Exactly what does make our lives so much better living outside the United States? I will attempt to explain the cultural & economic differences from MY perspective. This writing is not saying that there is anything wrong with the culture in the United States, it is just stating the differences that we can relate to in a better way.
I loved road trips around the U.S.! It was an easier alternative to a cheap vacation, IF you were willing to pack a cooler with sandwiches, cold drinks & drive long distances on busy interstate highways or back country roads. Traveling with a partner & listening to mystery shows on the car radio or just chatting about life in general while driving to another state to visit one of the girls or grand-kids was a blast!
When the Big Guy worked as a contractor outside the United States his employer paid for our vacations to countries outside of the U.S. & I admit we took full advantage of that & went to some awesome tourist destinations. The Big Guy said the only reason his employer paid for us to travel to international destinations during his leave was to ensure that those people assigned to work in austere conditions would return.
I’m sure you have wondered as I did all those years ago when I would hear of someone retiring & just traveling full time. Have you ever really stopped to think can seniors living on a monthly budget could actually be able to travel to or live in one of those countries? To really live there amongst the locals who more than likely may not speak English. Would you be able to communicate?
The short answer for what makes our lives better outside the United States would be the rich tapestry of cultural & economic differences that were (and still is) out there for us to discover! And there are differences! Again, this is not meant to be a critique of American culture but rather an exploration of what we’ve found that resonated with us on a much deeper level.
Once we started our international travels, we were shocked by the major cultural differences that we never knew existed until we were once outside the United States.
Initial questions asked by friends & family
I know you are thinking what was THE difference & to be clear it would take hours to describe in detail all of the differences that we have seen & experienced, but I will try to answer some of the questions we have dealt with in our decision to travel internationally while looking for our little piece of paradise! Many of our friends & relatives did not know of anyone that had done the type of journey that we were planning to embark upon (only 25% of senior Americans actually travel internationally). What?!!
Frankly, we were not expecting friends & family to have so many different comments & questions about living outside the United States. Yes, we knew they would be curious. In this writing I will address the most asked questions & comments & hopefully you may understand more about our decision making process & the things we had to think about before we left. Let me state for the record, neither one of us were sure what we would be getting into once we left the borders of the United States; each of us only carrying a suitcase & backpack with everything that we owned, so here goes…
Just to be upfront & transparently honest with you, we both worked jobs living from paycheck to paycheck like many people in our neighborhood. We didn’t know anything about a budget before we started traveling, we just knew how much money we made & how much we thought we should pay for rent, bills, etc. We were asked how were going to pay our travel expenses? How much will it cost to travel? Was it safe to travel outside the United States? How would we find a place to live outside the country? What would we do all day? What about television shows, how would we be able to watch our favorite shows or follow a TV series? (this frankly was never important as neither of us are big tv watchers but I understand a LOT of seniors are). How can you retire on a your small pension? What would we do if we didn’t have money to get back home to the United States? What if you get hurt or sick -do they have doctors and/or medical care internationally? Did you hit the lottery? And those are just some of the questions we got before we even put an actual plan into place! Ha.
Ok, so that is more than a few questions but all directly related to how in the heck can you afford to do what you say you’re going to do? No lottery, I had a vision & lots of paper to write a plan to be able to reach for this dream I saw for the two of us. Yes, I did most of the trip planning, so that when I presented my plan to the Big Guy he trusted me when I said we can do this! The Big Guy looked me in the eyes and asked “Are you serious,” and I told him I have looked at our financials & believe that we can put this plan for international travel into action for less than what it costs us to live here in the states.
As we have traveled, we have found a huge misconceptions. We have found that people in “MANY” countries believe that all Americans are rich & live in a country with streets lined with gold! We have probably spent more time than not explaining how Americans are not ‘rich’ & have to work to pay banks for many of the things they see on TV! That is the one BIG reason we stay away from ‘tourist’ areas. There is nothing wrong with the people that go on a vacation for a break from work or to visit a popular tourist area where they can relax & enjoy being treated like kings & queens. That is simply no longer a prerogative as installing a monthly budget is absolutely necessary.
