Author Topic: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person  (Read 1663 times)

Spreadsheets

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Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« on: November 22, 2023, 12:55:25 AM »
Hi, I am brand new to this forum. Actually I posted just a few messages a long time ago but have been inactive since then.

I just thought I would introduce myself and ask a question.

I have been retired since March 2022, at age 32, and have been backpacking around the world with my wife since. This has been an amazing experience. We feel that we have a lot of experience and expertise on how to make this sort of life the most rewarding and free while keeping things at a very low cost. We are still always wanting to learn more so if anyone wants to chat about nomadic life or FI life I would be happy to.

My portfolio consists of 30%AVUV, 30%AVDV, 20%QMOM 20%IMOM. This may seem crazy for retirement, but our withdrawal strategy is somewhat advanced and conservative, which should mitigate these risks. Put simply, we can withdraw a max of 3% of peak portfolio value, but in reality we have been spending closer to 2.2%. The spending strategy shifts to a variable 5% of current portfolio strategy after the portfolio drops by more than 40%. This strategy has worked in all historical cohorts for value/momentum portfolios, and S&P500 backtests.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone can direct me to where conversations I might be interested are happening. There are too many threads to choose from!
« Last Edit: November 22, 2023, 04:08:26 AM by Spreadsheets »

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2023, 05:29:13 AM »
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone can direct me to where conversations I might be interested are happening. There are too many threads to choose from!

How about starting right here!

I remember reading your original case study in 2019. We are living/planning a very similar lifestyle to yours, journaling about it over the past few years here as well.

What countries have you stayed/WOOF'd in etc since you retired in 2022? Do you have an average spending target while living this lifestyle? We found nomadic living no more expensive than living in a MCOL area in the USA.

Where are you heading next? Any big lessons learned from the first 18 months?

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2023, 06:05:43 AM »
Hey, thanks for the reply. Surprised you remember me!

We stayed in Poland, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bosnia & Herzigovina and are currently in Montenegro. We already booked Las Palmas and some of Morocco. We haven't done any WWOOFING or the like yet, but we are planning to do some volunteering using Workaway.info once we are in Morocco. We have already arranged it for 1.5 months in the Sahara Desert and in an animal refuge.

The max average spending target during normal times is 3% of the peak of a 90 day moving average. This is maximum, so anything less than that is better, since we want to have some margin of error. We have successfully and relatively easily been spending roughly around $23,000 or around 2% since retirement which I'm more than comfortable with. These numbers are just off the top of my head since I don't want to pull out my laptop now.

Yeah nomadic living can be very cheap. We are actually living much more frivolously than we were in Canada, but spending a lot less. This is almost exclusively due to accomodation costs. We save so much on accomodation versus rent in Canada that we can afford to spend much more on flights, meals out, etc, and still spend a lot less than we used to. We usually book on AirBnB and get the monthly discounts by usually staying for over 28 days. We also contact the host beforehand and they are often happy to give an additional discount because they appreciate long stays so much. Our accomodation costs have been anywhere between $350 to $650 per month.

I think we also are good at consistently shopping like locals for food. There are often big western grocery stores to shop in in Asia but we shop with the locals in the outdoor market places which have much better prices.

Any other big lessons? A lot. I think a lot of people struggle with what to do though. We haven't really had that problem. Part of the reason is because we are travelling obviously, but we also have a system for habits which I think is invaluable. We track our habits religiously and we identify new habits to form based on areas we think most require improvement. This provides a feeling of personal growth and development each day that many people only get from work. It also is directly benefiting us and not an employer. Another way we implement this is to write out first thing in the morning a rough plan of when we will do those habits. This prevents is from just mindlessly doom scrolling or something before even thinking about the habits we want to accomplish for the day. We track them at the end of the day using HabitNow apps on our phones and we focus on the ones that need the most improvement on that app.

Where are you at with your plan right now? Still saving up or you're living it currently? Any insights to share?




Ron Scott

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2023, 07:14:29 AM »
I am happy for you to have experienced the lifestyle you describe. It sounds amazing.

I thought of 2 things after I read the post;

1. I rode about 20 miles with guy couple years ago while I was biking to Manhattan from Maine. But he was riding to Rhode Island from LA! He had recently retired at 60 or so and told me “if I’d known it’d be this much fun I’d have done it 30 years ago!”

2. While reading your withdrawal approach It struck me that you’re facing a 63 year retirement and the data du jour, from the original trinity paper, had only 69 years’ experience! Gotta love it.

Enjoy it all!

