ABOUT EXPATED • FOUNDER & MISSION
Straight Talk and Real Numbers on Retiring Abroad
Replacing vacation fantasies and outdated internet advice with clear financial math, practical planning tools, and twelve years of living overseas full time.
Marco Sison • Founder of ExpatEd
Former Finance at Intel •
Aerospace VP of Sales & Marketing and M&A
Top 10 Undergraduate Business Program • Living Abroad Since 2014
THE ORIGIN
I Didn't Move Abroad for Vacation. I Moved Because Staying in the US Was Costing Me My Health.
I was born in a poor developing country, the son of a single teenage mother who grew up farming rice. I was certainly not a trust fund baby born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I paid my own way through college, graduated from a Top Ten business school with $40,000 in student debt, and built every dollar of my savings from scratch.
Building that safety net was not a smooth upward ride. I nearly went bankrupt twice: first when the dot-com crash wiped out my early portfolio, and again during the 2008 Great Recession. Layer on hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in a small business failure, and I received an expensive education in how fast capital disappears when economic conditions turn. Those setbacks gave me a permanent respect for downside protection. I started my career in corporate finance at Intel and eventually became Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Senior Director of Mergers and Acquisitions for a publicly traded aerospace company. I led corporate audits, closed cross-border deals, and relocated to Brazil to run regional operations across Latin America.
On paper, I had reached the executive suite. In reality, the 70-hour work weeks were grinding me down. I was significantly overweight, my mental health was in a bad place, and my personal relationships suffered. I was trading my body and my peace of mind just to keep up with the corporate treadmill.
Then, at age 41, corporate restructuring caught up with me and I was laid off. I had a choice: polish my resume and jump straight back into another decade of 70-hour weeks, or take control of my life. Because of the previous market crashes and my business failure, I did not have a massive multi-million-dollar nest egg. Retiring in the United States on my savings was mathematically impossible. As a finance guy, I opened a spreadsheet and ran the numbers. I calculated that by applying the exact same due diligence I used in corporate acquisitions to my personal life, moving abroad through geographic arbitrage could fund a comfortable, dignified lifestyle on a fraction of domestic costs.
I packed my bags and made the leap. Over the past twelve years, I have lived full time across Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. I dropped the weight, reclaimed my health, and rebuilt my peace of mind. Along the way, I vetted local leases in twelve countries, figured out how to keep my US bank accounts open from abroad, and audited private hospital networks to ensure I always had emergency medical access.
I founded Nomadic FIRE to document the real financial math of living overseas, research that was eventually featured on HGTV, Apple TV, and Yahoo Finance. I also co-authored the #1 Amazon Bestselling book ABROAD, and was retained to advise European Union regional development projects on the infrastructure needed to support long-term foreign residents. I built ExpatEd because most people planning a move abroad face that exact same financial fork in the road. You do not need millions in the bank to retire overseas, but you do need verified numbers and a battle-tested plan before you risk your life savings.
12 Years Later • Bestselling Author
Healthy, retired, and living full time abroad.
THE EXPAT REALITY CHECK
Expat Life Is Inexpensive.
Moving Blindly Is What Gets Expensive.
Industry data shows that roughly 40% of Americans who move abroad return home within three years. They do not move back because they picked an ugly town. They move back because they planned an entire retirement around a two-week beach vacation and outdated blog posts.
The Healthcare Trap
A routine clinic visit abroad is cheap, but an emergency without local insurance costs tens of thousands upfront. The best healthcare strategy is layered with local, international, public and private plans to minimize cost and maximize coverage.
Currency and Inflation Swings
Relying on a fixed budget from an outdated blog post is dangerous. If the local currency strengthens by 15 percent, does your pension still cover rent? We stress test your numbers against real market swings.
Vacation vs. Real Life
A Mediterranean beach town in June is luxurious. But what happens on a rainy Tuesday in November when the tourists leave, clinics lack English speakers, and you need groceries without a car?
THE ORDER THAT WORKS
Due Diligence Happens in an Exact Order.
Never Skip Ahead.
Most people start by scrolling foreign property websites or worrying about visa paperwork before they even know if their budget works. Here is the sequence that protects your life savings and your peace of mind.
Step 1 • Test Your Readiness
Stop guessing. Use the Expat Readiness Assessment (ERA) and EBAR budget calculator to verify your spending limits, healthcare access, and lifestyle fit before you spend money on flights.
Step 2 • Score the Destination
Skip the subjective travel lists. Score your shortlisted cities using the EDGE Matrix to verify local safety data, hospital capacity, and long-term rental prices.
Step 3 • Execute Your Move
Once your budget and city are locked, use our step-by-step field manuals to navigate consular retirement visas, local leases, and cross-border banking setups safely.
INDEPENDENT MEDIA COVERAGE & STATE ADVISORY
Marco's research and overseas living costs have been featured across national broadcast networks and state policy initiatives.
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