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Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

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Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#71

Post by noilly »

eliben wrote: post #57
rarestblog wrote: post #8

Moscow, Russia typ. exp: ~600$ per each family member for food/clothes/utilities (no fancy stuff) 700-1200$ renting 1 room apt. 20$ internet (10MBit+ is common) extras: 60-100$ meal for 2 at *reasonably* priced restaurant 15$ movie ticket 10-20$ taxi ride 1$ ramen noodles (called "Doshirak" here) 2.5$ BigMac avg. salary IT (after tax) $700-1500/mth (mostly around $1000/mth)

Wow, that sounds totally unlivable

perhaps why a bottle of vodka is 3 dollars

*also fun fact: doshirak is a Korean brand

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#72

Post by gommm »

patio11 wrote: post #23

I live in a small town outside of Nagoya, Japan. I live fairly comfortably at $2,000 a month. The ramen profitable number for a single self-employed twentysomething is in the neighborhood of $1,500. Some costs: - A month's rent for a capacious apartment (by Japanese standards): $450 (This would be $700 inside of Nagoya, and you'd get a third the size of the apartment.) - Utilities: Gym ($100), phone + Internet + cell…

When I lived in Kyoto, I had similar expenses...

Housing:

- 400$/month for a 15 square meter studio next to Kyoto University

- $500/month for a 90 square meter house shared between with one other person (so total price would have been $1000/month south of Kyoto's train station in a poor area)

Health insurance, pension was the same (but a big part of that was paid by my employer)... It's possible to get a refund of the pension when you leave japan (you get back about 40% of what you paid)

Food: same. One thing to note is that the quality of food you can get for around $8 is amazingly high... It's very hard to find restaurants as tasty for this price in Shanghai or Malaysia where I've lived since... I really miss living in Japan for that.

On the wage for programmers, on the contrary to japanese, foreigners have more leeway when it comes to negotiating salary. A friend of mine, worked in a game company and managed to get a 70% raise when he told them he would be leaving otherwise (it was a rather big game company who usually goes by the $100 x year of age + bonus if married rule for compensation)

I now live in Shanghai and spend a bit more than when I was living in Japan but mostly due to housing and health insurance

Housing: $720/month for a 110 square meter apartment in Pudong 20 minutes away from the city center by subway line 2 . It's much more confortable than what I used to have in Kyoto, but I'm too hold for 15 square meters apartments...

Food: cheap chinese restaurants cost around $3, western food and japanese food is more around $15... While I love cantonese food, I really don't like Shanghainese food unfortunately, so I usually go to more expensive restaurants.

Health insurance: $420/month for me and my wife (through a private expat health insurance)

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#73

Post by warp »

jacquesm wrote: post #28

Europe, Netherlands (adjusted for one person): - rent/mortgage 500 (comes to about the same) - food 120 - mandatory health insurance 100 - internet 20M 75 (yep, that's splurging) - cheap car 250 (owning a car is expensive here) - energy bill 200 - various other insurances 100 - phone 50

Some notes:

If your income is under a certain limit (which it should be if you're just ramen profitable) you can get an allowance to help with rent and health insurance through the tax-office.

Public transport is quite decent in most areas, I would not recommend owning a car (especially because there is a lot of traffic congestion in and around major cities).

20Mbit/s can be had for about 30 USD from cheap ISPs. 40 USD for 8Mbit/s from a proper ISP.

My phone bill is about 30 USD/month, that includes a data plan.

I pay a lot more for food (USD 400/month), I think it would take quite a bit of effort/restraint to get that down to USD 120/month.

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#74

Post by lfx »

Vilnius, Lithuania

Apartment Rent + Taxes ~ $180 (I live in 3 room flat, so we share apartment rent, witch for all of us is ~ $400 in good neighborhood)

Internet (100Mbps): $40 (for all)

Foot: $200-300

Transport not in warm season ~ $45

Phone ~8$ (with G3 7GB quota)

Beer ~ $1-2

BicMac (big) ~$5

Daily lunch in Chinese restaurant ~ $4

Typical wage $650 - 2400

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#75

Post by gattone »

Iasi, Romania

  - Rent for a studio plus water, electricity...= $350 per month
  - Internet, at least 30mbps = $10 per month
  - Beer in a pub = $1.35
  - Pizza (more than enough for a single person) = $7
  - Bus/Tram ticket = $0.63 for one ride or $32 for one month
  - Milk = $1.05 per litre
  - Chicken meat = $3.60 per kg
Wages for 9-to-5 coders are around $700 per month, after tax and medical insurance (but Romanian hospitals are really crappy compared to North American or Western European standards, and also be prepared to pay bribes to the doctors in the range of $1000 per surgical intervention).

