We humans invented the New Year and named it after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings.
Janus is depicted with two faces—one looking back at the year just finished and the other gazing toward the year ahead.
I appreciate the importance of learning from the past, but I prioritize moving forward… and never more than right now, early January.
After a much-needed two-week holiday in the States with children, grandchildren, extended family, and longtime friends, I’m back at my laptop reset and refocused, ready to charge into 2025.
When Lief and I left Panama in November headed first for Thanksgiving in Woodstock then Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Baltimore, I was tired.
What a year… I couldn’t help but think as 2024 moved toward its close.
As I’ve learned from long experience, a change of geography was just what the doctored ordered.
Over the several weeks to follow Stateside, I was able to pull myself out of myself and remind myself what a great big beautiful world ours is, filled with discovery, adventure, and opportunity around every corner.
I hope you’re returning from your holiday likewise recharged…
Because we don’t want to waste a single day of this brand shiny new year.
As we stand today with 12 glorious months of 2025 in front of us, I encourage you to make this the year you make your new life overseas dream come true.
Here at Live And Invest Overseas, we steer clear of the rhetoric, and we don’t sugarcoat. We tell it like it is based on decades of firsthand experience living the life we so wholeheartedly endorse.
Based on all that experience, here are seven truths to steer by as you work toward reinventing, expanding, and diversifying your life abroad…
Truth #1: You can afford it.
You could take my advice and launch a more comfortable, more interesting, safe, rich, adventure-filled life a number of places around the world on a budget of as little as $1,800 per month. In some regions of Panama and Colombia, you could live a fuller life than the one you’re living now on a budget of $1,400 per month or less.
In parts of Southeast Asia you could retire on as little as $800 per month! I’d be surprised if you can’t afford that.
But here’s the real point: You owe it to yourself to go find out for yourself just how affordable and, more important, just how fun and adventure-filled a new life in a new country can be.
The truth is, you can’t afford not to do this.
Truth #2: The best time to make your move is right now.
There is no right time.
Sure, it’d be easier to stay put and do nothing. But where would that leave you at the end of your days? What stories would you have to tell? What adventures to remember?
Years ago, I met a gentleman from Tennessee who explained that he had been researching the idea of retiring to the Dominican Republic for two years. “I’m convinced the DR is a place I want to be,” he told me, “but I’m just not sure the timing is right…”
“Have you considered other options?” I asked.
“Well, before I started looking closely at the Dominican Republic, I researched Costa Rica for four years.”
“What did you end up doing there?”
“Oh, I never did anything. After four years of looking, prices had risen so high that I figured it no longer made sense.”
Alas, I’ve known way too many folks like that gentleman—long dreaming but never taking action.
Ready, fire, aim, I say.
You can plan to reinvent your life in retirement overseas… or you can launch a new life overseas and then make some plans.
In the nearly 40 years I’ve been covering this beat, I’ve never known anyone who regretted making a move… but I’ve met hundreds of folks living dream lives in Shangri-las across the globe who regret they didn’t make their move sooner.
Truth #3: This isn’t all or nothing.
Not sure about leaving your home and family for good?
So don’t.
Reinventing your life in a new country is an infinitely customizable idea. Keep your home in the States if you want and spend part of your time, as your comfort level allows, somewhere exotic and sunny.
Establish a second base somewhere foreign… or try out a different overseas locale each year. Come and go as you like, as often as you like, knowing that you’ve always got a safety net “back home.”
There is no right or wrong strategy for how to retire overseas.
Truth #4: You need precious little capital to make a move.
In my “52 Days To Your New Life Overseas program, I walk my retire-overseas students through a getting-started budget.
Moving to a new country comes at a cost, sure, but please take my word for it: If you want to do this, you can pull together the capital you need to make it happen… because, seriously, you don’t need a lot.
Truth #5: You’re not too old.
Are you dead? If not, then you’re not too old to launch a new life wherever strikes your fancy.
Yes, it’s easier and might seem more sensible to take a seat on the front porch and await the arrival of the Grim Reaper. Or maybe your life is already so exciting and wonderful that you can’t handle a little change?
If that’s not the case, then I’d recommend that you take a cue from my friend Jules who moved from Florida to Belize at the age of 88. After a lifetime of adventure, traveling the world with the U.S. Navy, Jules was up for another change and a new start. Belize delivered everything he hoped it would.
Truth #6: You’re not too young.
If you have a laptop and an internet connection, you can earn an income anywhere… and concern over making a living is the only objection I can imagine someone younger than retirement age could possibly suggest for not jumping at the idea of launching a new life in some sunny, sexy, exotic locale.
Truth #7: You do not have to wait for your children to finish their schooling.
Speaking as a mom who has spent the last 26 years raising two children (the second, my son, born in Ireland) across three continents and four countries, I can tell you with confidence that a life abroad is one of the greatest gifts you can give your kids.
They might object at first, but, in time, they’ll grow to love the life and to appreciate the effort you’ve made to provide it for them. My daughter, born in Baltimore, cried her way through our first year overseas, in Ireland, but she’s the one who proposed Paris as the next stop for our family’s global journey… and today she and her own young family are themselves delightedly at home in the City of Light.
Don’t stay put “for the sake of the kids.” When they grow up and discover what they’ve missed out on, you might find yourself with a lot to answer for!
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
