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The perceived appeal of expat life is declining due to a combination of increased geopolitical instability, natural disasters in popular destinations, negative online portrayals, the realization that many conveniences are more accessible at home, and the aging of the expat demographic.
The video explores the reasons behind a perceived decline in interest in expat life, noting that while not disappearing, the allure has diminished. Factors contributing to this shift include heightened geopolitical tensions and natural disasters in popular expat locations, which raise safety concerns. Furthermore, the proliferation of negative online content and interpersonal conflicts among expats in these destinations create an unappealing image, deterring potential movers.
A significant factor is the growing realization that many conveniences and a high standard of living are readily available, and often more easily attained, in one's home country, such as the United States. The US offers robust infrastructure, consumer protections, and accessibility to goods and services that can rival or surpass those in many expat destinations. This diminishes the unique selling proposition of living abroad, especially when considering the challenges like visa requirements, language barriers, and reliance on imported goods.
The aging of the expat population also plays a role, as older individuals may prioritize comfort, safety, and mobility, making the familiar environment of their home country more appealing than navigating the complexities of life abroad. Additionally, demographic trends indicate smaller subsequent generations, naturally reducing the pool of potential expats. The video also touches upon the advantages for high earners in the US, where a high income can afford a lifestyle with significant benefits and amenities, making the economic argument for moving abroad less compelling for many.
Expat life is losing appeal due to increased geopolitical instability and natural disasters in popular destinations, creating safety concerns. Negative online portrayals and conflicts among expats also tarnish its image. Many find that conveniences and a high standard of living are now more accessible in their home countries.
Several factors make expat life less attractive, including rising safety concerns from global tensions and natural disasters. The prevalence of negative online content and drama within expat communities deters newcomers. Furthermore, the convenience and quality of life available in home countries like the US are increasingly competitive.
While not disappearing, the overall appeal and the rate at which people are choosing expat life have declined. This is influenced by factors like increased accessibility of home comforts and a growing awareness of the challenges involved. The aging expat demographic also contributes to a shift in priorities.
Living abroad is becoming less popular as home countries offer more conveniences and a higher standard of living, rivaling or surpassing expat destinations. Safety concerns due to geopolitical issues and natural disasters are also significant deterrents. The perceived benefits are diminishing for many.
Expat burnout stems from navigating daily challenges like language barriers and visa issues, compounded by safety concerns and the realization that home offers comparable or better conveniences. The aging expat population also experiences increased needs for comfort and familiarity, contributing to burnout.
For many, especially high earners and those seeking robust consumer protections and social infrastructure, the US offers a high standard of living and significant advantages. The accessibility of goods and services, combined with familiarity, makes it a compelling alternative to the complexities of expat life.
Expat life is becoming less appealing due to increased geopolitical tensions and natural disasters in popular destinations, which raise safety concerns. Additionally, negative online content and interpersonal conflicts among expats create an unappealing image. Many conveniences previously unique to expat life are now readily available in home countries like the US, diminishing the draw of living abroad.
Retiring abroad can be more challenging if you cannot afford to live comfortably in your chosen destination country. Successfully retiring abroad often requires proper savings and planning to ensure you can access healthcare, maintain a good standard of living, and manage daily expenses without constant financial strain. The ability to cut corners or game immigration systems is not a sustainable strategy for long-term retirement.
The appeal of living in certain regions, particularly Southeast Asia, can be influenced by the perceived ease of forming relationships for men who may not be highly successful or conventionally attractive in their home countries. As economies advance and become more socially isolated, the dynamics of relationships and the desire for companionship can shift significantly.
There's a noticeable shift towards more negative or 'realistic' content about foreign destinations in expat blogs and videos. This is partly a reaction to previous content being overly positive. The increased number of creators, both expats and locals, also means viewership is diluted, and repetitive content makes it harder for established creators to offer fresh perspectives.
For high earners in the US, the economic argument for moving abroad is less compelling as a high income can afford a very comfortable lifestyle with significant benefits and amenities. The US offers robust infrastructure, consumer protections, and accessibility to goods and services that can rival or surpass many expat destinations, making it a competitive alternative.
