Journal of 25 y/o American retiring to 3rd world country

[JamesR]

I've often thought that I should offer some kind of travel service, since I see people paying $1000 for a flight, when I could find a reasonable equivalent for $400, but i don't really know how I would go about it - obviously travel agencies are a saturated field. ViajarBarato (elviajerobuson.com) offers a lot of amazing deals publicly, but I don't know how they monetize it.

There's a marketplace called https://flightfox.com/ where you could potentially hone that skill and get paid, but it's a bit of a competition, you only get paid if you have the winning airfare which I don't really like. Might be better to build your own separate service where people come to your website and ask for an airfare deal and pay 7% of the flight or whatever if they like the deal.


By the way, I kind of disagree that you're unemployable as a lawyer, a 2 year work gap could be easily discounted due to the fact you've been travelling a lot. Plus, if you do a functional resume, and list your job stuff by year (hide the month), etc, it's easier to make it look a bit better that way. In general, it's possible to get entry level job again, might not be as highly paid perhaps, or maybe you'd work for some non-profit NGO or perhaps a legal startup of some sort initially to build that work history. I had a 5 year gap in my history but I was still able to get my job of choice as a web developer - though I was actively working for a few months as a freelancer prior to the job.

[m741]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoy your journal. I'd love to hear more.

As far as lack of progression, are there any hobbies that you always wanted to learn that have a clear skill progression? I'm thinking something like playing an instrument, drawing, writing, running a lifestyle business, etc? Some overarching personal project that you can devote yourself to?

[almostthere]

Great journal. I'm a year and a half into retirement in an unnamed country in Latin America and I can totally identify with all your posts. I especially appreciated April 22 "Difficulties of Early Retirement".

Could you elaborate on the following section from the Feb 28 2014 entry:

After hours on Kayak, I managed to get a multi-destination flight through Bogota, Medellin, Rio, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre for $250 then we long-haul bused it through Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Jujuy, Uyuni, La Paz and Arequipa.

How in the world did you do buy that air ticket? I have a family or four and I'd love to travel, but at 500 to 700 per ticket times four is just too much. You post gave me a bit of hope that there are ways around this.

[JeanPaul]

Great journal. I'm a year and a half into retirement in an unnamed country in Latin America and I can totally identify with all your posts. I especially appreciated April 22 "Difficulties of Early Retirement".

Could you elaborate on the following section from the Feb 28 2014 entry:

After hours on Kayak, I managed to get a multi-destination flight through Bogota, Medellin, Rio, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre for $250 then we long-haul bused it through Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Jujuy, Uyuni, La Paz and Arequipa.

How in the world did you do buy that air ticket? I have a family or four and I'd love to travel, but at 500 to 700 per ticket times four is just too much. You post gave me a bit of hope that there are ways around this.

Well, they key to finding flight deals is always flexibility - you let the prices decide both destination and price. With that said, my particular price for South America involved using the Multi-Destination search on Kayak.es.
1) Experiment with destinations
2) Experiment with dates
3) Don't think you have to leave from the same airport you arrive at - on my big flight, I flew to Medellin, then flew out of Bogota, flew to Sao Paulo, flew out of Rio de Janeiro. If you see a stopover, why not try flying there, then leaving from your final destination?
4) Airline prices don't make any sense - adding EXTRA flights can reduce the price.

I just fooled around for a few minutes, since it's not a real flight, but it can be instructive.

Let's say we are in Santiago. We are flexible, so we decide to just look at some big airports in interesting destinations. Santiago to Bogota to Rio. http://www.kayak.es/flights/SCL,nearby- ... 2015-06-16

495 Euros, not so cheap.

But hey, maybe we can get an extra destination free - let's add Rio to Florianopolis at the end (it works the same with almost any Brazilian city).

http://www.kayak.es/flights/SCL,nearby- ... 2015-06-24

Wait a moment, we get the extra flight AND the price dropped to 389 Euros!

But there's some stopovers in there, Lima and Sao Paulo - what if we just flew directly to the stopovers?

http://www.kayak.es/flights/SCL,nearby- ... 2015-06-24

12 hours of flying, 3 flights and 5 cities for only 308 Euros. In this case, we got nonsense, since there's no real way to get from Lima to Bogota (although Sao Paulo is a nice stopover, since we can see both cities with only one road trip). But if the cities were closer together, we might have a nice option. And you can get the same price exchanging Florianopolis for Belo Horizonte, Brasilia etc. as the final destination.

