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People choose to become expats for a variety of compelling reasons, including financial benefits, a desire for a different lifestyle, personal growth, and the pursuit of new opportunities.
The video explores numerous motivations behind the decision to become an expatriate, with a significant emphasis on financial considerations. Many individuals are driven by the high cost of living, inflation, and taxes in their home countries, seeking more affordable destinations. Beyond finances, a desire for a slower pace of life, a contrast to the fast-paced environments of places like the USA, is a common theme. This includes escaping the stress of constant work and the impatience often found in busy cities.
Personal circumstances and the pursuit of new experiences also feature prominently. Some individuals seek a 'fresh start' due to past negative experiences, relationship endings, or career setbacks, viewing a move abroad as an opportunity to reset. Others are motivated by a sense of adventure and a desire to break free from routine, seeking novelty in new foods, people, and environments. The appeal of freedom, such as living a car-free lifestyle or having the financial flexibility to start a business, is another key driver.
The discussion extends to practical considerations like healthcare and diet, with many expats seeking more affordable and quality medical services or access to different cuisines. The social aspect, including finding better dating opportunities or moving to be with a partner or their culture, is also highlighted. Finally, the video touches on spiritual or religious motivations, where individuals may move to countries that are the source of their faith for deeper immersion. Ultimately, the decision to become an expat is often a combination of these varied factors, with individuals prioritizing what is most compelling for their personal circumstances.
People become expats for a variety of compelling reasons, often driven by financial benefits like a lower cost of living or reduced expenses. Many seek a significant lifestyle change, desiring a slower pace of life, adventure, or a fresh start away from familiar routines.
Financial motivations are a major driver for becoming an expat, with individuals often seeking to escape high inflation, taxes, and the general cost of living in their home countries. Many find more affordable destinations where their money can go further, allowing for greater financial freedom.
A desire for a different lifestyle is a key factor for many considering expat life. This can include seeking a slower pace, escaping the stress of busy Western cities, or embracing new cultural experiences and adventures.
Yes, moving abroad offers significant opportunities for personal growth. Many expats seek a fresh start, a chance to overcome past challenges, or simply the experience of navigating a new culture and environment.
Practical benefits often include access to more affordable or higher quality healthcare services and the opportunity to experience different diets. Some also appreciate the freedom from certain societal expectations, like the necessity of owning a car.
Cultural immersion is a significant draw for many expats, who may wish to experience new traditions, languages, and ways of life. This can also extend to religious or spiritual motivations, seeking deeper connections in the source countries of their faith.
Many individuals choose to become expats primarily for financial reasons. They are often motivated by high costs of living, inflation, and taxes in their home countries, seeking more affordable destinations. This allows for a reduced expense lifestyle and potentially greater financial freedom.
A desire for a slower pace of life is a significant motivator for becoming an expat. Many seek to escape the fast-paced, stressful environments often found in places like the USA. This includes moving away from constant work pressure and the impatience prevalent in busy urban settings.
Personal circumstances play a large role in the decision to become an expat. Some individuals seek a 'fresh start' after negative experiences, relationship endings, or career setbacks. Others are driven by a sense of adventure and a desire to break free from routine and experience novelty.
Practical considerations like healthcare and diet are also significant factors for some expats. Many look for more affordable and quality medical services in their new countries. Access to different cuisines and a desire for a healthier diet can also be a draw.
0:03 18 reasons why people become expats. I think it's fitting as my hair becomes a little bit more gray with each year to get into this one.
0:23 So the first thing that I want to get into here is cost of living and inflation. For many of you in developed countries like the UK, USA, Australia, or New Zealand, you've probably seen prices go up on the shelves. You may have seen an increase in your taxes, like your property tax. Even if you're just buying things, there are consumption taxes. If prices go up, that means you're going to be paying more in tax.
1:02 I think for a lot of people, they're seeing and I've heard in some places in Australia, people are paying like 500 a week in Sydney. That's absurdly expensive. So if you can work online, you're making money online, or you're retired and you've got a pension, you're looking at prices and thinking, wow, especially if I'm on a somewhat limited income. If a person's not wealthy, then they're looking at their bills and thinking, is it cheaper elsewhere? Even if I were to go to a place as close as Mexico, what would my expenses look like? What would my lifestyle look like?
1:42 I think that's a valid concern and definitely worthwhile calling out. The next thing I'm going to talk about here is a slower pace. Some people, you know, they're coming from like the USA, and the US is a fast-paced country. Things are dynamic, things are changing. Cities are becoming more popular, other cities are falling out of favor. Things are rapidly changing, people are in a fast pace. You know, if they're working, a lot of people are working a lot of hours because it can be expensive to live here.
2:16 So people feel compelled to have a salary job and then maybe they've got a side hustle where they're working after hours or they're working on the weekend. I think even if you're doing well financially, there's only so much you can separate yourself from people that are really struggling to get ahead. Maybe a little bit gruff or rude, or you know, impatient, especially on driving. You can see there's a lot of concerns about reckless driving or people just being really stressed out behind the wheel.
