36-year-old American Army vet moved to Vietnam, lives on $4,000 a month: You can ‘focus on what makes you happy’ here

Markeiz Ryan, 36, had a pretty good childhood growing up in Maryland, but the 2008 financial crisis changed things.

“It wiped my mother’s job away and it really made things tough for us around the time I graduated high school,” Ryan tells CNBC Make It. “I didn’t have much of a financial security blanket to fall under. The best thing for me was to join the military so I wouldn’t have to put my family into any more debt and I think that was the right decision.”

Ryan joined the U.S. Air Force in 2010 and was stationed in various countries around the world, including Korea, Germany, and throughout Africa. In 2016, while living in Korea, Ryan got in trouble for breaking his curfew. He lost out on several months of pay, was restricted to his military base and demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.

“After this, I was very depressed and very sad,” Ryan said. “But that depression and sadness make you think about where your life is going and it makes you redirect your life into the right direction.”

In that period of time that Ryan was restricted to his military base, he planned a trip to visit a friend in Vietnam.

“It just looked like so much fun and it really lived up to all the hype,” he said. “I ended up having the best time of my life, and that depression was [just] gone.”

Ryan says that after that first trip to Vietnam and seeing how happy he was, he didn’t want to let go of that feeling. He started planning his return to the country.

The Army veteran returned to his life in the Air Force and completed his service on a military base in Wyoming before being honorably discharged in 2019.

Soon after, Ryan relocated to Vietnam, where he lives off roughly $4,000 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Ryan suffers from spine arthritis, respiratory issues, auditory pain, and mental health challenges from his time in the military. He receives disability from Veterans Affairs.

His monthly income stems from several sources, including approximately $1,500 from VA disability, $1,000 from the GI Bill while he’s pursuing a master’s degree, and $900 to $1,300 from teaching English. Ryan also does occasional odd jobs like voiceover work, where his pay can range from $200 to $600 a month, and is an avid fan of day trading, where he averages about $300 a month.

“This might not sound like a lot in America but trust me, this is more than enough to be middle or even above middle class in Vietnam,” he says.

Ryan lives in Ho Chi Minh City and has a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in one of the country’s tallest residential towers. He pays $850 a month in rent and his utilities round up to about $130, which includes electricity, water and housekeeping.

In addition to those expenses, Ryan also pays $1,000 a year for health insurance and $3 a week on gas for his motorcycle. What he spends on groceries varies from $100 to $400 a month, as he often alternates between cooking his own food or dining out frequently.

“Vietnam is the number one safest place I’ve ever lived. I never have to look over my shoulder here. I noticed that there’s this great level of calm,” Ryan says. “People are more focused on their day-to-day life and they’re less focused on what’s going on politically. It’s a much more calm feeling.”

Although Ryan loves living in Vietnam, one thing that irks him is the noise pollution.

“There’s a lot of honking, street sellers and sometimes karaoke really loudly, so if you are very intolerant to noise, this might not be the place for you,” he says.

Since moving to Vietnam, Ryan has made an effort to learn the language, but he admits he’s still not the best at it.

“I can never claim that I’m fluent in Vietnamese, but I do a lot better than most of my peers here,” he says.

Ryan has been living in Vietnam for six years now, and says he has no plans of leaving.

“If I leave, it’s because Vietnam told me to leave. In America, I felt very unmotivated. I felt like no matter how hard you work, you’re still in poverty. You’re constantly chasing a standard that you can’t really achieve,” he says. “Here in Vietnam, it takes a lot of the monetary pressure out of your day-to-day. You focus on what makes you happy, who you want to become and how you’re going to get there.”

This experience, he says, is the complete opposite of what his life was like back in the U.S.

“Every day I wake up with a long to-do list of things I want to do, not the things that I need to do, and it’s a completely different way of living. Even if you need to work 40 hours a week here, you’re doing it as an investment in your future. Getting out of survival mode makes things infinitely more human.”

Last chance to save: Want to be your own boss? Final days to get 30% off Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders. Find step-by-step guidance for launching your first business, from testing your idea to growing your revenue. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount from September 16 through September 30, 2025.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.