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156 Ramble Encore: Yes You Can(travel)! · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn, and tell stories.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And today, it's kind of a mix. I want to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: do a re-ramble, or ramble encore, this week, but I'm
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: going to actually re-record the whole thing, because it's still
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the most common question I get. Can I also travel?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Or can I also live abroad? Or I really want
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to live abroad, how do I do it? Like, is
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: it possible? I literally got it yesterday. I get it
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: pretty much every time somebody finds out that I'm a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: full-time traveler. And since it's so common, I thought I'd...
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: It'll be very similar to the first Yes You Can,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: which is like episode two, I think, something like that.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's been a hundred whatever episodes. And it
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: seems like a good time to re-up this. And I
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: really never get tired of answering this question because... For
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: everybody in real life that I've actually met, the answer
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: is yes. Yes, you can. Every person who asks me, like,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: can I also travel? But what if I have a cat?
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yep, that's not a problem. What if I
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: have a dog? That's okay. What if I have a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: pet of some kind that requires special care? That's okay.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: You have to plan ahead of your trip. But yes,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: people travel with their pets, and you can also get
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a new pet where you're going if you want to.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: But yeah, people definitely travel with their pets. But I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: have kids. Yep, that's okay. There are even more than pets, actually.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: There's way more families that travel with their kids than
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: even pet travelers. So yeah, a lot of people... You know,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the most common thing is, I wish I could do that.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And very often, the answer is, you can. Great news,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you can. You don't have to if you don't want to,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: but you can. That has to be... There's something... about
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: traveling that when people understand they can do it, I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: think it's with any big opportunity or advantage that someone has,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it seems like they believe they should be doing something.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Like if they discover an opportunity later on that could
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: have helped them far before, then why weren't they doing
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it way before? But it's okay, we only learn things
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: as we go along. I had no idea about anything
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: about the rest of the world. I really knew. I'm shocked.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: As soon as I was living abroad for, I don't know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a couple months, I was shocked at how little I
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: did actually know about how the world worked, how people
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: live in the world, what the world was like, the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: rules by which my world functioned. I had all of
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that completely wrong, but there's no way I could have
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: known until I knew. It's very difficult to make any
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: sort of change before it's known that change is possible.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Right now, I expect everybody to be living their lives
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the way that works for them, the same way I'm
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: living the way that works for me. I want to travel.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I like the financial independence. I like not working. I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: like eating different foods all the time. I really like
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: seeing different things, seeing, like, ancient ruins and stuff on
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: my own time. And... Other people can do that, but
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I understand that like if you have to choose your
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: own schedule every day, it's kind of like after people retire,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you know, old people and they're like, oh God, what
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: do I do with my day? A lot of people
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: worry about that. So I understand why it can seem
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: overwhelming to travel because you have all the choice. You're
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: going to, as soon as you're traveling, your costs plummet.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: You don't have to make 80% of your living costs
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: or more. So you just have so much more time
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: because you don't have to work as much to make
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: your cost of living back. And yes, there are some
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: people who cannot travel for one reason or another. There
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: have to be, statistically. It's just that the number is
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: far smaller than you think, or really far smaller than
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: it might appear at first thought of traveling. Far smaller
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: than it seemed to me at first. The more I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: traveled and the more people I met living in different
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: conditions with different concerns, it became very clear to me
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: how much more accessible travel is broadly than I originally imagined.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: A lot of the concerns I hear about now when
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: someone thinks about traveling for the first time I have
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: heard many times by travelers. What if I have a
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: chronic medical condition? I know of no medical conditions that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: cannot be treated, mitigated, and medicated abroad. Whether it's your
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: transitioning in your gender or you have a chronic pain
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: in your back or you have a immune disease. And
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of cancer. I know plenty of
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: ill people abroad and they all have access to better,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: more affordable health care, often much more affordable because many
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: of the ones, many of the people I know are
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: from the United States than the country they're from. So yeah,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: there must be certain reasons why some people can't travel.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's just that that number is very small. Most people
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: do have the opportunity and means to travel because you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: need less means. You don't need as much money if
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you're a traveler. Even if you're living in the United States,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: if you are living like a traveler in the United States,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: you don't need as much money. You don't need to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: pay insurance. You don't need to pay utility costs. You
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: don't need to pay your Wi-Fi. So when I do
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: stay in the United States, it's always cheaper than all
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of my friends, especially, I mean, if you're from the
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: States in the mid-2020s or late-2020s, you know what I'm
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: talking about. The rent is insane. People from outside the U.S.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: don't even believe it. People from the U.S. don't believe it.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I was talking to a lady in a store, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: she didn't know that the average U.S. rent was $ 1, 500
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to $ 1, 600 now per person. She couldn't believe that she'd
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: been living here her whole life. But the explosion in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: rental prices in the U.S. is really... I don't think
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen it anywhere else in any other housing crisis country. Yeah,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: visiting the U.S. every couple years and seeing the prices
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: shoot up every couple of years... What would be a
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: financial catastrophe in most countries, and that is continually happening
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: every couple of years when I visit the U.S., is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: pretty wild. And people from other countries that I talk to,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: they were surprised before. Chinese people didn't really believe how
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: expensive it was because their apartments are still $ 100 a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: month U.S. equivalent for like a nice studio. And the U.S.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: is 15 to 16 times that. But now pretty much
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: every country doesn't even believe the housing costs in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: United States. Nowhere. Nowhere like Germany, Canada, other housing crisis countries. Yes,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: you can find a more expensive one in the most
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: expensive city in that country. But Germany, Canada, Portugal, they
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: all think the U.S. is absolutely insane now. And it is.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It was crazy last year or however long ago it
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: was when I started this podcast, a year and a half.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: And I think three years ago or something, three or
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: four years ago, the last time I was in the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: United States at all, the lumber had made the housing
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: prices and just like construction materials about three, closer to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: three than two times as much as they were a
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: couple years before that when I was in the United States.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: And now I think from when I left the United States,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: we're probably at five to six times as much as
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: expensive as building materials were. And that's certainly not coming
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: down with Trump breaking alliances with Canada and them starting
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: new trade agreements. And they're already, those trade agreements are
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: finished between Canada and their new allied countries, Central, South America,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and Europe. So, I mean, the construction material prices aren't
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: going back down because 80% of U.S. lumber is actually
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: from Canada. It is just Coming back every couple of
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: years to this country, when I first used to visit every,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know, two years or something, to when I
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: came back to the U.S. for a little bit at
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: a time just to visit friends or family, people would
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: ask where I had been and what I had been
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: doing while traveling, and I would hear, oh, really? I
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: don't think I could do that. That sounds so difficult.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And that general attitude has changed 180 degrees in the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: 15 years that I've been abroad. Now when I tell people,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: probably about 50-50, the answer is not, I wish I
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: could do that. Now it's, oh yeah, we're seriously thinking
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: about moving abroad, or we have plans to move abroad,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: or we are going to move abroad. I met plenty
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: of people who were like, yep, we're going. It's just,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: it's impossible to live in the U.S. fairly, unless you're
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: completely okay with being exploited and being given an unfair shake.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: You go to McDonald's and pay six dollars for a
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: terrible hamburger or Big Mac or whatever they serve there.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: It's that it's crazy. That was a dollar. That was
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a dollar when I left the US. And now all
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: food prices are probably about 600 percent just a decade
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and a half later. They should be about 15, 20
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: percent more expensive at best. And they're 600 percent. And
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it's not just that. I remember distinctly that you could
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: buy $ 3 frozen pizzas. The cheapest ones are like $ 7
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and most of them are $ 15 for a frozen pizza,
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  Speaker 1: which used to be you could get a delivered pizza
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and pay a tip on like special Tuesdays, two for
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Tuesdays kind of thing. And that's just not a thing anymore.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: And I know this because People tell me this, like U.S. Americans,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: when I visit the country, this is what they're talking about,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the unaffordability crisis that the United States is going through.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: When I left the country 15 years ago, I thought
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: things were too expensive. And now I come back and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: things are way worse than I thought they could get
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in the U.S. financially for most people. Now, what I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: used to consider a prohibitive cost of living... was really
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: an irritating cost of living that took all of your
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: extra money and time, but now it's impossible to live
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: on a normal wage job in the U.S. The so-called
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: minimum wages are not at all tied to a minimum
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: standard of living in the U.S. anymore. It's completely unpegged,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: where in most countries there's a legally mandated standard minimum
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: wage that correlates to an expected standard of living in
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that country. That is missing in the United States these days.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: So not only can you live abroad, yes you can,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: but you probably should right now. If you're having a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: difficult time in the United States, especially financially, the quickest
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: way to independence financially is to live in a place
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: with a lower cost of living. And travelers can do
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that in a respectful way that doesn't disturb the local culture, economy,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: or lifestyle. I keep hearing about gentrification. That seems to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: be a very hot buzzword recently in articles. Understood to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: mean people from one place moving to another place and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: raising the prices. It's a simple, if inaccurate, correlation to understand.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And an easy cause and effect thing that doesn't at
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: all reflect how people move into neighborhoods, how neighborhoods... have investments,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: or are revitalized or are abandoned for any number of
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: reasons aside from income level. But there are plenty of
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: ways for a traveler to mitigate his impact on the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: local culture. You can pay local prices and live in
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: the neighborhoods. Yeah, you'll be taking up apartments, but so
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: do the other people in the country. Gentrification isn't this
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: simple cause and effect switch that can be turned on
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and off. And there's no clear single cause and effect
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of one place becoming popular over another. It's a very
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: natural urban immigration process. People who are able to afford
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a neighborhood move into that neighborhood to feel more comfortable.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: It occurs as a byproduct of people having means moving
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to a popular location. And if it's very trendy and
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: enough people move there, That can displace the people already
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: living there, especially if there's collusion within rental agreements or
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: by banks that own the properties. You renting a local
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: apartment at the local price in a neighborhood in Honduras, though,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: are an insignificant factor in gentrification. It's kind of like
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: McDonald's telling each individual person to use paper straws from
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: now on. Because McDonald's has been negatively impacting the environment
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: on a broader scale as a corporation than any person
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: or group of people ever could. The problem with gentrification
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: is that humans tend to move in waves and they
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: tend to move in trends. So it was trendy to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: move to Portugal. You can still see Portugal is like
