Embracing Change: Journey from Canadian Army Beyond Conventional Living Abroad

Join me as we dive into Jacquie Doucette’s incredible journey of reinvention after 40 years in the Canadian Army. Feeling the pull for something more, Jacquie launched the “Beyond Retirement” podcast, sharing insights on life after a traditional job. Traveling from Southeast Asia to Nicaragua and finally to Mexico, Jacquie embraced international house-sitting and diverse cultures. Now in Lake Chapala, she’s active in the local community, playing pickleball and making connections. Jacquie’s advice? Take your time, live like a local, and stay open to new experiences. Retirement is just the beginning of an exciting new chapter. Tune in to get inspired and learn how to create a fulfilling life beyond retirement!

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Expat lifestyle introduction
02:04 Introducing Jacquie Doucette: A Journey Beyond Retirement
05:18 The Concept and Impact of ‘Beyond Retirement’
06:47 Learning from Retirement: Financial Planning and Simplifying Life
15:23 Exploring New Horizons: Jacquie’s International Living Experiences
28:15 The House Sitting Lifestyle: Adventures and Insights
30:20 Embracing the Expat Community in Lake Chapala
32:09 Advice for Aspiring Expats: Planning and Preparation
34:50 Looking Towards the Future: Continuing the Journey Beyond Retirement
36:09 Defining ‘Old’ and Staying Youthful at Heart
39:02 Closing Thoughts and Gratitude

Emily: Hello, hello, everyone. It’s me, Emily Bron, and today I have pleasure to meet my old friend, Jacquie Doucette. I was your guest a couple of years ago, Jacquie, And I was following you, like, your news updates and, but lost you for some time.

And now I’m happy to reconnect and hear your story. Jacquie spent the first 40 years of her adult life being a typical employee. Even I would not say that it was typical because Jacquie was working for the Canadian Army but she knew there was more life than this.

She tried her hand at variety of entrepreneurial ventures some more successful than others, and all the time she dreamed of being able to travel more, learn what is like to be living another country and generally be free, free of the hidden chain that hold employees in their job when she entered fifties.

As many of us who get. above 50s. She started to think about what retirement would be like and after internal search actually she launched her own project, her own podcast by the name Beyond Retirement, which I will see Once a guest and it was top ranking show for all of its five seasons, giving proof that people really are wondering what to do in retirement.

This discovery resulted in beyond retirement lifestyle blueprint, Jacquie program in which she helped client to figure out what to do with their best life and now retired. Finally, Jacquie is starting to walk the talk. She currently spending part of each year living in other countries through international house seating.

And she’s in the process of getting a residency in Mexico. So she can Complete her retirement dream of living in another country. I know it was a little bit long, but I believe your life deserves our introduction even it’s a really small chunk and telling the truth. 

I was reviewing your life and found a lot of similarity in our, you know, Educational background back when we were younger, I would say even though we lived in different countries and different cultures today we are both Canadian, but you’re already exploring mexico Where i’m also trying to you know to live in the future so please be welcomed again.

And I would start with the question, the concept behind Beyond Retirement. What can you tell us more a little bit about it and what you learn? You know, dealing with this podcast. 

Jacquie: Oh, sure. Thanks Emily. And it’s really great to be here. It’s nice to see you again. I’m really excited about your new your new project, your new venture.

Beyond retirement, it started as just kind of a dream for me. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do after I retired. I, in my early fifties, I started thinking I’d like to retire at 55, but you know, that didn’t happen. So instead I started. Searching what to do beyond retirement, what to do after retirement, how to plan.

And everything was about financial planning and that didn’t, it’s not that it didn’t matter to me, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Everybody tells you plan financially, but I wanted to know what else was going on. And I figured if I was looking for it, other people must be too. So I decided I’d try to kind of chronicle what I was doing while I was looking and preparing for retirement, because there’s just.

So much life after retirement that. It needs preparation. It needs time. You have to, you can’t just say, Oh, I’m retired and expect everything to fall into place. And, and that’s what I was looking for. That’s what I was scared about. What, you know, what am I going to do? Because I’ve like, like you said, I’ve Spent all my life working.

So, you know, there’s got to be something else.

Emily: So what lessons did you learn now, actually transitioning to retirement with all preparation you’ve had, you know, mentally, physically, financially. So you already would around one year is like officially retired. 

