OT: Tim Ferriss -- The Four-Hour Work Week and Geoarbitrage

[ravdg316]

I just finished reading Tim Ferriss's The Four-Hour Work Week about geoarbitraging - specifically by living off US wages in countries that aren't as expensive. It's obviously not a brand new concept, but I've never seen such explicit, scaleable instructions on how to do this like Ferriss outlines in his book. Biking up and down volcanoes before shooting off a few afternoon emails while making automatic $$ seems like a cool way to live.

I'm wondering if any members here are putting this concept into practice and how it works.

I'm in the process of being able to make decent wages without having to work in an a particular location, so I'm looking for some stories of members here (many who I know have a few years more life experience than I do) who've effectively managed to create this lifestyle.

[fa63]

We are not doing exactly that, but maybe something similar. In the next couple of years, we plan to use the equity from our nice house to downsize into a much smaller place in a different zip code (with no mortgage), then combining the profits from the sale with our existing savings and essentially living off of our investment income. My wife and I are both engineers in our mid 30s, and have been diligent about saving for a number of years and have also slowly been adapting a more frugal lifestyle. It also helps that we have no kids (and don't plan on having any).

[cachagua]

It also helps that we have no kids (and don't plan on having any).

Very wise plan.

[CNY rider]

It also helps that we have no kids (and don't plan on having any).

That's absolutely the key right there.

Congrats. I'm 47, love what I do, but would be happy if I could walk away from it now. There's just so much to enjoy in life without the demands of my work schedule.

And on the original topic: We live in the Liberal Democratic People's Republic of New York, so just moving to another state that isn't CT or NJ should have a similar effect for us

[AngryScientist]

well rav - you're set up well to downsize lifestyles for sure if you're in Santa Monica. next to the bay area and nyc here, not too many places to live that are more expensive than that.

[paredown]

I read the book some time ago, but we mostly failed to act on any of the suggestions, although my wife's consultancy has shifted more to branding and licensing, so for some of her projects there are ongoing commissions--but so far none of them have amounted to very much, given the tough retail climate, and the aftermath of the 'Great Recession'...

We too will likely relocate at some point--taxes anywhere in the tri-state (NJ-CT-NY) continue to escalate, and have made it pretty much impossible to retire here unless you have a government pension that is indexed or you salted away a lot. Even then, it's hard to see the value--crappy roads, bad services and rampant corruption is what you are paying for. The Times article on the weekend was an eye-opener--the average subway worker (line, not admin) is making $170,000/year with benefits and OT, full paid medical, free subway/transit and a generous pension. Meanwhile me and my peeps in residential construction are lucky if we are netting over $20/hr--with absolutely no safety net. We're running the state and local budgets for the benefit of the lucky few who get the state/local government jobs--and the rest of us are taxed to keep the long con going.

[54ny77]

at some point the music stops.

it's happening in ct now, productive companies (and people with high taxable income) are leaving. you can only kick a dog so many times before it bites back.

and like you said, the rest of us are holding the bag.

We're running the state and local budgets for the benefit of the lucky few who get the state/local government jobs--and the rest of us are taxed to keep the long con going.