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 26: The Best Country to Retire Abroad Might Be Wrong for You
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International Living has its list. AARP has its recommendations. YouTube has thousands of opinions about the "best countries to retire." But can any generic list really choose the best country for you?
The "top destination" on someone else's list might be completely wrong for your lifestyle, finances, healthcare requirements, family obligations, or personal vision of freedom. For Black women over 40 considering relocation, retirement, or reinvention abroad, there is a far more effective question than "What's the best country to move to?"
Instead, ask: "What's the best country for the life I actually want to create?"
In this episode of The Bougie Expats, Sable walks you through the 7 questions you must answer before picking any destination. She breaks down why moving abroad isn't just a travel choice—it's a fundamental life-design decision. Sable guides you through evaluating everything from your "ordinary Tuesday" daily routine and real cost of living to long-term healthcare, connection to loved ones back home, and whether a country leaves room for the woman you are becoming.
Don't choose a country and then try to squeeze your life into it. Design your life first—then find the country that supports it.
This episode is for Black women over 40 who are ready to stop relying on generic lists, align their Confidence, Clarity, and Cashflow, and choose a destination that honors their future.
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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Stop looking for the best country. Look for the country that fits the new life that you're moving in. This is about your desire. This is about you walking into the next level of your life. 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. AARP has recommendations every single day. Almost a YouTuber is dropping another list of the best countries to live in. But what if they're all wrong? I mean they have a criteria, but is that your criteria? They may be the best countries to live in, but are they the best for you? I mean, they don't even know you. So how can they recommend? They don't know how much money you have, they don't know what health care you need. They don't know that you need to get back home to visit your mom or your aging parent. They don't know that you're looking after your teenagers or if you want nightlife or peace. They're not even sure if you want a country, a beach house, an apartment, or live in a mansion. They really don't know you. And they definitely don't know about the woman you're becoming at this stage of your relocation. So I want women over 40, black women over 40s, to stop asking what's the best country. Stop asking everybody that. I need you to go deep, girl. I need you to be honest. I need you to think about for you what does this move mean? Not your circumstance and everything that's around you. What are you moving toward? That is what I want you to think about. And when you come up with the answers to that, then you will actually have a place of where you should go. You would actually know what really works for you. And not because somebody looked at it from a criteria that had nothing to do with you. That's question one. What are you moving toward? What are you moving for? Why are you moving? I want you to ask this question: What would an ordinary Tuesday look like for you in your new life? Because a lot of times what I'm hearing when people are choosing countries, it's based on vibes and how excited they were and how excited it was to see so many other expats in that country. But I want you to choose it on your Tuesday night, not on the fact that you had a great time at the beach, you were into some clubs, you met a lot of people, the food was amazing. But I wanted you to think about that ordinary day, right? And it could be an ordinary Tuesday, it could have been an ordinary Saturday, whatever an ordinary day of getting my groceries, going to the doctor's appointment, paying bills. How does that feel in that country? Getting your hair done there. Or trying to just get from one place to the next where you're there. Those are the things I want you to think about. Can you enjoy life there and love living there when all the excitement is not happening, right? When they're not having an evening of lots of vibes and music and culture, when it's just an ordinary day. That's a completely different way of looking at that country, but that is the way you're gonna live there pretty much every day, right? So I want you to think about that. When you go outside and you're in this country, is it easy for you to get your cup of coffee? Do you have to walk around? Are you a walker? Do you need a car? Is it quiet enough? All those things I want you to think about because these are the things that go into your life design. And these are the things that are important to you. And these are the things that should be on your top list when selecting countries, not what everybody else says. You know, you may be thinking, oh, there's a lot of expats there, so it must be great. I don't know. Do you want to live with expats? And so the third thing I want you to think about when you're thinking about what country you want to is what does your actual life cost there? So putting everything together, what would it cost you to live there? Not affordable by other people's standards, but affordable by your standards, by what you have coming in and what you plan to be doing while you're there. Think about that. We love to say what's affordable, right? And when people ask me that question all the time, they're like, oh, is it affordable to live there? I don't know. I don't know how much money you have. I don't know what you call affordable, I don't know what part of the town you're gonna live in. I need to hear from you what affordable is, right? And so don't go by what everybody else says affordable. Figure out for you the life that you want to live and the money that you're coming in couldn't give you that. And that's a good way to look at it. Not other people's what the cheapest place is, but the affordability. I mean, I have so many friends who are living here who are living in places that they were paying very close to the mortgage that they were paying before they left because they wanted to live at a certain standard and they were willing to pay for it. So don't go by what other people are saying. This is about is it affordable for you? Are you gonna want some domestic staff to help you? How much freedom do you want to be able to do things and activities? Put that in. Think about all those things because that goes to your cash flow. The other thing I want you to think about is number four, is what would you what would you need to feel safe and supported? So saints in your home, like are you gonna feel comfortable living there by yourself if you're gonna be moving by yourself? There's so many black single women who are moving. So are you gonna be very comfortable walking home in the evenings in this particular place, being in your apartment by yourself or your home or wherever it is? Will you feel safe? Will you feel safe, not in terms of just crime, but with your own identity, your gender, your identity, your sexuality, your sexual orientation? Will all of that fit into that country and allow you to feel safe? Too many times when we're thinking about countries, we're not thinking about it in terms of our own identity. Because our identity could be at risk in some countries, and in other countries, we could be very safe. So I want you to think about that. Will you feel safe? What would you take? What would you need to feel safe? Yeah, other black women may feel safe, but how about you? If you have a disability, is