Jacquie: We’re going into almost the second year I retired in, well, in 2022. Okay, so it’s been almost two years now.

Emily: So what did you learn and how’s the preparation prior to actually helped you to be more confident in your future?

Jacquie: Well, what I learned is I should have paid more attention to the financial things. So that is a really important part of it. You really need to have all those little financial ducks lined up because things don’t always happen the way you expect them to.

Right after I retired. A whole bunch of our toys broke down and you budget for things to repair, replace appliances, that sort of thing. But you don’t budget for everything to have to be replaced at once. And that’s something that you should keep in mind when you’re when you’re planning to not have an income anymore.

Is that something might happen and. You have to replace the stove and the fridge and the dishwasher and, you know, everything all at once. It just, it’s not nice. But other than that the thing that I learned the most through, through my podcast, through my guests and, and my planning is that although things happen, there’s always a way to get past it and turn it into a benefit.

The things, the challenges don’t have to be challenges if you look at them a different way. And one of the things, like I said about the finance, is looking at it a different way is you get to see and maybe figure out how to get along without some of those things once they break down and you don’t have them anymore.

Life is so much simpler when you don’t have all of the things, all of the toys that, that we get used to using in our, in our first world life. It’s nice to step back a little bit and think about, you know, what can I do with what I have instead of always looking to have more. I think that’s the biggest thing is that you don’t need all the things you think you need.

Emily: It’s very interesting observation. Actually, I hear it’s not the first time. And but what I was thinking a little bit, you know with knowledge about your, um, Army service Canadian army service that I believe like you, you, you have Canadian military pension and your husband as well.

And I believe that you were kind of well prepared even speaking, you know, with financial advisors. Coming to your show or, you know, around because I, I feel that you are pretty practical, you know, woman with life experience. And even with this preparation, you, you actually warning all of us who still working or others who are, you know, considering that we cannot predict expenses, which is happening, which I fully understand, but what you would say is that pension and saving, it’s not enough to kind of lead lifestyle you planned for yourself.

Jacquie: That, that’s the key living the lifestyle that you want it. You’ve got to, you’ve got to decide what the lifestyle is that you want. As you say, I am, my husband is working. I was working. I’ve got my pensions. We got used to a certain lifestyle and you’ve got to, you’ve got to readjust that thinking a little bit, unless you want to go live somewhere else, which is what my plan is, is to go to another, another country where we might be able to enjoy the lifestyle we’ve still got on less money and, and that’s because.

When, when you’ve got less income, that same lifestyle, you know, might not be available to you and you have to make your choice. You either reduce your lifestyle and decide that different things are important or you find ways to improve things, improve your, your standard of living. So I’ve, there are many, many places that we can go where the.

Standard of living is their cost of living is very low. And that’s one of the things that people need to think about when they’re getting ready to retire. Are they happy where they are? And, and life is going to be the same. If it, if so, that’s great, but chances are some things are going to have to change when you retire.

Emily: It’s very valuable observation, and I wanted you to state it because I myself being immigrant and even was kind of pretty well kind of adjusted financially in, in Canada, I realized that with, you know, cost of living and with inflation we have lately and in the future not only me, that many I would say middle class professionals would not be able to retire keeping the same lifestyle we used to have during the life and people kind of in theory understand that, you know, that we need to downsize.

We need to. To kind of cut some expenses, but it’s always different when it’s come to reality and for me and I was living in different countries and under the different circumstances and and I remember that not only me, but people around me were happy even with, you know, having less things, material possession than we have now.

And working like majority of people hard to keep this kind of lifestyle. And don’t have time and energy actually to enjoy this life or actually to live this life in full my idea of creating international lifestyle consulting was One of the way to find these different places these different countries where retirees or people can enjoy decent Good lifestyle for the for less for you know, earn pension or some saving And with all this to discover different lifestyle where you meet different people where you learn about local culture where you communicate with people of local culture or maybe I know you now in Lake chapala where they have experience But communities consisting of people coming from different countries and cultures and to find this really beauty and I would say higher quality of life by living this lifestyle.

Jacquie: That’s it exactly. And there are so many wonderful places to go where, where life can be beautiful. I mean, of course life can be beautiful in Canada or in the United States, wherever you happen to be. And it’s all a matter of what you want out of it and where you are determined. Well, for most people, where you are is a big part of determining your happiness with life.

