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Many young men in the US are not destined for financial hardship; they can achieve financial independence and a better quality of life by embracing opportunities abroad, leveraging modern financial tools, and avoiding societal pressures like early marriage and homeownership.
The video challenges the notion that young men in America are inevitably headed for financial destitution. It argues that societal shifts, such as delayed marriage and family formation, reduce the financial pressures many previously faced. This allows for greater disposable income, which, when combined with disciplined saving, investing, and a focus on financial independence, can lead to substantial wealth accumulation over time.
Furthermore, the rise of location-independent income through entrepreneurship and online work enables individuals to earn money regardless of their physical location. This allows them to live in more economical countries abroad, stretching their income further and potentially saving more than they could in the US. The video also touches upon the role of affluent parents and multigenerational wealth, suggesting that not all young people are starting from scratch.
The speaker criticizes the 'crabs in a bucket' mentality, where some individuals resent others' success or pursuit of better opportunities abroad. The video suggests that systemic changes like Universal Basic Income might become a reality due to automation, and that for many young men feeling disenfranchised or frustrated with their prospects in the US, moving abroad can offer a path to a happier, more purposeful, and financially stable life.
Yes, young men can find significant financial opportunities abroad by embracing modern financial tools and alternative life paths. Delayed marriage and family formation reduce financial burdens, allowing for greater savings and investment.
Escaping financial struggle in the US can involve pursuing location-independent income streams through entrepreneurship or online work. This allows individuals to live more affordably in countries abroad, stretching their earnings further.
Alternative life paths for men increasingly include seeking financial independence and a better quality of life by moving abroad. This can involve leveraging remote work, smart investing, and avoiding traditional societal pressures.
Moving abroad can be excellent for achieving financial freedom, especially for young men. By living in more economical regions while earning a location-independent income, individuals can save and invest more effectively than in the US.
Building wealth while living abroad involves focusing on financial independence and disciplined saving. Leveraging location-independent income streams and investing wisely allows for accelerated wealth accumulation in lower-cost environments.
Young men are pursuing opportunities abroad to escape financial struggles and find improved life prospects. The appeal lies in achieving financial independence, a higher quality of life, and a sense of purpose away from societal pressures in the US.
Young men are increasingly delaying marriage and family formation. This shift reduces the immediate financial burdens associated with starting a family. Consequently, more income is available for savings and investment, which can contribute to greater wealth accumulation over time.
Yes, location-independent income streams allow individuals to earn money regardless of their physical location. This enables people to live in more economical countries abroad. By doing so, they can stretch their income further and potentially save more than they could in the US.
The rise of automation and AI may necessitate systemic changes like Universal Basic Income (UBI). Some predict UBI will become a societal necessity as automation replaces human labor. This could make living abroad more feasible for a larger portion of the population.
For young men feeling disenfranchised or frustrated with their prospects in the US, moving abroad can offer a path to a happier and more stable life. It can provide renewed optimism and purpose by seeking opportunities outside the US.
0:01 Hey YouTube, Alex here and today's video I'm going to talk about why many young expats are not going to be destitute in the way that some people would hope. This is a topic that comes up a lot I've noticed in a lot of young guys making content abroad. You'll see a lot of other people from Western countries, you need to just quit doing this and go back home. You need to work. Well, I'm going to dispel some of the myths about this and explain why I think this is envy crabs in a bucket.
0:36 I see it in Facebook groups, too. I've had to unfollow some Facebook groups because anytime a young to middle-aged guy talks about wanting to move abroad or moving abroad or having moved abroad, there's just a ton of people who really feel frustrated by this.
0:58 So, the first point is that there are plenty of young guys who did not get married. In today's society, there is far less pressure for guys to get married and have families. That's just one of the social changes among many social changes in the United States is a lot of young guys are not getting married and having kids.
1:22 So for me, what does that mean? I don't need to pay a mortgage. I don't need to pay for daycare. I don't need to pay for private schools. I don't need to buy extra clothes. I don't need to have to support multiple people on my income.
1:34 Now, the next assumption would be, well, you're just blowing all your money then. No, actually, I still invest. I still save money. I rent a room as opposed to buying a house. And my current situation, I could buy a house in the area that I live in, but I choose not to because one, I don't need a house. Two, I don't plan on getting married here. And three, it doesn't actually make financial sense if you are a single guy.
