retire early to travel and surf around the world

[Ricknj]

How much money would you want in the bank to retire, quit, or take a 1-2 year break from your career to travel and surf.
Volunteering along the way for food and shelter as a quide, yoga ins, surf ins, etc.
Then what to do about Health ins best options...

 

[grapedrink]

1-2 years vs retire are vastly different numbers.

IMO one of the biggest $ drains when traveling is the actual moving around. All the extra money spent on plane tickets, board bag fees, taxis to/from airport, etc adds up quick. To save money you are better off posting up for 1-2 month stretches. Find some kind of rental where you can cook your own food, unless you are in SE Asia or somewhere cheap where the savings are negligible.

I could probably keep it to $2k/month for a year. Some destinations I could probably half that relatively comfortably. Although it’s been a while since I’ve done a trip like that, so what I paid at the time could be vastly different now.

If I were retired, I’d want enough in high yielding money market or conservatively vested fund where I could draw $2-3k month in interest without touching the principal.

As for health insurance, that’s relatively easy. There are tons of travel insurance policies, and lots that are geared towards expats, that are very affordable compared to what we have here.

 

[Autoprax]

Don't quit your day job.

 

[gbg]

12 more years of work for me. Been putting 15% of my salary in my govt 401K for 12 years. I'm on track to have almost as much in retirement as I am working. I'm seriously thinking of making a more tax friendly state my home base and bounce from Delaware to SD to Huatulco and somewhere warm with surf from Thanksgiving to New Years.

 

[Truth]

currently doing it now in indo and biggest financial drain as mentioned by grapedrink are the transport costs and dealing w getting new visa renewals between 30 to 60 days

sitting here on an island w mybkid - monthly living bill is about 950 for room meals beers

my work insurance stopping soon will get travelers insurance

side trips to telos and asu
visa run to malaysia
been here 4 months and all in about 2k a month

moving to bali when season ends up here and staying in a proper house so costs will rise to about 2.5k a month

the best time to do something like this is when you can

 

[Ricknj]

1-2 years vs retire are vastly different numbers.

IMO one of the biggest $ drains when traveling is the actual moving around. All the extra money spent on plane tickets, board bag fees, taxis to/from airport, etc adds up quick. To save money you are better off posting up for 1-2 month stretches. Find some kind of rental where you can cook your own food, unless you are in SE Asia or somewhere cheap where the savings are negligible.

I could probably keep it to $2k/month for a year. Some destinations I could probably half that relatively comfortably. Although it’s been a while since I’ve done a trip like that, so what I paid at the time could be vastly different now.

If I were retired, I’d want enough in high yielding money market or conservatively vested fund where I could draw $2-3k month in interest without touching the principal.

As for health insurance, that’s relatively easy. There are tons of travel insurance policies, and lots that are geared towards expats, that are very affordable compared to what we have here.

Yea good advice
Thxs

 

[Ricknj]

currently doing it now in indo and biggest financial drain as mentioned by grapedrink are the transport costs and dealing w getting new visa renewals between 30 to 60 days

sitting here on an island w mybkid - monthly living bill is about 950 for room meals beers

my work insurance stopping soon will get travelers insurance

side trips to telos and asu
visa run to malaysia
been here 4 months and all in about 2k a month

moving to bali when season ends up here and staying in a proper house so costs will rise to about 2.5k a month

the best time to do something like this is when you can

Awesome ! Good for you
Do you plan on returning to the workforce ? How long do you plan on living in Indo?

 

[Subway]

I'm going through kind of a mid career (maybe mid life?) existential thing right now (Reading The Goldfinch is NOT helping) and I've been calculating how many years we could live comfortably in Indonesia (including trips home and extended visits to other locales), if i drained my 401k, paid the taxes and penalties, and rented our home on LB every summer season. . The answer seems to be forever (especially with the rental income from our LB home). And THAT keeps rattling around in my brain.

 

[Ricknj]

YEP! but what if you had to come back, aging parents, wife just hates it, etc..
I wouldn't drain the 401k plan that's my safety net let it sit and grow will need that when your older, IMO

 

[laidback]

My dream is to retire, travel & surf the NOC

 

[Subway]

yeah I wouldn't really hit the 401k, and realistically I'd be a fool to hang up my spikes right now. Our industry is having a prolonged run in the sun, and I'm literally right in the middle of it. The biggest threat to my career and lifestyle right now is the threat of promotion.

 

[thaarealHB]

what everyone is forgetting is that you could die/get seriously disabled in 5 years and then the whole time you sat on your ass and worked your ass just to "finally semi retire"

im guilty of this too.

 

[Ricknj]

yea man think the key is balance, cant bank on being disabled in 5 yrs, could live a long healthy life and surf through your 70's-80's and be glad you worked hard and saved those last few years for a comfortable yet active retirement or yea tragedy could happen and you could say I should have when I could have...
really no right answer since we don't know what the future will bring

 

[Muscles]

It's all a gamble. You just need to pick which path you want to take and hope it works out. Me personally? I want to make sure I accumulate enough that I won't burden my kids and my assets will outlast my wife and myself.

 

[connor30]

goal 1: get kids out of house by 19...will be 52
goal 2: sell everything to have enough cash to live off interest (4-5K/mo)
Schedule: Jan - Feb (Peru), March - May (Costa), June - Aug (Indo), Sept - December (France/Europe)
Goal 3: Repeat for next 8 years...then post up in Costa and ride a long board.

 

[ElOgro]

yea man think the key is balance, cant bank on being disabled in 5 yrs, could live a long healthy life and surf through your 70's-80's and be glad you worked hard and saved those last few years for a comfortable yet active retirement or yea tragedy could happen and you could say I should have when I could have...
really no right answer since we don't know what the future will bring

Yes we do. More people. Everywhere.

You should have been here yesterday. On second thought...

 

[grapedrink]

goal 1: get kids out of house by 19...will be 52
goal 2: sell everything to have enough cash to live off interest (4-5K/mo)
Schedule: Jan - Feb (Peru), March - May (Costa), June - Aug (Indo), Sept - December (France/Europe)
Goal 3: Repeat for next 8 years...then post up in Costa and ride a long board.

Strong rotation. Would bang. Especially spring in Centro and fall in France/Europe. That’s exactly what I would do. I certainly have no intention of spending the spring months anywhere in the states.

 

[hammies]

Have a backup plan in case some age-related injury severely hampers your ability to surf. It happens to old farts sometimes.

 

[One-Off]

Imma retire early and go surf Malibu First Point.

 

[Bob]

I retired fairly early at 55 in Utah. Snowboarded 100 days a year until my wife retired
six years later at 62 and we moved back to So Cal after a few good surf trips.
We both retired with a salary and a good bit of 401k in the bank.
At 67, not quite as active.
My point is: Retire as early as you can afford and enjoy your youth. It doesn't
last that long. And it helps to have an understanding wife with a good job.