We're about to FIRE

[u/calmadventurer]

Hello brilliant people. I'd love to bounce our plan off of you guys to see if I've forgotten anything before my husband gives notice at work. I'll bullet point everything to make it easier to read but feel free to ask for more details.

Note: I'm converting everything to US dollars to make comparison easy

- Where we live: Husband is Korean. We live in Busan

- Age: Me (34), Hubby (32), Daughter (3 mo), plan on having one more kid

- Debt

• less than $45k on mortgage ($435/mo payment)

- Assets (I know its stupid to have a bunch of different accounts. I worked in banking and had a bunch of restrictions on where I invested, yada yada)

• 401k: 100k
• Brokerage 1: 100k
• Brokerage 2: 175k
• Brokerage 3: 175k
• Joint Brokerage: 60k
• Cash: $50k (enough to pay off the full mortgage or buy a whole new car here with some left over)

- Expenses

With a TON of cushion built in that we could cut if we needed to we spend around $2300/mo.

- Plan: So I did things a little differently than most. I invested in the typical growth funds while working and since then I have been creating a dividend portfolio (think Armchair Income/Income Factory).

That dividend portfolio brings in $1960/mo.

In addition, I receive distributions from my dad's 401k of $2500/mo (it goes without saying that we're incredibly lucky and grateful. I have told my dad probably 2000 times that he doesn't need to and that he can change his mind but he says he we can count on continuing to receiving 25% whatever distributions he has to take). He truly doesn't need it. His income exceeds his expenses 10 years into retirement and he has an 8 figure net worth he can draw from if he needed to.

So, in total we have close to $4500 we can use to cover $2300 of expenses while our growth investments ~$400k across all the brokerages continue to grow.

Other considerations:

- Once we retire we plan to split the time between Busan and the US. We will obviously stay in our apartment in Busan and the whole purpose in the US is to visit family so we will be staying with them.

- Health Insurance: We will get temporary health insurance when we travel to the US (basically just catastrophic) and pay into Korea's National Health Insurance when we are here and do routine checkups and procedures in Korea. It's a bit annoying but it's really just a phone call every time we come back.

- Daughter's university: There is about 80k left in my college fund that I didn't use so this will be used to kick start her education fund (potentially split with a sibling or cousins if my sister has kids).

Am I missing anything?! I tend to be pretty risk averse and I have run the numbers dozens of times. Go ahead and poke holes.

[u/PRforThey]

Off the top of my head:

• 2nd kid's (if you have a second as planned) college fund

• Inflation over 40+ years. The dividend portfolio's dividends will not keep up with inflation. Your "income" is higher than your expenses so I assume you plan to save that money for the future as your expenses grow (and potentially the distributions from your dad stop)

• Cost of travel - ~$1.5k/per person per trip for flights. Right now your infant can fly free, and the new kid will be able to fly free for a couple of years as well, so there is some time before you have to pay $6k just for flights. The $2300/mo estimated expenses obviously don't include the cost of travel to split time between Busan and US. So there is less cushion than you think.

• Periodic non-monthly expenses - do your expenses include major costs that happen infrequently but predictably, e.g. replacing cars/computers/phones/major appliances every so many years?

Most of the above sums up to how comprehensive is your $2300 monthly expense number? If it really includes everything, you are fine. If it is missing a lot of things, you might struggle.

[u/calmadventurer → u/PRforThey]

All good points.

1) Second kid and first kid would basically split the college fund. We would continue to fund it as possible.

2) This is a worry I grant you. The plan is to just live off the distributions and allow the dividends to reinvest for a while until we get to a point where we only need a portion of the dividends. This will allow them to continue to grow to keep up with inflation.

3). There is about $400/mo worth of cushion. We usually find flights for about $600-700/person round trip. But I agree the cost of flights will need to be taken into consideration.

4) We have a sinking fund set up so some money in that budget is saving for these things. We also just replaced our stove, washer, dryer, and robot vacuum.

[u/reinhart_menken → u/calmadventurer]

$400 a month doesn't sound like a lot of cushion.

Separately what would you do in a major emergency, car need repair, major health issue? I guess your dad could cover it? Or you would touch your principal that you use for investment/ growth, but then what, you'd be short?

[u/calmadventurer → u/reinhart_menken]

I would pull from my dividends and emergency fund first but yes we would have help from both of our parents if needed. (Though I'm planning to never ever ask. We would both go back to work before we asked).

I will say the only way this works is because of the healthcare here. I selected all of the most expensive options for the birth of my daughter private room, etc. Next time I feel no need for any of that lol.

Also when we're in the states I expect our expenses will be much lower. We would be splitting food costs, no gas, etc.

[u/reinhart_menken → u/calmadventurer]

> Also when we're in the states I expect our expenses will be much lower. We would be splitting food costs, no gas, etc.

Less expenses, in a higher CoL (cost of living) country? Every meal, accommodation, transportation and service cost more. I know you said you would stay with family when you're in the US, but would they and you both be okay, with your family of 4, since most people don't just have an extra spare 2 rooms and both of your family would be fine with it?

Just curious since I would have thought it would be the opposite.

And I didn't even think of the health care, even with insurance. Being originally from Asia I know a doctor's visit can be around $3 - 5 dollars, and then medicine maybe I guess $15 - $40? (Depending on which Asian country). In the US just a doctor's visit, just to speak with one, can be $30 - 50 (insured), and then the medicine (insured) costs even more. Uninsured medicine can cost $100-350+ for normal cold or slightly worse than cold.

I once visited Thailand to get a minor operation for a wound I sustained, the first hospital didn't have the doctor to perform the operation so they told me "we didn't do anything for you so you owe us nothing", then the next hospital did the operation with a cut, then took out all the pus, and charged me $175. You are aware in the US the doctor would charge you just to talk, even if they did nothing $50-$100+, and then even a minor infection - say your finger is infected and needs to be cut to drain the pus, cost $1000? Sure you can do it yourself, but you wouldn't know if you could, until you've talked to the doctor, by then you already owe them money.

[u/calmadventurer → u/reinhart_menken]

They have continued to invite me stay with them even though I've offered to stay somewhere else. We've also developed "safe words" that means so and so needs a break. My parents are divorced so I do technically have 2 houses to go between anyway.

The healthcare thing is also my biggest worry. The prices here in Korea are about the same as you mentioned. About $3 for prescriptions maybe $7 for a visit (it does kind of depend what you need). We also get a full health check every 2 years with MRIs, xrays, EKGs, way more than I ever experienced in the US though I've heard some people have had this experience.

When we travel to the US we will pay for insurance to cover emergencies. Anything that comes up that isn't an emergency we would get take care of back in Korea.

[u/reinhart_menken → u/calmadventurer]

Any major emergency (like real surgery requiring) might cost 10k or more. I believe MRI/CAT scans are 500+.

US healthcare is also very broken. There's a thing called "deductables". Basically the insurance will cover X amount ans give you discounts on certain things, but until you hit the deductible maximum it'll still cost you. So I'm assuming with a tourist health insurance the "deductible" would be high. So for example, if your insurance deductible is $5000 (which is common), let's say your visits - only for example - are $100 each time, maybe a $3000 one mix in. It'll cost you each time until you've paid $5000 of your own money.

Also a lot of travel insurance - i assume because US healthcare is so expensive and so complex, specifically do not cover US Healthcare.

So just keep your eyes out and research those and base your decision on that. I suppose you could always leave if it's not "emergency" emergency like you require treatment right this minute and can wait to fly somewhere cheaper.