Entrepreneur Expat

Moving to Mexico Checklist 2025

• Justin Keltner

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Interested in Moving to Mexico? Send us a text with your best email and we'll get you started with a Moving to Mexico Consult.

👉 Want to learn how to make money online so you can go anywhere in the world? If so, download our free Make Money From Anywhere Guide here https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/money-guide


👉 Ready to start your own location independent business? Get started with our Get Your First High Paying Client Online Bootcamp: https://entrepreneurexpat.com/firstclient-yt


👉 Want to learn how to move to Mexico in the next 12 months? If so, click here https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/mexico


👉 Want personalized attention to help you grow your online business? If so, click here https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/call


👉 Need help with relocating to Mexico? We have a network of attorneys, accountants, real estate professionals and more. Book a relocation consultation here: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/relocation


V I D E O S    T O    W A T C H    N E X T :



Online Business Tips to Working and Traveling In Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGH0voCyOc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j&index=2


Moving to Mexico: 10 Reasons Why We Chose to Live in Guadalajara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK23vD8_xjc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_LAY7UV78YMgms-f2e1UcwN&index=23


Tips for Moving Overseas: Top 5 Remote Work Skills That Make Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzjCrlNAL8&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j



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Inquiries: community@entrepreneurexpat.com



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Justin Keltner:

We recently had

Amanda Abella:

a client in our effortless revenue mastermind that came to us to solve a very pressing problem.

Justin Keltner:

They had moved to Mexico with absolutely no plan in place

Amanda Abella:

for how to actually make money

Justin Keltner:

and structure their life for a move

Amanda Abella:

abroad. In fact, they

Justin Keltner:

thought

Amanda Abella:

they could keep their job in the

Justin Keltner:

United States,

Amanda Abella:

but it turns out

Justin Keltner:

they couldn't work that job

Amanda Abella:

in Mexico. So it caused quite

Justin Keltner:

a

Amanda Abella:

big crisis for them

Justin Keltner:

and their family.

Amanda Abella:

In this episode, we're going to outline the seven most important things that you need to handle if you plan on moving to Mexico in 2025 And the last one is something that most people don't even think about and don't even know that they need to plan for

Justin Keltner:

Welcome to Entrepreneur Expat, your go to channel for navigating location independent living and building a business abroad. If you're interested in figuring out how

Amanda Abella:

leverage

Justin Keltner:

global opportunities to make money and travel the world, make sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you don't miss a single update. And if you're interested in moving to Mexico specifically, check out our moving to Mexico guide right below this video.

Amanda Abella:

All right, guys. So here is our checklist. If you want to move to Mexico in 2025, the first step is you need to check out from the United States and anything that goes on there. Now, the reason why we say United States is because we are from the United States. You could be Canadian, Western European. It doesn't, it doesn't really matter. Insert your country here.

Justin Keltner:

Same thing applies.

Amanda Abella:

Same thing applies. And what I mean by that is kind of mentally and energetically. We check out in terms of like, stop being so involved in all the craziness that goes on there. And that starts on the inside first. And when you establish that on the inside, then you are more easily able to do all the other things that are on this list because you just don't feel that much of an attachment anymore. So what would you say to someone who's trying to do that? Because we've gotten this question in the comments before where they're, for example, just hooked on the U S news cycle, and then they get a little addicted to it.

Justin Keltner:

The thing is number one most importantly You are not

Amanda Abella:

tied

Justin Keltner:

to the country that you were born in. A lot of the, you know, I pledge allegiance and nationalism and all these different things which are not just part of the U. S. culture, but part of many countries around the world. In the U. S. I feel like it's almost

Amanda Abella:

a little extra a

Justin Keltner:

like a little excessive

Amanda Abella:

they're

Justin Keltner:

it's like, I'm American and America is the best country. By the way, fun, fun fact, uh, South Americans and Mexicans, Most of the time also consider themselves American. So the fact that you're saying that you're an American, other than to just somebody in your own country,

Amanda Abella:

Throws them for a loop.

Justin Keltner:

they're not even throws them for a loop. People will sometimes look at you and just be like, no, I'm American too. You're American. I'm American. Like we're all American. That's

Amanda Abella:

That's also a language barrier thing though. Because in English you say, in Spanish you say Estadounidense, but like that literally does not exist in English. I'm

Justin Keltner:

A United States.