2:04 So, there are plenty of guys my age that they went to college for something boring but predictable, say accounting or computer science, and they live below their means. They rented an apartment and instead of going out and getting a mortgage and then having to have two incomes to pay that mortgage or having a kid where they've got to put that kid in a decent neighborhood where they can get a good education, they just sock all that money away and after 5 or 10 years, they've got a pretty substantial nest egg.
2:38 They've got cash flow coming in. Maybe they go out and buy a house as a rental property. There are definitely guys my age with rental properties. There are guys who I know that are my age that still rent an apartment, but they own rental properties because those are their investments. Why would I want to live in a house I own if I can rent it out to somebody else? I get appreciation. They pay down my mortgage. It's far more effective than, oh, I get to live in a house, but I spend most of my time at work anyway.
3:07 This is a very common misconception that some people have is that everybody is getting married today. Everybody is having children. Everybody has no disposable income.
3:24 I put at least a third of my income every month into savings and investments. And when I made more money, it was as much as 2/3 of my income into savings and investments. And I'll continue to do that because I don't need instant gratification. I've had a lot of gratification living abroad. And I believe that if I continue on this path being single, renting a room, not driving a new vehicle, right, I don't need an SUV for just me. I drive a Toyota Camry. It's paid off. It's about 12 years old. It's plenty. It's got like 115,000 miles on it, so it's going to probably last me a while longer. It's very reliable vehicle. Maintenance is not too bad, all things considered.
4:13 So, when people assume, oh, you have nothing. You're going to be old and have nothing. That's just simply not the case. And I'm not even someone who can rely on parents to bail me out. My parents passed when I was quite young, so I did have to be diligent about learning about money. And I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I've improved my knowledge and understanding substantially.
4:36 I actually took a decent chunk of my time living in the Philippines and in Thailand to better understand money. I thought, well, plenty of people are good at making money, myself included, but I was not the best saver.
4:51 The next point is that many guys my age have developed location independent income. What does that mean? That means they're able to make money not based on being in a certain place. For me right now, I have to show up at work. I have a 9-to-five Monday through Friday job. If I don't go there, I don't get a paycheck.
5:10 Now, I do have some investment income starting to come in. I have this YouTube channel and I have some other resources, but there are guys who are way ahead of the curve, much more so than myself, and they're effectively retired early. They collect, say, a couple thousand dollar a month in rent or dividend income. They own real estate and they have a property manager. They may have a business back here in the States where they hire other people to work for them.
5:44 There are a lot of entrepreneurial young people out there. It's easier to start a business than ever today, especially online. And so in my case, it took me a while to learn how to make money independently uh being in a certain location. I certainly haven't mastered it. Other people are far better at it than I am.
6:05 But I think that there's something to be said about somebody who has a couple grand a month coming in and they can go live in another country that's far more economical and then work on additional ideas. Cuz if you're somebody who can start one location independent business, you're probably capable of starting another and now let's say you're spending 2,000 a month, but you keep building up your income and your income is say four or 5K a month. Now you're putting away 2 or 3 grand a month into investments. You're saving far more than a lot of American people are.
6:43 You could also pay into social security living abroad. There is no rule that says you have to live in the United States as an American citizen to pay into social security. You can start a business, pay yourself from that business and mail checks to social security or they probably have electronic transmission now where you don't have to mail a check.
7:05 There are plenty of entrepreneurial people these days that are not reliant upon a 9 to5 to make ends meet. I've had viewers get angry when I point this out that with the era of technology and computers, there are so many different ways to get ahead today that people in past generations don't have, which to me is sad because why would you want the younger generations to struggle as much or more than you had to?
7:38 Shouldn't life get better? Isn't that part of the idea of the United States is that life keeps getting better? That's certainly an ideal in my mind that like why should I go out and have to get a coal mining job if I can work at a desk. I don't need to be a Billy Ba to feel some sense of pride or satisfaction in my life.
7:59 The next point is that plenty of young people today have affluent parents. They have parents that have seen housing prices skyrocket. People love to brag about how much their home is worth. Once again, not realizing other people also own homes. Other people also own real estate. Other people also have 401ks.
8:22 One of the things that people love about America is this idea that you can build wealth here. You can start businesses. You can invest in businesses. You don't even have to start a business to make money off of the economic environment in the US. You could just contribute to a 401k and get ahead. There are 401k millionaires out there. People that all they did was max out their 401k or heavily contribute to it. That they are now a millionaire. They didn't go out and start a business. They didn't go out and gamble.
