Hi my name is Bill Graham.
In November of 2014, at age 53 with my wife of 18 years Lorilee, and our 12 year old pooch Phoebe, I made the life changing move from Ontario, Canada to San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye in Belize.
I worked for almost 30 years in Ontario's fast paced construction industry, with the same company for the last 20 years I began as an Electrical Site Foreman and Project Coordinator and over that time worked my way up to the position of Senior Project Manager responsible for multi million dollar projects and to organize and supervise all trades and aspects of construction in the companies custom home building division.
Lorilee spent over 20 years in the food service industry as the manager of several stores. She spent the last 13 years with the same company, in the position of General Manager of six locations of a well known chain of fast food restaurants.
After 25 years, the combination of construction work and cold Canadian winters were beginning to take their toll on my joints, then in January of 2014, just as I wondered what I could do to get another 13 years out of my body and reach retirement age, Lorilee came home from the doctors office with the order to "quit her job or soon die working". Her stressful job had caused what her doctor believed was her second minor stroke. It was obvious that we both needed a change of lifestyle and yet, we knew that changing our jobs was not a lasting answer as our personalities would have led us right back into the same situations in a very short time.
As I began to research on-line opportunities for me, and early retirement solutions for her, and after crunching the income numbers we would require it was evident that we could not retire early in Canada and sustain ourselves for very long. Then it happened, on the right side of my computer screen a small ad popped up that read, "Retire in Costa Rica on $800.00 per month." That truly was the first time that I entertained the thought that maybe we could both retire early. Although Lorilee strongly objected at first, we began to research this idea together and a few months later came up with a two year plan to retire to Costa Rica. Well, so much for plans, we ended up all in and moved to Belize just six months later.
I am now retired and have been in Belize for just over a year now since Nov. 2014. The experience has been rewarding from the points of view of both health, happiness, and lifestyle. I now pay it forward by providing unbiased information, or as I say, "the unbelizeable truth" to anyone thinking about moving, living, or retiring to Belize. I am not so much about promoting Belize (although I find myself doing it all of the time) as I am about helping people realize the questions that they need to ask and so often don't even realize to ask because of the many things we take for granted in other parts of the world.
I look forward to taking part in the forum to help others as well as learn from those that are here. I look forward to meeting everyone as time goes by.
Regards Bill