What is geoarbitrage?

In brief, geoarbitrage is the practice of living somewhere cheaper in order to accelerate your journey to financial independence. It can be done in the accumulation phase, for example by living in employer provided housing or in a low tax country while earning, or in the decumulation phase, moving somewhere that allows for a lower cost of living.

In terms of my personal experience, I’ve never practiced geoarbitrage specifically for financial reasons, but I have certainly seen the impact that living in different places can have on spending and saving. I lived in Taiwan for 5 years in my 20’s. During this time, I earned about $24,000 USD per year, and I saved about half. At the same time, I lived quite well, traveling around South East Asia, eating out every lunch and dinner at restaurants, and so forth. I didn’t pick Taiwan for economic reasons, but it is kind of in the sweet spot as far as earning potential vs. cost of living.

Later, I lived in China for a year. I was working in a smallish city in central China, and my salary was quite low. I earned about $5500 USD per year. Still, because my employer provided housing and some food, I managed to save about $3000 USD, and that’s with taking two month-long biking and camping trips. Again, my goal in China was not primarily to earn money, but clearly the cost of living there can be dramatically lower. At the same time, I returned to China a few years later for a business trip while working for a US university. I was put up in hotels costing $200 USD per night. It was a side of China I hadn’t even known existed. It really drove home to me that, even within a particular country, there can be a tremendous range of both costs and earning potential.

And then, in 2020, we moved from the US to Canada. Again, this wasn’t a financial decision, but it still had financial impacts. Our taxes went up, but our house was a bit cheaper. I was able to take my job with me, so my salary didn’t change, but when my wife found work in Canada her salary was slightly lower. However, as we transition to part-time work or full retirement, we won’t need to worry about paying for health insurance, which can be quite expensive in the US.

In the future, I think it’s possible that we might live overseas again. I suspect we’ll wait until our daughter is in college (which will be a while) but considering both my wife and I have backgrounds as English language teachers, it wouldn’t surprise me if we spent some of our early retirement living in different countries. I don’t anticipate these decisions to be primarily financially motivated, but it’s good to know that if something unexpected happens and our savings are dramatically reduced, there are plenty of nice places around the world where we would still be able to meet the costs of living. Some places I’m personally particularly interested in are Bhutan, Thailand, Chile and Croatia.

What experience do you have with geoarbitrage? What are some of your favorite places to live?

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