Living Abroad Isn’t Luck. It’s Work and It’s Totally Worth It.

“You’re so lucky”. Lots of people tell us that. The truth is, luck has played no part in our move abroad. In fact, I find myself a little frustrated. Luck?! You think the Spanish Sangria fairy visited me in rural Tennessee and flew us over the Atlantic?

On the contrary, we worked really hard and planned a lot to make this move a possibility. We took risks, prepared our employees and clients, broke tough news to families and friends, applied for visas, scouted out a city, poured over budgets, sent a million emails, read books, scoured blogs, sold our stuff and our home. It took us almost 18 months of planning and preparation. That wasn’t luck. That was teamwork.

Luck is defined as “success or failure brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions” and everything we did to get our family here was a direct result of our actions.

We still work to sustain our lives here. We both literally work 9-5 at our home office or coffee shops and sometimes, because of the time change, we alternate working “second shift” taking calls from 5-10pm here (10am – 3pm CST) as most of our clients are stateside while the other person takes after school kid activities and dinner duty. We run a digital marketing/web design agency called Data Driven Design. We have 8 employees and their families that depend on us and our small team is like family. If you’re familiar with small business, you know the grind.

To be clear, I’m not complaining. I’m just telling you that this is the picture we don’t post: Laptops open, faces aglow, kids asleep, as we check in on the business and our work family. We wouldn’t have it any other way. The long nights mean we can afford tomorrow’s adventure:)

Some days here are a real struggle though. To fit in, to learn the language, to do homework with foreign math formulas, to navigate health and public systems, to eat dinner between the hours of 9 and midnight, to encourage the kids to try new things when a new country has already pushed us to the edge of our comfort zones. Simple things like finding bed sheets take way too long and I’m still searching for a decent taco.

So I’m writing this post because I want to encourage all the people that told us, “I’ve always wanted to do that” and say to them: you CAN. It’s just planning, research, work, and mainly  – priorities. This was a dream that became a goal that turned into a plan. So my follow-up question is: “What are your priorities?” If it’s comfort. Abort mission;)

Some people are reading and still shaking their head. But my job doesn’t allow for this? However, I’ve met all sorts of expats here with lots of different stories, and NONE of them involve a turn-key “work transfer”. Each and every person we’ve encountered has a unique and interesting backstory. I love learning all the paths that led them here and meeting this exotic breed of hard-working and optimistic adventure seekers.

Some have chosen to dip into their savings early, downsized to afford a pay cut, retired here, worked to play gigs on the international music scene, sold their house to afford life here, supplemented income by tutoring, started an online store, consulted from afar, and all sorts of other clever ways of making money to make life abroad work.

For us, it was a combination of choosing a small 800 sq. foot apartment and getting rid of our cars. Read more about our cost of living here. Our life here is much more affordable in Spain and leaves us money to travel and make memories.

I realize this is not for everyone. I just hope that for those of you on the fence, you realize it’s a viable option.

And for those of you who think “you’re so lucky”, I’ll know you really mean “good for you” or a similar sentiment.

Thanks for reading amigos. Dream big and good luck you got this!

Kate