Living Like a Local in Retirement – As Featured on Beyond Retirement

Slow Travel After Retirement: Living Abroad and Building Community After 55

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Retirement. That's what we're all aiming at,  right? But exactly what does that mean? Conjures up visions of endless days of golf, drinks with  little umbrellas in them on a tropical beach, feet up, reading a book. Is that what  it's all about? I don't think so. Life would get pretty dull after a while without  anything meaningful to do. Don't you think? I'm Jackie Det and I'm on a mission to discover  exactly what life is like beyond retirement. Join me while I chat with people who've already done  it, who've retired to something rather than from

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something. Let's find out together exactly what's  waiting for us when we say goodbye to that 9 to5. Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Beyond  Retirement. I'm your host Jackie Ducet and today I'm excited to be joined by Andrew Moala. He's  the founder of The Good Life Abroad, which is a company that offers immersive community-based  travel experiences across Europe for people who are over the age of 55. He's been involved  in the travel industry for over 30 years. Um,

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first experiencing living abroad when he was  in the uh Peace Corps as a volunteer. Andrew, thanks for joining me today. Thanks for having me,  Jackie. So, you spent over 30 years in the travel industry. what made you uh decide to make it a  career instead of just or make it a kind of a way of life instead of just a career? Yeah, I think it  comes down to who I am fundamentally. Um I think of myself as a perpetually curious person who  loves learning and for me travel is just a really fun way of learning. Uh I also have a passion for  cultures and anthropology. I was an anthropology

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uh double major in undergraduate and it actually  started in college when I studied abroad in in South America and I fell in love with this idea  of learning firsthand about unique cultures and I thought how can I keep doing this the world is  such a beautiful big place and there's so much to learn um learning about traditions and cultures  and languages and music it all fascinated me and so maybe travel being in the travel industry has  been a a way to to fund my my lifelong learning and adventure. That's amazing. When you were in  the uh Peace Corps, what was uh what was that

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like? What was your experience with travel in that  kind of situation? Yeah, I will admit I did it for pretty selfish reasons at first. I applied because  I thought, "Ooh, it's another way to travel." And um I didn't really understand what international  development was all about. And fortunately, the Peace Corp has a really good training program.  Um, and so that training program gave us technical skills, cross-cultural skills, different sort  of important skills for doing this kind of work

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because you're actually doing work with a uh  you're paired with a local government agency in the country that you're sent to. Um, however,  what I learned a lot about was being deeply embedded in a community. I mean, you I was in the  middle of nowhere in Honduras for two years. Um, it there was no buses that went to our town and we  rode on a truck to get out there. And so, you're really with a community and it was about 500  people. And what you learn is that you're it's a

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completely different experience than if I were to  visit that community for a day or two or a week or two. being there for for a couple of years opened  my eyes and that I think was maybe the seed behind the good life abroad which was as you know I  worked in the travel industry and a lot of a week here two weeks there three weeks there but I found  that something about being in a place for a longer period of time gets you into a different level of  understanding and if that's interesting to you I

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think spending more time in a place is necessary  to get to that level full of understanding. I think so too. And that's something that I found I  you know I've done a lot of traveling but until I retired I wasn't able to spend any time. So you  you know you get stuck on a resort and you see what the tourists see and that's not anything like  what it's really like to live in a place and and the chance to go and stay like you're offering for  an extended period is just it's such an amazing

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way to get to know what life is really all about.  Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. So forif people 55 and over um you offer these uh I don't want to  say excursions these opportunities. Um what do people generally feel when they're coming back  from something like that? Yeah. Um most of our programs are all a minimum of a one month stay  and some people stay for two or three months. Um, and they might combine it to be a month in one  city and a month in another city, but it's it's at

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a minimum a month. And so what they normally feel,  it's funny because going in people think a month in one place seems like a long time. And what  I hear from many people coming out that wasn't enough time. I was just getting getting into it.  You I feel like what happens with a lot of our um travelers is that that first week they still  go back into tourist mode because that's what we know. That's what we're trained on. Like, I  got to see it all. I got to pack it in the best

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meals. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you live  here now. Slow down. And so, the first week is kind of a blur. Then they start to realize they  can't keep this pace up for a whole month. So, then they start to slow down. And then by week  three, they actually find like routines like maybe doing yoga at the local studio or Pilates, a local  cafe. week four, they're starting to discover, oh, there's cool cultural events happening at the  university or the, you know, local cultural

