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From Solo Vacation to Solo Relocation: Portugal, Here I Come! · Roam Alone

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, I'm your host, Teresa Stevens.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Usually I have a guest on the show talking about their solo adventures, but this time it's just me.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: I am planning my biggest solo adventure yet.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: A move from the US to Portugal.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Is this move permanent?
0:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't know yet.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Will I be gone for one year?
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Five years?
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Two months?
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Don't know that either.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: All I know at this point is that I'm applying for a visa, getting an apartment in Porto.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Literally, I am signing the lease in like two days, leaving my adult son in his new apartment in our hometown in Louisville, and taking my two dogs almost 4,000 miles away.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Portugal was not my first choice, but I feel it is the right one for me at this time.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: It was an evolution over the last few years, and I've gone back and forth a lot.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, a lot.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: How I got to this point is specific to me.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: So if you're thinking of doing something similar, your choice will be specific to you.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And the going back and forth on where I wanted to move to has changed a lot.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's personal to me.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: And it will be personal to you as well if this is what you're thinking.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Please don't let anyone tell you where you should go, much less if you should even go.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: This is your life.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: This is your shot.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm in my mid-50s, and I've, as I've told people, I feel like I have maybe 20 good years left.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: That's not a lot of time.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: 20 good years as far as being healthy, if I'm lucky, and being able to make these choices.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Life is so short and it's so fast.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: And there are people that I know my age or younger dying.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Now is the time.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: If it's possible, if it's something you're compelled to do, now is the time.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's not spur the moment.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: My decision was not spur the moment.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: The inklings of wanting to do this have been around for a while.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: I got divorced in 2022.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: My son at the time was 15, going into high school.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: I was 51.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: I had worked in voiceover work, whether it was radio or narrating audiobooks, newscasting, for all the years that I was married.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: It was something that I'd done, you know, since I was an adult and graduated from college.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: But going through a divorce, I knew I needed something more steady with medical benefits, that kind of thing.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: So I started over again in a new field.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: This was back in 2022.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I had been working for a company that does housing for sports travel teams.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: I was also still doing newscasts for a remote news service.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: This is something that I really enjoy and had been doing for about seven years at that time.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Paid really well, but it was only one hour a day.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: So it was perfect for a side gig, but nothing to live on.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Fast forward a few years, the bills, the debt, it's piling up.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: My son is now about to get a driver's license.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: He's going to want to drive.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: We can't split a car, just me and him.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: So I knew it would be best to get him a car.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: His dad is not in the picture, not physically, not emotionally, and for me, not financially.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: So everything has been on my shoulders.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: So between insurance, cars, food, all that stuff, my one full-time job that pays okay, and my side gig that pays great, I just wasn't making enough.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: The debt was getting greater, so kind of looked for other full-time jobs that might have paid more, but wasn't really finding anything.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: I needed help right then.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: So I decided to get two more jobs, two more part-time jobs.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I became a bartender for the Broadway series shows in downtown Louisville.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Then I got a job delivering packages out of my car for Amazon.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a grown-ass woman.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm delivering packages out of my car for Amazon.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a great feeling, but it was what it was.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And it got me money right away.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I remember going out with a guy right around this time when I added both of those jobs into my life.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And he said, So how long are you going to do this?
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Like a month?
4:51
SPEAKER_00: I did not have the heart to tell him that it was going to be a bit longer than that.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: It ended up being three years, three years of working four jobs.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
5:03
SPEAKER_00: It didn't get any better.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: No better at all.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: What kind of world is it that a person who's worked her whole life is 51 years old, working four jobs, and still not making ends meet?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, could I have done things better, lived more conservatively?
