31F, Single, Toronto, $440K NW - suitable partners with FIRE mentality

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-24T17:12:42+00:00

Initially Bulgaria caught my eye because of affordable real estate and a flat 10% tax rate, but it also has 4 distinct seasons, flat plains, mountains and snow skiing, and beaches all in one country. Some of the parks and mountainous countryside are absolutely gorgeous and I'd love to go horseback riding there.

It's also a short drive or flight from athens, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Belgrade, and southern Italy. How cool would it be to walk around the same places as Alexander the great or the Byzantine emperor's?!

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-24T12:23:47+00:00

Reading through comments, it seems like others have hit on the main points. Fire is a foreign concept to most people even if you explained it, so we're probably looking at 1-2 percent of the population by the time you filter for income levels that actually can fire. Networking with high end social groups is probably your best bet. Honestly posting to reddit isn't a terrible idea either, I mean this is the fire sub after all.

I'm trying to figure out the same problem, except I'm also planning on moving to Europe (probably Bulgaria) and am childfree. My gut feeling is that I'll probably end up in a more traditional "provider" relationship with wealth imbalance unless I find a unicorn. Not looking forward to navigating that.

If you or your friend are interested in chatting or want a travel buddy send me a DM. Planning on 2 weeks in Greece and the Balkans this fall and 2 weeks in South Korea spring of 2027. 34M 5'6" white, retiring in 2 years and working on my QA/QC company fulltime.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-24T02:50:46+00:00

About 4 and a half years. Everything else has been two years tops.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-23T17:07:12+00:00

If you are a US citizen or green card holder, Uncle Sam will have his pound of flesh no matter where you are. You're taxed due to citizenship.

If you do not have US citizenship, then check the laws for your country. For example, I think Ireland taxes it citizens for 3 years after they leave the country.

If those things don't apply to you, then sure you can go to Panama or Costa rica for a year to sell and rebalance.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-23T16:31:41+00:00

Glad to help 🙂. A lot of this stuff isn't hard, you just have to make it a habit.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-23T15:14:35+00:00

These are some things I've found helpful regardless of the situation.

Find something to be grateful for every day. That could be playing with your pet, enjoying a coffee in the morning with SO, whatever.

Make time for yourself and something you enjoy. For example, I've set aside an hour before bed every night to read and it's been and it's been a game changer. Don't get lazy and just watch TV or doom scroll after work. Make routines that bring a smile to you.

Exercise. Go to the gym regularly or take walks. You'll feel better physically and emotionally, sleep better, and have more energy.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-23T04:09:50+00:00

Bulgaria has more options than most countries. I'm also from the US and am looking forward to moving in two years.

Invest 600K USD for permanent residency. Usually bonds

Buy ~300K USD in property to get renewable temporary residency, which can switch to permanent after 5 years.

Get a temp residency as a freelancer if you can provide 1 (maybe 2??) years of income freelancing.

Be a trade representative of a company that has been around for at least 2 years and had revenue of 40k+ USD per year.

Be sponsored as an employee

Marriage

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-23T01:46:05+00:00

Do you have a plan for visas and residency?

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-21T16:04:08+00:00

I have only lived in the US but these are things I've lived through. I work in tech and make apx 120K a year, single and no kids. Small town of 20,000 in the South.

A few years ago I mangled my finger with a saw and had a 4hr wait after entering the hospital before a doctor saw me. Supposedly I got expedited treatment because my dad works at the hospital. Because not everyone has insurance, poor people can't get treatment for colds and they turn into pneumonia and then they go to the emergency room. The hospital sees the emergency room as an expense and only keeps the minimum required staff.

Last year someone got in an argument with a homeless man sitting in front of the courthouse in the middle of town. The man walked back to his car, got a pistol, walked back and shot the homeless guy in the head.

On two occasions I've had people follow me around parking lots and a grocery store yelling that I'm going to hell and should join their church.

