Moving to Mexico Tips: Debunking Myths About Living in 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

0:36

We've been getting some really fun comments about Mexico as a country, and even Latin America in general, the last several weeks, some of which include, oh, people are just getting off in the streets day and night, and there's bodies hanging from the overpasses, and it's so dangerous there because people are just gonna slip something in your drink and then take advantage of you and like. There's just violence and rampant crime. Absolutely. Everywhere you turn, we get other comments. Also insinuating that most Mexicans are poor and uneducated, and oftentimes it's people who I don't think realize just how offensive those comments actually are. So in this video, what we're going to be doing is we're gonna be debunking common myths about Mexico, and some of these statistics are going to shock you. Welcome to Entrepreneur Expat. I'm Justin, and this is Amanda. And on this channel we talk about everything to do with moving overseas, starting a location, independent business, and even taking you step by step. On handling all of your immigration and tax and legal concerns as they come up. We've got experts all around the world that are qualified attorneys, tax advisors, immigration specialists, and we've really built a community here where we can help you with every aspect of getting a second passport and moving to another country where you actually enjoy life. And you live a life worth living. So if that's something that you're interested in, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single video. We have coming out on this channel. We have several coming out a week. And give us a like, because that helps us with the algorithm in terms of getting this in front of more people. It's a freeway. You can help us. And for those of you who've been asking us about. How do I find real estate in Mexico? How, you know, do I buy land or do I buy a house? Can I buy foreclosed properties? Uh, can I invest in commercial real estate? We've been hearing your questions so we can help you immediately by booking a consult below, entrepreneur expat.com/consult. We will get a feel for what you're looking for, and then we will take it to our network of real estate people all over Mexico, including some of the top in the country and people who used to be directors at banks here. So they know the system very, very well and we can put you in contact with them. And we're also gonna be doing a series of videos with a lot of these experts to answer a lot of those questions. And for the other half of you. Who are asking about how do I make money online so I'm able to go to any country in the world. We have two resources for you to get you started. The first is get your first High Paying Client Online bootcamp. It's a four week bootcamp. You can purchase it below and it'll walk you through the basics of what you need to know in order to set up an online business. Based on our 15 years of experience, each in building multiple businesses, generating over seven figures for ourselves and our clients. In addition to that, uh, for those of you who are more interested in YouTube, YouTube is one of our favorite business tools for attracting business online. Then you can get our YouTube mastery workshop. Some of you have already taken it and you've gotten really great results. Yay. Congrats to you guys, and you can go to YouTube mastery workshop.com to get all the details of what that covers, so the links for everything, so you can get all the details, pricing, how long it takes, what it covers, all that kind of stuff. You can grab it below. So let's jump into the number one thing that we hear that's a myth about Mexico, which is that Mexico is extremely dangerous now as any place in the world is. There are parts of Mexico that are dangerous. And you typically, especially here, you know what those places are. It's not like you're in Santa Monica and you know you're walking on the pier and you get hit in the face with a beer bottle thrown by some mentally ill homeless person. That's happened to people that I know. Not to mention in San Francisco and in plenty of other places where one block you're totally safe and you've got.$10,000 a month, you know, high rise apartments, and then the next block is just absolute pure and utter chaos. There are definitely some areas in Mexico where there's violence. Uh, there are certain like gang activities that you, you don't want to be in those areas. Typically, they're not in the tourist areas. Um, there, there are places like some parts of Sinaloa, some parts in the south of Mexico. Where, uh, if you're not, let's say with a, with a tour where everybody kind of knows where they're, where they're going, um, you, you, you might not want to go in certain areas like that. But outside of that, like in most of the major cities, Guadalajara is very safe. Mexico City is very safe if you're not in like a dangerous neighborhood. And most of the places that expats are going to are not going to be, uh, those neighborhoods that are gonna be. Unsafe. In fact, we found some statistics that we're gonna go through right now with you guys, and we'll try and put the, the graphs on the screen as well that show that Americans are actually safer in Mexico than they are in the United States. So let's go through some of this. So this is, uh, according to the FBI crime statistics, 4.8 Americans per 100,000 are. Unlived in the United States. That's per the 2010 numbers. Those are the most recent ones that we could find, and the US State Department reports that only 120 Americans out of this 5.7 million who visit Mexico in that same time period. So within a year time period are unli, which is a rate of 2.1 out of every 100,000 visitors. It's actually half. Of the rate in the United States. Um, now what happens in Mexico is