Ever Dream of Living in Italy?

 

“Right now, it is readily feasible to live abroad on about a $1,000- $1500 a month. I have been living it for 5 years.”

At 44 I decided to reinvent her life and jumped of the treadmill of the American Dream and travelled across country in an RV from PA to Alaska, sailed the Caribbean and spent the summer in Tuscany and is still going.

 

“Once you make the decision,” she says, “your view of the world changes. From then on you think, ‘I am moving. I am mobile and travel light. I need nothing. Everything is negotiable. I choose to spend my time differently. I choose to spend money differently. I choose to live my life differently.’

 

You choose to decide what is best for you, not what others think is best for you.”

Would you rather have a plane ticket or a mortgage?
Would you rather have freedom or a paycheck?
Would you rather have a backpack or walk-in closet?
Would you rather have a passport filled with stamps or a bank book filled with money?
Would you rather live your dream watch it on reality TV?

 

It really is about mindset. I wanted a different life, not to re-create my life in another country with a job, mortgage, car and commitments. If is very difficult to make these changes in the USA. In Italy, everything was different, so I didn’t feel deprived.

 

If I said no TV, dining out, driving, living on peanuts, and such, I would feel deprived back in Orlando. In Italy, like most of Europe, most are middle to lower class, so most people around you live the same way but they know how to “treat” themselves daily with a coffee at a cafe 1 euro or a gelato at 2 euro a day. I replaced things I gave up with art, music, learning and reveling in the ancient. It will take me the rest of my life to learn all there is here. My days are full of adventure and learning,,,,who cares about sit coms, maintaining a house, celebrity gossip, saving money I may never see or get to spend and fear monger newscast?

 

WHAT ABOUT MY JOB, HOUSE AND BILLS AT HOME?

I gave them up. Liquidated my possessions are rented it out to cover the costs. I would sell it if I could but Florida is a bit stuck at the moment and I have renters who pay for which I am soo grateful. I also stopped all reoccurring charges and now have 3 monthly bills. Cell phone ($40), storage unit ($68) and healthcare ($253).

 

If you don’t spend it , you don’t have to earn it. I went from bringing in about $6000 a month and spending about $6000 including all expenses to spending $1000 a month. Even if I paid my mortgage off, it would still cost me in taxes and insurance about $750 a month to live in my house, without any maintenance or repairs which is a totally wild card. Staying in my paid off home costs more than living in Italy.

 

Because the cost of living is so low in Italy, you can live frugally for about $1000- $1500. Earning a living is a different sorry. Salaries are low and unless you have a visa, you work illegally, which I don’t recommend. So, come to Italy with dollars, even though the exchange is not in our favor, and live like an Italian.  If you are 2 people, your can still rent a room or an apt, depends on city vs countryside for way less than in the USA and not work.  It would be very difficult to do this in Orlando, where I am from without feeling deprived. Because I am replacing time , freedom and adventure, for the illusion of security in a house, job and familiar surroundings, I feel alive, evolving and growing rather than bored and stuck in a dull routine of repetition.

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