The Best Places I Would Live with $1,000 per Month

Introduction: Welcome to the Traveling with Kristin Podcast, your destination for travel tips, living abroad, advice and insights that help you experience life in foreign cultures. If you're interested in slow travel, living abroad or a digital nomad lifestyle, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Kristin Wilson, the author of Digital Nomads for Dummies and the host of Traveling with Kristin on YouTube. Thank you for traveling with me today and let's see where our journey takes us.

Kristin:    00:00:37    Hey there, Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 273 of the Traveling with Kristin Podcast. This episode today is brought to you by Safety Wing and welcome. If you are new here, then welcome to my podcast. If you love to travel, if you're interested in living abroad or a digital nomad lifestyle, then you're definitely in the right place. And if you've been with me for a long time now, then welcome back. Well, I am coming to you currently from Belgium in Europe. It's my first time in Europe in the last year and it's so great to be back. I didn't realize how much I missed it until the plane touched ground at the airport and I wish I could stay longer, but it's a short trip, it's a quick vacation as it were visiting some friends here, leading up to this week's podcast.  

Kristin:    00:01:33    It's been a bit of a whirlwind in my personal life with our sweet family dog, Chloe having passed away the week before and Hurricane Milton sweeping through Miami, so two hurricanes in two weeks I think it was, and I also moved apartments. So yes, it's been a very dynamic time of change changing of seasons and I don't know, maybe you're feeling that way too. I think as we get down to the end of the year, there can be a lot going on in the world and in life, especially with the US elections coming up. So if you missed my episode a couple of weeks ago, that's episode 271 about how you can vote from abroad. So I'll link to that in the show notes and make sure to check that out as well. Also, last week we had an amazing interview with Tom Turcich of The World Walk, so you'll wanna check that out if you missed it as well.  

Kristin:    00:02:33    Now many of you know that I've been to more than 60 countries and a lot of you ask me where I would live in the world if I could just live anywhere and what would be my favorite country to live in after going to all of these different places. And so I wanted to share this podcast with you today on 10 places that I would live if I only had $1,000 per month because I know a lot of you, uh, want to travel on a budget, retire abroad on a budget. So these are my top 10 places for you to live on a thousand dollars per month. And this is actually adapted from a video that I made for YouTube that got hundreds of thousands of views. So I wanted to share it with you here on the podcast as well. But it has been edited, especially for this podcast.  

Kristin:    00:03:18    So if you also saw the video online, then you'll wanna catch this podcast too and give you some ideas for places that you can travel or live in 2025. I also wanted to mention that in the last episode I said that this one would be about living in Italy, but we've had a bit of a schedule change and so that episode will be coming out on October 29th. Let's jump right in. If you're struggling to get by right now in expensive countries like the United States, then it's important to know that your money can stretch a lot farther in other countries. So if you're used to paying high US prices for rent and car payments and especially groceries, then you could actually get the same cost of living for a much lower price in another place. You might be surprised to know that something so standard like paying a hundred or $200 for cable and internet you can get for just $10 or $20 in another country, but these cost savings go across the board from food to transportation, you can save 10%, 20%, 80% and some of the countries on this list are actually 10 times less expensive than living in the United States.  

Kristin:    00:04:34    For a little bit of background on how I came up with this list, I considered the cost of course, but there are a lot of places you can live in the world for less than a thousand dollars that maybe you wouldn't want to. So I considered the cost, yes, but I also considered other things such as safety, especially for a solo female traveler and also quality of life. In addition, I wanted to look for places that you can stay for longer than 30 days or so on a tourist visa, places that are pretty easy to get some sort of digital nomad, remote work retiree or other form of long-term visa or residency permit. Now, one of the first places that I would definitely look at if I had a budget of a thousand dollars per month is somewhere in Eastern Europe. A few years ago I lived in Bulgaria and I was surprised that my rent was only around 200 to 400 euro per month depending on what time of year I was there and how long I was staying.  

Kristin:    00:05:35    I had never been to Bulgaria before and I was shocked that something like having high speed internet on my phone was only 5 or 10 euro per month compared to the $50 or $100 that I was paying in the us. Now, if you've never thought about going to Bulgaria before then I definitely recommend that you at least give it a chance. It's one of those countries that has a little bit of everything. It has four seasons, it has cities, it has the beaches of the Black Sea, and it also has mountains that are amazing for hiking in the summer or skiing or snowboarding in the winter. I've been there in both the summer and the winter and although it's a different experiences, I really enjoyed it both times. So whatever you're looking for, you can probably find it in Bulgaria. When it comes to day-to-day life in Bulgaria, things are pretty easy.  