you're not always clear whether or not these people, these Americans who ran into problems in Mexico, were involved in things they should not have been involved in because that is usually the case. Uh, whereas in the United States, it's totally random as you were. Bringing up. Now, the other thing to keep in mind is when you're in tourist destinations or places where there's a lot of expats and foreigners, the numbers decrease even more. Right? And when you compare it to where there's lots of tourists in the United States, the numbers are gonna shock you. This one, draw this one. I was like, really? When I read this one? So let's take Disney World. Let's take Orlando, which is the home of Disney World. So in that same time period, so about a year time period, Orlando saw 7.5. On the live activities, let's put it that way, per 100,000 U YouTube is a little bit strict on what we can and can't say. So per 100,000 residents, now if you go to Cancun or Puerto Valda, that number goes down to 1.83 or 5.9 respectively. Uh, and this is Americans. And again, right? It depends, like a lot of times they were involved in things they should not have been involved in, whereas in the United States. Totally random. You could totally be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Um, and you also have to take into consideration the type of crime that happens in each of these countries because that does add nuance. To the situation in Mexico, as if we've mentioned, it's usually targeted. It's usually to isolated areas. It most definitely does not involve foreigners or expats or anywhere where you're gonna be hanging out because they tend to keep those places very clean. Yep. And with a lot of security, uh, because there's a lot of money in those places, so nowhere that you're gonna be hanging out. You need to worry about it. Whereas in the United States, it's completely random. Just two weeks ago we had a, a situation in a major university in the United States where people were just going to go take their classes and here comes a guy with a weapon and. Y'all know what happens in the United States with that. You could be doing groceries, you could be at the, you know, the movie theater? At the movie theater. Yeah. You could be at a mall, you could be anywhere. You literally do not hear about those types of events occurring here. Like it's not a thing. Um, you, you can't just possess a weapon like anybody in the country. Yes, there are some criminals that have them, and that's not a good thing. But again, those criminals are not typically targeting foreigners or people not involved in those. Those criminal conflicts that are here, their issues are usually with each other and the government. Not with you unless you get involved in things you're not supposed to be getting involved in, which we have heard stories like that of people ending up in situations, but every freaking time they were involved in things they should not have been involved in. And unfortunately, you do have a sector of, I don't know, tourism or expats or foreigners that go to other countries and partake in a bunch of fuck shit, for lack of a better word, and then wonder why they're getting in trouble. The other thing to keep in mind. Right. Is that the, I just can't say the word right. So, um, I'm gonna say it anyway. The homicide rates in Mexico have actually been declining since 2016 and in the United States they've been going up since 2000, uh, since the same time period. And if you look at the rates by location, um, yes there are, uh, there are certain instances where, where violence happens. But if you look at overall. The homicide rate per a hundred thousand, uh, people, in terms of Americans in Mexico is 0.3. And if you look at even the, the total homicide rates of different cities, a lot of them are actually significantly lower than many cities in the us. For example, Guadalajara, where we live, the rate is 17.1. But the overall rate in the country that involves Americans is 0.3. So a lot of those people, whether you're in Guadalajara, you're in Mexico City, a lot of the people that are, that are getting involved in, in those, in those, having those issues are again, associated with that criminal activity. Um, if we look at the, the major cities, so Guadalajara was 17.1 in Mexico. Puerto Vallarta is 8.8. Mexico City is 8.6. Cabo is 3.7. And Meida, which is um. One of the safest cities in the country was only 1.5. Maybe that's one of the safest cities in all area, actually in the world. Yeah. Uh, definitely in, in the Western Hemisphere. Versus if we look at those homicide rates by location, sorry, YouTube, we have to share the information. Um, so if we get, uh, you know, banned on this video, oh well. Um, but if we look at even Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the rate per a hundred thou, uh, per a hundred thousand people is 33. DC 29.3, Chicago, 22.8. We're gonna put these up on the, the screen for them here. Houston 19, Phoenix, Arizona. So, so even just looking here, Guadalajara, which ranks as, again, overall, and this is including people that are involved with criminal activity overall, Guadalajara, which technically is one of the most dangerous, um. Cities in this chart, which people love to tell us that in the comments, which, which is really funny because we haven't seen anything like that. And the only times that I've heard of instances like that were in certain neighborhoods where, again, like parts of the, these rivaling factions lived and they were going specifically to target a person and take that person out, but, and they were not targeting tourists or the general public or anything like that. Not to mention, you do not see anything about terrorist events or anything here like you do so much in the US and Canada. It doesn't happen. Or Europe, US or Europe. Canada and Europe. Just in the last six months all had terrorist