This page summary, takeaways, and transcript were generated
by AI from the video captions.
The video itself remains the source of truth.
Moving to Southeast Asia with only $10-12K is generally not feasible for a permanent relocation without a substantial, consistent income stream, due to high initial costs, unexpected expenses, and the competitive nature of location-independent work.
The video addresses the question of whether one can move to Southeast Asia with $10,000 to $12,000, explaining why this is generally not advisable for a permanent move. The initial breakdown of expenses, including flights, rent deposits, transportation, and daily living costs, quickly depletes the lump sum. For example, a $300 apartment rental with a deposit and first month's rent, plus initial living expenses, can consume $2,000 within the first month, leaving less than $10,000 before any income is generated.
The core challenge lies in the difficulty of establishing a consistent, location-independent income. While many aspire to work online, the market is highly competitive, and it often takes years to build a reliable income stream that can cover living expenses. Unexpected setbacks, such as a client going out of business, a stolen phone, or unforeseen immigration fees, can further erode savings and create significant financial strain. The video highlights that a realistic monthly budget often exceeds $1,500, and this doesn't account for emergencies.
Therefore, the video strongly advises against attempting a permanent move with such a limited sum without a solid financial foundation. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of a long-term strategy, including a five-year plan to build online income, a substantial emergency fund, and a 'repatriation budget' to cover the costs of returning home and reintegrating. This approach ensures a safer and more sustainable transition, acknowledging that building a life abroad requires significant planning, skill development, and financial discipline.
Moving to Southeast Asia with only $10,000 to $12,000 is generally not feasible for a permanent relocation without a substantial, consistent income stream. Initial expenses like flights, rent deposits, and daily living costs can quickly deplete this amount, leaving little room for unexpected setbacks.
A $10,000 lump sum is unlikely to be enough for a sustainable living in Asia without a reliable income. Realistic monthly budgets often exceed $1,500, and this doesn't account for emergencies or the significant initial costs of setting up a new life abroad.
Relocating to Southeast Asia on a budget requires a long-term strategy, focusing on building location-independent income over several years. It's crucial to establish a robust emergency fund and a repatriation budget to cover return travel and reintegration costs.
Initial costs for moving to Southeast Asia include flights, visa fees, accommodation deposits, transportation, and initial living expenses. These expenses can easily consume thousands of dollars, significantly reducing any initial lump sum savings.
Finding consistent, location-independent work to support a move abroad is highly competitive and often takes years to establish. Relying solely on a $10,000 savings while seeking work is financially precarious due to the unpredictable nature of online income.
A repatriation budget is funds set aside to cover the costs of returning to your home country and reintegrating into life there. This is a crucial part of financial planning for any international move, ensuring you have a safety net if things don't work out as planned.
While specific amounts vary, comments suggest that $10,000 is insufficient for retirement in Southeast Asia without a consistent monthly income. Some suggest needing at least $20,000 for emergencies, plus a monthly income to cover living expenses, which can range from $1,500 to $3,000 or more depending on lifestyle and location.
Establishing a consistent, location-independent income online is challenging and highly competitive. It often takes years of effort to build a reliable income stream that can cover living expenses abroad.
A $10,000 sum can be quickly depleted by initial setup costs such as flights, rent deposits, transportation, and daily living expenses. Without a consistent income, this amount is unlikely to sustain you long-term, especially considering potential emergencies.
To live comfortably in the Philippines with $10,000 to start, a monthly income of at least $1,500 is suggested, provided you avoid costly habits. Some comments indicate that $2,500 to $3,000 might be necessary for more comfortable living in specific areas, and medical emergencies can be very expensive.
0:02 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.
0:26 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 him, '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.
0:55 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.
1:22 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's 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 finite amounts of money.
1:50 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 trip 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.'
2:14 Okay, so what does it cost you to fly to Southeast Asia? Well, for much of the US, you're talking at least $500, $600, $700 one way. I flew here, it was about $1,100. This was last summer when flights were still pretty pricey. Of course, summer is going to be more expensive to fly as well. I spent $1,100, but let's say you get a better price than I got. You got it for $700, so now you're down to $11,300.
