Tag: Early Retirement

40 something retirement plan

Life in Mexico

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Early Retirement, Lifestyle, Mexico, Moving abroad

What an adventure these last several weeks have been! We left Washington state on May 7th and spent a few weeks traveling to see friends and family. We arrived in Mexico on May 23rd with 6 checked bags, 2 carry-ons and 2 backpacks! Everything else was gifted or sold. We each stored a small box of keepsakes back in the States but that is it. Lisa insisted her Ninja Blender make the trip, I can’t fault her there, my Le Crueset french oven also made the trip. While you can buy just about anything you need here, electronics are a premium. Amazon. Mx does not disappoint!

**Tip, if you have a Delta credit card, you get your first bag free for you and your companions, if you fly first, the allowance increases by 2 bags each. The flight cost between economy and first were minimal and more than paid for the cost of luggage had we had to pay for it. Also the weight allowance increases from 50 to 70 lbs 😉

We picked up our new Honda the day after we arrived. I had pre ordered and paid for it back in January due to the chip shortage. The process was less painful than any car buying experience in the States. Prices for new cars are static here, there is no negotiating and it includes tax. I did pay am extra $1500 pesos for them to register and plate my car for me so I wouldn’t have to deal with that as soon as we landed. We got our Mexican drivers licenses a few weeks later, it was a piece of cake. The State of Quintana Roo was running a discount through the month of June for half of the cost of a license. This blew me away! It was advertised on Facebook and the department of transportation was even responding to questions about it. Juxtaposition to Washington and California DOL/DMV is striking.

During our road trip, Lisa ended up with bronchitis. Even though it mostly cleared before our flight down, she never really fully recovered. Last week we finally decided to seek medical attention. Our community doctor came to our house the morning after I contacted her through Whatsapp at 7pm the night before (if you travel and don’t know what this is, look into it! ) the housecall was 1,000 pesos (50 usd) she ordered several tests to check her blood, thyroid, Immunoglobulins and a throat culture. Total bill for the labs was $1100 pesos. We have insurance, the deductible is 31,000 pesos so like most people, we just pay cash and hang on to the factuta (receipt). Interesting side note about deductibles here-it is a one time charge per incident or illness that is never paid again regardless of how much time has passed. For example, you have lukemia, you pay your deductible once, even if you are treated for it over several years. I digress, the entire cost of Lisa’s visit, labs, etc was roughly $120 usd! We were emailed her test results later the same day.

I am still trying to figure out my role here. I’m not working as much as I thought I would be and now that we are all settled, I’m becoming a little restless. I am going to the special needs school across the highway tomorrow to see how I can help over there. Next month we had to Oaxaca, I can’t wait to explore the smaller villages, ruins and of course, the food!

A life of travel and beaches is certainly something to be grateful for but I will always need purpose 😊

2022

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Early Retirement, Moving abroad, Puerto Aventuras

Wow! It been a hot minute since I’ve updated anything. To pick up where I left off, we had just finished the consulate process in Seattle and we had appointments at INM in Playa del Carmen in the 9th of November. This was the perfect way to spend our wedding anniversary. The process was relatively easy and we did not have to wait long at the office to be processed and receive our residency cards but that was largely because we used Milly Arceo at Legally in Mexico to complete the paperwork on the Mexican side of the border.

When it was time to come back, the depression set in. Everyone wants to spend more time in Mexico, sure, but the dread of returning to the States and to work is more pronounced each time. What made that return trip home is we knew it would be the last one before the final move. It was hard to say goodbye to our friends and our home. The entire Riviera Maya just feels so magical, it has a
a pull on my soul that I cannot put into words. We both planned to make our retirement announcements soon after our return.

December was a hectic month, I had surgery, we had the holidays, the important people Lisa needed to talk to before announcing it formally had taken time off and we ultimately pushed the announcement off until just a few weeks ago. The presiding Judge was not at all surprised, she had known we had bought a home and obtained residency. Some of the other Judges took it a little harder. Lisa has been such a pillar of strength and leadership over the last 30 years, it is no surprise that many of her co workers had mixed feelings about the announcement.

