August 13, 2025 • 28 mins
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In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with @maiabundant and @evan_eh we house tour and $800 house in Da Nang Vietnam's best expats area, An Thuong, look at how an expat family life in Vietnam and we compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam in an expat interview with Mai from Canada.
Subscribe to our newslettter for the latest visa, bank & expat tips: Click here
✈️ Moving to Vietnam? Watch my 60 minute masterclass first → Buy it now
Leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
Use my discount code EVAN and you'll get $3 off your first eSIM purchase!
Watch the full epsiode and house tour on Youtube here.
In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with @maiabundant and @evan_eh we house tour and $800 house in Da Nang Vietnam's best expats area, An Thuong, look at how an expat family life in Vietnam and we compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam in an expat interview with Mai from Canada.
Subscribe to our newslettter for the latest visa, bank & expat tips: Click here
✈️ Moving to Vietnam? Watch my 60 minute masterclass first → Buy it now
Leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, we're in Danang, Vietnam, and we're gonna be doing
a house tour with my from My Abundant Life. See
if she's home. This episode of The Cost Living a
Broad Pot is brought to you by Aerolo, the world's
first sam store. Yeah story a little bit early, Yeah,
(00:23):
pop on the mic. Beautiful, So I'm super excited to
see what you can get for eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In the Yeah, welcome to my house.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, thanks so much for having us. WoT this place
looks really big though. Okay, yeah it is dang beautiful garden.
This is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
This fruits will be here too.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
They always dropped, but the season's almost done, so they're
not coming any Oh.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, they're all gone.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But it's like a paprietry or something.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
No, it's I don't know what it's called, the Vietnamese
uh fruit, starfruit.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, it's not stuff fruit.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Nice little motorbike parking for the kids.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
A little fish Yeah, it's still a little fish pond.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh they're actually fishies in there too.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, there is. It's a mess, though, my little one
takes care of it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's cute, all right. Yeah, so this is a full
family house. Right, you're obviously you're married, and you got
a couple of kids too.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I got two kids. Come on, guys, you oh can
you feel like ac? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Wow, it's so nice and cool in here too. I
thought for a minute it would be hot because this
is a big place, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
The AC We put it on the rooms and then
it just comes down here to the living room.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, this is my living room.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Wow, it's super spacious, like.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Nothing crazy this.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
We bought this one and used like a cover because
I didn't like the color. But this one was from
the landlord. They left it here. This is very traditional Vietnamese.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Style college like that. How much did it cost to
get like an ELK couch?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Okay, so we bought this from our friend that used
to live here. I don't know how much did she
charge us. I think it was only I'm going to
say three four million.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It's like one hundred and fifty bucks. Well, yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Usually back home this would be.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
This is cool, like open concept right into the kitchen
walk in. I wonder what the square footage is in here,
And it feels like the ceilings feel really high.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
To they are really high like that?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
About that? Dang?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Nice and then this is our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Some storage room here kind of just stuff everything in here.
Swear for the mess everyone, But anyways, yeah, this is
where our kitchen is.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And then we have a laundry right over here. I
washer and dry.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Usually a lot of Viennemy's homes don't have dryers, so
luckily we got one.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Oh yeah, that's the score.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, and then we bought this water filter.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Water filter? How much is that?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I ask my husband, we go up, maybe he'll know, he'll.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Know they're a little like yeah outsider.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, I never opened it because there's so many mosquitoes.
But we can come and look at it. Wait, see,
I lock it up because we never go because mosquitoes.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Do you worry about like safety or is it just
like a ref mosquitos? Okay, breaking and entering mosquitoes. Yeah,
that's how the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Peak really nothing. Oh yeah, I don't touch it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Your water heater and a little back hair probably you know,
it's probably the kind of place where they would hang
up their laundry before you the door.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah that would be a good idea, but no, thank you.
I don't like mosquitos. Yep, that's another bathroom run you
can yeah, really basic.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, there you go, classic VS. Al right with like
every bathroom has a shower and bidet attached to the toilet.
Super simple.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
All right, let's go upstairs. Yeah, let's okay, let's go
all right.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
So the first room is my kid's room. Oh my
little ones, sweetie, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
What are you doing? Okay? This is their room. They
cleaned it up for you.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Beautiful room.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yes, the thing in Vietnamese homes. I noticed that they
don't have closets, so we always you have to buy these.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh interesting, you like the exterior wardrobes happening? Yeah, like
the opening.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I usually like close closets, but whatever, this came with
the house too, so they had something like this.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But yeah, we kept it simple.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But it's a nice, good sized room. And that's like
a full queen size bat over there right, Yeah cool.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I think that's actually king. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Do you like your room? Mm hmm?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And then this is my husband and eyes room.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Wow. I like the views super right, beautiful and spacious.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, I love the windows.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Like I said, there wasn't I need to buy more
like little storage areas.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh guys, gals, look at this view. This is like
huge beautiful picture window. Oh man, that's super nice. And
even though there's traffic there, it's like completely silent. I
don't hear a thing when that truck drives by.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Wow nice.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then we do have closets in here too. Only
one room has closets, so yeah, it's like I don't
know if I stuffed it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So it's pretty big size.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Right, Yeah, So that's like you're and your husband get
like a full wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And also there's a closet over there, so we kind
of add some storage to that. I'll show you more
like where we put all the storage because they don't
have storage room here, so it's another area for like clothes.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So it's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
The Bahama shirt's going yes. Another bathroom, Oh, another bathroom.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Nothing fancy, guys, nothing fancy. And then my kids have
this on the ground here.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, so classic classic Vietnamese.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So yeah, me style.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Do you see that there was a where the shower
had This was new to me when I the showers
right in the middle of the washroom.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, totally. Every bathroom just like has a
shower like floating right beside the toilet. That is like
total standard practice. I'm so impressed though, like these beautiful
flowers and greens like this, This tree is like in
full Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, you can go outside there too.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm not going to because it's so nice. And
air conditioning here and there for it's nice here. It's
like really open little apartment building a house across the street.