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institutions. And by that point, they're now  starting to make some friends because they're, you know, being consistent in certain places and  people recognize them. And then it's like, oh, but I got to go now. It's been a month. And it's like,  no, if I had another month, I would go to the next level of it all. And so that's um normally what a  lot of people find. Uh, but that's a lot. I won't speak for everyone, but the one thing everyone  has in common is that was a different experience

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than what I was used to, right? That was that was  different and it was better because I was deeper, right? And different people take different things  away from those experience. Sometimes it's very personal. Some people going back to explore their  cultural heritage. Some people wanting to live for a couple of months because they want to do  language immersion as well as live in this place. So different people have um their own personal  agendas as well, which is really cool. And right now you're focusing on um countries in Europe. Is  there a reason why you picked just Europe? Yeah,

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we're a relatively young pro program. Um and I  thought Europe is an easy place to start. uh we can start out operationally getting good quality  apartments because we provide people kind of nice upscale apartments in in all of these cities  and they have to be of a certain standard and they all have to be more or less the same standard  um because people are living sort of in the same neighborhood. They're going back and forth through  each other's places. They're comparing and so we

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found in Europe operationally it was a really  good place for us to start. we could find these apartments, safety and security. Again, we're not  a tour. People are living in their own apartments. They're doing their own thing, but we have local  staff support, but we're not picking you up on a bus and and driving you places. So, we wanted to  go places where um older travelers could could feel safe, secure, confident. I can do this on my  own. Of course, we're there if there's a problem.

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Um, and also where there wouldn't be  much of a language issue because a lot of people may not speak the local language.  So now that said, the obvious question is, are you going to expand beyond Europe? And I think  the answer is yes, that's coming. But right now, we're focused on picking a lot of the lowhanging  fruit uh across Europe and getting really good at offering these types of uh month-long experiences.  Uh, and then we can probably branch out from there. Awesome. So, now that I've asked the  questions that were on the top of my head after I,

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you know, perused your website, let's step back a  little bit and can you give us an overview of of what the whole program is about? Sure. The Good  Life Abroad is created to answer the question or answer the the pain point of always wanted to  live abroad, but I haven't because of X Y and Zed reason. I don't know the language. What happens if  I get sick or hospitalized? What happens if I get lonely? And there's a lot of questions uh that or  reasons people don't follow their dream of living

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abroad. Uh and so we thought how could we solve  that? And we and we came upon this formula which said provide really good vetted apartments that  are suitable for people 55 and older. What do I mean by that? I mean like um like walk-in showers,  you know? I think we've all had the experience in a European hotel room where it's like this little  room. You go to the bathroom and you can't turn around in the shower. You sit on the toilet and  you hit your head on the sink. We said, "No, no,

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okay. If it's a month, anyone can do that for a  few days in a hotel room, but if it's a month, we need to make sure this is vetted, that this  is like you're able to cook, you're going to be comfortable." And so you have your apartment,  then you have your local support. We call them a community manager because we we see it as a  community of people um that we're we're hosting. Our community manager is there to organize some  activities and events throughout a month. It's a

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light sprinkling, but those serve as touch points  for the community to come together and friendships to form. Um, and the community manager is also  there to recommend and connect you to local events that you might not go know that's going on.  Like, oh, there's an interesting um, trade show on the flowers here in Amsterdam. You can go to the  convention center like, "Oh, I didn't know." And that's really kind of interesting. Or um, there's  a lecture going on about the the history or um, at

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the university, something interesting happening.  So that's really cool to have like a local friend who's there connecting you to things and then  uh you have your community of other people who either live in the same apartment building with  you or in the same exact neighborhood in their own apartments and that fights the whole thing  around loneliness because being abroad for a month or two can get kind of old and even if you're  married and you're traveling with your partner what I often hear is well I've been married for  30 40 is she's heard all my jokes already. It's

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kind of nice to go meet some other people. Um,  and if you're a solo traveler, it's great, too, because you have some other people and you can be  as social or you could be as independent as you want. And then, of course, we also provide travel  medical insurance. So, should anything happen, uh, our community, you have insurance and  our community manager can connect you to English-speaking medical care. And so that's  sort of an independent experience, but with like a nice social net of friends and a safety net  underneath you. So you say it's not really a tour,

