36-year-old works 16 hours a week, lives ‘semi-retired’ in Spain
Gigi Gonzalez has a new rule for herself: She doesn’t work on Fridays.
“Fridays are my errands,” says Gonzalez, 36. “That’s when I go to the dentist. That’s when I take my dog to the groomer [or] “When I get my nails done.”
Gonzalez keeps his schedule tight for the rest of the workweek, working Monday through Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m.
That wasn’t the case a year ago, when Gonzalez said she was working a more traditional 40-hour work week as her own boss running The First Gen Mentor, where she is a financial educator, content creator and author.
It cannot be said that he encountered a sudden unexpected event or increased his odds significantly. Instead, Gonzalez moved from Chicago to Valencia, Spain, with her husband in May 2025. Since then, his personal expenses have decreased enough to make a 16-hour work week possible.
This move changed his work-life balance, his finances, and his perspective on his long-term future abroad.
Saving $40,000 to start a business and move abroad
Gonzalez’s international journey started in 2019. One day, while discussing a financial services job at a high school career day, he advised students to study abroad if possible, something he regretted not doing.
Gonzalez, who repeated his regret in seven different presentations that day, decided that it was not too late for him to live abroad as an adult. He says he spent the next two years saving about $20,000 to take a year off from work.
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted his plans, so Gonzalez says he used his savings to launch his own business, The First Gen Mentor, in April 2021, offering financial education to first-generation students and young professionals of color. After a few years of becoming his own boss, Gonzalez realized he could do his job from anywhere in the world and revived his plan to move abroad.
After doing some research, she and her husband set their sights on Spain, where Gonzalez could apply for citizenship. two years residence through Mexican citizenship. (He currently holds dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico, where his parents were born.)
In 2019, Gigi Gonzalez decided it wasn’t too late to live abroad as an adult. He spent years planning and moved to Spain in 2025.
Courtesy of the topic
Spanish was Gonzalez’s first language, so there wouldn’t be a major language barrier. Also launched in Spain digital nomad visa This is due in late 2023, allowing foreign freelancers, remote workers and self-employed business owners to live in the country while earning money from abroad.
The couple saved more than $20,000 to move abroad from July 2024 to April 2025 by selling their furniture and focusing on value-oriented spending. “It didn’t feel like deprivation; it felt like I was budgeting for a bigger goal, like moving abroad,” says Gonzalez, a financial advocate for Intuit.
He also limited his impulsive spending. This meant no new furniture, plants or clothing. “Actually, everything I can’t fit into three suitcases [wasn’t] “I will make the cut,” he says.
Gonzalez received his digital nomad visa in April 2025 and added her husband as her dependent; He works in the operations of an international company and was transferred to its Spanish subsidiary. Gonzalez’s visa grants him three years of residence, and he says he plans to apply for citizenship in Spain during that time.
Semi-retired with a 16-hour work week
As a result, he says, his understanding of work-life balance has been “completely transformed.” Starting with breakfast, exercise, self-care and lunch, clients in the US can enjoy the luxury of a leisurely morning when they log in at 2 p.m. to start their day.
Some early and aggressive investments also paid off, Gonzalez says. Gonzalez says he has put up to 35 percent of his income into retirement accounts during the pandemic. It was enough for him to stop working in retirement and reach a figure where he could live off the distributions from his portfolio. Gonzalez currently has over $220,000 saved for retirement.
“This means I now have enough money invested without needing to add more money,” Gonzalez says, “and it still means I can retire at the traditional age of 65, without adding another dollar, just letting compound interest do its magic.”
I don’t think twice about going to the doctor for something because there is no co-pay; The price for this has already been paid.
With his retirement income taken care of, Gonzalez says he now only has to work enough to cover his daily expenses. “If one day I want to stop [running my business] “And go be a barista or a waiter, I can do that because I just need to pay my current expenses,” he says. “I don’t need to earn more for retirement.”
Gonzalez hopes to stay in Spain for a long time and says retirement is closer because of the low costs, especially medical care. However, he says his newfound sense of work-life balance and slower pace of life doesn’t make him fear working for a few more decades.
“I’m in no rush to retire because I’m semi-retired,” he says.
Neither cheaper nor more expensive
Gonzalez says his personal expenses have decreased since moving abroad. The rent for her and her husband’s downtown Chicago apartment was $3,700 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit; Meanwhile, in Valencia, the couple pays 1,900 euros (about $2,200) for a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom apartment.
Health insurance is another big difference. In the U.S., Gonzalez says she and her husband pay more than $400 a month for employer-sponsored coverage through a high-deductible plan; Private healthcare in Valencia costs about $200 a month without co-pays or deductibles.
“As an American, this is truly shocking,” he says. “I don’t think twice about going to the doctor for something because there’s no co-pay; it’s already paid for.”
Gigi Gonzalez says Spain’s low cost of living allows her to work about 16 to 20 hours a week.
Courtesy of the topic
Gonzalez’s expenses aren’t all low these days. Doing business in two countries is expensive.
Gonzalez says he employs a U.S.-based tax team to keep his LLC active and compliant; The digital nomad visa also requires him to register his business in Spain, so there is a Spanish tax team to help with this.
Given the increasing complexities of his job since the move, Gonzalez’s $350 monthly tax benefit has doubled to almost $700 a month. “It was a big learning curve at first, but I’ve gotten used to it,” he says.
His best advice for those who want to move abroad
Gonzalez says that when she told friends and family about her plans to move abroad, most of them didn’t realize how long she had been planning it.
“Many people see [others] “They’re living their best life in Europe, then they look at the process, they get overwhelmed, and they don’t do it,” Gonzalez says. He recommends that people really explore why they want to move abroad. Then “create systems and change money mindsets to achieve those goals.”
Gonzalez says her big moments of inspiration came from career day in high school, but also when she was recapping episodes of “House Hunters International” or traveling abroad and wishing she could stay longer. This was enough motivation for him to continue researching, saving money, and adjusting to his new life abroad.
“That’s definitely one of the things for me, if I were on my death bed, I’d regret never having experienced living abroad,” he adds. “Have a life. Live it right.”
Euro to USD conversions were made using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to 1.16 USD on March 9, 2026.
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