Where can I live off 1k USD per month?

I live in Korea. Some months my total expenses are as low as $400 while living comfortably. If I spent $1000 in a month, I spent a lot of money. I'd say my average monthly living expenses are $600-$800. My main expenses are food/entertainment, and I eat out a lot (50% of meals).

Housing is probably the biggest living expense. I take advantage of Korea's interesting rental system called Cheonsae:

Basically, if you put down a huge deposit (like $90,000: 50% to 90% of the value of the property), you don't pay any monthly rent and get the entire deposit back when you move out. My place has a $50 monthly management fee, but that includes high-speed internet. (So I joke that I get free housing with my internet.)

Of course, there is an opportunity cost because that deposit could have generated interest, but I figure the break-even point is 12% APY. (It is possible to lower the deposit by increasing monthly rent.) So it's advantageous to take out a bank loan at 2-4% interest to pay for the deposit.

There is a small risk you won't be able to get your deposit back if the owner mismanages their finances. I believe the Korean government actually guarantees housing deposits up to $50,0000 or so. In Korea, the tenants actually do background checks on the landlords! The minimum deposit is usually $10,000, so landlords usually don't scrutinize tenants.

Poland is doable if you stay out of major cities. You can rent a studio for $300 (incl. all utilities). Food, if you cook, will cost you $200-$250 ($300-$400 if you don't cook and want to eat out only). Wired Internet and cell phone will be around $20. State-provided health insurance is about $120 per month (this is "socialized medicine", so it provides everything with no deducible, up to treating cancer etc.), but can possibly be gamed - there are loopholes that de facto allow you to pay insurance only once you need it (may be too hard to navigate for someone who's not a native speaker though). Btw the health insurance is "free" if you get any kind of job, even working couple hours a week.

Also, Poland should be a great place to actually run your game studio company from, as the tax on "IT innovation" (should not be hard to include games in this category) is only 6% - everything after that ends up in your pocket (i.e. no further dividend tax etc is required).

Assuming you won't be getting a car, public transit and Uber/taxis are affordable as well - a 5 km trip via Uber should perhaps be around $4.

I suspect other countries in the region should have similar numbers. Healthcare system and tax incentives should definitely be the biggest differentiator.

Serbia offers a 180 degrees different culture than most of what you experienced in US plus is very dynamic, cheap and great for young people.

Couple of a links to get you started:

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/serbia-best-places-to...

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170822-belgrades-floati...

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/serbia/articles/an-expats-...

https://www.quora.com/What-is-life-like-for-American-expats-...

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-foreigners-moving-to-B...

https://yankee-in-belgrade.blogspot.com

With my girlfriend and daughter I live in Thailand (Thai countryside) and we have a budget of about 50.000 THB per month, or about 1.300 USD. We own our house, so we don't pay rent and we don't have any loans. This budget doesn't include costs for health insurance, which I pay separately.

I think a single guy could live on quite a bit less, but has to pay some rent. For about 250-300 USD per month you can get a decent enough place to live I'd wager (think: condo studio, 35 m2, gym, swimming pool). If you eat Thai food some of the time, food can be quite cheap (a meal without drinks could be had for about 1-2 USD in a typical Thai food stall or at a food court). If you buy foreign food things can get more expensive. Depending on where you live, coffee can also be had for 1-2 USD. Renting a scooter would be advisable for getting around a city, but would cost an additional 100 USD per month.

I recommend the Balkans, in particular the less touristic countries. Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Bulgaria are all very inexpensive, safe, have reliable internet, and an abundance of cafes and co-working spaces. Most also have favorable visa conditions for Americans (e.g. Albania lets Americans stay up to a year on a tourist visa.) In terms of cities, I recommend Belgrade and Sarajevo the most.

Going further east, Tbilisi (Georgia) and Lviv (Ukraine) are also very inexpensive yet safe and filled with interesting culture.

Due to the Turkish lira collapsing, Turkey is also very inexpensive if you have USD. You can rent an apartment in central Istanbul for ±$400 a month.

You can use Nomad List[0] to get an idea of possible options. Eastern Europe, South America, South East Asia are all viable options with vibrant communities with people like you.

[0]https://nomadlist.com/

Rather than looking at entire countries as a whole you should consider the urban vs rural split. Major cities in Eastern Europe or Korea or even third world countries are still going to be a lot more expensive than, say, some random town 200 miles outside of San Francisco or New York. First decide what kind of lifestyle you are looking for.

One thing I'll mention for US citizens. Aetna's Mobile Healthcare Plan seems fairly reasonable. I'm paying around $300 a month total for coverage for my partner and me (most comprehensive coverage, highest deductible). Apparently it's still valid in the US so long as you spend the simple majority of your time outside of the US (i.e. 6 months abroad).

https://www.aetnainternational.com/en/individuals/health-pla...

You can live in almost any city in India for less than 1k USD per month. In Bangalore (Tier-1 City), rent for a 1-bed-hall-kitchen apartment will be around 200 USD. Add 10 USD per month for high speed internet. Another 100 USD per month for a dedicated maid and cook. Add 200 USD for all kind of grocery. That will be around 500 USD per month of living expenses.

You can live in Varkala/Goa (if you love beaches) and Dharmshala/Shimla (if you love mountains) for even less.

Central Portugal: an hours drive to the beach and incredibly low cost of living at small towns. Amazing food and weather, very low crime rate, easy access to well connected international airports (Porto), easy access to regional tech hubs (Lisbon and Porto)

Example: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Viseu

Lots and lots of places. Plenty of the world is safe, cheap and easy to live in for a few months.

Do you have any specific time zone requirements? That makes a big difference if collaborating with anyone.

The length of time you can stay on a tourist visa has a big impact. It is limited to 90 days in most of the EU where there are open borders. You would need to fully exit the schengen zone countries for 90 days to be eligible for another 90. This is one of the things that makes Croatia and Bulgaria popular, since they are within the EU, but outside schengen. A few countries are starting digital nomad visas, so if you want to stay longer you can look into those.

Not sure what your vibe is, but check out Bansko, Bulgaria as a nice summer and winter destination with a good set of coworking spaces, extremely cheap cost of living and expat/digital nomad community. Lisbon and Chiang Mai are also very popular in the DN community. Really a lot of this would depend on the time of year for me since I like being places when the weather is nice.

