What Getting 'More For My Money' Means To Me
And, quite possibly, you, which is why you read this newsletter
Sometimes I struggle with one aspect of moving to Spain.
I know my heart’s in the right place. Same with my mind. But sometimes I worry that others will feel like I’m romanticizing my motives. That I’m a no good gentrifier. Just like the last expat.
In an installment from earlier this week, I said—
Where we can take the money we save by not living in Los Angeles and overpaying for housing, healthcare and food and allocate it to the things the matter more—actually most—to us, particularly as we enter the second acts of our lives.
What does that excerpt you’ll find at the above link mean? It means we’re rightsizing our expenses and—right away and ultimately—spending less money to live.
Early in October, I made a rough quantitative assessment of how much less it will cost to live in Spain. You can read that here.
Longish story short—I’m happy to pay “higher” taxes. No matter how you slice it, we save money by moving to Spain. But it’s not necessarily because Spain is less expensive than Los Angeles or elsewhere in the United States.
Like so much else in life and with money, it’s what you make it. This might be one of the biggest lessons you can learn in personal finance.
Forgive me in advance for the length of today’s installment (don’t worry, it’s skimmable!) and if I sound like I grew up during the Great Depression!