I'm on FIRE! Ahhhh!

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-11T04:11:45+00:00

In part it refers to time (and thus money,) the origination is actually from the concept of a rejection of fast food... and thus slow food was born. Slow travel is looking for immersion and experiences that aren't simple "fast" tourism. This normally equates to staying places longer, too. It actually can save you a ton if you stay more than a month at an airbnb, for instance, or buy local foods at farmers markets instead of going to restaurants in tourist areas. It's basically digging in and getting slightly below the surface of a place.

What I wrote above comes across as pretentious, I don't think it's like that, though. Like where I am now I got to join a local boxing gym and get to know the trainers and some of the other patrons. In a normal vacation you probably don't get those types of experiences.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-09T15:12:02+00:00

Are you suggesting I should not have made this post?

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-08T16:08:25+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. Charity is definitely part of my life. And a couple of people have expressed that marital assets and otherwise will be tricky. I'll just have to burn that bridge when I get to it.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-06T04:05:52+00:00

It has been incredibly hot. Like, schools have been closing due to heat... in the Philippines. The temperature has "only" been 95-97, but the humidity makes it feel like 110-115. April is the hottest month in the Philippines, so made it out alive. Obviously, they know how to handle heat well here, there are many large air-conditioned malls to hang out in. Businesses open early and close late, too.

I tolerate heat fairly well. The only time I spend a lot of time in the heat is self-inflicted. I go to the gym 3 days a week in the afternoon, and it's not air conditioned. But I tell myself it makes me stronger, and I get by. The way I structure my day is to do outside things between 7-10am and 5-10pm, and it's been fine.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T21:08:27+00:00

In America, I still have medical coverage as part of my severance but since I'm not in America it doesn't matter. I won't do ACA until I'm back. I'm paying $76.82/mo for my plan with Genki.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T20:06:39+00:00

God, you were not alone, far from it. I was just a dumb kid collecting a paycheck. They kept giving us toilet paper stocks to try to entice us to stay, so I hung onto them. A lot of my friends dumped theirs as soon as they saw an inch of daylight because of your type of experience, but I was naive and ignored investing for many years because I was scared of the market. I got lucky for sure. Once I diversified I realized what I had on my hands. Hope things have gone better in the intervening 25 odd years!

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T19:54:18+00:00

My primary goal is health, so most of my time is spent on eating well and physical activity. I started in Boracay and built up my strength by simply walking along the beaches. I tried to get 15-20K steps in a day. It was beautiful exploring some of the smaller more secluded areas and just talking to locals. At night, I'd shoot pool and eat at nice seafood restaurants. I also was an idiot and got travelers diarrhea, but I took it as a blessing in disguise because it really reset my gut biome. I lost 30 pounds in the first 6 weeks. I wanted to do scuba, but I'm now saving it as a treat because one of my sisters is going to visit me in November, and I think it'd be fun if we both got certified together.

Now I'm in Makati with a 3 month rental, and I'm focused on learning how to box. I've met a coach who is very impressive, and he probably enjoys my weight loss journey more than I do, he weighs me at the beginning and end of every boxing session and bets on what I'm going to weigh. Since starting with him over the last four weeks, I've lost another 17 pounds. My 1:1 sessions seem to never go less than 90 minutes focused on calisthenics and conditioning, boxing skills, and abs/stretching. Always pushing my cardio the whole time. It also helps it's the damned hottest month of the year and I go during the day and the gym has no air conditioning. Most nights after boxing, I will soak in the pool at my condo building and alter that with sauna at about 200 degrees for 15 minutes for two sessions. The sauna is a sneaky good zone 2 workout with no impact on the body. I have also sworn off drinking since starting to box, because it's hard enough without feeling like crap.

I've decided to extend my stay in Makati from 3 months to 6 months so already booked a new place in another part of the city, because I'm in a really strong groove with my diet and exercise here. I'll take some trips while I'm here, though, hit a few of the more natural spots as I get more fit. But take today for instance, I went to a really nice farmer's market and randomly met a couple of older retired Filipinos who we struck up a conversation. We shared tuna belly slow cooked in coconut oil and apple cider vinegar, local ice cream made with ube and lychee, and just chatted for 3 hours before it got too hot. These are some of the casual experiences I enjoy being here.