And an obligatory mention of health insurance in these covid times. Travel insurance can be quite cheap and the health care systems of other countries can have vastly reduced prices as well, just make sure you have looked into this and made a plan.

Malaysia is very doable as a single person. Everyone speaks English, lots of good food. Coliving spaces were quite popular before the pandemic, where some entrepreneurs would rent an apartment and work together, but I don't know where you'd meet people like that.

Foreign visas are also quite loose. You could get an entrepreneurship visa (see the MDEC site). There's a rapidly growing games and animation industry too, so you might be able to find people you'd like to work with.

Come to Taiwan.

My rent per month is about 336USD (live alone), I spend about 400USD per month on foods, and that's because I'm too lazy to eat out that I basically Ubereat everyday. (If you choose Taipei, the cost would be a bit higher, The point to live in Taipei is the convenience and it's more approachable to newcomers)

There's a lot foreigners in Taiwan, so it won't be much trouble to blend in I guess.

We have a excellent control over the pandemic, we welcome you as long as you respect the rules and are willing to self-discipline (especially in this pandemic).

Here I got a Discord server that a lot of members are foreigners in Taiwan: https://discordapp.com/invite/zFBqpET

Europe: Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania. Of these countries Romania and Hungary have the fastest internet speed. See this map and click NUTS-3 https://datavis.europeandatajournalism.eu/obct/connectivity/

They seem to have faster internet speeds than some western countries like the UK and Germany. They seem lower on crime too: https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2...

Outside Europe there are lots of others, but I don't know about internet speed and crime rate. Just that the culture would be very different from the US. You can sort by monthly income here https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php

I live in Slovakia and I have spent €4112.09 in entire 2020 on everything (housing, food, hobbies, ...), I don't have a car so that could raise your spending (although you should not need one, you're be sitting on your ass making a game, mass transit is decent too). I also live in my own 1 room apartment so no rent, but bills are like 120/month (heating, water, maintenance, ...). Health insurance is €80/month. Internet costs €7/month for 80 MBit/s. Cheapest shared local lamp web hosting costs €3/month. Lunch in restaurant €5. Avoid capital and go to second or third largest city. If you are not white you will get stares.

So I like this idea and I’ve spent a little time in other countries doing something similar. The one caveat I’d say is that although it’s cheaper to avoid major cities it can be quite isolating. Depending on the level of english in the country you go to (I assume you are an English only speaker) you might end up not having a meaningful conversation in the flesh for weeks. I spent about 2 months in Portugal doing something similar and even though I sought out English speakers my conversational ability decreased dramatically, it was very strange. By the end I was literally stumbling over words and unable to make small talk with people. I regained it after a couple of weeks, but I was definitely more in my own head than usual.

In a small secondary city you have a much lower chance of meeting ex pats to talk to (depending of course on the country)

Lots of places in Pakistan and India you can do that on $1000 USD a month. If you don't do really well with hot weather you could pick a traditional hill station location (Murree, Darjeeling, Shimla, etc). They have lots of domestic tourism accommodation, I'm sure it wouldn't be impossible to negotiate month-to-month terms with some of the property owners there.

Romania, some major city that's not the capital. The outskirts of Cluj are perfect, maybe Sibiu or Brasov.

Access to all sorts of nature and activities, affordable housing (big apartments, could even find a nice detached house for less than $500), great food from around Europe, great selection of restaurants/fast food, easy access to the rest of Europe and the world, lovely people who will speak English enthusiastically (maybe not that well though) and of course great Internet for very cheap.

$1000/mo without paying local taxes is enough for all of the above.

In the cities, crime is very low if you're worried (the criminals moved west lol), bureaucracy is on par with Germany (OK that means it's shit), corruption is very low. Whole damn country is a hidden jewel of Europe. Just maybe not that affordable to locals heh.

A keyword that should pull up quite a bit of related information would be: "Digital Nomad" (though I'd think covid is still throwing a wrench into much of that).

The most "stereotypical" answer is Thailand, which offers cheap internet, food, month-to-month accommodations, friendly to visa runners (hopping over the border for a day and coming back into country every X months to reset your visa), quite a bit to do, and is also pretty safe.

Just FYI you will only be able to stay for 3 months in most places on a tourist visa.

Most places do offer 6 month visas for artists and for things like what you are doing, but you should try and sort out this plan before you arrive at your destination, because once there you may find it harder to turn your tourist visa into something else.

Either that or you will have to travel to multiple places that do not share the same travel restrictions.

Detroit - In 2021 30.6% of the city's population lives below the US federal poverty level. For a single person that's $16,000 a year.

Pros - Large spirited startup community

Negatives - High levels of crime. Snow and cold weather in the winter months.

It's all depending on your life style. Even in a low wage country you would need more than the average Joe makes in that country or you are used to Western standards. I lived Ukraine for some years. Many local Devs around me were making around 3k living a good life. But I needed much more. I wanted to travel a lot. I wanted to drive expensive cars. And I wanted to live in a fancy apartment. And I also didn't like to cook. So I went to restaurants and clubs a lot. I spend around 6k minimum a month. As a nomad you need to make min 8k a month to be sustainable and live good. As a developer not that hard to make.

If you want to have a great experience, I would suggest South of Brazil (something like country from Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina), Buenos Aires in Argentina, or my favorite spot Montevideo, Uruguay. In the 3 options, you can live well with 1k USD and have one of the best times of your life, without a super huge cultural shock. Have fun!

In Latin America you can try Chile, we are doing OK with the pandemic compared to other countries, we are in opening phase now, housing can be not that cheap but you may try sharing an apartment/room/house.

The south can be pretty nice and chill compared to the capital (see Canada vs US), but you have less services the more you are in rural areas. Dunno how the prices are there, though. Capital's downtown can be very calm compared to the hell of Santiago's (too much peasants on the road!), but in Santiago you have museums and All-the-nice-stuff(tm) like architecture and European-like roads, metro to everywhere,etc. It can feel like living in another country sometimes, but some things costs more.

Same with Valparaíso or Viña, doesnt look that good but at least you have beaches and a lot of services.

Beware our spanish dialect, we use lots of loanwords and nonstandard stuff sometimes...

