41-YO Entrepreneur Settled in Sicily to Lower Living Costs; Many Americans Are Doing the Same

Stephanie Synclair, 41, is living her dream of settling on the Italian island of Sicily. Synclair, who visited the city of Palmero for the first time in 2012, fell in love with the idea of living there, and now, more than 10 years later, she has made a nearby town, her second home. Furthermore, she plans to retire in Sicily and live with her young son there.

Synclair said that she would save thousands of dollars by doing so and enjoy better standards of living, in a CNBC Make It report. She is one of a growing number of Americans who are choosing to settle abroad for a lower cost of living and better amenities.

Here’s how Synclair made it happen

Synclair started her entrepreneurial journey after quitting a 10-year corporate marketing career. She became a consultant and worked for herself, from anywhere, including while traveling the world. Thus, in 2012, she went on a trip to Palermo, Sicily, and at the time she fell in love with the place and wanted to live there. “I always said I could see myself living here, but it was more so in a dream way,” she told CNBC Make It.

When back in Atlanta, Synclair got serious about buying a home early in the pandemic when mortgage rates dropped. However, she realized that the houses that she desired cost over $800,000 in 2021 when she had a budget of $450,000. Thus, she started looking elsewhere, even outside of the country and Sicily was one of her priorities.

She then got a message on a Facebook group about cheap houses for sale in Sicily. She then learned about Mussomeli, the Sicilian town that went viral for selling off dilapidated homes at 1 euro ($ 1.08). She then connected with a real estate agency and began looking for houses. She closed the deal on a house for 59,000 euros or over $63,000 by March 2022 (based on the current conversion rates) and made Sicily her second home. She runs her tea company, LaRue 1680, from which she draws a salary of $80,000 per year. Further, Synclair plans to retire in Italy once her son, who is now 17, graduates from high school.

Why are Americans choosing to settle and retire abroad?

More and more Americans are now choosing to settle or retire abroad for a plethora of reasons. According to Investopedia, several countries offer a lower cost of living than the United States, making retirement more affordable. Further, with the lower cost of living, people earning a fixed income can have a better quality of life than they did while they were still working in the United States. Even Synclair’s day-to-day costs in Sicily are much lower than what she paid in Atlanta. According to her, amenities like Wi-Fi cost about $150 per month in Atlanta while it’s about $50 in Sicily.

Further, she says that Sicily provides access to fresh and relatively inexpensive produce from local markets. She claims to have spent about $63 on groceries in Sicily while she needed a minimum of $100 minimum for each trip in Atlanta. Retiring in Sicily would be much cheaper too, according to Synclair. She estimates that if she chooses to retire comfortably in the United States, she would need at least $2.5 million, considering the inflation rate. However, to retire in Sicily she needs only about $450,000 for a comfortable retirement.