Hi
Have been a long time lurker and really glad I found this forum.
Recently contributed to an excellent thread by Pete44 on retiring early to South East Asia, so thought I would just quickly introduce myself.
Am almost 42, single now (was married 10 years - still not happy about what that experience cost me
), and one son who doesnt live with me. Job is reasonably well paid ($150k package) but can be quite stressful. Like most jobs, some days can be good, some days bad, and some just downright S**T. I definitely dont want to be one of those people that just drops dead whilst working or shortly thereafter
Have thought about this a lot and the way I see it I have two options.
Option A. Sell everything at 50 and move to SE Asia. Expect I would have around $800k cash after selling home plus another $400k coming my way at 60 from benefits, ie total net worth $1.2M at 60 - easy to live off this amount in places like Thailand, Phillipines, etc
Option B. Keep working until 60. Based on current living expenses, and child support ending soon, I expect at 60 to have my house paid off ($600k value) plus another $2.4M in savings and benefits - ie total net worth $3M. I am very much a LBYM person -once child support ends (in 2 years) and house paid off (in 6), my expenses would be about $30k pa.
So working the extra 10 years means amassing an extra $1.8M
Most days, I think I prefer Option A, but Option B is tempting, if for nothing else to rub it in to the ex on how well off I ended up
, and probably means I could live part of the year here, and part of the year overseas. Dont have strong ties here, parents are quite elderly and my son is very much growing up fast and quickly becoming independent.
So what would you do - keep making hay whilst the sun shines, or just quit the rat race and lie on a beach somewhere
.
Still have plenty of time to decide, and I know that ultimately it will be up to me and how I feel after 50 including how bearable the job is at the time, but any useful comments appreciated, particularly from those that might have had to make a similar decision in the past, and how it worked out for them (including any regrets). Also would like to know whether people think 60 is too old to enjoy yourself including travel...