Hey YouTube, Alex here and in today's video I want to go over this topic that really uh clicked with me recently and the topic is some Americans are embarrassed that they have to live overseas or some Americans are embarrassed to admit that they can no longer afford to live in the United States.
And there's a number of reasons for this.
I'm going to get into them in this video.
So go ahead and stay tuned if you'd like to check it out.
Uh so the first reason is that it's embarrassing to admit that you can't afford to live in your home country.
There's this sense of status and pride that a lot of Americans have traditionally felt.
We live in the best country on earth.
We live in the greatest country on earth, the most prosperous, wealthy country on earth.
uh anybody who comes to America uh can be a millionaire if they work hard enough.
And when you've lived in the United States your entire life and actually you've seen your standard of living decline or stagnate, you're working really hard just to stay afloat of bills.
I think that really impacts people's pride.
Uh it's easy for um a tech CEO or a high-flying lawyer or engineer to say, "Yeah, America's awesome.
Uh it's really worked out for me.
I've really been successful here." It's another thing to admit, "Well, I haven't been able to put away enough money for retirement.
It looks like I'm going to have to get a part-time job.
Looks like I'm going to have to substantially uh downgrade my lifestyle.
I'm going to have to get rid of the boat.
I'm going to have to uh swap to a used car from a new car.
I may have to sell my house and move into an apartment.
And when the alternative is, hey, I can go overseas uh based on my social security income.
I can rent a decent house.
I can uh you know, I can sell my car and buy a decent car over there because cars are cheaper, labor and maintenance is cheaper, insurance is cheaper.
Um, you know, there's this sense of like, well, I can live the American dream overseas, but I think that there's this component of like trying to uh flip it around to other reasons.
Um, some people are very honest.
Some expats very honest.
Look, it's all about economics.
I come over here because my dollar stretches further.
Uh, but for others, I think it's just this hard thing to admit.
My country hasn't been managed well.
Uh, my country is not as prosperous as it as it used to be.
It's just not as wealthy as it used to be.
Sure, in GDP terms, yeah, it's wealthier, but when it comes to actual day-to-day life, quality of life, um, we we really, uh, bungled things here.
Uh, so yeah, um, you know, the next one would be, so I talked about status and pride.
The next would be image versus reality.
Um, the image is, oh, I'm worldly.
I'm an adventurer.
I'm living abroad because I I look I'm looking for excitement.
That sounds a lot better than saying I'm priced out, right?
Sounds a lot more exciting to say I'm living in this tropical jungle.
I'm living in paradise.
That's a word that gets thrown around a lot.
And some of the expat hotspots I've been to are far from paradise.
Um they have their own set of challenges or issues.
They're not often terrible places, but to say that it's equivalent to the US or the US comparable city in its heyday, not accurate.
Um, there's a lot of things I really enjoy about living in the US, the reality of which is very comfortable.
If you have a decent income, if you have assets, if you're um living in a desirable part of the US, you're talking about some of the most desirable parts in the world.
Uh but not everybody can afford to live in these desirable places and so they look for an overseas equivalent.
Uh and then they try to bill it.
Oh, this city is just like Miami or this city is just like LA.
And that's not really the case.
There's only one Miami, there's only one LA.
Uh I would say that if you're looking for a realist real more realistic comparable city, you're looking at parts of Europe uh as opposed to um other parts of the world as far as just level of development, walkability, high quality food.
Um the next one would be cultural conditioning.
A lot of people in the United States, and I was taught this way, uh to upgrade, you always want to be upgrading.
you always want to be getting a bigger house, a better car, a more attractive uh significant other.
You're taught to always have this upward social comparison.
And I've found this to be the case of many different age demographics, uh people from different walks of life, uh different cultural backgrounds, and you're supposed to go up the ladder.
And when that's not working, when you can no longer go up the ladder, uh you're you're in this situation that for some causes embarrassment, like look, I couldn't afford uh to live in my home city anymore, so I've got to move to a step down.
Like in the case of um I'm trying to think of a good example here.
A common one with Colorado would be, I can no longer afford Denver.
I'm going to have to move to Colorado Springs.
I can't afford Austin anymore.
I'm going to have to move to Dallas or Houston.
Uh, I can't afford Miami anymore.
I'm going to move to Orlando or Tampa.
Nothing wrong with Orlando or Tampa or Colorado Springs or Dallas or Houston, but these are uh more economical than the most desirable cities in these states.
Um, and so yeah, it's it's embarrassing to say that.
A lot of people might say it's for some other reason.
Oh, it was too busy or it was too hectic or it was uh too crowded when reality is I couldn't afford to live the way that I wanted to uh in those cities.
And on a a greater scale, well, I can't afford uh southern Florida, so I better move to an island um or city in Latin America.
And I'm a fan of Latin America, by the way.
I think that there's great value to be had there.
Um, but I readily admit part of the appeal of Latin America is the budget friendly options.
The fact that uh you can choose more economical places compared to their US equivalents.
But I I think for those that have a strong sense of pride, it's like what you you can't afford here anymore, so you're going to go over there.
A third world country is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot.
I think that that's a bit rude, but people have levied this criticism at me.
