We’re the Johnsons – Brian, Chrystal, Zoë and Kaylee.
In a former life, we were sales and marketing executives in the corporate world in San Diego, California. We both worked 12-14 hour days and made great incomes, but we were always tired and didn’t get to spend much time together.
We’d have our weekend getaways, here and there, but they were never long enough and both of us would always be thinking or talking about work.
After Zoë was born in May 2008, we re-evaluated our priorities. Spending more quality time as a family and lessening the stress on our lives moved to the top of our list of priorities.
We left our corporate jobs to venture out on our own. We do Internet Marketing and provide Business Services.
As our business began an upward trend, we realized we could live anywhere we want and still conduct business, as long as we have access to high-speed Internet.
Both of us have always wanted to live outside of the U.S., so our search began for a new country to call home.
It seemed like people were on one side of the fence or the other with our decision… 1) either we were very brave and they admired our decision or 2) we were very crazy and were losing our minds.
We first looked into English speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, Belize and a few European countries – all of which were either very overpriced like the US, difficult to immigrate to or not safe enough to meet our standards.
We also looked into popular countries for expatriates like Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador.
Then we found a country in South America with a high standard of living that was safe enough to meet our standards… Uruguay.
You’re probably thinking Uruguay – where in the heck is that? That’s exactly what we thought… at first.
Uruguay is a small country situated just to the south of Brazil and to the north and east of Argentina.
Uruguay has the highest standard of living of any South American country.
The food is great and the people are incredibly friendly.
There’s no tax on foreign income and it’s a simple process to get residency.
Health care is top notch and the people are very educated (there’s a 98% literacy rate and 67% of citizens attend college).
So, we bought our plane tickets and began the process of selling off all of the personal belongings we had worked so hard to acquire… believe it or not, becoming a minimalist was an incredibly liberating feeling.
We moved to the capital city of Montevideo in May of 2009.
The capital city of Montevideo (where we currently live) is only a 3-hour ferry ride across the widest river in the world⎯Rio de la Plata⎯to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We originally planned on moving out of Montevideo after 6 months to the countryside, but we had our second daughter, Kaylee, in Feb. 2010 and our plans changed.
So far, taking the plunge and living abroad has been one of the best decisions we have made in our lives. It has taught us a lot about ourselves and has changed how we view many things.
The best thing it has done for us is allow us to spend time together as a family…
Our blog follows our experiences in this laid-back country; it’s all from our point of view. In addition, we’ve created a bunch of resources to help travelers, expats and soon-to-be expats.
Whether you are just looking to visit Uruguay, or you are interested in relocating here, you should find information on our site that will help you along in your journey.