Bryn Wright said living overseas allows her to achieve her version of the American dream, from $300-a-month rent to $10 doctors' appointments.
Courtesy of Bryn Wright
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Bryn Wright, 29, about her experience leaving the US in 2019 to live abroad with her boyfriend. Wright funds her travels by reselling used books on Amazon. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.
I was waiting tables at two different restaurants in Arizona. One was a morning job and the other was an evening job — I got no sleep at all.
I would walk home, take a nap, go to my next job. I didn't have any time for myself. I was like, if I want to be comfortable and okay living on my own, this is what it takes right now, unfortunately.
I think people are tired of feeling overworked and stressed and maybe a little unsafe. There's this idea that maybe there's a better life out there for me somewhere else.
I didn't really see a future here.
The traditional American dream is if you work hard, you can build a better life for yourself. And ultimately with the way things are in the US, it's very, very hard to do. It's not impossible, but still it's not necessarily attainable for most.
I found the best way was to start a business, put the work in, but then go abroad somewhere where the cost of living was lower and I could really attain those things.
At first, I just wanted to travel. I wanted to go do fun things and have adventures.
Then, once I actually got abroad, I was like, "Wow, it's so much more than that. I feel so much more comfortable."
Courtesy of Bryn Wright.
When I was in Thailand, I got some cavities filled and it was $35. Coming from the US, this would easily be $600, $700 for me to just do this.
My experience with healthcare abroad has been so eye opening. I think people in the US have been super interested to hear that, if they went abroad, they can go to the doctor. It's safe. I think people have this idea that it's not safe.
It's been really fun to show people: Look at this beautiful doctor's office and it only cost $10 for me to come in here. Or, I had to go to the hospital and it didn't bankrupt me. What a revolutionary idea.
It feels like such a relief. I don't have to struggle, I don't have to worry about any of that stuff. It is a weight off my shoulders to be able to be abroad, and every day feels like a new adventure.
The driving force around where we decide to travel is really just beautiful sights, adventures we want to do, and then, of course, affordability.
Probably the most affordable place was Da Nang, Vietnam, which is this beach town.
Just the most modern, beautiful homes with pools and apartments that have beautiful views of the beach. You can rent an apartment there for $300 a month — like a beautiful, brand-spanking-new apartment, and it's just so cool.
Courtesy of Bryn Wright.
It's one of those places where it is more affordable to go out to eat just because there's so much access to fresh, affordable food.
We're going to go out to eat for every meal because Vietnamese food is so good. And you'd go to a restaurant and get this giant noodle bowl for $2. I felt like we really lived it up and we spent just $800 for the both of us, which was insane.
That's definitely a place that I could see myself posting up for a year. Just really good vibes, really nice people, a clean, beautiful little beach town, super affordable.
Mexico City was so beautiful and it's so affordable. We rented this place for the week. It was only $200 for the week for us to stay, and it was right in the middle of everything.
We've had some cool experiences in Thailand. There's this one time we went on a street-food tour and this sweet lady from India and her son were there and she was just like, "We are best friends. Come to my house for dinner. Let's hang out." It was just really fun. People are so warm and welcoming.
We spent a lot of time — a lot of time for us is, like, three months — in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. When we went, we didn't really know what to expect. We heard it was really fun. And we get down there and it is a booming digital-nomad community and everyone is there to surf. And it's such a beautiful, laid-back town.
I do feel that if I did post up somewhere abroad and said, "Okay, I'm just going to settle down and live my life here," I feel like eventually that would get a little bit more stagnant and I would get that wanderlust again and want to be on the move. That's just kind of who I am at this point.
I have lots of friends from high school — and everyone's journey is different — but a lot of them do feel stuck in their jobs or they didn't leave our hometown. To each their own, but they also feel trapped.
My boyfriend and I opened a second Amazon store and I would say between both of those stores I think we did almost $200,000 in revenue in 2023. We've also been branching out to other things. We have online Etsy stores, we do Amazon consulting, and my content creation on TikTok brings in a little bit of money.
We really try to diversify our income. We feel like it just gives us so much more peace of mind because you never know what could happen.
I'd done a bunch of research before traveling and I knew that there were places abroad that we could live very, very comfortably in for not that much money. I don't understand why people don't leave.
And even if they don't want to leave permanently, I just didn't understand why people didn't want to go see the world and see if there were something better out there.
When we finally got out and started traveling, it was so much better than we'd even expected. We should've done this sooner. And from there we just kept traveling and traveling and traveling.
It's our plan to just continue to travel because there are so many great places out there. We are slow travelers and we spend months and months in one place at a time, but there are so many places to see.
Right now, I have no desire to hunker down anywhere else and stay put. I like the option of being able to come back to the States and visit family and then we go back and travel, but I have no desire to come back to the States and stay put.
Ultimately I just want to spread the word: You have other options if you're in the US and you're tired of struggling. It doesn't have to be that way.
You don't have to spend your entire life like this if you're unhappy.
