Fire Yourself and Move to Spain

If you’re worried about being a victim of the next round of redundancies why not take the bull by the horns and fire yourself! That’s what todays interviewees Alan and Heidi Wagoner did. Deciding that it was only a matter of time until one of them faced a corporate axe they terminated themselves, sold up the home and with their two younger children relocated to the picture postcard seaside town of Almunecar, Spain. The children enrolled in a local school without knowing any Spanish and within months were reveling in their new school environment. The Wagoners recently took several months off to travel Asia home-schooling their children along the way. We caught up with them back in Spain where we discussed the Spanish lifestyle and how to integrate your children into a new culture and environment. You can check out their blog along with the costs of their new lifestyle and how they raise their children at http://wagonersabroad.com   What I learned from speaking with Alan and Heidi: Faced with the challenge of having to learn a new language, Spanish and continue their schooling the Wagoner children seemed destined to struggle during their first year in Spain. But in fact they blossomed, demonstrating that challenging the mind with a new language can expand the brains capacity in other areas as well. We hear it so often from Spanish expats but the Spanish really do live to enjoy life. Money takes a back street to lifestyle with family and children taking top priority in small towns like Almuñécar During their year away home schooling proved a wonderful way to give their children school lessons with real life experiences. The Wagoner children did research, made power-points of their experiences, worked their math through currency conversions and learned a little more of the local languages where they traveled. It’s hard to imagine the classroom providing them with such a well-rounded education.  Visa requirements are not too onerous for non-Europeans with the initial 90 day visa in Spain providing time to meet the requirements of applying for a 12 month visa. This can then be extended to 2 year and 5 year once the initial period has ended