The Bougie Expats
Welcome to The Bougie Expat Podcast, a show for Black women over 40 who are ready to imagine a different kind of life abroad.
Hosted by Sable, your bougie girlfriend, this podcast speaks to the woman who has spent years showing up for everyone else — family, friends, work, and responsibilities — and is now asking, “What do I want my next season to look like?”
Through honest conversations and lived experience, Sable shares what it really takes to relocate abroad with clarity, confidence, and intention. Having lived and worked in more than seven countries across four continents, she brings real insight into the emotional, financial, and practical side of building a life overseas.
Each episode will cover topics like relocating abroad, planning your money, managing fear, leaving behind familiar routines, building a clear vision, and creating a life where you are thriving instead of simply getting by.
If you have been quietly thinking about moving abroad, starting fresh, or choosing yourself in this next chapter, this podcast is for you.
Subscribe to The Bougie Expat Podcast and join Sable for conversations about freedom, relocation, reinvention, and living abroad with purpose.
The Bougie Expats
Ep 22: How Do You Know If Moving Abroad Is Right for You?
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Here is the podcast description for this episode, written in your signature format:
Is moving abroad actually the right decision for you? It is one of the most profound questions you will ever ask yourself, and the true answer goes far beyond your bank account balance or picking the country with the best weather.
At its core, moving overseas is about whether you are genuinely ready for deep, personal change.
In this episode of The Bougie Expats, Sable guides you through seven honest, soul-searching questions designed to help you evaluate your true readiness to take the leap. She breaks down the emotional and practical realities of living abroad—from learning to embrace uncertainty and building a new social circle from scratch, to navigating solitariness and developing radical self-trust.
Moving abroad isn't about escaping who you were or running from your past. It is about intentionally authoring your next chapter. You will take your wisdom, values, and memories with you, but stepping onto international soil will unlock strengths you never knew you possessed. If you've been sitting on the fence wondering if it's time for an overseas adventure, this episode will give you the clarity and confidence to answer that question truthfully.
This episode is for Black women over 40 who are ready to look beyond the surface of relocation, assess their emotional and practical readiness, and discover who they are truly capable of becoming.
I'd love to hear from you.
Which question challenged you the most? Let me know in the comments.
Thinking about relocating but unsure where to begin?
If you'd like personalized guidance based on your goals, lifestyle, and budget, I'd love to help. Schedule a one-on-one consultation with me, and together we'll explore whether moving abroad is the right next step for you.
👉 Book your consultation here.
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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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You can have a new version waiting for you, but that's all up to you. So if you want to know if relocation is for you, what were your answers? 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. So everybody is talking about relocating and moving and going somewhere different. And you start to ask yourself, hmm, should I be doing that? Is that for me? I mean, a little FOMO starts to settle in, and you're thinking, maybe I should. But I want to tell you this. Everybody who moves is not necessarily enjoying the life that they have moved to, because perhaps they weren't really prepared. And perhaps they got on the relocation bus, not realizing what it really was going to mean to their system. Because relocation is not just about where you're moving to, it's the transformation that happens in you. It's also an identity shift. So what I'm going to do for you today is ask you a couple of questions and let you decide if relocation is for you. Question one, how comfortable are you with change? Are you open to change? I'm not saying like when change comes, you're like, oh gosh, are we really gonna have to do this, right? Are you a person who, when you go in the grocery store, you're like, bam, you go to the same aisle, you get the same things, you eat the same foods, you go to the restaurant, you order the same things. Are you okay that perhaps maybe the healthcare system is gonna work totally different than the way the one that you're accustomed to? And as you're talking to your medical profession, you're saying what your symptoms are, or you're telling them what your diet, what your uh condition is, and they're not understanding you. And then you realize, wait a minute, what they're saying is the same word that you're saying. You're both saying it in English, but it sounds totally different. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for the fact that perhaps maybe the foods, your favorite foods, is not going to be in this country? I don't know how many of my cousins here have packed grits and Lowry seasoning in their suitcases because they miss it. Or are you ready for a whole avalanche of holidays that you have never heard of, but it is solely celebrated so high in the country that you're in? When I uh was in Nigeria, there were so many different Muslim holidays that I didn't even know existed. Living in New York. So it's not even about sometimes moving countries, just living in New York. We celebrate a lot of Jewish holidays. And here in Panama, November is holiday season, so get ready. So, how would your system take that when you find out ain't nobody celebrating Juneteenth? I don't know. So that is what you have to think about. There are different ways of adjusting, but realizing that people are going to have to adjust. You are gonna have to think about things differently. You are gonna have to get yourself to realize and reorientate yourself to a new system. And this whole ideal of standing somewhere saying, Well, when I was living in the US, well, back home, this is what we do, is not gonna cut it. You may have to say little different words like, hmm, that's interesting. Oh, that's a new way of doing things because that's what's gonna happen. So, which one are you? Are you the person who is like, this is what we do at home always, or you're the person of hmm, that's interesting. So let's talk about the next thing. Are you willing to unlearn and learn again? Yeah. And that is sometimes the hardest things because we have a way of doing things. We know how things are supposed to be, we know how things are supposed to work, we know the right way, we have the better way, but sometimes different may be better, or different just may be different. So, how would you work with that? Are you willing to kind of like humble yourself and say, wow, let me learn something different, let me see a different way of doing things? I mean, I know I used to always have this favorite saying, I'm like, if you have an idea, I'll go with it as long as it's a superior idea. But sometimes it's not a superior way, it's just a different way. And