Entrepreneur Expat

Why This Millionaire Couple Is Choosing to Retire Abroad

• Justin Keltner

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

Moving Abroad Resources:


👉 Moving Abroad Relocation Roadmap Guidebook that walks you through the five phases of moving abroad ($27): https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/relocate


👉 Moving Abroad Relocation Blueprint Course which offers step by step guidance on everything from choosing the right country to immigration to taxes and everything in between: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/blueprint


👉 Want us to handle the details of your move abroad? Apply for our white-glove relocation services here: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/consult


👉 Free Moving to Mexico Guide: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/mexico


👉 Free Moving Abroad Checklist: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/abroad 


Remote Work and Online Income Resources:


👉 Expat Income Accelerator course which shows you the multiple ways you can make money globally based on our 15+ years of experience in online business, investing internationally and living in multiple countries: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/income


👉 Get Your First High Paying Client Online Bootcamp which walks you through the first four foundational steps of creating and monetizing an online business based on 15+ years of experience in online business: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/firstclient-yt


👉 YouTube Mastery Workshop which shows you how we’ve built two YouTube channels that bring clients and passive income from digital course sales (including turning Entrepreneur Expat into a six-figure business in six months): https://www.YouTubeMasteryWorkshop.com


👉LinkedIn Mastery Workshop which shows you how to use LinkedIn to find remote work, clients and connect with recruiters based on Justin’s experience building a six-figure business and finding remote work on LinkedIn: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/linkedin


👉 Free Make Money From Anywhere Guide: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/money-guide 



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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C0509:

it was shortly after the, the election and we had lost about 80 to 90% of our income. And we weren't quite sure what we, how we were gonna keep the lights on or pay our own bills. So we tried to find jobs that didn't work out. And at that time we had about$1.4 million, in, retirement accounts and I kept saying, I just don't understand how we can have this much money, but we're living in such financial insecurity. There's just gotta be a way. And I was just thinking to myself, there's, there's, there's definitely a way for us to tap into this money and there's definitely a place for us to live that we can thrive. I think he needed to have that hard situation for us to go through the. The scarcity mindset for us to go through that struggle, for him to really come to realization that there are alternatives for us that may not necessarily follow the traditional path

Amanda Abella:

Have you ever wondered what happens when really smart financial people start to leave a country? Well, in this video we're gonna talk about it because all of my friends from when I worked in finance are starting to reach out to us about moving to Mexico or getting second residencies, second passports, diversifying their assets. Because they're not really seeing a great future in terms of retirement or economic outlook right now in the United States. And today we have two of those friends, John and David, which, uh, David, I don't know if you know this, but Facebook reminded me yesterday that we've been friends for 10 years. Oh, nice.

09212025_164310:

That sounds about right.

Amanda Abella:

Right, exactly. So 10 year anniversary, you guys were in Mexico. We're helping you with that residency process. So thank you so much for coming here to share. Um, about why you're starting to think about, hey, retiring abroad is probably going to be the best idea from a, for us, not just from the emotional standpoint of all the craziness going on, but from just straight numbers,

09212025_164310:

Yeah.

Amanda Abella:

how we come to this decision.

John Schneider:

Sure. Definitely. Thanks for having

09212025_164310:

us and

John Schneider:

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

Justin Keltner:

welcome to Entrepreneur Expat on this channel, we talk about everything to do with moving overseas, creating the life of your dreams in a country that might not be where you were born, and building all of the infrastructure, whether that's a location, independent business. Perhaps a remote job, some sort of consulting, other work you can do remotely, and figuring out all the details on the ground so that you don't have to go in blind and figure out everything by yourself. We're here to to guide you, to inspire you, and to help you along that journey. So if that's something you're interested in, make sure to subscribe to this channel, hit that notification bell on your screen, and also give this video a thumbs up because it helps us a lot with our mission of reaching a million entrepreneur, expats, and aspiring. Expats and if you'd like our help to get down here to Mexico, perhaps even the Lake Al area

09212025_164310:

where

Justin Keltner:

we are today, just like John and David have done, uh, they're about to get their residency card here tomorrow. Yeah. We're finalizing their process. They're, they're getting everything squared away. If you're interested in doing that for yourself and for your family, because the time has never been better, uh, things are not gonna get better anytime soon in the US or Canada. Just go to entrepreneur expat.com. Slash consult and you can chat with me or my team about exactly how we do all of that. So it's really great to welcome you guys both down here today.

Amanda Abella:

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

09212025_164310:

chill.

Amanda Abella:

like that's what's going on because we try and go above and beyond for, for our guests. So I surprised you guys, um, with those. So yeah, that's why everyone's super relaxed. So. Um, before getting into, you know, coming to the conclusion of, Hey, it's probably time for us to start really thinking about retiring abroad. Um, who are you guys, because you're pretty well known in the financial media space. You run a really popular podcast, uh, queer money. You've done collaborations with Yahoo. You've done collaborations with major financial brands in the United States. You are some of my very smart finance friends, as I said on that Instagram reel. Who are you guys and what is it that you. You.

Dave Auten:

Yeah,

09212025_164310:

so

Dave Auten:

I think probably, like you said, we're most known for our queer money content, so it's Queer Money podcast, but we also have content on Instagram and YouTube. Our PO uh, podcast is both audio and video, so that's probably what we're most

09212025_164310:

known

Dave Auten:

for. We are currently have, we have a second podcast with a Yahoo Finance called Living Not So Fabulously,

09212025_164310:

which

Dave Auten:

is more about money stories. From people who many people look up to. So celebrities, business leaders, entrepreneurs, individuals who are sharing their money stories as to how they got to where they're at today.

Amanda Abella:

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

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

it's

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

podcast

John Schneider:

I led into compliance and he went into building.

09212025_164310:

what

John Schneider:

Um, tech systems.

Dave Auten:

Yes. I won the tech side of, uh, of uh, finance building internal systems for companies just like me. That's my,

09212025_164310:

is more about money stories

Dave Auten:

in the media

Justin Keltner:

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

John Schneider:

to build trading systems. So,

09212025_164310:

stories as to

John Schneider:

Nice.

09212025_164310:

got to

Amanda Abella:

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

09212025_164310:

When

Amanda Abella:

we were planning this, uh, collaboration, we both realized that from both your audience and our audience we're constantly getting asked, how do I get my spouse on the same page? In our case, it's how do I get my spouse on the same page about moving abroad, which we'll get into. In your case, it's how do I get my spouse on the same page? Financially and both are actually quite related. Yeah. So what is that, that story, because it's a, it's a pretty cool, like redemption arc.

09212025_164310:

Yeah.

Dave Auten:

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, John and I got together in, um, late 2003, early 2004. And we had been, been together, um, and living together for about a year and a half. And we had never, even though we're in finance, had never talked to each other about. Money about, we just each paid our portion of all the bills and we didn't really necessarily think of ourselves as a couple financially. Um, we were separate and with almost everything. Um, and one weekend we went up to the mountains of Colorado and we had this fantasy conversation about buying land and building a modern vacation home. I love modern architecture and he loves the mountains, and so it was just like the perfect match for both of us. Us. Um, so we were heading out of town and we are, we stopped at a realtor's office, looked at prices and stuff like that, and then got in the car and we passed a sign that says Winter Park elevation, 9,270 feet or something like that. And we were going over to the top of the mountain and we're coming down. We're driving about 65, 70 miles an hour.

