FIRE in Krabi, Thailand at 41 with a 9-year-old — sanity check our ~$100k/year budget + visa options

My wife and I are considering FIRE in **Krabi, Thailand**, probably when we are both around **41**, with our son around **9 years old**.

We currently live in Dubai, so the objective isn’t particularly lean FIRE. We want a comfortable but simpler lifestyle: good house, international school, good-quality food, regular restaurants/travel, hobbies, private healthcare, etc.

I’ve tried to build the budget bottom-up rather than work backwards from our available portfolio.

**Expected annual Krabi budget**
Housing: **\~$21.8k** — around THB 60k/month for a 3BR villa with pool/garden
International school: **\~$10k** — current quoted annual fee THB 330k
Groceries + household supplies: **$12k**
Restaurants/cafés: **\~$6.1k**
Utilities/internet/mobile/subscriptions: **\~$4.8k**
Cleaner twice/week: **\~$2.1k**
Car/scooter running costs + future vehicle replacement reserve: **\~$9.9k**
International health insurance / medical: **\~$6k**
Gym + hobbies + two activities for our son: **\~$6.1k**
Thailand/local travel: **\~$7k**
Clothing/electronics/personal spending: **\~$7.2k**
Flights back home to Turkey: **\~$6.5k**
Visa/tax/admin: **\~$1k**
Miscellaneous: **\~$3.6k**
**Expected total: roughly $104k/year.**

For FIRE planning, however, I’m rounding our normal lifestyle conceptually to about **$100k** and want the portfolio/income structure to comfortably support **$120k/year**, rather than retiring with no margin.

We also identified a **bad-market-year budget of roughly $81k**, mainly by reducing restaurants, local travel, cleaner frequency, clothes/electronics and other discretionary spending. Housing, school and healthcare would effectively remain untouched.

**Lifestyle assumptions behind this**
Food is intentionally generous. We currently spend heavily on groceries and want to continue buying things like organic eggs, good chicken/meat, imported products when desired, etc.

Restaurants are approximately:
2 family meals/week at \~THB 1,200
2 nicer meals/month at \~THB 2,500
coffee/dessert-type outings a couple of times/week

Local travel assumes roughly **one two-night trip every month**, with a few domestic-flight trips mixed in.
We’d have **one used Toyota-type SUV/pickup + simple scooter**. Initial vehicle purchase would be a startup expense rather than part of the annual budget.

Cleaner would only come **twice/week**. We’re intentionally moving away from our current Dubai setup with full-time household staff.

**FIRE structure**
We’re considering is approximately:
**$2.0–2.25M diversified investment portfolio**
Rental property producing around **35k USD per year.**
For planning purposes I’m counting only **80% of that rent**

A separate house used as summer house is **not counted toward FIRE income at all** and would remain an emergency/later-life asset.

There are also future inheritance and life/critical-illness insurance safety nets, but I’m intentionally **not counting those toward the basic FIRE calculation**

At roughly **$2.03M invested**, 4% gives \~$81k, meaning the portfolio alone could theoretically cover our scaled-down bad-year lifestyle without relying on rent.
Adding conservatively discounted rent gets us to roughly **$110k/year**, which is the level I’m currently thinking would be a comfortable FIRE trigger.

I’m interested in criticism of both sides of this:

**1. Krabi expenses:**
For people actually living in Krabi/southern Thailand, what have I materially underestimated or double-counted? Does \~$100–105k sound realistic for this lifestyle, or surprisingly high/low?

**2. FIRE structure:**
Would you be comfortable retiring around 41 with \~$2M invested if the portfolio alone covers the \~$81k reduced budget and rental income funds the difference toward the nicer \~$100–120k lifestyle?

**3. Visa:**
This is something I’m still researching. At retirement we’d be approximately:
Husband: **41**
Wife: **41**
Child: **9**, attending international school

We therefore wouldn’t qualify for the normal 50+ retirement visas.

What long-term Thai visa structures would people recommend for a FIRE family like this?

I’ve looked at things such as **LTR / Wealthy Global Citizen, Thailand Privilege, child ED visa + guardian visa, and possibly DTV**, but I’d especially appreciate input from families who have actually done this.

I’m also interested in any tax/residency complications that FIRE households should investigate before relying on one of these routes.