Down here, we have a maid and a cook - up there, we are the maid and the cook

In this globalized world, some people from rich countries move to not so rich countries on retirement to make their money last.

A fixed income which allows you to live just above poverty level in the UK or Germany, for instance, can put you into the top 5 percent of earners in another country just a few airplane hours away.

Travel magazines, web sites, books galore describe life in foreign lands under the sun. Whether the sun is Tuscan or over the French Dordogne, both too expensive these days for the average retiree, you can even make good money writing a book about the new life.

A fond eye on the locals and their culture, a tiny dose of stereotypes you can refute, one or two tugs on the heart strings, and voila, Hollywood will come a-knocking.

Those who do not get the life on easy street do not get much press or movie coverage it seems.

Yet, there are many thousands of them. The cases we know personally are richer stories than the smooth summer escape readings on the bestseller lists.

They have everything from bad luck to the inability to manage money which suddenly seems to go so much further than back home.

For those who go beyond the shores of southern Europe or the Caribbean, there is the legacy of colonialism. Do we bring old attitudes to, say, Africa? If local domestic employees appear not unhappy when some white owned beach houses burn down in a brush fire, do we see a racial divide or do we see an economic status divide?

Down here, we have a maid and a cook - up there, we are the maid and the cook

If this sentence describes your situation closely enough to make you reflect on your expat life, or if you know someone who fits the bill, tell us the story. 

Tell us if we can write about it. Don't worry, if Hollywood comes knocking, the rights are yours.