Why This Millionaire Couple Is Choosing to Retire Abroad

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
C0509 (00:36):
it was shortly after the, the election and we had lost
about 80 to 90% of our income.
And we weren't quite sure whatwe, how we were gonna keep the
lights on or pay our own bills.
So we tried to find jobs thatdidn't work out.
And at that time we had about$1.4 million, in, retirement
accounts and I kept saying, Ijust don't understand how we can
have this much money, but we'reliving in such financial

(00:57):
insecurity.
There's just gotta be a way.
And I was just thinking tomyself, there's, there's,
there's definitely a way for usto tap into this money and
there's definitely a place forus to live that we can thrive.
I think he needed to have thathard situation for us to go
through the.
The scarcity mindset for us togo through that struggle, for
him to really come torealization that there are

(01:17):
alternatives for us that may notnecessarily follow the
traditional path

Amanda Abella (01:21):
Have you ever wondered what happens when
really smart financial peoplestart to leave a country?
Well, in this video we're gonnatalk about it because all of my
friends from when I worked infinance are starting to reach
out to us about moving to Mexicoor getting second residencies,
second passports, diversifyingtheir assets.
Because they're not reallyseeing a great future in terms

(01:44):
of retirement or economicoutlook right now in the United
States.
And today we have two of thosefriends, John and David, which,
uh, David, I don't know if youknow this, but Facebook reminded
me yesterday that we've beenfriends for 10 years.
Oh, nice.

09212025_164310 (01:57):
That sounds about right.

Right, exactly.
So 10 year anniversary, you guyswere in Mexico.
We're helping you with thatresidency process.
So thank you so much for cominghere to share.
Um, about why you're starting tothink about, hey, retiring
abroad is probably going to bethe best idea from a, for us,
not just from the emotionalstandpoint of all the craziness
going on, but from just straightnumbers,

09212025_164310 (02:19):
Yeah.

how we come to this decision.

John Schneider (02:21):
Sure.
Definitely.
Thanks for having

09212025_164310 (02:22):
us and

Thanks for helping us get here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Welcome.
Excited to be here.
It's great to have you here

Justin Keltner (02:26):
welcome to Entrepreneur Expat on this
channel, we talk abouteverything to do with moving
overseas, creating the life ofyour dreams in a country that
might not be where you wereborn, and building all of the
infrastructure, whether that's alocation, independent business.
Perhaps a remote job, some sortof consulting, other work you
can do remotely, and figuringout all the details on the

(02:47):
ground so that you don't have togo in blind and figure out
everything by yourself.
We're here to to guide you, toinspire you, and to help you
along that journey.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, make sure to
subscribe to this channel, hitthat notification bell on your
screen, and also give this videoa thumbs up because it helps us
a lot with our mission ofreaching a million entrepreneur,

(03:09):
expats, and aspiring.
Expats and if you'd like ourhelp to get down here to Mexico,
perhaps even the Lake Al area

09212025_164310 (03:17):
where

we are today, just like John and David have
done, uh, they're about to gettheir residency card here
tomorrow.
Yeah.
We're finalizing their process.
They're, they're gettingeverything squared away.
If you're interested in doingthat for yourself and for your
family, because the time hasnever been better, uh, things
are not gonna get better anytimesoon in the US or Canada.

(03:37):
Just go to entrepreneurexpat.com.
Slash consult and you can chatwith me or my team about exactly
how we do all of that.
So it's really great to welcomeyou guys both down here today.

Yeah.
And for the record, we all justhad massages at home, massages
that we organized here.
If we seem like a little, likereally relaxed,

09212025_164310 (03:54):
chill.

like that's what's going on because we try
and go above and beyond for, forour guests.
So I surprised you guys, um,with those.
So yeah, that's why everyone'ssuper relaxed.
So.
Um, before getting into, youknow, coming to the conclusion
of, Hey, it's probably time forus to start really thinking
about retiring abroad.
Um, who are you guys, becauseyou're pretty well known in the

(04:16):
financial media space.
You run a really popularpodcast, uh, queer money.
You've done collaborations withYahoo.
You've done collaborations withmajor financial brands in the
United States.
You are some of my very smartfinance friends, as I said on
that Instagram reel.
Who are you guys and what is itthat you.
You.

Dave Auten (04:34):
Yeah,

09212025_164310 (04:35):
so

Dave Auten (04:35):
I think probably, like you said, we're most known
for our queer money content, soit's Queer Money podcast, but we
also have content on Instagramand YouTube.
Our PO uh, podcast is both audioand video, so that's probably
what we're most

09212025_164310 (04:49):
known

Dave Auten (04:49):
for.
We are currently have, we have asecond podcast with a Yahoo
Finance called Living Not SoFabulously,

09212025_164310 (04:56):
which

Dave Auten (04:56):
is more about money stories.
From people who many people lookup to.
So celebrities, businessleaders, entrepreneurs,
individuals who are sharingtheir money stories as to how
they got to where they're attoday.

And you guys both worked in finance previously
Yes.
To that?
Correct.
So what were you doing infinance previously?

Oh gosh.
Our careers ran the gamut.
I, we started, we were both atone point, uh, on the phones

09212025_164310 (05:18):
it's

doing customer service calls, but then we were
at one point, both traders.
I started to do some financialadvice.
Um,

09212025_164310 (05:24):
podcast

I led into compliance and he went into
building.

09212025_164310 (05:27):
what

Um, tech systems.

Dave Auten (05:28):
Yes.
I won the tech side of, uh, ofuh, finance building internal
systems for companies just likeme.
That's my,

09212025_164310 (05:34):
is more about money stories

Dave Auten (05:36):
in the media

space, you know, what we're doing with these
channels and everything.
I'm like the behind the scenestech guy and systems and very
started

to build trading systems.
So,

09212025_164310 (05:43):
stories as to

Nice.

09212025_164310 (05:44):
got to

That's really cool.
So one of the things that Ireally admire about you guys,
'cause I've known you for solong, is that you actually got
into the queer money and thefinancial media space because
you guys had a very.
Uh, interesting.
I call it a financial come toJesus.
Yes.
Which I feel like a lot ofpeople in the audience need to
have a financial come to Jesuswith their spouses because

09212025_164310 (06:06):
When

we were planning this, uh, collaboration, we both
realized that from both youraudience and our audience we're
constantly getting asked, how doI get my spouse on the same
page?
In our case, it's how do I getmy spouse on the same page about
moving abroad, which we'll getinto.
In your case, it's how do I getmy spouse on the same page?
Financially and both areactually quite related.

(06:28):
Yeah.
So what is that, that story,because it's a, it's a pretty
cool, like redemption arc.

09212025_164310 (06:33):
Yeah.

Dave Auten (06:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, uh, John and I got togetherin, um, late 2003, early 2004.
And we had been, been together,um, and living together for
about a year and a half.
And we had never, even thoughwe're in finance, had never
talked to each other about.
Money about, we just each paidour portion of all the bills and

(06:54):
we didn't really necessarilythink of ourselves as a couple
financially.
Um, we were separate and withalmost everything.
Um, and one weekend we went upto the mountains of Colorado and
we had this fantasy conversationabout buying land and building a
modern vacation home.
I love modern architecture andhe loves the mountains, and so

(07:15):
it was just like the perfectmatch for both of us.
Us.
Um, so we were heading out oftown and we are, we stopped at a
realtor's office, looked atprices and stuff like that, and
then got in the car and wepassed a sign that says Winter
Park elevation, 9,270 feet orsomething like that.
And we were going over to thetop of the mountain and we're
coming down.

(07:36):
We're driving about 65, 70 milesan hour.

09212025_164310 (07:38):
And

Dave Auten (07:39):
we don't remember which one of us said this, but
one of us asked the other,other, what can we actually
afford?
And that question started thiskind of down the mountain
conversation.
The lower we got, the lower, wetalked about what we could
actually afford.
It went from buying land andbuilding a home to buying
something that was alreadythere, to renting long-term

(08:02):
during the ski season, topulling up into our place in
Denver, confessing to each otherthat we were financial messes,
even though we were in financialservices.
And confessing to each otherthat between the two of us, we
had$51,000 in credit card debtand if we kept living the life
that we were living, there wasno way we were gonna ever get

(08:22):
what we really wanted in life.
Although what we didn't reallyknow at that point, what we
really wanted in life, but itwas, that began the whole
conversation of why are we doingthis to ourselves?
We have all this knowledge ofbeing actually in financial
services.
We're telling people what theyshould be saving for and
planning for, and we're notdoing any of it ourselves.

