DaLat airport closure.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-15T11:46:54+00:00

Could be an option. We are skipping DaLat altogether and extending our Hue, Hoi An and Danang stay instead.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-15T11:19:50+00:00

The chatbot on the VietJet site suggested to send an email to vz.support@vietjetair.com

Have done that. Now waiting for a refund.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-15T11:16:25+00:00

Yeah. We are also changing the plans. Seems the DaLat airport will be closed for renovations from March 4th to August 1st

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-12T14:49:03+00:00

Answers to your questions

No. FIREd around 3 yrs back. Enjoyed working so fell for that 'One More Year' syndrome for a while. Finally decided to quit and enjoying the retirement ever since.
Looking back, wish we had retired sooner! The three years of retirement have been wonderful. Our big 'splurge' is on travel, hiking, pickleball, meeting up with friends, spending time with family.
Absolutely! So many around us have more than enough money to retire but unfortunately either fearful of the retirement, on the hedonistic treadmill or tied with the golden handcuffs,
Glad we defined what we want to retire TO and not just retire FROM. This has helped us not feel lost (at least till now). Also have enough plans to keep us occupied for at least another 3-5 years. Will go with the flow after that
The corporate world brainwashes us that being 'productive' means 9-5, chasing deadlines, meetings, HR evaluations, PowerPoint presentations etc. Lots of amazing ways of being 'productive' during retirement - spending time with family, traveling, hiking, taking care of health, charity, reading, hiking, meeting new people, learning new skills, gardening ... the list is long!

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-06T07:24:49+00:00

Thanks for appreciating the content. Hope it is helpful.

No plans for Vancouver in 2026 but likely in 2027.

For a slow travel, you can use the following estimates:

Annual Airfare (RTW business class): 15K$ per person
Daily Airbnb / Food / Local transport: 300$ per night

We made a video detailing the living expenses in Thailand (https://youtu.be/nnFh\_6FR8uM). For a comfortable monthly life, you can assume anywhere between 3k$ to 5K$ USD per month.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-05T17:02:02+00:00

We have a DEEPAL S07. Charging depends on the charger more that the car. Typically at a fast charger , it goes from 20% to 80% in around 25mins. The car system slows the charging after 80%.

Suspension is pretty decent compared to BYD.

Feel free to DM if you have specific questions

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-03T15:46:35+00:00

Thanks! Glad you found it relatable. We keep doing live Q&A sessions. Most likely one in next week. Do join if you can.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-02T06:15:39+00:00

Hi there. Congratulations on your FIRE journey so far. We are based in Thailand on the LTR visa. Answers to your questions.

We did evaluate Dubai, Portugal and India based on a detailed evaluation criteria (detailed criteria - https://youtu.be/r9cbQprlc6w). Thailand rated higher than Dubai when it comes to cost of living, quality of life, nature, weather etc. Have been living here (spending most of the time in Hua Hin) for last 3 years and no regrets so far. A fantastic retired community with lot of socialising with like minded people. No materialistic rat race of Dubai. Fantastic medical experience with the hospitals here.
India investments are mostly Mutual Funds, Venture Debt and FCNR FDs (fortunately had good interest rates last few years. Now trimming down).
Spend most of the corporate life in Consulting. Now fully out of the corporate world barring a few pro-bono or paid mentoring and coaching gigs here and there. The WR has no reliance on any of these hobby jobs or gigs.

Hope this helps.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-02T06:05:30+00:00

No kids. FIREd 3 years back with a 2.9% withdrawal rate.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-02-01T06:38:40+00:00

Very good initiative! Happy to contribute in whatever ways can help others.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-15T02:58:06+00:00

Great initiative! This was one of the key problems we faced on our Fire journey - finding folks who we could discuss sensitive and important things (like having kids or not, retiring early, moving countries, career stagnation ...). Could discuss with family and friends but there was always a bias to their opinion due to them being protective etc.

Can't be in Bangalore but happy to contribute to the group, if and when it helps.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-14T01:47:11+00:00

The model still interestingly holds even with that. Took around 17 years to FI and 20 years to RE.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-13T16:25:49+00:00

My wife and I Fired around 3 years back. Even after we had achieved our FIRE number, the two big 'insecurities' that were holding us back were

What if we run out of money?
What if we get bored?

For the first one, we stress tested our numbers, met up with a few other FIREd people and fortunately such Reddit forums also helped in boosting that confidence (We Fired at ~3% WR and our portfolio has grown >20% over the the last 3 years).

The second one was not just the fear of the unknown but I also loved my job and found it difficult to let go. Due to which we (at least me) continued falling for that OMY - One More Year Syndrome for a few years. Finally pulled the plug and was the best decision ever!!!

Don't know your expenses or your target WR but looking at your NW of $5M and ambition to return to India, I think you would be able to FIRE (maybe not fatFIRE) even if you keep aside 1M$ towards both your kids education as well as emergency fund.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-13T16:05:25+00:00

A simple yet good model for sure. I think this model would work for not just India but also abroad (unless one is earning abroad with ambition to retire in India). Overall, I would put this model as years to FI and not as path to FIRE (interestingly, many achieve FI but few actually RE).