Kristin:    00:06:27    It's a developed country in Europe, the infrastructure's really good, you can drink the water, there's great restaurants, cafes, there's co-working spaces, and there's really fresh and local food. The grocery stores are actually very affordable. You can probably spend between 50 or a hundred dollars per week, but you can save even more if you do most of your shopping at outdoor markets, which is something that I love to do. Just go to the market once a week, spend maybe the equivalent of $20 or $30 and you're pretty much good to go, at least when it comes to your produce, cheeses, meats and things like that. Something that shocked me about Bulgaria is that there's actually wild cherry, apple, peach and plum trees just growing alongside the road. And as someone who grew up in the United States, that's not something that you see every day. So depending on the season, I was just constantly in awe of all of the different wild fruit trees that in bloom, and it just adds to all of the allure of Bulgaria.  

Kristin:    00:07:35    Safety in Bulgaria is also pretty similar to the rest of Europe. If not, it could be even safer because it's not as touristy, so it doesn't attract as much of that petty crime. And there's also really strong expat communities in places like Sophia, the capital, but also Plovdiv and the small village of Bansko. So whether you wanna live in a small village, a medium town, or a big city, you can find other foreigners and expats living there. On the downside, the language barrier can be an issue. At least I didn't dedicate the time necessary to learn much Bulgarian and not that many people there speak English, although most of the younger generations do. So if you don't speak Bulgarian then I mean I still found it pretty easy to make friends there. I was able to date without any communication issues, although there are some cultural differences when it comes to actually moving there.  

Kristin:    00:08:35    Bulgaria has a really straightforward residency option and also a 10% flat tax, so that keeps things really simple. Other than the language barrier, the only other drawback I can think about is that it gets really cold in the winter, although that can be a pro or a con if you like to ski and snowboard. And also depending on where you're living, especially if you're outside of the bigger cities, it would be helpful to have a car. And so that would increase your monthly expenses a bit. Also really high on my list would be Serbia, another destination that I feel like is really overlooked. Of course, I really love the capital city of Belgrade, but to save money, I probably go to one of the smaller towns like Novi Sad or Niš. The people are really friendly in Serbia, it has such a great foodie culture.  

Kristin:    00:09:28    So if you're into good restaurants and food, it's definitely a place to look up and it's not in the Schengen zone. So if you're going there as a tourist, then staying there for 90 days isn't going to affect your time traveling in the Schengen. Similar to Bulgaria, you can find an apartment to rent in Serbia for anywhere from 250 to 400 euro per month, and then your monthly utilities and expenses might be another 100 Euro on top of that. At the most internet there is only gonna run you around 15 or 20 euro per month. And food like Bulgaria is also very affordable. I remember eating out for probably around five or $10 per meal. And then if you wanna get a beer or a coffee, that's usually only one or two Euro private health insurance there is also really affordable and should run you around $50 per month or less.  

Kristin:    00:10:27    The current exchange rate right now is around 108 Serbian dinar to one US dollar, and it's been pretty consistent against the Euro over the past few years, but historically inflation has been an issue there. The biggest downside for me when it comes to Serbia is probably that it's difficult to learn the language. Also, it does get cold there in the winter and it's a landlocked country, so if you wanna be by the water, it might not be the best place for you. But that's why I also have Albania on my list because it's still in the same region, has a really similar cost of living to Bulgaria and Serbia, but it's on the Adriatic coast. So you've got the beaches, you've got the sea, and you've got that nice Mediterranean climate and lifestyle. A great thing about Albania is that you can stay there for up to a year with just a passport depending on which country you're from.  

Kristin:    00:11:27    So most countries will give you 30 days, 90 days, maybe 180 if you're lucky, but Albania is great because you can stay there for up to a year. And it's also easy to get their digital nomad visa where I would live in Albania rather than going to the capital of Tirana, which can be a little bit pricier compared to some of the other towns. I would like to check out Sarandë where I know a lot of people who have lived there and they all really like it, it's right on the coast and you can easily keep your budget under a thousand dollars per month there. I know a lot of people who have gone there to retire with a smaller pension or digital nomads and remote workers who just wanna bootstrap their business and go somewhere that they can save money without sacrificing a nice lifestyle.  

