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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#561

Post by niccolop »

mhjas wrote: post #490
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

I have had my eye on Portugal for a number of years, but there are a few things that seem less than ideal. * Cost of living for a good quality of life still being relatively high or rising, especially in Lisbon and other tourist/expat areas. And a second tier city in Portugal is much less of a clear choice since that is comparable to a lot more places. * The tax system being very complicated. One can always argue abo…

Spain offers you a mixture of international cities, and technology hubs. There will never be another "Silicon Valley", but as an alternative where you can find stimulating and rewarding work, I'd argue it's better than Portugal.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#562

Post by reustle »

davidscolgan wrote: post #138

I've recently moved to Chicago and am thoroughly loving it. There are tons of programming meetups here, seems pretty progressive, super good public transportation (at least for the US) and costs seem to be mostly reasonable. My studio apartment is about $1k a month in a nice part of town right next to a train stop. I really like that since Chicago is the third largest city in the country, you can probably find just a…

Curious to hear your thoughts after winter

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#563

Post by smilesnd »

I would suggest looking for place that have hackerspaces/makerspaces. If you can get enough people interested in purchasing space just on the aspect of tinkering with things then it probably has a solid intellectual community. My hackerspace had everyone from college professors to startup founders to just the random joe that knew way to much about safe making.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#564

Post by dtkav »

mdeg wrote: post #59
dtkav wrote: post #34

I just moved to Hobart, Australia from SF. It's quite affordable. I pay A$400 /mo rent in a share house, and walk 20 mins to a downtown co-working space every day (also A$400 /mo). Lifestyle is pretty incredible. It's small, but still a state capital city, so there's plenty going on. Hobart is also the home port for the Australian and French Antarctic programs, so a lot of smart folks come through. Plus it was a tria…

I'm in Melbourne right now but I'd love to move over the strait to Hobart. Do you have a remote job? The only thing stopping me is not being able to find work there - of the many things Hobart has, a thriving high tech industry is not one of them.

Yeah, I've been writing open source software mostly, plus a bit of software consulting. Several folks in my co-working space work remotely for companies in Melbourne.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#565

Post by balladeer »

nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

> Portugal is very welcoming to US citizens

What about people from other part of the world? Asking since you live there. Any resource you would recommend to have a general idea?

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#566

Post by mhjas »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #545
mhjas wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had my eye on Portugal for a number of years, but there are a few things that seem less than ideal. * Cost of living for a good quality of life still being relatively high or rising, especially in Lisbon and other tourist/expat areas. And a second tier city in Portugal is much less of a clear choice since that is comparable to a lot more places. * The tax system being very complicated. One can always argue abo…

I don't understand the comment about the tax system. Which taxes are you talking about? As I've said in another comment, IRS is literally filling out an online app for 5 minutes - and all relevant entries are already pre-filled. It's very easy and simple. As for companies, my girlfriend works at a company run by two Germans and they basically hire an accountant to do the paperwork every year. It's pretty cheap. For a…

Freelancing, starting companies and the NHR scheme (which is sort of an exception but still) seems to have a lot of deductions, conditions and exceptions that require more guidance than some other countries. Maybe this is something one adapts to, but it still seems like an initial hurdle for foreigners.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#567

Post by me551ah »

You can also consider NCR , India. It's the national captial region which includes Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

Pros. Internet - 1 Gbps internet at ~20$ a month

Lots of great colleges - IIT D, JNU, AIIMS, DCE Housing - You can get a 2500ft 3BHK high rise condo in gurgaon for ~800$/month. With that you'll get a jacuzzi, modular kitchen, round the clock security, pool , gym etc.

Labour is cheap - Maids which do cleaning, laundry and cooking cost ~150$/month. Drivers cost around 300 . You really don't have to do chores

Great food - Everything is app based anyway, so you can get good quality pasta/salad home delivered to your place at 3AM for less than 10 dollars.

Good Roads - Unlike some cities in India, the NCR region is connected by highways since it's made up of multiple states. Though if you have got friends in another part of town, it can mean a commute of upto 70 kms. It has a population of 24 million.

Great quality weed - weed is virtually legal and will set you back by ~10$/quarter, for ~70$ you can get 10gms of 30-60%THC concentrate ( hashish). Lots of microbreweries in gurgaon too.

Cons

Pollution - It can get a bit bad in winter, but you can install airpurifiers in your car and home to offset most of the effects.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#568

Post by niccolop »

nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

You could say all of this and more of a number of Spanish cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, and Seville.

International cities, thriving technology hubs, connected airports, visa issues really are not a big issue. We have a completely international team based in our Spain office.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#569

Post by dtkav »

ryan-allen wrote: post #112
thewizardofaus wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fellow Aussie living on the main land - Tassie is absolutely gorgeous. I'd love to work remotely from Tassie and live on a big farm. Oh boy... One can dream.

Remote role with NBN, it's probably do-able!

Yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised with fiber here in Hobart. The only thing that sucks is the latency of ssh to US cloud providers, but I haven't found it to be a big deal.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#570

Post by DSingularity »

amm wrote: post #358

Vienna, Austria. It has been ranked the most liveable city in the world for some years in a row. Cost of living is low compared to the European average; you can rent a medium-sized apartment for 600-700€/month. Everyone speaks English. Co-workers from Spain never bothered with German, because they can get anything done in English. Viennas public transport system is cheap (30€/month) and excellent. You can get anywher…

I heard that Vienna has a pretty racist population.
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