2:45 That doesn't necessarily exist in every country. You know, some other countries that have a lower cost of living, people may not need to earn as much money to maintain a lifestyle. They may also be able to rely on their families more. People are more laid back, like you hear about a lot in the Philippines. Some of the road habits differ among the locals and the expats. Expats are used to driving their home country, locals are used to driving there, but people aren't fighting and stuff like that. They might toot their horn to let other people around know that they're there, but it's not necessarily like, you purposely wronged me type of thing.
3:33 Sometimes you run into the US if you inconvenience somebody or maybe you forget something. It seems like people really take that personal, because it's just a function of the value of their time. So they feel like if you waste their time, you waste their money, you cost them. And whether that's fair or not, some people just don't like that. They want to get away from that.
3:57 So the next thing I'm going to talk about here, maybe a little bit of a bad subject for some people, but some people may feel like they just don't have a lot of family or friends in their home country or their home city. I can certainly relate to that. I lost my parents pretty young and moved away from my hometown when I was 18. So some of those experiences, I think some people have with their young adult friends. I didn't really have those experiences, and perhaps that caused the bonds to some people to not be as strong.
4:28 So I do have several really good friends back home in my home city, but it's not quite the same as having, you know, a loving family that you can spend time with. So that's just being real. For me, I think it's not the same as for a lot of some expats. Some expats have a solid family, and it's a big sacrifice to move overseas where they're not going to be easily able to stay in touch with those people or visit with those people. For me, that's a non-issue.
5:02 As far as living in another country, I could go. Realistically speaking, if I brought my super important stuff with me, I could envision a future where I come back to the US maybe every five years or something like that, just to catch up with close friends, handle errands and things like that. Realistically speaking, it'd probably be every year or every other year, just because of business and maybe needing to shop for certain things, or do different kinds of things at a bank or other situations where you've got to be in person.
5:38 But I think for a lot of expats, they're looking at this next country as, you know, don't have a lot here as far as relationships. Maybe going over there is an opportunity to start new relationships or connect with people that I wouldn't ever have had the chance to connect with. And sort of replace some of those relationships that maybe have fallen by the wayside, or in my case, just ended through tragedy. Am I going to go find somebody to replace my mom or dad overseas? No, that's not really realistic or accurate either. But I think just through sheer volume, depending on the place you go, if you're able to really connect with a certain community, you do feel like you're part of that group. You feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself. You feel like you've got people that are looking out for your best interests, people that care about you, that are concerned about your well-being.
6:34 People that are kind of responsive when you want to check in with them, see how they're doing, and maybe share some of what's going on in your life. I feel like that can just be difficult here because a lot of people that I'm friends with are busy. We're all working a lot, and we're not working, we're resting, trying to kind of recoup from that. So it's like, how much can you really rely on friends, you know, if you don't have family to kind of substitute for that in a country that is expensive and people are really strapped for time? It's a little bit different in some other areas or countries where people have more free time and less money. So they can afford to be a bit more generous with their time.
7:21 So, kind of moving on, the next one, you know, some people, they want a fresh start. So maybe they've had a relationship, and hey, we got five people, hope everybody's doing good. I'm just covering some stuff, like why I think people are going to become expats. I think more people, moving forward in the future from a lot of developed countries, are starting to consider it more.
7:44 So I think for some people, they want to move on. So maybe they lived in a certain city for 30, 40, you know, 50 years. They grew up in that city. They had maybe the end of a marriage, or they had a falling out with their relatives, or for whatever reason, they just had baggage there. Maybe they got laid off from a really good job in that area. For whatever reason, they want a fresh start. They want to go somewhere that's different than what they're used to, that has different people. Maybe they get tired of running into their ex at their favorite coffee shop in town.
8:23 Maybe they get tired of going to the place where they used to always go with their ex-girlfriend or something like that. Definitely going to get into some of those. So I think I got 16 or 18 reasons. I'm going to run through, try to give each one a couple of minutes so it doesn't go on too long, but also allow for people to have comments and ask questions.
8:55 But yeah, I think it's fair to say that if you do have a bunch of negative memories in a certain place, like moving to a new place, your location where you live is going to make is one of the biggest things that impacts your life, all different aspects of your life. And so if you're somebody that you're tired of driving by that McDonald's that, you know, you always go with your ex-girlfriend, like you can totally reset that.
9:26 Hey Ron, are you traveling now? I'm not traveling now, but I am doing a lot of research and in the planning stages for a few different things that I want to do. And just trying to balance the advantages and disadvantages of each of the different plans. Latin America is on my radar for sure, Ecuador specifically. Ecuador specifically offers a really cool work visa program that I'm looking at to do remote working there for say a month, maybe six weeks. I also thought about doing Christmas in Portugal because I've never been to Europe and the flights in Portugal are like the same price as the flights to Latin America.
10:01 I haven't taken any time off at my job, so and I don't intend to. So it might be nice to just use some of that saved up goodwill, so to speak, for being on time and doing a job to take off. But yeah, I'm just talking about some reasons why a person might want to live overseas or go expat.