I would suggest Vietnam but I don't know anybody there with gigabit internet. If you consider best case 100mbps good then here's my pitch

Move to a big city in Vietnam. Pay less than $400 for a 1 bedroom serviced apartment (they clean it ~3 times per week, usually they do your laundry). You can get vegan food pretty easily, it's hot in the summer but you can just stay indoors with AC or go to businesses with AC. Tons of mall and theathers. Movie tickets are $2-$4, double that for soda + popcorn. A cheap meal will be $2, even less if you have a light lunch (think bánh mì) for $1. I'd usually spent $5 per meal or more just to eat foreign food after getting homesick. You can live in a trendier part of town by paying slightly more and be within walking distance of trendy western cafes/restaurants. You can take a motorbike taxi (pretty comfy outside of rush hour) for $5 all the way across town (20km) and a lot less if it's a shorter distance. During rush hour I like to take a car and that'll be $10 for a 9km trip usually.

Plane tickets to other cities will be $40 one-way for vacation/travel purposes. Cheaper hotels $20/night and visiting beautiful beaches is very accessible. Travel to nearby countries (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China) for around $200 in airfare. It's a great staging ground for the area.

You seem American, so you can get a 1 year tourist visa (just need to get out of the country every 3 months, use it to visit another country for a few days) without any additional documents (no financial documents, etc).

You can live in some areas in Spain for under $1k/month (outside the main cities of Madrid and Barcelona). I lived some years in Andalusia and my budget was usually around 600eur/month. Not a luxurious life, but Spain has really good services/transportation/infra (including internet) and the weather is difficult to beat.

Paraguay. Cost of living $300/mo in Asuncion. You can get permanent visa allowing you full rights to live and work for life by depositing 5k in local bank.

Lowest average rent by state in the US is West Virginia at $628. That means some parts of West Virginia must be much cheaper than that. $400 for food and utilities seems easily doable, but probably not healthcare, so you're likely going to have to be uninsured and pray you don't get sick or injured for 6 months. I'm guessing you'd sage on moving and travel expenses by staying in the US, but maybe not enough compared to some truly cheap countries. I had a good friend in college from Kazakhstan and her family had a 20 bedroom mansion there appraised at the equivalent of about $40,000 USD.

Almost anywhere in France, except in big cities.

Pros:

-you get a free healthcare coverage.

-cost of life is reasonable (again, outside of big cities where accomodation is expensive).

-internet connection is good and cheap.

-you will enjoy a few benefits after some paper work. Ex.: the RSA, which is around 500€ you get with very little conditions (not having any revenue, being at least for 3 months in France, having a regular visa, etc.).

-you can legally start to earn money by being declared as auto-entrepreneur, with very little paper work (also with a regular working visa, and with some revenue cap).

Cons:

-language: better find some friend who can speak the language, especially when dealing with the administration.

-check carefully where you settle beforehand, France is one of the most crime-prone country in Europe (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...).

To be honest, I would not recommend it because of the last point.

You could live in rural Finland on $1k USD, although frugally.

The upsides: lots of peace and quiet, excellent infrastructure, almost no crime, progressive Scandinavian values, almost everybody speaks English.

The downsides: long dark winter, sparsely populated, quiet people don't actively seek interaction with newcomers.

Probably not ideal unless you're serious about just huddling down to work.

Not quite $1k per month, but in the cheap areas of the UK you can rent for $620/mo, call bills another $230. After adding food, you won't be far over $1000. Just in case you wanted an English speaking country and could stretch the budget.

1000 USD = 850 EUR. You could get by in Estonia, though not very lavishly. An average quality rental apartment is ca. 400-600 EUR/month in the capitol Tallinn. So you'd have some money left for food and stuff. There's free public transport. But the average net-wage is around 1200 EUR, so you'd have to sacrifice some things compared even to the average Estonian. But you'd win in having a small IT friendly city to live in.

1000USD is quite a big amount in India. You can live like a king with 150-200mbps, eat out frequently, go to pubs on weekends. Location Bangalore. The weather is mostly pleasant throughout the year.

Pichilemu, Valparaíso (Viña del Mar) or Santiago of Chile are actually pretty good, safe and cheap, and there's a Google node just a couple of streets of the port in Valpo.

Chile is also 8th in the world in Fixed Broadband. source: https://www.speedtest.net/global-index

As others have said you could do this in many places - including countries that are generally more expensive like Germany (350-450€ for a small flat in Leipzig). In practice the main challenge might be finding a short-term rental for as low as people staying a year or more, so factor that in to your search.

I just left Kenya which has a couple of things going for it:

- $1k allows you to comfortably live a upper middle class life-style

- It has a thriving tech scene, lots of interesting startups coming up (I know because I just had to close mine) and lots of techies looking for work.

- $1k also pays the salary of a decent developer there

- It is culturally very different to the US and offers interesting perspectives

Things I did not enjoy:

- A quite "negative" post-colonial mind-set. I struggled to deeply connect with locals because there is a big divide. This is a complicated topic imo.

- Traffic in Nairobi is bad

Perhaps Costa Rica if your ok with a standard of living the same as the locals? Most call centers there pay around $1000 a month for those with good English skills and an education, and their healthcare (universal healthcare) and education systems seem efficient and well ran.

I recommend Thailand. I don't live there anymore but I used to. It's very doable to live on $1000/mo if you don't live in the center of Bangkok (try Chiang Mai) and eat local food. You have the added bonus of a huge expat and digital nomad community, including many game developers, and no problems doing everything in English. Most things are no-hassle, no big deposits, etc, you just pay, and that's it.

And nice beaches aren't far away.

Grandview, MO.

There are homes for sale for as low as $80k, so you can not only live cheap but build equity.

It’s a splurge on your budget but Google Fiber is available.

Grandview is the poor side of town and many people live very cheap. The amenities of the KC area are nearby, many of them free. The parks are great.

I suggest Colombia, you can find greatest rentals for less than 300 USD, and cheap cost of life and amazing food as well. Thinking in cities like Bucaramanga, Santa Marta, etc.

Ukraine fits the bill, you can rent a nice apartment in downtown part of town, internet is cheap and fast, food costs something like 3 times less then US, cities are walkable, you don't really need a car. Lviv or Ivano-Frankivsk for a more cozy atmosphere or Kyiv if you really want to live in a big city.

Climate is on the other hand, winters could be cold and summers unpleasantly hot so in that regard Balkans could be better.

You can comfortably live in Latvia on that budget, internet infrastructure is very good & cheap. I got by for years only speaking English.

