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Living in Andorra: Residency, Lifestyle, Cost of Living & More

Walking to Andorra la Vella

A while back, Jess and I took a chance on a 4 week trip to Andorra. It was time to rationalize our whole living/working while travelling situation. We’d planned to get residency in Panama but after a visit there and time to think it over, it didn’t really suit what we were looking for. Andorra had long been on our shortlist as a possibility that we had to check out, so we thought we’d take a trial run to live in Andorra.

During those 4 weeks, we lived an average every day life and fell in love with the country during potentially the quietest time of year. By the end of our visit to Andorra, we had organised a bank account, signed a lease, our residency application was in progress and for the first in a long time, we were ready to put down roots. It was a massive decision, but it felt so right for so many reasons.

2019 UPDATE: I’ve had a lot of people ask lately “do you still like it there?”. Of course! Andorra is not perfect. There are pros and cons to every country! But, for me and my family (and what we value), it’s as near to perfect as we’re likely to find anywhere.

Andorra is home to us, and we visited many countries in search of a place that could take that status.

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Andorra Real Estate Guide

Andorra property: what of future developments?

Depending on where you are from, renting, buying or investing in Andorran real estate is probably fairly different to what you’re used to.

Property in Andorra is extremely varied – from half constructed new buildings and hundred year old farm houses to fully detached, secluded chalets and inner-city or village apartments with the absolute highest quality finishes.

Pricing these properties isn’t very straightforward. There’s no public register for what properties have sold for previously, so it’s important to either find an estate agent you can truly trust, or spend a good deal of time evaluating the market.

Before we get stuck in, I’m writing this post as an individual living in Andorra and nothing more. I am not a real estate agent and I don’t know anywhere near as much as those who have been here for a lifetime. I am, however, not selling anything, so I hope you’ll find these unbiased notes (from my own personal research) helpful.

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You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone

In business, specialising is important. If a company that produces molded plastics is approached to begin producing protein bars, they will likely turn that request away.

They will have trouble producing the protein bars for a competitive price, and if they do somehow get the contract there’s a high chance the customer will be disappointed since they don’t have the years of expertise to make sure the product is of high quality.

Dell will never sell a laptop running OS X, just as Apple will never sell me a phone running Android.

It’s unlikely that either will ever end up supplying airlines with meals. It’s just not what they are good at.

Businesses understand this. But most individuals I know struggle with it.

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How to Write a Great Blog Post

How to Write a Great Blog Post

Writing a great blog post may come easily to some, but if you are reading this article, chances are you’re like me and you have to work for it.

I started my first blog in 2009. I published long posts that made no clear points. They were written for no-one in particular. These posts never ranked in Google, so nobody ever read them.

A decade of learning, failing, succeeding, and working with others in the content production space has helped me to form the process you’ll see in this post.

Today I can write an article and my desired audience have read it by the time the month is out. I’m not the best writer around, but this process helps me to write content that my readers take the time out of their day to email and thank me for.

This isn’t an article on how to write blog posts for SEO, it’s a guide to writing blog posts that people will actually read. When these people do read your blog post, it will help them. Ironically, search engines love content that do those things.

If you want to know how to write a great blog post, read on to find out my methods.

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The 40 Percent Rule

The 40 Percent Rule

Back in 2011, a friend spoke of these magical financial vehicles called “index funds”. What was news to me at the time sparked immediate deep research and eventual action.

Index funds have seen massive traction in the “FIRE” or Financial Independence, Retire Early community. And while there are many funds that track many indexes, the most common recommendations made tend to track the following indexes:

Whether right or wrong, the general consensus from this community is that for every $100 invested today, it will pay you back $4 every year, for at least 33 years.

This is known as the 4 percent rule, and is the “safe withdrawal rate” that finance bloggers like MMM, jlcollinsnh, Millenial Revolution and everyone else rehashing the same stuff over and over are talking about (no disrespect, there’s just very little “new” information).

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