I assert that Guatemala (along with other countries in the region) is the land of opportunity. I am specifically thinking of people who need to/want to work to support themselves. More specifically, those who don’t want to head to an office for an 8 to 5 job or perform local tasks.

Let me better qualify who I am talking about. Here are some typical jobs:

• Author — articles, books, …
• Techno-geek who can work remotely
• Teacher who can work on-line
• Web developer

With these jobs — jobs that can be done locally or over the Internet — your biggest expenses tend to be cost of living. For example, a techno-geek living in Silicon Valley could easily be spending $10,000/month on housing, food and transportation. Call that “the overhead of life”.

If, I the other hand, they could do their job from Guatemala, those overhead costs could be reduced to 1/10 of what Silicon Valley expects. Yes, for $1000/month you could have an apartment, Internet and some decent food options.