hey YouTube It's a cloudy day I recently had a friend reach out to me with this question and I'm not going to name him because I don't want to embarrass him and it's not personal but I wanted to
answer his question in a video format because I thought that it might be helpful for some of you you're living back in the US you're unhappy with your life back in the west because why wouldn't you be unhappy
with your life in the west many of us are unhappy there he's asked me this question multiple times the first couple times I told him no and then I pivoted towards telling him I don't give advice he asked
me can I come over there with 12K $112,000 us and I told them I don't think that's a good idea but I later thought more on it and I could explain why that could be workable in some unique
scenarios but first off let's go ahead and get into why I don't think it's a good idea so you've got $112,000 so you've got $112,000 in your pocket and you're living in the US you're thinking man I don't
like it here most of the people watching this channel probably feel the same way and I want to go to Southeast Asia I want to go to Vietnam I want to go to Thailand I want to go to
the Philippines and I'm going to just take my $112,000 and I'm going to make it work your 10 to 12K is like sand in an hourglass each expense that you make each purchase that you make you buy lunch
you pay for some toiletries you buy some shampoo some toothpaste that sand dripping out of your bank account and the more money you have the more sand you have but it's finite we all have finite amounts of money
even the richest people in the world have finites amount of money but with $122,000 you have to break down that budget okay so you've got 12K you're going to buy a flight to Southeast Asia hopefully you buy a
round Tri ticket hopefully you're not buying a one-way ticket you're thinking well I'm going to make some money online I'm going to start a YouTube channel I'm going to do some digital Nomad work I'll be doing graphic design
some programming okay so what does it cost you to fly to Southeast Asia well for much of the US you're talking at least 56700 one way I flew here it was about $1,100 this was last summer when flights
were still pretty pricey uh of course summer is going to be more expensive to fly as well I spent 11,100 uh but let's say you get a better price than I got you got it for 700 so now
you're down to $1,300 okay you land in Thailand and you are thinking well I need to go get an apartment so I've got $11,300 that pays for a lot of rent right well we know that our only expense
is not just rent we've got to pay for food we got to pay for transportation so you pick changmai Kai is one of my favorite cities it's more economical than Bangkok so you're thinking okay I'll go get a
rental okay so you find a rental for 300 us right you you find a decent rental not the most local style not the most high-end you're paying $300 a month okay you put down your first month's rent and
your deposit so another month's rent so $600 okay now you're down to $10,700 and you haven't bought any Furnishings you haven't paid for any food let's say you're budgeting $10 a day for food okay so that first month's
food $300 so now you're down to $10,400 you still haven't paid for Internet service let's assume you already own a computer you already own a phone so each month you're going to spend about $20 on your cell phone
bill let's estimate I was spending 40 bucks but I used a lot of data maybe we could ratchet it up to $30 okay so now you're down to $1,370 I mean this is kind of how the money starts
going you haven't made a dime yet remember you're still trying to find work so now you're down to $10,000 $370 okay so you decide to get a motorbike rental okay so now you're putting down let's say $100 for
the month motorbike rental and another $100 deposit now you're down to $1,170 now you're still not very far into the month this could be your first day this could be your first couple of days maybe you needed to
get a h hotel room for a week before you found this place okay there's another $100 so now you're down to $1,070 so you've already spent $2,000 and you're not even at the end of your first month yet
now of course your costs are going to come down you're not paying for that flight every month you're not paying deposits every month now you've worked out a budget you're going to try to live on let's say $800
a month your rent's 300 your food is 300 and the rest of your bills are about $200 a month for your airon your electric bill you want to buy toothpaste and shampoo you want to put fuel in your
motorbike so now you've got a budget of $800 per month and you've got about $10,000 in the bank fast forward a few months you managed to stay within that budget let's say you're 3 months down the line you
arrived in January it's now April and you managed to make some money finally it's been 3 months you got your first programming gig in the same time that you spent ,400 you earned uh let's say you ratchet it
up to $250 per month you've earned $750 so now you're down uh $1,650 in that time span fast forward a few months so you're now down to around $6,000 we're going to just use rough estimates cuz I don't
have a a board in front of me right now so you're now down to $6,000 but you're making $ 250 a month right I mean you're you've got some income you've got something to show for your time you're
adding on clients but now you're down to $6,000 you got your rental your motor bike's fine your computer is doing just fine for your purposes uh and everything seems to be going fantastic and so you're just going to
