What if moving abroad didn’t just change your scenery...
...it completely transformed your finances, your career, and your family life?
In this episode of Nomads 50+, Chris Kalaboukis talks with Simo D, who made the bold decision to leave Canada behind and build a new life in Belize. What started as a vacation became a complete reimagining of what life after 40—and beyond—could look like.
For Simo, the move wasn’t about escaping work.
It was about escaping a lifestyle where work consumed everything.
Running a construction business meant leaving before his son woke up and returning home after he was asleep. He realized he was building houses for other people while missing the moments that mattered most with his own family.
That realization sparked a remarkable transformation.
In this episode, Chris and Simo discuss:
Why a single trip to Belize changed the trajectory of his life
Selling a Canadian home and becoming mortgage-free
Building a custom home in Belize for a fraction of Canadian housing costs
Reducing monthly expenses by nearly 50%
Property taxes that dropped from thousands of dollars to just a few dollars a year
The realities of visas, residency, and living abroad
Why foreign income can be tax-free for Belize residents
The surprising challenges of relocating a family
How COVID unexpectedly delayed the move—and ultimately saved his son’s life through access to Canada’s healthcare system
Adjusting to a new culture where English is spoken, but communication works very differently
Building community in a new country
The realities of private healthcare
Living with tropical wildlife and a completely different climate
Simo also shares the unexpected career pivots that followed.
After closing his construction business, he reinvented himself as a content writer serving the construction industry. Then, as AI rapidly changed content creation, he pivoted again—this time into workflow automation, discovering that the systems-thinking skills he’d developed in construction transferred surprisingly well into the AI era.
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that reinvention rarely happens just once.
Careers evolve.
Technology changes.
Opportunities appear.
The people who thrive aren’t necessarily those with the perfect plan—they’re the ones willing to keep adapting.
Whether you’re dreaming about moving abroad, reducing your cost of living, building an online business, or simply creating more time for the people you love, this conversation offers a refreshingly practical perspective on designing life intentionally.
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