But of course, the real key is experimenting. What about flying Tuesday/Tuesday/Tuesday, or Tuesday/Thursday/Wednesday, etc. etc. What about flying in to Cali, and leaving from Medellin? There are so many possibilities that at a certain point, you may just be better off getting a job and paying for overpriced tickets!

Hell, I just randomly tried one thing, going to Peru instead of Colombia, and it's even cheaper: 280 Euros
http://www.kayak.es/flights/SCL,nearby- ... 2015-06-24
You can also fly in to Lima and leave from Guayaquil, and it's a similar price. And getting from Lima to Guayaquil is actually doable - buses are cheap and comfortable (Cruz del Sur with wifi), and there are lots of interesting places and beautiful beaches along the way.

Who know what else there is by the tme you throw in Bolivia, Quito etc?

Edit: And here's a different idea, which is much sorter, but has the virtue of being almost a round trip:
http://www.kayak.es/flights/BUE,nearby- ... 2015-06-24
250 Euros for Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Rio-Florianopolis. From Florianopolis, you are a manageable bus down to see Porto Alegre, then Montevideo, a quick ferry ride to Buenos Aires. Flying all the way to Porto Alegre is not much more expensive.

Maybe you can find a similar idea incorporating more northerly destinations.

[almostthere]

That was truly amazing and educational. It seems to me that you are essentially putting together a list of one way tickets that just happen to be the cheap options from one airport to the next and substituting bus routes where necessary and feasible.

As someone that always saw tickets as essentially round trip that is really an eye opener.

One last question, which countries in S. America have straighter roads for long bus trips? I don't do well on curvy roads for long trips.

[JeanPaul]

Something can probably be done with finding hobbies and the like, but I think in large part the real solution to the problem is acceptance, being happy with where we are, rather than anxious about where we must go.

The truth is, for the vast majority of people, retired or not, “progress” is scarce. We are settled into jobs, hoping for raises every few years which may or may not beat inflation. Part of the attraction of sports (along with the sense of belonging and common purpose, of course) is that it is a vicarious speeded-up life with measurable progress. Every game has a clear result, every season is fresh – birth, life and death of a player within 10 years. Next year, you'll still be an Accountant - Class 2, but your team might draft a can't-miss prospect, trade for a new star, make the playoffs, win a championship. Of course, there are other palliatives - vicarious progress in the piano career of your child, or buying a bigger TV or the latest IToilet.

This idea of competition and striving is drilled into us from a young age – we have to get into the best college (or best pre-school), get the best job, ascend to the top, be better than that asshole John. Our happiness, studies show, is determined very little by how much we have on an absolute scale – rather, it is relative: do we have MORE than the people we know (and whom do know better than our past selves?).

But really, this is a Sisyphean strategy for happiness – no matter how high we ascend, there will be others above us. And success is certainly a good short-term recipe for enjoyment, but longer-term, it fades. I was a national chess champion as a child, and experienced some of my sharpest ecstasies in victory, but now I can't really play the game for fun – I was so serious and progress-directed that merely experiencing the joys of the game without greater purpose has been robbed from me. Tennis, where I was a middling junior player with no further aspirations, has retained much more lasting allure.

Which, by the way, isn't an indictment of anyone's posts, or a call to wallow in some Epicurean present. Certainly it's good to broaden one's range of hobbies and activities, and getting stuck in a rut without exploring more of the world is bad, Stagnancy is the enemy, it's just the concept of “progress” is too limiting. We may feel we are escaping a culture of workaholics and the hedonistic treadmill by retiring, but the obsession with self-improvement may be a mere substitute, stemming from the same guilty feeling that we need to make something of ourselves. If the enjoyment is the same, there's no reason to glorify learning a language over reading a novel or playing a tennis match without hope of improvement, just because there is some imagined brighter future. Even in a life without “projects,” there is growth in knowledge, in experience, in world view – the new friends we make, the new perspectives on life we discover, the new hobbies we discover, the ephemeral excitement of victory in a meaningless game of basketball against opponents as hapless as oneself. One of the benefits of retirement should be that we don't HAVE to squeeze productivity or learning or recreation out of every moment – if we waste this day writing rambling posts on a forum, tomorrow will be just as good (since it's not a work Monday).