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the most affordable country. EU country on all the top
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: 10 places to retire, and specifically just one or two cities,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Lisbon and Porto. They didn't even go to the rest
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of the country, which is obviously part of the problem.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: And so, ignoring corporate malfeasance or government corruption, a lot
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: of people went to two cities in a pretty large country,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and some neighborhoods in those two cities only, prices went
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: up in a relatively short amount of time. Now, if
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you went to the other cities, the prices didn't fluctuate.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: If you went to other parts of those two popular cities,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the prices didn't fluctuate. It's just waves and trends. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: seeing those recommended top 10 lists of places to retire
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: are always so silly to me because there are so
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: many countries that are just as cheap or cheaper, just
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: as nice or nicer, just as friendly or friendlier than
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: countries Portugal or whatever Caribbean island is on the list
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: that week. Because Portugal was on the top 10 list,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: it was in all the BuzzFeed listicles or whatever, a
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of people moved to Portugal starting about 10
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: years ago, and now as of, I don't know, four
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: years ago, economic displacement is a problem in the formerly
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: high-income neighborhoods of Lisbon and Porto, because people would only
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: buy the most expensive room rather than looking for a
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: reasonably priced room. And it's still certainly cheaper. You can
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: still get a nice room probably for about $ 600 per
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: month in the expensive neighborhoods we're talking about in those
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: couple of cities in Portugal. So $ 1, 000 less than if
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: you're from the States or $ 800, $ 700 less than if
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you're from Canada. Still much less. It's still a good price,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: but why? Why go to Portugal... It's the same reason
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: why I suggest people don't live in the US. Like, yeah,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: there are too many people moving without being mindful to one,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: not even one country. They're not even moving across Portugal.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: They're all moving to Porto and Lisbon. They're moving to
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: two cities. So the prices will go up because everyone's
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: living in a couple neighborhoods in a couple cities in
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: a very short period of time. If for whatever reason
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you're completely taken by Portugal, you can just choose a
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: different neighborhood than the same one that everybody is going to,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: or you can choose a different city or country. You
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: don't have to move to one country any more than
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: you have to live in your home country, any more
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: than you are required to live in the same house
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you were born in for the rest of your life.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: There are about 200 countries, tens of thousands of cities
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and towns, each of which have varying circumstances and that
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: agree or don't agree with someone who is going to
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: start living somewhere else. You certainly have plenty of options
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to choose from. If you make the decision to move,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you should just take a minute and go through the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: list and find out where you'll be comfortable living. You
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: can assimilate comfortably and respectfully into a culture and a
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: country very easily if you don't go to the most
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: popular place. Go to Thailand. I still totally recommend people
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: go to live in Thailand. I don't recommend people go
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: to live in Bangkok. It's way too hot. There's so
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: many reasons. It's much more expensive. But that is a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: giant country. You can go live in so many towns.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: You'll get all of the benefits. It'll be cheaper. The
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: environment will be nicer. It'll be cleaner. There's If you're
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: going to travel anyway, why not choose the best place,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: specifically a place with a very high standard and very
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: low cost of living, rather than the place on top
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: of search results? If you want to go to Bangkok,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: that's totally fine. I think people should go see the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Snake Museum and the monitor lizards in Lumpini Park are
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: really cool. Just know that if you do want to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: travel or you realize... I may be after listening to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: this or watching some YouTube videos that you can travel,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that you are not restricted in only living in one
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: place any more than you are restricted to living in
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: your home country. 200 countries, tens of thousands of towns
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and villages, many of them extremely safe, nice, affordable, cool, artistic,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: medically advantageous. So yeah, yes, you can. If you wish
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: you could, you probably can. If you have any questions,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: you should definitely email me. That's what this whole podcast
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: is here for. Because I've talked to probably a thousand
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: people now at this point. I talked to so many
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: people about traveling and real life. And I still get
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that question all the time. And when they find out
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: that they can, because it's usually the same concerns. It's,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I don't have the money right now. And then I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: show them receipts from how much it costs to live abroad.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: $ 300 a month, $ 400 a month. And they're like, what? Yep,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and I just type in the place they're interested in. Boom,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: there you go, $ 400 a month for a nice do-better
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: apartment or something else. I have just reduced their cost
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: of living by 90% by a very quick search, usually
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: on Airbnb. Because the monthly discounts there rock! And they
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have actual humans in customer service, which is really nice. Well,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I haven't reduced the price at all. These are just
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: publicly available services that anybody can access. I was not
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: aware of them until I became a traveler, and so
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: now when I meet someone new to traveling, I tell
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: them how to save money way quicker than I figured
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it out. So yeah, if you are like, I can't
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: do it, I have a broken knee, contact me at bidforramblergmail.com.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you the best countries with the best clinics
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: for broken knees and rehabilitation. Probably going to be Thailand,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: but maybe Colombia. Now, after we talk for a a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: person gives me all their reasons, sometimes it morphs into,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: they realize they don't want to move. They're comfortable where
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: they are. They're just worried about what could go wrong.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Not what will go wrong, but you know, that's not
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: how we operate. When we think about what could go wrong,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: that's usually what stops people from doing things in the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: first place. And if you come to the conclusion, well,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I don't want to travel. I don't want to live abroad.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: That is okay. This is not an exhortation that everybody
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: should live abroad. It's that there are very common concerns,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: especially these days, financial burdens and social burdens that are
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: more rapidly alleviated through travel than any other means that
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I know. So I just want to make sure that
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: as many people as can be aware or are interested
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in alleviating those psychological, financial burdens, just know that there's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: another option, especially financial. That's such a huge one because
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: that contributes a lot to the psychology and the stress
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: of so many people. It certainly did for me and
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: everybody I know who traveled and everybody who I helped
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: personally helped begin traveling. Once you're abroad and you're like,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I only need to work five hours
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: a week? That's, yeah, sign me up. And some people
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: still don't want to travel, and if you don't, then
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: you don't. But can you? Yes. Can they? Yes. In
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: every single case where someone in the real world has
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: asked me about traveling and they weren't sure if they could,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the answer has been yes. It's usually not something crazy
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: like I broke my knee or I have a whatever.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: It's just, yeah, but how, what about my kid? There
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: are international schools. You can buy insurance if you want it.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: You don't usually need it. They'll be fine. like in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: a new school. They'll adapt to the language more quickly
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: than you will. You can stay in one place as
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: long as you want, or you can travel around with them.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: There are people who travel around with their kids. Their
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: kids grow up healthy. If you want to give them
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a more stable place, then you can live in places longer,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: really practically as long as you want in many countries. Obviously,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: if you have a family or you want to stay
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: in a place for a year, then you're going to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: have to do, yeah, you'll just have to do something.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: You just have to apply for a long-term visa, rather
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: than a short-term visa, or rather than just getting the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: visa-free stays that someone like me does, because I like
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: moving around every three months, or every six months. Am
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I too old? That's constantly, I'm too old to start traveling.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I hear that from 40-year-olds, and I'm like, buddy, you're fine.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: There are people who don't start traveling until they're 80-something,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, why did I not do this earlier? No,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: any age is completely fine. I mean, you know, once
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: you're of age. Once you start traveling, you're going to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: see how simple it is. You don't have to do
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: anything you don't want to. You can just relax and
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: play video games at your house, relax and binge TV
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: shows all day if you want to. That's fine. That's traveling.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: That's living abroad. It just means do the exact same
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: thing that you like to do, just with way more
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: time and financial independence. And then, yeah, spend your time
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: however you want to. That's as valid as climbing mountains
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: or painting artistic paintings. Whatever you think you should be doing,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: like making, fulfilling your potential. You can also watch TV.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's your potential. That's fine. I think reading books,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: watching TV, paints, paintings, listening to music, that's all a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: very valid form of spending your life. Enjoy your life. Well,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I have property. That's a big one. I already have
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a house. Actually, that's not a big one anymore, but
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: older people, I do get that question. Like, well, I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: already have land or I already have a house. There
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: are two pretty straightforward options here. You can keep it,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: pay the tax and maintenance, whatever, each month if you
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: want to have a place to go back to. Or
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the option I think makes a little more sense. Sell
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: it at whatever price because... As soon as you're living abroad,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you can choose from like 160 countries and just by
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: living abroad, you'll be saving money every month. Whatever, like,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting the extra 30 grand that I could
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: be getting if I really worked at selling this house.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Who cares? You, as soon as you're living abroad, you're
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: going to have extra money if you're working at all.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: If you want to do the ESL thing, which I
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: always recommend, great pay, there are just 1.5 billion students
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and 250,000 teachers. There's 6,000 students looking for a teacher
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: right now, so there's always a job waiting for you.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: You can choose how many hours you want to work.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Very low qualification standards requirements need to be met to
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: begin teaching. None, none really. You can teach for super cheap,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: like $ 5, $ 10 US an hour, which is plenty. Even
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: if you're If you're on one of those, there's a
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: super cheap bunch of sites where you don't have to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: do anything. You can just sign up and start teaching.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: But they have classes, and you can join any of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: those classes as a native English speaker. You'll only be
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: making $ 5 an hour, but you can start right away.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: If you taught 10 hours a week, that pays right
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: now for one month in a hostel in Utah. A
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: bunch of Southeast Asian countries in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, for sure,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: you can get $ 100 for a hostel stay. So that's
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: working two hours for five days or one day for
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: five hours and a second day for five hours. Ten
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: hours a week and your food and board are covered.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And you can just figure out what you want to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: do from there. And that's for $ 5 an hour, which
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I don't actually know any English teachers that make that little.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I just know that those platforms exist. And a lot
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of the people that start looking for these jobs abroad
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: think they don't deserve like a higher pay. They think
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: they should start at the bottom of the barrel. And
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: if you want to do that, certainly you can. It's
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: just that the qualifications, you get a TEFL certificate. It's
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: going to take a couple of weeks. Lifetime certification. You
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: can start three grand a month working 20 hours a
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: week instead of whatever that is. What was I saying?
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Like a thousand a month. Yeah. Triple your pay quite easily.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Another question, what do I do about a job? There
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: is ESL, of course, but if you know for whatever
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: reason you don't want to teach, that you know it
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: would be completely unbearable to be in a classroom teaching
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: for a couple hours a day, then don't do it.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I was fine with trying out teaching English as a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: second language, because when I was in the US, I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: was doing jobs I liked less for less pay for way...
