24-year-old American moved to Belgium and lives on $1,132 a month: 'I fell in love with it'

Colby Grey, 24, grew up in a very rural and conservative community in San Luis Obispo, California. It wasn't until moving two hours away to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz, that he traveled that far for the first time.

It was the beginning of a new life for Grey — he just didn't know it yet.

"Not many people in my town had passports. You didn't really travel much and you didn't go to school very far either," Grey tells CNBC Make It. "I was one of the ones that went further and then when I studied abroad, I was one of the first to leave the country."

Grey lived on campus at the start of his freshman year but the covid-19 pandemic completely disrupted his time there. By the second semester, Grey was forced to move home for about a year. It was during this time back in San Luis Obispo that Grey explored studying abroad.

Grey studied in Copenhagen for six months. When that time was up, he didn't want to head back to Santa Cruz.

"[Denmark] managed the pandemic really well and had a very high vaccination rate," he says. "I fell in love with it and decided I wanted to do more."

Grey completed a Semester at Sea before finally going home to California.

"When I came back to Santa Cruz, it was a real reverse culture shock for me," he says. "There was no housing left there. The city is really not built for students."

Back in Santa Cruz, Grey lived off campus in a two-bedroom apartment with three other roommates and worked as a study abroad advisor. Grey's share of the rent was $1,340 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

"I was paying more to live in Santa Cruz than I had been paying to live abroad. I said to myself I couldn't do it anymore," Grey says. "I knew that after I was done [with undergrad] I would apply for a master's degree in Belgium."

Grey says his primary motivation for wanting to leave the United States is that life in the cities there never resonated with him — and he hated driving.

"That was one of the things that I loved about living in Europe, I never felt like I needed a car to live," he says.

Grey was also unhappy with the quality of education he received at UC Santa Cruz, primarily because of the cost. For the 2024-2025 school year, the average cost for in-state students living on campus is $44,160. Grey's classes were canceled for more than half a semester one year and he still had to pay for the entire thing.

"It just didn't seem like I was getting what I paid for even with a ton of federal and state funding," Grey says. "I knew there had to be a better system and a better way to get an education. Through my study abroad job, I realized I could just get a visa and study as an international student for a sixth of the price."

"I wanted to continue my education, but I wanted to use that as a pathway towards residency."

Grey decided to go for his master's degree and considered programs in the UK, like at Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, but he couldn't justify the cost.

That led Grey to Leuven, Belgium, which seemed like the perfect choice. Leuven was built to be a "15-minute city," an urban planning concept where most daily necessities like shopping, healthcare, and more can be reached within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. The concept is gaining traction in other Belgian cities like Brussels and Mechelen and exists in major cities like Paris, France, Barcelona, Spain and Melbourne, Australia.

In Leuven, cars are banned in the city center and it is easy — and encouraged — to get around on bike.

"I fell in love with it and loved that Belgium was centrally located, so I could travel, too," he says "There are four different countries around me within a three-hour train ride, and that was very unique."

The KU Leuven university in Belgium offers a program for degree-seeking students called a search permit. This permit allows students or researchers to stay for a year and work unrestricted as long as they obtain a master's degree from a university in the country. It's a one-year program, and the tuition cost is about 3,800 euros a year or $4,310 USD.

"As a student, though, there is no better cost of living. There is nothing better economically than being in Europe. There's no reason to go into debt here, so it just makes sense at this stage in my life," he says.

Grey arrived in Belgium with two checked bags and a backpack, and move into a four-bedroom house with three other people. He paid 500 euros or $567 a month in rent: "It was fantastic. I mean I was paying a third of the price to get my own room."

He set out immediately to build a life in Leuven.

"When I first got here, it was daunting. I was aware of the fact that I had no friends here and I was totally on my own," he says. "I think that was the first time I ever felt like that in my life. I worked really hard to make friends and make a community here."

Grey graduated last summer and moved about a 10-minute bike ride outside the city. He pays 420 euros a month in rent, including utilities. His current housing also provides some toiletries and some food, too.

Grey's additional monthly expenses include 236 euros in groceries, 154 euros in eating out, 11 euros in health insurance and medical visits, 48 euros in transit, 50 euros for the gym, 30 euros on wellness, 20 euros on visa fees, 20 euros in clothing and 10 euros in subscriptions. Including his rent, Grey's total monthly expenses are about $998 euros a month or $1,132.

Grey has lived in Belgium for almost two years now, and says he loves the work-life balance he's been able to find there.

"The community feels so strong here and I have a really great balance between my work life and my home life," he says. "It's such a slower pace of life here and it's really beautiful."

Since first visiting Europe in 2021 and relocating in 2023, Grey has traveled to 20 different countries. His family and friends have all come visit, too.

In 2024, Grey's family came to Belgium and they took a trip over to Tuscany. He returned to the U.S. for the first time that December.

Grey has seven months left on his search permit and he's thinking about his next steps, which could include a second master's degree and traineeship in Brussels or Portugal.

The one thing Grey does know for sure is that he isn't ready to return to America just yet.

"Living in the U.S. I felt there was a ticking clock inside of me where I had to get into the workforce, get a house, have a family and I think now I've slowed down a little bit and kind of just smelled the roses a little bit more," he says.

Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to 1.13 USD on May 8, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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