Is it possible to retire comfortably with $1 million, if I'm willing to move to a "cheap" country? And I don't mean something like Burundi, or Bangladesh, I mean eastern Europe, or SEA.
Is it possible to retire comfortably with $1 million, if I'm willing to move to a "cheap" country...
Putin is going to rape Eastern Europe now that Trump is in office.
I don't know, the only place I've looked into was the Philippines, where the cost of living like a westerner is only half of what it is here where I live in America (~$15k/year). Considering that, think about how much longer you would expect to live and invest in ways to hedge against inflation while living in a place that can be bought from said funds. As it stands, I would consider $1m adequate to live somewhere like that, although inflation may render that untrue and there may be costly unseen circumstances, so always have your iron in a pot or invest in something stable, like precious metals.
Yes obviously. But like a lot of expats you shouldn't underestimate how much you might miss the way things are done at home.
I spent a year in japan and by the end, as amazing as the country is, I just missed europoor.
QRD on what's wrong with Japan? Everything there looks like literal utopia even compared to Western countries. I can already speak fluent Japanese so not worried about language barrier.
Depends on your definition of comfortable, possible but it won't be glamorous
Nothing in a sense. I've heard the working conditions are rough but i wasn't working and my background is a europoor doctor who works nightmare 60 hour weeks with weekends and nights for $60k a year with endless unpaid extracurricular requirements. That's why i took the year away.
In the end it's just that Im european. I like the way we do things and how we interact. I like our homes and our music, I like our food and interests.
Japan is outright a better country than mine but it's not home.
Montenegro. In the EU at the same time the populace is conservative, although the government has been forcing EU policies down its throat. Has everything you need in a tiny country. Beautiful women, nice coastline, and mountains.
As I see it problem with place like the philippines is they'll always see you as a living ATM and unless you pay quite a bit more to up your living standard and security there you'd probably run the risk of being scammed, maybe even robbed or kidnapped. I might still end up going there some day though, the EU is just progressively gearing up to rape you financially more and more.
Any country in the EU is eventually going to suffer the same problems. Not worth it if that's what you're trying to escape. Unless you're a mutt, then the EU boot over your face might be an incremental upgrade to the US boot over your face in some regards.
Nigger you're a doctor, just go to the states and make $600k a year
Its Montenegro its a very tiny country but sure whatever you say. Tiny countries are good for rich people to retire in.
Typically a safe withdraw rate is 4% where historically you can withdraw for 30 years before your portfolio hits 0 in 95% of cases or something like that. So that's 40k/year or 3.3k. After taxes or aiming closer to 3% if you expect to live more than 30 years then 2k/month would be a safer target.
I looked into Philippines and Thailand and it seems possible to live a comfy neet lifestyle off 2k/mo, rent, food, utilities, internet, healthcare, all fit within that budget. You will pay extra for western foods, and people will upcharge you where they can just because they see you're white, so you will pay more than a local. I visited Thailand for a few weeks and the lack of english speaking locals gets mildly annoying when you want to buy something or eat somewhere.
The hardest part seems to be a visa, Thailand you can just pay ~20k to stay 5 years, or try to leave and come back as a tourist every few months, or get a student visa, or apply for some entrepreneur visa. All of these cost some money, and aren't permanent, it sucks. Rent will also be way more expensive if you're not renting for a full year.
Phillippines visa is easier once you're over 35, you can just get a retirement visa, deposit 50k and use it for real estate or investments, and you're good to stay and come/go as much as you want. Power outages are somewhat common though and people/service in general is less reliable. That most speak english is a nice bonus though.
Eastern Europe seems like it could be preferable, but I haven't seen any nice safe english speaking areas where you can live off 2k/month. I also considered mexico or some latin america countries, and the cost of living seems doable, but I hate the spanish language and the crime rate is retardedly high.
There's also the risk that your dollar is worth less 5 years down the line, and it becomes cost prohibitive to stay there and you'll have to move bck to the US and wagie again until you have enough for retirement.
you can easily get 4% interest just by holding USDC. that's 40k/year if you have 1 mil. that covers living expenses in most places in America.
i can only talk for my own country, Hungary, but i imagine it's much the same in other east european shitholes.
your 1mil USD translates to around 300million local currency (huf). for that you can buy a palace and be left with nothing, or if you're smart, you look for a quiet village with a 95%+ Hungarian population (there are lots of villages that are plagued by gypsies), buy a family home there which ranges in price from 3mill to 20mill, depending on what comforts you want. then also buy a few apartments in budapest inner city and out them out for rent to get a taxable passive income, that will keep the local IRS (NAV) off your back and ensure you wont run out of money. get a wife if you haven't already and live like the local lord till you die.
