Top 5 Reasons Why Mexico is a Smart Move for New Expats

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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Disclaimer: The information in this video should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Entrepreneur Expat can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.

Transcript

Justin: 0:36

If you've ever thought, I wanna live abroad, but I just don't know where to start, then stick around. Because Mexico could be your ideal first step. You're not giving up your business, your freedom or your bank account, you're expanding them, and here's why. Mexico often makes that transition smoother than many people realize. by the end of this video, you'll understand the real pros and cons of Mexico for first time expats, and whether it might be the right starter country for you and your business. If you're new to this channel, I'm Justin Keltner, and here on Entrepreneur Expat. We help freedom seeking professionals, investors, and business owners build the life of their dreams overseas. If that's something that you're interested in, or if you want help with the details, including visas and tax questions and everything else, just go to entrepreneur expat.com/consult and we can help you get started. We've also got a ton of free resources below this video and some courses and things that you can check out. Both about living and moving overseas and also about generating remote income while you're there so that you don't have to sacrifice your quality of life. When you do decide to move abroad. The first thing we're gonna talk about is accessibility and residency basics here in Mexico, so many expats assume that relocation is super complex, but in Mexico, because of the established expat infrastructure, it is really accessible. Here's the residency route overview. To legally stay long-term in Mexico beyond just tourist status, just like we do, you normally apply for a temporary resident visa or residente temporal at a Mexican consulate abroad. Instead of being stuck in short term tourist cycles, like coming for six months at a time, going back for a few days and then coming back, which by the way, they're cracking down on now you almost can't do that like you could in years past. What you're gonna do instead is you're working towards stability, so you can get one to four years of permanent stay. Really, they approve you for four years, but you just renew that temporary residence with the ability to then convert into permanent status and possibly even Mexican citizenship if you want that. And as of 2025, the consulates are requiring approximately$4,200 per month in net income. Or, and by the way, the net income does have to be fully remote. So if you're working a job, you do need a letter saying that you can work remotely from Mexico, or you can also have around$70,000 in your savings or investments accounts. And that is if you're applying for temporary residency via economic solvency. There are certainly some other ways as well. For example, if you've got a parent that's Mexican. Or if you're married to a Mexican spouse, then there are expedited ways of doing that that don't necessarily require you to prove financial solvency in Mexico. If you're interested in the specific details, just grab that consult below@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult and my team. It can help you figure out the best way to get from where you are to actually having that Mexican residency. So why do all of these numbers from the consulates and everything else matter, especially if you need to qualify for Mexico based on financial means? Well, it sets a realistic planning number, so if perhaps you're already earning. More than that requirement. You kind of know where you're at, or if you're not quite there yet, it gives you an idea of what you need to shoot for. And if you do already have that income or that savings in the bank, well you already know Mexico is super viable, so you can kind of take that next step. Now, the requirements do vary by consulate and exchange rates or external policy shifts can affect that. So you always wanna make sure to check your specific areas, consulate and their requirements. Before you go and apply, obviously when you book a call with our team, we help you with all the details. So now we're gonna touch on the culture, the infrastructure, as well as the lifestyle. The thing that's really cool about Mexico and why a lot of people love it here is that you get such a nice blend. So Mexican lifestyle is warm, there's a warm climate, there's a vibrant culture, there's a lot of very expat. Friendly cities, and there's also a ton of modern infrastructure that means good internet, major airports, co-working hubs as well. So you can kind of jump in without reinventing your entire business model. I'll also say another thing that that appeals to people that are running businesses remotely or even that have remote jobs, is that because it's on. At the same time zone as the us, it'll vary between US Mountain and Central Time because the US is still doing the whole day daylight savings fiasco. Whereas in Mexico, we have outlawed that we don't do daylight savings anymore. But nonetheless, you're always gonna be on either mountain or central time. So here are some cities, places like Mexico City, Guadalajara, Merida, or the Lake Chip region where we're currently located, have really strong expat communities and familiar. Comfort levels. And another thing that people say that makes Mexico great and a very nice soft landing is because of its close proximity to the US and Canada, as well as its direct flights. It's very easy to stay connected with the home base or to make those occasional business trips. And in terms of the comfort and the transition experience of moving down here, there's so many expats that are here, in