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #4 on: November 22, 2023, 07:31:01 AM »
I am happy for you to have experienced the lifestyle you describe. It sounds amazing.

I thought of 2 things after I read the post;

1. I rode about 20 miles with guy couple years ago while I was biking to Manhattan from Maine. But he was riding to Rhode Island from LA! He had recently retired at 60 or so and told me “if I’d known it’d be this much fun I’d have done it 30 years ago!”

2. While reading your withdrawal approach It struck me that you’re facing a 63 year retirement and the data du jour, from the original trinity paper, had only 69 years’ experience! Gotta love it.

Enjoy it all!

Thank you!

It took me a second to understand what you meant in #2, but yeah, that's an interesting thought!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2023, 08:52:50 AM »
@ronscott, crazy indeed! But statistically with a 2-3% WR they will end up extremely wealthy if that WR% stays relatively flat. It's pretty much the same situation my wife and I are in.

Starting off relatively leanFIRE'd with a sub 3% WR and then probably earning some money anyway and loosening the purse strings as the portfolio is already in runaway mode with 33-50 years of expenses.

@Spreadsheets, oh man we need to meet in the meatspace. We just spent 6+ months in Poland, Portugal and Spain. Accommodation costs were also our biggest "hack" to getting expenses very low (we're goin to finish the year just under $36k). Coincidentally we just booked a 3 month trip to SE Asia for Feb 1 - May 1, starting in Thailand -> Malaysia -> Vietnam -> Bali with a full month in the first and last country and a month split between Kuala Lumpur and Danang area.

I took off 13 months from work during Covid to travel and lived in Poland and Portugal for more than half that time. Went back to work for 2.5 years and left again at the end of May. We have very similar outlook on routine and finding meaning in our presence daily. It's amazing how the brain rewires itself over time. I still have a while to go before feeling fully decompressed, but traveling around exploring interesting places, following good weather and challenging ourselves mentally and physically has not left a lot of time for boredom.

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2023, 09:11:31 AM »
@ronscott, crazy indeed! But statistically with a 2-3% WR they will end up extremely wealthy if that WR% stays relatively flat. It's pretty much the same situation my wife and I are in.

Starting off relatively leanFIRE'd with a sub 3% WR and then probably earning some money anyway and loosening the purse strings as the portfolio is already in runaway mode with 33-50 years of expenses.

@Spreadsheets, oh man we need to meet in the meatspace. We just spent 6+ months in Poland, Portugal and Spain. Accommodation costs were also our biggest "hack" to getting expenses very low (we're goin to finish the year just under $36k). Coincidentally we just booked a 3 month trip to SE Asia for Feb 1 - May 1, starting in Thailand -> Malaysia -> Vietnam -> Bali with a full month in the first and last country and a month split between Kuala Lumpur and Danang area.

I took off 13 months from work during Covid to travel and lived in Poland and Portugal for more than half that time. Went back to work for 2.5 years and left again at the end of May. We have very similar outlook on routine and finding meaning in our presence daily. It's amazing how the brain rewires itself over time. I still have a while to go before feeling fully decompressed, but traveling around exploring interesting places, following good weather and challenging ourselves mentally and physically has not left a lot of time for boredom.

That's awesome! We have gone to a lot of the same countries but in a different order! We plan on going back to Asia, likely Indonesia, in 2024 after you leave again lol.

We were in Kuala Lumpur and liked it there but we spent most of our time in Pinang when we were in Malaysia. Where will you stay in Thailand?

Where did you stay in Poland? My wife's family is from there in a village near Warsaw so we have been staying there a lot.


Ozlady

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2023, 07:08:36 PM »
Hiya

DH and i just arrived home literally 2 nights ago after been away for 4 weeks ..we were in the same countries you guys are talking about..

Singapore, Penang, Bangkok ,Pattaya ,Siem Reap, Chiangmai, Pai  and then home.

We may not be as budget conscious as both of you BUT 4 weeks came to 6.5 K AUD dollars for BOTH of us.  EVERYTHING including all international flights (bless you AirAsia!) 3 meals ALL EATING OUT and WELL too thank you very much, great accomodation ( i had 2 penthouse/loft apartments in Penang and Bangkok) and all activities ...

I am amazed at the low cost and great accomodaton deals i got in Chiangmai and Pai especially...

check out Vista Hotel SHA chiangmai and Baan Aew Pai and Pai Princess resort - what ! $30 per night ...

I love Asia so much that now i am thinking of using it as a base half the year....Laos was tantalising so near but i had to turnaround and come home..