And I thought I'd address it as a wider scale American issue.
Uh because I think more and more people will be pushed to leave the United States due to economics.
Um not only now, but I think it's just going to get worse in the coming years and more people um will end up going.
And I I think that the stigma of this embarrassment will decrease.
I think it will become more normalized.
Like, oh, of course I'm going to move to Latin America.
Uh, my rent is half the price or less.
My food bill is a lot less.
Um, the weather is milder.
Uh, all these different attractive um aspects of life in Latin America.
But I do see some level embarrassment um that's disguised as uh ego trips or people get or some of these expats get combative.
uh they worry like, "Oh, if word gets out, I'm not going to be able to afford here anymore and I'm gonna have to downgrade again.
Uh I'm not going to be able to afford the capital city in a Latin American country.
I'm going to have to move to the second or third city." I think that's some of what's causing this.
And that it's it's almost like some of them are embarrassed to tell people in their home country uh that they have to move to a developing country and then they're going to face that embarrassment again when they tell their friend in the capital city, oh, I can't afford to live here either anymore.
I've got to go down another uh step or another notch.
Um so yeah, that's going to move into my fourth point, which is pure judgment.
I I think that when it comes to becoming an expat, a lot of people face judgment from the people around them.
Um whether it's uh concern like, "Hey, is it safe over there?
You must be really desperate if you're willing to go over there cuz I think it's unsafe." I've gotten that one uh quite a bit.
Um I've also gotten like, you know, some self-conscious reactions like, "Oh, America's not good enough for you." Uh, so you're going to get a wide range of judgments from other people.
And I think for a lot of people, they just don't like this judgment.
So they've got to try to spin it like, I want a slower pace of life.
Um, I like the weather, my romantic options, things like health care where for health care, the reality is I can't afford health insurance.
Now, this is less likely because of things like Medicare, Medicaid for people that are more desperate, but it's still worth pointing out they might not be able to get the uh quality of health insurance they want with um like a you know lower premium and and um you know, moderate monthly payment.
Uh, I would say too, like with pure judgment, I've had a number of friends that tell me I can't tell my family I'm dating a younger partner that this would be unacceptable.
Other guys who did open up and say, "Yeah, my girlfriend is we have a substantial age gap." Um, then they're getting a lot of criticism.
Some cases, some families refuse to speak to that individual anymore because they think that they are mistreating the younger partner.
They think it's a unfair relationship.
They think there's some kind of man manipulation going on.
And whether or not that's the case, I think there's embarrassment.
Unless you're a movie star in the United States, then you're probably going to face judgment from being in an age gap relationship.
Now, I don't personally judge as long as it's once again consenting adults.
I have other problems that are far more important to me to worry about.
But this is something that a lot of expats do I think have some level of embarrassment about because they want to get along with their family.
They tried to get along with their family.
Uh but this idea that wow you know in America I could not afford to attract a younger more attractive partner.
Uh whereas abroad in another country I can have a younger more attractive partner.
In the US that's limited to people like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Uh who is that actor?
Alpuccino and Scarface, you know, these these guys that are um very very wealthy and very very well known.
Um they're the ones who don't face as much criticism for this choice where your average run-of-the-mill Joe uh he's going to get more critique for this and so he may spin it as these other reasons um when you know he couldn't have that in in the US.
Um, another would be slower pace of life.
If you're wealthy in the US, you can afford to move to a small town.
Uh, you could afford to get a large RV where you move from small town to small town just enjoying nature, sights, and sounds.
Uh, but if you're still working and you need to, your industry is tied to a certain city, you might not be able to afford to move to a small town in the US.
Actually, small town life can be quite expensive.
I I've lived in a few small towns uh throughout the US, primarily in Colorado uh but also in Tennessee.
And people are surprised to find out uh if I want to do a Craigslist deal, I might have to drive 3 hours around trip and that's going to be expensive on gas.
Is it even worth it to do that deal?
Uh, another one would be I may have to commute uh via personal vehicle versus in the city I can get rid of my car and use public transit.
Out here I have to maintain a car and this can get quite expensive.
Uh, another one would be economies of scale.
If you live in a small town, particularly some touristic towns, they might have one grocery store in the town and that grocery store can charge whatever it wants because they know you have no choice.
you're going to pay those prices.
I've noticed this with the Safeway brand, for example, in in more remote parts of Colorado or small towns.
Uh out west in general, they tend to charge a pretty penny.
And I get it, right?
That's just the economics.
They're allowed to charge whatever they want.
Uh but certainly, it's not just, oh, I'm going to I'm going to move to this slower pace of life area.
um rather than moving to a city abroad where abroad you are whether you're in a small town or a bigger city things are just cheaper across the board than the US equivalent.
Uh I would say another one that gets thrown around a lot is weather.
If you're wealthy you can afford whatever kind of weather in the US you want.
If you like tropical I mentioned Miami, you can move to Miami.
If you want Mediterranean, you can move to SoCal.
If you want cold mountain life, you can move to Colorado.
If you want to live on a ranch or in a ranch setting, you can move to Montana.
If you like overcast, cloudy weather, dreary kind of weather, you've got the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Oregon State.
