{"id":1756,"date":"2014-01-14T04:42:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T09:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2020-11-20T09:52:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T14:52:22","slug":"living-paradise-without-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/living-paradise-without-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Living In Paradise Without Working"},"content":{"rendered":"
So, you\u2019ve decided to move to \u201cparadise\u201d… but how are you going to survive financially?<\/p>\n
As Cecil Lewis says in The Trumpet is Mine, the whole point of living in paradise is to enjoy a comfortable, lazy life.<\/p>\n
His paradise was the South Seas \u2013 \u201ca shore where the struggle for existence is unknown, and where, for once, the rose proliferates without a thorn.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA shore where the struggle for existence is unknown…\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that\u2019s a privilege usually reserved for millionaires. Since I\u2019m not a millionaire I wasn\u2019t able to afford the luxury of jetting off to my own private island. My goal was quite different.<\/p>\n
I wanted to find a way to generate a sustainable cash flow sufficient to allow me to live on a tropical island… without having to work.<\/p>\n
I achieved it. For two years, I lived with my Chinese girlfriend Yu Xia on the tiny jungle-covered islands off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia in the South China Sea. One island I stayed on was the stunningly beautiful Pulau Tioman<\/a>, location for the \u201cwaterfall shower scene\u201d in South Pacific: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m gonna wash that man right outta my hair!\u201d<\/p>\n We took a shower in that waterfall!<\/p>\n Lewis\u2019s South Seas imagery captures Tioman very well: \u201dPrimordial memories of palms and coral reefs and sun-drenched sands; of fruits and flowering trees; of women warm in welcome; of peace and isolation\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n For two long years, working as a business teacher in sweltering Singapore by day, I sat hunched over an old green-baize table on the balcony of my tiny apartment, developing a system that would generate a steady income that did not require my physical presence.<\/p>\n My solution enabled me to exist on those dream islands for a further two years without working a single day…. a permanent holiday in paradise!<\/p>\n Handpicked Related Content: Travel The World For Next To Nothing With Frequent Flyer Miles<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n So, how was it done? You need to consider both aspects of the problem: income and expenses. Let\u2019s start with expenses. How much money do you NEED to live in paradise? I am not asking how much do you WANT.<\/p>\n Wants are infinite, but needs, actually, are very few. My definition of a need is \u201csomething without which daily existence would not be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n To save you wracking your brains, here\u2019s my list:<\/p>\n At its most basic, you can only sleep in one room at a time, wear one set of clothes at a time and eat one meal at a time. As a multi-millionaire once told me over a few too many beers in a Singapore caf\u00e9: \u201cIf you\u2019ve got one each of those three things what more do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n In my experience, having material things is not what makes you happy \u2013 and neither does living in a particular place \u2013 even if it\u2019s Tioman Island. The only thing that counts is who you\u2019re with. Think for a moment about your own happiest moments. You\u2019ll see that they revolve totally around a person, not a place or a thing. Anywhere is paradise if you\u2019re with the right person.<\/p>\n Therefore, all you need do is work out how much your monthly expenses are for the three things listed above, and that\u2019s how much you need!<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that most \u201cparadises\u201d are balmy tropical idylls, and all year round warmth offers several cost advantages:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay, let\u2019s move on to \u201cincome.\u201d \u00a0There are only four methods of earning money:<\/p>\n Clearly, running a \u201cbusiness\u201d<\/a> \u2013 as defined above – is the ONLY method of earning money whilst living in paradise.<\/p>\n The question now becomes what sort of business?<\/p>\n All businesses share one common trait: they deliver a desired value to the buyer.<\/p>\n The value, whatever it is, must be something people want.<\/p>\n And it must also arise spontaneously \u2013 otherwise, we will have to keep advertising our business, and that\u2019s WORK.<\/p>\n Whatever we offer, it has to be something that will be \u201cin demand.\u201d<\/p>\n Our next question is, should we offer a product or a service?<\/p>\n A service usually involves the physical effort of a person. A few Internet services defy this general rule, but it\u2019s difficult to run an Internet business<\/a> from a desert island!<\/p>\n Only a product offers the opportunity of earning without being physically present. This is what marketing gurus call the quality of \u201cseparability.