fact, here in the Lake Al area, in a little town called ahi. It's actually the number one place for expats. From the US and Canada in the entire world. So you're gonna find a lot of familiar services, including international banking, dual language professionals, and so much more, which lowers the stress of, of migration, right? Of, of moving here as an expat, and you don't have to have so much stress or drama or chaos. That is the cool thing that having those preexisting communities. Do Now, of course, even though it's a starter country, that means that you still, you know, have to plan your move. You still want to adopt good practices, including getting local advisors, understanding the local tax and residency rules. It's not just easy in the traditional sense, like you can't just come down here and act as if everything here is gonna be exactly the way that it was back home because it's not true. Now we're gonna talk about the cost of living and the reality of doing business here. So there's an upside to the cost of living. While cheap isn't always accurate, especially not anymore. It's changed a lot and gotten more expensive in the last few years. Many areas in Mexico do allow you to maintain or upgrade your lifestyle compared to your previous home base, especially the US, Canada, or Western Europe. Where inflation is off the charts and prices are crazy and it's very difficult for the average person to just afford the basics here, that's really not the case, especially if you're able to earn in dollars and spend in pesos. It's also very business friendly for expats down here, so if you're running an online business or if you're serving multiple markets, Mexico does give you that good base. Time zones, like I mentioned earlier, are a factor. There's access to those professional services. And now as an added bonus, and we're, we're getting to do this as well, we're tapping into the Latin American market. So not only are we marketing things to the US and Canada, but we're also doing business here. Like we have Airbnbs that we're managing locally. So it gives us access to tap into multiple different kinds of markets, which is pretty cool. The other thing that people love about coming to Mexico is that it gives you so many possibilities to upgrade your lifestyle. You might get nicer housing local staff, for example, we have a housekeeper that comes here twice a week. We have a private driver that we use almost whenever we want to go into Guadalajara or elsewhere. There's better weather too, which is really cool, and there's also less stress. you still do need to budget for things like health insurance and travel. But it's a lot easier to budget for those things when your basics are taken care of with a lot less money. Now, if you are considering a beach or a very touristy area like Puerto Vallarta or Play Del Carmen, some of those areas, especially in recent years, have gone up a lot in price. So they might cost more than you expect. And of course, look at the seasonal. Variations for rentals, because if you do rent something, let's say in high season, which in Mexico a lot of the time tends to be in the winter, then you might not get the best price, right? So you wanna factor some of those things. Now we're gonna talk about how Mexico works so well as that starter country. So there's a lot less shock here than relocating to a place with perhaps vastly different culture or subpar infrastructure. You can learn to handle residency, local banking, healthcare, cross border taxes, and living abroad on your terms. But in an environment that's relatively well supported because there's so many other expats here, English tends to be spoken in a lot of places. There's multilingual people here in a lot of different areas that expats hang out in. And you can test if long-term expat life. Fits you before committing to perhaps more remote or higher risk countries? I would say that Mexico, compared to perhaps Brazil or Columbia or maybe even Portugal, tends to be a little bit more of a soft landing, especially compared to somewhere like Southeast Asia because it's closer to home. You can hop back and forth for at least the initial part of your, your journey here as an expat. If you are still wrapping up things back in the US or Canada and you've got a lot more. Infrastructure and so much more. And like I mentioned earlier, another thing that is really cool is that you can use Mexico as a base to grow your Latin America American presence. So perhaps you're importing or you're exporting, or you're doing business with countries in Latin America, including Mexico. You have a nice base. You can learn Spanish if you don't already speak it, and, uh, kind of be set up for success if you are doing even more of the international lifestyle and doing business across multiple countries. One cool mindset shift I'd like to share with all of our relocation clients is it's not that you are giving up your home or your home country, you're just adding an international dimension and you're building optionality here so that you don't have to be tied to somewhere like the us. If you don't like it here, you can always go back. Now, here's some of the common mistakes and how to avoid them. Mistake number one is assuming that a tourist visa equals residency. In years prior, it was easy enough to just come here, stay for six months, go back to the US for a day or two, and then come back. Many people tried to do that and now they're realizing it's not working anymore. You can risk legal issues including even being sent back to your home country if you do overstay your visa. So you definitely do wanna get that temporary or permanent residency. And if you are looking for support with that, definitely go to entrepreneur expat.com/consult and we can absolutely help you and your family and your business relocate here to Mexico. Mistake