What should you focus on to accelerate FIRE?

[IdleThought]

Having run the numbers myself recently, I found that the calculation changes quite a bit once you FIRE (1-5m in the bank/stock market, a lot of time but probably kids in school/ university, etc).

The travel around the globe with backpack isn’t exactly suitable for most people given those constraints. Finding a city or village in a safe country with decent infra/without or little wealth tax/ low dividend taxation/ good climate/ good and international education/ good healthcare/ reasonable distance to old friends and family/ stable politics/ etc is at least my framework for that time. In short that all brings you back to the usual suspects Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, North of Italy, potentially Switzerland, etc.

[1000000CHF]

@Julianek

I would not be so pessimistic, as I really think that this is what our society is slowly transitioning to, FIRE movement or not.

Well, I think you’re overly optimistic. That’s because you assume people are as smart and disciplined as you. I assume they’re as dumb and undisciplined as I am. At least to me most of them seem to look more like me than you.

[1000000CHF]

I should have mentioned in my first post starting the digression that we actually have discussed this topic already in another thread:

Spending your retirement abroad

It seems like many of us have thought at some point to spend their retirement abroad. Switzerland is a wonderful country, but at some point the local cost of life makes us realize that with a given amount of capital we could retire earlier in other countries. Therefore, i think it would be a good idea if each member could participate and give some tips an advice on countries they know particularly well. The idea is is to give a broad picture of each country with as much relevan…

[ma0]

@Julianek

Having a basecamp in a country with a low cost of living to minimize fixed housing expenses (like Poland or Bulgaria) where i would live 3-4 months and spend the rest of the year to explore the world. Nice idea anyway.

Try for a second to consider Switzerland your base camp. You can for a second consider a small flat somewhere (1000chf per month) and a simple health insurance to be on the safe side (beware that you can’t join the supplemental insurances on a later age!) 3000chf p.a… So you can spend a minimum of 15000 chf per year to have a base camp here which also helps for tax reasons. This might be a huge amount if you can live in Poland for 12000chf total but it might save your life later.
In other words: Health conditions and land stability scares me. I’d prefer a safe place to consider home even if it might mean to have to spend more.

[IdleThought]

Again that only works for a single without family. So by far not the norm and a rather sad vision of someone’s fire end state.

Either you live there or not . If you do, you pay for premium food, have kids in the local schools, etc etc. It might still make sense but just don’t trick yourself with artificially low expense assumptions.

[Cortana]

@IdleThought

sad vision of someone’s fire end state.

Why? You don’t need kids to be happy.

[IdleThought]

Why do you pick only the second part of my statement? I said “single without family”. Is that your desired end state once you hit fire?

-https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053535705001745?via%3Dihub
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5222535/ (avoid getting kids in the us )

[ma0]

It might be his dsire to live alone, why consider it sad? Don’t judge him.
(I agree that being alone is not the best …)

Anyway mine was an example and you can adjust for two. Regarding kids, I did post on this forum questions/answers about homeschooling and other solutions. It’s doable if that’s what you want.

Also I didn’t write about low expense assumptions. I just pointed out the 2 main points (IMHO) you must have to consider a safe swiss homebase. 1000chf/month for a small flat and 3000chf/year for the health insurance. Multiply x2 or more if you are part of a family. That’s the base. Then you have to add your real expenses on top of it.

Anyway we are going out of topic too much.

[OogieBoogie]

Compare to the classic investments of ETF’s or shares, a real estate investment is normally not the best option. Exception is unless you get a house/flat where the location is superb. But as a house owner myself, I see owning a house more as an investment in my quality of my life. I don’t care about the potential noises of neighbors above/below and if I want to change anything in the house - I just do it. When I am old and a smaller flat would be easier, the kids might have an option to take it (or sell it). And the maintenance costs are not that super high, but this might change in the future. With the low rates (i do actually get some money back), I just putted 2k (what a rented flat might cost) aside and am good to go.