explanade
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- May 10, 2008
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A couple retires with $2.2 million in assets.
But they move abroad, settle for a time in Portugal.
So moving for lower COL is not really FIRE?
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/gra...in-portugal-with-2point2-million-dollars.html
I've only visited Portugal once. Maybe in some small village it's that cheap but Lisbon and Porto didn't seem that much cheaper.
I'm sure you could find some impoverished neighborhoods, far away from the riverside in Porto or near the waterfront in Lisbon where housing is really cheap.
But you could kind of find very low-cost places in the US, where housing is a fraction of what it would cost in big cities.
But they move abroad, settle for a time in Portugal.
So moving for lower COL is not really FIRE?
It’s a lifestyle that’s tough to criticize — even for Grant Sabatier, creator of finance website Millennial Money and author of “Financial Freedom,” a book that helps guide people toward the kind of financial independence the Rastellis enjoy.
For one, he thinks the couple were wise to move abroad to cut down their cost of living, a move known in the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community as “geo-arbitrage.”
“Portugal is like cheating when it comes to FIRE, because I think the cost of living is like 25% or 30% what it is in the U.S.” Sabatier tells CNBC Make It. “So if they’ve saved $2.2 million, that effectively means they have $6 or $7 million in U.S. dollars.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/gra...in-portugal-with-2point2-million-dollars.html
I've only visited Portugal once. Maybe in some small village it's that cheap but Lisbon and Porto didn't seem that much cheaper.
I'm sure you could find some impoverished neighborhoods, far away from the riverside in Porto or near the waterfront in Lisbon where housing is really cheap.
But you could kind of find very low-cost places in the US, where housing is a fraction of what it would cost in big cities.