2:39 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.
2:57 So you pick Chiang Mai. 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 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.
3:24 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.
3:44 So each month you're going to spend about $20 on your cell phone bill. Let's estimate I was spending $40, but I used a lot of data. Maybe we could ratchet it up to $30. Okay, so now you're down to $10,370.
4:00 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 $10,370. 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 $10,170.
4:21 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 hotel room for a week before you found this place. Okay, there's another $100, so now you're down to $10,070.
4:35 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.
4:48 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 aircon, your electric bill, you want to buy toothpaste and shampoo, you want to put fuel in your motorbike.
5:07 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 three months down the line. You arrived in January, it's now April, and you managed to make some money finally.
5:22 It's been three months. You got your first programming gig. In the same time that you spent $2,400, you earned, let's say you ratchet it up to $250 per month. You've earned $750. So now you're down $1,650 in that time span.
5:35 Fast forward a few months, so you're now down to around $6,000. We're going to just use rough estimates because I don't have 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've got some income, you've got something to show for your time, you're adding on clients.
5:54 But now you're down to $6,000. You got your rental, your motorbike's fine, your computer is doing just fine for your purposes, 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.'
6:19 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.
6:36 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 an additional fine because you made that mistake. They want to charge you an additional fine. There's $60. Okay, well, now you're down to $5,850. But it's fine, right? Because your business is increasing and things are going well.
6:55 And I'm sure even though you just got the $5,800, 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.
7:18 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.
7:32 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.
7:56 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?
8:08 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?
8:20 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 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.
8:39 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 $4,000, 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 still don't have an emergency fund.'
9:01 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.
9:18 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 at break even in the fall, then I'll be able to come back.'
9:33 Things will work out. Another three months goes by, and you realize, '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.
9:47 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.'
10:05 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 year's gone by, and you're in the holiday season.
10:27 So the airlines want $1,100 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.
10:38 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 costs you didn't expect, you may need to fly to Bangkok to fly out of the country. 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've got to fly not just back to the US, but then halfway through the country again.
11:03 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 a permanent move. Money that's, 'I could go for six 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've got nothing coming in.
11:33 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 have been scheming as to how to come up with location-independent income for, in some cases, decades.
11:58 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, 200 to 300K minimum to start with, you probably don't have a long enough runway.
12:23 It's going to take you longer than you think to earn enough to cover your expenses. 'Cause some of us, we think, 'Oh, as soon as I make a dollar, it's cool.' No, it 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.'
12:48 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 are all kinds of unexpected expenses that come up over here.
13:06 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 jobs, they've got permission to work, they have connections, they know how to live in that country. And if they fall on hard times, they can go move in with a close relative.
13:29 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 times. There's no safety net for foreigners here.
13:46 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 to 3K a month.
14:11 For the younger guy, you've got a business that's putting out 2 to 3K a month. You already got established programming clients. You're getting 2 to 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.
14:30 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.
14:54 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.
15:18 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? A 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.
15:35 '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 planned for this to happen.
15:49 If you've got 10 or 12K, what you need is a five-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.
16:09 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, 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.
16:31 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 two weeks for most people to get a paycheck to be able to start paying their bills, right? To have that income coming in.
16:46 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.
17:06 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?
17:20 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?
17:30 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.
17:50 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.
18:07 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 five-year plan. You need to think, 'Okay, this isn't realistic for me right now, but what can I do every day for the next five years to get me there?' A lot of guys plan for a long time before they come over here.
18:25 You hear it all the time from Filipino-American 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.'
18:42 But this is why expats 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 sum 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.
19:11 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.
19:29 But if your family lives in a rural area, there are 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?'
19:49 Start working on a five-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.
20:06 Ten or 12K is a solid start, but 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?
20:19 And then work from there. Start to save up your emergency fund. That might take you six 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.
20:34 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.
20:54 And then five years from now, you've got 10 clients that each pay you $500 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.
21:16 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 great determination and focus and follow-through to be able to get over here.
21:29 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.
21:53 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.
22:07 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.
Follow the journey through expat life, travel experiences, and the realities of living abroad while exploring different places, cultures, and everyday life overseas.
