[csomar]

The hours logged in his graph (per my understanding) do not show the work spent on searching and applying for jobs. And also tweaking your CV. There is a lot of overhead in doing this.

And then you have to log hours for: accounting, banking, and government papers. And then deduct banking and accountants fees. And then deduct your hardware fees (since you are paying for them yourself). No need for an office since you are can do it from home.

So is this really profitable or sustainable on the long term?

I live in a poor third-world country and I consider my break-up rate to be around $60/hour. There can be only one of these scenarios if you work for a lesser rate:

1. You cut on some expenses like an accountant/medication that might result in a disaster later.

2. You over-work yourself and you work on week-ends/no vacation.

3. You live with your parents, so you don't pay (or share) the bills.

[atox]

Could you share how you got the $60 number?

I recently relocated to a low income country and guestimated my needed hourly rate to be around $20 when doing a 30 hour work week.

Biggest differences that I could think of is that I bought my house mortgage free and that I have a partner that also makes $20 per hour.

[csomar]

I was talking about one worker (partner doesn't work), so I guess your accumulated income is $40/hour. Still a bit far from my estimate.

1. Do you need a car? It's a must here, otherwise your low income country is more developed than the average third-world one.

2. Do you actually do the accounting, marketing... yourself or are you full-time employed. That skew things by a big margin.

3. How is inflation. It's around 20% here. Not all third-worlds suffer from high inflation, but many (most of them?) do.

[atox]

Thanks for the insight Omar. I moved to Hungary, so not really a third world country. I've only been living here for ~3 months so my estimate might be of by a bit.

1) I don't really need a car since public transport here is ok. However I do own one. I cut my car costs to a minimum by changing from a sports car to a 10 year old Ford Focus.

2) I have an accountant that costs about 300 euros per month right now, is one of the bigger costs that I have right now. Am gonna try do take on most marketing tasks myself.

3) I never accounted for inflation so far. This might be something that I have to look into a bit more.

[csomar]

Thanks for the feedback. Hungary might not be a top developed country, but there is a huge divide between a developed and a chaotic country.

1- Public transport is really huge. A car is a very expensive thing (especially a new one).

2- Car prices are two times higher than in developed countries. This is due to importing restrictions. Old cars are crazy expensive. My car appreciate just one week after I bought it by 8%.

3- This one is huge. In an unstable economy, it's not abnormal to see a sudden raise of 300% in some consumption good.

I do also assume/think that Hungary has an acceptable health care, too. Public health care here is another NO.NO. here. (ps the country is Tunisia).

otherwise, what are rents there like? It'd cost around $1,000/month to rent something respectable here.

[atox]

Yes, I would never describe Hungary as a chaotic country.

I see how all of those things would drastically alter your needed income, especially the cost of a car and inflation.

I'm certainly not well informed on the cost of rent here, but I guess that 300-400€ per month should get you a more than decent place to live and work.

I checked the blog on your profile and seems like you're working on some cool things and doing well for yourself, congrats on overcoming the odds like that.

[GFischer]

I live in Uruguay (South America) and I agree with you.

A U$ 20 rate would enable me to live decently, but U$ 60/hr would enable me to live extremely well (living in the best neighbourhood, private school for children, etc..)

I currently make U$ 8 an hour (because I work 240 hours a month as a salaried employee) and I find it tough to make ends meet (even though my girlfriend works as well, she makes more than I do but only works 100 hours a month)

[poulsbohemian]

Just a note to HN'ers: GFischer is a good guy. He's been tremendously helpful with introductions and information about the business climate in South America in the past. +1 for him, hope to meet him in person and repay his kindness someday.

[GFischer]

Thank you, it was nothing, I'm glad you found it useful. I've been helped a lot by people on HN as well, I'm happy to return the favor whenever I can :) .

If you ever visit Uruguay, message me and I'll be glad to meet you :)

[malditojavi]

You are right, Abid. No info shared about how much time takes to complete all the 'certification exams' present also in other workforce-on-demand platforms, that I tell, they took some considerable part of your time.

2012, working +1200 hours, was not my working best year. I sacrified a lot of my (free?)time to apply for new jobs, get new contracts, make internal research on how to improve my opportunities of having more employers interested in me. Working stituation sometimes overexceed my capacity to manage it, and I experienced an anxiety attack mainly produced by having almost no disconnection time.

Future is now and working on remote is possible and a great opportunity. Nonetheless, working on remote should not imply to low insanely your rates just for the fact that you are working from other place (and you are not consuming office supplies, office space). It's just question of learning how to deal with a new situation of selling your services to someone that is just contacting you virtually.

And no, imho, it was not sustainable to work like this. At least, not with those rates.

I'm planning to talk about this widely in the newsletter, feel free to join it.

[x1024]

Wow, $60/hour. Define "poor".

[pessimizer]

Easy: $60/hour, 5 hours a week.