this visible or invisible? All of those things need to go into account of your safety. It also needs to go into account your age, right? Because also your safety has to do with your age. Because a lot of times, if you're a person who is might be very elderly, you may also be a place that a person who could be looking vulnerable, right? Just to people who are up to no good. So kind of, I want you to kind of think about that. You want to also feel safe in terms of being able to find community, right? How will your spiritual life fit into this? If you're a person that's still interesting in dating, is there opportunities to do that? So it's not just safe in terms of security, it's also safe in terms of being supported. Is there a community around that's gonna support you? Um, are there other things that are gonna be there? If you're interested in dating, what does the dating scene look like? A lot of countries, I can tell you here the dating scene is probably like I don't know, zero to nine. That's me. I'm saying I don't really know. I can't say for everyone, but too many times I go out, and the majority of the people that are there are just women. So I don't know. I don't know. That's just my opinion. So think about that when you are thinking about moving. How safe and supported will you feel for your personal goals, not everyone else's? And then question five ask yourself can this country support you at your age? Yes, today, but how about your future age? Think about that. It's becoming more and more important that the healthcare system not supports you just for where you are today. I have no pre-existing conditions. I am in pretty good health. I walk, I eat well. But you know what? I would love to believe that this is how I'm gonna be at 95. Dear Lord, do you hear my cry? Do you hear my prayer? I'm hoping I'm gonna be this way at 95, but I may not be. So will the country that I'm moving to be able to support me at that age? Those are considerations that you want. And also consider if you have pre-existing conditions, can this country support you at that? Or do they have the medical resources to support you at an affordable rate and close by hand? Because a lot of times we kind of move it to places where everybody is when it's on and popping. But if we're not thinking about does that place actually have a healthcare system for me, according to your pre-existing condition, where you might need a specialist, where you might need to get to that specialist in seven minutes if you have an attack or a crisis or whatever, then that's also important. So ask that question. You want to make sure that you're in a place that not just supports the good times but your everyday life. And then ask, how connected will I be able to remain to my home life? So if you're moving somewhere and it's a totally different time zone, you have to take that in consideration. And how would that affect your communication with your family back home? If you're a person that wants to be really connected and you're like 12 hours ahead of them or eight hours, I think sometimes 12 is better than eight, but you know, you're like that really funny in between it's two o'clock in the afternoon for them, but it's eight o'clock at night for them. And then when they get home for work, you're in the bed. So think about that as well. Not only in terms of being able to communicate, but also in terms of how fast would it take you to get back home, right? So are you one flight away or you're gonna have to take two to three airplanes before you can get back home? All of those things you want to consider. You have friends, you have family. You want to think about that. Every time I had to go back home, even though it was unexpected many of the times, it's a three and a half hour flight for me to get back home. No big deal. But I have lived places I remember when I was living in Ethiopia, and my husband at the time had a major medical condition. It took me over 15 hours to get back to that man. By the time I got back, he was out of the hospital. He was already home, my kids were already traumatized. So you would have made sure that you are not living too far away from what's important to you. And if you are, what is your system and structure you're gonna put in place to make sure you can stay as connected as you want to be? That's why it's totally different for you than some list that somebody is putting out. They don't know you, they don't know who you're trying to stay connected with. And that is why I keep telling you about having yourself a freedom fund so you can have that money available. And then I want you to think about I think I'll give you number five. So let me go to number six. I was giving me the number. I give you number six. The last one: how this country is gonna support who you are becoming. And so I want you to think about in terms of growth. I know everybody's like, I'm just chillaxing, I don't want to do anything, I'm retired, I'm just want to have an easy life. But still, there's still a part of us that wants to grow. And growth is not always about professional development, sometimes it's just personal, right? It's about us changing our attitudes towards something, developing more maturity in areas that perhaps we lack the maturity in, is about gaining new perspectives. Is this country gonna allow that for you? Is it going to allow you to expand your thinking, allow you to have personal growth, allow you to be another kind of woman, the woman that you want to be? If there were hobbies that you wanted to start taking up, is this country gonna have those things accessible to you? If you're gonna now like really dive into something, reading, it doesn't even have to be an outdoor activity. Is this country gonna have that available? These are the things I need you to start thinking about because as you're thinking about becoming someone new, and it could be anywhere between the your own growth or the fact that maybe you want to now have a different kind of relationship with other people. You're looking to have more committed and tight relationships, you're looking to develop a new romantic relationship. Whatever it could be, does this country fit into? Not what other people are thinking. And that's why I say International Living, AARP, or anyone else, not even me, can tell you what you need for this next stage or what country is good for you. So I want you to think about these seven questions when you're thinking about the country. I want you to give you a reframe. Stop looking for the best country. Look for the country that fits the new life that you're moving in. Ask yourself those seven questions. What am I actually moving for? What does an ordinary Tuesday look like for me? What does it actually cost for me to live there? Do I feel safe, supported when I'm at home and calling this place home? Can this country really support me at my current age and as I'm aging? And how connected will it allow me to remain to my family, my friends, and back home? And does this country allow me to grow into becoming the woman I want to be in this next stage? None of these questions have to do with logistics, none of these questions have to do with rent and all the other things we know normally talk about. This is about you. This is about your identity, this is about your desire. This is about you walking into the next level of your life. Choose a country, make sure you're doing it based on a design of how you want your life to be in the next place. That is a question you and you alone can answer. I'd be very interested to hear how you answer that question. I'd be very interested to hear how that list that you may already have may absolutely change simply by looking at it from a different perspective. I'm saying with your bougie girlfriend, continue to live an elevated life. 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.