09212025_164310 (08:42):
And

Dave Auten (08:42):
so that was our come to Jesus moment.
We were like, we need to changesome things in our lives if we
truly want to get somewhere.
And the

09212025_164310 (08:51):
Kind

Dave Auten (08:51):
of crazy part about this is that when we pulled up
into Denver, we grabbed ourbags, opened up the door, and we
walked down a flight of stairsinto a basement apartment.
So not only physically were weliving in a hole financially, we
were living in a hole.
And that was kind of therealization of we gotta stop
this, we gotta go some otherdirection.
And so it started that wholeconversation, what we really

(09:13):
wanted in life.

That's really interesting'cause you were just
recording for our new, um,moving abroad relocation
blueprint course and that'sliterally what you were filming
yesterday.
Yeah.
Which is the whole like, youneed to figure out what you want
and why you're, why you'redoing.
This,

A lot of people like, they'll, they'll go and,
uh, they'll say, you know, Ireally want to move abroad.
But they do it perhaps becausethey're running away from
something.
Or maybe it's just like thissort of pie in the sky dream
that they have, but they'venever actually really clarified
even what they want out of lifethemselves.
Mm-hmm.
Or like their own values ortheir own beliefs or, or any of

(09:49):
that stuff.
They haven't figured any of thatout.
Uh, and so it.

09212025_164310 (09:54):
it's,

It's very poetic,

09212025_164310 (09:56):
I mean, yeah.

the experience that you guys went through.
Uh, and it was, it, you, I mean,you were kind of hit with it
over the head a little bit, buta lot of people, uh, they, they
have to like really just hitcomplete rock bottom.
So it's cool that you guys areable to sort of see that sign
from the universe and be like,okay, let's, let's start
thinking about this.
Like, let's start beingradically honest with each other

(10:18):
and figuring out like, what dowe actually want as, as
individuals as a couple.
Uh, and then eventually liketeaching other people how to do
that, but in an even moreauthentic way.
So, yeah.
It's

Dave Auten (10:29):
interesting, you, you used the word values.
Um, we had a really, really goodconversation on our podcast one
time with a psychologist who,uh, talks about

09212025_164310 (10:39):
that

Dave Auten (10:39):
the difference between values and standards.
And we all say that we wantsomething, right?
We all want financial freedom,but then we.
Go to the mall or we go out todinner or we go and

09212025_164310 (10:51):
uh,

Dave Auten (10:51):
eventually we're actually undermining.
And the reality of what we'redoing, this is our standard,
this is our value.
Very much like parents who saythey value their time with their

(12:16):
kids, but then they work 60 to80 hours a week and they don't
get to see their kids very much.
Mm-hmm.
It's the difference financially.
For us, we were like,

09212025_164310 (12:24):
We

Dave Auten (12:24):
know what we, we want standard or values wise,
but we were living at thisstandard way down here by
spending all of our money onthings like.
Designer clothes and trips, aaround the world and 40$50
bottle of wine every single dayof the week.
Those kinds of things reallyundermined our financial
security.

(12:45):
And as soon as we realized whatwe truly wanted to live up to
and changed our standards,that's when we got outta debt.

So was retiring abroad always on the table in
terms of your financial freedomplan, or is that something that
came later

that.

09212025_164310 (13:00):
That

I, I, that came later.
Um, we, so one, one of thevalues that we realized, uh,
that mattered most to us, um,when we were getting our way out
of debt was that we wanted tohave a comfortable retirement,
but we didn't really have acrystal clear picture of what
exactly that looked like.

09212025_164310 (13:16):
But,

um, heading into the 2024 election, actually.
Um, after the 2018 election or2020 election, um, we kind of
had a sense that the nextelection was not gonna go the
way that we wanted to.

09212025_164310 (13:28):
And

we had set the goal that, um, by 2025 we would
be able to leave the countryretire abroad.
Um, that didn't work out for us,'cause financially our
businesses didn't, um, succeedthe way that we wanted them to.
Um, so and originally the goalwas to move to Spain.
Um, so then after Trump won the2024 election, um,

09212025_164310 (13:46):
we

kind of figured out, okay, what's our plan C at
this point?
Um, and then we started to

09212025_164310 (13:51):
Do

some research, talk to you, and that's when we
realized

09212025_164310 (13:53):
Mexico

is actually the best option for us.

Yeah, we're getting that a lot recently.
A lot of people who triedthrough Spain first, um, and
either the taxes were too highor you mentioned that
financially it didn'tnecessarily make sense.

Yeah.

So what was going on, um, with Spain?

Yeah, so we, we've been to Spain several
times together and separately,uh, both love it, particularly a
small town, uh, just south ofBarcelona, about half hour, um,
called Ccha.
Uh, so we just always thoughtabout retiring over there.
Um, and, uh, we had moved to,long story short, uh, we left
Denver eventually, uh, landed inToledo, Ohio, and we had hoped

(14:30):
to acquire a portfolio ofproperties, um, using the income
that we would get from debt freeguys, our original brand Queer
Money and our Living On SoFabulously podcast.
Um, but just financially, the,the, the businesses didn't
succeed the way that we neededthem to, so we ended up only
actually buying,

09212025_164310 (14:45):
One

property, a duplex.
Um, that we are able to cashflow, uh, but wasn't necessarily
the, the amount of cash flowthat we would need to be able to
move to Spain.
Um, and to your point, it's alittle bit more expensive.

09212025_164310 (14:55):
Uh,

taxes are a little bit higher.
Um, and uh, just the move overthere was just a little bit more
inaccessible.
Um, so when the election didn'tgo the way that we had hoped, we
were like, okay, well we gottacome up with another
alternative.
'cause staying here for uswasn't really an option.
Um, and, uh, turns out

09212025_164310 (15:12):
I'll

say that this, um, we at the time.
We were looking to generateenough money from our businesses
and our real estate investmentsthat we wouldn't necessarily
have to tap into our retirement.
But it was only, uh, through,uh, deep discussions between the
two of us and, uh, research thatwe did align, um, was that even
though we're not 59 and a halfor or 65, um, there are
strategies for us to tap intoour retirement investments, um,

(15:36):
not pay the 10% penalty, um, andstill have more than enough
money to, um, cover us until, Ithink what, till we're in our
nineties, in our nineties.

09212025_164310 (15:43):
yeah.

Dave Auten (15:44):
Yeah, and, and you know, we, we actually talked
about this before, the

09212025_164310 (15:47):
obvious

Dave Auten (15:48):
idea of these conditional mile markers, we all
are ingrained with thisconversation, especially in the
financial services industry.
And then we preach it out toeverybody else.
And that is, you cannot tap yourretirement money until you
absolutely have to.
If you're 59 and a half, thenyou,

09212025_164310 (16:07):
that

Dave Auten (16:07):
would be the first mile marker because then you
don't have to pay the 10%penalty.
And then the next mile marker iswaiting until you are getting
social security.
So either 62, 70, uh, 62, 75, or70, 65, I'm sorry, 62, 65 or 70
are kind of the brackettimeframes for most people.
Um, or some people even waituntil they're 70 and a half when

(16:30):
they can start taking theirretirement distributions.
And we have kind of grew up inthat space of believing that
there were these mile markersand we hadn't gotten to those
mile markers yet.

09212025_164310 (16:40):
yet.

Dave Auten (16:41):
And when we found out about IRS Rule 72 T and
looked into how much money wecould actually take out of our
retirement accounts

09212025_164310 (16:48):
and

Dave Auten (16:49):
then looked around the world at what countries we
could actually live off of thatamount of money with a decent
lifestyle, it was pretty easy.
We landed on a few of them, andthe most probably appealing one
to us was Mexico.
Why is that?
Why, what was it

that you saw, whether it was on our channel or
other places that made youthink, Hey, let's give Mexico a
shot.
I mean.
A lot of people in the US andCanada have this view that
there's just gangs running thestreets here and like, you can't
go out at night and all.
I don't, I mean, obviously youguys are, you guys are really
smart.
You're, you're, you weren't, youweren't buying into all that

(17:23):
media nonsense, but at the sametime, I'm sure you probably had
some hangups about Mexico in thefirst place.

Yeah.
Um, well we've actually, we bothlove the Spanish culture,
whether it's South AmericanSpanish or European Spanish.
Um, he's, uh.
Decent at Spanish, speakingSpanish, it gets us by.
Um, but like I said, we've beento Spain several times, uh, for
up to three weeks at a time.
Um, and we've been down here toMexico several times.
So we've been to several placesin Mexico and have never had a

(17:49):
problem with any, with lawenforcement or with cartels or
anything like that.
So just knock on wood, it was,it was clear to us.
It was just another sort of, um,uh, American paradigm that other
countries are unsafe, um, where,you know.
Uh,

09212025_164310 (18:04):
It's

no more unsafe here than if I flew to Ohio, go
to the grocery store where Icould get shot up the gun.
Right.
Yeah.

09212025_164310 (18:10):
Yeah.
It's,

It's, it's, it's just a safe here from our
perspective.

