I Quit My Corporate Job in Washington, DC, and Moved to Buenos Aires

• I moved from New York to Buenos Aires in 2023 to start a new life as a freelancer.
• I was feeling burned out from my corporate job in Washington, DC, and wanted to move overseas.
• I earn less money, but I am happier; the cost of living is lower and my schedule is flexible.

On a cool fall evening in 2023, I took a one-way flight from New York to Buenos Aires, intending to live there indefinitely. I had never been to Argentina before and I didn’t have a job lined up.

I felt stagnant in my corporate job and wanted a change of pace, and I wanted to live abroad after living in the same city my entire adult life. I chose Buenos Aires after about four months of consideration. I also wanted to try writing for a living, and a lower cost of living would help me be more financially secure in a relatively precarious job as a freelancer.

I was exposed to Spanish as a child, both at home and on vacations abroad.

From kindergarten through eighth grade, I attended a public school in New York City that was about 50% Hispanic, so many of my closest friends spoke Spanish at home and to each other in class.

During this time, I spent a few winter holidays traveling around Latin America with my father’s family. Since they all speak a fair amount of Spanish, on our trips to places like Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, it was easy to move beyond the tourist traps and sanitized resorts.

I started taking Spanish classes in college and continued my studies at university. More than a decade later, people here in Argentina are often surprised to learn that I’m a gringo rather than a native speaker because of this intrinsic motivation to perfect my language skills.

I went from 50 hours a week to a completely flexible schedule

I went to college in Washington, DC. After graduating with a degree in International Relations in 2021, I stayed in the area for graduate school while starting a full-time job in corporate investigations.

Working and going to school at the same time meant long work days followed by evening classes, some of which ended around 9 p.m. Sometimes I found myself working on weekends. In short, my work-life balance and sleep schedule were terrible.

Once the dust settled and I finished my master’s degree, I still wasn’t inspired by my work and corporate work was starting to take its toll on me. I loved my colleagues and learned valuable skills, but it wasn’t enough.

Even after being promoted in March 2023, I knew I would eventually abandon this career path. Even though I was climbing the ladder, the money and success weren’t worth doing a job I didn’t love. I had realized that my favorite parts of the job were research and writing, so I hoped to use those skills to move into journalism.

This would be my first time moving to a new city as an adult, so my motivation was also personal. The professional component was important, but my desire to experience a completely new culture and lifestyle, away from the DC-based support system I had developed in college, and, hopefully, learn about myself along the way, was just as important.

I make a lot less money, but the cost of living is considerably lower

I chose Buenos Aires for practical reasons: the visa situation is relatively flexible and the cost of living is low. For these reasons, there is a large expat community in the city.

I’m currently paying $400 a month to rent a studio apartment that’s about the same size as the one I paid $1,750 a month for in Washington, DC. Generally speaking, food and basic necessities are several times cheaper than in American cities.

My salary when I left my job was around $72,000, with a good insurance policy. I started saving part of my income for Argentina in early 2023 because I didn’t know how freelancing would go.

Luckily, in recent months, I started contract work for my old company at $30 an hour, which means I only have to work 10-15 hours a week to live comfortably, and I can take weeks off if I need it. In addition to my freelance contract work, I also write freelance essays and earn extra income, which is very helpful.

I don’t know when – or if – I will leave Buenos Aires

Sometimes the nature of self-employment makes budgeting and planning difficult. Every month is different, so instead of making a fixed contribution to a retirement account, I have to decide how much I save each month.

However, I am lucky to have a lot of savings and a supportive family. For example, my mother helped me pay for my flight home for Thanksgiving, which was expensive. Given that a one-way flight to New York is more than a month’s rent, the support is very helpful.

At the moment I am not actively looking for a job and plan to stay in Buenos Aires at least until the end of this year. I enjoy the lifestyle I can live here with such a flexible work schedule – it’s hard to imagine returning to a much more expensive city.