09212025_164310:

And

Dave Auten:

we don't remember which one of us said this, but one of us asked the other, other, what can we actually afford? And that question started this kind of down the mountain conversation. The lower we got, the lower, we talked about what we could actually afford. It went from buying land and building a home to buying something that was already there, to renting long-term during the ski season, to pulling up into our place in Denver, confessing to each other that we were financial messes, even though we were in financial services. And confessing to each other that between the two of us, we had$51,000 in credit card debt and if we kept living the life that we were living, there was no way we were gonna ever get what we really wanted in life. Although what we didn't really know at that point, what we really wanted in life, but it was, that began the whole conversation of why are we doing this to ourselves? We have all this knowledge of being actually in financial services. We're telling people what they should be saving for and planning for, and we're not doing any of it ourselves.

09212025_164310:

And

Dave Auten:

so that was our come to Jesus moment. We were like, we need to change some things in our lives if we truly want to get somewhere. And the

09212025_164310:

Kind

Dave Auten:

of crazy part about this is that when we pulled up into Denver, we grabbed our bags, opened up the door, and we walked down a flight of stairs into a basement apartment. So not only physically were we living in a hole financially, we were living in a hole. And that was kind of the realization of we gotta stop this, we gotta go some other direction. And so it started that whole conversation, what we really wanted in life.

Amanda Abella:

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

Justin Keltner:

A lot of people like, they'll, they'll go and, uh, they'll say, you know, I really want to move abroad. But they do it perhaps because they're running away from something. Or maybe it's just like this sort of pie in the sky dream that they have, but they've never actually really clarified even what they want out of life themselves. Mm-hmm. Or like their own values or their own beliefs or, or any of that stuff. They haven't figured any of that out. Uh, and so it.

09212025_164310:

it's,

Justin Keltner:

It's very poetic,

09212025_164310:

I mean, yeah.

Justin Keltner:

the experience that you guys went through. Uh, and it was, it, you, I mean, you were kind of hit with it over the head a little bit, but a lot of people, uh, they, they have to like really just hit complete rock bottom. So it's cool that you guys are able to sort of see that sign from the universe and be like, okay, let's, let's start thinking about this. Like, let's start being radically honest with each other and figuring out like, what do we actually want as, as individuals as a couple. Uh, and then eventually like teaching other people how to do that, but in an even more authentic way. So, yeah. It's

Dave Auten:

interesting, you, you used the word values. Um, we had a really, really good conversation on our podcast one time with a psychologist who, uh, talks about

09212025_164310:

that

Dave Auten:

the difference between values and standards. And we all say that we want something, right? We all want financial freedom, but then we. Go to the mall or we go out to dinner or we go and

09212025_164310:

uh,

Dave Auten:

eventually we're actually undermining. And the reality of what we're doing, this is our standard, this is our value. Very much like parents who say they value their time with their kids, but then they work 60 to 80 hours a week and they don't get to see their kids very much. Mm-hmm. It's the difference financially. For us, we were like,

09212025_164310:

We

Dave Auten:

know what we, we want standard or values wise, but we were living at this standard way down here by spending all of our money on things like. Designer clothes and trips, a around the world and 40$50 bottle of wine every single day of the week. Those kinds of things really undermined our financial security. And as soon as we realized what we truly wanted to live up to and changed our standards, that's when we got outta debt.

Amanda Abella:

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

John Schneider:

that.

09212025_164310:

That

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

But,

John Schneider:

um, heading into the 2024 election, actually. Um, after the 2018 election or 2020 election, um, we kind of had a sense that the next election was not gonna go the way that we wanted to.

09212025_164310:

And

John Schneider:

we had set the goal that, um, by 2025 we would be able to leave the country retire abroad. Um, that didn't work out for us,'cause financially our businesses didn't, um, succeed the way that we wanted them to. Um, so and originally the goal was to move to Spain. Um, so then after Trump won the 2024 election, um,

09212025_164310:

we

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Do

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Mexico

John Schneider:

is actually the best option for us.

Amanda Abella:

Yeah, we're getting that a lot recently. A lot of people who tried through Spain first, um, and either the taxes were too high or you mentioned that financially it didn't necessarily make sense.

John Schneider:

Yeah.

Amanda Abella:

So what was going on, um, with Spain?

John Schneider:

Yeah, so we, we've been to Spain several times together and separately, uh, both love it, particularly a small town, uh, just south of Barcelona, about half hour, um, called Ccha. Uh, so we just always thought about retiring over there. Um, and, uh, we had moved to, long story short, uh, we left Denver eventually, uh, landed in Toledo, Ohio, and we had hoped to acquire a portfolio of properties, um, using the income that we would get from debt free guys, our original brand Queer Money and our Living On So Fabulously podcast. Um, but just financially, the, the, the businesses didn't succeed the way that we needed them to, so we ended up only actually buying,

09212025_164310:

One

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Uh,

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

I'll

John Schneider:

say that this, um, we at the time. We were looking to generate enough money from our businesses and our real estate investments that we wouldn't necessarily have to tap into our retirement. But it was only, uh, through, uh, deep discussions between the two of us and, uh, research that we did align, um, was that even though we're not 59 and a half or or 65, um, there are strategies for us to tap into our retirement investments, um, not pay the 10% penalty, um, and still have more than enough money to, um, cover us until, I think what, till we're in our nineties, in our nineties.

09212025_164310:

yeah.

Dave Auten:

Yeah, and, and you know, we, we actually talked about this before, the

09212025_164310:

obvious

Dave Auten:

idea of these conditional mile markers, we all are ingrained with this conversation, especially in the financial services industry. And then we preach it out to everybody else. And that is, you cannot tap your retirement money until you absolutely have to. If you're 59 and a half, then you,

09212025_164310:

that

Dave Auten:

would be the first mile marker because then you don't have to pay the 10% penalty. And then the next mile marker is waiting until you are getting social security. So either 62, 70, uh, 62, 75, or 70, 65, I'm sorry, 62, 65 or 70 are kind of the bracket timeframes for most people. Um, or some people even wait until they're 70 and a half when they can start taking their retirement distributions. And we have kind of grew up in that space of believing that there were these mile markers and we hadn't gotten to those mile markers yet.

09212025_164310:

yet.

Dave Auten:

And when we found out about IRS Rule 72 T and looked into how much money we could actually take out of our retirement accounts

09212025_164310:

and

Dave Auten:

then looked around the world at what countries we could actually live off of that amount of money with a decent lifestyle, it was pretty easy. We landed on a few of them, and the most probably appealing one to us was Mexico. Why is that? Why, what was it

Justin Keltner:

that you saw, whether it was on our channel or other places that made you think, Hey, let's give Mexico a shot. I mean. A lot of people in the US and Canada have this view that there's just gangs running the streets here and like, you can't go out at night and all. I don't, I mean, obviously you guys are, you guys are really smart. You're, you're, you weren't, you weren't buying into all that media nonsense, but at the same time, I'm sure you probably had some hangups about Mexico in the first place.