Amanda Abella:

I'm a United

Justin Keltner:

True.

Amanda Abella:

so. in fairness. Fairness. So

Justin Keltner:

using that as an example of like kind of the ethnocentrism of the U. S. You look at people that are born in the United States, and we still say America because it's technically not America. You have North America, you have South America, the whole thing, the landmass, but I digress.

Amanda Abella:

Um,

Justin Keltner:

You have to disassociate yourself from this like, like just, just, Diehard nationalism and this, this whole idea that you were born here, you're going to die here, you're going to live your entire life here, whatever. Because number one, it does not have to be true, it's not true for the over six million Americans that do live in other countries. And you have a passport that allows you, and if you don't, get one soon, that's another topic, but, uh, you've got a passport or access to a passport that allows you To both visit and easily be able to get residency in so many other countries around the world

Amanda Abella:

for now

Justin Keltner:

for now That you don't have to be tied to the u. s

Amanda Abella:

or canada

Justin Keltner:

It's really important to note that you don't have to be tied there and the other thing about the news cycles and about all these all these Conversations going on that just sort of throw you for a loop. Is it trump? Is it kamala? What's going to happen with the country? Uh getting on one side of the spectrum guys They're just doing this to people pin us against each other. Like, it's, it's all about distracting from the bigger issues and

Amanda Abella:

what they're doing with our tax

Justin Keltner:

Sure, right? And distracting you from the bigger issues so that you focus on the, the battle of the sexes and all these racism things and what's going on with, uh, Different gender ideologies and like so many other things whatever side of the spectrum you're on with any of those issues Frankly, it doesn't matter like it's totally irrelevant A lot of these things are being like just fuel added to the fire by cnn and fox and like everybody Everybody else no matter what side

Amanda Abella:

how they make their money. It's how they make their money It's how they make their money and it's how people stay in power

Justin Keltner:

It's all about the chaos They capitalize on the chaos the fear the uncertainty the doubt and Newsflash. Most of the stuff they say on the news is not actually true. Huh. How about that? Why waste all of your mental energy and time and focus that you could be using to find out what country you want to move to, build a location independent business so that you can actually do that, and then just go enjoy your life. Why use all of that energy to be stuck in the rat race and to be stuck in these mental loops of chaos that they just keep you riding over and over and over again. It's not productive. It doesn't help you. It doesn't move you forward. Get off of that bandwagon. It's not serving you anymore.

Amanda Abella:

Yeah, it's like we say a lot on this channel Like, you know, we'll cover some news topics particularly when it comes to economics mostly because we're nerds and we geek out on it But we can also look at it without getting emotional about it. It's what we tell you guys Just look at how the chessboard is moving and be strategic about it Don't throw all your emotion into it because when you get overly emotional you start making bad decisions You

Justin Keltner:

And like Wayne Gretzky says, you want to always skate to where the puck is going. You don't want to, you don't want to pay attention and just be enthralled and here's what they're saying now. You want to look at the news, if anything, and say, ah, interesting. It's getting really bad for our economy here and A lot of people are leaving for other countries, and the tax situation, and this thing that's going to happen with Trump, and this other thing that the Democrats are doing, whatever it is. Don't look at it and be like, oh, I'm really angry about that right now. Look at it and say, hmm, maybe I should start getting a second passport. Maybe I should start exploring my options.

Amanda Abella:

Yeah, so next one very important because this is the one that trips people up the most Money! You need to have a plan for how you're going to make money because life in Mexico is getting more expensive and not just Mexico because, but all over the world we have worldwide inflation going on right now thanks to a lot of countries printing a lot of money. A few years ago when we had that, that thing going on that affected, uh, all of us but talk a little bit about the money because I, people are shocked. So find out exactly how much money they're actually going to need in other countries.