My announcement followed hers and while I won’t be officially done working, I will shift my focus to business operations and will no longer be the program manager. A decade and thousands of cases of abused and neglected children later, in an era where children’s rights and interests are largely placed on the back burner, has really taken a toll on me. I will miss many of my colleagues and some of the great reunification and adoptions I’ve been apart of but I am more than ready to separate myself from the secondary and tertiary trauma that comes with this line of work. Our last days at work will be April 15th!

So what’s next? The universe is still creating a very easy path for us. We already have our house under contract(and they are taking most of the furniture!), one of my vehicles is already promised to a buyer, I’ve sorted and organized 30 years with of kids art work, photos and other keepsakes. Our house is set to close May 6th and we have airline tickets for May 7th to spend a month traveling California and Arizona to see family before we make the trip from LAX to Cancun in late May. It’s hard to believe it is so close when it feels like we just started this journey. When it’s right, it’s right. Until next time, mi amigos. Salud.

We did it!

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Akumal, Diving, Early Retirement, Ex pat, Lifestyle, Moving abroad, Puerto Aventuras, Riviera Maya, Scuba Diving, Travel

I apologize to those of you who had been following along. I have dropped the ball. Life has been CRAZY this year.

Previously on, BBYODO, we had just returned from the Riviera Maya and purchased a home in Puerto Aventuras. I had a horrific diving accident at 100 feet that landed me in the chamber with the bends and I thought I would likely never dive again.

Shortly after we returned from Mexico in November, we began plotting a return trip to get the new house ready. We had hoped to close on our property in January but the seller lived in Colorado and the secretary of state there was backed up for weeks due to Covid. She need a letter apostilled so her attorney in Mexico would have power of attorney to sign all the documents on her behalf. We were able to do the same in Washington and it only took a few days. Our trip back to Puerto Aventuras and our new home had been booked for late February. Well, closing day in January came and went and we agreed to an extension to early February. That day came and went… at this point, we were becoming very nervous about the entire process. We had already wired all of our money to the escrow account set up by our agent and it wasn’t that we were concerned about that, we were concerned that the seller would fail to preform and we were already committed to this house emotionally and financially. Ultimately, the night before our flight, we agreed on a soft close. The form that we had been waiting for from the State of Colorado finally came the first week of March while we were there. SUCH a relief!

While we were down in February, I knew I was not ready to go back to diving. Instead, we made our way to Akumal and spent the day snorkeling with the Turtles in Akumal bay. By the way, there is a trick to avoiding all the people selling tours, etc. Go grab some breakfast at Lol-Ha where you can park close to the bay or consider visiting Akumal Dive Center to rent a locker or gear if you need it. From Lol-Ha, walk down toward the bay and slightly to your right. You do not need to buy a tour to swim in the bay but these rules are constantly changing. You do need to stay out of the roped off areas but there is still plenty of bay to explore on your own. Here is a great map with tips and tricks I found for Akumal bay. Turtles galore! Make sure you wear biodegradable sunscreen and don’t wear fins.

I am not going to lie, just having my face in the water with a snorkel was anxiety producing. At one point, I ended up leaving Lisa to do her own thing while I collected myself. I had no expectations of being able to go diving but I was surprised that just being in the ocean was PTSD provoking. This is not ok! The whole reason we chose the area of Mexico that we did was so we would have very easy accessibility to the ocean, diving, etc. It was about this time I befriended a woman named Robin who owns Aquanauts dive shop in Puerto Aventuras. I shared with her my experience and fears and she confidently told me that she would be ready to help me get back in the water when I was ready. Having the correct fitting gear and the right instructor were going to be the answer. She even offered to let me try out her own wing style BCD to ensure proper fit (Women, especially big busted gals don’t fit into standard BCDs…) and having a BCD with integrated weights was going to be a must for me but I just wasn’t ready in March.

