whyohwhyoh,

I could hit a NW/AI of 8, which would give us the financial independence needed to be able to make the decision on whether or not to take a pause from the workforce. Go buy a small house in France and chill for a few years. Dreaming.

I was wondering why NW/AI of 8 was a magic number for you. I found an old thread which describes why you use NW/AI:

http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=24999370&sort=who...

When I first saw your number, I thought to myself: hm, if I quit my current job and took a job paying $30K/year, I'd have a NW/AI of 11 or so. But I wouldn't feel financially comfortable taking a pause at this point (although I have been thinking of doing this, comfortable or not).

Would you care to go into why the factor 8 is special? Does that just represent a particular amount of money that you'd feel comfortable with living off of for a while? Also I'm wondering if you know about any of the legal implications of buying a house in France, tax issues or whatever? I don't, but I'm curious - I've thought of living abroad, but never seriously considered buying property with the assumption that it's more trouble than it's worth.

Rocannon