Ep 16: Why DIY Relocation Could Cost You Thousands Before You Even Move

Your dream of retiring abroad shouldn't become your biggest financial mistake. For Black women over 55 planning to transition to life overseas in the next 12 to 18 months, the vision of peace, sunshine, and a lower cost of living is within reach—but the path to getting there requires far more than just surface-level research.

Too many women believe they can piece together an entire international move using free YouTube videos, active Facebook groups, and downloaded checklists. While these resources offer helpful tidbits, relying on a DIY approach often masks the bigger picture, leaving crucial financial and logistical blind spots unaddressed until it's too late.

In this episode of The Bougie Expat Podcast, Sable breaks down why taking the do-it-yourself route to relocation often costs significantly more than hiring expert guidance—and why the most expensive mistakes happen long before you ever board the plane.

This isn't just about choosing a destination; it's about safeguarding the wealth, stability, and peace of mind you have spent decades building. Sable shares how to shift from endless consumption of content to executing an intentional relocation strategy, helping you move with clarity, confidence, and absolute financial protection.

This episode is for Black women over 55 who are within 12 to 18 months of their move, ready to stop piecing together fragmented advice, and committed to protecting their future while creating an extraordinary second act.

In This Episode

• The hidden financial costs most women overlook during a DIY relocation
• Why executing relocation decisions in the wrong order can cost thousands of dollars
• The critical difference between simply researching a destination and building a relocation strategy
• Why YouTube videos and Facebook groups can leave major gaps in your plan
• How to protect the wealth, stability, and assets you spent decades building
• Transitioning from research overwhelm to strategic confidence
• Evaluating the true risks of an unguided international move
• Why your relocation strategy needs to start long before you book a flight
• Setting yourself up for a seamless, financially sound transition overseas

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

You can find yourself paying tens of thousands of dollars in places where you didn't have to if you had the right advice.

Sable 0:11

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 Sable, 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 1:06

