Hello Folks of r/ExpatFIRE, here we have month 7 of living in Da Nang, and month 9 of World Travel. Some of you might be thinking how is this World Travel if all we did was stay in Da Nang, and that is a fair point. Back in March, shortly after the Iran "War" started our portfolio was at an all time low. Being fully retired after only 5 months, I made the decision to hunker down and draw as little from our portfolio and signed up for long term leases for houses, transportation and mobile internet. Little did we know it recovered by April and by May it was an all time high and is currently at it's all time high so in hind sight...we didn't have to hunker down and I think our ability to adapt on the fly is what will help us with our initial SORR risk. Without further ado, below is cumulation of AI output from my month long spreadsheet for the cost of living in Da Nang, Vietnam. Happy to answer any questions and/or feel free to look at previous posts for average cost of living. I have over 7 months data of cost by now.

Housing & Utilities: $496.24 Total

• Rent (Long-stay apartment): $403.93 (Fixed daily rate equivalent to $13.03/day)
• Electricity Bill: $92.31 (2,400,000 VND — Two air conditioning run-time included)

Food & Dining: $869.82 Total

• Breakfast: $54.65 (10 entries| Avg: ~$5.47 / breakfast)
• Lunch: $307.51 (28 entries | Avg: ~$10.98 / lunch)
• Dinner: $356.27 (28 entries | Avg: ~$12.72 / dinner)
• Snacks, Drinks & Juices: $92.81 (Fresh juices, smoothies, street snacks, bakery items, coffee/tea)
• Groceries: $36.15 (Local markets & grocery store items)
• Drinking Water & Water Refills: $8.07
• Other / Misc Food: $14.37 

Flex & Activities: $459.80 Total 

• Pickleball, Gear & Apparel Breakdown: $227.79
  • Court Fees / Play Sessions: $133.36 (33 sessions)
  • Gear & Apparel: $67.51 (Pickleball shoes: $37.69 + Uniqlo shirt: $29.82)
  • Private Coaching / Lessons: $26.92 (2 dedicated coaching sessions)
• Massages: $120.53 (About $10-$12 per person, per session.)
• Entertainment & Outings: $111.48
  • Anniversary Dinner: $55.30 (Cajun Snow Crab Boil)
  • Movies & Cinema Outings: $29.23 (Spiderman Movie tickets: $23.08 + Movie snacks: $6.15, Lay down movie theater seats with blankets and pillows in new mall)
  • Teacher Gift: $8.10
  • Subscriptions (Crunchyroll & Anime): $7.27
  • Coffee & Outing Snacks: $7.15
  • Community / FIRE Meetup: $4.67

Miscellaneous & Subscriptions: $336.96 Total

• Monthly Allocation of Annual Expenses: $148.83
  • Annual expenses split over 6 or 12 months
    • Life Insurance
    • Travel Insurance
    • Credit Card Fees
    • Spotify annual plan
    • VPN
    • Visa Run
• Vietnam Driver’s License Conversion: $107.69 
• Google One Annual Storage Plan: $49.97
• Monthly Cell Phone Plan: $15.58 ( Three cellphones, 6GB a day)
• Household Supplies & Toiletries: $14.89 (Laundry detergent: $10.31, Shampoo: $2.46, Dishwashing gloves: $1.54, Glue: $0.58)

Transportation / Commute: $60.56 Total

• Moped Rental (Monthly): $43.08
• Gasoline / Petrol: $8.07 (4 moped fill-ups)
• Grab Rides (Bike hires): $9.40 (7 individual rides)

Healthcare: $27.38 Total

• Dental Cleaning for TWO: $23.08 (600,000 VND)
• Pharmacy / Medication: $4.30 (112,000 VND)

GRAND TOTAL: $2,250.75

Hi r/ExpatFIRE,

So I did it! Today is officially my 1 year anniversary of leaving my cushy tech job. Time flies when you're unemployed.