Yeah cool.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And then the next room, Valentina. Shouldn't you be doing
some homeschooling? Oh okay, finish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Okay, so there's another washroom here, nothing fancy again.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, so third story, we've now seen three bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Same concept, very basic.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And then this was supposed to be another room, but
we've made it into like a.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Homeschool learning room.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
My office here too, and yeah, we lacked the bed
because it's too heavy to move.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So if they want to relax and relax in this
learning room.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I had a similar setup where I like took apart
a bed like this for my office. Yeah. It was
probably a bad idea, but it was like it was
great once it was gone. But I don't think I'm
ever getting a back.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, like he he was like, I'm like, can we
take it out? He's like, no, that's too much work.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah. Nice, this is the setup where the magic happens
from my YouTube channel. I like the flower too that came.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
With the house.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's nice, all right, And then you go up here
a little bit, and this is like our gym room.
This is week most enemies say the prayer room.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You pack up your whole room.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So this is where we put the storage because we
have nowhere else to put storage, right and vi Ennemis
homes they don't have storage rooms, so we had to
make a room for it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So that's room for it.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
This is our gym nice. This is cool. So okay,
let me do the count. Though. You got one, two,
three bathrooms, and like four bedrooms, right.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Three bedrooms, and this is like, yeah, I guess you
can call this a half because this could be its
own bedroom, but.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
One hundred percent like you could easily have like especially
they're bigger. Like one of the girls have a bedroom
right here, the other one have a bedroom right there,
and then you guys have your bedroom, the master an
office down stairs. Yeah, it's cool, so.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
This could be another bedroom, but we made it into
a play gym room.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Cool. Okay, so let's let's go back. Maybe you want
to go back to us in better light. And then
we'll do the breakdown the cost breakdowns all right.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
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(09:43):
ESM twenty million BNDA, Yeah, twenty million n DA. How
did you find it? Was the negotiation?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Like Okay, So at the time, it was around March,
we're looking for a home and before that we're like
looking for new homes.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But it was really.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Hard because I feel like there was a lot of
competition and the market just went up.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I don't know why the market went up.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I think that's just busy time that a lot of
tourist people are coming.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So whenever we wanted to.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Go see a house, it was actually like if we
say we're going to come like the next day, they'd
be like, oh, it's already done, Like we already sealed
a deal, like after like a couple hours when we
asked to come see the house.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
So you're looking in like high season.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I think that's high season.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like winter March, because I think it's cooler and people
like to come around that time. Anyways, we were like
looking for homes and it just took so long to
get a home. So we actually knew a friend that
she was leaving back to England and she actually lived
at this house and she said she could talk to
her landlord and maybe we can take over the house here,
(10:48):
and that's how we found this house.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Nice. So friend of a friend. That's so classic. I
always tell people to like, come find some quick solution
and then take your time finding a long term place
because when you get to know other x, to get
to know people, you can find real deals. So what's
the budget for the rest of the place. What are
the electric utilities?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Obviously I just got the bill right now, I can
tell you right now, so the month of June, but
you got to know, like we were using AC like NonStop,
like right now, it was like four point one mill so.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
One hundred and sixty US dollars. Yeah, big, but it's
a big house. I mean. The flip side of two
is that it's so hot right now for watching like
this is peak. That's gonna be the biggest ability July
and June.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Right, Yes, that's probably going to be one of the
biggest bills out of the whole year.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's usually lower. I believe it's probably a lot lower.
I can't remember. I can ask John want me SciAm
his name okay.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Okay, And then Internet, we're paying three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Dong do you want to dollars?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You ask?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay, in water and it's just water in May.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So I've been thinking we were paying water from last
month before that, which was one twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Four five dollars for water.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I remembered garbage color garbage collection was thirty thousand.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
One dollar. Yeah's yeah, correct.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then yeah, that was it. We have to pave
to the landlord.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Okay, So you're that's all all in. That's even at
the peak like ac hot season. You're still under one
thousand dollars all in for massive house with three and
a half or four bedrooms and three bathrooms in a
big open space living area, a yard out front too.
That's pretty sweet man.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And for the people watching, we didn't We're not going
to reveal exactly where this is. But this is in
Nantum too. This is in the supposed area where it
is busier. It is harder to find places. According to
the Internet.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The one across the street of our house is I think.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
That's seventy mil.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The big bill over there.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
They just renovated it and it's seventy mil.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay, let's get in the peak.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So this massive villa, huge shoe.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I think it's a three bedroom only, but there's a pool.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
There's a big pool, and you see by the footprint
it's got to be like that looks like it's like,
I don't know, five or six thousand square feet and.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
No one was in there for like last month or
two and then they just recently renovated it, and like
we saw them posting it for seventy email.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So that's a little under three thousand years dollars for
an enormous villa. Cool. So let's talk a little bit
about your adjustment to DNA and like, why are you
leaving Canada for d nay? How long have you been
living in here now?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So it's almost two years now in September.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Why we left, I mean Canada?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, lots of reasons.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Do we have to get into it, okay, if you
must need to know, there's just a lot of things
changing in Canada.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
One of the biggest reasons is the cost of the living.
