You love typing your blogs, reading the news, selling your junk on eBay, and spending most of your day on the internet.  If you have those things in common with me, but you’re having trouble finding that killer loft apartment where rent, utilities, and basic cable are all included for $500 a month, maybe you should consider moving to another country where the cost of living is better.

If you’re single and have no children coming with you, then I’d recommend Mexico or almost anywhere in South America.  The cost of living, real estate, and other necessities is significantly cheaper than the U.S.  You can live very well on $2k a month in most of South America.  The only problem is that decent health care can be hard to find.  The vacation spots are great, cheap, and close by and if you live like the locals and resist the temptation to buy name brand products like an American, you’ll be pretty well off bringing down $500 a week from the internet.

If you are concerned with being able to bring your family with you, consider Eastern Europe.  The Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and others can provide excellent prices on real estate while keeping the cost of living low and being relatively safer in some respects to other countries.  The health care is better, safer, and more reliable, but not always top notch.  You’ll probably be able to find work easier in these countries than in most of South America, but that’s not a guarantee.  If your internet business falls through or you hit a rough spot, you can usually find work teaching advanced English with or without a college degree if you’re a native speaker.  You’ll have to take a TEFL course, but that’s no big issue if you can pass high school English classes with ease.

If you don’t want to learn a foreign language, consider Canada.  Canada’s cost of living is somewhat similar to the U.S., but not as high.  The health care system is certainly better, more affordable, and more reliable than most other foreign countries (except major European countries like France, Germany, and the U.K. which have excellent health care, but are expensive).  Real estate is more affordable than the U.S. and jobs are easier to find than in most of the previously mentioned countries.

Pick a place and pick a date.  Take a week or two for vacation and explore the possibility of living there.  Remember to shop where the locals shop and try to calculate what it would cost to live there.  If you can make enough online in a reliable way…give it some thought!   Calculate what you’d save in living expenses and seriously consider living in another country for a year or even a few years.  You might just save enough to have a significant amount of savings in the bank when you come back (if you come back).

There are other perks too.  You’ll have the opportunity to learn the local language and be able to translate which is certainly a marketable skill.   If you go to a cheap vacation destination, you’ll be able to advertise to give other American’s a guided tour or set up a vacation package for them.  You may even find something among your travels to sell on eBay and do some importing/exporting.

Do some research and follow the rules (especially on that import/export thing) and you can make a real money while laying in your hammock on the beaches of Brazil!