Justin Keltner:

Absolutely. So to give you an idea as a single You individual that's looking to apply for temporary residence. in 2024. We don't have the numbers yet for 2025, but in 2024, it was a little over 4, 000 USD per month, every single month, not an average, but a minimum for the last six months. I think that the exact number was closer to about 4, 200. And it's going to go up again, by the way, We're not, we're not attorneys. Consult your attorney, your immigration attorney, whatever. This is, we're just sharing our

Amanda Abella:

We can refer you to attorneys We

Justin Keltner:

have good people, but we're just sharing some of the things and some of the numbers that we've seen. It varies from consulate to consulate, but it's going to be between 3, 800 and 4, 500 every single month of income you need. And that's probably going to go up by at least 10%, if not more in 2025. So if you've just got that, that number ideally coming from a business, And you're just at that level where you're like, okay I've got free and clear 4, 000 every month deposited after taxes if you don't apply now, which we're reaching the end of the year now Uh, it's going to be very difficult for you next year unless your job gives you a raise by a significant amount Which they're probably not going to do let's

Amanda Abella:

let's be honest. Anytime soon, at all. Anytime

Justin Keltner:

No with all these layoffs and everything else unless you have that money coming in and then some You're kind of screwed. Like, your plans to go to Mexico are going to be very, very difficult. So, you want to focus on, hey, how do I actually increase that money. And the best way to do that, of course, is to build a location independent business. If you are interested in that, we actually do have several programs where we work with people. Some of them are just like you, or maybe they're coming out of the corporate world, uh, or they've had some type of job for a really long time. They've got a lot of skills. They want to turn that into a business. Some of them are already making six and seven figures. So we have a, a very diverse group and, uh, we coach on all the areas of sales and marketing. that help you build that business and grow it just like we're doing here with YouTube.

Amanda Abella:

Yep If you've had a corporate job where either you were an executive or you were in marketing or you were in sales We want to talk to you because you can easily turn all of that into a location independent business

Justin Keltner:

Because here's the other thing about money and the rules that a lot of these countries are putting into place. This wasn't the case a few years ago, but now Mexico is actually requiring that In almost all of the consulates you go to, you have a signed letter from your boss stating that you can work remotely from Mexico in

Amanda Abella:

job.

Justin Keltner:

Not only that, but those remote jobs are not letting you work overseas anymore. And most jobs, from what we've seen in our research, over 90 percent of those remote jobs have clauses that say that you have to be in the U. S. or in some cases even in a given state. Yeah, it's remote. You can work from home and pay California taxes. And if you decide to go overseas, well, sure you can use a VPN for a few weeks Maybe a few months until they finally catch on and you mess up

Amanda Abella:

That's exactly what happened to that client They thought that they could take their job From the united states over to mexico and it turns out because of the industry that they were in that Regulation would not allow them to actually do that So it happens all the time and people don't realize it's not as easy as oh, I have a remote job Let me pack up my shit and go somewhere else Because Most of these countries and Mexico is not the only one. If, even if you go look at digital nomad visas and all these other countries, they're all requiring contracts from clients or a letter from your employer. They need you to prove that it's actually remote and that you are allowed to work from their country.

Justin Keltner:

Exactly. And so, if you don't already have that or you think you're just going to skate by, with a remote job and lie to them for however long, I mean, you might be able to get away with that, but number one, you're putting your integrity at stake, number two, and perhaps more importantly, you are inevitably going to lose that very, very soon. You can't do that forever. So that's an important thing to know. Number three, you want to get your home team on board. So that's, planning, and if you need to, convincing your spouse, uh, talking to your kids, maybe talking to your parents if, if they want to join you, or like figuring out a way where you can still go to visit regularly and things like that, um, you want to get everybody on, on your home team on board, and also figure out how they're going to move with you. Going back a little bit to the money aspect, you need an extra almost 2, 000. It's about 1, 500 to 2, 000, again, depending on where you go.

Amanda Abella:

dependent.

Justin Keltner:

Per dependent. So if your spouse is a dependent, if your kids are dependent. We've had people, and that 2, 000 or so dollars is extra in addition to that base of around 4, 000 per month. So we've had families of four get told that they need almost 10, And that's in 2024. In 2025, the number will be higher. So they're talking almost six figure salary, uh, just to be able to qualify for temporary residence for yourself and your entire family.

Amanda Abella:

family.

Justin Keltner:

There are other ways around it, like maybe one of the, one of the, uh, parents getting their residency first and then everybody else coming under a tourist visa and then being, being able to do like a family reunification type of, uh, type of situation with

Amanda Abella:

also the regular regularization program But you would technically need to be in mexico illegally in order to do that

Justin Keltner:

we didn't

Amanda Abella:

want to do which we didn't want to do that's number one and number two Not all attorneys are willing to do that number three Not all cities are willing to do that and number four Number four we we're pretty sure that they're not going to let that go on forever and that it's seeing its last days so

Justin Keltner:

figure out all of the numbers for your family as well. And then what are some of the other things that they need to do with their family? What are some of the things that you've heard?