Because if you’re not, if you’re in an expat community, like, like the one in Lake Chapala here, and you’re not enjoying it, if you’re not, Comfortable, then that’s not the place for you, but there are so many different places to go and so many ways to find happiness that no one, no one needs to struggle.

They just have to open up their minds a little bit to the possibility of going somewhere else. 

Emily: You absolutely right. And I’m telling as well that there are many different places but people need to be prepared and sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t have, you know, all the time in the world to be in each place to try on yourself.

Maybe when you start, you know, traveling in forties, like slow traveling to spend at least a couple of four months here and there. But I understand that during the last year, you. I’ve had the chance to be in different countries. Please tell a little bit about your experience and learning from this travels.

Jacquie: Okay. Well, it was actually, it was more vacation than, than anything else over the last few months. But we had a, had a chance to spend five weeks in Southeast Asia, where we, we got to see life a little bit a little bit differently than what we’re used to. It was definitely eyeopening, beautiful country.

Yeah. Beautiful countries, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia. They’re all very, very beautiful, and they have wonderful, friendly people. The weather is great if you like warm, humid weather. I know a lot of people aren’t looking for that, but warm is good for me. We we traveled from, from there, we went to Nicaragua, which is another, another country that a lot of people don’t think about.

It’s definitely not as expensive to live. It’s a little ways away, but not as far as Asia . And there are just so many different things to see the, the. Rain in all of these countries is much different than Canada, so it’s an eye opener for sure. The idea of, of assimilating yourself into whatever culture you’re in is is exciting, but it’s difficult.

It’s, it’s hard to get used to different kinds of food and different ways of, of treating people. Even, even simple things like greetings, saying hello or, or excuse me, there, there’s different customs in different places. And those are all things you have to think about when you’re getting ready to relocate somewhere.

After, after Nicaragua, we we were planning a trip to Ecuador, but there are some political things going on in Ecuador. So we decided that, that Quito probably wasn’t the best place to visit. So we, we went to Turks and Caicos. Which is an amazing, amazing place to be. I’d never been there before.

It’s a beautiful set of islands. I visited once. Yes. Nice place. Beautiful. Very, very expensive. Not the place that I would pick to, to retire. Unless I’ve got, you know, an infinite income to to rely on. But it’s a great place to, to see the people are friendly. It’s again. It takes getting used to.

There’s a different way of life there. And now in Mexico, it’s even different again. The traffic is similar to the traffic in Asia, which is kind of unusual. I won’t complain about traffic jams in Ottawa anymore. Because traffic is is much different in Mexico and much different in Bangkok, but there are there are good things and and, you know, things to get used to in every place that you go and what you’re willing to adapt to will determine whether you’re happy someplace or not.

If you if you go to a new spot, and all you think about is how different it is from home. You’re never going to get adjusted. You’re not going to get used to that. Yeah. You have to learn to embrace what’s there and figure out how to deal with the situation you’ve got at hand, not spend your time wishing that, you know, you had Heinz ketchup.

There’s just other ways to do things.

Emily: You touched so many points which actually whole discussion can be around, but I can only add that when you coming, but you actually did with open mind to get like more knowledge of local lifestyle or local people way of living in accepting the world, you became kind of Reach yourself.

Yes, you it’s opening your new windows of perception and and experiencing life But with all this as far as I understand you decided to settle maybe part time in Mexico. So tell me please why Mexico and what consideration, you know, for you were the important in making this decision? 

Jacquie: Well, the first thing that was important to me was Weather temperature.

I’m as I get older, I enjoy the winter in Ontario less and less and I want to be somewhere where it’s hot and sunny. And I know there are many, many places all over the world that are hot and sunny. I wanted one that is not too far away from my family. If I want to go back and visit, or if I want to have them come and visit me Every time I’ve visited Mexico, and we’ve done it a lot over the over the past 10 or 15 years.

I felt comfortable. I feel at home. I feel welcomed wherever I am. Yeah, some of those have been on resorts and that’s not real life at all. But when you go out and you wander around in this in the towns go to the local restaurants, go to the local shops to buy things, people greet you. In a very friendly manner.

They’re, they’re willing to help you if you, you know, toss a couple of words in Spanish out to them trying to figure something out. They’re more than happy to help you. And, and that’s important to me, it’s just the, the overall sense of happiness that I get from the people in the streets when I’m in Mexico.

