Best Freelancers' Destinations To Live In?

[Girino]

I know many of you have lived in several countries, and (at some points even) in Argentina. What countries would you recommend to live in if you were a freelancer? Please take into account also the financial/tax side of the deal and the cost of living, not just the palm-hammock-sea scenario.

Thank you!

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I know many of you have lived in several countries, and (at some points even) in Argentina. What countries would you recommend to live in if you were a freelancer? Please take into account also the financial/tax side of the deal and the cost of living, not just the palm-hammock-sea scenario.

Thank you!

If you have a credible idea, Chile will pay you to come there: http://www.startupchile.org

 

[ghost]

It's going to depend on what you are freelancing.

 

[oiram]

check out http://nomadlist.io/, lots of tech/dev types involved in crowdsourcing this data.

 

[Girino]

check out http://nomadlist.io/, lots of tech/dev types involved in crowdsourcing this data.

That's very interesting, thank you!

My job is independent of my location, as I work remotely with clients who are mostly based in the US or the UK. I have no connection with local freelancers/clients and they are not necessary to my work, just a nice addition.

 

[Rich One]

Belize ....!!

https://www.google.com.ar/maps/place/Central+America/@12.768421,-84.714944,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x8f0b58c0f7680811:0x8dace0c7060b2570

 

[ryanlee]

If you're freelancing and remote I would put emphasis on internet connection. In Argentina it can be hit or miss depending on where you stay, at least there are a lot of cafes that have a decent connection. In my experience going from Argentina to Uruguay and Chile have been breaths of fresh air because it's just as good, if not better than what I get in Minnesota.

Then the second priority would be security in my mind because it's hard to get things done if your computer is stolen.

Usually I check out the reviews of places and look for comments on the wifi, fortunately if it's not very good people are quick to vocalize it in their reviews because we're not the only ones doing remote work.

So in my limited experience, there's good internet to be found in BA for sure, but it's a gamble unless you do your due diligence. Uruguay and Chile it's never been a concern.

I was reading around on this board about this because I'm getting my things in order for returning to BA in November for their summer, 2 summers a year is pretty sweet when you're from MN, so here's what I have on memory at the moment. (some of it may seem obvious)

- Don't enter the country with $10k <
- If you spend less than 6 months don't bother concerning yourself with taxes unless your goal is residency.
- but you do have to get a 10 year reciprocity thing before you can enter ~$100
- xoom.com is a good way to get money at something closer to the blue rate
- In Nov 14-Apr 15 - My expenses were between $600-800/mo in rent and $1200-$1400
- rents a little on the high side because it's worth the extra $ for a safe/secure, reasonably accessible spot, with wifi that I can depend on.
- however if you were going to bootstrap it you could get by for $1200/mo

I'd probably have more for you if I knew what your other measures were.

 

[Girino]

Thanks for your contribution. I have been lucky with Internet so far. I don't need an extremely fast connection, I got the same Internet as back home (which is slow by US standards, I guess! 6MBps). We have Fibertel and the line went down just a couple of times and for just a few hours. Nothing tragic that couldn't be solved by hanging in a café.
And I can stream Netflix in HD on two devices at the same time, which is nice.

Security is very important to me. My laptop is my life, my job and my connection to home. We live in a safe area, albeit outside Capital, where housing is sometimes more expensive than the poshy Recoleta and Palermo. Your numbers are a little high - we live in two with that money! But I guess you were here on a temporary furnished rental all by yourself, so I think it is okay.

I am not sure about your comment "Don't enter the country with $10k <". Care to explain?

My post was about options outside of Argentina, not for where in Argentina would be best - sorry if it was not clear.

 

[Ceviche]

With a good smartphone and a LTE connection from Personal, I use it as a hotspot, it seems to work faster than both my broadbands!

Incredibly fast in fact! Try it.

 

[ryanlee]

lol Okay I totally over looked your Veteran status and am realizing it right now, my mistake.

$10k< what I meant was that you probably don't want to try to enter the country w/ $10k.

My numbers are probably a little high, I like to play it safe when estimating. Maybe they'll help someone wondering

Yep, furnished rentals.

For freelancing destinations if I had to puck another country to spend MN winters in it would be Chile because they really seem to be pushing the whole startup culture and that startupchile website is totally worth looking at.

Otherwise I'd think Europe would be awesome because they have so many conferences to network. But I guess what's throwing me off is what your looking for in a new location, because taxes and cost of living are. I mean I'm sure the cost of living and tax situation on paper in Somalia would be appealing. Ok, that's an extreme, but would Russia be extreme?

To me it seems like if you're working remote you have a unique opportunity to go where you want to go...

But oh! Just came to mind.

If cost of living is a thing you want to know about this website is really neat: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

Sorry for all the nonsense, but I think you'll enjoy the link because it's super useful (and interesting) if you haven't been using it to check around.

Best a luck!