It was rising really high. It's so high.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I didn't see a future for my kids there anymore,
just because it was just getting too expensive and not
having enough jobs. And opportunities there anymore, if that makes
sense totally.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And you sold a house.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh yeah, we we we were actually building a home there,
and then once we got it built, we bought a home,
and then after two three months.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We sold it because we decided to not keep our.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
House and the rising intest rates and like all that.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, so there was rising interest rates. Once we got
the house. The interest rate was probably at like, I'm
going to say six seven percent at the time, and
my husband said it just didn't make sense because we
would have to.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Our lifestyle will be a bit different then.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So what's your all in cost of living here? If
you're you're housing and everything is about a thousand bucks,
what's your all in monthly expenditure?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I can I think our budget was around three thousand.
We tried to stick to to No, yeah, it's about
three thousand.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I guess if we're.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Overspending, okay, five hundred dollars a person plus one thousand
dollars for the house. What would that be like back home?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Oh my gosh, if we were to live like exactly
the same in back home, it will probably be over
ten million, I mean, not too many, ten thousand dollars
to live in that house and do whatever we wanted
to do the same thing as here.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I believe it's.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Gonna be ten thousand because our house is already to
live in our home, and Canada was already about I
believe it was seven thousand already.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Maybe more. Yeah, I think it would be hard to
You wouldn't be able to do whatever you want for
three thousand dollars for four people. Yeah, so yeah, three
to four times that's what I guess. I mean now
signed some things when I look at Toronto and like
it'd be five times as much.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I think it's a lot more now.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I remember my husband said when he went back to Canada,
a bowl of fuh at a nicer place was like
twenty five dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
For a bull of fuh Wow, twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And what's a bowl of pho costs here?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I believe it's I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It depends on places like fifty thousand dong or dollars
two dollars.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So that's one of the things I find interesting is
that it's hard to like really measure certain things because
it's like, what do you say about something it's twelve
and a half times expensive, but it is right. Like
when I went home as a while went out twenty
twenty two, I remember having a diner breakfast where I'd
like really playing French toast, like wonderbread, French shast. We're
not having a fancy food here, right, yeah, with like
(16:17):
three pieces of bacon and a black coffee and it
was like twenty two dollars plus tax and tip, just
my old neighborhood rots as well as West End Toronto
now purely Jack.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I forgot there's tip too.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So what are your long term plans for Dnang? And
like the girls like how long do you guys want
to live in Vietnam? And you what are you thinking
big picture?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I really think we don't know right now. I feel
like we're just living year by year. I think every
year will assess what we really want and this is
what we really want. I think last year I was
actually playing and leave Dunning just because I guess I
was homesick and I wanted to find somewhere more modernized.
(17:00):
I'm not saying that it's not modern here, but it's
not as same as Canada.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But my husband's like, let's try it one more year
to see how you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And this year I feel a bit better, and I
think it's because I found a better community, have more
friends Evan, So yeah, like, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Think that's just really important.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So right now I feel comfortable that we might even
just call this our home base for now, and if
things do change, then we can go somewhere else. But
right now, I think for the next five years we
might be even here.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
How do local people treat you?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Like?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
How have you felt integrating to you? Or your husband
speak viat.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So my husband, he's Vietnamese, so he's able to speak
via to other locals. We met a local through the
homeschool community and he introduced us to other locals around
the area. And it's been good because some of them
actually know how to speak English too, so it was nice.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But sorry, I lost my train of thought what we
were talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Treat you are?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I feel like they're very kind.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
A lot of the local has been really nice, even
if it's Uh people that we go see and get food,
they're very nice. And some of them, they if you
don't know English, they'll like, I mean Vietnamese. I can
just show them, like translate something and they will be
very kind to me.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So yeah, there's no issues with that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
What do you think What are some of the biggest
myths or stereotypes or misconceptions about Vietnam and life in Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I feel, let me think that it's like still old
old school.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I guess there's certain places that are still like still developing,
but there's a lot of areas that are still it's
been developed and modernized. But yeah, it's still growing. And
I don't know what else do they say. I don't
know that's really poor here, and I know there are
poorer areas still too, But I feel like it is
(18:57):
growing and the economy is growing here.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah. One of the things that bugs me the most
is when people complain about like, oh, it's if you're
you're going to ruin it. It's not going to be
cheap anymore. It's like, if the economy is growing, that's
a good thing. Yes, right, it's good for both expats
living here, if we're starting businesses or hiring local people,
were working with local people, it's good for local businesses.
It's good for Vietnam in general. Because the starting point
(19:24):
was like the GDP is so small per person, right.
One of the reasons why it's so like the fastest
growing or whatever is that it started so low. So
do you feel, like, say, do you ever feel like
do you feel safe? Do you feel comfortable living around this?
Do you think there's a lot of poverty? Like how
does that affect you?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
There's certain parts that I could see that really I just.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Want to help out anyways at the end, like we
I feel like I lived in like Canada, So I
don't know if it's wrong to say, like I feel
privileged that I got to go to school and like
learn certain things speaking English and all that.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So seeing even like the.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
More poor poor areas, it's more like how can I
help them? And like you were just saying, like I
don't like when people say I'm coming here and I'm
ruining for locals, because I'm actually working with a lot
of locals. Like I have an editor, he's a loco,
and like even like am I I'm going to build
a team here and they're gonna be locals and so
(20:27):
I'm gonna help them.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
And that's going to help the locals. They get to
buy things, they get to grow their wealth and all that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
So yes, I don't know, like I don't think the
property has affected me. I feel like it's more like,
how can I help them?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
If that makes sense?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, totally. I mean I have three to I have
one full time employee, three to four contractors I work with,
and on top of that, all the like literal business
that just comes here because of their promotion. And it's
not paid promotion, right, It's like not like Touris in
Vietnam is paying you or Iron knows to do this. Yeah, yeah,
we're literally offering free promotion. So I feel like there's
a there's a given take about that. What are the negatives? Like,
(21:04):
there's got to be some real drawback.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I really want to have a stable home.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I just want to stay somewhere and live there and
put all my stuff there and not have to worry
about it because if I say this is gonna be
my home base, I want to have a home that
I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I guess this is normal to have mold. I can't.
