Guest post: You Don’t Need a Conventional High-Paying Job to Live Comfortably

$40,000 Per Year Is Enough for a Comfortable Life. This Is How

Mar 10, 2023

Listen to the audio version - narrated by me - here

This week I’ve (ironically, considering Wednesday’s post) been a little under the weather thanks to a dodgy encounter with a soup. Add in two long days of travel as my husband and I travel across the entire length of Romania, and I was worried I’d have nothing to give you today.

God bless my friend U-Ming Lee who graciously has allowed me to re-post one of his excellent articles so you have more than a no-show from me this week.

U-Ming is one of those people who I “got” straightaway when we were introduced back in 2020. We have similar outlooks on life and share many of the same philosophies, including how we choose to a) live life (on the road) and b) spend (or not spend) our money.

I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did. If you’re on Medium, you can read the original article here. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Follow U-Ming and his writing over at Medium.

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By U-Ming Lee

As the title suggests, $40,000 per year is more than enough to live comfortably.

You’re probably rolling your eyes at how ridiculous this statement appears. After all, $40,000 per year is slightly less than the average American household earns.

My annual living expenses have never exceeded $25,000. In fact, I travelled for 10 of the 12 months last year while keeping my spending at $25,000 a year.

No, I did not #vanlife in Cambodia with only one piece of luggage. I enjoyed my travels with no feeling of deprivation whatsoever.

I think more Americans could live comfortably on $40,000 a year — or even $25,000 a year — without breaking a sweat.

However, achieving this requires some planning. You’ve got to flip some conventional wisdom.

First, bear with me as I provide some context so you understand where I’m coming from.

Then I’ll explain how you do it.

The Traditional Definition of a Comfortable Life Is No Longer Tenable

I attended a boarding school in England before reading for my degree at Cambridge University.

Not all Cambridge students are geniuses. After all, I got in!

But the vast majority of them have Type A personalities. They are diligent, ambitious, and hyper-competitive.

They craved success. And, in modern capitalist societies, success is frequently associated with huge incomes.

Thus, after graduating, many of my peers pursued careers in management consulting, investment banking, or software development.

These jobs were associated with six-figure salaries and extravagant bonuses. They were regarded as a ticket to a “comfortable life.”

Because all these jobs were concentrated in global cities — New York, London, or Paris — I would find my peers invariably ending up in these places, housed in homogeneous glass and metal towers.

Some achieved the financial status and trappings of the “comfortable life” they envisioned.

However, for many others, the promise of a comfortable life was a mirage.

The Type A personalities which gravitated to these professions were surrounded by other Type A personalities.

Wall Street is populated with tens of thousands of Type A personalities, each one grasping for a piece of the pie, elbowing aside anyone who dares to take what they believe to be their birthright.

The environment surrounding these places is one of conspicuous consumption, where success is measured in the most superficial of terms, such as a “successful” banker wearing a suit that costs more than the average person’s mortgage.

Most People Won’t Achieve the Comfortable Life They Desire…

Given the competitive nature of this environment, many Type A personalities who assumed they could work their butts off for a decade or two before retiring to a life of leisure never achieved the comfortable life they expected.

The popularity of Wall Street or Silicon Valley has more to do with the illusion of bestowing great wealth upon its employees than with the ability to deliver on this promise.

Profits and bonus pools are finite, no matter how powerful the institution is. So, for every person who receives a 7-figure bonus, thousands more leave the workforce, either because they are burned out or because the company saw no further use for their services.

It is a system that chews up and spits out people.

Yet the dream is compelling enough for thousands of ambitious graduates from Oxbridge or Ivy League schools to willingly throw themselves into this system year after year, hoping to be one of the anointed few.

The demand from these young hopefuls raises living costs in global metropolises such as New York and London. Now, add to this mix consistent demand from captains of industry and oligarchs.

You’ll soon need much more than $40K per year just to cover your rent.

It doesn’t matter if you have several degrees from top universities and a fancy, well-paying job.

If your lifestyle continues to rise with your pay, your standards for a “comfortable lifestyle” will shift.

And the comfortable lifestyle you seek will always remain tantalisingly out of reach.

You might start off considering a two-bedroom apartment the epitome of a comfortable lifestyle.

Once lifestyle inflation takes hold, pretty soon that two-bedroom will be a three-bedroom, then a penthouse, then a pied-a-terre in Manhattan, plus a mansion in the Hamptons.

One day, you might be promoted beyond your ability or the market crashes. You risk being fired and struggling to maintain a lifestyle you can no longer sustain.

And dealing with the emotional ramifications of that dramatic fall from grace.

… Unless You Radically Change Your Working Conditions

I burned out quickly in this system.

I discovered remote work as a freelancer in 2009 after failing to recapture my previous “glory” working on Wall Street and becoming dissatisfied with a series of corporate jobs I never related to.

I’ve never looked back since.

Because remote work allows you to live a comfortable life for far less than you would if you worked in a traditional corporate job.

Remote working liberates you from the tyranny of geography.

People had to congregate in a few high-power cities in the past because that was where all the high-paying jobs were.

However, because none of these cities had enough high-paying jobs to accommodate all of the ambitious young people who wanted them, some people were inevitably priced out of these markets.

With remote working, you no longer need to be in any of these cities. You could quickly relocate to a lower-cost-of-living city such as Bangkok, Istanbul, or Rio de Janeiro.