you're gonna have to go with it because that's just the way they do things. And so, what kind of person are you? Are you gonna get defensive? Are you gonna insist on everybody learning the way that you've always done things because you know that is the superior way? Are you ready to go with the flow? The third thing I want to ask you to see if you're prepared, because I don't want you to be one of those people who are on the struggle bus simply because you are not prepared for this move, is do you have a reliable source of income? Do you have some money that's gonna come in every single month? Whether uh the economy is good or the economy is bad, because financial stress could really, really turn the most beautiful place into a very uncomfortable place. So if you have financial stress, ask yourself, do I have a consistent cash flow? Is my cash flow depending upon the stock market? Is my cash flow depending upon uh what some tenant is going to do or not do? What happens if I have unexpected expenses? This will give you an idea if relocating is really for you. It will give you a peace of mind when you go ahead and start preparing of at least my money is in order if I don't know anything else. The next question is do you genuinely enjoy your own company? I saw something the other day, and the Oprah was talking about how she loves to be at home by herself. She enjoys it. And Gail asked her, but aren't you lonely? And she's like, I am never lonely. I am alone, but I am with my own self. I'm not lonely. Can you say that for yourself? Because one of the things that surprise people, they see all the excitement and all the people making new friends, but there has to get to that point when you make new friends. There will be a time, perhaps maybe, where you're gonna feel alone. You haven't made new friends, or even the new friends are there, but they're not the ones that you want to hang out with. You miss your old friends, you miss your old routine, you miss the other things. And maybe you have to re-incorporate those or recreate those in a different way. So ask yourself: does loneliness scare you? Does being alone with yourself really scare you? But perhaps maybe this is something that you can start doing. Another thing I just learned this week, and I know many of you, if you got a chance to watch Tracy Ross's solo traveling, one of the things that she said to do is to get an ideal of being comfortable with being yourself, go out to dinner at five o'clock by yourself. So if you are unsure if being by yourself is one of those things that you can do, if you're not sure if you like your own company, go out to dinner by yourself, five o'clock, and see how that feels. See how that feels for you. The next question is: are you willing to build a new community? Are you gonna still be FaceTiming and WhatsApping and having more conversations across the waters with your old friends? Are you ready to build a new community, meet new people, and have new experiences? But I want to tell you this friendships don't happen automatically. People are not sitting there waiting for you to come. You have to get yourself out there. No one's gonna necessarily knock on your door, invite you out every single night. You have to go out, you have to join new communities, explore new sports, explore new activities so you can meet new people so you can have a new life. And you gotta say yes. You gotta say yes when people ask you to come out. I mean, you that is the only way you're gonna get out. You gotta say yes. So think about that. If you had met a total stranger, what would you say? Would you say, no, I don't know you, I'm not going, or will you say, hmm, sure, I'll meet you there so that we can start making new friends. The last, another thing I want you to think about, another question. Can you trust yourself when things are not going according to plan? So you've planned out your trip. I know some of you are super planners, not me. I don't have like the whole checklist of 101 things I need to do before I move. So if you're that person and you've got everything planned out, this needs to happen, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, and it doesn't go to plan. Now what? What are you gonna do? If your paperwork was supposed to come in and it didn't, right? You got everything apostled, or they told you you sent it off to get apostle, and they said, Oh, yeah, we'll get back in a week. We're on week two. Nothing's happening, nobody's answering the phone. How are you dealing with that? And this is a reality. I got clients, this is happening to right now. They were packed, ready to go, but their paperwork hasn't come back. How is that going to affect you? What are you gonna do? So, this is the thing you have to, when I say trust yourself, you have to trust yourself to say, okay, wait a minute. This is not going to plan. I thought my stuff was gonna come back, it didn't. Or you move into some place that you picked out, it was gorgeous, you saw it online, you came and visited, you picked it out, you signed the papers, and all of a sudden you realize, wait a minute, this is not working in this place, this is not happening. What do you do when things do not go according to plan? Or somebody who said that they were gonna move with you, you and your bestie have decided you're gonna do this trip together, and they backed out. Now you know that has happened. You know that has happened just on a girls' trip. So this could also happen in your relocation. So think about that. And then I want to ask your this is the last one. Are you ready to become someone that even you have never met? Someone you've never been before. Are you ready for that? That's the biggest question. Because you are about to become someone you don't even know, someone you have never met, someone that you have never even experienced. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to create new memories, maybe even improve your values or add something new to your values? Because that version of you gone. Look at that. You can have a new version waiting for you, but that's all up to you. So if you want to know if relocation is for you, what were your answers? Were you willing to make a change? Are you okay with things not going your way? Are you really out there looking for new friends and ready to make new friends? Are you okay being by yourself? Do you enjoy your own company? These are some things I want you to think about before you make the move. And this will also help you because relocating is not for everyone, and that's okay. But it just has to decide on where you are on this path, right? So before you spend money on scouting trips and visas, take those questions and sit with them and make a decision that aligns with who you are so you can have an aligned next chapter. Your next chapter may be just moving to another city, it may be just changing another job, or it may be getting a new stamp in your passport. Whatever it is, it's your decision. And whatever it is, you need to be 10 toes down on it that you're feeling so comfortable with that decision. I'm Sabra, your bougie girlfriend. Thanks so much for joining us. Have an elevated life, and that only happens when you are true to yourself. 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, the Elevated Exit Masterclass. You'll find the link in the show notes. Until next time, make your next move a bougie one.