Miscellaneous

Everything but the kitchen sink

We have approached the final category in our budgeting exercise. Perhaps some of you were inspired to create or modify your own budgets based on reading these emails. While my goal was to set out a monthly budget for living in Bali before you consider making a move, for those of you who find that notion impractical or even impossible, reflecting on or adjusting your current monthly budget in order to optimize it for your important goals — also has tremendous value.

Miscellaneous expenses are difficult to pinpoint, as one month you might need new clothing, while the next month you only need to pay for a few online subscriptions.

Or maybe you need pet food for a new dog!

It could be that one month you have ants in your pants and want to see some cultural sights.

Or maybe take a hike to a tropical waterfall.

You may stroll along the beach and indulge yourself in the sights, sounds — and snacks from local vendors. If you’re in Bali and buy corn as shown in the photo below, it will set you back $1 USD. Not enough to even consider it an expense.

If you live in Bali and buy Indonesian products, you will definitely need to repair them every now and then.

The thing about the miscellaneous category is that it is fluid and unpredictable. But we must put a realistic number on the spreadsheet so that we reflect our month-to-month budget as accurately as possible.

Spreadsheet update:

I made the Miscellaneous budget line $115 USD per month for Bali. The amount is somewhat arbitrary as I wanted to round out the monthly budget at $1,500 USD. If you have some serious habits or hobbies that require significant expenses per month, I suggest you make a line item strictly for those items. So if you are a photography buff you may want to add that item outside of the miscellaneous category as lenses and lights and camera stands etc fall under your Photography category.

In summary we have a portrait of a budget in three countries. The 10, 20 and 30 year projections assume zero inflation. If we were to take just one year’s USA budget of $52,964 and project it 30 years into the future at a 2.5% inflation rate, we’d get $111,096.

The key to living in a developing country is to have a source of income from your developed country. Whether its a pension check or stock dividends, having a base to cover $1,500 per month will give you great peace of mind.

If you want to take the entrepreneurial route and move abroad with just a year or two of savings, you might make it work, but keep in mind there are visa restrictions for earning money in foreign countries.

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Future emails:

From now on this newsletter will be primarily dedicated to building a community of like-minded folks here in Bali. Although there will be a few general updates about what life is like on the Island of the Gods.

My initial plan for building a community was to grow it online and then try to collectively buy land and set up a building plan. But then I started looking around at land and realized that prices are substantially reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic. And so I am leaning towards buying land sooner, as in soon.

I also want to develop a website and so I came up with a name and a few logo samples that I’d like to get feedback on.

Please click on Leave a comment below and share your favorite logo by picking a number. If you don’t like any of them type None. Any comments about the name Bali Community House & Residences will be appreciated as well.

Thank you,

Neill