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#76

Post by xyzzyz »

adlep wrote: post #46
zalew wrote: post #32

Warsaw, Poland - single room flat $400-500 + expenses - internet 6Mbps $20 - public transport $50 - restaurant downtown $10-30, sushi $30-40, kebab $3-4, mcdonald $4 - beer in a club/restaurant $3-4, 0.5 can of heineken $1.6, marlboro $4 wages are really flexible (to call it nicely), if you have clients you can make more on freelancing than even some good programmers on 9to5, a lot of good programmers are paid below…

$500.00 for a single room flat in Warsaw == 1500PLN Are you sure it is that much? Also, I call BS on "specialist" making 9000 PLN a month P.S. Official median salary in PL is 1500PLN a month.

Rooms in Warsaw are much more expensive than in other parts of Poland.

Student's dormitories are much cheaper, but they frequently have quite terrible living condition - I pay $100 for a ~16 square meters room for three people, and it is not the worst one available.

Median salary in Warsaw is more like 4000 PLN ($1400), it can be half of that in other voivodeships, though.

Your calling BS is about 9000 PLN being too high or too low wage?

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#77

Post by derrida »

srnm wrote: post #22
aymeric wrote: post #9

Australia in AUD (about the same as USD these days): One bedroom rent in Sydney: $1200/month (EDIT: increased the rent based on comments) Food: $400 Wages:$60K-120K/year (gross) Internet:$50/month Phone: $50/month Bus ticket: $3.20 McDonalds Big Mac small meal: $6.45 -- By the way, I am looking to hire a Ruby on Rails developer for USD600/month in India / Philippines / Indonesia to help me develop my ideas. Please co…

Good luck finding a decent one bedroom apt in Sydney for $200/wk. Most places you'd want to live (eastern suburbs, inner west, northern beaches) will start at $350/wk. To get something nice in Alexandria or Newtown will be $450/wk plus.

I live in newtown in a housing co-operative for $70/week. No landlord. No government agents. I don't know why there are not more housing co-operatives around.

NOTE TO FOLKS THAT DON'T LIVE IN NEWTOWN: I agree with all other previous estimates, I thought I would just write this here to brag to the other sydneysiders about my cheap rent and plug a misunderstood housing model!

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#78

Post by TheEzEzz »

rglullis wrote: post #55
kawera wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent for small apartments close to the Green or Yellow lines are in the R$1000-1200 range for rent only. You must add charges("condominio"), electricity and tax("iptu"). I have two units, one close to Clinicas hospital, another close to Ana Rosa station, that I rent for R$1200 each, plus charges of around R$350 each. At a far-from-trendy mid-market bar, the going price for a large bottle of Original is in the R$6-7 r…

> São Paulo isn't cheap. Truer words are rarely spoken. To live a fairly "average" standard of living compared to any North American or European city, São Paulo costs way more. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that São Paulo has a very high degree of variability. It can be cheaper, if you are willing to let go of certain things. For instance: - why living "by the rivers", you can live on the East Side or closer…

When I go to Sao Paulo I have a friend in the Jardins I stay with, so I don't have to worry about rent. The down side is that hanging out with him and his upper class buddies destroys the savings I get!

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#79

Post by [deleted] »

xyzzyz wrote: post #76
adlep wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$500.00 for a single room flat in Warsaw == 1500PLN Are you sure it is that much? Also, I call BS on "specialist" making 9000 PLN a month P.S. Official median salary in PL is 1500PLN a month.

Rooms in Warsaw are much more expensive than in other parts of Poland. Student's dormitories are much cheaper, but they frequently have quite terrible living condition - I pay $100 for a ~16 square meters room for three people, and it is not the worst one available. Median salary in Warsaw is more like 4000 PLN ($1400), it can be half of that in other voivodeships, though. Your calling BS is about 9000 PLN being too…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#80

Post by eel »

To be honest, I thought the rest of the world, especially India and South America was a lot cheaper than what a lot of the other comments have revealed.

For a room, a share of the utilities, and food, it costs me about $625 / month in Phoenix, AZ. If you have to commute much, add $50+ of gas to that. I split a 3BR with 3 roommates, so if you live alone, expect to pay more -- $1000 / mo for an apt, utilities, and food would be expected.

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