Best country to live in if you had an average UK wage

[Maharani]

You're right, it's coming down with them .

I love Berlin. 2 of my best friends live there but I just hate the brashness/standoffishness of the service industry staff. Suffering artists, struggling to make ends meet working in the service industry to pay their rent. Had some really weird/off key experiences with twatty people out there. I get that these aren't really dream jobs but there's no need to be rude just for the sake of it.

 

[Maharani]

Krinci is home to Indonesia's tallest volcano. The air is superb here. I can't wait to go here later this year.

Krinci Indonesia. My work will take me there next year. A bountiful and beautiful place of natural beauty. Lots of cinnamon trees and mountains oh and sea.

 

[Plumdaff]

They eat guinea pigs there don't they?

Traditionally, although as a treat your average Ecuadorian is more likely to have pork. It's truly a beautiful and friendly place, but like the other Andean countries you need your wits about you safety wise. Could live very well somewhere like Banos or Vilcabamba on £25k.

 

[two sheds]

V expensive

Houses/rents are expensive round the coast, not so much inland. Getting work's the other thing, though.

 

[Fez909]

What about India? Have never been, but really want to. Internet must be decent the amount of outsourcing that goes on, though whether that's in the parts you'd want to live in...

Food amazing and everything cheap.

 

[Maharani]

What about India? Have never been, but really want to. Internet must be decent the amount of outsourcing that goes on, though whether that's in the parts you'd want to live in...

Food amazing and everything cheap.

I've been to the Punjab, where my family comes from. I didn't like it at all. Very austere and inherently sexist. I didn't feel like I belonged one bit. I liked driving down to Delhi though and Delhi was fun. Went to Chandigarh which was interesting...although no cows to be seen!

We're off to Agra and Rajasthan in Feb. Cannot wait. I'll report back.

I doubt i could live in India though. As well being incredibly sexist, it's horrendously racist and classist. It wouldn't sit well living a relatively wealthy life around such dire poverty; where the rich eat the poor and couldn't care a less.

 

[Cosmic]

What about India? Have never been, but really want to. Internet must be decent the amount of outsourcing that goes on, though whether that's in the parts you'd want to live in...

Food amazing and everything cheap.

I went to India in 94 with wifey and some friends. Stayed mainly in Calcutta then went to Bangalore, Puttaparty, Mangalore and Mysore. 3 weeks isn't really long enough to get a full appreciation of a country especially one as large and as diverse as India, and no doubt things have changed from 20 years ago. One of our best friends has a place in Bangalore in a gated community and spends part of the year living there. At the moment India doesn't appeal to me if I'm honest, but I'm sure there are really nice places there, as there are in most countries.

As far as "everything cheap", again not too sure about that.

 

[Orang Utan]

I've been to the Punjab, where my family comes from. I didn't like it at all. Very austere and inherently sexist. I didn't feel like I belonged one bit. I liked driving down to Delhi though and Delhi was fun. Went to Chandigarh which was interesting...although no cows to be seen!

We're off to Agra and Rajasthan in Feb. Cannot wait. I'll report back.

I doubt i could live in India though. As well being incredibly sexist, it's horrendously racist and classist. It wouldn't sit well living a relatively wealthy life around such dire poverty; where the rich eat the poor and couldn't care a less.

Chandigarh is mental! But it was there when I more or less decided that it was time to come home

 

[1%er]

I would say the North-East of Brazil, it has good internet connections and 25,000 (UK$) would be plenty to live on. The weather never gets below 24C and it only rains when you are asleep

Good flight connections to the rest of the world, the people are great the beaches wonderful the food is good and the beer is always really cold.

I think you'd be better making a list of slightly more than a good internet connection, one of the big problems would be getting a visa, this would/could cut done your options massively, as you can't just rock-up in many countries and live more than 6 months without a visa and they are not that easy to get nowadays in lots of places.

