[Music] [Music] hey YouTube Alex here and I'm at hot y City Park in hot Y Thailand and I wanted to make a video because I keep getting asked about this and I think it's really going to be valuable
for a lot of you how much do I personally need for financial Independence in Southeast Asia this is by no means an exhaustive list this video is not Financial advice as for how much you need that really depends
on your lifestyle preferences I'm a bachelor with limited expenses back home you may be responsible for paying child support back in the west you may have a mortgage payment you may have other kinds of obligations like having a
family and if you're attempting to bring a family to this part of the world then your budget is going to look different from mine in my case I'm just paying for myself this is not an exhaustive list this
is not a forever list inflation is a worldwide phenomena things can change this idea assumes that my base level cost of living in Southeast Asia multiplied by the inflation rate will not exceed the rise of my income in
the west so what is my fire number for Southeast Asia that is a dividend paying portfolio with a value of 500k at at a 4% safe withdrawal yield now 4% of $500,000 is $20,000 this would create a monthly
income of around 1,600 us per month a little bit more than that and that's not my monthly expenses that is just my income my budget would probably look closer to say 1,200 per month maybe 1,400 per month this
would allow for saving some extra Capital to cover unexpected expenses to cover the cost of replacing batteries in my phone and laptop to eventually needing to replace my phone and laptop deal with any unexpected health care expenses this
is just the Baseline what does this 1,200 per month of expenses include well I would say the rent and the electricity combined should not exceed 300 maybe 350 and my food budget would not exceed say 500 maybe 550
now that does include a lot of Western food I do at times enjoy a nice pizza or sometimes I like to go have Indian food or some sushi and that's going to run more than local dishes on top
of that I throw a $100 Transportation budget and $100 for visas you might be thinking that's $1,000 to $1,050 per month well I also budget in there that I'm going to run into anywhere from 100 to150 per month
of unexpected expenses this doesn't include health insurance because I currently self-insure I would probably attempt to get a work permit a Visa in the country that I'm staying in longterm that allows me to do some things on the
side whether it be working online or maybe teaching English this is not oh now I've got my 1,600 per month I'm just going to sit on the couch and do nothing so now that we've talked about the dividend
portfolio and the monthly income what are my five points that I'm going to be following to maintain success number one is that I'm taking a look at small to mediumsized cities I'm not looking as closely at the large
capitals I find that they will probably exceed my budget when considering the rent in a convenient District or all of the potential expenses that you have in a big city I don't find big cities inherently expensive as much
as I find them to be incredibly easy places to spend money you have lots and lots of opportunities to spend money that's why I find them to be more expensive certainly rent is not cheap in Bangkok City Center
but you can easily find $100 a month apartments on the outskirts you go far enough out of Manila it's the same deal you look at Steve from Philippines info Channel he's in Trace Marti City and he's paying I
think $80 equivalent for his rent I'm from a medium-sized city in the US Nashville and so I find that the medium or small cities are more in line with what I'm accustomed to to the traffic is not as
bad as it is in the capital cities the people are perhaps a bit less rushed or in a hurry I think it tends to be easier to get out of the tourist bubble and this is the same reason
I wouldn't be picking Islands or beaches at that price point these areas also tend to be pricey comparable to the big cities and there's nothing wrong with them I think beaches and islands are just fine but if you're
a budget conscious person and especially budget conscious person then I don't think the big cities or the beaches are going to offer the same price points that the small to medium cities will offer the beaches and Islands tend
to not offer the same economies of scale that the small to mediumsized cities offer they're serving a smaller number of people and so the prices have to be higher to accommodate that not to mention the higher Transportation cost
I personally am a big fan of changai Thailand and I think that's in the running for my long-term home in Southeast Asia I do recommend doing Discovery trips to check out different places and find what's going to work
best for you if you want me to cover Discovery trips let me know down in the comments below and I'll do a rough outline of what a discovery trip should look like but that topic is so deep I've
also thought about writing a book about it consider your health care needs now if you're in perfectly good health this won't apply to you but as you get older you may run into chronic health issues I have some
health issues myself and I budget a certain amount of money per month to address these Health Care concerns I'd say probably I set aside like a hundred bucks a month something like that I do recommend checking out travel
insurance providers I am not currently partnered with one but if you know of a good one that you recommend let us know down in the comments and I'll be happy to check out their services I prefer a testimonial
or something where you can vouch for them and there's a number of people who are saying yeah I've had a good experience with this provider but this is especially important if you plan to ride a motorbike I personally
do not ride a motorbike and that's why the budget is not quite so high but unfortunately accidents do happen you see I think she's a woman of European origin who recently had a motorbike accident in puket and she
didn't have insurance and I think she's got like a GoFundMe to attempt to raise the funds to cover the cost for treatment so I would say be very very careful about planning financially for emergency situations you should also
be seeing healthc care providers and I feel like consistent basis to try to preemptively catch anything before it gets more severe a friend of mine who watches this channel a lovely person mentioned that he recently had a serious
health concern come up because he was regularly getting checkups and they caught it early and as a result he is still with us today and I feel very happy and grateful that he is addressing these concerns early and
I hope that you will do the same it's not just the catching them early it's also making sure that you can budget to catch them early and this is where I would say let's say you have an income
of 2,000 per month well you shouldn't really be spending 2,000 per month you should really keep your budget lower than that create a fund alongside your health insurance to be prepared for these costs before they happen and even
more so if you're riding a motorbike which I don't recommend but certainly some people feel that they can handle it some places have had issues with foreigners failing to pay and so they are especially concerned about that and
can expect payment upfront if you are not in a position to handle it then that's where Insurance can step in and allow for your admittance I'm not going to get into tons of details on this one just because
I haven't had that circumstance myself it's certainly something I'm going to be more cautious about as I get older and my health deteriorates with age what are your lifestyle expectations do you expect to be eating Western food every
day do you expect to be jet setting to other parts of the country do you want to be partying enjoying the nightlife scene all of these can cost a lot and really add to your budget and so if
these are things that you want to participate in on a consistent basis you'll want to budget extra for this for me personally I'm not a nightlife guy I'm not a jet Setter and I'm not really I'm not as
much of a traveler I like to do slow travels these are not as large of a budget concern for me but they may be a concern for you if you want to be eating Western food every day then
consider that it could cost you as much as it costs in your home country if not more to import Australian beef to Thailand is not cheap and being so far from production you can't expect to get the same
kind of deals or discounts that you would in your home country likewise if you want to have salmon imported from Norway then that's going to cost as well you're not going to get that much of a discount in
some cases I found some things to be more expensive but often they're at least as expensive in the case of cheese cheese is much more expensive in Thailand than it is in a western country because cheese is considered
a luxury it's considered a niche product and not everybody's eating cheese so they don't have the same economies of scale it's also expensive to store cheese there's also a limited domestic market for it so that's one of those
things where you're so used to it being fairly economical in the west but when you are in Southeast Asia it could cost you a pretty penny also consider that if you meet a significant other in Southeast Asia and
you want her or him to join you on your travels then you're going to pay extra for them to be joining you instead of buying one plane ticket you're going to be purchasing two instead of buying one dinner
you're going to be purchasing two now some guys will date a woman who has a career and I think that's perfectly fine but that's not going to be the case for every guy and you need to consider that
and if she does have a career then that will somewhat limit your vacation options if he or she is working Monday through Friday they might not always have the energy to run off to an island they may want
to just chill out on the weekends I know for me when I'm working full-time I don't always want to be traveling every weekend now when I was younger maybe I had the energy for that but as I've gotten
older I prefer a more relaxed pace speaking of relationships dating will add to your budget not just the actual partnership but finding somebody that you are interested in if you want to live in a certain city then you'll
want to start there I don't like the idea of trying to meet somebody online and then you want to live in changai but you're talking to women in puket that's going to involve a lot more leg work are
you going to move to puket are you going to help them move to changai what if things don't work out are you going to help them move back to puket and if you move to puket and you don't
want to live there you're going to be making a lot of compromises that may cause some friction in your relationship I'm personally not a big beach guy so PUK is not what I'm looking for but it is a
wonderful place for many people you should also consider for people who are dating a significant other that has a child from a previous relationship are you able to afford that can you provide for not only your so but
also their child are you able to consider their pre-existing obligations whether it be to their parents or to their child or their ex significant other in the case of the Philippines if you are a guy who is dating
somebody who is married well divorce is illegal in the Philippines are you capable of helping to fund an enement this is a very expensive and timec consuming process I'm not an attorney however I've heard this from Plenty of
guys who say this is something you need to look out for or need to consider you really have to be cautious there and understand if you want to do things legally then it can be quite expensive in this
scenario adultery is a serious crime in the Philippines it is a jailable offense and you don't want to be in that position this is another circumstance where I think it's important to consider the needs of your potential significant
other because if you have a family then the grandparents are probably going to want to be involved and are you open to budgeting the time and money to make that happen finally this is just a start this is
not an exhaustive list by any means you should also of course have the emergency budget this is going to be different for everyone I personally recommend a minimum of 10 to 20K you should also include a repatriation budget
this is if your plan goes ay unfortunately it does happen for me a repatriation budget includes the expenses to get back to my home country a one-way flight back to the US and 3 to 6 months of living
expenses a deposit on an apartment first months rent and then money to pay for rent food and transportation for 3 to 6 months after I land it is not only the funds that I need just to get back
because okay yeah I'm back in the States where am I going to stay I prefer not to stay at a homeless shelter I would prefer to rent a studio or a room from my friend and that costs money
I already own a car back in the States so transportation is not going to be as high for me but if you're going back and having to buy a car then that Transportation budget should be higher it may
not even be an emergency that sends you back you may just get tired of living over sees you may miss your friends and family back home your business may require your in-person intervention there's all kinds of reasons why
people move back home and you want to be prepared in case you are also in that position if you are in a position where you totally run out of money the US government assuming you're an American I don't
believe this is the case for UK residents or Canadians but that the US government will give you a repatriation loan they will loan you the money to buy a plane ticket back assuming you sit down and credit call
I think it's three contacts that you need to contact maybe it's two contacts and check with them like hey I'm in a rough spot can you loan me the money to buy a ticket if they don't answer or
they say no then the US government will let you go back on a repat loan but they are going to hold your passport until you pay that loan back in full now if you run out of money you
probably shouldn't be looking to get out of the US immediately anyway you don't want to run into that situation in the first place so have a repatriation budget have an emergency budget be prepared to to go back if
things don't work out I hope this video has been helpful let me know what you think down in the comments below do you agree that these are reasonable considerations are there any topics that you'd add to this video
it helps to generate interesting discussion if we're able to share ideas compare and contrast our thought processes and if you enjoy the video give us a thumbs up if you don't enjoy it give us a thumbs down and
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