36-year-old moved from Chicago to Spain, works 16 hours a week and is semi-retired: ‘You get one life. Live it right’

Gigi Gonzalez has a new rule for herself: She doesn’t work Fridays.

“Fridays are my errand day,” says Gonzalez, 36. “That’s when I go to the dentist. That’s when I take my dog to the groomer [or] when I get my nails done.”

For the rest of the workweek, Gonzalez keeps her schedule tight, working Monday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

That wasn’t the case one year ago, when Gonzalez says she logged a more traditional 40 hours of work a week as her own boss running The First Gen Mentor, where she’s a financial educator, content creator and author.

It’s not that she’s landed a sudden windfall or considerably increased her rates. Rather, Gonzalez moved from Chicago to Valencia, Spain, with her husband in May 2025. Since then, her personal expenses have gone down enough to make a 16-hour workweek possible.

The move has transformed her work-life balance, her finances and her outlook on a long-term future abroad.

Gonzalez’s journey abroad kicked off in 2019. One day, she was discussing her financial services job at a high-school career day and advised students to study abroad if possible, something she regretted not doing herself.

After repeating her regret through seven different presentations that day, Gonzalez decided it wasn’t too late for her to live abroad as an adult. She says she spent the next two years saving about $20,000 with the goal of taking a year-long sabbatical from work.

The Covid-19 pandemic upended her plans, so in April 2021 Gonzalez says she used her savings to launch her own business, The First Gen Mentor, where she offers financial education to first-generation students and young professionals of color. A few years into being her own boss, Gonzalez realized she could do her job from around the world, and she revived her plan to move overseas.

After some research, she and her husband set their sights on Spain, where Gonzalez can apply for citizenship after two years of residency through her Mexican citizenship. (She currently holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, where her parents were born.)

Gigi Gonzalez decided in 2019 that it wasn’t too late to live abroad as an adult. She spent years planning and moved to Spain in 2025.

Courtesy of subject

Spanish was Gonzalez’s first language, so there wouldn’t be a major language barrier. Plus, Spain launched its digital nomad visa in late 2023, which allows foreign freelancers, remote workers and self-employed business owners to live in the country while earning money from overseas.

From July 2024 to April 2025, the couple saved over $20,000 to move abroad by selling their furniture and focusing on values-based spending. “It didn’t feel like deprivation; it felt like I was budgeting towards a greater purpose of moving abroad,” says Gonzalez, who is a financial advocate for Intuit.

She also limited her impulsive spending. That meant no new furniture, plants or clothes. “Basically, anything I couldn’t pack in three suitcases [wasn’t] going to make the cut,” she says.

Gonzalez got her digital nomad visa in April 2025 and added her husband as a dependent; he works in operations for an international company and secured a transfer to their Spanish subsidiary. Gonzalez’s visa gives her three years of residency, during which she says she plans to apply for citizenship in Spain.

Gonzalez says her cost of living in Spain is much lower than it was in the U.S., which means she can work less, typically 16 but sometimes up to 20 hours per week, and still live comfortably.

As a result, she says her sense of work-life balance has “completely transformed.” She can enjoy the luxury of a slow morning, starting with breakfast, exercise, self-care and lunch before logging on at 2 p.m. when her U.S.-based clients are starting their days.

Gonzalez says some early and aggressive investments are also paying off. During the pandemic, Gonzalez says she invested up to 35% of her income into her retirement accounts. It was enough to hit a number where she’ll be able to stop working and live off the distributions from her portfolio in retirement. Gonzalez currently has over $220,000 stashed for retirement.

“That means that I have enough in my investments now that I don’t have to add more money,” Gonzalez says, “and I can still retire at the traditional age of 65 without adding another dollar, just by letting compound interest do its magic.”

With her retirement income taken care of, Gonzalez says she only has to work enough now to support her everyday spending. “If one day I want to stop [running my business] and just go be a barista or a waitress, I can do that, because I just need to pay for my current expenses,” she says. “I don’t need to earn more to put towards retirement.”

Gonzalez hopes to stay in Spain long-term and says retirement is even more within reach given its lower expenses, especially around medical care. That being said, she says her newfound sense of work-life balance and a slower pace of living don’t make her dread working a few more decades.

“I’m not rushing to retire because I’m semi-retired,” she says.

Gonzalez says her personal expenses have gone down since moving abroad. Rent for her and her husband’s downtown Chicago apartment was $3,700 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit; meanwhile, in Valencia the couple pays 1,900 euros (roughly $2,200 USD) for a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom apartment.

Health insurance is another huge difference. In the U.S., Gonzalez says she and her husband paid more than $400 per month for employer-sponsored coverage with a high-deductible plan; in Valencia, their private health care is about $200 per month with no copays or deductibles.

“It’s really shocking as an American,” she says. “I don’t think twice about going to the doctor for something because there’s no copays; it’s already paid for.”

Gigi Gonzalez says Spain’s lower cost of living allows her to work around 16 to 20 hours per week.

Courtesy of subject

Not all of Gonzalez’s expenses are lower these days. Doing business in two countries is pricey.

Gonzalez says she employs a U.S.-based tax team to keep her LLC active and in compliance; her digital nomad visa also requires that she registers her business in Spain, so she has a Spanish tax team to help with that.

Given the added complexities of her business since moving, Gonzalez’s $350 monthly tax help has doubled to nearly $700 a month. “It was a big learning curve in the beginning, but I’ve adjusted,” she says.

Gonzalez says that when she told friends and family about her plans to move abroad, many of them didn’t realize how long she’d been planning for it.

“A lot of people see [others] living their best life in Europe, and then they look into the process, they get overwhelmed, and they don’t do it,” Gonzalez says. She recommends people really explore why they want to move abroad. Then, “create the systems and change their money mindset to be able to meet those goals.”

Gonzalez says her big moments of inspiration came from that high-school career day, but also when binging “House Hunters International” episodes or traveling abroad and wishing she could stay longer. It was enough motivation go keep her going through researching, saving up for and adjusting to her new life overseas.

“This is definitely one of the things for me, if I would have been on my deathbed, I would regret never experiencing life abroad,” she adds. “You get one life. Live it right.”

Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to $1.16 USD on March 9, 2026.

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