Indonesia. And outside Jakarta to save another 40% Philippines, same logic avoid the capital. Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar (not safe these days perhaps), Peru, Mexico, Chile, Ukraine, Belarus, Croatia, Bulgaria, C.replublic.

All those countries will cost you far less than 1k usd per month, given you avoid the capital city center and other hot spot where rent is double price.

In order of increasing cost of living:

Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania.

Why these countries:

* cheap (this is why Greece is not there)

* Christian i.e. culturally closer to America than say Turkey or Albania or Bosnia)

* 0-wokeness (if you are LGBTQ you will probably find it a bit more difficult, but Tinder/Grindr works so you can definitely find people for sex)

* good internet for near 0 cost

Probably best to pick the capital of each of them, or a large coastal (or mountain) town.

If you are a developer, you can move to Bangalore. You can get a new job in a heartbeat. Salaries here for a senior dev can range between $60K to $120K. Living expenses depends on where you live and what you do. You can easily live here in $1K. A decent 2/3bhk (2/3 bedrooms, hall and kitchen) with all furnishing in a nice area would cost $400-500 along with maintenance.

Rest is super cheap. $20 for really fast internet. $5 for all you eat 4g phone connection. Netflix here is also very cheap at $10. $200 for groceries would fetch all kinds of good fresh veggies. $150 for a maid to clean, wash and cook etc. Rest you can use up on ordering food (roughly $5-10 per meal)...huge number of eating out and ordering in options. Delivery apps are everywhere so no need to go out. Uber is there for going around. Medical is really cheap compared to USA. You can get really good insurance policy for say $300 per annum which will cover everything and then some. Weather of Bangalore is really nice. Never too hot

You can do it pretty much anywere. But yeah, Eastern Europe or SE Asia would be easier then Western Europe.

If you wan't similar culture, go for Eastern Europe capital cities. In Belgrade where I am from you can get 10gbps internet at home where there is fiber, if no fiber then 200-300mbps cable.

In Thailand and Bali I also experienced very good 4g internet and good fiber optic cable net.

Southern Italy. You can live in a small but beautiful village in the south (e.g Sicily) or any seaside village during autumn/winter. If you like mountains you have to go north (Dolomites) but it’s harder to find a small village for 1k/month in winter.

Obviously living in big city like Milan or Rome costs around 1500-2000€/month for living.

I live in South Africa now, with my wife and daughter, and while I could live in less than 1000 usd, it would be in dodgier areas of town. That said for a nice 3 bedroom pay ~700 usd, and food is like 250 per person. So from the sound of things, there are much better options out there.

If you're happy in a share house, you could live on that in Aus, albeit frugally. Though if you wanted to live outside the cities you could get rent down to $600AUD, and leave you $800AUD to live on, $200 a week for everything else is stacks.

You can definitely live in Brazil with 1K USD/month.

And nowadays it's even better because the USD-BRL rate is about 5-something. For a comparison, 1K USD is about what I spend every month to live - and I definitely don't cook beyond just breakfasts and some snacks/sandwiches. So I lunch in restaurants every single day, I live in a quite comfortable apartment, etc. - I mean, I'm not "stretching myself to spend as minimum as possible". In fact, 1K USD is about 4x the BR minimum wage, and about 2-3x the "common" income of people.

I live in Fortaleza, a very sunny city which is close to some incredibly beautiful beaches. Search for "jericoacoara" on Google and you'll know what I'm talking about (Jeri tends to be a bit expensive tho, due to heavy presence of tourists - but not much).

Fun fact: it's quite common to hear about gringos coming around and deciding to stay. You'll find some French and Italian restaurants in Jeri and/or Jijoca - and lots of gringos, of course.

Turkey would be the best option because of the current exchange rates and inflation. I used to live in Izmir (most beautiful and "liberal" city in Turkey) before I move to UK. Here is a broad overview of our monthly cost for my family of three. If you are single, you can slash in half most of these.

- Rent: $430 A secure and modern 3 bedroom flat in Karsiyaka (the most popular neighbourhood)

- Utilities: $50 (electricity, gas, water etc.)

- Internet: $13 for 100Mbps

- Food: For $500 per month, you can eat like kings in Turkey.

- Transport: It costs $0.5 to get to the airport by train from Karsiyaka.

- Eating out: For $50, you can have a great dinner for two.

Take in mind that housing is typically more expensive for foreigners/tourists than for nationals in most countries

Because nationals have a social net of family and friends that tourists don't have. Because nobody knows you, so the landlord is taking a higher risk, and because locals have more information about the place (were to go for eat cheap, business or streets to avoid, etc...).

Being able to blend with the background can be a big advantage even if the place is a little more expensive. Your personal circumstances (food that you don't like, can't eat by religious reasons, etc) must be taken in mind also.

(Created a throwaway because I don't want my employer to somehow notice that I'm retiring in ~a year)

This thread is highly reassuring to me. I spent six months traveling around SEA in 2014 on ~$1k/month. It was pretty easy to stick to that budget even with the cost of moving around. Seven years later, I had mostly assumed that a $1k/month existence was hard to come by unless you are willing to live in relative poverty - apparently that is not the case.

Hopefully inflation and the post-pandemic travel boom do not change this much.

Brazil is currently very doable as 1k USD is about 5k BRL (Brazilian reais) which more than the living wage (calculated by a trade union group) and is good salary for a starting engineer or lawyer without experience.

You will probably not be able to live in luxury areas but will be pretty doable even in large cities.

Note that living even living in a large city things will be difficult without speaking Portuguese, but you can order pretty much anything to be delivered to your house so will be able to use Google Translate without relying on its speech related functionalities.

You seem to be an American, so you will almost certainly require a visa before you can come here but I think it will be easy.

A few recommendations:

  * Get a CPF number (SSN equivalente) as soon as you can, ideally even before arriving in the country. I think you can apply online and show the original documents at the embassy. (Seriously, almost anything e-commerce related will ask for your CPF but it is almost always optional in regular physical shops)
  * Get an RNE card as soon as you can. This way you can leave your passport safely at home.
  * Get a local phone number with mobile internet and install Whatsapp (almost anyone here uses it)
  * If you stay in Brazil for around a year you may owe taxes here. The good news is that the filing is electronic the bad is that it is still confusing.