10:26 So I think moving on to point number five, some people, you know, they miss their motherland. So let's say, yeah, I love the Philippines as an example. Let's say you're from the Philippines but you moved to Canada for work, or you moved to the US for work, and you consider yourself Canadian or...
10:42 And you consider yourself Canadian or you consider yourself American, everybody else does too. That's what's wonderful about countries like Canada or America is you can definitely become Canadian or American over time.
10:55 But for some of those people, they miss their home country. So, if they're from the Philippines, they miss the lush jungle, they miss fresh citrus juice, they miss seeing their cousins, neighbors, and aunties all living in their same area. I don't know if they would be considered an expat or somebody just returning home, but that's certainly a valid reason.
11:25 Maybe they're also from a small town and had to move to a big city for work overseas. They might miss living in a small town, the source, and that easier-going vibe. So, they'll go back to their home country. It's not always about looking for a fresh start; sometimes it's people wanting to get back to what they know and what they like.
11:46 Certainly, that can be true for some people who move to another country. They become an expat and decide, 'You know what, this isn't for me. I want to move back to my home country because there are things that I miss.' I miss owning a car, I miss having a house, I miss the weather, things like that. So, it's definitely important to consider people that are not necessarily expats or immigrants, but they're looking to go back home.
12:25 So, kind of the next reason some people might want to go expat is, you know, we talked about cost of living. We'll probably dovetail into that at the end, just because that's, I think, the biggest reason a lot of people are motivated to become expats or live overseas: their home country has just become so absurdly expensive.
12:47 I think as early as November, probably January or February at the latest, as things are reopening, I'm having a harder time kind of narrowing it down to where I'd like to go. And that's part of the tough part of traveling is picking one or two or three places that you want to go in a trip because you can't go everywhere.
13:14 I wish I could go both to new places and to places that I've already been that I have friends and people that I like, people that I want to see. But ultimately, that's one of the major decisions: Do I want to go somewhere new, or do I want to go somewhere I've already been and I really enjoy? I lean toward going somewhere new, but there's nothing wrong with going to places I've already been.
13:41 The next point is that people want a country life or a city life. For me, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are eight million people here; they're crowded everywhere. I have to look out my front door of my apartment building before I open it to make sure nobody's walking by. It's really dense, except for late at night. Even late at night, there's people walking around on my block even at 9, 10, 11 p.m.
14:10 But some people don't like that. They work their whole lives in a big city. A lot of people move out here for the tech industry, like I did. It's great for work; I need to make a solid career, earn money, save money, put back money toward retirement, toward my expat goals. And so this place serves me perfectly for that.
14:28 There are more opportunities than I'll ever have the time to work. So, if I need to go get a new job, even though I love my job, I'm not looking for a different job. If something came up and I needed to do that, it's so easy to find a new job here. But at a certain point in my life, I'm going to have enough resources where I'm not living in locations based on the opportunity there. I'll be looking for places that I like just because I like those places.
14:56 So, I may move to a small town when I become an expat, just because I have that opportunity. Where here in the US, it's hard to live in a small town if you're not retired or independently wealthy. You may find that you're able to apply to all the employers in that town within a week or two. And if you don't get a 'yes' from one of them, you're stuck commuting to a bigger town; it just becomes challenging.
15:22 But if you're not relying on a job to make money, you're not relying upon being in a certain industrial city, you can choose to live in, you know, rural Thailand. You could choose to live in the province in the Philippines. There are other places that you should live where you're not going to necessarily be committed to the traffic and the hustle and the bustle.
15:47 Next, people want a different climate or weather. So, I'm spoiled here by the amazing weather in California; it's almost always sunny between 55 and 70 degrees most of the year. But where I'm from in Tennessee, it gets extremely hot and humid for a good chunk of the year.
16:06 But if you're somebody that, you know, you live in say, Tennessee, and you don't like the heat or humidity, there are options for you to choose places that don't have as much humidity or don't get as hot. Or, if they do, you know, there's a beach there. There are no real beaches in Tennessee, but if you're somebody who likes beaches, you may find a beach in the Philippines, or a beach in Thailand, a beach in Mexico. That's more your speed.
16:33 And that's something that's harder to compromise. Beaches aren't everywhere; they tend to be high demand and popular because it's kind of a limited sort of experience. That's the attraction.
16:51 The next thing is adventure. So, some people just feel bored. Things have just gotten like Groundhog Day. I think that's a common one that expats throw around: 'Every day just felt the same. I get up, go to work, I'm home, go to bed, rinse and repeat, you know, until the weekend.' I might watch some TV, but really, I'm just trying to recoup and rest.
17:16 And when you know you are financially independent, when you can afford to move overseas, maybe you have an online income, you can really mix it up. You can do all kinds of different things. You can structure your day very differently than what you may be used to.
17:30 If you're somebody that wants to go hiking twice a week, then you may have the potential to do that where, you know, before you lived in an area with none of that opportunity. Or maybe you've done all the hikes 100 times. It does introduce that variety back into your life. It does introduce that feeling of, 'I can go and do new things. I can have new experiences, fresh locations, being different food, spending time with different people.'
