No matter what you do for a living, some days are better than others. There were times when I couldn’t wait to go to work, when I was excited to make a big presentation or when I felt that today was the day we would make a big breakthrough.
Other times, a sense of dread would start to set in late Sunday afternoon. My blood pressure would rise until I could feel it pumping in my ears, and I would feel like running away, going anywhere but back to the office
In times like these, I would sometimes sit down and look at the portfolio and think, “Where can we retire today?”
And then I was able to make it through another Monday
A lot of Senior Citizens spend their retirement years abroad, moving to a cheaper locale in order to stretch their Social Security checks or small pension.
But why not get a head start on things? We’d already accumulated some savings, not enough to live as we do today, but enough to go… somewhere, anywhere
Of all of the ways to think about passive income milestones, this was one of my favorites. I would get books from the library about faraway places and think about what it might be like to live there
In the modern world, we have the luxury of being able to step into another persons shoes, and see how they live. We can even see how much they spend, and make adjustments for our own values and preferences
The internet is full of great examples
Shannon at A Little Adrift was spending less than $500/month – $16/day to live in Chiang Mai, Thailand. That is half of what we paid just for rent in Seattle.
James Clark of Nomadic Notes spent $724/month – $24/day in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I once saw an ad to lease a BMW for more than that
Lake Atitlán
We spent about $1800/month – $60/day on Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, where we spent our days hiking and dining and our evenings pickling our livers (Fresh mint mojitos, 2 for $1 during Happy Hour!)
We manage to make even the cheapest place look expensive. In the same location, Pauline of Reach Financial Independence spends less than $1000/month – $33/day (She owns her own home)
Simon and Erin of Never Ending Voyage spent $1800/month – $60/day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a bit more in Brazil and less in Paraguay
In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, we spent about $2400/month – $80/day, but we rented a 3 bedroom house. We could still live like royalty in SMA for less than $60/day
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
But of course, we don’t need to go abroad to find great places we can retire today.
Houses can be purchased for less than $100k in many small towns across the Midwestern and Southern United States. Find one within biking distance of a Costco in South Dakota, Texas, or Florida (three States with no income tax), and you are guaranteed for some quality living at a low price
Mr & Mrs Frugalwoods plan on retiring to a homestead in the woods of Vermont with a quite reasonable budget
Or with the Euro in retreat, maybe Europe is the answer.
Jed of Bucking the Trend is living in Spain for a year (or more) with his wife and 2 children, in order to help their boys become fluent in Spanish. $1,300 is not a bad price to pay for a 3 bedroom furnished home
With 196 195 countries on the planet, and hundreds of states and territories, there is bound to be a place that is just right for you
Maybe a virtual road trip will help you too escape those Monday doldrums.
Or maybe… maybe you’ll find somewhere you can retire today
Addendum: Check out The Earth Awaits for real budgets for cities around the globe.
Wait, there used to be 196 countries and now we’re at 195? Please tell me it was North Korea that either blew themselves up or reunified amicably with S Korea.
On a more serious (or leisurely?) note, this type of thinking is what kept me sane throughout my journey to FIRE. After a few years of saving and investing, our NW climbed over $300k and we knew we could go to a low COL area like Mexico or Thailand and do okay on $1000/month (this was before all these kids came along!). We never enacted that “sell up and bail” plan, but it’s still in the back pocket.
Good summary of folks living well on much less around the globe. I might add the Kaderli’s to the list. Not sure what they are spending these days but they seemed to get by on a reasonably small sum at least when they first retired decades ago.
According to the people that decide these things, Taiwan isn’t really a country. Go figure
I met the Kaderli’s in Chiang Mai once, same time I met Sunny and Mike, but couldn’t find a post that detailed their overall expenses
Sometimes all you need is to know the escape plan is there, and you can plow through to the bigger goals
Ah yes, Taiwan, the “shhh… it’s not really a country” country. :) Forgot all about how it’s not really a country and just a part of China with an * next to it.
I don’t know why, but that note about Taiwan makes me sad.
Buenos Aires is our favorite place we’ve visited and we agree that it is very affordable. I wonder if it is a temporary situation though, due to the currency & economic issues.