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: more hours per week. So I figured, well, I'll just
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: try out teaching, and if it's bearable, then I can
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: at least support myself. And then I liked it, but
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: there are plenty of teachers I worked with who didn't
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: like it that much, but you're working, so you're only
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: working 20 hours a week. The benefits were too innumerable
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to discount. So a lot of teachers, even if it's
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: not their favorite job, they do it because it's such
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: a beneficial job. But it's alright if you don't want
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to teach because you just need any job that you
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: can personally tolerate. A few hours a week just to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: support yourself in the beginning while you're traveling. It doesn't
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: need to be your dream job yet. With such a
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: low burden of cost of living, you can choose a
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: job that you can work for and bear for a
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: couple of hours a day, a few hours a week,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and be able to support yourself or your family. Anything
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that you can tolerate, it does not have to be
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: your favorite job. I'm sure when you're in a very
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: stressful financial environment like the United States, you didn't start
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: by choosing your dream job and starting that right away.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Many people are not that lucky. I sure wasn't. I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: walked around in my neighborhood and looked for help-wanted signs,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and I didn't care where those signs were. You have
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: to work as a pizza delivery guy first. You have
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to flip some burgers first. Because living in the U.S.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: with such a burdensome cost of living, you don't have
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: much of an alternative to being exploited as an entry-level worker.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Living in a new country, you'll probably get a new job,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: but your requirements will be way lower than they were
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: in your home country. The obligations you'll have to meet
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: will be lower. You can find any entry-level job that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: you can tolerate, and you'll have a much, much higher
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: standard of living. You'll have access to healthcare, you'll have
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: access to healthy, fresh food. You'll have access to good
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: housing at an affordable cost, like quality housing. So you
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: just want a job, I would say, anything that makes
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you over 500 USD equivalent a month. If you're over that,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: then you can always have a private place to live
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: with utilities, Wi-Fi paid for, and you can still... you'll
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: be able to buy groceries for the month. As soon
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: as you're making more than 500 US a month, that's
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: just icing on the cake. the cake. You're just, you
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: can go to eat out at restaurants more, and you
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: can go for entertainment more. You can go to clubs more.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Whatever you like to do, you can buy more paints
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: if you're a painter for your hobby. You can buy
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: go-kart stuff if you build go-karts and go around. Whatever
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: it is, it That's a pretty good baseline. If you're
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: making 500 USD a month, that you'll be able to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: live in a private room with groceries, utilities, Wi-Fi for
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: 500 USD equivalent per month. And 75% of the world,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: 150 countries right now, very easily, probably a few more
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: if you like are good at hunting or you for
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the best prices, whatever. But yeah, 150 countries just open
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to you if you can make 500 USD equivalent per month.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: And everything over that is gravy, baby. If you can
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: find absolutely nothing or you're not interested in any of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the remote jobs that you can find, go teach for
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: 10 hours a week. Native English speaker, you're not going
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to be making less than 15. If you're working in person,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: you're never going to make this less than 15 USD
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: equivalent per hour. And that's usually 45 minutes. So if
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you're living in a lot of the Asian countries, you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: only need a couple hundred, let's say 300 a month
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and just go a bit higher because you'll want a
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: private apartment rather than just a private room. That's only
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: 20 hours the whole month. That's five hours a week
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: that you can make 300 USD per month. So for
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: five hours a week, your private apartment or house is
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: paid for. And then you'll need, let's say, 200 more
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: for good, healthy groceries and snacks and all that kind
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: of stuff. So $ 500 total, you work another 13 hours
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: a month. So add on two more hours a day,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: two and a half hours more a day. So under
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: 10 hours a week. And as an ESL teacher, especially
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: in person, you're practically guaranteed. But if you're doing this
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: in person, just get the TEFL certificate and then Go
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: to China because they'll pay you $ 3, 000 right away. Especially
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: anybody who has debt, you can get rid of it.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: China pays the lowest cost of housing. You only have
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: to stay for as long as it takes you to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: pay down your debt. And it's not going to cost
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: you $ 100 or more than $ 1, 000 USD if you have
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a super nice apartment and you never cook for yourself
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: and you buy a new laptop and e-bike every month.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: You're still going to have a couple grand that you
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: can use to pay down your debt every single month.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: It's worth it. That should be top priority because debt
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: hangs over you and it grows. So pay that down.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: There are so many jobs, entry level data entry stuff.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: There's like lawyers, aides, there's personal assistants, there's life insurance salesmen.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Those are still a thing. Like if you call up
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: as person like salespeople on the phone. Oh, that sucks.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. Fine. But if you're
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: getting paid $ 9 an hour, then you only have to
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: work for how long? 60 hours a month for that
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: $ 500 a month going for. So that's, what, 15 hours
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a week? 15 hours a week as insurance people. You
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: just call them up, ask them if they want insurance.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: If they say no, then you hang up and you
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: call the next person, take a minute off, and then
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: call them up. It doesn't, whatever your job is, you
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: can do that and look for another job because the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: sooner you're abroad, the sooner you don't have to work.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: The sooner you're not worried about money, you don't have
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: to be worried about money. So I want to worry
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: about looking for a dream job first. I think traveling
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: first is the thing. And I, there's so many us
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Americans who are like, yeah, as soon as I'm ready,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: as soon as I save up enough money to start traveling,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: That's kind of backwards. Once you travel, you will be
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: saving money de facto from living in a lower cost
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of living country. Very common question is, does block country have,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: does blank country have blank? Does Chile have sushi restaurants?
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: You bet your bottom dollar they do. But does China
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: have memory foam mattresses? Oh, yeah, they do. And they
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: cost five bucks. I literally just bought an e-bike. like
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: motorcycle seat. So someone can ride on the back for $ 1,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: one US dollar. Things are, you won't believe the prices
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: in China and they're not worse quality anymore. They're just
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: good qualities. You're going to get it like Walmart. They're
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the standard edition, but it's a full motorcycle seat with straps.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: So I can just strap it and buckle it under
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: my e-bike. It's going to work for probably months. Cost
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: a buck. That's how much things cost in China. It's
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: going to be delivered tomorrow or maybe later today. It's,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. Does the country I'm thinking about have medication
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: for me? You bet they do. Does Laos have ice cream?
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: It has the best ice cream in the world. Does
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Ireland have good food? Yeah, they do. Like, I get
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: that English Irish cooking isn't super high on the list,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: but they have good food all around and they love
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: because the national cuisine is may not be as exciting
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: on its face as other national cuisines. There's tons of
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Chinese and Indian and other restaurants all around that you
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: can access if you're like, nah, I don't like Irish cuisine.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I do, by the way. It's a steak and Guinness pie.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about? It's like a Guinness gravy
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: with a bunch of beef in it. I don't know
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: how people don't like that. I can't imagine not liking that.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: It's just a thing. savory stew of beef. It's delicious
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: in a soft pie crust with a little Guinness tossed in.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: So does this blank country have blank? Do they have
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: medical procedures? Yes. Do they have international colleges that I
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: can go to or my child can go to? Yes
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and yes. They have adult international universities that speak English
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: that you can go to or kids' schools also. Do
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: they have pets? Can I buy a pet there? Absolutely,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: you can buy a pet there. Do they have penthouses?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Do they have air conditioning? Do they have cars? They
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: have more EVs than you can probably believe. Or I
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: can believe. I am shocked every time I go abroad.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: It's just the whole world's turning electric in a very
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: good way. It's so nice not to... I'm not going
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: to say there's no gasoline cars anymore, but if you
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: go to China, as I do every couple of years...
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: It's just the traffic noise is less and less and
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: less every couple of months because more and more people
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: are buying EVs because they're safer, quieter, more efficient, easily
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: maintainable vehicles. Gasoline cars just sound like horse-drawn carriages to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: me now. Like, I always felt that way growing up,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and it's really gratifying to now go to other countries
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and be like, yeah, see? And everyone, the market's finally
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: coming around. People just keep buying EVs And the battery
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: ranges of these EVs just expand. So yeah, do they
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: have transportation? They have amazing transportation. Do they have supermarkets?
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: You bet they do. Do they have Costco? They do.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: They do have Costco. They have Costco and Walmarts and
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: all around the world. It's fairly globalized, these big conglomerates.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: I go to local supermarkets. You'll get fresher food and
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: way better prices than if you go to some large
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: globalized store. But just for peace of mind, yes, they
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: have the giant stores that you're probably used to in
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: your own country, in other countries as well. Whatever, and
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: you can avoid those big conglomerates as well. Just go to,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: like I said, not Bangkok. Just go to not Beijing.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Go to a place that's off the beaten path, per se.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: It might still be, in China, off the beaten path
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: used to be Chongqing 10 years ago. That has like
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: 30 million people in the city. And that used to
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: be off the beaten path in China. It was always
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: a It's popular now, so maybe go to a place
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: nearby Chongqing. It's now the most populous city in Beijing,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: or in China. But yeah, does the country, do other
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: countries have this thing that you're used to? Yes, the
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: answer is absolutely they do. And if they don't have
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: enough of whatever you're looking for, there are 200 countries
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: to choose from. So if you need one that really
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: loves Indy 500 racing, for instance... Yeah, there's probably a
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: country where they care. I know Saudi Arabia cares a
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: ton about go-kart racing or whatever race car driving. Go
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia. I mean, you know, Saudi Arabia politically,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: maybe you want to go somewhere else. A lot of
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: the dry countries really like extreme sports like high-speed race
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: car driving. Yeah, or if you don't like alcohol, if
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: you're off alcohol right now, go to one of the
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: dry countries. Go to Morocco. Morocco is awesome and affordable
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: and they have great food and there's, it's very difficult
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: to buy booze there. So you just won't be tempted
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: as often. It's illegal to advertise it just like it
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: used to be illegal to advertise for injury attorneys in
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the U S and then became legal. And so now,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: you know, people sue for injuries more often. It's the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: same thing with, uh, with alcohol. If, if some, if
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: they're advertising alcohol all around you, like they do in
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the U S it's Yeah, you're going to be more interested.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: There's advertisements for alcohol everywhere, but there are a ton
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: of countries where that is illegal because it is a
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: dangerous chemical substance. So you can go live in one
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: of those places if you don't want to be tempted
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: to drink alcohol as much. Next concern for a first-time traveler.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: country's passport is no good. This is actually a super
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: common complaint from Asia because they can only visit 80
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: or 120 countries instead of some place like the United
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: States which has 180 free visa visa free or visa
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: on arrival countries. But If you have that concern, then
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: you're thinking about it in terms of you don't have
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: what other people have instead of what you have. Your
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: own situation, which is what you do have. You have
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a choice of six dozen countries to go to and
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: some of the least powerful passports in the world. You
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: can still travel freely to six dozen countries, to 75,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: 80 countries, and you can apply for visas to many
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: of the other ones, to another 50. You can still
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: access a hundred different countries pretty easily, almost like as
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: easily as a U.S. person can access those countries. You
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: have a hundred options to choose from. Maybe you don't
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: have as much as somebody else. U.S. people don't have
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: as much choice as a Swiss citizen does or 13
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: other passports. But that's not important. Even if you had
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: three choices, that's way better than one choice. Imagine never
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: being able to leave your country in the same way
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: that you never got to choose what meal you got.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Imagine if you got the same meal every single day
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: of your life. And then by buying a passport or
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a food passport, we'll say all of a sudden you
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: had 70 meal options. That's way better than one meal option. Yeah,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: 150 meal options is even better. but you have 70
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: different meal options in front of you. For you, that's
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: 70 times better than just eating one meal a day.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: This isn't a glass half full kind of thing. This
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: is a practical matter. You have 70 times more choice
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: than people in every country tell you that you have.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: It's so common for the culture to tell people, no, no,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: this is where you live. This is your hometown. You
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: have to stay here. This is what you know, this
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: is what you understand. It's safe here. Just stay here.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: They're telling you, just keep eating this meal. You know
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: this meal. So keep eating this one meal the rest
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: of your life. If you like that meal, great. That's
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: an awesome situation to be lucked into. But you have,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you have 70 other meals. Even if you have what
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: is called a weaker passport, you still have 70 other meals,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: 70 other choices around you with infinite different lifestyles to
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: choose from. It's amazing. Travel boggles my mind as much
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: now as it did the first time I landed in
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Beijing 15 years ago. It's just as amazing to me now.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Every time also, especially when I meet someone who is
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: going or who has recently gone, it's amazing. Every time
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: I meet someone who's like, yeah, I was living here
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: for two months and now I have no idea why
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I didn't do this 10 years ago. I'm so glad
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I don't have debt. It's amazing to hear that because
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: it's just like... It's so gratifying to know that someone
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: else's life is better because they took a bite from
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the other plate. They had 70 other meal choices. They
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: finally took a bite from another plate. So my country's
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: passport is no good? No, it's just not as powerful
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: as another passport. But that doesn't mean that yours is
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: no good. Your passport is still good. But I'm from Laos, Cambodia.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: My country's really poor. I know, but you can go
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: to another 60-70 countries... If you study English, you can
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: teach that. There are 6,000 people per English teacher, and
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: there are online resources to learn English. You don't have
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to learn it perfectly. If you're making five bucks an
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: hour in Cambodia, for instance, on one of those platforms
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: that have no real requirements, that's great for Cambodia. That's
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: a good paycheck for Cambodia. If you worked five hours
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: a day and got 25 US dollars at the end
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: of that, That's a pretty solid workday compensation. If you
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: brought home 25 times 5, 125 times 4, 500. If
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: you brought home 500 USD a month, that's like the
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: national wage. And you can do that. I know Cambodians
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: that have done that. I know Laotian English teachers, piano teachers.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: It's the world. The world is here. And it is
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: out there. And it is worth it. taken a peek at,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: and taken a step into, and trying out. So a
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: couple of these concerns in a little more detail. Most
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: of these concerns are valid. I definitely thought the same thing.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: I 100% was like, do they have hospitals in China?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sure. I knew they had hospitals, but I
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: didn't know if they were staffed, if they were safe.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: They were, and now they're world-class 15 years later because
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: they invested in medical infrastructure. But once you begin traveling,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: you'll have all of these answers instantly. Once you land
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: in the country, all the things, the nebulous concern of like,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: what if the supermarkets have zero food that I like?
