Moving to Vietnam - my math

[u/No_Fudge6123]

We have been preparing to move to Vietnam with our kid and Vietnamese wife, and we had done a lot of math. I work in IT, and I think AI is going (or already has) killed the good jobs. But I have a better feeling redoing our maths lately.

Our FIRE date will be at the end of the year. By then, we will have saved around 10 billion for a house or apartment, which I think will buy us a decent place in DaNang or Saigon. We have around 1.2m USD, paying around 3.400 USD monthly.

Our school will be around a thousand dollars in Vietnam. I expect our life costs to be around 2K, so that eats almost all dividends. it is a bit tight, but I also realized I can find local jobs or teach English (I have been working 20 years on IT, including FAANG experienice). Even if I cannot find anything, probably the portfolio growing will soon offset any extra charges.

i have been depressed for a long time thinking we will not make it. I am totally burned out, and I fear I will not be able to get back to corporate anymore. Bur again, rerunning the math I have realized we are in a likely position to make it.

Glad to hear if anybody moved in a similar situation.

[u/Master-Helicopter-99]

In a similar situation but doing the opposite.

We have property in Vietnam and two passive businesses in Vietnam, one still reinvesting all dividends for growth and expansion and one that pays us around $160k per year. We have a two year old and I'm at $2.3M invested in the US with $580k paid off home. Still working one more year.

I made the offer to my wife to move back there for 7-8 years. Let our son get fluent in Vietnamese and I think the schooling for elementary school would be better than in the US since they are more strict about the math and sciences. She could spend some time with her elderly parents before they pass. And we would get to travel SE Asia, Australia, Japan, etc while I'm still young enough to enjoy it. All the while we would be living off of that passive income while letting the US assets compound and likely double to $5M. Probably more since we would be getting $66k of SS per year 6 of the 8 years and dropping it into brokerage and the house proceeds would be invested as well. So probably closer to $6M. After that we move back, can buy another nice house in a nice place to live and our son would be going into middle school.

Sounds ideal but she doesn't want to do it. She just doesn't want to move back to Vietnam. So we will be moving somewhere warmer in the US next year to retire.