This isn't going to apply to people that have traditional careers and only get a couple of weeks off per year. Those folks are kind of forced to be subjected to the inflated prices that exist in the "high seasons" of most countries around the world. Hell, the Christmas and New Year holidays result in almost all places prices surging just because that is a kind guarantee that most people around the world have time off and can travel and therefore, the people that own the planes and the places to stay charge whatever they feel they can get away with.
There's no harm in that, it's just business, right?
Well these days I feel like more and more people are transitioning to remote work and if IT is involved in your job at all you may actually have the option to live and work remotely as well. A friend of mine that works in publishing (yes, that is still a job) recently asked his boss in Chicago if there was an option to work remotely in exchange for a reduction in salary and as it turns out there was! The reduction in salary at first was a bit crazy, something like 40% but he negotiated and got it down to 30%
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Now he can live wherever he wants and isn't even obligated to be available during all of the local work times that he was subjected to when he was in the office. He is careful to make sure that he still pulls off his part of the deal because it is risky for the employer to offer this to people as well because you are no longer down the hallway for them to come and check in on your progress. Special technology or at the minimum, A high level of trust between employer and employee are essential and if you are offered this as an option, please be careful for both your own sake and other people who are seeking this kind of life a favor and don't take advantage of it.
This is not an opportunity to completely ignore your work and dick around getting drunk all the time and ignore your workload. My friend sees this as a great opportunity and is actually trying to do a better job than he would be if he was working in-house.
It is kind of funny because he has told me that he has to make sure he does a good job but not "too much of a good job" because if he does complete his work and does it well, they are just going to give him more work to do on the same salary. It's a shame that it is like this but you know, corporate America and probably other places are exactly like this. Do to good of a job and your good actions will be punished by giving you additional work for the same salary.
Before we go down that rabbit hole though I want to talk about the benefits of working remotely even if it means that your salary is going to be reduced by 30% like my friend's was.
The average rent in Chicago is around $1800 a month. Almost nobody owns where they live because these places are not generally for sale and if they are you don't need to ask because you can't afford it.
He has moved to a city in Southern Mexico that he visited once before and the average rent there is around 17,000 Pesos, which is less than $900 a month. Now of course you can get much cheaper than this but he needed something comfortable and thus far he has been very pleased with it. He also lives in a "gringo quarter" so the prices there are inflated and that is something that he is willing to deal with.
The cost of goods and services aren't really as cheap in Mexico as you might expect, but it is still a great deal cheaper than it is in Chicago. According to various sources such as Numbeo, Teleport, and NerdWallet the average cost of living (aside from rent) in Guadalajara is about $700 a month. So let's do some remedial math here:
his rent in Chicago was $1800 a month
his rent AND his bills in Guadalajara is $900 + $700 = $1600 a month
So before we even talk about how much his outgoings per month were in Chicago, he is already saving a ton of money by not living in Chicago.
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one of my favorite places to look at cost of living in nearly any city in the world is livingcost.org and while some of their figures are going to be a bit off since they are provided by users of the site, they are a pretty good gauge of how expensive or inexpensive a place is going to be to live in.
There are some other factors such as reliable internet in Guadalajara, which I've experienced first hand is pretty good but given his job and obligations, there is zero tolerance for outages. So to combat this he got a Starlink connection that costs around $150 a month. The good news about this connection is that he can take it with him wherever he goes and wont even have to change his plan unless he decides to move to another country that for some reason or another doesn't like Starlink.
My friend is just amazed at how much more money he is actually saving by simply not living in the same city as his work is based out of. This isn't going to be an option for just everyone of course, but if you work in a technological field there is a decent chance that it is at least available on a trial basis with your company.
It can't hurt to check! You could be banking a lot more money than you are now simply by relocating to a new homebase while still working with the same company! It's worth a shot!