Well, from my experience, I spend approximately $2,500 per month living in Bogotá, in the Salitre neighborhood, which is a 5-6 stratum area—meaning it’s a neighborhood where socioeconomically stable people live. It’s my girlfriend and me, so if you’re single, you’ll probably spend much less. I take care of everything, but my girlfriend also contributes without me even asking.
Additionally, I send money to my parents and help them with whatever I can. Sometimes I send them 1-2 million Colombian pesos ($500). I don't lend them money, I give it to them because, in the end, we are always capitalists with strangers but communists with the people we love.
Colombia is stratified by income
The poorest neighborhoods are strata 1-2, and the most affluent are strata 5-6. These wealthier neighborhoods also receive the most expensive utility bills because the poorer neighborhoods receive subsidies for public services and pay much less.
I pay $500 per month in rent for a 40-square-meter apartment with one bedroom and one bathroom. The building has a pool, terrace, gym (better than SmartFit, so I canceled my subscription), sauna, steam room, covered basketball court, soccer field, ping-pong tables, study rooms, and more. It’s a very cool building.
I’d say that if I earned in pesos, I’d be in a difficult situation because both grocery shopping and owning a car in Colombia have practically become luxuries. This shift happened since the pandemic, but also since the guerrilla leader Petro came into power.
Earning in dollars is literally a paradise in this country
I’m fortunate enough to earn in dollars through my Substack and also thanks to Twitter. Because of my BowTiedColombia account, I was offered ownership of 50% of an audiovisual company from the ground up, and thanks to my tweets, I was able to bring in my first client.
This client is significant because they need 9 modules of 6 videos each, 10 minutes long, for YouTube. Here’s a bit of what we do so you can see the quality, and I’ll leave the link to schedule a meeting with me if you’re interested.
This video was an animation for a banking app.
for meetings with me for do this things and more, let me know: HERE
But the point is, thanks to my earnings in dollars, I can live well in this city. I do my grocery shopping at PriceSmart (Costco) because everything lasts much longer, and the products seem to be of better quality.
Who would’ve thought that the best place to grocery shop in Colombia is in an American supermarket chain?
Haha, but it’s true. Coconut oil is much cheaper compared to the local product, and I don’t understand why, given that we have the raw materials here. At PriceSmart, I buy eggs, meat, chicken, a product called Tostones (fried plantains) which is excellent, tuna, laundry detergent, and dishwashing liquid. I even bought my air fryer there because everything is cheaper than at traditional Colombian supermarket chains like Éxito.
I buy my vegetables at Paloquemao. I wrote a post about it. I don’t shop there just because it’s cheap—which, of course, it is, as it’s a very popular market in Bogotá—but also because of the quality of the vegetables and fruits. It’s unmatched; there’s nothing like it, except maybe Carulla, but Carulla is a much more expensive supermarket chain, probably the most expensive in Colombia.
I spend around $70 per month on electricity, water, and internet bills, and let’s remember that my bills are higher because I live in a stratum 5 neighborhood. The utility bills are affordable. I pay $20 per month for internet and TV (CLARO TV).
I spend quite a bit on Uber, around 400,000 Colombian pesos or $100 per month
It’s a lot, haha, especially since I often pay for my girlfriend’s Ubers when she needs to get to work and such. I might have to buy a car, although it’s not really convenient to have one in Bogotá—there’s a lot of traffic, parking is expensive (like 30,000 pesos for 3 hours, depending on the area), and gasoline is more expensive in Colombia than in the United States.
I’d recommend buying a car in Colombia if you live in Pereira, Medellín, Ibagué, Cartagena, or another city besides Bogotá because Bogotá is a disaster in terms of traffic, and it’s not very useful to have a car here, but well, sometimes it’s necessary.
In Colombia, a car signifies status, both for dating and in society. Status is stupid, I know, but it still means a lot. It represents progress, not necessity. There’s always the saying that women love a man with a Toyota and will forgive him for being unfaithful. Hahaha, that’s a very Colombian thing. If you’re a foreigner, you don’t need a car; you already have status. People assume you’re a millionaire just because you’re not from here, haha.
When it comes to partying, my girlfriend and I spend around 400,000 Colombian pesos, depending on what we do
Bogotá has good restaurants, so we’ll go to a great place where a meal for two costs about 200,000 Colombian pesos, then head to a bar like Mono Bandido or something similar to have some beers or cocktails, which costs about 100,000 pesos, and the Uber round-trip costs around 50,000 pesos. On average, that’s about $100, but that’s covering everything for two people—food, drinks, Uber—at a nice place in Bogotá.
Those are roughly the expenses, but as I’ve always said, it’s hard to spend a lot in Colombia. Even if you want to, it’s difficult. I don’t know what someone who earns $10,000 a month could spend it on living in LATAM.
It’s hard to spend all that money even if you tried. If you have a family and want your kids to attend the best schools in Colombia—which really are some of the best, bilingual with top-quality English—let’s assume you want the best of the best, you have a family and a wife, and you’re supporting everyone. I’d say in Bogotá, the capital, one of the most expensive cities in Colombia, you’d need about $7,000-$9,000 a month, but that’s going all out, living among the Colombian elite, with everything top-notch. But if you’re single, it’s almost impossible to spend all that money, even if you want to.
It’s worth noting that I spend this on my girlfriend, who lives with me. Not just on any woman I might meet on apps or anything like that. I feel like foreigners spend too much on women they don’t even know, and that’s why bad things happen to them. A Latina woman you don’t know shouldn’t be taken to fancy restaurants or anything like that. Just grab a coffee to get to know each other, and that’s it. If there’s chemistry, you can keep going out, and so on.