I'd avoid places where you have lots of American immigrants (they call themselves EX-Pats but are really just like everyone else who lives in another country they are immigrants), they tend to shout a lot and want everything to be just like in America

 

[Stanley Edwards]

This is why so many choose Spain:

Obviously, the weather. Spain is very varied in climate and stuff. Generally, the Med' coast is much more expensive property wise, but a very short drive inland will see rents drop to 30% of coast prices. Winters on the coast are mild. Just a Two hour drive north takes you onto the high plain where nights are freezing with plenty of snow in the mountains. Be very careful when trying to choose a city to live in summer. You would not believe the difference in winter. Leon is a city I love, but from November to March it is chilly as fuck.

The average salary in Spain is below €12K. People live happily on this, although most would enjoy more. Tourism is big. Many earning the national average only work 8 months a year. If you have external income to the tune of €25K+ you can live very comfortably indeed.

More fashionable places cost more. Ibiza is a bitch for people like myself. The difference between rental prices and local salaries is disproportionate beyond belief. Many people work the season 10 hours a day, everyday for less than €5/hour - you have to if you want to save money. Avoid it even if you have €25K a year to burn.

One popular coastal example would be Malaga. Good climate. Good services. Beach. Mountains close by. International airport and easy flights back to the UK. Very affordable public transport. City bike scheme. Plenty of night life. Rent a room in a shared house from €150/month, a studio from €400/month, 1 bed piso from €500/month, etc etc etc. Short busride along the coast and you will have no trouble finding a Two, or Three bed detached house with sea views for €600/month. Fuel, electric, community tax, water etc... are all much cheaper and you use far less due to the good climate. Air con in summer is something I have always lived without comfortably. Gas/electric/water, about €25 a month for a single person in a studio.

WiFi and internet is everywhere.

The best thing about living in Spain for myself is the outdoor lifestyle and all that brings with it. I you are happy living in a small town you will quickly benefit from the relaxed, friendly and open attitude. There is no suspicion, or age barriers - everybody socialises together at all times. Large cities are a little more cliquey, and it will take time to find your niche.

The relaxed lifestyle has its downsides. Mañana syndrome is very frustrating and takes a lot of getting used to! In Spain if someone says tomorrow it may well mean next week - never take them literally. If someone says meet you at 8 in the plaza, don't be surprised if they expect you to be there waiting at 10, or later.

Plenty of places on the coast (especially Costa del Sol) where you can live 'English' and never need to learn the language. Some of the less fashionable resorts like Benalmadena are affordable, have some sort of naff charm and great facilities, services etc all run by English speakers. Around 50% of the population here is non-Spanish. Love the places to visit, but it isn't the Spain I choose to live.

If you enjoy sport you will love Spain. Every city has fabulous sports facilities including outdoor pools for summer. Not uncommon to find yourself playing tennis after midnight in the summer on fabulous floodlit courts for example.

If you are considering buying property, leave it a year. Brexit has caused big wobbles for UK based buyers. Many want out now. Prices in areas with lots of UK expats and little in the way of local economy are in freefall. If you fancy isolated living in the mountains of Andalucia working from your laptop, a Two bed restored farmhouse could be yours for less than €30K.



edited...

Cigs €5/packet of 20. Tobacco €5 for 30 Gramme pouch.
MJ and hash readily available from €3/Gramme for good.

Many meds from the chemist available without prescription. My salbutamol inhaler just cost me €2.69 over the counter. Good quality pain killers etc - very cheap, no prescription.

Booze dirt cheap. Most supermarkets will stock small 33cl cans of beer from a little over 20 Cents each. Branded Scotch, or Vodka from a Tenner a 75cl bottle. Cheaper stuff available. Drinking in bars: most major cities you can find bars offering a tubo for a Euro most times of day. Quality wines very affordable. Good Crianza just €2.50 a glass in most bars.

 

[Orang Utan]

The weather never gets below 24C

that sounds unbearable

 

[SpookyFrank]

Probably soutwestern France. You've got rolling green countryside with lots of canals for cycling, but there's also mountains and beaches nearby if you need them. It's a short and pleasant trip to Spain for cheap wine and fags anytime you're running low.

