Ep 1: Moving to Panama at 62 After Job Loss

At 62, Sable found out she no longer had a job after the shutdown of a U.S. government agency. Instead of trying to rebuild her career in a difficult job market, she asked herself a different question: why not move to Panama now?

In this first episode of The Bougie Expat Podcast, Sable shares the real story behind her move from the U.S. to Panama City. What started as a five-year retirement idea quickly became a five-month relocation plan, complete with a one-way ticket, a packed-up home, and a decision to begin again abroad.

Sable talks about moving to Panama sight unseen, finding furnished apartments, adjusting to Spanish-speaking daily life, using U.S. dollars, connecting with Black expats, and learning what it really takes to settle into a new country. She also explains why cash flow, community, clarity, and confidence matter when thinking about relocating abroad.

This episode is for Black women over 40 who are thinking about moving abroad, retiring overseas, rebuilding after job loss, or creating a more intentional next chapter.

In This Episode

•  Why Sable moved to Panama at 62 
•  How job loss pushed her relocation timeline forward 
•  What it was like moving to Panama sight unseen 
•  First impressions of Panama City 
•  Finding furnished apartments abroad 
•  Adjusting to daily life in a Spanish-speaking country 
•  Why Black expat community matters 
•  How cash flow supports relocation 
•  Why clarity and confidence are needed before moving abroad 

Mentioned in This Episode

•  Panama City, Panama 
•  Black expat community in Panama 
•  Furnished apartments 
•  Uber in Panama 
•  Duolingo 
•  Passive income 
•  Investment income 
•  Retirement abroad

Thank you for listening to The Bougie Expat Podcast.

If this episode spoke to you, subscribe to the podcast and share it with another Black woman over 40 who has been thinking about relocating abroad, retiring overseas, or designing a new chapter with more freedom, peace, and intention.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I packed up my entire house and put everything in a location where I could store it. I got on the plane with a one-way ticket and I came to Panama unseen. I didn't know anyone. I hadn't been here before, but I knew for sure this is where I was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

She's done waiting. She's done shrinking. And she's done building empires in rooms that were never designed for her. This is the Bougie Expat, the podcast for black women over 40 who are ready to reinvent their lives, rebuild their income, and relocate with intention. If you're done settling in corporate, tired of environments that no longer feel aligned, or quietly planning your next move, you are in the right place. Hosted by Stable, live from Panama City, Panama. Seven countries, four continents, one move she made in five months flat. Income strategies, exit plans, a life designed to actually fit you without starting over broke. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