keep working away and you have a feeling hey give me another few months I'll add on a few more clients I'll get up to that $800 things will work out and then you remember oh I got to pay
my immigration fees that's $100 I wasn't expecting to spend so now you really didn't get ahead that last month you now you didn't really fall behind that last month month $550 you really fell behind $650 so now you're
down to $5,900 because you forgot because you forgot to go to immigration you just weren't thinking about it you were working so much they are going to penalize you they want additional fine because you made that mistake they
want to charge you an additional fine there's 60 bucks okay well now you're down to 5,850 but it's fine right because your business is increasing and things are going well and and I'm sure even though you just got
the 5800 you know things will work out so you keep working another month goes by and then one of your clients goes out of business one of your clients they had some kind of major economic hit and they're
no longer supplying your work okay so now your income drops in half now you're only making $125 for the next month now you're going in the red $675 per month a few more months goes by you check your
bank account you're sitting at about $4,000 now you can measure about how long you have let's say you're going $600 what happens if you don't add more clients let's say it's a recession and you're just not adding the
clients that you need but then all of a sudden you find one you find one that's going to pay you an extra $300 a month so now your income's back up to $450 a month but you're still burning
$800 okay well you've got your $4,000 and now you've got 12 months to get to there that's fine you got a year you've been able to get up to 350 400 a month you should be able to make
it there right well all of a sudden your phone gets snatched you turn the other direction at a cafe you weren't paying attention somebody comes up and Pockets your phone and walks out okay now you have no phone
and your money is diminishing are you going to buy a new phone okay well you're down to $4,000 can you afford a new phone you're starting to get into the what I call the Red Zone because is you
have to price out what is it going to cost me to go back home because now it's starting to look like things aren't working out things aren't really going the direction that you had hoped that they would go
in you're starting to reach out to friends back home hey guys it's not looking so good over here in Thailand I just had my phone stolen I'm down to about $44,000 and I don't know how I'm going to
cover my $800 a month expenses in a short time frame and even if I do I've still don't have an emergency fund that's not for me to go in the green every month that's for me to just break
even every month well you know maybe your friend back home has got a job for the summer they'll be able to get you in working in a restaurant and you're going to be able to start to add to
that but you don't want to go right away you still got your $4,000 you're still trying to program you're still trying to add more clients and so you tell them I'm going to work the summer I'll come back
in the fall if I still am not a break even in the fall then I'll be able to come back things will work out another 3 months goes by and you realize I look I got to have a
phone so you go down you buy a $300 phone plus your expenses every month you're now down to $2,000 okay at this point you're nervous I mean you're facing the prospect of going back home you're having to tell
your clients look my situation is becoming untenable I'm not earning enough to be able to sustain my life here and I've got to go back home now fortunately you've got family you can count on back home and so
you know that when you land back home you'll have a free place to live so finally with your last month you're in the home stretch of your money you go to buy a flight and you're thinking oh it
costs me 700 to get here it's going to cost me 700 to get back but now most of the years's gone by and you're in the holiday season so the airlines want $11,000 to get you back home so
you've got one month to go and $2,000 so you book your flight out and you've got your last $1,000 and not only does that $1,000 have to pay for your final month where you may have extra cost you
didn't expect you may need to fly to Bangkok to fly out of the country you may need to you may need to fly to another airport when you get back to the US maybe you're flying to New York
City and your final destination is in Colorado so you got to fly not just back to the US but then halfway through the country again so as you can see this kind of situation where you've got this lump
sum of 10 or 12K you can burn through that really quickly this is why I don't recommend taking that amount of money to Southeast Asia unless you've got a clearly defined timeline that's not permanent move money that's I
could go for 6 months I could enjoy myself I can explore around a bit and then I go back home and get back to work it's not I'm going to be able to live on this especially if you
got nothing coming in right thinking oh well everybody works online these days I'm sure it's not that bad no it's super competitive everybody wants to work online these days having remote work having location independent income is the dream
for a lot of people and a lot of people work at it for years before they're able to do that many people they've been scheming as to how to come up with location independent income for in some cases
