Case Study... So confused at numbers

[texxan1]

Ok, let me start by saying where im at right this moment.  Ive never had a problem making money, but spent way to damn much during my married years

45 Years old and Single no children

Income   Net  $228 per year main company salary... I actually have no idea what my gross is because of the tax perception does not make sense to me( I work abroad but am back home to the use every 28 days, for 26 days.)

100% savings rate on my main salary (228k net last year)
Side gig making about 25k a year (fishing guide when home) will lose this if and when moving abroad
Vending biz (26k net last year) ( will go down to 20k if a make the move abroad)
various cash coming in each year (10k) ( hunting lease cash, rental income and money owed long term)
maxed out pre tax in march (7% company match on gross)putting in 25% after tax, but going to change to 10 next month

Current NW-  1.56m
560k in 401k
400k cash in bank
100k in new vanguard account (taxable) (slowly putting my cash in there)
500k House- Paid off
Cash Emergeny fund -$10000

Not Included in NW ( Pensions)

389k lump sum pension if I stay till 50 and take at 55. However, this acct isn't making squat, so I would most likely take it in lump sum and roll it to an IRA to try and make more..

168k lump sum pension (dif company) at 59.5


What am I missing... Everything here tells me I could go before 50, but im increasingly looking at when I can be mentally ready to FIRE... Im waiting till 50 to make sure of my benefits for medical are correct. I have a few medical issues, but honestly I think they are stress related to recent divorce, my JOB etc... Everything I take a nice vacation, my issues seem to fade quickly, then bounce back when I get back to normal life.

I have asked my company if I can move to Thailand. I travelled there earlier this year and loved it. I have a few of my employees that live there and they live dirt cheap and enjoy traveling southeast asia on there time off... In doing the calcs for moving there for a few years this is what I see.

Same income from work, but I would get a bump in NET pay due to my ability to claim and overseas tax deduction for not being in the US over 30 days per year . This is hard to calculate but one of my expat employees has noted that his was an increase of $35k net per year

I would lose some of my income due to not working my side gigs.. However, it seems to me that the tax incentive would cover those completely anyways.. So my net savings rate would stay the same, or be a tad bit higher depending on what I spent.

I know this is long and drawn out post lol, but where to express this drives me nuts.

So here are two options I have IF the company lets me take this jump to living in southeast asia..

If I rented an apartment in Chiang Mai, I could get by on about $1500 a month total spend rate.. Now remind you this is keeping a place there, when I wouldn't be there but 5 months a year... Now, if I was to increase my spend rate living it up in Thailand to $2000 a month ( high on the hog here), but rent via AirBnB type places... and spend one month a year in the states visiting family the numbers come out awesome

Perm place in Thailand   -$18000
Temp Place in Thailand  - $10000

Now if I do in fact make this move, I would lease my home for $2500 a month (already have several parties interested), of which $1000 a month would go to Taxes and insurance for my house....plus some upkeep money to put in an account.

Now, when I look at my current bills for my home and life in Texas... I notice how many things would go away if I moved abroad....

Currently   Monthly
Electric           $110
water/trash     $85
Cell                $210 ( paid for by my vending biz)
Groceries        $100 per month ( I rarely eat at home)
Truck insure    $75 per month
eating out        $400 per month when home( newly single and date a lot lol)
Truck Gas         $200 per month when home
Boat gas           $500 per month when home
Baku Expense    $400 per month when away from home

Annual things

Boat insurance  - $2000
boat maint        - $2000
boat registers    -$ 250
trailer register    -$200

I have 3 boats with a value of about $150k.. True sellable amounts... I would sell before moving abroad
I have 1 Truck, that I could sell quick for 15k
I have so many things that I don't use at all. I realized after living abroad out of two suitcases for the last year, that there are so many things that we really don't need, don't want and just take up space and waste money. 

Anyways, im a newbie and rambling.... Am I missing something... I know there are ways to make more returns doing other things, but being new to this kind of stuff so just getting my feet wet, but my gut tells me that I need to work out a lot of these details slowly...

So, tell me what yall think..  The overall plan is to leave at 50, go home and live off my taxable accounts and cash from 50 to 60, then start spending from tax sheltered accts...

Thanks for letting me ramble.. any words good or bad are definitely wanted... Ive read a lot, and learned a lot from you guys but I have a Long way to go..

Thanks

Tex

[Laura33]

So, do you want to move to Thailand because you want to move to Thailand?  Or because you think you can live more cheaply and achieve FIRE faster?

From your writeup, it looks like you have massive ability to simplify and FIRE at 50 without moving an inch.  If you don't enjoy the truck and the boat and the this and the that, sell it!  If your lifestyle has gotten unsatisfyingly spendy, streamline it.  It sounds like even with all of that extra stuff, you are living on the income from your side hustles and banking your entire massive salary.  IOW, you are in an awesome place right now with massive firehoses of cash pouring at you.  So why mess with that out of the vague hope that you might get a tax advantage from living overseas?

You already have $1.5 M in assets.  If you keep throwing your entire pay into investments, you will be around $2.5M by 50, even with zero growth at all -- so more likely $3-3.5M.  Even if you keep some of that in housing, the 4% rule says that alone would be over $100k (i.e., more than you are living on now), without considering pension, SS, etc.  Not to mention that you could keep your side gigs that are paying your bills even after you quit the rat race.  The real key is making sure you have kicked the history of spending as a path to happiness (3 boats?).

Tl;dr:  you have enough income to FIRE in 5 years either here or abroad; the key in either case is to whack your spending and dump the expensive stuff.  So make the decision to stay or go based on what you want for your life.

[SwordGuy]

Did I understand that you expect your high-on-the-hog lifestyle in Thailand would cost you $24,000 a year?

Because if that's correct, you could retire now. 

Sell the house, truck, boat, etc.  and get almost all of your funds deployed so they are earning money.

You could easily deploy $1.5 million in the market which would safely bring in an income of $60,000 a year using the 4% safe withdrawal rate guidelines. 

That's over a 100% safety margin, not counting that you're bound to find a way to make some money if you want to.

If I misunderstood about your expenses, well, let us know what they would be.

[Accidental Fire]

Wow. You're FIRE from what I can see.  Sell those boats (three !) simplify your life by getting rid of stuff you don't need as you clearly recognized, and invest that money. I think you could live anywhere on what you have after you do those things

And what kind of vending biz do you have - snack food machines?  That's pretty good income from that, you must have a lot!

[texxan1]

Thailand has nothing to do with saving money... It has to do with being able to travel, all of southeast asia on my time off without worry of my FIRE date..... since my company pays my flights and such, I could travel most of my time off and enjoy myself pre FIRE. Then when I FIRE, do whatever I want.. either in the states or abroad

and yes, 3 boats is a lot lol... but they get used a lot

As for the vending gig.. I own one of the big ice vending machines(twice the ice)... Nets about 60 to 62k per year, which I split with my partner (x wife)...

[Rural]

You are financially independent now. Retire whenever you feel like it. :)


If you feel like optimizing, sell the boats. If you're hesitating, hell, sell two boats, invest that money, cut your expenses, and still have a boat.


As long as you refrain from losing your mind completely, at this point, it's all about what you want to do. That's a great place to be, but I imagine it can also be a bit overwhelming, so here's an affirmation that it's also okay to take things slowly and change very little while you figure it all out if that's what feels best to you. I'd suggest, though, that you figure those health issues into your considerations.