Traveling and living abroad solo can present unique struggles, and there's a sentiment that expats, particularly younger Americans, should support each other by traveling in groups. This is because expats can sometimes be outnumbered overseas, potentially making them targets.
0:03 Hey YouTube. Alex here and I wanted to do a live stream today. It's a chilly day here in Northern California and I wanted to do a video talking about why I think some people are losing interest in expat life.
0:25 It seems like views are going down for a lot of popular expat content creators. Certainly not all, but many expat content creators seem to have declining views. I don't think they're going to zero, I don't think that it's totally going away, but I do think that based on some things that have happened in the last year or two, there's some level of decline in moving overseas, or at least people have a more realistic picture of what it's like to live overseas.
1:02 It seemed like a few years ago, especially post-COVID, there was all this excitement. People had been locked down, and now it seems like some of that luster has worn off because you've seen so much content get created and people have managed to form more opinions of what it's like to live abroad. And for various reasons, some people are finding, 'Hey, you know what? I really don't need to move overseas, or it might not make sense, or I'd prefer to work back home and live the standard of living I can afford back home than to not work and live at a lower standard in some cases.'
1:47 But anyway, feel free. We'll just give it a moment for people to chime in, but I'll start to get into some of the things that have come to my mind. I'll probably do a video on this topic as well, just because I think it needs a lot of repeating. Do I still plan to eventually retire overseas? Probably. It's like an 80% chance for me that it's very likely that I will still move abroad when I hit retirement years.
2:14 I'd also say I plan to do trips in the meantime, that between now and then I plan to travel overseas. I enjoy it a lot. It is very meaningful for me. But just discussing why I think some of the interest has declined a bit.
2:34 One, I would say is geopolitical tensions. It seems like that has risen in the last few years. You're seeing some conflicts on a global scale where people are concerned about that. For better or worse, you might say some are paranoid, some are overreacting, but when you hear about some of the stuff in the news lately, and I know some people will say, 'Oh, they're fear-mongering,' but it seems like prior to COVID, there seemed to be more of a collaborative kind of mindset between different countries, and now it seems less that way. I don't know if you feel that way, but that's just kind of what I've noticed.
3:13 Another one I would say is natural disasters. A number of popular expat destinations have had problems with flooding, earthquakes, and that really scares a lot of people. Because here in the US, there's natural disasters throughout the country, but you can count on disaster response improving over time. You can count on, 'Okay, well, what did we learn from Hurricane Katrina? What did we learn from past earthquakes in California?' So there seems to be this improvement, where in some other expat destinations, it seems like there isn't a lot of improvement as far as disaster response.
3:58 It seems like things are not really handled as effectively as they could be, and that scares a lot of people, especially if you have major health issues and you're thinking, 'Man, I really need to be able to get to the hospital quickly.' And then disaster strikes and you're unable to effectively respond because the infrastructure is just not designed for it. That's another one.
4:23 I would say three is just some of the drama in various expat destinations. There's a lot of, you know, basically online dialogue about the challenges of living in these places and people going back and forth about he said, she said, and people getting into how broke or how rich some people are. And when you hear about and see that stuff, I know some people think it makes for good entertainment, but it's kind of like Jerry Springer. It doesn't really inspire confidence or make you want to go live in that place or those places.
5:05 It doesn't matter where. I mean, you hear a lot about in South America, a lot of the scope stuff, for example. None of these stories, while they're interesting and they drive a lot of viewer engagement, they get a lot of people to pay attention, they don't make people think, 'Oh, you know what, I want to go live there. That sounds like a great place to live.'
5:28 And so I think that's another one is you hear about a lot of the challenges in some of these places, and it doesn't really inspire confidence. You also hear about expats not really treating each other well. I think that doesn't inspire confidence either. And when people talk about, 'Oh, well, I just need to be in a bubble,' often in our home countries, you can form a bubble if you've got the resources. You don't have to move halfway around the world to live in a bubble.
6:00 It can be very comfortable to live here in the US, and there's very limited drama because of the services that exist. You don't have to rely on other people like you do when you're an expat. People talk about expats being independent, and to some extent, that's true, but in other ways, it's not necessarily true because you may not speak the language, and if you speak the language, you may not speak it fluently. You're probably reliant on a visa, right? You're probably not a citizen of that country.
