Why Moving Abroad is the ULTIMATE Game Changer for Your Lifestyle

Episode Transcript
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Justin (00:36):
in our over two years of running our channel and
relocation business.
One of the most common fearsthat people have told us they
have is that moving abroad meansthat they're giving up comfort.
Safety or opportunity.
That might've been true 20 yearsago, but definitely not today.
In reality, if you do it right,moving abroad can actually

(00:56):
upgrade your lifestyle.
That means better food, lowerstress, higher quality
healthcare, and way morefreedom.
In this video, I'm breaking downhow to move abroad without
lowering your standard of livingand why most people are looking
at that equation.
Completely backwards.

(01:17):
Hi, I'm Justin Keltner and hereon Entrepreneur Expat.
We talk about everything to dowith moving abroad, building a
location, independent business,or investing overseas.
We help you plan the entireprocess, start to finish of
getting a visa in anothercountry, relocating yourself,
your family, and perhaps evenyour business, and finding that

(01:39):
perhaps the grass really isgreener on the other side.
If you're interested in learningmore about that, definitely
subscribe to this channel.
We're coming up with new contentnow almost every single day, and
we're joining forces with a lotof people throughout Mexico.
And globally that are going tobe guest contributors on this
channel very soon.
So you're gonna see a lot morecontent from us.

(01:59):
Make sure you hit that subscribebutton.
Make sure you hit thatnotification bell and give this
video a big thumbs up.
You can also check out a lot ofthe resources that we have below
this video.
If you want to go even further,we've got our moving abroad
checklist so that you knowexactly step-by-step what you
need to do to move abroad, andwe've got entire eBooks as well
as courses that are availablefor purchase as well.

(02:22):
So why do most people think thatmoving abroad is a downgrade?
Well, part of it comes from thiswhole old narrative about all
these other countries thataren't, let's say the US or
Canada or Western Europe beingsomething like Third World.
Uh, that's what they said andthat that was really a term
coined by the US government.
to talk about countries andtheir relation to the, Soviet

(02:44):
Union and, and all those thingsduring the, during the Cold War.
they talk about cheap living forsure.
You know, that used to be thenarrative.
You can go to Mexico and livereally cheap and while.
The cost of living in Mexico iscertainly less still than it is
in the us and it is a great dealfor your money.
It's not that sort of cheap and,and low standards place that

(03:06):
perhaps, uh, people are used toand other countries are really
catching up to the US as well.
They also talk about limitedopportunities in other
countries.
And now if you work remotelylike we do and we have a
business remotely, or if you atleast have a remote job or some
way of making an incomeoverseas, you don't even
necessarily need to depend onthe opportunity in a given

(03:28):
economy locally.
Although in our case, we see aton of opportunity in Mexico.
So we'll get into some of.
Why, those myths are actuallynot true.
So really those are all outdatedstereotypes from people that
just kind of heard things passeddown from their parents, or
perhaps visited a place likeMexico, but never really left
the five star resort.

(03:49):
Area.
They think that there's just alot of chaos, poor
infrastructure and lack ofsafety.
But modern Latin American citieslike Merida, Guadalajara, or
Panama City are actually moredeveloped than many US suburbs.
People tend to confuse.
Lower cost with lower quality,but in most cases it's actually

(04:09):
the opposite.
You're just not paying inflatedAmerican prices for basic
things, like people in differentcountries can actually afford
things like healthcare.
They can afford things likeeating out regularly.
They can afford things like goodeducation for their children
without.
You know, almost going bankrupt.
So now we're gonna talk aboutwhat upgrading actually looks

(04:30):
like and some specific examples.
So here in Mexico where Amandaand I live, you can get a modern
two bedroom apartment in awalkable neighborhood for well
under$1,000 Per month, dependingon the city you're in.
And in a lot of cases you canfind it for that price, even
furnished.
I had a, a nice apartment thatwas in a very nice area of

