For the past 22 years, I've been living in the UK. My plan is to retire back home in the US. I want to live in a small town in rural OR/WA/N. California. My lifestyle would be to have a serious vegetable garden and do a lot of backpacking/hiking/flyfishing and playing music (oh, and chasing middle-aged women on dating sites). No expensive toys or foreign vacations. I will have a car (the hipster-requisite used Subaru Forester for long road trips/car camping and getting to the trailheads). My housing expenses would be covered by a separate pot of cash I've put aside so that I can pay rent, say $1100/month, for two years; then, I'll buy a place (for $250K, I reckon) outright when I get my share of my UK house from previous marriage). After I pay for car/furniture/two years rent etc. to set up my basic infrastructure, I'll have a modest stash and pension. According to cFireSim (and my own calculations with excel), if I bailed out next summer, I could have an income of $30000/year (95% success rate). I would have a zero tax liability for the first few years (high cost-basis in pension and I'll be drawing down a ROTH IRA until my modest US Social Security and UK National Insurance kicks in;other income outside of Roth would be dividends/capital gains taxed at 0%). My low MAGI means I'd be in the sweet spot for either full subsidy under ACA or outright Medicaid.
What am I missing? It sound like I'm totally sorted, but I worry that $30,000/year is too dangerous. I know, some of you will laugh... Where I live now, however, is very expensive; my outlook is conditioned to that. My rent for a modest flat is $2000/month and my other monthly expenses are about $2400 a month even though I live very frugally (no eating out, no car, no shopping for crap, no vacations, I don't even go to the pub..). I'm assuming the USA would be a lot cheaper. The median household income in rural Oregon/N. Calif. is about $30000 a year. Given that everyone is obese from eating-out 5 times/week and everyone over 16 drives a MASSIVE vehicle, $30K must be fine especially given that they pay housing tax and SS on that. On the other hand, I reckon that's not the whole story, since pot money (cash transactions) and under-the-table wages are very common and not declared. Is $30000 a year net (with housing covered) a comfortable income for a single man living in small town? I need a high margin of safety as, once I bail out, there is no going back. Thanks for your advice!