6:33 So, you're having to rely on the approval of the visa services, whatever that may be, to extend your stay. Right here in the US, I have a passport. I don't have to check in with immigration. I don't have to go in every few months or whatever to do some kind of background check or anything like that. I just By the way, guys, please give a thumbs up if you like this content.
6:59 So you're more reliant on other people in some ways. Another one would be the import store. Right here in the US, any kind of groceries I want, I can go to several different grocery stores here in town. I live a few hours away from many other grocers of all kinds. Like in one of the cities closest to me, there's a Korean grocery store, a Filipino grocery store, a Japanese grocery store, there's Trader Joe's, Costco. I think there's a Whole Foods.
7:27 I'm not a big Whole Foods guy. It's a bit above my pay grade at the current time. There's multiple Costcos. There's Kroger. You've got probably 10 or 12 grocery stores minimum, and that's the ones I've been to. There's probably more that I just haven't had any need to go there. Where if you're living abroad and you want some Western food, you're reliant upon the expat import grocery store, right? So you're hoping, 'Hey, I hope they stock things in a timely manner. I hope there's enough demand here to provide for this product.'
8:02 I don't have that issue. And the inverse is not true. Like for Asian groceries, I guess, because there's high enough of a markup or a profit margin, there's enough Asian people with the money to buy Asian groceries that it's rare that I want something and I go to a grocer here in the States and it's out of stock. So, I don't not. And also there's alternatives. I could drive to another city very easily, just get in my car and drive to another city to find that product.
8:28 Where over there in Southeast Asia, driving is challenging. Cities aren't necessarily that close to one another. There tends to be more challenges with going from like, 'I'm not going to get on a plane to go grocery shopping.' That's ridiculous. Where here I've got my car, very comfortable, very easy to get around.
8:54 More points as far as why I think it's losing its luster. I think that people go, more people are going and testing it out and finding out, 'You know what, this isn't what it was sold to me as.' You've got some bloggers, not all, okay? Not all, maybe not even 50%, but you've got some bloggers that are willfully deceptive about what it's like to live overseas.
9:18 They don't want to share some of the challenges that come with living abroad. Whether it be visa runs, whether it be dealing with immigration processes, whether it be pollution, whether it be a language barrier. And some of these things you think, 'Oh, that's fine. I'll deal with it.' It's one thing to say, 'I'll deal with it,' and it's another thing to actually go over and be faced with situations where you're dealing with that in perpetuity.
9:49 You're okay. For the fifth time this year, I'm having to go deal with this problem. For the eighth time this year, this is an issue. Some of these things aren't a thing here.
10:08 Yeah. Um, what are some other challenges why I think some interest in expat life is declining? I think that there's, so like I said, people are getting more of the reality. People are seeing some guys crash and burn. Some people are starting to see that certain lifestyles are more accessible overseas, but other lifestyles are not.
10:39 I really like having a car. It's very comfortable. It's private. If I go and drive to a neighboring city or even within my own city, I'm riding by myself. I can choose to listen to a podcast. I can choose to listen to music. I can enjoy roads that are decently maintained.
11:01 I would say it's not perfect where I live. The infrastructure is not perfect, but it's pretty decent. I don't have to listen to somebody else playing music on a speaker. I don't have to listen to other passengers having loud conversations. I don't have to deal with stop-and-go traffic. I found that these schedules can be very demanding in some other parts of the world where the driving culture is not safety-oriented.
11:26 Driving culture is not safety-oriented to the extent that it is here. Is it perfect here? No, it's not perfect. I'll never say it's perfect here in the US, but there were a number of times living abroad when I tried to use public transportation and even private transportation, even cabs, and I had some concerns over the safety-mindedness of the transportation professionals.
11:48 And that's not as much of a thing here, is it? Can it be in certain parts of the country? Sure. I've had a rough cab experience in Miami, Florida. This was probably 15 years ago. But it's uh, I can tolerate some of this stuff as a young guy, but I could imagine when I hit retirement age, I don't want to be dealing with some of this stuff.
12:11 I just, even if I don't have the same level of freedom, if I was that concerned about it now, I'm targeting more of a walkable life. I'm targeting when I retire overseas, I want to live in an area where I can walk around, probably a city, and have a lot of these conveniences at my fingertips, also access to healthcare.
