We are two retired financial planners from Vancouver, Canada with a 2 year old 4 kilo Yorkshire Terrier named Mya Lou.  We retired on June 30, 2017 after a 28 year carreer in the financial and investment industry. We owned and managed a full financial planning service firm with 5 wonderful employees called You First Financial, and located downtown Vancouver. We planned long and well for a confortable retirement and always liked the idea of spending a few months away during the grey and wet winter months of the Pacific North West.

I always dreamt of living in Europe, so for our first adventure, I convinced my husband Terry to go spend the winter months in sunny Spain. He was not hard to convince. He too loves the bright sunshine and European travels.

We left Vancouver on Monday Oct 30 2017 and had a layover in Amsterdam to give our first dog Amy Lou a chance to recover from her first flight. We flew to Malaga on November 1st and drove to Nerja our rented home for the next 6 months.

We literally fell in love with our first winter in the Nerja and Frigiliana area and decided to renew our Spanish Visa for a second year. We enjoyed it so much the second time that we realized that we wanted to come back every winter.  Six months is a long time.  There is a significant difference between travelling and living somewhere for an extended period.  

We bought a house between Nerja and Frigiliana on January 30 2019. As of 2025, we are now resident of Spain. We continue to travel 2 to 4 weeks a year to other parts of the world, go back to Vancouver every summer and come back home to Spain in September. Our Spain house was rented during the summer months when we only spent 6 months in Spain. Much was learn in the process and everything has been shared with you on this blog.  Our house is no longer rented as of fall 2025 as we now live here most of the year. What an incredible life we have.  Follow us here on our journey and learn how you too can live the European dream!