Unfortunately, I didn't celebrate the way that I thought I would. I was at the hospital the entire week, supporting my partner as her mother was admitted with a longstanding issue (she's fine now). My partner slept at the hospital the entire week, so I tried my best to be bedside every day, brought them food/coffee every morning, took her home when needed, and tried to provide emotional support as best as I could given it was also her birthday. And at the same time, I'm planning an unexpected, un-budgeted trip back to LA next month to support my mother as she deals with a recurrence of bladder cancer.

So as I write this anniversary reflection, I wonder how different life would be had I never quit my job, if I spent just One More Year^TM like I initially planned, and if I never uprooted my life to move back to SE Asia. Would I be richer? Certainly, yes. Would I be happier? I don't think so. Would I have the flexibility to do what I did this week and next month? Absolutely not. I am where I want and wanted to be.

In my 7-month reflection post, I wrote about my anxiety in FIRE-ing, some mistakes I made, and the adjustments I'm making for the future. I thought I would take a moment to revisit those themes with you, along with other lessons learned in this FIRE journey.

Quick Note: NW & budget are still the same ($1.4M, ~$3,600/mo spending, ~3% SWR). I won't focus so much on the financials for this post, but you can read about my spending & QoL in Manila here. Timeline-wise, I moved to Manila in June 2025 and left my job in Sep 2025.

My Biggest Regret

My biggest regret is that I let my post-FIRE anxiety consume me in ways that were ultimately detrimental to my goal. I wish I could go back to a year ago today and tell myself the following: "one year from now, you are not going to have the worries you have today. So just sell all your company RSUs, put it in the SP500, don't dabble with individual stocks, and enjoy your year off to the fullest before thinking about next steps."

Had I listened, here's where I'd be today:

1. $100k-150k higher net worth (sigh, I can go into it in the comments)
2. Wouldn't have spent 100s of hours "researching" stocks, checking my brokerage 10 times a day, etc.
3. Wouldn't have suffered intense "should I go back or get another job" anxiety for the first several months
4. That extra time & energy could have been allocated much better elsewhere instead of a constant stressed state

While this is obviously the benefit of hindsight, you can sense a theme here. Maybe I'm just an anxious person lol. When I had first started posting on Reddit, I mentioned that my plan is to expatcoastFIRE because I planned to work again in the future albeit in a different role fitting to the lifestyle. Somewhere along the way, I lost that mental framing and started to get really anxious about my NW, fell into the comparison trap, and tried to find shortcuts to boost it (AI stocks, namely) instead of sticking to the proven strategy that got me here (VOO & chill). I mentioned in my 7month update I was going to step away, but when the AI bull-run happened shortly after, I got suckered in and got burnt pretty bad. Alas, no crying in the casino.

The Main Lesson

My main lesson for FIRE, I learned, is to make finances NOT the center of my life. Finances should be like background music. This is counter-intuitive because so much of FIRE is hyper-analyzing the Financials: the investments, the SWR, the COL, yada yada yada. And so it's understandable that the habits we build in pursuit of FIRE are present once we FIRE. It's like a muscle memory that needs de-programming. Without income coming in or a job to keep you busy, you start to become fixated on the other parts of the equation and it can easily consume you.

But despite my regret, I'd argue this was my best year ever. I am so happy I made the decision to quit my job and move back to SE Asia. I developed a much deeper relationship with my partner, traveled to 12 countries in 12 months, and learned to enjoy the slowness of every day. I was never the type to live luxuriously nor someone keen to climb the corporate ladder. I started the FIRE path at 17, saved aggressively while still going on expat adventures, and got several lucky breaks along the way. I never felt, for one moment, that I sacrificed quality of life or my yearn for adventure because of FIRE, even when my savings rate reached 75%+.

Reflecting upon this week (and this year), I think that's what the I in FIRE meant for me. Independence not from corporate life itself, but also from finances consuming your energy away from meaningful time elsewhere. With that said, I am just as excited for what's next as I am proud of how I got here. I need to remind myself constantly that I accomplished something extraordinary, I should feel proud of it, and forgive myself for the mistakes I'll inevitably make. During this anniversary milestone, I'm more grateful than ever for this path and the lessons it continues to teach me.

