Over the next ten or so years, I’ll be writing the “My Retirement Journey to France” blog as I continue toward my goal of retiring to France. The blog’s purpose is to keep a record of what happens along the way, to share everything that I discover, and to help other people who are interested in personal finance and/or what I’ll call an “alternative international retirement” to gain insight and perspective into the process. Since retiring to France has long been a goal of mine, I’m looking forward to how it will all shake out, what I’m going to discover about what it takes to move to another country, and the move itself.

So why should you care? You may not be interested at all in retiring to France or anywhere else for that matter (“I’m fine living just where I’m at, mister!”). That’s great and I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s my dream, and probably not yours. However, if you made it this far, you’re likely a little bit curious . . . and that’s a very good thing to be. And I’m pretty sure that I know what you’re curious about.

My strategies. Or more specifically, how is this guy going to pull that off?

Which brings me to the first reason I’m writing this blog: to share my investment strategies that will allow me to move abroad so that other people can do the same. Personal finance is an area that interests many people, I’m pretty good at it, and I’m sure that many Americans would certainly be interested in a blog about how to accumulate the financial resources to make it possible for them to travel and explore other countries and cultures if they wanted to.

But back to my strategies for a moment. I plan on answering the questions that you’re most keen to ask. How does he invest? What financial products does he find effective? What is his risk tolerance? Does he invest aggressively or conservatively, does that change, and if so, why, when, and what does that look like? What’s his mindset and why is it that way? Probably more important to you is do you find it relevant to how you think about investing, your portfolio, and your financial goals. And not only will I be discussing the “how” and “what to do” of personal finance, but to me maybe the most important part, the “what not to do” – a laundry list of items that could kill your returns and effectively prevent you from not only retiring comfortably, but maybe at all. In the end, if I can put together a portfolio over time that allows me to retire to France, then maybe you could do it too.

Now we’re at the part where you substitute YOUR retirement dream for mine. In other words, if you were writing this post, the title of the blog would now change to “MY RETIREMENT JOURNEY TO BLAH” because even if you’re not interested in France, learning French, the French people, French culture, or French food (how could you not be interested in French food?), I’m pretty sure you’re going to be interested in reading about how I get there and the stories along the way. So visualize your dream retirement and follow along.

Which takes me to the second reason why I decided to write this blog: to be able to step seamlessly from my corporate life into my second life the first day of my retirement. Said another way, after giving it my all at every point in my career, on my final day I walk into the office, drop off my keys at 4:59 PM, sign the obligatory farewell paperwork, and step seamlessly into Career 2.0. I’m now on my way to France, speaking fluent French, blogging about all things French and how to invest intelligently and be able to retire to France (or wherever you would prefer), thus bringing the people of two great countries closer together!

So why do I think writing about and preparing for a second life after retirement is so important? Because it came to me as a complete and utter surprise that almost no one (no one that I know of) does this. And I found out in such a weird roundabout way.

Because I’m such a Francophile (lover of anything French – more on that and why in another blog post), I’ve shared my dream of retiring to France with many of my coworkers and I’ve been SHOCKED (absolutely shocked, beyond shocked, repeatedly shocked – it’s impossible to minimize the level of my disbelief) to discover that past the physical act of saving money and a vague dream of retirement, no one – and I mean NO ONE – is preparing for what they’re actually going to be doing in their “Seconde Life”™ (the English misspelling is intentional as it’s the French word for “second”).

I wasn’t prepared for that at all. Not at all. I mean, how could you go through your working life, put 30-40 years of your soul into an enterprise, corporation, or business, save money (including all of the planning to be sure you’re saving enough money), and then literally have no idea what you’ll be doing for, let’s see, the next few decades?  Impossible and beyond common sense to my way of thinking but true.

I’m on to the next paragraph but I’m so stunned that people do this that I had to (very briefly) come back to the thought! And by the way, it didn’t matter who I’d ask because I kept getting the same generic response (or one of several versions of it): people who are near retirement, far from retirement, aggressively saving for retirement, not concerned about retirement, who have parents who are close to retirement or have retired, whatever, the response was . . .

“I dunno.”

“I haven’t really thought about it.”

“I just want to make sure that now I’m saving enough money for retirement – that’s what I’m focused on.”

“I’ll figure it out later when I have more time.”

The best answer I heard – and I am not exaggerating when I say it’s the best – was “Sleep in, do what I want, not have to get up. Maybe move to Florida, play some golf. Or maybe help the kids.” Which isn’t really an answer at all.

Really? I work with some unbelievably gifted and talented people. How had I worked side-by-side with them for so long, many of whom are much smarter than me, more educated, more skilled in their roles, so accomplished, and after living such incredibly productive lives . . . they fall off that cliff of nothingness?

I moved from shocked, to puzzled, perplexed, and then contemplative. I thought about this for a long time. Which then generated the real question that I think we need to ask of ourselves – why don’t people actually plan to have meaningful, impactful, and more profound lives once they have the time and resources to do make it real?

This should be an integral part of your retirement goals! There’s no shortage of commercials for financial advisors and firms to help you save for retirement but beyond that, nada. Why does no one plan on living a consequential life at precisely the moment they’re most able to do it – the day after they retire! Instead, they just . . . stop going to work . . . and disappear.

So don’t do that! And that was the way that this topic became a significant part of my motivation to write this blog. Because when I share these thoughts with people, they don’t know what to say. They’ve never heard anything like it before and it blows their mind. That’s why I’ll be your example – I’m at a point where the conclusion of my “Premiere Life” ™ is starting to come into view, and as it crystallizes, so does the beginning of my “Seconde Life”.  It is clear to me that the next 5-10 years are going to be critical in determining several decades of my life.

And here’s another not-so-unimportant thought. Because I’ll be moving to France, it’s probably a good idea to be proficient in French before I get there, don’t you think?  Which is why I should maybe start learning the language at least five years out from my move . . . (actually, I started a while ago). Hint: if you’re considering moving to another country where English isn’t the primary language, maybe you should start moving in this direction. Bigger hint: for people who want to have a consequential Seconde Life so that you don’t have to begin at zero on Day 1 of your retirement learning or becoming proficient at whatever you’re passionate about, it’s even more urgent for you to begin preparing earlier too.

Finally, we’re back at my not-too-far off French dream. I’m thinking of living in the South of France (Provence, Montpellier, Avignon, St. Tropez, etc.) because of the weather but I could also walk the streets of Bordeaux – and the vineyards – forever, and of course who doesn’t love Paris? What do you think? Do I buy a home, an apartment, a flat, live in a village, in a city, the suburbs, on a square, near the Mediterranean, on the Mediterranean, near Spain, near Italy, teach English . . . so many things to consider! And a whole lot more to learn. Which is going to be the best part of this blog as I start flipping over a ton of French stones, metaphorically speaking, to see what surprises are underneath.