I Live Better In Tbilisi Than I Did In The US - Here’s How Much It Costs | Relocated
Transcription:
As soon as I saw this place I fell in love. My life in Tbilisi is better because I’m able to live a higher quality of life for a fraction of the cost. So this allows me to travel more, spend less time working, because if I was living in the United States, I would have to be working a lot more and now I’m basically semi retired
My name is Mike Swigunski. I’m a 33 year old from Wildwood, Missouri, and I’m a nomadic entrepreneur , based in Tbilisi, Georgia. This year, I’m estimated to make around $275,000.
The biggest Crossroads moment in my life was my senior year of university. About a month before my graduation, my mom tragically passed away from breast cancer, it showed me that you should follow what you want to do, and our time is limited on this planet. So I eventually decided to follow my dreams of traveling and book a one way ticket to Europe.
I do identify as a digital nomad, but I think more specifically, I identify as a nomadic entrepreneur, a nomadic entrepreneur is somebody who is able to build a business that’s location independent, meaning they can live anywhere in the world and work from their laptop.
I chose Tbilisi to be my home base. After coming here for one month, I essentially got trapped here with the pandemic, the borders had closed. And luckily I fell in love with this country. So decided to stay here long term. Currently, I have six different sources of income. A lot of those are coming from my book coming from a software business that I acquired and coming from services for the global career brand.
These services are helping others with inspiring them to create a different journey or start their own global careers. So essentially, I’m helping other people become digital nomads. There’s a lot of tax benefits to being a digital nomad. Essentially, if you’re spending more than 330 days outside of the United States, you don’t have to pay tax income up to $112,000.
Running multiple businesses from Georgia is definitely a lot easier than if I was based in the US and it mainly just comes down to cost. If I were trying to replicate my same infrastructure in the United States, it would probably be around 10 times more expensive.
Hey, everyone, welcome to my home in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia. So I’m currently living in the Vera neighborhood, which is a central area of Tbilisi. It’s a wonderful place because it’s really close to some of the best coffee shops, restaurants and other things that are happening in the city. If I was based in the US, I would most likely be living in one of the 10 big cities. These cities are substantially more expensive than a big city like Tbilisi, currently living in a two bedroom, two bathroom and two storey apartment that has a beautiful Italian garden, it costs only $600 a month and is around 2500 square feet. It was a little difficult finding this apartment, I had to view hundreds of difference of listings, and I ended up actually viewing around 10 different apartments. But as soon as I saw this place, I fell in love.
One of the things that’s great about Georgia and Tbilisi is it’s really easy to get around the city. I’m normally traveling by an Uber alternative called bolt. But there is a really great public transportation system here you can get pretty much anywhere in the city for just a few dollars.
Having a private chef actually saves me a lot of money. It’s not super expensive. It costs around $250 for her to come six days a week and prepare my food. This in return saves me a lot of time and money and actually has me eating healthier.
One of the great things about Georgia is whether you’re eating out at a restaurant or cooking at home, food prices are extremely low. So on an average I spend under $500 a month on all my food budget.
One of the things I love about being a nomadic entrepreneur is every day looks a little different. My typical structure is wake up in the morning, come down, have some coffee, enjoy reading a book. And then normally after that I’ll do a little bit of meditation and then head to my gym. We’ll get a nice workout in. I usually work from my home because I find it to be the most productive place but a few times a week I liked it.
I head off to coffee shops or cafes, and sometimes even co working places where I’ll meet up with some of my friends.
They have a saying here that a guest is a gift from God. And that really holds true because Georgians are very welcoming to foreigners. I think Americans visiting Tbilisi for the first time would be most shocked by day-to-day life. Essentially, Georgians are a lot more relaxed. A lot of places don’t even open till 10am. And in short, Georgians are working to live and not living to work. About once a month or twice a month, I was hosting entrepreneurial meetups. So this way I could meet with like-minded people, that were also going to be really interested in growing their businesses and kind of have the same perspective on life.
I definitely don’t think living abroad is for everyone. There are going to be a lot of different variables that you won’t be able to replicate from your old life of living in the United States. One of the things I miss about living in the United States is of course, I miss my friends and family to help improve this. I’m getting on calls pretty much every two weeks with my brother and my dad today.
Of course, there are downsides to living anywhere. And I would say in Georgia, some of the downsides that come to mind are it’s still a developing country. So there’s gonna be things like your electricity or water shutting off a little bit more than other locations. Now, this isn’t happening every day, but it does happen a couple of times a year. I’m definitely happier living in Tbilisi than I would be living anywhere else in the world. Georgia checks every box I’m looking for. I can find everything here. So would I ever live in the United States? I don’t want to speak in absolutes. I love America. But as of now, I just enjoy my life overseas a lot more than if I were going to live in the United States.
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More About This Topic:
Citizens who have the liberty to work remotely from any part of the globe are often called digital nomads. These lucky folks usually work flexible schedules, which is a way of life that’s becoming increasingly popular in various countries in the world. To meet these growing needs, many nations have now made special programs for people who want to settle in one country while rendering service to clients or employers in different countries worldwide.
A digital nomad is someone who maintains a work and travel lifestyle. Digital nomads usually work remotely and are often also referenced as location independent. The main appeal of a digital nomad is the location freedom that comes with their remote jobs.
Influencers are also considered digital nomads due to the nature of their work being remote and allowing them to get paid by creating content from anywhere in the world. The most common types of digital nomads you see on Instagram are travel content creators, however, there are also lots of digital nomads simply sharing their travels with their audience online while working as freelance writers for example, or freelance photographers.
Digital nomads can work for themselves or work for a company. Lots of digital nomads are entrepreneurs, although the vast majority of them just have a job that enables them to work from wherever. Some digital nomads are also online freelancers working as independent graphic designers, copywriters, social media managers, and virtual assistants. .2. What is the purpose of a remote work arrangement with a company? Typically, remote work arrangements are for digital nomads to be hired as contractors or freelancers by companies so that they can work remotely for their company on projects and tasks.
In an ideal scenario, the worker’s time is their own but they don’t have to worry about managing their own business, and this arrangement is as flexible as the worker’s desires. There are also situations where a company will hire a digital nomad to work on-site full-time. This usually occurs when there is a shortage of employees with in-depth knowledge of the industry or when the only avenue to create work for that particular client is through remote work.
