The concept of an early retirement before the age of 65 is nothing more than pipe dream for most people. They would never even consider it to be a reality given the fact that it’s just not the way things are done…at least not traditionally. The traditional way is to graduate high school and then spend your entire adult life working for someone else’s benefit, working your way up a corporate ladder rung by rung over 40 years of your life, paying off school loans, car loans and a mortgage payment. The cold facts are that most adults in the U.S. won’t see retirement until after 65 years of age because that’s the way the system is designed to work.
But as we move into the next part of the 21st century more and more intelligent people are starting to wake up to the fact that they don’t have to be wage slaves any longer. Not only can you retire long before you are 65 years of age, but you can do it on a lot less than the traditional way of thinking that states you need $500,000 in the bank. The life of an international expat means you can choose countries around the world where you can retire on as little as $35,000 and live like a king while you are doing it.
It sounds like a myth to most people, but it’s a reality that more and more expats are choosing to explore every year. A perfect example of such a place is Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2008. A quiet country on the eastern borders of Europe, the country has a low cost of living coupled with a rising medical tourism industry, several major cities and thousands of years of culture and history behind her. And while most Americans look at the country as something inferior, the reality is that Bulgaria is one of dozens of places you can choose for your early retirement.
The cost of living for most expats is around $8,000 a year for an upper middle-class type of life in countries like Bulgaria. And that doesn’t just cover your basic needs; that includes your entertainment costs as well. And houses in these other countries only cost around $35,000 to $50,000 on average in most of the major cities, which means you can pay off your home in cash in just a few short years of working. Assuming you receive a Western salary of $35,000 a year against a cost of living that is less than $10,000, you can save $25,000 a year and come up with 50k in just two years. No 40+ years of mortgage payments; just a quick and easy early retirement.
This is the beauty of the expat existence, and it’s the reason so many expats are choosing it rather than let their lives be defined by governments who want them to spend 40+ years working as a slave. When you can use the Internet to travel abroad and live anywhere you want you can see yourself retiring at a far younger age and at a far lesser cost than the $500,000 and 65 years of age that tradition tells you that you need.
Bulgaria is just one of various countries around the world where you can choose to set up shop as an international digital nomad.
