You could try freelance work for clients remotely. That would give you a lot of freedom to choose where to live. I am an American living, working (as a freelance programmer) in Czech Republic -- good economy (especially Prague), low crime rate, low cost of living. Happy to answer questions.
Any advice on landing remote freelance gigs? I assume you don't use lowest-common-denominator sites like eLance.
* Build a web presence that funnels potential leads to you (blog, portfolio, resume, stackoverflow profile with activity like posting questions/answers, programming/freelance subreddits, github contributions and projects).
* Build your personal network via meetups, conferences, etc.
* Toptal [1] is the best platform for finding gigs that I've used, but it could be better. It has short-, medium-, and long-term contracts. Not the best possible rates and it's possible to waste some time with interviews, but it's still a lot better than elance and others.
* Gun.io [2] is something that looks interesting, but I have never gotten a contract through it. So could be hit or miss.
[2] https://gun.io/