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2023, 08:58:54 PM »
Hiya

DH and i just arrived home literally 2 nights ago after been away for 4 weeks ..we were in the same countries you guys are talking about..

Singapore, Penang, Bangkok ,Pattaya ,Siem Reap, Chiangmai, Pai  and then home.

We may not be as budget conscious as both of you BUT 4 weeks came to 6.5 K AUD dollars for BOTH of us.  EVERYTHING including all international flights (bless you AirAsia!) 3 meals ALL EATING OUT and WELL too thank you very much, great accomodation ( i had 2 penthouse/loft apartments in Penang and Bangkok) and all activities ...

I am amazed at the low cost and great accomodaton deals i got in Chiangmai and Pai especially...

check out Vista Hotel SHA chiangmai and Baan Aew Pai and Pai Princess resort - what ! $30 per night ...

I love Asia so much that now i am thinking of using it as a base half the year....Laos was tantalising so near but i had to turnaround and come home..

Sounds like a great trip! Good destinations and those prices are certainly better than anything comparable in Australia/US/Canada etc.

We were also in Penang, Bangkok, Pattaya, and I was in Singapore a couple times.

We actually stayed in Pattaya for 2.5 months, in the more quiet area of Jomtien when we first got to Asia. It was actually very nice there. We stayed in a really fancy place for only $650CAD per month: https://therivierajomtien.com/

Ozlady

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2023, 09:08:44 PM »
Hi Spreadsheets

We actually accompanied a friend of ours who bought a 1 bedder condo in Jomtien , literally a skip to the Jomtien beach..with uninterrupted views of the sea from the balcony ...on the 20th? floor ..something called Lumphini Park condo?

Cost was $105K Aud and $40 monthly condo fee ( yes! $40 ) and it includes 3 swimming pools , parking and gym and sauna..

They asked us to go halves with them and we did seriously consider...

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2023, 09:13:03 PM »
Hi Spreadsheets

We actually accompanied a friend of ours who bought a 1 bedder condo in Jomtien , literally a skip to the Jomtien beach..with uninterrupted views of the sea from the balcony ...on the 20th? floor ..something called Lumphini Park condo?

Cost was $105K Aud and $40 monthly condo fee ( yes! $40 ) and it includes 3 swimming pools , parking and gym and sauna..

They asked us to go halves with them and we did seriously consider...

Cool, sounds similar to where we stayed :D

flyingaway

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2023, 11:56:11 AM »
So for you guys doing long term no home travels, what are the luggages that you bring with you. We used to have a carry-on luggage, but cheap airliners now charge additional for that. These days I mostly just have a backpack with me, but I am not doing very long-term travels, usually out for two months maximum. I have been to almost all the places mentioned in previous comments, but I am not in a feeling to stay more than a month in a place yet.

Ozlady

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #12 on: November 26, 2023, 05:03:17 PM »
Hi Flyaway

DH carries a medium sized luggage (for both of us) and we pay extra for 20kg check in for that...

On top of that, we both take a carry on in the form of a small suitcase for me (7kg) and a backpack for him ..

We find it more than enough for a month trip...clothes are a penny in Asia and we usually just buy as we go and laundry is also VERY affordable..(i think i paid $3 for my load of washing  (2 bags ) in Thailand last week.

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #13 on: November 26, 2023, 10:37:47 PM »
So for you guys doing long term no home travels, what are the luggages that you bring with you. We used to have a carry-on luggage, but cheap airliners now charge additional for that. These days I mostly just have a backpack with me, but I am not doing very long-term travels, usually out for two months maximum. I have been to almost all the places mentioned in previous comments, but I am not in a feeling to stay more than a month in a place yet.

That's a good question and something we don't have completely figured out.

What we determined is that every airline is different, and Asia is quite different from Europe,  so we have to almost have a different strategy for each trip. We tend to bring only two 45 litre carry on backpacks, but when the weight limits are too restrictive or it is too expensive to pay for those then we will sometimes pay for 1 checked bag and put most of what's in our backpacks into that and keep the most valuable things in small bags as our personal items.

We should analyze the cost/benefit more of throwing out most of our belongings and buying them again. There is certainly a big waste/inconvenience factor for us even if it works out to cheaper.

I would be happy to hear anyone elses strategies.

Ozlady

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2023, 04:58:57 AM »
Hiya

DH and i just arrived home literally 2 nights ago after been away for 4 weeks ..we were in the same countries you guys are talking about..

Singapore, Penang, Bangkok ,Pattaya ,Siem Reap, Chiangmai, Pai  and then home.