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: And then you walk in any international supermarket in the
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: entire world and you're like, oh, okay, they have noodles
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: and rice and fruit and meat. They have stuff. They
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: have whatever you eat. The supermarkets abroad also have plenty
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: of things that you can eat and enjoy. But if
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: you haven't traveled before, then of course you're going to
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: have those same questions that I and everybody else who
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: hasn't traveled before has because you don't know yet. And
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: that's perfectly fair and valid as a concern. And I
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: want to restate up front and ask you to bear
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: in mind that the short answer to all of these
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: concerns and questions is that yes, and yes, you can travel. Yes,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: you can travel even taking into consideration all of these
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: concerns that you might have. Let's start with health care.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: People ask about that a lot. Like I said, I
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: did when I went to China. I wasn't too concerned
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: about it. I am very lucky. Knock on wood. Every
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: time I say that these days, I like the knock
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: on wood superstition. My family just we got lucky. We
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: have pretty good genes. My parents and grandparents live long
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: into their 90s. They don't have a ton of health issues.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: So I wasn't too concerned about health care when I
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: decided to move to China, which 15 years ago would
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: be more of a concern if I had like a
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: chronic condition because I was deciding to move to China
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: indefinitely just in one place. So, yeah, if I had
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: a medical condition, that was a problem. Now, nope. Now
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: I recommend people go to Chinese hospitals. It's been half
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: a generation and they have renovated a national medical infrastructure
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: for 1.5 plus billion people. it is shocking how advanced
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: everything has become. It's pretty much on par with the U.S. now.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say it's exactly there. There's too
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: much traditional Chinese medicine influence, which is valid in its
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: own pathway, but it means that it hasn't, I guess,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: modernized is the word, in the same way you would
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: think of modernization. But Now, honestly, 15 years later after
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I went, I just went back last year and could
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: not believe the hospitals just look like American clinics and
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: hospitals now. They're everything's electronic. The doctors are trained as
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: much because they've been training for the past 15 years
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: to catch up with the rest of the world. And
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: because they just poured money into medical professionals, medical technology
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: and medical training, they pretty much caught up. I mean,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Thailand is still far ahead of of China. But 15
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: years ago, China was probably 100 out of 200 countries
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: on the list, if that. And 15 years later, I
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if they're like number 40. Now, there,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: it's pretty good. The US is about there too, like
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: in terms of overall cost and satisfaction and medical accuracy
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: they're probably like a solid 30 soft 40 man there
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: i i would say china is just about if not
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: already because now i haven't been there in oh no
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: actually never mind i'm lying i was there like three
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: months ago and it's it modernized again there are craft
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: breweries and hospitals everywhere it's amazing china's such a fascinating
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: country So yes, their medication and healthcare concerns come up
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: a lot, and they should be, I'm not just saying this,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: just about the least of your worries. Maybe the supermarket thing.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Will they have food I like? That should be the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: least of your worries. Absolutely. Every single country will have
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: food you like. But what if I'm vegan? They have
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables and vegan restaurants. What if I am gluten-free? Yep,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: they have, well, meats and vegetables and gluten-free restaurants. They
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: have gluten-free shopping. Whatever your thing is that you get
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: in the supermarket, they have those. They might not have
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the same options you're used to, but they will have
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: the options of your cuisine that you prefer or are
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: required medically to adhere to. If you really want insurance,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: which you don't need, you don't. It's so cheap. But
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: if you really want medical insurance, you can absolutely buy
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: medical insurance. It's like $ 100 maybe. Well... Definitely like a
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: couple hundred a year will get you standard insurance where
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: you'll still have a huge copay and all this kind
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: of stuff. But if you pay a hundred a month,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: you'll have an extremely, you'll get preventative care and you'll
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: get all this stuff. I've just never, when I'm abroad,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: and again, I know that I'm lucky with my... genes
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: and my diet and lifestyle I I found what works
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: for me pretty well and so I don't have a
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: ton of medical concerns so I've never paid even close
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: to like a thousand a year in medical costs so
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: my biggest one was my dental and And out of pocket,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I paid once. I paid probably a couple thousand to
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: fix everything. I got gold crowns. Those last for up
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: to 30 years. So I've been good since I paid
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: that medical cost once. But yes, you can get medical
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: insurance and you'll be covered. You'll be covered just like
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: you are here, probably a little bit better than you
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: would be in the U.S. because the co-pays are so
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: high and the limits are so low that you'll probably
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: get better medical insurance as a traveler. But it's also
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: easy to just search medical tourist destination for and then
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the condition you're concerned about. It's cheaper to just fly
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: there usually than to get medical insurance, like broad medical
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: insurance and pay. It'll probably still be cheaper to just
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: get a flight to the best country with the cheapest
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: world-class health care. And other systems and infrastructure abroad are
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: generally much easier to access and much more affordable with
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: identical or better quality in care. if you're used to U.S.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: medical care. You will get equal or better care. It'll
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: be way easier to access, and the systems and infrastructure
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: are going to be... There's no wait time. Wait times
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: are reduced to maybe days for very complicated surgeries. But generally,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: you can walk in and get your stuff done and
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: walk out the same day or within a couple of days,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: if whatever. I don't know. If the If it's like
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: the biggest national clinic and they're super busy for whatever reason.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: But just the wait times are like nothing. And you're
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: never going to be denied because you're paying out of
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: pocket at a very cheap price. Way cheaper than your
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: copay for anything would be probably in the States. You
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: can pay out of pocket and get a dental surgery
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: done or a vision surgery done or get a new
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: pair of glasses or whatever. You can just pay out
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: of pocket for that and then be finished without waiting
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: and without having to go through a bunch of doctors.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: They'll diagnose you. A doctor will come in or a specialist.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: They will examine you. They'll diagnose you. They'll tell you
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: the available treatments. You can pay for it out of pocket,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: 60 bucks. Or if something's really big, like the root canal,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: that was several hundred dollars. I went to the most
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: expensive hospital or a dental hospital, the BDIC, Bangkok Dental
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: International Clinic, BIDC, Bangkok International Dental Clinic, cost, like I said,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: like two grand to fix four teeth. And with root
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: canals and crowns and then to fill in all the
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: cavities on all my other teeth. And then I haven't
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: had to pay anything else for the past 15 years.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Knock on wood. So I, yeah. Healthcare. It's so important
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: to reiterate as I am that you have access to
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: healthcare in every single medical field and condition that I've
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: ever heard of or experienced with other travelers. If you
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: have chronic pain, you can get an equivalent medication for
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: a few dollars, and you'll have access to alternative treatments,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: because I don't truck with all the claims of traditional
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Chinese medicine and traditional Peruvian medicine, traditional whatever medicine, but
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: some of it definitely works. All these countries have had
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: a thousand, five thousand years to find active ingredients in plants,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: and that's what all of our modern medication largely is
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: based off of, active ingredients in plants. So whether it
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: comes to ligaments or dandruff. I've heard so many success
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: stories with traditional medicines. I think it's perfectly viable to
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: try an alternative treatment, and then if it doesn't work,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: try another. But it's great having different medical standards that
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: not are just more open, but based on evidence rather
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: than profit or cultural bias, really. We have a very
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: narrow view of medicine in the U.S., and it's Alternative
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Treatments that are valid, again, they might just be a plant,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: an herbal supplement with the same active ingredient as a
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: pill that your body might have side effects to that
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: the herbal supplements don't give you that reaction for. It's
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: worth trying. It's not going to hurt anything more than
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: those pills will hurt your liver. It's very often just
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: some sort of herbal tea that you can try that's
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: non-toxic that is supposed to clear up whatever ailment you
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: go in for. Why not? Try it out. I've heard
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: way too many success stories at this point, and there's
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: no risk, because it's not like you're taking some pills
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: with side effects. It is usually just a tea. A
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: traditional medicine. But they make perfect sense, because that's the
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: active ingredient that we scientifically know does alleviate that symptom
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: or condition. If you want to try traditional methods of healthcare, fine,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and then they also have all the modern... world-class scientific
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: technological healthcare as well. Which, to be honest, is usually
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: the route I go down. I go to modern rather
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: than traditional healthcare. So I'm not saying that everybody should
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: try traditional healthcare first. It's just there are more options
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: for healthcare abroad, and they're not dangerous, and they are
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: interesting to me because I like different cultures. And I
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: like to see perspectives. I like to see how people
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: think of something like healthcare that I thought was a
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: concrete concept until I saw healthcare in other countries. So
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: in addition to having perfect access to healthcare, that goes
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: with any medication I've ever heard of. Hormone supplements, chemotherapy, antivirals, antiparasites, anti-anxieties,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: anything you use, anything I've ever heard of is fine.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: widely available much easier to access easier to get a
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: diagnosis for easier to get a prescription for sometimes you
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: don't even need one often you don't even need one
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: all the medication is available for you and at a
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: more affordable price with doctors with more time for you
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: and a quicker diagnosis and i do know tons of
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: people who take medication i literally can't count because hundreds
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: like imagine anyone you know taking medication i've been meeting
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: people for 15 years Everyone goes to the hospital, especially
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: like places with great national health care coverage in China.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I know zero people in China who don't go to
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the hospital once a month probably and just get anything
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: they feel. They go in, they get a diagnosis that day.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: It costs literally one USD equivalent. They get some kind
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: of treatment, usually a herbal tea for that, and then
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: they'll take it home. Whether it's literally sweating too much.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: That's my friends. He sweats too much when he eats
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: hot pot. So they're just like, stop eating hot pot. No.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: And that goes with the dental care, vision care, ear, throat, mouth.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: That goes with all genitals care, all the care, medical
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: care that you want to get, that you expect to
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: get in a developed country. You can get around the
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: world and you can choose where to go, even though
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: there are a few that are just type in medical
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: tourism destinations. Thailand is amazing. They've invested so much into
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: their medical care and they're already such a caring people.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: It's a wonderful, wonderful place to get any medical treatment.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: And instead of waiting and only being able to go
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: to clinics with insurance, you can just go anywhere and
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: you don't have to wait. It's only really the U.S.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: that I know about with such a crazy bureaucratic medical infrastructure.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Like there's like Canada's sort of crumbling, England's sort of crumbling.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: to the conservative lobbyists who are saying, no, no, no,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: we should definitely make people wait for medication and pay more.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: But most countries in the world obviously are like, well,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. Why should they wait longer and pay more?
