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Comment by dxbydt | Hacker News Reader

Props to the OP for being open to exploring a whole different continent. But frankly, there are plenty of university towns right here in the USA that'll fit the OP's 1000 USD budget very well. As a TA in a CS grad program, I made $800 per month. With that money, I lived in a comfortable studio & had everything the OP describes & when I graduated in 2 years, in addition to my Masters degree, I had managed to save $5000, which I used for downpayment on a car. Most students live like this & some of the frugal TAs manage to save much more than 5K.

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$1000/mo in thailand is living WELL. truly paradise, gorgeous weather, go to nice clubs, best beaches in the world. no comparison with just passing time in a university town in the US.

you could merely survive for much less in thailand

Am just pointing out that bootstrapping a startup in a university town on 1k USD is definitely doable. You don't have to go all the way to Thailand and flout visa rules(yeah most of those rules are not exactly enforced but they are still on the books)

It's a fair point, but you'd never go to Thailand mainly to save money anyway: it's one of the most expensive countries in the region and certainly no easier to live in (beyond the tourist/expat ghettos)

True, I could even do it here in Berlin for €750. But it's going to be dark and cold soon. And the vitamin d and serotonin will slowly drain from my body. And my productivity and happiness will slowly plummet.

Accordingly, I will go to Bangalore, then further south.

And that is great if you are a US-citizen, but otherwise not so much. Even coming from rich Scandinavia and the EU, we are not welcome.

I think it's possible to live quite cheaply in most of the eastern members of the EU.

For example you can live just fine in many fairly nice areas in Czech Republic and Slovakia for $1000/m (wife's family is Czech & Slovakian, never lived there myself but visited very often & stayed with locals).

$1000/m? Bah, you must be spoiled. I'd put that at $500/m or so. (Or perhaps it's just me being a reclusive hermit... :-))

Out of curiosity, where did you do your CS grad program, so that you could live on less than 1k a month?

Morgantown, WV. But nothing special about that... you could do the same in Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Carolinas, most places in south/sw...

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