We may not be as budget conscious as both of you BUT 4 weeks came to 6.5 K AUD dollars for BOTH of us.  EVERYTHING including all international flights (bless you AirAsia!) 3 meals ALL EATING OUT and WELL too thank you very much, great accomodation ( i had 2 penthouse/loft apartments in Penang and Bangkok) and all activities ...

I am amazed at the low cost and great accomodaton deals i got in Chiangmai and Pai especially...

check out Vista Hotel SHA chiangmai and Baan Aew Pai and Pai Princess resort - what ! $30 per night ...

I love Asia so much that now i am thinking of using it as a base half the year....Laos was tantalising so near but i had to turnaround and come home..

Sounds like a great trip! Good destinations and those prices are certainly better than anything comparable in Australia/US/Canada etc.

We were also in Penang, Bangkok, Pattaya, and I was in Singapore a couple times.

We actually stayed in Pattaya for 2.5 months, in the more quiet area of Jomtien when we first got to Asia. It was actually very nice there. We stayed in a really fancy place for only $650CAD per month: https://therivierajomtien.com/



Spreadsheets ,i just had a peek at Rivierajomtien and it is very FANCY!  At 650 a month , that's like what? $20 per nite? Holy Cow! for that place!

BTW, curious where did you stay in Penang? and what are your thots of Penang as a base to stay long term?

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #15 on: November 27, 2023, 05:05:48 AM »
Hiya

DH and i just arrived home literally 2 nights ago after been away for 4 weeks ..we were in the same countries you guys are talking about..

Singapore, Penang, Bangkok ,Pattaya ,Siem Reap, Chiangmai, Pai  and then home.

We may not be as budget conscious as both of you BUT 4 weeks came to 6.5 K AUD dollars for BOTH of us.  EVERYTHING including all international flights (bless you AirAsia!) 3 meals ALL EATING OUT and WELL too thank you very much, great accomodation ( i had 2 penthouse/loft apartments in Penang and Bangkok) and all activities ...

I am amazed at the low cost and great accomodaton deals i got in Chiangmai and Pai especially...

check out Vista Hotel SHA chiangmai and Baan Aew Pai and Pai Princess resort - what ! $30 per night ...

I love Asia so much that now i am thinking of using it as a base half the year....Laos was tantalising so near but i had to turnaround and come home..

Sounds like a great trip! Good destinations and those prices are certainly better than anything comparable in Australia/US/Canada etc.

We were also in Penang, Bangkok, Pattaya, and I was in Singapore a couple times.

We actually stayed in Pattaya for 2.5 months, in the more quiet area of Jomtien when we first got to Asia. It was actually very nice there. We stayed in a really fancy place for only $650CAD per month: https://therivierajomtien.com/



Spreadsheets ,i just had a peek at Rivierajomtien and it is very FANCY!  At 650 a month , that's like what? $20 per nite? Holy Cow! for that place!

BTW, curious where did you stay in Penang? and what are your thots of Penang as a base to stay long term?

Thanks! We stayed for about 2.5 months in Penang. The first place was a full apartment on Air Itam near Kekloksi temple. It was a two bedroom apartment for $500CAD something. The building was very local and freindly and we felt immersed in the culture there. The second place was about $350CAD near Georgetown. It was just a room with a shared kitchen. It was basic but we used it to justify eating out for 90% of our meals during that time.

Ozlady

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #16 on: November 27, 2023, 05:16:21 AM »
Wow!  That's like $16 per night at AirHitam?

We splurged and had a penthouse apt 150 steps to Gurney Drive and 15 min walk to Paragon Shopping..shame on us!

I was very impressed by Tanjong Tokong though ....esp. those condos fronting the beachfront...


BTW how did you spend 2.5 months on Penang?  I would have thot that was overkill for such a small island?  Pray tell!

Spreadsheets

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Re: Introduction of a Random Nomad FIRE person
« Reply #17 on: November 27, 2023, 01:10:47 PM »
Wow!  That's like $16 per night at AirHitam?

We splurged and had a penthouse apt 150 steps to Gurney Drive and 15 min walk to Paragon Shopping..shame on us!

I was very impressed by Tanjong Tokong though ....esp. those condos fronting the beachfront...


BTW how did you spend 2.5 months on Penang?  I would have thot that was overkill for such a small island?  Pray tell!

Sounds convenient though!

Well, I think we stayed 2.5 months the same way people can spend their whole life in the place they grew up in. We aren't just tourists; we are nomads, just living our normal lives in different places. We also enjoy getting used to a place for a bit, knowing the neighbourhood and making friends with the locals.