Dreaming of Geo-Arbitrage – Millennial Revolution

It’s been a while since we did a reader case and our inbox is piling up (a big thanks to everyone who writes in to tell us about your stories, we love reading them), so without further ado, here’s a reader case about geo-arbitrage!

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Hi Kristy and Bryce,

We are a common-law couple, aged 52 and 53, from British Columbia. We recently bought Quit Like a Millionaire, and it completely reshaped how we see our future. We’ve both been grinders our whole lives — the people everyone counts on — and we’re tired of it. The daily grind, high taxes, and cost of living have taken a toll.

We love to travel and crave a life focused on freedom, health, and cultural experiences. Geo-arbitrage has become our dream — and thanks to your work, we’re finally building a path toward it.

We would be honoured to be considered as a case study. We’re following your Yield Shield strategy closely and have developed a plan we hope can allow us to FIRE soon. We’re open to any and all feedback. What would you and Bryce do differently if you were in our shoes?

Our key questions are:

Can we make this plan work in the next year or two with a starting portfolio of $700,000 to $725,000 once our house is sold?

And can we realistically spend less than $30,000–$35,000 per year while geo-arbitraging?

We’re ready to go as soon as possible and want to know if this is enough to launch our new life.

Financial Snapshot

Gross family income: 111,000 dollars

Net income: 104,000 dollars

Debt:

• Mortgage only:

• Balance: 20,300 dollars

• Interest rate: 2.04 percent

• 900-dollar biweekly payment

• Mortgage will be fully paid off by December 2025

Monthly spending: 5,000 dollars/month

Fixed assets:

• Home: 620,000 dollars (conservative value)

• Vehicles: 18,000 dollars

Savings and investments as of July 2025:

• 65,000 dollars in ETFs

• 10,000 dollars in GICs

• 5,000 dollars in cash

We expect this to double after the mortgage is paid off.

Phase 1: Years One to Five – Yield Shield Strategy

Target FIRE Launch Portfolio: $700,000–$725,000 ($350,000 per person)

Annual Spending Target: $30,000–$35,000 CAD

Note: This is based on minimum numbers and does not include CPP or OAS, which we are both eligible for later.

Per person breakdown:

TFSA – $125,000

• $30,000 – ZWC (~7.5%) → $2,250/year

• $30,000 – VDY (~5.3%) → $1,590/year

• $25,000 – ZDY (~3.6%) → $900/year

• $40,000 – PSA.TO (~4.9%) → $1,960/year

TFSA Income: $6,700/year

RRSP – $122,500

• $35,000 – ZDV → $1,575/year

• $30,000 – VDY → $1,590/year

• $25,000 – ZAG → $875/year

• $17,500 – PSA.TO → $857/year

• $15,000 – XEQT → $300/year

RRSP Income: $5,197/year

Non-Registered – $102,500

• $50,000 – ZWC → $3,750/year

• $27,500 – ZDB → $963/year

• $25,000 – PSA.TO → $1,225/year

Non-Registered Income: $5,938/year

Total Passive Income Per Person: $17,835/year

Total Passive Income Per Couple: $35,670/year

No ETF selling is required during this phase. Our travel budget will be fully supported by income alone. We’ll use 90-day visas to slow travel through Southeast Asia, the Balkans, Central America, and South America.

Phase 2: Year Six and Beyond – Total Return Strategy

• Rebalance into XEQT, ZAG, and PSA.TO

• Begin 3.5 to 4 percent total return withdrawals

• Maintain geo-arbitrage lifestyle and spending flexibility

• Use ZAG and PSA.TO for stability in down markets

• Consider non-residency status if tax-efficient

Thank you for everything you’ve shared with the world. Your book and blog gave us the clarity, structure, and confidence to build a better life. We’d truly appreciate your feedback on whether this plan is FIRE-ready — and whether you think we can make the leap in the next 12 to 24 months.

Sincerely,

Globetrotting Common Law Couple

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I love hearing from people who know what they want out of life and aren’t afraid to go and get it, and this couple has that in spades. Case in point: “We love to travel and crave a life focused on freedom, health, and cultural experiences”.  See? They know their priorities in life and having experienced focused on those 3 things in the past 10 years during our retirement, we can say attest that those things are worth it.

Now, let’s see if we can get them there ASAP, by MATHING THAT SHIT UP!

Summary	Amount
Net income	$104,000
Spending	$5000/month or $60,000/year
Debt	-$20,300 (mortgage – will be paid off by Dec 2025)
Property	$620,000
Investible Assets	$65,000 (investments) + $10,000 (savings) + $5000 (cash) = $80,000

From first glance, I can see that most of this couple’s net worth is in their ouse. They’ve done a good job paying off their mortgage and expect to be mortgage-free by end of this year, and I’m happy that they’re now looking to diversify their investment so that it’s not all concentrated in one asset (‘cause we all know how well that went in 2008. *cue scary music*).

Given that they spend $5000/month or $60,000/year, they’ll need $1.5 Million to reach Financial Independence to continue living their current lifestyle.

