Couple retires in their mid-late 30’s after saving up $1MM and decides to travel the world. Wife is now pregnant (they’re currently living in Thailand) and they plan to stay retired and continue to travel around the world with their little one.
Perhaps I’m biased by the fact that my parents owned the same house my entire childhood, but basically being a nomad doesn’t seem like the best way to raise a kid. Growing up all over the world sounds really cool, but what about letting the kid have some roots? Thoughts?
I’m with you, HIggs. I think it’s important for kids to have their own space–including friends, Little League, school, etc. Jet-setting with Mom & Dad will probably get old real quick.
One of the most mature kids I’ve ever met had lived all over the world and formed relationships/friendship with those people. His dad was an executive at Apple. I think it depends on the kid, which you can probably infer based on the parent genetics.
They sound like typical hipster doofuses (doofi?) thinking their kid will get more out of a multi-national/cultural childhood than an actual structured educational environment.
I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with bringing up the kid in different countries. I’m skeptical, however, that the $1 million (where does it say this?) in savings is enough to maintain a rich lifestyle. I bet they will be back working within a few years.
I grew up around Pacific rim… I’m jealous of people who introduce friends and say “so and so and I went to kindie together” because even though I do stay in touch with friends at age 5, they are on the opposite side of the world. I used to move every 2-3 years, but I think it gave me lots of perspective. I am happy with that.
Couple would probably settle down a bit for education won’t they? I read the article briefly, mom is Chinese so should be no worry haha. I don’t think they’re hipsters. They are also savers so shouldn’t be a rich spoiled kid.
I think it’s unfortunate that you think “it won’t end well”. Kid is going to have so many experiences!
I don’t think it will end poorly. However, it will probably end up in some way that the parents did not plan. I don’t think they have mapped out a 40 year plan. Maybe just a 5 year plan and then they will see what happens.
Keep in mind you can live in Thailand very well for 30-40k a year. If they have a million they could get by almost indefinitely living off interest at that rate.
I also agree that it will depend on the individual. I’ve moved quite a lot since graduating in '06 (at least ten times across 5 states) and ideally would never slow down or stop and that’s just me. But I also keep in touch with my friends and meet up frequently. The caveate is that most of my friends are similar individuals and we’ve always just found ways to bump into each other as we’re on the move. Growing up in a small town was nice but not something I’ve every attached an overly significant value to. But I’m also a bit of a weird person all told. For some people this would be a miserable situation.
I don’t think the parents seem like hipsters. I also think that things could turn out very well for them, people in my experience tend to sh*t on everyone who doesn’t conform to the same mold. That being said, there’s obviously a lot of room for this to backfire on them as people have noted. For starters if someone gets a serious illness, the whole train goes off the tracks.
You’re now changing the equation. These folks have been moving to another country or city every few months, not every 2-3 years. That’s a big difference. I don’t know that we can assume that these folks will settle down for education. My opinion that this likely won’t end well is based on the assumption that the kid will spend the first 18 years of his/her life moving every few months with mom and dad with them “home schooling” him/her.
Sorry, they’re in Taiwan, not Thailand and based on the following quote they don’t seem to plan to settle down a bit:
“We’ve been working through different ideas — spend a year in Spain, take an RV and drive around the U.S., or drive around Mexico,” said Jeremy. “We’ll see how the pregnancy goes and see how our child’s personality is.”
It’s possible to retire in Thailand, or even Taiwan, with just $1 million. I just think that eventually, and especially with the kid, they are going to weigh the cost of going back to work against the benefits from increasing their savings. The guy was earning $140k a year - even working for a short amount of time might have a significant relative impact on their financial situation. Even if they do not increase their day-to-day expenditures, more money would help in the event of a medical situation or other mergency, as mentioned earlier.
Plus, it’s not like they are committed to this nomadic lifestyle. They can change their minds at any time. The article probably was written in a certain way to make it seem more adventurous or interesting.
Not so fun fact - so we’ve all heard of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, but did you know his regime actually survived until 1996? And Pol Pot himself lived until 1998. That’s literally like Hitler carrying on with the Third Reich for 20 years after WW2 ended and never having been brought up on war crimes. Pol Pot people. Died in 1998. Mind blown. What were we talking about?