(04:50):
Chapalita in Guadalajara when welived there, and that only cost
around$750 per month.
Unfurnished buy a little bit offurniture.
It's good to go, but you canfind places for, you know, 900,
$1,000 1100 that are in verynice areas surrounded by coffee
shops.
and very, very safe for like$1,000 a month, maybe 1200, 1500

(05:13):
if like, you're really, reallypushing it and you want the best
neighborhood and the bestwalkability and everything else.
But, but there's a lot of dealsthere in Guadalajara, by the
way, is pretty expensive.
even compared to Guadalajara,where we live here in the, the
CHIPA area.
We've got a two bedroom condo,not just an apartment, but a.
But a two bedroom condo and wehave a view, a 360 degree

(05:33):
panoramic view of the entirelake, and that's only around 500
USD per month.
So compare that to, well, youcan't really even rent a room
anywhere in, in LA for thatmuch.
I mean, barely.
Like maybe you get a roomsomewhere in, in the valley, in
the suburbs right, for for$500 amonth.

(05:54):
But you're not going to enjoylife.
Very much, and you're probablygonna need a car to get to
everywhere.
Here, whether it's inGuadalajara or whether that's in
the chip area.
We feel extremely safe.
there's private security inGuadalajara.
There, there were, policepatrols like every 30 minutes.
Every hour.
There was another privatesecurity company.

(06:14):
I mean, shit did not go downthere.
Like it was very, very, verypeaceful.
I find that in stark contrast toa lot of what's going on in the
US with.
Political instability with civilunrest, with protests, with so
many other things that are goingon.
And there are very few placesthat you could actually live in
the US where you're not paying2, 3, 4,$5,000 a month or more,

(06:37):
and you're actually in walkingdistance to nice restaurants, to
bars, to coffee shops Where youcan get those sorts of things in
Mexico and even some places inCentral and Eastern Europe and
all over South America as well.
Now, another thing that isreally cool here and.
And in a lot of countries thatpeople don't, don't really give

(06:57):
credit where credit is due foris that private hospitals in
Mexico or Columbia or othercountries can rival or even beat
us quality.
Uh, a lot of the time you'reable to get same day
appointments.
Doctors are very nice to you.
You'll even get their WhatsApp.
A lot of the time.
So if you have any like kind ofpost appointment questions, you
can ask those.
It's not like you go in and yousee your primary care doctor for

(07:19):
15 minutes and then they shooyou out the door because they
have 50 other patients to seethat day.
It's a totally differentstandard in quality of care, uh,
with a very similar like levelof the, the machinery and
training and everything elsethat you would find somewhere
like the US, but significantlycheaper.
You can also afford to outsourcemore.

(07:40):
So that might be a housekeeper,a private driver.
We have a, a housekeeper thatcomes here twice a week.
She cooks our meals as well.
You can get your private chef aswell.
We have a private driver that weuse whenever we wanna go into
Guadalajara because we have acar here.
But I don't really like drivinginto the city, and I'd much
rather kick back and get somework done on my laptop.
Film a little bit of, uh, ofcontent for the channel with

(08:01):
Amanda.
Or do pretty much anything elsethat's not being stressed out in
traffic.
So we can afford to hire thosepeople and actually buy back our
time here.
Another thing that's really coolabout living abroad is you can
find a lot more organic food,local produce, and a slower pace
of life overall.
And all those things are reallyconducive to improving health

(08:21):
and wellbeing in the us.
I mean, I was joking about thiswith Amanda the other day, but
you go to like a grocery storein Florida and you see oranges
from Chile or Peru, or I forgetexactly where they were from in
South America, but it's like,why are you importing.
Oranges from South America andlike trucking them halfway
across the world.
Were in Florida, we make orangeshere.
Like make it make sense versuswhen you're in Mexico.

(08:44):
Yes.
You might not find all of thefruits and vegetables 365 days
per year.
But everything that you do findin the grocery store is going to
be fresh.
It's gonna be local.
It's not gonna have a bunch oflike crap and preservatives and
things like that.
So that definitely contributesnot just to improved health and
wellbeing, but also lower costof medical care.