12:29 But as far as where I'm at now, I imagine like, wow, you know, am I going to have to worry about riding a motorbike around town? That doesn't sound very safe. And it's like I said, it's fine when you're younger. I think when you start to get older, you have to be more concerned about your mobility, more concerned about your reaction time, your ability to react quickly to changing circumstances.
12:56 So, I think that's something that needs to be discussed more: the changes that we face as we get older and our willingness to tolerate some of the challenges of being overseas that when I'm young, it's like, oh, yeah, whatever, this is not a big deal. But as you get older, you realize, wow, this challenge is not really being addressed and I don't know that I want to tolerate it forever.
13:25 And some people would say, just have a western life abroad, but I think that for a lot of people, if I'm going to have a western life, why don't I just do it in my home country? It doesn't make sense for me to move overseas just to live in a big house and drive a big vehicle and eat American food. That lifestyle is easier to do here in the States.
13:48 There's nobody, the traffic is not nearly as extreme if you can pick and choose a more modestized city. The security concerns, right, are not to the same. I mean, some of these countries have pretty severe poverty to where your concern for your personal safety and security is much higher than it would be here in the US.
14:12 Here in the US, I feel pretty safe, unless I go to a bad area of a city. It's mostly safe. People exaggerate how dangerous it is in the US. Are there problems? Certainly, there are. But, uh, yeah, I would say that's a good another point to share.
14:36 I would say dating. I mean, a lot of vloggers have made their money on describing the locals in these expat destinations as scammers. I talked about the scoping in Colombia. This is becoming more and more of a thing.
14:50 And people think like, oh, it's just a video. But these media can change public sentiment. It can heavily impact how people think about these places, how they perceive the potential advantages of these places. And so, you have to be mindful that when every other video is so-and-so got scammed, I got scammed, Bob, you know, whoever got scammed, then it really makes people question whether or not it's going to be the way that they thought.
15:38 I would say the economy. It's probably something I should have mentioned earlier in the video, but the economy is not doing so well. And I think when you have economic challenges, people start to think, maybe I should work a few more years. Maybe I should try to save up some more money.
15:50 Inflation might be higher than what I thought. Maybe I'll have some unexpected expensive health issue when I move abroad. I need to save money for that. And if you have inflation, people may feel like, look, I can't save as much money as I thought I was going to be able to.
16:05 Had some unexpected expense, a car issue. I've had some issues with my car in the last couple months. I've had to pay for those. Fortunately, I haven't been to the extent I need to replace my car, but yeah, I had to replace tires, I had to get an oil change, I had to even replace the wheel at some point.
16:28 But yeah, these things come up. I would say with the economy too, inflation is rising faster in many of these expat destinations than it is here in the States. I do think it's very expensive here in the States, but I've noticed prices in some countries increase substantially.
16:51 They've raised the minimum wage in some of these countries. They are raising the pay rates and also as more and more people bring money into these countries and purchase whatever, it can increase the cost of living. Also, just like a lot of expat destinations, I found don't produce their own oil and so they're dependent on oil imports.
17:14 And so when oil goes up in price, which fortunately right now it's going down, but even if it went up in the past, there's a stickiness to that. Prices don't really seem to come down much. Some will stay the same and go down a little bit, but a lot of prices don't really come down.
17:33 And so if the oil prices went up a couple years ago and that got baked into the cost of energy in that country or oil in that country, even if the oil prices come down, like I noticed here in town where I live, gas is pretty expensive. Gas has come down and the primaries, the stations in town have not lowered their prices.
17:57 So even though I go to the nearest cities in the region and their prices have come down, it's kind of similar to that where you go to these countries and you're thinking, oh yeah, well gas prices came down, so naturally when I go to Phil, it's like, no, not really. The prices, they import everything so or they import a lot. So they feel that those prices should be sticky and not come back down.
18:23 So, that's another one. I think as some of these countries get more and more expensive, they will be less appealing from an economic perspective. It's awesome when you go over there and everything's a deal. It's less awesome when it's like, oh wow, I'm having to buy a worse laptop for more money.
