Where I live life is expensive. My kids will live here. I will have the choice to abandon them or to retire 'somewhere expensive'.
> I bought 3 houses in cash for less than $150k total.
Good for you! Here that would get you 1/2 of the most basic house or apartment.
> If you want to live and retire in the center of Paris or New York or whatever, that is your choice and then you need a lot more money.
Those are still a lot more expensive than where I live. But a half decent house here in a place near where there is work and with decent schools and other facilities will be anywhere from 300K to 500K depending on the market and the kind of house.
> Houses can be found for next to nothing in many places.
Not in this country. Even the most rundown area (the North East of Groningen, where I lived for years) still has as the cheapest listing a 90K price with a 1000 euros / months service fee:
https://www.funda.nl/koop/haren-gr/appartement-42005398-nesc...
> If you are capable of DIY (I am not), you can really pick up stuff for nothing and spend 10 years before your pension doing it up as a side project.
I'm very much capable of DIY, restored a bunch of buildings, made money on some, broke even on others and even lost on some. Markets are fickle.
> And sure, social security, free/accessible healthcare or your pension pot may no longer be available once you reach this age; society might have collapsed and the money you saved might be worth nothing anymore. You cannot plan for those things reasonably; I am going to assume healthcare and social security are good still in my country and next to that, I live of very little (couldn’t care less about ‘things’) with my family at about $1200/mo while making about $300k/year (excluding stocks and other passive income).
If you make $300K / year you are in a group called the lucky few. Which is disproportionally represented on HN, but it's nothing that you can count on if you're just an ordinary individual that works a regular job (or two...).
> No reason for that to change (inflation corrected of course) unless some type of societal collapse.
Or your health takes a turn for the worse. This is one that I've seen a couple of people near me deal with and that can really ruin your plans. And I had a bad scare myself a few years ago (but got away with it).
> Retirement sounds as boring as heaven, so I am doing neither anyway.
This we can agree on.
If you insist on spending your life and retirement somewhere expensive. I bought 3 houses in cash for less than $150k total. If you want to live and retire in the center of Paris or New York or whatever, that is your choice and then you need a lot more money. Houses can be found for next to nothing in many places. If you are capable of DIY (I am not), you can really pick up stuff for nothing and spend 10 years before your pension doing it up as a side project.
And sure, social security, free/accessible healthcare or your pension pot may no longer be available once you reach this age; society might have collapsed and the money you saved might be worth nothing anymore. You cannot plan for those things reasonably; I am going to assume healthcare and social security are good still in my country and next to that, I live of very little (couldn’t care less about ‘things’) with my family at about $1200/mo while making about $300k/year (excluding stocks and other passive income). No reason for that to change (inflation corrected of course) unless some type of societal collapse.
Retirement sounds as boring as heaven, so I am doing neither anyway.