I don't know how to deal with mold yet.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So when we left for rain season, every some of
our stuff got moldy. But I guess there's ways around
it that you can get people to come in.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
To air out the house. But I heard that if
your house gets too old, they just smash it up.
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Like if a house gets really old, they're not going
to renovate, They're gonna smash the whole thing up.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, for sure, they're just going to do a tear
down and build it again.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
So I just don't I don't get that, and like
I want a house that I could just not have
to do that, because that means that if I do that,
maybe I have to keep it in mind in five
to ten years, this house is going to be smashed
up and then I have to move out my stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So I'm not used to that kind of lifestyle. If
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, for sure, there's not. There isn't a lot like
a culture of like maintenance, right, Like things are just
made used and then get rid of them. What's some
advice you'd give for someone moving to Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Make sure you have some savings, make sure you have income.
I would say you still have to have some income.
Just be prepared to be open to like different lifestyle.
I guess how do I explain that, Like, you can't
be like, oh, it has to be like this in Canada.
I've seen a lot of people like from America that
(22:34):
come here and they're kind of I don't know what
the word is.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I'm trying to say a nice.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Snobby about the fact that they can't speak English. Don't
get mad at people if they can't speak English.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Just be open to the culture.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Future holds for Jnang. What do you think it's going
to be like in five years or ten years.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I feel like Danang is going to grow.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I think it might am I get crowded too, So
we'll see from there if we even want to stay
or not, because we like a smaller town. Because I
do hear that a lot of Hanoi and Hutcheman locals
are even coming to move here. So I feel like
Dnnang's going to grow. But there's for that. There's opportunities
(23:15):
for businesses and to grow your wealth here if you
start like looking into.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It now, I believe.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, our landlord just sold the house and she's Hanoian
and she sold it site unseen to another Hanoian and
he bought it for his Hannoian daughter to move into
and live here. And it's because she's she's coming down
here for a job with a big hotel chain. This
is like high paying jobs. I'm not talking about Yeah,
we're talking about someone buying a four hundred thousand dollars
(23:42):
US house sight und scene for their kid. Yeah, and
their kids coming down for sure to you know, work
at a big hotel chain and make six figures, right.
We're not talking about like someone's gonna be a waitress.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, So that's kind of crazy right to hear that
right now, because I think it's happening right now, and
I think that's why the home prices were going high
and the rentals and all that. So we see it
happening right now. We'll just kind of like play it
out and see what happens in Danang. But I do
believe it's going to grow a lot bigger and it's
going to be a bit crowded soon too.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
How have you adjusted to a life where you don't
have a day job anymore.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I feel like it's been a while because I've been
a homeschool mom, even in Canada, was a homeschool mom,
so I wasn't actively working. I was learning about finances
and my husband was working most of the time. But
getting into YouTube here, it's I like it because.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
I feel more relaxed.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I feel like I don't feel the pressure of having
to make it work right away, like I can take
time to work on it and grow it. Yeah, so
there's no pressure of making the money because everything's so affordable.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Here, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
And you got your primary income stream is from investment
from house sale.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Right, Yeah, so our primary income is from our investments
from our home and some of my husband's trading and yeah,
there's just a bunch of stuff. And he still does
some remote work and yeah, and then some for me.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Right now, you know, how did you make the leap?
Like how did you get unstuck?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I think that's when I was trying to figure it out.
I was talking to my husband the other day, like
how did I figure it out? How can I help
others understand how to get over that leap? And I
just feel like, I think you just have to take
that risk. Sometimes people don't like taking a risk. I
feel like, and you take that risk to try it
one time, Like just take if you can't leave your job,
take a two week's vacation and go to Vietnam or
(25:41):
wherever you want to live and try it out and
you can see, like how the life cells there and
if you can envision yourself being there, And I think
what helped us was when we had the opportunity to
rebuild another home. We said we weren't going to live
in any home for a year, so we were just
traveling for a year and we realized we could live
(26:02):
like this. And I guess when we went to Florida for.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
A couple months, my husband realized he could actually.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Remote work from there, and that made it happen. We're like, okay,
and may just think bigger. So I think you got
to take small steps out a time.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And then yeah, I like that some baby steps. People
think it's all or nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Sometimes, yeah, it's not.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Just go somewhere and stay there for like a week
or two and see how it feels like. And if
you see your life could be great there. Then find
a way to make money. Find online work. There's so
many online work right now.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And you can create your own job. I don't know.
That's what I believe that you can. You can create
your own opportunities.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
How is that process on I mean you do Instagram
and vertical stuff too, but how has that process been
for you? On YouTube? Like this idea of creating your
own job or your own.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Income, I had to invest a little bit money into
it to get it going.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
However, you could do.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
It on your own if you wanted to, but if
you want to go faster, invest a little bit if
you have some money on the side to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I feel like I feel like anything that you think
of you can make an opportunity of. Just I feel
like everyone always talks about what they want and they
never just go for it. I don't know how to
explain it, because Okay, there's someone was talking about at
our homeschool community and she was like, I really want
Oh homeschooling communities are not the same from back home,
(27:28):
and I'm like, what's so different? And she was like, oh,
they have this kind of event. I'm like, you can
create this event here, Like why not? And like I
wanted to meet other YouTubers, So what do I do?