No one has said this but one option also is to book an all inclusive hotel deal in Spain, Portugal Morocco, Tunis, Egypt, Greece, Turkey or Israel. These destinations have amazing value for money because of the volume of tourism

And you won't have to worry about cooking or cleaning. Every day delicious buffets and room service :-) you could even keep switching hotel and do some lazy traveling. I do this once a year but only for a couple weeks because I have a family to come back to. I feel reborn each time

Mexico is a great option. It’s extremely cheap, has great food, the language isn’t too hard to learn, and it’s a lot safer than people think, as long as you stay in specific areas.

Rural Taiwan. Very good and affordable health care. Super fast and cheap mobile Internet.

I just came back from 2 months in Colombia with my wife and a 3 year old. You can definitely live off 1k USD in an intermediate city (not Bogota) with a very high living standards compared to the average colombian.

Medellin would be my recommendation, very safe, unbeatable weather, access to high speed internet, a trendy startup culture and decent level of English-speaking people, non-stop daily flights to major US cities and same time zone as the US.

Albania. It's still a developing country, but the climate is perfect, places are stunning and you can live with a lot less than 1k/month.

Vietnam... Ho Chi Minh mainly, as it has great internet (except the couple of "shark attacks on submarine cables" each year).

How long?

I spent 4 months in Vietnam in 2007 in HCMC. Rent was $300/mo for a sweet pad down the street from the Ben Thanh market. Food was $400/mo, and I didn't cook much at all because street food is cheap and delicious.

However, I'm not sure how this would work out long term, like decades. I couldn't commit to living in a country like that full time. The language barrier would be overwhelming, and I did get tired of friends vanishing after just a few weeks. I'm a het-dude, and the local women I dated really wanted families asap and I wasn't ready -- there are a lot of highly successful women there who I got on with w/o much of a culture barrier since they had studied in US/Europe; I wasn't there doing the creepy-US-dude-looking-for-boomboom thing. Not sure I could have made a life for myself there and been happy into old age. I can't imagine what long term healthcare would be like into my 80's as an expat in Vietnam.

Look for countries where the USD is in a 5y high. Brazil, for instance, was 2.5:1 a few years back... it's now 5.2:1. I imagine one or another G20 country that didn't handle COVID very well can be in a similar situation. This won't last forever, but it will last at least one or two years so it's a good opportunity for you.

I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. My monthly living expenses (adjusted from IDR to USD on current rate)

1. Apartment rent, 6 months contract at $1300 + $200 deposit, pay upfront, thus $250 monthly. It is a small apartment 1 common area, 2 tiny bedroom, and tiny balcony

2. Utilities, varying from $30 to $50, mine has 2 AC running almost 24/7, a PC with average 200 to 300 watt power draw, and 5 led light bulbs

3. Meals, 3 times a day for 1 person, $20 daily or $600 monthly (this amount considered fancy meal, you can get way cheaper meals like $2/each, way cheaper if you cook)

4. Internet, up to 100 mbps, $35 monthly. Internet quality like speed and stability will depend on area

5. Phone data, $7 monthly

6. Cigarette, I'm a heavy smoker (almost 2 packs a day), $4 daily thus $120 monthly

In total: ~$1050 I don't count for entertainment, transportation (people mostly use Gojek or Grab), subscription

Experience living in Jakarta from native perspective.

- Language barrier, most people can talk in English, although not that fluent, hand gestures give you more power than talk

- Poor pedestrian side road, if you like to walk

- City full of concretes, green park almost non existent

- Bad air quality

- Noisy if your resident near big road or high way

- Covid-19 related situation, Jakarta not the worse but people here tend to not care about this

Alternative to Jakarta, I would recommend.

- Bandung, cheaper living cost, small city, good air quality on most part, had lived there for 2 years

- Bali, foreigner friendly, especially Ubud area for extra nature scenery, I don't recommend Denpasar

Let me know if you have any question (email on my profile), as a fellow game dev I admire your dedication

Colombia. Both in Bogotá and Medellin you will be able to live comfortably and the internet is pretty good in those 2 cities. I pay USD 387 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment relatively near the city center in Bogotá. Food is quite affordable a very good restaurant with entry, main course and a glass of wine would be less than 15. A big mac costs less than 5.

The big advantage is the plummeting of the Colombian peso in comparison to the US Dollar. 1k USD is almost 4x the minimum wage, and most people make less than the minimum wage and survive so 1k USD for one person puts you in a strong upper middle class actually.

The only caveat is that most people have poor English, so some Spanish is a must. Maybe in Medellin could be different since there is a huge number of expats there, but in Bogotá at least, most people won't speak English.

Plenty of places you can do with $1k/month really. Of course YMMV but if you just want to focus on your game, I would definitely recommend checking out nomadlist.com and see what inspires you.

If you can accept some underdeveloped [some parts may actually positively surprise you] countries, take a look at Georgia, it can be really affordable and give a fairly good quality of life.

"Eastern Europe" (i.e Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bulgaria) can be a little more expensive but plenty to do with $1k. Also, it is actually a lot more developed than you may think. Oh and it's really safe!

As a rule of thumbs if you keep your expenses low, if you can find a place on Airbnb for $500/month, you could easily go with the other $500 for monthly expenses. Even maybe save some money or have some fun!

Try Pakistan, I am from there. And if you really consider doing it don't go to any city other than Islamabad. And live as near the center as possible. You will get amazing views, safety and nearly everything you probably want. May be even drinks if you find the right contacts (rich class). We have good fiber internet, 50Mb for consumers from Nayatel. Food is great on general.

Islamabad has best views, you better live in the E sector, that's where most foreigners choose to live anyway. And its most close to mountains and you will get amazing views throughout your stay. Also it's probably the greenest city.

For rest of Pakistan, that's the real Pakistan. You will get a lot more stares, and will be more prone to everything that attracts attention.

You can very easily live within 1000USD, in Islamabad, Pakistan.

If you buy a house outright and don't blow tons of money every month on stupid crap you don't actually need like eating out and cinema and clubbing, you can add large swathes of the United States and Western Europe to the list. Ireland, for example-- perfectly feasible, just not in Dublin.

India (City - Mohali) is also doable. For Rs. 5k (~$70), you can easily rent a room; that takes out the biggest expense part. For everything else, it's up to you, how much you want to stretch out.

P.S. - I grew up in that city, before moving out at 26. I still visit though - 1-2 times a year.

Starting on January 1, 2021, Croatia started offering 1-year digital nomad visas.

