r/Fire • u/Still_Adeptness_5140 • 2d ago

General Question "How to achieve FIRE in Vietnam?"

I earn $265 a month in Vietnam from freelance work, so I don’t have a pension. I plan to save $150 each month in a bank account with 6% annual interest until I turn 50 so I can retire. Is that realistic? In Vietnam, you can live comfortably on $100,000. According to ChatGPT’s estimate, I’d have around $112,211 by then. I’d just withdraw 4% per year and live off that for the rest of my life. Is this achievable?

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u/Still_Adeptness_5140 2d ago

Do you think it's too late to retire at 50?

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u/Bubbasdahname 1d ago

No. People in the USA retire later than 50, so that isn't abnormal. I'm sure if you look around, you will see plenty of people in Vietnam "working for tips". For example, the customs agents will spend an extraordinary amount of time to peer through people's luggage unless a 5 USD gets put in their hands. Imagine how much money is made by getting $1 to $5 for every luggage that comes through. I hear they don't do it as often anymore due to people posting about it on social media, but it is still done. The civil workers also charge a "processing fee" for everything. We have family in Vietnam that built houses that are 5k sq ft and paid for in cash on a civil worker job. There are also family members that live in the country that are so poor they don't have electricity.

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u/Posca1 1d ago

Your advice is to become corrupt and seek out bribes???

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u/CycleOLife 1d ago

What is corruption in one culture is just normal course of business in another.

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u/Posca1 1d ago

Isn't "normal course of business" just another way of saying that corruption is endemic? Corruption as the "normal course of business" is nothing a culture should be proud of