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Shouldn't they wait a shorter amount of time and pay less?
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: That's how most countries operate. You go to the doctor,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: they diagnose you, they give you a prescription. For the
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: illness you have, you get your medicine, and then you
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: can start being treated. And a lot of more common
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: medications that might not be available in the States unless
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: you have a prescription, you can get over the counter
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: in other countries. A lot of countries, like I just
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: round off the top of my head, but I would
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: say like three-fourths of the country, 75% of the world,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: is much more dedicated to providing care for the patient,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: is a patient-oriented medical infrastructure, which is Obviously very different
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: than the United States, which is profit-oriented medical infrastructure. So
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: if you're looking for healthcare, dental, vision, whatever, it's going
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: to be a lot faster and a lot cheaper than
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: what you're used to if you're from the States, while
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: enjoying the same quality. My glasses from Cambodia lasted over
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: a decade for $ 30. They were the best glasses I
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: ever had. Amazing. Just amazing. The root canals, like I said,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: they lasted 15 years so far, and I've had to re-cement...
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: This one crown, I think twice in 15 years, but
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: that is walk-in, cement, back out, and it works for
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: another five years, whatever, or seven, seven and a half years.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: The quality of healthcare abroad for the amount you pay
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: is unparalleled in Thailand. It's just, it's amazing. And you can, yep,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: just go get it done. But other countries, like I said,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Cambodia is where I got my glasses All my gold
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: crowns I got, including the root canal, were probably 30,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: maybe less than 50% of the state's costs, US without
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: any insurance. I think it was a four to 500
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: per root canal plus gold crown. Then that's including all
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: the fees and everything. There's just a one time you
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: pay and then you're done. And it's the best dental
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: clinic in the country. You can pay way less if
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: you go to the smaller hospitals. I don't have chronic
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: illnesses myself, but I know people with back injuries, with
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: knee surgeries, with... Let's see, spine? Back. Spine is back. Knee. Ribs.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: I know ribs. Definitely an ankle twisted. I knew this
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: MMA fighter who got messed up. He went to the...
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: Chinese clinic, and they gave him a tea, and he
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: was fine in two days, and he's been a TCM,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: traditional Chinese medicine advocate ever since, and proponent and user.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: I often hear that a primary concern of someone who
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: wants to travel, and they start telling me why they cannot,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: is that a medical condition is going to prevent them
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: from traveling, and I just click, click, here you are,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: don't worry, that medication is available around the world, don't worry,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: that procedure that you're concerned about is available around the world.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: There are hospitals all around. There are clinics all around.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: You can often see the fee schedule online so you
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: know exactly how much you're going to pay before you
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: even set foot into a hospital or talk to a doctor.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: You can find out what the reputation of the hospital is.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Some of the Thai hospitals have reviews, just like restaurants
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: or anything else, and you can hear from the patients themselves. Yeah,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: it's fantastic. Okay, safety. Safety is a huge one. Everyone's,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: is it safe? Not just like, can I get healed
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: if I get you know, hurt, like we're just talking about,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: but is it just safe? Are other countries safe? So
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: let's talk about solo traveling. I know a lot of
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: women who ask me if it's safe for a female
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: solo traveler. Since I'm a guy, I don't want to
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: speak for women. I will just tell you what women
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: have told me. And I know a bunch of female
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: solo travelers, and they've told me that they have had
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: good solo travels. They have to deal with Men being
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: creepy in the same way that all women have to
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: deal with men being creepy. But that said, the flip
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: side is that it's not more dangerous, according to the
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: women that I've talked to, than it is how they
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: feel at their own country, and often it feels less
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: dangerous to them, as I have been told. I know
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of solo female travelers, they like traveling by themselves,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: they feel safe doing it. It doesn't mean everybody has
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: to feel safe traveling by themselves. But I do hear
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that concern often, so there are a lot of female
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: solo and paired travelers. I wouldn't walk down a dark
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: alley if I see two guys huddling together and talking
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: to each other, weighing down a dark alley. Like, I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do that, and I don't recommend anybody else does either.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: There's simple common sense and street smarts when you're in
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: the streets, when you're walking around. Streets. Be cautious. I
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: recommend that to everybody, whether they're a girl or a
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: boy or anywhere in between. But travel is not more
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: inherently dangerous than any country I've been to. You can
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: go to higher risk countries, but you don't have to.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: I don't. I actually... Some countries I've been to are
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: rated very low in safety, but in practical terms they
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: are safe. It's just that there is... political instabilities, they're
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: rated lower, but like Laos is rated very low in
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: terms of safety, but I've never felt more safe in
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: a country than in Laos, or at least I'll say
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: in Luang Prabang, which is awesome. As long as this,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: every single traveler will tell you this, you stay aware
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: of your surroundings, you pay attention to what's going on you,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: and you try to be safe. I'm from the U.S.,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: so a huge thing for me is that when I
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: go to another country, People are not shooting each other
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: every day, and they're not shooting children every day, which
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: is obviously a really big problem in the United States.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Children are shooting children, adults are shooting children, people are
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: just shooting each other all the time in the U.S.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: The last time I was in the U.S., I was inside, like,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: eating a food court. I was inside a food court,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: and outside the food court, someone... took, this isn't even,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: someone didn't take a parking spot. Someone was leaving a
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: parking spot, but he was too slow for the guy
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: in the truck who wanted his parking spot. And that
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: made the guy in the truck so angry that he
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: drove after him, chased him down and shot him in
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: the head at the intersection. That's the country I'm from.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: And that's not some crazy statistic Or an anomaly. That's
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: just an incident that I was literally right next to.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: That happened right outside the cafe and the food court
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: that I was eating in. I heard about it while
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: I was leaving the food court. None of us inside noticed.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: And it does happen so much that it didn't even...
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, they didn't close down the food court or anything.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: People just get shot in the U.S. all the time.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: over parking spaces, and other seemingly trivial matters that people
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: decide are worth killing over. And there's guns everywhere, so
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: it's pretty easy to kill someone if you're like, that's
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: my pistachio ice cream. I mean, a parking spot seems
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: even dumber than pistachio ice cream, so that actually seems
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: like a valid hypothetical situation. So if you're also from
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: the U.S., if you look at your country objectively, I'm
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: sure you can see how Dangerous it is, and there
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: are groups where it's more dangerous. There's police violence, regular violence,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: there's gun violence. There's just a lot of stuff to
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: watch out for in any country. If you're from the country,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: while I was in Peru, I was in Cusco, which
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: is relatively safe. Lima had bus jackings all the time,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: and they were constant. Twice a week, bus drivers... We're
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: getting killed. While I was in Peru, not while I
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: was really in Lima so much, but some places around
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: the world are dangerous, and there are travel advisories everywhere.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: I don't recommend anybody go to a dangerous place. When
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: I was in Fez, Morocco, which is really the only
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: place I recommend against people going to just because I
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: had such a crazy series of dangerous events, I was
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: stalked by two guys. They screamed at me. There was
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: a girl getting mugged outside my hotel room, and I, like,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: ran outside. And the whole time I was going downstairs,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: I could hear her telling him to stop and to
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: leave her alone. And it wasn't until someone else was
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: in the alley when I opened the door that they
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: went away. Dangerous things happen everywhere, but... The number of times,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: especially considering my particular high risk life, I take many
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: risks that I don't suggest other people do. And I've
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: only come across that one city that I ever tell
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: people that's not a great city. I can't recommend that
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: city because so many crazy things happened to me there.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: But over 15 years, like three days in one place,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: and I was like, nope. And I didn't actually get
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: hurt or attacked or anything. It just felt unsafe, and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: so I left. And I highly recommend you to do that.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: If you feel unsafe, don't go toward that place. The
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: world is very random, but you can get attacked right
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: in your backyard when you're financially desperate, or you can
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: be in a better situation and something still might go wrong,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't often. So many travelers feel safer abroad,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: especially if they're from the U.S., because They know that
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: they have medical care available to them. They know that
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: the police around them don't have a very high rate
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: of killing the people they pull over or throwing them
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: in jail against the constitutional guidelines of their country. They
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: know if you're a traveler, you have access to good,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: fair housing and fresh, healthy food. There's a lot of
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: everyday stress that People live within the U.S. and a
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: lot of other countries that are simply eliminated by living
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: abroad or living as a traveler, whether that be in
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: just one country or a different country every few months.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I don't want to pretend that traveling is not dangerous
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: at all, because anything is dangerous. Literally walking down the street,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: A drunk driver, wherever you are, can drive onto the sidewalk.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: That's just a fact of life. It's unpredictable and memento mori.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: We have no idea what's happening at any point. As
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the philosopher said, what is ever happening? But that doesn't
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: mean you have to stop living your life and doing
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: what you want to do. You have one life, so
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: take it. Don't take unnecessary risks, but... Don't cloister yourself
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: away from the world until... you depart this mortal coil.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: It really does boil down to, and I've talked to
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: so many travelers who say the same thing, if you
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: stay aware of your surroundings, just like you do at home,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: and you try to make the smart decision of going
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the safer route, You'll probably be okay. You will be
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: okay most of the time. And that goes for any
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: country you're in. I do like being in the countries
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: that don't have so many guns. Like, China has a
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of guns, but the military has the guns,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: and I've never felt threatened. I lived in China for
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: seven years, six, six-plus years. And I never felt threatened
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: by a police officer or a military member, even though
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: they are standing on street corners sometimes with guns. Like,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: as their role is as a peacekeeper, you know, to
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: be an officer of the peace on the streets. But
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: those are real loaded guns. But in China, I've never felt,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: oh god, I don't like that that guy has a gun.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Whereas in the U.S., I don't like seeing anybody with
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: a gun because I know how desperate U.S. Americans are.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Many of them can't afford their housing and they're just
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: in desperate situations. But then cops, too. Any cop I
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: see with a gun, I just think, uh-oh. Like, what
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: is he going to do with that? It's much more
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: worrisome for me to see a U.S. American and especially
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: a U.S. police officer with a gun than Thailand. There
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: are guns everywhere. Like, so many cops have guns and
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: rifles everywhere. Even the security guards do. It's surprising, but
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: that feels like an incredibly safe environment for me and
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: for everybody I know who lives in Thailand. It feels
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: so safe there. There's no veiled implication by law enforcement
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: officers in Thailand that they'll use their gun on anybody
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: around unless there is an emergency. It feels like that.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: They are there to protect the citizenry. Whereas where I'm
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: from in the United States, it feels like the law
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: enforcement officers are not there to protect the citizenry. They're
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: there to keep the citizenry in line with force. The
