'On vacation every single day': I left the U.S. to live in Vietnam and only need to work 15 hours a week

When Kavi Vu was 3 twelvemonth old, her household fled to the United States, pursuing a decades-long warfare successful their location country, Vietnam. After 30 years, she has returned to her motherland to "slow down" and acquisition her autochthonal country.

Vu moved to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, past year, wherever she presently works remotely arsenic a freelance originative advisor and videographer, bringing successful astir $11,000 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She conscionable needs to enactment astir 8 to 15 hours a week.

"I was capable to importantly lessen my workload — mode little than if I were surviving successful the States," she said. "I americium precise privileged successful that, successful Vietnam, I get to accidental however galore hours a week I work, which I cognize is insane. Coming from the States ... I worked similar 10 hours a day."

"I chiefly came present to enactment little and observe more," Vu said. "I consciousness similar the U.S. is simply a batch of doing, and here, it's a batch of being, being contiguous [and] conscionable similar existing, and that's truly nice, due to the fact that sometimes you conscionable request that abstraction to untangle a batch of knots successful your head."

Vu and her household fled Vietnam for the United States successful the 1990s to flight the fallout of the Vietnam War, which is besides known arsenic the "American War" successful Vietnam.

"My sisters really were vessel radical (refugees who fled Vietnam by boat), truthful they were successful exile camps successful the Philippines. [They] came to the States and were capable to sponsor my parents and maine implicit from Vietnam," she said.

Vu's household landed successful Florida, wherever they spent 10 years earlier moving to Georgia wherever they lived connected a tiny chickenhearted farm. Growing up arsenic a number successful the U.S., she ne'er felt a consciousness of belonging, she told CNBC Make It.

"We were surviving the exile experience," she said. "I mean, we were the lone Asians surviving there, truthful it was truly — I conjecture — jarring," she said. "You're ever feeling similar a foreigner."

Her feelings of being an outsider grew arsenic she became much progressive successful authorities successful 2016. For astir six years, Vu worked arsenic a freelance videographer connected projects that aimed astatine engaging number voters successful the Southern states, but she began to pain out.

Vu said she was exhausted from juggling "a cardinal antithetic things astatine once" and feeling similar her encephalon is "constantly churning." "The American imagination conscionable started feeling similar it was dwindling ... and I conscionable felt similar I needed a interruption from America."

In August 2023, she took the leap of religion and near the U.S. for Vietnam.

Vu's flat analyzable offers respective amenities including assemblage pools, a gym, a restaurant, a barroom and a spa.

"I consciousness truthful privileged, similar it virtually feels similar I'm connected abrogation each azygous day," she said. "When I speech to radical each day, I decidedly person ... a fancier, nicer lifestyle, and erstwhile I really speech astir however overmuch I wage for rent, among antithetic groups, I decidedly wage similar immoderate of the highest rents."

In total, Vu spends astir $1,500 a period connected her surviving expenses, including food, proscription and rent, according to documents reviewed.

For transportation, she uses ride-hailing app Grab to get astir the metropolis which usually costs 50 cents to $4 per ride. She usually opts to devour astatine section nutrient stalls and restaurants, which outgo an mean of $2 to $5 per meal.

"My wealth goes truly acold here," she said. "Budgeting was easy, particularly if I'm going to marque American dollars successful Vietnam ... It's similar the champion beingness hack."

Besides freelancing arsenic a originative consultant, Vu is besides a contented creator and enjoys documenting her beingness successful Vietnam. Nowadays, she besides has much clip to enactment connected her passionateness for poetry.

"Everything was moving astatine like, 2 times velocity successful the States, and I ne'er knew it, due to the fact that ... I was perpetually successful it," she said.

While surviving successful the U.S., Vu was ever preoccupied with paying her bills and realizing the "American dream," truthful she was perpetually successful a hurry and felt similar she had to continually optimize her time, she said.

After moving to Vietnam, "life feels slow," said Vu. "Even though Saigon is precise hustle bustle, folks are conscionable sitting [in java shops] for hours astatine a clip and I don't retrieve the past clip I did that successful the States for adjacent minutes astatine a time," she said.

"It feels conscionable truthful luxurious to beryllium capable to conscionable beryllium determination and ponder beingness and constitute it down. I conscionable ne'er felt similar I genuinely had the clip oregon similar an bare capable caput to really bash it," she said.

Not lone has Vu's determination backmost to Vietnam fixed her a consciousness of state to dilatory down, but it's besides fixed her the intelligence capableness and aerial abstraction to unpack and marque consciousness of her family's past and her ain heritage.

"One of the biggest things that I'm untangling implicit present is conscionable similar feeling a batch person to my family, adjacent though I'm farther away," she said. "I'm conscionable knowing my parents a batch much [by] seeing however they lived implicit here," she said.

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