18:01 For me, I like a lot of variety, I like a lot of novelty. I like to have different kinds of experiences in my life. And I found that too much of this same repetition does tend to make me kind of depressed or kind of down, but I just feel like, 'Ah, I gotta get up and do it again.' Where when I'm traveling, when I'm living abroad, I don't really have that experience. If I get bored, I can just go to a different town or try something I've never tried before.
18:25 That I didn't even know existed until I went to that place and heard about it, or I just wouldn't have been in the mindset to try that thing if I wasn't in a different environment already and had already broken up my routine.
18:40 Freedom. So, freedom is a potentially controversial one, depending on how you think about it. But some people want to have the freedom to live, for example, a car-free lifestyle. If you're in the US, if you're in a lot of Western countries, you've got to have a car. You've got to own it, you've got to maintain it. You need it for commuting, you need it to do your errands.
19:04 But you may find that if you move to a different country, you just don't need it that much. You know, you may find if you're working online, why am I going to have this car and spend all this money and time to maintain it, when I could be living in a way that I don't need that? Maybe I take a trike or I take a Grab taxi two or three times a week, and it's way less money and it's less hassle. You don't have to handle parking, no oil changes, maintenance, all that stuff is somebody else to deal with.
19:38 And that's a real reason. There's also freedom to do different things. So maybe you want to start a business. Maybe you want to start an online business, but it's just going to cost you too much to pay your bills in the US while you get established and start up. You just don't have the freedom to do that, even though you're technically allowed to in America.
19:59 You may find the finances of starting your own business here online, it just may not work out. Where if you are spending a lot less money, you know, you've got a lot more time to explore different options. Maybe your first business idea doesn't work out. Well, in the US, you might be scrambling to go get a job to start pumping money into your system again to pay bills and all that. But if you're living on really cheap overseas and your first business idea doesn't work out, you may be in a situation where you can afford to explore a second idea.
20:32 Or maybe your business is going to work out, but you need another six months. Well, you could probably get through that six months without spending as much if you are overseas. Where, once again, if you're in a place where you're spending a lot of money, like my rent here is $1075 a month, I can't really afford to go very long without working. If I have a business idea, yeah, that sounds cool, I'll get to it after work, maybe if it's not too expensive. But if I was overseas, living on a very small amount of money, more time to read on stuff like that and do stuff outside of...
21:06 And do stuff outside of my job responsibilities. A very common reason for a lot of people is dating. Some people may be in a remote area, maybe they're in a small town. I know my grandfather was from a small town in Idaho, and my grandmother was from Japan. Part of the reason he married her is because in his small town, if he didn't like the few single ladies around, that was it. There were no other options, and if that didn't work out, then tough luck.
21:47 But if you're a guy or a gal, you're able to go to a lot of different places. You can date in these places, meet different people. Online dating is really popular. It's likely you're going to have really interesting conversations because you're totally different from that person. If you're trying to date people in your area, you might have conversations like, 'Oh, where did you go to high school?' 'Oh yeah, I went to the rival high school.' You know, 'What did you do for fun?' 'Oh yeah, I did that too.' Some people like that common ground, but I find a lot of people want more variety and a more interesting experience when it comes to dating.
22:20 They want to hear things like, 'Oh, you know, we ate this dish, chicken adobo,' or 'We have this kind of nurse.' It's just so different from their own, and I think those conversations can be really beautiful. So, if you're looking to date and maybe you feel like there's some stigma attached to you, maybe you're a guy that's been divorced and you hate having to bring that up, there may be some places that don't stigmatize that quite as much. There may be places that are more understanding.
22:56 Or maybe you're a woman with a child. There may be options for you to find places that are more suitable to what you're looking for and more in line with the goals that you set for yourself.
23:17 So, I talked a little bit about this before as far as being in Northern California, needing to be here to work. But when I retire, I won't need to work anymore, nor will I need to invest as aggressively.
23:35 I have a US passport, and so there are so many different options if I want to go visit places, even not thinking in terms of living. But let's say I wanted to do a month in each Latin American country. I could do that if I had the finances and the income coming in every month. I wouldn't necessarily have to live in a high cost of living area that can be very fast-paced and stressful at times. Once again, I love where I'm at; California is wonderful. I don't want to put it down, but I don't know that it's my favorite place to live in the world.
24:35 In the final stretch, the next point I'll make is healthcare. Healthcare is super expensive in the US. You're going to pay a lot of money for treatment here. I don't think I would go to North Korea; I don't see it as part of my plans or interest. I would go to South Korea, which is super appealing and interesting to me. But yeah, healthcare is a big one.
25:08 I've experienced dental care in Mexico and Thailand. It was awesome quality and much more affordable than what I'd be paying here in the US. So, for people that are looking to have budget healthcare, you do want quality. You don't want to just go to the absolute cheapest place for healthcare and the cheapest doctor that will agree to treat you. But you can look up reviews.
25:34 If I want to go to a five-star healthcare clinic here in the US, I'm going to pay a lot of money. Potentially, I'd get on an airplane. Let's say I relocate to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. They have world-class hospitals. If I wanted to get good healthcare, I could get a condo.