John Schneider:

Yeah. Um, well we've actually, we both love the Spanish culture, whether it's South American Spanish or European Spanish. Um, he's, uh. Decent at Spanish, speaking Spanish, it gets us by. Um, but like I said, we've been to Spain several times, uh, for up to three weeks at a time. Um, and we've been down here to Mexico several times. So we've been to several places in Mexico and have never had a problem with any, with law enforcement or with cartels or anything like that. So just knock on wood, it was, it was clear to us. It was just another sort of, um, uh, American paradigm that other countries are unsafe, um, where, you know. Uh,

09212025_164310:

It's

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Yeah. It's,

John Schneider:

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

Justin Keltner:

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

09212025_164310:

just

Justin Keltner:

just

John Schneider:

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

Justin Keltner:

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

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Um,

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

they,

John Schneider:

we, they only send their, their, their worst to the United States. Right? They're only sending the, the crazies and the rapists and the murderers. Right. So I think it helps feed that narrative. Um, and so if if they're only sending the worst up here, then I definitely don't wanna go down there.'cause that's where the, the source is. Right. Um, so I think it's probably a lot of racism and politics.

Dave Auten:

Yeah. I think it's also,

09212025_164310:

um,

Dave Auten:

it's a lot easier to, to. Manipulate someone's psychology through fear than it is through appreciation or acceptance or love or anything like that. Our brains are naturally wired to, to look at things around in our environment and say, what am I scared of? I gotta get away from that.

09212025_164310:

And

Dave Auten:

that's a really strong

09212025_164310:

physical

Dave Auten:

motivator for a lot of people. So the media on all sides have constantly used fear as a way to pressure people into, like you said.

09212025_164310:

said,

Dave Auten:

Voting some way, spending some way believing a certain philosophy or religion or whatever the case may be.

09212025_164310:

It's

Dave Auten:

the way of way of controlling people.

09212025_164310:

Hmm.

Dave Auten:

And so I think that the more that they can tap into that fear, we,

09212025_164310:

we,

Dave Auten:

we say, and I even said this on the thread, uh, today, the BS and the media about what's going on in Mexico is exactly that is bs. There are so many places in the United States that, um. Uh,

09212025_164310:

You

Dave Auten:

you just wouldn't go unless you're already part of that community, right? You wouldn't go into those, necessarily, those areas, um, because they may feel, make you feel unsafe. Well, Mexico has those too, but just like the United States, there are tons of places where you can go and enjoy'em. An amazing life. There are tons of places in Mexico and every other country where you can go that there are great places to live. And so just, you need to find that environment that works for you. And then you're gonna find the love and acceptance and the community that you really want there.

Amanda Abella:

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

09212025_164310:

Uh,

Amanda Abella:

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

Justin Keltner:

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

Amanda Abella:

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

09212025_164310:

yeah.

Amanda Abella:

yeah. The one who's like, I am a lot more resistant to this. Um, so what advice do you have for couples who, who need to have some, I mean, some real conversations, honestly, whether it's financial or where you're gonna live.

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

um,

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

The

John Schneider:

job market isn't as as great as. Some politicians would have you believe. Um, and it was just, we were going nowhere. And I kept saying to David, in all full transparency, we have, at that time we had$1.5 million.

Dave Auten:

Yeah. And I just kept saying about 1.4,

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

and

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

Hi.

John Schneider:

wants to say hi.

09212025_164310:

Oh, I know

John Schneider:

You gotta stretch, huh? Get

Amanda Abella:

your daughter

09212025_164310:

Yeah.

Amanda Abella:

Daisy da. Come on. Come on.

09212025_164310:

on.

John Schneider:

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

09212025_164310:

What?

Amanda Abella:

oh,

09212025_164310:

hi.

Amanda Abella:

I know.

09212025_164310:

I took a bath. I

John Schneider:

Da,

09212025_164310:

already.

Amanda Abella:

we should it down. Do

John Schneider:

you want go down?

Amanda Abella:

Come on, Daisy.

John Schneider:

Come on

09212025_164310:

No, down

John Schneider:

here,

09212025_164310:

Daisy

Amanda Abella:

This is a blooper reel. That's

09212025_164310:

reel.

Amanda Abella:

a blooper reel. Good girl.

C0509:

So what advice do you guys have for couples who are trying to make these, these difficult conversations? Sometimes whether it's a financial conversation, which we know can get very emotional or moving abroad, because what we've noticed is there's usually one couple that is.

09212025_171208:

is.

C0509:

Already living in another country in their heads. Like they're, they visualized it. They see themselves in it, they're manifesting it, they're doing all the research, they're doing all the stuff. That was me.

09212025_171208:

I

C0509:

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

09212025_171208:

me.

C0509:

That was me. And there was no logical reason for it. I was just being emotional if I'm being honest.

09212025_171208:

Yeah, because,

C0509:

Because, uh, I think you and I were talking about how after you guys ran the numbers and you realized you could do it, then it was being confronted with the courage to actually do it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

Yeah. So, uh. For starters, I'll say blame us, whether it's the two of us, the two of you, this video, use that as the impetus to get the conversation started. And then two, uh, in full transparency, when we started to have this conversation, we had, it was shortly after the, the election and we had lost about 80 to 90% of our income. And we weren't quite sure what we, how we were gonna keep the lights on or pay our own bills. So we tried to find jobs that didn't work out. And at that time we had about$1.4 million, uh, in, uh, investment assets. uh, In retirement accounts and I kept saying, I just don't understand how we can have this much money, but we're living in such financial insecurity. There's just gotta be a way. And I was just thinking to myself, there's, there's, there's definitely a way for us to tap into this money and there's definitely a place for us to live that we can thrive. I think he needed to have that hard situation for us to go through the. The scarcity mindset for us to go through that struggle, for him to really come to realization that there are alternatives for us that may not necessarily follow the traditional path or those mile markers as he said earlier. Um, and then I think would help helped us out, and we often advise our, our clients to do this. Focus on the fun first. What, what is the, what is the goal? What is, what does optimum look like to you? Where are you living? What are you doing? What's the climate? Uh, what are you doing on a day to day basis? Are you walking on a beach and with no shoes on? Are you, are you reading by lakeside? Are you,

09212025_171208:

uh,

C0509:

are you walking around a city and looking at all the museums? Like picture in your mind, side what an ideal life or retirement looks like for you? And then figure out what do you have to do? How do you, how do you back into that? How do you reverse it, engineer into what it is that you want? And that's when we started to say, well, there's this strategy out here and there's this strategy out here and this would work for us. And as we piece this together, oh, it is a little bit more accessible.'cause I think when you and I were first talking,

09212025_171208:

I was

C0509:

like. there, This just isn't an option for us. Right. But we had to sort of go through that. What do we want life to look like? How can things get better? And I think focusing on that positive and the ideal allowed us to see, okay, how can we work things out to make it work out for us? It's an abundance mindset. You talk about that all. the time.

