Off Grid Living on $10 per year in Northern Thailand- Retirement Plan

In life, there are a few things that people would love to talk about. One of those is their ideal retirement plan and how they go about travelling and enjoying life in the latter part of their life. 

During my army days, I was doing guard duty during the weekend (Yeah got extra), we have a warrant officer who is known to be cranky and hard to handle. However, when I started diverting the conversation to his retirement, he really open up and tell me his grand plans. Life in the army was smooth sailing after that day for me, as I have established a great rapport with the warrant officer.

There is FIRE- Financial Independence Retire Early- movement going around especially in the US and Europe region. The goal is to accumulate a substantial amount of money- 500k to 1 million- by living frugally and investing well (In Index ETFs). Some are able to FIRE in their 30s.

Using the 4% rule, which entails withdrawing 40k annually on a portfolio of 1 million dollars, statistical studies have shown that you would never run out of money if you invest it in either a 60-40 (Equities and bonds mix) or all into equities. That is provided there won't be a great depression like 1929 which shed the index by 80%.

So it brings us to our title, Off-Grid Living on just $10 per year. Are you kidding me?

There was a recent video by the Retired Working for You channel, where he interviewed a Finnish guy who have settled down in an isolated mountaintop area in the north of Thailand- it is near Chiang Mai. I am not sure why but the video is now private and hence I am unable to share the link.

He spends around US$40k to build a house and acquired land to have its own greens for food. He also has his own solar panel and spare batteries for electricity use. There are half a dozen of huge water tanks that are used to collect rainwater for their water needs.

In a nutshell, he is able to self sustain no matter what happens to the world. The $10 per year is actually the cost for his cooking gas. That's all he needs from the outside world.

Life could be kind of extreme to live this way for city folk like myself- you have to do everything yourself and I believe there will be lots of manual and DIY work.

From my perspective,  I would rather just rent a condo unit for say US$350 per month and find meaningful things to work on (volunteering) or earn some income. 

Source: DD Property Website- This studio would cost US$350 per month and comes with a great pool and gym

Why earn some income?

In case the 4% rule fails, at least you have a backup plan to sustain your retirement lifestyle. You could be blogging or YouTubing and earning Adsense, and affiliate income. You could even set up a small e-commerce venture where Thailand is a good place to source products. Possibilities are aplenty.

If we add up the numbers, we could possibly live on an US$800 per month budget. If you owned a property in your hometown, you could rent it out and finance your lifestyle in a less expensive yet nice country with good food and nature.

Looking at the 4% rule, we will cater for contingency and round our monthly expenses at US$1500, which will be US$18k a year. You would need a nest egg of US$450k to retire stylishly in Northern Thailand. 

However, for those with kids, I guess it won't be so easy to uproot and hence this calculation is more for singles and couples.

So I hope you are as delighted as my warrant officer with this post that could set you thinking about your retirement.

Till the next blog post, stay safe and happy.