Amanda Abella:

I think we should talk about getting your spouse on board, uh, because this is so important and we get emails and comments about this all the time. So I think what you need to do is you need to figure out what your spouse values and then present evidence to them based on. So, for example, with me, it was pretty easy because I'm a very practical thinker, so he just had to show me numbers. You wanted me to move to Miami first. I did. I did. You're

Justin Keltner:

like, no Why don't you just come here and live

Amanda Abella:

Miami? I did. Yeah, I did because I was like didn't want to leave my family. I

Justin Keltner:

was already living in Mexico I was already here in Guadalajara, and she was back in Miami

Amanda Abella:

Yeah when we met but um, but I didn't want to leave my family Which I know is something that a lot of you are concerned with as well. So I'll get to that as well But you know at least in terms of your spouse find out what they value and then present the evidence So I know you

Justin Keltner:

should already know what they value

Amanda Abella:

Well, I'm saying what they value in terms of the move, right? So for example, with me, it was pretty simple, right? You were just like, look at the numbers. Or if I'm trying to persuade you, for example, to, uh, do something in the business like YouTube, I'll use YouTube as an example. Right? I was like, Hey, I think we should really start a YouTube channel, like answering all these questions that we're getting. And you're like, what do you mean? It's a waste of time, whatever. And I was like, Hmm, he's a very analytical thinker. So I was like, why don't we just try it for like X amount of time? And then let's look at what the data presents. And then I have the data and he saw the data and how much money it had made us and how much business it had brought us and how much visibility had gotten us. And he was convinced. So there was no more convincing after that. So you need to figure out. How it works for your spouse, right? And you know, your spouse, are they more of a community oriented, like kind of people person that you need to present the argument from that angle? Are they super analytical like you, then you need to present the argument for that, from that angle. I'm what's considered a stabilizer in like this disc assessment that we took. It's a personality test. So he needs to present to me how it's not going to like disrupt my whole life. And then I'm on board. So I hope that helps. Those of you who are in that position where you're like trying to get your spouse on board and I think for others of you who are not married yet because we've heard this a lot is uh, you might have to dump them for those of you who are not married yet. Just, just, just being honest, because one of those things of like, where are we going to live? It's kind of important. And it's something maybe

Justin Keltner:

you should have figured out also before you get into a serious relationship Like yeah, like for

Amanda Abella:

for

Justin Keltner:

guys or gals out there

Amanda Abella:

are,

Justin Keltner:

are dating I mean if you're in that world now, and you're still maybe wanting to to leave the u. s But you haven't yet maybe ask potential partners like hey, would you ever be interested? Have you ever thought about living overseas or have you have you ever lived overseas and that can be simply one of your criteria You Although I don't really recommend dating in the West because it sucks, but

Amanda Abella:

we have another video on that Uh, but yeah, so, you know for those of you who are married, you know Find out how to negotiate this and present your point based on what is important to your spouse And that that's a life hack period for anything that you're trying to do with your spouse Those of you who are dating and they're just like not on board no matter what Gotta go and I think we're

Justin Keltner:

gonna do a video on all of that like how to how to talk to your spouse about moving abroad I think we're gonna actually do an interview with a top 1 percent Relationship and marriage counselor

Amanda Abella:

on that

Justin Keltner:

topic because I know she's gonna have some really interesting insights to share So we're gonna link that video here

Amanda Abella:

As soon as we have it as well. Yeah, as soon as we're able to do that because we're heading into the holidays Okay kids, right? A lot of people are concerned about their kids. Can I move my kid to another country? Will they be okay? If you've seen a lot of the interviews that we've done on entrepreneur expat and there's more coming Uh, we've interviewed a lot of people people with children, some of them very small children, who decided to move to other countries or travel full time. And they've all told us the same thing, which is that their kids are now thriving. So other countries have great schools. Let's also, uh, kind of state the obvious. When your kids go to school in another country, you don't have to worry about whether or not they are going to come back. If you catch my drift, uh, you don't have to worry about that. In other countries like you do in the united states. You can also always homeschool Uh, if you're from the united states, you can homeschool I know that if you're from some other countries like germany, you cannot homeschool. It's actually illegal I learned that from interviewing. I think that might