Anyway, sort of stream of consciousness, so I don't know if it makes sense or has any internal consistency, but I guess my basic premise is a vote for Buddhist enlightenment over the Protestant work ethic.

I'm certainly as guilty of it as anybody. For many years, I've write down all the books I read and movies I see, not only to leave some trace of my brief passage on earth, but certainly because it converts those pastimes into some kind of measurable productivity. I want to enjoy computer games in theory, but in practice, I can almost never play them. They should provide perfect microcosms of progress: increases in my skill, growing power of a character, beating new levels and new difficulties, but I give up quickly, with the more or less conscious thought, “Why should I invest energy and time in understanding and perfecting a game which will be unplayed in a couple of years,” Chess and poker (and sports in general) seem less futile to me, since the games will endure, so any “investment” will be relevant indefinitely. But really, this hardly rational (besides for intentional time sinks like MMORPGs) – the game can be a self-contained experience like any media, and my time and energy are not in particularly short supply. And the few games I have managed to play, I have enjoyed greatly (the Civilization series, Bioshock, Braid, Machinarium, The Stanley Parable) with nary a regret later.

And I don't really know what the solution is exactly – I guess I'll still write down my books, and have a hard time playing computer games, and I don't know that those are bad things, but if I understand where the restlessness comes from, I think it can be helpful, rather than just treating symptoms.

[m741]

I don't want to hijack your journal, but I've been thinking along the same lines. We're about the same age, and I guess have roughly similar backgrounds, and even share a distrust of video games and a desire to track our books...

I realized a few months back that I have a very strong bias towards progress and self-improvement. To the degree that "self improvement" is used as the justification for any of my activities. What TV should I watch? The show that will 'improve' me the most. What movie? I should enrich myself and watch the best of all time. And so on for hobbies, entertainment, and even chores.

This obsession with progress became, for me, a religion, something to cling to as a reason to do anything. What else are you gonna do with your time, if not try to somehow be better (more skilled, stronger, more charitable, more spiritual, have more life experiences, or be more joyous)? But it's strangely futile, because of course, who cares how improved you are?

Is there an alternative, though? Maybe it's all just parsing words: you can frame the goal of just about any activity as 'self-improvement'.

I wish I had an answer.

[theanimal]

Jean Paul + M741- Have either of you read this book? The Importance of Living

It's the perfect antidote to your troubles.

[TopHatFox]

I have about 193K saved in total

Great Job saving so much so quickly. How did you save up 193k by 25?

Assuming you attended and graduated college at 22, that's about 3 years of 70k income.

-----------------------------

Being an expat sounds like a useful way to FIRE with less. I look forward to reading your story unfold. I might possibly try this myself--conveniently, Spanish is my native language!

[JeanPaul]

By the way, I kind of disagree that you're unemployable as a lawyer, a 2 year work gap could be easily discounted due to the fact you've been travelling a lot. Plus, if you do a functional resume, and list your job stuff by year (hide the month), etc, it's easier to make it look a bit better that way. In general, it's possible to get entry level job again, might not be as highly paid perhaps, or maybe you'd work for some non-profit NGO or perhaps a legal startup of some sort initially to build that work history. I had a 5 year gap in my history but I was still able to get my job of choice as a web developer - though I was actively working for a few months as a freelancer prior to the job.

I think you're right that after 2 years I could cobble some excuse together and find an entry-level job in public interest, but I can't imagine a gap of anything less than 5 years, and by then I would be pretty dead. A difference between a web developer and a lawyer is that a web developer has useful, provable skills. A lawyer is merely valuable for his conformity to the expected education and career path (unless he's senior enough to have a book of business) - there are an endless supply to new lawyers, so even at the entry level they'd rather take someone straight out of law school than someone with anything remotely unusual on their resume.

I don't want to hijack your journal, but I've been thinking along the same lines. We're about the same age, and I guess have roughly similar backgrounds, and even share a distrust of video games and a desire to track our books...

