Future Of This Channel _ Life Update [RG3YDtReJUY]

I need to kind of have a talk today about

a few things, including the future of this

channel, my plans for this channel, my

plans for this year, what I'm going to do

from now onwards now that I'm financially

broke. I got another bit of bad news from

the tax people that I'll talk about in a

bit. So I'm thinking of slowing down the

amount of videos that I put out onto this

channel, mainly because I just don't

really know what to talk about anymore. I

don't really have any new stories. I think

people are kind of fed up hearing my same

old stories over and over again. You guys

probably know everything about me by now

if you've been watching me for a few

years. You've probably heard all of my

stories that I've told, all of my big

stories, big life events, ex-girlfriends,

jobs I hated. You've probably heard it all

before and you're sick and tired of

hearing it, and I get that. So I think I'm

gonna stop with the storytime videos,

which kind of sucks because this channel

was mainly built on storytimes, but I've

already exhausted my supply of stories and

I don't have any new stories because right

now I'm not doing anything. I've only got

about 3 and a half weeks left in Thailand,

so I don't have any time to start anything

new because I'm going to be going to Japan

soon. And hopefully that will become a new

story that I can then talk about 100 times

5 years from now. I'm kind of in a tricky

situation right now because all of the

stuff that I used to do for the channel,

I can't do them anymore. So The marriage

drama was like a big part of the channel.

Can't do that anymore because I'm not

married anymore. There's no more drama.

Meeting girls was a big part of the

channel. I don't meet girls anymore

because I've got a girlfriend and there's

no drama because I don't want to wreck my

relationship. Things are pretty comfy

right now and I'd rather have a stable,

happy relationship and a happy, nice life

than just constant fighting and bickering,

kicking people out, being kicked out,

storming out, fights, arguments. I don't

want to go back to that. It was not fun.

Okay, the views. And the money was nice

when I was married and all that was

happening, but it wasn't fun. I had a bad

time. It was mentally very stressful. I

felt bad because I was hurting Shahira and

I was hurting other people. Didn't feel

really good about that deep inside. To be

honest, I don't really feel interested in

vlogging my life in Thailand or going out

into Bangkok and doing daily vlogs or

whatever because I'm just not really

interested in Thailand, to be honest.

Don't get me wrong, I think Thailand is a

great country. It's probably my second

favorite country in the world right now

after Japan. I didn't realize I would like

it here so much. I do like it here.

Things like the warm weather, the cheap

rent, the cheap other stuff that's cheap.

But apart from it just being a nice

country to live in, I don't really feel

like I'm passionate or really interested

in Thai culture and Thai language and life

in Thailand in general. It's just like

it's a country It's nice. It's nice to

live in. It's easy to live in and cheap.

But I just don't really feel anything

magical or passionate or special about

being here in the same way that I do when

I'm in Japan. Japan is a very different

feeling for me because I grew up my early

adult years when I was 16, 17, as I was

becoming an adult, my early mental brain

development into an adult kind of

formative years were heavily influenced by

watching way too much anime. I just

binge-watched anime all day long for years

and years when I was like 17, 18, 19. So

that had a massive impact on how I feel

when I'm in Japan. It feels like Japan is

a special part of me, even though I'm not

Japanese. I never spent any time in Japan

as a child growing up there, wasn't born

there, but it's kind of like Japan is my

second home and I feel like it's part of

my childhood. It's hard to explain. It's

hard to describe the feeling I have

personally when I'm in Japan, but it's

just things like The sounds, the smells,

the sounds of the train announcements,

the little chime sounds when you enter a

convenience store— every little thing

triggers some kind of nostalgic memory

inside my brain from when I was very

young, and that makes it a special place

for me to be in. Thailand, on the other

hand, doesn't have any of that because I

had no exposure to anything even closely

related to Thailand for my entire life

until a year ago, so I don't really have

any special nostalgic feelings for

Thailand yet. Maybe when I'm 50 years old,

then I can say, oh, I remember when I was

34 and I was living in Thailand. Oh, it's

so nostalgic. Maybe in like 10, 20 years,

then I'll feel the same way about Thailand

that I do about Japan. But as of right

now, that hasn't happened yet. It takes a

long time for nostalgic neural synapses to

be created, I guess. People seem to be

kind of confused. They ask me things like,

why do I keep going back to Japan? Year

after year to do nothing, not studying

anything, not getting a job there, just

like going there and then doing nothing.

And it's kind of hard to explain why.

Basically, I really like being there.