09212025_171208:

of the scarcity of,

C0509:

Yeah. It's Instead, of scarcity of, Hey, I need to scrimp, I need to save. Yeah. And also like instead of running away from something, move towards something. Yes. And that's gonna completely shift the way you look at The whole situation. We talk about that a lot. Where, you know, I, I, I have some expensive hobbies, servers for sure. Anything computer related, flying airplanes. Um, what else do I do that costs, I mean, I like, you know, massages and things too, but that's not as expensive. But I've got some expensive hobbies. I like to buy electronics sometimes on Amazon. I mean, but the last couple years especially. I've said to myself, well what do we really want? We wanna buy land, we want to build something, we want to have a retreat center. Are those things more important, more motivating? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a really good point.'cause we were having this conversation, so

09212025_171208:

you

C0509:

know, there might be someone in the audience now who just heard, oh, they have$1.4 million, Poo poo on the, it's Not much in America right now. Right. Um, you know, but I could never do that. Like I'm where they were before where I'm 50 grand in debt. Or I have three jobs and I'm barely making it. What would you say to those people? Because oftentimes we, that's the problem that needs to get solved. Yeah. First I I think that, um, we kind of get, and I will blame the financial services industry on this. I, we kind of get trapped into this idea that, um. You could only have a successful retirement if you have millions and millions and millions of dollars. It benefits the financial service industry for you to have millions and millions of dollars because those financial advisors are taking 1% out of that, or sometimes 2% out of that every year. So they get a great paycheck. Right. But I think for a lot of people, they don't realize what they actually have. We get trapped into this idea. I mean, for John and I, prior to making this decision, we, we were kind of trapped into this idea that we would need to have somewhere around two and a half to$3 million to be able to retire because we put, we put ourselves in this box of if we're gonna retire, we're gonna retire in the United States, we're probably gonna go to Palm Springs or a, or a city like that. It's Gonna, we're gonna have to buy a home that's gonna cost us 800 to a million dollars, 800,000 to a million dollars. The healthcare in the United States is gonna cost us at least a thousand to two, maybe$2,000 a month, depending on when we decide to retire. Social security is getting smaller, so there's all these things telling us you can't do it right now. But more often than not, we are only myopically focused on this number. I need to have this number to be able to retire, but so many people have money trapped where they don't think about where they actually have their assets. There are a lot of people out there who have. Hundreds of thousands, in some cases, millions of dollars in equity in their home

09212025_171208:

because

C0509:

they bought their home 20 or 30 years ago. But they may only have a hundred thousand dollars in their retirement account. So they think to themselves, I gotta keep working until I can get Social Security and then they have the a hundred thousand dollars. And then they're thinking to themselves, well maybe that isn't even enough. Maybe I have to work until I'm 70.'cause they can't fathom this idea of decoupling themselves. From the things that they have been trained are the American dream. You have to have these things. You have to have this house. You have, you know, if you have, I would say somewhere between 500,000 to$750,000 as a couple combined between your retirement accounts, the equity that you have in your home, maybe some other assets that you have. All of that, you wrap all that together. If you decouple yourself from the idea that I can't let go of any of these things, there are a lot of people out there sitting there with$67,000 cars, right? And they're paying a thousand dollars,$1,200 a month, decoupling themselves from those expenses opens up the opportunity to say. We could have a nicer, if not bigger house, living in another country. In a country where we may only need one car'cause we're retired for the same price they're paying for their car. Right. Or,

09212025_171208:

or

C0509:

or maybe in a lot of cases, or maybe even a lot less, like this whole idea of we're gonna downsize from these. Fancy SUVs we have in the United, United States to having a sturdy, economical SUV that we bring across the border or that we buy in another country. There,

09212025_171208:

the,

C0509:

there's a lot of, I think, a lot of fear in kind of wiping away the American dream and saying. I'm gonna pursue my dream, Mm, not the American dream. Mm. It's my dream. And my dream may be living Lakeside in a place where I bought a house for 150 to$200,000. That has an amazing view. And I have one car, and we can live on 2,500 to$3,000 a month. You could be living right here, right now.

09212025_171208:

And

C0509:

that's something that a lot of people can't

09212025_171208:

dig

C0509:

into and uncover for themselves. We're gonna come back around to that in a second. I just wanted to say how we kind of did the opposite way, right. Which is, um, you know, we are on the younger side of the Mexican YouTube.

09212025_171208:

Earth,

C0509:

you know, and all that. Like usually people are twice our age or they've got 20 years on us and they have all these assets and things. We were in a totally different stage of our lives where we're kind of not 22-year-old digital nomads trying to figure it out, and also not someone in our fifties or sixties with a bunch of assets. And we talked about it and we were like, well, if we just go to another country and we geo arbitrage. Um, then meaning we only earn in dollars, but we're spending in like pesos and stuff like that. We can have a really high quality of life. We don't have to sacrifice anything and we can get to financial independence in a few years. Right. From the amount that we're able to save and invest. Now, the key there is we know marketing, we know sales, we know how to run businesses, so do you guys, we know how to earn in dollars. In a way that's not tied to a job. It's a little different if you did have a job, it's a little different.

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

If you did have a job.

09212025_171208:

job.

C0509:

So to your point about like, what if we just kind of like look at this equation in a totally. Different way. And I think to your point, and you've done content on this, it's the difference between fixed versus growth mindset. And I think that there's, uh, there's a lot of people who don't necessarily understand their worth. Yeah.

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

They only think that they can continue working in the job that they have. But there are countries around the world that have a demand for certain skills. And if you have those skills. It is

09212025_171208:

is

C0509:

a lot easier to actually go to that country and get a job in that country. If you have skills in the tech world, if you have skills in the finance world,

09212025_171208:

and

C0509:

there are lots of jobs outside of the country, outside the us, even outside of Canada, where your skills are in high demand and it's a lot easier to get a visa, a working visa, and if you have a working visa, it doesn't take long to actually get. Per permanent residency or sometimes get your actual citizenship in that country if that's what you want. Because you actually did the reverse in the United States, right? Where you were working, when you were in, in financial services or banking, that you were helping people from other countries working in the United States. so you have kind of that perspective. Well, we, we have helped people All around

09212025_171208:

world.

C0509:

Our primary

09212025_171208:

is

C0509:

in the United States. Yeah. But, um, uh, for us it was, our content is worldwide. Oh yeah. We can take it wherever we want to go. Yeah. When we spent three months in Spain, we were still recording our podcast. We were still working with our, our coaching groups. We were doing all of that stuff

09212025_171208:

and it.

C0509:

it Was, that is one of the benefits of being self-employed is you do have that Mobil mobility, but you also, you need to also look the full spectrum of what, where can your skills be put to use? And it's not, sometimes it's actually at another company in another country. Yeah. You were gonna say something earlier.

