00:00:00
one of the things I like to do on the
00:00:01
channel is introduce you to other people
00:00:04
that have been able to retire early I
00:00:06
think it's super helpful for all of us
00:00:08
and today I've got a new friend her name
00:00:10
is Sylvie and she was able to retire at
00:00:12
55 years old and she's from Quebec
00:00:15
Canada and we met here in Guatemala
00:00:18
Central America thanks for joining us
00:00:20
Sylvie good afternoon aul nice to meet
00:00:23
you okay so let's tell our audience um
00:00:27
how did you get to the decision where
00:00:29
you said I want to
00:00:31
retire well for many many weeks I was uh
00:00:34
I was working and going to work and I
00:00:36
told myself I don't want to be here I
00:00:38
don't want to be here what am I doing
00:00:40
here and uh so I did that for a little
00:00:42
while and uh there was it was a very uh
00:00:45
high stress job so I decided that one
00:00:47
day I said oh I can quit and uh that's
00:00:51
when I took the decision to just quit
00:00:53
without any planning whatsoever I had
00:00:55
plann like everybody else to stop at 60
00:00:57
or 65 uh definitely not at 55 but I did
00:01:01
and it's possible and what was the thing
00:01:04
that led to you saying you know what I
00:01:05
can't quit what were the the the boxes
00:01:08
you wanted to check before you told your
00:01:10
boss you're quitting and you're retiring
00:01:12
well I wasn't actually quite sure if I
00:01:15
was uh financially
00:01:17
okay uh one thing that I was sure is
00:01:20
that uh like I knew is like stress is
00:01:22
not good for my body for my health and I
00:01:26
decided to prioritize that as opposed to
00:01:29
prioritize money and I thought I'm I
00:01:31
know I'm doing well enough I don't know
00:01:33
how I will but I decided no my health
00:01:36
and my uh is is more important to me
00:01:39
yeah and Sylvie how how long ago was
00:01:42
that that you retired that was four and
00:01:44
a half uh years ago already and what was
00:01:47
the first six months like what did what
00:01:49
did you do the first 6 months was it a
00:01:51
difficult transition was it a vacation
00:01:54
party feeling how did you feel and how
00:01:56
do you feel now well the first Monday
00:01:59
was definitely weird because okay what
00:02:01
do I do uh it was actually the first few
00:02:03
weeks was not too bad because it felt
00:02:05
like a little bit like a holiday it's
00:02:08
after that it became uh it was difficult
00:02:10
because uh well first of all it was
00:02:13
during covid not the best time and um
00:02:17
well it feel the best thing I've ever
00:02:19
done there's not one second that I
00:02:21
regret it and the only thing I needed to
00:02:23
do is to look at my finances reshuffle a
00:02:26
few things and uh just yeah just
00:02:29
prioritize something different as
00:02:31
opposed to materials you know stop
00:02:33
spending and then uh and spend more time
00:02:36
doing things that is good for my body
00:02:38
and my my soul and my
00:02:40
mind so so let's talk about the num the
00:02:43
numbers side of things first not the
00:02:45
actual numbers for your account but just
00:02:48
how you thought about it we were we were
00:02:51
talking before we decided to do this
00:02:53
interview you know one of the things
00:02:55
that's nice is have some form of passive
00:02:58
income some people have rental
00:03:00
properties some people have you know
00:03:02
they've invested in the business but the
00:03:05
challenge with that is it's still a
00:03:07
headache you're you're you're basically
00:03:09
swapping jobs right you're swapping your
00:03:11
9 to-5 job for managing the Airbnb
00:03:14
managing your rental properties what was
00:03:16
your strategy for passive income uh
00:03:19
basically well one of my neighbors a
00:03:21
friend of mine he many many years ago he
00:03:23
told me said we you know invest in
00:03:25
dividend stock invest in dividend stocks
00:03:27
and I said well I don't know nothing
00:03:29
about it and uh so I decided I I had
00:03:32
started before retiring I had started to
00:03:35
look into stocks and investing and
00:03:37
basically I just read a bit more I read
00:03:39
a bit more about it and decided to
00:03:42
actually sell all my mutual fund that
00:03:45
were invested with a an adviser and mve
00:03:47
absolutely everything and manage my
00:03:50
portfolio and now it's the it's it's
00:03:52
been it's been really good otherwise I
00:03:54
would not be able to retire so you need
00:03:56
passive income I needed that anyway and
00:03:59
and so what does that look like for for
00:04:01