That's the only reason. I want to be in

Japan more than I want to be anywhere else

in the world. I don't really like to be in

the UK. It's okay because I've got a nice

house and a big garden, but that gets a

bit boring after a while. I don't want to

just sit in my mum's house for my whole

life. As someone who is a physical human

being who exists in the physical world, I

have to be somewhere. I can't just float

around on the internet. I know this is

YouTube and you just see me on a website

called youtube.com, but I don't actually

only exist on the internet. I physically

exist in the world and I have to choose

somewhere to be. And if I had to choose

anywhere in the world, why wouldn't I

choose Japan when it's literally the best

country in the world? So I guess it's kind

of difficult to understand for a lot of

people who just have a normal life where

their entire life revolves around around

studying and then getting a job and then

ideally buying a house and then building a

home. To those people, they'll never

understand the mindset of just spending

most of the year abroad not doing

anything, not getting a job, not trying to

get a visa. I'm just there to enjoy being

there and then I'm gonna leave. It's kind

of like life really. We're not here

forever, we're here for a bit and then we

go. That's kind of my mentality. I don't

really have this mentality of, oh, I gotta

get to Japan and then I'm gonna be there

forever and I've got to build a house

home. I just don't really want to waste my

time planting roots or creating

foundations only for them to be washed

away or destroyed for some reason that was

out of my control. I'd rather just have

this mentality of temporarily being in

places and then moving on, then coming

back and then moving on. People sometimes

ask me where do I see myself in 5 years or

10 years, and honestly, I really hope that

I'm still doing, or I'm still able to do

what I'm doing now in 5 or 10 years' time.

I kind of get bored after about a year

year. If I'm stuck in the same country for

more than a year, I start to get really

bored. And the idea of just being in the

same country for 5 years straight or 10

years straight— I don't know how the

majority of the people in this world do

that, but I can't do it. I need to be on

the move. I need to constantly be on the

move. I'm kind of like a tuna. You know

tunas, they drown if they stop moving.

I'm kind of like that. So the only thing

preventing me from doing what I want to do

in life, which is what I'm doing now,

which is moving between different

countries every few months or every year

or every half year. The only thing

preventing me from being able to do that

is money. So obviously you can see my

channel's not doing very well. I only made

about— I think I made like $700 this month

and then about $1,200 the previous month.

So the money is kind of a struggle

recently. It's not really financially

possible anymore. To be able to buy a lot

of tech and stay in fancy apartments. I'm

really gonna have to downgrade my quality

of life to be able to continue doing this,

and I don't really feel like it's going to

be a big problem. It's just going to have

to require some mental retuning from— I

guess I was kind of spoiled with all the

YouTube money from years ago where I was

making a couple thousand every month. I

was really spoiled by that, and I was able

to book nice Airbnbs and stay for weeks in

hotels where previously I would have to

slum it out in a guest house. The dream

would be to be able to afford to live in a

very nice private apartment. So I have my

own place, my own kitchen, I've got

privacy, I can do what I want. But

unfortunately, it seems like that's going

to be kind of very difficult to do unless

I dip into my savings, which I don't

really want to do. So I'm going to have to

go back to how I used to do it, which was

staying in guest houses. Now, I didn't

really want to be middle-aged and still

living in a guest house like I'm

20-something because I'm broke. But that's

just how life has kind of turned out.

I've been messaging a few guest houses in

Japan, thinking of moving into one of

those when I'm in Japan next month. And

they're pretty cheap. They're like £250,

maybe £200 a month. And you get your own

private room. It's not massive, but it's

not really small. It's big enough for

sleeping. Got a little desk so I could put

my computer there, sit there, playing

video games or watching YouTube or

whatever, maybe do some live streams

inside of the room. And it's got like a

shared kitchen, shared living room,

pretty big living space with probably

quite a few other people living there too.

To be honest, I am kind of nervous about

the idea of having to meet a lot of

people, but there's not really any

avoiding it when you live in a guest house

and you're using a shared kitchen and a

shared living room. People are going to

come up to you and try to talk to you,

and you can't really do a lot to prevent

that. And maybe it'll be fun. I mean, it

was fun in the past meeting people. I met

quite a lot of people, made friends, had

good times, went out with them. So maybe

I'll meet some cool people and do some fun

things instead of just being bored all by

myself in my own private apartment. Now I

can actually— now that I'm forced to have

to actually meet people because I'm out of

money, this could be a good thing. People

think having more money is better than

having less money, but sometimes having

more money or having too much money just

kind of isolates you from people. And

makes you feel lonely and bored, whereas

having no money or being broke forces you

to do things where you have to interact

with people, and that can kind of lead to

interesting experiences. So try to keep an

open mind about it, try to not be too

negative about it, and just embrace what's

going to happen. So if you want to know

what my plans are for Japan, it's kind of

looking like I'm going to have to stay in

a guest house because that's what my

budget allows. I don't, don't make enough

money to be able to book a £1,000 fancy

apartment anymore. So I'm gonna have to

stay in a guest house and just try and

survive off my earnings, my meager

earnings, whilst also paying my mum back

£500 a month, trying to afford food.