Northern Italy is very nice, and much cheaper than France, but a bit too racist outside of the cities. And the whole private beaches thing they have there is intolerable, ditto the inability to buy bus tickets on an actual bus.

 

[Spymaster]

Probably soutwestern France. You've got rolling green countryside with lots of canals for cycling ...

Don't be daft Frank, canals have got water in them. They're for boats.

 

[Brainaddict]

I think you need to be quite specific on what you want in a country to work this out. For instance if you want to live quite a basic life, Brazil can be very cheap. If you want to go out to nice restaurants and generally live a more middle class life, Brazil can be expensive - similar prices to Europe for many things. There's also the question of culture - as someone has pointed out, India is cheap to live and many Westerners enjoy life there by more or less ignoring the culture around them (or exoticising it). The culture is mostly off the scale in terms of sexism, classism, racism etc. Whether that matters to you depends on what type of life you want to live. I'd say that in most of Asia you would struggle to integrate with the culture - but maybe you don't want to. If you do want to, even much of Latin America can be difficult in terms of the conservatism, sexism etc. So...it depends.

 

[Fez909]

This is why so many choose Spain:

Obviously, the weather. Spain is very varied in climate and stuff. Generally, the Med' coast is much more expensive property wise, but a very short drive inland will see rents drop to 30% of coast prices. Winters on the coast are mild. Just a Two hour drive north takes you onto the high plain where nights are freezing with plenty of snow in the mountains. Be very careful when trying to choose a city to live in summer. You would not believe the difference in winter. Leon is a city I love, but from November to March it is chilly as fuck.

The average salary in Spain is below €12K. People live happily on this, although most would enjoy more. Tourism is big. Many earning the national average only work 8 months a year. If you have external income to the tune of €25K+ you can live very comfortably indeed.

More fashionable places cost more. Ibiza is a bitch for people like myself. The difference between rental prices and local salaries is disproportionate beyond belief. Many people work the season 10 hours a day, everyday for less than €5/hour - you have to if you want to save money. Avoid it even if you have €25K a year to burn.

One popular coastal example would be Malaga. Good climate. Good services. Beach. Mountains close by. International airport and easy flights back to the UK. Very affordable public transport. City bike scheme. Plenty of night life. Rent a room in a shared house from €150/month, a studio from €400/month, 1 bed piso from €500/month, etc etc etc. Short busride along the coast and you will have no trouble finding a Two, or Three bed detached house with sea views for €600/month. Fuel, electric, community tax, water etc... are all much cheaper and you use far less due to the good climate. Air con in summer is something I have always lived without comfortably. Gas/electric/water, about €25 a month for a single person in a studio.

WiFi and internet is everywhere.

The best thing about living in Spain for myself is the outdoor lifestyle and all that brings with it. I you are happy living in a small town you will quickly benefit from the relaxed, friendly and open attitude. There is no suspicion, or age barriers - everybody socialises together at all times. Large cities are a little more cliquey, and it will take time to find your niche.

The relaxed lifestyle has its downsides. Mañana syndrome is very frustrating and takes a lot of getting used to! In Spain if someone says tomorrow it may well mean next week - never take them literally. If someone says meet you at 8 in the plaza, don't be surprised if they expect you to be there waiting at 10, or later.

Plenty of places on the coast (especially Costa del Sol) where you can live 'English' and never need to learn the language. Some of the less fashionable resorts like Benalmadena are affordable, have some sort of naff charm and great facilities, services etc all run by English speakers. Around 50% of the population here is non-Spanish. Love the places to visit, but it isn't the Spain I choose to live.

If you enjoy sport you will love Spain. Every city has fabulous sports facilities including outdoor pools for summer. Not uncommon to find yourself playing tennis after midnight in the summer on fabulous floodlit courts for example.