It was in the papers. And so everyone knew. See, this wasn't your ordinary layoff, your ordinary downsize. This was a decimation of a U.S. government agency. And so, no, we did not see it coming. We didn't expect it because we were mandated by Congress, and only Congress could shut us down. And everyone knows federal employees have all kinds of protections and rights. So, no, we did not see it coming. We actually knew there were going to be a shift. We knew that for sure. We knew change was happening. We knew that somehow business as usual was definitely not going to happen after January 20th. But we didn't expect that the whole agency would just be closed down and the name scraped off the engraved wall. And so from there, I had to ask myself, now what? What are you going to do? You are a DEI professional in the midst of a climate that has polarized everyone against those letters, that acronym. What are you going to do? Because one thing you knew for sure, the job market was tight. I had already seen over the months, even when I wasn't looking for a job, all the LinkedIn profiles with open to work on them. I had already seen the stories. I had seen the stories that said, I've been looking for a job for 18 months. I had seen the stories of GoFundMe because people were on their last limb and they had been unemployed for so long that no longer could they financially support themselves. So I knew that market was tight. And I had to ask myself, at 62, is this what you want to do? Do you really want to start putting together a resume and sending it out in the midst of this unbelievably wicked job market? And really, if I didn't, how was I going to survive? What was I going to do? There were so many questions and very few answers. But I remembered that I had been working on a plan for five years. Well, not even really working on it, more like talking about it. I had been talking about in five years I was going to retire. I was going to retire and I was going to move to Panama. Not because the government was going to retire me, because I was still basically almost a junior in terms of tenure, but because I knew I wanted a different kind of retirement. And so I knew that I wanted something that felt different than the environment and the atmosphere I was living in. So I started to ask myself, why not now? Why not go now? You know you want to go. So why not now? It wasn't really an emotional decision. I knew deep in my soul something was pulling me. And every day that pull got greater and greater. So I started out saying that, hey, I'm thinking about it. I'm 80% sure. I got 90% sure. And then I was darn sure that this was the time. And why it looked reckless to everyone else and very confusing, I took the lead. I moved to Panama, sight unseen. Had never been there, even though I knew I was going to retire there. But I had never gone on a relocation trip, a scouting trip, a visit, a vacation. All of that was in the future. Come on. I had five years. So why was what was the rush? So once I knew for sure I was going to move, I started packing. I packed up my entire house and put everything in a location where I could store it. I got on the plane with a one-way ticket and I came to Panama unseen. I didn't know anyone. I hadn't been here before, but I knew for sure this is where I was supposed to be. And when I arrived, it didn't look anything like I expected at all. Oh my gosh, this city had a skyline. It was so modern. The skyscrapers were every single place. High rises, I'm like, this is definitely a city. And there I was every time I made a purchase using my US dollar. Did not expect that either. Didn't expect that credit cards, oh my gosh, yes, I use my American Express as if I am back in the States, would be accepted everywhere. I didn't expect that. I didn't expect to see all of the brown people everywhere in the street just speaking Spanish. Yes, I knew they spoke Spanish, but I didn't know how the streets were going to be so flooded with this language. And so as I began to settle in, my very first apartment was on the golf course because I love to play golf. And I knew I needed to go someplace at least where I would have peace and I would feel settled. And so off I went to this golf community. But after a while, I realized this wasn't the life for me. It was too far away from the city, too far from all the things I really wanted to do. And I started to apartment hunt. And I learned quickly. Apartments are not just sitting there waiting for you to put them on hold. They're waiting for you to make a decision and move in. There were furnished apartments, unfurnished apartments flooded all throughout the city with very affordable prices. And they were staged, some of them very luxury, some of them pretty comfortable and very modest. But there was an apartment for everyone, no matter what your taste was. And this was so exciting. This was exciting to know that I could move with such ease. Move into a place where was already totally furnished, and all I needed to bring was me, my clothing, and my toiletries. That was sounding really cool. But I started to notice the subtle difference in culture. Just how people were so amazingly friendly, how they would say Buenos every time you saw someone and you ran right into them. Nope, not Buenos Diaz, just a simple Buenos. That is all it took to greet your neighbor. But there was absolutely a learning curve as I was settling in here because I had to learn how things operated here. And I that's a story for another day, but I am telling you, don't get yourself into legal trouble because it's not that easy to get out. But moving here was something that I knew I always wanted to do. And so moving, even with the learning curve of never being in the city, I didn't know how to get around. Uber was right there to pick me up each and every time. And the rides were so inexpensive. $2, $4. And if I paid $6, I was going far. That was great. Moving in and meeting other black expats also make this place start to feel like home immediately. So the big question always I get is why Panama? Why did you choose Panama of all the places to go? And I wish I had some really great reason that I did mega research and I had traveled so many other countries. Yeah, sure, I've lived in other countries before, but something about Panama had kept drawing me. And I decided to take that leap. And when I got here, I did meet a large black expat community, just like the rumor mill had said. And that community is live pumping and so tight-knit. They are there for you to help you settle in, to help you have a great party. It's just amazing. And I also knew that Panama was a country that was Spanish speaking. So I just assume that my elementary school, high school, college Spanish, and my 400 plus days on duolingual was going to allow me to just settle in really quick. It didn't. Because it's my Spanish is enough to get around. I knew at this age I wasn't interested in learning another language. I'm not going to learn Portuguese at this point. Yeah, I don't mind building more on my Spanish, but actually starting from scratch was not what I was interested in. So living in other countries before, I've lived in Ethiopia, I lived in Nigeria, I've worked in Bulgaria, I've worked in South Africa, I knew what for speaking something, and you can't even say hello. So I wanted that at least to go somewhere ahead of foundation of the language. And so that gave me some security around Panama. It also allowed me, from living in other countries, to settle in with ease because I knew certain things about moving to other countries. I knew to be open, I knew to expect cultural differences. I knew the things that I ordinarily may call something one thing, we may call something different. I knew my favorite brands might not necessarily be in the grocery store. I was ready for all of that. And I knew for sure that the affordability of Panama was definitely going to be a lot less and a lot better than living in DC, Maryland area, for sure. Love the DMV, but I'm telling you, you better have your money ready. And so with this shift in my finances, I needed to make sure I was landing in a place that was going to be affordable. And so coming here was absolutely a different lifestyle. I actually moved in rainy season. And of course, since I didn't do my research a lot, didn't know it was rainy season. But even with the rain every day from major thunderstorms were just sprinkles throughout the day, I knew I was home. And so I had a vision for such a long time of what my retirement would look like. I always kept saying it was going to be sisterlocked, split flops, and tank tops. And Panama was giving me that vibe. And so I was happy to stay. I was happy to find myself settling in. Because when I lived in Nigeria, I moved and I moved in and I felt community in such a strong way. When I lived in Ethiopia, the same way. Working in South Africa was totally different. English was a predominant language, even though they had Afrika. But I felt great also among other black people. My time of working in Bulgaria and working in other countries in Germany, it was a lot different in Europe. But this, yeah, I knew it was home. Absolutely knew it was home. So why my five-year plan had not actually rolled out in five years and rolled out instead in five months, I am very okay. But people always ask, weren't you nervous? Like, how did you just go someplace you had never been? Weren't you scared? Did you just sell everything and give up your US life just like that on something that was just so unknown and foreign? My certainty came in the fact that I had moved before. I had confidence in me. I knew for sure that I would figure it out. I knew that. I knew that I was resilient. I knew I was creative. I knew I had an entrepreneurial spirit. And I knew that I was open to learn. And so going with that, I knew that I would absolutely survive. And I also knew if I didn't like it, I can go somewhere else. But I also knew that the infrastructure was strong in Panama. And that was also important to me. I have lived in countries where water was not consistent, electricity was not consistent, security was almost non existent. And knowing that those factors were not going to be in Panama also encouraged me to just go ahead and move. I also knew that I had income streams already established because everyone's always asking, well, how are you going to live? So I already had passive income coming in, I already had investment in income coming in. It was now time to now create an active income stream. So I wasn't necessarily starting from zero. I did have some money. And so this move was necessarily something that I plan. Sometimes, when things happen in our lives, it could be the perfect season for the acceleration, the thing that we always desired. So I don't know about you, but there's a lot of times things in life don't work out exactly how I planned. And we have to pivot. This was a pivot for me. And so what you will find on this podcast is me showcasing the stories and the lives and how you, as a black woman over 40, can also relocate. How when the job market may be unstable for you, where you don't know what to do, I'm going to show you how you can move even if you're unemployed. I'm going to talk to you about retirement. I'm going to talk to you about how you need to be clear if you are considering relocation. Because as well, yes, I did it. I love it. You've got to have some clarity. I talk to clients about this all the time. You've got to be really clear on why you want to move, and you've got to have a cash flow. These things are so important, and community is also important. So I will be talking to you from episode to episode on how you can build community, cash flow, and get clear on your relocation. So you could move not someday, but the next day.