What a Year of Freedom Looked Like in 2025
Plus a new podcast about life after the career ladder
January is my favourite month of the year; I love anticipating all the good things ahead while taking stock of the year that just passed. And 2025 was another significant one for us. We hit our six year anniversary of post-work freedom and spent another year pursuing our passions, whether it’s travel or volunteer work or gardening (that last one is all Gillian). As we first learned in 2019 when we said goodbye to corporate work forever, once you no longer have to spend 8 to 10 hours a day in the office, there’s so much more life to live.
Back to old favourites in Mexico
With that, here’s the rundown of how we pursued those passions in 2025. The year started with escaping Canada’s winter by decamping to Mexico. We considered (and even booked) a lengthy journey down the Yucatan, with stops in Merida, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and other overtouristed beachy stops. But after reflecting on what we really wanted from our Mexico getaway (less pounding heat, more mountains and cultural experiences), we decided to return to Oaxaca City and Mexico City, our two favourite cities from our previous tour of Mexico.
Since it was our second go at Oaxaca City, we didn’t need to re-do the most popular sights, such as the Monte Alban ruins and Hierve de Agua, a stunning rock formation just out of town. Instead, we sampled some of the city’s many brunch spots, worked off the calories at a local gym, discovered an expat hiking group, and thoroughly enjoyed a farmhouse cooking class with free-flow mezcal.
In Mexico City, we instantly fell in love with the buzzy, atmospheric La Condesa neighbourhood. We spent many happy afternoons wandering the leafy pedestrian walkway that loops through the neighbourhood, imagining having our own apartment in one of the historic buildings. In the end, we decided that our winter getaways should be focused on variety and discovering new destinations versus miring ourselves in Mexico City’s complex real estate market. We’ll keep that idea in the back pocket for a later chapter.
Trading ice storms for English footpaths
We returned home to our little village in Ontario just in time to be hit with an unseasonable April ice storm (that’s Canada for you), swiftly followed by major power outages throughout the region. Winter, it seemed, wasn’t done with us yet.
Fortunately, we were off again, this time to England for a 10-day hike of the Cotswold Way. We started in the scenic town of Chipping Campden and then wound our way through forests, fields and charming villages, all 102 miles or 164 km to the Roman city of Bath. Much to our delight, the weather held and it was mostly sunny skies and frolicking lambs for the majority of the hike. Despite some of our more questionable lodgings (we’ll charitably say that they were in need of a little TLC), the Cotswold Way ranks as one of our favourite hikes of recent years.
Inside a Mexican shelter with 400+ dogs
Volunteering took centre stage over the summer. In addition to my regular fundraising duties with Save Our Scruff Rehome & Rescue, an international dog rescue, I had the opportunity to participate in a trip to one of our beneficiary shelters located in Cholula, Mexico. The Funkytown Shelter provides sanctuary to over 400 dogs and the scale of the place was shocking, as was the sound of that many dogs barking. Many of them are former street dogs; others were abandoned by owners at the shelter gates. Some, usually litters of puppies, were simply dumped in boxes or bags at the doorstep. The lucky ones that are identified as adoptable get whisked away for new lives in Canada, which makes room in the shelter for even more rescued dogs.
An unexpected detour through Georgia
Our next major getaway was a September trip to the country of Georgia, with a week in Tbilisi and another week exploring Georgia’s western half, including the remote villages of the Svaneti region, famous for its medieval towers. We found Tbilisi fascinating; the city has an eclectic mix of architectural treasures, some in excellent condition and others in magnificent decay.
The second leg of our journey didn’t go exactly as planned. We expected to take a short flight to the town of Mestia, which would be the start of a scenic village-to-village hike. When thunderstorms rolled in, the 45-minute flight turned into 10-hour train-and-minivan odyssey through the mountains, and our multiday hike became an exploration of Georgia’s western highlights, including the UNESCO village of Ushguli, the city of Kutaisi, and a stopover at a family winery where we were lavished with food and drink.
Life after financial independence
In November, we had the opportunity to share our reflections on life after financial independence with the podcast Our Family Invests. We shared our journey from high-pressure expat careers to financial independence and a life of full-time travel. However, most of the interview centred on the search for purpose and meaning once climbing a career ladder is no longer an overriding concern. It was an excellent conversation with podcasters Mike and Caroline, who have built their own financially independent lifestyle in beautiful Hawaii (we felt only a little envious).
Closing the chapter on 2025
That brings us to December, which saw us trade Ontario’s snow and ice for the balmy temperatures of the Canary Islands. While it may sound glamorous to say that we are wintering in the Canaries, our journey here was anything but. We flew from Toronto to Lisbon at 5:30pm; it was both too early and too short a flight for getting a full night’s sleep. Not that sleep was even a possibility—our entire foot space was taken up by two dogs and their pet carriers. We spent a lengthy five hours in the lounge at Lisbon, snoozing into our cappuccinos, which was followed by another two hours on the tarmac waiting for fog to clear so that we could finally take off.
Still, as we came in for a landing on Gran Canaria, the stress of transatlantic travel melted away. After a solid 14-hour sleep, we were ready to embrace our new home for the next few months.
That’s a wrap on 2025. Here’s to many more adventures in 2026.
See you on the road,
Stephanie & Gillian
p.s If you prefer reading to listening, you can get the highlights of the interview on the Our Family Invests blog.
Stephanie & Gillian — this is such a grounded, generous look at what freedom actually looks like once the novelty wears off and the life begins.
What struck me most is how intentional your choices are now. Not chasing novelty for its own sake, but returning to places that already feel like friends (Oaxaca, CDMX), then staying curious enough to let Georgia re-route you entirely when plans fell apart. That train-and-minivan odyssey felt like the real heart of the year — not the hike you planned, but the one that showed up instead.
And the volunteering section stayed with me. It’s easy to romanticize post-work freedom; much rarer (and more honest) to show how purpose often deepens when time is no longer scarce.
Also: the Canaries arrival after that journey, dogs and all — that exhale at the end felt earned.
Six years in, this doesn’t read like escape. It reads like arrival, again and again, in different forms. Thank you for sharing the texture of it — not just the highlights.
Here’s to 2026 continuing to surprise you in the best ways!
– Kelly
Love hearing about your adventures and watching the videos. You inspired us to book a week in Mex City in March. Thank you!!