This is why it makes sense to retire in Ghana

My kids school having a carol night and we are going over. Two kids have got a major role to play in these performances so we're going to see. If we are meeting for the first time my name is Mickey and I've lived in the UK for over 20 years now and as at the time I was making this video I am on a two and a half year journey to move back to my home country Ghana to retire. This is why. Why does my kids playing a major role in a school performance means a lot to me? See my kids were born in the UK and before they moved to Ghana a few experiences made me question whether they would grow up with the confidence to truly believe they could be anything they want to be in life. After all they were growing up in an environment where most of the teachers, doctors, police officers and other professionals they encountered didn't look like them. One incident in particular stayed with me. My daughter was about six years old when she came home from school one day looking upset. When I asked her what was wrong she told me about her school's mascot a staff badger named lightning. Every child in her class got a turn taking lightning home for the night but she said Being the optimistic father that I am I reassured her I told her to be patient surely her turn would come except it never did. The school year ended and lightning never came to our house. Now I'm not going to jump into conclusion about why that happened but what I do know is that it affected her confidence. Around the same time I noticed other changes. She became hesitant to get out of the car by herself if there were white children playing on the streets. She also made a few comments about race that genuinely worried me as a parent. Those moments forced me to think about questions I had never really considered before. Would my children grow up believing they belonged everywhere? Would they see themselves in the future careers they dreamed about? Would they truly believe that success was for people like them too? Fast forward four years my children now live in Ghana and one thing I've noticed is that here they aren't black kids they are just kids. They see people who look like them in every profession imaginable. Teachers, doctors, business owners, engineers, government officials, you name it. Even within our own family they have relatives who are successful professionals serving as living examples of what is possible. The message they receive every day is simple if you work hard you can become whatever you want to become and that's powerful. In fact the confidence I've seen develop in my children has been incredible. The clip you are watching right now is my daughter performing Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You as the lead singer. The last role she played in a school production in England was a donkey. Now to be fair somebody had to play the donkey so no complaints here. But seeing her stand on stage today leading with confidence owning the spotlight and believing in herself it reminds me of just how much environment can shape a child's sense of what's possible and for that I'm grateful. How did you find it? It was good. It was good. Did you enjoy it? How was the performance? Challenging but okay, yes, I'm okay. I just thank God that this one, but other bigger ones that are waiting for me, God will let me pass it. For some reason the older I get the more I find myself questioning what we are actually working towards. As a Ghanaian born in Ghana but now hustling and building a life in the UK I've started to realize something that I never really thought about before. It can sometimes feel easier to build and own in Ghana than it is in the UK. Recently I was having lunch with a colleague who is approaching retirement after a full career. We got talking about his retirement package and he was surprisingly open about the numbers. He told me he was going to receive about 60,000 pounds as a lump sum and around 800 pounds every month. He's leaving work a little earlier so he can still work if he wants to supplement that income and when he told me 800 pounds a month I smiled and said well at least that should cover your rents. He looked at me smiled and quietly said maybe half of my mortgage. That response stayed with me because 800 pounds a month sounds like a decent amount of money until you understand what it has to cover. Mortgage, council tax, utilities, insurance, food, transport and all the other little expenses that somehow find their way into your bank account every month. And then I started thinking about what that same 800 pounds represents to me as a Ghanaian. It's roughly around 12,000 Ghana cities a month depending on the exchange rates and I thought if you already own a modest one or two bedroom house in Ghana could 800 pounds a month potentially provide a very different quality of life? You wouldn't be paying a mortgage, you wouldn't be paying rent, your cost of living could be significantly low and suddenly that same 800 pounds feels like a completely different amount of money. And that's when I started thinking about this whole idea of the Western hamster wheel. You come to the UK, you work, you earn more, you buy a house, you take on a mortgage for 25 or 30 years, you pay council tax, you pay for utility, you pay insurance, you maintain the house and somewhere along the way you realize that a significant part of your income is simply going towards maintaining the life you've built. And don't get me wrong, there are enormous advantages of living and working in the UK. The earning potential is different, the infrastructure is different, the opportunities are different and the UK property can ultimately become a very valuable asset. But I think we sometimes confuse earning more with being wealthier. Because what really matters isn't only what comes into your account, it's what you have left after everything has been paid. And even more importantly, what have you actually managed to own? I've watched people back home in Ghana build their houses gradually. They buy land, they start with the foundation, then the walls, then the roofing, then the finishing. Maybe it takes five years, maybe ten, but eventually they can look at their building and say, this is mine. No mortgages hanging over their head for 20 years, no waiting until retirement before they can finally breathe. And then you look at some of us in the diaspora, we can spend 25 or 30 years paying for a two or three bedroom house. And