I’ve had many careers in my life…
At one point, I was a mail carrier. I was maybe 35 years old at the time, but I had a lot of mail carrier friends who were older, near retirement age. One day, one of those guys, just a few months away from retiring, told me that he had gotten a part-time job. He was going to start working as a clerk in a local shop.
“Why did you do that?” I asked him. I couldn’t understand why he’d take on a new job. He had been so looking forward to his retirement.
The guy explained that his pension from the U.S. Postal Service wasn’t enough for him to live on. He needed to supplement it.
That was a turning point for me. I realized at that moment that I needed to make a big change in my life. Bottom line, I needed to take control of my life. I had no interest in going to work at Walmart during my “retirement.”
This realization launched my long search for what to do instead… for a Plan B. Eventually that search led me here to Ecuador.
Back in the States, I might be retired. I’ve reached that age. But now, after more than 13 years living outside the States, including about a decade in Ecuador, I can’t imagine that.
When I decided to take my life beyond U.S. borders, I chose Ecuador because I perceived it as a land of opportunity, and, no question, for me, that’s what it was.
Rather than winding down and worrying about making ends meet in the States, I’ve completely reinvented my life. I started anew. I lived all over Ecuador. I met a woman and fell in love. I started a new family… and a new business.
I’m still an American, and I still love my country. But I’m very worried about what’s going on back there right now, and I believe things are going to get worse. I’m not a doomsayer, but I’d say it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that things could go really wrong, in the States, even globally. That we could be faced with real disaster.
If that were to happen… if disaster were to strike… I think Ecuador would be an ideal place to be. Ecuador isn’t reliant on the power grid the way that much of today’s world is.
When the electricity goes out in New York, for example, the city comes to a screeching halt. Well, Ecuador is already at a screeching halt. That’s the status quo here. If the power went out, life would continue as usual, as it has for centuries.
If supply lines disappeared in the United States, what would you do to get the things you need to live, to survive? Here, supply lines are so basic.
Fishermen load up their horse-drawn carts and deliver their fish to the markets. That kind of supply line can continue no matter what happens anywhere else in the world.
I can’t imagine a better place to ride out that kind of storm.
Mike Sager