So What's Next?

I'm excited for what's next! Here's how I want to spend the next year:

1. Write often: writing these FIRE posts have been one of the delightful surprises of this year - I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. And thankfully, the reception has been wonderful and encouraging. So for as long as there's positive response to my posts, I'll continue to share them here.
2. Start earning an income: my goal for Year 2 is to fund my ~$4k budget entirely from entrepreneurial income in the coastFIRE sense, while maintaining the lifestyle/flexibility I hold dear today. I don't exactly know how just yet (consulting, writing, whatever), but I'm not nearly as anxious as I once was. If anything, I have a lot of self-confidence that I'll figure it out!
3. Prioritize health: this was #1 in my last post and it's still true. I feel like I aged far more going from 34 to 35 than my previous 4 years of my 30s. Part of it is living in a high-UV, unhealthy country like the Philippines and the other part has been declining discipline/willpower. I've incorporated healthy habits like weekly pickleball/swimming, cooking everyday, and sleep hygiene, but there's still tons of work here to age gracefully (so I can enjoy my life!)
4. Move finances to the background: in my last update, I wrote "be active in your active income, be passive in your passive income." I plan to shift my portfolio by EoY to the point where I will only check once per month to withdraw funds. It was a mistake not abiding by it when I wrote it 5 months ago, so I don't want to continue making the same mistake now.
5. Continue with personal life milestones: get married, have kids, etc. Nothing's changed there.

Thanks for reading this far! I know it's a bit longer than usual, so I appreciate any feedback or words of encouragement. If there's anything else you'd like me to write about, please let me know below.
~ u/MaroonJacket

Assuming it didn’t matter for work where you lived, what is the most amazing place you have lived where this budget works?

Background: I’m a bit of a foodie so good food and fresh fruit is a major plus! I like water sports, sailing, snorkeling, scuba, skiing, backpacking, hiking mountains. I love run clubs and daily social clubs with likeminded outdoor and fitness oriented people 👍

I’m an American 28M if that matters also

I have a taxable account in fidelity that I now need to sell off and invest it, and I live in the EU, but…

1. I’m a US expat, so looking at IBKR
2. What would I even invest it in? VTI and VXUS are out because of PFIC.

I don’t have a US address, so that’s out ie staying with the same US brokerage.

And I’m not loving buying the options idea or buying stocks in the top 20 blue chip companies.

Someone throw me out a few ideas on what you’ve done. Renouncing my citizenship is an option but then I’ll be dinged tax wise on my country of residence for taxes on my Roth.

I will be collecting an income again soon, but where do I put the extra money to accumulate like VTI, VSUS or otherwise.

I'm not sure how appropriate this post is for this sub but I have been contemplating moving to SE Asia for a year (or more) after multiple trips in the past 2 years. I'm 30 years old, single, no kids, no pets, and looking to completely pivot from what i'm doing to experience the world a little bit.

I have my house that's paid off (500k value) that I could rent, although i'd prefer not to.

I have 200k in an investment account mostly in VOO, 120k in crypto, about 250k liquid that i'm slowly moving into stocks.

As for my home property tax is one lump sum of 5k yearly and my homeowners insurance is 2k. All in with electric/internet/water i'm about 12K a year to my house. So it would make sense to rent it out as I can get a minimum 2k-2500 a month and up to 3k.

As for my work, i'm self employed and have no real work experience, so working abroad is not much of an option for me unless I develop some new skills, or work for low wages. I would be sacrificing my current income entirely to move abroad. Do I have enough money to say bye bye to my current hustle and come back in a year or two fresh on the drawing board?

I have lived a nomadic life throughout my adult life, Turkish, moved to Germany at 18 for uni, then to Norway for work, and now have been in Canada for the past 5 years, i am currently 28. During all the moves I had relatively low savings as I have done an MSc and saved for a PhD on top of move expenses.

