Kit Roberts
A family from the UK has left their home and sold their possessions to start a new life in Bali.
Matt Dearing, 36, and his partner Carlie Donnelley, 35, have made the life-changing decision to emigrate to Bali in Indonesia.
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They had wanted to build their own house and to build their life together, but despite working full time as a joiner and owning multiple houses, they still found themselves chasing bills.
The high cost of living meant that even though Matt owned five houses in Manchester, where the family lived, he said that he would need 'ten' in order to become 'financially free'.
In the end the family decided to leave the UK behind and move to Indonesia as immigrants, where the cost of living is significantly lower.
Matt said: “This was something we have wanted to do for years. A couple of times we would go over to Spain, and I was looking for cave houses as I wanted to go off grid.
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“In the UK it got to the point where I wasn’t spending much time with my kids, I would spend about an hour with them before bedtime. I was constantly chasing bills and working."
In the end, they decided to move to Bali, where their rent for the whole year is £2,000.
Matt explained their reasoning: “I did a lot of research into Bali as it has all-year-round tourism, and the weather is great. The return on your investment here is amazing."
Matt sold the house the family were living in for £365k and 'everything' they owned on Facebook marketplace.
He continued: “With that money, we were able to buy a 1,200 square foot plot of land to build two villas on. We have struck gold - this is everything we want."
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He added: “The people here are lovely and show a lot of gratitude - it ticked all the right boxes.”
Matt is now glad that he can spend more time with his family out in Indonesia.
Carlie, who works as a beautician, said: “I spent more time with the kids while he was at work, we were missing out on having Matt with us. It is great, I am loving life, the weather and just exploring different things - we are outdoorsy.”
Matt said: "With the land we bought we plan to keep one villa and sell one, then buy more land and build two more houses and sell one of them and rent another one out.
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"We are hoping we get to the point where we can fly our family here and we are planning on coming back to the UK for two to three months at a time."
When the family arrived in Bali, they spent three months travelling before settling down.