Kristin:    00:12:18    I do wonder if prices will go up in the near future because I've heard so much buzz about Albania and Sarandë especially, but I looked online and you can still find apartments for two or 300 euro per month there. And if you can find places for that much online, then if you go there in person, you can probably get even better deals. A downside of living in Albania is the language barrier if you don't learn the local language, but of course we can't expect everyone to speak English. Also, the infrastructure is not as good as some other countries in Europe and flying in and out can also be maybe a little bit more expensive, have some longer flight times depending on where you live in Albania. Sarandë does have an international airport, but I saw some flight times that were 20 to 35 hours long.  

Kristin:    00:13:15    So if you're gonna be flying internationally then you probably wanna go in and out of Tirana. The internet speeds in Albania are in the top 50 in the world, however, so that's really important. If you work online somewhere, I haven't been yet, but it would be ideal if you have a thousand dollars per month budget is Georgia, not the state, but the country of Georgia, which is about 10% lower than living in Belgrade Serbia or 10 to 20% lower than Tirana, Albania. So you can save a lot of money by living here. It has super fast internet connectivity and it's another one of those countries that offers a one year tourist visa. One of my friends, Mike has lived there for the past three or four years and he absolutely loves it there. He says it's a great balance like work life balance. He has made a lot of friends there, there's a lot of foreigners.  

Kristin:    00:14:10    He saves money of course, and he said that the locals are really nice and when he first got there at the airport, they actually gave him a bottle of Georgian wine when he came through immigration. So I've never heard of that happening anywhere, but I think it just hints to the attitude of the people there and how they are embracing tourism and international residents. Georgia also has their own version of a one year digital nomad visa, so that's another benefit as well. And if you're from the US or one of more than 70 countries, you can just go in with your passport Visa free. Romania is another country that's high on my list because my grandfather's from there, but I haven't been there yet. So that is a country for another video, although many of the cities in Romania have ranked among the most affordable in Europe, so that's a bonus one for you to look up.  

Kristin:    00:15:10    Now, although I love Europe, I wouldn't wanna spend all of my time there because it does get very cold and dark in the winter. So ideally, even if I'm living on a thousand dollars per month budget, I'd love to spend six months in Europe and then six months in Southeast Asia for example. So if I were going to be living in Southeast Asia, I think that my number one destination would be Thailand. Now I haven't been everywhere. I haven't been to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, but I have traveled a lot through Southeast Asia and I love Thailand. Out of all of the places I've been in Thailand, I've traveled around from Phuket to Phi Phi  to Chiang Mai and I would probably start with Koh, that was my favorite place and fortunately you can find a studio or one bedroom to rent there for between three and $400, maybe $500.  

Kristin:    00:16:14    Bangkok is great as well, of course there's so much to do there. It's a massive city, great restaurants, and I have a lot of friends there, but I do find it to be pretty hot in Bangkok. And also you don't get as much for your money, like the rent can be slightly more expensive in Bangkok if you want a nice place. But Thailand in general, I don't think you can go wrong there. It's super safe with internet that's in the top fastest on the planet. I think the average is like 200, 250 megabits per second. And so it's great for remote work, but it's also great for relaxation, beautiful beaches, sunsets, I mean it's just stunning. And also a very strong international community there really easy to meet people, lots of events going on, so I would definitely add that to my list. Now, one of the downsides of living in Thailand is that they do have quite a short tourist visa on arrival of 30 days, but there are some options where you can get a visa for 60 days.  

Kristin:    00:17:20    There's also an education visa that a lot of people that I know have gotten from taking Thai language classes. There's the visa, if you're doing Thai boxing, there's also a retirement visa and they have the Thai privilege card, which used to be the Thai elite visa and also they have a new 10 year Thailand long-term visa. But the catch with those longer term visas is that there is a cost associated with it. So you might not be able to afford those types of privilege or long-term visas if you're on a budget of a thousand dollars per month. But yeah, whether you're living at the beaches in Bangkok or even up north in Chiang Mai, that's a great place to meet other foreigners as well and you can definitely keep your cost of living low there. Oh, one other thing though, if you are going to Chiang Mai, air pollution can be an issue.  

