I ditched bleak Britain and moved to a country I’d never visited before

When Andrew Stocks moved from the UK to Thailand, he never expected the decision would lead to him becoming a millionaire.

Andrew, originally from Devon, says he’d longed to ‘break free’ from the UK ever since he was a child, so moved 6,000 miles away aged just 18.

He’d never visited Thailand before, and left his parents in the UK without a job or housing lined up for his arrival.

‘[When I first] arrived in Thailand, I noticed my money started to go down quickly,’ Andrew, now 55, says. ‘Much more quickly than I thought, so I knew I had to do something.

‘I never believed I’d fail, as I always thought that what will be will be, and one day, a new door would open for me.

‘I missed my parents, but I never missed home – and I didn’t regret moving.’

Andrew didn’t exactly land in Thailand as your regular teenage backpacker, though. He’d already saved what he refers to as a ‘modest’ £300,000.

The expat says he acquired the funds after saving up wages from working for his parents at Brixham Holiday Park, the caravan business they owned near their home in the village of Rattery.

He was then ‘introduced’ to the buy-to-let property market as a teen and asked a close friend for a loan to put a deposit down. Being under 18, the properties were initially bought in his parents’ names, but were transferred to him on his birthday. Using his earnings, he snapped up four others, then also sold them for a profit.

He decided to use the money to up and leave Britain and jet off to Thailand for good, using the skills he’d gained from his parents to set up his own hospitality business.

Andrew started off as a volunteer for a charity, where he met a local developer. Using his savings, he invested and helped set up a retirement resort and spa solely for expats.

He says he quickly fell in love with the weather, people and the government’s attitude to business.

Now, his company, Sunshine International Retirement Residences, Resorts & Spas, includes six resorts and hotels, all of which have at least a four-star rating, alongside restaurants, villages and apartments.

The biggest hotel has 250 rooms, private pool villas and a tropical garden for guests to enjoy into their old age.

The entrepreneur estimates his worth is at least £20 million after ‘years of hard graft’.

He believes a growing number of Brits are looking to retire to countries like Thailand, rather than the traditional expat hospots of Spain and France, because it offers ‘value for money’ without conpromising access to healthcare.

Andrew adds: ‘I believe more Brits should come here. It provides a lifestyle you can only dream of.

‘I believe it was my calling to bring retired people to Thailand. But I don’t feel wealthy, as it’s all in property. Any money I do make, I reinvest into my company.’

Despite leaving at such a young age, Andrew insists he’d had ‘enough of the UK’.

‘It was too expensive then and it’s much more expensive now. The country, in general, is going down,’ he says.

‘I’m still proud to be British, but I’m much prouder to have left the rat race before it got the better of me. I wouldn’t be a millionaire had I stayed.’