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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?

#221

Post by HelloNurse »

lrem wrote: post #129
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…

What about the recent independence trouble?

It is only "trouble" if you are involved.

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

#222

Post by Aeolun »

krautsourced wrote: post #181
bogdanu wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw some jobs in Berlin that payed around 70K Eur. Assuming it's before taxes, it means that after taxes it's around 3.8k/month; a bit low if you ask me. I know pay is not the only factor, but heck, I make half in my home country, but the living costs are far lower (and I don't even pay rent).

70k is anything but low in Berlin. It is actually really, really high. For reference see here (monthly before tax) https://www.morgenpost.de/bin/bmo-213539703.jpg With that amount of money one could afford a very sweet place to live easily, and still have plenty of spending money for intellectual pursuits or whatever. Speaking English is no issue here, at least in the "hip" parts of town. Would I say it's the best pl…

You have to compare it with where you are coming from though.

I might move from Tokyo to Berlin and due to a combination of cost of living and taxes have the same after tax income, even though absolutely €70000 is a fuckton more. That goes for anywhere in Europe though.

I would recommend Tokyo as a great place to live overall, but intellectual and english, not so much :P

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

#224

Post by ronaldl93 »

nsomaru wrote: post #132
ronaldl93 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The northern parts of Durban (Umhlanga / Ballito) is also nice. Good fibre infrastructure, relatively safe. Well developed. Tropical Climate. Very English.

I'm actually a Durbanite living in Westville but I can't recommend Durban having lived in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mumbai and Berlin. Spend too much time in Durban and I end up feeling like I'm intellectually frustrated. A lot of it might have to do with my race group and the fact that it is a minority nationally with a high concentration in KZN. You probably know what I'm saying ;) There's implicit racism in Durban…

Yeah for sure... I get exactly what you're saying. I surf so this is the main reason I'm here for now.. I am working remotely though and will be moving back to Asia later this year, before the vaalies pull in.

But otherwise, in terms of weather - you can't beat it.

And yes... I think this place is kinda giving me "island syndrome"... That's why I need to get out of this place for a bit. haha

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

#225

Post by kendallpark »

If you can weather the weather, Madison or St. Louis. Rent is cheap in both places (Madison benefits from having University of Wisconsin campus. It is also the capital of Wisconsin. While being around the same size as a flagship state school "college-town," it retains its own identity and culture (you never feel like the city revolves around the university). I've heard many people compare Madison to Austin, TX. UW-Madison has one of the oldest computer science departments in the US--high ranking department. Extremely bike friendly town. Winters are LONG; I suspect the cold keeps the city population a manageable size.

St. Louis is a mid-sized city. It has all the cultural amenities you'd expect from a big city (airport, food, arts, parks, etc), without the traffic or sprawl, and at a fraction of the cost. Wash U is the top academic center in the area. It's not a great city to visit as a tourist, but it's a fantastic city to live in, especially for the frugal-minded. Summers are hot and humid.

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

#226

Post by the_clarence »

justin66 wrote: post #174
fipple wrote: post #68

The answer here is places that are COLD. For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Minneapolis might be a good choice, or Chicago if you want a bigger atmosphere. You’ll have to put in elbow grease to create an intellectual milieu but it is there.

> For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Did you leave NYC and Boston just completely out of your calculations?

The cold there is not comparable to the cold of Chicago and Montreal

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

#227

Post by steve_gh »

Bristol, UK.

Vibrant city, lots of tech and a good aviation engineering scene (Airbus), lovely countryside around. Reasonably affordable (compared to London). Good communication links to the rest of the UK and Europe (International Airport - London under 2 hrs by trains every 30 mins). Downside - traffic is hideous.

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

#228

Post by vishnugupta »

Bangalore, India.

+ Reasonable cost of living (compared to the median salary of a SE) if you don't eat out much.

+ Rents haven't sky rocketed yet.

+ Thriving tech eco system/community.

+ You can get by on English. Though learning Hindi (for rest of India), and Kannada (for Bangalore) is highly recommended :-)

+ Good food and pub scene. In fact Bangalore is known as the pub capital of India! Decent night life too.

+ Lots of weekend getaway places. Himalayas is basically ~3hrs away by flight that costs ~70USD.

- Pollution, bad physical infrastructure (road, clean drinking water etc.,) that's getting worse. Owning a 4-wheeler doesn't make sense anymore. It's not needed anyway.

- Bad air connectivity to USA. Bangalore isn't a hub.

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

#229

Post by nelsonic »

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 speaks English. There is a good "tech scene" and a fantastic work-life-balance; surf, great food & warm/welcoming people.

A few things to consider that many people over-look: + Socio-Economic and Political stability. + General safety/security and crime levels. + Sanitation and healthcare availability/cost. + Availability/cost of healthy [organic/unprocessed] food. + Lifestyle to actually live in the place: is it "cheap" but a nightmare to live there? + Contract-law for short-term apartment/room rentals.

Portugal will exceed your expectations on all of these.

Portugal is very welcoming to US citizens, you won't have any "visa issues" the way you will in many of the [superficially] "cheaper" Asian countries.

If you want your budget to stretch much further, consider Braga. The cost of living is less than a third of SF, internet is fast and you get most of the benefits of Porto & Lisbon (or can reach those cities with a short train journey).

Note: I am [slightly] "biased", my Wife and I have recently "escaped" from London [after working there in tech for 10 years] and we are busy setting up a Co-living/Co-working House in Braga: https://github.com/dwyl/home We will be opening at the end of this month and our target cost per month [1Gbps Internet, all bills, cleaning & gym included] is $300 (USD).

We chose Braga because it has all the "ingredients" for an awesome place for tech/creative people to escape the bigger cities and focus on their work while still having access to all the amenities great healthcare, superb organic/vegan food and good libraries/meetups/etc.

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

#230

Post by thenaturalist »

sneak wrote: post #216
Kovah wrote: post #168

There are some smaller German cities like Göttingen which have - in my opinion - a high intellectual atmosphere because they are so called university-cities: lot's of students and academics in a rather small city. And, in comparison with big cities like Berlin or Munich, the rents are much cheaper: from what I know you pay 2/3 to half of the price for the same amount of space. Example: a flat with 55-60 qm is about 6…

Berlin is nothing like Silicon Valley. It’s a great city but job offers there are 60-80% lower salaries compared to the US, which makes Berlin being marginally cheaper (but with higher taxes) not really worth it.

Says somebody apparently... living in Berlin? Calling Berlin "marginally" cheaper than the Valley is something I'd be highly sceptical of. Rents aside I've not been to many other places where food, shopping and leisure has been as cheap.

Also, OP did not mention he wants to optimise his income?

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