“It’s cold and rainy. You’re overworked. Your life’s in a rut. Why don’t you just toss it all in, you think, and move to Provence or Tuscany? You daydream for a while and then reality creeps back in. It could never happen, you say. Or could it? Meet the Edmunds family,” writes Stephanie Gruner in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“Jim Edmunds says the idea to move to Italy came to him as he cruised the Internet looking for someplace with milder weather and a slower pace of life than the Chicago suburb where he and his family lived. While looking at real estate in warmer U.S. cities, up popped an advertisement for a villa in Tuscany. ‘It planted this seed in my mind,’ the 39-year-old lawyer explains. “I thought, why not? If we’re ever going to do it, this is our moment. Let’s grab it.’ “

“And they did. After a year of thinking and planning, Mr. Edmunds and his wife, Katie, 39, moved to Italy in the summer of 2000, when their twin sons were 3 years old. Today, they live in a 500-year-old villa in Aquilea, a village in the hills of northern Tuscany. They haven’t decided when they’re going back. For now, they’re repairing the house and installing a pool. Last fall, together with another couple, they launched Tuscany4Families(www.tuscany4families.com), which offers villas and other services for families visiting the area.”

“For those who have ever nurtured a similar dream, here’s Personal Journal’s guide to getting away: leaving jobs, pulling up stakes and heading for that foreign land you’ve been yearning to experience. We have the ins and outs on subjects from money management to homesickness, from 11 people who made the leap.”

“Starting over in a foreign country requires plenty of preparation — financial and emotional. For Mrs. Edmunds, who gave up a high-paying job as an intellectual-property lawyer and whose extended family lives in Chicago, the decision was especially difficult. Though family and friends wished them well, she worried. ‘I’m a much more conservative person than what we’re doing,’ she insists.”

“To ease money concerns, Mr. Edmunds drafted a document — so large and unwieldy they called it ‘the scroll’ — that mapped out in fine detail their financial position. It included liquid assets such as stocks and cash, and projected returns using three different market scenarios. Mr. Edmunds also estimated the family’s annual expenses in Italy, in an attempt to show how their investment income would cover them. The plan included expected taxes due on investment returns, taking into account the possibility the family would move into another tax bracket. The couple took the completed document to Mrs. Edmunds’ cousin, a financial planner, for his opinion. He gave the plan the thumbs up.”

“In large part, the move was made possible by the couple’s thriftiness. During the 1990s, the Edmundses were saving, not spending. They drove an old car, and lived on one income even during times when they earned two — totaling roughly $200,000 (€163,000). Savings were plowed into the stock market.”

“In Italy, the family continues to watch costs. Mr. Edmunds says annual expenses run about $50,000, excluding housing — they purchased their home with cash. He estimates that a family of five (their third child, Emily, was born after their arrival) might need $90,000 a year if they planned to rent or pay the mortgage on a good country house. ‘We know families here that spend a lot more,’ says Mr. Edmunds, ‘but we live fairly simply.’ “

“Once they decided to go for it, the couple cashed out of some of their investments, sold their home, and moved roughly half their assets into European index funds to reduce their exposure to currency fluctuations. They got health checkups and copies of the children’s medical records. They bought health insurance in Italy, where they got full private health insurance for a fraction of what it would have cost in the U.S. They packed 14 bags to take on the plane and stored the rest of their belongings in Mr. Edmund’s parents’ vacation home.”

“The Edmundses are quick to list the benefits of their move. They have a lot of time for their children, and for hobbies like gardening and painting. They live in an idyllic setting, with neighbors who keep chickens, a view that reaches almost to the sea and church bells that ring in the distance. Mrs. Edmunds says that experiencing a different way of life has been gratifying. ‘Houses are heated by wood fires, the bread you eat is baked in wood ovens, and the oil that you dip it in is from the trees outside your door,’ she says. ‘I’ve learned to cook based on what’s in season — literally what is coming out of the ground and off of the trees, which is the way that they’ve eaten here for hundreds of years.’ “

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