Amsterdam. As an American (or Japanese) citizen you can get a residency card easily here if you start a business under the DAFT. You can also get a 30% tax break for up to 8 years as a highly skilled migrant, which is good because the highest effective tax rate here is 52%. Aside from those things, the city is very clean, extremely safe, cheap groceries, tons of green space, and extremely easy to navigate by bike or public transport. My wife and I came from LA where none of those things are true. Going out to eat is also about half as much as LA, and there is a lot of restaurant variety due to the multicultural nature of the city. Cheap insurance for individuals with a highly rated health care system. Downsides are the weather can be unpredictable, and definitely cold and gloomy in the winter. Also high rents in some popular areas, but that's probably true for most places. Overall though, we're extremely happy with our choice and considering staying long term. Also speaking only English is no problem.
Vancouver, WA just across the bridge from Portland. Native Oregonian but mortgage on a condo downtown was less than $400/month, no state income tax & my profit-making side project is better protected by WA state IP laws (basically a copy of California's own time laws).<p>Worked for Google for many years, quit when I got a WFH job where I was guaranteed an "office" in Washington state.<p>Nowadays, just hang out with the friends I grew up with when I'm not working, saving money & hanging out with the wife (who also works from home).<p>Travel used to matter a lot but then I moved back home and realized I just hated living in San Francisco and people are way more important to me nowadays.<p>Basically the best thing ever and every morning I step out to get coffee & feel legit thankful I got escape the Bay Area and get back to my native biome.
If you didn't check already, see NomadList[0] for summarized information on a lot of cities. It provides a "score" in basic categories that would/could be important for people working remotely.<p>[0] <a href="https://nomadlist.com/" rel="nofollow">https://nomadlist.com/</a>
Spain, in the mountains. I do coding and management which require only 'ok' internet and I for sure am more productive here working on my mountain view terras than in some office with other office views. When needed I fly to clients or partners or meetings for a few days and a few times a year I fly to partners and hang around for a month. I try to avoid offices so we usually meet in nature hotel lobbies, hotel lobbies in general or bars and restaurants to work or talk. Location does not matter a lot because if I have a phone or skype for meetings and something to write code and docs on, I am fine. Have been for 20+ years now.
Just South of Paris, near Fontainebleau. Where they keep all the good bouldering.<p>It's all about:<p><pre><code> - Choose the thing you like to do most
- Find the absolute best place in the world to do that thing
- Find a house there
</code></pre>
It doesn't always work out though. I spent <i>years</i> trying to find a place to live that was walking distance from a good surf break in the sun. Can't be done unless you're happy spending five million dollars on the house or are willing to live on a dusty scrap of land in Central America where you need to hire a guy with a gun to sit at the gate all night every night. Or want to strand yourself on a little sand and mosquito island a day's boat ride from Sumatra.<p>Fortunately, my (and my wife's) first love is climbing. We were worried we'd quickly "climb out" any crag we moved to, but Fontainebleau has just over 20,000 problems so it'll be a few years before we can get to them all. And they have proper French wine and baguettes and Paris 40 minutes away on the train. Sorted.<p>But yeah, if you can pull this whole location independence thing off, I'd highly recommend it.
Peshawar, Pakistan.<p>It's one of the highest terrorist-hit cities of the world but my parents love this place and are unwilling to move anywhere else. Due to their age (and lack of better retirement facilities) I live with them.
Riga, Latvia right now.<p>Our rent is about 200 EUR but we're thinking of finding something even cheaper... and considering living for free in a kind of legal squat that will be a culture house where we could stay and do a few hours of helping out every week.<p>I'm here because my girlfriend is here, it's cheap, and it's pretty close to my family and friends in Sweden.<p>Riga is also small and cozy in a way that I seem to like.<p>In the future I have a hunch that I'd like to stay in Estonia. It seems like a very forward-thinking country tech-wise and a great place to do something like a blockchain business.<p>Or Romania... or Holland... or Barcelona...
Bangkok, because it offers all the amenities of a major city at less than half the cost. It has world class restaurants, nightlife that never stops, good public transport, and endless beaches an hour away. I traveled extensively and lived in the US and Australia before settling down here but I like big cities and there aren't a lot of nice ones like this where you can get a luxury condo with maid service for $1,000/mo.
Sofia, Bulgaria (my wife is Bulgarian). Working remotely as a sysadmin, I push code to GitHub and do server maintenance from coffee shops and my couch. Fantastic internet in Bulgaria. Very cheap, awesome food, beautiful mountains here. Language a bit of an issue with older people and outside the capital.
