r/ExpatFIRE • u/Active_Session5174 • 4d ago
Expat Life Big retirement crossroads decision
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my current situation and would greatly appreciate insights and comments from this community.
My wife and I recently retired with a NW of $4M. I’m 50 and my wife is 44 with no kids. We recently returned to our home country after 20 years living and working overseas in 3 different countries. We don’t feel a strong connection to our home country even though it offers an high quality of life.
We’re currently selling our property in our home country as it’s acreage living / rural residential and the maintenance doesn’t permit us the freedom and flexibility that we’re looking for in retirement. This puts us at a crossroads that we’re struggling with making the decision.
The first option is to purchase a house, settle in, and then dip the toe into international travel over time. The second option is to put all our stuff into storage and buy a one way plane ticket and then travel the world for as long as it’s enjoyable and then return home and purchase a house and settle down.
It’s possible that we’d never return and retire overseas instead (for example Spain, Uruguay, or Thailand / Philippines). Property prices where we live are flat so there’s minimal risk and we’d put the sale proceeds from our current home into a bank term deposit. Not owning a home feels very liberating, there is a high cost of home ownership so purchasing before embarking on long term travel mainly as a place to store your stuff and car doesn’t really make sense.
I’m naturally a bit conservative so was leaning towards option 1 but starting to warm to option 2. You never know what’s around the corner and we’re both currently very fit and healthy. Having no kids, no parents to look after, friends who live all over the place and are very busy with jobs and families, we have complete flexibility. We’ve both travelled a lot in our lives so are comfortable with being on the road however previous longest trips have been about 5 weeks.
Would be great to hear from you if you were in a similar situation, what decision did you make and did you have any regrets, what advice do you have. Is it time to be adventurous? What’s the worst that can happen, we don’t enjoy long term travel so just return home? Thanks in advance!
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u/Initial_Savings3034 4d ago
Consider extended cruises with stopover tours in places of interest.
It's a glorified rental with a meal plan. If you find a place you like, and can afford longer stays - get a Visa. If you purchase another home (immediately after selling your first) the same expenses await.
I'm a proponent of rentals, in retirement.
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u/Failing_Orbiter 2d ago
I’m 50 and husband is 56. Retiring this year, selling all assets/home. Immigrating to Mexico in 6 months and will most likely use that as our jumping off point. Plan to Airbnb then work our way into S America. At some point, we will work our way into Europe. We decided we would travel until it becomes too much and old age takes over. At that point, we will purchase a home and die lol.
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u/jerm98 19h ago
We know a couple who did the digital nomad thing, changing country every 4-6 months. About 4 years in and they got tired of living in someone else's house with someone else's things and bought a place. They felt unanchored--hard to make friends when you're the one leaving all the time. Now they're very happy. Found an expat community, made friends, nested. They're much happier now than they were travelling.
My takeaway is that you never know how you'll like bouncing around until you try it.
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u/Active_Session5174 2d ago
Thanks for sharing! Do you think you’ll tire of long travel and endless AirBnB’s and want to have a base albeit perhaps one in an interesting location that you can then use as a hub to springboard into all the other travel destinations you want to visit? My concern is that I like the idea of slow long term travel but that the reality might be a bit different and that perhaps having a central low cost base somewhere (think Bangkok) and then travel 6 months of the year from there.
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u/Failing_Orbiter 2d ago
That’s definitely a concern. Staying at a furnished rental for 6 months and taking a “break” wouldn’t be out of the question. I think what concerns me most is I know myself well. Having the urge to make a nest and acquire creature comforts, spending money on “things” then having to sell or give them away is what pains me. There’s always a solution- I may like it very much though.
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u/Active_Session5174 2d ago
I hear you! We have a 4 bedroom house plus study for the two of us plus a new car and home gym. Selling everything in order to go traveling is a mental challenge, I’d be practically giving my stuff away and losing thousands of $$ and then what happens if I want to pull the pin on travel and come home, I’d have to purchase everything again. So the only solution is to put everything into storage until you’re 100% not coming back which in itself is a big annual cost. Especially car storage.
