So using the 4% rule, invested this will give me $4000 per year. That is more than a lot of people earn in developing countries, even above the average income for many countries according to Numbeo.
Can I quit my wagie job in the US and just chill somewhere in the world forever? I don't care about materialism, financed cars, Funko Pops, whatever. At all. All you need for survival is your health, a room, food and internet.
How can I make this work?
$100k will give you about $333 per month with the 4% rule. Here are some of the average salaries according to Numbeo which is normally quite accurate.
I've left out many countries, so take your pick: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living
Syria 46.48
Egypt 146.74
Pakistan 155.80
Tajikistan 179.64
Sri Lanka 182.80
Venezuela 183.33
Nepal 210.44
Bangladesh 254.69
Algeria 271.92
Iran 274.05
Tunisia 301.01
Libya 306.79
Kyrgyzstan 307.33
Philippines 315.22
Paraguay 324.05
Uzbekistan 324.47
Indonesia 327.83
100k isnt even enough to get a mortgage for a house nowadays anon
sure you could live in a really cheap shit country like these but the reality is that being a white guy who obviously doesnt work you'll eventually run into some trouble.
if the tax man or visa issues dont give you problems, you're gunna have locals starting shit.
so you'd have to hire armed guards and have a secure place to live to prevent locals just kidnapping you and demanding ransom money from your govt.
my honest advice?
put 95k of that money into a high interest term deposit (aka: trust fund) and work for another 10 years
keep putting money into the term deposit over this time.
10 years from now you'll be able to cut back to just part-time hours and follow some other hobby or side gig instead of working full-time.
B-b-b-but what will Benjamin Boomer next door think?! He will think you're crazy moving to a country he can't point to on a map! What is wrong with you! You will die if you don't earn $3000 per month! You need to pay for your takeaway pizza and financed BMW like a good Deano! Deano and Stacey are judging you, Deano will be slagging you off to his barber this weekend about his crazy neighbour whilst he gets his weekly skin fade. Looking fresh dude, bro next year I've got a 1 week trip to Cancun!
The "4% rule" will not actually work in real life. In practice, accounting for risks and inflation, estimate it to be more like 1%.
Not sure if this is just bait, but the S&P 500 is up about 19% YTD. Historical returns averaging about 10%. Shave off a bit of inflation and 4% is comfy and well known in the FIRE community.
Way to go try to make a point with cherry picked half a year of data. Well I will do the same, S&P 500 is at exactly the same place it was 2 years ago. There are many convincing reasons why returns are going to be fricked over the next several years. If you're living abroad expecting to live off just a US index you have a whole bunch more of issues to contend with. Have fun
Where do you invest that is so superior?
no where, just global tracker since I'm not American but it's like 50% US anyway. I mean if you are living long term in some cheap country you will have all kinds of political risk, currency rate risk, problems getting access to your money
Nah it’d be fine.
*sigh* Syria it is then!
You could, maybe. I wouldn’t unless you really have zero life prospects and really want to check out now.
Keep in mind that shit happens and you may not be prepared. I wouldn’t want to be caught as a 50 year old who hasn’t worked in 20 years, living in a developing country with no money.
you should explore some of these countries before believing you can just live there indefinitely
Which are the most liveable?
Could you live on 300 usd a month though? I'm brazilian and I could survive, alone, in shitty conditions, on 600 usd per month. I would need 1k per month in a small city or 2k a month in a big city to have a decent life though.
People that live with such a small amount of money usually have big families, which helps them to get by, and live in really awful conditions. They are also more prone to suffer from criminality, will have horrible acces to healthcare (if any), etc. But yes, you could survive. Billions do.
$4000/year is $300/month. Even in most developing countries, that is tough to make do for a single person living alone. Most people making Third World median wages live with their family in their family's home, take buses to work every day, eat home-cooked meals with family. They might have a (shared) motor scooter. Socializing with family and friends costs nothing and passes the time, quite unlike socializing as a solitary person - going out to bars, hitting the clubs, inviting girls on dates, etc.
Being alone in a foreign country with very little spending power is boring as frick. Been there, done that. Every day is a challenge to waste as much time as possible doing as little as possible. You'll lay in bed 16 hours a day, if not more. You'll walk the same streets day after day, doing nothing but walking the streets because you can't afford to do anything. If you are extroverted and speak the local language, you can usually find lowlifes to bullshit around with, but even that gets old, especially when they want to do shit that costs money - on your dime, of course.
You can forget about investing and spend your principal. With $100,000 cash at $600/month, a more realistic budget for the simple traveler life in a developing nation like Colombia, you can live for close to 14 years. Investing could stretch that quite a bit longer. Based on my experience in Colombia, for $600/month you will be able to eat a simple restaurant meal daily, plus street foods, stay in a nightly rental room, and take a bus to a new city every few weeks. Now your challenge will be maintaining your legal tourist status.
But why not save $10,000 and try "retirement" for a year? See if you like it. That's what I did, and I fricking hated it. No need to lock yourself into "retirement" for the rest of your life.
I'm in the same boat, except I wanna use my time just learning to code/use modern frameworks that I don't use at my current job
With a budget at 10% of principal (meaning, with inflation into account, I'll lose some 3% per year), I think it's possible to live in almost any country on the planet besides a few Euro/Anglo ones. Even the US, with some very shitty areas, or Japan, with their extremely good housing market, could fit a second-world budget for at least a decade.
>perspective of someone who isn't chronically online
I had a banger of a time in Eastern Europe alone on €500 a month, didn't even talk to locals. Could just game with friends, watch anime, study, rinse and repeat