Practical guidance from someone who built a life here.

I first moved to Southeast Asia in 2014 to run a nongovernmental organization. I arrived because the work brought me here. The experience changed the direction of my life.

Living in Southeast Asia taught me that moving abroad is rarely difficult for the reasons people expect. Visas, airfare, and housing receive most of the attention. The harder questions usually appear later. Where should you live if you need regular healthcare? How do you move money, pay rent, reach a hospital, build friendships, and avoid constructing your entire life around an expat bubble?

Since 2014, I have spent years living and traveling abroad. My experience reaches across Southeast Asia and East Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central America, the Caribbean islands, Mexico, and other parts of the world. Those places are not interchangeable, and travel does not make anyone an instant authority on a country. It does teach you to notice how infrastructure, institutions, money, culture, healthcare, and daily routines shape a life far more than a destination’s promotional image.

From Southeast Asia to Harvard Kennedy School

After my first chapter in the region, I returned to the United States and went back to school. I graduated from Harvard Kennedy School and served as a Rajawali Fellow, concentrating on digital and cryptocurrency, cross-border payments, and the political economy of Asia.

Those subjects are closely connected to the practical experience of living internationally. Money does not move across borders as effortlessly as an app suggests. Regulation, banking access, currencies, institutions, and politics shape what happens between pressing “send” and paying an obligation in another country.

A new professional direction

I later began a career change through Texas Tech University, focusing on the tax and financial-planning knowledge needed to help Americans make better long-term decisions. I am currently pursuing the Enrolled Agent credential and continuing my financial-planning education.

Why PlanWellAbroad starts with Thailand

I eventually returned to Thailand. PlanWellAbroad grew from the overlap between living in Southeast Asia, rebuilding a professional path, and seeing how much relocation advice is romanticized, outdated, or too vague to support a serious decision.

This website starts with Thailand because Thailand is where I currently live and do the work. I visit neighborhoods, test transportation, compare ordinary expenses, examine practical differences between locations, and use official sources for rules that should never be guessed.

My goal is not to convince everyone to move abroad. Thailand can offer an extraordinary life, but a good life here still requires judgment. The right neighborhood matters. Healthcare access matters. Air quality, transportation, relationships, legal status, and financial resilience matter.

That question guides PlanWellAbroad.

See how PlanWellAbroad researches its guides →