I realized a few months back that I have a very strong bias towards progress and self-improvement. To the degree that "self improvement" is used as the justification for any of my activities. What TV should I watch? The show that will 'improve' me the most. What movie? I should enrich myself and watch the best of all time. And so on for hobbies, entertainment, and even chores.

This obsession with progress became, for me, a religion, something to cling to as a reason to do anything. What else are you gonna do with your time, if not try to somehow be better (more skilled, stronger, more charitable, more spiritual, have more life experiences, or be more joyous)? But it's strangely futile, because of course, who cares how improved you are?

Is there an alternative, though? Maybe it's all just parsing words: you can frame the goal of just about any activity as 'self-improvement'.

I wish I had an answer.

The more "hijacking" the better!

For me too, even with books, movies, music. I often look for the best-reviewed, the top 10, etc. I don't have much of a problem with that though, and I don't look at it so much as "enrichment." Especially with books, there are an infinite number of possibilities, and making a first cut to manageable universe of recommended works is just practical. Once I discover something I like, I am not worried any longer whether it's approved, and certainly I've been happy to toss away the unimpeachable classics.

But yeah, I agree that it's at least related to the same disease.

Jean Paul + M741- Have either of you read this book? The Importance of Living It's the perfect antidote to your troubles.

I haven't read it, but looks like it could be fun, and definitely along my lines. One thing I have undoubtedly always valued is inaction, and humor is essential. I've always said I don't mind assholes, but I can't stand people who are earnest - the humorless give me chills.

Great Job saving so much so quickly. How did you save up 193k by 25?

Being an expat sounds like a useful way to FIRE with less. I look forward to reading your story unfold. I might possibly try this myself--conveniently, Spanish is my native language!

See my post from Thu, 23 Apr 2015, 12:10 for my savings.

I think Spanish is pretty much the prefect language for retiring abroad. There are great and popular places to retire in Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica. Peru and Colombia have good options as well. And very underrated among Americans is Spain, Cities/regions like Valencia/Cordoba/Granada offer possibly the best deal in the first world for people who don't need a job - first world infrastructure, security, culture, cosmopolitanism etc. at prices (a nice apartment in a safe area is often cheaper, under $400 downtown) and weather not too different from South America (Valencia has essentially perfect weather), and a great location for traveling. Of course, depending on where you are, you might run until the millions of retired Brits and Germans who already discovered that (that's why i might skip the beach towns)

Since the link is dead, I'll reveal a little secret about the "eloquent" Yahoo article in the OP - I wrote it myself, a tongue-in-cheek manifesto of my retire early abroad philosophy. And before I'd ever been to South America, let alone Lima, so it's a bit sketchy on the details, but I'd still agree with it in general.

Why You Should Retire to Lima, Peru
How You Can Escape That Cubicle 10 Years Earlier

I was like you once, staring dully at a computer screen, the hours of my life ticking away at a thankless job. Retirement seemed like a distant dream, a relic from a simpler time, when people drank at work and harassed their secretaries. I looked at my meager retirement savings and the extravagant prices in California, and I realized I'd either die in that chair or spend my dotage dining on cat food.

But one day I had an epiphany. Instead of striving for an overpriced, soulless McMansion in Arizona, surrounded by pensioners playing out the string until death, I should be thinking about living in a vibrant, cosmopolitan seaside city, experiencing a unique, thriving culture, all for unimaginably low prices.

1. Lima is cheap

Let's face it, this is your number one concern. Lima doesn't disappoint with its low cost of living. Even in Miraflores or San Isidro, the most expensive districts, it's possible to get an apartment for $500 a month, only $250 per person if living with a partner. Luxury apartments or seaside views will cost more. Still, this may not provide you with the space and amenities you'd want. But if you go a little bit off the beaten path, there are safe, pleasant neighborhoods (like artsy Barranco) where $500 a month will get you a nice house.

As for food, imagine getting a menu del dia - a two-course meal with a drink and dessert - for only $2! Groceries are also much cheaper, especially the outstanding fruits and vegetables and the huge variety of fresh, local fish. You can take a combi (a public van that you can hail like a taxi) from downtown Lima to Miraflores for 1.20PEN, or only about 45 cents!

Peruvians themselves live on an average total of only $500 per month, so the income needed for a comfortable or even luxurious retirement is a pittance compared to in North America or Europe.

