hey there, travel reminder that living abroad comfortably(rent, groceries, utilities, data/wifi) costs ~$500 USD equivalent a month in most countries and up to $1000 a month in the rest

a month ago by bitofarambler to c/Travel

hey there! living abroad is a very attainable goal and comfortable lifestyle.

tldr is get a passport, get any remote job for 10-15 hours a week, move to one of the $500 countries, rest, recuperate, live.

Take it from there without financial pressure weighing you down; build up passive income, get access to better healthcare, great food, world wonders and innumerable other benefits.

If you are an English speaker, you have immediate access to thousands of teaching jobs that pay anywhere from $2000-10000 USD per month.

FAQs are in the community sidebar and feel free to ask any other questions about short or long-term traveling in the comments, messages, or this community.

SuperApples 8 points a month ago

Living ultra-frugal and saving as much as possible, my wife and I quit our jobs 10 years ago and have been travelling (almost) non-stop since, celebrating our 100th country 2 months ago.

Slow travel is certainly an affordable way to live. Weekly and monthly discounts on accommodation are not a joke, and reducing the number of flights you take is good for your wallet and the environment. Same with taking public transport everywhere rather than having a car. We balance short stays in expensive countries with long stays in cheap countries.

Staying in short term rentals found (mostly) on agoda, booking.com or airbnb makes bills easy because.. there are none. For phone data, we've been using esimdb.com to find the best value esims in each location. Don't use global esims, they're a waste... 10 years ago you could go without phone data but that's not the world we live in now (you save a lot more money being able to look things up on the go and finding the best value).

The best thing about full time travel is you're never stuck in a routine. As a result, the past 10 years has felt twice as long as the previous 15. Where we go to next largely depends on what deals we find, where we haven't been, but more importantly what my stomach demands.

The kiwi.com 'anywhere-to-x' flight finder is helpful, as is google flights, but that's only x-to-anywhere. Setting a max price and zooming out on map view on accommodation sites is also great for finding bargains.

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ToiletFlushShowerScream 4 points a month ago

This sounds delightfully romantic. How many languages do you speak? Is it easier or harder with a partner?

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SuperApples 2 points a month ago

We both only speak two languages fluently - English, which is very useful, and Japanese, which is only useful in one country (but as a result can understand a lot of written Chinese, which has come in handy a few times).

We can both manage a simple conversation in Greek, but again that's a language without many speakers (and I'm waiting to go to Cypress until I'm 50, so I don't have to do mandatory service!).

We learned to read Cyrillic, which is super useful in eastern Europe and the 'stans. Korean, too, which is very easy to learn, and there's a lot of Japanese and English loan words in Korean so can understand a surprising amount there. Tried to learn Thai writing but that's a challenge for another time - I think you'd need dedicated language classes just to get your head around the writing system. My wife learned to read Arabic and swears it's easier than it looks, but there's not many words we can understand with our linguistic background, even if we could read it fluently.

I'd say it's easier with a partner, but it really depends on your relationship. We get along very well, which is important because travelling we spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week together, and have done so for 10 years now. We have made some full-time travelling singles we've become friends with and I know they've all found it hard some times when they've struggled to make friends in a new city and can get quite lonely - but it can make making friends easier, especially in countries where people only tend to hang out in same gender groups.

Financially, it's often cheaper to hire a double occupancy room or even a studio apartment than two single beds in a dorm, and sometimes cheaper to hire a ride service than public transport when you share costs.

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bitofarambler 2 points a month ago

Daaag, a hundred countries! Congratulations to you both, that's great to hear.

Thanks for sharing so much good info. I also haven't found a global sim card that's worth it, but this multi-country sim card I found last year has been reliable and remarkably well-priced per GB in Asia and the Americas so far.

Great advice about flight aggregators, weekly and monthly discounts, and especially....what your stomach demands! Eating amazing new food or food I'm come to love is a very high priority for me.

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SuperApples 2 points a month ago

Thanks, I'll be sure to peruse your community and absorb your tips!

I must say though, seeing 'Japan' and 'sim card' in the same sentence gives me nightmares... so glad we have esims/global sims now and don't have to deal with the 'tourist sim' nonsense.

As a comparison, I checked the esimplus plan for Indonesia (where we are currently... hi from Balikpapan!) . 15 gb for 30 days costs 2245jpy. On esimdb.com I found StellarSecurity has 10 gb for 1.70eur, which is what I'm using now... I know the yen is in the toilet at the moment, but that's still only 304jpy.

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bitofarambler 2 points a month ago

nice, I was in yogyakarta last year and loved it. are you going on a nature hike or anything for the komodo dragons or giant apes?

esimplus was cheaper than Japanese and Korean tourist sims I found, and in China bypasses the national Firewall without having to use a VPN, but I can certainly see Indonesia having more affordable prices.

I still have a physical sim as well, but trust that I'll be bookmarking esimdb for when the esim time rolls around.

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SuperApples 1 point a month ago

We flew here from Yogya! It's a lovely place, indeed - have been there twice now and can imagine going back. Probably one of the better towns for tourism in Indonesia, but for daily living I probably prefer Jakarta, Makassar, maybe Denpasar if there wasn't so much traffic.

We just hired a boat yesterday to cruise around the mangroves looking for proboscis monkeys - saw four groups, which was fantastic, but the trees were quite thick so not clear views. An hour boat ride cost 17usd which we split with another couple. Tomorrow we're going to try and see the new capital city that is being built in the middle of nowhere - afaik construction has halted since the recession hit here but a lot seems has been finished... another failed mega-project in the making I'm sure.

Hope you're enjoying your trip! What part of the world are you in at the moment?

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HEYID 2 points a month ago

It's interesting to consider how living costs can vary so dramatically depending on the country. Have you found that the cost of living influences your decision on where to travel or live? Understanding these financial aspects can really help in planning a more enjoyable experience abroad.

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bitofarambler 1 point a month ago

cost of living is as fascinating to me now as when I began traveling, especially considering how little the cost of living correlates to the standard of living. quality health care, utilities, building materials, ,organic foods, vehicles, electronics, everything is cheap or expensive largely dependent on where you are standing.

I began traveling with only a few hundred coming in a month, so cost somewhat determined my lifestyle. I backpacked more, hostels in SEA are $100 a month still today, and I stayed in those, but at that time I also lived in Ireland, Germany, Italy, Australia, and just paid a little more for private rooms or hostels rather than larger private apartments, which is what I primarily rent now.

If you can bring in $500 a month, you're good in half the world; $1000 a month, you're good to live in most countries in the world, so after budgeting for a year,and understanding the real cost of living, I invested much more and built up my passive income past that point. No bills, no maintenance fees, no insurance required as a traveler, so reaching $500 and then a $1000 a month is very doable.

Even at $500 a month, you can live comfortably in well over a hundred countries, and I've still only been to a few dozen.

If you have any questions, please ask away.

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MantisToboggon 0 points a month ago

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bitofarambler 1 point a month ago

That price guideline applies to about 200 countries globally.

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MantisToboggon 2 points a month ago