I currently have 28,000 CAD in my TFSA, 14,000 CAD in emergency funds. 12,000 Euros parked abroad for family emergencies. My PhD fellowship + freelance income brings 4450 a month pre-tax. I need to put aside 1000 for cross border tax stuff every month, and my livings costs are 1800. I also have 1150 a month of tuition payments. This leaves 500 bucks or so for savings. My situation will improve in 2027 with much lower tuition payments, but I still have some cross tax stuff that i need to save up for next April, on top of visa costs etc...

What are some feasible goals for someone like me? I expect to go back to move again in 5-6 years, depending on academic positions I can find. Which Canadian accounts make the most sense for me, especially if I do not end up staying in Canada? What are some good retirement goals for an expat that has her pension all over the place?

Been lurking here a while. Would like some outside eyes before I make a decision I can’t easily reverse.

The numbers:

• Expat in the Gulf — no income tax, but also no pension, no social security, no state safety net, and residency is tied to my job

• Portfolio: $330k VWRA, all in a taxable brokerage (IBKR)

• No bonds, no cash buffer beyond 6 months of expenses, no property

• Contributing \\\~$7k/month, but lumpy — I let cash pile up locally and transfer every 2–3 months

• Income is salary plus freelance USD work on the side

If I stretch to 30 months I cross $625k by first quarter 2029, which has been my mental milestone.

Where I’d retire matters a lot here. The plan is not to retire in the Gulf. It’s Pakistan (home) or Southeast Asia, where $2,000–2,500/month is a genuinely comfortable middle-class life, not ramen. That’s what makes $625k look like a real number instead of a fantasy.

Am I over-solving this? Every calculator says I’m fine. My gut says keep grinding to full FIRE at 37–38. I can’t tell if that’s prudence or just fear wearing prudence as a costume.

Hi- i recently got a new remote job and I’ve been back in the states for the past 2 months but i have an apartment in Panamá i would like to return to for a few months. I have a company LG thinclient that i have to login to for work and a meraki camera that both have to be connected via ethernet. My company has its own VPN that shows I’m in Chicago no matter where I login from. I have looked into flashedrouters but cant find much reliable real person reviews about them. Anyone in here used them/know someone who has? If not any recommendations should i build my own home tunnel system that connects to my home ISP here in the states?

I’m an American in my late 50s who left the U.S. and moved to Colombia. Financially, I’m in a position where living abroad can work, but the experience here hasn’t worked out the way I hoped.

I’ve struggled much more than I expected with building a community, the language, bureaucracy, healthcare, taxes, and simply feeling like I have a life of my own. I’m also in a relationship here, but I don’t know if it will last, and I’ve realized that I don’t want my ability to stay in a country or have a home to depend on a relationship.

I’m now considering Mexico, particularly Guadalajara, and I should qualify for temporary residency. But the thought of starting over in another country alone is honestly pretty intimidating.

I’m less interested in recommendations for cheap countries than I am in hearing from people who have actually done something similar, especially people who moved abroad alone in their 50s or 60s.

How did you find a place to live without knowing the system? How did you build friendships and a routine? How long did it take before the new place actually felt like home? Did you use relocation or immigration help?
And maybe the biggest question for me: if the first country you tried didn’t work out, how did you keep that from feeling like a failure and find the nerve to try again?

I’d especially appreciate hearing the things you wish you’d known before doing it alone.

Does anyone have any experience with how US Roth accounts are taxed in Spain? All the research I have done says there is no definitive answer as to whether Roth accounts are taxed as Pension/Ordinary income or as Capital Gains/Investment income. Wondering if anyone has any direct experience with this or any thoughts

I'm a physician in my early 40s, married with three kids ranging from preschool to early teens.

We're seriously considering moving to France (or possibly elsewhere in Western Europe if you have other options/opinions).

This started as a FIRE idea, but I've realized the actual goal isn't necessarily to retire as early as possible. It's to get to the point where work no longer determines where we live or how we organize our lives.

We like Europe, would like our youngest to spend a meaningful part of childhood there, would initially use an international school, and would encourage our older kids to consider European universities.

