During the lockdown in 2020, I turned fifty. Although I had hoped to celebrate the milestone somewhere infamous, I ate cake at home with my pup and was very grateful to be healthy and still employed, unlike many others around the world. The isolation gave me time to evaluate my financial situation, or lack thereof.
Like many of my fellow GenXers, I had not planned well – or at all – for “retirement”, in the sense my parents enjoyed it. My father worked for the same company for 35 years and retired with a pension, and Social Security, which provided for himself and my mother until their passing.
I had hopped from job to job in various industries, usually not even bothering to make use of any 401k plans or stock options, assuming I would either never live long enough to retire or I’d marry rich somewhere along the way.
I married twice, neither time rich or even better off, and when I turned fifty I realized I just might be around, despite my best efforts to the contrary, for another several decades. This caused me to wonder, just how was I going to finance my golden years? I had no savings, and some debt. Basically, I was at net zero in retirement planning.
Panic wasn’t an option. I had plenty of time on my hands to go down all the financial advice rabbit holes the interwebs could provide. I knew I had worked since I was 16, so if nothing else I had contributed to Social Security. In the U.S., the horror stories about elderly citizens living on social security are plenty. My own mother had resorted to Medicaid in her final years, having depleted the remains of her savings after my father passed and being unable to afford the full-care nursing home her health required. She was provided for in the facility, but only given $35 per month otherwise for personal needs.
I checked my own Social Security projections via the official website and found I would probably receive around $3500 per month if I waited until full retirement age. Residing in a suburb of Seattle, that did not sound like enough to maintain my standard of living. I began investigating other areas of the country, many of which I’d lived in previously, and some were more affordable, but not ideal for my preferences in climate, politics, population, or any number of other factors.
Eventually, I stumbled upon some YouTube channels about expat living, and something called “Slow Travel”. It seems there were an ever-increasing number of retirees that had decided to move overseas and either seek residency in another country or choose to travel 30-90 days at a time from country to country around the world year-round. It sounded like a fantasy, and I couldn’t fathom that it was affordable, based on the prices I had always paid on vacations.
Little did I know, my preconceived notions of retiring overseas were completely wrong. I found resource after resource providing evidence that it was not only possible to live well outside the U.S., but it was also probably the best option I could have in retirement. And but for my lack of planning, I may never have stumbled upon it at all.
As I researched, I found country after country where the quality of life increased exponentially as the cost of living decreased well below my projected Social Security income. And in the process, I also discovered that I may well have an option on citizenship by descent in Italy, thanks to my mother’s family line and immigration status. Though I may never live in Italy full time, a second passport could give me extended stay options in the EU countries.
Slow travel isn’t new – and I realized I’d actually been introduced to it some years earlier during my brief stint as a Brand Ambassador for Remote Year, a company dedicated to providing international travel opportunities for remote workers. Their blog explains the concept better than I ever could.
Stay tuned for both U.S. and international itineraries as I plan my future travel years, hitting all the bucket list destinations in the very best season for each stop!
