This is our last night in the US. We’re in Laredo,full of anticipation and trepidation. We’re finally here and it’s difficult to come to grips with. Tomorrow might we’ll be in Mexico, and Saturday night in our furnitureless new home!

Tonite is our last nite in Dallas. Tomorrow, it’s off to Laredo!

We had our last meal here at ’our restaurant’, S&D Oyster Company, where we went on our first date. We even sat at the same table we sat at on our first date. I love Les so much. She has added so much to my life.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
— Mark Twain

And so it begins, David and my great adventure….well, truth be told not the first for either of us but the first for “us”.

The unknown can be somewhat frightening (this whole prep time has been a salute to the unknown). Our list of “have to dos” has grown shorter and most items have entered the “have done” column.

The movers will be here Tuesday to pack (still trying to figure out what to take, what to donate and what to toss). On Wednesday they will pack up the truck and on Thursday we will begin our journey.

I think we are both filled with excitement, trepidation, a little angst for leaving some of our lives behind both here and in Wisconsin – not for good, certainly, but for “now”. Sleep does not come easily, with thoughts colliding and notes being made on a pad of paper set next to the bed.

What were tentative steps at first have become a march to the finish now. To the adventure ahead!!

I got my yearly Social Security statement a few days ago. Retiring at 62 (this August) I’ll get something like $1150. Les is already getting around $1375, so between us, we should be getting around $2500/month. That sounds pretty good. If the cost of living in Mexico is a conservative half of what it is in the States, and many say it’s more like a third, the we should have the equivalent of $60K to live on. That’s fantastic! We sure couldn’t get by on only $30K in the States.

But the numbers can be deceiving. We have debts back here in the States, car loans, credit cards, etc., and they have to be paid in US Dollars. So, for every dollar we have to pay in the States, we effectively lose two dollars of income in Mexico. I’m trying to get those debt payments down before we go.

Les and I are moving in 4 months now! Time is moving quickly, and there is a lot to be done. We’ve got friends and family to visit back in Wisconsin. We’ve got a small wedding. There are forms and changes of name and new passports and all sorts of paperwork to be done. We have to divest ourself of all this stuff we’re not taking to Mexico. We have to find a way to get what we are keeping down to Mexico. We have to take a trip to Chapala to rent a place, then come back to Dallas to get the stuff ready to ship. I have to get some social security income coming in. It just seems like a whole bunch to do. All that in addition to trying to get some work to come in here in Dallas so we’ll have the money for all this.

Les and I don’t have a cushion of money to fall back on. We just have a few thousand dollars in savings, plus some money I borrowed at an extremely low interest rate. Basically, we’ll be living on our Social Security income. So I’ve been looking for ways to supplement that income. We’re pretty sure that Les can earn an income doing something down there, but for me, a photographer who doesn’t speak Spanish, the options look a little more limited. So I’ve been inventing simple little home-made products that maybe we can sell on eBay, all sorts of other stuff.

Which leads me to say this: THIS WHOLE MOVE THING CAN BE PRETTY STRESSFUL!!! even 4 months out. I’d advise anyone who is doing this, and especially so quickly, or on the cheap, to make sure they spend some extra time de-compressing and realizing that it will all work out and someday, God willing, they’ll be in Mexico!! Now if only I can take my own medicine!

We opened up’We’re Boomers Moving to Mexico’ for comments just the other day – and Nancy, who’s been living with her husband Paul in Mazatlan for 2 years, logged right in and posted one!

Be sure to check out their blog at http://www.countdowntomexico.com – way back in the early days of their archives they write about all the experiences they had as they moved to Mexico. And as the blog progresses you can read how their life is today. Be sure to check it out

–david

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