It’s Official! The Dream is Becoming Reality – Step 1

Well, we’ve done it. Every journey begins with a first step, right? Today we took that first step. What is it we’ve done, you ask? First, let me back up.

In early March of 2021, something changed in us both, virtually simultaneously. Neither one of us can remember now what trigged the idea or who really came up with it first…something that we find equal parts mysterious and funny. At that point, we, along with the rest of the world, were looking back and just about one year of Covid-19 madness, lockdowns, mandates, and economic and social upheaval. Like others we have become accustomed to new norms. While other countries, states and even cities certainly have had to follow more strict mask mandates and social distancing guidelines, we haven’t had it quite as bad. We have however, been affected by it all. We certainly go out to eat and socialize less than before and we don’t see family and friends nearly as much.

Shane says it takes 30 days to create a new habit. Well, we are WAY beyond 30 days now and it seems that our collective way of life as citizens of the world has changed…in some ways for the worse and some ways for the better. This applies to us personally as well. Shane and I have tried to take the circumstances that we’ve been dealt and make the best of it. Throughout the last year, we’ve been met with one challenge after another, however, we have been very blessed and recognize that many people have gone thru far worse.

We’ve made it through home schooling teenagers, managing a Credit Union branch from home for months, Shane transitioning his own business to a more remote model after years of meeting clients face-to-face, my leaving a comfortable job and career after almost 15 years, a difficult college soccer recruiting year for one of our boys, and much more, we’ve managed to grow closer, drive each other a little bonkers at times, and focus on the future.

One of our struggles has been watching the shift in the balance between having the freedom to live life the way we want and regulations on society. While laws, rules and regulations are needed for societies to function productively (we don’t want a “Lord of the Flies” situation here) they sometimes unnecessarily impede on the ability of people to live free, happy, and healthy lives. To us, it feels that the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction.

We always knew that we wanted to travel after our kids graduated from high school. Right now, we have three boys who next school year, will be a Senior, a Junior, and a Sophomore. That puts us on a 3-year plan to begin that phase of our lives. So, what would travel look like? To talk about that I’ll first give a little context.

One of the unintended positive results to come from the pandemic has been the move of most workers from in-office to remote-work or working from home. In Shane’s line of work (retirement and income planning) the day-to-day business model has completely changed. Rather than driving to meet clients in their homes or in his office Shane, like many others, now does roughly 95% of his work remotely. The 55 and up age demographic that he typically works with, has gone from being hesitant or downright afraid of virtual appointments and meetings to just about being experts at it! Again, it only takes 30 days to create a new habit. Now that doctor appointments, business meetings and every other previously face-to-face service has gone virtual there is a sudden acceptance of it across the spectrum. Shane can now meet with multiple clients per day when in the past he may spend hours on the road to meet with one or two at best. This new way of doing business opened up doors to us that have certainly gotten our attention!

Now we’ve gone from considering one or two vacations per year and maybe catching a plane or renting an RV to something much bigger. As I mentioned before that regulation verses freedom pendulum has swung so far that we began to look down the road and wonder if we could, and had to, live the rest of our lives that way. The only way the answer could be “no” is for there to be a drastic change in our lives. Where could we go? What could we do? We considered those questions for a while which led to a TON of research. At first that research wasn’t too serious and really just entailed poking around on the internet. Sometimes though when you start to dig you uncover a treasure. We think we may have found our treasure.

After weeks of what has seemed like non-stop talking, planning, researching, and dreaming yesterday we booked our first of what we hope will be several trips to Panama! No, not Panama City, Florida…the stunningly beautiful Central American country of Panama! As I did at first, you are probably thinking, “Panama? Why Panama?” In my next blog post I’ll get into the MANY reasons that we think Panama is the perfect place for our EARLY retirement.

Also, at 48 and 43 how are Shane and I talking about retiring in just 3 years? Rest assured, that is information that we will be sharing with you in future posts and videos. Stay tuned!

#genxpats #changeyourgeography