Places Where You Can Retire on $200,000 and Feel Rich

[KTP]

And if he can't drive with a broken back at least he can polish the fenders

[keelsidedown]

Originally Posted by GordMay

For anyone seriously exploring their retirement options, our sister site, “Early Retirement”, might be a good resource.
☞ Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community

FireCalc is a simple, but powerful retirement calculator.
☞ https://www.firecalc.com/

The market is too weird right now...

- stock market can make 20% corrections on successive 25 basis point increases while the world's hot money continues to jack share prices up while eliminating dividend issuers

- real estate is hard work and everyone has their hand in your packets and the distinct possibility of a meltdown as boomers retire and die

- municipal bonds subject to ever increasing demographic pressures and default possibility

- the risk free rate (AKA treasuries) not keeping up with headline inflation

Simply put, there are no good options. Most of the FIRE folks have never really had to suffer both unemployment and a multi year bear market. Most of the FIRE community assume that you'll continue to work and contribute to your retirement for another 20 years.

[keelsidedown]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

An interesting financial note about the DR is that if you deposit U.S. dollars into a bank, you'll receive around 4% but if you convert it to the native D.R. currency you'll receive 8%! A friend of mine has U.S. and DR citizenship and has a bank account there. He is quite happy with his 8% return.

In these situations the return is almost always absorbed by inflation of whatever the local currency happens to be. Not so bad if that's the currency you subsist off of, but you're going to be drawing down your principal over the long run (or, rather, inflation will be drawing it down).

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by keelsidedown

In these situations the return is almost always absorbed by inflation of whatever the local currency happens to be. Not so bad if that's the currency you subsist off of, but you're going to be drawing down your principal over the long run (or, rather, inflation will be drawing it down).

Only if you deposit small amounts.
Put say $150k aud in VND in donga bank when they were paying 18% and that a pretty good lifestyle right there.
You'd have to try real hard to spend it, probably be dead in a year or two.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

True, but there’s a lot of other places one can live in Canada where housing doesn’t cost “a zillion”. Small town anywhere that is more than 100 km from a large centre, and is not a touristy area, is going to be fairly cheap. Go north or east and prices can be very affordable.

But do you really feel wealthy if you have to fight the polar bear for the pillow at night?

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I suppose definitions vary widely, but for me I would not trade places with Bill Gates.

You would not want to give away billions of dollars helping people? Why not?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by roam

Cool, I'm pretty much a lamb in the woods when it comes to investing and am currently just trying to save a $100k so i can purchase a nice boat. It irks me to see my money sitting in my savings account not getting any sort of return but I'm too chicken to place it all in my lending club account.

How long until you are ready to buy?
- If it's 10-15yr, yes, get it in the market. Downturns tend to be under 2years. 3 is a really long downturn. You have time to ride it out.
- If it's 2yr, no, keep it conservative. A 20% downturn could derail your plan.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Of course there is debt and there is debt. If everyone followed this line of thinking then only the richest of us would ever be able to purchase a house. After all, most places your mortgage is about the same as your rent would be on the same place and given you gotta have a place to live, why not own it after 30 years of paying out a given cash stream vice having nothing? Plus fixed rate mortgages fix your payments, if you were saving up to buy a house in the San Fran area 30 years ago you'd be much further from your goal today than when you started, no matter the diligence.

Buying a house is really a chicken & egg problem. 30yr low interest loans have driven up house prices.

If mortgage rates went back up to a more sane 6-7% tomorrow, you would see a massive implosion in realestate prices.

Wide scale use of 30yr mortgages is a relatively recent phenomenon. People bought and owned houses before this started.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

That isn’t really true. I’ve had no debt except the monthly credit card that I pay off each month for years and am in the 830s.

But it matters little.

Credit score is better labeled "I love debt score".

Keeping and using a credit card is using debt. You may be one of the rare people who keep it under control but you would be exceptionally rare individual. It's very insidious how the system helps you spend more thru debt.

Taken to the extreme, if you have no debt whatsoever for around a decade, they can't calculate a credit score anymore.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Capt. Ray

Here in the Philippines you can rent a nice 2 bedroom house by a beach in a pleasant area for US$200 a month... That is $2,400 a year to rent a place you can buy for $10,000 which makes it rather tempting...

Define "nice house" & "pleasant area".

My office is in downtown Detroit. One of the young engineers wanted to do the urban lifestyle and for $50,000, she could buy a block with 10 - 2 bedroom houses. The biggest problem is they didn't want to deal with sales of a single house ($5k) because it wasn't worth their trouble.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

But do you really feel wealthy if you have to fight the polar bear for the pillow at night?

True, but if you can come to an agreeable arrangement, they really are quite warm to cuddle up to .

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Credit score is better labeled "I love debt score”.

Keeping and using a credit card is using debt. You may be one of the rare people who keep it under control but you would be exceptionally rare individual. It's very insidious how the system helps you spend more thru debt. ...

Exactly right. The fact is that most people carry credit card debt. All those points and cash back “rewards” are seductions to get people to charge more. The CC companies know this will mean bigger interest charges and bigger profits for them. There are some who can manage as SB does, but they are the small minority.

And as a side note, those points and rewards cards cost all of us money. They cost the merchants more to honour, and these higher costs are passed on to all their customers, so everyone is paying for your “rewards.” Since only the wealthy qualify for these high end cards, this is just another example of wealth transfer from the poor to the rich.

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

And as a side note, those points and rewards cards cost all of us money. They cost the merchants more to honour, and these higher costs are passed on to all their customers, so everyone is paying for your “rewards.” Since only the wealthy qualify for these high end cards, this is just another example of wealth transfer from the poor to the rich.

On top of that, in America the credit card rewards are tax free.

[jkleins]

There seems to be more “transaction” use then revolving credit.

“The percentage of U.S. households revolving credit card debt from month to month has been rising recently to 38 percent in 2018 after steadily falling from 41 percent since 2010, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling”

I don’t know if this is accurate but does seem reasonable. I know of no one who carries debt on a card but just about everyone I know uses them to transact business every month. I have had one since I was a teen and never carried a balance and the above statistic suggests it is not as “rare” as many think.

I do have to agree with the rewards crap. It just drives up the cost of goods and services. I wish there was some competition in that space. I was hopeful that Android and Apple Pay might shake things up but it doesn’t seem like they will.

Jim

[stevensuf]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Bit more than $5/day.. That will only buy me a Chinese takeaway of Singapore noodles and beef in black pepper sauces, or shrimp with veg..
Beer is another $3 for a 6 pack.. then theres my tobacco so.. $10/days more accurate plus petrol for the bike..

$3 for SIX PACK? Come on boatman, 33c for a tinny in lidl ,argus beer, or bestbrau from intermarche same price, you must be buying fancy superbock or sagres!

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by jkleins

There seems to be more “transaction” use then revolving credit.

“The percentage of U.S. households revolving credit card debt from month to month has been rising recently to 38 percent in 2018 after steadily falling from 41 percent since 2010, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling”

this is what I found:






Source: https://www.creditcards.com/credit-c...redit-tier.php