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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?

#461

Post by kryptonomist »

Almost anywhere in France, except in big cities.

Pros:

-you get a free healthcare coverage.

-cost of life is reasonable (again, outside of big cities where accomodation is expensive).

-internet connection is good and cheap.

-you will enjoy a few benefits after some paper work. Ex.: the RSA, which is around 500€ you get with very little conditions (not having any revenue, being at least for 3 months in France, having a regular visa, etc.).

-you can legally start to earn money by being declared as auto-entrepreneur, with very little paper work (also with a regular working visa, and with some revenue cap).

Cons:

-language: better find some friend who can speak the language, especially when dealing with the administration.

-check carefully where you settle beforehand, France is one of the most crime-prone country in Europe (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...).

To be honest, I would not recommend it because of the last point.

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

#462

Post by sbalea »

pedrogpimenta wrote: post #317
bserge wrote: post #195

Romania, some major city that's not the capital. The outskirts of Cluj are perfect, maybe Sibiu or Brasov. Access to all sorts of nature and activities, affordable housing (big apartments, could even find a nice detached house for less than $500), great food from around Europe, great selection of restaurants/fast food, easy access to the rest of Europe and the world, lovely people who will speak English enthusiastica…

I love your country, your people and your food. I've been several times and considered living there (ultimately, plans changed). By all means, promote it. But not with lies. Corruption is a big problem in Romania: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Romania

To be honest, you'll most likely encounter corruption if you intend to operate a business, especially if said business has anything to do with any level of government. As an ordinary resident you might have to deal with bureaucracy, but that's not different than in any other European country. I might have a rosy picture of the state of things, since I only come here on vacations and to visit family, but I was born and raised here and I think I can see significant improvements on this front.

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

#463

Post by gjvnq »

Brazil is currently very doable as 1k USD is about 5k BRL (Brazilian reais) which more than the living wage (calculated by a trade union group) and is good salary for a starting engineer or lawyer without experience.

You will probably not be able to live in luxury areas but will be pretty doable even in large cities.

Note that living even living in a large city things will be difficult without speaking Portuguese, but you can order pretty much anything to be delivered to your house so will be able to use Google Translate without relying on its speech related functionalities.

You seem to be an American, so you will almost certainly require a visa before you can come here but I think it will be easy.

A few recommendations:

  * Get a CPF number (SSN equivalente) as soon as you can, ideally even before arriving in the country. I think you can apply online and show the original documents at the embassy. (Seriously, almost anything e-commerce related will ask for your CPF but it is almost always optional in regular physical shops)
  * Get an RNE card as soon as you can. This way you can leave your passport safely at home.
  * Get a local phone number with mobile internet and install Whatsapp (almost anyone here uses it)
  * If you stay in Brazil for around a year you may owe taxes here. The good news is that the filing is electronic the bad is that it is still confusing.

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

#464

Post by pelasaco »

randycupertino wrote: post #431
bobthechef wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors?

Generally most people over ~35-40yo won't speak English as it wasn't added to school curriculum until after the fall of the Soviet block.

People over ~50-60yo maybe. 35-40 yo, spent not more than 10 years under Soviet control. Add to that, that Poles live quite often abroad and a lot of them spent years in Ireland/UK. We have even numbers to support that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s... ... Poland in the top 20.

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

#465

Post by sbalea »

bserge wrote: post #195

Romania, some major city that's not the capital. The outskirts of Cluj are perfect, maybe Sibiu or Brasov. Access to all sorts of nature and activities, affordable housing (big apartments, could even find a nice detached house for less than $500), great food from around Europe, great selection of restaurants/fast food, easy access to the rest of Europe and the world, lovely people who will speak English enthusiastica…

+1 on this. Gorgeous landscape, very fast and cheap internet and cell networks. Decent number of people speaking decent English, especially amongst the urban youth. Not as cheap as it used to be, but still cheaper than Western Europe.