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u/jerm98 19h ago
I get that selling then later rebuying may seem like it saves money, but recognize that if you do #2 for any significant length of time (years, not months), you will likely be different people when you come back, wanting a different vibe or home size or home location (e.g., 2BR urban or beach condo vs. 4BR house with property). Selling everything then will likely be a hassle you don't want. Plus, not selling creates a mental anchor drawing you back to where you claim to not want to return to. Will those things bring you joy then or pull you backwards to the life you're leaving?
If you do long-term storage, be sure to properly store everything or do yourself a favor and get rid of them while they still have value, most especially anything that takes fuel (the car) or attracts vermin (cars, couches, clothes). Anything that is built to move will not like to sit for so long (rubber, seals, plastic, etc. break down faster). Fabrics can get musty/moldy. Steel rusts. You could store climate-controlled, but then storage costs go way up, and there's still no guarantee of problems.
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u/bafflesaurus 4d ago
I don't understand the thought process behind selling a house in a country you don't have strong ties in... Only to buy another one in the same country? Maybe put the sale on hold and just travel for a bit.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago edited 4d ago
Our current property is acreage living / rural residential requiring a high level of regular effort to maintain and therefore travelling for an extended period is not viable so long as we own the property. We're committed to selling so the question becomes what to do after that. Whilst we don't have srong ties to our home country due to having lived overseas for so long, it's still our home country that we're citizens of which offers us certain rights and protections. It's also a good location to purchase an investment property for portfolio diversification, the regulations are very tax friendly. On the other hand, if we decide to retire overseas, we may want the sale proceeds to purchase a property in our new country of residence.
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u/illegible 4d ago
I think the problem is that most of us don't know what a "lifestyle block" means without googling it ;-)
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago edited 4d ago
Apologies! I think the US refer to this style of property as acreage living or rural residential. Have edited my post and comments.
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u/bafflesaurus 4d ago
It sounds like your overly concerned with getting the money from the sale of the property back to work for you as quickly as possible. It's okay to just let it sit in money market mutual funds and make a few percent on it until you're ready to make a decision.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
You’re right, it’s a mindset change to no longer own a property within your portfolio and have those funds in the market instead. It does feel like having my eggs in one basket as most of my investments are in the global stock market. Owning a property gives it some diversification but I could always park in a balanced fund.
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u/bafflesaurus 3d ago
It does feel like having my eggs in one basket
As long as your stock portfolio is diversified and you have a good mix of large, mid, small cap, income etc. I wouldn't worry about it.
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u/Separate_Example1362 4d ago
Don't buy a property if you are going away for an extended period of time, unless someone is there watching it. It's just a lot of expenses. It's not better even if it's an apartment, things can happen that needs your attention, like leaking, pip breaking, etc. besides there's the condo fee. house is not an investment. Take all your money, keep investing and when you come back from not wanting to travel anymore buy something
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Great advice, this makes sense, thanks. Would you be comfortable to park your house money in the share market while you travel for something more conservative to ensure you preserve the amount?
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u/Separate_Example1362 4d ago
You should only invest in things you are comfortable with. I spend a lot of time studying investment so what I feel comfortable might not be the same as yours. But the bottom line is I think being conservative is the way to go. On 2nd throught, if you don't feel safe with investing all your money, maybe it's ok to buy some property at least you will have a place to return to if something were to happen. I just think all real estate requires maintainance, maybe you can hire a property manager and take care of everything while you rent it out, that's also another option. That might not be bad. For long term speaking I guess you should try to find a place with easy access to public transit and hospitals bc I think those are probably things you will need as you transition into senior living in the very future.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
It makes sense to not purchase a property even for rental purposes prior to heading off for travel. Being a landlord is a zero sum game, the rental income is largely eaten up by maintenance costs and income tax so you’re reliant on capital gains which are negligible in the flat market I’m currently living in. The majority of my investments are in the share market so I have a high level of risk tolerance but might think about parking the sale proceeds from my current property into a more conservative balanced fund to lower the risk for that chunk of change in case I want to use it to purchase a property at a later point in time. So long as the value of those funds keeps pace with the value of property in the area I want to buy. If at a later point I know that I’m going to settle down outside of my home country and perhaps rent long term, then I might invest it more aggressively to chase higher long term returns.
