I’m at a point in life where I don’t know what I want, but I know it’s not what I have. My big house, my car, my high-paying but soul-sucking job. None of those things are making me happy. I’m currently in the best city for me in the US, but I’m still dissatisfied with where I live.
But the good news is that I have enough saved up that I could probably retire early in a LCOL place. I don’t want to retire early though. I want to do some self-discovery and learning before I decide where to go in life.
So a part of me wants to:
- Throw a dart at a world map
- Sell my house and possessions
- Move wherever the dart landed in step 1
- Learn the language and customs of that place
- Live off of my savings for a while
- Evaluate where I want to go from there after a year or two
I’m not going to do step 1. I think I can at least make an educated guess as to where I go. I know I have to consider visas and COL. But regardless, I’m still willing to take a risk about where I want to go.
If I go somewhere for a year or two and hate it, but walk away knowing a new language and customs, I’d consider that a win. The only way I’d look at it as having been a bad idea is if I go there and don’t learn anything.
Any advice?
If you have a house to sell then you’ll probably have no trouble meeting the income requirements for a Spanish non-lucrative visa. Lets you live in Spain for a year (and renew for as long as you like as long as you have funds), you just can’t work (though no one is ever going to know or care about casual cash-only work like babysitting or doing a few projects for people back home and so on). Gives you a lot of freedom to travel, take language classes, and experience the culture. Plus the cost of living is low and the pace of life here in Spain is nice and slow. It’s a great place to spend a few years.