If you are considering buying property, leave it a year. Brexit has caused big wobbles for UK based buyers. Many want out now. Prices in areas with lots of UK expats and little in the way of local economy are in freefall. If you fancy isolated living in the mountains of Andalucia working from your laptop, a Two bed restored farmhouse could be yours for less than €30K.



edited...

Cigs €5/packet of 20. Tobacco €5 for 30 Gramme pouch.
MJ and hash readily available from €3/Gramme for good.

Many meds from the chemist available without prescription. My salbutamol inhaler just cost me €2.69 over the counter. Good quality pain killers etc - very cheap, no prescription.

Booze dirt cheap. Most supermarkets will stock small 33cl cans of beer from a little over 20 Cents each. Branded Scotch, or Vodka from a Tenner a 75cl bottle. Cheaper stuff available. Drinking in bars: most major cities you can find bars offering a tubo for a Euro most times of day. Quality wines very affordable. Good Crianza just €2.50 a glass in most bars.

Excellent response, thanks! Always fancied living in Spain, but every time I decide to make the move I end up meeting a woman and getting 'stuck'.

 

[Fez909]

I think you need to be quite specific on what you want in a country to work this out. For instance if you want to live quite a basic life, Brazil can be very cheap. If you want to go out to nice restaurants and generally live a more middle class life, Brazil can be expensive - similar prices to Europe for many things. There's also the question of culture - as someone has pointed out, India is cheap to live and many Westerners enjoy life there by more or less ignoring the culture around them (or exoticising it). The culture is mostly off the scale in terms of sexism, classism, racism etc. Whether that matters to you depends on what type of life you want to live. I'd say that in most of Asia you would struggle to integrate with the culture - but maybe you don't want to. If you do want to, even much of Latin America can be difficult in terms of the conservatism, sexism etc. So...it depends.

Left the question open on purpose, because I'm interested in other people's ideas of what makes a country great to live in, rather than my own pre-conceived ideas, which are almost certainly wrong/misinformed/naive.

I'm not necessarily planning to do this. But it's an option. And it's nice to fantasize.

 

[Spymaster]

.

 

[Supine]

I'd rent an apartment long term in KL or Bangkok and spent most of the year mooching around se Asia. Living like a king

 

[Cosmic]

Left the question open on purpose, because I'm interested in other people's ideas of what makes a country great to live in, rather than my own pre-conceived ideas, which are almost certainly wrong/misinformed/naive.

I'm not necessarily planning to do this. But it's an option. And it's nice to fantasize.

If I'm really honest, I've been reasonably content in most of the countries that I've spent time in. I was born in London and there's plenty about London that I like. There are things that I could moan about like the horrible traffic, congestion charge, crowded tubes/trains etc...however on the whole I can quite happily still live there if I had to.

It just so happens that currently I would prefer to live in Benalmadena Pueblo, Spain which is where our home is, lifestyle and weather being the main reasons. An improvement on that would be even better weather with similar lifestyle, which is where places like Costa Rica come into the picture.

One of the things I liked about Spain was that it's not that far from Blighty, and so if I need to come home or my folks need to visit me, or I need to get somewhere in a hurry it's relatively easy and can be quite cheap. My daughters boyfriend spent Christmas with us in Nottingham and his flight from Malaga to East Midlands was £12 with Ryanair and his flight back is £17...

...the combined cost of the flights less than the equivalent taxi fare at each end.

 

[1%er]

that sounds unbearable

Only if you don't like warm weather all year around and many people do, I'd guess more people move from the UK to a warm climate than a cold one and almost all the places recommended on this thread have a warmer climate I note.

As the OP said their only requirement was a good internet connection, it is hard to know what else they would desire.

 

[Orang Utan]

Only if you don't like warm weather all year around and many people do,

i like warm weather but not if it's too hot

 

[1%er]

i like warm weather but not if it's too hot

24C hot? I guess that's subjective It is wonderful to live in a climate where you know what to expect from the weather, I'd hate to live somewhere that you get 4 seasons in one day, I also hate rain falling on me when I'm out doing stuff and here 80% of the rain is at night time just when you want the temperature to drop a little, in time for bed

Here also has many other advantages, I choose to live in what for me is paradise I'm not sure what other than a good internet connection Fez909 wants out of their personal paradise, but I'm 100% sure that if they have an internet job they will find just the right place for them, as I mentioned above Visa's are the biggest hurdle in most cases.

