Moving To Portugal Changed Our Life Forever | #FreshStart

Moving to Portugal changed our life forever - from early retirement, to moving abroad for a fresh start. In this latest podcast, as a retired couple living on the beautiful island of Madeira, Portugal, we talk about how moving abroad to Portugal has impacted us forever, and what it could do for you.

Thanks for listening! Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share our channel with fellow adventurers seeking to create their own 'Better Second Half of Life!'"
All the best!  D & M 🌎 ❤️

We can be reached at TrackUsDown@icloud.com

Transcript

We retired early from our careers at age 50

We sold everything

and we moved abroad to a foreign land in search of a "better Second Half of Life."

Today, it's time to reflect:

If we had to go back tomorrow,
was it all worth it?

Stay tuned to find out, and what it means for you!

..in three, two... what's your intro music?

I don't know!

Welcome back to Track Us Down!

If you're just finding us, I'm Monique.

And I'm Doug.

On our channel, we talk about retiring early,

moving abroad,

but most living a "better Second Half of Life."

In this latest vlog, as a retired couple living here on the island of Madeira,

Portugal

we're going to talk about something that many people want to do,

think about doing,

but are often scared to do.

I know we were, before we did this.

And we are here to tell you that there is a better life waiting for you,

a better life living abroad, a better life meeting new people,

and a better "Second Half of Life," if you choose to do it.

And today we're going to share with you our thinking now, two and a half years in,

of "was it all worth it?",

and what that means for you, if you are thinking about, planning, or have already decided

that you want a better "Second Half of Life."

So if you like a good conversation about retirement, moving or living abroad,

or just living a better "Second Half of Life,"

please subscribe to our channel and give us a thumbs up,

we do really appreciate your input and your support.

So take us into this topic - how did this topic come up here between us and on our channel?

So the other day we started talking about, "Was it all worth it?"

Everything we've done to get where we are right now:

quitting our careers early, selling our home, selling everything we owned, moving to a foreign country, setting ourselves up again?

There's a lot of work involved, a lot of thought involved,

and it's scary

and, you know, we did it.

So, was it worth it?

And not to be too grim or anything, but like, if we died tomorrow, was it worth it?

If we had to go back to our previous lives for whatever reason, and it was tomorrow - was it worth it for us?

And it was so easy to come up with all the reasons it was absolutely worth it!

So I'm not going to try and think about it too much, "if we died tomorrow,"

because really, we're definitely hoping that's not going to happen.

No sudden illnesses, or no accidents here on Madeira.

I think it's more, if we decided to uproot, pack up everything, and move back for whatever reason,

if we just decided that we were done here

and we moved back and we were going to go back to North America,

was this last two and a half, almost three years, worth it?

Was this entire experience worth it?

Did it pay off?

All right Doug, so what is the first thing that pops in your mind, "Was it worth it?"

Absolutely I think, "Life Experience."

Just meeting new people, that's an easy one.

But it's not just meeting new people, it's the type of people that we've met.

A lot of them are like-minded people who want to explore the world,

want a bit of adventure, trying to get out of their suburb,

or just find something different in their "Second Half of Life."

And I would say that, "Yes," it was was worth it,

just in the life experience alone.

When you're living back in North America, in the suburb you grew up in,

or wherever it was, or raised your family in, or ran your career in,

I find you're very much in an "echo chamber," you're in a bubble.

You're just kind of living the same kind of life that everybody else is in your neighborhood,

in your group of friends.

They say that you're sum of your five closest people you have around you, as far as friends and colleagues,

and I think that's very true.

And when you get out into the world, you have these new experiences with new people.

You learn new things and new ways of doing things that other people are doing,

and I would say that has been just an incredible experience.

It's an incredible experience that everybody should have in their life.

Just expand your horizons, new places, new people, new ways of doing things.

It just feels like such a richer life, it just feels like we're trying different things,

and it's not the same old everyday, day in, day out,

for our entire life.

I think amazing new people is something that definitely popped in my mind.

We have met so many people that, as a teacher or as a police officer back in our hometown,

we would have never crossed paths with In our lifetime.

We wouldn't have traveled in the same places at the same time, we wouldn't have met them through work,

we wouldn't have met them through just our neighborhood.

And all of a sudden, you realize how much you have in common with people from all over the place,

yet we're all really kind of so different.

Like we've met people from all over Europe, obviously from the United States, from Canada, and beyond,

and we all have something in common that we're all, you know, doing something a little different,

moving abroad, trying new things,

but there's also a lot of difference in who we've met.

We've met people older than us, younger than us, with different career paths than us, different ideas.

