I Couldn’t Afford the U.S., So I Left it. Maybe You Should Too

The United States is a fantastic place, if you can afford it. Thankfully, there are other options.

(I first published this story 18 months ago. Many things have changed in this time, but to understand some of the stories I’ll share moving forward, it’s necessary to understand where I’ve been).

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I’ve spent the last two years living in South America. Six of these months were in Lima, Peru, and the rest in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I decided to make the move while the world sat shut down amid COVID. Lockdowns tend to give you time to think, analyze, and decide. I had over $1,000 in private student loan payments every month, so those were not frozen or put on government backburners like its federal brethren. Rents were surging past $2,000 a month. Without paying anything toward food, regular bills, or basic survival a cool $36,000 a year would go poof, just like that.

My apartment in Tucson, Arizona, decided to increase rent by nearly 40%, in the middle of a pandemic, and I knew I couldn’t swing that unless I started to swing from stripper poles on OnlyFans page. But after some research, it seemed like the demand for pale, mid-30-year-olds with an average body and less than stellar hairline wasn’t all that high.

So I needed an alternative.

Few Alternatives To Choose From

I searched for the most affordable rental cities in the country. Places very literally in the middle of nowhere Kansas and Iowa and West Virginia. Prices were better, but not to the point where I could begin to pay things down.

I searched out shipper container homes. If I could buy a slice of land, again in the middle of nowhere, and slowly build out a house made from shipping containers. The ones from China formerly used to move industrial waste were somewhat affordable.

But I didn’t trust myself cutting out windows in metal walls, and the possibility of developing third arms and hulk-green skin from the toxic containers didn’t sit all that well either. Although at least that would take care of worrying about paying for retirement.

Nothing added up.

At least nothing in the United States.

The Expensive Part

The fact of the matter is, the United States is a great place to live if you can afford it. It’s pay-to-play, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do just that.

I lived on protein powder, which I used as a meal replacement. Regular meals consisted of PB&J and soups made from beans and lentils. That $3,000 gone before bills, which jumped close to $3,500 once utilities and other monthly bills were included, left little to spend on living expenses.

I made far too much to qualify for affordable healthcare (insurance costs tripled after a certain “affordable” healthcare was implemented). So I paid the no-insurance fine and hopped down to Mexico from Tucson when I needed dental work.

And that was the answer. Sitting there in the waiting room of a Nogales, Mexico dental office, it finally dawned on me. I could barely survive in the United States, let alone live, but maybe if I left, things would be different.

So I started to look up external options. Places I could afford to live. Where I could actually enjoy life. Maybe even put money toward those student loans shackled to me.

I needed an affordable country I could move to with my dogs.

Destinations

Affordable didn’t prove difficult to find. Rent in nearly every city in the world would cost less than Tucson, Arizona. Funny how I could move to Paris or Madrid, if I wanted, and pay less than Tucson, or Lansing, Michigan, or Morgantown, West Virginia.

No offense to the good folk of West Virginia, but when it comes down to Valencia or Charleston, there’s only one correct answer (especially when life in the Mediterranean coastal city costs less).

The biggest caveat was a country willing to accept my dogs, one of which was a pit bull. With countries around the globe imposing bully breed bans, as well as the United States having a “high rabies” list of countries that makes returning from those nations difficult, my options became far more limited.

With a desire to move to South America, those two mandates just about decided for me. We moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a six-month stop-over in Lima as we waited for COVID restrictions to be lifted. 

After a few weeks of apartment searching and setting up cell phone service, my Buenos Aires total monthly living expenses ran $1,000 for everything. Rent, utilities, food, cell phone, medical services, vet visits. Everything.

It cost me more to maintain my U.S. cell phone number for one month than for an entire year of mobile bills in Argentina. Medical services ranged from a quarter to a tenth of what it cost in the United States. For one $100 U.S. monthly prescription medication I paid $1.50. One of my dogs, whom I sadly said goodbye to after 12 years of loving service, needed an assortment of treatments. The vet visit, with blood work, ultrasound, cortisone shot, and a month of medication, cost under $30.

My dog lived an extra six months in Argentina because in the U.S. I wouldn’t have been able to afford everything she needed.

I lived more in the past 24 months of calling South America home than in the 15 years since graduating college. I traveled more and experienced more, all without feeling the weight of an over-expensed life in the United States.

I paid off various loans, saved money toward a house (haven’t decided where that would be located), and have felt the stress of bills, politics, healthcare, and just daily life melt away.

Moving out of the United States has proven to be one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made.

If you’re in a similar boat, perhaps it’s a decision you should consider as well.