09212025_171208:

I,

C0509:

I was to piggyback off of what he said earlier, I think it's important, uh, to remember that the American dream of buying a home is a real estate. Marketing strategy from the 1950s to try to encourage more Americans to buy homes. Um, so I think to your point earlier, what are your goals? What is it that makes you happy? What are your hopes and dreams? Not what has a marketing strategy that that has become as much science as it is art. Um, telling you that you want, what is it that you want? And the same thing with everything you're seeing on Facebook, Instagram, decouple yourself from. what Those things are telling you an ideal life looks like, which so many Americans struggle with. But we've been grown, most of us have grown up in this consumer culture that we need to break away from and say and figure out what is it that we truly want.'cause so many of us are told what we want. And takes us a long time to feel, realize that I don't want all that stuff. Maybe I don't want kids, maybe I don't wanna get married at 21 years old. You know, maybe, maybe better. never wanna get married. Right? But we don't give ourselves those options'cause we're told this is what

09212025_171208:

you

C0509:

want to do. This is a successful life in America. Everyone has debt. That's the one that we would hear a. lot when we were in our finance days. Everyone's got debt. No, 50% of Americans don't have any credit card debt, any personal debt. They might have a mortgage, they may have, uh, business loans because they're growing a business. But that's different. That's completely different. Yeah. That's using it in a positive direction. Yeah. Um.

09212025_171208:

Yeah. Um.

C0509:

What made you guys decide, right? You're like, okay, well let's start planning for the retirement now. Because one of the great things about Mexico is you can get the residency now and then you don't have to actually physically be

09212025_171208:

be

C0509:

Mm-hmm. And we've been helping you guys throughout that process, but what finally helped you guys, um, be like, okay, uh, let's start planning this now. So we're not moving now, but we're gonna have this in our back pocket for when we're ready.'cause we'll say that to a lot of people and it, it like.

09212025_171208:

it like.

C0509:

It Doesn't click and, and then they come back later and we're like, oops, sorry. Immigration rules changed. It's too late now. Yeah. Like People have that happen with Portugal too. I think there are two things. One was, it feels like to us every day we look at the news in the United States, it gets a little, little bit more erratic. Um, and we wanted to be able to have a plan B to escape if we needed to. Um, two everything, to your point that we're seeing about Portugal, Spain. German, Like all over the world in recruiting Mexico, they're getting a little more restrictive on their residencies and, and uh, uh, visas. Uh, so we wanted to try to get in as, as early as possible. So that process was as easy as possible for us. And what helped you be like, you know what? We're just gonna let you know mostly Justin handle this. Um, because a lot of people will try and go at it themselves. Yeah. And we've gone at it ourselves and it's chaotic. You can do it yourself if you're moving to another country. But it's very chaotic. It's a lot of moving pieces. It's different people you gotta talk to. It's housing, it's this, it's that. There's so many logistics involved. Um, and it's cool, like if some people want to go do that themselves, but what made you guys be like, you know what, we're just gonna let other people handle it. Yeah. I think we learned that lesson running a business. That, um, you can try to do everything on your own. You're probably gonna do it in a half-assed kind of way. And it is going to get by, but you're going to struggle and it's gonna take you a lot of time. You're gonna make some mistakes and then you eventually end up hiring a professional and you're like, why didn't I do that? Why didn't do that long time ago? And so we've learned that lesson and we just said, for us right now, time is our most precious freedom. And So if we can buy that time to be able to spend together, to spend with our dogs, to suspend working on various parts of our business, let's buy that time. Because for us, it makes more sense to do it right the first time and make it super easy. So we take away all that stress. Yeah. A lot of our friends from the finance days are telling me the same thing. They're just like, I'm in a stage of life where I just pay people to do stuff. Yeah. Right. Because they've learned that their time is more. valid. So what has that process been like? I mean, since you guys landed, maybe lay lay it out a little bit for people because, um, we, I mean, I'll, I'll toot my own horn, right? Like your, your mentor grant says what's, what's the point of having a horn if you don't toot it? But we cover, we cover all the, all the bases. All the details, yeah. So that you don't have to worry about exactly like you guys are saying. You don't have to worry about the details and you can get your time back. What was that process like? I mean, what was your experience just since you kind of. Okay. Well, even from the beginning we started working together, getting the appointments and then like finally just a few days ago, uh, landing here in, in Lake Chip. Paul.

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

Yeah. I'll say in hindsight. It was way easier than I expected. And I'll say monumentally easier than what everybody else told. it. It was us. it was gonna be like. What did they tell you it was gonna be like,

09212025_171208:

oh,

C0509:

it's gonna be hard. It's so difficult. You go from one consulate to another and they tell you different rules and all that. And there are some of those challenges that you have uh, with regardless of what country you're trying to immigrate to. Um, but I just think having you guys, having been through the, the process yourselves, and having, and having a system and a team of people to work with, uh, it just. You know, we would just get a checklist every now and then, and, okay, we need this from you. This is what's coming up next. It just,

09212025_171208:

it

C0509:

was just more of a process for us. And so I just thought it was a, lot easier going to, uh, the consulate office in the United States was way easier than I expected. Um, going, uh, going through the immigration, coming down here and going through, uh, immigration at the airport was way easier than we expected. And in fact, when we, when we got the, the stamp of approval at the airport to go through the next phase, it was like. That was it was that, it was that easy? Does it, it says Kanye, right? I just expected it was gonna be a lot harder and it wasn't. Yeah. I'll, I'll say, um, uh, part of this whole decision for me was the mathematical time freedom, uh, money freedom conversation. Um, I know how we are. Um, if we were to do it on our own, we probably would spend somewhere close to 500 hours researching this, spending that time, and. If we're just E between the two, E each of us we're making th$30 an hour six, so that's six thou, uh, six time,

09212025_171208:

times

C0509:

or 60 times 500. So we're already looking at$30,000 of our worth being taken away. On top of that, we would still need to hire a translator, we'd still need to hire a lawyer, all that kinda stuff. So I'm thinking, I was thinking to myself, you know, we are probably looking at this, taking years instead of.

09212025_171208:

Months

C0509:

or weeks or days, and it costing us our time and our money instead, it's just costing us our money. And I don't think that between all the time that we've spent on this, between the two of us, we maybe have spent 20 hours,

09212025_171208:

right?

C0509:

So 20 hours

09212025_171208:

of,

C0509:

of our time is worth

09212025_171208:

that

C0509:

amount of money to me. Um, and I know not everybody can make that decision, but. I think there are a lot more people who can and should make that decision versus trying to do it themselves. So let's get to those p.

09212025_171208:

people.

C0509:

cause we'll have a lot of people come to us and they'll be like, I've got 3 million, I've got 5 million, I've got 1 million. And, and if you're in that category, then we can, you know, you will only need 20 hours. and we've got the rest covered and the rest of the time you're on tours, you have massages, you've got good food, good views, all that stuff. Um, and so, but there, to your point, what you were saying earlier about. Having enough, right. I think we were having

09212025_171208:

we were

C0509:

a conversation a couple days ago where people, some people are in the category where they just need to realize, I have enough to, in order to do this, because it's a mindset thing. too. It's a mindset. because some people will come to us, they've got 5 million in net worth, and they're like, okay, that's great, but can we like figure out the online business thing first and then we'll do the relocation and we'll be like, yeah, sure, we can do both, right? We're very well versed in both, but like you already have the money to just do the relocation. You don't need to figure out. Yeah, The online business first. In fact, we could do both at the same time. Yeah. So what do you say to those people? Because I think it was really interesting what you were saying the other day about, for example, you realizing we have enough.

