u/Feelinglikeatamale

My (37F) partner (40M) and I would love some feedback on our setup and some advice from those that have gone the ExpatFIRE route and maybe those that have regretted it.

He is from the AU and I’m from USA with AU residency. He works for a AU company remotely that is very stable and he does some side projects. He typically brings in between $80-90k USD per year before taxes. I’ve typically been the breadwinner when I have a job (I work in marketing/project management and have gone through bouts of unemployment and layoffs.) When I am employed, I brought in around $120k per year. I am currently unemployed and plan on taking a year off to reevaluate my career. I’ve been very unhappy with my profession for a long time and see ai taking it over. I’d like to explore starting a small CPG company or doing something entirely different but don’t know what that could be. The reason for the year sabbatical is because I do not want to be involved in such a horrid job market and feel like when I am working, it is all consuming and I have no time for anything outside of the work (like exploring starting a new company).

Our investments (USD) are as follows:
Savings: $75k
Brokerage: $1.3m
Retirement $300k
Rental property Equity: $300k
TOTAL NW: $1.97m

Income
Him: 80-90k USD
Her: unemployed but $35k in other investments (see below)

I have a mortgage on a duplex in the US of $230k at 2.9% though insurance is at $7k and taxes are at $6k. I’m considering selling this property next year because of these rising costs. It’s in a hurricane prone area. This property brings in net $2,000 per month which I put into a HYSA (4.95%) in case I need to repair anything. I pull all expenses from here regarding the house (water, yard work, maintenance, replacements). I currently have around $15k in there. (Included in savings #)

I have taken out a LOC against my brokerage account to do private lending. The rate I get on the LOC is 6.5%. I have $200k loaned out at 12% and the spread is profit. This comes out to $11k in profit annually and I can expense the 6.5% rate on my taxes. They have put up an $800k property as collateral of the loan (if they default, it’s mine).

We have been able to save significantly because of our DN lifestyle. We just got approved for a visa that will allow us to stay in Thailand for 5 years and that’s what we plan to do. We worked it out so that our annual expenses will be around $24k per year, not including travel. We’d be living off my husband’s income and we plan on investing the remainder, approximately $30-35k.

Neither of us want to live in the US or AU. I was able to apply for European citizenship through family and am waiting for that to process, but unsure if we’d want to live there either. We really like LATAM and Asia. We both speak English and Spanish. I speak Portuguese and plan on learning Thai.

I suppose I wonder how many people regret ExpatFIRE. Our parents are getting older. He’s an only child so I fear it can get complicated quickly. Both our parents have enough to take care of themselves in old age but still.

We don’t have children. However, adopting is something we might consider. I am not sure if the numbers would work if we add a child into the mix.

According to my calculations, we are good to go with ExpatFIRE but I feel like I’m missing something. I also would like to plan for us to be able to normal FIRE in case life happens and we’d need to move to US, AU for a period of time or do decide to move to Europe (I have a lot of family there). I haven’t lived in these places in so long and have no clue how much expenses are in any of these countries. My family lives in a VHCOL in USA. His family lives in a HCOL in Australia.

As a sidenote, I’m also dealing with immigrant parents who don’t understand the idea of FIRE. My father is incredibly successful and can’t fathom anyone not wanting to be a multi-multi millionaire or the option of not working. He’s 72 and still a workaholic. I feel like he judges me hard for choosing this life.

Just finished my first Camino. Put together some information I thought would be helpful to other female solo travelers.

My schedule:

Day 1 - Porto | Albergue de Peregrinos Porto: Nice, close to the Center. Allows you to stay more than 1 night to enjoy the city. Showers were on the cold side though and it was very cold at night. Volunteers here were so kind and helpful.

Night 2 - Labruge (18.9km) | Albergue Santiago de Labruge: Not very clean, noisy beds. the whole place was quite stinky. Shower was okay. Wouldn’t stay here again. Co-ed bathrooms.

Night 3 - Póvoa de Varzim (12.9km) | Hotel Costa Verde: Decent hotel with basic breakfast included.