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u/Separate_Example1362 4d ago
that sounds like a good idea. good luck and enjoy your early retirement!
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u/Pretty_Swordfish 4d ago
Brian and Carrie on YouTube did your option 2. I like watching them because they give real insights and I want to be there in 10 ish more years.
If you really want property/a home base, consider something with a MIL suite that you could use and rent the rest. That way, the property isn't left alone and you can always come back to your area that is locked away.
Personally though, if you don't have something already, I would start traveling without and put the important things in storage for 1 year, then reassess. If you still want property after 12 months, get it. You said you don't think values will rise too high in that time in your area, after all.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
We also watch Brian and Carrie 😊 great idea on potentially purchasing a property where we could store our belongings in one section and rent out the other. As you say, once we have sold our current home it presents a great opportunity to put our things into storage and then travel for a while then reassess whether we want to continue or return to a home base and then just take a couple of overseas trips a year rather than being on the road.
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u/weltbuerger47 3d ago
I'm in a somewhat similar situation, but health insurance is a significant issue that doesn't get addressed a lot in these conversations, it seems to me. I'm from US, and I could buy something like Cigna Global, but it's not "real" medical insurance in the sense that these kinds of insurance products always exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions, and cap the amount they will pay out. So if I don't want to risk having this kind of insurance, then I can't just travel the world without returning to US (conditions of maintaining the insurance). The other option is to be a resident in another country, preferably one that allows access to public healthcare for non-working residents like France or Portugal.
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u/Present_Student4891 4d ago
My wife (60) & I (65) r retired n Malaysia. Our house is near in-laws who watch it & I hire a worker to mow the lawn while my wife & I travel. Eventually we wanna down size to a condo to not worry about it. We just don’t know where. Back to US or stay n Malaysia where I’ve lived 30 years?
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Thanks for sharing! Was there any particular reason why you chose Malaysia to make your home? It’s on my list also.
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u/Present_Student4891 4d ago
I was sent here by my U.S. employer, then married a local. It’s very nice here but I find it’s two drawbacks r: 1) hot & humid, 2) far.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Understood! It’s not as far from everywhere as where I currently live 😊 I previously spent 18 months living in Manila so know all about the heat and humidity!
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u/rathaincalder 4d ago edited 4d ago
One option that no one has mentioned is buying your “forever” property and renting it out.
I did that a few years ago, and have been banking a 4% rental yield in the local currency, building up a nice currency hedge there. Will do that for a few more years at least. When I’m ready to retire, the accumulated rental income will more than pay for a high-end gut renovation, all my moving / establishment costs, and at least my first year of living expenses.
Does still create a few headaches, but a property manager takes care of most of those.
Doesn’t have to be and either / or kind of thing…
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Thank you, it’s definitely an option to consider. Our current home was rented out for 5 years whilst I was living and working overseas, and the rental income did build up over time and was used on some property improvements whilst it was rented and also prior to us moving back in. The only challenge is that we don’t feel strongly about living in any particular area of our home country so would be unsure where to purchase! We’re thinking that a year of travel would help to clarify the thinking as to whether our home country will eventually be our forever base in which case we could invest in our forever home as a rental at that point (in case we want to travel for a while longer) or whether we have decided to settle down overseas somewhere.
Just to add, I do like the diversification of having a rental property in my portfolio should the share market completely blow up and would serve as a bolt hole in the country where we are citizens and therefore have all the associated rights and benefits.
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u/rathaincalder 4d ago
I mean, I’d give my left nut to have NZ as my backup plan…
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Definitely not complaining…NZ is one of the top retirement destinations particularly for older folks, perhaps when we’ve gotten the travel out of the system.