If you like big cities, you can easily move to New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, um back to the West Coast, LA, San Francisco.
There's all kinds of places in the US as far as weather.
um and accompanying like you know people like sometimes certain cities combined with the weather in that city.
So you've got a lot of options uh in the US that if you're not as budget conscious uh you're not having to look abroad for the the uh developing equivalent to these cities.
Another one might be that gets thrown around a lot is politics.
A lot of people say well I'm moving abroad for politics.
Well, in the US, it's another one of those situations where uh if you have a certain political persuasion, there's somewhere in the US for you right now.
Typically, the divide is rural areas tend to be more conservative.
Larger cities tend to be more liberal.
Uh but if you're like wellto-do and you're a liberal, you got all these big cities to choose from.
Uh if you're well to do and you're conservative, you can move to rural Montana, South Dakota, um Utah, uh Arizona, um you know, Tennessee, like there's a lot of choices if you've got money as far as politics go.
I know at a national level it's a little bit different, but as far as like local politics, yeah, you a lot of people post pandemic have moved to an area that aligns more with their way of thinking.
I moved to California because I have unique economic opportunities out here.
People label me as having a certain political persuasion because of that.
But really, I'm in a position where I can't afford to choose to live in a place simply because of politics.
I have to choose to live where wages are high uh and I can do things to moderate my cost of living such as renting a room in a place or or um you know living closer to work where my commute is not so long.
I did that in Bay Area was about a 20-minut door to door commute from my office.
And so there's uh you know this idea that you're moving abroad for all these other reasons besides economics.
I I even asked Chad GPT what's the top reason people move Americans move abroad.
It told me economics.
And I think you'll find that that's a common thread among all expat retirees, even if some of these other reasons cease to exist, like uh their relationship ended.
Well, how many of those guys when their relationship ends in another country, are going to go back to their home country?
Probably very few.
I would say the vast majority, they might spend some time single.
They're probably going to try to go out and meet somebody else, or they might just accept bachelor life, but that's not going to be the defining reason as to why they go back home.
Uh now what they would probably say is the dating market is better here.
I could meet somebody else.
But uh they're I I don't buy this.
I'm so so heartbroken.
I'm going back to United States.
I just don't see that happening.
I would also say when it comes to um you know all of these reasons, there's varying degrees.
Some people they're not going to apply to.
Some people are going to find that u economics is number one, but any number of these could be number two.
Uh, but you know, I just people are starting to catch on abroad about the economic refugee factor.
I've been called an economic refugee and I've definitely known a lot of expats that when they move abroad, they do try to tell people because people in other countries think of the United States as a land of milk and honey and money just grows on trees.
Let me just go out to my money tree.
And they're trying to explain to their significant others, their new friend groups that are locals.
It's very expensive to live in the United States.
And I think that is starting to circle around more.
Like I know uh some people suggest just go become an English teacher.
English teacher at least in Asia is not held in the highest esteem in the way that people some people think it is.
For a lot of people are like, "Oh, you couldn't get like a real job back home.
Even being an English teacher in the United States, uh you're going to make more than you would." and and not necessarily relative to to incomes, but you're going to make more than you would more than to in relation to cost of living, more than you would in most any other countries.
There's a couple where it's probably comparable.
Uh like maybe Saudi Arabia would be an example, but most English teachers are not getting those coveted Saudi English teaching jobs.
there much more often in more budget friendly countries where uh they they live much more comfortably as an English teacher in that country than they would as an English teacher in their home country.
Um but then they also have like less uh you know less stress of certain kinds, right?
If they're living if they're a teacher in the United States, they might be living in like a small crowded apartment building.
They might have noisy neighbors.
They might live in a bad neighborhood.
they're not going to be able to afford to purchase a home in any of the major cities in the United States.
Even many of the medium-sized cities, the ratio of paid to cost of housing is just out of whack.
where in Southeast Asia, as an example, maybe they can rent a nice apartment, maybe they can go out to dine out whenever they want, maybe they can have a significant other, but but local people have have caught on to that, you know, when when they see a successful local because of economic growth can purchase a luxury car or a large home and the English teacher cannot, it's not like, oh, well, they're just trying to save their money.
It's like no, people know uh to some extent what things cost.
They might not have the same economic pressure in the US that requires us to count uh every penny when it comes to luxury expenses these days, but people still have some sense like, you know, you're you're not moving here because you won the lottery.
You're moving here because you feel priced out of your home country.
It is tragic.
I I don't say all this to gloat.
I think some people think I'm I'm happy that the economics in the US has uh become less prosperous, but it really is tragic.
And let me know what you think down in the comments below.
I'm going to wrap it up here.
Do you know anybody that's embarrassed to admit that the US economy isn't what it used to be, isn't as prosperous in spite of GDP growth.
Uh I think the reality is quite different.
I have a lot of videos on this topic that I plan to release and I'm happy to get feedback.
So just share your feedback.
What do you think about this?
Do you agree?
Do you disagree?
Give us a thumbs up.
It helps to spread the video.
And finally, if you want to see more content like this, please subscribe to the channel down below.
And we'll see you soon.
Bye-bye.