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

#466

Post by satellite2 »

bobthechef wrote: post #361
satellite2 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warning in Hungary though, with Orban's government if you are not perfectly white, straight and Christian you might want to avoid it.

Hah, that's quite the caricature. You should diversify the media you consume.

Which media? Hungary's main opposition media was closed after 60 years of existence. The prosecutor general and constitutional courts have been taken over by the ruling party. Violences have exploded.

I agree that sometimes it might be hard to detect when a government is slipping from a populist phase to outright fascism, but in this case the overwhelming amount of evidence makes it clearcut.

And independently from any possible interpretation, when a government tell you explicitly that you are not welcome, ignore the warning at your own peril.

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

#467

Post by patricktlo »

kryptonomist wrote: post #461

Almost anywhere in France, except in big cities. Pros: -you get a free healthcare coverage. -cost of life is reasonable (again, outside of big cities where accomodation is expensive). -internet connection is good and cheap. -you will enjoy a few benefits after some paper work. Ex.: the RSA, which is around 500€ you get with very little conditions (not having any revenue, being at least for 3 months in France, having…

Sure, the crime rate is high for Europe, but in context it's not that far away from California[0].

But I think for European countries France is on the expensive side, but it's true that you get healthcare, and you can make do with 1k

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/232564/robbery-rate-in-t...

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

#468

Post by pelasaco »

lbebber wrote: post #396
nano-erud wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Uruguay, it's not an alternative, it is very expensive. Good quality of life, but you don't live well on that budget. You need up to 2k a month (one person) to live well. Brazil and Argentina are very insecure and economically unstable.

I live in the south of Brazil, it's pretty safe, but it depends on the city. You can go pretty far with 1k USD here. Also pretty well served in terms of free healthcare, but I don't know how it works for foreigners.

You can get a tourism healthcare plan. I have one that I use while I'm outside of Europe, I pay less than 10 euros/year and can spend up to 90 days abroad of EU.

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

#470

Post by LurkingPenguin »

bingohbangoh wrote: post #171
reillyse wrote: post #51

So I like this idea and I’ve spent a little time in other countries doing something similar. The one caveat I’d say is that although it’s cheaper to avoid major cities it can be quite isolating. Depending on the level of english in the country you go to (I assume you are an English only speaker) you might end up not having a meaningful conversation in the flesh for weeks. I spent about 2 months in Portugal doing some…

> Depending on the level of english in the country you go to (I assume you are an English only speaker) you might end up not having a meaningful conversation in the flesh for weeks. One should absolutely, 100% make a good faith effort to learn the language of any country you intend to long-term reside in. It's for your own health. For my two cents, it'll massively improve your standing in the community because you wo…

> One should absolutely, 100% make a good faith effort to learn the language of any country you intend to long-term reside in.

This is a good ideal but as an expat currently living in East Asia, reality doesn't always match the ideal.

1. Some languages take a dedicated effort to learn in any meaningful way. For example, unless you're a language maestro, you're not going to pick up Chinese with a casual effort. If you're working, have a family, etc., you might not be able to make the kind of concerted, consistent effort required to become proficient.

2. I've been to places where if the locals know you speak the language, they will treat you more like a local, which isn't always a good thing.

3. In terms of having serious conversations, keep in mind that language ≠ culture. In some places, the biggest barrier to overcome is culture, not language.

Also, in my own experience traveling and living abroad, there really isn't a "fly-by-night foreigner" stereotype that's applied uniquely to Americans. In fact, as an American, in lots of places, locals will be really interested to talk to you because a) American pop culture is so well known globally and b) they don't encounter Americans nearly as frequently as they do nationalities who tend to travel more than Americans. For instance, in much of Asia, pre-pandemic there were a lot more Australians and Europeans than Americans.

In lots of places, your "standing in the community" will be based on socioeconomic and residency factors. For example, where I live currently, the fact that I'm American, have residency through business ownership, live in a luxury apartment, etc. affects how I am perceived more than my inability to speak the language.

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