I moved to Amsterdam with my wife and kid eight months ago.<p>(I'm American, from Chicago, and I run Soundslice, soundslice.com.)<p>We chose Amsterdam because:<p>* The DAFT program makes it easy for American business owners to get a Dutch visa.<p>* Everybody speaks English (which is a double-edged sword, because it's tough to learn/practice Dutch!).<p>* The biking is second-to-none. I'm spoiled for life.<p>* It's safe. I feel much safer than the U.S.<p>* It's beautiful.<p>* Great scene for Django music (gypsy jazz), which I play.<p>* Easy travel to other parts of Europe.<p>* It's very international -- in day-to-day life I meet people from all over Europe and the world. A very cool experience (especially for an American).<p>* Liberal policies make for a culture that we personally agree with more, even compared to liberal Chicago.<p>As for weather, people complain about it -- but it's better than Chicago. So it's a net win. :-)
Libourne, France<p>You can rent a 110m2 house for around 800 euros a month in a small town 30 minutes away from Bordeaux by car or train. The town is nice and getting better with new projects coming to make it more attractive for wine tourists (Saint Emilion is 10 minutes drive from it). There is a train station where you can get 5 trains per day to get to Paris in 3 hours. There is High school and hospital and all what you need for basic stuff, and if you can't find something you can still go to Bordeaux to get what you want.<p>I live there with my wife and kids mainly because it's cheap and not too far from our families and friends and because we wanted to get a not too small house (by french measure) with a nice garden for our kids in a nice area. As I see more and more people from Paris coming here so I think we made the right choice.
Can you define what a "location-independent entrepreneur" is? Does it mean running a business where everyone is a telecommuter? Perhaps running a business that depends heavily on outsourcing, or even a one-man (no employees) business?<p>I do know someone who ran a business where he subcontracted all work to people overseas and basically functioned as a technical manager. He lived in the mountains outside of Silicon Valley. When I saw how he interacted with his friends, and the things he did, "why he lived where he lived" was obvious: He had lots of friends in the area, and was an active participant in the local culture.<p>It helps that he's close enough to a tech hub that he can drive in any time he needs; although a daily commute would be prohibitive.<p>I've also signed up for online source control and bug tracking (before Github really "won,") and found that it was a one-man business run by a friend-of-a-friend in Hawaii. The reasons for the owner living in Hawaii, or any area where there's a lot of recreation, are probably obvious.<p>As far as why people choose to live where they live; the usual reasons apply: Close to friends and family, lots of recreation, culture, and reasonable cost of living. Choosing a place within a large radius around a tech hub might also be important. For example, a ski bum could live in Tahoe or New Hampshire, but still get to Silicon Valley or Boston when needed.
Nelson, New Zealand. Beautiful nature all around me, the town is just big enough and it's a really awesome place to have a small kid. My folks are a short trip away so we see them every month, and the pace of life here is totally relaxed.<p>Downsides: basically zero tech scene, and it's getting pretty expensive these days.
Valdivia, Chile<p>It's a cute small city with all the necessary services (shopping, restaurants, healthcare, optical fiber with 10-15mbps to California) and a vibrant community created by hundreds of students from local universities.<p>There're a coworking space, small tech meetups, and game jams. You can also take a one hour flight to Santiago for bigger tech events and meetups.<p>Renting a good house is $600-700 a month, the climate is mild (only rains in winter). Average lunch is $6-8, we spend about $350 for food and $150 for health insurance for 2 persons. Chile is quite safe in general but here we can walk in night without any worries. The city is trying to be bike-friendly, it just got some bike lanes.<p>Startup and business visas are too complicated here but you can get a "rentista" visa for any kind of passive foreign income or work visa for a contract with a foreign employer. There're many expats coming, we know a team from the US building a tech village near the city.<p>Downsides: you will need to learn Chilean Spanish (though many young people know English, especially developers), there's smoke pollution in winter in the evenings since wood stoves are used for heating.
Taipei, Taiwan.<p>* Clean and modern.<p>* Very safe.<p>* Nice people.<p>* Excellent public transportation.<p>* Good housing (relatively inexpensive).<p>* Great restaurants (extremely inexpensive).<p>* Low sales tax.<p>* Mandarin is a fun language to learn.<p>Also, $150-200 buys you a round-trip ticket to almost any other major city in Asia, so experiencing a new culture is just another way to spend a weekend. Taiwan's Eva Air and China Airlines are also excellent.
Assuming that by "location-independent entrepreneur" you mean that I <i>could</i> run my business from anywhere (as opposed to "digital nomad", referring to someone who <i>does</i> run their business from all over the world): Vancouver, Canada. Because it's my home; it's where most of my friends live; and... well, if you've ever lived in Vancouver you'll understand why I don't want to live anywhere else.
