In our Pension Diaries series, we speak to people of all ages in the UK to find out how much or how little they have saved for retirement and the realities of putting money aside for your future.
This week, we speak to Nic McCarthy, 62, who left the UK in 2001 and has been effectively retired since the age of 38.
Nic had a well-paid job and luxurious lifestyle in the UK. However, after becoming disenchanted with everything, he left the UK. He reveals life is so cheap overseas, he has more money than he will ever need and has two private pensions he has not even touched.
Tell me about your career in the UK
I grew up in Lancashire and then did a music degree at London University, followed by a postgraduate degree at Guildford’s University of Surrey.
I was about 23 when I graduated and didn’t know what to do, so I began a career of teaching the piano during the days and playing the piano in the evenings.
My repertoire grew rapidly and I remember playing a piano at a hotel in Godalming. Unbeknown to me, the actor Marlon Brando came for a drink to hear some live music. He complimented me on my piano playing and invited me to the bar for a drink and a chat.
He said I should be playing in London and gave me the contact details for the big Geraldo agency. I then went for an audition, but it soon became evident that I’d got the job before I even turned up.
My new agent gave me a Sunday night residency in the Dorchester Hotel on Hyde Park Corner.
That very first night, I found myself in Elizabeth Taylor’s suite and getting £100 tips from oil sheikhs. Back in the 80s, that was very good money.
Very soon, my agent gave me residencies in other five-star hotels such as the Carlton in Sloane Square.
Nic had a lucrative career playing the piano in upmarket hotels and teaching piano to children from expensive schoolsWhat was your financial situation like then?
As well as playing the piano in the evenings, I was teaching piano to children from all the really posh schools in their big houses. I was working around 60 hours a week and was earning about £6,000 a month, which was a fair amount of money back then.
I was self-employed and had accountants. I was in demand and could pretty much charge what I wanted. I originally bought a three-bed house in Guildford and made it into a four-bed. My friends were living there and paying rent.
I then bought a six-bedroom house in Guildford which was three storeys and had friends living there as well. I bought a 1960s Mercedes convertible which I barely had time to drive.
What pensions do you have?
I took out three private pensions while I was working and I paid into them regularly. Then, when I sold my house just before I left the UK, I put a lump sum into some of the pensions.
One of the pensions matured when I was 50 and had around £100,000 in it. I took the money even though I didn’t need it as I was living in the Philippines where the cost of living was virtually nothing.
I have still got two private pensions. One has about £80,000 in it and the other £20,000. They matured when I was 60, but I haven’t touched them as I don’t know what to do with the money.
After leaving the UK, I continued paying voluntary national insurance contributions all the way, so once I get to 67, I will be entitled to the UK state pension too.
When and why did you leave the UK?
When I was playing piano at the Carlton, I met a much older pianist who was world-class and when I chatted to him, I could tell the excitement had long gone for him. That night, as I drove back to my home, I was thinking: ‘How can that guy be so cynical about what he does when the money is so good?’
But a decade later, I felt exactly the same. My six-bedroom house felt like a noose around my neck and all my pricey possessions now owned me.
So in 1996, to the disbelief of friends and family, I told them I had devised a five-year plan to sell up and move overseas.
In 2001, at the age of 38, I sold my Surrey house and bought a flat in Castlefield, Manchester, which I still own and have rented out for 25 years. With some of the money from the big house sale, I topped up the three private pensions and then I relocated to Asia.
Nic lives a simpler life in third-world countries and does charity work – often dressed as Father ChristmasWhere have you lived and what are your living costs?
When I first left the UK, I was based in Paraguay for three years, but travelled extensively around South America and Central America. I don’t really live permanently anywhere, but travel around and have lived in places including The Philippines, Paraguay, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam – but I have also travelled to more than 70 countries.
I have effectively been retired since the age of 38 and am still living on the money I earned in the UK. I get £1,500 a month rent from the flat I rent out in Manchester. However, I barely need that as life is so cheap out here.
Wherever I go, I rent a detached bungalow with a pool and I eat out three times a day and drive a scooter – all for less than £1,000 a month.
What are your life goals now?
I know I have got more money than I’ll ever need as the cost of living is so cheap out here and I have no materialistic aspirations anymore. I know I won’t be living in a first-world country again. I am in a crazy situation where I can do whatever I want.
I have done volunteering and charity work. I don’t do anything with my piano playing at all now.
I’m currently doing motorbike reconnaissance trips in countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia looking for my next place to settle.
If my friends who knew me during my old materialistic life could see me in my new humble life, they would scarcely believe it. I am usually doing charity work disguised as Santa!
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