Frugal chicos journal - ERE in The Basque Country

[Frugalchicos]

@rube

Hi, I’m glad to hear it worked for you (if it did).

Option 1 has its pros and cons:

Pros: It gives them more time to figure out a position for me in Europe if they decide to keep me. I don't see any internal candidate at the moment who is nearly suitable for my position, so they'd likely need to hire externally or restructure the entire department.

Cons: It also gives them more time to find a solution without me.

Right now, I’m leaning more towards option #2—being open to working remotely from Spain with a strong salary and a good schedule, then deciding when to quit once I’m settled.

[Frugalchicos]

@western red cedar

It might be helpful or interesting to reread some of your old journal entries about that period as you prepare for the next transition.

You've made an excellent point. Over the past few days, I've reflected on it and identified the key stressors from our move back in 2019:

- The impact of Covid and everything that came with it, like being confined to our apartment for 72 days. Fortunately, we had a great balcony with a view of the mountains where we enjoyed tons of beautiful meals.

- My parents. This remains a significant source of stress. The strained relationship with my father and my mom's ongoing emotional struggles have made it challenging to maintain good communication and the relationship I'd like to have with her. I'm currently learning to accept this and manage my emotions and triggers so they don't affect me as much.

- Job and financial concerns. When we moved to the Basque Country in 2019, our net worth was 420K ($1,177,000 less than it is now). I realized this wasn't enough to retire early, and I struggled to find a stable job during the pandemic. While I enjoyed surfing when restrictions allowed, the uncertainty still brought a lot of stress. Chica's situation wasn't ideal either; she was temporarily laid off, and when she did work, it was often until 2am.

Overall, we're preparing for this move under very different circumstances, with more mental tools (I recently started seeing a psychologist to manage my anxiety), and our current NW will allow us to live a very comfortable life. I also hope we'll build a strong group of friends who bring us joy and with whom we can share great moments.

[cimorene12]

@Western Red Cedar
Thanks!
Chica has a clearer plan than I do. She will be resigning, with her last day of work being 6/12/25, the same day our daughter finishes school. I'm still deciding whether to tell my boss that I'm moving to Spain and leave it up to them to decide if they want me to work remotely. I'm currently considering three scenarios:

1- Mention during my end-of-year review that I'm planning to move in July 2025 and express interest in working from Spain.
2- Inform my boss in April/May that I'll be moving in July.
3- Let my boss know in April/May that I'll be quitting in July.

I have multiple suggestions. I'm glad that Chica has a clear resignation date, because it was dodgy during COVID lockdown. I'd recommend mentioning in an email to your boss that your wife has the end date of June 12, 2025. Leave the ball in her court. If she wants to counter-offer, she can. In America, we have at-will employment. Make sure to have a live stand-up call at the beginning of the day where everyone sounds off on their checklists.
https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/standups
https://pm.umd.edu/edx/

IMHO, Mini-Chica could check out Le Caousou, and Chica could consider being one of the math, music, or art teachers for école maternelle as one of the de Clares in Toulouse, France. With your EU passport, you can get through the paperwork to be there.
https://www.caousou.com
https://debretts.com/royal-family/royal-dukedoms/

[Western Red Cedar]

@Fc - I was a little surprised to see you are thinking about continuing with the current job after moving back to Spain. Based on the numbers you've shared, it looks like you'll have more than enough money to cover your expenses, and then some.

In 2020 you mentioned that the tax situation was less than ideal for working abroad. It seems like that is worth weighing as you make your decision, along with the additional stressors of continuing to deal with work in a different time zone on top of a major move.

Bill Perkins' Die with Zero has been popular among the FIRE community. I haven't read it, but he discusses a lot of the big ideas in this podcast. I'd recommend checking it out. You and chica have a unique opportunity to start fresh in Spain without the baggage of work.

https://www.madfientist.com/bill-perkins-interview/

[Frugalchicos]

@WRC

If I decide to keep my current job and work remotely from Spain (assuming my company approves), it would likely only be for the remainder of 2025. This way, I would only need to pay taxes in the U.S., as I would have spent most of the fiscal year there. The primary motivation for this is to save more cash for a future car purchase.

Speaking of cars, my mom has a small, older car (Seat Ibiza) with low mileage that I could use for the first couple of years. This would be really helpful during the transition period since we want to keep our expenses low and avoid major purchases or withdrawals during the first five years of early retirement.

But as you said, I have to think this through since it would also be very nice to quit, move and start fresh with our new life.

[Nicolino]

It would be sweet if you could arrange for a 2-3 month advisory role to help with the transition when you leave. Something asynchronimous and with calls scheduled in the (short) overlap of working hours between Chicago and Euskadi, so you don´t have a crazy schedule and that let´s you bank another 20-30k. When the time comes, I would make sure to propose something like that to your employer, it would probably be much appreciated.

[Frugalchicos]

@nicolino

Thanks for the advice! That would be great, but given my company and role, I don’t think that option is very realistic. At this point, the most feasible choices seem to be either quitting altogether or working through the end of the year on my terms, semi-coasting.