Nadine Hays Pisani was desperately seeking a permanent vacation.
She and her husband, Rob, both chiropractors, had a comfortable life in York, Pennsylvania, but they were miserable. Both were working long hours, hated their jobs and felt burned-out.
So they came up with a bold plan: Sell everything and find a country with a warm climate where they could live for about $1,000 a month. They would stop working and live off their savings and interest.
They settled on Costa Rica.
The Pisanis put their home on the market and moved to the lush, verdant Central American country in 2007. (They were lucky; they sold everything just before the economy tanked.)
Pisani chronicles her adventures in the new book, "Happier Than a Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica & Living the Zero Hour Work Week."
She self-published the memoir after she noticed that her stories were attracting a growing audience on her blog.
Pisani and her husband now live near the beach in Tamarindo in a house that they rent for $150 a month. They have few possessions, but they spend much less to support themselves than they thought they would have to. They don't work but plan to find jobs eventually.
"It's paradise," Pisani said. "I wake up. I have a great cup of coffee. There are parrots outside my window. There are monkeys in the trees. It's such an exceptional way to live."
Pisani, 41, recently spoke with CNN about her adopted home. The following is an edited version of that interview.
CNN: Many people would love to do what you did. How long did you plan for this move?
Pisani: Just a year. It was very risky, and I wish I could tell people that there's a guarantee that, at the end, it's all going to work out.
But being in the health care industry, I realize there are two limiting factors in your life: health and age. And I realized you can't bank time.
If you look at life like that, then the risk doesn't seem so risky. It seemed like a good idea that when you're young and you want to do something, you say, "OK, it might not work out, but I believe in myself. And if I have to come back to the United States and start all over again, I know that I'll be able to do it."
CNN: You write that when you saw the film "Avatar," it reminded you a lot of Costa Rica. In what way?
Pisani: There was this beautiful animation in that movie of these sort of lit up fireflies, and it looked exactly like the landscape here. There are fireflies that are just like that (here).
To love what you do and feel that it matters—how could anything be more fun?
-- Katherine Graham