9:00 They literally just took money from their paycheck every month, redirected it to investments, and it's grown a lot. So there are plenty of people who are going to engage in this multigenerational wealth transfer that they have managed to build substantial wealth and they want to pass it to their children. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think actually if that's something that a person wants to do that's admirable. It's not a negative if they don't want to.
9:31 I know there are circumstances where people feel like it'll be irresponsible to do so. But if that's something that can work out effectively, then why not, right? Why not? I don't see a problem with that. But I've had people get angry and assume, well, all these young people are going to be broke and destitute dependent on the government when they get older.
9:53 There are plenty of young people who are going to take over their businesses that were trained from a young age. Hey, this is how we bake the bread. This is how we provide good customer service. There are a lot of independent businesses in the United States. Not as much as in the past probably, but there's plenty.
10:09 When I was studying pre-law back in Nashville, I met several guys whose dads were lawyers, and they they told me, "My dad is giving me his book of business when he retires. I'm not starting from scratch. I'm not starting from zero." And some of these guys could certainly move abroad. Hey, look, I'll hire another lawyer to go do the in-person work. I'll probably make less money, but I can go live in Thailand or I can go live in Portugal. You know, as long as I paid my taxes and I'm honest about my taxes, also working within the limitations of my law license, then it shouldn't be a problem.
10:51 But I've had these people, well, I had to put in my 30, 40 years in America, so should everybody else. Hey, you know what? More power to you. I commend you if you worked hard and were disciplined to get up every day and go to a job. But just because you had to suffer, doesn't mean everybody should have to suffer. It's
11:09 It's sour grapes to say, "Well, everybody should have to have it as hard as I had to have it. It's a victim mentality to make that assertion." I've never been the type when I see a nice car to be envious. Hey, you got a nice car? Hey, good for you, man. That's super cool.
11:27 That's not something I can have at this point in time, but I hope you enjoy the heck out of it. You live in a nice neighborhood. Awesome. I hope you enjoy it. I hope it treats you well. I hope you love being a part of that community.
11:45 But there's so many people out there that have this crabs in a bucket envy mentality. And to me, it's just so misplaced. So, yeah, there's plenty of people in the older generations. They're going to leave substantial wealth to their kids. They may have already invested, right?
11:57 They may feel like, "Hey, you know what? I ain't going to pay for your house, but you're coming out of college debt-free. You're going to be sent to the right schools growing up. I'm going to invest time in you. I'm going to teach you how to be a mechanic. I'm going to teach you about sales. I'm going to invest time into preparing you for adulthood so that you are more advanced or more ahead starting out than I was."
12:21 And some of these people, they get sufficiently ahead. They get a few rental properties by the time they're say 40. If they choose not to have children, if they choose to or if they choose to wait to have kids until they move abroad country where it's a lot cheaper to raise a family, hey, more power to you.
12:42 That's awesome that you figured out how to work the system to your advantage. I think that if everybody knew how to do these things and had the self-control, discipline, and desire, that you'd see more and more people moving abroad.
12:56 And some people say, well, if everybody does that, the American system won't work. There's always going to be people who are struggling in their home country that have an interest and a demand to come to America to better their lives. The world is probably not going to run out of poor people anytime soon or people in dire straits that want to reinvent themselves in this country.
13:17 The fourth point is that with the roll out of automation and AI, I suspect there will be greater and greater demand for universal basic income in the future. This point is not a political discussion about whether that's right or wrong.
13:31 But what the country doesn't want in my estimation is to have a bunch of broke and unemployed and unemployable people milling about. You don't want that in any country, but particularly not the United States where there's such a focus on stability and security.
13:49 You don't want millions of people out of work, unable to find a job with no food on their table and nowhere to live. That's not going to go well in many different ways. And so the way to prevent or alleviate that from happening is through universal basic income.
14:08 Look, you can have this amount of money. You're not going to go hungry. You can have a place to live. You're not going to go without shelter. You can get around. Now, that's going to be coupled with an increase in trying to prevent people from having kids.
14:20 Like look, if you're reliant on the government, maybe you shouldn't be having kids to create more people who are dependent on the government. This is not a political thing. It's just like resource management. A lot of people who are dependent on the government struggle in many different ways. It's not an ideal thing to have UBI.