(09:06):
Because the healthier you are,the less you're gonna have to
actually go to doctors andthings like that to have'em fix
you when you're just taking careof yourself from the get go.
And your purchasing power alsostretches further so that you
can save.
Or invest instead of constantlyplaying financial catch up.
I'll add that with us.
As, as entrepreneurs, one of themost important things for like

(09:29):
making really solid businessdecisions is being able to make
them from a place of abundanceand a place of actually having
runway and cash flow to coverall of our monthly expenses.
So when we have that, which is alot easier to do here in Latin
America.
We're able to make much morefinancially sound decisions for
the long term, the health andgrowth of the business because

(09:51):
we don't have to constantlyworry about these little things.
these expenses and things kindof nickel and dimming us,
whether it's paying too much inhealthcare and car insurance and
home insurance, rent, whateverit is, you just don't have as
much of that here.
It's, it's just much moreaffordable.
So now we're gonna talk abouthow to set yourself up for an
upgrade.
So number one is you wanna stopthinking like a tourist.

(10:14):
When you're planning on movingabroad, you really want to think
like a local entrepreneur or aninvestor.
You wanna find what theopportunities are.
So for example, within just acouple months of moving here to
the gated community that we'reliving in, in the Lake Chapala
area, we've already got twoproperties now.
Under contract to manage thoseproperties for long and short
term rentals.

(10:35):
So we're, we're doing propertymanagement for several people
here on our street and we'reexpanding that to different
neighborhoods as well.
So think like a localentrepreneur.
What are some of theopportunities?
Yes, you can make money indollars, spend in pesos.
That's cool.
But also what can you do to, tomaybe contribute to the local
economy from a businessstandpoint?
Maybe there are businesses youcan run.

(10:56):
Maybe there's localopportunities for investing, for
sharing the, the differentbusiness opportunities, let's
say with people from your owncountry.
We try to do that every singleday.
Then learn the local system.
So figure out how residency,healthcare and banking work.
We actually do have a, a fullywhite glove relocation service.
So if you do have a milliondollars or more.
In net assets and you're lookingfor help figuring out how to

(11:19):
optimize your tax planning, getresidency in another country,
whether that's Mexico orelsewhere in Latin America or
the world.
We actually have partners thatwe work with that are attorneys,
that are facilitators all overthe world.
We're up to 12 countries nowwith people that we have
relationships with and expandingevery single day.
So you can book that call belowat entrepreneurexpat.com/consult

(11:40):
We can help you out with that.
But you wanna learn howresidency works.
You wanna learn how healthcareworks.
You wanna learn how bankingworks.
By the way, uh, in all of ourwhite glove relocation services,
we have options to also set upyour tax ID and your bank
accounts will actually open themwith you so that you don't have
to deal with red tape.
I mean, there's always red tape,but we try to, we try to get as

(12:01):
much of that red tape eliminatedas.
Possible, but you wanna have alocal bank account because let's
say that you're banking with abig bank in the us I'm not gonna
name names that I don't wannaget sued, but, we'll call them
Blue.
I had a bank account with Blue,both personal accounts and
business accounts, and Bluedecided to shut my debit card
down after trying to do a, atransfer.

(12:25):
Transaction with World Remit orone of those services, and I
called the customer support forBlue and got somebody I think
in, in Bangladesh or India orsomewhere that basically said,
uh, no sir, you have to go intoa, into a branch, in the US to
unlock your account.
I'm like, okay, that's stupid.
But if I, if I, well, I did havea local account at that point,
but most of my money was still.

(12:45):
Locked away in the us.
So you wanna have localaccounts, you wanna have enough
money in those local accountsthat you're not, dependent on
just your foreign credit ordebit cards.
You want to choose your cityintentionally.
So whenever we're deciding to goto a new country, like we're
looking at maybe moving at leastpart of the year in the next
year or two out of Mexico andgoing somewhere else.

