Are These Really The 10 Best Places to Live if You Freelance?

I’m not sure I agree with this list.

Freelancing is fun because technically, if you have an internet connection and an entrepreneurial spirit, you can work from anywhere: your couch; the bed; that desk in the corner of your room; a hotel balcony in Barcelona; perched on the loft of the tiny home you built that you tug from wide open field to soaring desert.

Maybe you’re a freelancer, reading this from your bungalow in Tulum, sipping a coconut water and patting yourself on the back for the freedom your lifestyle affords. Or, maybe you’re Quasimodo’ed over a laptop at a coffee shop, invoicing and emailing someone about money you’ve been owed since November while stress-eating a pallid croissant. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt what is clearly very important work, but please consider the fact that you might not be living in one of the cities recently ruled as one of the best cities to live in if you are a freelancer.

Do You Live in One of the Best Cities for Freelancers?

Hoofdkraan.nl, a “Dutch freelancing platform,” looked at cities across the world and considered a variety of factors, including internet speeds, housing prices, freedom of speech, quality of life and safety. Here’s their list:

• Lisbon, Portugal
• Miami, FL
• Seville, Spain
• Las Palmas, Spain
• New Orleans, LA
• Bristol, UK
• Marseille, France
• Bratislava, Slovakia
• Vancouver, Canada
• Porto, Portugal

A fair amount of these cities are near the beach and I can personally attest that for at least one of them, the cost of living does appear to be low. I’m not entirely sure how Bristol ended up on the list and I know nothing of Slovakia to make any judgments, so I shall hold my tongue. Taking all of the factors into consideration, on paper, it makes sense how some of these places might be good. But what good is freelancing at all if you don’t have anyone around you who works in the same industry?

The “free” in freelancing means you’re free! You chase down your money. You find your own health insurance. You operate like a one-person business, all spreadsheets and calculators and P&L reports. You make the rules, boss, so if Tuesday feels like a Friday to you, then by all means, get out there and get after it. Such is the joy of working for yourself. Pack your bags, move to Lisbon and start a new life, if you want. You make the rules, boss.

The other part about freelancing that no one tells you about or that we should probably all talk about much more often is that living and working in a city where you have the opportunity to meet people who do what you do, network(ugh) with those people and then ideally get more work. Working for yourself is lonely, but working in a vacuum, surrounded by people who don’t do what you do and won’t be able to help you find more of it, feels like it might make the loneliness worse.

I’m not saying that work will dry up the minute you leave the city or town where your established network is. I’ve always wanted to move to New Orleans and live there for a while, so imagine my delight when it appeared in the top ten of this very scientific list. The fear of leaving New York, though, and the industry I’ve chosen to be a part of, is very real. I would be able to do the same work that I’m doing now, but would I be able to get more? I never “network” but the opportunity to do so abound, should I desire it. Who would I network with in Bratislava?

Working in an office is terrible because hell is other people, but those other people in your office are all in the same boat as you are. You’re all dutifully paddling towards the same murky goal, and that solidarity counts for something, even if you hate them.

Are you happy enough? Do you have food? Have you eaten something in the past few hours? Do you have friends and family and a community to cling to in these troubled times? Here’s a suggestion: the best place to live if you’re freelancing is wherever the hell you live, right now.

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