It seems that when I decide to travel abroad, I suffer from some cognitive dissonance. I have reasons to travel yet I feel bizarre for “abandoning” north america.
My main reasons for travel ultimately comes down to geo-arbitrage and experiencing a new environment.
By geo-arbitrage, I’m talking about enjoying a higher quality of life with a lower cost of living.
For example, I can quite easily live comfortably in the philippines or thailand for $500/mo. In the philippines I once was renting a 4-bedroom house for $225/mo. Getting home cooked meals is cheap too. In Bangkok, it is even easier to get great affordable meals from street vendors.
What kind of life can I have in Canada with an arbitrary budget of say $700/mo? You might ask “Why limit yourself to $700?” but my view is that it is a great opportunity to have most of your income go into savings. Then later on, one can be truly wealthy. Food costs for one person in Canada is easily $250/mo if not more. Renting a tiny suite in an exciting location would likely be $450/mo. That’s already $700. Plus the costs for everything else is higher, entertainment, activities, transportation, clubs, whatever. Life is not fun at all with a such a tight budget.
Comparable, in an exciting city like Bangkok, with many expats, and a totally different culture and language in Thai, lots of opportunities, can enjoy life to the fullest with $700/mo most likely. Why not?!
Indeed, “why not?” Is the greatest answer to this. Why not? We live in an age where we can do this and experience things like that, so why not?????
Life is too great to limit yourself to your own land and not want to experience these things.