We plan on living abroad for a good portion of our ‘retirement’ but with kids in the plans, it complicates things a bit, potentially. Ideally, we’d find a place with good public education, so I don’t have to spend my retirement teaching some snot nosed kids…
Kids do complicate things. We are thinking that GCCjr becomes a true citizen of the world, but may settle in one (or two) locations for a time
We still have a lot to figure out there
See also the link above to Jed at Bucking the Trend, where he and his family are spending a year abroad for cultural and language immersion. Sometimes you can have it all
Love you guys! look up janet lansbury: http://www.janetlansbury.com/
She has a book “Elevating Child Care”
She is super minimalist about “stuff” and has a perspective on how you spend your “time” with your baby.
I am a traveler as well, and I’ll likely stay put age 0-3. Then its off for more adventures with toddler in tow!
Toddler In Tow would be a good blog name!
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll put it in the book queue
Happy travels!
Moving abroad where the cost of living is low is definitely something that is intriguing, but not something I think we would do. It would be tough to leave our family as we live close to both my parents and my in-laws. (Not always a good thing =)…but still important to us). Although in our daydreams we’ve talked about Honduras (where my wife grew up) and I read a blog post about someone living in China while teaching English on the side…that seems somewhat appealing since we’re both Chinese.
Family is definitely a strong reason to stay in one place. In our case, we prefer to deal with family in small doses ;)
As I mentioned in this post, my Mom and Grandma are coming to town to see GCCjr in May.
https://gocurrycracker.com/travel-hacking-grandma-coming-town/
It would certainly be easier and more convenient if we lived nearby
A high school friend of mine (our valedictorian no less!) has been living and teaching english in China for several years. She used to have a blog, but not sure what ever happened to it.
Living part of our year in Nicaragua where my wife is originally from has come up a few times in our discussion. I would like to try small stints of retirement/travel there like 3-6 months before we would put down any serious roots with a house, etc.
That sounds like a reasonable plan
Back in my working days, I was always amazed at how we would hire people into the Seattle area from elsewhere, and the first thing they would do is buy a house. You have never been to Seattle, you have no idea what the city is like or where it is best to live, but you want to make an enormous financial commitment immediately?
I really enjoyed this post. I’m with you on doing tons of research and pre-planning. I am a once and a future ex-pat.
I hear you, but if they already owned a primary home, there’s strong financial incentive to buy another rather than pay the capital gains tax (I think that’s what it’s called).
Hi Cat,
In the US there is no need to buy another home to avoid capital gains tax on the sale of a primary home.
It used to be a requirement, but the law changed in 1997. http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/home-sale-capital-gains-1.aspx
Most people I talked to about it said they wanted to buy a house asap to have stability for their kids
I am probably of the older set for this blog. But now that our kids are grown and all live in the nearby area that pretty much holds us to orange county California. Even though one of the most expensive places to live, we love the climate and the close proximity to the kids. I really want to be close to my grandkids so we’ll just have to “tough” it out here, unless they all move out of the area. In addition my wife’s family all lives around here. So that makes it very tough to leave overall. Fortunately our home is paid for and our property taxes aren’t totally outrageous. But boy I do think about it quite often – if we sold this house we could pretty much live anywhere in the US and be retired tomorrow.
At least you have great weather :)
I’ve been to the Huntington Beach and Long Beach area quite a few times, it’s a beautiful area if you don’t have to commute for work
We just finished building our home in Thailand. Now I just need to become brave enough to retire early. Just wish I had a solid plan to make myself comfortable.
Sounds like an interesting story!
How did you choose Thailand, and in which area did you build a house?
My wife is Thai-American. She wants to live near family. In a provincial capital city….Ubon Ratchathani.
To offer the Midwest US perspective, once we are debt free (within 5 years more than likely) we will be living on about $2K or less per month. Possibly as low as $1600 if our urban farm really takes off.
That’s with 3 kids.
A forum user of ERE and MMM (spoonman) did this calculation in the years leading up to retirement. He charted his forward 12 month dividend income against various costs of living, eventually pulling the plug to go from SoCal to the PNW, though they plan to travel extensively in the developing world as well.
Our core expenses here in NC with 3 kids runs about the same ($2k/month) with our extra spending going toward travel. I think the corollary to this GCC article is that you can live in many places in the US on a modest budget, too.
We’ve tossed around the idea of living abroad and it’s something we discuss with greater and lesser seriousness over the years. The homestead is definitely our next move, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we pursue living abroad in the farther future (maybe in 20 years or so). We never want to limit our options so we don’t necessarily see the homestead as the final destination. Life is (hopefully) long and unexpected :).
Thanks for this perspective and many thanks for the mention–most appreciated.
Long and unexpected and full of happiness. Amen
Retire in South East Asia sounds pretty good me.
Truth
I know it might be cliché but there is a reason why the U.S. has an immigration problem with all the people trying to escape the developing world countries expats retire to.
What is the reason?
The reason is the birth lottery. People born in the US (or Canada where I am) are born into a first world economy with opportunity. You build your fortune in USD and have the resources to live a much cheaper life in another country. People who are the immigrants referred to are leaving their birth country because the opportunity is not there and coming to the US or Canada
I share that view, I was wondering if Dave had something else in mind?
The earning power of even the lowest paid person in the US is substantially higher than in the developing world. One of my favorite examples is the cardiologist we met in Cuba that had an income of $40/month. A high school dropout can make that much in 3 hours at McDonald’s in downtown Seattle
Love the post! We dream of living overseas in retirement (set for 2018!). We currently live near Tokyo in Japan, but we have also lived down south in Okinawa plus Sicily and Naples, Italy. I mention this because I am very close to my family (all in the DC area) and would like to offer a different perspective. When I lived in DC I rarely saw my mom or other family members. Yes, on birthdays, etc, but just for a few hours every few weeks. When we live overseas my mom comes and spends 6 weeks with us! We have coffee together in our jammies and have time to just chat. So don’t think you have to live right next to family to stay close to them. Honest, my mom is 10 minutes from my brother but hasn’t seen him in weeks! Everyone is just “too busy”. We are also lucky that my mom and my in-laws like to travel and make the time to visit us at least 2x/year.
Excellent point. Add a little Skype time and its like you live right down the street
Karen, are you in the military by any chance? I am asking because my husband and I were DoDDS teachers stationed at Camp Zama near Tokyo and then up north at Misawa AB. We just retired early this past year and are currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a year before traveling to Europe and then on to Ecuador. Being financially independent is the best feeling in the world! Go Curry Cracker is a great blog we have followed. Really nice couple who are living the dream and now we are too! Best of luck to you.
I lived in Dominican Republic for less than $500 a month. Rent $150.00-$250 food,transport and entertainment(internet,books,music,rum, oh yeah food) even less.
We’ve visited the Dominican Republic as tourists twice and loved it. Its a beautiful country with very friendly people. We have often talked of retiring there.
A friend of ours in Seattle married a woman from the Dominican Republic. They love visiting there. We will definitely have to make the trip one day
We retired back to Calgary where my wife is from, not exactly a tropical paradise as it’s -15 C today. It does mean that we are close to my wife’s family and wonderful outdoor activities (as long as you like winter outdoor activities for 5 months of the year). I am not really bothered about the place, its the free time that financial independence brings that’s the big bonus. Being home when my kids are done school, helping them with their homework, coaching their sports teams. Long meandering bike rides during the day etc.
We were in Calgary a few years ago, it seemed nice. We flew up to Victoria, and then drove from Vancouver to Calgary, spending a few days in Lake Louise and Banff for some great hiking. There is some great snowboarding in that area too
John Bardos of Jet Set Citizen recently moved back to Calgary to raise a family as well
http://jetsetcitizen.com/
I like the idea, but is always a bit scared of living in countries I am not familiar with for security reasons. Is safety a concern for you? I understand Taiwan is where your wife is from, so it is not really an issue. But how about other places that you are not very familiar with?
Safety is an interesting question. As humans we do dangerous things all the time without questioning it, such as sitting on top of a 2000 lb gasoline powered engine and blasting down a highway at 70 mph, but then we are worried about things like swimming in the ocean because of sharks
Or we assume that anybody who lives outside of a 1st world country is dangerous.