09212025_171208:

Yeah,

C0509:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think that was a, um, for me that was a major. Decision of how,

09212025_171208:

uh,

C0509:

knowing that we had enough, because I was like, I, I mentioned earlier, those conditional biomarkers. I can't, we can't retire until we have this amount of money. We can't retire until we reach 59 and a half. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. And it was when I sat down and actually went through the process of looking at. Withdrawing money from my retirement accounts and what we would withdraw up until the time we were, uh, over, well until I reached 59 and a half and then until we get, uh, social security and that all that, I plugged all that stuff in and I started looking at it and I was like, if we have a 3% increase inflation on our costs and we have a five to 6% growth in our, our portfolio every year. We will have enough money to last right now to be able to withdraw enough to live a really good life. No, we're not like living in mansions. We're not taking trips around the world. We're not going to Monaco and,

09212025_171208:

and,

C0509:

you know, doing those kinds of things. But we can live a really comfortable life, a better life than what we're living in Toledo right now and live until we're 90, 95 years old And you have to admit like, this is much better. than Toledo, No offense to anyone from Toledo, but there's no snow. Sound a little sad about that.

09212025_171208:

No, you're not.

C0509:

But I, I think you have to ask yourself to, what, what is the point of another five or 10 more years?

09212025_171208:

more years?

C0509:

What is really the, what's the, the opportunity cost of trying to save or invest another million dollars? I mean, we're already in our early fifties, um, he has some health issues.

09212025_171208:

Nothing's

C0509:

guaranteed. I mean, we have, we, we actually have friends who have passed away at our age or, and younger. So how much are you going to risk

09212025_171208:

by investing

C0509:

it for another 10 years or working, going to the office for another five or 10 years? Uh, you say

09212025_171208:

you have to weigh

C0509:

you have to weigh those. That's That's,

09212025_171208:

that's, that's you,

C0509:

you could just be giving up a lot and never getting everywhere at the,

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

You guys are very holistic in how you look at things. Yeah. it's, it's really interesting. I think it's because we have these conversations with each other. Going back to that whole idea of getting on the same page, John and I think of things differently. Um, I'm very much more analytical, political. I wanna look at the numbers like my husband and he's a little bit more emotional. Look what this life could be like, like me and then I think that us talking about those and having those conversations and seeing how the two mesh together is really what has brought us to this point. We actually have this joke. Um, long, long time ago we were at a friend's house and, um, it had gotten really, really late and we were having a lot of, uh, a lot of fun. But one of the couples that we were with there with, um, she kept on poking her husband and she says, baby, baby, why are we still here? Why are we still here? And, uh, and oh no. so when we started having these conversations about enough,

09212025_171208:

he

C0509:

kept on poking me and saying, baby, why are we still here? Why are we still in the United States? Why are we still here? Why are we ask ourselves that question, the more it's, it's, it's mental. It's only mental. We don't have to be here anymore. It's your own trap. We have options. Right?

09212025_171208:

but we,

C0509:

you just don't think you do because. You know, Our education system, the media, our government, they don't want you to know that you have those options'cause then you're less controllable. And to those who are watching this and you're like, I don't have a million, 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, they still have options. I mean, they do. Everybody here, right, has learned how to run their own businesses. right? Yeah, online, everybody on this couch, but there's other things that can be done as well. I think you would. a hundred percent.

09212025_171208:

Um, so

C0509:

we're doing a series on our podcast, queer podcast, where we're visiting different countries,

09212025_171208:

uh,

C0509:

virtually, um, and figuring out the best places, uh, for LGBTQ plus friendliness and affordability for gay retirees. Um, and there some. Thailand, uh, Greece, there are some amazing countries that you don't have to have multi millions of dollars to move to. I mean, the golden visa for Greece is only$250,000. Mm-hmm. I know that for a lot of people that's a lot, but for a lot of people that's very accessible. Um, and then you get full residency over there. Um, so I think, yeah, you just have to do your research and I wouldn't mind

09212025_171208:

mind living

C0509:

in Greece. No. And No, and we were talking about this earlier. The, the place that we're staying here in the complex with you guys, you mentioned it would probably rent between five to$600 a month. Um, and we kind of went through a, a minor calculation, a couple who are claiming social security, who are each getting roughly around$1,500 or between the two of them are getting$3,000 and that's all they have. They don't have a million dollars or even$10,000 in their retirement accounts,

09212025_171208:

This

C0509:

is still accessible to them because the cost of living here is so much lower. You can actually live in a place at a gorgeous place, two bedroom, one and a half bathroom, with this amazing view. You can access that. You just have to, to go through that mental process of how can I get there? And so many people think it's, it's too hard, but it's not too hard. You just have to go through the steps of doing it. Speaking of real estate and investments and all that stuff, we were, uh, having dinner the other night and one of the conversations that came up was how you guys started to notice here in Mexico, which is what everybody tells us when we show them around or help them with the residents or whatever, they're like blown away by the growth that they're seeing in Mexico and the economic opportunity. You guys have spent a long time in finance, your numbers, people. What are you seeing now that you're. On the ground or what you've been researching and all of that? Uh, I think that, um, I'll go back to this idea that, um, in the United States, the growth is really happening only in the stock market. Only through. Um, the reduction of money going to everyone and going to a smaller group of people. We keep talking about how we're reaching success of higher, uh, um, uh, milestones in the stock market. But you aren't seeing those kind of success successive milestones for the average person? No. In, in their income. Uh, the things that things are getting more and more expensive. You can blame it on whatever you wanna blame it on, but no matter what, things are getting more expensive, especially for individuals in retirement, and you think about healthcare and the aging process and where you would live and all of that, those are all getting more expensive. So I don't necessarily think that there's amazing growth happening in the United States for the.

09212025_171208:

the.

C0509:

Common individual, every, everyone. That's what I see different happening here is the growth is happening for a lot more of the population than it is in other places like the United States. And I think that that, what that to me says is you think, you think back to in the United States when things were really starting to look good for the country financially. uh, Holistically, it was during the fifties, sixties, and seventies when the middle class was really starting to grow. Well, we all know in the United States the middle class has been shrinking further and further. 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck here. I see that more and more Mexicans are actually doing things like opening their businesses,

09212025_171208:

building

C0509:

own homes, buying the property, building the generational wealth that a lot of our parents and grandparents built for, uh, people. Now, I know necessarily, I'm not gonna participate in that myself, but it's out. It was happening in the United States and it was happening during that time period. That growth is happening here now. and We know that when you get in on that kind of growth, it helps everyone and everyone rises, and that's not the case in the us. Yeah. Mexico actually has one of

09212025_171208:

one

C0509:

the fastest growing middle class. In the world right now. And I think they just had a news story that they lifted like 8 million people out of poverty.

09212025_171208:

Mm-hmm.

