Originally Posted by
Busdriver01
Can I add a different perspective to all this? You *can* work for a carrier that pays a gazillion £ per year or live in a tax free country and take home £20k/month, commuting to and from your base airport, but when all is said and done, that may very well not end up being as enjoyable as you think it would be. There's a lot to be said (for most people) for living within a reasonable distance of work, family, friends, etc. Even if it does mean you pay tax.
This hits the nail on the head. You can head off to your quick upgrade Expat job but invariably you find yourself putting off all those hobbies you were doing in the UK because you just can't do them in the sandpit or Asia. So you put your whole life on hold while you work before retiring back to your home country. Many of my past colleagues realised at around age 45-50 that actually they don't want to stay in the sandpit or Asia and strangely enough there isn't a DEC job at a legacy carrier anywhere back home. If you can't retire early from an expat gig, and the money these days isn't what it was, then it kind of defeats the purpose of being thousands of miles away from friends and family as they grow old and die in your absence. And worse still the hobbies and sports you put off when you left you're too old to now do on your return.
There's both a degree of happiness and a degree of money required in life..........