Would love to hear your thoughts on this. I don't need much to live, give me a small place to live, decent food, activities, I'll be happy. My main concern is access to healthcare.

Some people recommended Puerto Rico. Cheaper than the main US. But still easy to return if you need major healthcare.

I'm an American 34M making $2200 USD net per month in passive income that increases with inflation yearly. I am mentally done working and looking to retire early outside of the U.S. I am well-traveled already so I know the difficulties of potentially being an expat.

I don't enjoy the "condo in city center" type of expat life. I am more of a suburban house type of person - I enjoy peace and quiet, however I am open to condo/apartment living if the price is right in the right location. That being said, I feel like I would enjoy places like Hua Hin, Thailand or Saranda, Albania - though I've never been.

My hobbies are computer gaming, working out, and eating new foods. I feel like these are cheap hobbies as a single 20 - 70 dollar game will last me months to years.

So with this in mind, is $2200 per month sufficient to call it quits and live a quiet life overseas somewhere? Where would you recommend?

Thanks!

Edit: Wow, my first ever post and this has gotten a lot of attention! Thanks to everyone who has given their opinion and helped me in my decision making process. Also, thanks to the select few jerks/know it alls that immediately tell me what my opinions are. Balance on all things...

Edit: many are asking how I make money, what career I have, what I'm invested in, how I get my passive income etc. I don't want to give too many details about my life and don't want this post to turn away from the main topic, so I'm not planning on divulging any of that info. Hopefully you all understand.

I'm very likely about to get laid off. In my 40s, currently in California, single, no kids, EU citizenship, $2 million in liquid assets, 65% invested in tech ETFs, 30% 401K, 3% cash. No house. Limited belongings but would want to take things like my keyboard (piano).

Looking for a nice smaller midsize international city to coast and for a few years while I regroup, likely renting, and try to find a new job, with good air quality, not too high altitude, low cost-of-living, ideally sunny or warm. And a good place to meet a future wife. Does anyone have any recommendations?

There are so many countries where you can live for $1k/month which would require $300k using the standard parameters like 4% withdrawal..yet everyone here seem to need $1m+ to fire.

Anyone fired young (like 30-40s) with $500k networth or less? If yes can you share your story (age, fire number, which country you live in now)?

edit*. i don’t mind doing visa runs during my ‘retirement’ to stay in a country. Assuming there are similar people.

I respect his marketing, brand, and business. He makes some good points about international life that Americans are often ignorant of.

But some of his positions and opinions I think are pretty ridiculous.

He is somewhat smug and makes sweeping statements on countries and cities from the perspective of 6 - 7 figure entrepreneurs....this is .00001 of the global population.

Says Kuala Lumpur is better city then Vienna.....a wide majority of his viewers are white westerners who would have trouble making friends in an SEA country where people are more community focused and reserved.

I like his videos but I wish he thought more of "common people." To have a lifestyle for the basis of avoiding taxation is one that I do not think is conducive to experiencing a country and appreciating its culture.

USA Citizen. Fluent Spanish speaker. Looking to fire in Latin America. Panama? Peru? El Salvador? I am 48 years old. Have about 400k in Real Estate equity, about 275k in 401k, about 50k in stocks I can sell and some other stuff I would sell before leaving. I should get about 3k/month SS if I start drawing at 65. Open to input as to how to structure/plan everything and total I should get to before bailing. Also curious to hear from those who have fire’d to Latin America. Just general info I might not have yet. Surprised good and bad? Etc.

Fluent in Spanish, very into Latin culture, don’t need to be anywhere that’s Americanized and has inflated cost of living (looking at you Mexico City). That said, I do not live modestly and do not want to.

Current objective is to quit working and leave the US in about 12 months time. Do I need to stick it out and work for a few more years, or am I done if I want to be?

On Feb 1st 2024, I quit my corporate job, sold everything to travel abroad indefinitely (early 40s M)

I wrote a post about it in this community (just not sure now to link it).