2. Lima is the culinary capital of South America

The food isn't just cheap in Lima, it's delicious! Gaston Acurio is one of the most acclaimed chefs in the world, and his Lima restaurant, Gaston y Astrid, perennially makes World Best lists (not that I could ever afford it!) His unique Peruvian-based haute cuisine has served as a model for a thriving restaurant scene that attracts talented chefs from around the continent.

You've probably heard of ceviche, the signature fresh raw fish marinated in lemon juice and spices that has spread throughout South America, and certainly there are outstanding ceviche restaurants in Lima, but that's just the beginning. For example, Lima has the largest Chinese population in South America (the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council puts the number at 1.3 million), as well as a large Japanese population, so there are many chifas (Chinese-Peruvian fusion restaurants) and nikkeis (Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurants) throughout the city.

3. Lima has perfect temperatures all year

I used to think the weather in Silicon Valley, California was about as good as it gets, with warm winters and temperate summers. But Lima simply beats the pants off of Palo Alto. Summers are equally perfect, with average highs in the hottest month (February) of 80°F (27°C). The difference is that it simply never gets cold. The average low in the coldest month, September, is still 59°F (15°C) - that's 21°F (11°C) warmer than Palo Alto, and 12°F (7°C) warmer than even Los Angeles (and without LA's unpleasant heat in the summer). It also rarely rains with less than an inch (2.54 cm) per year.

The one drawback is the humidity. This is not a big problem in itself, since it doesn't get hot enough to be unpleasant, but it does mean that the city tends to be cloudy in the winter, draped in a signature fog known as the garua. Locals often retreat to the mountains to get some sun. Note that, like the San Francisco Bay Area, Lima is a region of micro-climates. Some neighborhoods, like the ritzy (but affordable) La Molina, which is farther from the water, are much sunnier.

It should also be said that the beaches aren't quite as nice as you might expect so near the equator. The surfing's great, but the water temperature isn't Caribbean-balmy, but rather about as cold as Los Angeles, which definitely isn't ideal for a wuss like me.

4. Lima hasn't been discovered yet

Places like Costa Rica that show up in all the Forbes retirement lists have already become Americanized and expensive. When I visited Costa Rica, I found the nature beautiful, but everything about the culture was bland, including the food. The economy exists almost entirely to cater to expats and tourists, while in Lima, you become part of a self-sufficient, working city and engage with a fascinating culture (while retaining the option to interact with a healthy international community).

And Peru has plenty of its own natural beauty with the Andes, Lake Titicaca, and one of the most unusual coastlines in the world, varying from the world's driest desert in the South to the tropical savannah of the North.

5. Lima's economy is booming

While the rest of the world has writhed in the throes of a great recession, Peru has surged with 9.8% economic growth in 2008 and 6.9% last year. Peru's large reserves of mineral resources provide stability even in tough times. Even if you aren't planning to work in Peru, this growth means you won't be boarding a sinking ship with neighborhoods decaying around you and political instability growing. Moreover, amenities and infrastructure are improving every year. The one caution here is that all this strength means that prices are rising slightly, and the dollar is falling against the nuevo sol. However, if you can afford to buy a house, this will provide sufficient insurance against cost increases.

6. It's easy to get a Peruvian visa

All this is well and good, but it won't help you much if you're not allowed to live there. But visas will not pose a problem. First of all, Peru has created a special rentista visa for retirees. As long as you can guarantee receipt of a permanent income of at least $1,000 month from outside the country, you can stay indefinitely in Peru without paying immigration fees and without being taxed on the import of personal items.

But who has a fixed pension in this day and age? No problem! You can get a tourist visa for six months at a time, and there is no limit on renewals - all you have to do is go over the border and re-enter the country. I know people who have been doing this for many years without issue. In fact, it's such a common practice that there is a well-oiled process for quickly slipping over the border at certain checkpoints in Chile. And even if you happen to overstay your visa, the penalties are hardly draconian - you will be fined a whopping $1 per day!

So what are you waiting for? Tell your boss to take a hike, and start living your life, not your work!