26:01 But if you're looking at a big city environment where there's going to be great healthcare, you can have that lifestyle and recovery at a fraction of the price. So that's something to think about. If you're worried, like I am, about rising healthcare costs in the US, I don't really foresee myself being able to afford quality healthcare here when I'm retired. Maybe I'll get lucky and have some wild business success, but I'm not counting on it.
26:26 To bring my overall expenses down, I am looking at other countries to live in when I'm older and retired. Thailand is high on my list, Mexico is high on my list, Colombia is on my list. There are other places I want to explore and research that are definitely of interest as far as getting quality treatment but not paying an arm and a leg.
26:49 Part of the reason healthcare is expensive in the US is we're paying for the latest and greatest. So that's awesome that people that need treatment really bad and have the extra money can pay for it, but it also drives up the cost for the average person. Things like pharmaceuticals can be much more affordable depending on where you go, just based on what local people can afford and what the governments have allowed companies to do. All these things factor into that.
27:25 Next, I'm going to get into diet. Everybody has different feelings about people eating different things. Some people find that their health is impacted. Would you go with a buddy to travel? Ron asks, 'Absolutely, I would.' I find it difficult to coordinate, so a lot of times when you try to coordinate with other people to travel, people end up having things come up and have to back out. It can be really stressful to try to readjust your planning as far as budgeting or finding accommodation. Now you've got to pay for it all yourself.
28:07 So I find it kind of risky, in my personal opinion, to make travel plans, especially when it comes to investing money and time into those travel plans. I'm not opposed to it; if somebody was interested and fully committed, I'd welcome a friend along. But I don't want to miss out on traveling just because plans fall through.
28:31 You're considering the Philippines or Thailand? I think those are great choices. I think those are two of the best choices for a first-time traveler, especially somebody that wants some guardrails up, some support rails, well-traveled tourist roads. They don't feel like they're totally lost when it comes to what should I do, how do I get around, how can I have a good time? Philippines and Thailand, it's easy to have a good time, easy to find good food, easy to find solid accommodation. There's a lot of activities, outdoors and indoors, cool shopping malls. Both countries are really at the top of my list.
29:16 But yeah, let's see here, there's a few other things. So, diet. For me, I like seafood. Seafood can be really pricey in the US or really time-consuming. Like, if you want to catch your seafood, that's going to take a lot of time.
29:42 Ron asks, 'Is the fight good?' I think you have to determine that for yourself. I think it's good for people that are curious about it and want to learn about it. I personally own crypto, like Algorand. Not investment advice, not financial advice at all. But I think there's some reason to be exposed to it and potentially get some benefit from the development of that industry. But you have to be very careful; you can lose your money. Do your own due diligence, read a lot about it, maybe even read about it every day or several times a week for months before you commit any money to it, just because.
29:49 So for me, I like seafood. That's one of the best things about living in Asia for me is that most of the Asian capital cities and even the medium-sized cities get fish from Japan. They can get kimchi from Korea. A lot of the things that I like are just easily accessible and commonly eaten. Where in the US, if you're outside of like California, Washington, Oregon, or New York, it can be tough to find some of these Asian dishes that you like. And if you do find them, you may find yourself paying a premium for it. I was looking at uni recently, and one uni is like $15 USD. Sea urchins are hard to harvest, there are a lot of rules around it. But seafood can just seem inaccessible.
30:32 And I think there's other things as well that you may like that you just find in your area that cost too much. Like I like barbecue, but barbecue in the Bay Area is expensive. You're probably going to spend at least $30, maybe $35-40, to get a decent barbecue meal around here. Where, you know, if you're in the Philippines or Malaysia, people are barbecuing all over the place. People set up a grill sometimes in the parking lot of another restaurant and they'll be serving up chicken skewers and vegetable skewers. You can have a solid meal and an experience for a few bucks, and you can go and do that like every week or several times a week and not feel like you're breaking the bank to do it. I'd love to have that kind of experience here in the US, but I know it's just going to cost me a lot more.
31:59 You commit any money to it just because I hate for you to not understand and maybe lose something that you didn't expect or some kind of unforeseen risk that maybe you didn't know about.
32:15 People get sick. Once again, it's an individual decision. I don't blame people at all for not being into the idea of street food. I think you have to judge it case by case. So, if I see some lonely stall in some random corner of a Southeast Asian city, and I don't see anybody else around, maybe I see flies flying around the person looks kind of disengaged or just not really into what they're doing, I'm not going to eat there. I'm going to give that one a pass, and I've done that many times in traveling in Southeast Asia and in Latin America.
32:49 I'm not worried about offending people. I don't say anything. I don't say it looks gross, or oh, what's wrong with them? I don't make any critique like that. But in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, I don't really want to take the risk on that. It just doesn't look like what I'm after.
