August 3, 2011
Vilnius, Lithuania
As is typical for me, I woke up this morning with the sun shining in my face from the east-facing window of my apartment here in Vilnius. It’s a really spectacular place– 2 bedrooms, around 1,000 square feet, and generously decorated with a lot of elegant finishings.
From here, I’m about 2 blocks from the main square– an excellent location. But the best part is the price. This luxurious penthouse is setting me back a whopping 49 euros per night– that’s around $70 USD. This is reflective of Lithuania’s substantially lower cost of living, especially compared to the rest of Europe.
For example, I spent about $100 at the grocery store for a week’s worth of food last night, most of it organic… and locally produced. I rarely have difficulty finding the products that I want, even hard to find specialty items like all-natural organic peanut butter (a staple of my standard diet).
Real estate costs here are also quite reasonable. I’ve seen tier-1 property for sale for 1,500 euros per square meter (less than $200 per square foot), and my friend who founded the largest real estate brokerage in the Baltics tells me that property prices here are still down 40% from their 2008 peak… though stable.
Lithuania is also a very cost effective choice for business owners. The labor pool is quite inexpensive– you can hire a university educated, trilingual employee who speaks English and Russian in addition to Lithuanian, for $800 to $1,200 per month.
Personal and corporate tax rates here are also very low, a hallmark of the Baltic economies. And one of the secrets of this place is that you can actually be granted residency in Lithuania simply by forming a local company.
As Lithuania is part of the borderless area of the European Union, this effectively entitles you to remain on the continent indefinitely– a back door into the south of France, even. Attendees of our offshore workshop in Panama learned all about this great loophole from one of my close, personal contacts who spoke at that event.
Business infrastructure here is excellent as well. They’ve recently upgraded the Internet architecture here in Vilnius, and it’s blazing fast. This makes it possible for people to earn a living without being chained to geography.
We live in a world where geography and borders are becoming less relevant… no longer the ball and chain that they used to be. Technology is making it easier to live where you want, and work where you want, without the two necessarily being the same.
This isn’t just for online businesses and bloggers, though those two business models clearly work in a borderless world. There are literally hundreds of options– self-employed professionals who have infrequent client meetings, traders, designers, programmers, media workers, telesalesmen, analysts, customer service workers, etc.
Over the next several years, I’m predict a massive demographic shift as more and more people begin to push beyond their home country and explore these kids of opportunities to live overseas while earning a living back home.
This is a consequences of all the various debt, economic, and resource crises around the world; fed up with the situation at home, whether it be rising crime, higher costs, lack of job prospects, or the growing police state, many people will start considering a move overseas, where in many cases, the grass actually is greener.
There really are a lot of different possibilities for those willing to explore the options… and a lot of great places like Lithuania that could be a beautiful, inexpensive new home to relocate to and set up shop.