And like Doug said, all that adds to a different experience that we're having right now.

It's enriched.

Definitely.

I think when you meet people from all those different countries

everywhere in the world,

you're exposed to so many different ideas,

and it really is very interesting to see different ways of doing things.

Another way it's been very rewarding and we would definitely do it all over again,

is a "complete reset."

Leaving our workplace, leaving the culture and the fast-paced way of life in North America

is just a welcomed reset.

It's much more laid back here in our "Second Half of Life," but also just in Europe in general.

It's just a way of doing things that's much more relaxed.

It's a complete reset.

And if we had to go back, I would definitely look at doing things differently back in North America.

I wouldn't want to pick up where we left off, and get back into that same rat race.

After you've experienced this way of life,

and just knowing that you can slow things down a bit and just enjoy the day-to-day things more,

it's just so much more enjoyable, and I think it would be hard to go back.

I definitely feel like we've left the rat race behind.

There's no rat race here.

We make our days as busy or as slow as we want to make them,

and you can just do as much or as little as you want,

I don't feel the pressure to do things here and to go, go, go.

The "Second Half of Life" is sort of like a reset to 25 again, where the world's sort of your "oyster" here,

and it's all laid out in front of us, and it's just up to us to choose what to do.

We have spent time integrating and getting to know people.

We're taking time to learn new skills, whether that's language or other skills,

and it kind of feels like a reset to a younger age.

So we definitely feel like we're reset to 25!

And I feel the same way.

I mean, I know that we're technically in our 50's,

but I feel like I'm 25 again in a mindset here.

When you escape the doldrum, the bad weather, just the everyday same way of life that we were experiencing,

I feel like it's before we were married again, or just married,

before we had kids.

We can kind of pick up where we left off there.

And that goes for new trying new things as well,

whether it's different types of businesses, or just endeavors, hobbies, those sorts of things

and that keeps you young, that keeps you healthy.

And just further to that I think it was a reset financially as well.

We went on a huge financial IQ learning curve

in the last two years leading up to our early retirement,

and I think we've just carried on from there.

Of course, there's a lot of things I wish we would have started in our 20's, 30's, even 40's.

But you can't do that.

You just have to do the best you can, at the time you can.

We are continuing to learn, and part of that has just been meeting so many people from around the world who have great experience,

whether it's in investing, in different businesses, in real estate and those types of things,

where you can just learn so much from different people who are out here in the world,

rather than just in your neighborhood.

And that's in addition to all the books and all the time we have to read now.

Another way that we've definitely done a reset is Healthwise.

I think when you're busy in your career you do the best you can, raising kids and working hard, long hours,

and you take care of yourself the best you can.

But again, like Doug was saying in the beginning, you kind of live in an "echo chamber,"

and you kind of judge yourself according to like the other people that you know

and you might think you're doing okay, I guess.

Then when you're here and you sort of have more time to think about it,

you can do a reset.

And the weather definitely contributes to it.

It's nice year round here, we can get outside year-round,

and as you're, you know, outside doing activities,

you take better care of yourself, which encourages you to eat better.
  
Fresh food is very much available here.

It's sort of circular.

It just sort of feeds on itself, that it's sort of a broader way of looking at health.

So I do think we've reset financially.

We are completely debt-free, we feel financially free,

but we have also reset our health to the point where we feel in control of our health

and that's really great, going into the "Second Half of Life."

Definitely. You know that "Health Reset" is so important to me.

We were always fairly healthy and exercised and tried to eat well.

But you realize once you leave that rat race of North America,

all the additives, preservatives, and advertising that goes into feeding you

that you weren't maybe sometimes doing things as well as you thought you were.

So, now we can eat even better.

And, in addition to that, we have more time to exercise.

We are outside every day, most of the day,

and there's just such a choice of things to do here from swimming in the ocean,

to hiking, to just walking.

I mean you name it, you can go on here.

We just never had that with the seasons back in North America, and just the extreme kind of, I think, weather events as well.

And leaving our long careers behind, we also have time to do things health-wise at home.
  
Doug is making kombucha and sauerkraut.

We're making sourdough bread.

We're putting time into researching things and coming up with new recipes that we both enjoy.

Or if we have guests over, we are trying new things

and that feels really good in the "Second Half of Life."

It's a great reset.

I never had time to make kombucha or sauerkraut, fermented foods like that,

and the health benefits that we learn from those are incredible, and they taste so good.

So, we're doing all these fun things that we never had a chance to do.

That's just another way that has made it so worth it here,

and no regrets at all,

if we had to leave tomorrow, don't regret anything that we've learned or started to do here.