1k USD per month is the average monthly salary in Croatia, so you should be fine (especially in smaller cities), unless you overspend by eating out every day.

Here is a video of an American guy living in Split, Croatia (second largest city - very touristy and not that cheap) on $1,400 per month. He is spending $600 on food which means he eats out a lot. Locals spend way less than that on food. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkJSoBLHKaI

Anywhere in Vietnam, especially outside of Saigon. Good internet connection (I worked for companies in the US and EU with daily meetings for 4 years).

I'd recommend Da Nang. A modern, clean city, with both beautiful beaches and mountains, and an international airport.

I live in Argentina. I pay 10 dollars a month for 5-8 mbytes/s of download speed, 180 dollars for rent, 30 dollars for food (the kg of potatoes is worth 15 U$A cents) 15 dollars for gas, water and light services. And the rest for the occasional new necessity, furniture, going out with friends, adding up to 300 dollars a month. People here are extremely friendly to foreigners in the city of Buenos Aires. Just watch out for zones like Retiro, Plaza Miserere, and Flores. Orrr you could live in small town in some of our provinces. You could probably spend half the money on rent there and live off 200 dollars a month.

You would live incredibly well in Ukraine on $1000 a month.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Lviv?displayCurrenc...

Romania. You can get a decent flat for 200euros/mo. 1gb/s internet + tv channels is only 10 euro which is high quality stuff compared to other places. Corrupt country/political system but you shouldn't be disturbed by that.

Everywhere in Southeast Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Philipiness, Indonesia, Vietnam plus you have great cuisine and no need to worry about cold weather much.

Smaller towns in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary should be also no problem, just forget about top 5 cities in each country, in Bulgaria/Romania maybe even bigger cities, just not capitals.

I would more worry about long term visa situation than about cost.

You also didn't define "living", one thing is sit at home most of the time, cook for yourself and just hang around city without travel, other thing is going to pubs 3 times a week, travelling on weekends etc. Entirely different budgets.

India is perfect economically and internet-wise, but you may want to avoid major cities if $1000 is your limit.

I pay ₹1200 ($16) for solid 300Mbps (up and down), with a 3TB cap. Food is cheap, even in Bangalore which is generally an expensive place to live. For example, you can have a nice nutritious breakfast (dosa and idli) for less than ₹100 ($1.50). Wanna go out for a movie? A top-of-the-line recliner seat ticket will cost you maximum ₹500 ($7).

Rent is a problem in Bangalore, it is disproportionately expensive compared to other smaller cities. You can expect to pay ₹20k ($270) for a proper single studio apartment in a nice locality.

https://www.moneycrashers.com/inexpensive-countries-2k-month...

I posted this for living on $2k or less

You should check out touristy parts of India. Kerala backwaters or Himalayan towns of Dharamshala, Manali, Gangtok would also work. Alternatively, be basic and go to Goa. If there is one thing India has, it is good internet.

There many cities in Greece where you can live with 1k. Patras, Chania, Ioannina and other relatively small cities offer a good balance between cost of living and access to various activities. Try to avoid Athens and the well known islands & tourist places since rent is expensive. Greece is safer than other Eastern European countries (IMHO), has relatively good internet access, more sun, friendlier people and most people know English. There are many co-working spaces available and there are some government programs running for attracting digital nomads (tax exemptions, work visa…).

Honestly, decent health insurance will be the biggest cost in many cases, whatever country you go to. The subsidized stuff is usually only available to citizens and permanent residents. A short-term visitor has to pay full up front. While healthcare costs in lower income nations are lower they're not trivial.

Otherwise, even a high-cost country like Canada (or the USA) can just about be afforded on $1000 a month if you go out in the sticks and cook for yourself and take transit and walk. But non-residents are looking at that much again, for private health insurance.

I believe $1K/person is more than enough for great living (including a humble but nice room rent) in the majority of countries (including a number of the EU members, let alone the "third world").

https://www.goatsontheroad.com/15-countries-live-on-1000-per...

I just watched a season of Alone where people lived for up to 100 days in the Arctic with no more supplies than a backpack. Of course, you'd have to get good at hunting and bwasting wabbits.

India!

Set up a base in a Tier II City in North India.

Accomodation around INR 10-15K

1GbPS Broadband: INR- 4000 (+ taxes)- This is now GST so you'd consolidated bill.

Excellent 4G services- INR 300 with 1.5-2 GB of data per month. You can also opt for PostPaid.

Living expenses around 15-20K (including trips for groceries+ Uber/Ola- tide hailing). 24 hours electricity- around INR 708 per unit. If you run AirCon for the whole day, youd not exceed around INRO 10k.

I am assuming you have yourself covered for Netflix etc.

The cities are not exactly bicycle friendly- I ride a cycle to work- but you can negotiate your way around.

You can live in Pakistan. 1 USD equals to 168PKR at the moment and $1K per month would get you a good life in the metropolis of Karachi which has good internet and other amenities.

Hands down. Come to Medellin. Send me an email if you want some advice on specifics.

Ive been doing the nomad thing for almost 5 years now and the quality of life / $ is unbeatable.

You can also just buy a Cascade Camper van for $33k new, rent a WeWork for $300 a month, and park / live in whatever part of the US has the best climate. That's what I'm doing. You can sell the van after your sabbatical if you want. If you want to live abroad this wouldn't make sense, but it's definitely possible to live here on $1000 a month with this plan.

Chiang Mai, dirt cheap (as little as $100/month rent, wood floors, mountain view). Poor air quality, great local food.

Da Nang, Vietnam. Bit more expensive, $200/month rent on the low end. Friendly people, surprisingly even to Americans. Great air quality, decent enough waves in winter if you surf. Terrible local food, but certain areas cater to foreigners and there the food is excellent ($5 to $15).

Internet is solid in both locations.

Go to Buenos Aires.

Programming is draining on the brain and you need a way to disconnect from your project in order to rest your mind. Tango will provide you with the much needed balance.

This way, you can code during the day, socialize/move your body during the evening at tango classes or practicas and maybe have a great time at a milonga (tango party) once a week.

When you get back to US, you will also come back with a great body skill.

If you like living off around the beach with a stable weather year around (summer from January to December) and amazing food, have a look at this small town called “João Pessoa” in Brazil. 1k USD there you can leave quite comfortably, including rent and all living costs (way above the average there)

I come from there and while I am living in the EU at the moment, I plan in retiring early and move back soon.