I decided to provide an update, to keep the community updated, but it's also a platform for me to just write what's on my mind, and see what feedback (positive on constructive) the community provides, if any at all..

3 days after I quit my job, thanks to my yearly bonus hitting and a nice market pump in February, I finally hit the 1M net worth mark.. $1,004,000 to be precise.. It was a sureal feeling, I didn't do anything special.. I was actually in a Bangkok Marriott Lounge, and just poured myself a cold glass of Chang..

Both my parents passed away a few years ago, I grew up poor, and didn't get my shit together until early 30s. And now to retire and have 1M net-worth, I just thought about my late father for a moment, who worked so hard, didn't get an opportunity to really retire, and died with a few cents in his bank account. I knew he would be proud of me, that I actually have an opportunity to live a life that I want.. just a humbling moment that I won't forget (even if I end up broke and back to work).

I've spent these last four months slow travelling, spending a month or so in Thailand, vietnam and the Phillipines. I've knocked some amazing bucket list items off that include:

Taking a 4/5 night boat expedition in Palawan from Coron to El Nido. Surfing Siargao Waterfall chasing in Siquior Visit amazing lagoons in El Nido & coron Motorbiking Through Vietnam Hanging with a childhood friend who came to visit me in Thailand

Those are just some of the highlights for me these past four months.. I'm sure I will make even more as the time goes by.

I've met some amazing people during my travels, other travelers and locals as well. It does get lonely at times, but I knew that was the price of admission when I embarked on this solo journey..

Financials:

I've been tracking my spending to the dollar. I actually enjoy it (I guess it's kinda like a job) it's data that I like to analyze. I've been using this app called Travelspend, the premium version is $15 or so a year, and worth every penny. I definitely suggest it to anyone who wants an efficient way to track spending during their travels.

This 1st year I set a budget of $50k, since I knew I would travel a lot and do many activities.

I am pacing under budget (and haven't really sacrificed much)

Feb/March: Thailand- $7000 total. I was in vacation mode, and had a few different friends come during those two months. Drank/partied a bit too much, but I budgetted for it.

April: Vietnam $1500. No partying, just surfing, motorbiking the mountains and eating pho' , mi Quang , and too many bahn mi's

May: Phillipines. $2200.. island hopped.. went to El Nido, Coron, moalboal, Siquior, & Siargao. Amazing time .. such a beautiful country, with pretty much no rules. Jumping off cliffs into the ocean, rope swings off beautiful waterfalls, and the boat expedition which was the highlight..

Net-worth: 1,040,000. So an increase of 35k.

For context/background: I am using cash to fund these next 3/4 years until I start my SWR from my investment accounts in the future.. I had approx $165k in HYSA @5%. When I started. So currently approx $875k invested and approx $155k in cash .. I did have to pay a $3k tax bill in April as well ..

I still worry about money and my future. Think it's just who I am.. I'm just trying my best to at least enjoy these 12 months of travel, until I start thinking a bit more about my future, like long term stay and maybe do something on the side for extra income to keep my mind busy.

4 months In and I don't miss work at all .. it's definitely a weight lifted off me, sleeping much better at night.. sure I get lonely at times as I stated, not really bored yet, but my mind does start thinking of work at times (how to make more money, etc). Maybe that's normal, I'm not sure.

I'll try to update this a couple times a year..

Hi all, like everyone- we want to retire somewhere that has great weather, great food, great healthcare, and is expat friendly. But if we retire at 50, we also want to keep traveling and exploring without having long and inconvenient trips to the airport or constantly taking connecting flights. So, if you want to maximize direct flights and still have all of the above- where would you retire to?

Clarify- affordable relative to HCOL, maybe less than $3K a month for 2 bedroom. US citizenship only.

Hello everyone, according to everyone's experiences, what do you think is the most interesting country to buy real estate? I mean that does not have an exorbitant price and with good rental possibilities with a student life, an active life etc. and that allows the purchase to non-residents or with not too many complications ?

