To think there must be a way to get a different life

[GreyandSloan]

I'll try to keep this brief. I'll probably fail. Apologies in advance.

I'm nearing 50 - a lone parent with 5 children. Two are now at uni, one doing A levels, one doing GCSEs. The fifth isn't actually my child but it the child of a family member who I have full time care of. He's a toddler. (I don't want to give too many details of this as it will be outing).

I have never really known what I wanted to do for a job. I did GCSEs, A levels and a generic degree. In a panic, not knowing what to with my life, I did an MA in an NHS career (think physiotherapy/occupational therapy/nursing/social work) and then went into this field of work.

I stayed in that field for about 15 years until I basically burned out. In the meantime I had met my ex partner who was abusive, had 4 children in quick succession (2 with SEN) and become a lone parent.

When I burned out and left practice, I went into lecturing - basically teaching other people to do the same profession. I've now been doing that for a decade and am completely bored by it, with no chance of promotion. I dread going to work everyday. I have basically stuck with it as I have no idea what else I can do.

The other issue is that I have spent 25 years on pretty low pay. I currently get around 37k a year. I don't own a house and get very little in benefits. I live in an expensive city and pay a fortune to privately rent a very basic house. Chances are my rent will go up this year and I can't afford it. I have no savings and no real pension. Both the future and the present scare me financially.

My dream when I was younger was to live somewhere warm and sunny and I'd still love to, especially as I have a long term health condition made worse by a cold damp climate. I just don't know how this could be possible at nearly 50 with no finances behind me.

At the very least I'd like to have a job that I enjoy and where I earn enough to maybe have a meal out occasionally, take the kids out for a day, or go on holiday.

Surely this isn't too much to want? Surely this shouldn't be all there is to life?

Some of the ME countries do have age limits of 55, Oman is 60. Though having said that it is often dependent on the employer so always worth looking into.

Also @GreyandSloan I just realized you are actually a healthcare lecturer which means you can look at the universities as well as the health care practices. I have a friend who is a dentist out here (from an EU country) who does part time lecturing in the dental university and also does part time in a dental practice.

You still have a good number of working years left, even by ME standards, as the salary is tax free it could be a great opportunity to work out here for 7-10 years to build up enough savings to then buy a home upon your return to UK.

There is also a really good expat community in most ME countries.

As for the cost of living I can only really speak about Oman, the cost of housing is way cheaper than UK, food shopping is about on a par of UK for most things, obviously you will pay a premium for western imported foods. Alcohol is also very expensive but eating out in "dry" restaurants is really cheap and great food.