We're also increasingly unhappy with aspects of the social/political direction of the US. I'm not trying to turn this into a political discussion or predict that America is going to collapse.

My thinking is basically:

If the US remains "meh" — frustrating at times, but still somewhere we're comfortable living — we continue saving/investing for another 5–7 years and execute the original plan.

If things change substantially enough that we genuinely don't want to live here anymore, I'd like to have the ability to move much sooner, potentially in ~3 years.

So I'm basically trying to build an exit option, whether we ever exercise it or not.

Financially, we're doing well but aren't ultra-wealthy. We currently have roughly $1.5–2M total net worth, primarily investments/retirement accounts and home equity, and we're still saving aggressively.

If we continue for another 5–7 years, sell the house when we leave, and markets are reasonably cooperative, I'm estimating we'd have somewhere around $2.5–3.5M available by our late 40s/around 50. Obviously that's a range, not a guarantee.

So I'm considering two paths.

Path 1: America stays "meh"

Stay another 5–7 years, keep accumulating, then move with something around ~$3M.

At that point I could potentially just FIRE:

• 3% of $3M = $90k/year
• 3.25% = $97.5k/year
• 3.5% = $105k/year

We'd eventually have Social Security on top of that.

That seems like enough for a very comfortable life in much of France. We're not interested in LeanFIRE, but don't need a crazy luxury lifestyle either — nice home, restaurants, car, European travel, trips back to the US, etc.

Path 2: Leave much sooner and CoastFIRE/semi-retire

This is where my profession makes things unusual.

I can potentially make around $250–350/hour working in the US.

If three years from now we decide we'd rather establish our lives in Europe than keep waiting for the ideal FIRE number, we could move with substantially less than $3M and I could continue working in the US periodically.

Something like 400–600 hours/year could generate roughly $100k–200k gross, depending on rate.

Instead of working every month, I'd potentially fly back to the US 6 times/year, work a concentrated block of shifts, and then return to France.

At ~500–600 hours/year, that's roughly 60–75 eight-hour shifts over the entire year.

This initially sounded insane to me because of the international commute.

Then I compared it with what I do now.

I currently work about 15 shifts/month and commute ~30 minutes each way.

That's:

180 shifts/year × ~1 hour round-trip commute = ~180 hours/year commuting.

Six Europe-US work trips at roughly 14–16 hours door-to-door each direction would also be somewhere around ~170–190 hours/year of travel.

Obviously those aren't equivalent. Flying across the Atlantic is much more disruptive and I'd be away from my family for ~1–2 weeks at a time.

But the total transportation time is surprisingly similar.

And the bigger difference is total work-related time.

Current:

~1,440 work hours + ~180 commuting hours = ~1,620 hours/year

Europe/semi-retired:

~500–600 work hours + ~180 travel hours = ~680–780 hours/year

So even with the ridiculous-sounding international commute, I'd potentially reclaim 800–900 hours/year, with long stretches where I don't work at all.

The accelerated plan would basically be:

Move in ~3 years → work ~400–600 hours/year in concentrated US blocks → mostly leave the portfolio alone → let compounding continue → gradually reduce work → eventually FIRE completely.

The default plan would be:

Stay another 5–7 years → accumulate ~$3M-ish → move → potentially stop working completely.

We'd rent initially rather than buy so that we have an escape hatch if living in France/Europe isn't what we imagined.

I realize there are plenty of complications: US/French taxes, visas/residency, healthcare, international school, maintaining US professional licensing/credentialing, accessing retirement accounts early, and whether flying back to the US 5–6 times/year becomes miserable.

So... am I crazy?

Does the accelerated version sound like a reasonable CoastFIRE/semi-retirement strategy, or am I massively underestimating how disruptive those US work blocks would be?

And if the US stays basically "meh," would you keep accumulating until ~$3M and potentially retire completely, or move earlier anyway and use the ability to earn a high income from relatively few hours?