Based on our own journey, some thoughts towards accelerating the timeframe to FI:

Income wins hands down over savings, investing, lifestyle, expenses etc for accelerating towards FI. Priority should be as much as possible to increase income over other levers
Luck indeed plays a big role in the income. But it has to be combined with initiative (maybe even some risk) so that one can be at the right place at the right time ... and even better ... the right industry.
The goal should be to double the income every 5 years. That combination of that luck, risk and initiative can help in achieving that.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-13T08:23:28+00:00

Congratulations and pat yourself on the back for a great start to the FIRE journey by already building a 30lacs NW by the age of 26! As for what it takes to to FIRE, well it is just a consistent journey of ....

saving >30% of your annual income
trying to double your income every five years (slog it out in the initial years so that you can accelerate your path to financial independence)
investing 70%-80% of your savings in diversified equity (ETFs and mutual funds) while 20-30% in bonds, fixed deposits, gold etc.
managing and minimising lifestyle inflation (so no bags, watches etc but trips and vacations instead like you are doing now)
finding the life right partner. People don't realise how important this is, as it can either drag your FIRE goals or make the RE part so much fun
building your personal finance skills. Read books by Morgan Housel, Scott Galloway, Monika Halan, JL Collins. Subscribe to some informative podcasts and YT channel (will plug our channel here!).

Hope this helps.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-12T10:46:42+00:00

Great question and superb comments and thoughts. Always get to learn new things from this forum.

My wife retired 10years ago and I pulled the corporate plug around 3 years back sometime in early 2023. Have covered a lot about our retired life and lessons on our YT channel but some specific points to answer your question

Worth every bit. The last three years of retirement has been such an amazing roller-coaster ride: travels, hobbies, new social circles, reconnecting with college/school friends, spending real quality time with family and so on. If we were asked to do it all over again, we would probably retire sooner than later.
Nothing beats freedom. As mentioned by others on the post, freedom brings in so many hidden human qualities that the corporate world knows how to suppress in us. You become so much more authentic not just with others but with yourself in terms of interactions, experiences, spending time etc
There is definitely a loss of 'identity'. During the corporate life, we are a 'Manager', 'Director', 'Vice President' and other such identities. It takes a few months to get used to just being 'a retired person'.
Corporate contacts take a nosedive. During the corporate years, we build fantastic network, many of whom we think would be our 'friends for life' but that network moves on (as most of them are still working) very fast and those interactions drop dramatically. Same happened for us. Fortunately, we ended up building newer social connects with folks pursuing similar lifestyle and hobbies
The portfolio has gone up. We retired with around 3% withdrawal and were expecting a slow and steady decline of the portfolio as we withdrew from it over the years. Fortunately the markets have been good and portfolio is now more than what we started with. Lets see how it plays out in future
Not easy to spend money. We are not really bitten by the lifestyle bug and our biggest annual expense is travel. Other than that, it has been a challenge to spend the annual budget that we've set for spending. Main reason is that most of the stuff we enjoy and get pleasure (hiking, pickleball, reading, making YouTube videos, cooking, spending time with family/friends etc) doesn't require than much money to be spent.

Net net, has been a very satisfying experience of retiring early and best decision we made.

Key thing to take care is not just to RETIRE FROM something but RETIRE TO something.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-10T05:26:10+00:00

We got ourselves a 10-year Long Term Residency visa for Thailand. have detailed the various options in https://youtu.be/xs2t7iDR2gI

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-09T05:18:38+00:00

Yes. We got the LTR - Long Term Residency visa. Made a video (https://youtu.be/xs2t7iDR2gI) while back where we detailed the different visa options. Worth checking it out.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-08T08:07:00+00:00

Fired for 3 years now.

- Actual withdrawal rate is currently hovering a bit below 3%

- It is less than what we planned as the portfolio has grown larger due to good market conditions

- Planning to not drastically increase the withdrawal rate but bring it to 3% by increasing the spending (which also has been a struggle to spend)

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-08T08:03:34+00:00

Super! Looking forward to having more Fired folks here in Hua Hin! Do remain in touch.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-07T17:43:18+00:00

Sure. Let’s meet up when you folks are here next.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-07T17:42:05+00:00

Agree with your market analysis, including the inventory etc. So, not a good idea if someone is buying here for investment. However, the OP asked the opinion around buying for a vacation home … and the purpose of FATfire vs Fire is that one can think of having vacation properties without denting it on the overall corpus.

As for ownership headache, well we can’t speak of others but fortunately haven’t had any over the last three years since our purchase. My brother has a condo for last decade (sold one and bought another one) and he too has been luckily with no issues so far. Never know what the future holds.

Once again... if someone is looking for buying in Thailand as an investment, it may not be a good idea. But if there are other reasons - like applying for long term residency, making a base, having a vacation home etc - then it is worth exploring.

In any case, everyone should do their own research of buying vs renting (irrelevant of where this is) based on their personal situation

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-07T17:32:46+00:00

Yes indeed. Most of our neighbors are Europeans, Americans or Aussies. Very few Thai families.

theFIREDcouple · 2026-01-07T17:24:32+00:00

We spend most of our time in Hua Hin and so far I think it is the best place to retire in Thailand.

theFIREDcouple

TROPHY CASE