I have been NEETing in Thailand with $1.2M so that should be doable
addendum:
apartments in budapest inner city range in price from 30mill to 80mill.
i would look for small apartments close to universities and big hub points which can see on the map, they cost between 40-50 mill. you can rent these out for between 180k-250k per month.
there was one time i was visiting some relatives in their village and in the local pub i mean this random dutch guy who was distance working at a ditch company in IT. he was getting Dutch salary while living in Hungary and paying Hungarian prices. he literally lived like a king
The dumbest thing you could do is sit on a million dollars thinking it will ride you out for the rest of your life. Sure you could move to SEA, but what then? Live as minimal as possible? You will probably last 2-3 years of that sure.
Depends what kind of lifestyle you want to live.
You will obviously not drive a mercedes, live in a mansion and eat caviar on a weekly basis but you can retire and live a middle class life style even in Hungary. You could invest 80% in index stocks and live off of 200k for years after you buy a house. By the time you run out you will have more than a 1M.
excuse the typos, I'm phoneposting
Its brutal if you dont know japanese and want to move there especially if youre gonna deal with Japanese banks.
You can’t run to a different country. Your problems will catch up to you.
Your mistake is to think of $1 million as money to be spent, when in fact, it is money to provide you an income to retire on. You can get 4 or 5% annually off fairly safe investments such as a mixture of bonds and blue chip dividend stocks - so from $1 million you might get $50,000 a year as an income. That is definitely enough in parts of Europe - if you own your home outright. The problem is - to do so - you need to take some of that income to buy the house - like $300k or so. So your income is now reduced to $35,000k annually - its probably enough if youre really frugal, but youre not going to have a really great lifestyle with that. So basically - try and get to $2 million or $3 and that will definitely be enough - your race is against your own ageing process and inflation. Good luck.
You dont have to go east.
In Sweden, if you have $1m in stocks, your yearly return after tax would be about $50k (7% avg), which is higher than what any work that requiers a masters degree like doctor or engineer. And there is no wealth tax, just standard 30% cap gains tax that you can write off against losses.
So Sweden should work.
We even have rent control so you can rent a 1br apt in stockholm city for 500$ a month. You would live like the king.
I calculated it and for me to retire with my current lifestyle here in Sweden I need about $200k. It's easy.
Also healthcare and stuff is free.
then also buy a few apartments in budapest inner city and out them out for rent to get a taxable passive income
ngl becoming a landlord in a foreign country with its own rules and regulations and dealing with tenets and courts to evict them if they don't pay all in a foreign language, and maintaining each one just sounds like a massive pain in the ass for an otherwise comfy retirement.
really? is it 3000 a month to live in a shoebox surrounded by crackheads and indians in amsterdam?
In Sweden, if you have $1m in stocks, your yearly return after tax would be about $50k (7% avg)
10% returns on index funds sounds uncommon, typically it's 8% pre-tax and 4% of that gets reinvested towards inflation and the other 4% is your safe withdrawal rate.
If you're getting 8% pre-tax, which with a 30% cap gain tax is 5.6%, reinvesting 4% for inflation leaves you with a withdrawal rate of 1.6%, or 16k/year which doesn't sound doable at all, that 30% tax rapes you.
In leaf country I'd only pay 5.5k in tax from 80k in capital gains or 6.88%
Fellow swede here, you seem to forget that our country is experiencing rapid demographic shift. There are fewer and fewer places you can go where you can ignore that reality every year no matter how much money you have.
Also healthcare and stuff is free.
True, but that healthcare is also dogshit. Enjoy a new doctor who barely speaks Swedish every 3 months. Unless you pay extra for private insurance, which defeats your point.
Your points about taxes and rent control are good points though (and there's more you can do to minimize taxes here).
that's why having a local wife would help. she knows the language and grewup in that system so already has a more inherent understanding. other than that its much the same as what you'd have in the West too regarding evictions and the like.
if you can get a lawyer as a wife you'd be golden
Feel like an outsider
Move to Colombia crypto is very popular
Ridiculous. Do you not have any idea how to live frugally? Or how to make divvies off a million?
Yes live and die frugally, go do it. Thats why I said its stupid not to leverage the million dollars into something that will make you at least with a sense of enjoyment.
SEA yes. With $1M you can retire comfortably at 45-50 in Thailand. My dad is over there spending the rest of his days smoking weed and fucking asian women. It sounds nice.
I can already speak fluent Japanese
Everything there looks like literal utopia
Let me guess, you can say "konnichiwa" and "kawaii", maybe even "ringo suki desu ka?".
Moving to the US as a doctor is basically impossible. I'd be better border hopping and becoming a dishwasher.
If anyone is plan on either being a wagie there or wanting a Japanese wife then you are in for a bad time, other than that it's fine.
If you put 10% of that into UAFC to make 100X yes its possible
Still better than working.
4% dividends in a diversified, boring boomer stock portfolio would generate $40k/year in passive income while the value of stocks adjusts along with inflation, which is more than enough to live well in SEA, eastern europe and southern europe.
If you fully geomaxx by changing your tax residency to somewhere with no or low capital gains tax, you could live like a king on $40k in a lot of countries.
$40k in dividends is tax exempt in the USA too