Every, everybody seems to be happy. Content with their life. They seem to be enjoying what they have, which is really important to me. And they don’t seem to be worrying too much about what the guy next door has. They’re not worried that they’re keeping up to anybody. They’re, they’re happy with their life and they’re just getting along.

And, and that’s what I want. It helps that I can speak a little bit of Spanish and I’m taking, taking more Spanish lessons, but it’s just yeah. The, the style, the lifestyle in Mexico is something that that appeals to me. It’s, it’s very laid back. People don’t seem to get excited and stressed about things.

And that’s the kind of life I want.

Emily: Oh, they excited, but about different things. They. They don’t care, you know, about the mortgage and cost of living, which they have issues as well. It’s not that it’s all rosy, no, like but I think they more value, like, family, friendship. Come together celebration, actually good weather life and it does take you a little bit time to adjust to it or you used to it because you were coming over the years to Mexico.

Yes. And 

Jacquie: Yeah, it takes a little bit of time to adjust. It, it always feels very hot when we first, when I first arrived, but it, my body quickly assimilates to that and, and, you know, Very very quickly. I’m feeling cold when at home. I wouldn’t be cold at all. I would be thinking how nice and warm it is.

And that’s just a flip of the mind as, as you get used to the warmer temperatures. But yes, I, I agree with you completely. It’s, Family and friends are what’s important and I like that that that warms my heart and that’s what I’m looking for is a place where I can become part of the community and and get involved with things I, there are expat communities everywhere and and it’s important to.

interact with people who have your background and understand you that, you know, that’s important. But I think it’s also important to embrace the lifestyle of the country you’re going into and be willing to, you know, to accept it and try to, I don’t know, embrace it. Like I said, just, you know, Delve into it so that it’s, it becomes part of you.

Just like people who move to Canada, we tend to expect them to learn our ways, learn our customs, you know, and we say, you know, well, if you don’t like it, go home. Well, Turn it around because when you go into another country, that’s the same thing. If you don’t like it go home.

Emily: Okay. Yes, and uh as a you know immigrant with the multi immigrational experience, I fully understand what you’re speaking about and I’m preparing myself But anyway I know that it will take time.

And by the way, not only from physical side, as you mentioned, body need to adjust. It’s not only mental. Our body need to adjust. But what I like about Mexico is that it’s so big that it offers different climb zone. climate zone, sorry, in different cultural areas, like Lake Chapala and actually Jalisco State, where Lake Chapala is part of.

It’s, it’s a really good climate, moderate, usually, you know, not big difference between winter and summer, which is good for people. That’s why many people specifically retirees select. Lake Chapala. But there are some climate mountain climate. There is seashore, and I will not go to details of the climate and sizes.

But what I would like to outline that you can spend years in Mexico by traveling and discovering new cities you know natural treasures archaeological sites. There’s a lot of richness. Of cultural and historical background, which actually make life interesting. And that’s why for myself, I selected Mexico as a future destination as well.

I have my residency, temporary residency, but still here in Canada, visiting Mexico. And I understand you didn’t yet settled in regards to what place will be Best for you. Yes, you you now just trying home sitting. Please tell about your daily life now in in Lake Chapala. And if you feel it will be your community for long time.

Jacquie: Well, I agree with you completely. Mexico is such a huge country and there are so many different places to go. I’m still trying out various places, because I don’t know where I want to be. Chippewa is a very nice spot, and the weather is similar all year round, which is nice. For me, a day, a typical day here, I’ve been to this particular house. A number of times, and I look at, they’ve got a cat, and they’ve got chickens, so my, my mornings are busy, looking after the chickens, watering the gardens, you know, doing the things that anyone would do who owns a home play with the dogs, I take them for walks, I feed them in the evenings, other than that, my day is my own I go into town and I walk around on the Malecon I, you know, sit and watch people.

I love to just people watch. So I do that a lot. I also joined a pickleball community because I like playing pickleball. So I’m trying to insert myself into life here in Chapala because I’ll be here for a few weeks. And, and I come back often enough that it’s, it’s nice to have some routine, but I’m also, because I do house sitting, I’m, I’m trying out different areas.

I’ve, I’ve been in the mountains in San Miguel de Allende, it’s a little bit cooler than I want in January, February. I’m looking for, you know, warmer spots than that. I really like Oaxaca, the area in the, in the southern part of Mexico. And I really liked Merida as well. Very, very different, all of these places.