Over the years of living here I have seem many people come and go and visa's seem to be the biggest problem followed by changes in exchange rates, but nowadays with prepaid debit cards, exchange rates can be handled with some simple forward planning. The change in demographic over the last 35 years is also interesting, it used to be older retired people who moved here from wealthy countries now it seem to have changed to a much younger age group who gather at the beach bars with the best internet connections.

The Internet sure has made the world a very small place if you want to take advantage of it.

 

[Spymaster]

i like warm weather but not if it's too hot

24 isn't too hot. It's just a decent UK summer day.

30+ is too hot.

 

[Orang Utan]

24 isn't too hot. It's just a decent UK summer day.

30+ is too hot.

it would be if it was like that all the time. if it's regularly 24, then it would be a lot hotter at other times. you need to experience cool to enjoy warm too imo

 

[1%er]

24 isn't too hot. It's just a decent UK summer day.

30+ is too hot.

It is also much cheaper to cool down with a cold shower and/or dip in the sea than it is to get warn with heating bills the way they are. I'm sure I read somewhere (and maybe even posted a question on here) that the cost of household utility bills in the UK nowadays is more than the cost of food for many people/families.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I've been to the Punjab, where my family comes from. I didn't like it at all. Very austere and inherently sexist. I didn't feel like I belonged one bit. I liked driving down to Delhi though and Delhi was fun. Went to Chandigarh which was interesting...although no cows to be seen!

We're off to Agra and Rajasthan in Feb. Cannot wait. I'll report back.

I doubt i could live in India though. As well being incredibly sexist, it's horrendously racist and classist. It wouldn't sit well living a relatively wealthy life around such dire poverty; where the rich eat the poor and couldn't care a less.

Landed back from Mumbai last night, there's a city I hope never to visit again, what a fucking shithole.

Great country to visit, the food's just marvelous and most things are very cheap. But yes, the fucking snobbery of the Indian middle classes is off the scale. And they all look so frigging miserable with it.

This is the view from our room on the 16th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, top end hotel and it's here:

 

[Maharani]

Landed back from Mumbai last night, there's a city I hope never to visit again, what a fucking shithole.

Great country to visit, the food's just marvelous and most things are very cheap. But yes, the fucking snobbery of the Indian middle classes is off the scale. And they all look so frigging miserable with it.

This is the view from our room on the 16th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, top end hotel and it's here:

View attachment 98207

Yes, just abominable. Glad you enjoyed your trip though.

 

[Brainaddict]

Landed back from Mumbai last night, there's a city I hope never to visit again, what a fucking shithole.

Great country to visit, the food's just marvelous and most things are very cheap. But yes, the fucking snobbery of the Indian middle classes is off the scale. And they all look so frigging miserable with it.

This is the view from our room on the 16th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, top end hotel and it's here:

There is an argument that says where's the moral high ground in placing yourself geographically further away from other people's misery? i.e. The slums are still there even when you're in the UK, you just don't have to think about them.

I don't know if I totally buy the argument, but it exists

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Krinci is home to Indonesia's tallest volcano.

I'm not sure a massive great volcano is an attraction in terms of places to live!

 

[kebabking]

i'd want to live in the mountains - Pyranees/Carpathians/Alps/Rockies - i like it cold and clear in the winter, and lots of pleasantly warm sunshine in the summer, though no higher than 20c. ever.

i can't stand other people so i have to live on my own, i could just about manage to live on the edge of a village though i'd ideally never speak to anyone...

i don't do squalor, i don't do discomfort, i like comfort, cleanliness, space, warmth, dryness and a full belly of good food.

any ideas?