1 2 3 good morning Alex here and I'm in hot Y Thailand and in today's video I want to discuss with you some surprising reasons why Financial Independence is easier overseas first reason is that you aren't stress spending
and if you do you're not stress spending as much as you would back home what do I mean by you're not stress spending as much well in the us when we're working our corporate jobs maybe we work in
a trade we're dealing with a lot of stress there's deadlines that are ever present there's expectations that are ever present and if we don't meet those on a long enough timeline we can get canned so we feel like
in the short term we're constantly sacrificing today for tomorrow we have this tendency to want to let off steam it makes sense I've had stressful sales jobs it's very common for salespeople to engage in unhealthy activities to deal
with the stress of trying to meet deadlines and trying to do everything that we can to land the sale we tend to want to reward ourselves at least if you're anything like me by bling off team and spending
money on different things to take our minds off the stress I know some people like to go to the bar some people like to travel in country sometimes do stations the problem with this is that it can set
us back from our financial goals I've heard of some people saying oh I always try to convince my new sales reps they need to go buy a fancy car so that they're more motivated to go sell the problem
with that is if we're working toward Financial Independence we have to be especially careful about our spending we have to track things very carefully we have to avoid overspending on convenience and comfort you get trapped in this situation
and I've gone through this I know some people have as well where you want to save your money but you're so stressed in the moment that you go and stress spend that's less of an issue if you're financially
independent overseas because one you can pick an area that's less stressful for you I find South these daysia to be generally less stressful for myself but also if I do get stressed out and I do go do a
little bit of stress spending typically it's much less than what I would spend back home I can go out and have a great meal with a smoothie for 3 or 4 bucks where in the states that's more like
$ 20 $30 maybe more depending on where you are like if you're in a Manhattan would certainly be around that of San Francisco that might even be lowballing it last time I went to Jamba Juice in SF it
was $11 if I want to go to a movie here in Thailand it's 4 bucks for a ticket for me if I wanted to take a date be8 bucks maybe 10 bucks if I was in a hot area
of Bangkok smoothies and nice meals are small when you compare this to in the ball and chain that is having a big car payment or a big house payment people get into these status games where they're trying to
show off oh look at this success but what they're trading for that is they're trading their freedom they're trading their personal time and I think that's what people who are pursuing fi are really looking to attain is control
over their time number two is that you aren't as affected by advertising if at all if you can't speak the language this is something that I picked up from one of Brett Deb's videos if you haven't checked him
out I recommend it and I wanted to expand on his thoughts about this or his statement on this when I am walking around here in Thailand I do see advertisements I do see ads for different things but I
have no idea what they're trying to advertise I don't know what they're trying to sell unless it's obvious like it's a McDonald's ad where I'm familiar with McDonald's from growing up back in the west and I have no
idea what they're trying to sell I can't really dig into it when I think of advertising in the west I think of ads that I do know they are trying to sell and they're often trying to play on
an insecurity something that we don't like about ourselves making us feel like we're inadequate if we don't purchase a certain product to feel whole or to Feel Complete we need to consume and this is especially true in a
consumer-driven economy like the United States if you don't buy this car You're Nobody if you don't buy this food you're going to be alone like that's one of the things that ads seem to pre on a lot in
the west is people's feelings of loneliness hey if you spend money you're not going to be lonely I don't have that experience here in Thailand I have no idea what most of the ads are saying I have no
idea what they're talking about I'm not going to comment on whether they're good or bad rather that they just don't affect me I can't read Tha even after going on close to 9ine months here in Thailand I still
can't read Thai any more than I could when I first got here I've taken classes I've tried to learn it's just not clicking for me it's just so far from what I'm used to being in my early 30s
it's harder for me to learn like if I came here 10 years ago I'd probably have an easier time learning it of course the other factor is the pharmaceutical ads America is one of two countries the other being
New Zealand that allows for companies to advertise Pharmaceuticals and these are some of the largest advertisers in the United States they have some of the largest ad budgets so if you're somebody that's struggled with mental health these pharmaceutical
companies will Target you they will put ads up they will run ads they get all kinds of data on consumers they're able to push this stuff on you that kind of thing is not legal here in Thailand I
don't see pharmaceutical ads here it's actually against the law Pharmaceuticals similar to software in the US have a high markup it's a very high margin business it's kind of this cycle where they make a lot of money then
in turn they can spend a lot on advertising and I really like that that it's not allowed here in Thailand to advertise those things to make people feel just taking a pill is going to fix their problems is
not medical advice I'm not suggesting you should or shouldn't take medication but I suggest you speak to a licensed doctor in your country number three is that you can opt to spend less in terms of taxes or taxation
if I look at a place like California I know some people say Oh California has got such high taxes regardless of where you live in the United States you're paying federal income tax that federal income tax applies regardless
of local taxes so you're not getting this magic tax free situation by moving to a red State I really don't like that line of thinking and so anyway you can opt out of certain kinds of taxes or pay