Kristin:    00:18:19    I have been there during the burning season before and it wasn't fun. So this is another reason why, you know, depending on the time of year, the tourism, the climate, the pollution, I like to kind of spend part of the year in one place and part of the year in another.

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Kristin:    00:20:23    Get peace of mind for your next trip and check out Safety Wing Nomad Insurance 2.0 right now. The next place on my list might sound a bit cliche, but Bali is one of my favorite places in the world. I first went there back in 2008 and although it's changed a lot, it's still a very beautiful, peaceful and safe island where you can live comfortably for under a thousand dollars per month. When I first went there, I mostly hung out down south in the Bukit Peninsula and around Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu, but in recent years it's gotten a lot more crowded there. So if I were to move there now, I'd probably go somewhere quieter, maybe the east side, maybe Sanur, maybe up the northwest coast, past Balian beach, Medewi,, maybe inland. But you wanna make sure wherever you're going in Bali, especially if you're going to the northern coast or a really rural area, that you can still get good internet service if you're gonna be working online.  

Kristin:    00:21:30    But yeah, I would say the downsides of living in Bali right now are just the crowds, the traffic, the congestion, the tourism, and also the trash. The pollution can be an issue. It was when I was there as well, but I've heard it's a lot worse with plastic and trash on the beach. So you know, nowhere's perfect everywhere has pros and cons and Bali definitely has its share of challenges and growing pains, but it's a great place if you want to meet other foreigners. There's people of all ages and all countries living there. There's lots of meetups, there's lots of coworking spaces, although I have heard that in the more popular cafes and restaurants sometimes, especially in Canggu, you might even have to wait in line. So that's a bit shocking and that's why I'd go somewhere a little bit more remote and still be within maybe an hour of of Canggu or Kuta to be able to attend those types of meetups and events around Bali, you can rent a room in a shared property for as low as a hundred or $200 per month and you can get your own furnish studio or one bedroom for anywhere from 300 to 600.  

Kristin:    00:22:48    You can really go big with some place that's like $800 a month, but we're trying to keep it under a thousand. And you can get a big plate of Nasigoreng, fried rice for just a couple dollars, Gato-Gato salad, fruit salad, smoothies, everything is just a couple of dollars each. And I remember going out to dinner and having like a five course meal and it was $20 at the end and I just thought, this is amazing. Also, living on an island, unless you live in Australia or Singapore or somewhere in Asia already, then flying home can mean a 17 to 24 hour flight. And also extra costs if you live in North America or Europe. And then like Thailand, Bali is another country that has a really short visa on arrival of 30 days, although they also have a a new single entry tourist visa that you can extend for up to 180 days and they have this Bali second home visa where you can stay for 10 years, but it's pretty expensive. And they also have a new remote work visa that has pretty reasonable income requirements where you can stay for up to a year. So there are quite a few options now compared to a few years ago.  

Kristin:    00:24:10    Latin America is definitely another region of the world to consider. I am fortunate to speak Spanish, so it would have to be high on my list. I probably go with Mexico first, even though I've lived in Costa Rica before and I've spent a lot of time in Panama. The cost of living in Mexico is a lot more affordable compared to Costa Rica for example, it could be a half the cost or a third of the cost. And I think Mexico is one of my favorite countries. It's somewhere I've been traveling to since I was only 16 years old and I've been all around from the east coast to the west coast through the center and there's always something new to discover and explore there. Obviously the food is great as well and even in the pricier, more touristic areas like Playa Del Carmen and Tulum, which it's gonna be a bit more difficult to live there on a thousand dollars per month, you can still find really affordable food.  

Kristin:    00:25:10    You can get five tacos for two or $3 and so really you can't go wrong anywhere in Mexico. But there are, you know, some places that are more affordable than others. Some places to consider could be Rosarito in Baja, California. Definitely can live there for under a thousand per month and then you're really close to San Diego when hop over the border. But a downside to Rosarito is that you do need a car. Well you don't need a car, but I find that it's, it's a lot easier if you do have a car because the distances can be quite spread out along that coastal road. But the climate is good, the internet is good and so that's a place that I would consider. Um, Mexico City would probably be at the top of my list, but I do think it would be hard to find housing and keep your budget under a thousand dollars if you wanna live in some of the nicer neighborhoods like Roma or Cesa.  

