This 33-year-old left the United States for Georgia and lives on $ 1,592 a month

By 2020, Mike Swigunski was among millions of people in lockdown as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the globe. But instead of tooting to roommates or family, Swigunski was 6,000 miles away from home, alone in a foreign land.

Swigunski had only planned to visit Georgia, a small country located between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, for 30 days. But when Georgia closed its borders in early March to help curb the spread of the virus, the Missouri native was forced to extend his stay in the country’s capital, Tbilisi.

As Swigunski remembers it, however, he quickly fell in love with Tbilisi’s old-fashioned charm as well as its relaxed culture with good food and warm hospitality. Now Swigunski, 33, from Tbilisi, lives and works as a nomadic entrepreneur, a decision that has helped him live “a higher quality of life for a fraction of the price,” he tells CNBC Make It.

If he lived in the United States, Swigunski adds, “I should work a lot more … now I’m semi-retired.”

Swigunski had always dreamed of traveling the world, and before graduating from the University of Missouri in 2011, he found himself at a crossroads: pursuing a traditional business job or traveling to Prague, where he was offered the opportunity to lead a group of students. studying abroad.

Then, a month before graduation, Swigunski’s mother died of breast cancer. “I was completely crushed,” he says. “I was 22 years old and I was in doubt about which path to take … but I knew my mother would have wanted me to follow my dreams.” He decided to follow his passion and booked a single ticket to Europe.

Since then, Swigunski has visited over 100 countries, lived and worked in various locations for months or years at a time: he has been a travel writer in Korea, advertising manager in Australia and marketing and sales manager in New Zealand. job.

Four years ago, Swigunski decided to monetize his expertise in teleworking and travel. His company, Global Career, is an online resource with job boards, workshops, coaching and more where people can learn about entrepreneurship as a digital nomad.

“These services help other people by inspiring them to create a different journey or start their own global career,” he says. “I want to help other people become digital nomads on a faster path.”

Swigunski’s annual income fluctuates between $ 250,000 and $ 275,000 – and thanks to tax benefits in Georgia, he gets much more of his income than he would otherwise.

Georgia has a tax rate of 1% for individual owners of small businesses like Swigunski, and the United States has a tax advantage for expatriates that excludes up to $ 112,000 of income from being taxed.

“Running more companies from Georgia is certainly a lot easier than if I were based in the United States, and it’s mostly just down to the cost,” he explains. “If I tried to copy my same infrastructure in the US, it would probably be about ten times more expensive.”

Under Georgian law, citizens of 98 countries, including the United States, can stay there for an entire year without a visa and apply for an extension once the year is over, and that’s how Swingunski still lives in Georgia.

His biggest expenses are his rent and supplies, which together are about $ 696 every month. Swigunski lives in a one-bedroom apartment with a private Italian garden, which he found through a local real estate agent. “As soon as I saw this place, I fell in love,” he says.

Here is a monthly summary of Swigunski’s expenses (from February 2022):

Rent and utilities: $ 696

Food: $ 469

Transport: 28 USD

Telephone: $ 3

Subscriptions: $ 16

Health insurance: $ 42

Trip: $ 338

Total: $ 1,592

One aspect of living alone that Swigunski learned early on that he did not enjoy is cooking – so when he moved to Georgia, he hired a private chef to come to his home six days a week and prepare meals for him, which cost about $ 250 per. month.

A private chef may sound like a luxurious expense, but Swigunski says it has actually saved him a lot of money. “Without a chef, I would eat a lot more out and order takeaway,” he says. “But having a chef allows me to eat healthier, and it saves me money and time that I can spend on my business instead.”

Swigunski’s favorite part of being a nomadic entrepreneur is that “every day looks different.”

Every morning, Swigunski likes to enjoy a cup of coffee and read a book outside in his garden, then try to sneak into a quick meditation and workout before logging on to work.

He usually works from home because that’s where he is “most productive”, but sometimes he goes to a café or a collaboration with friends.

One of the biggest differences between living in Georgia and the United States, Swigunski says, is that Georgians are “much more relaxed.” “Many places do not even open until 10 a.m., and in general Georgians work to live, not live to work,” he adds.

There is a phrase that describes Georgian hospitality: “A guest is a gift from God.” It has held true for Swigunski, who notes that people are “very accommodating to foreigners” and have been “absolutely wonderful” in his experience.

But living abroad is not as glamorous as it may seem on the surface. “It’s not for everyone,” Swigunski says. “There will be a lot of different variables that you will not be able to copy from your old life of living in the United States”

Because Georgia is still a developing country, Swigunski explains, “their electricity or water shuts down a little more here than elsewhere – this does not happen every day, but it does happen a few times a year.”

Although he sometimes has homesickness for his family and friends in the United States, Swigunski says he is “happier living in Tbilisi” than he would be living “anywhere else in the world,” and plans to stay in Tbilisi for the foreseeable future. .

“Would I ever live in the United States again? I do not want to speak in absolute numbers, I love America,” he says. “But right now I’m just enjoying my life abroad a lot more than if I were to live in the US”

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