The Story of My Retired Global Life

Hi, I'm Randy Hicks and welcome to Retired Global Life. Yes, it's the name of my YouTube channel and also this website. But really, it's a way of life. And maybe it's a life you are searching for as well. It is easier than you might think. The first step is the hardest one.

I was bit by the international travel bug almost 50 years ago. I was a young man when I moved to Nice, France, and spent a year teaching English as a second language. Nowadays, people move out of their home country all the time, but in that era, everyone said I was nuts. Yet I had one of the best years of my life - and the most eye-opening. It was the first moment I looked at my own country - the USA - with outside eyes. I'd never read about America from the perspective of the foreign press, or heard the bluntly-given opinions of foreign locals. I love my country, but for the first time I discovered some impartiality that I have since never lost. I learned that my "home" country was not the best, rather just what I was used to, and indoctrinated into. I think everyone can say this about their home country, but no country controls the universe like America, sometimes for better but often for worse.

I've never been afraid of failure, thank goodness, and I learned more from them than from my successes. I raced through college and completed my Bachelor's Degree and was working on my Masters when I was just 19. And I looked about 15. So I was unemployable after all that college. I decided to tackle what had been one of my biggest challenges: shyness. I did the most terrifying thing I could think of and became an actor and even got my Screen Actors Guild card. I had small roles on TV and in movies - usually veeeeeeeery small ones. As in the memorable delivery-boy line, "Flowers for Joe Kelly." I'm sure you all remember that five-second scene from General Hospital. My roles were so small and forgettable that General Hospital even had me back several times over a couple seasons, always playing a completely different character!

My screen name was Randy Shepard because my agent said "Hmmm, Randy Hicks... Randy Hicks... it sounds like Horny Hillbillies." Ah yes, she had a sense of humor! I never made it big as an actor, but I look back on that time as one of the greatest successes of my life. I got my foot in the door (well, maybe a toe) of an industry almost impossible to get into and actually got some work. I got to meet and work with some great and famous people (Jeff Bridges, James Colburn, Suzanne Somers, Eva Marie Saint and a few more). But the biggest thing I accomplished was getting over my extreme shyness. (As a side note, I've met many fellow YouTubers, all of whom appear quite glib on screen, but many tell me that like me, they battle shyness.) That's actually the reason I have never done any meet-ups that my YouTube viewers frequently ask me about. Speaking in front of a thousand people is easy. Making small talk with ten new faces is terrifying.

Yikes, this is taking too long. You are clearly getting bored. Okay... faster pace. I became an attorney and limited my practice to adoption. I'm proud to say that in almost 40 years of lawyering, I never sued anyone. I've always felt lawyers are there to make people's lives better and protect them from harm, not be hurtful. And I found I had a knack for writing. I wrote several non-fiction books on how to adopt affordably and ethically (Adopting in America - 7 editions over 20+ years) and had the fun of the book being featured on some of America's biggest shows, like Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and several national daytime talk shows like Sally Jessie Raphael.

I tried my hand at writing novels, and was very happy to get great reviews, but reviews don't sell books! The collective yawn from the reading public convinced me to spend my time doing other things. It took me about a year to write each novel, so it was quite heartbreaking when they were commercial failures. But those extra copies I have do make great doorstops...

I'd always planned to retire in France, but then my daughter, Hailey, had to mess everything up. She was doing a Study Abroad semester in Marseilles (yes, Dad pushed her to France), and on a break she travelled to Thailand. From that moment on, all she talked about was moving to Thailand when she finished college. She told me about the friendly people, the less-stressed lifestyle, great food and super affordable living. And sure enough, right after graduation, there she went, my 22-year old baby, off to a foreign country all by herself. I think I visited her three or four times before I fully caught the Thailand bug myself. In fact, it was what motivated me to start my Youtube channel, focused mainly about life in Thailand.

It is amazing; Thailand really does get into your blood, your psyche. It's not a perfect country, but there is something about it that you just accept what you don't like and don't let it get you down. (Maybe some Buddhism has rubbed off on me.) Hailey settled in Chiang Mai and went from teaching English as a second language to being the founder and director of what I think is the best visa agency in Chiang Mai, HH Premium Visa Consulting. (The HH is for Hailey Hicks.) She has a great staff of four Thai ladies and they all truly dedicate themselves to helping westerners move to, or retire in, Thailand. I'm incredibly proud of her and how dedicated she is to Thailand and helping people come to live here. While visiting Hailey in Chiang Mai I met my wife, Joy, a Thai college teacher. After two years we were married and hey... that just about brings us to the present day!

One big issue I had to face was how to make a living while traveling. (I call myself retired but I actually still do some legal work. I am easily bored so always want to be doing something.) I was a bit ahead of the curve when it came to being a remote worker, or as they are now called, "digital nomads," making a living on your laptop and phone from anywhere in the world. You'd be surprised. If I can do it as a lawyer, perhaps you can too. The freedom it gives you is incredible. To not to be tied to a location by a job is life-changing. Many people find their employers will let them convert their jobs to remote work, or find another job at the same company where it is possible. Or, just find a new job. The reality is that western salaries are much higher than many of the countries where you will likely live, so your money goes so much further. I did a video about the world of international remote jobs, and it can be possible even for seniors who still want an income.

I still return to the USA a lot. I treasure my close friends there (not to mention the great pickleball competition that exists in SoCal, as it has not yet taken foot as much in Chiang Mai), and I like to spend time with my parents. They are 96 and 91 and still live in the house where I was raised. In many ways, the USA and Thailand are not just different countries, but different ways of life. Maybe it would be more accurate to say, different ways to look at life. I actually embrace the differences and I think experiencing them both has made me a better person.

Joy and I love to travel and are at that time of life when we can indulge ourselves a bit. Most of our videos are just about our home town of Chiang Mai, and Thailand generally. But I also like to do some on international travel tips. For the most part traveling to other countries is our "relaxation time," not "video time," as YouTube can be quite exhausting. In the future though, when we have more "slow travel" time, we will do some videos on some of the countries we visit. For now, we hope you enjoy the videos we've worked so hard on about Chiang Mai, other parts of Thailand (like Hua Hin, Koh Lipe and Krabi), as well as information to help you as an international traveler. We hope you will subscribe and enjoy our videos. You can click here to see a list of all our videos and watch the ones you like.

Our Thailand videos don't just show you different parts about Thailand, but focus on issues like the cost of living for a a foreigner, renting a condo, health insurance in Thailand, dating in Thailand, the unique world of Thailand's sexual freelancers, and finding the best hospitals and doctors and the lowest priced pharmacies. And my international travel videos tackle key topics in detail: How can you use Medicare overseas, how to make an Exit Plan to actually make the move overseas, the best deals and the best coverage for travel insurance, selecting a country to live which will give you full access to their universal healthcare (sometimes at no cost) and how to never be bit by a mosquito again. (The last one was the first video I made for my channel. Thankfully I got better as time went on. 🙂)

Nothing makes Joy and me happier than bumping into viewers in Chiang Mai who recognize us and take the time to say hello and chat. So if you see us - usually me in my big straw hat hiding from the Thai sun - please say hi. And if we all have time we can grab an iced mocha or something, that's always nice. I bet you have just as many stories to share as Joy and I do.