Moving to Mexico Tips: 4 Things Expats Hate About Mexico

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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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Transcript

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We absolutely love living in Mexico and have been here together for about the last three years, and I've spent a few more years in Mexico myself before that as well. But there are definitely a few things that expats need to get used to in terms of the differences in the culture and the language and the way business has done and so many other things. If you want to live life as an expat in Mexico. Just like we do and live a life of freedom and joy and happiness and no conflict as well. Welcome to Entrepreneur Expel on this channel. We are spending currently a lot of time in Mexico because that's where we are, and we also talk about business opportunities in Mexico and other countries. We talk about how to make money online so you can go live anywhere in the world. We talk about buying businesses, we talk about real estate. We talk about. What it's like to live in other countries. We also interview other expats all over the world. So if that's something that you're interested in, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification. But also, you don't want me to say single video that we have coming out on this channel. And also make sure to give it a, like, we have a mission to get in front of 1 million entrepreneur expats and aspiring entrepreneur expats. And you can help us do that by giving this video a like,'cause it helps us with the algorithm gods and one final. Housekeeping thing. Uh, many of you have been inundating our dms with questions about, real estate. What's available? Can I buy land? You've also been asking us about health insurance here in Mexico. Who, what notaries do you use? Who are your immigration attorneys? We can actually now help you relocate to this country through our white glove relocation services, and we can also help you find real estate with our real estate partners. And we're also moving into helping you buy businesses for those of you who are interested in that. Now, the best way to get started, if you need our help, is to book a Move to Mexico. Consult Below. There is a fee for that because we have to basically. Understand what's going on on your end, and we have to create a game plan right then and there. You can take that game plan. And go do it yourself. If you choose, or if you choose to hire us for our services, then we will credit the, the price of that initial consultation to the overall price of the services. So for those of you who've been asking us and begging us, and I mean, you've seen our dms, the, the requests just keep growing and growing and growing and growing every week. Now we can help you. So go to entrepreneur xpa.com/consult and you can find all of the information there as well as book time. To speak with us and that's automated. So unlike here in Mexico, which you're going to learn about, uh, you don't have to WhatsApp US for that. Just click a button and book your time. It's all automated. Exactly. So thing number one that expats need to get used to when living in Mexico is that all of the administrative tasks here are super inefficient. Think updating your cell phone plan. Picking up a package and paying your import tax at the post office, opening a bank account, those sorts of things, even though you might be able to do them in a few clicks in 15 or 20 minutes in the US or less in Mexico, they can take hours or even multiple days and multiple trips back and forth. I. Yeah, so to get my cell phone took about three hours to get my bank account. Took about two days total. Um, you have a wild story with the postal service on how that took days just to get a package. Uh, there's usually like a lot of running around and it's not very efficient. The joke is that you can only get one administrative chore done in a day in Mexico. I did beat the record one time and I did two. Uh, what were those? Uh, I went to the SAT office to get my, uh, I tax ID number so that I could go open the bank account and then I went to go open the bank account. You did? They actually opened an account for you the same day. They almost didn't. Yeah, they wanted to make up new rules'cause they tend to do that. On, on that note is you're not gonna find a ton of consistency. Uh, let's say when you're going to open a bank account, one branch might say you have to be a permanent resident. Whereas you go to another branch even of the same exact bank and they'll let you do it with a temporary. So even with immigration, the consulates all just kind of do their own thing. Exactly. A lot of times. So they're inefficient, they're not super consistent. You just kind of have to get used to. That inefficiency and that lack of consistency coming from maybe a more western mindset where things sort of run on time. Even the government, like if you need to get something done, you fill out a form online, you're good to go. It's not like that here, guys. Uh, you have to have a little bit more patience for everything like that. Yeah. That being said, for really big stuff like starting businesses or healthcare or those kinds of things that you guys are concerned about, they tend to be a lot more efficient. Mm-hmm. In those departments. It's like little things. That are very inefficient. Exactly. Like if you need, you need health insurance, you can get very affordable health insurance