The Best Destinations for Digital Nomads on a Budget
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash
What are the Cheapest Places for Digital Nomads to live?
Many nomads out there who live on tight budgets or are bootstrapping start-ups always have an eye out for the next affordable destination. Even if you’re making 5 or 6 figures per month as a digital nomad, it never hurts to be frugal.
Taking advantage of the many countries that offer a low cost of living but high quality of life is one of the many perks of the digital nomad lifestyle. Here are 6 places where you can live well without breaking the bank.
SE Asia
This is a cheap region with lots of fellow nomads and a plethora of different countries that range within the same budget. You can visit them either by land or low-cost airlines like Air Asia.
You can conceivably spend years traveling in this region of the world—from China to Nepal to India to Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc.
Eastern Europe
If you've seen any of my Digital Nomad Destinations videos, you know that I love Eastern Europe, and that's because it's a great place to live! The quality of life is sky high for an extremely low cost of living.
I'll give you an example. I spent almost three months in Bansko, Bulgaria which looks a lot like Switzerland but is about 1% as expensive. You can live on $500 or $1,000 per month here and bootstrap your business or just save money and invest your profits.
Eastern Europe is typically safe, cheap, has great food and is close to a lot of other countries, so you'll never get bored.
Fair warning: Once you’ve experienced life in Eastern Europe, it becomes very hard to justify paying 10x more to live anywhere else.
Mexico
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
You can explore Mexico for a lifetime and still keep discovering something new in this massive country, for pennies on the dollar as well. For about the same average cost of living, you can live in Cabo, Mexico City or the Mayan Riviera.
There’s widespread fiber optic internet and co-working spaces galore, plus a solid medical tourism industry. There's a reason so many expats and retirees from the U.S. move to Mexico.
The only downside to Mexico is that sometimes things move a bit slowly. Also, it's so big that nomads can be too spread out to form any kind of deep friendship.
Panama
Panama City, Panama
Panama, Costa Rica's neighbor to the south, costs about half as much to live in. It's quite easy to get residency there for the friendly nations and the internet is pretty darn good.
My clients love Panama City, Bocas del Toro and Boquete.
Downside? It's hot and muggy everywhere, except the mountains. Brace for humidity!
Argentina
Photo by Andrea Leopardi on Unsplash
If we head south of the Central American border, we'll find Argentina, which, to be honest, has a great quality of life for a small price tag.
Any place where you can get a steak dinner with wine for a bargain is good with me.
Small towns in Canada
Somewhere in Canada…
Everyone says Canada is too expensive. That’s true of the downtown core of cities like Toronto and Vancouver, but the small towns throughout Canada are a LOT more affordable. I once found a room for rent for a client in Windsor for about $200 per month. Sometimes you can even access student housing there.
Canada is underrated. There are tons of flat shares, co-working spaces, it's safe, and the internet is fast.
Canada for the win!
Conclusion
Those are some of my favorite destinations for digital nomads on a budget.
What are yours?