Why I built Plan Well Abroad

Hi, I am Anthony. I have lived and worked across Southeast Asia since 2014. Plan Well Abroad is where I share what I have learned, what I am still learning, and the questions people should ask before making an expensive life decision.

How I ended up here

I first moved to Southeast Asia in 2014 to run a nongovernmental organization. I came for the work. The experience changed the direction of my life.

Living abroad taught me that the flight is usually the easy part. The harder questions arrive on an ordinary Tuesday. Can you get to the right hospital? Does the neighborhood still work in heavy rain? Can you access your money if a phone disappears? What happens when the relationship, job, visa, health plan, or country changes?

Those questions are less exciting than a sunset photo. They are also the questions that decide whether a life abroad actually works.

What shaped the way I think

I later returned to the United States and graduated from Harvard Kennedy School, where I also served as a Rajawali Fellow. My work focused on Asia, political economy, digital assets, and cross-border payments.

That education gave me a better framework for something life abroad had already made obvious. Systems matter. Banking rules matter. Institutions matter. The distance between pressing “send” and actually paying an obligation in another country can contain a surprising amount of nonsense.

I have also traveled well beyond Southeast Asia. Travel does not make anyone an instant authority on a place. Mostly, it teaches you how quickly confident assumptions fall apart once normal life begins.

Why I built Plan Well Abroad

Most content about moving abroad falls into one of two buckets. One sells a fantasy. The other tries to scare you back home. Neither is especially useful.

Plan Well Abroad takes a different approach. We look at the life behind the destination: money, healthcare, housing, transportation, taxes, legal status, relationships, purpose, and the ability to change course.

The website starts with Thailand because this is where I live and where I can do the work properly. I visit neighborhoods, test transportation, compare ordinary expenses, try local services, and use official sources when a rule should never be guessed.

What you will find here

• practical planning tools that use your own numbers
• clear guides to places, neighborhoods, costs, and everyday life
• financial and tax education with honest limits
• firsthand reviews with material relationships disclosed
• primary sources for rules, thresholds, and consequential claims.

See how Plan Well Abroad researches its guides →