here, and the doctors will actually spend time with you. Like if we go to a specialist for whatever reason, they're with us for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, sometimes even more. Where as in the US they have to churn through patients in 15 minutes or less, and that's not enough time to diagnose or help. Anyone do anything really. So the big, the bigger things are actually more efficient. Obviously the cost of living is a lot lower and the the cool thing is even though there are all these different administrative things that you have to deal with, most of the time you can hire like a lawyer or a facilitator or someone else to be able to support you with those things. I always recommend doing that because I would much rather spend a hundred dollars and have a lawyer take care of an issue that might take me six to 10 hours on my own. Not to mention there's a risk of me not doing it right the first time and messing something up, versus they, the lawyer might ask me for what I need. I'll give it to them and then I. He just takes care of everything, right? For, for those of you who need lawyers and facilitators and things like that, we have a database so we can help those, uh, with those referrals. Just, you know, put back consult below. Speaking of which, next thing, uh, is that internet listings are not reliable. In Mexico. Let's use the example of real estate since a lot of you guys ask us about real estate and how to find that here. If you go to internet listings for real estate, it might say that there's a house for sale, but the house actually sold three years prior and they just never updated the listing. So, uh, you can't really like. Trust internet listings here for real estate specifically, we're working on a project behind the scenes for our clients where we're going to have our own listings internally that our, uh, real estate partners send us. And also sometimes you guys who are watching this channel and already have property in Mexico, sometimes you WhatsApp us because you wanna sell it. So we are, we were just working on the database yesterday so that we're gonna have our own internal listings, that we are going to keep updated because we understand for the anyone who's tried to find real estate in Mexico, that is very, very frustrating. Um, other things that are not. Um, up to date with, uh, listings on the internet. Our phone numbers usually to the government. Businesses sometimes tend to do that a little bit better. Yeah. Yes and no. Yes and no. We, we've been to a lot of places. I mean, 75% of the time it's accurate. It's the other 25% of the time that gets you where they say that they're open until 5:00 PM but they're actually open until four. Or maybe they have a three hour lunch break in the middle of the day, and that's not listed there. So you go there at. 1:00 PM thinking for sure they're gonna be open and they're not. Or you have to physically go there to actually get an accurate number, to be able to, to then, uh, text them and set up an appointment, which you have to do by WhatsApp, which we'll get to a little later. Um, because everything runs on WhatsApp here, there isn't the same type of like online booking system where you can just kind of book your appointment for a haircut. It's a little bit different and people tend to get frustrated by that occasionally because it's not what you're used to in the us. The next part, and most of you already know this, but it does frustrate the sticklers, which is that people are late to everything in Mexico, including expats, where that rubs off. Speak a little bit more, uh, to that.'cause I, I think we're now late to everything. Yeah. It started to rub off for sure, but, uh, as an example, we have different classes that we go to during the week and one of the last, uh, classes that we did. The start time said that it was 7:00 PM but in reality, we were actually starting at about 7 25, 7 30, uh, which of course means you're also going to end late as well, so God forbid if you've got something that you know, you, they, somebody tells you, Hey, it's gonna be 11 to 12 for this event. And at noon you think you're gonna be leaving and you schedule an appointment across town at 1230 or one very unlikely. You're probably gonna end up saying hi to people for the first 15 minutes. Then other people are gonna show up late, and then you're gonna start at about 1130 and then maybe a couple straggler will come at 1145 and then the event will go to like 2:00 PM. And you would've already missed the next meeting that you had. Ask me how I know that now. The good news is that because everybody kind of does this, then people are very forgiving. So for example, we had a business meeting with one of our real estate partners here in Guadalajara, and we were running late of course,'cause it's rubbed off on us too. And we were all stressed and anxious about it, but it turns out they were running late too. So everybody showed up late, but on time. Exactly. Because here on time is within about 15 minutes. After you say you're gonna meet, and if you show up somewhere five minutes before or 10 minutes before, which, you know, sometimes we still do because it's good form. Um, you'll just be waiting around for a while and that's totally okay because there's, there's really good, uh. Good coffee shops and with, you know, good, good lattes and pastries and everything else everywhere. Everywhere. So you can just kind of hang out for 20 or 30 minutes and then, um, people will usually start showing up then. Yeah. And if you are early to anything or on time, it's such a rarity here that people are like, oh, they're on time. Mm-hmm. So just, just keep that in mind. Uh, next, yeah, if you show up. On time to a Mexican party, you're, you're gonna be helping them cook the asada. That's basically how it works. You, you, you're gonna be, you're gonna be helping to grill because nobody's showing up for another two hours, or maybe they're still in their PJ's. Who knows? With, for every Latin does not actually mean I'm on the way. It means maybe I'm getting in the shower right now, and then maybe I'll be on the way in like 30 minutes, but I actually gotta drop off the kid somewhere first. That's what that actually means. Which brings us to the next item here on the list of things that you need to get used to if you're gonna be an expat in Mexico, which is all of the different idiosyncrasies in the language that you think mean one thing because literally translated, perhaps they do, but in reality they mean something else. The famous one is, of course, manana, which everyone knows about. Manana literally translated means tomorrow, but manana in Mexico. Could mean tomorrow. It could mean in three days. It could mean in a month. It could mean just about anything. Ano means anything, uh, in terms of a time period in Mexico. And then we actually had a, a really funny, uh, situation come up last week that. Perfectly, and it's funny for you, perfectly represents, uh, this. So for context, I am Cuban American. I've been speaking Spanish my entire life. So the idiosyncrasies don't get me as much in the Spanish language. Uh, but this one, because Spanish is his third language, uh, sometimes. Sometimes a little drama happens because there is a misunderstanding of the idiosyncrasy. And this is probably one of the best examples that I'm gonna share. Forgive me, this is probably one of the best examples, which, uh, last week I had gone to the gym and I was working out with our trainer and he wasn't able to come because. This channel has blown up so much and there's so much opportunity coming our way that he had some tech things he had to fix behind the scenes so that we could be very present for you guys again. So I'm at the gym by myself and I'm, I'm doing my weights right, and then I get this frantic phone call from Justin and he's like, I think the Landlady's gonna kick us outta the house. And I'm like, what are you talking about? I thought we were in trouble. Yeah. He thought we were in trouble. And I'm like, well, what did she say? And he was like, uh, she said, which literally translated means, uh, I urgently need to speak with you and I need to speak with you in person. Now, if you hear that literally in English in the United States, and I'm going to assume Canada is probably the same in this regard, you, you think shit hit the fan. Mm-hmm. If you hear that. And that is exactly what. Like this one thought, he thought shit had hit the fan. Now I wasn't there, so I couldn't hear what was going on, but I had an idea that maybe things were not that bad. I was like, no, because you know, Mexicans like to do things in person. So that's one of them, especially of a certain generation. Like they love doing things in person. Uh, it's more formal in that way and more polite, uh, in their minds. And then in addition to that, like. When they say that here in Mexico, it doesn't have like the same connotation like it is like, I need to talk to you urgently, but it's not. I'm gonna mess, I'm gonna f you up. Urgent. Does that make sense? Like it can be, depending on the context, but it's usually not. Mm-hmm. Like you could say, um, which I need to urgently buy a purse or your friend from the salon. Who urgently needs, what did she say? She urgently needs a man. So sometimes it's stuff like that. So he's, he's here panicking. I didn't hear it, so of course, I'm not sure. What the context or connotation is. We're so nervous all day. I have a feeling it is not that bad. She, you ran the tarot on it. I did. How to I know said it was fine. The tarot said it was fine. I know how to read tarot. It's one of my hidden talents that I don't go around announcing, but I guess people know now. Um, and um, she comes to the house and she comes with her nephew who happens to work in real estate, and now we're gonna be doing a lot of business with him and that, oh, she brought an attorney or something to help kick us out because we're in trouble. No, that's not what happened at all. Right. She basically offered us the house. She wants us to buy the house. So not only were we not in trouble like you thought, right? We were very, it was very much the opposite of not being in trouble. It was like, here's an opportunity, let's work out the numbers. Mm-hmm. So sometimes, um. Those things happen, the idiosyncrasies, especially, uh, if you're, you're not, well, you are fluent, but I think it's more the the culture. Yeah, the culture that sometimes. Uh, there's a little bit of confusion, uh, there, and then usually I smooth it over. Mm-hmm. All right, let's get to the final point here, uh, which you've already mentioned a couple times, which is that everything runs on WhatsApp. So doctor's appointments, attorney communication. Um. What else? Purchases any, anytime you need to buy something, delivery drivers will text you on WhatsApp to let you know that they're at your house and they'll even text you pictures of the delivery, which is kind of cool. Um, everything that you need to do in Mexico runs in WhatsApp. And if you are like, I was a little