Night 4 - Fão (18km) | Hostal do Alto: Not crowded at all. Very clean and quiet. Great showers. Would stay here again. Private bathrooms.

Night 5 - Castelo do Neiva (15.8km) | Albergue Dom Nausti (caminho da Costa): Not many options in the area. Okay showers, okay level of cleanliness. Don’t think I’d stay here again but it did have a great community vibe and made some great connections here.

Night 6 - Carreço (20.6km) | Albergue Casa do Sardão: Very cute hostel, comfortable beds, foot bath, amazing views and hot showers. Great community vibe. 2nd favourite of the trip. Co-ed bathrooms.

Night 7 - Caminha (18.6km) | Albergue de Peregrinos Santiago de Caminha: Very clean, hot showers. “Upgraded” to a bed in a 4-bed room and it wasn’t worth the money. Would stay here again but in the normal room. No community vibe though.

Night 8 - Vila Nova de Cerveira (16km) | Casa Gwendoline: Felt more like you were staying in someone’s home. Only pilgrim’s dinner I experienced on my trip, though pricey IMO. Hot showers. Great community vibe. Private bathrooms.

Night 9 - Tui (17km) | Convento Del Camino | Albergue Tui: Beautiful space. Hot showers. Would stay here again.

Night 10 - Porriño (16km) | Albergue Somos: Hot showers, very clean. Very impersonal though I would stay again because it is so clean.

Night 11 - Redondela (15.7km) | Albergue A Conserveira: Giant room with about 50 guests. Okay showers. Least favourite of the whole trip. This town was entirely booked so this was my only option.

Night 12 - Pontevedra (20.8km) | Hostel Charino: Super clean, amazing showers, free laundry. Amazing breakfast spread and super central. Best by far of the whole trip. Great town to consider for an extra day as I felt like there was lots to do.

SPIRITUAL VARIANT

Night 13 - Casalvito (11.5km) | ALBERGUE HOSTEL NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL CAMINO: Very clean, very comfortable beds.

Night 14 - Barrantes (16.2km) | Albergue Camino Espiritual: Very clean, new. Good showers and free very basic breakfast but very impersonal.

Night 15 - Villanova de Arousa (17.4km) | ALBERGUE TURISTICO A SALAZON: comfortable and close to the dock. Would stay again just for convenience. Private bathrooms.

Night 16 - Raíces (17.6km) | Albergue Aldea da Pedreira: Not very clean, clogged showers. Comfortable beds but would not recommend.

Night 17 - Santiago de Compostela (10.2km) | Pensión Residencia Fonseca: Right in the Center, across from the church. Comfortable but very loud at night.

*The distances are according to Camino Ninja. My Apple Watch averaged around 20.5km per day.

For some additional context, I got food poisoning/dehydration on day 2 and my stomach was off for a few days, and I was dealing with terribly painful blisters on day 3/4 until day 9/10 so I wasn’t doing as many kms per day as I planned.

In Portugal, I did not book ahead. However, it got considerably busier once I crossed over into Spain and I started having to book 2-3 days ahead. The spiritual variant was nowhere near as busy but the Monastary was sold out days ahead. I went end of April/beginning of May. It rained quite a bit but was manageable.

The spiritual variant was my favourite part and the most beautiful by far. The big hill on the route was not a big deal at all. If I could do it all over again, I’d skip Casalvito and stay at the monastery in Armentia, it was gorgeous. I think I’d also just walk straight to Santiago after the boat. The boat needs to be booked a few days ahead, it sells out.

