My family of four lived in Guam for a total of 45 days recently, and during that time we closely tracked our spending to determine what an expat family budget would look like. Guam is a special destination because my parents were stationed there in the Air Force. It’s a location that has fascinated me since I was a kid, and a spot that my mom who is still alive wanted to return to. That gave us the motivation to make this trip happen despite the cost.

We loved nearly everything about Guam. The slow pace of island life was rejuvenating and it has some of the best beaches in the world for our tastes. The locals were nothing but fantastic to us, and sometimes the people are the only thing that can make a place worthwhile. We’re learning that lesson right now in Manila Philippines. Guam is smaller, more remote, and more unknown than a place like Hawaii, which gives it a totally different vibe. There are no crowds to speak of, traffic is light, the beaches feel private, and you can be through airport security to your gate in five minutes. It’s a place I could be very happy living for the long haul.

However, there is one aspect of Guam I didn’t love, and that is the cost. We will be analyzing that angle closely here to see what it would cost to live in Guam full time. The numbers will be for a family of four, since this is based on our real world spending. I will provide commentary throughout about costs that would be reduced as a single person. Two scenarios will be considered, renting and buying.

On a side note, the term expat might not actually make sense when it comes to Guam, because it is an American territory. I’m sticking with that terminology though since it fits the theme of the series.

Assumptions

To simplify this scenario, I’m making some assumptions:

• You are selling everything and moving to Guam permanently, which if you’re an American, there is no barrier to doing so.
• You are using international health insurance, something similar to Cigna Global. I ran through the Cigna Global quote tool using our family and Guam, and the cost is in the ballpark of the $612.18/month we pay now. If you were truly relocating to Guam you would want to get quotes for other local alternatives such as TakeCare Insurance.
• You will own a car, one car, because unfortunately public transportation is not practical on Guam. This will be a $10,000 2015 Toyota Corolla. You can drive around the whole island in two hours; even that is probably too nice of a car.
• You will rent or buy a 3 bedroom 2 bath house since that’s a good livable space for a family of four. In the buy scenario you will pay for the house in cash.

Scenario: Renting A House

In my fascination with Guam over recent years, I did quite a bit of research on real estate. This includes both renting apartments/houses as well as buying them. The rental rates always struck me as quite affordable. Anyone native to Guam may object to that, and I think we would both be right. It’s a difference in perspective where I’m looking at it through mainland US eyes and mainland US wages. Wages on the island are brutally low in comparison.

Big Picture Numbers

I want to lead off with the final numbers showing the full rent scenario expenses, and the investments needed to cover those expenses. The details will be coming up in the next section.

Monthly Expenses	$5,707.38
Annual Expenses	$68,488.52
Investments Needed	$1,712,213.00
Up Front Purchases (car)	$10,000

Detailed Monthly Budget

Commentary has been provided inline on those line items that require clarification or explanation.

Accomodation	$2,500.00	Based on this realtor.com search of places for rent in Guam, this amount will get you a very nice place at the time of this writing. You could even pull this number in by $500 or more if you are ok with sacrificing quality. A single person could get this down to $1,500 for a decent 1 bed 1 bath.
Grocery Store / Food	$906.30	Our actual spending was $799.67, but that included 28 days rather than a full month. This is prorated for a full month plus a few more days to account for the excess eating out we did which reduced grocery spending. For a single person, around $250.
Cigna Global Silver	$612.18	Sinking fund. For a single person this would be $300 or less if you are young.
Electric	$500.00	.38/KWh vs .16/KWh in CO
Discretionary	$349.43	We find that we would spend less on discretionary in Guam compared to CO due to great free activities like beach and waterfalls. $349.43 is our actual spending on discretionary for things we did that we would continue to do on an ongoing basis. Examples are restaurants, streaming services, alcohol, night markets.
Clothes	$200.00	Sinking fund. More like $50 for a single person.
Phones	$150.00	I had to piece together information on this one to get a figure for Guam. Our cost in CO is ~$60/month, but I gather that’s not realistic in Guam. For a single person this would be around $50-$60.
Gifts	$120.00	Sinking fund. A single person probably doesn’t even need a fund for this.
Internet	$115.00	GTA 100MB
Water/Trash/Sewer	$110.00	I had to piece together info here as well
Life Insurance	$99.81	A single person would not need this.
Auto escrow (insurance/registration)	$41.67	Sinking fund. The values found from first-hand reports on reddit show this to be very similar to what we pay in CO. $350/year liability-only insurance. $150/year registration.
Cloud Storage	$2.99	We store documents and pictures in cloud storage