5:23
SPEAKER_00: There was a while there that, you know, my life was like austerity, like literally just paying bills, never going out to eat, and never doing anything.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: I had one big trip, two big trips in that time that I used all my either credit card points for or hotel discounts from the full-time job that I had, or saved for a year and a half.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, I could have lived even more austere, but I was already, you know, keeping things very close to the best as far as spending money.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the thing is, between all four jobs, I was making close to 80,000 in Louisville, Kentucky.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Louisville, Kentucky, that should be enough.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: But something had to change.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I saw no way out.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, it was November 2024.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: You can do the math.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: It was around that time I really started looking at options outside the U.S.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to make it a political discussion because we all feel the way we feel.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Rarely do we change our minds based on what someone else says, but after that election, I felt this country was going to change in a way that would not sit well with me.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: So I started looking around.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: I knew Jack was going to be graduating soon, and as much as I'd love to travel the world with him, I knew he was most likely not going to come along.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't ready to leave his friends.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: He had a girlfriend at the time.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: His world was in Louisville.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: So I decided roaming alone was in my future.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: The first place I looked at was Costa Rica.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: I loved the idea of beaches and rainforests.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: From what I was looking at, the cost of living was cheaper if you stayed out of the more touristy areas.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And CR had a remote worker visa.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: That would be perfect for me.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I had to find a job that would let me work remotely first.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping that I'd be able to work remotely at my current job.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: But the more I thought about the area and being just south of Nicaragua, I was old enough to remember the Iran Contra Affair, the Sandinistas from the 80s, not for sure knowing how stable the country was, I just didn't know if Costa Rica was the right choice for me.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this again.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: These are my thoughts, my opinions.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: They may be totally wrong, totally off base.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I get it, but they're mine.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking of moving to another city, another state, another country, you do you.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Don't let anybody tell you your opinion of another area is right or wrong.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: It's just how you feel.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: And that was how I felt.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Around the same time, I saw a post from a friend on Facebook.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: She was a former neighbor of a good friend of mine, and she and her husband had moved to France a few years back.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: She seemed to be doing really well.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: She seemed so happy.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I had visited France a few years back on a bicycling trip and absolutely loved it.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: I'd taken French in high school, again in college.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: I'd also kept up with the language on apps on and off for years.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: So, could this be the destination I was looking for?
8:36
SPEAKER_00: I thought so.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: I started investigating visa options.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: France, unfortunately, does not have a remote worker visa, so that option was out.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I've mentioned my financial situation, so you already know that a retirement visa was not an option.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'll ever be able to retire, but that's another story.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: They do have in France an entrepreneurial visa.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So that is what I set my sights on.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Like I'd long wanted to just do the voice work, the radio, the podcasting, the media stuff that had been my career for most of my life.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: So why not?
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Why not try to turn that side gig into a full-time life?
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Finally.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: The entrepreneurial visa in France is one of the most difficult to get.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Of course it is.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: That's those are always my choices, the hardest one.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: So I spoke on WhatsApp a couple of times with the American couple that I knew living in Carcassonne.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I asked if they would mind if I maybe stayed near them the first few months to kind of soften the landing.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: They assured me it was fine.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: They would welcome me with open arms, which was wonderful.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: They also had a geek that they said I could possibly use.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: It's like an apartment.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Is it a French term for an apartment?
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Part of the visa I was looking at requires three months' accommodation paid and ready to go when you land in France.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: The husband of the couple also said I could use him as a reference for potential work once I arrived.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: So things were looking up.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: I was creating lists, I was figuring out where I wanted to stay for the year.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: I narrowed it down to five areas across the country.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: I was getting my business plan together with the help of my new best friend, ChatGPT.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: But then two things happened.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: This was around February 2026.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: The big one is that I got to a financial breaking point.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: I sat down with my son.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I spoke to him very openly and honestly about the situation.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, my friend Reeves said to me later, something that I'll never forget.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I told her that Jack just didn't get the situation we were in, even after all these months of me, you know, mentioning it to him here and there to be careful with money.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a lot of money to give him for spending and all that stuff.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And she said, well, yeah, that's because nothing ever changed for him.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: I was doing everything I could to keep him in a car, keep him in the house, food, money to get things he needed.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: While at the same time, I was eating peanut butter and crackers for dinner and drowning in debt.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, I was hiding it from him.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: So when we talked in February, he had an inkling at the time that things were bad.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: But this time I did not sugarcoat anything.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: I told him that with the financial strain that I was under, that I was also suffering mentally.