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but it's a a scheduled time. People don't come  and go whenever they want. It's like for the month of July or something like that, right?  So it is cohort-based and so everyone arrives on the same day and the next day we typically do  some basic orientation. uh things to empower you to live like a local in that city. So how to take  the public transportation, you know, is it a card, is it an app, is it a coins? And we actually  take a a ride together. So you kind of learn, oh, this is how the the route the routes work.  How can I navigate this on my own? Uh groceries,

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housewares, things that local people need to know,  safety and security, of course, healthcare. Um, and so you have that and then usually three times  a week we have community activities where we come together and you're right, it's a scheduled activ  set of activities and it's usually just a couple of hours like a nice lunch, maybe a cooking class,  maybe a architectural walking tour or something. And they're completely optional, but again, it's  a time for people to come together, have fun,

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get to know each other, share, build that sense  of community really. Uh, and then go off on your own. And it's kind of a nice feeling if you've  if you've ever been on a tour where it's been a jam-packed day. You know, you come you come  to the Good Life Abroad and you do an activity, it's like maybe a nice lunch, two or three hours,  the wine is flowing, and then you're like, "Oh, I'm done. I don't have to get back on the bus.  I can go take a nap now." And it's a really good

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feeling versus like, oh, we have four more hours  of visits we need to do. Yeah. I'm I'm remembering a trip that I did recently in in Southeast Asia,  and that's exactly what it was. You get some place and this is really nice. We're relaxing. It's  like, what do you mean we have to get back on the bus and go? Why can't we just stay here? And  at my age, I don't know. I like the naps. They're becoming very important. And if I don't get my  nap in, it becomes kind of hard to get through

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the rest of the day. Yep. So, you mentioned um  people with partners or singles. Do they are they combined on the same trip or are there groups  for singles? And Yeah, they are combined and all of our programs are welcoming to to everyone,  singles or couples. And what's really beautiful is that because we frame it as a community and it's a  community experience. We have a community manager. It's everyone's very intentional about welcoming  everyone in and including the singles and the

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singles also connect with each other. Uh that said  we do have certain sessions that we designate for solo travelers only and because we can't guarantee  um how many solo travelers will be in a group on average on average it's about 30%. But averages  are average as in the specific group you're in. We don't know will it be 10%, will it be 50%. Um,  so we said for those who really want to be with other solo travelers, we have these solo traveler  sessions and you're guaranteed that it will be all

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solo travelers. Um, and it's nice because in those  programs, everyone lives in the same building. Um, so you can go out at night, you can go have  fun till late and you can walk back and you're all going back to the same destination and  you all kind of get back to your building. Have you found um that there are certain types  of people for whom this sort of activity works better than for others? Yeah. What we found the  thing that links all of our travelers, especially the ones that are happiest, is there's a level  of intellectual curiosity. That's I think really

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what it is. Most of our people have are very  welltraveled. They've done many tours. They've done many cruises. Uh they may have done a lot of  independent travel. And what I often hear, and I love the metaphor, one gentleman told me, he said,  "We we visited a lot of these places on a cruise, but we were there for a day or two, a day or two.  That was like a wine tasting, but now that I'm retired and I have time, I want to drink the whole  bottle. I want to go back to Lisbon. and I want to

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go back to to um Sardinia and I want to spend a  whole month and I love it. It was so intriguing but I want to go deeper and it's that desire to go  deeper I think that makes it a successful program. If you're still in touring mindset, right? I want  to just pack in things. This is not going to be so great because my own mother frankly doesn't  fully understand why I do what I do. She said, "I've been to Barcelona, Andrew. I saw all the  main things in three days. Why would I want to

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go spend a month there? I said, "Well, mom,  it's a different it's a completely different experience. And if you want this experience,  it's a month. And if you want your experience, that's 3 days." And both are perfectly fine.  So, you really need to have and I there's one gentleman uh there's a couple men and women, and I  I really love the way they approached our program. They were signed up to come to Florence, Italy  for us with us. But before they came at the

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local community college, they did a course on  Renaissance art. And so part of their month is every day they wanted to go see another piece  of art and they that they could process and, you know, kind of think about. And they were  it was like the little scavenger hunt. It just took a couple hours. They go to out of  the way churches or out of the way museums. They all the big touristy stuff they had  seen previously. They're big art lovers, but they would go out and they would see and go,  "Okay, that was Bacelli and that was this." And

