Ep 20: The Hidden Costs Nobody Warns You About After You Move Abroad

Now that you understand how a DIY relocation can quickly turn into an expensive mistake, it's time to talk about what to do instead. Choosing to retire or relocate abroad is one of the most significant moves you will ever make—and winging it on hope and fragmented online advice is simply not a strategy.

In this episode of The Bougie Expats, Sable unveils the comprehensive planning framework she wishes every woman had access to before packing a single bag. Whether you have already set your heart on a specific destination or are still narrowing down your shortlist, this episode outlines the exact blueprint needed to execute a smooth, stress-free, and confident transition overseas.

This is about far more than just finding a country with a low cost of living. A truly successful relocation balances your wealth, health, lifestyle, and long-term vision into one cohesive plan.

Sable breaks down the six core planning pillars every successful transition requires, highlights the critical gaps most women overlook until it’s too late, and shares how to build momentum without succumbing to research burnout. If you are planning to relocate within the next 12 to 18 months, this episode provides the strategic clarity you need to step out of overwhelm and into total execution mode.

This episode is for financially established Black women over 55 who are ready to stop guessing, master their relocation framework, and build a secure, beautifully designed second act abroad.

In This Episode: 

• The six planning areas every successful relocation should include
• Why financial readiness is only one piece of the puzzle
• The biggest planning gaps I see women make before they move
• How to build confidence without becoming overwhelmed
  
  

Retiring abroad isn't about finding the cheapest country—it's about creating a life that supports your finances, health, lifestyle, and long-term goals.