Okay, my DIYs. This is for you. For those of you who love to be under the sink, you're not gonna call a plumber. You're gonna fix it yourself. You're at Home Depot getting all the parts. Well, this is your Home Depot guide for relocation. Because you said that you're gonna do it yourself. Come on. How difficult could it be? You're gonna watch a couple of videos, go sit in some Facebook groups, and you'll get all the answers. And perhaps you will, because relocating is not like moving from house to house in the United States. There are so many other hidden costs, and that's what I'm going to go over. Over the next two videos, that's how much information it is. But what I decided to do is give it to you in two parts. I'm going to give you before and after the things that you should be looking at, the costs that you should be considering before you make that move and the costs after you make that move. Because there are just so many things that you need to consider. And I know you've watched all the videos. Thanks for watching mine. But there's so many things that you have to consider that are unique to you that no one else knows. And I want you to realize when you're on a vacation, you're not on a scouting trip. So that's my first one. Picking your country. Picking the wrong country could cost you a lot of money. And a lot of times we make our decision on vibes, on excitement, on how much fun we had. But I want, or how cheap the country is. But I want us to make decisions not just on that. I want you to think about more than the climate, more than the cost. And so when you're making a decision about relocating, your decision needs to be on data. Think about your healthcare situation. Think about the fact that when you live this thing, can you build friendships? People always ask me, how do I love this country? What do I like about Panama? The country is fine. I mean, infrastructure. I feel like I'm living in Miami, but it's the community that makes any country. There are countries with less than this kind of infrastructure that I absolutely love because community was so important. So think about that. So, because once you land in a country, you pack up all your stuff, sell all your stuff, land somewhere, start making deposits. It is very expensive to change. Can you change? Absolutely. No decision like this is permanent. But think about the money that you would waste in getting visas, in uh paying utility fees or paying deposits on homes just to find out that you don't like it. So that's one of the mistakes I see. People choose the wrong country. Another place where we waste money is in currency conversion, not understanding what the impact of currency conversion can be. If you're living in a country that's not using the US dollar, if your income, your investments are all in the US dollar, you best believe you better understand how to convert that money, what the conversion rate is, what historically has been around the conversion rate. Has it been always that it's strong to the dollar, or has the dollar been strong to that? I remember when I was living in Ethiopia and I was food shopping just in the grocery store. Now, the time when I was living in Ethiopia, when I first moved there, I was consulting. So I was going back and forth, not back and forth to the United States, but back and forth from Nigeria. Now just imagine I moved from Nigeria to Ethiopia, still going back and forth, and earning US dollars. That's three currencies that I'm dealing with on a consistent basis. So I go to the grocery store and I put my decimal point in the wrong place. I'm thinking that something is like 50 cents and it's really $5. So yeah, I was really surprised at my grocery bill at the end when I had to pay, then it wasn't so cheap. So I want you to think about the exchange rate, understand the exchange rate, understand exactly what's happening. You don't want to find out that the country is more expensive than you thought simply because you didn't understand how to convert. That's a lot of money that could be wasted. That could mess you up even in security deposits. It could mess you up when you're even looking at rent. You're looking at something, you're thinking it's $1250, and you think that that's $1,250. And in fact, it's 1,250 euros. So you want to understand that. As LL Kujay, early in his career, he made that mistake in Europe, thought something was quoted in US dollars, didn't realize it was quoted in dollars. No, it was quoted in euro. He thought it was in dollars and wound up paying twice as much. So that is something you want to consider. Also, the fact that when you're doing currency conversion, there's transfer speech, there is exchange fees, there, so all of these things you want to calculate when you are thinking about relocating. Then there's a surprise of taxes, right? So I keep hearing I'm selling everything. What does that mean? And what, especially when you talk about a hull? Because remember, taxes do not disappear because you moved overseas. You are still responsible for filing your taxes every single year with the IRS. And if you sold your home, there's capital gains that you're gonna have to pay, depending on how much that you get. So that could be $250, is what you're allowed up to. Some of you have been in your homes 10, 15 years, you probably have so much equity. Who's gonna pay that capital gains? When are you going to pay the capital gains? How can you avoid paying capital gains? Those are the things you want to understand before you sell that home. Then you want to understand if you have an investment home. Should I do it 1031? So I can also avoid capital gains on that home as well. These are the things I want you to think about. Your retirement income, your investments, your property ownership. All of these things could affect you financially if you do not understand how to do them properly. You can find yourself paying tens of thousands of dollars in places where you didn't have to if you had the right advice. And your health care planning. There's this conception, I don't want to say it's a misconception, but yes, healthcare is normally cheaper outside of the United States. But what does it cost to really get cheaper healthcare? Are you getting the right coverage for yourself? So you may be getting coverage that everyone else is getting, but you have to understand your own conditions, your own pre-existing conditions. Is it going to be covered under that plan? What plan do you need to get? Are prescriptions covered? How much are your prescriptions? Do they have them at a very affordable price? What happens if you're hospitalized? Do you understand what the hospitalization are? These are places that we don't think about. And this is why sometimes as DIYers, you miss really important things. Now, I don't want you to miss anything. So I need you to hit that subscribe button if you have not already subscribed to our channel and hit the notifications so you know that when we have our next video, especially when part two comes out, you don't want to miss it. And then there is the bad advice that you get. Yes, bad advice online. Because when I look on those places and I see people giving advice, I'm asking myself, where do you really live? Well, if I ever given advice in this group, we don't even know where they live. We don't even know if they live outside of the United States, giving out all that advice. Because they have been sitting in those groups so long, they now feel like they're an expert. But what are they doing? They're just giving out the repeating advice that they heard somewhere else. They don't have any lived experience to back up what they're telling you. So I'm just saying everybody has an opinion. But the problem is, is that opinion valid? Is the source of your information valid? You want to hear from people who are not about to do it, thinking about doing it, but who are doing it. And you know what? You want to hear from somebody who's done it in more than one place. I mean, Chairman Mandha told us a single story. You want more than just a single perspective on what's happening. You want to also make sure is your information current? Are they telling you about something that they read, you know, 2014 or something? I don't know. I mean, a lot of times people come to countries, they visit, they make a decision to relocate, and that and they're not relocating. I see people talking about, I'm coming in 2028, or I'm coming in 2030. This country may not even be the same, whatever country you're looking for. So the circumstances in the country could change and people could be giving you outdated information. Yes, the re internet has so many resources. Yes, online, there's so much information you can get between AI, YouTube, foreign groups, but that is not a relocation plan. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. It has a lot of pieces, and now there you are, putting them all together to make sense for you. So don't be in a place where you're taking information from people who are not actually living the life. I think the seeming good question to ask. Someone gives you information, uh, so where are you? When did you move? What country number is this for you? So this way you can understand if you're really getting valid information. And another thing that I'm gonna say that's costing you money is analysis paralysis. You're analyzing everything. You don't know how much time you are taking out of your life by just reading, reading, video after video. I mean, oh my gosh, the amount of hours that you're spending of watching all these videos. Keep watching mine, and to go into all these Facebook groups when someone could have just downloaded all that information just for you. Just think about it. People have cultivated experiences for you to go step by step so you can understand the country that you are thinking about. Not only did they cultivate an experience for you, they have present-day knowledge about that country. They can answer any question that you're asking while they are taking you around so you can have an experience that is unique to you. So when you have a question, who are you asking now? People who you don't know are responding. How about if you went on an experience where someone is answering your question and a question that you have about your experience? I love the fact that when we take our clients on our immersion experiences, we organize that experience based on where they want to live, what their medical condition is, where they want to shop, what their price branch is, how they want to live. This unique experience is totally about them. And so when you come to a country, craft out an experience that is for you. Don't worry about what everybody else did. What do you need to know? What is your lifestyle? What is your budget? How do you plan on living once you move there? All these things are informative to how you want to live. And that should have form. Otherwise, you're just gonna be wasting lots of money trying to live off of other people's experience and sometimes not even getting good advice. So I'm just gonna say if you want to come to Panama, you want to be on a personalized experience where it's about relocating, not about having a vacation, then contact us. We would love to give you a private and personal experience where we will not only show you the country and what it looks like to live here every day, but we will also help you officially figure out your income strategy. So this way, when you leave this place, you will know for sure if you can afford to live here. Is it sustainable? Whatever your budget is. That is what we do for you because we want you to have a successful relocation. I'm Sable, I'm your bougie girlfriend. I have dropped in the chat for you, in the description, excuse me, for you a link for our immersion experience. Check it out. Contact me. Let's talk about it. So this way, your DIY experience does not cost you thousands of unnecessary dollars. I'll see you on the other side.

Sable 13:46

That's a wrap. And if this episode resonated with you, go ahead and follow the podcast and share it with another woman who's ready for her next chapter. And if you're ready to move beyond thinking and start building your exit strategy, I invite you to join me inside my live experience at the Elevated Exit Masterclass. You can find the link in the show notes. Until next time, make your next move a bougie one.