Singapore.<p>Aside from the obvious ease of doing business bit, I like the rule of law, weather, food, infrastructure, people and values (both Singaporean, and the expat community), low COL (for a developed country), international outlook, English as first and main language, ease of flying to cool places including the PRC and Japan, and the jungle in the middle that you can trek in any time also has a place in my heart. It's a great "home".
Australia.<p>Foremost because it's always been 'home'. I grew up here and it's where my family and friends are.<p>There's plenty of space to explore and enjoy outside. I love having so many great beaches, places to mountain bike and go bush walking.<p>There's clean drinking water, unpolluted air, have a pretty decent healthcare system and healthy work culture. Speaking of culture, I'm yet to come across another culture that's as laid back and easy going.<p>At the same time, I take advantage of being 'location-independent' and travel frequently. In the past year I've explored Vietnam by motorbike, been surfing in central Australia, gone skiing in New Zealand, road tripped around California, Nevada & Arizona as well as spending some time just soaking up the culture in Japan.
Oxfordshire countryside in England. I tried working from a small flat in London and I got totally burnt out. I like being able to look out the window and see trees, fields and a river - I've been working full-time for myself for 7 years now, I'm personally finding it's hugely important to be able to keep stress under control and get some perspective... and for me, being able to get outside really helps.<p>Ideally I'd move to Wales where it's cheaper and prettier, but realistically I need to be able to get to London and airports relatively quickly, as well as to not be too far from friends and family.
Vermont, because if you've ever been here you'd know there's no place like it. I like living in the middle of no where and having access to great outdoor activities, great food, and great place to raise a family. Not to expensive, but not cheap, and the extreme winters keeps the riff raff away...
I live in the backest of backwaters in England, rural Lincolnshire. We're a company of 10 but most of our customers are in SV and we work in $.<p>The why: My wife's from here and I've grown to like the culture and how much further money stretches. Luxury outside of London versus living in a shoebox is no real contest for me (but is a legitimate one for others).
If the wife didn't have a job and didn't like being close to family I would not mind living in Nice France. I was just there recently (luckily before the attack) and loved it. It is like San Diego but with French+Italian cuisine and warmer water. That being said San Diego, Miami, Vermont, and Colorado are some solid choices.
I live in Atlanta. The cost of living is low, quality of life is great, and there are tons of local companies to sell to. The culture here is to prioritize work-life balance[1], and it honestly seems to make everyone happier and more productive.<p>As far as startup culture, people really admire and encourage lean bootstrapping, which results in far more B2B companies than B2C. We do have an incubator[2] working to change that, but I actually prefer it this way. The SV culture of equating raising money with success is completely opposite of my own beliefs.<p>1. <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1840856/how-southern-tech-workers-build-booming-businesses-and-still-go-home-5" rel="nofollow">http://www.fastcompany.com/1840856/how-southern-tech-workers...</a><p>2. <a href="http://www.switchyards.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.switchyards.com</a>
Anyone in Cascais Lisbon?
I'm fortunate to have location independent income, following the Brexit result which disgusted me, I will definitly leave within the UK in the next 6 months.
Portuguese tax looks v good for entrepreneurs, only €500k investment (includes house) required to get EU passport, great climate, cheap living, great food, large city close by with access to Tech Talent, international private schools for young daughters.
Thought about Malaga aswell but wealth tax puts me off and Spaniards seem less freindly towards Brits.
Also thought of Berlin or Munich but they are more expensive and have more immigration pressures, France Italy too anti- business, so Lisbon seems best option to me.
Any comments or critiques of my logic would be appreciated, it's a very big decision after all!
No one has mentioned it yet, so if I could ask, what about Hong Kong?<p>I'm an American living state-side but I have done some research on relocating to Hong Kong. I work from home with a salary that would be at least semi-respectable anywhere in the US (though of course not luxurious in high CoL cities), but it doesn't seem like it would be enough to furnish a home or lifestyle in HK that is anything like what we have now.<p>Immigration seems like it will be a problem without employer sponsorship, and employment opportunities for programmers look terrible (though, to be fair, I don't know much Cantonese yet so I can't search in the native language).<p>I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the only realistic way to get there would be a career shift into finance and specifically targeting the type of jobs that often end up being exported to HK (along with luxurious compensation and relocation packages).<p>Anyone here run a biz from HK and want to share some details? I see several of its neighbors have been mentioned: Singapore, Taipei, Bangkok, but no HK. Is that just luck of the draw or is there a reason that entrepreneurs avoid HK?<p>I have an indirect acquaintance, someone I just barely know enough to follow on Facebook, who opened an office in HK. He's been there for 3 or 4 years now, but just announced he and his family are relocating over the border into Shenzen to open another office there (as I understand it, his HK office is still operating, and, for the record, his company primarily does Wordpress sites). I thought this was interesting. I don't know the guy well enough to ask him directly about what motivated him, but is this something people are seeing a lot of? From my reading, it sounds like the only benefits of Shenzen are cheaper rent and more protections from hostile Western governments (HK more likely to extradite and/or honor civil judgments issued by Western countries than mainline China), and there appear to be many additional limitations despite Shenzen's status as a Special Economic Zone.