So "Was it worth it?" in meeting new people, learning new skills, doing all the financial reset, health reset?

So when you think of "Was it worth it?"
what's one of the biggest reasons?

I think it's just, I mean, again, it's a "Yes."

If you're thinking of doing anything like this and you're worried about it, it is a big "Yes."

It is so worth it.

It's the sense of validation, I think, that we have got from meeting new people,

different people from around the world.

Not just the Portuguese here and their local way of doing things, and their just kind of, easy and relaxed, calm way of life,

civil way of life,

but all the expats and the people that have come to this island as well

or we've traveled and met.

They want the same things as we do,

it's kind of a very open world, open mindset,

and just to have that validation from other people, that there is other people out there doing the same things,

that we weren't crazy for retiring early or selling everything, and starting over in a new land.

Other people are doing this as well,

and you can too.

So it's kind of like "YOLO."

It is very much "YOLO." I mean as cliche as that is, I think there's a huge "YOLO" factor involved.

And for those of you who don't know what that means: "You Only Live Once," right?

And if you only live once, it's nice like Doug said to get that validation that,

there is life beyond your workplace, the building you go to every day, the town you live in.

We were in that, and you always think,

"I don't know, is there something more?"

and the answer is yes! There is something more.

There is a "better Second Half of Life" out there, but you have to be brave enough to do it.

For me, one of the biggest reasons is I think if we had to go back tomorrow,

if this all came to an end, even if it would be okay,

and had to end it now,

I think we're going back as better versions of ourselves, with new skills, new ideas, new having had new experiences.

That kind of feeling like you're 25 again,

I think that comes from feeling new again, and refreshed.

I really like the way you put that, 'better versions of ourselves.'

I mean everybody has room for improvement, and

I just feel like being here for the last two and a half years

has given us tangible results in that sense,

as far as a better version because I know what we would do better, or differently,

if we had to go back,

because of the things that we've learned here from other people that we've met, and just from the way of life over here.

And we see what was wrong with where we were before.

But that's the "echo chamber" part.

Because when you're in it, you can't see it,

because you're part of it, and all your people are basically telling you the same thing, right?

Right.

So that brings me back to I think what we touched on at the beginning,

as far as some people are "scared" to do this,

some people don't know how to do it,

they don't know if they can do it.

We were the same way before we did this.

When we first started thinking of selling everything, retiring early,

and especially moving abroad,

I mean, moving abroad is something that we have thought about doing our entire adult lives.

Of course, we were busy living our life, raising our kids, and working our career,

so it wasn't so easy to disengage from that.

But if you are able to, it is well worth doing, and it is definitely not as scary as you think it is,

especially once you start taking those steps to do so.

And it doesn't mean you come here and, or wherever you choose to go,

and that you're not going to work or contribute or do any of that.

A lot of people we've met here have come and they're retired from their main career,

but they've picked up something else, whether that's deciding to open a brand new business,

trying something online business, or getting a job online.

Or we even know people who are giving tours now.

So, there's things you can do, and I don't know, maybe we'll do something like that too,

where you start taking on new things.

It's kind of fun.

It's not your main career [Dog drinking]

It's not your profession that you trained for,

but there's more to life to try,

and I think those are the new skills that I find huge, that gave us so much value.

Yeah the inspiration that we take from others that have come here,

they either continue their online work, starting new online work,

or like Monique said, just picking up with a tour company here and giving information in English.

and I think, we'll talk about that more at a later time,

there's things that so-called "retirees" can do to continue working,

even in retirement,

but more for themselves and in an enjoyable fashion.

And I think that's a topic that is dear to our heart, we really like that,

talking about those kind of things,

because you don't have to stay at the same thing you're doing until you're 65 or 70 years old.

It's not really retirement, as much as it's just "aging out."

So, if you have that chance, jump on board and do something exciting,

and just start looking into it, I think that is the first part of any kind of plan.

Whether it's planning a world trip with kids, or if it's planning a move abroad,

it's just start gathering little bits of information,

talking about it with your significant other,

and just plant those seeds and let them grow

and they will develop and grow a lot quicker than you think

and before you know it, you'll be applying for a visa somewhere,

you'll be selling your possessions,

and getting money back from all your possessions that you've collected over the years.

It's pretty exciting,

and

you can do the same thing.

And was it worth it?

Well, we're here to tell you two and half years in,

it absolutely was worth it,

even if it all ended tomorrow.

Thank you for spending some of your time with us today

and we hope you enjoyed this discussion.

And as always, check back in

and,

Track Us Down!