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: force itself feels so much more overt in the United States.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: So there are plenty of countries that have guns also,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: but the culture is different. The culture is about protecting citizens,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: protecting the innocent people, rather than the culture of sort
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: of maintaining authority, like authority being the most important thing
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: in the US, where you're just trying to make sure
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: nobody challenges the hierarchy. Which is what, to me, that's
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: what the police force seem to be doing a lot
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: of the time, proving to US civilians that the police
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: are a higher form of even though they're, you know,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: legislatively and judicially not, they certainly practically are now. They have,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: in practice, guns and weapons and prosecutorial immunity and legal
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: authority to detain citizens. Unconstitutional legal authority. They can steal
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: your property completely legally if they want to, if you're
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: from the U.S. It's pretty wild. So I do... feel
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: safer abroad in almost every country, even almost every city
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: I've ever been in, versus my home country, maybe yours
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: is cool. Maybe you're from Thailand, and you don't have
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: to worry about that. But I grew up with gun violence.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: It was bad, and then it got worse, and then
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: the police were legally empowered with the... ability to do
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: violence at will without any repercussion in the U.S. That's
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: established law, and that's how they operate. And, you know,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: seize property, and all sorts of pretty drastic powers that
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think law enforcement officers, keepers of the peace,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: have any reason to hold. So for me, I've always
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: felt safer abroad than I felt... in my own country,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: I never walk around. Like there's, like I said, there's
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: so many soldiers and police officers with rifles and pistols
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: in Thailand, but I've never thought, Oh no, there's going
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: to be someone shooting this crowd of people soon. Whenever
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: I visit the U S I have a good time,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: but if I'm in a crowded place, like a movie theater,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: I'm always like scanning my surroundings or a food court.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: I'm always scanning my surroundings because last time I was here,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: someone shot someone else in the head over a parking space,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: and gun violence is just a constant occurrence in the U.S.,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: and desperate people do desperate things, and so many people
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: in the U.S. are financially, housing, food desperate, and they
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: act desperately. So the world is as safe or as
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: not safe as we live in it. It's just, it's
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: the world. It's as complex as any reality can be.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: So all travelers say the longer we travel, we all
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: say the same thing. Stay aware of your surroundings, try
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: to make the safest decision for your comfort level, and
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: then go do what you want to do. That seems
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: to work for all the travelers I know and all
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: the ones I've talked to so far. Okay, now speaking
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: of doing what you want to do, safety is really important.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: People ask about safety and I don't think they're looking
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: at their country as objectively as may be helpful for
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: their perspective. But in the same way that I do
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: mean that, stay aware of your surroundings, do what feels
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: safe for you, your risk profile that you're comfortable with,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: and then go out and do what you want to do.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: This is a huge one. People feel overwhelmed by travel.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: And that always sounds a little funny to me because...
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: I live while I'm traveling the same way that I
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: live while I'm not traveling. So I just think of
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: taking naps on the couch, which I do a lot
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: and is part of traveling. Nobody on their couch, like
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: sleeping on their couch, just lying down for an afternoon
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: nap has ever turned to me and said, I feel
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: so overwhelmed by this nap. But when someone tells me
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: that they would be too overwhelmed to travel, that's what
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: I think of. Someone taking a nap on a couch
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: and they turn to me and they're like, this is
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: just too difficult. Because that's all traveling is. I will
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: go a week on a comfy bed and just watch
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: movies and chill out. You do not have to go backpacking.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: You don't have to take a safari. You don't have
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: to go snorkeling or scuba diving. You don't have to
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: ride a boat. You don't have to go skydiving. You
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: don't have to go on a hike. You don't have
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: to do anything you don't want to do. traveling, living abroad,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean constant adrenaline adventure. It means living in
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: a different place. That's it. But you can continue to
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: live exactly how you want to live. In fact, you
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: can live more how you want to live because you'll
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: have financial freedom, you'll have a whole bunch more free time.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: If you want to sit around drawing pictures all day,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: you like sketching art, then yes, do that. You like
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: reading books? Do that. You like coloring? Do that. pictures,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: do that. Whatever you like to do, you get to
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: do that living abroad. It's just that you don't have
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: to deal with financial burdens or work demands or any
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: of that. But you don't have to be in physical adventure.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: You don't have to summit Everest. It's whatever you want
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: to do. I like to do stuff. I do like
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: to climb mountains myself. I do like to walk for
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: six hours to some abandoned ruin that I think I'll
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: have all to myself. And I also like sitting and
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: playing video games for a week sometimes. I do like
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: some of the adventures, and when people hear my stories,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: they think I'm just going on adventures all the time,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: and that's what you have to be like if you're
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: a traveler, but no way. Like, all those families that travel,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: most of them just are living sedate lives. They wake up,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: they eat breakfast, get their kid to school, they go
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: to their job if they still have one, if they
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: haven't retired yet, and then they go home, them and
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: their kid watches Finding Dory, and then they go to bed,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: and then they wake up the next day. It can
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: be an extremely simple, stable, calm, comfortable lifestyle. You can
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: be as exciting or as... calm, as you would like.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: There's no, no one is telling you that you have
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: to go cliff diving, or you have to find the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: perfect pond. That's, if you're going to live in a
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: rainforest country, then you have to make sure you find
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: the most amazing lake. You don't. Whatever. Just, if you
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: want to find a lake, just ask a local, they'll
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: tell you where a cool one is, it's fine. But
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: you should never feel obligated while you are traveling to
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: do anything you are not interested in doing in the
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: same way that if you were living in your hometown,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't be expected to do anything you don't want
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: to do. It's your prerogative. And especially when you're traveling,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: that is more true because you have the extra money,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: you have the extra time, You have the extra time
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: to know yourself and figure out what you want to do.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: You can hang out in your hostel or your house
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: or your condo. You can talk to people or not
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: talk to anyone. Lounge by the pool for a month.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: Chill out. Chill out. That's a huge one for me.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: Part of traveling is that I get to chill out.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: If I was still living a sedentary life in the U.S.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was working more than 40 hours a week,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: some of it unpaid. Well, the whole time I was
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: in the U.S., after I became an adult, I worked
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: pretty hard on stuff. I very focus in on whatever
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: work I have. So I just worked, and I didn't
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: often have time to do what I wanted to do.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: And as soon as I started traveling, all of those
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: requirements were less. My rent was lowered by 60% the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: first day I landed in China. And then it went
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: down way lower after that, reduced by like 80 to 90%.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: The last place was probably 90% lower than what I
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: had been paying seven years earlier in the U.S. My
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: food costs were easily 90% cheaper. Groceries are incredibly inexpensive,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: and eating out is incredibly inexpensive in China. Restaurants cost
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: very little. And there's no tipping... Oh boy, you know what?
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: That's a great part of travel. Did we talk about that?
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: You should travel because you don't have to tip. It's
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: so irritating to come back to one of the few
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: countries that do tip and it's just expected regardless of
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: the job somebody does or regardless of if they're getting
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: paid enough. It's so weird tipping in the U.S. because
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: you know that that means they're not being paid enough,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: which is illegal in most countries. In most countries, if
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: someone's like, yeah, you have to give me an extra
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: 20% of whatever you buy because I don't get paid
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: enough for my job. That's horrifying. And like Japan or
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: Korea or Thailand, it's crazy that workers are not paid
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: enough for the job that they do. And yeah, rationally,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: that makes perfect sense. But in the US, it's been
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: happening so long, we think it's normal that we don't
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: pay workers a living wage, whereas that's illegal and crazy
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: in most countries around the world. So can you travel? Yes,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: and you can travel the way you want to. Can
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: I travel carries that weight of expectation when people ask me,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: so can I travel? And it sounds like they're asking me,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: do you think I can backpack a thousand miles or
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: climb volcanoes? And that kind of thing, you don't have
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: to worry about that. If you want to do that, cool.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: If you don't, just don't. Go to hot springs. Get
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: a massage every day. When I'm in Thailand, I'll get
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: a massage every day. It's $ 5 or $ 3 and it's great.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: Why not? Sleep 20 hours a day. I'm fine with that.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: Turn into a cat. Who cares? It's your life. You
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: should be able to sleep for 20 hours a day
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: if you want to. I don't often do that, but
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: I absolutely have done that when I When I do get, like,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll get the adventure mode going, so I'll go
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: on a whole bunch of hikes. But I know when
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: I start getting tired because I'm not interested in a
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: bunch of things. And I've had a couple days where
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: I've just napped all day on a sofa and not
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: done anything and just fallen asleep and drifted in and
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: out of consciousness. And it was a great day. And
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: then I was recharged and I kept going. Or I
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: played video games for a few days and then I
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: was recharged and I wanted to get out of the house.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: So I started going around again. Oh, I was just
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: remembering more unsafe things in the U.S. I have random
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: people who walk up to me when I'm in the U.S.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: and start telling me about how we need to get
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: rid of immigrants or this ethnicity is not good for
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: this reason. And that's extremely rare as a traveler because
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: you'll largely be talking to other travelers and people interested
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: in traveling, and those two groups... Travelers and people who
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: are interested in travelers, even if they've never left their hometown,
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: those are both tolerant people. So going back to the U.S.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: and facing this culture of extreme intolerance is extremely unpalatable.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: When I know that I can go to a country
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: and all the people I'm going to interact with, because
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: they're the ones that want to talk to me, I
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: don't usually instigate conversations unless I, yeah, unless I have to.
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: are going to be tolerant people, people I want to
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: be around and am interested in talking to. And this
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: one's really important. It's the only country where the citizens
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: are afraid of each other in the U.S. And again,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: I'm from there, so for me and for probably a
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: lot of you listening, if you're from the U.S., this
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: rings true to you. U.S. Americans do not trust other U.S. Americans.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: That's not common. That's super rare. But U.S. Americans? Very
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: afraid of other U.S. Americans. With good reason. They shoot you.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: And they attack you. They probably don't like you because
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: you look different than them. Now, there is racism in
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: every country, for sure. And it's just blatant racism. humanity
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: is young we're still racist we started as animals judging
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: each other by color and size and we still do
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: that so i'm not saying that the rest of the
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: world is a utopia by any means it's just that
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: being in a country thailand i'll use again when when
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: you go to thailand thai people know what to be
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: safe of and generally you know they are cautious about
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: i'm they don't go down dark alleys whatever But they
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: aren't afraid of the other Thai people around them. And
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: every time I come back to the U.S., I feel
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: like I'm entering a culture of fear where all the U.S.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: Americans around me are afraid of me as a U.S.