33:04 On the other hand, if you see a food stall that's just slammed with people, and there's, I mean, I've been to one in Thailand where there were probably 40 people standing around and eating. This place called Jaipuri, and it's considered street food, but it's also been on Netflix. I also went to a Michelin-starred street food noodle cart in Bangkok. You pay like a dollar fifty equivalent, they've been reviewed by the Michelin guide, they follow clean protocols, tasted really, really good, and it was really cheap.
33:37 So I would say like, keep an open mind, but don't be afraid to say no. Be cautiously optimistic. If you do see a lot of signs that it's really, really popular, if I see a stall that's slammed by local people, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be good and people aren't getting sick. Because I think if people were getting sick, they wouldn't be coming back, and you'd see that they're not doing good business.
34:00 I will say I have been to places that were good, but maybe used too much oil. If you're somebody that you don't want to eat a ton of oil in your food, street food can be, it can be like the fast food of the region. In Latin America and in Southeast Asia, I'm sure in Eastern Europe as well, it's designed for people that are, you know, maybe they were working and they want a lot of calories, or people that are just too tired to cook. It's not actually designed to be healthy and nutritious.
34:30 Some people double this. I'm not sure what you mean, Mr. Ron. Yeah, you know, some people may not follow the standards that you set. So, like, if you're cooking for yourself, one of my subscribers, Web Editing, he said that he's looking at moving to the Philippines later this year, and we've been talking a lot about it. We've been having phone conversations and just trying to stay in touch on it. I'm trying to give him all the information I have and just kind of augmenting what he's already doing. He already has great plans, but adding a little bit of flavor from somebody that has been to the Philippines and spent about a month there.
35:21 He's really concerned about street food, so he's going to cook all his meals. He's actually explained to me he's not even interested in going to restaurants. He plans to go only to the SM Mall in the Philippines near him, the high-end mall that mostly caters to wealthy locals and more expat types, and to purchase things like chicken, rice, vegetables, and then cook everything himself. I said, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. I have no judgment for that. If you want to have that level of control, do it.
35:52 You know, there's also, you know, some people say, well, can you trust those grocery stores? I say go by rating. I say talk to local expats. You can never be a hundred percent sure, I feel like, about most things in life, but you can remove some uncertainty. So, not going to the local market because I've been to some local markets that are awesome overseas. They look really nice, they're well-kept, well-maintained, all the wares are organized and safe. But I've been to others that just smell bad, and it's clear they're not following proper protocols. I haven't gotten sick, but I've definitely gotten weird feelings in my stomach, and I've had to become more discerning.
36:37 Have I heard of Montezuma's Curse? Yes, I have heard of that. I have heard of people getting ill from street food in Mexico. I never had that issue in Mexico, so I can't speak on that one much. But I've also only spent maybe a month in Mexico. I don't drink the tap water in Mexico. I always just drink bottled water, always pay for it. I don't recommend anybody, if you're unsure about the tap water in a country or a place, don't chance it. Just buy water bottled from the store. I've never gotten sick from water that I bought bottled.
37:17 So I'm going to run into the last three here. Recreational activities. So if you're somebody that, you know, in your home country, maybe you live in a place where there are mountains and you don't like snow sports, you don't like skiing, you may want to move to a beach. So overseas, like there are places with cool beaches. It's not just limited to the US. In some cases, you may live near a beach, like let's say you live in the UK or Canada, but that beach is frozen and snowing and cold for most of the year, or the water is frigid, like on the west coast of Canada. So you may feel like I live near the beach, but it's not really that tropical beach experience you're looking for. So you can find that overseas.
38:06 You may be dating somebody from a different country. So you may have a significant other that's from Thailand, from Indonesia, from Cambodia, and they've been living in your country for a while, maybe they came over for different reasons, but they're looking to return home and they want you to come with them. So that's something that you may find that if you're somebody that you live in a western country, you're seeing somebody that's not from there and they've expressed interest like, I'm homesick, I miss my family, I miss this dish that we always used to have together. You may find yourself like, I really got to consider this other country if I want to maintain this relationship and to be happy.
38:46 I don't know if how often that works out or doesn't work out, but I think if an expat is interested in their partner's home country, open-minded, wants to try it out, that it can be an awesome thing. I'm certainly not opposed to moving for love.
39:10 The final reason that I'm going to get into here is religion. And I'm not going to talk too much on this, but I know in the case of like India, some people in the western world, they found Hinduism, they want to practice Hinduism, they want to go to the source. And so they might find like, okay, yeah, I'm in the US, but if I really want to understand it, if I really want to be exposed to the Hindu temples and the new priests, that I'm going to have a real strong benefit from just moving over there for six months or moving over there for a year. Same with Buddhism. And I think any other religion or faith or practice, they might just find where they live is not as receptive to that, or the communities may be inconveniently located. So, like, there may be a big community, but they're located in, like, I don't know, Michigan, and you don't like cold weather. So that's just something to think about.
40:02 But I'm going to talk a little bit about Ron's last comments. I may share some stuff about cost of living and then wrap it up.
40:17 Yeah, you know, I don't necessarily think it's a poor country or rich country. I mean, the US has issues with water in Michigan that, the US also has issues with like in Colorado, hard water, water that kind of makes you feel dried out. So some of it's not necessarily because of countries that, you know, developed or developing status, but more to do just with regulations and accessibility and expense and all of that.