14:36 However, I suspect it's going to be something that is inevitable because of the alternatives being worse than having UBI. If there is a UBI for citizens that I think there could be a situation where they're like, "Look, you could take it abroad because healthcare is expensive, probably not getting any cheaper anytime soon."
14:59 And so, if you can take your UBI check and go to a country where healthcare is cheaper, nobody's going to have a problem with that. I've had people say, "They're not going to let veterans out of America. They're going to make them stay here."
15:13 Their calculation that I read was for every veteran that leaves the United States to live overseas is saving the Veterans Administration about $40,000 a year. And my grandfather is a veteran, so I have personal attachment to this issue. But yeah, it's a giant cost savings to not have people going and using VA healthcare services.
15:35 Whether that's right or wrong is beyond the point of this conversation, but there are a lot of people in the United States that effectively cost the system more than what they can reasonably produce. And it's something that will eventually be addressed.
15:53 Whether it's the way people want things to go or not, I can't help but notice this. I mean, here in California, we have a lot of homelessness and the state gets a lot of flack for that. And it's really not a good look. It's really tragic in many different ways.
16:08 But I suspect that with many problems in America, there's a demand or a desire to address them, to try to fix them, even when these solutions are not politically popular. Just like with the upcoming cut to social security, probably not going to win a lot of votes, but it's going to be a necessity.
16:32 The fifth and final point is that a lot of young people in this country are disenfranchised or frustrated with the system. They're not happy with the direction that the country is going in. They're not happy with their life prospects.
16:46 And in some cases, if they go abroad and they feel more optimistic, let's say they start a family that they wouldn't have been able to start here, then their lives can improve in ways that they could not improve here.
16:58 I noticed when I moved to Thailand, as an example, I was far happier living in Thailand. I had far less of the stress that I deal with here in the US. A lot of people remember, they can go back and look. I maintained a healthier weight in Thailand because I exercised a lot more. I was able to eat a healthier diet. I had less negative social interactions than I have in the US.
17:28 It's a far more peaceful country in some ways. And it gave me something to look forward to. I think about how many of these young people that are listless or unhappy or homeless or underemployed that if they went abroad, it might give them some direction. That was what I got out of my time abroad is it gave me some direction.
17:51 Here, this is what you need to work toward. This is a happier life for you and you have a target you're moving toward where I found a lot of young men in the US that are like, look, I can't make enough money to support a family, I live with roommates in my 30s, I'm not going to be able to buy a home anytime soon. I just keep getting older and weirder because it's, uh, it's just a struggle.
18:16 It's an extreme struggle and there doesn't appear to be an end. I don't see housing prices coming down. I don't see the job market improving. I don't see things getting better with further inflation. So, I think a lot of people, they overestimate how easy it is to get ahead in today's United States.
18:38 I think that with automation, there's going to be less demand for some types of labor in the future. And accordingly, certain doors are closing. I mean, when I went back to school for computer science, it was the big thing, and now it has one of the highest unemployment rates of any degree out there. So, as these doors close, of course, people are going to lose hope.
19:02 They're not going to be as excited about the future. They're not going to want to attempt to prepare for the future in the way that they would if they moved abroad. If you move abroad, you're a young guy, you get married, you start a family, you're going to have a target.
19:18 You're going to have this drive to produce wealth. You're going to uncover some hidden opportunities. You may get up with a spring in your shoe and actually want to go out and try in ways that I just see a lot of listless young people in America. And I think a lot of them have really taken their foot off the gas, myself included at times.
19:44 Man, if you knew it was possible overseas, you might be grinding a lot harder. You might feel like, you know, there is a reason for optimism. There is a reason to give it my all. There's a reason to try to start a new business or get a trade. Maybe I go abroad, I meet somebody, I bring them back over here.
20:06 There's just so many possibilities that I think a lot of young people, if they don't go abroad, young men in particular, they're missing out on. They're not living life to the fullest because they don't have enough variety or experience or exposure to the outside world where they know what's waiting for them out there.
20:27 So, thank you for watching. Let me know what you think down below. Do you agree with the sentiment of this video? Do you disagree? Please give us a thumbs up. It helps with the YouTube algorithm. And finally, subscribe to the channel to see more content like this. And we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.
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