Um, so why does the media do that?
I mean, uh, without getting tooout there.
Like what?
Just in terms of what you guysthink.
Like why is it

09212025_164310 (18:21):
just

just

an American or media thing?
I think it's an American thing.

Yeah.
Well, as a culture then what,what is that?

I, I, I think it's just a way to keep people
in the us.

09212025_164310 (18:30):
Um,

I think it helps, I think it helps
influence, vote.
And it probably ultimately comesdown to racism.
'cause

09212025_164310 (18:37):
they,

we, they only send their, their, their worst
to the United States.
Right?
They're only sending the, thecrazies and the rapists and the
murderers.
Right.
So I think it helps feed thatnarrative.
Um, and so if if they're onlysending the worst up here, then
I definitely don't wanna go downthere.
'cause that's where the, thesource is.
Right.
Um, so I think it's probably alot of racism and politics.

Dave Auten (18:55):
Yeah.
I think it's also,

09212025_164310 (18:57):
um,

Dave Auten (18:57):
it's a lot easier to, to.
Manipulate someone's psychologythrough fear than it is through
appreciation or acceptance orlove or anything like that.
Our brains are naturally wiredto, to look at things around in
our environment and say, what amI scared of?
I gotta get away from that.

09212025_164310 (19:15):
And

Dave Auten (19:16):
that's a really strong

09212025_164310 (19:17):
physical

Dave Auten (19:18):
motivator for a lot of people.
So the media on all sides haveconstantly used fear as a way to
pressure people into, like yousaid.

09212025_164310 (19:26):
said,

Dave Auten (19:27):
Voting some way, spending some way believing a
certain philosophy or religionor whatever the case may be.

09212025_164310 (19:34):
It's

Dave Auten (19:34):
the way of way of controlling people.

09212025_164310 (19:37):
Hmm.

Dave Auten (19:37):
And so I think that the more that they can tap into
that fear, we,

09212025_164310 (19:41):
we,

Dave Auten (19:41):
we say, and I even said this on the thread, uh,
today, the BS and the mediaabout what's going on in Mexico
is exactly that is bs.
There are so many places in theUnited States that, um.
Uh,

09212025_164310 (19:55):
You

Dave Auten (19:56):
you just wouldn't go unless you're already part of
that community, right?
You wouldn't go into those,necessarily, those areas, um,
because they may feel, make youfeel unsafe.
Well, Mexico has those too, butjust like the United States,
there are tons of places whereyou can go and enjoy'em.
An amazing life.
There are tons of places inMexico and every other country

(20:18):
where you can go that there aregreat places to live.
And so just, you need to findthat environment that works for
you.
And then you're gonna find thelove and acceptance and the
community that you really wantthere.

What tips do you have for couples who are trying
to get on the same page?
And, and like I said, you know,the financial conversation and
the moving abroad conversationare very similar, right?
Yeah.
There's a lot of, um, uh,crossover in between those two
because for a lot of peoplemoving abroad is a financial.
Conversation and a financialdecision.
But, uh, couples we're findinghave a very hard time getting on

(20:53):
the same page about just aboutanything.
Mm-hmm.

09212025_164310 (20:56):
Uh,

but when it comes to moving from finance, I know
like it would just turn intofull on fights mm-hmm.
From all the people that we'vecounseled and coached and.
And educated over the years.
One of them

wants to do it, the other one doesn't.
With moving abroad, they can'tget, get their spouse on board.
Yeah, yeah.
With

moving abroad, we find that there's usually one
spouse who's like in their mind,they're already living there,
they're living their best life.
Everything's great.
We're doing it, babe, let's go.
That was John.
In this case.
Yes.
Yes.
And then there's always anotherone who's a lot more
apprehensive.
The usually the more analyticalone.
The,

09212025_164310 (21:31):
yeah.

yeah.
The one who's like, I am a lotmore resistant to this.
Um, so what advice do you havefor couples who, who need to
have some, I mean, some realconversations, honestly, whether
it's financial or where you'regonna live.

Yeah.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Um, so just to add a little bitmore color context to our
situation.
After the election, we lostabout 70 to 90% of our income,

09212025_164310 (21:53):
um,

because we happen to be a gay couple with
an LGBTQ plus business.
Um, and so we were in thisprecarious situation where we
were like, we don't know if wecan put food on the table.
We don't know if we can keep thelights on.
Um, and so we started to lookfor jobs and

09212025_164310 (22:05):
The

job market isn't as as great as.
Some politicians would have youbelieve.
Um, and it was just, we weregoing nowhere.
And I kept saying to David, inall full transparency, we have,
at that time we had$1.5 million.

Dave Auten (22:17):
Yeah.
And I just kept saying about1.4,

I cannot wrap my head around the idea that we
have all this money

09212025_164310 (22:22):
and

we are concerned about how to keep the lights on
and put food on the table.
We can't figure out how to havea more comfortable life.
Um, and so that was sort of theimpetus for us to say, how can
we, how can we piecemeal thingstogether to, to build the life
that we want?
Um, and.
Even before we had a strategy,even before we understood the
seven two T, I was alreadyretired.

09212025_164310 (22:41):
Hi.

wants to say hi.

09212025_164310 (22:43):
Oh, I know

You gotta stretch, huh?
Get

your daughter

09212025_164310 (22:45):
Yeah.

Daisy da.
Come on.
Come on.

09212025_164310 (22:48):
on.

So for us and what we oftentimes coach people
with regard to their finances,

09212025_164310 (22:54):
What?

oh,

09212025_164310 (22:56):
hi.

I know.

09212025_164310 (22:57):
I took a bath.
I

Da,

09212025_164310 (22:59):
already.

we should it down.
Do

you want go down?

Come on, Daisy.

Come on

09212025_164310 (23:06):
No, down

here,

09212025_164310 (23:09):
Daisy

This is a blooper reel.
That's

09212025_164310 (23:12):
reel.

a blooper reel.
Good girl.

C0509 (23:14):
So what advice do you guys have for couples who are
trying to make these, thesedifficult conversations?
Sometimes whether it's afinancial conversation, which we
know can get very emotional ormoving abroad, because what
we've noticed is there's usuallyone couple that is.

09212025_171208 (23:28):
is.

C0509 (23:29):
Already living in another country in their heads.
Like they're, they visualizedit.
They see themselves in it,they're manifesting it, they're
doing all the research, they'redoing all the stuff.
That was me.

09212025_171208 (23:38):
I

C0509 (23:38):
That was you, you were, and in your case, that was John.
Um, but then there's another,the other party in the couple is
usually a lot more hesitant, alot more like, Hey, let me run
some numbers somewhere.
Yeah.
Just me.

09212025_171208 (23:49):
me.

C0509 (23:50):
That was me.
And there was no logical reasonfor it.
I was just being emotional ifI'm being honest.

09212025_171208 (23:55):
Yeah, because,

C0509 (23:55):
Because, uh, I think you and I were talking about how
after you guys ran the numbersand you realized you could do
it, then it was being confrontedwith the courage to actually do
it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.

09212025_171208 (24:05):
Yeah.

C0509 (24:05):
Yeah.
So, uh.
For starters, I'll say blame us,whether it's the two of us, the
two of you, this video, use thatas the impetus to get the
conversation started.
And then two, uh, in fulltransparency, when we started to
have this conversation, we had,it was shortly after the, the
election and we had lost about80 to 90% of our income.
And we weren't quite sure whatwe, how we were gonna keep the

(24:27):
lights on or pay our own bills.
So we tried to find jobs thatdidn't work out.
And at that time we had about$1.4 million, uh, in, uh,
investment assets.
uh, In retirement accounts and Ikept saying, I just don't
understand how we can have thismuch money, but we're living in
such financial insecurity.
There's just gotta be a way.
And I was just thinking tomyself, there's, there's,

(24:48):
there's definitely a way for usto tap into this money and
there's definitely a place forus to live that we can thrive.
I think he needed to have thathard situation for us to go
through the.
The scarcity mindset for us togo through that struggle, for
him to really come torealization that there are
alternatives for us that may notnecessarily follow the
traditional path or those milemarkers as he said earlier.

(25:10):
Um, and then I think would helphelped us out, and we often
advise our, our clients to dothis.
Focus on the fun first.
What, what is the, what is thegoal?
What is, what does optimum looklike to you?
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What's the climate?
Uh, what are you doing on a dayto day basis?
Are you walking on a beach andwith no shoes on?
Are you, are you reading bylakeside?
Are you,

09212025_171208 (25:30):
uh,

C0509 (25:30):
are you walking around a city and looking at all the
museums?
Like picture in your mind, sidewhat an ideal life or retirement
looks like for you?
And then figure out what do youhave to do?
How do you, how do you back intothat?
How do you reverse it, engineerinto what it is that you want?
And that's when we started tosay, well, there's this strategy
out here and there's thisstrategy out here and this would
work for us.
And as we piece this together,oh, it is a little bit more

(25:52):
accessible.
'cause I think when you and Iwere first talking,

09212025_171208 (25:55):
I was

C0509 (25:55):
like.
there, This just isn't an optionfor us.
Right.
But we had to sort of go throughthat.
What do we want life to looklike?
How can things get better?
And I think focusing on thatpositive and the ideal allowed
us to see, okay, how can we workthings out to make it work out
for us?
It's an abundance mindset.
You talk about that all.
the time.