attacks. And that might be a whole other video. Yeah, that, that's a whole other video. But compare Gua Hara, which is considered. You know, by what people tell us in the comments. One of the most dangerous cities, um, in Guadalajara. And we oftentimes have to tell people, okay, well, number one, if you're American, they're probably not touching you unless you are involved in things you're, you shouldn't be involved in. And number two, we're coming from cities that are more dangerous than what is going on in Guadalajara. Yep. So if Philadelphia is almost double. The rate of Guadalajara and these cities didn't even include small areas like for example, Memphis, Tennessee, that have even higher rates. So you have to take that stuff into consideration because I think a lot of people get confused because of the media. Like, oh, Mexico is so dangerous. And I'm like, but do you see what's going on in US cities?'cause it's worse than what's going on here. And again, it's different kinds. Of crime and most people just don't go look at the numbers. They just take, you know, whatever the media tells'em and they run with it. So, exactly that's, and so even just looking at that number there, you look at the 19 per a hundred thousand in Houston compared to the most dangerous city here, one of the most dangerous cities, at least that we would, that we're looking at on the list that tourists go to and Houston actually is, is worse by almost two per a hundred thousand. Compared to Guadalajara now yes, you start to get safer cities. Phoenix, Arizona is about 13.5. But that's still more dangerous than Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City almost combined than down to la. I mean, I've lived in LA and there's parts that are safe. There's parts that are really unsafe. That's 10.2. New York City, I'm actually kind of surprised, um,'cause there's a lot of, there's a lot of violent crime. But in terms of the homicide, uh, homicide rate there, it's 5.3, um, which is still more dangerous than Meida as a city Cabo. Uh, and close to Mexico City and it's several times what the homicide rate for Americans living here is. Yeah, I mean, many, many times. These are the actual stats. Um, these are, yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll put them up on the screen as well as references to them. Yeah. So the other myth, this one drives me nuts. I think it's'cause I'm, I'm Latina and I just. Know better. Uh, but the other myth is that everyone in Mexico is poor, struggling and uneducated. We have seen some embarrassing comments coming in. Um, guys, you do realize what you write on the internet. It's visible is public and people can see it, right? I mean, like, we love comments, we love engaging with you guys, but like. Please think and just have some decency and realize that you're, you're in a public forum when you like, just think about the things that you say. I mean, don't you work somewhere and like have a whatever. I won't get into it, but we love'em. It's, it increases our engagement whenever people comment and start fights, you know, we're not gonna tell you not to, but like, just for your own sake, just, just. Yeah, we actually have people fighting in the comments on Instagram right now, and it tripled our following, so thanks. Um, so one of the, we get a lot of comments. Right. Uh, here on YouTube and also Instagram and also TikTok, where people just assume that everybody in Mexico is poor and uneducated. We've also heard some horrendous stories from our Mexican friends of some of the things that they have been told. Unfortunately, every time the story has involved an American telling them something not, and they've, A lot of these people have been all over the world and they're like, the only time I had an issue was with an American, so, mm-hmm. Take that for what it's worth. Um, so here's the thing. Mexico has a lot of wealth. Um, there are very wealthy people in Mexico. I was just talking to one of our real estate partners who works in, um, helping people find investments in commercial real estate. He's got Mexicans dropping$2 million US dollars, not pesos to get into, um, an investment. And this is, we're gonna share some of those. Here on the channel really soon, both the residential and con, uh, commercial investment opportunities. And we're actually putting together like a directory, uh, listing service where we're gonna have that accessible if you want to see all of the properties and opportunities. We're gonna have that soon. So make sure you download our Moving to Mexico Guide. Do a consult with us, get on our list somehow, and then we'll send you the information about that so that you can get out on some of the opportunities because they're pretty darn cool. And then in addition to that, Mexico actually has a pretty large middle class. Um, so here's the thing, right? Mexico has the second largest economy in Latin America. After Brazil, the GDP is substantial in Mexico. It's also considered a middle income country World Bank actually classifies Mexico as an upper middle income economy, Mexico's economy is diversified. We've talked about this on other videos. Yes, I do think there's still a little bit of an overreliance on the United States that, but they're clearly working on diversifying, um, in all of that. And it's, they also have oil, they have remittances, exports, agriculture, mining, tourism, industrial activity, which is a lot of what. A real estate partner was showing us with those commercial properties. There's a lot going on here that brings a lot of money into the country and Mexico is the leading exporter in Latin America. The truth is not everybody here is poor. Um, so for those of you who got mad at us,'cause we did the video in should, when we were showing you, you know, a nice place where you can go shop to get imported food or imported ingredients if you need it. They said