Justin Keltner:

only be if you're living I don't think they can really police. I don't know,

Amanda Abella:

but I, but I learned that from one of the ones that we interviewed that in Germany, homeschooling is actually illegal. I learned that from one of the parents that we interviewed, but if you're from the United States, you can homeschool. There's no problem with it whatsoever. A lot of these parents mentioned something called world school, which is like an online homeschooling program. school program. There's also international schools in other countries. Your kids will probably grow up to be bilingual or trilingual if you take them to other countries, which then opens up their whole world and their job prospects and what they're able to do in life. Not only that, but they're going to have,

Justin Keltner:

if you have let's say you do have kids here or you do Uh, emigrate to another country, those kids potentially will be able to get a second passport in that

Amanda Abella:

Bingo! So

Justin Keltner:

that's a really, a really big advantage as well.

Amanda Abella:

Yeah. I mean, we've also interviewed kids who were moved to Mexico from the United States and they freaking love it here. So because they get to like actually be a kid here and play around and have a good time. Um, you know, some things were a little bit challenging here and there while they're learning another language, but other than that, they're having a really good time. And then finally, if you have elderly parents, uh, we both have parents that are older, there's more people who are moving their parents to Mexico or Latin America or Southeast Asia or whatever country that they're in because of the caregiving, um, is cheaper in those countries. And. It is what it is. Uh, we interviewed someone on the channel. It'll come out She didn't leave the united states because she had she'd gone through a divorce Her children were still minors. The father would not sign off on them leaving the country. That's a whole other thing um So she's in puerto rico But even but what was happening was her mother was getting sick and that was one of the reasons why she moved her and her mother to Puerto Rico because the cost of caregiving was less in Puerto Rico. It'll be even less in Mexico than in Puerto Rico. So that is an option. You can actually, depending on the situation, more people are moving their elderly parents to other countries because it's easier to caregive for them in other countries. So figure out what that plan is and what that looks like.

Justin Keltner:

Number four, research. You want to do some homework, some due diligence, and figure out where it is in Mexico that you want to live. Mexico is a huge country, and contrary to popular belief in many places in the West, it's not just some massive desert with tumbleweeds rolling across the

Amanda Abella:

beach resorts or

Justin Keltner:

beach resorts. It's like Cancun and you're in the middle of the desert. No, that's not really how it works. There are cities, there are jungles, uh, tropical jungles, there are beaches, there are different kinds of beaches, exactly. Any kind of climate, uh, it snows here, too. We have like, uh, something very similar to the Sierra. I think it is maybe a continuation of the Sierra Nevada, like a big mountain range that goes Sierra Madre. Sierra Madre, yeah. Um, but it's very similar to

Amanda Abella:

Sierras

Justin Keltner:

in the U. S. That's where it comes from. You go up there, it snows, I think they might even have skiing, like, it's not just desert and beach towns here. So there's any kind of climate, city, town, whatever you can imagine, we pretty much have it here. Whether you're about the big city vibe,

Amanda Abella:

Amanda is. We like the cities in Mexico.

Justin Keltner:

fan of the cities here as well. I like beaches a lot. I mean, I grew up in California. I like the beach, but I don't necessarily want to live right on the beach with the heat and humidity and all the tourists and all the chaos and the frenetic energy of the city to me. Uh, actually seems more calm in a lot

Amanda Abella:

ways. Right, Guadalajara seems more calm than Mexican beaches.

Justin Keltner:

Absolutely, but there are, there are like really nice, uh, small beach towns as well. Or if you want to be in a big beach city, like Miami, you can go to Playa del Carmen. You can go to Cancun. There's like so many places, but

Amanda Abella:

If you need a connection to a very well connected airport, Mexico City is probably the place for you. A lot of people choose Mexico City because they can go to anywhere in the world. Cool. From that airport. We do have another video about the best places for expats in Mexico. So we will make sure to leave that below because as Justin mentioned, there's something for everyone in Mexico and people don't realize what a big country. This actually is.

