Lisbon Portugal Expat Budget
Our stay in Lisbon Portugal was our first time ever in Europe, and we have generally enjoyed living here for the past five weeks. While this post will focus on an expat budget, it’s easy to see why many expats choose this as their destination for non-financial reasons. Strolling through the winding hilly streets with
April International Travel FIRE Budget
In April our time was split between Knysna South Africa and Lisbon Portugal, and this budget includes a combo of the expenses from each location. However, the majority of this April international travel FIRE budget breakdown is from Lisbon, having spent 23 days of the month here. In an upcoming expat cost of living series
Tax Optimization Via Capital Gains Harvesting
After recently establishing a plan to obtain ACA health insurance, we were left with a very tight financial scenario. In the days since, I have learned we could ease that financial situation with tax optimization via capital gains harvesting. The tight budget is self inflicted due to the philosophical stance we are taking that we
South Africa Expat Family Budget
We really enjoyed our time in South Africa, and I was excited to crunch the numbers to see what it would take to live there long term as a FIRE’d expat. In this post I will break down the cost for an expat family budget based on our actual spending. I will be covering scenarios
March International Travel FIRE Budget
The beginning of March was the tail end of our tough stay in Sri Lanka before moving on to South Africa. The majority of spending in our March international travel FIRE budget is comprised of South Africa costs. In the upcoming expat cost of living series post on South Africa, I will extract the South
Sri Lanka Expat Family Budget
⚠️ Limited Data: This cost breakdown is based on only two weeks in Sri Lanka, a much shorter stay than our typical destinations. Use these numbers as a rough guide rather than a comprehensive analysis. Sri Lanka turned into a tough stay for us. Given the short time we stayed in Sri Lanka, I debated
Thailand Expat Family Budget
Thailand is my favorite place so far on our international gap year. I have already covered in depth the reasons why it is my favorite place, and I will now turn to the financial side of things. In this Thailand expat family budget, I will show the cost of living full time in Chiang Mai
February International Travel FIRE Budget
Our February international travel FIRE budget includes the cost for time spent between Chiang Mai Thailand and Colombo Sri Lanka. More of the days were spent in Thailand, but the costs were pretty similar between the two locations. However, these two locations could not have been more different outside of the cost. Thailand blew us
January International Travel FIRE Budget
The month of January was split between Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam (22 days) and Chiang Mai Thailand (9 days). This was anticipated to be one of the cheapest stretches of the year with these locations known for their lower cost of living, and no long flights to travel between them. However, we managed to
Manila Philippines Expat Family Budget
After living in Manila for about a month, we have real world numbers showing the cost to live there full time. This Manila Philippines expat family budget is based on our family of four, and I will cover both renting and buying scenarios. In some past posts in this series I have avoided the buy
Traveling Toward Fire
A Premature FI Experiment