09212025_171208 (26:12):
of the scarcity of,

C0509 (26:13):
Yeah.
It's Instead, of scarcity of,Hey, I need to scrimp, I need to
save.
Yeah.
And also like instead of runningaway from something, move
towards something.
Yes.
And that's gonna completelyshift the way you look at The
whole situation.
We talk about that a lot.
Where, you know, I, I, I havesome expensive hobbies, servers
for sure.
Anything computer related,flying airplanes.
Um, what else do I do thatcosts, I mean, I like, you know,

(26:33):
massages and things too, butthat's not as expensive.
But I've got some expensivehobbies.
I like to buy electronicssometimes on Amazon.
I mean, but the last coupleyears especially.
I've said to myself, well whatdo we really want?
We wanna buy land, we want tobuild something, we want to have
a retreat center.
Are those things more important,more motivating?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's a reallygood point.
'cause we were having thisconversation, so

09212025_171208 (26:55):
you

C0509 (26:55):
know, there might be someone in the audience now who
just heard, oh, they have$1.4million, Poo poo on the, it's
Not much in America right now.
Right.
Um, you know, but I could neverdo that.
Like I'm where they were beforewhere I'm 50 grand in debt.
Or I have three jobs and I'mbarely making it.
What would you say to thosepeople?
Because oftentimes we, that'sthe problem that needs to get

(27:17):
solved.
Yeah.
First I I think that, um, wekind of get, and I will blame
the financial services industryon this.
I, we kind of get trapped intothis idea that, um.
You could only have a successfulretirement if you have millions
and millions and millions ofdollars.
It benefits the financialservice industry for you to have
millions and millions of dollarsbecause those financial advisors

(27:39):
are taking 1% out of that, orsometimes 2% out of that every
year.
So they get a great paycheck.
Right.
But I think for a lot of people,they don't realize what they
actually have.
We get trapped into this idea.
I mean, for John and I, prior tomaking this decision, we, we
were kind of trapped into thisidea that we would need to have
somewhere around two and a halfto$3 million to be able to

(28:02):
retire because we put, we putourselves in this box of if
we're gonna retire, we're gonnaretire in the United States,
we're probably gonna go to PalmSprings or a, or a city like
that.
It's Gonna, we're gonna have tobuy a home that's gonna cost us
800 to a million dollars,800,000 to a million dollars.
The healthcare in the UnitedStates is gonna cost us at least

(28:23):
a thousand to two, maybe$2,000 amonth, depending on when we
decide to retire.
Social security is gettingsmaller, so there's all these
things telling us you can't doit right now.
But more often than not, we areonly myopically focused on this
number.
I need to have this number to beable to retire, but so many

(28:43):
people have money trapped wherethey don't think about where
they actually have their assets.
There are a lot of people outthere who have.
Hundreds of thousands, in somecases, millions of dollars in
equity in their home

09212025_171208 (28:57):
because

C0509 (28:58):
they bought their home 20 or 30 years ago.
But they may only have a hundredthousand dollars in their
retirement account.
So they think to themselves, Igotta keep working until I can
get Social Security and thenthey have the a hundred thousand
dollars.
And then they're thinking tothemselves, well maybe that
isn't even enough.
Maybe I have to work until I'm70.
'cause they can't fathom thisidea of decoupling themselves.

(29:19):
From the things that they havebeen trained are the American
dream.
You have to have these things.
You have to have this house.
You have, you know, if you have,I would say somewhere between
500,000 to$750,000 as a couplecombined between your retirement
accounts, the equity that youhave in your home, maybe some

(29:41):
other assets that you have.
All of that, you wrap all thattogether.
If you decouple yourself fromthe idea that I can't let go of
any of these things, there are alot of people out there sitting
there with$67,000 cars, right?
And they're paying a thousanddollars,$1,200 a month,
decoupling themselves from thoseexpenses opens up the

(30:02):
opportunity to say.
We could have a nicer, if notbigger house, living in another
country.
In a country where we may onlyneed one car'cause we're retired
for the same price they'repaying for their car.
Right.
Or,

09212025_171208 (30:13):
or

C0509 (30:13):
or maybe in a lot of cases, or maybe even a lot less,
like this whole idea of we'regonna downsize from these.
Fancy SUVs we have in theUnited, United States to having
a sturdy, economical SUV that webring across the border or that
we buy in another country.
There,

09212025_171208 (30:30):
the,

C0509 (30:31):
there's a lot of, I think, a lot of fear in kind of
wiping away the American dreamand saying.
I'm gonna pursue my dream, Mm,not the American dream.
Mm.
It's my dream.
And my dream may be livingLakeside in a place where I
bought a house for 150 to$200,000.
That has an amazing view.

(30:52):
And I have one car, and we canlive on 2,500 to$3,000 a month.
You could be living right here,right now.

09212025_171208 (30:59):
And

C0509 (30:59):
that's something that a lot of people can't

09212025_171208 (31:02):
dig

C0509 (31:02):
into and uncover for themselves.
We're gonna come back around tothat in a second.
I just wanted to say how we kindof did the opposite way, right.
Which is, um, you know, we areon the younger side of the
Mexican YouTube.

09212025_171208 (31:15):
Earth,

C0509 (31:15):
you know, and all that.
Like usually people are twiceour age or they've got 20 years
on us and they have all theseassets and things.
We were in a totally differentstage of our lives where we're
kind of not 22-year-old digitalnomads trying to figure it out,
and also not someone in ourfifties or sixties with a bunch
of assets.
And we talked about it and wewere like, well, if we just go
to another country and we geoarbitrage.

(31:37):
Um, then meaning we only earn indollars, but we're spending in
like pesos and stuff like that.
We can have a really highquality of life.
We don't have to sacrificeanything and we can get to
financial independence in a fewyears.
Right.
From the amount that we're ableto save and invest.
Now, the key there is we knowmarketing, we know sales, we
know how to run businesses, sodo you guys, we know how to earn
in dollars.

(31:58):
In a way that's not tied to ajob.
It's a little different if youdid have a job, it's a little
different.

09212025_171208 (32:02):
Yeah.

C0509 (32:02):
If you did have a job.

09212025_171208 (32:03):
job.

C0509 (32:03):
So to your point about like, what if we just kind of
like look at this equation in atotally.
Different way.
And I think to your point, andyou've done content on this,
it's the difference betweenfixed versus growth mindset.
And I think that there's, uh,there's a lot of people who
don't necessarily understandtheir worth.
Yeah.

09212025_171208 (32:20):
Yeah.

C0509 (32:20):
They only think that they can continue working in the job
that they have.
But there are countries aroundthe world that have a demand for
certain skills.
And if you have those skills.
It is

09212025_171208 (32:31):
is

C0509 (32:32):
a lot easier to actually go to that country and get a job
in that country.
If you have skills in the techworld, if you have skills in the
finance world,

09212025_171208 (32:42):
and

C0509 (32:42):
there are lots of jobs outside of the country, outside
the us, even outside of Canada,where your skills are in high
demand and it's a lot easier toget a visa, a working visa, and
if you have a working visa, itdoesn't take long to actually
get.
Per permanent residency orsometimes get your actual
citizenship in that country ifthat's what you want.
Because you actually did thereverse in the United States,

(33:05):
right?
Where you were working, when youwere in, in financial services
or banking, that you werehelping people from other
countries working in the UnitedStates.
so you have kind of thatperspective.
Well, we, we have helped peopleAll around

09212025_171208 (33:17):
world.

C0509 (33:18):
Our primary

09212025_171208 (33:19):
is

C0509 (33:19):
in the United States.
Yeah.
But, um, uh, for us it was, ourcontent is worldwide.
Oh yeah.
We can take it wherever we wantto go.
Yeah.
When we spent three months inSpain, we were still recording
our podcast.
We were still working with our,our coaching groups.
We were doing all of that stuff

09212025_171208 (33:34):
and it.

C0509 (33:35):
it Was, that is one of the benefits of being
self-employed is you do havethat Mobil mobility, but you
also, you need to also look thefull spectrum of what, where can
your skills be put to use?
And it's not, sometimes it'sactually at another company in
another country.
Yeah.
You were gonna say somethingearlier.

09212025_171208 (33:53):
I,

C0509 (33:53):
I was to piggyback off of what he said earlier, I think
it's important, uh, to rememberthat the American dream of
buying a home is a real estate.
Marketing strategy from the1950s to try to encourage more
Americans to buy homes.
Um, so I think to your pointearlier, what are your goals?
What is it that makes you happy?

