Broadening my horizons, while planning to ride off into the horizon

I still remember the day. I think I was 33 years old and was actually in the black marble executive bathroom at the huge worldwide mega-bank where I worked at the time.

I don’t remember what spurred it but I just had this quiet epiphany and made a resolution to myself that I would retire on my 50th birthday.

That birthday is now less than 18 months away. (My, how time flies!)

As I’ve recounted in plenty of other articles on this website, over the last five years or so I’ve started traveling quite a bit.

In fact, the pace and frequency of my travels has increased in recent years.

Part of that has been all about broadening my horizons. And my daughter’s horizons as well.

Some of it, however, has been about seeing what various places overseas have to offer.

Always one to march to the tune of my own drummer, I am more than willing to consider life outside of the U.S. In fact, I’ve pretty much decided that’s exactly what it’s going to be.

When I first made my decision to “retire” I had no real vision of what retirement would look like for me. In fact, that was something that came to me very gradually, over the course of several years.

From the beginning, I knew it did not include a condo in Florida, sleeping until 11am, playing a round of golf and then catching the early bird special at the local diner before being back in bed by 7pm. That sounds more like death than retirement.

Retirement also didn’t necessarily mean not working.

What it has ultimately come to mean to me is freeing myself from the constraints of time and geography; being able to work on a schedule of my own choosing from wherever I happen to be.

Over these last 15 years, I’ve tried out all sorts of entrepreneurial ideas that I thought might eventually lead me to this promised land of early retirement. I’ve actually had some limited success with many of them.

While I continue to pursue such interests, the broadening of mine and my daughter’s world views has led me to also start considering where I might settle.

That question hasn’t been answered yet but I’m getting pretty close.

For the benefit of those who might share my aspirations of a life abroad, I’m going to take the slow route and share my experiences in some detail over a series of articles. You might just find many of the things I’ve discovered to be helpful to you.

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