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I am not who the question was directed to, but I will chime in. LOL I saw the same or similar article and I believe it said something like 80% of the population in Thailand uses this. I dont know where this number came from, but I do not think it is anywhere close to being correct. I used to...

Except for the last sentence and a half, that is us. Out in the country. No DSL, etc. Rely on line of site to the tower of the local internet provider. We typically get about 2-4 Mbps download and ~1 Mbps upload. Since we dont know any better, it works for us. Able to surf the net with...

@Ready2Go, I was in a similar situation - figuring I would retire at 62 -65. Things changed, work become more of a slog, a good friend my age passed away, and I realized that I did not need to replace my salary, only my expenses. Retired 2 years ago at 53 and have not looked back. The...

+1 on the congratulations!

I just went on Redfin - actually the first time I had heard of it. The estimate it is giving for my house is ~ $200K over the Zillow estimate. :facepalm: Live in a rural area with non tract houses, so difficult to estimate value, but not sure where/how redfin came up with their number. If...

My (admittedly) simplistic take on when to take SS is based on returns. I believe that SS goes up about 8% per year for every year a person delays taking it. If I think my investments will do less than 8% per year, then I will probably not take SS until 70 years old. If the opposite is true...

i never had a traditional expat assignment, but spent a number of years overseas on various assignments. The toughest non-work thing was understanding that life back in the US for family and friends goes on without you. I had this irrational belief that people, things, etc would stay the same...

+1 (and +1 to the other poster to mentioned low cost index funds in your 401K)

The part I bolded will only happen if YOU let it happen. When you reach the point of being able to retire, YOU control the narrative, not the company. When I told my boss of my plans to retire, I went in with the worst case scenario - i.e. that they would walk me out the door that afternoon...

We have a cousin and her husband who have used trusted house sitters to housesit for other people. (They are kind of nomadic and do not have a place of their own). They have had really great experiences in a variety of locations - from the Caribbean to Europe. Downside is you have to pay for...

I have Global Entry and used to use it all the time when I was working. (Overseas trips 10+ times a year). Since the rest of the family does not have it, in recent overseas trips with the family (total 7 people), we have cleared passport control using the regular lines before our bags...

90% of the time, just walk in the area by our house. We live in a rural area, so any walk will take us past a mixture of farms, open fields, and some woods.

With only a few very minor edits, I could have written the above. :) I’m 1 year into ER which started at 54. Zero regrets so far. I do worry about health care, balancing income from investments, current 10 year bull market coming to an end at some point, college costs for the three kids...

Stop investing as I am retired (yay!), but on the other hand, I have not changed my allocation. I am still 85% in stocks and have no plans to change that.

Family of seven. Three are currently at college, but I tracked expenses pretty closely both before and during the time they have been at college. We have averaged about $1100/month for groceries (food only) and dining out. Typically, it has been about $800 for the groceries and $300 on dining...

Agree. I have no desire to invest any of my monies in bitcoin or other alternative currency. But, I may also learn something, though I doubt that will change my mind as to investing in it. But hey, to each his or her own. I also have no desire to invest in real estate, but I know some on...

As others have said, 2020 is too far off to give "notice". I told my boss about 6 months prior to when I wanted to leave, but in the back of my mind, if he told me to leave in two weeks, I would have been okay with that. As it turned out, I did stay for six months, and it was actually quite...

Family of seven - three who are in college TV - $0 internet - $35/month for so so speeds but only internet available where we live (except for Hughes satellite, and they are expensive and have not heard too many good things about them) cell - $140 (six lines through cricket, unlimited talk/text...

I feel fortunate that I was generally oblivious to the whole thing. That is not to say I was not aware of the melt down as it was happening. It was more that i was gainfully employed, business was good, I was well enough respected in the company that I did not fear for my job, etc. I felt...

I still also use the old YNAB4. Works good for me. Just lost about 6 years of data due to a computer glitch. (Long story, though it was backed up (use time machine, etc), but it wasn't. :() At this point, I have a good feel for what our budget is/was, so losing all the data is more of a...

It is good that you understand the power of money, but also the power of doing the right thing with it. There are so many stories of people who come into money via inheritance, lottery, signing a big contract, etc, who, just a few years later, are completely broke. Looking forward to hearing...

Excellent. Glad to hear that the initial "dip into the pool" is going so well. I am guessing that 6 months from now, you will have a post questioning "why didn't I do this earlier??" LOL

I think the rush hour commute. I was usually heading north to Chatuchak for work, and tried to avoid the peak (i.e. 8 am or 5 pm) timeframe.

Agree with this! LOL Spent a lot of time in Thailand (BKK specifically) for work and always made sure that my hotel or apt. was close to the BTS or MRT.

When retired, the pension and 401K (i know, I know, these are probably benefits and not perks! LOL( While working, I appreciated being able to keep airline miles and hotel points. I was "commuting" to Asia for a number of years, and was able to use the airline miles for some very nice family...