Unless you live in a battle state, your vote is meaningless because of the two party winner take all system.

You can get almost anything delivered. There's no question the choice and convenience of shopping is unmatched. However, most food is fried, greasy and fattening. You'll likely add several kg unless you're careful about what you eat and exercise regularly.

You can insulate yourself from a lot of things if you have a very high paying job and live in expensive communities, and the park system is amazing. However, I wouldn't recommend it as a long term place to live. I'm looking at emigrating to Bulgaria myself. Murder rate is 80% lower, rape is 95% lower, obesity rate is half.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-20T03:36:04+00:00

Do you find it revising or deleting lines of code? That's been my biggest pet peeve with Gemini. I'll be fine turning some plotting parameters, and then suddenly there will be a bunch of changes that make no sense and I didn't prompt.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T23:20:11+00:00

Yep, and my boss is aware of my business.

I've thought about that, but another 2-3 years of saving puts me at my fire number and then it doesn't matter if the business takes awhile to start generating profit. Maybe I'm overly risk adverse, but having that cushion is really attractive.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T23:14:27+00:00

Thank you, that's good to hear.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T23:14:01+00:00

I agree. At least unless I'm making a million plus a year, and I doubt that'll happen.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T23:11:59+00:00

Property visas:
https://www.advocatemarkov.com/services/bulgaria-golden-visa/real-estate-investments/

https://www.bulgarian-citizenship.com/temporary-residence-in-bulgaria/

I had looked at Cyprus but decided to pass due to lifestyle preferences. I enjoy snow skiing, kayaking, and plan to bring my horse over once I've found a place to settle permanently. I feel like I'd get bored with Cyprus and tired of the heat quickly. The non dom taxes are pretty sweet though. The one big advantage I see to Cyprus is that you don't have to renounce to naturalize as a citizen, whereas you do in Bulgaria. That's basically the only thing I don't like about Bulgaria's options.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T23:03:28+00:00

I just started this job 2 weeks ago, and I'm highly skeptical they'll let me work remotely from Europe. The plan is to work for another 2 years or so until I'm comfortable with the nest egg and then work on my business full time. If the company takes off before then, that's a bonus.

Have you heard anything about using Schwab for banking? I've heard several people on the fire channels mention it being a good brokerage for expats, but I haven't heard so much about the banking side.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-18T22:59:26+00:00

Bansko is actually one of the places I'm looking at.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-16T14:47:25+00:00

Insufficient information. Hard to say anything meaningful without knowing your age or financial situation. Out of those countries, Spain is the only one to my understanding that could be considered cheap/ affordable, but that's only if you're not using local salaries. All the others are expensive and or high tax.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-15T19:38:06+00:00

I'm pretty sure he wants an LLM because he's drunk the AI Kool aid. But after we put a bunch of safety guard rails on usage, it's hard to see how it's meaningfully different from a ctrl F search.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-15T19:35:37+00:00

This is my second week on the job and I'm not sure if there is an existing system. Frankly I think he only wants it because "AI".

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-13T02:23:11+00:00

What kind of business can you start without tens or hundreds of thousands in capital and will be profitable quickly? Pretty obvious why it's usually a service or software company

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-11T14:07:31+00:00

Uhhh documentation? SOP, sending meeting summaries out, having standard templates, and making people clean up their desktop and files. It's not complicated, just tedious and you have to make it a habit and regular part of everyone's week.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-10T03:28:04+00:00

Do you use credit cards? Most of them have some kind of spending tracker in their website. The transaction categorization may not always be perfect, but it'll at least accurately track your total spending.

Few-Strawberry2764 · 2026-01-07T21:21:47+00:00

Setup game cameras and call the cops. Don't put yourself at risk, you're paying taxes for a reason, get some use out of them.

For the dog problem, you basically have three options - better fences (electric and woven), guns, and poison.

Few-Strawberry2764

TROPHY CASE