If you read part one of our story, you know that we started out with nothing. We were two teenagers with a baby and a lot working against us. In part two we talked about how we put in the work, made sacrifices, and ended up creating a life that by all accounts likely wasn’t going to happen. And then realizing that it wasn’t everything we expected. 

Don’t get us wrong…we felt incredibly lucky to have made it to where we were back in 2014. And we know that our ability to achieve what many people dream of was only possible because we had a lot of privileges working in our favor. Once we hit the “finish line” and achieved what we considered to be the American Dream, we made it work for almost 5 years. But eventually it wasn’t worth it any more. To any of us. And – as with all things in life – it is easy to start out on board with something only to find the situation to be much different once you’ve actually spent some time doing it. We got to the point where things had to change.

So what did we do about it?

We sold our house, our cars, and most of our stuff and moved to the other side of the world! Mr. Unsettled was offered an international job posting with an American company, and we took it as the sign that it was time to reevaluate our life and rebuild it into something that we could be excited about. 

Moving abroad isn’t for everyone. But it was an opportunity that came up at the exact right time. 

Being overseas is difficult in many ways, but what we have gained in return is so worth it: the chance to travel, the chance for our child to grow up with a global perspective, and the ability to save the majority of our income so that we will have the freedom to continue to make crazy decisions. It’s true that big risks can come with big rewards.

Now we are happily marching down a path that seems to be going in a completely different direction than most people will ever choose to take.

And to make things even more interesting, we’re doing it all with a teenager in tow. 

This time abroad has shown us that we can handle being uncomfortable. Unsettled, if you will.

The most important lesson we’ve learned is this:

When you get comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable, you can do anything.

Soon after moving abroad, we started learning about the FIRE movement and how realistic becoming financially independent really was. And that’s where this all started.

We realized that we could drastically change our future if we played our cards (aka our expat package) right.

Want to know exactly how we’re making our expat package work in our favor? Read on!