Best cities to live in for location-independent internet entrepreneurs

Posted By Gerardo (gerardo@expatistan.com) on 04/11/2013

This is a guest post from full-time World traveler Jasper Ribbers.

As a location independent internet entrepreneur, I can live where ever I want. One option is to roam around, moving from location to location every other week or so. This is a lot of fun and I get to see a lot of our beautiful planet this way.

However, it's though to get work done when constantly on the move. And sometimes, I just feel like having a home base for a few months. Sleep in the same bed, make some local connections and really get to know a certain place.

But where? What are good cities to camp out for a while? I've thought about this for a long time and I've come up with a number of criteria:
  • Internet speed: I need a fast connection
  • Cost of living: I rather spend less then more money
  • Climate: I prefer temperatures in the 20 - 30 Celsius range and mostly sunny
  • Safety: I value my life and I also carry just about everything I own so I rather not have it stolen
  • Health care: In case something does happen
  • Pollution: It's nice to have some fresh air
I asked fellow internet entrepreneurs what their favorite cities are to setup shop. Based on their answers, I've selected six cities: Bangkok, Medellin, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Shanghai and Vilnius.
I ranked these cities based on the factors mentioned above. I've given some factors more weight than others, to reflect my personal preferences. Here are the results:

The winner: Vilnius!

This might surprise you! Many people have never heard of Vilnius. It's the capital of Lithuania, a former Soviet state. The country is named a Baltic Tiger, for it's rapid economic development in the last decade.

Vilnius has the world's 10th fastest internet, topping all US cities. The city sees very little pollution, cost of living is low and it's a safe place. The biggest drawback is the climate. Temperatures are around or well below zero from November to April. That being said, the summers are warm and dry, so if you go June to September you'll avoid the cold!

The other cities are quite closely together, with Bangkok being somewhat behind. This is mostly due to cost of living and pollution. The city only excels at one thing: health care.

Final note

I used my personal preferences to rank the cities. For me, cost of living, climate and internet speed are the most important factors. Others might have a different opinion. To help you find your perfect city, you can download the excel sheet I used here. Fill the different weights for all factors in the grey cells and your ranking will show up in the first column!

Resources used:

About The Author

In March 2010 Jasper gave up his finance career to pursue a lifelong dream: to travel the world full time. To support himself, he runs several online businesses. He shares his adventures with the world through his blog, The Traveling Dutchman, which he also wants to use to inspire others to live their dream. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.