Would especially love to hear from anyone doing ExpatFIRE, CoastFIRE/ChubbyFIRE, or maintaining US employment while living abroad.

When we were planning our move to France, we read plenty of forum posts and discussions on how great the US-France tax treaty seemed and how one could hypothetically owe no income tax to France as a US retiree.

But what we couldn't find was many firsthand accounts of it actually working.

So after almost two years of living in France, I'm here to provide that firsthand account: it really does work.

We filed our French taxes for 2025 early this year and declared US income consisting of: dividends, interest, capital gains, and retirement income (401k -> Roth rollover).

After some back and forth with the tax office where we had to "prove" the income (we used our 2025 US tax return) we got the result: €0 owed in income tax and social charges.

We're still waiting to hear back later this year on the Puma taxes and healthcare charges. But those haven't even been finalized for this year, so it's impossible to predict.

I work as a merchant marine engineering officer. I make about 160k a year working 6 months out of the year. other 6 months i often live in thailand on like 3 to 4k a month, could be less if i tried. maybe will try a different country but chiang mai stole my heart these past few months. After this 4 month hitch, ill have 250k in the bank, invested all in diversified ETFs making slow but steady growth.

Heres the thing: i hate this job and my lifestyle is so cheap that i could halt all growth and just sail like 2 to 3 months a year and id be "done" which sounds really enticing.

Issue: im like 24.

i feel and hear if theres a time to be miserable and work hard, its now. the issue is also that my shipping job may go away within the next like 5 years, lets say? or it never will. who knows. so my question is, whats THE NUMBER i need to hit to say "okay im done, i can sail like 2 to 3 months a year and even if my job vanishes ill have enough cash to live abroad on 35k a year basically forever so long as i do small side hustles or easy remote gigs from time to time and my investments cover the rest."

Is that number 250k? 500k? a million? does such a number exist??? I dont want to work harder than i have to. id like to enjoy my life. but if im irresponsible here and this job vanishes without sufficient cushion then ill need to move back to the US and get a regular 9-5 and be.... normal. which is absolute last resort and i have no interest in at all.

According to most, my number is 1mil. i could have 1 mil working 6 months a year total by the time im about 30ish. thats also way easier to say and plan than do. this industry sucks. i also question how much pain is worth how much optimization. like lets say i work till im 30 doing this then i dont need to do ANYTHING WOO HOO. or could i work till im 26 then still have to do stuff just... not much. like only need to make a little money on the side. between 500k and have to work remote a bit and 1 mil not need to work at all but i had to ship for 4 extra years, id take the 500k...

Curious to your thoughts. Keep gunning it 6 months a year? if so... for what and how long? or do you think ive already approached a point where i can begin easing up and relaxing on the hitches like work 4 or 3 or even 2 months a year.

(this is all ignoring the potential that i actually want kids or a real house or whatnot in the future, which i can cross that bridge if necessary with a 9-5 in the US and at that point this question would be irrelevant since i can make perfectly good money on land in the usa.)

Let me know your thoughts.

I’m 52, American, and have lived in Asia for about 25 years, including 23 years in China. For many years I ran a successful education business here, but that chapter ended because of regulatory changes. I don’t want to go back into teaching, and I also don’t want to raise my 7-year-old son in China long term.
My wife is Chinese, and we’re planning to move to Malaysia mainly for our son’s education. We both like Asia, and I especially like Southeast Asia. Malaysia feels like a good fit because it’s multicultural, English-speaking, and much easier financially than the U.S.
Financially, we’re around $2M net worth, with about $1.5M invested in the U.S., plus cash and property in China. Our expected spending in Malaysia would probably be around $60K–$70K a year. We also have some rental income, and our son’s future college costs are being funded separately by his grandmother.
The part I’m struggling with is less “Can I make the numbers work?” and more “What should I actually do with the next phase of my life?”
If it were just my wife, son, and me, I could easily see us staying in Malaysia for many years, maybe permanently. I don’t really feel a strong pull back to the U.S. lifestyle anymore.
The biggest wildcard is my mother. She’s 80, still healthy, still working as an adjunct professor, and lives in the U.S. I’m close to her and think a lot about what happens if she eventually needs me nearby. Ideally, I’d love for her to spend more time in Malaysia or even move there someday, but obviously that’s not something I can count on.
My son is another variable. We’re happy with the idea of school in Malaysia, but I want to keep the option open for U.S. middle school or high school if things change. College in the U.S. is probably the most likely path, although Singapore or Hong Kong would also be possibilities.
So I guess my real question is for people who have actually FIRE’d abroad with a spouse, kids, and family ties back home:
How did you decide whether to treat the overseas move as your permanent retirement, or just as the next 5–10 year chapter?
Did you settle in and let life develop, or did you keep actively preparing for a possible return home?
And for those of you who had aging parents back in your home country, how did that affect the way you planned your retirement abroad?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have actually lived this kind of cross-border life, because I’m realizing that the financial side is probably the easier part of the decision.

