[WilTimSon]

Well, there's always a healthy option in the middle. I'm not exactly up to speed on what the pay is like in the USA (which is where I presume most of the users here hail from), but getting at least $3-4k is enough to work remotely from some place like Thailand or a small European country. You still get the benefit of a traditional-ish social life, where you "go" to work every day, talk to people and then have some time to go out. Except that salary that would get you a passable living in London, Seattle or whatever other expensive city you inhabit, could get you much farther in a poorer country.

I do realise that this only applies to those who CAN work remotely but that seems to be a large chunk of the userbase for HN.

[buran77]

With $3-4k you can live more than decently in 99% of Europe. Sure, it might not get you very far in the most expensive cities like Geneva, but otherwise you can can have anything between a very comfortable and a very lavish lifestyle. This is subjective, after all a luxury car or a top of the line Mac are just as expensive wherever you go. But for the amenities of regular life you really shouldn't worry about missing out on much when living in Europe on that kind of money.

[toto444]

£3,000 in London is comfortable if you don't have kids. Nursery fees are about £1,800 and a rent £1,500.

[nicoburns]

More than comfortable if you don't have kids and don't expect to have your own flat. I live in London, and probably spend around £1200-1500/month total. Which is more than what some of my friends earn.

[Nextgrid]

That amount in London is a bit of a problem if you live close to the city center due to housing prices. So you can either live close, not having the overhead of commutes, or live far away and then be better off financially but have the inconvenience of a commute.

[JayPeaEm]

Fun Fact: Switzerland is not part of the EU.

[dri_ft]

But it is part of Europe.

[tluyben2]

Or a big EU country, just not a in a city. In Spain(/Portugal) you can live like a king (villa, swimming pool, huge garden, cars etc) on 3-4k/mo. And if you are an 'ok' coder, 3-4k/mo is not very hard to get remotely.

[agustif]

Would yo mind helping someone find that? I think I might be an OK coder...

Maybe I'm not that good, but would love to find a remote job paying 3-4k...

[tluyben2]

Send me an email (see my profile on HN) and let’s see. But for anyone else ; reliability is a huge issue. People do resume driven dev and job-hop; as a company you really do not want people like that. I would like people who want to work for some amount corrected with inflation for 20+ years. And the people who want that really have no issues finding work. The depressing ghosting when someone finds something for $1 more is the reason why most people think it is hard. I do not want those people and never did (company running for over 25 years).

[ido]

You don't even have to go to Thailand, there are plenty of minor towns in western countries that are very cheap (usually because there aren't any good local jobs).

[luckylion]

I wonder when it'll shift that people that can do remote work move to these towns specifically for the lower cost of living.

In my circle of friends who do usually work remote, there are a few that want to move to more rural areas. The number one concern is availability of broadband, which is just terrible in Germany. Further down is friends/family not being close and possibly sticking out very much. I don't think remoteness is an actual issue (because there really isn't remoteness anywhere in Germany, it's very densely populated, and saving a lot on rent & co might well offset the cost for a few hours of driving every other weekend to meet friends.

[ido]

I also live in Germany! We're in Berlin and we only moved here in 2013 so we dont really care about the family/friends angle (we have no other relatives in Berlin & all of our friends here we've made in the last 7 years, so we could probably make new friends elsewhere easy enough).

You also don't have to go rural, there are plenty of mid sized towns with cheap housing prices (and often a university and/or other cultural institutes, like Halle or Cottbus).

My main concern is that while we don't really standout in Berlin, in a smaller town we will be considered more "exotic" & especially for our kids I'm afraid it will translate to mobbing in school.

[rayhendricks]

Hah go to a rural area and find bidirectional gigabit fiber optic internet for $60/mo and a decent house for $200,000.