In this report, I share how a cheap retiree travels to expensive countries.
We just took a costly trip to Scotland sailing around Loch Ness in a 40-foot Yacht. I will show you videos of our trip while I explain how we were able to pay for it.
I know what you are thinking. I am usually traveling around the world showing you the best cheap places in the world to retire. Why am I suddenly cruising around the Scottish Highlands in a 2 bedroom 2 bath Yacht?
What did this trip cost and why am I blowing so much money on a short expensive trip? I will explain what it costs to sail around the Scottish Highlands on a Yacht in a moment, but first, I want to explain how my normally much cheaper retirement budget is able to pay for such an expensive trip.
In the year 2007, when I was 47 years old, I had all the assets I needed in place to fund my early retirement. I had a few real estate investments and a 401(k). So long as I didn’t touch my retirement portfolio, and so long as the stock and real estate markets experienced moderate normal growth, I would have been able to retire just 13 years later at around age 60 with enough money to travel the world in retirement.
You see, once I owned the assets, all I had to do was wait and watch it double over the next decade or so. I didn’t need to save any more after that. Once the assets were in place, all I needed to do was make enough money to survive until age 60. During that decade, with any luck, time and normal market growth would fund my retirement so long as I didn’t touch my nest egg.
So, at the age of 47, I left the USA in 2007, took a job overseas, and began traveling the world. I am still traveling today 15+ years later. I have lived in or visited 67 countries in my life so far. I don’t buy round-trip tickets. I keep moving forward slowly discovering new cheap places to live in the world and reporting what I learn to you.
The 2008 Recession Screwed Up My Retirement
In 2008, about a year after I left the USA, my retirement nest egg was hammered by the 2008 recession. So instead of moderate normal growth, it was down almost 50%. It took almost a decade to fully recover.
Not only did my retirement nest egg take nearly a decade to recover, but I lost a decade of time that I thought it would be doubling in value. Missing that decade of growth while approaching age 60 was not a good look for me.
Luckily, I figured out a way that I could live my retirement dreams and now I will share that with you. This is how I travel to expensive countries on a lower retirement budget.
I live most of the year in countries with a low cost of living. Instead of living in expensive countries like the USA, Europe, Japan, etc., I live in cheap places like the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Cambodia, etc.
How a cheap retiree travels to expensive countries
Let me give you an example. If it costs someone $2500 per month to live in the USA and they are able to live in Thailand, Mexico, or the Philippines on $1500 per, they would be able to save $1000 per month by living in a low-cost of living country.
So, if they lived in a low-cost living country for 10 months of the year, that would result in savings of $10,000. They could then use that savings to do other things like travel to more expensive countries.
So that is my trick. I live in cheap countries most of the year so I can visit more expensive places the rest of the year without going over budget. There is even a name for this behavior. It is called geo-arbitrage. That is short for geographical arbitrage.
I promised to tell you what yachting around the highlands costs. I will do that now. But if you are curious about how we make money online with our laptops as we travel the world I will describe that after discussing the costs of this trip.
Costs of Yachting in Loch Ness $6009
For two people to fly from Manila in the Philippines to Glasgow Scotland on KLM it cost me $1666 USD one way. After the boat trip, the two of us flew back to Bangkok on KLM for $1196. Our share of the yacht rental for 7 days costs $1702 USD. Our transportation costs including Uber, Buses, and Taxis was $223. Other expenses include restaurants $211, Hotel $96, Yacht Fuel $127, Groceries and alcohol $368, personal expenses $79, and a Scottish prepaid SIM card for the phone for $28 USD. So the total costs were $6009 USD.
That was for 17 days from Sept 5th to Sept 17, 2022. We stayed at my sister’s house in Glasgow for 7 nights so it would have cost much more if we had to pay for accommodations for 17 nights while in Scotland.
If we had stayed in the Philippines, Thailand, or any other of our favorite retire cheap countries, that $6000 may have lasted three to five months. But because we live cheap most of the year, we are able to splurge with the savings when the mood strikes.
How We Pay for Traveling 365 Days Per Year
The pretty woman in the photos with me is Qiang Hui of Hobo Ventures. Qiang and I both earn money with our Youtube channels. We both also have web pages that we use to help people learn how to live as we do.
Youtube pays us for the videos we create based on the number of views we get. So by watching our videos, you are making all of our dreams come true. Thank you very much. We are very grateful.
I also make money from memberships to my webpage. I write reports that teach people the best places to retire cheaply in low-cost countries. I have over 200 reports on VagabondBuddha.com.
The reports include the best places to retire around the world, how to plan overseas retirement, comparing countries, best places within countries, retirement planning reports, how to make money online, and how to slow travel the world.
People pay $9 per month to become members. Once they are a member, they can download reports that teach all about how to retire early and live an amazing life overseas for less money.
My members also have access to a course I created that teaches people how to make money online by sharing information about their favorite hobbies.
If you are interested in learning how to retire cheap in paradise overseas, I have a few videos you can watch to learn more. I also included a video that teaches you how I make money online with my favorite hobby.
To find out more, just click the first link in the notes below this video. At that link, I will embed a few videos at the bottom explaining how all of this works.
Thanks for reviewing my report, on how a cheap retiree travels to expensive countries.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?
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