Early retirement. It’s a dream for many. The idea of spending all your time on yourself, without ever having to work a single minute, is fantastic.

But is it possible?

That’s something we’ll look at in today’s article.

Specifically, the idea of living in Southeast Asia full-time. Enjoying the warm weather, nice beaches, and beautiful women. All without having a job or worrying about money.

If this sounds like something you want to do, read on.

What Is True Early Retirement?

Business Insider and Forbes publish countless articles like “22 Year-Old Retiree Shows You How To Live The Good Life.”

These are usually puff pieces about some guy who quit his job, started a blog, and is now peddling courses on how you can do the same. This isn’t actual retirement, it’s a full-time business. Without their courses or product sales, these guys would go broke.

There’s nothing wrong with selling eBooks (they’re quite lucrative), but it is a job.

Actual early retirement means you own enough revenue producing assets to support yourself forever. You’ll do just fine whether you’re working or not.

This means your days are spent playing golf, going diving, dating around, reading books, etc…

There’s no need to work hard, unless you really want to.

You need about $1 – $2 million to achieve this.

Quite a bit of cash, but still doable.

If you work hard and invest smart, it’s completely possible to reach this milestone within a 10-year span.

I’ll explain.

Use Geoarbitrage To Your Advantage

Living in Southeast Asia is super cheap. And you get a ton of value for your dollar.

Staying in five-star hotels costs $100.

Street food is less than $1, and many restaurants cost $2 or less.

A lunch date at Harrods? Under $30. Less than going to chain venue (like Applebee’s) in the USA.

Plus, many cities are ultra-modern and incredibly safe.

I can’t tell you how many times friends from New York or London remark that Sukhumvit Bangkok is as nice as their city.

And other towns, like Shanghai, are even more advanced.

I make a fairly standard Western income, have the exact lifestyle I want, and still end up with $4,000+ per month in leftover cash.

That’s entirely the result of where I live.

When your daily expenses add up to $100 (or less), it’s impossible to overspend.

This is really something worth considering. Especially if you can work anywhere in the world.

A huge savings like this makes it way easier to build.your nest egg or set yourself up for early retirement.

Why?

Because you’re dumping thousands of dollars into income producing assets while everyone else is making car payments or buying $16 artisan hamburgers.

Investing an extra ten or twenty thousand a year adds up fast.

You end up with a million or two within 10 – 15 years. Plus, you didn’t need to do anything crazy to get there. Simple savings and a few smart investments left you set for life.

Early Retirement Requires Income Producing Assets

(Here’s An Excellent Book For New Investors)

People love shrieking about market crashes and real estate bubbles. But in reality these things are few and far between.

And while there are many asset classes to choose from, my personal favorites are dividend producing stocks. These pay you a small amount just for owning them. Usually you’re only getting a couple bucks per share, but this compounds quickly. Especially when you’ve got hundreds of shares in a specific company.

Warren Buffett, for example, makes over $2.7 billion per quarter off his Apple dividends.

And if you have $1 million in dividend producing stocks, you’re making about $33,000 – $60,000 per year off them.

That’s a nice stable stream of income.

Also, if you’re interested in this type of investing I recommend the books Dividend Stocks For Dummies, and The Single Best Investment.

Both are fantastic titles which really help you pick winning stocks.

Case in point, I bought a few shares of Hormel (the chili company) after hearing wonderful things about it. That one investment is up over 10% this year, plus it’s paying an additional $0.76 per share in dividends.

In total, that’s a 13% return on investment.

Or, to put it simply, you make $13 for every $100 you invest.

Closing Thoughts

Early retirement is something that’s certainly possible. Especially if you’re living someplace comparatively cheap like Southeast Asia.

Investing a couple thousand bucks a month into dividend stocks allows you to build up a huge supply of revenue producing assets. This, plus compound interest, helps you hit the $1 million mark within 10 years so.

At this point you’re collecting an extra $30,000 – $60,000 per year in passive income. Which is enough to live pretty comfortably.

Plus, you can always build up multiple streams of income (like owning a rental property or a website) to continue growing your net worth.

With this model, I think it’s completely possible to generate $100,000 – $250,000 a year in disposal income. All from a combination of dividend stocks and part-time work on your side-business.

P.S. I highly encourage you to read Dividend Stocks For Dummies. It’s a very comprehensive guide and explains every possible dividend paying asset class, from REITs to common stocks.