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Even the most hard core of travelers seldom actually travel for more than a few years at a time. There are notable exceptions, we’ve all met that wizened traveler who’s been on the road for decades, but for most of us even extended trips are what you might call a “mini-retirement.”
But what if you want more than just a long trip? What if you want to get rid of the “mini” and just, you know, retire? Not later, now, at say, 30? Sounds impossible right?
Well, as John Bardos over at jetsetcitizen.com recently pointed out, you don’t necessarily have to be rich to retire. Especially not if you’re willing to retire abroad (and where else would a vagabond retire?).
Too many people still believe that retirement is for the 65 and older crowd who have worked and saved their whole lives and still have trouble making ends meet. How much money do you really need to retire? What if you could retire now, for as little as $500 per month? Of course, that means cutting back on most luxuries and living a relatively simple life but it does seem possible in lower income countries like The Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and Bali.
Just about everyone who’s spent any time traveling to somewhere that’s significantly cheaper than their native country has probably thought, “wow, I could just move here.” And that’s exactly what a host of books like The Four Hour Work Week preach — earn money in high value currencies (generally your home country) and spend it in low value currencies abroad. It’s not revolutionary, it’s the basis of budget travel.
Bardos is just extending that idea from travel to permanent retirement living (though Bardos does say that he plans to continue working a few hours a week). For more details on Bardos’ plan, including an informative breakdown of projected living expenses, check out the full post: Can you Retire on $500 per month?.
It may not be something that everyone can or wants to do, but I’m quite sure at least a few readers of this site have done something similar and are reading this from the comfort of their beach-side hammock. Share you thoughts and experiences below.
[Photo credit: Gaetan Lee, Flickr]
April 29th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Retirement as we think of it in North America is a funny idea, don’t you think? We’re supposed to sacrifice everything for work and material and social achievement for a few decades and then come to a complete stop, be totally non-productive, until I suppose we get shipped off to some form of warehousing for old people.
P.S. My mother has spent the past 25 years living and working in Australia, East Asia, the Middle East, and now Turkish Cyprus, as a professional librarian (I can see the recruiting posters now, lol!). She hit 40, left Canada and barely looked back. There are many roads to Rome…
There are ways to live that are less about money and being time-starved and yet involve the satisfaction of spending one’s time making a contribution to the world in some way. How, with all the “wealth” in North America, did we lose sight of that possibility? I think Benjamin Franklin would know exactly what I was talking about
Having fried myself with workaholism in my youth I somehow came to my senses in mid-life, so my husband and I are spending a year travelling in a little camper van (starting in a matter of weeks), as a way to de-tox and refresh, mentally, physically and spiritually, before re-designing our life from the ground up so we can spend much more of our time making art and much less of it on unsatisfying (but socially sanctioned) busy-work. We are awaiting delivery of your book Vagabonding, since travel will figure significantly in this new life, and are already enjoying the feeling as we let go of more and more things and outside expectations.
While I wish that we’d been smart like you and realized all this while we were young, I also realize that you can’t waste your life in regret, and the second best time is always now! Thanks for being an important voice of sanity in the wilderness
April 29th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Sorry, I only just noticed this blog is written by numerous people, not just Rolf, in fact maybe not even Rolf! Oh well…
April 29th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for the link to my post.
There are a couple key issues that I think are worth expanding on here.
1. Life is short. I have seen far too many people postpone their dreams until next year, or until they have a little more money, until (fill in with your favorite excuse). People spend their whole livings waiting for the perfect moment only to find that it is too late. Illnesses, layoffs, old-age and a host of other problems are the only real barriers to living your dreams. Now is the best time. If not now then when?
2. The Age of Leisure. Consider the fact that in 1850 two-thirds of Americans worked in agriculture and now it is about 2.5%. Technology has also routed manufacturing industries and it is moving into office work. Science fiction writers of the early 20th century envisioned a time of affluence and leisure because automation was replacing most labor. The problem of course is that we learned to consume much, much more instead of working less. I think we need to realize that we can consume less, work less and live more.
In my post, I mentioned that the goal for me isn’t really retirement. I want to keep working on projects that excite me. But then again, I don’t really count that as work. It is more like entertainment.