My husband, Ralph, and I have always been prepared to reinvent our lives whenever we spotted a greener pasture. It’s a policy that’s served us well.  In 1996, we decided to immigrate to Toronto, Canada, where we have family on his side, to start a new business venture. After three years, this business took us […]

During the six years I’ve spent living in Ecuador, one of the key trends I’ve noticed is the rise in the number of digital nomads from North America and Europe.  Some of these remote workers relocated when their careers migrated online. Others arrived here in retirement and built new incomes in blogging, freelance writing, photography, […]

Another week. Another doctor.  I’ve been having strange, knife-like pains in a back corner of my tongue that no one can figure out—dentists, oral surgeons, a maxillofacial specialist, and two ENTs. I just returned from a neurologist prior to sitting down to write this. Healthy as a horse…and yet, knife pain every day. I mention […]

One of the hardest things about being a freelancer in the U.S. is the lack of affordable healthcare. Health insurance policies tend to be prohibitively expensive on the front end, come with steep deductibles, and harbor many exclusions or limited networks that make actually accessing healthcare difficult. So even when you have insurance, one accident […]

I started working on Wall Street in 1980. Over the following decades, I forged a successful career building wealth management, asset management, and private banking businesses for some of the biggest banks in the world. Then came the 2008 financial crisis.  Like so many other people, I took a huge financial hit in the crash […]

And so it comes down to this—the last day before what, in all likelihood, will be a historic presidential election. Will this end peacefully, with a known winner and a pledge to hand over the reins of government without a fuss? Or will it end…differently? I can’t say. I won’t venture a guess. Polls point […]

Freelancing used to be a taxing business. You’d have to go to endless business events, hand out countless cards, and cajole clients face to face until they decided to take a chance on you.  Email changed all that, allowing you to connect with prospective clients around the world. Still, challenges remained. Over email, it was […]

If you’re considering freelancing in the online gig economy but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in luck. Nowadays, there are so many excellent websites where you can get gigs that, honestly, the only thing standing between you and your first payday is putting your fingers to the keyboard.  It doesn’t matter whether your skills […]

I sold my first stock photo last week. I earned $0.33. It’s nothing. And it’s everything. But let me back up… A couple of weekends ago, I wrote to you about my battle with “side-hustle overload disorder”—the affliction stemming from trying to take on too many side-gigs in this world of innumerate gig opportunities. As […]

“Are you out of your freaking mind? When you’re retired, you’re supposed to be enjoying life—not working!” That was the loud, emphatic reply I heard after sharing that my definition of retirement included at least one part-time job. And my subsequent explanation of doing “fun” jobs where the money wasn’t the primary goal rang hollow […]

As a freelance copywriter with a strong stable of clients, I can live anywhere there’s a decent internet connection. That’s one of the many factors that led my wife and me to choose Uruguay: the country is unique among its South American neighbors in its commitment to providing excellent communications infrastructure. In fact, it’s fast […]

I’m betting you’ve seen a rash of recent mainstream media headlines touting all the destinations aiming to woo Americans with temporary, remote-worker visas.  It started with Barbados and has expanded to include Aruba, Estonia, Georgia, Bermuda, and a few others. Antigua and Barbuda recently jumped onto the dog-pile and upped the ante by offering a […]

After moving to Germany, I spent a lot of time investigating job opportunities for native English speakers. The one that kept coming up was teaching English. So I decided to enroll in an online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification course and try my luck.  Within one week of completing my course, I […]

Would it surprise you to know that you have had a high-ticket, money-making skill since you were 7 years old…one that is truly in demand in the global market…a skill that foreign executives pay top dollar hourly rates to learn?  What skill could a 7-year-old possibly possess that a CEO would pay top dollar for? […]

The ferry from Istanbul to the island of Büyükada in the Sea of Marmara takes about 75 minutes. It’s a basic, unadorned commuter ferry, really—nothing like the high-speed, comfortable, tourist-centric ferries that zipped me through the Aegean Sea to the Greek island of Santorini last summer. My fiancé, Yuliya, was relaxing as best she could […]

Here’s my problem: I want to do everything. And I want to do everything right now.  On a certain level, I’ll argue this is a beneficial character trait. It means I have institutional knowledge about a broad base of topics and experiences, and personally I like that because it informs my writing. Want to know […]

In 2006, I took my first trip to Italy, visiting the renowned city of Florence. At the time, I was an aspiring New York City event planner. However, eager to explore Italy, I decided to accept a position with a tour operator that assists American university students on their travels. I departed New York thinking […]

Italy Italy is consistently ranked among the top 10 countries in the world for healthcare. It also has the highest average life expectancy in Europe, according to the U.N. Development Program. These facts verify what I see on the ground every day: Italy is a healthy place to live.  The Italian healthcare system is affordable […]

I had planned to write a different column today…and then I was thinking about an article that appears in the October issue of The Savvy Retiree and, well, I just really wanted to write about it. I think it says so much about the real world of freelancing and the possibilities that exist there, particularly […]

Disillusioned with life in the Atlanta suburbs, Grace Alexander and her wife, Amanda, decided to search for a better life overseas for themselves and their three children. “We were dissatisfied with things in the U.S. Our health wasn’t great. We didn’t love living in the South. So, we started looking for alternatives,” says Grace.  With […]

In May 2006, I arrived in Uruguay for a two-week stay. During my time exploring this gem of a country, I experienced a peacefulness that seemed to emanate from both the landscape and the culture.  As my planned departure date grew near, I felt reluctant to leave. The idea of making a new life in […]