Way Out #3: From a 6,000 Sq Ft House to Worldschooling in Spain with Jane Hermstedt
If you look at Jane Hermstedt’s resume from 2019, you see the picture of American corporate success. She was the Director of Leadership Development for AMC Theatres, living in a 6,000-square-foot home in Kansas City, and on a clear upward trajectory.
But if you look at Jane today, you’ll find her in a small village in Spain, twenty minutes from the Mediterranean Sea, running a travel agency that specializes in experiences like eagle hunting in Kazakhstan and horseback riding in the Sahara.
How do you get from Point A to Point B? As Jane tells it, the journey involved a massive spreadsheet, an ex-military RV, a global pandemic, and a lime green Lamborghini.
The Seed of Wanderlust
Raised by a Hungarian mother and a math professor father, Jane spent a year living in Hungary as a child, though most of her formative years were spent in Lawrence, Kansas. Each summer, her family traveled to Hungary to visit relatives. She recalls visiting travel agencies as a child to collect brochures on Central Europe and creating presentations for her parents on where the family should vacation next. This early exposure to the world outside the U.S. sparked a lifelong obsession.
This curiosity led her down a non-linear career path in her 20s and 30s. She waited tables at a ski resort in Montana, taught English in Tokyo (sleeping on a tatami mat in a hostel), served in the Peace Corps in Albania, and trained call center employees in India.
Eventually, she landed in Dubai, working for an aluminum smelter. It was there, after five years of living in the "Emerald City" of the Middle East, that she had a moment of clarity.
"I’m driving down Sheikh Zayed Road... and I look over, and there is a guy in a lime green Lamborghini with a monkey on his shoulder," Jane recalls. "I was like... this place is absurd. I need to leave."
Corporate Detour and the Exit Plan
Jane returned to the U.S. to "enter the rat race," working her way up the ladder at H&R Block and AMC. She believes her experience traveling the world and living in different countries has given her an unusual strength in adaptability. She reached the Director level at AMC. She and her husband, Matt, a former Navy submariner and engineer, lived in a 6,000-square-foot house with their small child. Everything looked like it was going great. Except they were quietly plotting their escape.
While Jane provided the creative vision, Matt provided the logistics. He built "the spreadsheet to end all spreadsheets," tracking inflation, investments, and cost-of-living projections for different countries.
"He had everything... and we pulled the trigger when he felt like we were financially able to do it," Jane says.
In early 2020, they executed the plan. They quit their jobs, sold the house and cars, and moved their family into an 80-foot ex-military camper with tires taller than their son. They spent months driving through Alaska and Canada, with plans to ship their vehicle to South America.
Pivoting in Patagonia
The universe, however, had other plans. In early 2020, Jane and her family flew to the Galapagos and then on to Argentina, expecting their truck to follow. It never arrived. The borders closed due to COVID-19, and they were faced with a choice: repatriate to the U.S. or hunker down in Patagonia.
They chose to stay.
For two years, they lived in Bariloche, Argentina. While the world was in lockdown, Jane’s family experienced a unique version of isolation. When the local ski resort opened strictly for residents, they had the biggest ski slopes in South America practically to themselves. They navigated local bureaucracy to take road trips to Iguazú Falls, seeing world-famous sites with uncanny serenity because of the lack of crowds.
Redefining Education and Resilience
One of the most poignant parts of Jane’s journey is her approach to parenting her 10-year-old son. Now living in Spain, she admits that the transition hasn’t always been seamless. They initially enrolled him in a local village school where the primary language was Valenciano.
"These kids had been friends since they were babies... for him to penetrate that as a foreigner, I think, was not easy," Jane shares. After a year and a half, he hadn’t made close friends .
While many parents might view this as a failure, Jane reframed it. They eventually moved him to a British school where he is thriving, but she credits the difficult years with building his resilience, and what he calls his super power - the ability to make friends.
"I think these experiences of being in another place and being sort of the 'other'... have built in him quite a high degree of resilience," she says. "He’s willing to go into any new situation."
No Success Without Happiness
Today, Jane runs a travel agency that reflects her own life philosophy: Niveus Travel. She helps others plan the kind of trips most people assume are impossible or too expensive, like the 25th-anniversary trip she recently planned for a couple to go horseback riding in the Sahara.
When asked about her ultimate vision for life, Jane rejects the binary choice between career and joy. "There is no success without happiness," she asserts.
Jane’s Advice for Wayfinders?
Start with the "Core Assumption": Before you open a spreadsheet, you must assume that the life you want is possible. If you don't believe in your heart of hearts that there is a path, you will never get there, because the voices in your head telling you it is "irresponsible" or "crazy" will win.
Paint a Vivid Picture (Then Do the Math): Don't just dream of "living abroad." Paint a detailed picture. Which town in Argentina? Which school for your kids? What is the rent in that specific neighborhood? Once you have the specific details, the dream stops being a fantasy up in the sky and becomes a project with a concrete cost that you can plan for.
Embrace the Compromise: You can’t have everything, so you have to decide where you are willing to flex. Jane lives 20 minutes from the sea instead of right on the sea, because she was able to buy a house for a third of the price. That compromise is what funds their ability to go on big trips, like eagle hunting in Kazakhstan.
Make a Clean Break: Jane advises against trying to keep one foot in your old life. When she left her corporate job, she agreed to keep working part-time remotely, but trying to find a signal in Alaska added a layer of stress that she regrets. You cannot be the employee you used to be while trying to build a new life on the road. It’s better to just go.
Follow Jane
📲 Instagram @niveustravel
Jane Hermstedt is proof that you don't have to choose between being a responsible parent, a successful professional, and a wild adventurer. You just have to be willing to sell the house, trust the spreadsheet, and occasionally, get stuck in Patagonia.
This post is part of the 101 Ways Out series: stories of people who found the courage to exit the status quo and build a life of purpose, freedom, and joy.