it was only foreigners there, but we were the only Americans in this. Store. They're like, Mexicans, don't shop there. And I'm like, everyone in the store was Mexican. We were the only foreigners. Anyway, y'all, seriously, these comments are public. Like, please, um, just don't embarrass yourself like that. Um, so anyway, as we were saying, there's a lot of opportunity here for investment. There's a lot of money to be made. Uh, we're seeing things moving and shaking. I know right now Mexico is going into a recession. I will tell you this as a former financial expert, and I know I'm gonna get crap for it. Recessions are opportunities to go buy stuff up. Absolutely. That's what it's, well, yeah, and you look at even, even the Great Depression, I mean, there were more millionaires and billionaires formed during that time than almost any other time in, in the world, um, in, in the history of the world. So whenever you have a depression or recession, whatever you want to call it, whether it's a, a pandemic, uh, whe whether it's, you know, whatever's going on in a, in a country or worldwide, I mean, there, there's massive opportunities everywhere because everything is on sale when the stock market crashes. You don't sell all your stocks, you buy more. Right? Right. Like Warren Buffet said, when everybody is greedy, you need to be fearful. Fearful. And then when everybody is fearful, you need to be greedy. All right. Final thing, Ry, is that for some reason Mexico has a reputation. Where everybody thinks it's like the wild, wild west here, and you can kind of do whatever you want. And while Mexico does have less regulation than the United States, and you certainly don't get micromanaged in every aspect of your personal life like you do in the United States, that doesn't mean that you can just come here and do whatever you want, right? Those of people who come here and do whatever you want, you're the ones who end up in the homicide statistics, right? So you have to be, or for instance, if you don't wear your seatbelt while driving, ask me how I know that. You will get pulled over. The fine is not, um, nothing. I was able to get out of it without too much of an issue. But, um, yeah, you, you want to actually follow the laws, including the traffic laws whenever possible. Now, there's some exceptions. Do people really stop at stop signs here? Depends, right? If you're, it's true. If you're in like a rural area you probably are, or, or somewhere that's not right in the middle of a big city, you're probably more likely to get pulled over for. Stopping all the way and not driving like a local and just kind of going through it, then you will, uh, if you don't stop. So you, you wanna also adapt to the, to the culture in certain aspects, but it's not just like a free for all wild, wild west thing where you can go ignoring all the laws and drinking and driving and not wearing seat belts and yeah. Um. Yeah, in fairness, this is confusing because there is a lot less regulation and there is gray area here, um, like electrical inspections for example. You know, so in fairness we understand this, but one area where there's a lot of confusion is real estate. So a lot of foreigners actually don't know that there's a legal limit to what you can pay in cash. For real estate among other things. And as we've mentioned a couple times, we're working on new content with our real estate partners and experts here in Guadalajara and also in other parts of the country. Uh, to answer all of those real estate questions.'cause we're realizing there's a lot of confusion here because it's a different system. Things work a different way. Uh, a lot of people, for example, think they could just buy up everything in cash. There's actually legal limits, like, so we're, we're gonna get all those questions answered for you guys. Yeah. And even if you could, it's not like you can just come to Mexico with a suitcase with.$500,000 of cash in it without declaring it. Don't do that. Yeah. Um, and other areas where there's confusion, it's immigration and visas, and this is probably the fault of YouTube. Um, yeah, there's a lot of, I don't know what, what y'all are thinking. Um, sorry. But like, there's a lot of people who would just say, oh, just like, overstay your visa indefinitely, and like, maybe there's gonna be some kind of exception in the future. I mean, you can do that. Just like you can overstay a, you know, tourist visa in America and maybe you won't get caught. And if you leave the country by land, perhaps they won't even see it and you, you won't get in into any trouble. But if you do break the law and you do get caught just like in the US they can detain you. And we've heard a lot of stories of this actually happening. Um, we saw it at the immigration office. Yeah. They were, we saw all multiple people who were detained, people at, at, uh, in the south of Mexico, even in the, in the north. Um, and not just, not just people from Central America, but us and Canadian citizens as well that were on a tourist visa and they just decided to stay forever. You can't actually do that. Yeah. We, we know of people in, in Mexico and in Columbia and other countries that have done that, and they've gotten away with it for months or even years, but. Do you really want to have everything that you've worked so hard for just taken away? Um, you know, who knows? I mean, if, God forbid if you're here with kids or something, like what's gonna happen if they put you in a detention center? And it, it, it's not just gonna be overnight. Like it might be for weeks or months and you're not getting food. This isn't like US prisons where you get three meals a day. If you don't have money, you starve. And I, I don't know if, I don't know. I don't think it's like that at the detention center. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe jail. I heard pretty bad. No, one of our immigration experts was like even the immigration detention center. Pretty, yeah. I wouldn't wanna, pretty bad. I wouldn't wanna be there. Yeah, you wouldn't wanna be there. She goes. In any country you wouldn't wanna be there, but in Mexico you definitely don't wanna be there. And we've seen a lot of people over the last few weeks get very upset. Um, because Mexico's been making changes. So for example, they've been enforcing laws that they already had on the books. Um, yeah. Like checking, uh, for tourist cards driving into the, through the border in Arizona, for example. Right. Or they're not giving as many days on a tourist visa. We saw a guy posted an expat group last week. He got 15 days on a tourist visa in Mexico. I don't remember where he was flying into, but I think it was one of the hotspot areas, like Cancun or something like that. Yeah. So. That would make a lot more sense. Um, or they get upset that Mexico has removed, for all intents and purposes, canceled the regularization program where people would oversay the tourist visas and they wouldn't have to show income and everybody's upset because Mexico's like really getting its shit together in a lot of ways. Um, and a lot of people will also blame it on Trump. But, you know, we've interviewed some of our immigration experts that you guys are gonna see the interviews coming out on the channel and they're like. This doesn't really have to do with Trump. This has been a long time coming and Mexico's not the only country really tightening up its systems. We saw it with Italy, we saw it with Costa Rica recently. This is like a worldwide thing that's going on right now where people are tightening up their immigration because things got a little chaotic and they got a little crazy and they got a little fraudulent. So, you know, Mexico, I guess for used to be an easier place. To game the system. Yeah. Yeah. Not anymore, but not anymore. So you can't just come here and expect this is like the wild, wild west and there's no rules and there's no laws. That's, that's not how this works. Um, that's not how it works anywhere. But for some reason, a lot of people think they can get away. With a lot more stuff, uh, in Mexico because there is like gray area. But this is also why it's so important to work with experts. So for example, we got a question the other day saying if it was worth it to buy foreclosure properties in Queretaro. And I reached out to our expert out there and he goes, well, it really depends'cause those properties that are in Huo, as they say here in Huo. That can get very messy, very complicated. You need to make sure you've got the right real estate people and the right lawyers. Yeah. It's not as regulated as it is in the US for sure. And you, you need somebody to help you navigate all these different, you need people to help you navigate things like immigration, real estate, investments, things like that. Uh, because we also, and this is the other downside of people thinking, Mexico's like the wild, wild west. They get duped easily. Um, with fraudulent activity. We've seen people get$10,000 basically stolen from them because somebody said, oh, we can, you know, you can purchase a residency through us. Like, that's not a thing. It's not a thing. Or because, um, for example, anybody and their mom can basically be a real estate agent in Mexico that is changing. Right. So all the real estate people that we work with are licensed, uh, in Mexico to do real estate in Mexico, and they're the best in their field, in their area, and they know all the best notaries and attorneys to help you with that process. But up until this point, you still don't have to be licensed to sell a house in Mexico. So. You could be selling a house and then Al um, says, Hey, you know, or your cousin or whatever says that they can buy the, the sell the house for you. Um, but they don't really know what they're doing. It's kind, it's kind of like when you're, yeah. When your, when your second cousin is like, oh, I, I know how to build websites, and you hire them to build your business website. I mean, that's, you know, maybe they're really good at it, but most likely if it's just something that they do on the side, like, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm a whatever and I'm just slinging real estate on the side. Like, do you really want that person? To help you close a deal, that's gonna be one of the biggest, either, either. Uh. Payoffs or investments of cash in your life. There's also people who claim to be real estate agents and they tell you that they can buy, that you can buy land from them, but the land they're selling, you actually foreigners cannot buy. And we've seen that happen a lot as well. So no, Mexico is not the wild, wild west. There are laws, there are regulations, there are less regulations, which makes things a little messy and some gray area. The pro to that is there's a lot of opportunity here. The con to that is you have to be careful, which is why we over the last year have taken hundreds of meetings with professionals all over the country and vetted them for you. So we can help you through this process because some of you send us messages like, I have$300,000 to invest in a property in Mexico, and you know, you don't wanna play with$300,000. Mm-hmm. Right? You wanna make sure that you're doing things. Right, and you wanna make sure that you're getting the right investment for yourself and that it actually makes sense. So book that consult below@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult and we can walk you through step by step how to do the immigration process. Recommend, uh, different attorneys to you if you need them, real estate people, whatever you need, we're here to help. Entrepreneur expat.com/consult and, uh, make sure you like and subscribe if you haven't already, and we're gonna see you again very, very soon.