decades I've been wanting to do this since 2018 when I first went to Thailand and even this trip I would still call a discovery trip I'm not here permanently because I'm not at that point where I have consistent
cash flow to cover all my expenses and so that's why I would warn guys unless you've got something like say 2 300K minimum to start with you probably don't have a long enough Runway it's going to take you
longer than you think to earn enough to cover your expenses cuz some of us we think oh as soon I make a dollar it's cool no costs a lot more than a dollar in 2024 to live in Thailand
or to live in the Philippines most people would say your minimum realistic budget is like 1,500 per month I think if you're a bachelor you could do a little bit less but it's not practical to think okay I'm
going to live on $1,000 for the rest of my life sure maybe that covers your rent and your food and your cell phone bill what happens when your cell phone breaks what happens when your laptop breaks what happens
when you need to go buy new clothes what happens when you come down with an illness and you need to go to the hospital there's all kinds of unexpected expenses that come up over here it's not sufficient to
say oh I've got 20K and that's enough to go move over there I think sometimes people say oh well the local people they're living on such low budgets they've got family they've got job they've got permission to work
they have connections they know how to live in that country and if they fall in hard times they can go move in with a close relative you're probably not in that position if you're looking at moving to Southeast
Asia most of us are not southeast Asia and most of us don't have family over here we have some friends but your friends may be struggling too your friends probably can't bankroll you in your hard time there's no
safety net for foreigners here I just think that it's kind of sad that the US has come to this where that's how badly a good chunk of people want to get out is that they're willing to do so
at Great risk for themselves but yeah I mean this is one of the situations where I'd say can you come with 10 or 12K yes with a caveat you've got Social Security coming in you've got a business that's
putting out 2 3K a month for the younger guy you've got a business that's putting out 2 3K a month you already got established programming clients you're getting 2 3K a month in income for your programming work you've
got some dividend paying stocks that put out $115,000 a year total in dividend income you've got things already rolling you've already got the cash flow trying to come over here and establish cash flow for most people is super
risky and when the money runs out okay now you're going back home you've got no emergency fund you're trying to find a job last minute because you didn't really anticipate things not working out you're asking people for a
place to stay because you don't have first month's rent last month's rent to put down on a place I'm in a position where I don't have any family to rely on back in the States so my emergency fund
is much more substantial than that of a lot of other people I have a certain trigger number where if I hit that number financially like on a low point then I'm getting on the plane and going back in
the months before that I'm lining up a job I'm reaching out to connections I'm trying to have as soft a landing as possible because to land back in the states with no money no relevant experience maybe at 20
years old that's not a big deal right 20-year-old who cares the older you get the less sympathetic people are going to be the less understanding people are going to be and the more skeptical people are going to be
of trying to help you out what you didn't think about this before you left people aren't super sympathetic in the US they're not super charitable when it comes to a guy who's not a kid anymore coming back with
no money not having plan for this to happen if you've got 10 or 12K what you need is a 5-year plan you need a five-year plan as to how you're going to build up your online income to be
able to pay your bills in perpetuity you need to go out and get a job and start building up a solid emergency fund I think you need what I call a repatriation budget I'm going to do another video
on that but you need a budget such that if things go south if things go sideways in Thailand or the Philippines wherever you're going to go then you can go back home and not just fly back home and
land with no money but put down first month's rent first month's deposit put down money for a car if you sold your vehicle you need a vehicle in the United States pay your bills until you get your first
paycheck you're not getting your first paycheck in America the first day you land it's going to be at least 2 weeks for most people to get a paycheck to be able to start paying their bills right to have
that income coming in these are some of the basics but you may need professional clothes like if you haven't purchased professional clothes recently you may need to go down to Ross Dress for Less or Walmart or whatever budget
retailer you can think of and buy some clothes so that you can be presentable for the context to work you might need non-slip shoes I had to buy those when I worked in a restaurant I say this a
lot it's not free to work it actually costs money to work and that's part of the reason the wages are higher in the United States is that they anticipate you're going to need to pay for transportation before you