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: I was facing real depression for the first time in my life and had been for many, many months.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: And I knew that he was struggling too.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: His longtime girlfriend had broken up with him, and he took it very hard.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: That lasted for months, so much so he lost sleep.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: So much sleep did he lose while working overnight at UPS that he had a rollover car accident where he side-swiped a semi.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was inches from death, which of course, you know, we both took very hard.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Took a while to get over that.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, you know, there's the increasing debt from having to pay for the hospital bills and buying another car.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: And so both of us were really, really in a dark, bad place.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: We had a long talk that night.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: We made a decision.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: I was going to sell the house, pay off all the debt, get Jack into an apartment, and go to France for a year.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: The France thing I had mentioned to him before, so that was not a complete surprise.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And he had always, after the initial shock, he had since been very supportive.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: He knew it meant something to me.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: He knew I really, really wanted to do this, needed to do this.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I needed a big and real change in my life.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: You can tell yourself that a lot over and over.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And until you uh do something, it's just gonna be a thought in your head.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to go from thinking something to actually doing something.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: That's a huge gap.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to just put off making a real change for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, and then things are getting worse and worse and worse.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: So the day after this conversation, I called up my good friend Kelly, who's a realtor, and said, I'm doing it.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm putting my house up for sale.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that happened right around this time is that I was not feeling very secure about my business plan or the visa application to France.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: I just didn't think it was strong enough.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: I was doubting myself.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't sure it would be approved.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: I'd gone back and forth with the idea of just doing that 90, 180 Schengen plan for a year.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: So there are Schengen countries like Italy and France and Spain, and then there are non-Schengen countries like Ireland, England, and you can spend 90 days in a Schengen country, but then you have to leave for 90 days and then come back to a Schengen country.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: And you can do that off and on throughout the whole year.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: And that was a choice I could make.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: But this was a huge move.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: I would have two pups with me because yes, they were coming with me.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: I was not going to leave them behind.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: And I just, I wasn't secure in the idea of being that untethered.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted a home base.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: I wanted a home for a year.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: And then if I wanted to go to a different country for a weekend or a long five days in Spain and then come back to my house, that is the dream.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: With all these doubts I had going on in my head, I did another chat GPT search asking for suggestions on which countries had the easiest visas to get coming from America.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And there were several suggestions it came up with, including Costa Rica, Croatia, and Portugal.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: I'd been hearing about Portugal as a huge popular choice for American expats for a very long time, especially Porto.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: A lot of chatter on social media about Portugal.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: So I started looking into the remote worker visa for Portugal and what life was like there.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: So this was a couple of weeks of research on Portugal.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, I saw just how stunningly beautiful the country was, and how varied.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Bigger cities like Porto and Lisbon, the beaches of the Algarve.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big hiker and there were great hikes and mountains throughout the country, not to mention Madeira and the Azores.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: I repeatedly heard about the slower pace of life, which after years of working for jobs, I could really use.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And I found out that Portugal is, on average, 22% cheaper than France, which is about 35% cheaper than living in the US.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Those numbers sounded good to me.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: I like the warmer temperatures.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: I love the idea of seeing snow on my terms instead of freezing through January and February every year in Kentucky.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Safety is, of course, a big thing, and other than some pickpockets and touristy areas, crime is very rare in Portugal.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: The more I investigated, the more I felt Portugal was the answer.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: But where?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I put the question to my best friend, Chat GPT.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I entered in the things that were important to me.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Walkability.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Affordable, rent under 1200 euros tops.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: An area where English speaking would be common as I began to learn the language.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Near the beach andor a river, always important to be near water.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Porto was the number one choice by far.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I started the process all over again, this time with Portugal as the destination.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, my house that had just gone on the market had an offer.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: This was like three weeks after I put it on.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: This was like three weeks after I put it on the market.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And I ended up getting exactly what I wanted out of the house.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Things were like happening, like really happening.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: I had been talking to my brother Mark, who's a world traveler.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: You can find out more about him.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Season one, episodes two and three.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I talked to him about the possibility of moving.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: I talked to my girlfriends about it.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I, of course, continued to talk to Jack about it, but that was it.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Like I was afraid to say it out loud.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: I physically got nauseous just thinking about it.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I put up my house for sale, I had started packing, knowing that eventually it would sell and I would have to pack.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: As I was clearing things out of a closet or putting a box together to put stuff in, I would literally stop in my tracks multiple times a day, every single day, and ask myself, what the hell am I doing?
