Sri Lanka turned into a tough stay for us. Given the short time we stayed in Sri Lanka, I debated not doing a Sri Lanka expat family budget analysis. The initial grocery numbers at the start of a stay are always inflated, and without the time to settle into a place longer term, it gives an incorrect picture of the cost. Despite that, I ultimately decided there would be some value in these numbers, even if they are rough at best.
Assumptions
I will be making the following assumptions to simplify the scenarios presented:
- You are selling everything and moving to Colombo Sri Lanka.
- You are renting a 3 bed 2 bath condo somewhere outside of the main tourist areas (i.e. a few km away from Galle Face Green).
- You are using international health insurance, something similar to Cigna Global. You may have different more affordable options depending on your immigration status in Sri Lanka.
- You will not own a car and will use PickMe instead. We made all local trips farther than walking distance using PickMe, and it was reliable and extremely affordable.
Expenses
The Sri Lanka numbers fall within the budget for February. For the expense numbers I have extracted just the Sri Lanka numbers and then projected them out to a 30 day month. This has been my first look at these numbers in isolation, and my first understanding of Sri Lanka’s affordability.
Big Picture Numbers
| Monthly Expenses | $3,664.18 |
| Annual Expenses | $43,970.16 |
| Investments Needed | $1,099,254.00 |
Detailed Monthly Budget
| Accommodation | $1,317.00 | This is the monthly rate for the exact place we stayed, whereas we paid a higher weekly rate. |
| Cigna Global Silver w/ US | $558.42 | Sinking fund |
| Grocery Store / Food | $1,199.70 | In Sri Lanka we spent $213.24 on 16 meals cooking at home. Projecting the $13.33/meal out to 30 days. This definitely would have been lower per meal if we spent more time in Sri Lanka, and this is heavily skewed higher due to the initial grocery build-up. |
| Discretionary | $138.67 | This removes tourist activities, leaving those things that would remain on a long term stay (streaming services, alcohol, etc). Projected out to 30 days. |
| Transportation | $114.20 | Many Pickme rides around Colombo, projected out to 30 days. |
| Clothes | $100.00 | Sinking fund |
| Vaccines | $91.58 | Sinking fund for the average monthly vaccine amount for all of us if we continued traveling forever. |
| Phone (Google FI) | $43.47 | |
| Gifts | $60.00 | Sinking fund |
| E-Sim (Airalo) | $20.00 | Sinking fund |
| Virtual Mailbox (PostScanMail) | $18.15 | |
| Cloud Storage | $2.99 |
Analysis
First a reminder that these numbers are for a family of four. Having said that though, yikes that’s a lot of money to live somewhere not particularly enjoyable. If you have a FIRE number of $1.2M, you should look anywhere else.
Leave a Reply