July rolls around and we head back to Mexico. (see why I have had no time to blog? I can’t wait until I am no longer working full time and the move is over!) At this point, we had submitted 48 pages of documents to the Consulate and were awaiting an email regarding our residency applications. If you learn anything about Mexico from this blog, know that the only thing that is consistent is inconsistency. If you are thinking about applying for residency, I highly suggest you visit websites for each one within your area to see what they are requesting. Even if you give them everything that they are asking for, it is at their discretion whether you are approved or not and for what type. (permanent or temporal) The main Consulate website can be found here. Other important tip, you cannot start the residency process within Mexico! If you head down and fall in love with Mexico, you have to come back to start the residency process. Visitor visas are good for 180 days. While we were down, we received an email with our appointment date for our interviews for residency. Yay!!! We had not received any sort of confirmation that our papers had been received and the website states to not follow up with an email to check the status. It is a, don’t contact us, we will contact you, mañana, process. More to come on that later. By the way mañana doesn’t actually mean tomorrow, sometimes it does but it really just means later. So far, this experience has been an excellent exercise in patience, letting go, trusting the universe, and trying not to lose my hair in the process.

Circling back to what I had said about Aquanauts, I had decided that I was ready to ease back into some scuba gear, in a pool, and work with Emilio (DM) on skills and reestablishing my confidence. After a 3 hour session, I was feeling pretty confident. I was able to relax and enjoy my trip back in the water and I really just cannot say enough awesome things about Robin, Emilio and their whole staff. I wrote a pretty detailed review here. Safe to say, I am looking forward to buying my own equipment and many more dives with Aquanauts and grabbing a margarita or two with Robin! Until next time- Salud!

Back to what?

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Colombia, Empty nest, Lifestyle, Parenting, Travel

As labor day came, so did the flurry of Facebook posts of people sharing pictures of their children on their first day of school. In our house and for the first time in over 20 years, I had nothing to share. My youngest son is only a junior but we live in a state where juniors and seniors get to take their classes at the college for free and have them count towards their associate’s degree as well as their high school diploma. The fall quarter doesn’t start for another couple of weeks and even then I highly doubt he will let me take a first day of college picture of him though that won’t stop me from trying! This week we are also celebrating my second oldest son’s graduation from massage therapy school. About a month ago my wusband decided he would take a 3 week long trip to Colombia starting this week as well. (Apparently my ideas are contagious!) It’s just such an odd yet proud feeling, watching them grow up and become adults with careers and significant others.

Thanks to significantly dropping mortgage rates, my wife and I recently refinanced our home and will save hundreds of dollars per month in mortgage payments. The idea is going to be to hang on to the house and rent it out while we are out of the country. We have also decided that we need to do the majority of our traveling in the next two and a half years as we will be pretty limited once we no longer have the same income that we have become accustomed to. This is not necessarily a bad thing but trying to run a few different companies, plan for vacations and relocation scouting trips, and focus on my family has proven to be somewhat overwhelming. I am a planning fanatic so in the back of my mind I keep feeling like I’m missing something for upcoming trips. I’m trying to practice flexibility because I know I cannot possibly anticipate everything that might go wrong. I used to be extremely anxiety ridden over trips when the kids were younger and when we had less money. Over the years I’ve learned to be more fluid and the family is pretty much running itself. As a matter of fact I agreed (somewhat reluctantly) to cancel the car reservation for our upcoming trip to Colombia. Based on feedback from locals, it’s easier and more affordable to use taxis and public transit. We shall see! I’m sure we will learn more when the wusband returns. Talk about brave! His first solo trip and he sets out to Colombia.