And I’m sure there are many, many more spots to check out. And my goal is to do a little bit of traveling and spend some time, like you mentioned, slow travel in all of them so that I can see what part of Mexico is best for me. Maybe I’ll never find it. Maybe I’ll continue to travel around. Who knows? 

Emily: What is your model?

How do you see your future life in Mexico? You want to buy property or you are okay kind of to rent living in different cities and uhh, state? 

Jacquie: Where my husband and I are not planning to buy property. We’re planning to rent. That way, if we decide that there’s something about the area that we aren’t comfortable with, we can move on to another.

Or if we decide that there’s some place that looks really attractive, we can move on and check it out. But, you know, at some point, we both want to settle down a little bit, find a place that’s going to be, you know, You know, our community so that we can be part of it and we can start, you know, doing the things that we want to do in retirement.

My husband has hobbies to do. I’ve got, you know, things that I like to do like pickleball and, you know, we want to be someplace where we can take part in those things and, you know, join the others who are doing it. 

Emily: Yeah. So I found that there is a, Pretty certain difference between different expat communities and Lake Chapala, one of the oldest and with all the benefits cultural life and many people know each other for years and tennis club and hospitals, which is very important.

Several like private clinics and specialist and close to the airport. It’s certainly good for people. who would like to live in expat community because somehow you can live even without in this place with little Spanish. I don’t know how your Spanish is working out, but I understand that, you know, after a certain age, it’s not so easy to grasp language in the, you know, proficiency.

I would say to be comfortable to to to navigate because, you know, you need to not only speak with neighbors, which is very nice and important, but with government offices with doctors and so on. So Lake Chapala gives this comfort, I would say, but other people would probably prefer, you know, different environment.

I’ve heard like less. say American and Canadian, in order to learn more from local people, in order to be immersed in language, or actually to try something new. And it’s what I like about Mexico because it’s offering all kind of lifestyle from this perspective as well. Yes. And tell me, please, to find this job pet sitting how hard it is, like how you managed to find at least at the beginning, I understand after your references and your good, you have really good references kind of working for you, but at the beginning, I believe there are many people who are looking for such a position in different countries and in Mexico specifically.

Jacquie: There are many people looking for this kind of work. Well, this kind of Hobby, I guess is the best way to do it because it’s not work 

Emily: Let’s let’s be honest. It’s not it’s not responsibility. It’s responsibility. It’s certain, you know Rules that they need to To follow and it’s maybe like for you. It’s okay as a as a person with your background for some others It might be more You know, challenging.

But how did you find it? 

Jacquie: Well, I actually found it through a couple of people that I met on Facebook for something else, and I won’t go into the big long details because that Avenue is no longer open. But I got into a group of international house sitters and got to know them. And in that group, there are a lot of people who have been doing it for a long time, and they have Regular clients and sometimes they can’t, they can’t do a sit and then they refer it to someone else in the group.

And then the, the group just continues that way. But I also joined the various platforms. There’s trusted house sitters. There’s house sit Mexico, and I get emails every single day from house sit Mexico about new house sits that are coming up. I’ve had four, actually four messages today from the platform saying, Hey, here’s a new sit you might want to apply for.

And that’s all you do. You go and you apply. And the person who is looking for the host sitter looks at the profiles and decides who they want to talk to, who they, who they might be interested in pursuing a sit with. 

Emily: So your husband is helping you as well? Like, Oh, he, he interprets different hobbies. 

Jacquie: He he has different hobbies, but he did come here to Chapala in December with me for a house sit.

And the plan is once he retires, then we will do it together. And then that way he didn’t retire yet. 

Emily: I thought that you try that you together not yet. I see And

yes, I believe that for canadian and americans with all many opportunities around mexico offers Very decent actually good lifestyle with variety of choices to select from And how you manage it? If it’s happened to to find community or to be part of the local community in Chapala. 

Jacquie: How do I find it?

It’s, I’m breaking into it slowly. Where, where I’m, where I’m house sitting, there are a few neighbors around that I’ve gotten to know and they’re bringing me into events that are happening in the, in the community so that I get involved. And like I mentioned, Pickleball, I get to know people and they talk about different things that are happening.

They mention, you know, a bar or a restaurant where something is going on, so then I can go and join in on that. And, you know, there’s bulletin boards for things that are going on all around the town. There’s lots of ways to get involved. 