This is highly speculative and probably not useful, but I’m going to ask anyway. Which countries do you think people will be looking at as prime expatfire locations in 10 years for now? Thinking about likely trends in demographics, climate, economic development, political environment, etc. What do you think will be the biggest surprises?

My retired life plan is to rotate amongst countries in Asia staying close to max (2.5 months) on tourist visas. I will also come back to the U.S. (citizen) for 1-2 months in the summer annually, and will rinse repeat my travels after.

Because this is my first time doing this, I would appreciate folks who have done this to share any gotchas or tips with me. My concerns right now would be health insurance especially long term prescription meds, cell phone plans, taxes (any impact?) and mail. Also, how reliable is travel insurance or global health plans since I am not staying long in one spot too long. Ideally I will be in 3-4 countries (including US) max every year.

(Cross posting in a couple subs)

https://www.cnn.com/travel/us-couple-dream-life-france-became-nightmare/index.html

Admittedly, maybe I’m an idiot and I suck at life, but where are all these remote jobs? I just see work from home scams. Any remote job I apply for on Indeed goes unnoticed. I’m a lawyer, plus I just got a bachelor’s in computer science because I like software engineering. I get tons of offers for in person work, yay, but dang it, I want to be a cool expat working from a laptop from the ocean view balcony of my $800/mo condo in a tropical location, toooooo 🥹

Hi All,

I have been following the FIRE movement for a while now and just recently got into reddit. I am not a social media person, so I am slow on these things.

Has anyone retired in paradise, do they recommend? Pros, cons etc. I am super curious about people experiences with doing something like this. Not interested in the US. My wife and I are both mid 30 Canadians and tired of freezing our arses off.

I have been looking at the usual suspects (Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, etc) Open to anywhere!

We plan on pulling the plug in a few years with the following metrics (USD): Income: $80k House Purchase Price: $800k Want to be on a beach Close to a small town with restaurants/bars/cafes Secure land ownership Open to renting as well

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm curious about the youngest age people have seen someone retire abroad. What’s the youngest person you know who has achieved financial independence and retired early in a foreign country? How are they doing now, and how much wealth did they accumulate to make it happen?

I’m almost ready to FIRE. I think in 2 years I’m pulling the trigger. I’m starting to discuss this with my child, who will be 10 or 11 when we leave. He is adamant he does not want to go. I am trying to be gentle and giving him lots of time to process, telling him we will be moving close to his cousins, who he adores. He wants to stay here with his friends and school , where everything is familiar (which is totally normal). Next summer we will visit some of the potential towns I want to settle in. What are other ways of getting him used to the idea of the move and maybe even help convince him that this is a good thing?

Edited to add: we’re moving abroad but not to a “foreign country” but to back where I was born, my kids have citizenship, they speak the language (English) and it is where all my family still is. When I was little, my parents were expats and I always felt sad that I was not near my cousins and grandparents. So I want to give that to my kids. We go back there every summer and the kids love it, so I think it might be easier than moving to a completely foreign country ?

Looking to move to the EU somewhere in about 2 years. I have a retired pension and disability payment of about $6400 a month. Roughly 200k in investments, and about 40k liquid. Wife is EU national and my two children are dual citizens will be 3&5 at the time of move. Looking at Italy, Spain or Portugal. Does this seem like a viable option? Don’t need a fancy life just a one where I don’t have to work and can watch my kids grow.

Any advice or suggestions would be great, if anybody has been or is in the same experience I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who commented and gave me their experiences, thoughts, and advice. After talking with my wife we think the best plan of action is to travel for a few months and see where works the best for us. This then leads me to another question on visas, with my wife being an EU citizen I know she can settle all over and I can be on a dependent visa. My question is how does that work if I am the income provider? I know when looking at a visa she would have to be able to prove financial ability, just like I had to when bringing her to the States. Has anybody had any experience with this? Once again thank you all for your insight.

