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Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#201

Post by jliptzin »

pie_flavor wrote: post #71
glitchc wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm putting 90% of the value, why don't I just add another 10% and buy the property outright? Are there restrictions on who can buy a house/apartment in Korea?

You perhaps missed that you get the whole deposit back. The landlord doesn't keep it. You could buy the property outright, or you could live somewhere for essentially free, as long as you don't value the interest on that cash more than you value the place you're staying.

Giving that much money to a landlord is absolutely terrifying to me given the history of landlords I’ve had. I’d much rather own the property and deal with any transaction costs associated with selling.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#202

Post by phonon »

collaborative wrote: post #188

No one has said this but one option also is to book an all inclusive hotel deal in Spain, Portugal Morocco, Tunis, Egypt, Greece, Turkey or Israel. These destinations have amazing value for money because of the volume of tourism And you won't have to worry about cooking or cleaning. Every day delicious buffets and room service :-) you could even keep switching hotel and do some lazy traveling. I do this once a year b…

For $1000 per month? Links please?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#203

Post by kadomony »

Leftium wrote: post #87
ai_ia wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Korea is something I have on my mind for so long. I would love a detailed blog post regarding your experience living in Korea as an expat with breakdown of cost and how you ended up there. Seems like an interesting journey to know about.

It's been quite an interesting journey! The original plan was to study Korean language for just a year, then I kept extending the trip... I haven't blogged in a long time, but here are the Korea-related blog posts: http://blog.leftium.com/2007/06/my-life-prologue.html http://blog.leftium.com/2007/06/past-month-in-review.html http://blog.leftium.com/2007/06/my-life-chapter-i.html http://blog.leftium.com/2010/08/dragon…

How do you stay there? Just in an education visa?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#204

Post by mdp2021 »

cloudedcordial wrote: post #191
ChemSpider wrote: post #137

Rural Taiwan. Very good and affordable health care. Super fast and cheap mobile Internet.

Very good food, too. The downside of Taiwan is to learn the local language.

Which, unless I am terribly wrong, involves ideographic characters and not alphabetic. This should be a major obstacle.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#205

Post by randycupertino »

burntoutfire wrote: post #19

Poland is doable if you stay out of major cities. You can rent a studio for $300 (incl. all utilities). Food, if you cook, will cost you $200-$250 ($300-$400 if you don't cook and want to eat out only). Wired Internet and cell phone will be around $20. State-provided health insurance is about $120 per month (this is "socialized medicine", so it provides everything with no deducible, up to treating cancer etc.), but c…

I would also add that air pollution is something to consider regarding living in Poland long term:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/11/25/poland-has-eus-worst-...

https://www.sustainability-times.com/clean-cities/battling-t...

Also, if OP enjoys smoking pot, that might be an issue as per family who lives there it will be a big change vs coming from California.

Personally when traveling in Krakow and Warsaw I've found more racism against brown people lately vs 10 years ago... random cabbies and bartenders going on unprovoked rants against immigrants. Not sure if that's been one-off but that was surprising for me at least.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#206

Post by vmception »

jliptzin wrote: post #201
pie_flavor wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You perhaps missed that you get the whole deposit back. The landlord doesn't keep it. You could buy the property outright, or you could live somewhere for essentially free, as long as you don't value the interest on that cash more than you value the place you're staying.

Giving that much money to a landlord is absolutely terrifying to me given the history of landlords I’ve had. I’d much rather own the property and deal with any transaction costs associated with selling.

Basically, nobody wants to admit that their own country's long established and respected systems are ponzi schemes.

Many South Korean landlords are underwater on a bad investment and use the next renter's deposit to pay out the last. Citation not possible.

The point of the system was to spur investment in the south korean economy.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#207

Post by dvh »

I live in Slovakia and I have spent €4112.09 in entire 2020 on everything (housing, food, hobbies, ...), I don't have a car so that could raise your spending (although you should not need one, you're be sitting on your ass making a game, mass transit is decent too). I also live in my own 1 room apartment so no rent, but bills are like 120/month (heating, water, maintenance, ...). Health insurance is €80/month. Internet costs €7/month for 80 MBit/s. Cheapest shared local lamp web hosting costs €3/month. Lunch in restaurant €5. Avoid capital and go to second or third largest city. If you are not white you will get stares.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#208

Post by gilney »

collaborative wrote: post #188

No one has said this but one option also is to book an all inclusive hotel deal in Spain, Portugal Morocco, Tunis, Egypt, Greece, Turkey or Israel. These destinations have amazing value for money because of the volume of tourism And you won't have to worry about cooking or cleaning. Every day delicious buffets and room service :-) you could even keep switching hotel and do some lazy traveling. I do this once a year b…

Is this possible with a 1000USD/month budget?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#209

Post by chrischen »

yongjik wrote: post #68
UncleOxidant wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Basically, if you put down a huge deposit (like $90,000: 50% to 90% of the value of the property), you don't pay any monthly rent and get the entire deposit back when you move out. That's kind of a strange system. Any idea how it evolved there? Basically sounds like the landlord has to invest the money in such a way as to get a return that would be equivalent to rent but also safe enough so that they can return the…

I believe the system was adopted in the old days with very high interest rates (~10% was common) - landlords could easily expect to make enough return. It's actually greatly favorable to landlords. Just think about what happens when one side is out of money. Under the monthly rent system, landlords can't get any more money until they evict the renter (which is a lot of hassle, anywhere in the world). Under the "jeons…

Would the new landlord inherit the liabilities of the house?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

#210

Post by pelasaco »

bingohbangoh wrote: post #178
pelasaco wrote: post #130

If you want to have a great experience, I would suggest South of Brazil (something like country from Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina), Buenos Aires in Argentina, or my favorite spot Montevideo, Uruguay. In the 3 options, you can live well with 1k USD and have one of the best times of your life, without a super huge cultural shock. Have fun!

Isn't Argentina currently under a strict lockdown?

I fail to find in the question, the time period when the user is planning to do it. I wasn't assuming he is planning to do it literally right now.
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