Help me choose a country/city to live permanently
Hi, I never planned to stay in my country forever; I expected to leave much sooner. However, here I am, looking to potentially relocate permanently. I'm not sure where tho.
Please note that by saying that I'm looking for a place for a "permanent" stay I mean somewhere I'd choose to stay for 10 years as the world is very dynamic, and what may seem like a nice country or city now could become unlivable within a few years due to external or internal factors. So let's assume I'm looking for a place to live between 2025 and 2035. Let's also assume that I will be able to afford anything reasonable but won't have totally unlimited money.
About me and my preferences:
-late 20s;
-single, not interested in living with someone/starting a family/having kids ever;
-not interested in dating, a bit interested in whoremongering but that's not very important stuff for me either;
-I love sunshine and warmth but I don't necessarily need temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius year-round anymore - however snowy and rainy weather is still unbearable for me, so let's assume that the climate of Austin, TX is the coldest I could tolerate (although I've never been there, I have a general idea of its climate);
-I am a libertarian who values personal freedom and dislikes taxes. I dislike seeing my money spent on things I don't support, such as maintaining a large government, funding cultural places with little public interest, or financing national sports teams, especially in unpopular sports;
-I do want to play online poker for the forseeable future and even if that's not the case I expect all my income to come from online sources
Dream lifestyle preferences:
-I want to have my own or rented house with a garage (that's a minimum, I'd also like to have at least a moderate backyard but let's skip it);
-I want to own some vehicles such as a car, a street motorcycle, and a dirtbike and/or an ATV for fun and have some places nearby where I could ride the latest, additionally I'd like to have a sim racing rig but that one should be obtainable anywhere;
-I want to live in a place where I could establish a permanent residency as I don't want to end up in a situation where, for example, I am renting/owning a house with a lot of stuff inside when suddenly the officials decide that tourists can no longer extend their visas permanently via visa runs and I'm ****ed
I have already experienced living in Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam. I've gathered some info about how it is to live in some other countries as well.
My considerations:
Vietnam: fine for a few years (up to ~5?) but not for permanent living, very difficult to buy your place and obtain a permanent visa, not much stuff to do after you explore the surroundings
Mexico, PDC specifically as it's the only Mexican city I've lived in: cool with unlimited money but I couldn't stand the locals trying as hard as they could to squeeze every penny out of everybody. Overpriced in relation to the stuff it delivers
Northern Brazil (Fortaleza, Recife): you can set up a nice lifestyle there with stuff such as jiu jitsu + watersports + dune ATV riding etc, a bit too humid tho
Sao Paulo: perfect for mongering but very expensive and unsafe (though this doesn't bother me), a bit boring concrete jungle
Rio de Janeiro: could be very interesting with unlimited money after one makes some connections, but I'm not sure if it's worth the money for non-multi-millionaires
Now what I think about some places I haven't been to:
Paraguay: a tax haven with an easy path for permanent residency but I'm afraid it might be boring as hell
Curitiba, Brazil: relatively safe city for Brazil, close-ish (6hr drive or a short flight) to Sao Paulo for mongering and other purposes, also close to some beach cities but otherwise might be a bit boring however idk
Bangkok, Thailand: well I've been there for like four days but such a short period of time doesn't bring much experience, for sure the traffic is really bad and cities so large are not my thing in general, also difficult to obtain a permanent residence/buy property in Thailand
Phuket, Thailand: seems nice for living an easy life on the beach but the administrative stuff sucks in Thailand for farangs
If you know other places worth considering, please share them below.
5 Replies
Judging by some of the other places you mentioned, we have similar taste. Not sure about whether it ticks all the various boxes, but Malaga, Spain is a beautiful place and one of my favorite cities out of the ones I've visited. It's right on the Mediterranean and has a great vibe. Plus there are lots of other destinations nearby with drastically different cultures and attributes if you want to travel and switch things up.
If I were to leave the US it would be on my short list.
Also, if you've never visited Spain be sure to ask for the menu of the day if you go to Spanish restaurants. For like 12 euros at most places you get to pick an item each from about five different categories for a huge, usually delicious meal.
Plus I just love the friendly, carefree attitude in Malaga, where business owner's will just randomly decide it's a nice day to close up shop and go out drinking wine with friends. They know how to live.
Thanks for your reply GreatWhiteFish,
Malaga, or Costa del Sol region in general looks nice and is one of the places I've briefly explored using Google Street View a few times. Surely there are reasons behind the fact that some Russian gangsters own properties there. It might be a nice choice if I didn't play poker (Spanish pool is separated from the global one) and wanted to live in Europe for any reason.
However, Spain is a member of the EU and while that gives me the opportunity to live there permanently without any paperwork (I could even fly there without bringing my passport), unless EU changes the direction it's headed towards, I don't think it has a bright future. Why? Because it's headed towards a super-state where individuals won't be able to own a car (or it'll be super expensive to do so), their meat consumption and number of flights they can take per year will be limited, electricity will be super expensive etc. Sounds like a fiction but they will not introduce this new communism right away, but step-by-step. And the first steps have already been taken.
Obviously it's not necessarily like that the EU region will be the only place poisoned with this bullshit (check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C40_Cities... where you can see that big cities all over the world have expressed interest in implementing the new communism), but EU is definitely the pioneer so I'd rather avoid linking my future with it.
Look into Malta and Vienna Austria. You could spend the winter in Malta and Summer in Vienna. Good places in Europe in regards to regulations, taxes etc from libertarian view of point and considering that your income is online. El Salvador could become interesting aswell in the next couple years.
Thanks for your reply GreatWhiteFish,
Malaga, or Costa del Sol region in general looks nice and is one of the places I've briefly explored using Google Street View a few times. Surely there are reasons behind the fact that some Russian gangsters own properties there. It might be a nice choice if I didn't play poker (Spanish pool is separated from the global one) and wanted to live in Europe for any reason.
However, Spain is a member of the EU and while that gives me the opportunity to live there p
Yeah, I don't fully understand all the EU politics as they effect people at the individual level. I know Malaga is part of an "autonomous region," but I'm not sure how much if at all that shields you from potential EU government overreach.
On the poker side I know you're technically supposed to play on Spanish government regulated sites, which potentially have higher rake and limited player pools. However I've heard Spanish players often play on international sites without any issues. Anyway, if Malaga's not the right fit for you to live, it's still a nice place for a vacation sometime.
The other poster's suggestions are also intriguing. If Bitcoin continues to do well, growing in market cap and becoming less volatile and overall deflationary over time, then El Salvador could be a massive beneficiary. It seems like a natural fit for a poker pro who is a calculated risk taker by nature.
Balneario Camboriu, Brazil
Bali, Indonesia (Canggu?)
Punta del Este, Uruguay