get your first paycheck if you don't have a car how are you getting to work are you going to rely on friends are your friends not working and in a position where they can take you back and forth
to work are you going to live near a bus line are you going to live in a with a subway system that costs more money I push back against the idea of coming here with 10 or 12K unless
you've got 2 or 3K a month coming in you're in this position I don't think many people would be in this position but you're in this position where you've got a successful business and that's just going to be
your emergency fund but you've got the cash flow that you already know all my bills are going to be covered I'm putting away a grand every month in savings and I've got lead generation built out I've got more
and more ways to get new clients I've got an established profile on a freelancer site I've got people that can send me business that's the way I would approach it for a young guy that has that budget but
don't come here with just 10 or 12K guys and no consistent Revenue because you're not prepared you need to make your 5year plan you need to think okay this isn't realistic for me right now but what can I
do every day for the next 5 years to get me there a lot of guys plan for a long time before they come over here you hear it all the time from Filipino Aman couples where the American guy
brings the Filipino back to the States hey we're going to work here for 20 years 30 years when we hit a certain age we'll have enough savings we'll have enough Investments we'll be able to go over there and
live very comfortably and not worry about money but this is why expat skew older it's mostly guys who have saved up a lot of money they've worked their whole lives they've invested they've been preparing for many years to
come over here and they don't just have a lump suum of money that they expect to be able to live on forever each passing day each passing week each passing month money is dripping out of that hourglass until
you're at zero and you don't want to be in a position where you hit zero here and you're going to the Embassy asking hey I need a repatriation loan I have no money I need money to buy a
plane ticket to go back to my home country at which point I'll contact social services and try to get into a men's shelter or stay with family but if your family lives in a rural area there's probably not
very many jobs and there's probably not very many resources out there not to mention if you were working on something for a client let's say you only got part of the way to your goal are you going to
drop those clients are you going to explain to those clients I don't have any money to pay my bills so I can't work for you because I've got to go get a day job start working on a 5-year
plan estimate what do I need to live over there if you've done your Discovery trip your goal should be realistically speaking 1,500 a month is reasonable for a lot of guys okay what do I need for an emergency
fund 10 or 12K is a solid start I think you need more than that okay what's my repatriation budget going to be what money am I going to use to pay if I need to go back home if
things don't work out here for whatever reason I need to go back home how much do I need to reintegrate into life back home and then work from there start to save up your emergency fund that might take
you 6 months that might take you a year I don't know what skills you have I don't know how many hours you're willing to work maybe you're willing to get a job on the weekends you work Monday through
Friday at one job you work Friday through Sunday at another job and then from there okay how do I get cash flow start to learn about investing start to learn about different investing options this is not Financial advice
so I'm not going to get specific here but you need cash flow and that's got to come from somewhere or another maybe you do your programming at night you try to build that business up and then 5 years
from now you've got 10 clients that each pay you $500 a a month whatever it may be and you're thinking okay well it cost me $22,000 to deliver the $5,000 in services so now I've got 3,000 now I
can go over there it takes a lot of planning and skills and research and hard work discipline and aiming and if it were simple everybody would be here in Southeast Asia if everybody could do it then southeast Asia
wouldn't be as special as it is it actually does take some gr determination and focus and follow through to be able to get over here I feel for the friend I get it that it's not easy back home
it's stressful it's unhappy the only thing worse than being low on funds back home but having an emergency fund is being totally out of funds back home the safety nets in America aren't that great especially for working age
people and you don't want to be trying to rely on them if you can take the time to set yourself up for Success one of the few redeeming factors that I like about the United States is you can
generally improve your financial situation if you are willing to live below your means you're willing to increase your skill set and that's what I recommend for those who are thinking about this let me know what you think down
in the comments below would you come here on 10 or 12K and cash why do you think that's a good idea why do you think it's a bad idea give us a thumbs up it really helps with the
YouTube algorithm and finally subscribe to the channel down below if you want to see more content like this and we'll see you soon bye-bye