Tokyo, you can find a decent apartment for around $600(cheaper alternatives exist) in the centre. Then maybe around $100 for utilities and the rest for food and entertainment(considering that you cook on your own).

For housing market: https://www.homes.co.jp/chintai/tokyo/map/

The guys who built Notion did this in Kyoto. I'd imagine the cultural stimulation of Japan's historic capital helped them to be more creative:

https://www.figma.com/blog/design-on-a-deadline-how-notion-p...

Vietnam is crazy cheap. A big city will have great internet. The south is a little more western but really hot. The north is very nice too. Hanoi is a little more expensive. If you leave the country you can get another travel visa for 3 months. So if you take a small holiday every three months you can stay for a long time. Covid has the shut down but that won't be forever.

- Eastern Europe - Balkans (South-East Europe) - Portugal

All cheap, decent healthcare and if you play your card rights you can avoid downsides (like heavy pollution mentioned).

As a rule of thumb, check all the countries with an average monthly salary below 1k $.

Bonus points if the average monthly salary in the capital city is below 1k $.

Then sort out all the countries with heavy downsides (check HDI).

Assuming you're American, be aware that you might still need to pay some taxes to the US despite living abroad (as long as you're a citizen). Many countries have set up their tax law to make sure you don't get taxed twice because of the USA's weird tax laws, but it's worth taking into account!

hi,

imho. it heavily depends what you expect from "living", but you could easily live - read: rent a cheap room & eat healthy - with 1000 us$ which roughly equals 900 euro in a lot of cities within the E.U.

out of my head - starting with the most obvious & startup-friendly ones

# berlin (germany) # vienna (austria)

and whole countries # nearly anywhere in the eastern part of austria # nearly anywhere in the cheaper parts of germany - more in the north # anywhere in the central to northern part of portugal - imho. inculding lisbon # nearly anywhere in greece # lot of parts of spain (north, south, islands ... definitly not in catalonia/barcelona or madrid) # in the cheaper parts of italy (south)

east-europe: # nearly any country/place which was formerly known as "eastern-european" / behind the "iron curtain"

br, t

I have done a bit of cross checking of different quality of life metrics and from what I have seen Croatia/Slovenia, Portugal, and South Korea emerge as outliers on the tradeoffs between cost and quality of life. If you are English speaking Croatia and Slovenia become the winner.

Is outside the US a requirement? if not I could point at a few cities in the us where that is doable.

Also consider the culture of the place where you want to live, make sure you can find people who you can communicate with. I lived in Korea for 6 months for something similar to what you are doing and it was one of the most isolating experiences of my life.

Not the exact thing you're looking for, but may be of interest.

https://www.insider.com/italy-town-maenza-selling-one-euro-h...

Barbados in Caribbean is really nice. It has some partnerships with Canada and is nomad friendly.

You also need to check on visa requirements. Usually you cannot stay longer than 3 month per half year in Schengen on a tourist visa. I read a while ago some countries have special arrangement with th le US, but either this expired or it is well hidden.

Egypt, it's not a good country to live in, but check Dahab (city in south Sinai), it's a good place for freelancers and tourist at the same time

Not very popular but that's good because that makes it cheaper and quieter than popluar destinations

Go to south west Turkey. Several kite surfing towns, food is very similar to Greek, people are super friendly, weather is fantastic. Internet is good enough. Finally, 1K USD a month is equivalent to a local mid-level engineer net salary.

I have a 2 BHK apartment available for rent in Bangalore, India for $375. Internet access is great and it's located right next to many US companies that have branches in India like IBM, Oracle etc.

Georgia (the country) is a good option.

This video has other interesting alternatives: https://youtu.be/9aY8_DISMJ0

Bulgaria, very nice country with forests, mountains and sea. Also sort of tax heaven. Or Georgia, very visa friendly.

Do not go somewhere hot with too many distractions. It will ruin your productivity.

You can do this in Greece, cities like Thessaloniki or Athens, or even some satelite towns there on the beach. Also Balkans, Sofia and Belgrade are beautiful and 1K goes a long way.

I posted This for $2k a month with some comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27468779

Croatia, Istria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnJldCAW0rM

Aren't there also places within the US where you could live off $1000 per month?

I'm not asking to discourage you from moving elsewhere, just out of curiosity.

Medellin or Bogota in Colombia are both cheap and have awesome tech scenes with major language conferences, coworking spaces, meetups, great food, music, etc.

Ukraine — almost in any city. I recommend Kharkiv and Lviv.

Easiest is probably Mexico or in small town usa in texas.

Wouldn't this be very doable in the US, with a lot less hassle?

Have you looked at rent prices in some of the smaller cities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah?

I would have said India - but it appears that you want a quiet place.

India is an adventure. I don't think I'd work if I go there for 6 months.

Lucked out and found a nice little apartment in a gated community in Baja California for $500. $1000 is pushing it a little but doable.

Kiev is great. Cheap apartment about $500, coworking around $140, $300 for food with a decent amount of eating out at lower end places.

There are probably lots of places. Maybe Cambodia, Guatemala, Romania, Portugal…? And lots of others. Best of luck with your games!

Sort of a side tangent, but what is the best way to go about choosing a place (even in the US) to live? Aside from budget ofc.

Teleport.org has a great website. It starts off with a set of selections and then returns options that fit your criteria.

hth

My family has a simple apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo, and we've occasionally toyed with the idea of renting it to foreigners for for cheapish (~$400/mo). If you don't go too crazy with fancy dining or anything like that, then I think living in Tokyo for ~$600 / mo isn't an insane proposition. Here's the website we created if you're interested - https://mitakahouse.omardiab.com/

Any medium city in Brazil, but I wouldn't recommend coming to this wasteland right now

Morocco, rent would be around 300$, same or less for food. These numbers are for a family of 3

South East Asia (except Singapore) certainly, but you’d need to wait for travel restrictions to end.

Solar panel + battery + 5g internet + tent + food + car + Bureau of Land Management campable land.

Thank me later!

1k USD in Bali, Indonesia is very doable with decent housing & a good internet connection.

If you don't have any particular health issues I can easily recommend south Italy.

staying out of major cities can make rent or buying a home an order of magnitude cheaper.

Argentina. Living alone, you'll be ok with half that, so you'll have plenty.