Emily: I noticed they have even several theatres. At least when I was a couple of years ago, they had kind of competing productions.

And this is Lake Chapala Society, where I happen to know a couple of people, and they invite, like, professionals, and concerts, and and there are many creative people which live in the area, like artists, and writers somebody lives full time, so many visiting, because it’s kind of some people. Known communities.

You know, very, really rich cultural life. And in English and I believe that the locals like it because it’s actually make the place known. It’s, increased prices as it happened in these cases, but as far as I understood, like all the area around the Lake Chapala is really on the road to flourish even more.

I only wish the roads will be wider and, you know, public transportation, but we will leave it for the local government to, to settle. And what advice you would give for people after 50 who considering This lifestyle. And you know, it takes courage and preparation and finances and organization. But with your experience before and beyond retirement now, what you would recommend for people who are selecting expert lifestyle?

Jacquie: I would say, I know it’s something that everyone who gets asked this says, take some time before you make your final decision and visit the places you’re interested in, spend a month or so at least in the place living like a local, because you’re not going to, if you go and visit for a week and you stay in a hotel, you’re not going to see what, what it’s really like to be there.

You’ve got to try it out. And you’ve got to be on the ground. And trying to find a plumber when you need one and trying to buy groceries and doing the things to see if it’s something that you can do and I think doing your research in advance so that you pick out. two or three places that might be contenders and then go and spend a month or two in each one of them and see which one, you know, feels like home.

Emily: Agree. I was offering shortcut by kind of communicating and consulting people in regards to the requirements and situation because sometimes it’s really hard to be in many different places and no time and finances. But I always say, Don’t rush to buy property travel country. Even in the city, sometimes live in different areas and look how it’s matching your particular, you know, health desired lifestyle, budget, and you need to feel comfortable.

Yes. So what is your vision for the future? Because I feel that you’re such a person that even you stopped for the time your podcasting probably just to take a new vision, a new breath, but it’s how I think what is your future in regards to your podcast and actually kind of big picture, if you can share.

Jacquie: Okay. Well, as you said, my, I’ve put my podcast on a hiatus for a little while, but I might be coming back. I enjoy doing it. It’s fun talking to people and, and learning about other, other people’s lives and what’s going on. So I can see me doing it again in the future once I get settled somewhere. But for now, while I’m still traveling around a little bit, it’s harder.

All the all the administration, all the things involved in the podcast take up a lot of time. I can see me and my husband traveling around a little bit for the next few years as we figure out where it is we want to settle for sure. But once we once we agree on a spot, I think we’ll be focusing on becoming part of whatever community that is getting involved in things.

I’ll probably continue my beyond retirement lifestyle planning business, helping people figure out what it is they’re looking for, because there are so many people I found through my podcast, people reached out to me. There are so many people who are hitting what they feel is retirement age, but they don’t know what to do and they don’t know what they like even or how to figure that out.

So I can see me continuing to help people with that for many years to come.

Emily: It’s great. It’s actually what inspired me to, to do the work with international lifestyle consulting and actually to launch this podcast. My angle is a little bit different. Actually inspire people as well by stories of others like you how to reinvent yourself after 50.

And here it’s coming. My, I believe last question which is mandatory for each of my guests so far your opinion. When at what age person became old and what helps people to be active and young for the longer years.

What is your definition of being old? Let’s start. 

Jacquie: Yes. For me, people who are old are people who Are not willing to experience new things anymore or try to learn something. They’re just, they get up in the morning, they do their routine. They sit down, they aren’t willing to. try something new or take some chances.

I think as soon as you stop learning and inviting new experiences into your life, that’s when you start getting old because you just start to stagnate. And it can come at any time. I know people in their early 40s who I would definitely say are old because they’ve got no desire to do anything or learn anything or keep moving.

Emily: I see such people in twenties and I’m still and I’m amazed and I even even think that our generation like we are kind of belong has a lot of things to to share in a good sense to show sorry, like, as example, was it? We’re still curious to still active and it’s actually what make us to enjoy the life and.

Okay. What is for you to be what helps people to be active and useful? What, what do you would recommend?

Jacquie: I think, go back to, or think back to when you were a child and, and when you run into a situation, ask yourself, why, why is it this way? Why am I reacting like this? You know, how can I make it different?