C0509:

Uh, people are very educated in Mexico and a lot of people, I guess again,'cause of the media don't realize, uh, that those things are going on here. But you know, we'll go to Aki and Al and we'll talk to people older than all of us. Right. And they'll be like Mexico right now economically is what the United States was. In the sixties When it was good. Yeah, when, when it was growing and, and people were doing well. And if you want the hard data, I mean, look at the growing middle class here. Look at the jobs numbers. Another thing that we just did a video about recently is that they, act in the consulates, they changed from doing the daily minimum wage as like the base for calculations on visas and government fees and things. To now they're using another standard that the government set, because they're like, the minimum wage is going up so fast, we're literally going to block everybody from being able to, uh, immigrate to Mexico. Yeah. If we base, uh, their immigration requirements on how well the, the average like worker, for example, is doing well, and I think it's, it's an important construct. If you think about it, the government in Mexico is looking to have to attract more people. For whatever reason, our government in the United States is looking how to push people away. And it, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a fear mindset. It's a, it's, it's limited thinking

09212025_171208:

on

C0509:

a national scale because if another brown person comes in and takes our job, we're gonna continue to be poor. We have to push those people away. Whereas in Mexico, they're like, no, come, we'll take your tired. We'll take your poor, we'll take your, those yearning to be free. Right. And it's, it's completely flipped on, in the United States head. And I think if you're trying to. Thrive in America. It's just a little bit harder right now,

09212025_171208:

now,

C0509:

and you might think that that's anti-American, but that's exactly what the entire, the message of the, the MAGA movement is, is we are gonna make America great again because it's not great now where Mexico's already got the infrastructure to do that. They've got the growth mindset to do that. You're never gonna achieve that.

09212025_171208:

You

C0509:

You can't go back to the fifties and sixties and you're not gonna be able to achieve that abundance mindset by being so restrictive and negative. Yeah, and I think we've done a lot of videos on this, on the channel. I, it's funny, while you guys are talking, I'm like, you know, if people just sat down to run the numbers of what's going on in the United States? The right and the left would come together like this. Once everyone saw like, but they're all divided. But they're all divided. People keep them separate. Yeah, separate. And people don't know how to run the numbers or they're not looking at these things or they're not seeing what's going on in other parts of the world.'cause you know, all three of us spent time in finance and all three of us eventually got to the point, where we're like, wait a minute, something's wrong. Yep. Yeah. Something's not something's. math, is math. The math isn't math. Yeah. The math isn't math. Um. And I, I've, I've always said that. and I'm like, they're always trying to have everybody totally separated so that we're not paying attention to what's going on with the money. I've, I've been saying that for 15 years. Well, it's the money and it's also the power because the people that are in control have as much money as they ever could want, but it's, it's about having power. It's about

09212025_171208:

you.

C0509:

know, Holding the puppet strings, right?

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

We definitely don't live in a democracy. It's, it's, at best, it's a plutocracy, but more likely an olive. Um, but they have us, they want us to think it's a democracy, and they want you to think that if you question why things aren't working out for you, that that's anti-American.

09212025_171208:

But

C0509:

Um, but that's just uh, speech

09212025_171208:

control.

C0509:

Oh, well, we get all kinds of comments on this channel. We piss everybody off. We, We get called communists, but then we get called colonialists, and then at the same time we get called we're, they say that we're MAGA

09212025_171208:

and they

C0509:

say We're maga. And then they say, we're not maga, we're

09212025_171208:

maga, we're

C0509:

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

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

We've been told we're, manga, we've been told the same thing, and we've told you guys manga. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't imagine told imagine. yeah, yeah. Because we're not, because sometimes we're not as left as we need to be on every single topic. But to the, to. To maga, we're definitely communists.

09212025_171208:

Yes.

C0509:

We've had family members tell us that. Yeah. Oh, well, us too. But both our families flag communism. So there's, there's that whole, uh, thing there. So, final question, because I have seen, and I, I told him this, that when I came here, he was already here and he'd been wanting to help people move to other countries and all this stuff for a long time. And I said, well, let's just do it. Because the minute that I announced that I wasn't going back, I was getting inundated. with Questions, dms. It's gonna happen to you guys too.

09212025_171208:

Yeah. When

C0509:

Yeah. When you, mm-hmm. when you finally make the move. And it's happened to every Mexico YouTuber. Yeah. That's how the YouTube channel started.

09212025_171208:

Mm-hmm.

C0509:

Um, for all of us. But they got tired of answering all, all, the questions. it was an accidental business. for us. An accidental movement. Yeah. But, uh, one interesting trend that I noticed, uh, is a lot of my friends from those financial days, you guys included, but I can name several others. Have reached out to us, to me because they already knew me and asking like, Hey, how does the visa process work in Mexico? Hey, what are the investments looking like?

09212025_171208:

Hey,

C0509:

you heard about Portugal or this or that? There's like a genuine concern from people who understand money, like emotions aside. There's a genuine, it seems to me that there's a genuine concern for people who understand money that they're starting to look at other options. So what do you think is going on there? Because I mean. You guys started the trend. Yeah,

09212025_171208:

I, I,

C0509:

I, I I think that, um, for those of us who pay attention to fi finances a little bit more, we're starting to see some things that worry us. Um, the fact that, uh, the bond market is not as, um, active as it used to be by. The, uh, the countries outside the United States, there were, there used to be a lot of per lot more purchases happening from places like China and Europe and places like that. So the bond market is a little bit of an indicator as to what's going on in the US economy. Um, the other thing is that, um. Over the last nine months, the US dollar has slipped by about 15%, Percent, which is making everything that is purchased outside the United States and brought in even more expensive. Um, and so you start to put together all these little breadcrumbs and you start to see there's probably more opportunity for my investments out there,

09212025_171208:

and

C0509:

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

09212025_171208:

they're

C0509:

that now. And Whenever there's that question, then you try to figure out how do you adapt your portfolio to that? How do you adapt your lifestyle to that? And for us, uh, that has become a major thing. We're like, we may be doing great in the US stock market, but compared to the global standard, we're actually shrinking because of the drop in the dollar, the drop drop in, in the in bond values. All of those kinds of things are adding up and saying maybe there's an opportunity outside the us. Yeah.

09212025_171208:

Yeah, I'll

C0509:

Oh, add that I think, you know, wages have been stagnant, uh, since the seventies, by and large. Other economic fundamentals are becoming challenging with inflation. Um, the tax situation, um, and other challenges with the economy and the economy and the stock market aren't the same, but they definitely influence each other. And it makes me really concerned to see the upward trajectory that we see in the stock market without the economic fundamentals to support that. And I know that there's the popular belief, especially in the fire movement to say just. you know, Put

09212025_171208:

all,

C0509:

put all of your money into a s and p 500 ETF. Well, the s and p 500 hasn't, has been, has never been less diversified than it is now because it's got so much of a concentration in, um, technology. Um, so you don't have that diversification. So our concern is that at some point there's, it's, it's gonna be, and we haven't had a, a cyclical market correction since the. Since 2008, and you should have a healthy, for a healthy economy, you should have a cyclical market correction every one and a half to three years. And so. Something's coming and I'm just afraid it's gonna be cataclysmic. And is that where we want to have all of our investments? Don't we wanna have.