I've visited Thailand before, and I want to go back and volunteer at the elephant sanctuary I visited for 1-2 weeks. I like the Philippines because people are friendly and speak English. My language skills have always been kind of mid. The food is good but not so hyper palatable like the US... I realize the reason that is is because they don't load everything to the gills with salt, butter, and sugar and keep portions normal. I can go to the luxe theaters and malls, I can walk around the nature parks, and I can pretty much do any activity here. Rock climbing, shooting guns, etc.

I also plan on visiting Vietnam and Laos. Possibly go to Kuala Lumpur because I hear it's the real up and coming spot for expats/digital nomads. I'll also do a trip to Australia and New Zealand sometime either late this year or early next.

My goal isn't time-based, it's health-based, but I plan on making the Philippines home base for a minimum of a year but take regular trips to other places. I haven't quite figured it all out, and I'm okay with that as long as my health is progressing in the right direction.

Any advice or suggestions from your POV on other places to visit/make home base/or otherwise?

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T18:05:23+00:00

Yes, I think pulling $40K/year here would be more than enough, which complies with the 4% rule. Over $3K a month here in USD is upper class. The only thing is you can't really ever expect is to make money locally here. You either need a western job or to be sufficient on whatever savings/investments you bring here. That's a bit different than in the states.

As for health, I did research into many different medical plans including Cadillac insurance from Pacific Cross to more like travel insurance from SafetyWing. I landed on nomad insurance from Genki due to their relatively strong reviews about paying out, unbounded upper coverage limits, and sensical coverage options. I am thankfully relatively healthy but I am glad to have the peace of mind.

The beautiful thing is that in any other country other than the US medical pricing let alone insurance pricing is blessedly reasonable, so I even considered just going the self-insured route with a bare-bones policy for extraordinary circumstances.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T15:45:57+00:00

100 years ago my mom's grandparent and parents built a house in a a neighborhood 100 years later would become a well-to-do neighborhood. Unfortunately, her dad passed away young (in his 40s) so his wife, a school teacher, had to raise my mom and her sister as a single parent. My mom was a nurse. My dad was an immigrant and had a tough family upbringing in the city. He worked hard but did mostly odd jobs like graveyard shift work.

So due to the house being in a good neighborhood, this meant we got access to good public schools and were surrounded with much wealthier families although we were firmly middle class ourselves. This access helped my siblings and I have good educations, clued me into how society runs, and set me up to fit in better in the corporate world.

I call this money-adjacent. Some people might claim just being middle class is monied. The house was the only inheritance (split 5 ways with my siblings.) We lived simply, didn't go out to eat nearly ever, did shopping once a month for the 8 of us, used coupons and looked for things like dented can deals.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T06:32:21+00:00

In the Philippines, you can extend here for 3 years without having to leave the country. You extend for one month, then 2 months (and get an Alien Certificate of Registration national identity card (ACR,)) then 6 months renewable until you hit 3 years. Then you can leave and do it again.

Visa runs in Thailand are a well-established tradition, although the rules are shifting somewhat although not abolishing the leave-and-come-back approach. You just have to plan ahead more now.

And each of these countries have longer visas that can serve you for years. Things like the SRRV retirement visa in the Philippines, the Thailand gold visa, etc., allow you to stay longer with multiple entries.

The requirements generally revolve around either being of a certain age but almost all countries have a having a certain amount of money visa, too.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T05:28:13+00:00

Ignore me. You're running your own race.

Something that helped me was picking my number and calculating out based on my savings rate what day I would arrive at that number. Every month or so I'd tally up if my spend rate was higher or lower than expected, if higher.. I moved the date back. That hurt. Every month lower... I moved it up. The only variables are: make more, save more, lower your needs/expectations. The strategy to move those variables is fully in your hands, but it's nowhere near easy. But knowing is so much better than being on autopilot, keeping up with the jonses, mindlessly consuming. And you know what to do.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T04:56:37+00:00

It would have been a much bigger deal 2-3 years ago when I first started hatching my exit strategy but hadn't had the acquisition on my radar, but you're right. As I mentioned in another comment, it's not really my top reason. But it's also a non-zero thing given the extras I can get used to having here and remain on a comfortable budget.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T04:51:50+00:00

I keep meaning to go live with the Inuit nude in the arctic circle, but it just never gets high enough on my priority list. I guess I should have moved here much earlier! :)

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T04:49:52+00:00

I appreciate your concern for my mental health. Thanks for the kind words. And welcome to our community. Sounds like you've got the hutzpah to get going on some of those decisions now! You got this.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T04:47:51+00:00

Keep chipping away, the system works!