18:43 I don't have consumer protections here where if something goes wrong with it, I'm so I can't just go back and, hey, can you fix this? Or, hey, what about the warranty? So the lack of consumer protections along with increased prices in the US, it's like, okay, yeah, I'm paying a high price, but I get consumer protections. I can return, there's a generous return policy with Amazon. For example, if I buy something on Amazon and it turns out to not be good, I can easily send it back within 30 days.
19:13 And so a lot of these hassles just accumulate and you start to see the reality. Oh, this is why people from this country want to move to the United States. It's because the United States, even though it's not in the best shape it's ever been, it still functions pretty well overall. Things are still pretty, you know, pretty comfortable here.
19:40 Where am I heading this year? I don't know if I'm going to travel this year or not. Maybe I might do something down to like Mexico. I haven't been to Mexico since, gosh, it's been about almost four years since I've been to Mexico. So, yeah, I might do a trip to Mexico, maybe down to like the west coast of Mexico sometime this year. We'll see about scheduling it.
20:15 Yeah, I haven't been, like I said, I haven't been to Mexico in a while. I miss Mexico. So, I've always had a good time when I go down there.
20:52 That might be it this year to be honest. Just like with scheduling and with work, I'm doing a career change and it I might not be able to pull off another trip this year. We'll see.
21:09 I wouldn't mind doing something in Europe, but it's because Europe is actually pretty good for shorter duration trips. Like I think Asia is better for longer trips, but Europe is because the countries are smaller, closer together, transportation's easy. Then maybe I could do something there this year. Like if I get a couple weeks, I could do something like France, Italy, and Netherlands or something like that.
21:37 I kind of want to do like another Europe trip where I hit like three or four places. And that, you know, the two-week duration, maybe two and a half week duration, lends itself to that.
21:52 Some of the trips on my radar, I want to do like an Argentina trip. Uh, Argentina and Uruguay. Um, I want to do a Central Asia trip, but that's going to be a little bit trickier logistically because it's not as easy to get around. Um, the language barrier, these kinds of things.
22:19 But as I get older, I don't know. I'm also starting to want to do some trips to more developed places that are a little bit more comfortable. I think as I get older, I'm less comfortable with roughing it. I notice I feel a bit stiffer, a little bit more achy, and that also tends to wear on my ability to handle countries that are lower in terms of development.
22:48 It's one thing to live there. It's another thing to be needing to move around and trying to do sightseeing and that kind of thing.
23:21 I covered a lot of reasons why I think that some people are losing interest in expat life. I would say also it could just be a numbers thing going down. It may not be a percentage thing, but I think that a lot of the people in the baby boomer generation that have moved abroad or who wanted to move abroad, they're all hitting retirement age where there's this, what's the word, a lot of them have made the move over and the subsequent generations are smaller.
23:56 Generations are smaller, so there's not going to be as many people who want to move overseas. My generation is probably multiple decades off from standard retirement. Gen X is a pretty small generation, so I think you're going to see a gap in the next 5 to 15 years of far fewer expats just because of the generational numbers. Gen X is a small generation, and it won't be until my generation hits retirement years when I think you'll see another boost.
24:33 But that depends on the state of the US economy. Robotics could improve enough in the next 10 to 20 years that people look at the cost of moving abroad and having a home help robot becomes so cheap, they might consider it. Alternatively, because robotics has improved so much in this country, why not just stay here and enjoy life without worrying about visas, immigration, or language barriers?
25:04 All these things can become an issue. I think there's kind of a sweet spot right now where Western economies aren't doing so great, and robotics isn't advanced enough yet to fill in for a lot of the service work. This explains why the appeal of expat life waxes and wanes based on the economy and production capacity.
25:31 Yeah, I agree. The US is a great country, but the government is not the best. What's everybody doing this weekend? Anyone do anything fun or traveling?
26:32 I'd like to go for a walk or a hike today if it's not too cold.
26:58 I think the US is not the best for social life. That's a big challenge here in general. It's just hard to find people because people in the US are so individualistic and atomized. It's hard to find people where you really connect with them.
27:15 I feel like it's very easy to find differences with other people where people are just too different from one another to have enough in common to get along. If you go to other countries, there's more of a monoculture, so it's easier to find common ground. Here, it's just hard to find enough common ground with people to get along with them.