(34:15):
What are your hopes and dreams?
Not what has a marketingstrategy that that has become as
much science as it is art.
Um, telling you that you want,what is it that you want?
And the same thing witheverything you're seeing on
Facebook, Instagram, decoupleyourself from.
what Those things are tellingyou an ideal life looks like,
which so many Americans strugglewith.
But we've been grown, most of ushave grown up in this consumer

(34:37):
culture that we need to breakaway from and say and figure out
what is it that we truly want.
'cause so many of us are toldwhat we want.
And takes us a long time tofeel, realize that I don't want
all that stuff.
Maybe I don't want kids, maybe Idon't wanna get married at 21
years old.
You know, maybe, maybe better.
never wanna get married.
Right?
But we don't give ourselvesthose options'cause we're told
this is what

09212025_171208 (34:58):
you

C0509 (34:58):
want to do.
This is a successful life inAmerica.
Everyone has debt.
That's the one that we wouldhear a.
lot when we were in our financedays.
Everyone's got debt.
No, 50% of Americans don't haveany credit card debt, any
personal debt.
They might have a mortgage, theymay have, uh, business loans
because they're growing abusiness.
But that's different.
That's completely different.

(35:18):
Yeah.
That's using it in a positivedirection.
Yeah.
Um.

09212025_171208 (35:21):
Yeah.
Um.

C0509 (35:22):
What made you guys decide, right?
You're like, okay, well let'sstart planning for the
retirement now.
Because one of the great thingsabout Mexico is you can get the
residency now and then you don'thave to actually physically be

09212025_171208 (35:32):
be

C0509 (35:32):
Mm-hmm.
And we've been helping you guysthroughout that process, but
what finally helped you guys,um, be like, okay, uh, let's
start planning this now.
So we're not moving now, butwe're gonna have this in our
back pocket for when we'reready.
'cause we'll say that to a lotof people and it, it like.

09212025_171208 (35:46):
it like.

C0509 (35:46):
It Doesn't click and, and then they come back later and
we're like, oops, sorry.
Immigration rules changed.
It's too late now.
Yeah.
Like People have that happenwith Portugal too.
I think there are two things.
One was, it feels like to usevery day we look at the news in
the United States, it gets alittle, little bit more erratic.
Um, and we wanted to be able tohave a plan B to escape if we

(36:07):
needed to.
Um, two everything, to yourpoint that we're seeing about
Portugal, Spain.
German, Like all over the worldin recruiting Mexico, they're
getting a little morerestrictive on their residencies
and, and uh, uh, visas.
Uh, so we wanted to try to getin as, as early as possible.
So that process was as easy aspossible for us.
And what helped you be like, youknow what?

(36:28):
We're just gonna let you knowmostly Justin handle this.
Um, because a lot of people willtry and go at it themselves.
Yeah.
And we've gone at it ourselvesand it's chaotic.
You can do it yourself if you'removing to another country.
But it's very chaotic.
It's a lot of moving pieces.
It's different people you gottatalk to.
It's housing, it's this, it'sthat.
There's so many logisticsinvolved.

(36:50):
Um, and it's cool, like if somepeople want to go do that
themselves, but what made youguys be like, you know what,
we're just gonna let otherpeople handle it.
Yeah.
I think we learned that lessonrunning a business.
That, um, you can try to doeverything on your own.
You're probably gonna do it in ahalf-assed kind of way.
And it is going to get by, butyou're going to struggle and
it's gonna take you a lot oftime.

(37:12):
You're gonna make some mistakesand then you eventually end up
hiring a professional and you'relike, why didn't I do that?
Why didn't do that long timeago?
And so we've learned that lessonand we just said, for us right
now, time is our most preciousfreedom.
And So if we can buy that timeto be able to spend together, to

(37:34):
spend with our dogs, to suspendworking on various parts of our
business, let's buy that time.
Because for us, it makes moresense to do it right the first
time and make it super easy.
So we take away all that stress.
Yeah.
A lot of our friends from thefinance days are telling me the
same thing.
They're just like, I'm in astage of life where I just pay

(37:55):
people to do stuff.
Yeah.
Right.
Because they've learned thattheir time is more.
valid.
So what has that process beenlike?
I mean, since you guys landed,maybe lay lay it out a little
bit for people because, um, we,I mean, I'll, I'll toot my own
horn, right?
Like your, your mentor grantsays what's, what's the point of
having a horn if you don't tootit?
But we cover, we cover all the,all the bases.
All the details, yeah.
So that you don't have to worryabout exactly like you guys are

(38:16):
saying.
You don't have to worry aboutthe details and you can get your
time back.
What was that process like?
I mean, what was your experiencejust since you kind of.
Okay.
Well, even from the beginning westarted working together,
getting the appointments andthen like finally just a few
days ago, uh, landing here in,in Lake Chip.
Paul.

09212025_171208 (38:31):
Yeah.

C0509 (38:32):
Yeah.
I'll say in hindsight.
It was way easier than Iexpected.
And I'll say monumentally easierthan what everybody else told.
it.
It was us.
it was gonna be like.
What did they tell you it wasgonna be like,

09212025_171208 (38:43):
oh,

C0509 (38:43):
it's gonna be hard.
It's so difficult.
You go from one consulate toanother and they tell you
different rules and all that.
And there are some of thosechallenges that you have uh,
with regardless of what countryyou're trying to immigrate to.
Um, but I just think having youguys, having been through the,
the process yourselves, andhaving, and having a system and
a team of people to work with,uh, it just.
You know, we would just get achecklist every now and then,

(39:04):
and, okay, we need this fromyou.
This is what's coming up next.
It just,

09212025_171208 (39:07):
it

C0509 (39:07):
was just more of a process for us.
And so I just thought it was a,lot easier going to, uh, the
consulate office in the UnitedStates was way easier than I
expected.
Um, going, uh, going through theimmigration, coming down here
and going through, uh,immigration at the airport was
way easier than we expected.
And in fact, when we, when wegot the, the stamp of approval

(39:27):
at the airport to go through thenext phase, it was like.
That was it was that, it wasthat easy?
Does it, it says Kanye, right?
I just expected it was gonna bea lot harder and it wasn't.
Yeah.
I'll, I'll say, um, uh, part ofthis whole decision for me was
the mathematical time freedom,uh, money freedom conversation.
Um, I know how we are.

(39:49):
Um, if we were to do it on ourown, we probably would spend
somewhere close to 500 hoursresearching this, spending that
time, and.
If we're just E between the two,E each of us we're making th$30
an hour six, so that's six thou,uh, six time,

09212025_171208 (40:08):
times

C0509 (40:08):
or 60 times 500.
So we're already looking at$30,000 of our worth being taken
away.
On top of that, we would stillneed to hire a translator, we'd
still need to hire a lawyer, allthat kinda stuff.
So I'm thinking, I was thinkingto myself, you know, we are
probably looking at this, takingyears instead of.

09212025_171208 (40:28):
Months

C0509 (40:29):
or weeks or days, and it costing us our time and our
money instead, it's just costingus our money.
And I don't think that betweenall the time that we've spent on
this, between the two of us, wemaybe have spent 20 hours,

09212025_171208 (40:44):
right?

C0509 (40:45):
So 20 hours

09212025_171208 (40:47):
of,

C0509 (40:47):
of our time is worth

09212025_171208 (40:50):
that

C0509 (40:51):
amount of money to me.
Um, and I know not everybody canmake that decision, but.
I think there are a lot morepeople who can and should make
that decision versus trying todo it themselves.
So let's get to those p.

09212025_171208 (41:02):
people.

C0509 (41:03):
cause we'll have a lot of people come to us and they'll be
like, I've got 3 million, I'vegot 5 million, I've got 1
million.
And, and if you're in thatcategory, then we can, you know,
you will only need 20 hours.
and we've got the rest coveredand the rest of the time you're
on tours, you have massages,you've got good food, good
views, all that stuff.
Um, and so, but there, to yourpoint, what you were saying

(41:23):
earlier about.
Having enough, right.
I think we were having

09212025_171208 (41:26):
we were

C0509 (41:27):
a conversation a couple days ago where people, some
people are in the category wherethey just need to realize, I
have enough to, in order to dothis, because it's a mindset
thing.
too.
It's a mindset.
because some people will come tous, they've got 5 million in net
worth, and they're like, okay,that's great, but can we like
figure out the online businessthing first and then we'll do
the relocation and we'll belike, yeah, sure, we can do
both, right?

(41:48):
We're very well versed in both,but like you already have the
money to just do the relocation.
You don't need to figure out.
Yeah, The online business first.
In fact, we could do both at thesame time.
Yeah.
So what do you say to thosepeople?
Because I think it was reallyinteresting what you were saying
the other day about, forexample, you realizing we have
enough.

