A big part of the dot com lifestyle, as previously discussed, is having the freedom of location. You can literally work from almost anywhere in the world, as long as you have reasonable access to the Internet. As John himself has clearly demonstrated, you can work in paradise, enjoying $30,000+ dinners while making money online. Myself, I’ve been able to keep my online business alive as I made my way around Australia, Europe and Asia. But those were relatively short trips of no more than a month.
What if you want to temporarily relocate to another part of the world and work from there for a period of six months? What if you wanted to explore a different culture for a couple years? With the dot com lifestyle, you can do that, but you also want to choose your location wisely. John grew up in Vancouver, but he’s also lived in the Seattle area before moving down to Orange County in California. All of those moves were calculated decisions, weighing a number of factors. He wanted to get Sally into the best schools, for example.
As an Internet marketer and entrepreneur, you have some other factors to consider. You might think about the weather, preferring warmer climates and sunnier skies. You’ll want to pay attention to the Internet speeds too, as well as the typical cost of living. Putting several of these pieces together is a handy tool called Nomad List. It’s not completely comprehensive, but it does give you a good look into many of these international working locations.
If you plan on working remotely, you may as well work from the best cities for that sort of thing. Leaving the options as open as possible, Nomad List reveals that Chiang Mai, Thailand is the best city to live and work remotely. Monthly cost of living is incredibly low at $648, you get constant warm weather and Internet speeds average in the 20Mbps range. Indeed, as you look down the list of the top few cities, most of them are located in either Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe.
A big part of that, unsurprisingly, has to do with cost of living. The money that you make on the Internet can be spent anywhere in the world, so you may as well stretch your dollar as far as you can go. Looking at the few cities near the top of the list, they’re all under $1,500 a month. By contrast, as nice as it may be to work out of Brisbane, Australia, cost of living there is $4,649 a month.
For those of you who would prefer to stay in North America, Dallas and Las Vegas are listed as the top two cities, each boasting monthly costs of living in the $2,200 range with warm weather and fast Internet. In third place in my home city of Vancouver. Clicking through on any given city reveals more information about the climate, air quality, cost of meals, preferred coworking space, level of safety, quality of nightlife and so on.
Thanks to the power of the Internet, you can make a pretty comfortable living almost anywhere in the world and not worry about the local economy too much. It’s not like you need to find a local job in Thailand to live happily there. And when you’re ready to explore somewhere else, it’s easy enough to pack up your online business and continue on your journey as a digital nomad. That’s easily one of the biggest perks of the dot com lifestyle.
Download John Chow’s New eBook & Start Living The Dot Com Lifestyle