\u201d<\/p>\n Should it be a physical product? Possibly, but selling physical products means you have to deliver them to buyers, and that\u2019s WORK.<\/p>\n Then, there\u2019s the issue of accepting payment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a plain fact that money only comes from other people, but doesn\u2019t that mean we have to be physically near the people we accept money from?<\/p>\n Lastly, we have the issue of \u201csustainability.\u201d Whatever product we offer, it has to sell dependably, year in, year out, and the product has to be something not subject to the vagaries of taste.<\/p>\n Phew! Quite a problem!<\/p>\n But, as with all big problems, when we break it down into smaller ones a workable solution usually can be found. Remember, all we need is a situation where our income equals our expenses consistently, and we have reached the shore where the struggle for existence is unknown.<\/p>\n My solution is given below. I\u2019d be amazed if it was the only one, or even the best, and I look forward to hearing your own ideas and suggestions.<\/p>\n Problem 1 – \u201cIn Demand\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n There was one area where I knew demand in Asia was both enormous and insatiable: education.<\/p>\n Problem 2 \u2013 \u201cSeparability\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I needed a product that could be sold and delivered without my presence… preferably while I was lying on the beach! My answer was: a book.<\/p>\n Problem 3 \u2013 \u201cSustainability\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I needed a book that would sell year after year, never losing its appeal. After several weeks I hit on an answer: textbook.<\/p>\n In two days I had written a 20-page \u201cmanuscript\u201d and showed it to a Singapore publisher. They said, \u201cExpand it into a book.\u201d<\/p>\n The final \u201ctextbook\u201d is a 130-page paperback on English for Business consisting entirely of \u201cmodel\u201d answers for past exam papers. The publisher distributed it in bulk to schools and bookshops all over Asia… and students really loved it!<\/p>\n For our purposes, textbooks offer two crucial advantages:<\/p>\n But the best thing about a textbook is you write it once and it goes on earning forever without you ever doing anything else.<\/p>\n In year one my book sold 3,293 copies at US$8.25 each = US$27,167.<\/p>\n I was paid US$1 for every copy sold = US$3,293 in royalties, averaging around US$275 per month. Thus, did it work for me?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s my monthly budget for living in \u201cparadise.\u201d<\/p>\n Book Royalties – $275<\/p>\n Capital from personal savings – $44<\/p>\n Total income – $319<\/p>\n Shelter – “A” Frame Chalet on Tioman Beach – $163<\/p>\n Clothes – two Hawaiian shirts and two pairs of shorts – $0<\/p>\n Food – simple breakfast and an evening meal – $122<\/p>\n Misc. – laundry, postage, etc. – $34<\/p>\n Total Expenses -$319<\/p>\n Did I forget to mention that accounting isn\u2019t much of a problem either?<\/p>\n I hope you enjoyed reading this article: <\/b>Living In Paradise Without Working.<\/b> If you have any questions, please contact<\/b> our office HERE<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n Here is<\/b> probably the most extensive ebook on <\/b>Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Eliminating Your Taxes, Protecting Your Assets And Regaining Privacy Over Your Life And Investments<\/i><\/b>. It is called<\/b> The<\/b> Ultimate Guide To Going Offshore<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n In addition, here’s a podcast from The Expat Money Show with Mikkel Thorup<\/a>, where Mikkel talks to Nora Dunn about travelling the world rent free!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Excerpted from “Can It Be Done? Living in Paradise without Working: A Surprisingly Realistic Approach” in Escape From America Magazine, Issue 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living In Paradise Without Working So, you\u2019ve decided to move to \u201cparadise\u201d… but how are you going to survive financially? As Cecil Lewis says in The Trumpet is Mine, the whole point of living in paradise is to enjoy a comfortable, lazy life. His paradise was the South Seas \u2013 \u201ca shore where the struggle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":43419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,71,127,142,257,258,338,396,465],"yst_prominent_words":[20250,1977,20253,17574,20252,3336,1768,20248,35297,1960,35299,7368,35298,3349,20255,20251,20249,20254,2092,2000],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/pexels-tom-fisk-3531814.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43426,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/43426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How I Lived In Paradise Without Working<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Expenses<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Income<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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My Solution To Living In Paradise Without Working
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
My Monthly Budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Income
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\nExpenses<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n