Acuerdo IGM-016-2025 says the applicant must show a “constancia que refleje la continuidad de la recepción de los ingresos,” and then lists as one acceptable form a bank statement from your country of origin “u otra prueba de solvencia financiera directamente de la institución.”

Those two phrases point in different directions. Continuidad de la recepción de los ingresos is a flow. Prueba de solvencia financiera is normally a balance, meaning enough money rather than money arriving monthly.

So which does IGM actually apply? If someone has substantial assets in a foreign account but no recurring monthly payment landing anywhere, can they satisfy the requirement by showing a balance large enough to cover $1,250 plus $300 per dependent over time? Or does the Subdirección de Extranjería insist on seeing income actually received, month after month, regardless of how much is sitting in the account?

Looking for people who have actually filed or worked with a Guatemalan immigration attorney on this, rather than what the reglamento says on paper.

My plan is to exit California next year with about 8M at 45. Dual Czech and US passport holder.

• Primary Objective: Legally eliminate California state capital gains tax (up to 13.3%) on a $5.4M vested stock liquidation (NVDA/GOOG) while building an audit-proof global domicile.
• Secondary Objective: Establish a sustainable dual-continent lifestyle (6.5 months in Prague / 5.5 months in Bangkok) optimizing for climate, quality of life, and wealth compounding.
• Core Tax Shield: Czech Republic 3-Year Holding Period Rule (Časový test) providing a 0% capital gains tax rate for Czech tax residents on qualified securities held over 3 years.
• Federal Tax Baseline: Retain standard US federal long-term capital gains tax (20%) plus Net Investment Income Tax (3.8%), resulting in an effective ~17–23.8% total tax rate vs. 37%+ in California.
• Czech Healthcare Costs: As a Czech citizen residing in Prague without local employment income, you fall under the "OBZP" (Person without taxable income) category. For 2026, the mandatory monthly public health insurance premium for an OBZP is exactly 3,024 CZK. At current exchange rates, this equates to roughly 130USD permonth(1,560 per year).

We own in Ontario. No mortgage, just sitting there. The plan was always sell, take the equity, fund the expat life. Clean. Simple.

But now I'm second guessing the clean and simple part.

Do you sell before you go and rent abroad from day one? Or do you rent out the Canadian property and use that income as a cushion while you figure out where you actually want to be long term?

The rental income could cover a big chunk of monthly spend abroad. That part makes sense on paper. But managing a landlord situation from another continent sounds like a nightmare I don't want.

Sell and be done with it is tempting. No property headaches. But then you're fully committed to wherever you land, and what if the place doesn't work out after a year?

I've seen the post on never buying in Asia and I get that angle. But I'm asking about the before you go part. What did you actually do with your home country property?

Did you sell first? Rent it out for a trial period? Just pull the cord and go?

EU citizen, currently UAE resident. My visa is sponsored by a company I own here.

I don't want to run a company in the UAE anymore, and I don't expect to need one for the foreseeable future, so I'm planning to liquidate it sometime in 2027.

The problem is that if I shut the company down, I also lose my current basis for staying here.