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Am I about to make the biggest mistake of my life?
18:38
SPEAKER_00: I am so stupid.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: This is so stupid.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had the worst self-dog, but I was like, is this really happening?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: After thinking about it, after the struggles, after years of just, you know, barely making ends meet.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Was I really going to make this big of a change for real?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Those questions have, you know, faded a little bit more, and I've gotten more settled into the idea that this is happening.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: But it, you know, it took a minute.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: The swing of emotions throughout this whole process has been just huge.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: One second I'm sure of myself and I'm so excited about the process, and I can't wait.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And the next second, I'm bawling my eyes out.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: I can't even, I can't even think about leaving Jack.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I it just like I can't even think about leaving him.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, and then I go back swinging the other way of God, am I I'm gonna leave my friends and my family and my son, and this is so stupid.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing?
19:50
SPEAKER_00: And literally, that pendulum swings back and forth daily.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: But I honestly I didn't have any other choice.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: I had no other choice as far as selling my house.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And if I was doing all these things to survive and still failing, what was gonna change living here in this country, in this state?
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: So Europe pulled me even further.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna move forward.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna keep these plans, go step by step, and literally I had like a 30-point plan.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And I was gonna just take one step at a time.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And eventually I would reach the bottom.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And the bottom being move to Porto.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: So while I had all these doubts in my mind, while I was going back and forth with my emotions, I was still, you know, checking things off that list and taking it step by step.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I told work about it.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: That was like the first real big step, my full-time job.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: I'd hoped to be able to work part-time for them remotely.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Remote work with this company is no issue at all because almost everything that we do is online.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: But to work remotely, part-time, they would have to create a position for me.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't take what I was doing and make it from a full-time job to a part-time job.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: It just didn't work for them.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: And I got it.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And I was okay with that.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: So after I told my job and they said no to the remote work, I realized I was going to have to find another job to fulfill this remote worker visa.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I hired a company in the meantime called Novo Move, which I've been extremely happy with.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not paying me.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't get anything from mentioning their name other than the fact that they have been fantastic to work with.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: So one of our initial phone calls, I was telling them about the remote worker visa.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm looking for a Job now, and I'm hoping to move in September.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to get an appointment for the visa application, which is in Washington, D.C., at the embassy there, at the end of July.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Cesar is the guy that I was in touch with.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: He was like, um, for the remote worker visa, you have to be in the job you're going to have here in Portugal for three months before you go to your appointment in Washington, D.C., which I didn't realize.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: That's details, right?
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Everything is a learning process.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know this whole thing.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm maybe making mistake after mistake.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: It's a learning thing.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: It's completely different.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving myself a whole lot of grace to make a whole lot of mistakes, and it's all right.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: So after several discussions, looking through my assets, the very few that I had, there was no other visa option.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do the remote worker visa because if I did, I'd have to find a job, work at that job three months, and then finally go to the visa and then move two months after that.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at the end of December, beginning of January.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to make this move faster than that.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Because of course I do.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Once I made up my mind, you know, you want to do it right away.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like the ending of when Harry met Sally.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Once you make that decision, you want to be with that person right away, right?