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

Sable 0:00

They're trying to gain confidence. And what I find is a lot of people are looking for a risk-free relocation. It doesn't exist. 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 their 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 at flat. Income strategies, exit plans, a life designed to actually fit you without starting over broke. Let's get into it. Hey my DIYers, I guess you're back. We did part one already of talking about how your DIY relocation experience could be costing you thousands of dollars just by making so many mistakes before you go. So I have talked about it in part one. So if you haven't seen that video after you finish this one, go and watch that one. Those are the mistakes that happen and can cost you lots of money simply because you just didn't even know. Today I want to talk to you about the mistakes that you could be making after you land in the country. And these also are some hidden costs, some things that we're not really thinking about, some blunders that we could make. And a lot of them are decisions that if we just had a little bit more information, we probably would have avoided this thing. The first thing I want to talk to you about is buying in the wrong neighborhood. Now I'm not even sure why anybody is buying anything when they have just landed. Because you don't really understand, not only do you understand the real estate market of that country, I don't care what you read, I don't care what you've been watching, it's when you are there, you will really get a taste and a feel of what the real estate market is. But you want to understand, if you watch our video when we talked um with Natalie, our real estate expert, she talked about the big differences that happen in Spain. If you come to this market here on Ethiopia, I'm sorry, Panama, what you will find is these buildings are packed with for sale signs from investors. So this is a heavy foreign investor market. You have to understand the market. You have to understand what your exit strategy would be and what your proposed exit strategy and what the reality is for the market that you're going into. So you want to understand that. You also want to think about do I really want to live in this neighborhood? Now I know the neighborhood is beautiful, the house is wonderful, and you're like, this is my dream place. But my question is, is that neighborhood where you are going to be spending most of your time? And I almost could have made that mistake. I love to play golf. So for me, the first place I wanted to live was someplace on the golf course. And someone told me about a place on the golf course. Um, it was so affordable. I moved out there. Oh my gosh. I loved where I was living. I love the apartment, I love the grounds, I love the community. But you know what? Everybody said, Oh, you're across the bridge. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. Whatever. That doesn't mean anything to me because I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything for it to mean anything. But when I started taking Ubers for $7 and $8, and yes, in Panama, that's a lot of money. And I had that $400 Uber bill, I realized, oh no, I don't want to live out here. Could you imagine if I had already purchased that place? And I learned that because I was living there. I was now finding out what my routine was, where I was spending most of my time. And now the neighborhood that I live in, I walk to a lot of the outings that I would do. I can walk to church, I can walk to the supermarket, I walk to the doctor's office. So that is because I now live in the neighborhood of where my life is existing. That is why buying quickly is not a great idea. You don't want to find yourself buying something and having a very difficult time of getting rid of it. So don't make that mistake. The other mistake I see is people make multiple, multiple scouting trips. You know how much money you are wasting doing that? Okay, I'm not telling you wasting money. Who am I? It's not your my mama. You're not wasting money. But you know how much money you're spending making multiple, multiple trips, especially when these trips are not necessarily with intention and informing. And what happens is people are making these trips over and over again. What are they what are they looking for? I don't know. Do they know what they're looking for? Right? They're trying to gain confidence. And what I find is a lot of people are looking for a risk-free relocation. It doesn't exist. It's a risk. It is absolutely a risk. And what you have to do is ask yourself Am I a risk taker? How much risk am I willing to expose myself to? But going back and forth, back and forth, hanging out and everything is not really helping you to reduce your risk. I see things like people, well, every time they come and they live in a different part of the city. It's the same city. It's really the same city, right? Yeah, living across one side of the bridge, especially here and another side. I think about when I was living in Nigeria. Oh, okay. When I first was going to move there, I was going to live in a big city, and then we might wind up living somewhere a little further out. I'd have loved to live in the big city, but it was crazy expensive. And the schools were a lot better where we wind up living. But I didn't need to go back and forth. Like whatever your decision is, all that going back and forth is really not helping you. It's probably, and this is what I hear. I hear people say, um, oh, I want to live over here now because I heard this about this, is giving them more and more information, but it's not helping them and leading them to a decision. Because if they knew what they actually were looking for, then when they would look for that thing, but they're searching and searching and searching. But I think it's because people are looking for a risk-free relocation. It doesn't exist. The other thing I see where people are spending lots of money unnecessarily is you sell everything. And then when you get to your country, you got to buy all over again. You sold them, the very things that you're gonna need when you land. And not only are you buying them again, you're buying them at a higher price and lower quality. So think about before you move how you can hold on to some of those things that you may need on the other side, whether you're moving into a furnished place or an unfurnished place, or maybe should you take your things with you. So that is some of the things that you do on your research. So if you want to do that person who wants to do your relocation trips four or five times, go to the furniture stores and find out how much furniture is costing. Go to the uh houseware stores and find out how much the dishes are costing, how much cutlery is costing, go and find out how much sheets are costing and mattresses. Those are things that you should be looking at because that will inform you should you sell everything or should you bring everything. When you start seeing those prices, you may get sticker shop and you may see quality of stuff that you are not cool about. I'm telling you, we had some beautiful furniture in Nigeria. Beautiful furniture. You know, I am still using some of that furniture in my home in the United States till today. Very sturdy, beautiful furniture. I bought it from Nigeria to the United States. But I'm here to tell you, those chairs are hard. The cushions that they use, they're not very soft. But I knew that going in. So this remember, quality in your standard of living may very be different, may be very different from the quality in the standard of living where you're going. And so that's very important. How you're living, you want to find out before you sell everything so you don't make that mistake. Another mistake I see people do is with their immigration and employment. Immigration, let's say this. One, you don't understand what your visa allows you to do and not to do. So you're like, hey, I'm here, I'm permanent. I have my quote-unquote green card. But what does that allow you to do? What does it allow you not to do? Can you open a business? Can you work? Can you uh volunteer? You have to understand that because you can find yourself sitting in a jail cell simply because you didn't even understand the limitations of your visa. Know that for sure. Or if you're working, do you need a particular work visa? So I recall I had a work visa when I was living in um, I had one for, oh yeah, I had one for Bulgaria, I had one for Ethiopia. And do you know, as an American citizen, I can fly into Bulgaria with no visa. I do not need one. But because I was there on business, I needed to get a visa because they wanted to know that I was in that country and I was in that country to do business. And so, therefore, you want to understand when you're a tourist and you are a resident, there are two different ways sometimes of even entering the country. You have to also understand that sometimes you're coming in with one-way tickets, and they're like, no, ma'am, where's your, you know, like, do you live here? What do you have to prove that you live here? So, all of these things you want to make sure you consider that you understand what your immigration rights are. And you know what? I kind of talked a little bit about um all this advice that we get on the first in um in uh social media platforms in the first video, but I want to talk about a little bit about that when it comes to immigration. Not only should you understand what your residency allows you to do, you also want to understand if the person who's getting your permanent residency or your visa or whatever it's called in the country that you're going to really understands the various options that are available to you. Understand your lifestyle. They understand what you're gonna be doing while you're in this country, and therefore they will give you the proper documentation. A lot of people just want the most expedient way to come in. Well, is that gonna fit your lifestyle? Are you gonna wind up paying twice? First time for one kind that says you can't work, and then when you decide that you want to work or open a business, you're gonna have to now file again and pay fees again. So get with an attorney who really understands all the different mechanisms to bring you in, and also who's gonna do an interview with you and ask you lots of questions. I have clients who got their residency simply because they had heritage. I have clients who are coming in who want to do business. That's a totally different visa. And some are like, hey, I'm just here or lay my feet up in the air, so that's a totally different visa. Understand what applies to you, not from what the little rumor drain is telling you, but because you talk to an attorney who has a full portfolio and understanding of the immigration laws of their country. And then let's talk about the emotional costs. The emotional cost of just, oh my gosh, of putting this whole thing together. It is really challenging. All the costs that you have to think of, the spreadsheet, the fact that you're going to be missing your family, the flights that you got to think about. You're making all these decisions all by yourself, you're starting all over. Have somebody who can be with you to do this. It really, really helps. It really helps to have someone guiding you. It really helps to be in community. That is one of the things I love about our Bougie Expat collective. These women are all relocating. Different places in the world, Italy, Colombia, Panama, Ghana, but they all have something in common. They are leaving their comfort zone and going out. That community takes down the pressure, the stress, because they can now share some of the stuff they're going through. They're learning from each other. They're finding out that, oh, this is how you communicated this to your family. Oh, this is what I did. So, this community of people who also you can be in community with who are also moving is so very, very important. I know you're a DIY, you're going to do it yourself, you're going to do it your own. But take some, take this information and use it in your uh relocation experience. If you're going to do it by yourself, please think about the things that I told you. So you don't have to pay extra where it's not necessary. You don't want to throw away money. Already, relocation is not a very cheap endeavor. It's an expensive endeavor, all the different costs that you would have to. And you know, I want to go back to one thing I said. I talked about bringing your things and not bringing your things. That is another place where I see people waste a lot of money. They don't know what to bring, they bring too much, they don't bring a lot of the, they don't bring the things that's necessary, they don't know how to ship. There's so many different ways of shipping from pods to um containers to uh pilot. I mean, I have done the whole gamut. I have done the, you know, 50-foot container, I have done just suitcases, I have done pods. Each one was different because I was in a different stage of my life in each one of those moves. That's why this thing is too personal. It is too personal. So I hope you learned something in these last two days. I'm Sable, your bougie girlfriend. I am doing my best to keep it real with you. I want you to move, I want you to have an elevated exit, and I don't want you to be wasting money. If community sounds something that's important to you, then join us. Come and join us in the Bougie Expat Collective. I have left in the video description a link. Reach out to me. I love to hear from you and I love to guide you on this trip. See you next time. 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'll find the link in the show notes. Until next time, make your next move a bougie one.