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and it made him very happy and he was every  time we had a community activity, he would get excited and light up about, oh, I saw this  interesting art and he you could tell, you know, but he had a purpose behind this and it it didn't  get boring for him to be in one place for a month. I wonder if that's something that is important  in terms of making it successful for someone, you know, having that kind of a goal, some kind  of a goal rather than just I want to go live in Spain for a month and see what happens, you  know. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of wide open. There's

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there's people have these different goals, right?  And this gentleman, this couple was about art. Uh there's a lot of people who are actually thinking  about leaving becoming an expat, an expatriot, moving abroad and um we are seen as a good first  step to kind of test the waters and get to know the neighborhoods, the traffic patterns like oh  before I make this big step of like committing to something, let's go do a test drive for  a month. And usually by the end of a month, people feel very comfortable in the city. uh  they've had the support from us and then maybe

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they'll do a month on their own doing a one-mon  rental somewhere else and saying okay I I feel good and now I can make that big commitment or  maybe I need to check out a different city in that country and so we see a number maybe I would  say a quarter of our travelers are actually sort of I call them expat curious u and kind of  scouting it's a scouting trip for them So, how did you pick? Well, you told me a little bit  at the start. How do you pick the uh the cities, the places that are on your on your uh catalog?  Yeah, I think it's probably a combination of

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three factors. One is where can we provide that  highquality housing uh at a reasonable price that with good standards that are appropriate for our  audience. And of course, there's sort of where do our travelers want to go go? And I think the other  sort of the there's these are kind of science and then there's sort of the art and the art is sort  of where do I feel a lifelong learner would be able to go and explore and peel back the layers  of an onion for a whole month and get deeper and

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deeper and has more and more to offer. Of course,  the big cities, the obvious ones, the London, Paris, you know, Rome, these are wonderful cities  and you you there's so much to do and see. Um, but there's a lot of smaller cities that have a  lot to offer. Um, I think about Split, Croatia, for example. I mean, it it's on the surface,  yes, it's beautiful. I understand why cruise boats go there and why tourists visit. But if you  stay for longer and you peel back the onion, the culture and the warmth of the people in Croatia  is amazing. And they really bring you into their

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homes, into their lives. And they're passionate  about about their country. And I've learned more about water polo from hanging out because that  is a passion for many people there. I've learned this little game that they play in the water.  Uh, I mean just it's it's it really does reveal itself to you over time. And I think those kind of  places or Sardinia, of course, beautiful beaches, beautiful culture, but it's a blue zone and you  can't really understand why it's a blue zone until

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you spent a little bit of time there. So even the  smaller places that have a lot to offer, I think are great destinations for the good life abroad.  Of course, as long as those two other dimensions also uh click. So, you've mentioned a few places.  I was I was going to suggest split actually. What places are on the catalog right now? Where where  do you go most often? Well, we're big is Florence and Florence, Italy, Sardinia in Italy. Um we're  also uh going to be in Rome and we're going to be

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expanding in Italy uh next week. Um we're filming,  we're recording this now at the end of January, about 3/4 of the way through January. Um, so  soon this uh there'll be some more Italian destinations. We're big in Spain. We're in  Barcelona and Madrid as you would expect, but we're also in Valencia and we're in Sevilla  and we'll be going to another city in Spain very soon in Andalucia. Um, so you can see a little  bit of a pattern of um the big cities and then the

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smaller towns that happen to have warm weather  in the winter months because we the beautiful thing for people who are retired is we can be  a little bit like Goldilocks. Can't be too hot, can't be too cold. We want it just right and  we have the time and ability to go make that happen for us. So there's there's that as well.  And just out of my for my curiosity, do you have um very much in uh in the United Kingdom? Not a  great deal yet. Uh we currently have a program in in London and a program in Edinburgh. Edinburgh.  Um and we hope to be expanding within the United

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Kingdom uh at least one more destination in 2026.  Nice. So when people are finished with their with their tours, what are the the most common things  that you hear? Um other than you know, hey, this wasn't long enough. I need to go back. Yeah.  uh very clearly there's one of our alumni that who just sticks with me so clearly and he said I've  waited my whole life for this to exist because this is how I want to travel and now this is what  I'm going to do. This is this is it. Uh I'm going

