A couple of weeks ago we looked at my recent trip to Vanuatu. One of the points I made at the end of that was that it’s a viable place to go and work. Given most brokers do the large majority of their business offshore today, I don’t think that’s going to change moving forward.
That being the case, I thought it would be fun to write up the positives of the place and give you an idea of what it’s like being there. The obvious caveat is that I was only a visitor, so I can’t say what it’s like to live there full time. But these are my impressions and you can take them or leave them as you wish. Let’s go.
1. Chilled out
This first point is a bit meta and hard to put into words but the simplest way I can phrase it is that when you are in Vanuatu you feel completely removed from a lot of the (sorry) BS that you have to deal with in most developed economies today.
To try and elaborate on what I mean, I find people in the UK are very pessimistic today. There is a sense that nothing works and no real hope that this will change. On top of that you have a lot of ‘stuff’ that can feel needlessly annoying. For example, I live in London and pretty much every time I walk to the tube station I will see…
- Someone dealing or doing drugs
- Someone breaking through the tube barrier without paying
- Garbage, fly tipping or other rubbish that has just been left on the street
You may think I am exaggerating but I’m not. I genuinely see this basically every time I make that journey. And I don’t live in a bad area!
I’m not trying to be overly negative here because I think people can end up being hyperbolic about how bad the UK is. But these problems are annoying to deal with and seem to exist in a lot of other ‘developed’ countries today as well.
In Vanuatu I did not see them at all. You can argue I wasn’t there for long enough to see it. To that I say, sorry, but I’ve been to cities in many other ‘developed’ countries, whether it’s Germany, France, or the US, over the last few years. You see it immediately.
As I said in the article, when I was leaving Vanuatu, I felt like a weight came back on my shoulders because I knew I was going to have to deal with this kind of stuff again.
A lot of people I met would use the phrase ‘island life’ to describe the way of living there. I think that’s a simpler way of saying this – it’s laidback and you don’t feel stressed. That is not a description I’d use for many cities in the US, UK, Europe, or even Asia today.
2. No taxes
Ok so this one is obvious but should not be overlooked. Vanuatu has no capital gains tax, no income tax, and no inheritance tax.
Unless you plan on dying there, the most relevant of these is the income tax bracket. Let’s say you earn £100,000 in the UK. You are losing almost 30% of that to income tax. When you then factor in council tax and national insurance, you are probably losing upwards £35k per year or more.
To give an example of how extreme this is, one person I know moved to the UAE – also no tax – and had their salary doubled. But to earn the equivalent salary in the UK, they would have had to almost quadruple their salary because of tax.
In other words, paying less tax is a benefit not to be overlooked!
3. Easy to get around
If you move to Vanuatu then the odds are you’ll live in Port Vila, the country’s capital and business hub.
Port Vila is not a huge place and you can drive to most places in about 15 minutes. I am lazy and don’t like the tube and bus, so getting around like this was nice.
4. Easy to meet people
This may seem like an odd one but a few people I met noted that because Port Vila is small and there aren’t actually a huge number of expats, it’s pretty easy to meet people.
Anyone that has moved abroad will tell you that getting to know people is actually one of the hardest things to do, particularly if you are in a big city. But it’s also a big determinant of how much you enjoy life. Vanuatu seems to be an easier place to do this.
We also heard the Peace Corps throws private island getaway parties. Alas, I am married now, but if I wasn’t…well…that sounds pretty fun.
5. Good weather
Again, this may be an obvious one but it shouldn’t be discounted. Yours truly has lived in a place without the gray misery that makes up life in the UK for about 90% of the year and, although it’s not the be all and end all, it does add a lot to your quality of life.
A big plus here is that Vanuatu’s weather ranges from about 18 to 30 degrees in ‘winter’ and 24 to 30 in summer. Humidity is also low. This is basically the ideal weather (for me, anyway) as you aren’t too hot or too cold.
6. Cool stuff to see and explore
One of the things I did not appreciate before going to Vanuatu is the degree to which a Pacific Island or even Polynesian shared culture exists.
To give a different example, I think if you are in Europe today there is some sense of shared culture, geographic proximity, and knowledge of how people in other European countries live. Yes, it’s annoying when people talk about ‘Europe’ as if it’s some unified whole but there is also a feeling that you are in a region with some level of cultural overlap and which you are more in tune with compared to say East Asia or Latin America.
The same thing exists in Vanuatu but with the other Pacific Islands + Australia and New Zealand. This would be a fun thing to learn more about and explore, for me, anyway.
The other point here is that there is loads of stuff to do in Vanuatu itself. You have 83 islands spread out across the Pacific. If you like nature and exploring, or even just going to the beach, there is a lot to like here – and a lot of it is very untouched.
Then you have the other travel opportunities. Australia, New Zealand, and all the other Pacific Islands are fairly easy to get to from Vanuatu. So if you take a holiday from work, there is lots to do, whether that’s abroad or in the country.
7. General libertarian feeling
Like the first point, I suppose this is a bit difficult to put into words as it’s more of a ‘feeling’ rather than a tangible reality.
The best way I can describe it is that Vanuatu feels like the kind of place where if you are not bothering anyone, no one is going to bother you. To give one example, the island that Port Vila is on has no traffic lights and no legal speed limit. As long as you are not being an idiot, you can do as you please.
Again, this felt like a bit of a contrast to the UK where, in the battle between people who want to be left alone and those who can’t leave others alone, the people who can’t leave others alone are winning.
Conclusions
Is Vanuatu perfect? No.
There are definitely downsides to being there. You don’t have Amazon Prime or many of the other trappings of modernity. This is still a developing country in a lot of ways. It’s also small – if you are only a big city person then this won’t be for you.
The conclusion I reached was that I would probably not want to live there forever, but if a broker or some other company said, ‘hey, we need someone there for a few years’ then it would be a very cool opportunity and I’d do it. You would have an awesome time and experiences that you won’t forget.
Time to reconsider your options?