Create a community and work a networking community meet up
and that's how I met a bunch of YouTubers. So
same thing with YouTube. We want a YouTube. There's so
many resources on YouTube and online that you can find
(27:52):
how to get started. Just make it happen. I don't know, Like,
whatever you think of you're really good at. Just do
it find work online. There's apps that you can find
freelancing work, and there's upwork apps that you can go on. Yeah,
so I don't know if that makes sense or not.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This episode of the Costs of Living a broad pod
was brought to you by Arlow, the world's first e
SIM store. Use my code Evan at checkout to get
three dollars off your first eSIM, Scan the QR code
on screen, or just hit the link in the description
to download the Erlow app. Today, I'm having a take
care
Today, we're in Danang, Vietnam, and we're gonna be doing
a house tour with my from My Abundant Life. See
if she's home. This episode of The Cost Living a
Broad Pot is brought to you by Aerolo, the world's
first sam store. Yeah story a little bit early, Yeah,
(00:23):
pop on the mic. Beautiful, So I'm super excited to
see what you can get for eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In the Yeah, welcome to my house.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, thanks so much for having us. WoT this place
looks really big though. Okay, yeah it is dang beautiful garden.
This is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
This fruits will be here too.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
They always dropped, but the season's almost done, so they're
not coming any Oh.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, they're all gone.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But it's like a paprietry or something.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
No, it's I don't know what it's called, the Vietnamese
uh fruit, starfruit.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, it's not stuff fruit.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Nice little motorbike parking for the kids.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
A little fish Yeah, it's still a little fish pond.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh they're actually fishies in there too.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, there is. It's a mess, though, my little one
takes care of it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's cute, all right. Yeah, so this is a full
family house. Right, you're obviously you're married, and you got
a couple of kids too.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I got two kids. Come on, guys, you oh can
you feel like ac? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Wow, it's so nice and cool in here too. I
thought for a minute it would be hot because this
is a big place, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
The AC We put it on the rooms and then
it just comes down here to the living room.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, this is my living room.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Wow, it's super spacious, like.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Nothing crazy this.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
We bought this one and used like a cover because
I didn't like the color. But this one was from
the landlord. They left it here. This is very traditional Vietnamese.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Style college like that. How much did it cost to
get like an ELK couch?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Okay, so we bought this from our friend that used
to live here. I don't know how much did she
charge us. I think it was only I'm going to
say three four million.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It's like one hundred and fifty bucks. Well, yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Usually back home this would be.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
This is cool, like open concept right into the kitchen
walk in. I wonder what the square footage is in here,
And it feels like the ceilings feel really high.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
To they are really high like that?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
About that? Dang?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Nice and then this is our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Some storage room here kind of just stuff everything in here.
Swear for the mess everyone, But anyways, yeah, this is
where our kitchen is.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And then we have a laundry right over here. I
washer and dry.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Usually a lot of Viennemy's homes don't have dryers, so
luckily we got one.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Oh yeah, that's the score.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, and then we bought this water filter.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Water filter? How much is that?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I ask my husband, we go up, maybe he'll know, he'll.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Know they're a little like yeah outsider.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, I never opened it because there's so many mosquitoes.
But we can come and look at it. Wait, see,
I lock it up because we never go because mosquitoes.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Do you worry about like safety or is it just
like a ref mosquitos? Okay, breaking and entering mosquitoes. Yeah,
that's how the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Peak really nothing. Oh yeah, I don't touch it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Your water heater and a little back hair probably you know,
it's probably the kind of place where they would hang
up their laundry before you the door.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah that would be a good idea, but no, thank you.
I don't like mosquitos. Yep, that's another bathroom run you
can yeah, really basic.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, there you go, classic VS. Al right with like
every bathroom has a shower and bidet attached to the toilet.
Super simple.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
All right, let's go upstairs. Yeah, let's okay, let's go
all right.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
So the first room is my kid's room. Oh my
little ones, sweetie, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
What are you doing? Okay? This is their room. They
cleaned it up for you.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Beautiful room.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yes, the thing in Vietnamese homes. I noticed that they
don't have closets, so we always you have to buy these.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh interesting, you like the exterior wardrobes happening? Yeah, like
the opening.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I usually like close closets, but whatever, this came with
the house too, so they had something like this.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But yeah, we kept it simple.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But it's a nice, good sized room. And that's like
a full queen size bat over there right, Yeah cool.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I think that's actually king. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Do you like your room? Mm hmm?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And then this is my husband and eyes room.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Wow. I like the views super right, beautiful and spacious.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, I love the windows.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Like I said, there wasn't I need to buy more
like little storage areas.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh guys, gals, look at this view. This is like
huge beautiful picture window. Oh man, that's super nice. And
even though there's traffic there, it's like completely silent. I
don't hear a thing when that truck drives by.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Wow nice.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then we do have closets in here too. Only
one room has closets, so yeah, it's like I don't
know if I stuffed it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So it's pretty big size.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Right, Yeah, So that's like you're and your husband get
like a full wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And also there's a closet over there, so we kind
of add some storage to that. I'll show you more
like where we put all the storage because they don't
have storage room here, so it's another area for like clothes.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So it's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
The Bahama shirt's going yes. Another bathroom, Oh, another bathroom.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Nothing fancy, guys, nothing fancy. And then my kids have
this on the ground here.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, so classic classic Vietnamese.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So yeah, me style.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Do you see that there was a where the shower
had This was new to me when I the showers
right in the middle of the washroom.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, totally. Every bathroom just like has a
shower like floating right beside the toilet. That is like
total standard practice. I'm so impressed though, like these beautiful
flowers and greens like this, This tree is like in
full Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, you can go outside there too.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm not going to because it's so nice. And
air conditioning here and there for it's nice here. It's
like really open little apartment building a house across the street.