I wrote a fun post about this unfortunate perception here:
https://gocurrycracker.com/they-will-kill-you-for-your-shoes/
Which was also featured on Jim Collins’ blog:
http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/07/08/they-will-kill-you-for-your-shoes/
I’ve been to over 40 countries now, and my conclusion is that people everywhere are about the same
Haha! Looks like you have seen me driving. That was indeed a fun post. Laughed so hard. Love that you carry the truth through a sense of humor. Life is a journey. We would love to travel more, with our shoes tied tight! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Since learning about FIRE, the now shorter time to get there seems like an eternity. Whereas before learning about FIRE it just seemed like a distant mark 30 years from now that I rarely thought of. This post was very helpful in establishing some milestones along the way to show progress, but I think I am still going to need to shift my focus to not look at it day by day?
You aren’t alone in that regard. How do you think I thought of all of those passive income milestones?
Sometimes putting your head down and just keep chipping away at it is the best solution. Then one day you look up and you can see the milestones in the rear view mirror
I look forward to being able to take our kids to Mexico and Central America for long stretches during their summer breaks to make sure they are fluent in Spanish. Hopefully the early retirement date for me is in 7 years or so!
We probably won’t move full time to a low cost of living area, but can at least lower our annual costs with some slow travel and good destination choices.
Spanish is a great language to learn. It’s becoming increasingly useful in the US too. Immersion in another culture is also incredibly valuable
Our current thought is we will try to raise GCCjr trilingual in English/Mandarin/Spanish
That’s a good idea. I’m want to look into one of our local (free) Mandarin immersion schools for the kids. They already pick up enough Spanish when we speak it around the house or when their friends speak it. And when the school sends home information in Spanish only (by accident).
I could easily live in Chiang Mai for 6-12 months, loved it there!
This sort of thing really opens up your eyes on what is possible, I think the stumbling block for most people including myself is tearing yourself away from friends and family and starting again, even if only temporary.
From the feeling I get Americans have less issues with moving across country or state away from where they grew up, maybe it is just because the country is so much bigger or maybe it is their pioneering spirit? :)
In Europe, or the UK at least, you don’t hear of people moving that far. Or maybe it is just because I haven’t so I don’t really notice it!
You might be on to something. I read an article in The Economist (a fine publication from your land!) that basically concluded as much from serious economic research. The US along with some EU countries (and the EU structure itself) encourage mobility of labor. Countries that encourage the most mobility of labor do the best economically. I can’t remember which EU countries were most “mobile” but there were certainly winners and losers.
Mobility of labor is an incredible economic boost, even when done illegally (e.g. a high percentage of farm labor in the US.)
This is why most people should not buy a house, and why the ACA should be a boost for the US economy
I think Chiang Mai is our next destination, probably a few months starting in October
A lot of American cities are filled mostly with people from somewhere else, both foreign and domestic. But a lot of people still stay in one place. My home town was that way, and I’ve heard other people from the US Midwest say the same thing.
The sense of community is very different when you move. I have friends from high school, friends from college, and friends from two different jobs in two different cities. There is no continuity, although one of my high school friends just invited me to a reunion concert from a band we both liked in high school
Winnie’s experience is more like yours. She spent most of her life in the same region around Taipei, and still has friends from when she was in elementary school. She loves to travel and can leave for years, but when she returns her people are there the same as before. Maybe the best of both worlds
Don’t move to Chiang Mail until after the smokey season. Even many of the local expats leave then.
When does the smokey season end? I’ll ask Google too
Definitely more research needed
Hi Jeremy, we are in Chiang Mai now and it is extremely smoky. It should end by the middle of April….we’re told. Hope this helps!
I find The Algarve (Portugal) to be rather inexpensive as well. I’ve been tracking my expenses for two years and find a $13,000 annual budget for my wife and I works well (I own the home already).
Rent: $0
Prop Tax ($150)
Health Ins ($2,500)
Auto Ins ($500)
Home Ins ($250)
TV/Wifi ($600)
Utilities ($1,000)
Gas ($1,000)
Work Exp $0
Food ($5,000)
Misc. ($750)
Clothing ($1,000)
Total Expense ($12,750)
Any numbers you may have for living in India? Say a city like Bangalore or Hyderabad that have a lot of IT folks returned from US. Thank you.
Try The Earth Awaits.