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Comment by bongodongobob | Hacker News Reader

Lol the HN bubble is strong. $300k would be life changing for 90% of people.

Life changing but not retirement. There's nowhere in the USA you could retire on a $300k windfall.

You can retire on that - if you move to a small town in someplace like New Mexico - someplace where you can buy a house within walking distance of the local grocery store, do not need much heat or AC. (this implies the town is large enough to have a grocery store!). You won't get a car to drive though so select your town to live in well as you won't leave it often - once in a while someone might offer you a free ride elsewhere but you can't ask that often enough that they feel abused. You won't be eating out, just cooking your own meals.

There are lots of cheap things you can do in those towns - and you will do only those things for entertainment. You will probably be known as the guy who makes desert art because that is all you can do.

I wouldn't want to live that life, and I don't think most others reading this would either. However you could do it. Most of us would enjoy that life for a week or two every year but then want to get back to modern life. To each their own - if you want it go for it.

I don't think you could. Let's say you found a house for $50K that meets your requirements. Heck let's say you bought a trailer for $20K and found some land for $10K. You'd still have $200K left (don't forget you had to pay $70K in taxes on it).

$200K could net you about $10,000 a year if you put it in super high rate tax free muni bonds.

Even with the hermit lifestyle and no taxes, you'd still have to pay for maintenance, property tax, food, and clothing once in a while. Remember, we're talking retirement, so you don't have any other income.

I don't think you could pull that off. Substance farming is work, not retirement. And like you said, without internet, you'd pretty much be relegated to desert paining.

That is $2000/month to live on. That will buy plenty of food, and clothing and leave something left over. It will not buy good health insurance, but you are poor enough to qualify for subsidies. I also selected a mild climate where you won't need much heating and cooling. Property taxes are cheap in rural areas (state selection matters). Maintenance is cheap, though you do need to do it yourself.

It's $833 a month.

Opps. Though the rest of my point stands, you get food, clothing and not much elsei

And?

It would be life changing, but it would still be hard to retire on 300K in the US.

So?

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