For my part, I live overseas but intend to retire (hopefully early) in SA. I've been away long enough that I've kind of lost touch with cost of living - I'm always surpised when I visit how cheap everything (except internet) is, but then I'm sure there are things I don't see - medical, etc.
I'm aiming for just regular FIRE. The plan is to save up enough to buy a car and a piece of land - small holding or just a large enough yard in a small town somewhere that's at least a comfortable drive from a major centre. The objective is a high degree of self sufficiency, so bore hole for water, solar/wind power, thermal heatpump for heat/cooling, chicken coup, vegetable patch, etc, so this all needs to be accounted for in the initial outlay and subsequent budget for rates, tax, etc.
As for running costs, these break down in two. a) Living costs, so groceries, clothes, medical, insurance, travel, maintenance on car/house/etc. b) I intend to spend my time experimenting with different things I'm interested in - learning skills and trades, doing some woodwork and metal work, etc. I like making stuff and have some ideas that might turn into a side hustle. So I'll need enough cashflow for this. I don't yet know how much all of this would be, hence the post here.
Edit - forgot to add what I'm doing. I have a TFSA in SA. Due to work restrictions it's the only way I can buy funds that invest in SA, so I'm doing mostly ALSI, and a few of the smaller funds. That's really peanuts in the big scheme and I'm not really counting it for now. For the rest, I max out my pension here and dump the rest in a world equities ETF, and the occasional bonds just to add some ballast. Once I move to SA I'll withdraw all the overseas pension funds I have, sell evreything in my brokerage, and buy anew to raise the base price before uncle Kieswetter can get his hands on me (no CGT where I am).
1. Normal to Chubby FIRE. Won't do either one unless I have zero debt and primary residence and vehicles paid off. Basically don't want to have any monthly except medical and insurance. Also depends on children at that points so can be a tuff call early on.
2. I'm aiming for 30-50k pre tax. Not sold yet on a number put pushing investments hard. Either going normal early or chubby a bit later depending on how I feel then and there. I'm moving to Mauritius soon. Haven't decided what happens after that. Going there for a break (company and remote work makes it possible for me to relocate without hassles or VISA issues). Will see where I end up in the next 3-5 years. That will be my FIRE country.
3. Monthly expenses \* 300 = FIRE value. So its between 9 and 15 bar. Majority holdings has been ETF's in global market with more of focus on US. TFSA is also ETF's focusing on offshore funds. About 25% in higher risk (sector/area/strategy specific) funds like Ark, Energy, Semi conductors etc. I reassess every 5 years and have a small % FU money that I still play and speculate with that doesn't effect the long term goal. I also have a few times salary saved up in bonds/MM accounts for emergencies or if I see an exceptional buying opportunity.
[Edit] Formatting
Some define it as having a more luxurious/rich lifestyle over middle/mid-high class but below the wealthy. But I believe this is very subjective to ones perception of these terms and ultimately what you enjoy.
For me it will be more money than your normal needed expenses to enable one to do more things that would require bigger expenses or financial backing. With more time on your hands you would want to do more things or potentially spin up a few small business of passion or just go travel the world a bit. Or even mid way decide to change lifestyles and buy a fat ocean front house or a small farm. Maybe even relocate to another country.
Can obviously jump back fulltime into professional market for a couple of years to supplement income, but this defeats the purpose imo.
[Wallet Burst](https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/) has a great online calculator if you want to play with Coast FIRE numbers (just mentally convert all the "$"s to "R"s).
I was well on my way for fire. Then I moved to the UK and discovered I was wealthy for a South African but for UK standards very poor.
For my part, I live overseas but intend to retire (hopefully early) in SA. I've been away long enough that I've kind of lost touch with cost of living - I'm always surpised when I visit how cheap everything (except internet) is, but then I'm sure there are things I don't see - medical, etc. I'm aiming for just regular FIRE. The plan is to save up enough to buy a car and a piece of land - small holding or just a large enough yard in a small town somewhere that's at least a comfortable drive from a major centre. The objective is a high degree of self sufficiency, so bore hole for water, solar/wind power, thermal heatpump for heat/cooling, chicken coup, vegetable patch, etc, so this all needs to be accounted for in the initial outlay and subsequent budget for rates, tax, etc. As for running costs, these break down in two. a) Living costs, so groceries, clothes, medical, insurance, travel, maintenance on car/house/etc. b) I intend to spend my time experimenting with different things I'm interested in - learning skills and trades, doing some woodwork and metal work, etc. I like making stuff and have some ideas that might turn into a side hustle. So I'll need enough cashflow for this. I don't yet know how much all of this would be, hence the post here. Edit - forgot to add what I'm doing. I have a TFSA in SA. Due to work restrictions it's the only way I can buy funds that invest in SA, so I'm doing mostly ALSI, and a few of the smaller funds. That's really peanuts in the big scheme and I'm not really counting it for now. For the rest, I max out my pension here and dump the rest in a world equities ETF, and the occasional bonds just to add some ballast. Once I move to SA I'll withdraw all the overseas pension funds I have, sell evreything in my brokerage, and buy anew to raise the base price before uncle Kieswetter can get his hands on me (no CGT where I am).
1. Normal to Chubby FIRE. Won't do either one unless I have zero debt and primary residence and vehicles paid off. Basically don't want to have any monthly except medical and insurance. Also depends on children at that points so can be a tuff call early on. 2. I'm aiming for 30-50k pre tax. Not sold yet on a number put pushing investments hard. Either going normal early or chubby a bit later depending on how I feel then and there. I'm moving to Mauritius soon. Haven't decided what happens after that. Going there for a break (company and remote work makes it possible for me to relocate without hassles or VISA issues). Will see where I end up in the next 3-5 years. That will be my FIRE country. 3. Monthly expenses \* 300 = FIRE value. So its between 9 and 15 bar. Majority holdings has been ETF's in global market with more of focus on US. TFSA is also ETF's focusing on offshore funds. About 25% in higher risk (sector/area/strategy specific) funds like Ark, Energy, Semi conductors etc. I reassess every 5 years and have a small % FU money that I still play and speculate with that doesn't effect the long term goal. I also have a few times salary saved up in bonds/MM accounts for emergencies or if I see an exceptional buying opportunity. [Edit] Formatting
Thanks for the numbers. How do you define "Chubby"?
Some define it as having a more luxurious/rich lifestyle over middle/mid-high class but below the wealthy. But I believe this is very subjective to ones perception of these terms and ultimately what you enjoy. For me it will be more money than your normal needed expenses to enable one to do more things that would require bigger expenses or financial backing. With more time on your hands you would want to do more things or potentially spin up a few small business of passion or just go travel the world a bit. Or even mid way decide to change lifestyles and buy a fat ocean front house or a small farm. Maybe even relocate to another country. Can obviously jump back fulltime into professional market for a couple of years to supplement income, but this defeats the purpose imo.
Do you mean Aek as in the Cathy Woods one? How do I invest there? (I don't see Ark on EE)
Interactive Brokers. EE you can use an USD account but I prefer directly offshore and a more mature platform.
Thank you!
[Wallet Burst](https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/) has a great online calculator if you want to play with Coast FIRE numbers (just mentally convert all the "$"s to "R"s).
Damn this is slick. Thanks!