Justin Keltner:

Yep, so get your boots on the ground come down here visit Even if it's for a few weeks a month two months six months now, of course having a location independent business Which we'll teach you how to do when you book call down below our location independent business strategy session We'll show you how to actually have the freedom Through a location independent business to be able to take two weeks off and not have all of your vacation days gone, or to be able to maybe come down here with your family for three or four months and travel around and figure out where you actually like. You can do that when you're not working for somebody else and on their schedule. So make sure to book that call below and we'll show you all the ins and outs of getting that location independent freedom that you're looking for so that you can start actually scouting these different areas in Mexico and finding your place to

Amanda Abella:

live. The next one is housing because it works a little bit differently here than in the united states Uh mexico, I mean it does have an mls, but it doesn't it doesn't really

Justin Keltner:

There's no like national system that has a list of all of the houses available for sale and sold and everything else like you, like you have in the U S there are some cities that do have MLS

Amanda Abella:

Now we have access to an MLS and we have real estate contacts who have access to even more listings than we do. So we can help you with that. But typically, uh, with places like Mexico, you kind of need like Boots on the ground because even if you do have some sort of online system, it's probably outdated and the place was probably sold two years ago and they just haven't updated the website. We have a whole other video that talks about how to find housing in Mexico. So we will make sure to leave that for you as well. And the update from that video is that now we have contacts in real estate. So if you are looking for either an investment property in Mexico, or you are looking to, uh, find your primary residence. We have contacts that can help you do that a lot more easily. So make sure to book a call with us below if that's one of the things that you are interested

Justin Keltner:

Now, let's talk about the paperwork and everything that you need to get sorted out so that you can be in Mexico legally and stay here long term. Now, of course, we've heard and we have friends that have done things like, Oh, I'll just come in every six months, get a new tourist visa, fly out. Stay for a day in the U. S. Come back to Mexico.

Amanda Abella:

cracking down on that! They

Justin Keltner:

are and in addition it limits your ability to get things like cell phone service, like internet service in your rental property, bank accounts, insurance, so many different things are limited if you're just here on a tourist visa. So you really do want to go through the process of getting legal residence. If

Amanda Abella:

have,

Justin Keltner:

if you plan on staying here for an extended period of period of time, uh, even if you're just staying for more than six months, it's probably better to have that, uh, temporary residence. By the way, the cool thing about temporary residence in Mexico is that you don't actually need to be here for any specific period of time to maintain that. Now, if you do later want to go and turn that into a Mexican passport because you'd like to have a second citizenship, then they do have some requirements for actually being in the country for a certain period of time, uh, before that happens. So you've got to have like a majority of the last two years before you apply for a passport, but that's like way later down the line. If you're just like, Hey, I want to, I want to hedge. Uh, my situation in terms of location independence, I want to have a second residency so that I can, in this four year period of time, I can go, go to Mexico whenever I want. Then you just want to apply for that temporary residence. And like we've mentioned above and in other videos, typically those numbers are going to be at a bare minimum. You're going to be making about 4, 000 per month. That's cash, free and clear, deposited into your personal account. Uh your personal bank account very important to note So if you've got that or if you've got a couple hundred thousand dollars usd Of savings or investment accounts that you can show the consulate then you can also get residence

Amanda Abella:

And we have other videos that talk specifically about those numbers So we'll make sure to leave those below and then the final thing which unfortunately most americans don't realize until they actually go overseas Which is why we're bringing it up now taxes So, taxes as an American is a little bit complicated when you are living in other countries because the United States has what's called citizenship based taxation. It means And

Justin Keltner:

they're one of two countries in the world. It's only the U. S. and Eritrea

Amanda Abella:

Eritrea. Eritrea. Yeah, something like that. That tax

Justin Keltner:

people on worldwide income.

Amanda Abella:

So, uh, the United States also has a lot of financial regulation that they impose on other countries. So basically what that means is you're paying tax no matter where you are. Now you do have a tax credit. You're reporting tax. You're reporting tax no matter where you're living. You run the risk of double taxation depending on the country that you're in, but then there's countries with tax treaties so that doesn't happen. It's a little bit of a complicated mess. You have to report all your bank accounts and all your assets that are in other countries If

Justin Keltner:

they're above a certain

Amanda Abella:

if they're above a certain amount to the u. s Government, uh, there are tax credits that you can take advantage of mostly if you just run your own business though So that's really important why you would need to run your own business. Otherwise you know you're living in another country, but on paper you're still in california and paying those california

Justin Keltner:

I'll give you guys an example of that. Like if, if we just do the math and say on a hundred thousand dollars of Let's take a look here on 100, 000 of gross income in California. Let's, let's just do, do a quick, uh, some quick math So on a hundred thousand dollars of gross income, if you're in California, you're paying 13, 841 in just federal income tax. Now right off the bat you can save most or all of that if you are making the same amount of money in your own Business and living overseas by taking advantage of something called the foreign earned income exclusion now We're not lawyers or accountants or anything like

Amanda Abella:

but we're connected to a lot of them We are we can help you.