I don't want to live in the UAE anymore either. But I'm already here, my infrastructure is set up here, and I need somewhere to be based while I figure out where I actually want to live.

So I'm thinking about getting a Golden Visa before shutting the company down, as it would decouple my residency from the company and give me a few years of certainty without forcing me to make a permanent move before I know where I want to go.

I seem to be eligible through a few routes, but the rules keep changing, some paths need nominations, etc. The simplest/cleanest option seems to be the term deposit route.

The rough plan would then be to keep a cheap rental here as a base and spend a good part of the year travelling and looking for somewhere I actually want to settle.

That seems workable for a while, but I also know that having a base somewhere I don't want to live, while spending months every year travelling, isn't a sustainable way to live long term.

Is using the Golden Visa as a holding pattern while I figure out the next move sensible?

And yes, I'm well aware of the geopolitical/security arguments around the UAE, so we can disregard those for the purpose of this post.

What other options should I be looking at? I don't want to move back to the EU.

Ultimately I want to find somewhere I actually want to settle down and buy property. Low tax matters, obviously, but quality of life matters more. The big issue with a lot of places that otherwise appeal to me is residency certainty.

Japan is a good example: I'd happily buy property there, but that doesn't give me residency. There may be temporary residence options, but then I'm back to renewals, changing rules, and no obvious long-term certainty.

I have enough to FIRE now at 49 in US, planning on staying at a new state job at least 3 years to be fully vested. Anyone early retire to Alberta/British Columbia with no intent of working or family in Canada? How difficult are the visa requirements? No legal issues or significant health history.

Ive seen engineers in vn with 10yrs experience make around 1k monthly and thats enough to support a family

Not to mention that people making $500 monthly are probably working 50-70hr weeks

Im curious as to why natives can get by with $500 a month whereas on here, its seems like 1.5k is borderline enough?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask a few questions to the ones that expat fired alone, without family or spouse/ girlfriend from back home.

I am 32, single male after a long relationship and I'm starting to look to go live abroad in less than a year.

However I am scared of the social life and how to create it, meet people and maybe find love because of the life we chose we are a bit on the side of the normal life spectrum.

I'm scared of only meeting people for the short term and not having a good base of friends/ close group once there because of the way some countries work (short visas etc)

How did it work out for you who went away alone ? Was it hard/long to meet people, did you practice a sport or a club of some sort ?

Do not hesitate to cite the country you're in when answering it might change how things work

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate some perspectives on living in Buenos Aires as an expat.

I am considering relocating from Milan for work. My company would cover most major expenses (housing and some other costs), so the move is not really about reducing my cost of living. It is more about career experience and potentially increasing my savings.

One of my concerns is that I currently live in a fairly international environment with easy access to the rest of Europe. From Milan I can easily spend weekends in France, Switzerland, visit family, attend cultural events, sports activities, concerts, etc. I am trying to understand what I would be gaining and losing in terms of lifestyle.

I often hear about Buenos Aires from digital nomads who earn in EUR/USD and benefit from the lower cost of living. I believe that my situation is a bit different because I do not come for lowering living costs but having significant coverage from my company. Then what I wonder is what is the impact of current economic situation would be on me... I would love social events (tennis clubs, sport events, music events -not late night out but concerts international djs etc), a nice house with amenities or social clubs that can elevate my international network so I don't "sacrifice" completely my current lifestyle over some money.

Could you help me understand how is the situation on this end? I know there is a high inflation in the country so many things must be limited for many people but is there still such activities to follow in which extend?

Also would foreign currency payment would overcome fully the inflation? because if the government take action to limit currency increase, I would be easily losing my advantage with my contract.

And I would appreciate any other info on aspects I might be missing.

Thanks

Anybody staying at merida rn? I got questions as to how much it costs a month to live around that area. I was thinking of cholul as well. I used Claude to help make a plan for 1,200- 1,500 a month, but I'd like to get some real experience answers. I can earn dual citizenship really quickly from my parents if that helps alot