I’ve mentioned probably to many times but putting a monthly budget together on our income was the be all end all in us being able to travel as we do. What an eye opener!
Why do you want to live outside the U.S.?
I addressed the main reason above in the opening, economically it was a necessity. Along with the next statement, between you & me, ‘why are you leaving the U.S.?’ was pretty simple. The political arena has been attempting to create unnecessary chaos amongst its own citizens for quite a few years now. There seems to be no end to bigotry, racial problems, school shootings, book banning, inflation, & etc. We realize that the Pandemic caused inflation worldwide, however prices of everything seemed so high & that didn’t gel well with us pensioners existing/living on fixed incomes. You know exactly what I mean!
If I’m being honest, when we reached our 60’s we seriously began to ask ourselves how we wanted to spent our retirement years/rest of our lives? We had already spent our ‘younger years’ working & dealing with the stress & aggravation of job politics, financially trying to make ends meet. At one point it was starting to affect The Big Guy’s health waving a huge flag in our faces that something needed to change. We were mentally done with all the ‘stuff’ going on in U.S. We also were not looking forward to our senior years counting pennies.
Sure, we have children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren but…did we want to be those grandparents sitting home twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next holiday or birthday when the children & grandchildren decided they were expected come to call or come visit. That takes me to the next question.
Wow! Leaving the family behind!!! How can you?
Personally, as grandparents we love our family, that was the hardest part of this journey ‘leaving family and friends behind’. But today’s grandchildren are growing up in a world filled with technology & vast entertainment at their fingertips—so different from my own childhood experiences. We have four daughters, seven grandchildren & two great-grandchildren scattered across two states—thousands of miles apart. While it’s difficult to be away from them, they do each have their own family to embrace & they simply do not need us in their daily living. But we do believe that embracing life outside the U.S. enriches not only our lives but also offers unique experiences that we can share with them when we reunite or they decide to visit.
We grew up in a generation where parents often kept financial & personal decisions private, rarely discussing them with their children. As a result, when it came to our travel plans, we shared only limited information with our kids. This led to a variety of perspectives among them regarding our decision to travel internationally.
Each of the daughters handled our decision to travel internationally differently. We received everything from “that’s great but watch your money & be safe” to trying to make us feel guilty for “leaving the grand-kids” to “when can I come visit?”! Two of the four daughters have passports ready to go, the other two like 60% of Americans do not have passports & may not be interested in traveling outside of U.S. ever but we have our fingers crossed.
Leaving material stuff behind? How??
Leaving material stuff behind was really the least thing we worried about in our preparations to travel. I don’t care who you are but you will not convince me that owning MATERIAL THINGS makes you happy! Yes we were just as guilty as the next person – applying for car loans, having a house built, new appliances, furniture & etc (you get the drift). Just like almost every person in America, we were living the American dream, but owed our lives to the bank. But about the time we seriously began thinking about being those seniors traveling internationally, we realized that owing banks for those material things was making us prisoners in our own home & we recognized that habits had to be changed. “Keeping up with the Jones” had to no longer be important. Once that mindset was in place, it was a weight off our shoulders. Ha, it wasn’t easy putting the things we had worked all those years to obtain out for sell in order to be able to gain the freedom to travel, but, once the mindset was in place, we were able to re-program our priorities!
What makes your life so much better living outside the United States?
Honestly, I don’t think either of us have been as healthy, relaxed & just plain happy in our day to day travel life.
Let’s be honest, as we entered our senior years, we began to reflect on how we wanted to spend this precious time. After years spent navigating workplace stress & financial pressures, we found ourselves yearning for something different—something more fulfilling.
