Zen Gardner - Expat Life

Great episode with Zen Gardner and I will give my affirmatives about trying life outside the US for us who were born and lived most of our lives there. You know, it just doesn't seem like the same place I grew up with the in the 50's and 60's, by the times we were into the 80's it kind of felt like the walls were starting to close in and 20 years later after the new millenium I was ready for a change. Fortunately around that time I was able to get an early retirement at age 53 but I was going to need some place other than the beaches of sourthern California to live on the small pension I would receive then.

In 2005 a friend and I went to visit the city in the central highlands of Mexico where he grew up and showed me around. By that next year I was retired and living there and have been here since, haven't left Mexico since 2007 and can't bear the thought of returning north ever again. It has been an enriching experience, a different outlook on the world and I will never view it the same again as I had before.

Expat life is an adventure, along with all the red-tape of immigrations and learning a new language but I am so glad to have done this. I am a Permanent Resident of Mexico now, my official immigrations status and that took some time to achieve but worth it. Affordable and attentive medical care, good systems of public transportation, and more freedoms and liberties than I ever realized I didn't have up north any more - all that had just slipped away over the decades so that a lot of us never noticed it was gone, until we woke up one day to find it missing.

I'd be glad to pass along any of my personal experiences and encourage anyone out there reading this to consider giving it a try. I didn't live in the 40 countries Zen Gardner tried, I found the nice weather and friendly folks on my first trip out looking for a new paradise. Expat life may not be for everyone but I'd bet it would be quite welcome and suitable to many who have never given it a thought before. If things seem a bit to stressful and the routine is getting you down I'd suggest giving it a thought, ask me about what I've found it to offer. In many ways I'd say you can't afford not to at least consider it.