Moving to a cheaper country

I have mixed blessing/curse of living in a country where people earn less than $400-500 a month, and where everything is 5 times cheaper compared to US. Not everything, technology has ~ same price,cars,electronics, i'm talking about everyday living expenses.Internet marketeers have mobility as their main advantage. Few months after discovering this forum i don't work 9-5 anymore, and i'm doing just fine. I am very happy for being my own boss and not working for slave wages offered to my fellow countryman.

Question is for US and other tier1 country residents: have u ever considered moving to cheaper country as a solution for economic hardship? With $1000 /month u are social case in your country, but would be VERY comfortable in another. Rents in my country are $100-200 max , food expenses are $300 a month. IF you did consider, what is main concern, is it unknown destination, prejudice from another culture, fear of not fitting in or something else?

It's interesting speculating about moving somewhere, but when it actually comes to doing it, there is a lot of things that can and will go wrong.
First of all, you understimate how hard it actually is to settle in another country. It isn't all sunshine and rainbows. The further you move from your country in cultural, religious and language sense, the harder it is to get accustomed.

If you're a normal, social human being you'll be missing your friends and your general way of life. While moving might be a good idea economically, there is just too many downsides to that. This is why many people move from poor to richer countries and not vice versa. There is just too much to lose when moving to a third world country.

It's funny you're looking to move to a poor country, usually it's the opposite.

I'm not from a 1 thier country. I'm from Portugal and here we're facing really economical problems. As you mentioned, our minimum salary is 500$ and you rent a apartment with 180/200 bucks. Everything is cheaper compared to other European countries, except what's takes you to be happy: earn money.

It's hard as f*ck to earn money if you don't have a rich family, didn't take any high level course or know software programming. My grandpa has 14 childs and worked on construction since his 14, most of them are poor. The only family i've with money earn them outside, usually in Africa countries.

I know a few people who moved here from richer countries but only on missionary missions. I've never knew anyone who moved to a poor country because the economical. Money isn't everything and you'll probably suffer when you start being discriminated for being rich, which happens a lot in countries like mine.

There are lots of people from 'richer' countries moving to 'poorer' countries. I put ' ' on richer and poorer because those terms are misleading. Why are people moving away? The taxes are too high. They can stretch their dollar - a house and land can be $600,000. You can get a mansion plus left over money in poorer countries. If you really want to move to 'poorer' countries, what you do is take extended holidays. After awhile, you'll see where you want to live and you'll start staying there longer and longer.

You cannot become a millionaire/billionaire(in euros) by moving to a poor country

I see a move like that in my future. May not be a full move, just a series of extended vacations. Maybe even keep my home and lease it for 6 months - 1 year at a time. It would be nice to keep it empty, but that defeats most of the financial incentive of such an arrangement.

I'd like to go somewhere tropical, with beautiful water and beaches. Aside from that, security/stability/quality of life are my main concerns.

I'm told Bali is nice. But I'm still a long way from finding out.

AlumniAce said:

You cannot become a millionaire/billionaire(in euros) by moving to a poor country

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Well that is true for super poor countries, but for poorer in the sense of Europe, you can become richer faster by being mostly in them depending on what you do.

Capo Dei Capi said:

Well that is true for super poor countries, but for poorer in the sense of Europe, you can become richer faster by being mostly in them depending on what you do.

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You can become richer by having your products made in poor countries and selling them in rich countries... but not by selling them in poor countries

This thread was about living in poorer countries not marketing to poorer countries.

I live in Europe too, in one Balkan country. I am talking specifically about working online, and choosing between higher and lower upkeep. We are all working for similar wages online, but money we earn is heavily affected by place we live. For example with money i earn in IM i can't live in US , but i can in my country.

Go to Mexico. Si señor, yo quiero Tacobell

Cheaper countries tend to have inferior quality of life, worse services, more insecure, etc. So everything has a price.

Mex said:

Cheaper countries tend to have inferior quality of life, worse services, more insecure, etc. So everything has a price.