My oldest son is spending a lot of his time down in Oregon building a timber frame home and living his best life. My third oldest son transferred from Montana State back to Washington so he will be starting at Western in the winter. He’s not sure what career path he will be going down and that’s okay, he is only 19 after all. I’m 43 and I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up! I’m so proud of all my boys. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

So they’re you have it. They’re is no “back to” anything. The only things guaranteed in life are change and death. Being brave requires a step outside your comfort zone. I can see resilience and bravery in every one of my family members and I could not be more proud.

Next stop, Colombia

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Colombia, Ex pat, Inspirational, LGBT, Lifestyle, Travel

Though not why you would think. I have been extremely inspired over the last year or so to really listen to my inner voice and pay attention to what the Universe is trying to tell me . We had put an offer in on a house that we didn’t love but thought it would be a good investment. After a few bumps, and the sellers thinking they should have listed it for more, we walked away from it. We had already said that we would accept what was meant to be and clearly, that purchase wasn’t it.

Since I have almost always been self employed, I have no pension. I have a few small retirement accounts but nothing huge. My retirement plan has always been to sell my home and downsize. The falling through of our most recent financial venture has spurred some pretty interesting ideas. Kids are almost all grown, I am not getting any younger, I would like to retire from my rather emotionally draining and somewhat PTSD triggering , though very rewarding and at times, cathartic, career while I still have some physical get up and go and certainly before I end up being totally jaded and dead inside. I would also like to finish my second book but have decided I can’t tackle that while in my current profession. Lisa is almost at her 30 year mark at work, shes been there since she was 20. I’m sure you see where I am going with this.

We have decided to check out what Colombia has to offer us as expats. We are going to visit the Caribbean coast of Colombia from Cartagena to Santa Marta in November. Nothing has been decided yet, obviously, but my research on Colombia has proven to be very promising. It is very easy to obtain a resident visa, their universal health care is quite good, they even have a Johns Hopkins hospital in Bogotoa. The WHO ranks Colombia #22 in the world, easily beating out the USA at #37. Oh, and it is cheap. Really cheap. The cost of living index in Santa Marta is 74 compared to 196 in Seattle. If you were interested in buying a 2/2 new condo on the beach in Santa Marta, you could do so for about $100,000 USD, about 3.2m COP . The Colombian Peso is very weak against the dollar and has been for years.

This blog is all about living life to the fullest and this is me, putting my money where my mouth is. For those of you who are wondering about the safety of Colombia, the days of Pablo Escobar are long over. Sure, there are places you probably should go alone or after dark but that is true even in my little town in the PNW. The Government in Colombia is set up very similarly to the US-three branches of government, a democracy, an elected president, etc. Colombia has a tragic history but it is one of the most beautiful,safe, and biodiverse countries in the world. It is also one of the best countries for Expats, continually ranking in the top 10 according to International Living, beating out Spain and Portugal. Colombia is one of the most LGBTQ friendly countries in Latin America and same sex marriage has been legal in Colombia since 2016.

Life is short

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Ex pat, Inspirational, Lifestyle

No really, people say it all the time. It’s not some paradox that needs to be examined. According to a 2015 study published by the WHO, the average age of death for a woman in the USA is 81. I’m not going to say life expectancy because those final days (months, years?) for many people and their families is anything but life.

What being, “brave,” means is unique to each individual. For some it means pushing outside their comfort zone enough to say hello to a stranger on the street. To others, it can be jumping from an airplane and everything in between. What is important in this journey is that you do what you feel makes you brave, not others. If it feels slightly uncomfortable, then you’re doing it right. Bravery isn’t a title given to someone who’s a scuba instructor, a skydiver, or an 8th grade science teacher. For those people, that is every day life. What might make them uncomfortable (and brave) could be trying the new special of the day at their favorite restaurant. It’s stepping outside your comfort zone to experience all that life has to offer. It’s pretty simple, no risk, no reward.

This blog is for my fellow humans who want a little more from life. I hope to share my adventures and inspirations with you so that you too may never look back at the end and have more regrets than life experiences.

Salud