number two is ignoring updated residency requirements. Some people still have really old numbers stuck in their head from perhaps when they were researching this several years ago because it used to be that you barely had to demonstrate any income at all with a couple thousand dollars a month you could get your Mexican temporary residency. Now it's not the case. It's closer to 4,200 a month or 70 grand us in savings, which is way higher than it was before. By the way, don't wait'cause it just keeps going up. So these updated requirements exist and they go up every year, and you wanna make sure that you do have UpToDate information and that you're not stuck in the past thinking that Mexico is still cheap or that you don't really need a lot of income to qualify for residency. Mistake number three is choosing a location based just. On things like cheap rent without checking infrastructure, legal risks, and access to professionals, especially if you're running a business remotely. You wanna make sure a place has good internet up. I'll just share a little personal story. I was thinking about moving from Guadalajara to Porto Escondido. And there were a few issues there. number one is, you know, it, it's a very small beach town and the infrastructure is not great. So the power goes out from time to time. the internet was not good at all. The only thing that really was reliable at all was starlink, and a lot of places you would rent had like one shared starlink for the community. So even though maybe it's cheaper in some areas than perhaps more developed beach towns or even cheaper than Guadalajara in some areas, I didn't end up moving there because. The infrastructure was just not there in the way that it would be in Guadalajara or even where we are in the Lake Al area. So you don't want to think about just cheap rent or Hey, I want to be in a beach town, right? You wanna make sure that if you are gonna be in a beach town, is there reliable infrastructure for like the electricity to make sure your AC runs consistently, as an example, and that your internet's not going out. Things like that. Mistake number four, neglecting cross-border tax and business structuring issues. If you are running a business online or overseas, you'll wanna plan how your income is actually treated. And this is not legal or tax advice. You wanna consult your professional. We do have a lot of professionals we work with directly on these issues. That's why booking that consult below@entrepreneurexed.com slash consult is going to help because we can look at your individual situation, how you're. Your tax currently, how your business is structured. If you are a consultant, maybe you don't have a corporate structure. We can actually help you set one up and perhaps even de domicile yourself from a high tax state before moving overseas. Otherwise, you're still gonna be paying California or New York taxes, even though you're living in Mexico. You wanna make sure that you have all those ducks in a row. Mistake number five, thinking that Mexico is just effortless. While it is a relatively accessible country compared to some others, it still requires due diligence. You wanna make sure things are set up with your visa. You wanna make sure that you're following local rules, both for yourself and your money and your business, and also doing banking and insurance properly. I will say this about insurance. We have health insurance here, even though healthcare is not that expensive because if something does ha happen and, you know, knock on wood, but you get into some sort of event or accident or something like that, Mexico actually can add up a lot for, for emergency care. Uh, and in fact, the insurance market is the second highest in this entire region in North America, right after the US because. It does, you know there, there is expensive medical care, especially if you wanna see private doctors and private hospitals. So you do wanna make sure you have things like insurance and we can help you get that sorted out as well. We've got insurance professionals for both car and home and health and so much more. Now, how do you avoid this? Well, you start with a relocation plan, right? We help you create an actual relocation plan on how to do this effectively, efficiently, how to save time, and how to make sure that you're not missing any detail. You wanna work with advisors, like some of the people on our team with immigration, legal, and accounting. Make sure your budget is within a margin of error based on your income and based on your assets. Pick your city intentionally and also build a local support network. Don't be afraid to go into different Facebook groups and see where expats are hanging out and go to local meetups and things like that. It's about building more community, not not leaving your home country and just being a, a hermit, like being solitary, right? You wanna actually build community. So yes, Mexico can be the perfect starter country for your next chapter, especially if you want an expat base. That offers freedom, connection, growth, and access, but only if you plan smart and execute intentionally. I'm Justin Keltner. This is Entrepreneur Expat. Thank you so much for liking this video, for subscribing and for being the best part. Our community. If you haven't already, book that relocation strategy call with our team@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult. And if perhaps you need other guidance, look at the free resources below this video as well. We've got a ton of free resources, we've got a ton of courses and other things that can help you. Whether you're ready to get started in the Visa process and want our direct support, or perhaps you just need to make some more remote income, we can help you with that as well. So check out all those resources and we'll see you again very soon. Thanks so much.