Kristin:    00:26:14    Puebla could be cool, but I would probably lean more towards a bigger city like Oaxaca. And then of course the Riviera Maya, Merida anywhere on the coast would be great as well, Porto Vallarta. But yeah, those would be some of the places I would look to first. Aguascalientes in Central America was actually rated one of the most affordable cities in the country and you can rent a one bedroom there from $169 to $384 per month and keep your cost of living around $800 per month. Tijo in northern Mexico is another place that's really affordable. Where you can rent a Tijo in Northern Mexico is another place that you can rent for less than $300 per month. That's a colonial city. Actually, I'll take out the Tijo part. Mexico is also known for being a great medical tourism destination where you can get medical procedures for a fraction of the price of the United States, for example.  

Kristin:    00:27:24    And they also just have a really good healthcare system in general. You can go to the doctor, get a checkup for like $30 to $50, you can get a dental cleaning for $20 or $30 and I paid for a lot of stuff out of pocket there. You can also stay with your passport depending on where you're from for up to 180 days, which is pretty good. And there's no timeline to if you leave and come back, how long you have to wait to come back in. Although Mexico also has a really good temporary and permanent residency option that's pretty straightforward to get. But the only downside there is that you know, you do have to have some money in the bank to be able to qualify for that. A big downside to living in Mexico is obviously the crime and the corruption, but although that is real and it affects a lot of people, locals and foreigners alike, I've been traveling to Mexico for decades all over the country and I've never had any personal negative experiences with that.  

Kristin:    00:28:31    So even though I know it exists and there is a risk, I would still feel comfortable living there. In addition to Mexico, Argentina would also be at the top of my list. There are so many amazing cities to explore there. From Buenos Aires to Cordoba, Bariloche, Mar del Plata, you've got amazing food and culture and the cost of living definitely under a thousand dollars per month. You can probably find housing even in Buenos Aires for less than $500 per month. And the longer you're there, the lower you can get your rent. So I know people spending even less than that and you can save if you're sharing a place or if you're doing co-living, technically living in Bueno Aires is actually 10 to 20% lower than Tbilisi, Georgia, which we talked about earlier in the video. So you can definitely stretch your dollar there like Mexico,  

Kristin:    00:29:31    Argentina also has political instability, a lot of crime and also like Mexico, Argentina also has some political instability and crime and inflation has long been a problem there. But inflation unfortunately it affects the locals more than foreigners. So if you're going there with foreign currency like dollars or euro, then you can actually save even more everyday costs are pretty reasonable there. I remember spending maybe $20 per month on internet and going out for like a steak dinner with wine was anywhere from eight to $15 and you can buy a nice bottle of wine for just a couple of dollars. Argentina has also been embracing foreigners. They have a a Buenos Aires Digital Nomad Association. There's a digital nomad visa with pretty minimal income requirements, so they are really trying to encourage foreigners to move there. And yeah, it would definitely be a top choice for me.  

Kristin:    00:30:39    Now another country nearby that I haven't actually been to but I would love to check out is Bolivia and one of my best friends lived there for a couple years and she absolutely raved about it. She said it's so underrated and the cost of living in La Paz is actually can be 40 to 50% less than living in Argentina. So another country that I haven't been to yet, but I would absolutely love to and it's very close to Argentina, is Bolivia. And this is a country that one of my best friends actually lived there for a few years and she absolutely raved about it. She said the people are so nice, it's so underrated and the cost of living in La Paz, Bolivia can actually be 40 to 50% less than living in Buenos Aires. So you can definitely save some money there and it even can be 10 times cheaper than living in the United States.  

Kristin:    00:31:40    So even though I haven't been to Bolivia, I wanted to include that for you. Don't count it out. There's a growing expat community there. There's a lot of co-working spaces. You've got Selena there in La paz and it's definitely on my short list. Now, if none of the places on this list today resonated with you, then I definitely recommend checking out my YouTube channel where I have hundreds of videos covering a lot of popular and also not so popular hidden gem destinations. You can subscribe for free at youtube.com/travelingwithKristin. And thanks for spending time with me today. I hope that this list of 10 places that I would personally live if I had a budget of $1,000 per month was helpful for you. Make sure to check out our sponsor Safety Wing linked at the top of the show notes and I look forward to seeing you again next week.