HN Explorer

Ask HN: Where can I move cheaply to work by myself for a year?

30 points by tamam ↗ HN
I am a US citizen and want to quit my job and move to a place where I can work on a project for maximum one year, but I could settle for 6 months. I've traveled a lot and am willing to eat the cost of a round-trip ticket. Language won't be an issue; I speak many languages and would be thrilled to learn another.

I'd need to find a location that has high speed internet, is reasonably safe, amenable to a US citizen legally staying without an income for six to twelve months, and whose cost of living is far less than the bay area. I know places in the US where I could do this, but I'd like to take the opportunity to live somewhere else.

I welcome all suggestions. Thank you!

33 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 83.5 ms ] thread
elviejo
May I suggest San Miguel de Allende México "the best city in the world" It has the second largest population of US citizens outside of the USA (second to london)

http://www.cntraveler.com/readers-choice-awards/best-cities-...

Because of the large expat community is expensive for mexican standards but cheap compared to the US

You could also use it as a platform to learn spanish.

My second suggestion is my own home town Zacatecas, México much cheaper than San Miguel de Allende, good climate (it gets cold but it doesn't snow)

http://www.visitmexico.com/en/zacatecas

if you have further questions you can email me at: agarciafdz at googles email free email service.

marquis
If Mexico is a consideration you can get 20BG symmetrical fibre internet from Axtel for under $50 a month. Various locations. It's excellent internet, have used it in Mexico City which is a very easy place to live inexpensively and well.

Not sure how old this map is or what areas are covered exactly: http://juridicoriva.com/cobertura2.html

I found the coastal sides of Mexico a bit difficult, but that's because the internet is slow and the humidity is very very bad for electronics (unless you like living with AC on constantly). But cheap and quick to get to for a beach or surf-weekend when you need to get out.

throwawayyyz
Ecuador. You will not regret it. My first choice would be north of Quito, in the Ibarra region. Second choice would be Cuenca and the surrounding area. In fact, there's a good chance we (wife and two kids) will be heading down there for a year in a few months.
gregjor
Thailand. Cheap, good food, fast internet. Easy to get around without fluency in Thai. Enough expats to speak English with when you want to, but not so many that you are easily isolated from Thai society. Chiang Mai has good weather most of the year and is less congested than Bangkok.
benologist
Costa Rica. It's a short flight to the states, and you get a new visa every time you leave the country for 72 hours aka visit a neighboring country for a weekend.
ndcrandall
You can visit Panama next door for a while, it's very low cost for foreigners. They use the US dollar so no currency exchange needed. If I remember correctly it's simple to get a 30, 60 or 90 day tourist visa.
constantx
I highly recommend Saigon, Vietnam :) It meets all of your requirements, and close enough to other Asian countries to travel if needed.

$2 pho, $1 banh mi.

casuncion
Manila. 1. Great weather (except for this most recent typhoon, we were all safe in the city) 2. Fast internet 3. Lots to do both in terms of day and short cheap trips to both domestic destinations and nearby Asian countries 3. Inexpensive cost of living- food, housing rentals and transportation. Only thing expensive is buying clothes (import tax) so just don't shop here. 4. Friendly people and easy immigration process- long stay visa 5. Almost everyone speaks English. Can easily learn Tagalog (esp. if you speak Spanish)
gexla
Yep, I don't think there is any better place than the Philippines for cheap places for people from the U.S.

English speaking needs a bit more emphasis. Not only does nearly everyone speak English, but English is an official language right along with Tagalog. Most signs are in English. you have little to no need to learn Tagalog. When two Filipino's from different parts of the country have a conversation, they are just as likely to speak in English as they are in Tagalog. It's likely they get more practice speaking English in their day to day living unless they live in Tagalog speaking areas.

You missed a huge point. You can stay there for a year without having to do a visa run. You just have to renew your tourist visa regularly. It's fast and easy.

I would suggest also looking at other areas of the country. I live in Dumaguete which isn't too big and not too small. There are houses and apartments all over the city for $100 - $150 / month. There are even pretty decent hotels you can live in for around $300 / month (which of course comes with paid everything.) A nice month to month foreigner run apartment would cost around the same. I haven't tried to live in Manila but I'm assuming it's generally more expensive than the rest of the country.

nolok
Do you know where you can find a good place to rent without already being on site ? AirBnB obviously costs a lot more
gexla
Right, I wouldn't go through AirBnB here. Just do a search for hotels in the city you are looking at and that should give you an idea for prices for the short term. The best way to locate houses and apartments is to drive around the city collecting phone numbers and to talk to other foreigners. Stay in the hotel while you are getting familiar with the city and see what kind of deal you can negotiate for long term stay. You don't have to stick with that deal, just keep it open as a fallback option. There are some sites where you can get prices for rentals and purchases, but those are sky high. Your only option is boots on the ground.
bruceb
Crash in a hostel for a week and figure it out when you are there. Eliminates lots of risk.
WD-42
Everywhere is cheap compared to the Bay Area, with the exception of New York and maybe London. Move as close as Oregon and you'll see your cost of living drop by half.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
mjdn
Jerusalem. Reasons:

[1] your screen name translates to "good/OK" in local Arabic so you can answer both "Who are you?" and "How are you?" with the same sentence. Think of the efficiency gains!