40:49 But yeah, it's just a lot of these things, you know, definitely are appealing to me. It may be a combination of factors. So, like, you may want a fresh start, not be close to friends and family, and also want to have more dating options. It may be none of those things. Maybe it's the weather, it's your diet, it's recreational activities. I don't feel like if you don't have every single one of these things going on that you're not qualified to be an expat. I think a lot of people may only have one or two or three reasons, but those are compelling enough to give it a shot.
41:37 Yeah, I definitely need to travel soon, Ron. I'm getting the itch to travel. I've thought about even just taking, like, if I have a long weekend off, maybe just driving down to San Diego and going to Mexico. What I think of Eastern European women? You know, I don't really have an opinion. I haven't really dated anybody from Eastern Europe. I haven't been to Eastern Europe.
41:58 You know, I do have an online friend from Japan that he's married to a woman from Eastern Europe, I think, and they seem happy. So I think it varies from person to person. I'm certainly open to traveling in Eastern Europe in the future. It's been on my list. It just, it's one of those places, it's not really a winter time destination, so that's something that has probably held me back some from going there compared to Southeast Asia or Latin America, which are.
42:29 No, no, don't apologize for asking questions. Feel free. I love that answering your questions. It's definitely helpful to have things to talk about. I thank you for joining me tonight, Mr. Ross. Really, I appreciate it, and it's an honor.
42:50 My mind, even, just a few people are interested.
43:22 Oh, okay. So I'm live streaming from my apartment. So I live.
43:24 I live near San Francisco, California, about a half hour by train. I actually moved to a different unit within the same building. Part of the reason I haven't been streaming the last few months is because the unit I was in was super noisy; there's a bar downstairs.
43:46 Moving forward, I'm going to try to stream somewhat consistently after work and on the weekends. I need to start compiling and find my old lists of content prompts and make new ones so I can keep the conversation going and have things to share with all of you.
44:12 I should just throw it on my schedule every single week and commit to it. Mondays are usually busy for me, but sometimes if I have a lot of energy that day, I'll keep it going. I would say probably around this time, because we're not too far from when I get off work.
44:39 I get off work every day around 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, and that turns out to be 6 p.m. Mountain Time, 7 p.m. Central, and 8 p.m. Eastern. So, I would say sometime within an hour of getting off work is probably the best time for me to stream, where I'm not too tired and I still have some energy to share with you all.
45:03 I think scheduling this, throwing it on my calendar, and treating it like an appointment that I need to make is probably the best bet as far as getting that consistency down and really building the channel. It's been too long; I really need to work toward getting monetized and hitting that 1000 subscriber mark.
45:23 Part of that's going to be putting more content out. I do have some ideas that I need to work on. I need to buy a new memory card and some lights, too. I gotta wait for my next paycheck and maybe I can get one of those things.
45:42 With each paycheck, I can accumulate a little bit more gear. I've got to send my Nikon in for service, so when I get that camera back, that'll be great. Getting the algorithm going, consistency helps a lot with that.
45:55 Also, getting better at creating thumbnails and checking out Google Trends to find out what people want to hear about. I don't know what's popular or current, and it differs from country to country and time to time.
46:16 Some places are more open than others, and some places are better during certain times of year. Some places will allow me to get a work visa easily. I will say there are not that many, but something that's going to help the channel is more and more countries offering a digital nomad visa.
46:32 My company said it's cool with me working overseas for up to 30 working days, about six weeks out of the year, but they want me to have a work visa and be able to prove that I'm following the rules of that country and its restrictions.
46:47 Wow, Ron, what a small world. You know, if you're still here in the area and find yourself around here sometime, I'd be down to get a cup of coffee. You know, sometime when you're free and I'm free.
47:03 It's absolutely wonderful. I'm actually in Berkeley specifically, so it's a wonderful city and I love the weather here. I love the opportunity here. I'm grateful to have found this place, so I moved here about four years ago.
47:16 I spent some time away, but the Bay Area, more than any other place I've been in the US, feels like home. I am on a break, so I feel like I need work experience and to move up a bit. So I put a pause on school while I work my sales career, which is going well.
47:37 I will say it's going well, and I definitely have an upward trajectory. Yeah, Ron, that's what I'm leaning toward because with school, it's just like I'm turning 30 in a few months.
47:56 The more time that I put into school, I think it further delays me moving overseas long-term. So even if I make less money in the long term by not going to school, I'm going to make more money more immediately, and that will allow me to invest more.
48:14 I think that's going to make a bigger difference because that will give me time in the market, and that's really what's a major factor when it comes to investing and seeing gains.
48:24 I do use Salesforce at work. I use Salesforce just about every day, and it's a great tool. I'm grateful we have that to keep track of everything because I am working a lot of deals at any given time, and it just gets really complex.
48:40 Ron, you know, I can't say whether it's good to invest or not. It depends on your appetite for risk, depends on when you need the capital. If it's maybe an inconsequential amount of money to you, maybe you toss in a small amount each month. I don't think that's the worst thing ever.
