After dealing with the death of her mother, losing her job of 10 years and finalizing her divorce, Barbara Barto was at a crossroads in her life. The 62-year-old, from Fort Worth, Texas, who had been working as an office manager, struggled to find another role and felt as though she had passed her “expiration date.”

Barto decided that now was probably the right time to retire, but was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to live comfortably afterwards due to the rising cost of living in the US. An avid viewer of the Home & Garden Television (HGTV) channel for years, she’d often dreamed of packing up and moving to another country, but hadn’t ever had the courage. However, she realized that it was likely now or never.