You can do this in Savannah, GA which is an excellent city for being a single artist.

- Chiang Mai

- Georgia

- Ukraine, but not major cities

- Vietnam, but can’t get into the country for a while probably due to corona

- Serbia

Just check Nomad List :D

Wouldn't any Southeast Asian country except Singapore suffice?

alabama or mississippi. it's not all bad if you know where to go.

I have lived in many countries thanks to my freelance career. I will give you a comparison of cities to choose from.

Istanbul, Turkey:

This will be your cheapest Europe option. People live on literal 300$ here. The food is amazing and cheap, the people treat tourists like kings (be careful for getting overpriced or scammed though), plenty of sights and nightlife, and you are surrounded by water (makes for a nice view while you are riding around)

The cons are that there is high political repression (you can't speak about the govt) and the internet is censored and slow, you need VPN for anything sexual or political.

Bucharest, Romania:

Where I currently live. I live in a 300$/mo studio and my food utilities etc all comes down to 600$ per month max. I have 400$ left for hookers, adding to my travel budget, or medical stuff etc. It's a very liberal country and the people are very chill, lots of natural sights to see and awesome nightlife. The cons are that it's ugly (commie blocs everywhere) and can get dangerous in certain areas at night.

Warsaw, Poland:

I did not really enjoy this city, the people are cold and nationalistic, it was cold all the time and the public transport has very few English translations, but its cheap and has good nightlife.

Berlin, Germany:

Very difficult to survive with 1k a month here especially if you are not single. Has awesome nightlife and food though, people from almost every country in the world and its very diverse and free.

Manila, Philippines:

This was probably the most fun city I visited, great nightlife and beaches, you get your bang for buck for apartments and condos, and also the people are very friendly and helpful to tourists. English speaking rate is very high and it helps being more comfortable there. The crime rate is very high though so if safety is a consideration I would avoid (I have an adventurer personality, you may not, it's fine)

maybe turkey. 1k usd equals to 8.5k try and it will buy you mid level living. for example you will pay $100-200 for housing.

( i'm living with $500 in izmir and my rent is $120 )

Colombia, even on Bogotá and Cartagena is super doable.

Parent's house.

Buy a $5 house in Detroit? Live off Costco rice bags?

Canary Islands, good weather and cheap rent

Armenia. Internet service is good. Cost of living is cheap. Yerevan is a modern, safe, mid-sized city that is easy to get around. Lots of bars, restaurants if you're into that kind of stuff. There's a small tight-knit tech community.

Downsides: language barrier can be a problem, but generally there's at least some degree of English knowledge among the younger population. If you happen to know Russian, it'll be even easier since most people understand it there. Also, with COVID, prepare for a LOT of people refusing to mask up or vaccinate. Better get your shots before going.

chiang mai, thailand, bali indonesia

spain morocco

I can nearly guarantee that there are many people living under $1k/mo within 10 miles of wherever you are. That’s the low-chaos option if you really want to focus.

Such a question is common from people who are running away from an unhealthy situation unrelated to geography. If so, maybe cut that off prior to and independently of the move, and then probably move anyway.

Dominican Republic

Bangkok

Check out nomad capitalist youtube. I know the guy, he is incredibly nice and knowledgeable on this topic. Myself, I would recommend Mexico and Bali but I’m Eastern European so really bored of the area. Georgia (the country) would be much better than Poland and other suggestions here though.

Sayulita, Mexico

Forget Scandinavia

Kosovo or Albania

Argentina

Uruguay

România :)

I had been paying a little over $1,000 USD per month in Tomsk, Russia.

I had about 125 square meters in the center of the city, right across from the main university campus, 600/600Mbps unmetered symmetrical fiber with a static ipv4 address ($10 a month from domru), unlimited 4g (a little over $10 from megafon), ordered delivery for literally every meal, and used taxi apps for all my travel.

The bureaucracy and paperwork for existing is probably a fair bit more than what you’d be used to in the US - e.g., needing to register your residence every time you go to a hotel, go back to your apartment, etc. But, the process for actually getting stuff done, like getting an apartment or getting bank account, is actually pretty simple and something you can navigate easily on your own or with any Russian speaking friend.

Healthcare was good too. I had a good experience at the state run hospitals when I, unfortunately, needed surgery; patient staff, quality work, and I didn’t even carry my wallet in and walked out paying nothing. Similarly, ambulances were another painless experience, not even asking for my insurance.

FWIW: I think the typical “nomad” is often quite a bit more right-wing and concerned about taxes and money than I am (don't take offense, just an observation!). The city is fairly liberal for Russia, it’s young, has a nice academic scene, etc. I’m not sure I’d stay forever, but I don’t regret the years I spent there. It was a lot of fun, people were nice, the experiences were wild, and university was great.

Downsides:

- Access to foreign products, electronics, or even things as simple as English books can be lacking.

- There's nothing anywhere near as convenient as Amazon, so be prepared for visits to actual stores when you need a cable or something and have fun navigating aliexpress, avito, and similar.

- Racism is still a thing and even though actually getting my apartment was easy, finding a landlord willing to rent to an "Omar" was a lot harder ("for slavs only" is an unfortunately common thing in realty listings). Similarly, my Chinese friends experienced a fair bit of serious discrimination when the pandemic first began. If you're light-skinned and have a white-sounding name, I don't imagine you'll face any trouble, though.

- Although Tomsk is significantly more liberal than many other areas, and I don't think anything particularly terrible would happen, it's probably not got the most vibrant of LGBT atmospheres on the planet.

- Weather is just brutal. From the windchill of -51 I experienced to the 30+ summers.

- Get an apartment with a boiler. Most people use city-provided hot water for showers, but that means every summer, you'll lose your hot water for a week or so while they do they annual maintenance otherwise.

serious answer, I have no idea how feasible: Live on the street in LA or SF! There are tents and campers parked all over the place with people living in them, and just because they are currently populated mostly by the aggrieved doesn't mean you need to be aggrieved.

The cost of a van/camper is not crazy, internet in LA and SF is easy to come by, cheap food is plentiful if you're willing to accomodate your diet...

and there's no lock-in or insane sunk cost. "What could go wrong" for you in a country like Georgia has a lot of unkowns, vs in LA you'd pretty much know how to figure it out. Visiting friends and family, deciding to bail, etc. all easier.