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Completely wrong, for same amount of money you will get better service in cheaper country. Security wise - i'm not sure , one can always check crime rates and compare them.

Fragmaster said:

Completely wrong, for same amount of money you will get better service in cheaper country. Security wise - i'm not sure , one can always check crime rates and compare them.

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What about building codes? How good are the hospitals and Paremedics, when your life is in need and cost is the last concern. What about the firefighting service?

What about internet connection, how good is the out of country latency to major data centers and what download+upload speeds to those cities. A good in country speed isn't everything

I can tell that most European countries have better basic healthcare compared to US , as far as i know US government never pays for ur medical bills. European countries do. As everywhere there are quality expensive private hospitals, in case you really need them. If you have money u'll be taken care of by best doctors. Building codes , do u mean laws about construction, and licences, or quality of buildings? im not familiar with term.

Internet connection , i dunno depends on country , what do u really need? 100Mbps is standard. Probably a bit lower compared to US , but i dont see it being big problem.

Fragmaster said:

I can tell that most European countries have better basic healthcare compared to US , as far as i know US government never pays for ur medical bills. European countries do. As everywhere there are quality expensive private hospitals, in case you really need them. If you have money u'll be taken care of by best doctors. Building codes , do u mean laws about construction, and licences, or quality of buildings? im not familiar with term.

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Why do I need the government to pay for medical bills, when I can get insurance and it does the same thing. $100/month for private insurance is the same as $100/month in increased taxes, and If I can't afford healthcare i'll get it for free. Taking both those out of consideration, I'd rather have a high medical bill and be alive then no medical bill and die.

Capo Dei Capi said:

Why do I need the government to pay for medical bills, when I can get insurance and it does the same thing. $100/month for private insurance is the same as $100/month in increased taxes, and If I can't afford healthcare i'll get it for free. Taking both those out of consideration, I'd rather have a high medical bill and be alive then no medical bill and die.

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Good point

I live in Indonesia (if you know Bali, it is part of island in Indonesia). Minimum wage in my country is vary from $90 to $250 per month. The living cost is also very different from 1 city to another one. Different island also has different living cost.

When I was still working outside home, I worked with many foreigner. Many from Europe, like Switzerland, German, France, UK, they live here in luxury. While most Indonesian cannot affort to have vacation to different island, those foreigners just going to have vacation in different islands even in long weekend holidays. That was very expensive for most of us Indonesian.

The foreigner don't have too many culture shock if they live in a big city in Indonesia. Even if majority are muslim, but very different muslim culture compare to middle east. Even when they live together without marriage, if they are foreigner, Indonesian people accept it. But they don't accept Indonesian people live together without marriage.

So, moving to 'poorer' country, look for country that fit you. If you move to Jakarta or Bali in Indonesia, you can still live like how you live in western 'richer' country, but with lower cost. But $1000 per month can't give you live luxury. You need at least $1500 or better $2000 to live luxury in Jakarta or Bali. That's why it is my target now to get $2000, so I can live like foreigner here

Fragmaster said:

Internet connection , i dunno depends on country , what do u really need? 100Mbps is standard. Probably a bit lower compared to US , but i dont see it being big problem.

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100Mbps is the max bandwidth connection. Depending on the country it can drop down pretty fast with a high latency to whatever server you are uploading to. More time needed to do something will end up bleeding more money from a business such as IM, then higher costs.

Where exactly in Balkans are we talking about?

I'd say living in Eastern and South Eastern Europe is quite good. With a minimal 4 figure monthly income you can live quite comfortably, which allows you to progress faster in IM without having to worry about spending a lot in necessities like food, clothing etc. It's true though that the technology is more or less the same in price, but it's also qualitative, so it's acceptable.

My origin is from one of these Balkans "slums", I've lived in the US for 3 months during University years... went to live again in the US for almost a year, lived in Austria in the 2000s as a kid, but nothing ever beats the home country, in every possible perspective, especially the financial one.

I'd suggest you stay where you are and continue what you're doing so far.