09212025_171208 (42:06):
Yeah,

C0509 (42:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I think that was a, um, forme that was a major.
Decision of how,

09212025_171208 (42:16):
uh,

C0509 (42:16):
knowing that we had enough, because I was like, I, I
mentioned earlier, thoseconditional biomarkers.
I can't, we can't retire untilwe have this amount of money.
We can't retire until we reach59 and a half.
We can't.
We can't.
We can't.
We can't.
And it was when I sat down andactually went through the
process of looking at.

(42:36):
Withdrawing money from myretirement accounts and what we
would withdraw up until the timewe were, uh, over, well until I
reached 59 and a half and thenuntil we get, uh, social
security and that all that, Iplugged all that stuff in and I
started looking at it and I waslike, if we have a 3% increase

(42:58):
inflation on our costs and wehave a five to 6% growth in our,
our portfolio every year.
We will have enough money tolast right now to be able to
withdraw enough to live a reallygood life.
No, we're not like living inmansions.
We're not taking trips aroundthe world.
We're not going to Monaco and,

09212025_171208 (43:17):
and,

C0509 (43:18):
you know, doing those kinds of things.
But we can live a reallycomfortable life, a better life
than what we're living in Toledoright now and live until we're
90, 95 years old And you have toadmit like, this is much better.
than Toledo, No offense toanyone from Toledo, but there's
no snow.
Sound a little sad about that.

09212025_171208 (43:37):
No, you're not.

C0509 (43:39):
But I, I think you have to ask yourself to, what, what
is the point of another five or10 more years?

09212025_171208 (43:43):
more years?

C0509 (43:44):
What is really the, what's the, the opportunity cost
of trying to save or investanother million dollars?
I mean, we're already in ourearly fifties, um, he has some
health issues.

09212025_171208 (43:56):
Nothing's

C0509 (43:57):
guaranteed.
I mean, we have, we, we actuallyhave friends who have passed
away at our age or, and younger.
So how much are you going torisk

09212025_171208 (44:06):
by investing

C0509 (44:07):
it for another 10 years or working, going to the office
for another five or 10 years?
Uh, you say

09212025_171208 (44:11):
you have to weigh

C0509 (44:12):
you have to weigh those.
That's That's,

09212025_171208 (44:13):
that's, that's you,

C0509 (44:15):
you could just be giving up a lot and never getting
everywhere at the,

09212025_171208 (44:18):
Yeah.

C0509 (44:19):
You guys are very holistic in how you look at
things.
Yeah.
it's, it's really interesting.
I think it's because we havethese conversations with each
other.
Going back to that whole idea ofgetting on the same page, John
and I think of thingsdifferently.
Um, I'm very much moreanalytical, political.
I wanna look at the numbers likemy husband and he's a little bit
more emotional.
Look what this life could belike, like me and then I think

(44:41):
that us talking about those andhaving those conversations and
seeing how the two mesh togetheris really what has brought us to
this point.
We actually have this joke.
Um, long, long time ago we wereat a friend's house and, um, it
had gotten really, really lateand we were having a lot of, uh,
a lot of fun.
But one of the couples that wewere with there with, um, she

(45:02):
kept on poking her husband andshe says, baby, baby, why are we
still here?
Why are we still here?
And, uh, and oh no.
so when we started having theseconversations about enough,

09212025_171208 (45:14):
he

C0509 (45:14):
kept on poking me and saying, baby, why are we still
here?
Why are we still in the UnitedStates?
Why are we still here?
Why are we ask ourselves thatquestion, the more it's, it's,
it's mental.
It's only mental.
We don't have to be hereanymore.
It's your own trap.
We have options.
Right?

09212025_171208 (45:28):
but we,

C0509 (45:28):
you just don't think you do because.
You know, Our education system,the media, our government, they
don't want you to know that youhave those options'cause then
you're less controllable.
And to those who are watchingthis and you're like, I don't
have a million, 2 million, 3million, 5 million, they still
have options.
I mean, they do.
Everybody here, right, haslearned how to run their own
businesses.
right?
Yeah, online, everybody on thiscouch, but there's other things

(45:50):
that can be done as well.
I think you would.
a hundred percent.

09212025_171208 (45:52):
Um, so

C0509 (45:53):
we're doing a series on our podcast, queer podcast,
where we're visiting differentcountries,

09212025_171208 (45:57):
uh,

C0509 (45:58):
virtually, um, and figuring out the best places,
uh, for LGBTQ plus friendlinessand affordability for gay
retirees.
Um, and there some.
Thailand, uh, Greece, there aresome amazing countries that you
don't have to have multimillions of dollars to move to.
I mean, the golden visa forGreece is only$250,000.
Mm-hmm.
I know that for a lot of peoplethat's a lot, but for a lot of

(46:18):
people that's very accessible.
Um, and then you get fullresidency over there.
Um, so I think, yeah, you justhave to do your research and I
wouldn't mind

09212025_171208 (46:25):
mind living

C0509 (46:26):
in Greece.
No.
And No, and we were talkingabout this earlier.
The, the place that we'restaying here in the complex with
you guys, you mentioned it wouldprobably rent between five to
$600 a month.
Um, and we kind of went througha, a minor calculation, a couple
who are claiming socialsecurity, who are each getting

(46:46):
roughly around$1,500 or betweenthe two of them are getting
$3,000 and that's all they have.
They don't have a milliondollars or even$10,000 in their
retirement accounts,

09212025_171208 (46:56):
This

C0509 (46:56):
is still accessible to them because the cost of living
here is so much lower.
You can actually live in a placeat a gorgeous place, two
bedroom, one and a halfbathroom, with this amazing
view.
You can access that.
You just have to, to go throughthat mental process of how can I
get there?
And so many people think it's,it's too hard, but it's not too

(47:18):
hard.
You just have to go through thesteps of doing it.
Speaking of real estate andinvestments and all that stuff,
we were, uh, having dinner theother night and one of the
conversations that came up washow you guys started to notice
here in Mexico, which is whateverybody tells us when we show
them around or help them withthe residents or whatever,
they're like blown away by thegrowth that they're seeing in

(47:41):
Mexico and the economicopportunity.
You guys have spent a long timein finance, your numbers,
people.
What are you seeing now thatyou're.
On the ground or what you'vebeen researching and all of
that?
Uh, I think that, um, I'll goback to this idea that, um, in
the United States, the growth isreally happening only in the

(48:01):
stock market.
Only through.
Um, the reduction of money goingto everyone and going to a
smaller group of people.
We keep talking about how we'rereaching success of higher, uh,
um, uh, milestones in the stockmarket.
But you aren't seeing those kindof success successive milestones
for the average person?

(48:21):
No.
In, in their income.
Uh, the things that things aregetting more and more expensive.
You can blame it on whatever youwanna blame it on, but no matter
what, things are getting moreexpensive, especially for
individuals in retirement, andyou think about healthcare and
the aging process and where youwould live and all of that,
those are all getting moreexpensive.
So I don't necessarily thinkthat there's amazing growth

(48:43):
happening in the United Statesfor the.

09212025_171208 (48:45):
the.

C0509 (48:45):
Common individual, every, everyone.
That's what I see differenthappening here is the growth is
happening for a lot more of thepopulation than it is in other
places like the United States.
And I think that that, what thatto me says is you think, you
think back to in the UnitedStates when things were really

(49:06):
starting to look good for thecountry financially.
uh, Holistically, it was duringthe fifties, sixties, and
seventies when the middle classwas really starting to grow.
Well, we all know in the UnitedStates the middle class has been
shrinking further and further.
60% of Americans are livingpaycheck to paycheck here.

(49:28):
I see that more and moreMexicans are actually doing
things like opening theirbusinesses,

09212025_171208 (49:33):
building

C0509 (49:34):
own homes, buying the property, building the
generational wealth that a lotof our parents and grandparents
built for, uh, people.
Now, I know necessarily, I'm notgonna participate in that
myself, but it's out.
It was happening in the UnitedStates and it was happening
during that time period.
That growth is happening herenow.
and We know that when you get inon that kind of growth, it helps

(49:56):
everyone and everyone rises, andthat's not the case in the us.
Yeah.
Mexico actually has one of

09212025_171208 (50:03):
one

C0509 (50:03):
the fastest growing middle class.
In the world right now.
And I think they just had a newsstory that they lifted like 8
million people out of poverty.

09212025_171208 (50:11):
Mm-hmm.

C0509 (50:12):
Uh, people are very educated in Mexico and a lot of
people, I guess again,'cause ofthe media don't realize, uh,
that those things are going onhere.
But you know, we'll go to Akiand Al and we'll talk to people
older than all of us.
Right.
And they'll be like Mexico rightnow economically is what the
United States was.
In the sixties When it was good.
Yeah, when, when it was growingand, and people were doing well.

