‘We’re leaving Wales and we’re not coming back.’
After growing tired of struggling to stay afloat, Clare Fisher, 39, and her family have decided to uproot their lives from Barry, in Wales, to move halfway around the world for a ‘better life, outdoor living, better climate, better cost of living, better balance, better experiences, and more nature’.
While mum-of-three Clare is a content creator, posting her family’s travel adventures, as @traveltheworldfamily, to her 104,000 followers on Instagram, her husband Ian, 36, has worked a corporate job in renewable energy for many years.
‘We never see each other,’ she moans. ‘It’s high stress, a lot of commuting and time away from the family.’
On top of that, Clare says, Ian’s recent promotion has bumped him up to a six-figure salary, which means he’s paying the ‘extortionate’ 40 per cent tax rate.
She claims: ‘If you work hard you’re penalised in the UK. Despite being in the top one per cent of earners in the UK, we still can’t keep our heads above water every month and that’s living a very modest lifestyle, so we just don’t understand how everyone else manages.
‘I think Ian paid £60,000 in tax last year but we’re living on credit cards every month, how does that work?’
Ian has now decided to quit his job and join Clare as a content creator.
After growing tired of struggling to stay afloat, Clare Fisher, 39, and her family have decided to uproot their lives from Barry, in Wales, to move halfway around the world for a ‘better life’
Clare says, her husband Ian’s recent promotion has bumped him up to a six-figure salary, which means he’s paying the ‘extortionate’ 40 per cent tax rate
And, in August, the couple and their three children, Kallan, 13, Maddie, 11, and five-year-old Abel, will pack up their belongings and wave goodbye to Barry for the final time.
Clare and Ian first got a taste for life abroad when they sold most of their belongings and left the UK to travel for nine months in 2018.
‘We were a normal, British family working the 9 to 5 lifestyle and then we lost a really close family member suddenly, followed by a really close family friend,’ explains Clare.
‘And it just made us realise that life is too short. We were living to work, not working to live.
‘We wanted to take holidays but the school wouldn’t let us and we didn’t have a lot of money to do that anyway. You don’t know what’s around the corner.’
After living ‘frugally’, the couple saved up £30,000 to go on a nine-month trip around the world with their two children, aged four and six at the time.
‘We went on an adventure around Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand for around nine months. It gave us a taste of what life would be like in other countries,’ says Clare.
The adventure also gave Clare a chance to build her online business as a family travel content creator.
In August, the couple and their three children, Kallan, 13, Maddie, 11, and five-year-old Abel, will pack up their belongings and wave goodbye to Barry for the final time
While the family’s social media work has allowed them to travel to exotic destinations like the Maldives and Kenya, Clare argues the page doesn’t reflect ‘reality’
But, while the family’s social media work has allowed them to travel to exotic destinations like the Maldives and Kenya, Clare argues the page doesn’t reflect ‘reality’.
She says: ‘We’re still a one-parent-earning family because my business doesn’t earn a lot of money, it’s more of a passion project.
‘In theory it looks like we’re doing well for ourselves but we can’t make ends meet.
‘It looks like we’re travelling all the time but that’s not the reality.
‘We aren’t going out for food, we aren’t drinking, we aren’t smoking. We’ve got one car and a modest lifestyle at home. We’re trying to keep our heads above water every month working our absolute a***s off.
‘Life in the UK is just a daily grind. The UK can’t help the climate but it’s very much an indoor life. And we’ve got the cost of living crisis.’
This constant need to work, as well as the UK’s strict rules on taking kids out of school for holidays, is what has pushed the family to leave the country for good.
Clare continues: ‘We want to spend time with our kids outside of school. And [the school] weren’t having it.
The UK’s strict rules on taking kids out of school for holidays, is what has pushed the family to leave the country for good, and the children are set to join an online school
‘There were threats of fines and threats of intervention with the council. The [UK] school system is so old and was created so many years ago for a different life, if we’re being honest.’
Instead, the children are set to join an online school which offers a ‘Cambridge-accredited’ curriculum – which they can do wherever they are in the world.
The family haven’t settled on an exact destination yet and are planning to rent out their home in Barry and sell it once they’ve made a more permanent plan.
But there’s one frontrunner for where they’d like to make a home.
‘Thailand has called to us the most with food, beaches and location,’ she explains. ‘We looking for more of an outdoor life, more balanced.
‘We’ve quit the gym, we’re going to do long walks on the beach instead and we don’t need a lot to live.
‘The issue we’ve got, as foreigners in Southeast Asia, is that you can’t own land.
‘You have to buy a piece of land and then you can build on it, and then you renew the lease, so you’ll never own the land. But you can still make profitable investments.’
The family haven’t settled on an exact destination yet and are planning to rent out their home in Barry and sell it once they’ve made a more permanent plan
Clare adds that she has no concerns about healthcare in Thailand, explaining: ‘On the medical side of things we’ve got really good insurance.
‘But at the same time, I wouldn’t say I feel overwhelmingly safe here [with the NHS] in any way, shape or form.’
And, despite the huge move ahead of her, Clare insists she isn’t expecting to have any regrets about leaving the UK.
‘We’re Welsh, we were born and raised here, so it’s not something we feel proud to say and I wish it didn’t feel this way, but I honestly can’t think of anything apart from family that we’re going to miss.’
