At 23, Denae McGaha had a choice: She could spend her entire savings moving to New York City, or she could take a teaching job halfway across the world.
It was 2017, and McGaha, who graduated college just one year earlier, had about $4,000 in her bank account. “It was the most money I’d ever had in my life,” she says.
McGaha spent the summer after she graduated backpacking through Europe. Then she moved in with her mom on Whidbey Island in Washington and got a job as a barista at a local coffee shop.
She saved “every dollar from every shift” to move to New York, where she hoped to pursue a career in marketing — but without a firm job offer and hardly enough savings to cover rent and groceries, the move seemed fruitless.
“I felt like such an imposter,” McGaha recalls. “Everyone I knew was applying to grad school or landing job offers in big cities, and I was just tired and lost …. I had no idea what to do with myself, but I knew I wanted to keep traveling.”
One of her friends suggested she look at teaching jobs in Budapest, Hungary, noting the teacher shortage there and the short visa processing timeline.
Within weeks of submitting her application, McGaha landed a job teaching English to kindergarteners. In August 2017, she quit her barista gig and moved to Budapest. Seven years later, she’s still there. “It’s a beautiful life,” she says.
Landing a remote job abroad
McGaha’s teaching contract included a furnished one-bedroom apartment in Budapest, with a monthly stipend to help cover rent and utilities. The job paid about $7,800 a year.
She loved teaching — and planned to do it for at least five years — but was laid off in March 2020 when Hungary closed its schools to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Around the same time, she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Budapest’s 5th District neighborhood. Her rent, which hasn’t changed since she moved in, is about $560 a month.
McGaha saw losing her job as a sign from the universe that she should reconsider a career in marketing, a field she had always dreamed of working in.
She re-designed the blog she launched soon after moving to Budapest, where she recounts her experiences as an expat and her favorite things to do around the city, and started promoting it more on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Businesses found her through her blog and, in 2020, started approaching her to help revamp their own blogs and social media accounts.
From those opportunities, “I was able to build even more of a portfolio, and I got approached through Instagram by an acquaintance who worked at a marketing agency in the states about helping them build out their international customer roster,” McGaha explains.
In 2021, she was hired as a remote digital marketing strategist at Consumer51, a marketing agency based in Philadelphia. The job paid about $50,000 a year.
Consumer51, though based in the U.S., prides itself on being a remote-first international company. So working from Europe “was never an issue,” McGaha says.
McGaha recently spoke at a networking event at the KUBIK co-working space in Budapest about moving from the U.S. to Hungary.
Photo: Ridhwan Rafi
If you want to land a remote job at a U.S. company and work abroad, McGaha recommends targeting organizations that brand themselves as “work from anywhere” or “global remote” employers. Or, stress the advantages of having a remote employee in a different time zone.
“With me in Budapest, and my colleagues in other European cities, we’re able to be available to our clients 24/7, and also network with more potential clients abroad,” she says.
The time zone difference helps her be more productive. “My American colleagues log on later than me, so my mornings aren’t bogged down by emails or meetings — I can focus and finish more graphic design or copywriting projects in less time,” says McGaha.
Achieving financial freedom, working 25 hours per week
In October, McGaha reduced her hours to part-time to help stave off burnout and grow her blog, a move that she says “wouldn’t have been possible” financially if she lived in New York or Washington.
Budapest has one of the lowest costs of living compared to other European capitals and large U.S. cities.
She now works about 20 hours per week as a digital marketing strategist with Consumer 51 and spends a few more hours each week — typically five or six — working on her blog or freelance travel writing assignments.
In 2023, McGaha earned about $37,731 from her marketing job and freelance gigs, which she says has been “more than enough” to cover her monthly expenses and still save money to travel and dine out with friends.
After paying rent and utilities, McGaha says she aims to spend no more than $150 a week.
“I’m grateful that living here has given me so many more options for how to spend and save,” McGaha adds. “If I lived in Seattle on my current salary, for example, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the financial freedom I have now or the peace of mind.”
Chasing dreams of becoming a digital nomad
McGaha has had to apply for several different visas in Budapest.
She was given a work visa to teach English when she first arrived. Between 2020 and 2024, she applied and was approved for two different short-term visas — a self-employed entrepreneur one and a “visa for other purposes” — valid for about two years each, consecutively.
In January 2024, the Hungarian government overhauled its immigration system. It abolished the “visa for other purposes” type of residence permit McGaha is trying to extend. But because she applied before it was nullified, she’s still eligible.
If her application is approved, McGaha could be allowed to live in Hungary for at least another year.
She could apply for permanent residency in Hungary but hasn’t yet because she also dreams of being a digital nomad traveling and working in different countries.
“I value having the freedom and flexibility that comes with working remotely, including the ability to weave in more travel into my schedule,” she says. “Some Fridays, I’ll hop on a train to the Hungarian countryside for a long weekend and work from there.”
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