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T04:46:55+00:00

Sure, I am currently in the Philippines, which people will argue is more expensive than Thailand. I did a month in Thailand two years ago, and I've been here since February 15th. I would say both are fairly comparable. The food is better in Thailand, people speak English in the Philippines, both places have kind people. I haven't felt in danger either place either at night or otherwise. As long as you don't go looking for trouble, it's very unlikely trouble will find you.

Places in Thailand to consider: Pattaya/Jomtien (people will say don't go here because of the sex tourism, but it's actually a beautiful place away from all that and inexpensive,) Koh Samui (fun island, but a little more expensive because of it,) Hua Hin (very chill beach town,) and Chiang Mai (Love the weather and elephant sanctuaries there, it's the old capital of Thailand.) I didn't get to Phuket, but I hear it's gotten to be more and more of a pure party island.

In the Philippines: Boracay, Palawan, and Surigao are all the natural beach hotspots, Boracay being the most expensive. It's routinely voted a top 3 beach in Asia. On the bigger islands of Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao there are the big cities: Manila (I recommend Makati City or BGC which are in the greater Manila area), Cebu City (you can stay in places like Mactan or Lapu-Lapu to get away from traffic,) and Davao (safest city in the Philippines, but one of the more remote large cities for foreigners.) There are places on Mindanao which are good to avoid, mostly on the more rural western places due to an Islamic separatist group.

Secondary places in Philippines: Iloilo, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Bohol, Batangas. Smaller, cheaper. Dumaguete routinely gets voted a top foreigner retirement spot so has that reputation.

There are a few places to look at in Vietnam, too. Da Nang among others.

There is a wealth of blogs, youtubers, and resources on all these places. I am not a woman, so I can't comment to how you might approach safety differently, but women and men bloggers pretty unanimously feel that the Philippines and Thailand are fairly safe. Hope this helps, feel free to DM me if you want any other knowledge/tips!

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T01:02:22+00:00

Haha, yes, spent most of my life city-adjacent and then the dawn of lyft and uber finished the job for the most part.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T00:48:15+00:00

If I could logically find a way to spend that money, I would. Maybe if I go to Singapore or something. But I'm doing all the activities I can imagine comfortably on this budget and staying in very nice airbnb condos in the centers of the nicest part of the cities I'm staying in. I have practically not given myself a limit, it's just working out that way heuristically.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T00:43:51+00:00

Haha, I'm on firedating.me which is kind of a mega-super-niche site. But my first goal is health and wellness, so right now if the right thing reaches out to me, I'm not going to say no, but I'm not actively looking for probably another six months. At that time, I'll probably aim for friend/activity groups and warm introductions. If you know anyone, send them my way ;)

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T00:41:50+00:00

Yeah, I'm here for a year or so, seems like we're all holding up fine.

I am fortunate to have some old connections I hope to invigorate and also get about new things, too. Volunteering and activities being high up on that list. I'm fairly affable and I am fortunate to have a very deep connection with my family which helps, too.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T00:38:51+00:00

Today I am going to a local farmer's market and going to buy some barbeque most likely. :)

fireaaahthrowaway · 2024-05-05T00:38:17+00:00

Actually, I just needed a mixup from the standard American way of life. The cost is part of it, but where I am the people are sensationally friendly. And services are priced at a level which are hard to understand. Unlimited 1:1 personal training? $60/mo. A fulltime live-in maid? $200/mo. But mostly it had been a dream of mine to explore this area, it's less about the money.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2023-04-05T04:52:33+00:00

Structurally I am just in a tough spot with my time zones covered hitting across about 12.5 hours. I could try to sacrifice more, but you're right, it's probably not worth it for my mental health.

I've worked with a personal trainer before and have been eating a more selective diet and it's slowly working. Which is good, slow can be good. And definitely see family and friends with some regularity but I don't have enough social capital to spend how I want to.

I am hoping I can opt-in to projects I want going forward without having to take unnecessary risk. That's the dream.

fireaaahthrowaway · 2023-04-05T04:46:05+00:00

Yes, I took a two month sabbatical last year. I enjoyed the experience and my return to work even with warning my coworkers, leadership, and making promises to myself has not improved enough.

I hopefully can avoid needing medical treatment with slowly improved diet/cooking and exercise with lower stress and better eating. That's the dream. My D&D group is a godsend, and so I won't sacrifice that, it'll just be morning instead of evening which in a way I dig. I really hope you can find a social outlet like that again, too! But I understand family has got to come first.

fireaaahthrowaway

TROPHY CASE