less in taxes even in the US let's just talk about outside California because that's going to be helpful you still have sales tax where I'm from in Tennessee you've got like a 10% sales tax and so everything you
buy you're going to pay an additional 10% that would be fine if the prices were low but the prices are particularly low especially not recently in Tennessee where things have become a lot more expensive iive and nobody believes
the prices are coming down not just that you also have to pay vehicle taxes you have to pay registration taxes in effect you're paying property tax if you're a renter you're not going to see it where it's almost
like they don't want you to know how much taxes you're paying I'm not an accountant I recommend talking to an accountant if you have specific tax questions but Dividends are taxed at a lower rate than you would from
earned income in fact the people who are most heavily taxed are high earners in the US people who earn a lot from a salary are paying the most taxes business owners are actually paying much lower rates so if
you pivot to where you're living from investment income real estate income you're going to pay less taxes on what you bring in and then if you go to a cheaper country you're going to pay less on what's going
out one final example about taxes you can opt out of by living overseas is if you move overseas and choose not to own a personal vehicle in the US owning a vehicle subjects you to a ton of taxes
you got pay to register it you got to have mandatory Insurance oil change which is tax all the services for the car are tax I opt out of all that by living overseas by not owning a car I
don't have to pay that also with food and rent being cheaper the taxes that are built into those aren't as expensive either so there's just a lot of inflation of taxes that people have to pay due to high
cost of living in the west that you can opt out of by living overseas to some extent I'm not suggesting don't pay your taxes I'm not suggesting you won't have any taxes that they will be much less and
in some cases not apply the fourth reason this may be inconsequential to some people but that is that you're less likely to be invited to expensive high cost events in some other countries just due to the fact that
the average person has a lower income than say in the US I remember back in the US people are always inviting me to expensive events would you like to go out to this restaurant oh by the way it's
going to be 50 bucks or oh hey I want you to go with me to the concert by the way 100 bucks that kind of thing doesn't happen over here my friends over here always kind of warn me
or let me know hey in Thailand for us locals this thing is going to be free or cheap for you it's going to cost like 2030 bucks is that something you're open to if not that's okay but in
the US there's an expectation that you have money and not only that but that if you want to have a social life she also be willing to spend money so it's just really expensive to have a enjoyable life
in the west over here socially speaking you're not going to feel excluded if you're not looking to go spend a lot of money there's this General attitude back home that if you don't spend a lot of money then
you must be poor or you must not value your friendship that's something that's not an issue here if I want to just have a cheap month and not spend a lot that's very doable here back home that's going
to be a real lonely month and I can pick up the phone and call people but most people don't want to talk on the phone so yeah you just generally feel excluded after a while some people would say
my real friends will be willing to be friends with me regardless of my station in life people want to be around people that are like them so naturally if you have people with more disposable income they're going to
want to be around other people with disposable income they're going to want to go do fun stuff you just don't have as much pressure here to do that I have meals with local friends and we're just as happy
spending $150 on dinner as we are spending $15 on dinner you feel like more equal in some way the fifth and final reason that you may find Financial Independence easier overseas is that you exist outside of the hierarchy
status game now I know a lot of people will suggest that status is a thing in all countries and I'd agree with that I'm not going to sit here and disagree with you however you don't have the same
pressure just like with the advertising I mentioned earlier you're not going to be subjected to the same pressure necessarily of being high status over here now if you want a date is it going to come into question to
some extent yes they're going to want to know you can afford basic bills and you can pay your rent and you can pay for food and transportation but they're not looking for a CEO or an actor as a
foreigner you just don't really fit in neatly into the hierarchy will there be presumption about your economics sure there will be some people know international flights ain't cheap paying for a lifestyle when you don't have a job over
is also not cheap there's going to be some level assumption but it's not to the same extent where in America you go on a date one of the first questions you're going to get asked is what do you
do for a living I mean even women that I've had short flings with I run into them a few years later they're not asking how are you doing or what have you been up to no like what are
you doing for work how are you making money they make a determination based on that answer as to whether or not they want to have anything to do with you in my opinion sales my career path is not
the most high status or luxurious sounding position but that's totally fine to a lot of the women I've dated in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries like oh wow you're gainfully employed and you earn a decent income and
I now some of that of course is that I specifically focus on technical sales where there's high margin but yeah I've never had a woman over here ask me what kind of car do you drive what neighborhood do
you live in so I hope this video has been helpful for you this has been five surprising reasons that Financial Independence can be easier overseas let me know what you think down in the comments have you found any
of these to be true do any of these make sense to you do you disagree with any of these we'll see you next time appreciate you watching
