u/Next_life_stage

Hey all,

I FIRE’d in Toronto in my 30s and have spent the last ~6 years living abroad and slow traveling through middle-income countries. It’s been a great experience, but I’m getting pretty tired of living out of Airbnbs and I’m starting to miss a lot of things about living in Canada.

My current total spending, including Airbnbs, flights, visas, and everything else, is about $42k CAD per year, or $3,500/month.

I’d love to move back to Toronto, where I used to live around Yonge and Eglinton, but I don’t think $3,500/month would be enough to live the way I’d want to. I figure that I would need closer to $4,300 per month in Toronto near the subway to maintain the lifestyle I am used to.

One option I’m considering is Edmonton. I’d live downtown and not own a car. Based on what I’ve looked at so far, it seems like $3,500/month could let me live a fairly similar lifestyle to what I’ve been living in middle-income countries, just with better infrastructure and MUCH colder weather.

For anyone living in Edmonton, especially downtown and without a car:

• Is $3,581/month realistic for a single person?
• How easy is it to get around without a car?
• Is downtown a good place to live?
• Are there any costs I might be overlooking?
• If you had the choice, would you pick Edmonton over Toronto on this budget?

Would especially love to hear from anyone who has FIRE’d and then moved to a lower cost city in Canada.

https://preview.redd.it/todeof415dkh1.png?width=1630&format=png&auto=webp&s=298c0440bd717c8d0ee3472b480f41efb3d85c9d

What’s the best gym in Manila/BGC aside from Kerry Sports Manila?

Kerry Sports is around ₱9k/month, and I’m willing to pay that if it’s genuinely the only “nice” gym in Manila. However, I’d prefer not to have to pay for an expensive condo near Kerry plus a ₱9k/month gym membership if there are good alternatives elsewhere.

For reference, this is what I mean by a “nice” gym. I’m used to the gyms in Thailand, and I’m finding the typical PH gym a bit frustrating:

• Good air conditioning. This is probably my biggest issue. I’m tired of having to ask Anytime Fitness staff to turn on the AC every time I work out. I’ve even been told that if I move to another section of the gym, I need to go to the office and ask them to turn on the AC in that section. I’d really prefer a gym where the AC is simply on throughout the gym.
• Well maintained - clean, equipment in good condition, etc.
• Good selection of equipment - large dumbbell area, lots of machines, multiple squat racks, etc.
• Not too crowded. I work out during off-peak hours, so I mainly care about how busy the gym is between roughly 9 AM and 4 PM.

I’m primarily interested in weight training, so things like a pool, basketball court, etc. aren't particularly important to me.

Thanks in advance!

For those who live in very small condos (<30sqm), what's your secret? Do you just sleep in the condo and spend all day out? Do you not feel claustrophobic? How do you manage to have separate spaces for sleeping, living, eating, cooking,etc?

Btw, not referring to people living in airbnbs and here as tourists. Referring to people who live full time here in small condos.

Hey all,

Just wanted to share an update. I LeanFIRE'd approximately 5 years ago in my 30s with roughly $600k USD invested. I'm Canadian, so the numbers were originally in CAD, but either way it was not enough to comfortably retire in Canada.

My plan all along was to leverage geo-arbitrage to get maximum value from every dollar spent. I also do not stay in any one country long-term. I typically spend about 3 months in each city before moving on to the next. This lets me combine my love of freedom, travel, and keeping expenses low.

Countries I've lived in so far:

• North America: Canada, Mexico
• Europe: Spain, Portugal, Greece. Most of my time there was spent in coliving spaces to keep housing costs down.
• South America: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile.
• Asia: India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia.
• Africa: Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia.

I built my own finance app that tracks my finances across multiple currencies. My budget when I started was about $20k/year, including travel costs. Today it's closer to $24k/year all-in.

Portfolio update:

• Started with roughly $600k USD
• Current portfolio is approximately $1.4M USD

I have not worked a traditional job during this period. Most of the growth came from the market through a combination of passive investing and some active trading. A few AI-related investments worked out particularly well for me. I also take advantage of weird hustles - CC points to pay for flights, rewards for moving money between brokerages, youtube channel (no longer doing this as it's now saturated), built an app for an entrepreneur friend, etc. These side hustles combined probably brought in $100k during this period but required very little time.

Plans for the future:

I'm planning to move to China to learn Mandarin. Right now I'm working through the details of language schools and visa options. After that, who knows? Probably another adventure.

Happy to answer any questions.