Not boring at all my man. I can’t wait for the day I can leave the rat race and be a simple farmer. It’s hard carving out my hour of yoga a day between work, doing all the housework, cooking and taking care of four kids.
Time is relevant until it’s not. That’s when you know you’ve made it.
Congrats!
It must not be that bad because all my friends who were Canadian moved back once they had school aged kids. 
I miss some of them a lot. One was my very best friend.
I’m sorry about your friend, it is a difficult aspect of life overseas for sure.
I’m relation to the moving back component - the mythology of house ownership, combined with a “career” (which is static), rather than “jobs” (which can be changed), is very powerful. Throw in a few kids in school, and family members in the same place, and it is a very difficult vortex to escape (if you even want to). My wife and I just never bought into the mythology, and now it is time to get out.
Hahahahahaha
I don’t even know what to say to that. 
We’re kind of in the same situation as you are (minus the children). I officially retired at the beginning of July. Our plan was to put the house up for sale and move back to Taiwan around October. With Taiwan’s immigration situation being what it is, we decided we are going to chill out here in the US for another year. We are still selling the house and looking to rent somewhere to be determined “down south”. (Possibly Little Rock area. I don’t want to deal with another Detroit winter)
We contemplated going to Europe, but the difficulties of international travel with 2 cats made that seem like too much of a hassle.
I have a friend who went to Mexico, 2 weeks vacation, witnessed two shootings in a club and was also stole a few hundred dollars while in a taxi. In just 2 weeks time.
I was in Canada myself for 8 months (Fort McMurray 
) damn boring but safe, even though I heard bad stories but I never felt unsafe there, just a depressing place but Ft McMurray is known for being depressing.
This sounds like urban legend, or your friend was just up to no good. When/where did your friend go? I’ve been to Mexico dozens of times, no issues. Cancun, Gunajuato, San Miguel, TJ, MX city, Baja… Baja dirt biking is one of my favorite things in the world… Like most places, there’s a few places to stay out of, don’t make yourself a target, and you’re cool. In Mexico, there’s a couple narco corridors to avoid, and don’t flash wealth, and you good, other than the opportunistic crime that happens from time to time most everywhere.
TJ has the highest murder rate on the planet.
I admire your lifestyle and most importantly that you and your family are living happily in it. That’s the main point of retiring or being able to not work for so long hours or where you don’t like. With your budget, many people would find it very difficult to live especially in Taipei, including myself, but since you all are adjusted to this range I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to live here.
Speaking for myself, if I didn’t have certain habits in life, I could live with your budget, but the ego and my psychological side don’t let me. I have to admit I do use a lot of travels and other high cost expenses as a way to pamper myself and to comfort something that is most of the time triggered due to stress. So the rat race… stressed need to spend money in activities that relieve stress… need to keep making money to fuel them. All this could be avoided maybe if I decided to abandon certain stressful things in life. Thus my most money spending habits are not required for survival but because I am too used to them, think about spa massages, stays in hotels, weekend gateway in remote location. For example, I could easily live in a place half price than where I live now, but I don’t want to live a bit more further away or live in an older building, at least for now. And so, there it goes.
Since you and your wife are on board with this and used to it, even with the original budget you got (without adding your new enterprise) I don’t see how you couldn’t live in Taiwan without having all your needs met.
I’d only suggest you look into your circle of people here and some of the cultural differences. Per my understanding you lived in Taiwan before, but I have found new cultural traits and dealing with locals that only surfaced after 10-12 years here and now are such a deal breaker I am considering leaving. My best friends have left and it is not so easy to make new good ones. Relationship with locals, to me, are a game of luck really. Very difficult to find ones with similar interest or mindset and when I do they don’t stay in Taiwan for long.
Throughout my many years here what I found is that most foreigners who I’d consider having very stable circle of friends and by stable I mean similar interest, growing together, healthy friendship and develop a deeper bound are foreigners who have other long term foreigners as friends. Locals are very interesting/interested until a certain level. Most want to get to know you as an exotic item. The novelty for both sides wears off after not so long when more meaningful conversation appears and then you see their level and vice versa. I guess it happens in our home countries too but here it feels more exacerbated because there are so many other layers that act as barriers such as culture, language etc.
Of course those are points to consider when moving to any country but in a western country, for example, there are much more similar cultural traits than Asian ones. And even among Asian countries they vary a lot.
So since you got everything nailed, just my two cents in an aspect that is not financial but should be considered when taking a big step such as this. All good luck to you and your wife in this endeavor.
A very insightful post; thank you.
This is a very big plus for us in Taiwan. My best friends live there. Most of them are foreigners, all are married to Taiwanese people, and have children my son’s age. . We still communicate every week, and when we visited two years ago, it was as if we had never left. So I really, really, get you on this point. Maybe it is one of the reasons that I find it easy to leave Canada - since we have been back (10+ years), I haven’t really made any great friends. It definitely makes Taiwan an easy choice as a final destination.
You got yourself a great start there, and the best of it is since they have roots here (Taiwanese spouse and children) they won’t be leaving anytime soon, if ever. Your son will also get a chance to grow with their kids. I’d look into living in the same city as your friends or not too far away from them.
Yep, lots of crime there, with lots of gangs involved in the drug trade, trafficking, and taking advantage of the iterent population. And yet naiive 18 yr old girls can go party there, get drunk off their asses, and generally have no issues. As I said, don’t be flashy, and don’t get involved with drugs there, and it’s relatively safe.
Sounds great, and you’re building a real relationship with your kid and not just shipping him off to some program or one sport after another.
I guess I should have been clearer. I don’t really understand what “struggling socially” means exactly in relation to a 30-something person (in a workplace maybe?). That they can’t make friends? That they don’t have a large social group? Not enough social media contacts? Can’t navigate the workplace minefield of subtle contexts and power plays?
I guess my own preconceptions come into play here: many people are not worth my time. If a person is worth knowing, they are kind and considerate, and not into these sorts of games. Likely, they did not make it high up into the corporate world from not “playing the game”. There are many more sociopaths (and even psychopaths) in the work world than most people think, and many of them are often bosses; no thanks.
I am trying to raise a human being that is kind and considerate. I also have money set aside for him that will likely mean that he won’t need to worry about retirement, so he can do whatever he wants for a living: music, drama, the arts, video game competitor, whatever. The chances that he will become a corporate drone after being surrounded by my wife’s business for the entirety of his life, and homeschooling as well, is very low. But if he does make that choice, it will be up to him to navigate it with the social skills that he possesses.
Overall, it is not a huge concern for us. My son is very outgoing and friendly, and doesn’t have issues making friends. As long as he has people he can have fun with, and have some friends, that is good enough.
Are these numbers will be adjusted with inflation?
Yes, adjusted for inflation.
Funny how things are. I just had a “pleasant” but slightly uncomfortable conversation with the head of my department. My immediate boss has known about me leaving for several months, but I guess eventually that conversation had to happen.
Now I need to go to HR to sign all sorts of paperwork in relation to my accrued time off that I will be taking over the next 2 months. Two of my old bosses work there, we will see if either of them say anything - it would likely be another couple of pleasant but slightly uncomfortable conversations.
