South Africans in Montenegro

Why did we choose Montenegro?

Both Richard and I were born, raised, and lived most of our lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. We moved to Cape Town, South Africa, when we got married in 2014. We LOVE Cape Town.

So, why the move?

We love travelling together. Travelling anywhere from South Africa is really expensive, because there’s always a starting flight of 11 hours. It makes regular travelling expensive and exhausting.

Since we’re working for ourselves, and everything we do is online, we’re not anchored to a place. We felt that we were in a great position to explore something totally different.

South Africa definitely has some challenges. It’s a really beautiful country, but there are definitely some issues that we weren’t happy with. For example: One of the huge things we loved about our travels was the ability to WALK anywhere. Walk to the shops, walk on the beach, just generally walk. You can’t do that in Johannesburg. The crime rate is just too high. It’s not safe. Cape Town is better, but still not ideal.

We also felt it was time for a lifestyle change, and a shift in priorities. I was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in March 2018, and had a bunch of surgeries. It was scary for both of us, and definitely came with a “Are we living life the way we really want? Are we really following our priorities?” Coming out of cancer successfully was a major blessing, and we definitely want a lifestyle that allows us to explore, live, and have a bunch of adventures together.

Why Montenegro?

Both Richard and I are Accountants, so it’s no surprise that there was a spreadsheet involved in the decision-making!

We had a few criteria. (I’m going to be really honest about them. You may have different opinions, understand that these were ours!):

Near the sea. We lived in Cape Town, and I LOVE the sea view
Closer to Europe and UK for travel. In that aspect, almost anywhere is better than the very bottom of Africa!
Living costs fairly similar to South Africa. The ZAR is not a very strong currency, so spending money in USD or GBP feels like haemorraging money! We needed somewhere that would translate fairly similarly
Tax rates. In SA, the way to ‘fix’ poverty and unemployment is to tax higher income earners as far as possible. At a 40%-ish tax rate, it’s a little much. (Keep in mind that this comes with NO social benefits. No free medical, education, nothing). Also, the level of corruption is fairly insane, so it’s not as though the money is being put to good use). We wanted to find a place where the tax rates are lower.

Yeah, very Accountant of us! We landed with a few choices, Montenegro being one of them.

How did it happen?

How do the visas work?

We had sold out of our business at this point, and we were both building our businesses online. Since we weren’t going to get jobs in Montenegro, the best option was to open a business, and employ ourselves. This is what we did, and this is how we turned our 3 month holiday visa into one year temporary residence visas, which we’ll renew annually.

We packed up, and left!

Yes, there was a lot of ‘getting rid of stuff’ in between this. I think a few friends benefitted from rifling through my wardrobe asking “Are you taking this?”, with a twinkle of hope in their eyes that I’d say no. I gave away a LOT of stuff.

We moved over with two big black boxes, and our luggage. That’s it. We were renting fully-furnished in Cape Town, and with less space, had kept our lives fairly light already. So it was a lot easier to do this. It’s seriously expensive to move stuff overseas.

The only appliances that came with was our milk frother (cappuccino’s), our Nutribullet, and my GHD hair straightener. The rest, all gone!

It was pretty therapeutic to be able to move quickly and lightly. Not needing to worry about selling a house, furniture, rooms of ‘stuff’ to deal with. It was a good lesson in living light.

We landed on 1 May 2019, and drove in the rain to our little house in Risan. And this is where we still are. Our little white box-house!

Are we enjoying it?

It’s so amazing that although one of the reasons we moved was because we wanted to explore, there’s a very real human ‘pull’ to get back to what you know. As humans, we seem to spend a lot of our lives trying to create an environment that we’re used to, (only slightly better!). Being here is very different, and that’s what we wanted! But there are definitely times we wish for ‘what we know’.

Not speaking the language is tricky. Not knowing anyone is a little tough too. There are so many things that you don’t know until you settle in and get going with life.

It is really BEAUTIFUL though. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re not paying attention on a daily basis

This is the view from our kitchen window. Surely washing dishes isn't so bad with this backdrop! We're in a really small, old town, so it's a little like living in the 80's (That's the best way I can come up with to describe it). There's no fast food delivery in our town, no retail shops. Small grocery stores, a few restaurants and coffee bars, and bakeries (Ok, THOSE are really important to me!). I'm loving the feeling of being a little more unplugged. You don't think you're super-consumerist, until you're in a place where you CAN'T be! And miss all the conveniences you got used to.

We’ve found the people so friendly and open. Once you crack a little bit of a ‘shell’, they’re the friendliest, kindest people. We’re enjoying that, although the language barrier is a challenge! There’s a lot of pointing and laughing and Google Translate!

There are some real sad things too. There’s a lot of rubbish and litter. I think the infrastructure can’t quite keep up with the development, so there’s a LOT of dumping. There’s also a real problem with stray cats and dogs. We’ve gotten ourselves 5 cats that we just couldn’t leave to suffer on the street. (Sigh!)

We’ve connected with a bit of an ex-pat community, and that’s really lovely as well. So many different people with different journeys. They’ve been very welcoming and helpful.

Overall, we’re loving it!