South-East Asia is quite cheap if you move away from tourist places, I spent something like $5/day for food (for two) and up to $20/day for rent apts, I believe long term stay is even cheaper. Working as an average codemonkey for a year you should be able to afford few years of living there.
I'm not sure I would survive there if I spent 30 years though, I lived there for only three months and I really missed the civilisation in the end...