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16 Jan 10 Location Independence - yep, I could do this
I’ve been in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a little over a week now. I came from London via Madrid last Friday, and I’m staying in a beautiful split-level apartment in the Palermo part of town.
I found the apartment via BYT Argentina, who specialize in short term rentals in Buenos Aires, and they where most helpful in arranging everything from airport transport to meeting me at the apartment. I would strongly recommend them to anyone who is staying in Buenos Aires for longer (though I would advise to pay the deposit via PayPal which I did, as BYT’s credit card payment page is not SSL-secured, hence wide open to security issues).
In general, I have all the amenities I would have at home in London and more, including high speed internet (though sometimes a bit patchy). It’s pretty much like being home away from home. I’d rather be in the Argentinian summer right now than UK winter.
This is my first adventure in trying a location independent lifestyle for a longer period of time, and a temporary one as my business isn’t entirely location independent yet. I was a bit skeptical at first whether I was cut out for it, being a person who likes his home comforts and familiar surroundings.
I was wrong: I could do this. With Skype, MSN and Facebook, friends are always readily available to talk, and meeting new people in a strange city, especially if you like me break the norm of what others look like (blonde and blue eyes in latin America) couldn’t be easier. I’ve found people friendly and eager to talk at every turn, and it doesn’t exactly hurt that most locals are quite easy on the eye..
Another thing I’ve realized is that location independence is a lot cheaper than you’d think: prices in Argentina for example are ridiculously low compared to western europe. I could probably live like a king around here for around $2000-3000 a month, whereas in London you’d struggle to reach the same living standards for less than $5000-6000 a month.
The upshot of all this is: Yes, I could live this lifestyle. Now all I need is to start building more income streams to support it.
