income while enjoying a relaxing, affordable life overseas.
Find Out MoreWhy I Was Happy to Work During My Wedding Trip
Country #68. Montenegro. I’m here to get married—well, actually, I am already married as you read this. We—my partner, Yuliya, and I—are down on the Adriatic coast, in the quaint seaside town of Budva. We’ve been here only a few days, but I can assure you we’ll be back. This is a beautiful, mountainous country […]
Find Out MoreHow to Start a Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping is one of the most accessible ways to become an online entrepreneur and build a new income you control. As the owner of your own dropshipping store, you can work from anywhere, choose what you sell, and set your own prices. In time, you could potentially even build your store into a brand and […]
Find Out MoreFrom the New York Rat Race to Early Retirement in Thailand
“Right now, I feel blessed. I’m doing what I want, where I want, when I want,” says Ellen Makleroy. The Florida native is sipping an iced coffee surrounded by video and photography gear on the shaded deck of the Zanook wakeboarding park outside of Bangkok, Thailand. Behind her, wakeboarders are jumping ramps and doing tricks […]
Find Out MoreI Earned $44,358 From My Side-Gigs in 2020…and I Could Have Earned More
Here at the end of the year, I have a number to share with you: $44,358. That’s my total, pre-tax haul from all my various freelancing activities in 2020: financial columns, writing walking tours, editing screenplays, the screenplay for which I sold the rights, microstock photography, income from an e-book I wrote, a bit of […]
Find Out MoreA Charitable Retirement Mission in the Algarve
More than two decades ago, retired businessman Sidney Richardson traded a high-pressure career in the property and insurance sector for the sunny beaches and relaxed lifestyle of the Algarve in southern Portugal. With 300 days of sunshine a year, stunning beaches, and world-class golf, the Algarve is now an internationally renowned tourist and expat destination. […]
Find Out MoreActive, Single, and Happy in This Tropical City…
I set up my tripod in a sunny patch between two trees, excited to capture this gorgeous day on my smartphone camera. There’s lush foliage all around me…old-growth trees, flowering shrubs, a variety of grasses in a variety of colors. The sky is an intense cornflower blue, and there’s a faint scent of frangipani in […]
Find Out MoreYou Could Get a 50% Tax Break for Living in Europe…
Finally—a remote-worker incentive plan that actually makes a lot of sense. Greece! I’m sure you’ve seen in recent months all the Caribbean locations that are offering special visas to Americans (and others) who want to live and work from the beach as digital nomads. That’s all well and good, and the Caribbean is certainly a […]
Find Out MoreThe Best Places to Live as a Remote Worker
“Where’s the best place to live as a remote worker?” I regularly hear some iteration of that question from friends and acquaintances, so I thought I would answer it today in light of new research out of Upwork, the freelance website I regularly write about. The company surveyed a bunch of Americans and concluded that […]
Find Out MoreThe Fun, Easy Way to Learn Spanish From Home
Let me start by saying that I have no natural aptitude for languages. I’m a 59-year-old retired police detective who still has vivid memories of trying, and failing miserably, to learn French in high school. But once I retired, my wife and I thought we’d like to travel to warmer climes during the bitterly cold […]
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