(50:33):
And if you want the hard data, Imean, look at the growing middle
class here.
Look at the jobs numbers.
Another thing that we just did avideo about recently is that
they, act in the consulates,they changed from doing the
daily minimum wage as like thebase for calculations on visas
and government fees and things.
To now they're using anotherstandard that the government
set, because they're like, theminimum wage is going up so
fast, we're literally going toblock everybody from being able

(50:56):
to, uh, immigrate to Mexico.
Yeah.
If we base, uh, theirimmigration requirements on how
well the, the average likeworker, for example, is doing
well, and I think it's, it's animportant construct.
If you think about it, thegovernment in Mexico is looking
to have to attract more people.
For whatever reason, ourgovernment in the United States
is looking how to push peopleaway.

(51:17):
And it, it's a, it's a, it's a,it's a fear mindset.
It's a, it's, it's limitedthinking

09212025_171208 (51:21):
on

C0509 (51:21):
a national scale because if another brown person comes in
and takes our job, we're gonnacontinue to be poor.
We have to push those peopleaway.
Whereas in Mexico, they're like,no, come, we'll take your tired.
We'll take your poor, we'll takeyour, those yearning to be free.
Right.
And it's, it's completelyflipped on, in the United States
head.
And I think if you're trying to.
Thrive in America.
It's just a little bit harderright now,

09212025_171208 (51:42):
now,

C0509 (51:43):
and you might think that that's anti-American, but that's
exactly what the entire, themessage of the, the MAGA
movement is, is we are gonnamake America great again because
it's not great now whereMexico's already got the
infrastructure to do that.
They've got the growth mindsetto do that.
You're never gonna achieve that.

09212025_171208 (51:57):
You

C0509 (51:58):
You can't go back to the fifties and sixties and you're
not gonna be able to achievethat abundance mindset by being
so restrictive and negative.
Yeah, and I think we've done alot of videos on this, on the
channel.
I, it's funny, while you guysare talking, I'm like, you know,
if people just sat down to runthe numbers of what's going on
in the United States?
The right and the left wouldcome together like this.
Once everyone saw like, butthey're all divided.

(52:18):
But they're all divided.
People keep them separate.
Yeah, separate.
And people don't know how to runthe numbers or they're not
looking at these things orthey're not seeing what's going
on in other parts of the world.
'cause you know, all three of usspent time in finance and all
three of us eventually got tothe point, where we're like,
wait a minute, something'swrong.
Yep.
Yeah.
Something's not something's.
math, is math.
The math isn't math.
Yeah.
The math isn't math.
Um.
And I, I've, I've always saidthat.

(52:39):
and I'm like, they're alwaystrying to have everybody totally
separated so that we're notpaying attention to what's going
on with the money.
I've, I've been saying that for15 years.
Well, it's the money and it'salso the power because the
people that are in control haveas much money as they ever could
want, but it's, it's abouthaving power.
It's about

09212025_171208 (52:57):
you.

C0509 (52:57):
know, Holding the puppet strings, right?

09212025_171208 (52:59):
Yeah.

C0509 (52:59):
We definitely don't live in a democracy.
It's, it's, at best, it's aplutocracy, but more likely an
olive.
Um, but they have us, they wantus to think it's a democracy,
and they want you to think thatif you question why things
aren't working out for you, thatthat's anti-American.

09212025_171208 (53:12):
But

C0509 (53:13):
Um, but that's just uh, speech

09212025_171208 (53:14):
control.

C0509 (53:14):
Oh, well, we get all kinds of comments on this
channel.
We piss everybody off.
We, We get called communists,but then we get called
colonialists, and then at thesame time we get called we're,
they say that we're MAGA

09212025_171208 (53:23):
and they

C0509 (53:23):
say We're maga.
And then they say, we're notmaga, we're

09212025_171208 (53:25):
maga, we're

C0509 (53:25):
Like They can't pin us because we're like, we're just,
we're not trying to get into thebuckets, we're just trying to
use common sense.
And like logically think, followthe numbers things.
And follow the numbers.
And sometimes I guess that putsus in a MAGA bucket according to
the commenters.
And sometimes that puts us inthe far left bucket.
That's funny that you get that,because we've gotten the same
thing.

09212025_171208 (53:42):
Yeah.

C0509 (53:43):
We've been told we're, manga, we've been told the same
thing, and we've told you guysmanga.
Mm-hmm.
I wouldn't imagine told imagine.
yeah, yeah.
Because we're not, becausesometimes we're not as left as
we need to be on every singletopic.
But to the, to.
To maga, we're definitelycommunists.

09212025_171208 (53:57):
Yes.

C0509 (53:59):
We've had family members tell us that.
Yeah.
Oh, well, us too.
But both our families flagcommunism.
So there's, there's that whole,uh, thing there.
So, final question, because Ihave seen, and I, I told him
this, that when I came here, hewas already here and he'd been
wanting to help people move toother countries and all this
stuff for a long time.
And I said, well, let's just doit.
Because the minute that Iannounced that I wasn't going

(54:20):
back, I was getting inundated.
with Questions, dms.
It's gonna happen to you guystoo.

09212025_171208 (54:25):
Yeah.
When

C0509 (54:25):
Yeah.
When you, mm-hmm.
when you finally make the move.
And it's happened to everyMexico YouTuber.
Yeah.
That's how the YouTube channelstarted.

09212025_171208 (54:32):
Mm-hmm.

C0509 (54:32):
Um, for all of us.
But they got tired of answeringall, all, the questions.
it was an accidental business.
for us.
An accidental movement.
Yeah.
But, uh, one interesting trendthat I noticed, uh, is a lot of
my friends from those financialdays, you guys included, but I
can name several others.
Have reached out to us, to mebecause they already knew me and

(54:54):
asking like, Hey, how does thevisa process work in Mexico?
Hey, what are the investmentslooking like?

09212025_171208 (54:59):
Hey,

C0509 (55:00):
you heard about Portugal or this or that?
There's like a genuine concernfrom people who understand
money, like emotions aside.
There's a genuine, it seems tome that there's a genuine
concern for people whounderstand money that they're
starting to look at otheroptions.
So what do you think is going onthere?
Because I mean.
You guys started the trend.
Yeah,

09212025_171208 (55:20):
I, I,

C0509 (55:21):
I, I I think that, um, for those of us who pay
attention to fi finances alittle bit more, we're starting
to see some things that worryus.
Um, the fact that, uh, the bondmarket is not as, um, active as
it used to be by.
The, uh, the countries outsidethe United States, there were,

(55:44):
there used to be a lot of perlot more purchases happening
from places like China andEurope and places like that.
So the bond market is a littlebit of an indicator as to what's
going on in the US economy.
Um, the other thing is that, um.
Over the last nine months, theUS dollar has slipped by about
15%, Percent, which is makingeverything that is purchased

(56:06):
outside the United States andbrought in even more expensive.
Um, and so you start to puttogether all these little
breadcrumbs and you start to seethere's probably more
opportunity for my investmentsout there,

09212025_171208 (56:21):
and

C0509 (56:22):
my investments include.
My time and my money and my realestate, and all of those kinds
of things add up.
And so I think that there's the,for the folks in the financial
world, they're starting to say,are my assets as safe and secure
in the United States as theymight be somewhere else?

(56:42):
And

09212025_171208 (56:42):
they're

C0509 (56:43):
that now.
And Whenever there's thatquestion, then you try to figure
out how do you adapt yourportfolio to that?
How do you adapt your lifestyleto that?
And for us, uh, that has becomea major thing.
We're like, we may be doinggreat in the US stock market,
but compared to the globalstandard, we're actually
shrinking because of the drop inthe dollar, the drop drop in, in

(57:05):
the in bond values.
All of those kinds of things areadding up and saying maybe
there's an opportunity outsidethe us.
Yeah.

09212025_171208 (57:13):
Yeah, I'll

C0509 (57:14):
Oh, add that I think, you know, wages have been stagnant,
uh, since the seventies, by andlarge.
Other economic fundamentals arebecoming challenging with
inflation.
Um, the tax situation, um, andother challenges with the
economy and the economy and thestock market aren't the same,
but they definitely influenceeach other.
And it makes me really concernedto see the upward trajectory

(57:35):
that we see in the stock marketwithout the economic
fundamentals to support that.
And I know that there's thepopular belief, especially in
the fire movement to say just.
you know, Put

09212025_171208 (57:44):
all,

C0509 (57:44):
put all of your money into a s and p 500 ETF.
Well, the s and p 500 hasn't,has been, has never been less
diversified than it is nowbecause it's got so much of a
concentration in, um,technology.
Um, so you don't have thatdiversification.
So our concern is that at somepoint there's, it's, it's gonna
be, and we haven't had a, acyclical market correction since

(58:05):
the.
Since 2008, and you should havea healthy, for a healthy
economy, you should have acyclical market correction every
one and a half to three years.
And so.
Something's coming and I'm justafraid it's gonna be
cataclysmic.
And is that where we want tohave all of our investments?
Don't we wanna have.