However, knowing that their mortgage is a $900 biweekly payment and that their house will be completely paid off by Dec 2025, their cost of living will drop to $60,000-$23,400 = $36,600/year after the house is paid off in Dec.

Which means, in just 3 months, their FI number drops down to $915,000 and their savings rate shoot up to $80,600/year. At this point, they will reach FI in:

Year	Balance	Contributions	ROI (6%)	Total
1	$80,000.00	$80,600.00	$4,800.00	$165,400.00
2	$165,400.00	$80,600.00	$9,924.00	$255,924.00
3	$255,924.00	$80,600.00	$15,355.44	$351,879.44
4	$351,879.44	$80,600.00	$21,112.77	$453,592.21
5	$453,592.21	$80,600.00	$27,215.53	$561,407.74
6	$561,407.74	$80,600.00	$33,684.46	$675,692.20
7	$675,692.20	$80,600.00	$40,541.53	$796,833.74
8	$796,833.74	$80,600.00	$47,810.02	$925,243.76

Slightly less than 8 years!

Of course, this is assuming they continue living where they are and keeping their paid off house. What if they were to follow their dreams, sell the house and go travelling? Are they closer to FI than they think? Could they already be ThaiFI?

Going Nomadic

My friend Clover recently quit her job and moved from Vancouver to Bali since reaching “BaliFIRE”. Not only is she living her best life swimming in the ocean daily, renting a seaside apartment for $750/month, and getting massages for $6, she found purpose by starting her own divorce-coaching business called “The Divorce Glow-up”, helping women find happiness after heartbreak. Clover is proof that geo-graphic arbitrage can shorten your time to retirement and while giving you a lifestyle boost! Instead of coughing up $2000/month for rent in BC (did you know that BC stands for “Bring Cash”?), that amount can cover her entire expenses in Bali!

So, this couple has the right idea. When it comes to a cheat-code to FIRE, geo-arbitrage is the key!

They are projecting their expenses to drop down to $30,000–$35,000/year by living nomadically in inexpensive places like Southeast Asia, the Balkans, Central America, and South America. Having been to all these places, I would say Southeast Asia is the least expensive. So if they were to only stay in SE Asia, $30,000-$35,000 should be enough. I would increase their budget a bit to $40,000-$45,000 if they are to include the other low-cost countries, outside of SE Asia.

This means that they would need a portfolio size of only $750,00 – $1,125,000. They currently have $80,000 investible assets and next year, they’re mortgage will be paid off, which will increase their yearly after-tax savings from $44,000/year to  $67,400/year, giving then a net worth of:

Year	Balance	Contributions	ROI (6%)	Total	Mortgage Balance Remaining
1	$80,000.00	$44,000.00	$4,800.00	$128,800.00	20300
2	$128,800.00	$67,400.00	$7,728.00	$203,928.00	0

$203,928. If they sell the house at this point and pay the 5% real estate agent fee, that would free up $589,000 which would bring their net worth to $792,928, making them officially “ThaiFI”!

So, they are spot on. If they choose to sell the house and move to Southeast Asia, they’d reach FI in less than 2 years.

Don’t Forget about the pension!

Now, another thing they have going for them is their government pension. Since they are in their early 50s, they will also be eligible for CCP and OAS in only 7 years, which would give them an extra $10,000/year at maximum, if taken early at age 60. This would be the equivalent of a $250,000 portfolio and would give them a nice cushion to cover healthcare costs and any additional optional travel costs.

So, it looks like this couple is in good shape to follow their travel dreams! YAY!

My only caveat is that, if they have the option to take a sabbatical from work, get 6 months off to try living nomadically in Southeast Asia and South America to see if a) they like it and b) they can stick to the $35,000/year budget they set for themselves. That’s a great mini-experiment that gives them the opportunity to change the financial projections if reality doesn’t meet their expectations.

So, to answer their questions:

Key Questions

Can we make this plan work in the next year or two with a starting portfolio of $700,000 to $725,000 once our house is sold?

Yes.

And can we realistically spend less than $30,000–$35,000 per year while geo-arbitraging?

Try a sabbatical. I know Wanderer and I (and our friends) lived on this in SE Asia, but you will have to try it yourselves to see. Also, if you’re not using frequent flyer miles like Aeroplan to get free flights, make sure you learn how to do that (it will save you a ton of money travelling).

However, one thing I have to flag is that they’re relying on covered-call ETFs to get a high yield in their portfolio. Covered call ETFs hold a basket of stocks and make money by writing call options on their holdings. The premiums the fund manager makes are distributed to unit-holders in the form of yield.

The upside of this is that in a sideways or down market, the fund value will approximate an index fund while giving you a juicy yield. But ironically, when the market goes up, more and more of those call options will start to get exercised, which forces the fund to sell stocks that would have been more profitable to hang on to. And since stock markets tend to go up over the long term, a covered call ETF will underperform an index fund over time, even with that nice 7.5% income. Owning a covered call ETF should only be done with these downside risks in mind, and with a clear exit strategy. Our couple here is intending to own these for the first 5 years of their retirement, which is a reasonable holding period, but they have to remember to eventually get out and move back into index funds for the long term.

What do you think? Is this couple ready to geo-arbitrage their way to FI?