I've met really smart English-speaking developers from other countries (namely Brazil), and I didn't get the impression that they can laze around and work 22 hour weeks to put food on the table and live comfortably.
Perhaps it can work as a temporary thing, like moving around for a year or two, while retaining a home base in your developed country of origin...
If you live in a cheap country and earn money in a more affluent one, you don't need to work as many hours. If you choose to earn money in the local market, you'll end up replacing one 40 hour work week for another. Your Brazilian buddies likely work locally which is why they have similar time constraints as someone living and working in NYC would do.
You also don't keep a homebase in your country of origin because that increases your expenses! It really requires getting over the mentality that the country you were born in has to be your home; it doesn't.
I live in the center of Prague right now. I used to live in London. My expenses all tolled come to around 22,000Kč/month, although I could do it on less. That's roughly £600/US$850/€800. The number of billable hours required to maintain this lifestyle isn't much. I'm also vastly happier here than I was in London.
My suggestion is a method of abandoning a full time job if that full time job is getting in the way of more important goals and aspirations. Something has to give, of course, and cutting expenses in a way that isn't detrimental to happiness is one way to do it.
I acknowledge this advice isn't for everyone. It's like going to the gym: some people don't want to do it, some people can't do it, and some people won't do it despite good intentions. Also, not everybody can do it at the same time!
The fact I don't speak Czech is a very rarely a barrier. Sometimes if I'm in the grocery store and I'm not entirely sure what I'm buying I have to use Google Translate. I struggled once in the post office when trying to mail something internationally. I probably should learn conversational Czech, but I'm more interested in learning Spanish.
The nightlife in Prague is awesome and my social life is ideal.
I moved to Cambodia 3 years ago, spending ~500$ per month on average so far. It's not for everyone of course, but I truly don't care about things that most others would consider necessities. All I need is an internet connection and healthy food, both of which are readily available here.
It's easy to find a clean apartment for 100$ per month in Phnom Penh, that is if you wouldn't be too horrified to actually live among the local people, like 95% of the expats here are.
As another comment was suggesting, key is to find work for client who is based in "rich" country (for me right now that's US, some of the Europe) and is ok with you working remotely.
If I wanted to work in current location, I'd have to take significant salary cut + start pulling those mentioned 40h/week
Start freelancing, quit your job, and move to a cheaper country where you can survive on something like 22 hours of billable work a month (+ business development). Then spend the rest of your time working on your stuff, or whatever you want to do! No sleep deprivation is required, you can still have a life, and you don't need to rigidly structure your time. It's a decent way to keep stress levels down too which yields more productivity!
It does help if you have some savings as a buffer too!