The happiest a was when our entire team was laid off and my whole balance was 10k dollars and I went on to live off that from r a year and a half in Thailand.
When I lived abroad and was going for cheap, since I was so damned burnt out, most of the people who did not manage to totally convince locals to treat them like a local paid way more for things like rent (though still very cheap by American standards). I mean, you could find cheaper places, but I wouldn't expect not to pay for it in other ways. I mean unless you were just sort of roaming around, couch surfing (easier a couple decades ago, before AirB&B got so popular probably).
The most I could imagine ten thousand lasting, even scrounging, anywhere I lived, was probably around half a year at most (much less if rent was not factored in, or if you are sharing a place of course; I was not). That'd mostly include parts of Asia, and Central America. And most places like that, connectivity came at sort of a premium price. The internet between a vps in the states and southeast asia was damn slow fifteen years ago.
Couldn't have been too fun when that ten thou ran out. I would never have left the country with no modicum of a guarantee of income upon returning. Gutsy move.
It was some time ago (2012), and the rent on Ko Pa was less than 500 USD I believe. I'm not sure how much more expensive it is now, but cheap places are cheap.
Yeah, I was operating on the idea of a Southeast Asian or Central American range of around $500-650ish a month rent depending on the size (these are like prices from a decade, decade and a half ago, no clue how much they have changed just sure they did not go down). For sure a lot of places were better and cost more though still cheap by American or EU standards. But you still need clothes, food, utilities, fun, basic essentials, money to get from place to place, and some padding for an emergency, etc. And the cheaper places, you would be competing with locals. $10k a year to them was and often is a lot. And if you were local it would be for you also since you would have local connections and family etc. You would not live as an American would, though.
The part about living on that $10k was not so much what threw me (I mean, you CAN live on $1k a month, and I know people did it, certainly back in 2012, but you are not going to be eating much Western food, or springing for many extravagances like Western brand liquors, probably). What threw me was how, halfway or 2/3rds of the way through that year, without that ongoing idea of replacing that $1k a month, anything going wrong would seriously suck. Locals work and replace spent money with money. So do expats.
Not eating fancy and not drinking at all was a big part of it of course. The idea was to freelance a bit here and there to stretch it out, but eventually I did run out of money, packed my shit and flied back to places where getting a job was an option. Finding jobs was much easier back there and back then.
> You would not live as an American would, though.
yeah, not being American was definitely contributing factor too.
The part about it being easier to find work and make money fast back then is the part I also miss. I used to just feel it was safe to believe the worst case scenario was I would have to just do temp work briefly if I couldn't find a tech gig fast enough to pay my rent or eat, since few people typed nearly as fast. Now even that is rife with competition and those places are overflowing with CVs.
Getting work in tech 15 years ago after a break was hella easy compared to now. Guessing you, like I, are also deep into the years of maybe being called overqualified.
I guess the crypto bros and influencers have taken over a lot of whatever you wanna call what existed during the few decades when tech expats had it. Sorta changed forever when all the betting platforms became legal in America (whether you are or were American), too. The mood changed. So did the local populaces.