I'm thinking of taking a little sabbatical coming up in 2007 - 2008. Rent a nice place in a cool European or Asian city, hang out, learn the language, experience a new culture. But definitely not London or the other major European cities - just wayyyyy to expensive.
So, let's here some nominees. Thailand? Somewhere in Eastern Europe? China? Small Italian village? Gotta be somewhere where you could live like a king for not much at all.
Gotta have internet access, some culture, train service, friendly locals, and a beach would be nice. Figure $2,000 or so a month in expenses. Live cheap.
May 25, 2006
HP'ers - know a city or place in the world where for $50,000 you could get by nicely for two years?
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Try Dalian China - I lived there for about a year. You could get by for much less than $ 2000 though.
'Gotta have internet access, some culture, train service, friendly locals, and a beach would be nice. Figure $2,000 or so a month in expenses. Live cheap.'
Got all of those, altho a bit short on culture. I'd check out QingDao further south along the coast - the Olympics will be there in 2008. Both Dalian and Qing Dao are on the ocean and have about 1/10 the pollution problems found in the rest of China.
M
Northern New Jersey Real Estate Bubble
Existing Home Sales Fall, Inventory Hits New Highs
How about Croatia - or more specific - Northern Coast of Croatia (Istria/Kvarner). Check out these links. $50K could get you by for two years, and you will be close to Italy, Austria, and have pretty good connections with rest of Europe.
http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/content/Retirementandwills/Retireinstyle/P150647.asp
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12853420/
I'd tell you somewhere in Greece, but the way the US$ is going you'd probably have to live in a dog house.....
That is what I live on downtown Orlando FL! $2000.00 a month...
I live in Central, Pennsylvania. The Alabama of the north. It's real cheap to live here. You can still buy a house for under $100k. Culture? Only if you like Saurkraut.
Thailand for sure!! I go every year and you can live cheaply near the beach for about $10 a day for a room and the beer and girls are cheap too.. I will move there someday! AHhhhh its heaven.....
Keith,
There's a few places I've been that would make your list.
-Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia
-Along the coast in Turkey
-Costa Rica (few trains though)
-Parts of Peru
-Greece
-1/2 of Eastern Europe.
"I live in Central, Pennsylvania. The Alabama of the north."
I have been there. Pretty place too. The religious whackos drive buggies instead of fancy Cads and have beards. And they use electricity, just not at the tourist shops.
Belize
Even though the US dollar is weak, still many small cities/towns in Greece, seaside too,that one can live comfortably on 2k per month.
And even if money was not a concern,
stay away from Athens and Salonika.
Buenos Aires just got a fantastic travel write up on that subject...
Try Fiji
The rural communities of up state New York. Stella Niagara, Youngstown , Wilson , The Lake Ontario rim area. Wine country !! Sweet and cheap and beautiful!
I'm vacationing in Costa Rica in a few months. Lots of Americans there who own property and businesses. You probably don't have to learn much spanish. Government isn't corrupt. Cheap but more expensive now that the secret's out. Natives are more receptive to gringos than in Asia. Chinese are prejudice against foreigners.
My vote is for Brazil. The country is beautiful. The food is great!! Women are the most beautiful in the world!! Great place to live.
My vote goes to Thailand, too. Will probably retire there. Beautiful country, fantastic culture and food. Clean and safe. Stunning beaches. Gotta like heat though, all year round.
Only problem is, Thailand also seems to be in a big real estate bubble, just as it was in the late 1990s before the currency, the Baht broke down. Seems to be much cheaper and less hassle to rent just about anywhere. They are used to foreigners and are pretty friendly, too. Just about all the western conveniences you can think of, including most of the chain stores and eateries you can think of in the U.S. if you should get homesick.
$400 per month nets a nice apartment in Bangkok, an entire home elsewhere. Add another $400 for food and entertainment and you are living like a king. Enjoy!
I have one word for you all:
Odessa
and I am not talking about Texas.
You may want to contact the Terhorsts (URL below), who have been "perpetual travelers" for about 20 years now. They have lived in many places economically, including Thailand, Buenas Aires, Paris, ... as early retirees, and have lived much of that time below their investment income. During that time, their portfolio has greatly increased and they have now bought a house outside of Buenas Aires.
http://
www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/5315/
Buenos Aires.
Property there is bought mostly in cash; there aren't long term mortgages.
Buenos Aires.
Property there is bought mostly in cash; there aren't long term mortgages.
greece, odessa, southern italy and croatia all sound like excellent suggestions to begin investigating
thanks HP readers. live the dream.