Yeah cool.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And then the next room, Valentina. Shouldn't you be doing
some homeschooling? Oh okay, finish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Okay, so there's another washroom here, nothing fancy again.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, so third story, we've now seen three bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Same concept, very basic.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And then this was supposed to be another room, but
we've made it into like a.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Homeschool learning room.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
My office here too, and yeah, we lacked the bed
because it's too heavy to move.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So if they want to relax and relax in this
learning room.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I had a similar setup where I like took apart
a bed like this for my office. Yeah. It was
probably a bad idea, but it was like it was
great once it was gone. But I don't think I'm
ever getting a back.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, like he he was like, I'm like, can we
take it out? He's like, no, that's too much work.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah. Nice, this is the setup where the magic happens
from my YouTube channel. I like the flower too that came.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
With the house.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's nice, all right, And then you go up here
a little bit, and this is like our gym room.
This is week most enemies say the prayer room.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You pack up your whole room.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So this is where we put the storage because we
have nowhere else to put storage, right and vi Ennemis
homes they don't have storage rooms, so we had to
make a room for it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So that's room for it.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
This is our gym nice. This is cool. So okay,
let me do the count. Though. You got one, two,
three bathrooms, and like four bedrooms, right.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Three bedrooms, and this is like, yeah, I guess you
can call this a half because this could be its
own bedroom, but.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
One hundred percent like you could easily have like especially
they're bigger. Like one of the girls have a bedroom
right here, the other one have a bedroom right there,
and then you guys have your bedroom, the master an
office down stairs. Yeah, it's cool, so.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
This could be another bedroom, but we made it into
a play gym room.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Cool. Okay, so let's let's go back. Maybe you want
to go back to us in better light. And then
we'll do the breakdown the cost breakdowns all right.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
This episode of the Cost Living a broad pod is
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(09:43):
ESM twenty million BNDA, Yeah, twenty million n DA. How
did you find it? Was the negotiation?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Like Okay, So at the time, it was around March,
we're looking for a home and before that we're like
looking for new homes.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But it was really.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Hard because I feel like there was a lot of
competition and the market just went up.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I don't know why the market went up.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I think that's just busy time that a lot of
tourist people are coming.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So whenever we wanted to.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Go see a house, it was actually like if we
say we're going to come like the next day, they'd
be like, oh, it's already done, Like we already sealed
a deal, like after like a couple hours when we
asked to come see the house.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
So you're looking in like high season.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I think that's high season.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like winter March, because I think it's cooler and people
like to come around that time. Anyways, we were like
looking for homes and it just took so long to
get a home. So we actually knew a friend that
she was leaving back to England and she actually lived
at this house and she said she could talk to
her landlord and maybe we can take over the house here,
(10:48):
and that's how we found this house.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Nice. So friend of a friend. That's so classic. I
always tell people to like, come find some quick solution
and then take your time finding a long term place
because when you get to know other x, to get
to know people, you can find real deals. So what's
the budget for the rest of the place. What are
the electric utilities?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Obviously I just got the bill right now, I can
tell you right now, so the month of June, but
you got to know, like we were using AC like NonStop,
like right now, it was like four point one mill so.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
One hundred and sixty US dollars. Yeah, big, but it's
a big house. I mean. The flip side of two
is that it's so hot right now for watching like
this is peak. That's gonna be the biggest ability July
and June.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Right, Yes, that's probably going to be one of the
biggest bills out of the whole year.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's usually lower. I believe it's probably a lot lower.
I can't remember. I can ask John want me SciAm
his name okay.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Okay, And then Internet, we're paying three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Dong do you want to dollars?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You ask?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay, in water and it's just water in May.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So I've been thinking we were paying water from last
month before that, which was one twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Four five dollars for water.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I remembered garbage color garbage collection was thirty thousand.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
One dollar. Yeah's yeah, correct.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then yeah, that was it. We have to pave
to the landlord.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Okay, So you're that's all all in. That's even at
the peak like ac hot season. You're still under one
thousand dollars all in for massive house with three and
a half or four bedrooms and three bathrooms in a
big open space living area, a yard out front too.
That's pretty sweet man.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And for the people watching, we didn't We're not going
to reveal exactly where this is. But this is in
Nantum too. This is in the supposed area where it
is busier. It is harder to find places. According to
the Internet.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The one across the street of our house is I think.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
That's seventy mil.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The big bill over there.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
They just renovated it and it's seventy mil.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay, let's get in the peak.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So this massive villa, huge shoe.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I think it's a three bedroom only, but there's a pool.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
There's a big pool, and you see by the footprint
it's got to be like that looks like it's like,
I don't know, five or six thousand square feet and.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
No one was in there for like last month or
two and then they just recently renovated it, and like
we saw them posting it for seventy email.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So that's a little under three thousand years dollars for
an enormous villa. Cool. So let's talk a little bit
about your adjustment to DNA and like, why are you
leaving Canada for d nay? How long have you been
living in here now?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So it's almost two years now in September.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Why we left, I mean Canada?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, lots of reasons.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Do we have to get into it, okay, if you
must need to know, there's just a lot of things
changing in Canada.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
One of the biggest reasons is the cost of the living.
It was rising really high. It's so high.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I didn't see a future for my kids there anymore,
just because it was just getting too expensive and not
having enough jobs. And opportunities there anymore, if that makes
sense totally.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And you sold a house.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh yeah, we we we were actually building a home there,
and then once we got it built, we bought a home,
and then after two three months.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We sold it because we decided to not keep our.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
House and the rising intest rates and like all that.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, so there was rising interest rates. Once we got
the house. The interest rate was probably at like, I'm
going to say six seven percent at the time, and
my husband said it just didn't make sense because we
would have to.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Our lifestyle will be a bit different then.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So what's your all in cost of living here? If
you're you're housing and everything is about a thousand bucks,
what's your all in monthly expenditure?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I can I think our budget was around three thousand.