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to do this until I'm physically not able to do it.  And him and his wife have now done I think four or five programs with us. But I hear this a lot of  people saying this is I'm done with the tours. I did them for many many years and I did them  because I didn't have a lot of time. We had one or two or maybe 3 weeks of holiday and we didn't  wanted to see things or wanted to take the kids to expose them to a lot of things. But now that  they have the time, this is sort of becomes it for

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them. And I think that is very validating for me.  Um that we can offer something that really feel fills a a gap for some people. Um they don't want  to do it completely on their own. They like the support. They like a little bit of structure and  they really like the community. And so uh that's that's uh that's very beautiful. The other thing I  hear a lot is I didn't realize when I booked with you that the community would become so important  and I would love that aspect of it so much at

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the end. Right. I came on because I want to see  Barcelona. I want to see u Lisbon and I want to go have this experience. And yes, I I heard what  you said about there being a community and there's other people and that seemed kind of nice. But  what they often hear is, "I didn't realize those people are my tribe. I found my tribe." And I  think this is something I mean, you'd probably talk about a lot is in retirement, your identity  shifts, right? You're no longer I'm an accountant.

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I don't work as an accountant anymore. I'm not  the parent at the PTA. Uh my kids are grown up and I'm not involved in the school anymore. I'm  I'm not even maybe a neighbor in my neighborhood because I've now moved away. I've downsized and  moved to somewhere else. So, who am I? Who who's my community? Maybe there's a a faith group or  something that stays consistent. But what we often find with our travelers, the people who want  to go spend a whole month or two somewhere, these

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people deeply value cultural immersion. And then  you get in this room with all these other folks and you realize we have shared values and travel  is a core value. You discover that core travel is a core value in your life and cultural immersion  is a core value and appreciation of other cultures is a core value. And when you connect with other  people around core values, you realize that's my tribe and that's my community. And we see it time  and time again where they stay connected. Um,

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we we create WhatsApp communities when we run the  programs, but that that WhatsApp group stays for years. And I'm on some of them still and I see  them saying, "Oh, did you see the good life of Rogers launched a new program in in uh in Portugal  in Porto? Who's going?" And like, "Oh, let's try to meet up." Uh, and that's beautiful. Uh, and  they visit each other, of course, when they get back home. Uh, and I I think that's um not just  beautiful, but what that does um not to get too

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esoteric here, but it extends the this the feeling  of joy. The joy happens during the program, but the joy then continues afterwards and we're  filling their lives with more joy. Uh and to me, that's really important. It is especially when  you retired because there are so many things that have changed and are and a lot of people are  feeling that their their life is kind of empty now and putting something else in it is a is an  important part. Um, one of the very first people that I talked to in the first year of my podcast  was doing this kind of, you know, slow travel,

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but he wasn't they weren't doing it with a an  organized group. They just picked a place, found an Airbnb that they figured they could afford, and  they rented for a month. And while they're there, they figure out where the next place is going  to be, and they just, you know, pick up their suitcases and move on to the next spot. And I  think that's a fabulous way to spend your time, if you can if you can do that and find places that  are comfortable to live in. Yeah. Exactly. So,

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um I know you can't give exact prices for things  because where you're going and the time of year it all makes a difference, but can you give  a ballpark estimate of, you know, what this kind of costs for a month? Yeah, as you said, it  varies on are do you want a one-bedroom apartment, do you want a two-bedroom apartment, do you want  to go to London, which is an extremely expensive city, or do you want to go to Split Croatia,  for example, that's a little less expensive. But I would say kind of um the starting range for  a month is about $5,000. $5,500 for one person.

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Uh, of course, if you're splitting the apartment  between more people, let's say you and a friend or you and a and a couple, and you wanted a  two-bedroom, two bath apartment, of course, the price goes down because it's one apartment  that's being shared. But think of it as a $5,500 um program which does not include airfare, but it  includes your community, your community manager, your staff, and uh these schedule of activities  that we put on. And they're they're they're

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very nice activities. It's more than just  uh when I say like a lunch, but it could be an example in Lisbon. They actually go to  CRA. They they get meet at the train station, they take the train out. Cra is a beautiful almost  a fairy tale like little sit town with like these castles everywhere. We have lunch there and we  learn a little bit about the city. We don't do a full tour of the castles because that's more of  a tourist activity and if you wanted to do it but now you realize, oh, I can just hop on the train.  I can go here. Um these other activities like the