09212025_171208:

have it

C0509:

more diversified? And it should have happened during COVID, right? That's another thing. It should have happened during COVID, but there's so much money right? we used so much cash in

09212025_171208:

the,

C0509:

propping up the economy, that it, right? Yeah. Technically we were started, we had started to head that direction, even though the market was still going up towards the end of, uh, of, uh, 2020. We were still, we were starting to head that direction with the. uh, With unemployment and things like that, The, and the inflation, all of that was contributing to, we might be heading in towards a recession or down to. in, in, uh, in the economy. But like you said, with having mil, tens of millions of people out of a job, the government had to do something and that just propped everything up. It propped out the, it propped up the economy, it propped up the stock market. All everything was being propped up by the government actually.

09212025_171208:

Putting

C0509:

back into the economy and technically that is part of the Fed's job is to do that kind of thing. It is the part of the central banks to do those kinds of things to, to help prevent a major, major cataclysmic event. And they did get by that, but it also brought that kind of inflation with it. Yeah, We all sound like libertarians right now, so we're just gonna to everybody,

09212025_171208:

we're just

C0509:

confuse everybody who's watching this. But to your point, uh, you actually, earlier this year, he was running the numbers on everything and he, he said, Hey, I'm gonna start pulling out of the US stock market and we're gonna start investing. uh, Here in Mexico in certain things we're looking at other countries and finding ways to diversify because you were feeling very uncomfortable, uh, when you were running the numbers. Yeah, I was looking at the patterns and, and I I also just, just kind of have a feeling that based on everything we've seen with people moving out of the US with how politics are going, with how the economy's going, how the world is changing, uh, yeah. It's, it's going to be better to have money diversified across different countries. Mm-hmm. Not just across different stocks. Um, So yeah, over, we're putting over half of our savings and. the Mexican markets and, uh, different types of investments here and peer-to-peer lending and all sorts of things like that. Yeah. Yeah. And then, we'll, we'll start looking at other countries, but at least starting that diversification process. And I mean, we're getting way higher returns here than on anything. Yeah. In the United states. Yeah, Yeah, because they're, they have a growth economy here. We don't necessarily have that in the US and the capital market's a lot tighter, so you might get a return, obviously. not Financial advice, consult your, your professional. Uh, but we're getting returns of like between 10 and 15 plus percent Per year. Yeah.

09212025_171208:

Yeah.

C0509:

On relatively low risk kind kinds of investment strategies. And now that you guys have residency, you'll be able to, start investing in some of those vehicles and things like that, which is one of the, the beauties of getting residency, even if you're not fully moving here yet. Yeah. So what are some of the final words that you have to people who may be watching this if.

09212025_171208:

and.

C0509:

Number one, they're totally confused as to where we all stand politically after that last. conversation. Um,

09212025_171208:

Um,

C0509:

but they're still watching and they're like, okay, but this sounds like a pipe dream. You know, I can't afford to work with Amanda and Justin, or I don't have a million dollars, or, I'm stuck here right for X, Y, and Z. Oh, actually, you know, another reason why they get stuck. I have a house, I have this, I have that. I have businesses, I have all these responsibilities in the United States, and I need to have them all tied up in a little bow. Perfect little bow. Yeah. Right. Before I can start on this process, there's so many reasons why people feel stuck. What do you have to say to those people?

09212025_171208:

I

C0509:

I would challenge anybody who thinks that they can't make the move, that they can probably make the move. It's a

09212025_171208:

mental,

C0509:

a mental hurdle. Um, so just start. Work under the assumption that you can make the move and figure out what do you have to do to get there. It might be that you can't afford, they can't afford you to, but it doesn't mean that they can't make the move or start to take the steps to actually afford you to, uh, it might be that you have, feel like you have too much debt, but there is a way to pay off that debt. So just figure out what is it gonna take you to get to whatever your goal is and start to take those steps And if it's that you have a business, how do you untangle yourself from that business so you have to work on it every day, or how does it become more virtual? Um. Is your business providing you the lifestyle that you want? If you can't walk away from the desk, probably not. Is that, is that what you're, is that why you started a business to begin with? So you had no freedom? I think also for a lot of business owners, they may not understand the value of their business because they've never done a business of valuation. They've actually never worked with a professional to sit down and say, okay, based on our expenses, uh, and income and profit, my business is worth X amount of money. You may be sitting on a business that you don't know may be worth a million dollars and selling that business, you get the freedom of not having to be at that desk every day or on those phone calls every day, but you also get the freedom of now you get to buy all your time back, all that time that you put into that business, get that business to buy your time back so that you can have the lifestyle that you want. You can live where you want. I think that instead of saying, I can't, it's how can I?

09212025_171208:

I?

C0509:

And So you, when you say, how can I, you start to think about the various things that could make it happen. And that really opens up the questioning. Do I want to make that decision? Can I make that decision? Is it the right decision for me? And then you get a lot more opportunities to say, oh, I actually can, I can make this decision, I can do this, I can do that. And those will all culminate in you saying, I can make this move. Of, yeah, I, I, I think it's what you say all the time. It's just like a mental hurdle of here. I just thought of a few people that we should probably send them a text message and be like, Hey, have you gotten your business evaluated by any chance? I just thought, it

09212025_171208:

know some

C0509:

with you. I know some good brokers in the US who can probably do that. Right. I just, It's not a terrible idea. We've gotta do that this week. I just thought of a few people that they probably don't know. that, You know, because they've never had the evaluation done and we can connect them with brokers and see. what we do. Yeah. And that could be your passport to get over here. Yeah, totally. All right. You wanna sign us off My Love. All Right. Well that was our chat here with John and David. We're so excited to, to help them on this journey. And we're, we're getting their visas tomorrow, their official, uh, residency cards. Um, so really excited about that. We're really excited. You guys are joining us here in Mexico. Hey, we might even be neighbors. Yeah. You know,

09212025_171208:

now

C0509:

one of these days soon. Um, so thanks guys for watching. Uh, this was a lot of fun. This, this chat and just, just, uh, being here with you guys and, and exploring. Um, and if you guys are, are watching and you're saying, Hey, I'm interested in doing the same thing, book a consult with us. If you qualify, you can get a free call with me or our team. We could talk through your specifics, what you're trying to do, help you figure out step by step how exactly to get out here to Mexico or anywhere else in the world. We have connections all over the place. You can also download our Moving to Mexico Guide for free. Below this video or our moving abroad checklist, and that'll help you out a lot on the journey as well. Don't forget to subscribe and give this video. Thumbs up, hit that notification bell. Make sure you don't miss any of the content we have coming up multiple times. Per week now Amanda is on my ass and making sure, making sure of it that I'm in the studio. The influencers are influencing. Exactly. Um, influencers. Got influence. Yep.

09212025_171208:

Yep.

C0509:

So, uh, thanks again and uh, we'll see you again very soon. We're gonna have a lot more content like this coming out as well as we have more and more people coming down here to Mexico to, to do this whole process with us. So thanks again for watching and uh, bye for now. All right. Dinner and, Ahi. Alright, let's do it.