Fund A New, Better Life With These 6 Portable Careers

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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 […]
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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.
The 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 […]
Find Out MoreGrow Your Nest Egg by 8.6% a Year With This Safe, Stable Financial Tool
Do you remember when a basic savings account actually generated a bit of coin? I just checked: The last time we could earn anything north of 5%—the threshold most savers used to consider “solid income”—was the summer of 2007. Crazy to think that was more than 13 years ago. In those intervening years, we’ve become […]
Find Out MoreLaunching a Dream Business in a Spectacular Caribbean Hideaway
In early adulthood, Lee Nyhus, now 59, was stricken by wanderlust. The Chicago native traveled extensively to less-visited corners of the globe, including spending a year backpacking around Africa. Even when it came time to settle down for a while, she chose what was, at that time, a somewhat unusual destination for American expats: Tokyo. […]
Find Out MoreMy Side-Hustles Bring in up to $3,500 a Month…and They Can Do the Same for You
In the weeks and months following COVID’s emergence in the U.S., I began writing about the toll it was having and would have on older workers—namely the historically high unemployment rate for people, like me, who are over 50. Now comes more sad news. In the third quarter, more than 28 million baby boomers threw […]
Find Out MoreThe Top 3 Digital Nomad Destinations in Caribbean Belize
As working from home becomes the new norm in the U.S. and around the world, many people are beginning to wonder why they should remain in expensive urban centers when they could just as easily work online from a more affordable, beautiful, and enriching destination overseas. Unsurprisingly, one of the most popular regions among workers […]
Find Out MoreTrading in the 9-to-5 for a Caribbean Villa
In 2010, Annelise Hagan accepted a position as science director for two marine parks in Belize. This job took her to Placencia, a narrow peninsula in the south of the country known for its palm tree-lined Caribbean beaches and spectacular diving. “Placencia has the perfect mix of locals, expats, and tourists,” says Annelise. “And it’s […]
Find Out MoreThe 2 Easiest Paths to a Second Passport (and How I’m Getting Mine)
So, Eric Schmidt wants to be a Cypriot. Maybe you’ve heard of Eric, maybe not. He was a head honcho at Google for nearly two decades before he left this past May. Of course, that’s neither here nor there because what’s important about Eric Schmidt today is that last month he and his family earned […]
Find Out MorePocketing Up to $25 an Hour Working Online in Panama
I lazily open my eyes, listen to the birds singing, and once again count my blessings. It’s nearly time to go to “the office,” but that simply means rolling out of my hammock, pulling a T-shirt over my bikini, and plugging in my headset for my online lessons. My current desk looks out over the […]
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