My packing list :

2 sports tank tops
1 biker shorts (wore these all the time)
1 long leggings (wore 2xs)
1 thermal long sleeve shirt
1 thermal pants (wore 1x, wouldn’t take again)
1 pullover hiking sweater
1 PJ dress
3 pairs underwear
2 sports bra
1 sleeping bag liner (only used it 2x)
1 microfibre towel
1 neck gaiter/headband
3 pairs merino wool socks
1 pair normal sneakers (ended up buying Teva sandals and did majority of the walk in these)
Cheap sandals for shower (redundant once I bought hiking sandals, wouldn’t take again)
Eye mask
Ear plugs (splurge on these, it makes a difference)
Cheap plastic poncho that covered my backpack
Normal 20-25L backpack with chest strap (still had room)
Water bladder (ended up just using water bottles because tap water tasted off to me, wouldn’t take again)
Compede (ended up needed way more than I bought)
Deodorant (didn’t really use it, It was cold so I didn’t really sweat)
Razor (didn’t really feel the need to)
Tweezers (did come in handy when dealing with blisters)
1 bar soap (body, hair)
Leave in conditioner spray
Hairbrush
Face wash (bought on the trail)
toothbrush/toothpaste
Vaseline for feet

Things I should have brought:
1 simple night time outfit just to feel clean
Better shoes (though Tevas were great in the end)
Small scissors
Tape/bandaids
Wool (can only buy online, no stores had this)

I did not use hiking poles and didn’t feel like I needed them.

My tip is to focus on prevention of blisters from day 1. Tape your toes every morning. Use Vaseline on the rest of your feet. As soon as you start feeling something, stop and get it sorted. Don’t wait until you have one to take care of your feet. I have done multiple day hikes, Patagonia, volcanos, etc and never got blisters. I also ended up getting friction burns on my feet/toes and tape would have prevented this. Doubling up on socks helped too. When you sit down to rest, take off your socks. Change them if you’re sweating and reapply Vaseline.

I found people to be incredibly friendly and kind. I made many friends on the walks and in the albergues. But night time/early mornings are rough. There is usually 1-2 people snoring very loudly at night and it can sometimes keep the whole room up. Invest in very good earbuds, I had foam ones and I could still hear the snoring. If you’re a snorer, please get it checked out before going on this trip or you will not be very popular the next morning. There’s lots of modern day solutions (mouth tape, nose strips, mouth guards, etc). Or book a private room. For those that like to get an early start, please consider packing your bag the night before and leaving it near the door so you don’t wake everyone up. Please please please do not turn the lights on. Have some considerations for the pilgrims that don’t want to get up before 7am. Everyone has their own journey so please show some empathy and compassion for the other pilgrims.

In saying that, the best parts for me was the journey. I was never in a rush (and didn’t really understand why some people rush to the next town to just hang out in the albergue.) I figured out the specialty foods of the regions and would have nice lunch breaks. Cod, monkfish, oysters, octopus, scallops, razor clams, cuttlefish — the region is a seafood paradise. So many lovely wines to try too. It’s nice to wander around the towns, check out the historic buildings and churches. Sit for a coffee. Talk to locals. It’s not a race.

Something I was not prepared for is older men walking around in their underwear in the public albergues. The only time I felt unsafe was when I went off the trail and on a busy road in Portugal. A car full of young men were asking me to get in their car. I speak Portuguese (and Spanish) so I told them no and just ignored them and kept walking. Stick to the trail and you’ll be fine.

Feel free to ask any questions.

I’m currently in a private albergue, writing this because I "upgraded" to a 4-bed room, thinking my odds of a quiet night would be higher. I assumed that fewer people = fewer chances of a snorer, and surely people booking smaller rooms are also looking for quiet.

As you can probably guess, I was wrong. There is a man (absolutely lovely human when we chatted earlier) in here snoring so loudly I can hear him through my earplugs.

Am I wrong for assuming a 4-bed room would be a safer bet? Clearly yes… but also, do some people honestly not know they snore? At this level of volume, it feels like it could be sleep apnea. My FIL has it so I’m vaguely familiar with the symptoms. But I did look it up and nearly 50% of the population snores, majority being older men. More common in those that are overweight and those that sleep on their back.

There was one glorious night I spent in an all-female dorm (by chance) that was so quiet and lovely. Why aren't "No-Snore" rooms a thing? I’d happily pay a premium for that (which is what I thought I was doing tonight). Or even all female dorm rooms. After weeks of the trail, wearing earplugs every single night is becoming quite uncomfortable.

Just venting since I’m wide awake. I know everyone has a right to be on the journey but I just was hoping for a better experience for the night.

Buen Camino