Here’s something that surprised even us: 7% of retirees have “unretired” and jumped back into the labor force in just the last six months, and combining pension and remote work is exactly how we and so many others are doing it on our own terms.
We’re Maurice and Joanna, and after more than 20 years of living and working across Thailand, Greece, Vietnam, and beyond, we’ve learned that your pension doesn’t have to be the finish line. It can be the foundation.
Let us be honest with you. We were raised to climb the ladder, not to leap off it and start typing away on a laptop by the sea.
But the math caught our attention. A pension covers the predictable stuff like rent, groceries, and the boring monthly bills.
Remote work then covers everything the pension doesn’t, from plane tickets to that long lunch overlooking the water. That’s the whole appeal of combining pension and remote work.
You’re not relying on one income to do all the heavy lifting. You’ve got a floor (the pension) and a ceiling that you control (your remote earnings).
For us, the pension is the safety net. The remote work is the freedom. Together they’re unbeatable.
When we started our first silver sabbatical, we didn’t have a fat savings account to fall back on.
What we had was a modest pension trickling in and a willingness to pick up remote work wherever we landed. That combination kept us moving.
The working traveller model is simple. You go somewhere with a lower cost of living, let your pension stretch further, and top it up with online work.
In places like Thailand and Vietnam, our pension alone went surprisingly far. The remote income just turned a comfortable life into a genuinely fun one.
This is why combining pension and remote work feels less like a sacrifice and more like a clever hack. Your fixed income buys more abroad, and your flexible income buys experiences.
This infographic highlights three key benefits of combining pension and remote work. It explains how flexibility, financial security, and proactive retirement planning can boost long-term financial well-being.
We get asked this constantly, and our answer is always the same. Pick work that respects your time, not work that swallows it. And also, look at the timezones. Maurice is from The Netherlands and is many times being asked if he can work Dutch hours.
Well let me tell you. This is not why you come abroad. You want to enjoy life and not being swallowed by the Dutch system. So, no… I work only freelance where I can start and stop whenever I want.
Here’s what’s worked for us and for people we’ve met along the way:
The beauty here is that you’re not trading hours for a wage you desperately need. The pension already handles survival, so your remote work can be selective.
We turn down projects that don’t fit our travel plans, and we never feel guilty about it. That’s the kind of leverage combining pension and remote work gives you.
Let’s talk numbers, because that’s where this gets really convincing.
Inflation has been chipping away at fixed pensions for years now. A pension that felt generous a decade ago can feel tight today.
That’s exactly why so many of us are unretiring. The extra remote income acts as an inflation hedge that keeps your lifestyle from shrinking.
Here’s a rough picture of how we think about it:
| Income Source | Covers | Flexibility |
|---|---|---|
| Pension | Housing, food, insurance, essentials | Fixed, predictable |
| Remote Work | Travel, experiences, savings buffer | Fully adjustable |
| Combined | A full, comfortable life | Security plus freedom |
One word of caution from us. Depending on your pension scheme, earning above a certain threshold can affect your payments or your tax band.
We always recommend a quick chat with a financial adviser before you ramp up. A little homework upfront saves a lot of headaches later.
Money is the obvious reason for combining pension and remote work, but it’s honestly not our favorite part.
The average one-way commute for in-office workers is 31 minutes. That’s over five hours a week we now spend hiking, exploring, or just nursing a coffee by the sea.
When you remove the commute, the office politics, and the rigid schedule, work stops feeling like a burden. It starts feeling like a choice.
We work in the mornings when our heads are clear, then close the laptops and go live. That rhythm is only possible because we’re not chained to a single rigid income. This leaves us also free time to go to wellness resort Wareerak in Thailand. We were there visiting the hot springs and let me tell you. Go there, because after a workweek, you can easy relax here. We will write soon about this amazing resort. Hoever, the dancers in the picture above are from there and performed in an evening show.
We’d be lying if we told you it’s perfect. Combining pension and remote work has its frustrating days too.
Wifi drops at the worst moments. Time zones can be brutal when a client wants a call at 2am your time.
And there’s an admin side to it all, from tracking income for tax to making sure your pension paperwork stays in order across borders.
But here’s the thing. Every challenge we’ve hit has been solvable, and none of them have ever made us want the old commute back.
You don’t need to sell the house and book a one-way flight tomorrow. We certainly didn’t start that way.
Here’s the path we’d recommend to anyone curious:
If you want to keep things closer to home at first, our guide on building a work-from-home setup after 50 is a gentle place to begin.
The point is that combining pension and remote work is a dial, not a switch. You control how far you turn it.
After 20-plus years of doing this, we can tell you that combining pension and remote work has given us a life we genuinely love, not just a budget that balances.
The pension keeps us secure, the remote work keeps us free, and together they let us live and work wherever we please.
If you’ve been wondering whether it’s possible after 50, take it from us. It’s not only possible, it might just be the best decision you ever make.
For us it’s been completely worth it, and the trend backs that up with more retirees unretiring than ever. Combining pension and remote work in 2026 lets you offset inflation while keeping full control of your schedule.
It depends entirely on your pension scheme and country. Some pensions are unaffected by earned income, while others have thresholds, so always check the rules before combining pension and remote work at scale.
We’ve had the most success with consulting, freelance writing, and online teaching, since they use skills you already have. The ideal remote work for combining pension and remote work is flexible, location-independent, and selective.
Yes, and that’s exactly how we’ve lived for two decades. Choosing a lower-cost country stretches your pension further while your remote income funds the extras.
Less than you’d think, especially abroad. Because the pension covers your essentials, even a modest amount of remote work fills the gaps when you’re combining pension and remote work.
It’s never too late. We’ve met plenty of people who started in their sixties and seventies, and combining pension and remote work works just as well at any age once you’ve got one solid skill to offer.