I personally have never felt so healthy & I am sure The Big Guy will agree with that! We exercise regularly & have been invited to join a Sunday morning walking group & build a community for us. These folks are awesome! The culture in South America is warm, inviting & very family oriented. On these walks we see entire families out walking together. Oh, I almost forgot the parks & mountain walks we go on, so far all have been free unlike the parks in Texas that charge to enter to see sites or just walk.
As far as a social life we actually have more of a life here than when we were in the states. We have been invited to game nights with new friends & coffee dates with others. It simply is a carefree life & I love it. The people we have met have been absolutely endearing. Every country we live in we have met new friends & add to our international family. Now it took some work on our part to get the locals to be comfortable with the new gringos in the neighborhood but once they saw us & realized we were nice, it was great. We have been told to our face that we carry good energy! That was such the compliment. We actually have more of a social life outside of the states. Go figure!
Safety is a big deal. The country we have presently lived in five months so far is rated by the U.S. as a third level dangerous country but we have seen none of that. We were just talking this morning how we feel safer here as a mixed couple than we did in the States. Its true! Sure we try to follow safety protocols & try not to stand out. So far our experiences & interactions with the police in this & every foreign country has been pleasant.
We’ve personally have been in cars stopped by police for road checks or other reason. Mexico, Uganda & Colombia the car was waved over by the local police (of that country) for a random inspection. Our driver in Uganda was very vocal with the police & told us later after the interaction that the policeman was simply trying to get a bribe. The second time another driver was pulled over by the policeman. She got out of the car & walked them behind another vehicle. When they returned they said the policeman made them pay a small bribe, but didn’t want us to see what he was doing.
In Mexico & Colombia, it was simply a driver check & we were waved on. We have seen & even interacted with many police during our international journey. I can say the vast majority seem to be actually doing the job of protecting the public first. We still see videos & have memories of our police interaction in the United States. The Big Guy often says that any interaction with U.S. police by even an innocent person could potentially be life ending. I don’t feel that here. In America there has been little to no change in police behavior toward the black & brown population & we truly believe that the U.S. will not be seeing any change in police violence toward black & brown nor police reform anytime soon.
Economics again is a huge reason why we are living better outside of the states. No car payment or maintenance cost, no property taxes, no insurance, no utilities, etc. If the distance is to far to walk or through an unknown neighborhood to us, we simply call Uber, taxi, bus, metro. The money we spend is minuscule compared to the $$ we spent in the U.S. Owning a vehicle is simply not a necessity when you have metros, bus, choice of Uber, Yango, taxi, etc to get around in.
Our main monthly expenses are rent, coffee shops, dining out, grocery shopping – pretty much in that order! Ha! Of course air travel & travel insurance are part of our spending but are figured into our monthly budget as future expenses.
Many a night, with Elsa & Pedro, we would shut down a coffee cafe just chatting away. It was always fun to try out a new coffee shop that one of us had seen along with a piece of sweet bread. Just as an after thought, we were never told to leave because the cafe closed – they just don’t do that! Beautiful memories!
Fresh fruit & vegetables are abundant in many countries. It seems every country has fruits, vegetables or coffees native to that region.
In Kampala, Uganda there were a group of young girls in our neighborhood that picked fresh mangoes & would walk along Bukasa Road each carrying a basket of ripe mangoes on their head. If we didn’t stop them, they would see us & run to catch up with us offering up the biggest & best tasting mangoes we had ever had for just a few Ugandan shillings.
In Ecuador our friend Milly introduced us to an amazing fresh squeezed sugar cane drink.
In Colombia mouth watering mandarins that will make your taste-buds do a salsa dance with each bite! Coconut rice (but only try it at the beach as they use real coconuts) is an amazing dish that can only be made by the people that live along the Colombian coastal area. I think Colombia has to be king of fresh juice stands from carrots, oranges, lemons, maracuya, guayaba, zapote just to name a few! My favorite at the moment is fresh carrot juice after one of those long walks.