We tried to stick to to No, yeah, it's about
three thousand.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I guess if we're.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Overspending, okay, five hundred dollars a person plus one thousand
dollars for the house. What would that be like back home?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Oh my gosh, if we were to live like exactly
the same in back home, it will probably be over
ten million, I mean, not too many, ten thousand dollars
to live in that house and do whatever we wanted
to do the same thing as here.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I believe it's.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Gonna be ten thousand because our house is already to
live in our home, and Canada was already about I
believe it was seven thousand already.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Maybe more. Yeah, I think it would be hard to
You wouldn't be able to do whatever you want for
three thousand dollars for four people. Yeah, so yeah, three
to four times that's what I guess. I mean now
signed some things when I look at Toronto and like
it'd be five times as much.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I think it's a lot more now.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I remember my husband said when he went back to Canada,
a bowl of fuh at a nicer place was like
twenty five dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
For a bull of fuh Wow, twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And what's a bowl of pho costs here?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I believe it's I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It depends on places like fifty thousand dong or dollars
two dollars.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So that's one of the things I find interesting is
that it's hard to like really measure certain things because
it's like, what do you say about something it's twelve
and a half times expensive, but it is right. Like
when I went home as a while went out twenty
twenty two, I remember having a diner breakfast where I'd
like really playing French toast, like wonderbread, French shast. We're
not having a fancy food here, right, yeah, with like
(16:17):
three pieces of bacon and a black coffee and it
was like twenty two dollars plus tax and tip, just
my old neighborhood rots as well as West End Toronto
now purely Jack.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I forgot there's tip too.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So what are your long term plans for Dnang? And
like the girls like how long do you guys want
to live in Vietnam? And you what are you thinking
big picture?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I really think we don't know right now. I feel
like we're just living year by year. I think every
year will assess what we really want and this is
what we really want. I think last year I was
actually playing and leave Dunning just because I guess I
was homesick and I wanted to find somewhere more modernized.
(17:00):
I'm not saying that it's not modern here, but it's
not as same as Canada.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But my husband's like, let's try it one more year
to see how you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And this year I feel a bit better, and I
think it's because I found a better community, have more
friends Evan, So yeah, like, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Think that's just really important.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So right now I feel comfortable that we might even
just call this our home base for now, and if
things do change, then we can go somewhere else. But
right now, I think for the next five years we
might be even here.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
How do local people treat you?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Like?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
How have you felt integrating to you? Or your husband
speak viat.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So my husband, he's Vietnamese, so he's able to speak
via to other locals. We met a local through the
homeschool community and he introduced us to other locals around
the area. And it's been good because some of them
actually know how to speak English too, so it was nice.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But sorry, I lost my train of thought what we
were talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Treat you are?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I feel like they're very kind.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
A lot of the local has been really nice, even
if it's Uh people that we go see and get food,
they're very nice. And some of them, they if you
don't know English, they'll like, I mean Vietnamese. I can
just show them, like translate something and they will be
very kind to me.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So yeah, there's no issues with that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
What do you think What are some of the biggest
myths or stereotypes or misconceptions about Vietnam and life in Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I feel, let me think that it's like still old
old school.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I guess there's certain places that are still like still developing,
but there's a lot of areas that are still it's
been developed and modernized. But yeah, it's still growing. And
I don't know what else do they say. I don't
know that's really poor here, and I know there are
poorer areas still too, But I feel like it is
(18:57):
growing and the economy is growing here.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah. One of the things that bugs me the most
is when people complain about like, oh, it's if you're
you're going to ruin it. It's not going to be
cheap anymore. It's like, if the economy is growing, that's
a good thing. Yes, right, it's good for both expats
living here, if we're starting businesses or hiring local people,
were working with local people, it's good for local businesses.
It's good for Vietnam in general. Because the starting point
(19:24):
was like the GDP is so small per person, right.
One of the reasons why it's so like the fastest
growing or whatever is that it started so low. So
do you feel, like, say, do you ever feel like
do you feel safe? Do you feel comfortable living around this?
Do you think there's a lot of poverty? Like how
does that affect you?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
There's certain parts that I could see that really I just.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Want to help out anyways at the end, like we
I feel like I lived in like Canada, So I
don't know if it's wrong to say, like I feel
privileged that I got to go to school and like
learn certain things speaking English and all that.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So seeing even like the.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
More poor poor areas, it's more like how can I
help them? And like you were just saying, like I
don't like when people say I'm coming here and I'm
ruining for locals, because I'm actually working with a lot
of locals. Like I have an editor, he's a loco,
and like even like am I I'm going to build
a team here and they're gonna be locals and so
(20:27):
I'm gonna help them.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
And that's going to help the locals. They get to
buy things, they get to grow their wealth and all that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
So yes, I don't know, like I don't think the
property has affected me. I feel like it's more like,
how can I help them?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
If that makes sense?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, totally. I mean I have three to I have
one full time employee, three to four contractors I work with,
and on top of that, all the like literal business
that just comes here because of their promotion. And it's
not paid promotion, right, It's like not like Touris in
Vietnam is paying you or Iron knows to do this. Yeah, yeah,
we're literally offering free promotion. So I feel like there's
a there's a given take about that. What are the negatives? Like,
(21:04):
there's got to be some real drawback.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I really want to have a stable home.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I just want to stay somewhere and live there and
put all my stuff there and not have to worry
about it because if I say this is gonna be
my home base, I want to have a home that
I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I guess this is normal to have mold. I can't.
I don't know how to deal with mold yet.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So when we left for rain season, every some of
our stuff got moldy. But I guess there's ways around
it that you can get people to come in.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
To air out the house. But I heard that if
your house gets too old, they just smash it up.