27:42 I think a lot of people run into this. I've definitely had a lot of conversations with single friends who struggle with loneliness. But I think even some people in relationships find the US hard on relationships. People tend to work a lot of hours here to maintain a high standard of living and have to spend time away from their families to get things done and pay the bills.
28:09 It's just a country where you sacrifice social life for standard of living. I had a conversation with a friend about that yesterday. One of the big appeals for me to move abroad when I retire is to have a good social life. I think a lot of older people here are lonely, and it harms their mental and physical health.
28:30 So, if you can move abroad and have a vibrant community, people you get along with, and an easier-going atmosphere where people aren't so angry about politics, I think that's a good thing. These are some of the more realistic concerns about life in the US.
28:50 It comes down to culture, and I don't think people talk enough about culture when it comes to why they want to move away from the US. The US culture is consumerism: make money and buy stuff. People compete on how much they have and how much they can buy.
29:17 For people that aren't so expecting of that consumption-oriented lifestyle, moving abroad makes a lot more sense. Like, okay, I've had the house, I've had the car, I've had everything fancy or nice, and I don't want that anymore. I want to go and chill out at a beach, relax, maybe get a massage or go for a walk.
29:55 A lot of these things you just don't have time to do here. I'm squeezing this in when I have time, but I know I work a full 40 hours this week. I also go to the gym, so that's a good thing for me.
30:09 If I count the time I work, commute, work out, and eat, that's like 50 to 55 hours a week, not including doing laundry, cleaning, or shopping. It's a DIY kind of country.
30:32 On one hand, you have a lot of independence. On the other hand, you do feel lonely. I think a lot of people here feel lonely and isolated, and they want to pursue relationships and friendships. If you had to move around for work, your friendships kind of fall by the wayside.
30:54 I'm living on the other side of the country from where I'm from, and I simply can't put the energy into relationships that I would normally be able to if I were living back home. So, I've had to start anew several times. I do have some great friends here in California, but California is expensive, so everybody's working a lot.
31:29 They're spending a lot of time at work, grinding it out, trying to earn a buck. As a state, it's just not as community-oriented; it's very individualistic unless you're part of a certain group. Like if you come from a certain community where your whole family lives out here, it can be pretty lonely.
31:52 A lot of my friends that moved out here for work, especially in tech, have mentioned being lonely to me and indicated that they struggle with that. Good morning, Serge. Hey, loner from Sacktown. Not much this week in pouring rain and sack in the Bay Area.
32:07 Yeah, it's been winter weather here for sure, and it's been chilly. I look forward to spring. Hopefully, spring is coming soon, and we'll probably still get a lot of precipitation, but hopefully, it'll be manageable.
32:49 I don't know why I feel kind of itchy. Maybe it's just the dry weather.
32:57 Eli says, 'Correct. If you're a regular worker, you're not important to corporations or governments. The important people, as if you consume $300 to $500 a day.' Yeah, I would agree with that. I think you need to spend about that much.
33:13 That works out to $9,000 to $15,000 per month. If you want to live a comfortable life in the US, this is very controversial. But especially if you don't have a paid-off nice home, you're talking like for a family, a $300k a year lifestyle.
33:32 I think that's part of why so many people are lonely: the vast majority of people do not make $300k a year. Coincidentally, the happiest guy I know, or one of the happiest people I know, he and his wife combined probably make over that. I don't know for sure, but those are the happiest people I've noticed: people in a family where both people make a lot of money.
33:57 Then they live in a nice neighborhood and have late-model vehicles. They're able to afford to eat whatever they want and travel fairly consistently. If you're not, if you're like a single guy trying to work overtime or in a high-stress field, then you often get this duality.
34:23 It's like, 'Hey, you know, if you're in a relationship as a guy, you need to make more money.' Okay, I'll work more, but you need to spend more time. So, you're torn between needing to make more money and needing to spend more time at home.
34:38 Really, a lot of it comes down to: do you have assets that produce income? Do you have rental properties? Do you have stocks that kick off dividend income or grow rapidly enough to offset your consumption?
34:51 And so, yeah, I think that's why a lot of people are lonely in the US: they cannot afford a vibrant social scene. Life is kind of boring and dull and repetitive for a lot of people. I can definitely say that's been the case for me since I've been back. One of the probable reasons I've gained weight is just being bored.
