I can answer this.

They spend less you do. What they were doing reminded my exactly how I have been doing things. They might also have target lower numbers. My wife and I spend less than 25k a year combined on all our bills. That is everything. Gas, food, insurance, vacations, phones, utilities etc. I live close to work so I don't spend much on gas. I don't have cable. We rarely eat out. We don't drive new cars. We cut coupons and make pennies scream. We live in a pretty small house. We did buy because we plan on being here for a while. It needs a little work but I have had fun fixing a few things up. We just got a few more things but only 1 or 2 things have to be done.

For people there are many different FI plans. As it stands right now I could stop working and live off my what I have in my 401k and rental income for the 30 years without expecting a draw down to zero. I could then take social security. This also assumes I couldn't find a part time job doing something for the next 30 years. I consider myself FI. Some people on here would argue with me on that. Now, I couldn't live "well" for 30 years with no job but I consider myself a minimalist anyways. I just don't see myself stopping working.

I'll be honest and tell you I started working full time again after cutting back. I got bored. I love traveling but I don't want to travel all the time. This may change as I get older but in our early 40's I'm guessing we could pack up shop and go to Taiwan. We probably won't though. None of our friends are FI or anywhere close to it.

If people are happy being FI in Taiwan more power to them. Money won't make you happy. Plenty of rich people blow their brains out. It is about balance. You got to find out what makes you happy and develop a plan based on that.

I just have a feeling that if I traveled all the time I would start to hate it. Sometimes it is nice to just be at home, have the wife tell you about work, mow the lawn and go for a walk, and have a bbq with some college buddies. Everyone is different though.