Maybe it'll be fun. Challenge. Having a

challenge is what makes life interesting,

I guess. And I had some bad news. About

the tax thing. So the tax people messaged

me yesterday and they said that it has

come to the conclusion that they don't

accept that I was non-UK tax resident for

2019. I thought the rule was if I was

outside of the UK for more than 180 days,

then I don't count as UK tax resident.

And for 2019, I was in Japan for most of

it and then Germany for a bit, and I was

only back home in the UK for about 90

days. So I thought I could claim back the

money that I paid for tax in 2019. I paid

like £2,000. So I was kind of expecting

that they'd give me back my £2,000. But

that's not going to happen now because

it's much more complicated than just being

out of the country for more than 180 days.

There's all these tests they do. They're

called Overseas Automatic Test and UK

Automatic Test, and they run 3 or 4 tests

And if you fail any of the tests, then you

don't count as non-UK tax resident. And I

failed all the tests because I was back

home for more than 90 days and I lived

with my mum in my mum's house. And that

counts as a home. So it counts. My mum's

house counts as my home in the UK. And if

you have a home in the UK that you spend

more than 16 days living in, in the UK,

then you count as UK tax resident. So they

said, yeah, I do have to pay all the tax

for 2019. So that kind of sucks. I guess

the good news is this year I have spent

more than the entire year outside of the

UK. I haven't been in the UK since 2022

October because I was in Thailand, went to

Vietnam for a bit, went to Japan for a

bit, then back to Thailand. So at least

this time they can't say that I was in the

UK for more than 16 days. But at this

point it doesn't matter anymore because I

make such little money. They can't even

tax me anymore because I actually make

below the tax-free allowance threshold.

You have to make over £12,500 to have to

pay any tax, and I actually make— I made

just below that for the previous tax year.

So I guess one good thing about being

broke and having a dead YouTube channel is

don't have to worry about tax anymore.

Okay, so my plans for this year: I'm going

to go to Japan in March, stay there for

about 3 months until June. Really, I

wanted to stay for 6 months, but I have to

go back to the UK for my sister's wedding.

Maybe I'll skip the wedding. Maybe she

won't really mind if I don't come to the

wedding or not, and then I could just meet

her in Japan because she said she's

planning to come to Japan after the

wedding, her first time in Japan. So it'd

be kind of cool to meet her in Japan, but

then maybe people would be upset if I

don't come to the wedding. Ideally, I

would like to just stay in Japan for 6

months instead of having to go to— go back

to the UK. In June and then figure out

what to do after June. I'm not sure what

to do. I can't fly straight back out to

Japan so soon because I won't have enough

money and Japan probably won't let me back

in so soon. They'll be like, why are you

back here already? Also, I'm thinking of

spending Christmas in the UK this year

because I haven't spent Christmas back

home in the UK since 2019.

2020, I was in Rotterdam. 2021, I was in

Manchester. 2022, I was in Thailand.

2023, I was in Thailand. So maybe this

year I actually spend Christmas at home

with my family, and then maybe I'll come

back to Thailand next year in January

after Christmas so I can escape the cold

winter. And then from Thailand, I'll go to

Japan again, and then I might go to

Malaysia because I actually realized I can

live in Malaysia for 90 days without a

visa. And I had a look at some apartments

in Kuala Lumpur, and they're really cheap.

You can get like a really nice condo in

central Kuala Lumpur for like £250,

£300 a booked— booking a private apartment

like a hotel, not a rented apartment. So

I'm thinking, seriously thinking, why

don't I just stay in Malaysia for like 90

days, and then Japan 90 days, and then

Thailand a month or two, and then go back

to the UK for a few months for 2025? But

2025, still quite a long way away. I'll

think about— I'll worry about next year

when it gets a bit closer. So my main goal

is how can I continue my traveling digital

nomad kind of lifestyle whilst not going

bankrupt and not going completely broke?

I think it's possible. I'm just gonna have

to downgrade back down to guest houses,

stop wasting money on all this rubbish,

cancel a few subscriptions here and there.

Try and really budget. Oh, recently I

canceled my unlimited UK data plan, which

cost £30. I managed to downgrade it to

a £12 a month, 12 gigabyte data plan. So

I'm now saving £18 a month, which is nice.

And I might have to cancel a few other

things like my Freetrade premium investing

app premium membership. I might have to

cancel that and then move my investing

over to Revolut. So I have all my money in

one place. I think that's safer, maybe.

So I think the main challenge of this year

would be when I get back home in the UK in

June, how quickly can I get back into

Asia? How am I going to be able to afford

it? Worst case scenario, I might end up

having to stay in the UK for a bit longer

than I would like to be able to save up

enough money to get back out here into

Asia. I think this year is going to be

extremely challenging. I don't know how

I'm going to survive. This year just on

YouTube, but I am determined to find a way

to make it work. I just know something's

going to happen this year. I don't know

what it is. I feel kind of excited to find

out how this year is going to go. And I

think, yeah, it's going to be interesting.

So stay tuned to find out what happens