Calling all fakers: are you living a lie?
Thursday, 24 July 2008
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Your debts piled up, your mortgage repayments were getting harder - and that canoe in the garage provided an apparent route to freedom. And you would have got away with, except for those pesky Panamanian estate agents.
Your problems might have been more related to a hideous reign of terror being brought to an end by UN forces and a rather different life of complementary therapy and a topknot beckoned.
Chances are, though, that it was more prosaic. But have you abandoned your old life? Did you once run away and find peace in anonymity; a new identity through which you can create the life you want, rather than the one you'd been saddled with? Or did your past follow you?
Did your habits catch you out, and you just rattled up new debts and find the same problems in a different place. Or perhaps a chance encounter with someone from your past unravel your new life?
If you've abandoned your life and started afresh, let us know using the form below - share with us how and why you started again and the artifices you created to sustain it. And if it fell apart, how and why?
You can post under a pseudonym and the email address you give will not be shared with anyone.
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Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
How I love to hear of those lovely folk who are so happy now that they have no taxes and no debts to pay because they have run away from them. Lets hope that they never get on the receiving ends of such clever dodges and end up sick and tired in a tax haven where you are welcome to rot if you cannot pay, and/or just plain skint because somebody you trusted ( ha!) defaulted on their debts to you...
How about running towards rather than running away? I ran towards hard rewarding work and independence for myself and my child; towards paying my taxes, never running up any debts and buying a little house of our very own; towards putting something back into the society that provided education and health care for free to all.
Why did I run?- because none of these things were appreciated by the men I seemed to be hormonally attracted to, some of whom might well be some of those posting here.....
Posted by jaff | 27.07.08, 09:32 GMT
Taking photos of naked women might sound wonderful however commissions were becoming less and the landlord was tired of chasing me for the rent. A girlfriend finally left and my dog had died so the decision that the world needed more engineers again than fashion photographers was an easy step to make.
The hard part was finding the fare from Australia to Kosovo where there was a job waiting just as the war finished. That lasted a year and half when with enough cash gathered, I could afford a small boat to sail though the canals of Europe. Then 9/11 happened and as the cash ran out, an opening came up in Afghanistan that didn't pay a lot but it offered a refuge.
Two and half years later, I had risen almost to the top with the UN and decided to leave as I was tired. Did a few months in Aceh after the tsunami and then looked for a beach in Thailand. The share market crash of this year has forced my hand again and so we look to where the latest catastrophe offers some work
Posted by Steve | 26.07.08, 06:47 GMT
Yes, I used to be a ****. Went straight now, well fairly straight. When I see my old friends I usually don't partake - but I don't stop them. I kind of wish I could get them to stop, but I don't want to come between them and their problem. When they're ready to clean up they will, and not sooner. Still I pray for them. I had to abandon my assumed name and went back to my real name though. I miss my old friends still, but I don't associate with them (much).
Posted by David | 26.07.08, 02:40 GMT
My marriage broke up and my wife was planning all sorts of retribution. Mainly concerning lifelong financial support to her. We did not have children. Feeling depressed and on a hiding to nothing I sacrificed a well paying career & moved to a country with a more enjoyable climate than my native Ireland. I took enough money with me to travel well for 18 months, changing address as I felt like it. I enjoy the anononimity of traveling and briefly settling, long enough to make good acquaintances and short enough not to become too entangled in anyone´s life. I never had to pretend to be anyone else, being Irish in those parts meant that nobody would ever have made connections with my former life. I just had to treat people as I found them, avoid other non natives and have nothing but praise for my new adopted neighbours and region. It worked in opening the doors. I now live on a small but sufficent investment and have an internet business, little money but enough and uber happy:).
Posted by Coso | 25.07.08, 16:47 GMT
I had issues. I wasn't doing well in my job, didn't have many friends in the area, had a sick grandmother and was in a state of depression. I packed it all in and went and taught English in Japan. They have a cartoon here called 'Charisma Man'. Some western loser (when seen through the eyes of an ordinary westerner) becomes a kind of superhero (when seen through the eyes of a Japanese person). That's me..... and a lot of other people teaching English in Japan.
Posted by james | 25.07.08, 15:56 GMT
I used to live 2,000 years ago but things weren't working out for me so I moved here. Things aren't working out here either so I may move on again soon. And being a Sinclair you can guess who I was back then. I've written my life story up here to show you how really you are all the same as me, conceptual beings living in a conceptual world, a field based world (play on lying down in grass beside still waters joke there). Google Shell Boffin Sinclair and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky" you must admit it would make a better end to the DaVinci code than the useless one Dan Brown thought up where everyone just turned up to say "Hi" to the chosen one who was capable of ... err precisely nothing out of the ordinary.
Posted by John | 25.07.08, 13:38 GMT
I move from city to city, never staying in one place too long, generally until roots seem to be taking sprout.
Its not a bad life, I have some online businesses that sustain me well, I speak 4 languages and I love living in different places, feeling for a period the lives of the people around me.
I like travelling between places with the sole intention of looking for somewhere else to live and the life on the road until you bump into that perfect place quite by accident.
I most like the anonymity of it. At times I feel like I am just slipping through the folds of modern day society, touched by it but never seduced enough to step into it fully again.
I like not having to pay any taxes on account of having my residency, domicile, company and banking being in multiple juridstictions. This allows me to live to a reasonably high standard than normal. Think of it, all that tax you pay each month.
Real freedom is a lifestyle choice, not the lifes you think you live.
Posted by Global Adept | 24.07.08, 18:40 GMT
Left the UK in the mid-Eighties with one name, travelling through several foreign countries under another I finally settled in Europe, debt-free (but leaving no debts behind me either) and with a completely new life. Since then I have built up a good and clean life without the hassle and hatred I had known in England. No plans to go back, ever.
Posted by anon | 24.07.08, 18:38 GMT
Had my partner's ex apparently psychologically abusing her young boys, then stalking them/her/us, the police unable to intervene owing to his 'rights' to walk in a public street, and then a child psychologists report which confirmed suspicion of innapropriate sexualised behaviour from the 6yr old son...family court threw this report out 'cos the father hadn't taken part, and awarded further regular unsupervised residential contact with father..we flitted to spare the children and lived safely for nearly a year 'til partner's mother/sister assisted the 'innocent father' by supporting court action under a Hague Convention..children gave testimony of abuse to childline/womens' aid childrens' worker, presented to the court, and judge said if the dad is a wolf let the children into his 'lair' to see if true..18/12 later, a social services report confirmed that whilst with the dad he taught the boys to commence sexual acts with eachother..so, 2yrs later on proved right/boys safe.
Posted by runaway | 24.07.08, 17:47 GMT
Seven years ago myself and my girlfriend had the the option to consolidate our debts into a giant remortgage, or bundle them all up into one giant runner! We chose the latter, sold our properties and took the money around the world for 3 years, eventually settling to open a bar-retaurant in Guatemala (not too far from Panama!).
Got back a couple of years ago, and no-one can touch us on the debts as they are more than 6 years-old. Would recommend it to anyone!!!!
Posted by SanPedro | 24.07.08, 15:08 GMT