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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?

#611

Post by dtkav »

thewizardofaus wrote: post #64
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…

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.

I'm not Aussie (yet), but I think you could pull it off!

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

#614

Post by village-idiot »

antaviana wrote: post #421
siquick wrote: post #90

Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene. Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live wit…

One clarification: Gross salaries in Spain are not as gross as in other countries. For example, a salary advertised as EUR 45K in Spain does not include taxes and benefits (mostly unemployment insurance and medical) paid by the company. So a SE with a gross salary of EUR45K directly costs the company employing here some EUR60K (i.e. some USD70). The employee full cost to the company is never konwn to the employee (so…

A month per year worked is awesome, but that seems insanely expensive. How can anyone afford to hire anyone with that risk?

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

#615

Post by randomsearch »

HelgeSeetzen wrote: post #610
sonnyblarney wrote: post #189

In North America I would vote Montreal. It's 1/2 price of most American cities and 2x funner and cooler than almost any of them. LA and NYC have tons of cool, but they are expensive and doing fun stuff is generally expensive. Not so Montreal. Mtl has way more going on than even SF ever had back in the day, and it's much bigger than Austin, Boulder/Colorado Springs etc. etc.. During the summer, Montreal has an unbelie…

Montreal is a great choice indeed. I am originally from Europe (Germany, short time in Holland) and have built tech companies on the West Coast (Vancouver, SF). After a decade on the West Coast, I moved to Montreal in 2010. Really enjoyable city with a great mix of high quality of life, culture and massive diversity (which in my opinion - even more so that universities - is the cause of the "intellectual" environment…

What's "deep tech"?

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

#616

Post by jvvw »

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…

My sister lives there (though she doesn't work in tech) and massively prefers it to Budapest. Her main issues are that the summers are hotter than she find pleasant and that politics is moving in quite a right-wing/anti-immigrant direction (the latter was also one of the reasons she moved from Budapest).

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

#617

Post by misiogames »

Buenos Aires

Pros

- U$D goes a long way, specially now after the latest devaluation, and if your income is in dollars, you are mostly not affected by inflation.

- Big English speaking crowd in Buenos Aires in particular.

- Intellectual community: there is a good ecosystem of startups at this moment plus one of the biggest universities in South America: Universidad de Buenos Aires

- It's easy to establish yourself legally: is quite easy to get your temporary resident status, just do the paperwork and you are set.

- a bunch of pluses: quite cosmopolitan city with a lot of cultural activities, lots of diversity.

- the food :P

Cons

- economic crisis: actually, this could be a pro if you have U$D, we locals are used to this kinda of stuff but for some people this can be a bit scary.

- Buenos Aires is a big city and can be a bit chaotic.

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

#618

Post by crispyambulance »

So you haven't traveled too often, but are considering relocating yourself to somewhere you've never been?

There's nothing wrong with that. However, I would recommend that before you attempt to settle down or start using the word "relocate" you do a bit of serious traveling.

One could say that there's a place in the world for every person. One could also say that people adapt to wherever they are. Both are partially true, I think. The only way you'll know what works for you is if you live there for a while and are able to compare it with other places where you've lived. To do that you need the perspective afforded by a lot of travel.

It's one of those "opportunity cost" decisions. How many places do you need to visit, how many do you need to reject? What is your criteria for a short-list? Only you can answer that.

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

#619

Post by nelsonic »

markdown wrote: post #495
garyclarke27 wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Portugal is a good choice now, I moved here 1 year ago from UK because of various factors, Brexit, tax, quality of life etc also because I believe it will be a great location to recruit IT talent to. I live in Cascais which is a bit expensive, (still much cheaper than San Francisco of course) but has wonderful quality of life for family, Capital city amenities next to beach. Great infrastructure, motorways, ultra…

> no Amazon Really? I live in a developing country middle of the Pacific Ocean and I regularly buy from Amazon with no issues. How come Portugal doesn't have Amazon?

[Off-the-record] Amazon is opening a distribution centre in Portugal "very soon". Portugal was not seen as a "priority" for Amazon because there are much bigger markets to "conquer". But since Google announced their intention: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-portugal/google-to... Amazon has "re-prioritised" Portugal ...

Meanwhile as others have said, we get our deliveries from UK amazon here in less than a week. It's not "Prime" or "Same Day Delivery", sure, but we can be patient for a few days and it just means we don't buy crap on impulse.

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

#620

Post by ulfw »

donjoe wrote: post #483
tetrazine wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. Lots of other mentions of Germany in this thread with good points. The downsides to Germany that Americans and Canadians (and to a lesser extent British) might perceive: - Constant store closures. Almost all Sundays and numerous holidays, almost all stores, including groceries, are closed. Don't forget to get milk or you have to trek to the central train station. - Very bad international food. Even in m…

Just to add my bit here: - Public smoking in public indoor places is completely banned in Bavaria, including pubs, restaurants and bars. - No one will forbid you to buy your own dryer in case you're not happy with hanging your clothes on clotheslines. We do have a dedicated clotheslines room in our building thus I never needed a dryer myself (and my clothes are getting dry within 2 days even in the winter) - ACs are…

Drivers Licenses in Germany haven't been unlimited ("for life time") for a while now.

https://www.adac.de/infotestrat/adac-im-einsatz/motorwelt/be...

"Driving licence validity in Germany. Driving licences are valid for 15 years. Licences issued before 2013, lose their validity at the latest on 19 January 2033."

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