09212025_171208 (58:20):
have it

C0509 (58:21):
more diversified?
And it should have happenedduring COVID, right?
That's another thing.
It should have happened duringCOVID, but there's so much money
right?
we used so much cash in

09212025_171208 (58:28):
the,

C0509 (58:28):
propping up the economy, that it, right?
Yeah.
Technically we were started, wehad started to head that
direction, even though themarket was still going up
towards the end of, uh, of, uh,2020.
We were still, we were startingto head that direction with the.
uh, With unemployment and thingslike that, The, and the
inflation, all of that wascontributing to, we might be

(58:49):
heading in towards a recessionor down to.
in, in, uh, in the economy.
But like you said, with havingmil, tens of millions of people
out of a job, the government hadto do something and that just
propped everything up.
It propped out the, it proppedup the economy, it propped up
the stock market.
All everything was being proppedup by the government actually.

09212025_171208 (59:11):
Putting

C0509 (59:11):
back into the economy and technically that is part of the
Fed's job is to do that kind ofthing.
It is the part of the centralbanks to do those kinds of
things to, to help prevent amajor, major cataclysmic event.
And they did get by that, but italso brought that kind of
inflation with it.

(59:32):
Yeah, We all sound likelibertarians right now, so we're
just gonna to everybody,

09212025_171208 (59:36):
we're just

C0509 (59:37):
confuse everybody who's watching this.
But to your point, uh, youactually, earlier this year, he
was running the numbers oneverything and he, he said, Hey,
I'm gonna start pulling out ofthe US stock market and we're
gonna start investing.
uh, Here in Mexico in certainthings we're looking at other
countries and finding ways todiversify because you were
feeling very uncomfortable, uh,when you were running the

(59:59):
numbers.
Yeah, I was looking at thepatterns and, and I I also just,
just kind of have a feeling thatbased on everything we've seen
with people moving out of the USwith how politics are going,
with how the economy's going,how the world is changing, uh,
yeah.
It's, it's going to be better tohave money diversified across
different countries.
Mm-hmm.
Not just across differentstocks.

(01:00:20):
Um, So yeah, over, we're puttingover half of our savings and.
the Mexican markets and, uh,different types of investments
here and peer-to-peer lendingand all sorts of things like
that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, we'll, we'll startlooking at other countries, but
at least starting thatdiversification process.
And I mean, we're getting wayhigher returns here than on
anything.
Yeah.
In the United states.

(01:00:40):
Yeah, Yeah, because they're,they have a growth economy here.
We don't necessarily have thatin the US and the capital
market's a lot tighter, so youmight get a return, obviously.
not Financial advice, consultyour, your professional.
Uh, but we're getting returns oflike between 10 and 15 plus
percent Per year.
Yeah.

09212025_171208 (01:00:57):
Yeah.

C0509 (01:00:57):
On relatively low risk kind kinds of investment
strategies.
And now that you guys haveresidency, you'll be able to,
start investing in some of thosevehicles and things like that,
which is one of the, thebeauties of getting residency,
even if you're not fully movinghere yet.
Yeah.
So what are some of the finalwords that you have to people
who may be watching this if.

09212025_171208 (01:01:16):
and.

C0509 (01:01:17):
Number one, they're totally confused as to where we
all stand politically after thatlast.
conversation.
Um,

09212025_171208 (01:01:23):
Um,

C0509 (01:01:23):
but they're still watching and they're like, okay,
but this sounds like a pipedream.
You know, I can't afford to workwith Amanda and Justin, or I
don't have a million dollars,or, I'm stuck here right for X,
Y, and Z.
Oh, actually, you know, anotherreason why they get stuck.
I have a house, I have this, Ihave that.
I have businesses, I have allthese responsibilities in the
United States, and I need tohave them all tied up in a

(01:01:44):
little bow.
Perfect little bow.
Yeah.
Right.
Before I can start on thisprocess, there's so many reasons
why people feel stuck.
What do you have to say to thosepeople?

09212025_171208 (01:01:54):
I

C0509 (01:01:55):
I would challenge anybody who thinks that they can't make
the move, that they can probablymake the move.
It's a

09212025_171208 (01:02:04):
mental,

C0509 (01:02:04):
a mental hurdle.
Um, so just start.
Work under the assumption thatyou can make the move and figure
out what do you have to do toget there.
It might be that you can'tafford, they can't afford you
to, but it doesn't mean thatthey can't make the move or
start to take the steps toactually afford you to, uh, it
might be that you have, feellike you have too much debt, but
there is a way to pay off thatdebt.
So just figure out what is itgonna take you to get to

(01:02:25):
whatever your goal is and startto take those steps And if it's
that you have a business, how doyou untangle yourself from that
business so you have to work onit every day, or how does it
become more virtual?
Um.
Is your business providing youthe lifestyle that you want?
If you can't walk away from thedesk, probably not.
Is that, is that what you're, isthat why you started a business
to begin with?
So you had no freedom?

(01:02:46):
I think also for a lot ofbusiness owners, they may not
understand the value of theirbusiness because they've never
done a business of valuation.
They've actually never workedwith a professional to sit down
and say, okay, based on ourexpenses, uh, and income and
profit, my business is worth Xamount of money.
You may be sitting on a businessthat you don't know may be worth

(01:03:07):
a million dollars and sellingthat business, you get the
freedom of not having to be atthat desk every day or on those
phone calls every day, but youalso get the freedom of now you
get to buy all your time back,all that time that you put into
that business, get that businessto buy your time back so that
you can have the lifestyle thatyou want.
You can live where you want.

(01:03:28):
I think that instead of saying,I can't, it's how can I?

09212025_171208 (01:03:32):
I?

C0509 (01:03:33):
And So you, when you say, how can I, you start to think
about the various things thatcould make it happen.
And that really opens up thequestioning.
Do I want to make that decision?
Can I make that decision?
Is it the right decision for me?
And then you get a lot moreopportunities to say, oh, I
actually can, I can make thisdecision, I can do this, I can

(01:03:56):
do that.
And those will all culminate inyou saying, I can make this
move.
Of, yeah, I, I, I think it'swhat you say all the time.
It's just like a mental hurdleof here.
I just thought of a few peoplethat we should probably send
them a text message and be like,Hey, have you gotten your
business evaluated by anychance?
I just thought, it

09212025_171208 (01:04:12):
know some

C0509 (01:04:13):
with you.
I know some good brokers in theUS who can probably do that.
Right.
I just, It's not a terribleidea.
We've gotta do that this week.
I just thought of a few peoplethat they probably don't know.
that, You know, because they'venever had the evaluation done
and we can connect them withbrokers and see.
what we do.
Yeah.
And that could be your passportto get over here.
Yeah, totally.
All right.
You wanna sign us off My Love.
All Right.
Well that was our chat here withJohn and David.

(01:04:33):
We're so excited to, to helpthem on this journey.
And we're, we're getting theirvisas tomorrow, their official,
uh, residency cards.
Um, so really excited aboutthat.
We're really excited.
You guys are joining us here inMexico.
Hey, we might even be neighbors.
Yeah.
You know,

09212025_171208 (01:04:47):
now

C0509 (01:04:48):
one of these days soon.
Um, so thanks guys for watching.
Uh, this was a lot of fun.
This, this chat and just, just,uh, being here with you guys
and, and exploring.
Um, and if you guys are, arewatching and you're saying, Hey,
I'm interested in doing the samething, book a consult with us.
If you qualify, you can get afree call with me or our team.
We could talk through yourspecifics, what you're trying to

(01:05:09):
do, help you figure out step bystep how exactly to get out here
to Mexico or anywhere else inthe world.
We have connections all over theplace.
You can also download our Movingto Mexico Guide for free.
Below this video or our movingabroad checklist, and that'll
help you out a lot on thejourney as well.
Don't forget to subscribe andgive this video.

(01:05:29):
Thumbs up, hit that notificationbell.
Make sure you don't miss any ofthe content we have coming up
multiple times.
Per week now Amanda is on my assand making sure, making sure of
it that I'm in the studio.
The influencers are influencing.
Exactly.
Um, influencers.
Got influence.
Yep.

09212025_171208 (01:05:47):
Yep.

C0509 (01:05:48):
So, uh, thanks again and uh, we'll see you again very
soon.
We're gonna have a lot morecontent like this coming out as
well as we have more and morepeople coming down here to
Mexico to, to do this wholeprocess with us.
So thanks again for watching anduh, bye for now.
All right.
Dinner and, Ahi.
Alright, let's do it.

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