[2] very multilingual society - Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian, Yiddish, French, (Amhari?), Aramaic + others

[3] safe (yes), cheap, good internet, tourist visa renewable every three months by crossing border

dorfuss
cheap? come on! Jerusalem's not cheap at all!
mjdn
You might be right, and cheap is relative. I spent time there in 2007, which is a while ago. My money was in euro and I came from Ireland where cost of living was quite high. Both dollar and euro are now weaker against the shekel than in 2007, but I think it's still a good destination for someone from an area with high wages and comparatively strong currency.

1 Bed apartments can be had for between $500-$600/month and sharing is a lot cheaper than that.

http://www.homeless.co.il/rent/inumber4=1$$inumber4_1=1$$sea...

vincie
Tonga, Tokelau, Tahiti and some other small Pacific islands now have something better than dial-up.

Edit: typo

muddauber
I'm admittedly biased on this one. Consider the following:

* Low cost of living (housing ~33% of Bay Area) * Extremely low crime rate * Beautiful outdoors. Mountains, streams, heavily forested,... * Easy access to high bandwidth internet * Same timezone (or 1-2 hours) to all US Customers * Small but high-quality dev & University communities * Frighteningly devoted local & state infrastructure * English as the main language * No visa restrictions * No international plane ticket expenses

Here's the kicker. It's West Virginia.

f7t7ft7
He'd have to buy a pickup truck, though.
brentm
So as a disclaimer I currently live in New York so I am not saying this as a resident.

From my times visiting Nashville it seemed like a really nice city. I put some light research into rental options earlier this year and the prices seemed very affordable, especially in the suburbs. A few friends of mine rented a good size house down there for rather cheap and love it.

kcovia
If you're staying in the US, I heartily recommend Pittsburgh. It's really cheap (1br apartment + food + transport will run you $1000 - $1500 / month), or $500ish if you don't mind getting a room in a bigger house. There's a ton of stuff to do when you want to get away from the computer.
jophde
Don't forget to add about 10-20% to the prices for exchanging money or using your debit card. I live in Chile right now. Living in Middle America would be much cheaper.
karlkeefer
You need to get yourself a Schwab Investor Checking account - no ATM fees and only 1% for foreign exchange. I travel a lot and this has saved me bundles.
pallavkaushish
You can live in India. Best cities would be Bangalore, Delhi or Mumbai.

Pros of living in India:

1. Cost of living is way too less compared to Bay area. You can rent a very decent house for INR 20000 per month (~$333) or ~$4000 per year.

2. Bangalore was ranked the 19th best city in the world for startup environment by Startup Genome report.

3. Tons of startup groups and meetups, people are really helpful and supportive.

4. You can find smart people to hire at a fraction of a cost.

5. Good internet connectivity.

6. Getting VISA for extended stay would be very easy considering you're a US citizen.

7. Language would not be a big barrier because most of the educated population understands and speaks English.

If you want to know more or have any questions, my email is in my profile.

tagabek
What are the best ways to find a house to rent like this in Bangalore?
pallavkaushish
There are only two ways, either you take help of an online real estate website or you go out on street and find property agents who can get you a decent house and in turn they'll take their commission.

Some of the online real estate websites from where you can start looking are:

1. www.99acres.com (I have had a bad experience with them, see here - http://snooptank.com/why-99acres-need-get-its-act-together-a...)

2. www.housing.com (The new rising star in Indian market)

3. www.sulekha.com

4. www.commonfloor.com

5. www.magicbricks.com

6. www.olx.in

bruceb
I am not sure where you would get a house in Mumbai for $333 unless it is way out on the outskirts. You could share a flat for that though. Food is cheap if you like Indian food. Don't drink the water.

You can get 10 year tourist visa that is good 6 months at a time. All you have to do is leave the country and come back. It used to be you had to be out for two months but they scrapped that rule some countries.

Setting things up on a tourist visa will be a pain. Getting internet will be a pain. Better to split with neighbor or have Indian flat mate do it. Internet may go out sometimes.

Same thing with getting a scooter or car.

There will be a lot of tech stuff to be involved in though.

pallavkaushish
I can't say about Mumbai because I haven't lived there but in Delhi and Bangalore you can get a decent house in many of the major locations for $333 a month. You would need to search for it though because finding houses is a big challenge these days.

Getting internet is not a pain, it takes 2 days to get one from any private company like Airtel and about 1.5 weeks if you take it from a government company like BSNL. The connection works fine most of the time though occasional hiccups are inevitable in India.

adultSwim
Middle America if trying to minimize cost. Cheap US city if you want to balance it with other factors.