(13:06):
So.
We're trying to choose ourcities intentionally.
We're gonna go to a couple othercountries.
We're gonna travel.
We're gonna look at theneighborhoods, see what areas
are maybe, maybe moremodernized, more developed,
which are still developing.
there's obviously pros and consto each, because if there's
still a little bit more rusticas we say, or rustle, maybe
there's more opportunity forbuying land or buying property.
And there's others like Ahah,for example, in the AL area that

(13:29):
have full expat infrastructure.
The menus are in English.
Uh, all the signs are inEnglish.
half the people or more that areliving there are, uh, retired
expats from the US and Canada.
So you wanna really figure outwhere do you fit in the most?
Do you wanna be around otherexpats?
Do you wanna have more of alocal feel?
And then run the numbers.
So look at your housing, look atyour health insurance, your cost

(13:51):
of living versus your income orremote business income, and.
You don't wanna necessarily justfind the cheapest place or the
cheapest solutions, you kind ofwanna avoid that trap.
Make sure that you look at thebest value, not just the lowest
price.
Uh, a lot of people ask us,well, you know, is a place like
Mexico safe?
And I say, well, you don't wannalive in the ghetto in Mexico,

(14:12):
just like you wouldn't wannalive in the ghetto in Chicago or
in LA or in New York.
So you want to find somethingthat's a good balance.
Yeah, you could totally find anapartment in Guadalajara.
For$200 a month to rent, butyou're probably better off
spending five or six or seven,maybe a little bit more if you,
if you're really bougie like weare and have something where
it's walkable to differentcoffee shops.

(14:34):
It's more safe.
there are maybe more expats thatyou can interact with and things
like that.
And then of course.
Use relocation consultants.
So we help with the entireprocess start to finish.
Like I mentioned earlier, that'sentrepreneur expat.com/consult
because we understand bothsides, both the local and the
international.
We've got accountants in Mexico,we've got accountants in other

(14:56):
countries in Latin America.
And then we've got a lot ofaccountants that that we've
worked with in the US as well.
So we can help you actuallybalance the tax planning and the
business strategy.
And so.
Much more.
Now we're gonna talk about oneof my favorite topics, which is
the mindset shift.
So moving abroad is not aboutescaping your country, it's

(15:17):
about upgrading your lifedesign.
It's not that you're leavingbehind comfort.
It's that this is how I thinkabout it.
you're Buying back your freedom,and that's your freedom from
debt, your freedom fromoverwork, and also your freedom
from this constant fear ofrising costs and inflation and
all of these other things thatare happening around you.

(15:37):
So most expats that I've workedwith say that after a few months
abroad.
They realized their quality oflife actually went up, even if
their expenses went down.
The key is intentionality,design it don't just drift and
go off and kind of do what allthe other expats do, actually
create your plan.
We actually have a cool coursethat I'm gonna share with you

(15:59):
guys down below, which is ourrelocation.
Roadmap course.
And in that course we take youthrough the entire process of
planning, from choosing yourcountry to actually
understanding where in thatcountry you wanna live, planning
a scouting trip, and thenfiguring out all of the
logistics and details, includingthe infrastructure and the
internet and the phone, and somuch more.

(16:19):
So that'll help a little bitwith that intentionality.
It's called the RelocationRoadmap Blueprint Course, and
you'll find.
A link to that here as well.
So if you're serious aboutdesigning a global lifestyle
that actually upgrades yourquality of life, not downgrades
it, then definitely apply forthat free consult with our team.

(16:39):
We can help you out.
We do that every step of theway.
If you've got a million dollarsor more in assets and you're
looking to.
And protect those assets.
And also, this is really forpeople who value their time more
than a little bit of money.
We can help you save a ton oftime, in many cases, weeks or
months of extra time not dealingwith that red tape.
So entrepreneurexpat.com/consult, we're gonna

(17:02):
help you map out where you canlive, how you can qualify for
residency, and how to structureyour income so that you can
live.
Better for less.
And if you're just starting toexplore, then uh, maybe you
wanna grab our moving abroadchecklist down below
or@entrepreneurexpat.com slashabroad.
Don't forget to subscribe formore strategies on global

(17:23):
living, second passports andfinancial freedom abroad.
And I'll see you again verysoon.
Next time.

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