Greece, Dodecanneso.<p>Why? maybe the best sailing area in the med (we live aboard a 11mt old/cheap sailing boat), cheap, easy, great weather, great & cheap internet (mobile) everywhere. Winter not aboard anymore (electricity is getting too expensive), so maybe will join some of you in wintertime
Andorra, small country in the middle of Pyrenees. Beautiful mountains with decent skiing in winter, all year around nice sunny weather, great food, almost all homes have fibre to home, close proximity to Barcelona. Cost-wise very affordable + only 10% income tax.<p>On the flip side there is no tech ecosystem or it can sometimes be a bit boring, you need to travel to BCN to get your culture fix :) It can also be a bit hard to get out since closest airport is BCN.
Tokushima, Japan.<p>Not a particularly inspiring environment, besides the good beaches and view of the mountains. Non-existent developer community. Sufficiently sized city (200k) to have everything you need. Fun festivals.<p>For our family of two adults and a baby, our living cost is very roughly $3000 / month. Biggest cost is my health insurance, second highest expense is rent, our place is $720 / month. You need a car to survive.<p>At first it seemed that taxes would be much cheaper than Finland, but actually there are many varieties of fees and when you add them all up Japan is about the same. Putting a child through the schooling system would tip that in favor of Finland, where they actually pay you to study.<p>I wrote this ages ago, been meaning to update it: <a href="http://www.bemmu.com/what-it-costs-to-live-in-japan" rel="nofollow">http://www.bemmu.com/what-it-costs-to-live-in-japan</a>
Bucharest, Romania<p>Being Romanian, it wasn't really a tough choice, having family and friends here. Quite happy with the quality of life, cost of living and income taxes. The city has been changing for the better in the past 10 years, feeling very cosmopolitan these days and open to foreigners.
Lisbon<p>- Sunny most of the year<p>- Small EU capital but lots to do, beautiful cities countrywide<p>- Walkable<p>- Almost all young people speak fluent English<p>- Cheap (though this is slowly changing)<p>- Very multicultural (if you know where to look)<p>- I rent a big room w/ an amazing view of the city and my total monthly bills are under $600 (includes going out several times per week).
I've been popping around quite a bit recently. Some recent destinations in no particular order: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, USA, Australia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Germany, Norway, New Zealand. I stay for a few months (usually 2-6 months) at a time and move on.<p>Currently in Bali because it's cheap, the weather is nice, I'm right on the beach, there are solid coworking + cafe options, and the Balinese people + culture + architecture are absolutely splendid.
Berlin, because it's where my social life is, with a week/month working somewhere else (Barcelona, Rome, Istanbul ...) when it gets too cold or boring.
Can you clarify what you mean by "location-independent"? Do you imply that the person is traveling, or does it mean that the team is all remote?
Phnom Penh, Cambodia. My wife's work requires her to work abroad, and this is the post that made sense for our family and her career. It's a nice enough place to live and work, very cheap, all modern conveniences are available, great expat community. We'll stay for a couple more years, then move somewhere else (she gets re-posted every 2-3 years).
Paris<p>It's important that the time I <i>don't</i> spend working be fulfilling -- a value that Parisians all seem to share.<p>Cheap (if not free) museums, cultural events, and small gatherings in which people talk about life are what keep me here.
I am in California for health reasons. The dry climate and low levels of ragweed are good for me.<p>I like California for a lot of reasons, but the deciding factor is my health.
Home. In Lyon, France, because my friends are the most important asset.<p>I've also chosen my coworking space ("Ecoworking") based on the awesomeness of the community and the variety of entrepreneurs (NGOs, architects, book writers, motion designers, etc). I'm a software editor.<p>If it were only for the quality of living, I'd be in the south of France (Nice), but the coworking space I met there wasn't friendly. Besides, the cost of living is much lower in Lyon, notably because the car isn't necessary.