Suddenly, you wouldn’t need to clear $40K annually just to pay the rent. Now, $40K per year will be more than enough to rent a place that isn’t a glorified cabinet, hire a part-time cleaner, dine out 2–3 times a week, get a personal trainer, take regular vacations, and so much more.

I know what you’re thinking.

But if I go to these places, I can’t be an investment banker, hedge fund manager, big law partner, or MAMAA tech lead!

True. This isn’t for everyone.

But before you dismiss it entirely, ask yourself this.

Do you genuinely want these jobs because you enjoy the challenge of competing with other Type A personalities and hoping to come out on top?

Or are you just going for the money, prestige, or to make someone else proud of you?

You Won’t Need to Buy Crap You Don’t Want Just to Impress People

One less appreciated but potent advantage of working entirely remotely is that you will be judged by the quality of your work rather than any irrelevant social indicators.

Let’s say you have a deep drawl that you’re embarrassed about and can’t seem to shake.

However, international clients are unlikely to judge you based on your accent because they are unaware of the regional US accents.

Similarly, you wouldn’t need a flashy car, outfit, or address to impress your clients. They wouldn’t give a damn.

You could even get away with holding unconventional political beliefs.

Now, I work primarily with Bulgarian clients from a British company, for whom I write market research reports about Thailand.

They won’t care if I held unpopular positions about the Malaysian political scene. These opinions could land me in hot water if I relied solely on Malaysian clients or employers.

This is hugely liberating. It means you are free to do whatever you want. You can live in a van and work in your t-shirt and shorts all day if that makes you comfortable.

Nobody will notice.

Your work is all that matters.

Real-World Examples of People Living Comfortable Lives on $40k per Year

All of this might sound like pie-in-the-sky thinking. But I wouldn’t have mentioned $40K per year if I didn’t have real-world examples.

My friends Charlie Brown (that’s me) and Sam Dixon Brown have been travelling around Europe for $40,000 per year.

Rocco Pendola

planned a trip to Spain and Italy with his partner totalling $3,629 a month, or just under $44,000 per year, including flights, trains, and AirBnBs.

And Jack Krier spent the entire year 2022 travelling to 24 countries for a grand total of $29,630.

I spent ten months in Bangkok, Thailand last year. I spent approximately $21,000 in the process. That works out to about $25,000 per year.

This was not a lifestyle of enforced austerity. I lived in an apartment in the heart of the city. It came complete with reception, security guards, a fully-equipped gym, and a swimming pool.

I ate out at some of Bangkok’s better restaurants when I got tired of cooking.

I bought takeout coffee.

I bought souvenirs and other things without having to scrutinise the price tag.

I even went to the dentist, had several dental procedures, and paid for everything out of pocket.

In short, I did everything one might expect to do in a major American city, but much more affordably due to the disparities in spending power between the two countries.

Final Thoughts

You may be tempted to dismiss this article as a long advertisement for the digital nomad lifestyle.

That’s not the message I want you to take away.

Instead, I want you to learn to flip this conventional assumption.

Conventional wisdom would have you believe that you need to find a job that pays an eye-watering amount.

However, most of those jobs are concentrated in cities. So, you must move to a target city, get that high-paying job, work your way up a brutal hierarchy to earn enough for a comfortable life, and hang on for dear life long enough before you can “retire.”

For those who lack the talent or inclination to work in one of the rapidly dwindling numbers of well-paying jobs, life in the city can be harsh indeed.

So you may be tempted to take a lower-paying job while supplementing your income with one or more side hustles to make the numbers work.

Do you really need to make things so hard for yourself?

Rather than ask yourself, “How much do I need to make to live comfortably?” ask yourself,

How can I live comfortably with what I am earning right now?

More options become available to you as you advance through the earnings tiers.

You’re in good shape if you make $40k per year and can work remotely from anywhere in the world.

$40k per year allows you to live in places like Bangkok, Thailand, or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while still having $10k in savings.

If you can raise your annual income to $50k, you could add cities such as Barcelona, Spain, or Naples, Italy, and still have money left over.

With $60k a year, places like Seoul, Korea, or Tokyo, Japan, might be interesting.

You could also move between places.

The point is by not chasing the mirage of having to earn megabucks to live in your preferred big city, you open yourself up to many other possibilities.

You might not be sipping vintage Bordeaux at Le Bernardin or draping yourself in Gucci.

But you will be exposing yourself to opportunities and experiences you never imagined you’d have.

And you’d be doing it with minimal risk because much of the world has lifestyle, dining, wellness, and healthcare options that rival those in the US at a fraction of the cost.

I understand that not everyone can take advantage of these opportunities. Your job may not be suitable for remote work, or you may have family obligations that keep you in the United States.

However, for those who don’t face these constraints, keeping their earnings relatively low — $40,000–50,000 per year — while moving locations could be a tremendously liberating opportunity.

It means no longer chasing the illusory high-paying but extremely competitive job that never materialises.

Or it means not being forced to supplement your income with one or more side hustles just to live.

This article was originally posted on Medium. Follow U-Ming here.

In 2022, We Spent $56,000 (While Traveling the World) - Brent and Michael are going places
My Husband and I Spent $40k Living in Mainland Europe for One Year. Here’s an Honest Account of How It Looked - by me
$100,000 A Year As A Life Goal Is So 1990 — And Not In A Good Way - Rocco Pendola

Simple and Straightforward

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