Justin Keltner:

Absolutely. You definitely want to consult your accountant for this but right off the bat if you're making a hundred K gross You can save up to 14, 000 just in those federal income taxes by moving to another country, having your own location, independent business, which we can help you do on that call below this video and taking advantage of that foreign earned income exclusion. Like we do. almost always do. In addition to that, nearly 14, 000 of federal income tax. If you're in California or another high tax state, you're paying another 5, 400 a year of state taxes. So in total, that's how much is that? 14, almost 20, 000 of total tax that you're paying between California and the federal level. You would save almost all of that if you just formed your own location, independent business and moved overseas. By the way, 20, 000 more than pays for our rent for the entire year here in Guadalajara in a three story house, to give you an idea.

Amanda Abella:

It's way more. So forget about

Justin Keltner:

just the cost of living savings. But you're going to be saving all of that money on taxes. So if you play your cards right, if you de domicile yourself before leaving from a high state tax state to a no state tax state like Texas or Florida or other states before you leave the country, Then you can save yourself those federal and state taxes, but it's important to consult a professional for that We can definitely connect you with one if you've got questions. Let us know in the comments

Amanda Abella:

Well, that goes back to them needing a location independent business, because first you have to do domicile yourself from a state with state income tax. Well, how are you going to do that?

Justin Keltner:

You can do that if you have a job.

Amanda Abella:

You can't do that if you have a job. So that's one of the reasons why it's so important to get that location independent business. So you can really take advantage of a lot of the, a lot of the tax incentives and really set yourself up properly in order to take advantage of those tax incentives. And then you can use all that extra cashflow. To build wealth to get investment properties to, uh, invest more in the stock, whatever the hell your deal is, you can have the extra cash, invest more in your business, buy businesses. Cause that's what you want to do by businesses. You have all this extra cash flow now available to you by taking advantage of these tax incentives. I just want to make one note about the accountants because the system is a little challenging or complicated for Americans who live overseas, sometimes it can be challenging to find an accountant who will even work with expats. So that's one of the things that we can help you with is we already have a network that we've been talking to and we've been very specific about, do you work with expats? And if the answer is no, then obviously we don't recommend them. to Anybody so we've already done a lot of that due diligence for you So we can refer you out because in our experience it was a little challenging to find accountants who are willing to do that just because the u. s tax system is Complicated for lack of a better term in comparison to other countries

Justin Keltner:

So that is the seven step checklist for everything that you need to do to move to Mexico. Now there's probably other things that you're going to find, but those are the general categories that we found people ask about the most, and a lot of the areas where people might find themselves in trouble, just like the taxes, if they don't get them right. Make sure that you like this video. It helps us out a lot and our mission of reaching a million entrepreneur expats and aspiring expats Subscribe and hit

Amanda Abella:

notification

Justin Keltner:

bell so that you don't miss another video because we've got a lot of content coming out every single week and Book your location independent business strategy session below or check out that moving to Mexico guide Down below this video you're gonna love it and we're gonna see you again very soon

Amanda Abella:

We also now have if you're interested in relocation, you can book another call with us It's just uh entrepreneur expat. com forward slash relocation. You will see it below That's for those of you who are very specific You already meet all the income requirements that mexico is asking for and maybe you're more interested in real estate We'll see you Or a full on relocation or relocation tours or you need attorneys accountants things like that Make sure to use that link And then those of you who do not meet the financial requirements or do not have a location independent business We got to work on that first before we do anything else In this video

Justin Keltner:

and we can help you get that going very very quickly We've had clients that have gone from corporate jobs to location independent businesses in Less than 30 days of starting and in some cases even sooner than that by just getting their first client using the same skills that they had

Amanda Abella:

from their job. All right, guys, thank you so much for giving us your time today. And we'll catch you on the next one.