Cautions

Lima is a big city and, like any big city, it has crime. Now, it doesn't have much violence (Peru's murder rate is 10 per 100,000, about the same as Minneapolis), but there is definitely property crime. You have to watch out for pickpockets, and if you leave something somewhere, it won't be there when you come back the next day, like in Palo Alto! However, most of the people I know in Lima have never had a problem. You just have to remain vigilant, and it certainly helps that you are likely to live in one of Lima's safest, most affluent neighborhoods.
Another annoyance is that the water in Lima is always a gamble. The United States State Department warns: "Local tap water in Peru is not considered potable. Only bottled or treated (disinfected) water should be used for drinking." While some drink the water, many expatriates and locals avoid it. If you have a principled hatred of bottled water like I do, this means a lot of boiling!

[almostthere]

@ JeanPaul, since you are open to hijacking, I suggest you read up a bit in the three types of craving or desire (tanha in Pali) in Buddhism. The first is craving for sensual pleasures. THis is the craving for a chocolate bar, to look at a beautiful man/woman, etc. This is what most people associate craving with. The second is the craving to become. I didn't know this one existed until the last year or so. One manifestation of this is ambition. Your desire to progress is another manifestation. It feels like a hunger (without the empty stomach feeling) or thirst in terms of its sensations in the body. That's the reason we often refer to ambitious being people as being 'hungry'. The moments of contentment I have had in retirement have been those moments when this desire subsides for some time. Those were moments of true 'freedom'. Unfortunately this craving to become in all its guises is extremely strong and persistent. It is even considered an admirable character trait in the world, but it leads to enormous suffering.

(The third type of desire is desire not to be. Its not so relevant to the discussion but since I brought it up I thought I'd mention it.)

[JeanPaul]

We're really getting into Eastern philosophies here! Definitely interesting stuff, although it's funny that striving (Craving 2) and consumerism (Craving 1) has reached its highest form in those Eastern societies.

That was truly amazing and educational. It seems to me that you are essentially putting together a list of one way tickets that just happen to be the cheap options from one airport to the next and substituting bus routes where necessary and feasible.

As someone that always saw tickets as essentially round trip that is really an eye opener.

One last question, which countries in S. America have straighter roads for long bus trips? I don't do well on curvy roads for long trips.

For long bus rides, avoid the poorest countries and the Andes. Bolivia is terrible - mostly unpaved roads, often at the edge of cliffs, drinking drivers (they banned alcohol while driving, and the bus drivers went on strike... and won!). We were driving from the south of Bolivia to Uyuni and took a pee break by the side of the road. As everyone went out to find their bush, we saw into the driver's compartment of the bus - there were 4 guys drinking beers, listening to music, and having the time of their lives! But the north of Peru, south of Brazil,Argentina, Chile should be fine.

My example flights aren't quite just one way trips combined, since if you bought the flights separately, they'd be much more expensive. But in Europe, it's usually literally that, since the budget airlines sell everything as one way trips. A clever example of combing one-way trips, yet still coming arriving back where you started:

Vuelo 1 Madrid-Oslo 18/mayo - €29

Vuelo 2 Oslo-Los Ángeles 20/mayo - €161

Vuelo 3 Los Ángeles – Honolulu 29/mayo - €161

Vuelo 4 Honolulu – Sydney 05/Junio - €200

Vuelo 5 Sydney-Manila 09/Junio - €136

Vuelo 6 Manila – Dubai 20/Junio - €114

Vuelo 7 Dubai – Sofia 22/Junio - €55

Vuelo 8 Sofia – Madrid 23/Junio - €50

http://www.elviajerobuscon.com/?p=2456

[JeanPaul]

Just a quick update - I'm settled in Berlin, after touchdown on September 17th! (spent a couple months over the summer in California) I'm in Neukölln, the new hip frontier for artists and young people, taking over from Friedrichshain, which took over from Kreuzberg, which took over from Prenzlauer Berg, which took over from Schöneberg etc. - Berlin changes quickly! I moved around a bit at first, with a 2 week AirBnB, then a 1-month sublet, but this apartment is through September. Rent is within my budget - it's €550 ($584) per month all-inclusive (electricity, gas, water, internet). In comparison, Lima was 1600 soles ($474) all-inclusive, and Madrid was €525 + costs, which ended up around €625 ($663). It's a Turkish neighborhood, so food is cheap - €5 Vietnamese or Thai meals, €2 kebabs, cheap fruit and vegetable markets.