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happy hours we do in Barcelona, they do one I  really love in Spain. Vermouth is a big drink. uh they're really into it and so we do a  vermouth making workshop. They learn they sample some vermouths and then you make your own  mixtures of vermouths and you could take it. It's a little souvenir that you take and but along  the way they're drinking, they're with friends, they're laughing, they're making mistakes,  they're making weird potions. Um but you're learning about the culture through its drink.  You're making having experiences with friends,

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which is fun. And you're having a few drinks,  which is kind of fun, too. Um or things like the cooking class. Those tend to be like 3-hour long  experiences where you're, you know, making a meal together. Again, it's sort of this kind of fun,  funny, and tasty experience or a walking tour. So, it's a it's about three activities per week  and then a big farewell party at the end. Wow. It's not a bad price. A whole month at a place,  you've got your apartment. You've got, you know,

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all the things going on. Yeah. the the at first  sometimes people say, "Oh, that seems expensive. Five somewhere between $5 and $6,000, let's say."  And then I always ask, "Well, how much do you pay for a nice hotel room in Europe?" And they said,  "Well, I don't know, with the exchange rate, especially maybe $200 a night." I said, "If you  just multiply that for 30 nights, that's $6,000." And that's a hotel room. Now, we're giving talking  about a one-bedroom apartment with a living room,

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kitchen, a bedroom, um, and your local staff  support and these activities and the community and the health insurance and they're like, "Oh,  yeah. I guess that is a good deal, right?" Or the people who compare it to like a cruise or  a or a tour if you did that for even 10 days, often the cruises will kind of get into that  range. Uh, especially the smaller cruise ships. So, I'm not sure uh what else to ask you to make  to expand on everything. What What can you tell us that you haven't said already that people might  be interested in hearing? Yeah. Uh I' I'd like to

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just kind of go on to another plane for a moment.  uh instead of kind of talking about the program, but one of the things you've heard me say a few  times in our conversation is community, community, community. And I want to kind of talk about why  philosophically this is so important to us and specifically for the 55 plus community. Um many  people have read books around happiness and one of the things that comes out on all those books is  relationships, right? Community, connection with other humans. is it and so that that's a a central  point to us but there's this other concept that

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um has influenced us and it's because of a book  that I read and now everyone in our our company has read this book and it's called joy span uh  it's by Dr. carry Bernite and it's this whole concept that we talk often about uh lifespan which  is really about longevity just how long you live physically but not about joy span which is the  number of years of purpose and happiness and joy and connection you have and this actually in  her she's a a doctor so it's a lot of scientific

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studies that show that you can actually increase  your joy span and that does correlate positively with increasing your lifespan and the idea that  joy span and building joy into your life is is a choice. There are practices you can do right  to build joy in one's life. and she has this framework and I I won't go into it in great depth  but it's basically this idea around um growing through learning new things uh connecting with  other people and the sense of community adapting to change without breaking and then living with  joy and purpose and all of this. And so when I

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when I read this book it just resonated with me  immediately. It's like, okay, wait a second. Grow, learn. Going to a new place, being in another  culture. I mean, everything is new. You're learning constantly. You're learning how to buy  a, you know, a carton of milk at the grocery store cuz it's different. Um, and then connecting  this idea of community. I knew community was part of what we did, but now it's it's very intentional  and you're making these friends and then adapting.

00:34:07

This one is really interesting for me because  this goes throughout my entire career in travel was travel if it you do it right. In my opinion,  this might be a little controversial should push you a little out of your comfort zone, right? It  should you should be exposed to things that are new and different and maybe push you a little bit  and force you to adapt. Not break, but adapt. Now, some people would say, "No, no, no, no. Like,  I always want to be comfortable." And I say, "Go to the Four Seasons." And you're right. You'll  never be uncomfortable. you'll be very well, very

00:34:39

comfortable, very pampered, and but in my opinion,  and I would argue, I don't know how much you're really growing as a result. You're having a nice  time, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the kind of travel I like and the kind of travel  I've been involved in my whole career and like the good life abroad is about adapting, learning,  and being a little uncomfortable. I'm now in a European apartment. I don't speak the language.  I don't know the public transportation. There's

00:35:07

people walking around at night and there's garbage  trucks coming. Back home, I live in a community out in the suburbs with a gate around it and you  know it's very quiet. So it is um this adaptation process. And then if you add these things up,  what what I find beautiful about the program is because you've done these things, you've learned,  you've adapted, you've connected, you come away from a month in some European town and you have  new confidence. You just did this. You pushed