folks that you know high level might
00:04:04
understand it does does your do these
00:04:06
dividends get deposited into your bank
00:04:08
once a month every six months once a
00:04:11
year how does how does that work and
00:04:13
then you know how do you get access to
00:04:15
that money so when you're here in
00:04:17
Guatemala Central America you have
00:04:20
access to cash to fund your
00:04:23
expenses uh basically uh depending on
00:04:26
the stock some stocks pays uh monthly
00:04:28
dividends some uh quarterly and some
00:04:30
yearly that's rare but uh but most of my
00:04:33
stocks are monthly uh dividends so uh at
00:04:36
this point I am still uh liquidating uh
00:04:40
money that I've got in my business but
00:04:42
eventually pretty soon actually next
00:04:43
year probably I'm going to have to
00:04:45
transfer uh I'm going to have to use
00:04:47
this money that I get monthly paid for
00:04:49
and uh and I I I'll be able to leave
00:04:51
some in my account to reinvest uh by
00:04:54
itself so I just reinvest every month so
00:04:56
it keeps growing and growing and I'm
00:04:59
just sitting at home or I'm sitting in
00:05:01
Guatemala enjoying the money so you
00:05:04
retiring leaving your job is a big
00:05:06
change another big change as we were
00:05:09
talking before the interview is making
00:05:12
the decision to to actually sell
00:05:15
everything and travel you're you're on a
00:05:18
tra a solo traveling adventure for 6
00:05:21
months share with the with our audience
00:05:24
how you came to that decision how you
00:05:26
prepared for something like this and are
00:05:29
there things that you're worried about
00:05:32
uh doing this solo
00:05:33
travel uh yes well the first thing the
00:05:36
decision to sell my house was because I
00:05:38
really need a change I needed a change
00:05:41
uh a big change in my life and I thought
00:05:43
if I stay here nothing will change so
00:05:45
setting my house was one thing and now
00:05:47
because I sold my house I said okay what
00:05:49
do I do with my time so I decided and
00:05:50
I've always been wanting to travel so I
00:05:53
decided this is a great opportunity to
00:05:55
go travel the big thing is first time
00:05:57
traveling on my own and uh I'm in 12
00:06:00
days in my um in my trip which I'm going
00:06:04
to be traveling for 6 months and so far
00:06:06
it's the best thing I've done it's
00:06:07
actually uh it's helping me growing as a
00:06:10
person and uh to have more
00:06:12
self-confidence so yes I still got a
00:06:14
little bit of fears but I'm I'm working
00:06:16
on them and I don't put any pressure on
00:06:18
myself I'm just going to go with the
00:06:21
flow yeah so you know um I've done some
00:06:24
solo traveling as well and one of the
00:06:26
things I like about that is it helps you
00:06:30
better discover who you really are at
00:06:32
your core right I I tell people it's
00:06:34
like I have attachments that have been
00:06:36
put on me by society and in in my case I
00:06:41
lived in the same home I raised my
00:06:42
family there for 25 years I knew all my
00:06:46
neighbors really well I knew them really
00:06:48
well which is great but then there's
00:06:50
also a negative with that right there's
00:06:52
there's pieces that they put on to you
00:06:54
and when you solo travel over time you
00:06:57
start taking those things off one by by
00:06:59
one so I I think many viewers are
00:07:04
interested in traveling and and doing
00:07:08
exactly what you're doing but they're a
00:07:10
little afraid to do it what what advice
00:07:12
were you a little afraid to do it and
00:07:14
what advice do you have for other people
00:07:16
that might be a little fearful my god
00:07:18
I've I've been thinking about it for
00:07:20
months and months and months and not
00:07:22
sleeping and what am I doing why am I
00:07:23
doing this and uh and but I decided to
00:07:27
do it anyway because I knew Within
00:07:29
Myself myself this is the change that I
00:07:31
need I needed and uh and it's like yeah
00:07:34
you just have to take this sleap of
00:07:35
faith and and basically it's about
00:07:37
trusting yourself and uh and now it's
00:07:40
it's I I can't believe how much I've
00:07:43
achieved within the last 12 days I've
00:07:45
met people I've enjoyed myself I'm
00:07:47
walking on the streets with confidence
00:07:49
I'm learning Spanish and uh it's we put
00:07:52
all the the limitation ourselves nobody
00:07:55
else other maybe other people but in my
00:07:57
case it was my own limitation and I
00:07:59
decided to break this I need to break
00:08:01
this because I really want to enjoy my