What can I do to improve your life? What can I do to improve my life? How can I, how can I change things today? I think all to stay active and be active. It’s, it’s a matter of your, your mental state, your mental point of view, I guess, is, you know, do you want to stagnate or do you want to keep growing?

And, and it’s all, all a matter of how you feel about it.

Emily: Thank you very much, Jacquie. I really like it. I really enjoyed speaking with you again. Thank you for your time and wisdom. And I believe we will continue our conversation about life before, during and after retirement because life is going on and, and each chapter of our life.

Offering new challenges, but I believe new joy when you overcome these challenges. So thank you very much and today you’ve had pleasure to listen to the story of Jacquie Doucette. Thank you very much, Jacquie. 

Jacquie: Thank you, Emily. I really enjoyed it. 

Emily: Thank you.

Jacquie Doucette

Entrepreneur

As the owner of Beds for Heads, Jacquie simplifies short-term property rental management in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, allowing clients to focus on maximizing income. Jacquie also serves as principal consultant at Beyond Retirement, guiding individuals worldwide through transitions from their 9-5 careers to retirement, ensuring a journey to freedom. With Who Rules Your Roost?, she provides worry-free, in-home pet sitting, catering to furry family members in their own environment. Additionally, Jacquie brings over 15 years of expertise as the owner of Expert Proofing, specializing in professional document review and editing. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, Jacquie held various roles at the Department of National Defence for over 40 years and served as a Health & Wellness Consultant with Arbonne International Canada. With a diverse skill set including project management, coaching, and leadership, Jacquie continues to make a positive impact in her community and beyond.

Embracing Change: Jacquie Doucette’s Journey Beyond Conventional Living

In today’s fast-paced world, where conventional living seems to be the norm, individuals like Jacquie Doucette defy the status quo and embark on a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Join me as we delve into Jacquie’s inspiring story of embracing change and transitioning into a lifestyle beyond retirement.

Jacquie’s Background:

Jacquie Doucette, a former Canadian Army employee, spent the first 40 years of her adult life in a typical work environment. However, her desire for more led her to explore entrepreneurial ventures and dream of a life beyond the constraints of a traditional job. This inner calling eventually led her to launch her podcast, “Beyond Retirement,” where she shared insights and stories surrounding life after retirement.

Beyond Retirement Lifestyle:

Through her podcast and personal experiences, Jacquie developed a blueprint for a lifestyle beyond retirement. She helps others navigate the transition into retirement and discover their best lives. She emphasizes the importance of financial preparedness while also highlighting the value of embracing challenges as opportunities for growth.

Embracing International Living:

Jacquie’s journey took her beyond the borders of her home country as she embraced international house-sitting and explored living in different countries. From Southeast Asia to Nicaragua, each destination offered unique experiences and cultural insights that enriched her perspective on retirement and lifestyle choices.

Settling in Mexico:

Among the array of destinations, Jacquie found a special connection with Mexico. The warm climate, welcoming communities, and laid-back lifestyle drew her in, prompting her to consider Mexico a potential long-term residence. She chose not to buy the property immediately but opted for renting to allow flexibility in exploring various regions and finding the ideal community to call home.

Community Engagement in Lake Chapala:

During her stays in Lake Chapala, Jacquie immersed herself in the local community, participating in events, joining sports activities like pickleball, and fostering connections with neighbours. She recognized the importance of integration and cultural immersion as critical factors in feeling at home in a new environment.

Recommendations for Those Considering Expat Lifestyle:

Drawing from her own experiences, Jacquie advised individuals considering an expat lifestyle to take their time, visit prospective locations, and live like locals to truly understand the dynamics of each place. She emphasized the value of staying open to new experiences and continual learning to stay active and engaged in life.

Future Vision and Beyond Retirement Planning:

Jacquie envisions a future filled with travel, community engagement, and a potential return to podcasting once she settles in a permanent location. Her commitment to helping others navigate the complexities of retirement and life transitions remains a core aspect of her future endeavors.

Conclusion:

Jacquie Doucette’s journey is a testament to the power of embracing change, seeking new experiences, and creating a life that aligns with one’s values and aspirations. Her story reminds us that age is merely a number, and the key to staying youthful lies in staying curious, open-minded, and willing to step out of one’s comfort zone.

In the end, Jacquie’s journey reminds us that retirement is not an end but a new beginning – a chapter filled with opportunities for growth, exploration, and reinvention.