Conclusion

I actually expected worse numbers based our initial sticker shock in Guam. However that doesn’t mean this is very affordable. The $1.72M grand total is not lean-FIRE friendly and is solidly in regular fire territory.

Single People – The FIRE number with the reductions called out for a single person renting would be $980,726.

Scenario: Buying A House

For the buy scenario, we are looking at this little cutie, a 3 bed 2 bath 1300 square foot home in Yona. As you can see it is clean, has very nice finishes, and has 1300 spacious square feet of living area. A family of four can very comfortably live in this house while minimizing the initial purchase price, taxes and interest, and the monthly utilities.

The purchase price is reasonable at $325,000, and the monthly escrow sinking fund for property taxes and insurance are $596/month.

Big Picture Numbers

Monthly Expenses	$4,074.21
Annual Expenses	$48,890.52
Investments Needed	$1,222,263.00
Cash needed up front to buy house	$325,000

Detailed Numbers

House Escrow (taxes and insurance)	$596.00	With the house fully paid off, you will only need to cover property tax ($271/month) and insurance ($325/month). Single Person – $358 for a $200K place
Grocery Store / Food	$906.30	Our actual spending was $799.67, but that included 28 days rather than a full month. This is prorated for a full month plus a few more days to account for the excess eating out we did which reduced grocery spending. Single Person – $250
Cigna Global Silver w/ US	$612.18	Sinking fund Single Person – $300 or less if you’re young
Electric	$500.00	.38/KWh vs .16/KWh in CO
Discretionary	$349.43	We found that we would spend less on discretionary in Guam compared to CO due to great free or near-free activities like beaches, waterfalls, and markets. $349.43 is our actual spending on discretionary for things we did that we would continue to do on an ongoing basis. Examples are restaurants, streaming services, alcohol, night markets.
Uncategorized Spending	$270.83	As a homeowner, there are unexpected repairs that in my experience come in at about 1% of the value of your home per year. Single Person – $166.67 for a $200K place
Clothes	$200.00	Sinking fund Single Person – $50
Phones	$150.00	I had to piece together information on this one to get a figure for Guam. Our cost in CO is ~$60/month, but I gather that’s not realistic in Guam. Single Person – $50-$60
Gifts	$120.00	Sinking fund Single Person – $0
Internet	$115.00	GTA 100MB
Water/Trash/Sewer	$110.00
Life Insurance	$99.81	Single Person – $0
Auto escrow (insurance/registration)	$41.67	Sinking fund. The values found from first-hand reports on reddit show this to be very similar to what we pay in CO. $350/year liability-only insurance. $150/year registration.
Cloud Storage	$2.99	We store documents and pictures in cloud storage

Conclusion

Counter to my intuition, buying a house clearly works out better financially. The rent scenario required over $1.72M in investments for FIRE. The buy scenario on the other hand, despite requiring the lump sum home purchase of $325,000, still comes out better overall at ~$1.54M total.

In the buy scenario if you are single, the FIRE number for the called out reductions is $688,126. Combining that with the smaller house purchase price of $200,000, it’s a grand total of $888,126.

I wouldn’t call either scenario for a family in Guam affordable or easily attainable from a FIRE perspective. FIRE as a family is just more difficult in general though, and the single person number of $888K is actually reasonable. However, if you’re on a dead sprint to get to FIRE as soon as possible, you are much better off looking at Costa Rica and many other destinations inside and outside the US.

Final Comparison

These were the scenarios examined, and the final investment total needed for each.

Family Buy	$1,547,263.00
Family Rent	$1,722,213.00
Single Buy	$888,126.00
Single Rent	$980,726.00