Move to Thailand but have customers in the USA and Europe Besides Thailand and other countries with a low cost of living, some towns in the USA will actually pay you to move there. http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/6-cities-that-will-pay-you-to... You can also join various subsidy programs and grants: http://becolorado.org/programs/be-colorado-move Finally I recommend the Mr Money Mustache blog. Anyone read it?
You can go pretty low in Thailand, but it can actually get pretty expensive if you want a western lifestyle. And anyways, isn't Cambodia or Laos cheaper?
I've been able to do this after re-arranging my life over the past 5 years. I bought 7 acres of bare land for $35k and built a 200 sqft tiny house for $4,000. I homestead as much as I can and my bills are approximately $40/DSL, $40/Electrical, $35/Car insurance (I drive a 90s Honda), and approximately $30 a month in property taxes. I spend about $40 in propane for heat in the winter and my air conditioning bill is an…
I'm curious as to the social angle on this. Do you get lonely out there, are friends primarily on line, is your partner (if applicable) happy with this situation, etc? I ask because I've always dreamed of a life of simplicity similar to what you've got setup, but the thing that stops me is the possible isolation.
My friends generally broke down into three groups, those who were to busy to hang out because of their career, their family, or they were into bad situations I didn't want to get involved with (drugs, alcohol, wrong crowd). This wasn't the case in my 20s but now that I'm in my 30s this is just how it went down. Ultimately sitting behind a desk paying a mortgage for 30 years outweighed the social aspect of being lonely right now in my life. But visiting Portland is like going on vacation in my home town and I plan on buying a rental with a garage apartment just for me to have a home base when I'm in town. With all the financial freedom I have I see this in a few years. But yes, my partner wasn't 100% down with the move, regrettably didn't move with me. Also watching friends gather and text message each other in the same room was a funny moment for me.
That's really cool and probably exactly what I was looking for. Sounds about as cheap as you can go. How expensive was it to get any utilities hooked up to your property, or was that already taken care of when you bought the land?
The utilities a power pole and a well, were already on the property when I bought it. But the original costs were $6,500 to dig the well and approximately $5,000 to install and green tag the power pole. If you can get your total wattage usage down, you could easily go off the grid with the newer 430 watt solar panels and LiFePO4 batteries. Its almost an impulse buy for me and definitely something I want to do this su…
You can go pretty low in Thailand, but it can actually get pretty expensive if you want a western lifestyle. And anyways, isn't Cambodia or Laos cheaper?
I'd be more concerned with visa issues.
Ya, you aren't supposed to work with tourist visas, and you should be paying taxes in your country of residence on your income. Things can get pretty shady, and you really don't want to wind up in a Thai jail!
I've been able to do this after re-arranging my life over the past 5 years. I bought 7 acres of bare land for $35k and built a 200 sqft tiny house for $4,000. I homestead as much as I can and my bills are approximately $40/DSL, $40/Electrical, $35/Car insurance (I drive a 90s Honda), and approximately $30 a month in property taxes. I spend about $40 in propane for heat in the winter and my air conditioning bill is an…
I've been able to do this after re-arranging my life over the past 5 years. I bought 7 acres of bare land for $35k and built a 200 sqft tiny house for $4,000. I homestead as much as I can and my bills are approximately $40/DSL, $40/Electrical, $35/Car insurance (I drive a 90s Honda), and approximately $30 a month in property taxes. I spend about $40 in propane for heat in the winter and my air conditioning bill is an…
$35k for bare land? In Detroit, $35k gets you a lot with a newly renovated, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. Random example at $37k: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/487-W-Green... Edit: I can just keep going and going with nicely livable ~40k houses in Detroit: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/13111-Grigg... http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/17593-Monic... http://www.realtor.co…
I wonder if there is a huge hidden accumulation of unpaid property taxes the buyer would be on the hook for.
My advice: don't take a radical path until you control/manage your current path. I am also a web developer and can/have worked remotely but I think that deep down one needs social interaction (even more so if you have kids!). I was also looking to minimize expenses but instead of taking a radical path I decided to control my expenses while keeping most of my lifestyle and guess what? With enough discipline and team work (your partner, if any, must agree with the plan) you may get very low on expenses without having to change too much your routine. The formula was dead obvious for me and you've heard it a thousand times: pay down debt, get rid of credit cards (keep a couple for EMERGENCIES), get rid of unnecessary expenses, buy used, reuse, don't buy toys, don't eat out too much, buy wholesale, bike to work, walk to groceries, etc. Many times the solution to a problem/want/need is not money but creativity and rational thinking, e.g. do you need a backyard b/c you want a bbq on your 'own' place? You will do that bbq maybe 10 times/year. Is it worth it to buy the land/house for that reason? How about a public park for the bbq, or the outdoors? One final word: a mortgage is 99% of the time a bad (financial) decision.
$35k for bare land? In Detroit, $35k gets you a lot with a newly renovated, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. Random example at $37k: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/487-W-Green... Edit: I can just keep going and going with nicely livable ~40k houses in Detroit: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/13111-Grigg... http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/17593-Monic... http://www.realtor.co…
I wonder if there is a huge hidden accumulation of unpaid property taxes the buyer would be on the hook for.
There likely isn't and risk to the buyer. These houses were most likely foreclosed or abandoned.
Detroit is auctioning off houses and lots that have not been paid up to the highest bidder by the dozens. These were likely purchased super cheap for flipping, and now being resold.
Detroit has a real problem with the city services right now, and as a result of the lack of services, and large land sales houses are SUPER cheap.