35:20 I think high-income workers are important. If you're a medical doctor, a nurse in an expensive, high-cost-of-living area like the West Coast or New York City, or a software engineer at Google or Microsoft, or an NBA player for the Golden State Warriors, or a salesperson that sells several million dollars or more per year in production, those are the people that are important in this country as far as how they're treated.
35:57 I mean, I remember when I worked in tech, we were spoiled. We had lunch catered multiple days per week, a gym in our building we could use for free, and sometimes they took us out to dinner. I flew every quarter to a different conference. We had a lot of nice benefits like pet insurance, subsidized IVF treatment, and a wellness budget where we could buy sports equipment.
36:30 You could buy like sports equipment, great health insurance, some of the best health insurance I've ever had. You had a lot of nice things. And so when you're earning a lot of money, typically you're producing substantially more for that business that employs you.
36:52 So if you're a software engineer and you make 200k a year, you're probably producing like 1.5 million or more per year in value for that company. They estimated that a guy who changed the system over from the star system to a thumbs up or thumbs down system earned them millions of dollars because he shaved off three or four seconds off every single Netflix user.
37:24 So yeah, if you're in the US and you're a really high income earner, you're probably going to get a lot of nice trappings to go along with that. If you're a professor in a university, I knew one professor who would get interest-free loans from the university workforce. They couldn't give him a bonus, but they could say, "Hey, you can go buy real estate. We'll lend you the money. We won't charge you any interest."
37:51 That's a huge advantage. He bought a lot of real estate and made a lot of money from it because he didn't have to worry about interest payments. So if you're in a job like if you're a nurse, for example, you can work in California. You don't stick around in broke states where they don't have any money to pay nurses and you move to like a California or a Washington.
38:22 You move to Colorado. You can make a lot of money plus overtime. You can earn a lot of money in overtime where there's a lot of jobs out there. You cannot work overtime. So you don't have the capacity of like, "Hey, I'll just stay late and I'll stick another grand in my pocket." Most people don't have that option.
38:47 So I would say too, if you have a successful business where you're servicing a lot of wealthy clients and they have the money to treat you because they appreciate the service you're providing, I know that at the last place I worked in tech, they wanted to impress some customers and so they took them out to the Golden State Warriors courtside, spent $11,000 on tickets.
39:11 That kind of luxurious experience is out of reach for the vast majority of Americans. I've never been to an NBA game, much less been courtside. So, I think if you're in a really high-paid field, like America is great if you're the best. If you want to be average, America's not.
39:32 America is hard. But if you're really exceptional at what you do, you're really, really driven, which not everybody is. I think too, some people like my generation, I grew up pretty comfortable. I know it's going to be one, you become complacent if you grow up comfortable, but two, the economy as it changes, you realize, wow, it would not be realistic for me to achieve that same level of comfort no matter how hard I work.
40:04 So people switch up their dream. They're like, "Okay, well, I'm never going to own the big house in the nice neighborhood. I'm never going to have the white picket fence and 2.5 kids. I'm never going to send them to private school. I'm not going to be able to go skiing every other weekend or to the beach every other weekend."
40:22 So what's my new dream? My new dream is to leave. My new dream is to move to another country where I can eat out every meal. I can have a housekeeper. I can take a taxi whenever I want. I don't have to struggle and watch media that kind of makes me feel inadequate.
40:43 I think that's what a lot of Americans struggle with is they see people at the top of their fields in very high paying positions. They see people in their area, especially if you're in a city that are doing really well. I noticed the people in this small town seem much happier than some of the people that I encountered when I lived in the coastal metros in California.
41:09 I think the workers that get paid a lot are important or at least treated like they're important. And the workers who don't get paid a lot are not treated like they're important. I've been surprised going from higher paying jobs to lower paying jobs, just the difference in treatment, the difference in respect, the difference in amenities, the difference in flexibility.
41:38 All these factors that I think people don't really discuss. I think you just have to learn from hard experience.
43:31 I've thought about going back to school. I'm still thinking about going back to school. I've got to do some outreach and try to figure out what that might look like.
