For early retirement the way I see it, you need $1,000 a month to live a spartan, but still comfortable, life in most of the world (expat in Latin America, South East Asia, Eastern Europe, etc).
At $1,500 a month a single person can live a very nice standard of living in the places mentioned above or afford a transient lifestyle in the US/Europe, i.e. purchase a used travel trailer, RV, or van and travel the US.
At $2,000 a month you can live a pretty luxurious life as an expat or you can start to afford a stationary lifestyle in the US, if you chose a reasonable location. Purchase a house outright for $100k or so, and $2k a month is plenty to live on. There are small/dying rural places all over the US where this is feasible.
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In regards to a 3% withdrawal rate. I kind of look at that as the optimal amount, because I want excess growth above the inflation rate.
My rough plan right now is to use Vanguard's High Dividend Yield Index, and invest enough so that the yearly dividend income is $18k a year (i.e. $1,500 a month). At that point I can go slow travel most of the world, starting out with a standard of living not really any different than what I currently have, and then come back to the US at 60+ to live a stationary retirement.
I have around $417k in VHYAX with guesstimate of $14k div income this year. Last 5 year avg div growth is 8.66%. My guess is dividends will grow around 5%-10% every year. The div yield on VHYAX is usually around 3%.
For age 60+ I currently have around $100k in 401k/Roth IRA and 18 years in a pension by year end. Guesstimate on current value of the pension is around $600k. Pension has a yearly 3% COLA once I can start collecting on it at 60+.
I'm 43, tentative plan for a long time has been to do something different once I hit 45. Leaning towards slow-travel expat.
I'll have 20 years in the pension by 45. Take home expenses, excluding health care insurance and taxes, are currently around $30k. W-2 income is around $73k. I'm saving a lot of money every year and dividends are getting large enough where the internal compounding is significant.
In two years I'll have a descent amount of cash on hand and dividend income will probably be pretty close to $18k. By 52 div income should be pretty close to $30k. By the time I hit 60 and can collect on the pension and 401k, my div income alone will be around $57k. From 60+ I'll have more income than I did while working full time and it'll be growing fast every year.
So basically, I start out at age 45 with $1,500 a month expating in Mexico, Thailand, etc. Every year, I'll have more money to spend and can travel to more expensive locations. By the time I'm 60 I can start going to Europe, Australia, Japan, US, etc.