00:35:44

yourselves and you did it. and you leave and  instead of feeling getting older and feeling more afraid and like kind of things closing in on you,  the world is actually expanding out for you and you like if I did it here, I could do it somewhere  else and you have this confidence and you're living with some purpose and I think expands joy.  So I love the program because on a philosophical level it does something very beautiful for people  in our age range. uh when it often feels like that's the world is actually getting smaller and  I my own parents are they're aging now they're

00:36:23

they're quite aged and they cannot travel but um  you know they have found these things actually back home which is I'm not saying that everyone  has to travel to to increase their joy for my own parents moving into a 55 plus community  has been wonderful for them they're learning the activities the community um I've se I've  never seen them happier in the last, you know, 15 years that being in the community. And I think  that, yeah, like you said, that's the key is the the community part. It can be wherever you happen  to be, but you've got to take that first step and

00:36:57

and go outside your comfort zone a little bit if  you want it to expand. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, Andrew, where can people find you if they want to  talk to you about the good life abroad? Very easy. If you just put into the search engine, the good  life abroad will pop up. I'm sort of all over the website. If you send an email to um the address  on our website, it can get to me. Just say, "I saw Andrew. I got a question." And I'm very  accessible to people. Um, obviously I have a

00:37:32

whole staff of people that um can offer details  about the programs and details about apartments and prices and dates and all the logistical  stuff, but if you'd like to get in touch with me um it's very easy. My email address is also  out there. It's andrewthegoodlifeabroad.com. Awesome. And one other thing, when uh when  people are interested in booking one of these uh experiences, how far in advance do they have  to book it? Yeah, it's a very good question. Um, we find that most people are booking 9 months  in advance, 9 months to a year. Uh, that said,

00:38:08

there's a probably 25% of the people that  are booked in a shorter period of time, but you can't wait too long because we are  leasing apartments on your behalf. We're actually subleasasing an apartment to you on your  behalf. And that pro these uh property management companies that we work with um the the inventory  is always in flux and usually by uh 3 months before the start date we have to be done with all  the the leasing and arrangements and whatnot. Um and so that it's at that point we just close the  programs. Okay. So when they go on your website,

00:38:48

the things that are open are because there's  still spots available. It'll be closed obviously. Exactly. Exactly. Just disappear once they're not  available. Um Okay. Yeah. So, um in the email that Elaine sent me when we were chatting about having  you on the show, she uh she gave me a a code that people could use, which was kind of nice. Yes.  Um, I don't know exactly which code she gave you, but I'm I believe it's the name of your podcast  and beyond retirement. Beyond retirement. Uh,

00:39:22

and so when people if they decide to book  a program with us, you go to our website, the goodlifeabroad.com, click book now, you'll  see all the different locations and you can sort by apartment size and date and etc., etc.  But as you get into the booking process, it'll ask you for a referral code. basically  who are you referred by and in this case um they can put in the referral code of beyond  retirement um and they'll save $50 per person. Awesome. Thank you very much. That's exciting.  You know, it's always nice to get a little bit

00:39:55

of a discount when you're booking a travel.  Yeah, actually I don't remember if it was $100 per person or 50. Uh I think you and Elaine  probably have worked that out. Um, but you can put in the show notes whatever the correct amount  is, but you there's definitely a discount to listeners of Beyond Retirement. Awesome. Thank  you so much. I've really enjoyed talking with you. I think that I think the idea of of slow  travel, of community immersion is a is a fabulous um way to learn about a place and way to enrich  your life. And I think that what you're doing

00:40:32

is amazing. Thank you, Jackie. And I feel the  same way. I feel like retirement is actually this amazing opportunity and you're giving people  the tools and the ways to think about retirement that are going to help them make it the greatest  stage of their life and that's what I'm trying to do myself and so I appreciate what you're doing.  Awesome. Together we can make it help everybody make their life better. I love it. I love it.  Let's do it. Thanks very much. Thanks Jackie.

00:41:05

And that's it for this episode  of Beyond Retirement. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I  hope you enjoyed it. Are you ready to start rocking your retirement? Head on  over to www.beyondretirement.ca/rockingit and sign up to plan out your own roadmap for  retirement. Don't wait till it's too late.