43:54 Any last questions? I'm thinking about wrapping it up here in the next couple minutes just because I'd like to get on some stuff today while I still have light out.
45:03 Nice. I'm glad to hear that, man. Are you in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap or Cambodia? Yeah, I think if you get outside the city, or this like mainly Phnom Penh, the prices drop quite a bit. I prefer it to Vietnam, just my personal opinion.
45:31 Have you explored the city? Like have you checked out some different areas? I've heard it's developed a lot since I was there last, but I haven't been in gosh, like about six years at this point, but I'd like to go on my next trip to Southeast Asia.
45:47 That's a good price. That's a very reasonable price.
46:13 Yeah, they're building a lot. They're building a whole lot there.
46:39 Okay, cool. Yeah, I look forward to your content in Phnom Penh. It's an exciting city. It's an interesting city. There's a lot going on. It's surprisingly easier to walk around than you'd think. I found it to be fun to just like explore.
47:00 Yeah, there it's changing a lot. So I feel like it's a good place to go right now because in five or 10 years it's going to look a lot different, and you have that snapshot in your mind of what it was like when you first went there.
47:14 I look forward to my next trip because I'm sure even in the last six years it's changed a lot, and that'll be really exciting.
47:38 Yeah, that's what I've heard is like Bangkok back in the day before it really increased a lot in popularity and developed a lot. I found the people to be pretty friendly and very easy to get along with.
48:06 What are you going to invest in over there?
48:47 Yeah, let us know how it goes. I typically don't recommend investing overseas for many reasons, and that's not Cambodia specific, but if you choose to do that, let us know how it goes.
49:03 Yeah, I've heard they've got a really convenient business visa. If you start a business there and you can get a visa, a long-term visa, much more easily than some of the surrounding countries.
49:17 Yeah, that's really a low price, low barrier to entry, easy to get started.
49:46 Yeah, that's pretty, you know, that's a lot higher cost. That's a lot more of an expectation.
49:53 Yeah, I mean too, like Cambodia feels more low-key. I think it's less densely populated. So, if Thailand is too full-on, like Thailand can feel very busy, especially during high season, I felt like Cambodia was a bit more low-key, a bit more relaxed by comparison.
50:10 I know several expats that have moved there in recent months or years that seem to be really enjoying it a lot. There's that guy Jim who's very controversial. He has moved to Cambodia or appears to have moved there or has spent some time there. I know AJ, another guy who I interviewed on my channel, he's moved to Cambodia.
50:34 It's kind of the next up and coming spot, I think, alongside Vietnam, because part of its cost of living, part of it is they're a bit less explored compared to Thailand and the Philippines. So yeah, I think they'll continue to grow and improve in the coming years as far as interest and culture and being tourism destinations.
51:20 What are you headed next in Cambodia, Stoic?
51:40 Yeah, I think that's a reason. Like I think as far as expenses go, if you're young, you could do, you know, the very modest budget. I think I would probably want more just to be comfortable. But, you know, especially if you're trying to date.
51:56 But yeah, rents are still reasonable. They're building a lot, too. I think that helps to moderate rents is that they're building a lot in Phnom Penh. And that's, you know, that's not a bad idea because the visas are fairly straightforward for Vietnam.
52:18 Yeah, it's uh I don't know. I do miss living in Asia at times. There are other times I don't, just thinking about the challenges. But yeah, keep us posted, Stoic.
52:33 Guys, check out Stoic's channel. He's got a startup he's working for and he's living in Southeast Asia. He's pursuing his dreams and doing so in an interesting way.
52:47 Yeah, condo for 350. That's a good deal for those amenities. I'm paying a lot more than that here in California. And it's something I miss about Southeast Asia is the lower cost of living. Of course, the earning potential is harder, but yeah, it's certainly an interesting life over there.
53:18 Well, guys, I think I'm going to wind down. I really appreciate everybody joining us. I've got a lot to do this afternoon. I hope everybody has a great rest of your day.
53:26 Give us a thumbs up if you enjoy the content. Please subscribe to the channel down below if you're not already subscribed and comment. What do you think? Do you think less people will become expats in the coming years?
53:37 I think it's just a matter of demographics, recession, and the like negative media attention to some of these places. Let me know.
53:47 Let me know what you think. But thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.
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