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Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

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Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#121

Post by ethbro »

ben_pr wrote: post #78
Kiro wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the crime?

It's not too different than Atlanta, there are places to avoid and places that are OK. The west side of the island from Yauco around to the top center are going to be on par with most suburbs in Atlanta, San Juan and east are a more dicey. On the east side Palmas del Mar is very safe. I've never had a problem here or felt in danger.

If you've got a minute, I'd be very interested in discussing a bit more in depth. {username}.co@gmail works.

I'm in Atlanta now, but have definitely been mulling PR over.

Heard the same thing about east vs west sides of the island.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#122

Post by [deleted] »

ben_pr wrote: post #78
Kiro wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the crime?

It's not too different than Atlanta, there are places to avoid and places that are OK. The west side of the island from Yauco around to the top center are going to be on par with most suburbs in Atlanta, San Juan and east are a more dicey. On the east side Palmas del Mar is very safe. I've never had a problem here or felt in danger.

[deleted]

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#123

Post by filozynka »

ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

Ha, reminds me of a story of a front-end developer from my (mostly Poland-based) team who is working remotely from Brazil: https://netguru.co/blog/working-with-people-you-haven-t-seen

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#124

Post by ben_pr »

filozynka wrote: post #123
ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

Ha, reminds me of a story of a front-end developer from my (mostly Poland-based) team who is working remotely from Brazil: https://netguru.co/blog/working-with-people-you-haven-t-seen

Puerto Rico is different in that it is a U.S. territory so a lot of concerns in the financial services world where I work are not relevant. My clients would never hire someone from a non U.S. state/territory to work on their critical IT systems.

The Timezone thing is also a really big deal too. PR is the same most of the year and just one hour off Nov-Mar. I do not ever see myself waking up at 5:00am for meetings.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#125

Post by zingar »

500 EUR per room seems like a lot, and not just for Thailand. I'm planning a holiday in France, I have a two bedroom place booked for more or less the same price near the beach in Marseille (monthly rate on AirBnB, not the cheapest option either). I'll also be visiting Prague where I see places for half that. My home in Cape Town is a very well situated two bedroom flat, also half that price.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#126

Post by needaremotegig »

I'm a software engineer in Thailand who is working on a startup while doing some part-time consulting.

I started consulting in the last few months, and my biggest client has recently had to delay payment because they don't have enough money. I've also been applying to a few gigs on gun.io, and one proposal was accepted, but they've just pulled out. They need some more time to scope out the idea before starting development.

Living overseas is awesome if you have a stable job or a lot of savings, but it can be pretty terrifying otherwise. So I'm in a bit of a jam at the moment, and would like to ask for your help with finding a one-off or part-time gig to stay afloat. I've already tried most of the remote job sites [1].

I'm a Rails developer with over 5 years of experience and I'm competent with front-end development, most JavaScript frameworks, and DevOps. I also have 6 months of full-time experience with iOS development, in Swift and Objective-C. One other thing is that I really enjoy debugging, and am pretty good at tracking down difficult bugs. If you or one of your developers are stuck on anything, I'd be happy to take a look. No payment until it's fixed.

My rate is $150 per hour, and is not negotiable. I can usually commit to 20 hours per week, but I will be available for full-time work (up to 60 hours per week) over the next few weeks.

Please leave a comment if you have any advice. If you would like to get in touch and view my GitHub profile, then please send me an email at needaremotegig@gmail.com

[1]: https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#127

Post by hajrice »

needaremotegig wrote: post #126

I'm a software engineer in Thailand who is working on a startup while doing some part-time consulting. I started consulting in the last few months, and my biggest client has recently had to delay payment because they don't have enough money. I've also been applying to a few gigs on gun.io, and one proposal was accepted, but they've just pulled out. They need some more time to scope out the idea before starting develo…

>> So I'm in a bit of a jam at the moment, and would like to ask for your help with finding a one-off or part-time gig to stay afloat. I've already tried most of the remote job sites [1].

>> My rate is $150 per hour, and is not negotiable. I can usually commit to 20 hours per week, but I will be available for full-time work (60 hours per week) over the next few weeks.

So you're stuck in Thailand, turn to help on Hacker news, and then mention how "My rate is $150 per hour, and is not negotiable."

Not sure how many people you'll attract with this strategy.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#128

Post by borgia »

ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

>Besides the tax benefits there are a lot of other things to like here.

How does the tax work? It's part of US territory, so are you paying your income tax to the US as you usually would while earning in the US?

Or are you resident there and your earnings subject to taxes in PR? Aside from that, as a US citizen are you not still obliged to pay the IRS the taxes on a certain amount of earnings made outside the US?

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#129

Post by needaremotegig »

hajrice wrote: post #127
needaremotegig wrote: post #126

I'm a software engineer in Thailand who is working on a startup while doing some part-time consulting. I started consulting in the last few months, and my biggest client has recently had to delay payment because they don't have enough money. I've also been applying to a few gigs on gun.io, and one proposal was accepted, but they've just pulled out. They need some more time to scope out the idea before starting develo…

>> So I'm in a bit of a jam at the moment, and would like to ask for your help with finding a one-off or part-time gig to stay afloat. I've already tried most of the remote job sites [1]. >> My rate is $150 per hour, and is not negotiable. I can usually commit to 20 hours per week, but I will be available for full-time work (60 hours per week) over the next few weeks. So you're stuck in Thailand, turn to help on Hack…

I'm hoping to attract serious clients who value high-quality work.

I do have a little bit of a buffer. My client's site is also profitable, so they'll be able to pay me in the next few weeks. But I'll have to ease back the hours with them, so am looking for some more projects.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#130

Post by chamakits »

ben_pr wrote: post #111
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I just clarify - you work remotely for NY finance industry, at presumably near NY rates, paying 4% coproation tax and no tax on dividends from that income? With tropical weather. What's the schooling like?

That is how it works. Public schools are a no go. There are some good private schools and a large number of homeschoolers. Don't know much about the colleges here but probably not good. Puerto Rico is part of the united states, just not a state, which means no visa required, same currency, and etc. Additional info on tax benefits: http://puertoricotaxincentives.com/act-20-export-services-ac...

Full disclosure: I was born, raised, and went to college in Puerto Rico and currently work in NYC.

I agree with most of what you said, except for the college part, which you admit you didn't know very well.

The public Colleges of Puerto Rico are actually great and very competitive with the rest of the colleges in the US, but with lower resources.

I studied computer engineering in UPRM in Mayaguez. While studying there I had internships with multiple fortune 500 companies which allowed me to pay for my own tuition as it was at the time $40 per credit. When I graduated I was hired in a fortune 500, many of which recruit heavily in PR, and was recently able to move to a startup with ease. Many of my alumni were hired in various companies both big (Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin) and smaller startups. I only mention this because many of us were hired alongside many ivy league school students or from other larger universities with more resources, which may serve as a signal of how competitive the school is compared to others.

I would happily recommend anybody to study in any of the UPR campuses.

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