Can you retire early if you are a parent and don’t have a six-figure salary? It’s a question the FIRE community gets often.
Well, today we’re going to meet a reader who worked as a librarian, has a toddler, and decided to retire early anyway. How did he do it? Let’s find out.
Why are you called the Millionaire Librarian?
I’ll probably get destroyed online, but I actually created the blog, MillionaireLibrarian.com, a few years ago when the label “millionaire” was aspirational—and, to be honest, it is still a little aspirational. We aren’t quite there yet, but we are financially independent. Our portfolio supports our lifestyle. As for the other term, both my wife and I are librarians. I was an Air Force librarian for the federal government, and my wife worked in a mix of public, academic, and military libraries.
Why did you move to Cuenca, Ecuador, from the US?
Both my wife and I had previously lived overseas. She lived in Saipan and I lived in South Korea. We were researching areas where we could retire and initially looked at Boquete, Panama. The investment visa was a little too expensive, so we began looking at other countries, including Ecuador. What we found was that Ecuador’s Professional Visa is one of the most accessible for middle-class workers with a degree.
We began looking at Cuenca and realized that it would be a wonderful place to live.
Despite being near the equator, Cuenca is famous for its “eternal spring” climate, meaning temperatures remain remarkably consistent at 50–70 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year due to its high altitude in the Andes. “El Centro,” which is the city center, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has a Spanish-style cathedral with three beautiful blue domes that you can see through much of the city.
El Cajas National Park is also located just outside of the city. This is 70,500 acres of protected high-altitude Andean wilderness that is renowned for its páramo ecosystem, over 700 glacial lakes, and varied hiking trails.
Statistically, Cuenca is consistently rated as the safest city of its size in South and Central America. When compared to the United States, it is often safer than 95% of comparable cities.
● Cuenca’s Homicide Rate: ~6 per 100,000 people.
● Chicago: ~29 per 100,000 people.
● Memphis: ~44 per 100,000 people.
There’s also a wide range of English-speaking professionals, including lawyers and doctors, because there are an estimated 10,000 North American expats living here. The expat community is thriving and holds weekly events at bars and restaurants. There are
also regular free symphonies we attend.
We were also interested in expanding our knowledge of Spanish and wanted our daughter to become at least bilingual. The current plan is for her to attend a private German school that is overseen by the German Ministry of Education and become trilingual.
What are your day-to-day expenses in Ecuador?
A detailed budget can be found on my blog, but not including major one-time purchases, we spend around $2,200–$3,000 per month. That includes full-day daycare for $265 a month. We don’t own a car because taxis cost from around $1.50 for a short ride to $4 for a ride across the city. There are also buses and a tranvía for $0.30. A lunch “meal of the day” includes a soup, salad, rice, small dessert, and an entree, and generally costs $3.50 a meal. Lastly, we rent a beautiful two-bedroom, office, and three-bathroom two-story house in a quiet neighborhood for $450. We live a life full of luxuries, including a weekly housecleaning service and a gardener.
What were your day-to-day expenses in the US?
In the US, we lived in rural areas but spent around $5,000–$6,000 a month for a less luxurious lifestyle. Daycare alone in the US was around $1,200. We also needed to own two cars because we lived in rural areas; while the cars were paid for, the cost of gas,
maintenance, repairs, and insurance just seemed to keep increasing. We spent a considerable amount of money on healthcare expenses. Even though we were covered by my wife’s employer-based insurance, our deductible was quite high, so we probably
spent close to $6,000 out of pocket the year before we retired.
What do you do about medical insurance and medical costs for your family?
We have catastrophic insurance, which costs around $110 a month for our family of three and doesn’t kick in until $5,000 in expenses. We use the private system for doctors. A general practitioner will visit your house, usually the next day, for around $20. A specialist usually costs more, at around $50. The doctors we use speak fluent English, and our specialist worked in the United States for years. In two days, I saw a general practitioner and a dermatologist twice, had annual blood labs, and had a skin issue burned off for a total of $200 without using insurance.
Medication can be more expensive depending on the type. Use your favorite AI to find out the name of your medicine in Ecuador and you can check costs at www.farmaciassinai.com. Many medicines that require prescriptions in the US do not require one in Ecuador. I had a stomach bug and my doctor over WhatsApp (Yes, I have my doctor’s WhatsApp) just told me what to buy at the pharmacy for free. There is an attitude of service in the medical community here that I rarely found in the US.
What do your friends and family think about your lifestyle?
My family was surprised and questioned how I was able to retire so early at 38. A lot of family members who were older and had much more lucrative careers weren’t retired but had other priorities. I prioritized financial independence.
Some close friends questioned our ability to provide our daughter with college, but we had invested enough money in a 529 to pay for her projected tuition and living expenses.
What was your number one fear before pulling the trigger and retiring?
I used financial projection software to make sure our plan would work, and the Monte Carlo simulation had a 97% success rate, but I was still worried. Things did end up being a little more expensive than I thought, but we had flexibility in our plan. We also
realized that we weren’t afraid of going back to work part-time if we experienced a bad sequence of returns risk or if we wanted to expand our lifestyle.
What would you say to others considering geo-arbitrage as a “cheat code” to FIRE?
Geo-arbitrage is a great way to really stretch your investments. You discussed how in your first book how you would travel to cheaper areas to stay under your budget. What if you just found a cheaper area you loved and lived there?
Are there any non-financial benefits of your new lifestyle?
The health benefits of living in Cuenca, Ecuador, cannot be understated. On most days, we walk around three miles and throughout the week we eat pounds and pounds of beautiful, fresh fruits and vegetables that cost us $20. We have time to go to the gym regularly. These changes in lifestyle led to 60 pounds of combined weight loss, less pain, and dropping a heart medication.
There you have it! Living in US and/or Canada is expensive. Having used travel as our way to hedge against sequence-of-returns risk for the first 5 years of our retirement, I can say that it worked out beautifully. And having lived nomadically for 3 months with our toddler in Spain, I can also attest to the fact that daycare and medical costs outside of the US is way cheaper, even if you’re not in crazy cheap places like South American or South East Asia.
What do you think of Millionaire Librarian’s story? Would you ever move to Cuenca, Ecuador? Have you used geo-arbitrage to help you with finances? Let us know in the comments below!
Book news:
We’ve been featured in the following media outlets and podcasts! If you’re interested in how to FIRE if you have a family, have a listen/read below!
Business Insider (front page!): https://www.businessinsider.com/how-one-couple-retired-early-financial-independence-savings-investing-strategies-2026-4
MarketWatch: These parents did the impossible: Retired in their 30s while raising young kids
Journey to Launch with Jamila Souffrant: How to Parent Like a Millionaire Without Being One with Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung
The Money Nerds with Whitney Hansen: Does Being a Parent Change Financial Independence?
SoMoney with Farnoosh Torabi: 1954: How FIRE Parents Hack Childcare, Housing and Education
Under the Influence with Jo Piazza: Can You Actually Retire Early When You Have Kids?
Earn & Invest: 712. Will Kids Break the Bank? w/ Bryce Leung and Kristy Shen
Marriage, Kids, and Money with Andy Hill: 2.9 Million Net Worth at 43
ChooseFI: Parent Like a Millionaire Without Being One
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