- Norman Bour nearly lost everything during the 2008 recession when he was living in California.
- Bour, now 70, and his wife worried about affording retirement in the US and moved abroad in 2019.
- They choose cheaper countries, including Malaysia, for better healthcare and affordable housing.
This essay is based on a conversation with Norman Bour, 70, who, along with his wife, left the US for Europe to live abroad in 2019. He writes about his experiences and advice for adults of children interested in doing the same. The discussion has been edited for length and clarity.
In the early 2000s, I had a good run in the real estate industry. I was doing mortgages and had a real estate and finance radio show with a partner in Los Angeles. I was making good money.
However, everything fell during the 2008 recession – I don’t know if I could have prepared for such a fall.
For many people, if they have a medical problem or financial setback, it takes very little to deplete their savings. It happened to me.
Over the course of four years, I liquidated my retirement accounts, savings and investment properties, reducing my income from a healthy six figures to a pittance.
Like many seniors, I found myself much closer to homelessness than I wanted to admit.
The trial was a real adjustment to my ego, because no one likes to think that they are 60 years old and a failure, and that they have lost everything they have worked for their whole life, especially when their peak earning years are behind them.
I had to cut costs to survive
Since I was never a consistent saver and the cost of living in California was rising, I knew retirement would be a struggle.
I realized that I had to start rebuilding myself to survive for the rest of my life.
While so many things were out of my control—the economy and my clients—I knew I could control my spending, where I lived, and my lifestyle.
I became a minimalist.
In 2013, after 27 years of marriage, I got divorced and went from living in a large four-bedroom house worth $700,000 to renting a room on an Airbnb in Costa Mesa, Orange County, for about $700 per month.
After recovering from the recession, I had no interest in returning to real estate. Instead, I started a video marketing consulting company.
But living in Orange County was still expensive, so I started taking Social Security as soon as I could—at age 62—to supplement my income.
Leaving the US made the most financial sense
Leaving the United States was never on my radar, my dream or my goal.
It all happened by accident when I was invited to speak in Europe as a video marketing consultant in 2016. During three weeks in Europe, I realized that the cost of living outside the US was much more reasonable.
At that moment the light came on.
From a financial point of view, it made sense to move abroad. There was also so much of the world I wanted to experience. I also knew that my consulting business was location independent.
The view from Bour’s room in Valencia, Spain, in February 2019. Courtesy of Norman Bour
My girlfriend at the time, now wife, and I left the US in February 2019.
Before we left California, I sold everything I owned through garage sales and also had about $8,000 in savings.
On top of that, I get $1,700 a month from Social Security and, at the time, was making another $1,000 a month from consulting and writing. My wife also received alimony, so she earned about $1,100, giving us a total monthly income of about $3,000.
If we had continued to live in California, it would have felt like we were living at the poverty level when you added up the costs of rent, insurance, food, car, gas, and all the other expenses. I would have been in bad shape financially.
We live cheaply abroad in many countries
Over the years, my wife and I have visited and lived together in about 43 countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. .
Bour’s wife rented a scooter and rode along the French Riviera in Nice, France. Courtesy of Norman Bour
Several factors drive us when choosing where to live, the weather being the most important. Having lived in Southern California for 40 years, we are not cold weather people.
Another factor is the cost of living. We try to avoid living in expensive places like Copenhagen or France; otherwise, we would be in the same financial situation as in the US.
We arrived in Asia in November 2023 after taking a flight from Australia. We have been to Vietnam, Thailand and Bali and now live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
It’s a nice place to be. We walk a lot, and the temperature is comfortable. We live in a beautiful, large one-bedroom apartment with a large bathroom, a nice balcony, and a great view, all for $700 a month.
Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Courtesy of Norman Bour
We came to Malaysia for several reasons. A big reason is that we hadn’t been here long before, and also because it’s a very affordable place for medical care.
My wife will need cataract surgery, which can cost $4,000 to $6,000 in the US. She can do it in Malaysia for probably less than $2,000.
While living abroad, we self-insure. We have Medicare, but dropped Part B – which covers doctors and prescriptions – as we were paying $170 a month for it and had virtually no chance of using it without a US home.
It was the right decision to move abroad as a boomer
I miss certain aspects of the US, like my friends, and familiar comforts, like visiting an In-N-Out Burger or a Target and easily reading signs when I walk into a store.
But my wife and I are very spiritual and practice gratitude, constantly reminding ourselves how lucky we are to live this lifestyle.
We’ve already planned next year: We’ll be in Malaysia until December 22, then return to Bali, where we’ll stay at a bluff hotel overlooking the ocean for just $26 a night. We’ll spend 60 days in the country, then another 60-day window in a country we haven’t decided on yet, before heading to Europe.
In April, we will fly to Greece to pick up a motorcycle in nearby Romania. For a few months, we will be passing through Greece and then taking a ferry to Italy to explore Southern Italy, Sicily, Malta and Sardinia.
The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, where Bour lives. Courtesy of Norman Bour
Then it’s back to the Balkans for a few months in Eastern Europe and then we’ll probably go back to Asia.
In the months before I left the US, I created my blog, Travel Younger. The goal is to teach anyone over 50 how to travel smart.
Before I came to Europe, I realized that young people make travel look so easy. This was quite intimidating as an older person who did not have much experience as a traveler. I said, “I have to learn how to travel like them. I have to learn how to travel younger.”
The blog is not an income generator; it’s just one way to donate.
Many people my age are starting to think outside the box and realize that they can take their $3,000 a month income in the US and live nomadically and affordably elsewhere. I want to show them that this is not the world they remember 50 years ago.
I feel that having new experiences keeps us all young mentally.
Correction: 22 October 2024 – A photo caption in an earlier version of this story misstated the location of the Batu Caves. They are just north of Kuala Lumpur, not in Kuala Lumpur.