Like many Americans, Natalie Lynch had a wake-up call during the pandemic. She’d been working since she was 15, and after decades in real estate — first as a home stager and later as an agent — she was burned out, lonely, and desperate for a change.
In 2021, she sold her home in Oakland, California. A few years later, she sold the home-staging business she’d owned for 24 years. But the high cost of living in the Bay Area was still draining her savings, and she was unsatisfied.
“I honestly never thought that I would leave,” Lynch, 56, told Business Insider. But after four decades, she did. “I just didn’t find it sustainable anymore.”
In 2024, Lynch traded the American dream for Europe, packing up her life and moving with her dog, Enzo, to Italy. They spent a couple of months traveling the coast before heading to Spain, and ultimately settled in Audenge, a small town in southwestern France near Arcachon Bay, along the Bordeaux coast.
“It was a huge leap to push myself out of my comfort zone,” Lynch said. “I had owned my home for 17 years and was surrounded by a great support system of friends and neighbors, but I was in search of a new life.”
Here are Lynch’s five pros and cons of starting a new life in a foreign country.
I’m saving a lot more money
After selling her Oakland home, Lynch was renting a 1,000-square-foot 1980s condo for $3,000 a month in California. Now in Audenge, she’s renting a fully furnished duplex that comes with a small pool for €1,200 a month, which is about $1,400, including utilities.
She said her monthly budget in Audenge for food and other day-to-day expenses is about $1,000. Roughly $600 goes toward recurring costs, including car insurance, storage for her belongings in Antwerp, Belgium, and services like her phone plan and Netflix.
“Life is definitely more affordable here compared to California,” she said.
As a single woman, it can be a lonely experience
Unlike couples who move abroad together, Lynch doesn’t have a built-in companion other than Enzo.
She has to go out of her way to make connections, whether through expat groups on social media or simply by walking to her local café or restaurant.
“It’s definitely doable, but in the beginning, it’s definitely lonely by yourself,” she said. “I think it’s because I haven’t settled anywhere yet.”
“I think it’s the same with any move to any place,” she added. “You need to get established and start meeting people. I’ve definitely made some great friends in my travels, but they’re just not all in one place.”
Europeans prioritize quality of life over pretentious status symbols
Lynch said Europeans rely far less on credit, aren’t flashy with luxury cars, and tend to be more modest about their appearance.
“People here are less focused on the small stuff, and more focused on quality of life and living within their means,” she said.
“In California, I was surrounded by Teslas. I was getting my hair dyed every four weeks, getting gel nails, and spending an obligatory $300 every time I went to Target,” she added. “Here, women are aging gracefully, and it’s a relief. You see a lot more silver hair and little to no fillers.”
She said it has made it easier to be intentional about how she spends her money.
There’s a lot of bureaucratic red tape
A big challenge for many expats or migrants is navigating another country’s bureaucracy. Imagine going to the DMV in a place where you don’t speak the language — or trying to apply for residency or health coverage without knowing where to go or who to talk to.
“A lot of people, including French people, say the bureaucracy is especially complicated here,” Lynch said. “I haven’t had too much experience with it, except when I tried to register my dog, Enzo.”
She said she accidentally left out required documents for Enzo’s registration and got a curt email from the official processing the paperwork, which left a bad taste in her mouth.
Life is far less stressful overall
Back in California, Lynch’s typical day running her home-staging business began around 8 a.m. with calls about problems she needed to solve, and it sometimes ended around 10 p.m. with more phone calls.
“When you work at a certain stress level — and a lot of people do — it just becomes normal,” she said. “You deal with it, but it’s not good for our nervous systems at all. Being in Europe, in general, has reset my nervous system back to baseline.”
With lower living costs and no job, Lynch said she no longer feels like she’s working just to survive. These days, she can wake up when she wants, and she often spends her free time taking Enzo on small day trips to nearby towns.
“I feel way less stressed,” she said. Her biggest worries now are taking care of Enzo and figuring out where she’ll live next when her lease is up.
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