bit and you're like, you know what? I don't want Mark Zuckerberg, mark, mark Zuckerberg to have all of the data on my Facebook and then also access all of my personal communications, which if you read the privacy policy, literally lets them take all of the texts you send, uh, to people from WhatsApp and use them to target advertising. I have a theory that they're probably also spying on what we say. I don't know how or how they get away with that in the, in the policies, but. Believe it or not, whether I send somebody a text on WhatsApp or just happen to be having a conversation with my barber about something, uh, like solar panels, I will see ads the next day or the same day, two hours later on Facebook for solar panels. So if you're one of those like privacy minded people that's like, you know what, I'm just gonna use telegram or signal, uh, because I hate the privacy policies of WhatsApp and company. You're not gonna be able to get anything done here at all. I've known people like that. No, we don't want to get on WhatsApp. Just text, text me what? It's not a thing here to send text messages. Most people, and it's changing a little bit now, but for the most part, the plans don't even include unlimited texting like they might in the US or Canada. And, uh, people also have a lot more international friends in Mexico. And to be honest, outside of the, anywhere outside of the us. Uh, than they do in the us. And so text messaging never really evolved as a thing here. So all of your communication, text messages, audio messages, whatever, it's all on WhatsApp, love it or hate it. Um, I have mixed feelings about it for sure, but it all runs on WhatsApp, so you need to get used to using that application. It took Amanda a few months to finally get privy to that because I'm like, yeah, so that the, you know, the doctor or whoever, like WhatsApp, you. Didn't you see the, the message? She's like, no, uh, what do you mean? And she had her notifications turned off on WhatsApp'cause she'd never used it before. So everything is on WhatsApp here. Yeah, that did take me a little while to get used to. Now I'm more accustomed to it. I tried to equate it to, okay, well I use Facebook Messenger a lot. With friends in the United States, so maybe now I just need to kind of like switch, uh, and use WhatsApp. I, I have gotten used to it. And then of course, because of this channel now we also have a lot more international friends, so it just makes things easier to communicate and a lot of Mexican friends and a lot of Mexican friends. So it just makes things easier to communicate. Uh, among different countries. So that's basically the list we have. No, we, we still have iMessage on our iPhones, and I probably would not switch from iPhone just because I have so many contacts on iMessage, including my family and her family. And so it's nice to have like the blue bubbles and, and much easier format texts and read notifications and all that other fun stuff. So for like people in the US, we'll use iMessage most of the time. Um, but that's not a thing here at all. Like, nobody's sending you an iMessage. Even if they have an iPhone, they're always sending you a WhatsApp. Always sending a WhatsApp, um, even, even like, uh, stores, right? So for example, here's another difference. For those of you who are in business in the United States, they'll use a lot of email marketing. Uh, so you ask for people's email, so on and so forth. With Americans and Canadians, that's pretty standard here. Uh, the marketing lists are all on WhatsApp, so I might have a store. Uh, nearby that I like to buy some clothes from every once in a while and I'm on their WhatsApp list and every week I am getting messages with the new inventory that's in and all that stuff. And I just look at that and I'm like, that's so much work. I'm sure they're automating it somehow and there are ways to automate it. Yeah, definitely. But, um, so yeah, like we said, everything from restaurants to doctors, to stores, everything. Everything, everything. Runs on WhatsApp and that does take a little while to get used to. So that's basically our list of things that you would have to get used to. These are typically also the things that make people wanna not stay here, uh, in a lot of ways'cause they can't get used to it for whatever reason. If you like this video, please go ahead and give it a, like, uh, share some of your stories below. Maybe you've had some of those idiosyncrasy. Stories like the ones that we shared, share them below so we can all have a really good laugh about cultural differences and build community. And if you're interested in navigating some of these systems, for example, the administrative stuff that we were talking about, it's like we said, the workaround is hire a lawyer for as many of these things as you can. We can now help you do that. So make sure to book a consult below if you need help with those things. I mean, it could be anything from immigration to registering a foreign marriage because. Speaking as people who just registered, uh, a foreign marriage in Mexico and changed the immigration status, you could go try and do it yourself with, uh, the wrong number on the website and not really knowing what the hours for immigration are and waste hours of your life. Or you could just hire an attorney and they handle it. Uh, so we can now help with that, put you in contact with people, so on and so forth. And, uh, I think that's it. So thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell and we'll catch you on the next one.