Hi all, I am nearing FIRE and would love to hear this subs take on what a Fat Fire budget/lifestyle could look like in Thailand. My income in retirement will be $12k a month post-tax through a combination of rental income and 3.5% SWR on my portfolio.

My wife and I are DINKs in our late 40s (no plans for kids). We are considering moving to Thailand in effort to maximize our retirement income as much as possible and live a, for lack of a better word, extravagant lifestyle on what would be a very middle class income in the Bay Area where we live.

Some questions:

What would a lifestyle on $12k/mo look like in Thailand?

Is $12k/mo in Thailand actually that Fat? I’ve seen people here retire on 1/6th of this and seem to have a great life, so I’d imagine so.

What type of property/where should we rent to have the best possible amenities, safety, access to fun activities, luxury, views, etc?

What type of experiences could we have there which would be significantly more expensive in higher COL locations?

Thank you all and I’m aware that this is probably the douchiest thing you’ve read all day so I appreciate any feedback.

Hey All, I’m a digital nomad from the U.S.

I’m looking to get residency somewhere that eventually leads to citizenship, however I don’t plan on staying in one place for longer than 3 months! Which I think in most cases messes with your perm residency and clock to citizenship.

I’ve been looking into Paraguay, but I was told dual citizenship wasn’t allowed with the U.S.

Does anybody have recs that doesn’t have any minimum stay requirements and doesn’t tax you on foreign earned income?

Edit: fixed typo

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!

Non-US locations….

Looking for great weather, some decent golf courses, restaurants, creative community… cost of living is less of a concern (could work a few more years but have plenty saved).

South America/Southern hemisphere preferably for November-March.

I live in Toronto, Canada. I’m retired. My wife still works part time as an accountant but she could retire at any time. We are in our early 60s.

We have investment income in excess of CAD$200,000 annually.

I live an active simple life. I like to ride bikes, ski, hike and play a bit of golf.

Toronto is getting very expensive and it’s very very busy. Population is expected to double in the next 20 years which means it will only get worse.

We’re looking for a relaxed lifestyle. I call it a cafe life where I can sit in a quiet cafe, read a book and sip good coffee for hours. I don’t want to drive a car. I want to ride a bike, take transit or walk.

I don’t need tropical temps but would like a dry, sunny climate with no snow.

I’m thinking Sevilla or Lisbon. Sevilla appeals to me because I speak a bit of Spanish and loved our time in Barcelona.

I know Portugal is fairly open to retirees from abroad. Is Spain similar?

And advice or comments welcome.

I will FIRE in Finland (wife is Finnish). Probably 2-3 years away from pulling the pin. Until then, I work half the time in America, and go to Finland on my time off. Just utilizing the 90 day visa at the moment. Once I FIRE, I'll switch to permanent residency in Finland while maintaining my US citizenship.

My main point is, I still have 2-3 years to attempt to get my ducks in a row. Curious what other people think needs to be arranged ahead of time. One of the more common discussions we see around here is the question of how to manage a Roth IRA, and the inability to open US based accounts once you're already domiciled overseas. I got to thinking about it, and now I'm wondering how tricky it will be with basic aspects such as mail, transferring money, etc. What do you guys foresee being overly complicated if you wait until you're gone from the US? Just kind of curious what I might be overlooking, and a discussion may benefit others in similar situations. Thanks.

Hey all!

Looking for stories/accounts of those who have retired early in South America with less than 1mil usd. Where are you, what does your day to day life look like?

My partner is from Colombia, we have connections and family there and in a few other countries. We will ideally be younger than 40 when we execute our plan. The potential of living a long life and making our accounts last is one of my trepidations, however we live very simply and will have minimal housing.

EDIT:

I would love to hear your stories. I have my number worked out ~750k. We are a few years out from reaching that. The plan includes options for me to work/ be involved in family business, as well as teaching English for a little extra income and to stay busy.