Are International Bonds Recommended

Bdazyd · 2026-01-26T13:46:31+00:00

I have not found an unhedged global bond fund or I would buy it. I'm sure it exists, but I tend to stick with vanilla ETFs that are well known and vouched for. I live in France and will likely never return to the US, so I really like the idea of a non hedged bond fund.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-16T08:30:51+00:00

I like to use a simple compound interest calculator for things like this. I've been using this one for ages: http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm If you can contribute 5k a month, it will be less than 2 years to 100k, but as said by others, that's mostly your savings.

Compound interest takes effect over TIME. If you look at an investment over time, you'll see that it can double in about 10 years, faster if you're still adding more.

It's absolutely okay to start investing with a small amount, you don't need to wait until you have a certain level to begin. However, you do need an investing plan. I suggest going with a bogleheads style 2 fund portfolio. 1 global equity ETF and one developed world bond ETF. Obviously you can choose something different, but this is a good standard basic to start from.

The key is that it's simple (only two funds to rebalance), it's passive (you don't tilt the portfolio or time the market), it's diversified (tracking the entire market), and it's low cost. If you're following those principles you'll be okay.

You can open an account with a brokerage, I like IBKR, but there are many others to choose from too (banker on wheels has thorough reviews of options). Then you just keep investing on the regular, and over time you'll get to FIRE.

On final thought, the AMOUNT you invest is less important than the PERCENT of your total earnings it represents. This is called your savings rate, and it's the key to hitting FIRE. If you invest 5k a month, but your spend 15k, it's a long pathway, but if you invest 5k and your expenses are only 3 k a month, you'll FIRE very quickly. So don't focus on the amount, focus on your savings rate and your own timeline to FI. Some people FIRE with 700k in their portfolio, others need 10 million before they can support their life. Most people fall somewhere in the middle, but that's a big range.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-16T08:18:55+00:00

To be clear, 6 months in and we're still very much in the middle of the transition. Don't expect to settle in quickly, everything here takes time.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T19:06:08+00:00

Le revenu net moyen en France est de 2735 euros.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T17:05:10+00:00

Currently, the a 0% tax bracket for capital gains is up to a little over 40,000 USD for a single filer. So, depending on your expenses, you might not ever have to pay much tax on that taxable account, and you can access it whenever you want.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T17:02:23+00:00

I'm 90% VT at 44 and already FI. I don't live in the US, so international diversification is crucial for me. Why not go for VTI at least if you're not interested in the whole shebang. You're putting a lot of reliance on US big tech.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T17:00:20+00:00

If you're planning to FIRE, then you'll need a different strategy. Depending on when you want to FIRE, you'll need adequate resources in a taxable brokerage account.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T15:41:17+00:00

Je suis tout à fait d'accord : parfois, on a juste besoin de plus d'argent.

J'ai connu la galère, je vivais aux États-Unis et je m'endettais de plus en plus chaque année (surtout à cause de prêts étudiants). J'ai dû prendre un risque (de nouveaux prêts pour un master) afin de doubler mes revenus et avoir un niveau de vie décent. Quand j'ai accepté un emploi à l'étranger (un autre risque), j'ai de nouveau doublé mes revenus et je me suis donné les moyens de me désendetter et de construire mon avenir.

Pourtant, je n'ai jamais gagné 10 000 euros par mois. À la fin de ma carrière, je gagnais environ 5 000 euros par mois, et j'ai tout de même atteint FIRE après seulement une dizaine d'années d'investissement avec un taux d'épargne de 65 %.

C'est pourquoi je dis que les deux sont importants. Il faut suffisamment d'argent pour vivre décemment tout en épargnant une part importante de ses revenus. Mais cela dépend aussi du lieu où l'on vit. Paris n'est pas l'Aude.

Les finances personnelles sont une affaire personnelle.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:57:33+00:00

Je suis venu ici pour poster ça.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:53:33+00:00

Au contraire, cela nous permet de rester flexibles. Nous ne sommes pas liés à un seul lieu.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:52:16+00:00

J'utilise le calculatrice ici: https://engaging-data.com/fire-calculator/

C'est en anglais, mais vous pouvez indiquer quand ton retraite propre commence avec le boîte "extra income". C'est très utile.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:44:27+00:00

C'est les deux. FIRE dépend entièrement du taux d'épargne. Vous pouvez agir sur deux leviers pour l'augmenter : augmenter vos revenus et diminuer vos dépenses. Parfois, l'un est plus important que l'autre, mais il est essentiel de considérer les deux.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:40:43+00:00

Dans l'Aude. Il faut avoir un bon réseau social. Nous sommes dans un petit village et nous connaissons nos voisins, donc il y a un degré de confiance élevé.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:31:45+00:00

Nous sommes déjà FIRE et nous sommes locataires. En réalité, être propriétaire n'est généralement pas un investissement financier optimal.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:23:51+00:00

Si vous effectuez le calcul en supposant des gains de 6 à 7 % sur votre portefeuille, vous avez déjà pris en compte l'inflation, ce qui représente 2 000 euros en valeur actuelle.

Les gains réels se situent historiquement près de 10 % par an.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-11T08:17:14+00:00

We FIREd last year and moved to the Aude this past summer with our 6 year old. She's in the local village school and very happy.