Almuerzos are a great way to watch your expenses as well. These lunches are made by small home kitchens (some restaurants offer as well) & are hand delivered to you. A full meal for what is equivalent to around $3-4 USD or so. Usually with a bowl of soup, meat, rice, potatoes or beans, salad & fruit juice!
What if you need medical care outside the U.S?
And what if we do need medical care outside the U.S., it can’t be as good as the U.S. Correct? WRONG!
What if you need medical care outside of the U.S.? You’ll have to catch a flight & come back here for service, right? WRONG! Here is a fact that we never knew until we reached Mexico & needed medical care. Accidents do happen. Did you know that many people travel outside the United States & other western countries to seek medical care in Mexico & other Latin American countries? Most of you might think I’m b—g you when I say we received some world class medicare care from top notched doctors during our travels. Broken arm in Mexico requiring surgery, Done!
You would be amazed at the quality of healthcare in many countries outside of the U.S. Plus, they assigned an English speaking nurse to stay with me the whole time I was there.
Personally we have had eye glass examinations, dental cleanings & work (crowns, spacer) in various South American countries as well as Namibia in Africa. Healthcare for seniors is such an important issue, I will go into more detail in my next blog.
Pharmacies are very nice & again affordable as hell compared to U.S. costs!
Since our U.S. medical insurance does not cover out of country illnesses after the 59th day, we ALWAYS purchase International Travel & Medical Insurance.
Isn’t it so dangerous? What if you get kidnapped?
We do extensive research for every country we plan to visit. We check out blogs, F/B & of course the U.S. Department of State recommended security level that describes each country level of danger. We are signed up Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) which sends out warning notices & planned events that may affect a specific city or area in that country.
On our initial adventure we had decided on Merida, Mexico. Oh my gosh you would have thought we were digging our own graves by wanting to visit Mexico! “What if you are kidnapped? Cartels are everywhere!” Oh it went on & on. Problem is if you don’t look outside of your comfort zone & believe EVERYTHING you see on the nightly news, I’m afraid to say you just don’t know any better. Same remarks when we decided Colombia would be added to our Bucket List. It is rated a Third Level Security (Reconsider Travel) by the U.S. but we have taken precautions & do things to ensure our safety is not at risk.
Bottom line, we are pretty savvy & try to keep our heads on a swivel.
What if they don’t speak English? How will you communicate?
For me, this was the hardest & the easiest to answer. In Central & South America I have stumbled in my Spanish. I went to in person Spanish classes in Ecuador & presently utilizing an online site to extend my Spanish. I am determined to learn conversational Spanish & that is the main reason I really wanted to stay in South American countries to learn. I was amazed that the continent of Africa has 54 countries and speaks nearly 3000 languages across the continent, the six countries that we visited in Africa all spoke English, some as their first language!!
But an easy answer – until I get better in Spanish – I know how to use the translator on my cellular. Google translate works best for written translations but Deepl works best for voice translations. So…as I say a lot “Estoy tratando de aprender espanol.” The Big Guy is sometimes mistaken for being Spanish because he can say a few sentences very well in Spanish. (Ha!)
What will you do all day?
I think that has been answered above. Every day is unplanned other than our walks & coffee stops in the morning. Usually during coffee we will decide what to put on our schedule for the day. We may walk or Uber to one of the many malls, we may make a trip to grocer, we may just adventure to a new park we haven’t yet seen but all in all we are loving our international traveling life. Yeah it really is that easy. Ha.
In closing living outside the U.S. has been everything we dreamed it would be!
The short answer is there is no short answer to any of the many questions. Its been almost four years & we still have friends who are concerned about our safety, when we say we are going to this or that country but I hope they know we are happy & healthy. Isn’t that what really matters?
I do know we have never looked back & said that we made a mistake in undertaking this grand adventure to look for our piece of paradise. Economically, we had no choice & for now we are moving forward & keeping our sights looking straight ahead.
