Hello, fancy bumping into you!
My name is Xolisa and I’m a proud South African who’s been living in Amsterdam, NL for the last 5+ years. For all my years as an expat in the Netherlands, I’ve lived like someone who would eventually move back to South Africa and continue with what hasn’t been a horrible career.
Lately, however, I’m being plagued by the thought of where to retire and how not-so-young I am, so I’ve been forced to confront the dreaded “R-word”. I call it the “R-word” because the naivety of youth lets us (well, at least I speak for myself here) think we’ll be young forever and well, not so much. I mean, I’ve always lived my life as someone who will die tomorrow so I do whatever the f**k I want, and frankly, that’s one of my best traits, really. But now, I’ve been thinking about the day this all stops: what happens then? And as a very Plan A, B and C person, I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t thought that far about retirement outside of the traditional work instruments/general planning, etc. Don’t even get me started on tax liability in two countries 😅