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: American and all the other U.S. Americans around them. And
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: they don't say, I'm afraid. They say, you know what
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: you gotta be worried about. Things are so crazy. You
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: gotta watch out for. And then they say something racist.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: But almost always about other U.S. Americans. Oh, that person
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: smokes pot. You can't trust those people. Oh, that person
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: drinks too much. You can't trust those people. Oh, those people? Oh,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: they're lazy. You can't trust those people. Oh, those people
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: are dangerous. And these are all other U.S. citizens who
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: live in their neighborhood most of the time. I know people,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: I have had friends who have guns, who carry guns
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: around on their waist while I've been living in a
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: red state for a while, or while I'm moving around
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: to a red state, I'll talk to people and I'll
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: meet people and they'll have guns. And every time I
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: ask them why they have a gun, or they sometimes
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: tell me, they have a gun to protect themselves against
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: other U.S. Americans. That is a unique perspective. But I've
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: never been in another country where I see someone with
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: a weapon and they say, oh yeah, I need to
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: protect myself from the other people in my neighborhood. I
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: don't trust any of them. That is a uniquely U.S.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: American thing. And I don't like to feel like that,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: and I do feel like that when I get back
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: to the U.S., because there are shootings all the time,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: and there are just desperate people constantly all around me
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: every time I go out. And people talking bad about
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: other groups. It's so common that they talk about the
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: poor or the disadvantaged, whatever it is, or one particular
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: race in a way. So I know that other people
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: are probably talking that way about me. If you have
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: a friend, and they're always talking smack behind other people's backs,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: except for you, they're probably talking smack behind your back
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: too when you're not around. It's kind of like that
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: with violence in the U.S. I feel like if so
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: many people in the United States are so angry at
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: so many other U.S. citizens, I'm a U.S. citizen, when
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: they're not talking to me, they're probably angry at me also.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: I'm from the U.S. I've been told to my face
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: to get out of the country. because I was talking
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: about how great it is living abroad. I know that
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: these people can't afford the house they live in. I
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: know that they cannot afford to eat every day and
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: pay their utilities. Like, I know that these people have
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: very few choices, and people with few choices sometimes only
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: feel like they have one thing they can do. Steal, attack,
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: something like that. And it's a pervasive atmosphere of, of
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: the United States. But again, very unique to the United States.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: It's the only country I've been to where I hear
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: the citizens tell me, I'm so afraid of all of
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: the other citizens, I carry a deadly weapon with me
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: at all times. That's a U.S. American thing. That's not
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: a Thai thing. That's not a lao ocean thing that's
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: certainly not a chinese thing you feel as safe as
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: a cocoon unless you're the wrong minority or sexual orientation
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: and then your free speech is restricted but for the
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: large part of the populace in a country to be
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: afraid of all of the people walking by you on
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk It's like living in the Matrix, and an
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: agent could show up at any moment. That's what living
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: in the U.S. is like. You're like, at any moment,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: something could go wrong, someone could open fire, someone could
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: set off a domestic terrorist bomb, someone, whatever. That's not
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: a huge concern in other countries. I'm not going to
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: say it's non-existent, because I'm sure some people are afraid
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: of elements of their society in every country, but it's
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: not a pervasive... obvious thing like it is in the U.S.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: where you carry around a deadly weapon, not to protect
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: you from enemies, but protect you from people you've known
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: for years, people in your community, your neighborhood, your city,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: your country. That's who U.S. Americans are afraid of, and
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: that's a very strange thing for me to come back
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: to every year. While I'm abroad and while you are abroad,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: I It's completely different. If you're going to meet someone
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: after and for five days, maybe you'll see them at breakfast,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: that person is going to be as close to you
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: as any member of your community from back home because
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: you know that this person is tolerant. They want to
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: talk to you because you're a traveler or they also
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: are a traveler. I form very close relationships very quickly
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: that way that are sustained for years or decades. And
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: you can too. It's just a different world for a traveler.
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: It really is, yeah, it's just great. I know I
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: brought a bunch of scary stuff, but I just want
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: to assure you that if you're worried about how safe
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: it is outside of the U.S. or outside of your country,
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: it is more safe outside of the U.S. And as
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: a traveler, regardless of the country you're in, from my
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: direct experience and the people that I talk to, You
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: can talk to any traveler. They're going to tell you
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: the same thing. If you ask them, oh, is it
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: safe out there? They're going to say, yeah, it's very safe.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: It's a world. There are people. They're safe. It's as
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: safe as where you are now or safer. It's very
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: common to have a roundtable discussion of expats talking about
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: how safe they feel outside of the U.S. for all
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: those reasons I mentioned earlier. So if safety is a
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: primary concern, I just want you to know that especially
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: if you're from the U.S., you will feel safer and
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: you will be safer. Not just physically, but you will
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: be more secure because you know you have housing, you
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: know you have medical care, you know you have fresh
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: good food and water. All of your needs are taken
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: care of. Your psychological and physical needs are taken care
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: of because you are traveling, because you're living abroad. By
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: virtue of living abroad... You've taken care of all of
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: Maslow's needs and your immediate physical safety. Being in a community. So,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: it's safe, and you have access to healthcare, and you
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: have great food, there's tolerant people who want to be
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: your friend, you can visit amazing wonders of the world,
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: you can relax all day if you want to forever,
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: you don't have to work more than five hours a week,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: or if you want to get fancy with your housing... 10,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: 15 hours a week, you're working a fraction of what
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: you were working before probably in most countries. If you
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: have a sedentary life, most sedentary life people who are
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: not moving around are working 40 hours a week or more.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: But if you're a traveler, you don't have to do that.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Your expenses are lower. So if this is so awesome,
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: how do you actually, in practice, the real world steps,
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: how do you just get out there and do it?
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: I keep telling you, dear listener, you're wondering, This guy
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: keeps telling me I can just do it. How? Tell
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: me how to do it. It's very straightforward. You need
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: a passport and then an airplane ticket. If you're from
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: the U.S., that's it for 180 countries. That's all you need. U.S.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: Americans enjoy visa-free and visa-on-arrival travel to 180 countries, roughly.
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: And you can just land in that country and start
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: living there, usually for three months. You can extend that
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: if you want to. You can File for an actual visa,
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: like a long-term visa if you want to, in a
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: bunch of countries. You can plan ahead and do visa runs.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: So you stay three months, you go to another country,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: you go back to that country for another three months.
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: You never have to get a visa, but you can
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: stay there indefinitely. There's lots of ways to do this,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: but there are not a lot of steps to get
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: to that point. You just need your travel documents, usually
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: a passport, and then you need to buy a ticket.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: But how will I pay? Again, the ESL teaching, 6,000
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: students per willing teacher. If you speak English, you have
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: a guaranteed job for the foreseeable future. And if you don't,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: if you know you don't want teaching, you just find
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: any remote job that's not fun even, a data entry specialist, whatever,
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: a life insurance salesman, you do that for 10 hours
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: a week. 10 hours a week, your living expenses are covered,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: and then you can focus on finding a job that
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: you might like more. But really, that's what you need.
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: You just need to go. You get the airline ticket
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: after you get your passport, and then you go to
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: another place, a place that sounds interesting to you, a
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: place that inspires you, or just a place like me.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: Guatemala was a line in an Eve Six song, so
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: it stuck in my head, so I went to Guatemala.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: That's it. It was that simple, and I loved it,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: and I lived there for four months because it's a
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: great country. If you want to go to one of
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: the countries that actually requires a visa before you go,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: It usually takes about 10 minutes. China's probably the longest one.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: That might take an hour to fill out the actual visa.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: Probably not. Probably closer to a half hour. It used
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: to be longer, but their regulations have quite relaxed because
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: they realize... I think that tourism, like medical tourism, people
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: going to China for the high-quality hospitals and no wait
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: time and low fees... are drawing so many people in.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: China's realizing what a good deal it is if they
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: lower travel restrictions. So if you do want to go
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: to a country with a visa, though, it's going to
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: take 15, 30 minutes, and then you'll have your visa
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: for one year, five year, whatever. The India visa I
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: got was online. It was one page. I paid $ 40.
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: I got a five-year visa. I can visit for six
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: months at a time. And I can just visit with
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: a valid visa. It took five minutes to get. They
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: emailed it to me immediately. I could live in India
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: for five years. So I would say going is the
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: important part. You get any job that pays you roughly
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: 500 USD a month. That'll get you a private house.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: If you don't care about a private house, if you're
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: fine with like a hostel shared housing, then you really
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: only need 300 USD because it's a hundred bucks for
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: a hostel in a ton of countries. And then it's
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: 200 bucks for a food a month is plenty of
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: food for a month in a lot of places. And
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: once you're there, you're going to have so much free time.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: You're going to have so much more time because your
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: rent is so cheap. A hundred bucks a month is rent.
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: You can figure out, you can find a better job
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: when you have that much free time. You can find
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: a job that you want to do. Or if you're
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: fine with doing the data entry work, if you don't
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: mind it that much, do that. It's what, five hours
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: a week, 10 hours a week, and you can pay
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: for everything. Yeah, if you're comfortable. I did that for
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: probably three years, just moving around, making a super low
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: amount of money, teaching English, not even teaching English, really
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: just having English conversations for $ 10 an hour, $ 8 an hour,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: something like that. I did that a couple hours a week.
