Just emphasizing a word you used, but don't seem to understand.
And international travel can be cheap - especially if you drive and sleep in the car some of the time. My husband did that for 6 months when he was younger. He and friends pooled money and bought a used hatchback and some sleeping bags. They traveled on the cheap and had a GREAT time. When they got to France, headed to England, they sold the car and made a profit. It's not a choice you'd make (I assume) but it is possible to enjoy travelling like that.
Networth polls done here periodically - one less than a month ago
here) That one included non-spendable assets (primary home for example) and didn't ask whether responders were retired.
More on point is a
poll done a few years ago (2013) asking people what their "number" is - in other words - how much did they need to retire. Several ER.org members felt it was ok to retire with less than a million.
Not everyone needs a lifestyle of $100k or more. Heck - my family of 4 lives on $80k very comfortably in a super high COL area. Fuego's numbers impress the heck out of me - a family of 5 for 1/3 of what we're living on. There's a reason the dryer sheet thing lives on... Many folks here have figured out how to live very frugally (not me, necessarily... I have some significant trims I could make). And they've made the trade off of TIME > MONEY. It's a
choice.