Step 1 is usually, reduce your expenses. When people say they can’t do something like that, it’s usually an economic decision. But, plenty of people live on the lesser salary. We all get used to the higher salary and rachet up spending accordingly. Otherwise, living paycheck to paycheck would only happen for a narrow slice of the country.

I’m not a minimalist, but it seems to me that the solution for many problems starts with “spend less”. We just don’t want to hear it. I know I don’t.

The money working for NGOs isn’t as good in most situations. But there is a lot of opportunity to be entrepreneurial in this context. Software will eat the world in these countries too. One starting point that may be interesting is: https://vc4a.com

Read about the two routes.

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html