36-year-old works 16 hours every week, lives ‘semi-retired’ in Spain

Gigi Gonzalez has a brand new rule for herself: She does not work Fridays.

“Fridays are my errand day,” says Gonzalez, 36. “That is once I go to the dentist. That is once I take my canine to the groomer [or] once I get my nails achieved.”

For the remainder of the workweek, Gonzalez retains her schedule tight, working Monday by way of Thursday from 2 p.m. to six p.m.

That wasn’t the case one yr in the past, when Gonzalez says she logged a extra conventional 40 hours of labor every week as her personal boss working The First Gen Mentor, the place she’s a monetary educator, content material creator and creator.

It is not that she’s landed a sudden windfall or significantly elevated her charges. Fairly, Gonzalez moved from Chicago to Valencia, Spain, together with her husband in Could 2025. Since then, her private bills have gone down sufficient to make a 16-hour workweek attainable.

The transfer has reworked her work-life steadiness, her funds and her outlook on a long-term future overseas.

Gonzalez’s journey overseas kicked off in 2019. Someday, she was discussing her monetary companies job at a high-school profession day and suggested college students to check overseas if attainable, one thing she regretted not doing herself.

After repeating her remorse by way of seven totally different shows that day, Gonzalez determined it wasn’t too late for her to dwell overseas as an grownup. She says she spent the subsequent two years saving about $20,000 with the purpose of taking a year-long sabbatical from work.

The Covid-19 pandemic upended her plans, so in April 2021 Gonzalez says she used her financial savings to launch her personal enterprise, The First Gen Mentor, the place she gives monetary training to first-generation college students and younger professionals of coloration. A number of years into being her personal boss, Gonzalez realized she might do her job from around the globe, and he or she revived her plan to maneuver abroad.

After some analysis, she and her husband set their sights on Spain, the place Gonzalez can apply for citizenship after two years of residency by way of her Mexican citizenship. (She at present holds twin citizenship within the U.S. and Mexico, the place her mother and father had been born.)

Spanish was Gonzalez’s first language, so there would not be a significant language barrier. Plus, Spain launched its digital nomad visa in late 2023, which permits international freelancers, distant employees and self-employed enterprise homeowners to dwell within the nation whereas incomes cash from abroad.

From July 2024 to April 2025, the couple saved over $20,000 to maneuver overseas by promoting their furnishings and specializing in values-based spending. “It did not really feel like deprivation; it felt like I used to be budgeting in the direction of a larger goal of shifting overseas,” says Gonzalez, who’s a monetary advocate for Intuit.

She additionally restricted her impulsive spending. That meant no new furnishings, crops or garments. “Principally, something I could not pack in three suitcases [wasn’t] going to make the lower,” she says.

Gonzalez bought her digital nomad visa in April 2025 and added her husband as a dependent; he works in operations for a global firm and secured a switch to their Spanish subsidiary. Gonzalez’s visa provides her three years of residency, throughout which she says she plans to use for citizenship in Spain.

Gonzalez says her price of residing in Spain is way decrease than it was within the U.S., which implies she will be able to work much less, sometimes 16 however typically as much as 20 hours per week, and nonetheless dwell comfortably.

Because of this, she says her sense of work-life steadiness has “fully reworked.” She will be able to benefit from the luxurious of a gradual morning, beginning with breakfast, train, self-care and lunch earlier than logging on at 2 p.m. when her U.S.-based shoppers are beginning their days.

Gonzalez says some early and aggressive investments are additionally paying off. Throughout the pandemic, Gonzalez says she invested as much as 35% of her earnings into her retirement accounts. It was sufficient to hit a quantity the place she’ll be capable to cease working and dwell off the distributions from her portfolio in retirement. Gonzalez at present has over $220,000 stashed for retirement.

“That implies that I’ve sufficient in my investments now that I haven’t got so as to add extra money,” Gonzalez says, “and I can nonetheless retire on the conventional age of 65 with out including one other greenback, simply by letting compound curiosity do its magic.”

Along with her retirement earnings taken care of, Gonzalez says she solely has to work sufficient now to assist her on a regular basis spending. “If at some point I need to cease [running my business] and simply go be a barista or a waitress, I can do this, as a result of I simply have to pay for my present bills,” she says. “I needn’t earn extra to place in the direction of retirement.”

Gonzalez hopes to remain in Spain long-term and says retirement is much more inside attain given its decrease bills, particularly round medical care. That being mentioned, she says her newfound sense of work-life steadiness and a slower tempo of residing do not make her dread working a number of extra a long time.

“I am not dashing to retire as a result of I am semi-retired,” she says.

Gonzalez says her private bills have gone down since shifting overseas. Hire for her and her husband’s downtown Chicago condo was $3,700 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit; in the meantime, in Valencia the couple pays 1,900 euros (roughly $2,200 USD) for a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half toilet condo.

Medical health insurance is one other large distinction. Within the U.S., Gonzalez says she and her husband paid greater than $400 per thirty days for employer-sponsored protection with a high-deductible plan; in Valencia, their personal well being care is about $200 per thirty days with no copays or deductibles.

“It is actually stunning as an American,” she says. “I do not suppose twice about going to the physician for one thing as a result of there isn’t any copays; it is already paid for.”

Not all of Gonzalez’s bills are decrease today. Doing enterprise in two nations is expensive.

Gonzalez says she employs a U.S.-based tax staff to maintain her LLC energetic and in compliance; her digital nomad visa additionally requires that she registers her enterprise in Spain, so she has a Spanish tax staff to assist with that.

Given the added complexities of her enterprise since shifting, Gonzalez’s $350 month-to-month tax assist has doubled to just about $700 a month. “It was a giant studying curve to start with, however I’ve adjusted,” she says.

Gonzalez says that when she instructed family and friends about her plans to maneuver overseas, a lot of them did not understand how lengthy she’d been planning for it.

“Lots of people see [others] residing their finest life in Europe, after which they appear into the method, they get overwhelmed, they usually do not do it,” Gonzalez says. She recommends individuals actually discover why they need to transfer overseas. Then, “create the methods and alter their cash mindset to have the ability to meet these objectives.”

Gonzalez says her large moments of inspiration got here from that high-school profession day, but additionally when binging “Home Hunters Worldwide” episodes or touring overseas and wishing she might keep longer. It was sufficient motivation go preserve her going by way of researching, saving up for and adjusting to her new life abroad.

“That is positively one of many issues for me, if I’d have been on my deathbed, I’d remorse by no means experiencing life overseas,” she provides. “You get one life. Reside it proper.”

Conversions from euros to USD had been achieved utilizing the OANDA conversion fee of 1 euro to $1.16 USD on March 9, 2026.

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