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: That paid for three years of traveling. Just having conversations
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: with ESL students who just practiced English. If you want
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: to make more money and you're doing the ESL thing,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: You just go in person to any of the high-paying
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: countries like China, and boom, the lowest they're going to
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: hire you as an entry as a native English speaker,
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: especially if you get the TEFL certificate, lowest is $ 3, 000
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: in the China ESL market right now because they're the
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: highest-paying country. And the highest right now that I know
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: about is $ 10, 000 if you have a bachelor's degree, the
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: TEFL degree, some experience. They have 40 hours a week
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: teaching positions that pay $ 10, 000 USD equivalent per month. That's
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: that's retire in two years type money. If you know
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: anything about passive income investment, which I highly recommend looking
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: up because you're going to have so much free time,
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: you can start investing in your passive income. That's what
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: social care. If you're from the US and from a
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: lot of countries, you're looking forward to a pension at
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: the end of your retirement, a social security check to
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: come in every month. That's passive income. That's just income
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: coming in passively. So you can start doing that before
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: you're sixty five. before you've committed your entire life to
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: this check you get every month, you can start making
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: that check right now. And all you need to do
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: is invest money in safe investment vehicles, relatively safe, of course,
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: like index funds or investment trusts. And index funds are
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: way safer, of course. But you know what they say
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: about land they ain't making any more. So real estate
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: investment trusts are also pretty good from my perspective. I
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: don't know the numbers, like safety estimates of investment trusts
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: versus index fund. But index funds, yeah, that's what your
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: Social Security is based off of anyway. When you're looking
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: forward to retiring at 65 or 70 years old, so
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: you get your $ 2, 000 a month or whatever it is,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: If you're living in a high-cost-of-living country like the U.S.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: or Canada, you can't put as much money into that
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: passive income. You can't invest and get money back every month.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: If you're living in China, for example, or Thailand, you're
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: paying so little for your cost of living that you
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: can invest more now into your passive income. You can
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: start getting that retirement check now when you're 25, when
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: you're 30. I stopped working unless I wanted to when
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: I was 32. At that point, I had enough coming in.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: I didn't ever have to work again. I still do.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: I'm just putting more money into my passive income. And
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: so I get a little bit more money each month.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: But I'm just building that up. I've been building it
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: up for six, seven years now. And I'm just going
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: to keep doing it. And it's working out great. If
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: you're living in a high cost of living country, maybe
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: you're saving $ 200, $ 300 a month. If you're living in China, Thailand,
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: you can save $ 2, 000 a month very easily. Again, if
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: you're taking the $ 10, 000 USD a month job, you can
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: be saving $ 8, 000 to $ 9, 000 per month. Again, that's a
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: two-year retirement timeline if you're saving that much into traditional
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: passive investment vehicles. And you can teach anywhere, too. If
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: the ESL thing sounds nice, you don't have to go
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: to China. I just am familiar with that country so much.
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: I still recommend it, and it's a cool place to
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: live in. But there's the Middle East, if you're interested
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: in that. There's the continent of Africa with like 55 countries,
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: I think. There's, of course, Europe, but you have to
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: be better qualified because there are much smaller populations in Europe,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: so the demand for teachers isn't as high. And a
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: lot of them teach English. A lot of their English
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: is better than other countries' English. that aren't tied to
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: a native English-speaking country. But teaching English is a worldwide
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: job opportunity that is just not slowing down. There are more,
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: the number of ESL students, English as a second language,
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: goes up every month. I honestly thought it would not
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: still be going up, but they track these numbers at ESL, whatever,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what it's called, it's like World ESL,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: but they track the numbers of students and they're still
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: going up. English is still, despite all the political turmoil
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: right now, English is still very strongly establishing itself as
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: the lingua franca of the world. The language that everybody
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: speaks to get around in the world. It's still English.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: And that's lucky. You're just lucky. If you're listening to
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: this and you're an English speaker, and most of you are, yeah,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: you lucked out. Guess what? You're a lucky person. Don't
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: look a gift horse in the mouth. Pat its cheek tenderly, reassuringly,
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: give it a big ol' smacker right on the lips,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: and then retire into eight years, depending on if you
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: want to work 40 or 10 hours a week. If
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: you're already making more than $ 500 a month, especially if
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: you have a remote job, good. You're good to go.
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: You can leave at any point, and you can live
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: in 150-plus countries very comfortably, immediately, or at any point
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: you want to leave. You're good. $ 500 per month... with
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: a remote job, yeah, you're golden. You can just build
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: that up once you have, you know, triple the free
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: time that you have now. Well, how do I get
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: started teaching English? Look, message me about that. There are
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: a bunch of podcast episodes about that. Really, these days,
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: all you have to do is go into any search
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: engine and type ESL jobs in the country that you
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: want to go to. ESL jobs in Japan, ESL jobs
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: in Thailand, ESL jobs in Germany, and then You look
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: at those. They tell you exactly what you need. A
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: bachelor's degree, a TEFL certificate. TEFL is what you're going
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: to need like 95% of the time. I would just
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: get that self-directed PDF course. Look up the TEFL episode
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: for all the details. And then you apply. It really
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: is that straightforward. You will probably get it because, again, 6,000
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: students per willing teacher. You'll probably get the job. But
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: those jobs... Because the demand is so high, when you
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: look for ESL jobs in Korea, and you see a
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: bunch of different websites, like 100 websites, each website has
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: 20 job listings, those job listings are real. If it
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: feels like you're getting a bad deal, then just don't
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: pursue that. Go to another website or another school, like
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: another job listing. But those jobs are real. People around
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: the world want English teachers now. So that's if you
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: don't have a job. I think ESL is about the easiest,
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: most lucrative pathway to go if you're going to work
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: while you travel. The last one is culture shock, which
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: is very difficult to understand. It seems like just overstimulation
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: in general is what people mean when they say culture shock.
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: But as soon as you're feeling overwhelmed by the country
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: you've moved to, It's the same thing, like, if you
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: were in your home country and you go to work
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: and you feel overwhelmed and stressed out, go home and relax.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: And as a traveler, you're probably going to have a
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: lot more free time to relax in. So, if culture
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: shock is just things are different, yeah, things are going
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: to be different when you move to a different country,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: just like they're different when you move from New York
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: to Chicago or Chicago to Des Moines or Kansas City
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: or wherever. The world is different in different places, but
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: especially as a traveler, take all the time you need
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: to recuperate and get used to things, and just do
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit at a time. The first day, just
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: go to the bakery down the street, get whatever you want,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: go home, and then feel comfortable again. Read your native
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: language books, watch a native language movie, sleep, let your
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: brain get used to the new surroundings. And there are
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: so many expats in every country. There didn't used to
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: be a lot in China when I was there 15
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: years ago, and when I went back this time, it's
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: so much more. There's got to be 10 times more
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: tourists than there used to be in China from when
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: I was there, because it was inundated with foreigners once
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: I went to the center of the city this most
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: recent trip. So you can talk to these tourist people
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: if you want to feel like you're talking to people
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: from your own country. expats or great expat communities, people
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: who have been living there like me, maybe for a
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: long time, you just talk to us. We love to talk.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: We love sharing our stories all the time. That's a
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: very common thing. Travelers are storytellers and they want to
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: share their information, not to lord it over you. I, anyway,
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: just love helping people improve their lives in some way.
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: If they don't know about healthcare, I love explaining which
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: hospitals to go to, how to use the hospital payment system,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. or where the groceries are, they really
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: miss dragon fruit. I'm like, dude, there's a great market
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: with buckets and mountains of dragon fruit. We love helping
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: people who are curious about this new country they want
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: to live in that we've lived in for a while.
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: So there are plenty of people and groups for you
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: to turn to for support. And for emergency support, there
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: are embassies. You can go to any police station. The
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: police will absolutely try to help you. They will do
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: what they can to help you, even if you're Language
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: facility in that country is terrible and their English isn't
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: that good. They will try to help you. There are
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: pharmacies everywhere. There's supermarkets everywhere. There's hotels everywhere. There's all
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: the basic stuff you're used to that you could want.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: You're good. Just ask people around you for help. Join
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: a few groups before you go so you know where
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: to turn to if you do want help. The passport
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: is $ 165 right now. You pay $ 165, and for 10 years,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: every single month, your rent is going to be $ 1, 000 lower.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: So it pays for itself five times over the first
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: month that you're in most of the rest of the world.
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: And that's just rent. You'll also be saving on a
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of other expenses, like data and groceries and Wi-Fi,
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: transportation for sure, healthcare of course. You pay that $ 165
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: to get your passport or less. I know some people
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: get it for cheaper depending on your circumstances, but maximum
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: you should be paying $ 165. You get that for 10 years.
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: As soon as you land, you get your plane ticket,
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: you land in another country, boom, you just cut your
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: cost of living by 80%. That's 80% less work you
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: have to do for your cost of living. Instead of
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: 40 hours, 80%. That means you have to work 8
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: hours a week instead of 40 hours per week. You
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: can get your passport online or in person at a
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: bunch of post offices. Just type in passport and it'll
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: show you the locations that you can go to around
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: you to get your passport. Take a picture, pay the
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: $ 165 fee, it'll show up in two weeks. You fill
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: out the little form. Then just... look for a place
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: that sounds interesting to you and go there. You can
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: always teach online for whatever country, so you can really
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: travel wherever you want to go and teach English remotely.
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: No insurance, no utilities, no Wi-Fi. You'll have all those amenities,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: but you don't have to pay for any of them
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: as a traveler. But where should I start? Again, just
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: choose where you want to go first. Make sure that's
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: not an active war zone. You'll be fine. Now, if
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: you want my personal recommendation, Thailand. It's so comfortable. The
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: people are so friendly. It's incredibly affordable. The food's great.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: Everything's great about Thailand. It's wonderful. It's hot. That's the
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: only thing. If it's too hot, go to Colombia. Go
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: to Medellin. Beautiful country. Food's great. People are super cool.
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: Very affordable. But the weather is perfect. It's between 72
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: and 73 Fahrenheit outside. All year long. It's just like
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: the perfect temperature of 365 days a year because it's
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: a mountain town. It's temperate. It's a very, very nice city.
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: But you can go to anywhere that sounds interesting to you.
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: There are very few places. And if it is dangerous,
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: there will be travel advisories telling you what's wrong. There
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: are counterinsurgencies and guerrilla warfare going on in this part
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: of the country. Don't go there. Or there's an active
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: invasion by the U.S. right now. Don't go to that beach.
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: If you are wondering, can I travel? Or if you're thinking,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: I wish I could do this. The answers are, respectively,
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: yes you can. And you can do this. You can
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: travel also. At least for everyone I've spoken to so far.
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: This went on way longer than I thought it was
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: going to. I hope this was... I hope you got
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: some useful information out of this rambling. I realized I
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: was talking really fast, but I haven't done this topic
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: in 150 episodes, and I really care about this one
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: because it's still the question I get the most. And
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: it's just, it seems to be a matter of shifting perspective.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: People need to understand that they can. Because they haven't traveled,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: they don't know that there are supermarkets everywhere, but there are.
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: They don't know that there's world-class healthcare available for a
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: fraction of what they're used to paying. But there is.
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: It's out there. So I hope this helped. If you
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: have any questions, write to me. Bitofarambler at gmail.com. Bitofarambler
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: on Lemmy on Blue Sky. I will get back to you.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: I'm hanging out. Most of the day. Every day. And
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: if anything, you want more detail, anything you want, just
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: contact me. Go to the Lemmy community. It's great. There's
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: a ton of engagement. I think, how old is it now?
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: It must be seven months old, and there's 250 users.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: That's not nothing on Lemmy, and there's engagement on nearly
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: every post. So it's pretty cool how that engagement with
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: that community is going. And the airline ticket, I didn't
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: mention that, but if you're worried that the airline ticket
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: is going to be prohibitively expensive, it's not. It's going
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: to be less than $ 100 or... maybe up to a
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: few hundred dollars to get literally halfway around the world.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: But then you're there. And again, the first month you're there,
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: you're saving $ 1, 000 on rent every month if you're from
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: the U.S. At least. I hope this sounds fun to you.
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: I hope traveling sounds fun and interesting to you because
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: it is so fun for me to talk about. Thank
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: you so much for listening to this, oh, very long episode.
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: Have a great day. Talk to you soon.