To all my retired friends who are trying to make out on an Australian age pension, I simply say, "Outsource your retirement to Bali." A growing colony of retirees are able to call Bali home under a retirement visa available to Australians aged 55 or older who can fully support themselves. The one-year visa, which costs $1000, can be extended every year until five years has elapsed, at which time they can apply for a permanent stay permit. However there are restrictions: visitors on the retirement visa cannot work, must employ an "Indonesian maid servant" and must be able to prove that their living expenses total $US18,000 annually, close to the full Australian pension.
In Australia, if you don't own your own home, the weekly pension of $350 for rent, bills and food is not enough. Probably a lot more people would be in Bali if they realised they'd be much better off. Bali is a great leveller, with expats from unlikely backgrounds connecting in cafes and clubs. Those who would be hard-pressed to pay the weekly grocery bill in Australia can afford to eat out frequently there. And let's face it, you're not doing too badly as a pensioner if you can afford a pembantu, a chauffeur, a swimming pool, and the odd posh restaurant meal.
The trouble with paradise, of course, is that it can never last forever. In recent years many of Bali's problems - water shortages, frequent electricity blackouts, dodgy phone and internet connections, poor sewage facilities, traffic congestion - have increased along with the much bigger inflow of tourists and untrammelled development (this year the island will welcome more than three million tourists). Starry-eyed newcomers also need to learn the concept of jam karet or "rubber time", where appointments made often don't eventuate and tomorrow never happens.
And don't believe for a moment that people who live in balmy exotic climes don't have problems or that all your own personal problems will suddenly disappear behind those tropical swaying palm trees. They may do so for the short duration of a two-week holiday but as soon as the everyday life has reasserted itself, so will your usual disposition. The number of positives and negatives are about the same wherever you go and entirely depend on your own internal filters through which you view life.
If you want to "outsource your retirement to Bali", do it with your eyes wide open and read Bali Raw by Australian author and Bali resident Malcolm Scott. It is a must-read for anyone who is thinking of travelling to Indonesia's Island of the Gods.
As for my own "outsourcing", read more here.
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