Forget about all these had been cities. I would recommend Kabul, Afghanistan or Baghbad, Iraq. These Middle Eastern women are hot like the desert they are in. Now that the U.S. army has killed all their men, you can get a bus load of them for pennies on a $. The houses are cheap also, especially Tikrit. You might strike it rich since there are lots of oil over there. Let us know when you are over there.
I'm going to LVIV in western Ukraine. The women are gorgeous, the city is a historic landmark of 800k citizens. A little Prague that is not expensive.During World War II it wasn't leveled as most of the region was. A big university town with the non trashed Carpatian mountains close by. Down side upside, not much English spoken and very little tourism( I speak the lingo and am looking for Svetlana)
My vote goes to South America. Beautiful people, friendly, cheap, fun, great land scape. I'd pick Chile and live in Santiago where you can travel easily to the ocean.
A small town in Sicily. Seems cheap. And even the smallest towns weren't full of weirdos like ours tend to be.
"-Along the coast in Turkey"
Alanya, Antalya, etc... great coastal cities with great night life and ton of culture. You can stay in a converted medieval castle in Alanya, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the people below for less than $40 a day. Lots of history (Greek, Roman, Ottoman), locals are super friendly and Turkish food is the best. Only negative thing is the Europeans in their Speedos.
I would say summers in Croatia, winters in Thailand, with a month or three in Brazil. Why limit yourself to one place/language? $2K/month should have you living well.
Montevideo, Uruguay for sure.
It's the best city to live in South America in all the rankings, and also one of the safest of the world.
It also has beautiful beaches, and it's very near Punta del Este (did you see wild on Punta del Este at E! ?)
With 2000 dollars a month you can live like a king!
I'll quote what other user said:
"For beaches most take the ferry across to Montevideo Uruguay and then scoot up the coast to Punta del Este which is the big beach resort in that region"
I'm sorry but you don't have to leave the USA to live on $2,000 a month. You can live just about any where in the USA for that price.
I now live in Austin, Tx after selling and leaving Phoenix. I sold in March 2005, just before the big rise, but knew that Phoenix was entering a bubble that was unrealistic and one that removed any sensible reason to stay. When you could buy a cute bungalow downtown for $54,000 (new selling for $250,000 and needing renovations) some of the reasons to live there (afordable, uncrowed etc) no longer exist.
If all you want to do is rent for two years you can pick almost anywhere in the USA for less than Europe without the hassles of language barriers, visa issues, and a declining dollar. Have you looked North to Canada?
My best friend lives in Monterey, rents a 1 bdrm with view of the bay, walking distance to the warf, and pays $800 a month and you can't buy a house for less than $750,000.
Keith, you are young so I think you desire to travel and experience the world more than a desire just to find a cheap place to live. After all, London ain't cheap! Paradise? Is there really such a place? My friends retired and moved to Costa Rica. They bought a house and after six months hate it there! There is more to living than cheap! Language, culture, safety, crime, sanitation, you name it. Even Bagdad isn't cheap!
I'd have though by now you'd have figured out that America's problems are not that their home prices are over-valued but that we have too much personal debt and national debt. Compared to most cities in the world that offer a degree of modernity American homes are cheap but compared to American incomes that is another issue (thanks out-sourcing, globalization and illegal immigrants to depress wages...oh and a corrupt government that protects big business, the rich, and the governing elite rather than the workers of America.
Want a nice place to live cheap for two years? Just pick a nice 1 bdrm apartment in most of America and you can live just fine.
I think It is less about the housing market...sure you can live in the U.S. and buy a 4000sq ft mansion in some town for $400,000 but you definitely cant afford personal services like you could overseas.... cheap labor .88 cents an hour affords you..gardners,cooks, maids, messeusses, cheuffeurs...woman waiting on you hand and foot. Oh yeah, I too am looking to move over seas...I can get built a 4000 sq ft mansion for $300,000 ....I'm looking for santa barbara type weather from jan-may, internet access, direct tv, cable, infrastructure etc, and no rascism because I am a black man...I have been looking at asain places as well but it is too damn hot their for me...costa rica have been getting bad reviews becase of crime and real estate prices appear to be a little high. However the weather their is nice...pananma have been getting rave reviews but I wonder for how long as the cat is out the bag of how great it is.Much like costa rica the cost wont be inexpensive for long. At least thats my guess
oh BTW: lets not forget a place that has little to no hurricanes and other natural disasters. Also, a college campus would be nice to be nearby becuse it is important for me to have computer technicians, web developers, etc to ensure my computer is working and I am doing business online.Unless of course there are other expats that will help out for cheap.
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