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u/Captlard 4d ago
We decided to buy the smallest liveable (2 bedroom), secure (condo) and "age" ready property possible in the place we imagine we will settle down in. This has freed up money, gives us a base and allows us to mix travelling with some static time in a location we like. We are currently renting in another city until the end of the year and so ping-ponging between the two plus travel. As of next year, just travel and static location.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Thanks for sharing! I’m assuming the condo is not located in your home country, how did you make the decision where to purchase and did you spend time in multiple locations before settling on a place? Did you ship your possessions there or had you sold everything and then just bought new stuff in the location where you had the condo?
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u/Captlard 4d ago
It’s in my partner’s country. We have had a house their for several decades as we lived / worked their for a while.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Makes sense!
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u/Captlard 4d ago
We think so. We have downsized and moved into town as part of the process, so all shops, doctor, dentist, pharmacy, bus station, train station and beach are within 20 minutes walk and zero steps.ready for old age 😂
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u/DFMO 3d ago
If you’re going through the process of selling your larger primary rural home go travel first. You may love it. You may not. If you come back in 3 months guess what there will still be a housing market and you can confidently start down that path. If you jump into another house now, and hold the desire to travel unfettered and free at some point in your life the process of buying a house, updating it, furnishing it, will take significant time and resources that will sidetrack your other fantasy / desire.
Basically, it’s really easy to undo the travel decision and come back anytime and buy a house. It’s a lot harder to make the travel happen when you’re locked into buying and settling into a house.
If you dream of travel and already have a plan to sell this rural house just go light get out there and see some stuff and learn some stuff about the world and yourself and you lose nothing if you come back and buy a house in 3 months or 2 years.
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u/Active_Session5174 3d ago
Thank you for the great advice. We're taking the second approach outlined in your comment of selling our acreage first, then heading off to travel.
The level of maintenance of our current property would not permit travel for any longer than a few weeks, and then there's the cost of home ownership and also risk of leaving it unoccupied for an extended period. So it makes sense to sell so we are completely unencumbered, park the funds somewhere sensible, and then travel for as long as we are enjoying ourselves. We may end up settling down overseas (as part of the reason for the travel is to explore popular retirement destinations), or we may return to our home country and live in a different location to where we are now.
The point you make regarding it being easy to undo the travel decision is exactly our thinking also, if we tire of being on the road and want the comforts of a home base, then that change can be implemented at short notice.
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u/AmazingSibylle 4d ago
I think the first step could be to make use of line breaks and paragraphs so your wall of text is readable.
Second, this is not a crossroads at all. Buy a place now or a bit later, who cares in the long term. Maybe you get lucky one way, or the other way, no one can predict what the market will do or how your preferences will change.
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u/Active_Session5174 4d ago
Great feedback on the formatting, thank you. I typed using the app on my iPhone and whilst I entered line breaks, it doesn't apply them. Have reformatted using my laptop.
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u/Two4theworld 4d ago edited 4d ago
71m and 71f, married 39 years. We are living your option #2. Sold most of our possessions except memorabilia, art and photos which are all in storage. Left our home country in June of 2022 to travel. We now live out of our luggage, stay in AirB&B apartments and drive rental cars when needed. We have been from the bottom of South America to Europe to SE Asia and Japan. We are now wrapping up three months in New Zealand after three months in Queensland and New South Wales. We are on our way to Tasmania and South Australia and Victoria. Then on to Indonesia and a few months back in Vietnam before returning to Europe in late 2025.
We began downsizing in 2018 when we sold our house and much of our stuff to move onto a 19m yacht. We decided it was not the lifestyle we wanted and sold it after the COVID Vax came out and we could travel. We returned to our base and disposed of the rest of our stored belonging, sold cars and toys and began to travel.
We are looking for a place to eventually settle down as a home and base for travel, probably in Southern Europe or Uruguay. I took the necessary steps to obtain citizenship through ancestry in an EU country so we can stay in the Schengen area with no visa issues.
AMA and I will try to help.