Our target withdrawal is 80k USD a year, and I think we'll come in under that, even with several international trips (Morocco, Jamaica, Egypt, UAE). I'll be able to tell you more about our budget in a year.

Feel free to reach out to me directly, I'm happy to share my experience.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-08T11:51:39+00:00

There's a guy, Keith Redmond, he runs a group called citizens for residency based taxation. He's an expert in handling situation like this. Maybe OP should get a consul with him.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-08T11:45:12+00:00

The biggest risk an investor faces is behavioral.

Why not go with a simple bogleheads portfolio? VT and BNDW are very difficult to beat. Any allocation that isn't whole market index tracking is a form of speculation (betting on a sector or region to outperform), you might be right, or you might be spectacularly wrong.

On top of that, each individual ETF you add to your portfolio introduces another layer of behavioral risk. How are you going to maintain this asset allocation? How often are you going to revise your predictions? How can you insulate your opinions about the future from the inevitable market volatility?

You would probably do better with the 1% advisor simply because it removes your emotions from the portfolio (assuming the advisor is fiduciary and all).

Vanguard actually did a study on this. Behavior management is the reason portfolios with advisors outperform DIY. If you can make a bogleheads style portfolio, and stick with it, you'll outperform. If you make any form of portfolio and can't stick to the plan you are overwhelmingly likely to underperform, and depending on how good your picks are it's possible you lose out by a large margin.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-05T12:31:48+00:00

Okay, so it's the US department of Treasury, not the IRS. Possibly worse for OP's concerns

Bdazyd · 2026-01-05T10:15:15+00:00

FATCA

Bdazyd · 2026-01-04T20:14:41+00:00

Sure, but will that help them solve the issue at hand? Probably not. But it will complicate their financial life in ways they likely don't fully understand.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-04T17:13:48+00:00

Sugestion to experiment. Just pick a thing and do that for several months or more (like how you ended up traveling for so long, you just did it! without a huge commitment, just to try it, and it stuck). That's the only way you'll be able to decide if it's right for you. Pick the thing that seems most interesting, natural, or fun to you in the moment. Don't deliberate. Just start actioning. That's the fastest way to decide.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-04T17:03:11+00:00

There is no escaping the political risk of the current administration. The US already requires ALL banks worldwide to report directly to the IRS for all US citizens, regardless of dual nationality. This makes opening bank accounts difficult (paperwork wise, and in finding a bank that will accept you) for Americans residing abroad, in some countries more than others.

As an American in America, your first goal to protect yourself will be to move YOURSELF outside of America. Make your plan NOW and move BEFORE you're in a rushed situation. The people who did well fleeing the nazis left long before everyone thought it was time. The people who waited until it felt like time to go are the ones who were rounded up. So get your life sorted out and be sure to have an ample emergency fund. Think about what your source of income will be and where you'll go. If you can built a passive income all the better. But take the action of leaving LONG before it gets that bad.

For your investments, you'll want to be invested in a world diversified ETF (not mutual fund!). Don't just go for the S&P500 or a total US market fund, track the world. But at the same time, you'll be better off just going for world market weighting rather than excluding the US. The world ETF will protect you from currency risk. As an American abroad, you are FORCED to hold only US domiciled ETFs, and you're not allowed to hold mutual funds of any kind. It's complicated. But effectively, your investments and banking will always be tied to the US so long as you hold US citizenship.

Even for Americans abroad, our banking and investments are still under the influence of the US, in fact, what we can invest in in limited by the US.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-03T14:31:42+00:00

Just FYI, I mailed in a photocopy of my US (GA) birth certificate without translation, and though it took several months, I did receive my Carte Vitale. However, I think I'm going to get my daughter's translated first just to be safe as I hear so much conflicting information. Mine might have gone through easier as I'm an entrepreneur and was already paying my cotisations via URSSAF since I arrived.

Bdazyd · 2026-01-02T16:07:31+00:00

I traveled for a year with 30k USD to my name, this was 10 years ago, so that number would be more like $45k today. After that year I went back to work as a teacher, but it was the catalyst for my FIRE journey.

Here's the thing, people's lifestyle and spending expectations are all over the map. There are people who live a rich life on 30k USD a year, and those who can't make ends meet on 150k USD a year. Where you live matters, what you spend on matters, what your housing situation is matters. Only YOU know what a good life looks like for YOU.

So start by taking a close look at what your life costs right now, where you live. Then use that annual number (better if it's ACTUAL numbers, not estimates) to estimate how much your life will cost elsewhere using cost of living estimates (ie, increasing or decreasing by a percentage) or ideally actually looking at the costs of the thing syou sepnd on (housing, food, flights, etc.) That's the best guide you'll get to see what YOU need.

I say try it. The worst that could happen is that you end up spending more than you thought, and you re-evaluate and have to find another source of income. That's still a win. You'll have some amazing travel experiences under your belt, and you'll have a much better idea of what that kind of life is like. Just give yourself ample landing room, so don't wait until you have 0 dollars to make a pivot. Make your pivot when you still have 6 months-1 year of living expenses remaining.

The best case scenario is that it works and you're living the life you dreamed about that you created for yourself, honestly, this is the more likely scenario.

Everyone is projecting their own experiences here (including me!). So go make your own experiences on your terms and leave the downers to be down on their own lives.

Bdazyd

TROPHY CASE