I agree with Bradly -- most expats that are down here brought their work with them, or got a transfer here. Or, they set up a business of their own, typically within the first couple of years after the crisis.
Truly don't underestimate the difficulty of finding a job in Buenos Aires. Even for a local with papers and full command of the language, they can look for months, if not a year, to find a job that pays decently. And don't think we're lying to you about how much you'll make as a waiter / cleaner / dishwasher / McJob. McJobs in the States pay salaries you can scrape by on. Waiters in the States make good tips. Here you make next to nothing, and as a foreigner getting cheap rent is difficult.
Why don't you just come down for a couple of months first before you commit?
I came down when the dollar was 2.8 to 1. It's now almost 4 - 1 but the prices are up so much that sometimes I wonder if it makes a difference. When I came down a set lunch with appy, main, coffee, and a drink could be had for 17 pesos. Now it's closer to 40. 4 years ago you could fill yourself with steaks and booze and 30 pesos was a big spend. Now we regularly spend 100 pesos a person for something similar. A movie entrance in 2005 was 8 pesos. Now it's 26 pesos. That's in 4 years.
I know you think everyone keeps saying no no no, but you're getting advice from a bunch of people who have been living here, and who are trying to tell you that all those magazine articles written in 2002 / 2003 are no longer true. By 2007 friends visiting me were already complaining that it wasn't as cheap here as they expected. So don't rely on ANY information on prices printed more than 6 months ago. Even since January a lot of products have jumped by 20% again.
Sure, move here if you want, just don't move here thinking 1) you'll have a job quickly, 2) that job will pay your rent, 3) You'll be enjoying the places you've read about in the guidebooks on your local salary.
The only people I know that go to the places in the guidebooks are people that come down as tourists. Everyone I know that lives here permanently may occasionally indulge themselves and go to some of those places, but most people I know don't. Most people I know are like me where most of their client base is in the USA and got hit by their economic crisis a lot of business dried up. I had a huge hit to my salary this year and it's now coming back, but I was earning about an Argentine professional's wages for 6 months or so, and could not indulge in anything. And I was earning good wages by local standards still, and I certainly wasn't enjoying the good life.
It's a nice city, but I'm here because I'm married to an Argentine. I have a job that allows me the flexibility to work from home and earn dollars. If that job was gone, I wouldn't go out and look for a job here. I'd tell my husband that we're getting on the first plane heading home.