48:57 I hesitate to give investing advice, even financial or investing advice. But beyond that, I hesitate to even make basic suggestions just because I don't know what you're looking for. If you're looking to grow your capital, if you're looking to get yield.
49:17 Certain cryptos are better for yield, like Algorand yields about six to eight percent, depending on how you structure your holding. But the price is also volatile, right?
49:30 I bought a fair amount when it was around double what it costs now, or triple what it costs now, and my yield on cost has gone down, right? In the short term, if the prices drop by triple, then I'm, you know, in crypto amounts, my yield hasn't gone down, but in dollar amounts, my yield has gone down.
49:51 So that's something you got to be careful for. And same with buying a hold like an Ethereum or a Bitcoin. Some are, some aren't, right?
50:01 So I'll talk a little bit about my fundamental reasoning for why I support crypto. One, I found out about it in 2012. My stepdad told me it was a scam. I could have bought Bitcoin at 12, and my life would probably look a lot different if I had.
50:16 He told me it was a Ponzi scheme, and I trusted him, which was stupid. There are a few things that go into crypto and why I believe in it. One, you have a blockchain record, so it can't be falsified.
50:34 Financial documents, sadly, they can be falsified. Companies can lie, unfortunately. Doesn't happen a lot, but the few times it does happen causes a lot of risk. It raises the cost of investing, it affects the risk tolerance.
50:50 There's a lot of negative things that are caused by dishonesty in the financial realm. So if you have a blockchain, you have proof of the wallet, of the transaction time, the amount that happened in the transaction, and it's something called immutable.
51:06 Immutable in the computer world means that thing is not changeable. And that's very different from, you know, a Ponzi scheme where people make up all kinds of crap to create a certain sort of understanding of a certain thing.
51:36 I think tokenomics are important. The other thing is, some people don't trust the government, right? So some people live in places where they can't trust their government and they want to be able to store money or value or hold some kind of asset that isn't controlled by their government.
51:58 Whether it be real estate, stocks, bonds, land, whatever it is. Some people feel like they're at the whim of their government to do the right thing, to maintain the security of that asset, to maintain the value.
52:12 Like in Venezuela, Bitcoin is popular because people feel like they can't trust the government there to not take their money. And I say that just because that's coming from a Venezuelan friend of mine. That's not my opinion; I haven't been there.
52:35 But I asked a friend of mine from Venezuela when I met him in Latin America, and I just asked him why. So that was what he said. I don't want to criticize or offend anybody, just kind of repeating what I heard from a local.
52:50 Hacks are a valid thing. People have to take their internet security really carefully. Don't open up any strange emails. Don't put any of your crypto information into any strange emails. Don't post it publicly.
53:03 There's a lot of IT security rules that people need to follow to maintain their assets, maintain control of it. I have a few different things I use, of course, I could be better, but I'm also not a whale.
53:17 I don't have some absurd amount of crypto. I just, at this point, try to buy some with every paycheck. And yeah, I'd say another thing is just like privacy.
53:29 You know, with some forms of transmitting money in the US, you have to report to the government. You have to report it to financial agencies. There's things that you have to do that with crypto, you don't have to do.
53:42 And there's people that like that. They don't want other people to know about their financial information. They don't want other people to know about the money they're making.
53:54 Yeah, I it's sad. You know, some people will misuse crypto. Some people will do things within a bad use case. That's why I'm a big fan of Algorand. I personally feel like, you know, they just had a partnership with FIFA.
54:10 They're going to be, I think they're going to be a World Cup sponsor, if I understand correctly. They're also doing stuff with NFTs, and I mean, NFTs and tickets, there's another use case.
54:20 It's sadly not uncommon for people to make fake tickets to sporting events and concerts and to go and sell those fake tickets. There's no way to prove it really on the spot.
54:32 Good luck trying to find a scammer. They probably rip people off and run away. But with an NFT, you know, it's immutable. You can't change the record of an NFT. You can't change the address. You can't change a lot of things that bad actors would like to be able to change.
54:52 I think that's what's going to continue to cause crypto to grow. I don't know which one will be on top. I don't know if Bitcoin will fall out of popularity. It's not environmentally friendly, and it's perhaps not as useful as some other tokens.
55:13 But the businesses that are around crypto will keep evolving. As long as they keep money, they're going to keep innovating, putting money into different ideas, making things faster and more secure.
55:25 Coinbase is publicly traded now, so that's even more transparency in the industry. That is necessitated by being a publicly traded company, having to disclose financial statements. Something that they're going through right now is a liquidity issue where they are struggling to have enough cash on the books to fund all the transactions.
55:45 This is public information, by the way. This is not a critique of Coinbase, this isn't a judgment. I wish them the best and hope the market returns in strength and helps their bottom line. But it is a reality that with exchanges, they need cash. You know, they need money to move back and forth.
56:10 I've got some loud music playing outside, so I'm going to wrap up. But thank you all for watching. Definitely share questions below. Let me know what you think, and I'll see you next time.
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