23:27
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, so if I don't do the remote worker visa, what are my other options?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: That was a D8.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the D8 visa, is the remote worker visa.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: The D7 visa is the one for retirees.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: And literally, that's, I think that's the easiest visa to get.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: You only have to have, I think it's either 920 or 950 euros of passive income a month.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Had I been able to rent my townhouse instead of selling it, that would have made the visa for retirees done.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Like it would have been so easy.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: And so that left the D2 visa, which is the entrepreneurial visa.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: So I'm back at square one, just like I was with friends.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: But this time, for some reason, I felt more secure about it.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: I felt like, you know what?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: I am gonna do this.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do everything that I can to work and make a living doing my voice work, podcasting, media promotion stuff that I've done my whole life, but it's gonna be my company.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: And I made that decision.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And so I started working on the D2 Visa checklist again.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, you know, my house is up for sale.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm getting questions from coworkers.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't want to say, oh, yeah, I'm selling my house.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm doing next.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna have to let people know and make it real.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: And it does.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: When you start saying, hey, I'm moving to Portugal, hey, I'm applying for a visa to move to Portugal, it makes it real.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And it was hard.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: It was hard to get to that point.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: When I started to tell people, it was always conditional.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about applying for a visa to Portugal.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking maybe of going to Portugal.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: And there was a point at which I just stopped saying maybe or thinking or possibly.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: I took those words out of the sentence and it took all my efforts to take it out and say, yes, I'm applying for a visa to Portugal.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm thinking, ah, see, I did it again.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm going to Portugal.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to go from maybe and thinking about it to I'm definitely doing this.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And so if anybody asked, or if it came up in conversation, I just start telling people and it made it more and more real.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I told my niece Christina, she was the first in the family, other than my brother Mark.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: And she started crying.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Then I started crying.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: And that was really hard.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, other than Jack, she will be the hardest person to not see on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, holidays, birthdays.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: That's a tough one.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to delve too far into it because I don't want to cry again on this episode.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I mean, I don't know.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It's still, I'm still in the midst of it.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't like I haven't had my visa appointment.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: What if the visa doesn't get approved?
26:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have thoughts on that.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: I might do the 90, 180 Schengen Country In N-Out visit for a year.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Possibly.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do everything I can to get the visa approved, but you know, nothing is set in stone.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's another thing that I'm giving myself grace to be, which is flexible and change my mind.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: If I change my mind tomorrow, it's okay.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: It's my life.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: It's nobody else's, it's my life.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: I can change my mind.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I can decide not to go.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: I can decide to go over there for two months, be totally lonely, miss Jack too much, and move back.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Or I can stay there permanently.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's okay to not know.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: I've decided it's okay to not know.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Which is really hard because I realize I have a control thing for sure.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: So fast forward to May 2026.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: I have sold the house.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: I have also sold all of my stuff.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Like I sold all of my furniture.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: I gave away lots of clothes, a whole lot of clothes, and shoes, which is hard.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: I do have one small storage unit.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally, it's like, I don't know, five by nine.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: And most of its Christmas decorations.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: It was actually very freeing to let all of that go.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: I felt lighter in so many ways.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Financially, of course, but also just free.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: It's wild to think about.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: And one extra blessing is my friend Kristen and her husband Nate offered to let me stay with them over the summer.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So I'm for the first time in my life at 55, I am couch surfing, which I've never done before.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And the pups are on the couch with me.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And Kristen and Nate have been wonderful.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I'm staying here over the summer until moving to Portugal in the fall.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I wanted to say something like maybe moving or possibly moving.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to talk in definite.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize how hard it is.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh, am I scared?
28:59
SPEAKER_00: I am.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I am terrified.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: I am absolutely terrified.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm more sure in my conviction to go there.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm also sure in my conviction to change my mind, but I'm also terrified.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm terrified that I am not going to make enough money.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go through the little savings that I have faster.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: There'll be unexpected expenses.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm worried about the language barriers.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: I know that most people in Porto do speak English, but that's most.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: That's not all.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to learn Portuguese.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I've got this fantastic app called Practice Portuguese.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: And I've also started an online class to learn with a bunch of other students who are new to the language.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's fantastic.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, am I making the right decision?
29:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: I won't know.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: And I got to be okay with not knowing.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying this out loud to remind myself to be okay with not knowing and to be okay with making a huge mistake and being okay with starting over yet again.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: My whole life has been a series of starting over.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying this over and over again so that I might actually really believe it.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But there are things that I am very excited about.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to walk everywhere.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to not have a car unless I rent one.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about local cafes.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about learning Portuguese.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: I do love learning a language.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm terrible at it.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I am the worst, but I like trying.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: I like trying a lot.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: I am also excited about seeing Europe more often.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: For those who live in the US who have a nominal amount of money, going to Europe for vacation is something you plan one or two years out.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: You go for a week, maybe 10 days, maybe two weeks, and then it's another couple of years before you can go again.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: But for example, my birthday is in November, and I did a Google search one day on the Google Travel site.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: And I just put in the dates of a long weekend for my birthday, thinking, oh, you know, when I get over there, maybe I can just hop somewhere for a weekend.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: And I did not put in a destination, but I looked at from Porto to anywhere for the Friday to a Monday.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: And up pops all of these prices.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: To go to Madrid was$80.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: To go from Porto to France was$100.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: And this is a round trip.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: To go to Budapest was like$120.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: And that is when I really started getting excited about the idea of living in Europe is to be able to go to a completely different country in Europe for four days, or go by train, or rent a car, just drive wherever to a different country.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Madrid is like a two-hour drive from Porto.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And that makes me so excited.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Just the idea of slowing down.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: I remember reading something, it was one of those moving to Portugal Facebook groups or something.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: I was looking at, and this guy was talking about how people want to move to Portugal to slow down, but then they bring that American mindset to Portugal and they don't slow down.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: They continue living and working exactly as they did before.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: And so nothing really changes.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And I am keeping that front of mind so that I do slow down.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: I do take my time.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: I do those morning walks and those afternoon naps, which are required in Portugal, I'm pretty sure.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: I want to live in Europe, not just vacation in Europe.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: And you know what's really helped the idea of moving alone to another country is the solo travel that I've done in the past.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: These interviews with women and men that have traveled alone.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: That has helped so much.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Just being comfortable alone, solving problems alone on these past trips that I've taken, hearing what other people that I've interviewed have done when they've ran into problems while they're traveling alone.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Learning to trust yourself, adapting to situations quickly, letting plans change, being okay when plans change, and knowing it's just me and it's okay.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I can change a plan 10 times if I want, and that's okay.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: And number one is finding joy in that uncertainty.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: That is not easy to do.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Not easy to do at all.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So, what's next?
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, the visa appointment is the main thing.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: This is at the end of July 2026, coming up very soon.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: I've got a lot of things I need to get in place before that.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: I've also decided to do uh another podcast specifically for Portugal, more technical, a little bit more about my experience there, getting there, arriving, making it my home.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Romalone brand is expanding.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to call it Rome Alone, Portugal.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And I would love for you to take a listen to that.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: And then saying goodbye.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Saying goodbye to family.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Here we go again.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: To Jack.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: I just that's gonna be the hardest thing.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: And I can't even I can't even think about it.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: I cannot think about saying goodbye to him.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: How do I say goodbye to the person that is the closest to me?
35:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know yet.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: I talk to him a lot about it, probably so much I'm driving him crazy.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: But again, he is supportive.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: And I know he is, and I've told him if he's not honest with me, I'll wring his little neck.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: And so he talks to me very honestly about his feelings.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: He knows I'm compelled to do this.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: I know that he is gonna be okay, and actually it has been just me and him our whole lives.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Even when I was married.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: And I know that a separation to some degree will be good for him too.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Just like it is for me.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: We've been almost too close as far as you know, I'm the mama bear, I'm the snowplow parent, which I just learned that term from a friend, Sydney, who a snowplow parent is somebody who shovels everything, every obstacle out of the way of their kid so that their kid never has anything go wrong.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's not good.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: It's not healthy, and I get that.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be the hardest part.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to say goodbye to him.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: But I'll figure it out.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: There was something that I read recently that I hold close, which is lead with hope, not fear.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Fear is so paralyzing.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of everything.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of being afraid.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to lead with hope, not fear.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: And I will have to say that several times for me to actually believe it, but I will do it.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: So, in closing, how about you?
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Have you dreamed of moving abroad?
37:05
SPEAKER_00: If you could relocate anywhere in the world, where would you go?
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And what is one fear that's holding you back?
37:12
SPEAKER_00: These are questions to think about.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from you.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: There is a link in the show notes where you can message me.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know your thoughts.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And I will invite you to listen to Rome Alone, Portugal.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: That will be debuting very shortly.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, and um I invite you to come along for the journey.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a wild ride, I'm sure.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm hesitant, I can't wait.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: All the emotions, and it's okay to have all the emotions.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm Teresa Stevens, and this has been Rome Alone.