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Like if a house gets really old, they're not going
to renovate, They're gonna smash the whole thing up.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, for sure, they're just going to do a tear
down and build it again.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
So I just don't I don't get that, and like
I want a house that I could just not have
to do that, because that means that if I do that,
maybe I have to keep it in mind in five
to ten years, this house is going to be smashed
up and then I have to move out my stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So I'm not used to that kind of lifestyle. If
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, for sure, there's not. There isn't a lot like
a culture of like maintenance, right, Like things are just
made used and then get rid of them. What's some
advice you'd give for someone moving to Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Make sure you have some savings, make sure you have income.
I would say you still have to have some income.
Just be prepared to be open to like different lifestyle.
I guess how do I explain that, Like, you can't
be like, oh, it has to be like this in Canada.
I've seen a lot of people like from America that
(22:34):
come here and they're kind of I don't know what
the word is.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I'm trying to say a nice.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Snobby about the fact that they can't speak English. Don't
get mad at people if they can't speak English.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Just be open to the culture.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Future holds for Jnang. What do you think it's going
to be like in five years or ten years.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I feel like Danang is going to grow.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I think it might am I get crowded too, So
we'll see from there if we even want to stay
or not, because we like a smaller town. Because I
do hear that a lot of Hanoi and Hutcheman locals
are even coming to move here. So I feel like
Dnnang's going to grow. But there's for that. There's opportunities
(23:15):
for businesses and to grow your wealth here if you
start like looking into.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It now, I believe.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, our landlord just sold the house and she's Hanoian
and she sold it site unseen to another Hanoian and
he bought it for his Hannoian daughter to move into
and live here. And it's because she's she's coming down
here for a job with a big hotel chain. This
is like high paying jobs. I'm not talking about Yeah,
we're talking about someone buying a four hundred thousand dollars
(23:42):
US house sight und scene for their kid. Yeah, and
their kids coming down for sure to you know, work
at a big hotel chain and make six figures, right.
We're not talking about like someone's gonna be a waitress.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, So that's kind of crazy right to hear that
right now, because I think it's happening right now, and
I think that's why the home prices were going high
and the rentals and all that. So we see it
happening right now. We'll just kind of like play it
out and see what happens in Danang. But I do
believe it's going to grow a lot bigger and it's
going to be a bit crowded soon too.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
How have you adjusted to a life where you don't
have a day job anymore.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I feel like it's been a while because I've been
a homeschool mom, even in Canada, was a homeschool mom,
so I wasn't actively working. I was learning about finances
and my husband was working most of the time. But
getting into YouTube here, it's I like it because.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
I feel more relaxed.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I feel like I don't feel the pressure of having
to make it work right away, like I can take
time to work on it and grow it. Yeah, so
there's no pressure of making the money because everything's so affordable.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Here, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
And you got your primary income stream is from investment
from house sale.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Right, Yeah, so our primary income is from our investments
from our home and some of my husband's trading and yeah,
there's just a bunch of stuff. And he still does
some remote work and yeah, and then some for me.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Right now, you know, how did you make the leap?
Like how did you get unstuck?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I think that's when I was trying to figure it out.
I was talking to my husband the other day, like
how did I figure it out? How can I help
others understand how to get over that leap? And I
just feel like, I think you just have to take
that risk. Sometimes people don't like taking a risk. I
feel like, and you take that risk to try it
one time, Like just take if you can't leave your job,
take a two week's vacation and go to Vietnam or
(25:41):
wherever you want to live and try it out and
you can see, like how the life cells there and
if you can envision yourself being there, And I think
what helped us was when we had the opportunity to
rebuild another home. We said we weren't going to live
in any home for a year, so we were just
traveling for a year and we realized we could live
(26:02):
like this. And I guess when we went to Florida for.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
A couple months, my husband realized he could actually.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Remote work from there, and that made it happen. We're like, okay,
and may just think bigger. So I think you got
to take small steps out a time.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And then yeah, I like that some baby steps. People
think it's all or nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Sometimes, yeah, it's not.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Just go somewhere and stay there for like a week
or two and see how it feels like. And if
you see your life could be great there. Then find
a way to make money. Find online work. There's so
many online work right now.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And you can create your own job. I don't know.
That's what I believe that you can. You can create
your own opportunities.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
How is that process on I mean you do Instagram
and vertical stuff too, but how has that process been
for you? On YouTube? Like this idea of creating your
own job or your own.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Income, I had to invest a little bit money into
it to get it going.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
However, you could do.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
It on your own if you wanted to, but if
you want to go faster, invest a little bit if
you have some money on the side to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But it's been awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I feel like I feel like anything that you think
of you can make an opportunity of. Just I feel
like everyone always talks about what they want and they
never just go for it. I don't know how to
explain it, because Okay, there's someone was talking about at
our homeschool community and she was like, I really want
Oh homeschooling communities are not the same from back home,
(27:28):
and I'm like, what's so different? And she was like, oh,
they have this kind of event. I'm like, you can
create this event here, Like why not? And like I
wanted to meet other YouTubers, So what do I do?
Create a community and work a networking community meet up
and that's how I met a bunch of YouTubers. So
same thing with YouTube. We want a YouTube. There's so
many resources on YouTube and online that you can find
(27:52):
how to get started. Just make it happen. I don't know, Like,
whatever you think of you're really good at. Just do
it find work online. There's apps that you can find
freelancing work, and there's upwork apps that you can go on. Yeah,
so I don't know if that makes sense or not.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This episode of the Costs of Living a broad pod
was brought to you by Arlow, the world's first e
SIM store. Use my code Evan at checkout to get
three dollars off your first eSIM, Scan the QR code
on screen, or just hit the link in the description
to download the Erlow app. Today, I'm having a take
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