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Comment by linsomniac | Hacker News Reader

How much money are Gen Xers looking to need for retirement? My financial advisor says that for a similar lifestyle, I'll need $3M USD.

On the other hand, apparently Costa Rica is very nice and affordable, with great healthcare and happy population. It's hot though.

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The FA is probably charging you a significant fee to calculate predicted_annual_spending_in_retirement_before_tax_and_fees / 0.04

The idea is that you can reliably withdraw 4% of invested savings over decades without exhausting the capital. Some feel the 4% should be 3.75%, 3.5%, 3.25%, ..., especially if you retire early.

I've been keeping an eye on his return vs just doing a target retirement plan, and some years it's been neck-in-neck, but this past year he really hit it out of the ballpark. I have some money, around 10%, that I direct. Some is "play money" that I put in moon-shots, some I put in more reasonable investments to try to track vs the FA. He charges me 1%. He did save me his fees this year by pulling out of Supermicro at the first signs of issues.

There is some friction with the FA, the biggest has been when I was heavy into some individual investments due to huge returns, and their oversight wanting me more diversified, but in the end I could sign a paper saying I understood this risk. One friend did recently point out that if I had followed my own advice rather than following others advice, I'd literally be a billionaire now, so that's one point I have to watch related to the FA.

My self-directed currently is mostly out of the market.

For how long? Americans will drive the prices up.

Cost rica is the most expensive Central American country. I visited both coasts for a month and the west coast is mostly boomers driving up prices. I felt like I was in southern cali.

"The most expensive Central American country" is still, from what I gather, rather affordable compared to the US. And the quality of living is fairly high, with good, affordable healthcare.

What I'm thinking is: I'm at about half my target retirement savings. Which means if I can halve my expenses, and get healthcare, I can retire now.

Sorry I meant it costs the same as southern cali. Sure there are cheap pockets. If you don’t mind not having reliable electricity. Visit first. You’ll see. Also: do some research on what the us government takes from your retirement if you expatriate. Eye opening.

AFAIK the US government doesn't take anything from your retirement unless you give up citizenship, which you don't need to do in order to expatriate. One can be a US citizen and live his life in any country one sees fit.

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