00:08:03
life because I'm retired I've got so
00:08:04
much time I want to enjoy every minute
00:08:06
of it and and as you look back to your
00:08:10
decision to retire and and probably all
00:08:13
the trepidations you have the concerns
00:08:16
you're many people are hesitant to
00:08:18
retire as you look back at that now does
00:08:21
that seem silly to you did what what's
00:08:25
your thoughts on that concern taking
00:08:27
that first jump what ADV do you have for
00:08:30
people to actually take that jump that
00:08:31
are thinking about doing this uh first
00:08:34
of all is to believe that it's possible
00:08:38
that we can and and the fact is the
00:08:40
other thing is I think money is probably
00:08:42
the biggest issue for a lot of people
00:08:45
and the fact is we need a lot less than
00:08:47
we actually think we need if we if we
00:08:49
stop spending money as a friend told me
00:08:52
before he said the money you don't spend
00:08:54
is money you don't need to earn so stop
00:08:57
spending and that's what I did many many
00:08:58
years I actually in 2008 I stopped uh
00:09:01
wasting money on on uh on fancy
00:09:04
restaurants on fancy clothing and just
00:09:07
like and just we have enough we have so
00:09:10
much more than we need and is to stop
00:09:12
spending on things and now I'd rather
00:09:14
spend money on traveling and and do
00:09:16
things I really enjoy on experiences as
00:09:18
opposed to material I got rid of two3 of
00:09:21
my stuff and it feel really really
00:09:24
freeing so Sylvia you and I are about
00:09:27
the same age we're about 60 years old
00:09:29
and one of the things I share with my
00:09:31
audience I call it my shock statement to
00:09:33
really get folks to pay attention and
00:09:36
that is unfortunately at our age you and
00:09:39
I likely have less than a thousand weeks
00:09:42
of healthy active time remaining and so
00:09:45
I want to talk about health when you're
00:09:47
working it's hard to balance it all it's
00:09:50
hard to take time to get healthy so what
00:09:53
having been retired for almost 5 years
00:09:55
now what impact do you think retiring
00:09:58
early has had on your health uh well I
00:10:01
think for my for my body it was work it
00:10:04
was better because I I'm moving more I'm
00:10:06
doing more I've got more time and to
00:10:09
exercise and also but I think especially
00:10:11
is the mental health as to be stuck in
00:10:13
the Box all day long and sitting on the
00:10:15
chair and having to deal with uh stress
00:10:17
all day long I think this is the worst
00:10:19
and that's why that's why a lot of
00:10:20
people are sick is because of the the
00:10:23
stress that uh that it creates diseases
00:10:26
and uh so to have the freedom to uh uh
00:10:30
to be I feel I feel happier I feel more
00:10:32
relaxed and I feel uh I can take I
00:10:34
really can take care of my body and my
00:10:36
mind I'm glad you brought up the mental
00:10:38
health you know I was talking about the
00:10:40
physical health but the mental health is
00:10:42
every bit as as important and the
00:10:44
reality is work stressful right we we
00:10:47
have to deliver I don't care how great
00:10:49
of a boss you have you know in jobs we
00:10:52
have to deliver and the nice thing about
00:10:54
being retired is we get to deliver on
00:10:56
the goals that we're excited about uh
00:10:59
before I let you go I just want to ask
00:11:02
you know you're at the beginning you're
00:11:03
at day 12 of your 6mon adventure what
00:11:06
are three or four of the things that
00:11:08
you're most excited about for this
00:11:10
six-month
00:11:11
period uh to be honest is to discover
00:11:14
who I am uh doing this trip by
00:11:16
myself um and and develop my
00:11:19
self-confidence and and I this trip is
00:11:22
really about uh growth that this is my
00:11:24
priority number one that's why I'm doing
00:11:26
a a Meditation Retreat and Yoga Retreat
00:11:29
and also discover about a different
00:11:31
culture and uh Ju Just explore enjoying
00:11:34
life I just want to enjoying life at
00:11:35
this stage of my life I spent all these
00:11:37
years behind in inside a box and now
00:11:40
it's like it's really time and I'm still
00:11:42
healthy it's like I'm going to do it now
00:11:44
and not wait good for you and and Sylvia
00:11:47
I want you I want to thank you again for
00:11:49
taking the time to talk to our audience
00:11:51
and to share your adventure again day2
00:11:53
of your six-month Journey have a great
00:11:55
time thank you so much it's really nice
00:11:57
to bump into you thank you same here
00:11:59
bye-bye
