You’ve heard about Bondi Beach, the Great Barrier Reef, Elle McPherson and the Australian Open. You know that Australia has a great “walkabout” culture where college graduates take a gap year to go explore the world and expand their horizons. As far as you can tell, Australia is a wonderful land down under!
Unless you’ve been to sunny Australia, everything is hearsay. I’ve never been, but fortunately for all of us, Shaun from Money Cactus is a regular reader who hails from Australia and has decided to provide some insights into what it’s really like living and working in Australia.
One of my friends from San Francisco moved to Sydney five years ago and he loved it so much he decided to start a business there and become an Aussie citizen! After looking more into the Australian healthcare and social safety net system, there’s no wonder why people love Australia! In fact, I might consider retiring there myself if they have me. Then again, why would they since I haven’t paid any of their taxes!
Here’s Shaun’s perspective on Australia. For other Australian readers and those who’ve spent some time there, please feel free to share your thoughts as well!
Feel like losing weight? What a surprise, me too! Like every other knucklehead, I went to workout on New Year’s day to lose some weight I gained during the holidays. I got a sweaty two hour tennis match in and then hit again with my buddy for another 1.5 hours the very next day. I’m not delusional to think that after two days I would lose any amount of weight, but I stubbornly got on the scale before and after anyway.
Ah, the holidays are great for spending time with family, wearing ugly sweaters, and shoving enough shrimp cocktail, turkey, ham, cheese, fruitcake, cookies, Australian wagyu beef and more into our pie holes to make Homer Simpson blush. It’s the holidays! We can eat as much as we want! ‘Tis the season for eating guilt-free. Or is it?
Are you feeling a little stuffed? With parties and business meals galore, it’s so easy to pack on some weight and transform your once slender figure into a mound of dough.
2009 was the year I rediscovered tennis. Ironically, I figured I’d better utilize the club as much as possible because I couldn’t afford any other luxuries after the markets imploded! Just last year, I failed miserably at breaking a 10 handicap (got to 10.2 and ricocheted) in golf and decided to quit before I threw my bag into the lake.