There is a Buddhist proverb: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. Somehow, we started to see the articles about the early retirement, the best places for retirement, retire overseas, etc.  

We began to share our thoughts with our friends. And oh boy!  You don’t want to hear the reaction!  “Nobody in clear mind will quit the good jobs and go away”.  “What happens if this will not work?  How will you be able to come back and get another job in such terrible job market? You are not young!”   These are just a few questions that our friends asked us.

And I started to panic.  Is this so crazy idea or not?

Julia, the daughter of our friends, arranged for us an interview with her relative who retired a while ago, lived in Bali, and now moved to Thailand.   After several conversations via Skype, he told us: “Do not over-engineer this. Thousands of people take an early retirement, live overseas, and do not regret. Start traveling around the world. Do it for a couple of years, and find the place or a few places where you would like to live, and start living.”   His advice made a big difference! He is a REAL person we know, who “does not afraid to live”, as Julia saying.

The more we read, research, and though about it, the more confident we became in our decision: our health is our first priority, and we need to do all our best to maintain it.