Blog Post 15 - Building Stability Abroad: How I’m Creating an Online Income While Living in Peru
Building Stability While Living Abroad
I’ve written before about how I afford long-term travel - how I moved all over the world without a strict budget and still made it work.
This post is a bit different.
This one isn’t about surviving on the road, working for a while and then just spending it all. It’s about what my life looks like now. About how I am building something more stable and intentional, while still choosing to live abroad and immerse myself in a completely different culture.
After months of intense travel - constantly moving, passing through places, zigzagging my way across the planet - I felt a strong desire for something else: a base. A home. A rhythm. As dreamy as long-term travel can look on social media, it can also put your body into survival mode. Mine certainly was. I felt it physically as well as mentally - stress, exhaustion, even my hair started falling out and my skin started reacting.
I realised I needed stability. Not to stop moving forever, but to create a foundation. An income that supports my daily life and gives me the space to grow creatively and build long-term projects that can travel with me when I move again. Because starting over again-and-again is exhausting.
Living in Peru has given me exactly that space. I’m still figuring out the right balance, but I’m slowly building a life where working online, living well, creating art, and simply being present can coexist.
In this post I’d like to share how I currently support myself financially, how teaching online unexpectedly became my anchor, why Peru is the right place for me to build an online business, and what I’m working toward behind the scenes.
Not as a blueprint - but as an honest snapshot of this chapter of my life.
Teaching Online: From Preply to My Own Website
Teaching online has unexpectedly become the foundation of my income. It’s the part of my work that brings stability - and also the part that requires the most consistency and energy.
A friend I regularly ran into while working in the same café told me about how he was teaching languages online and how it provided him with a stable income. I had thought about it before, but the conversation with him really stuck with me as I was in the place I really wanted to stop draining my savings. A few years earlier, I had already earned my teaching certificates for teaching English, thinking maybe it will come in handy one day. After a year and a half of not earning any money, the idea of having a reliable monthly income to cover rent and food felt incredibly appealing.
Currently - and a bit unexpectedly teaching online has become the foundation of my income. It’s the part of my work that brings stability - and also the part that requires most consistency and energy.
So, without much experience but with the right qualifications, I started teaching on Preply. It was an easy entry point: students were already there, the structure was set up, and I didn’t have to worry too much about marketing or tech. It helped me build my experience, gain confidence, and understand how students like to be taught. Once again I realised, teaching comes naturally to me, just like teaching painting had in the past.
Not long after I joined the platform, I started getting asked whether I could teach Dutch as well, as that’s my native language. I saw an opportunity and said yes - as language learning is a general thing. Little did I know - this would be my main language to teach after a while.
Over time, however, I began to feel the downsides of the platform. Trial lessons were unpaid, and a large percentage of my earnings went to Preply. Raising my prices wasn’t really an option, as it made it harder for students to sign up. So, I decided to take the leap and move part of my teaching onto my own website.
That didn’t mean less work - quite the opposite. Suddenly, I was managing everything myself: bookings, communication, payments, lesson planning and admin. Teaching takes energy, and running your own online business adds another layer on top of that. However, it has been giving me exactly what I was looking for: stability on my own terms.
Teaching now covers my rent, groceries, and daily life. I have even been able to buy pillows for my house! It means I’m no longer watching my savings slowly disappear. And because that foundation is there, I have the freedom to work on other projects alongside it - my blog (although, it’s still a lot of work), art, photography, and ideas that don’t need to make money immediately.
It’s not passive income. It’s not easy money.
But it’s honest work, it’s fun - and right now, it forms the backbone of the life I’m building.
Stability in Practice: Income Meets Everyday Life
Teaching online is what makes my life here possible — not just in theory, but in very practical, everyday ways.
It allows me to rent a home, not just a room. To sign a long-term contract. To unpack properly and get a bit of routine into my life and focus on my health. To create a base instead of constantly moving.
To give you an idea of the cost of living: I currently rent a beautiful modern house for 1,700 soles per month (around €420). For local standards, that’s on the higher side. Many Peruvians wouldn’t choose or be able to afford this kind of place. For me, however, it feels like a luxury that’s at this point in my life incredibly accessible.
The house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, is new, comfortable, and fully equipped. I can make it my home - and because there’s extra space, I’m also able to share it, which lowers my costs even further.
Daily life here feels grounding too. Groceries are fresh, unprocessed (mainly organic) and affordable. A 20-liter bottle of drinking water costs around 14 soles, and at the market I can buy bags of vegetables and fruit: yesterday I bought 3 tomatoes, an onion, a big broccoli, 2 carrots, a big red capsicum, and a zucchini for in total the equivalent of €2,50.
It’s not about living “cheap”. It’s all about living well, healthy and without constant financial pressure.
Here is a rough overview of costs here, bare in mind everything is approximate and subject to currency fluctuations:
Of course this is not all my costs for the month. I use about 1 bottle of drinking water a week, I treat myself regularly, and don’t really keep track. I also still have to pay good old Ome Duo (the Dutch government) for my student loan each month and my expat travel & health insurances. I am also not making a Dutch minimum wage just yet - as I am still building this. However, at the moment it’s sufficient and growing! Peru isn’t just where I happen to be right now - it actively supports the way I want to live and work.
Why Peru Is the Perfect Place For Me to Build This Life
To be very honest: my income at this stage isn’t comparable to a full-time salary in Europe. I’m not earning what I would in a traditional job back home. And that’s okay - because my life here doesn’t require that kind of income.
The cost of living allows me to build stability without constant pressure. I can cover my expenses, live comfortably, and still have space - mentally and financially - to work on long-term projects instead of only focusing on immediate income.
I can live well here - even luxuriously for my own standards - while keeping my monthly costs manageable. That balance changes everything. It means I don’t need to overwork myself just to survive. I can focus on doing my work well, rather than doing more of it.
Peru attracts many digital nomads and remote workers for exactly this reason. Reliable internet, affordable living, and a slower pace of life make it easier to build something gradually. To grow without burning out.
At the same time, I’m very aware that many of the houses and services foreigners use are priced higher than what locals can afford. I don’t see this lifestyle as “cheap living,” but as a conscious choice - one that requires awareness, respect, and gratitude.
What Peru gives me most, though, isn’t financial. It’s energetic. The mountains, the pace, the culture all support a way of working that feels aligned rather than forced.
This is a place where stability doesn’t feel restrictive.
I feel supported - for this phase of my life.
I hope this gave you and your curious mind some insight and answers.
With warmth,
Kimberly 🌻