Is living abroad (SE Asia) realistic for anybody?

[Londonalf]

I'm 27 and live in London - have a normal well-paid job and my DP does too. Don't think we'd be able to do them in Thailand (where we'd love to live).

Is it easier/better to move when you have children (for some reason I see mostly that people move with kids), and is it easy/simple to find a job out there?

Is living abroad actually a realistic goal for everybody, or is it mainly for people who do jobs where they can transfer, should we wait until retirement!

Well I live abroad in South East Asia. I have children but lots and lots of expats here don't - just different lifestyles in most cases. Most people come here for the following types of job:
Banking and Finance
Teaching in international schools
Heading up departments in large multi-national companies
Consultant engineering
Some sales jobs in large multi-nationals
Pharmaceuticals
Specific areas of medicine

This is usually what the original job holder does - if there is a partner they have a more varied type of local job. I wouldn't say it was easier with children, just different. Thailand has quite a long list of jobs which foreigners can't work in, so I would be careful there but there are a lot of other lovely parts of the region.

So, if one if you does a job like the ones listed above, I'd say you have a fair chance of getting out to SE Asia with work.

You could consider somewhere else in SE Asia and then it would be easier to travel to Thailand?

We're in Malaysia with no kids, it's very doable so long as you both come out with jobs. Laws have changed here in the last 2 years to restrict what foreigners can do and so you're not likely to get something if you just come out and apply. So ideally need to work for a big company with an office in KL or be a teacher!

I moved to the Middle East when I was early 40s, on my own, no kids. My only regret is not doing it 10 years earlier so I could have looked forward to trying lots of other places! (You have to be aware of age-related restrictions for work/immigration/visas in different countries.)
In your late 20s I'd be scouting for a first place to try, stay there for 2 years then re-evaluate, then move on or settle for longer (and maybe think about kids if that's what you want).