sometimes by the time we finally paid it off, we are already approaching retirement. That contrast really made me think, maybe the question isn't simply, where can I earn the most money? Maybe the better question And that's where I feel incredibly fortunate, because I feel like I've been blessed with the best of both worlds. I have access to the earning opportunities of the UK, but I also know Ghana. I understand the environment, I understand the culture, I understand that sometimes you don't need an enormous amount of money to start building something meaningful. So I've started thinking differently. What if I don't need to chase the biggest salary forever? What if I can earn a few pounds in the UK, live a little more modestly, and use that income to build something for myself and my family in Ghana, a house, a small business, land, investments, something that doesn't just give me income today, but reduces the amount of money I will need tomorrow. Because ultimately, I don't want to spend my entire life working just to afford the privilege of continuing to work. I want to build something that eventually gives me options. And maybe that's what financial freedom really means. Not necessarily having millions in the bank, but waking up one day and realizing that your life no longer depends entirely on your next payslip. Maybe I can earn in pounds, build in Ghana, live modestly, take in the sunshine, enjoy the peace, and slowly create a life where I own more and or less. Because at the end of the day, it's not just about how much you earn. It's about how much of your life that money buys back for you. Be like zero cities. For homemade cooking. And my mother is the best cooker in the whole world. I cannot even taste any mother's cooking except for my mother. And that's the mother here. I fell in love with what you are. Someone who'd never want to see me hurt. But I was fooled by all your vows and words. Fishing is in the forest instead of the sea. So this is why I realized that, you know, I thrive in my local habitat. There is one final reason why after more than 20 years in the UK, I feel it may be time for me to move back home to Ghana. And that reason is simple. I want to give back to my country. For as long as I can remember, I have often said that I was pushed away from Ghana at a very young age. Coming from a less privileged background, I quickly realized how difficult it could be to get an opportunity to prove yourself. The system felt heavily influenced by nepotism. It sometimes seemed that opportunities were reserved for those who knew the right people or had connections in right places. And for someone like me who didn't have those connections, it was incredibly frustrating. Eventually, I left Ghana without even completing my national service. At the time, living wasn't necessarily about turning my back on my country. I think deep down, I simply wanted to escape the limitations I felt were around me. I wanted to live. I wanted to build myself. I wanted to gain experience, discover who I was, and one day come back and enjoy my country on my own terms. And now, more than two decades later, I find myself thinking about that dream very differently. Life abroad has given me experiences I could never have imagined when I was that young man leaving Ghana. I've learned, I've grown, I've made mistakes, I've met people from different backgrounds, and I've gained a completely different perspective on life. And somewhere along the way, something changed. I started feeling that perhaps it was time to come home. Not because I believe I can change Ghana, not because I think I have all the answers, and certainly not because I consider myself influential. But I now have a tiny bit of privilege that I didn't have when I left. I can enter certain rooms that I couldn't enter before. I can have conversations with people I could never have imagined interacting with when I was younger. And perhaps, just perhaps, I can use that little bit of access to help create opportunities for someone else. Maybe the small business I'll build with my family can become more than just a business. Maybe it can become a platform. A platform for a young Ghanaian with ambition. A young person who reminds me of the person I once was. A young Mickey who simply needs someone to open the door, provide an opportunity, or say, come in, let's see what you can do. Because I've always wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. Something meaningful. Something that contributes, even in a small way, to humanity. And honestly, I don't think there is anywhere that would mean more to me than doing that in Ghana. The country I come from. The country that frustrated me. The country that pushed me away. But also the country that shaped me. I know coming back won't be easy. I know there will be challenges. I know the same frustrations I experienced before may still exist in different forms. It's going to be a bumpy ride. But nobody ever said it was going to be easy. And perhaps that's not the point. Maybe the point is that some journeys are worth taking precisely because they are difficult. After everything I've experienced abroad, I feel that coming home isn't about going backwards. For me, it's about coming full circle. It's about taking everything I've learned, everything I've experienced, and everything I've been fortunate enough to build, and bringing a little of it back to the place where my story began. I want to brighten the small corner I came from, even if it's only a small light. Because sometimes you don't need to change the whole country. Sometimes changing one person's life is enough. And if I can help create an opportunity for one young Ghanaian who feels the way I once felt, then perhaps coming back home will have been worth it. These are some of the thoughts that have stayed with me throughout my last visit to Ghana. And perhaps that's why this decision feels so personal. I'm not coming back because I believe I have everything figured out. I'm coming back because after more than 20 years away, my heart is telling me that it's time to try. To come home, to contribute, and to see what difference I can make. I know the road ahead won't be perfect, but I'm also convinced that it's going to be worth it. If any part of this resonates with you, please like this video. Please subscribe to come on my journey of experience. Thank you very much for watching, and see you in the next one. Bye! I promise on my own name, I won't get in trouble.