We had our house-warming party on Friday. I made a whole duck for the first time, basting it with a sauce of balsamic vinegar, honey and orange juice, and it was quite a success, sweet and crunchy skin, rich meat. Ended up with 13 people coming, but only 2 Germans, which highlights the difficulties in learning German in this city. It is incredibly international, and everyone speaks English. Often, even in a group with some Germans, there will be people who speak no German (despite maybe having lived here for 3 years), so the conversation ends up in English. In Peru or Spain, of course, learning Spanish is a bare necessity, since no one speaks English. But I've been doing one on one exchanges and insisting in groups, and my German is coming alone well - definitely comfortable in most 1 to 1 conversations now, and I can watch the Simpsons in German now without missing anything important, although certainly many of the subtler jokes.

A bit scared of going outside now, due to the cold, but fortunately, there is stuff nearby. On Sunday night, went to a free Courtney Barnett concert a few blocks away (fairly well-known Australian artist who made top 20 in the US). They have a "Berlin Live" concert series for this French television channel, so there are free concerts fairly often (four in the last two weeks) right in the 'hood. Typical Berlin venue, a gay club that was an old factory or warehouse, with giant pillars, peeling paint etc., but pretty good sound (has to be, since they are recording it). Unfortunately, it was the first cold day, and first snow of the year, and also happened to be our first time waiting for about 45 minutes in line outside!

Then last night, there was a Couchsurfing meetup, also a couple of blocks away. i went and ended up talking to this 23-yard old American who was interrogating me about Early Retirement, and how he could force himself to come to some kind of travel epiphany and ditch the unsatisfying corporate life. Also got a bit into the recent tangent in this thread about fulfillment and the like.

My sister was supposed to be joining me in January, after she graduates from college in December. She worked at a tech company over the summer, but decided to turn down her full-time offer of $108K + 10K bonus + 40K stock/3.5 years to come be a bum with me in Berlin instead. As big a fan of retirement as I am, not sure whether that was the right move - can't retire before you work at all... However, I hear from 3rd party sources that in January she's booked a flight to Australia instead! She's always been scared of the winter, but hopefully she'll come right after. She wants us to create some kind of video game together when she's here. And my girlfriend wants the three of us to do a project together, so maybe I'll be busier than I imagined.

So far I've been liquid enough to avoid selling any stocks low, so still feeling pretty good, despite the market retreating a bit from its peak. I'm still significantly over where I started three years ago.

[Kriegsspiel]

I just read through your journal again yesterday, glad to see another update from you. I thought Berlin would be a great place to live in for a while, there's so much to do there. I went up there for a concert (at Huxley's Neue Welt, pretty close to you I think) and a walk about and was really impressed. Great choice!

[sea]

The information you posted about flights is very helpful. I'm thinking about doing something similar for an upcoming trip where I fly into France or Holland and then go to Germany and the Czech Republic and back to the US. I hadn't thought about looping back to my original destination, so I'll have to see if that would be more economical. Thanks for the information!

[JeanPaul]

Yeah, I'm one Metro stop from Huxley's Neue Welt. Berlin really does have a lot to do - the variety is what's most impressive. it's a cheap city and a rebellious open-minded city, so people are doing everything imaginable, pretty much. Of course, there's a lot of electronic music and hedonistic clubs and stuff like that, but it's quite a small aspect (if you want it to be).

[JeanPaul]

Well, the big news is my sister is living here as well now, which is a lot of fun! Since she's not working either, I always have a playmate during the workday which, even in Berlin, can sometimes be light on activities. At the beginning her plan was not to work, because she wanted some time for artistic endeavors. But then after 1.5 months traveling in Australia, she was already getting restless, so she started looking for a job. But she got discouraged when she realized that in the US, a top CS degree gives you real value, while in Germany they care more about experience and specific skills, plus salaries are far lower in general. It's cheap here, and money is not her main concern, but she doesn't want to be doing website design or simple mobile apps, which is what she's mostly seeing, since Berlin is all about web start-ups. But just as she she had given up applying, she got a call-back and an interview, which reinvigorated her. So I may lose her to the working grind at some point.

