Why Use Geographic Arbitrage to Save Money and Start a Business While Traveling

Sharon Tseung 0:01
Hey guys, it’s Sharon from digital nomad quest. And today I want to tell you guys about why you should use geographic arbitrage to live on less so you can work on building your business. So if you don’t know already, I quit my job travel the world for two years as a digital nomad building passive income, and was able to build my net worth while traveling. So normally people think traveling is going to cost a lot, you’re going to have zero dollars when you come back. But that was not the case. For me, I was actually able to save money while I was traveling. The reason why I did this was number one, I wanted to live life. But number two, I wanted to use geographic arbitrage to actually save money, lower my expenses, and then build my business. So if you didn’t know already, geographic arbitrage means taking advantage of the difference in prices in different locations. So to do this, you’re basically earning money in a stronger economy, kind of like the bay area where I’m from, and then spending it in a weaker economy. So by doing this, I was actually only spending around 1400 dollars a month while traveling, which is insane. That was including flights, accommodation, food, entertainment, spending, shopping, and anything else, right. So this figure is a lot less than even Bay Area rent here. So I want to give you guys a breakdown of how much it costs to live in San Francisco. So I’m going to use a site number.com to show you guys how much it actually costs in San Francisco. So it says a single person will spend $1,116 and 32 cents monthly without talking about rent. So this is a figure without even including the cost of right. All right now let’s talk about how much rent actually costs. If you’re going to rent an apartment in the city center, a one bedroom cost $3,412 16 cents on average. That is insane. That is an insane amount. Now an apartment that’s three bedroom in the city center has $6,071 and 59 cents to rent per month. That is so crazy, right? So what a lot of people have to do in the city is live with roommates. So maybe three people will live in this apartment and spend $2,000 each for each room. And it still costs even more than how much I spent while traveling. So the amount that you would spend on SF rent already exceeds them out I spent living in all these different countries. So you might say, obviously SM is expensive. How much does it cost around the nation. So the US rent prices average at 1200 $31 each month, according to CBS News, but at least the median rents are more affordable at about half that price. So that’s a little more reasonable and more comparable to how much I spent while traveling. But you know, in some cities like Chiang Mai, Thailand actually spent $600 a month in living. So that was for four months on average. That’s how much I spent, which is insane, right? So you could actually live in Chiang Mai for the cost of rent and a place in us. So what’s the takeaway here, this is a way to lower your expenses and build your business while you’re doing that a lot of people worry about quitting their jobs, and then having not enough money to support themselves while they’re working on their entrepreneurial goals. Right. So this is a way where you can not have to worry as much and you’re going to have a decent standard of living while I was in Chiang Mai. I was having a time of my life. I ate out all the time. I did fun activities all the time. And that kind of goes with all of my travels actually was able to have a lot of fun. I ate out every single day for lunch and dinner. I did cook a little in the beginning but then I just I just stopped doing that because I’m just a lazy person. But yeah, you can actually save a lot of money while traveling the world you just have to pick the right places. And in my next video, I’m actually going to show you guys how to do that. I’m going to give you guys some tips on how you can actually afford long term travel with a nice standard of living. So stay tuned for that video and I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Please consider being a digital nomad. If you’re trying to build your business it’s a great way if you don’t have that much saved and you want to save some money while you’re building your business. So I hope you guys liked this video. If you’re starting your business, let me know in the comments and let me know if this is something you would be interested in. And don’t forget to click that like button and subscribe to my channel hit that bell button to to be notified for my latest videos. And thanks again for watching and I’ll see you guys in the next video.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai