I'm still in my first year of mustachian style living, so still dialing a lot of things down. But, I made my 2nd big financial move of the year and it's going great.
In March I disovered MMM and this site, thanks to the Tim Ferris Podcast.
In May
I sold Sold my $60,000 7speed, now on a $300 1speedIn September, I rented out my home in the USA for $550 above my mortgage, with the plan of living / working remotely abroad and trying to have my lodging expenses mostly covered by the $550, keeping my other costs low and hopefully saving the equivalant of 80-100% of my take home pay* (if qualify for FEIE). So far it's working out great.
My first country: Japan
Japan may not seem like a great first choice, given it's reputation for being expensive. You can easily break any budget here in Japan. Luckily, I have a lot of experience living and traveling in Japan and speak Japanese, so I decided to start here.
My room is 55000 yen a month ($490), which includes internet, furniture, and all utilities. It's a 6-tatami room in a share house near the Kamo Gawa river in Kyoto Japan, which is a beautiful area to live. Share house means there are common areas such as kitchen, bathrooms, rooftop deck, that I share with other people. I'm now wrapping up my 3rd month here and have easily hit my target savings goal (80% of take home pay), despite doing a lot and spending on luxuries like buying monthly passes to a yoga studio, and salsa lessons once or twice a week.
From here, I plan on going to less expensive countries and saving even more (India is next). Most all of my airfare is covered by miles, and I've spent the last 8 years traveling and learning about the ins and outs of travel hacking. I hope to be out of the USA for over 330 days of the 365 from when I started, so that I can qualify for the FEIE and have my federal and state tax be 0. If that happens, I project that my total spend for the year, including all travel, medical, bills, etc. will be covered by that tax break and my total income will be the same as if I were living in the states and spent $0 for the whole year.
Thanks again for all the great information that MMM and this community provides. I'll keep ya posted!