My German is coming along pretty well - I actually just did a TV interview in German, in which I think I was reasonably eloquent, although I mangled some genders out of nervousness! And in day to day stuff like renting apartments or going to the doctor, I feel perfectly confident now. Keeping up my Spanish as well, since I do a fair amount of Spanish-German language exchanges (Germans already know English!), and I'm in a Spanish language book club.

Despite the horror stories people tell about Berlin housing, it was very easy for my sister to find an apartment (nearby in Kreuzberg) - she actually got the first place she visited. Which is fortunate, because we're going to have to look for our own apartment soon - we're getting kicked out, and have to move between July and early August. That will be almost a year already (time flies!), but looks like we are planning to stay a bit longer, since my girlfriend enjoys her job and wants to save up a bit more, plus my sister is here.

And i actually just got another apartment recently - for my parents! Having their entire brood in Berlin inspired them to rent their house out for two months and spend a week in New York, then come to Europe. I sublet a nice apartment for them here for one month in north Neukölln, (690/month with everything, better than a hotel!) about a 15 minute walk from both my and my sister's apartments. The rest of the time (and some of that month), they'll travel around, to Scandinavia (they're taking advantage of flight deals, so arriving in Copenhagen), north Germany, the Black Forest, Bavaria, Poland, etc. Obviously we'll be doing a fair amount of that with them, which will be nice, since we I haven't been traveling a whole lot. Besides a brief trip to Hamburg, and Spain over New Year's, we've just gone to Warsaw over Easter, which isn't a bad town - people are very friendly and it has surprisingly good food (compared to German or Czech cuisine!).

As you may have figured out by now, there's nothing I enjoy more than planning my retirement, and there's some new cost-of living data out there on the internet which seems really good. Expatistan now has a section for "Monthly rent for a 45 m2 (480 Sqft) furnished studio in NORMAL area" and this has proven much more accurate than Numbeo for my purposes. Even though I always get a 1-bedroom apartment, for my three data points, the prices are uncannily accurate

For combined rent and utilities:
Lima: Actual: €434. Expatistan: €459
Madrid: Actual: €625. Expatistan: €662
Berlin: Actual: €550. Expatistan: €627

And I would even agree that our deal is particularly good in Berlin.

I'm actually a bit surprised by how accurate it is - I thought it would vary somewhat between 1st and 3rd world countries, since in Europe, we feel safe in any part of the city, so we live in the cheaper, hipster part of the downtown, while we only would have felt safe enough to live in 7 of Lima's 42 districts. and in fact ended up living in the most expensive district of all, hardly a "normal area." But I guess it's sort of self-correcting, because people entering price data on a site called Expatistan are a more selected sample in a third-world country - they are not living in the favelas.

Of course I went on a binge of checking prices, and it was very encouraging. Basically outside of the US and major world capitals, almost everywhere is affordable - Kyoto, Japan for example is just €619, cheaper than Berlin, Florence, Italy is €621 (meanwhile, Detroit, MI is €817 - there's something wrong with rents in the US!). And other possible destinations in Asia are amazingly cheap - Chiang Mai, Thailand is €197, Penang, Malaysia €198, Taichung, Taiwan €253. After a year there, I could even afford to spend some time in the US...

My girlfriend has applied again to be a professor at the University of Namibia (would start in January), and her chances look pretty good this time, so I am also excited about that (but €412 for rent and utilities looks prohibitively expensive compared to Asia!)

[nitelight]

I really like the way you are doing FI, I want to do FI this way too. What I like the most is that it should shorten the time to FI significantly. Thanks for sharing your experiences !

[JeanPaul]

I really like the way you are doing FI, I want to do FI this way too. What I like the most is that it should shorten the time to FI significantly. Thanks for sharing your experiences !

Yeah, and I think I underestimated at the beginning how practical it really is (and perhaps my title scares some people). If you are from California or Norway or the UK, you don't have to move to a 3rd world country to save many years of working - even major world capitals are drastically cheaper, and 3rd world prices are to be found in 1st world countries, with 1st world infrastructure and security, like Southern Spain or Taiwan

[Ydobon]

I think 'developing world' is the preferred term, 3rd world is quite offensive to anyone who lives in a country where median incomes are lower than the US. Which is pretty much everywhere

Source: working for a major development agency in the olden days...