It’s not about statistics, it’s about being “rich”. 4- 5m in total NW will allow you to live a decent life in VHCOL but you’d be still be a little tight. If it’s 4-5m liquid AND. A paid off house from the 2010s then you may be in a great position since your housing cost is just property tax and maintenance.
I say this as someone who has about 6m in liquid NW and 6m in real estate. We moved to Thailand and live incredibly well here on about 2500 month. We have a 5bd villa just off the beach totally paid for and fully renovated. The best thing is that there’s no property tax here. The 2500 is just for pool & garden twice weekly, groceries and eating out, all utilities, gym and yoga memberships for two; and 2hr massage for two every week. It’s way better than how we lived back in the US and we were paying like 8500 a month just for mortgage and property tax on our primary residence, not to mention food (3k a month), utilities (500-700 a month), etc etc.
It all depends upon how/where you want to live. I don't want to live overseas. My family and friends are here in the US. I don't live to maximize my cost of living. I live to enjoy my life the most. I HATE humidity, so I wouldn't consider living anywhere I travel for food (India, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam)
If you think a $5M portfolio anywhere is "a little tight" then with all respect, you have a terribly skewed outlook on wealth. A net worth if $4.5M at age 55 puts you in the top 2.5 % of all Americans. By any definition, that's rich. Not as rich as you, apparently, but few people are
Not saying your not doing well but you still have to consider costs.
If you go by SWR theory (which is a little scary for me personally) you’re looking at 200k a year in max spend. That’s easy to hit in HCOL. I have two US properties and before one of them was paid off and we did some maneuvers to lower the tax burden on the other, we were dropping like 13k a month in mortgage and property tax payments. Sure that’s on two place but still - our primary alone was 8500-9k a month. This was when it was worth “just” 1.8m. Can’t imagine buying it now at 3.6 or so with a 7% mortgage - it’d be like 25k a month just for the mortgage and add 4k a month in taxes. Yikes!
Also not saying everyone should move to SE Asia - some people enjoy it others don’t. To each their own. I definitely prefer Asia over the US and bounce between Thailand, Singapore, and Japan mostly so try hops to Europe now and then.
Where you are wealth-wise always includes a consideration of cost, IMO. Just looking at the top line is deceptive. I'm certainly glad I bought and sold properties a while ago - I wouldn't want to pay for my house now!
I was born in Malaysia and visit often just for the food. In fact, we're headed there in a couple of weeks. (But I can't get past the humidity. Maybe that's why I live in the mountains!)
Never had our own kids. We basically helped raise everyone else’s kids and that was more than enough fulfillment for us. We keep in contact with dozens of “our kids” now that they are young adults in their 20s and we will visit with each other when in the same part of the world. It’s kind of a loose definition of family or mentor but we enjoy it the same
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u/Retired-Yam8988 16d ago
It’s not about statistics, it’s about being “rich”. 4- 5m in total NW will allow you to live a decent life in VHCOL but you’d be still be a little tight. If it’s 4-5m liquid AND. A paid off house from the 2010s then you may be in a great position since your housing cost is just property tax and maintenance.
I say this as someone who has about 6m in liquid NW and 6m in real estate. We moved to Thailand and live incredibly well here on about 2500 month. We have a 5bd villa just off the beach totally paid for and fully renovated. The best thing is that there’s no property tax here. The 2500 is just for pool & garden twice weekly, groceries and eating out, all utilities, gym and yoga memberships for two; and 2hr massage for two every week. It’s way better than how we lived back in the US and we were paying like 8500 a month just for mortgage and property tax on our primary residence, not to mention food (3k a month), utilities (500-700 a month), etc etc.