5 Biggest Financial Mistakes Made By Expats

When I first went abroad, I was utterly transfixed by how cheap everything is. Unfortunately, I quickly found myself spending as I would in the United States for a lifestyle that should have cost 50% of what I was paying. In attempting to be as antifragile as possible, I boiled my financial problems down into five specific categories, with my fiscal health drastically improving since I took steps to address them.

1. Not having a budget

Welcome to financial zen.

Without a budget, even a rich man can become poor. With proper budgeting, even a poor man can live comfortably. This is the number one financial mistake made by most people, not just expats. For the longest time, I never used a budget and honestly dreaded the idea of having one. That all changed when I realized how easy it can be when one uses a spending tracker like Mint.

Mint allows one to input all of their credit cards and bank accounts into one place, while also tracking deposits. Automatically, it will determine how much you are spending versus how much you are making, while also displaying all of your transactions on one simple, easy to read sheet.

Pro-tip: My personal strategy is to use a Charles Schwab checking account with 0% foreign transaction or ATM fees, and a Chase Sapphire Credit Card to earn travel miles for free flights, both linked to Mint. Just make sure you have your auto-pay settings set to pay the card’s balance off in full every month!

Before I used Mint, I was spending as much as $2,500 a month abroad. Now? I’m spending around $1250 for a nearly identical lifestyle. I challenge you to try this. Chances are, you’ll be as shocked as I was.

Numerous studies have shown that spending money can often be a process that triggers the emotional centers of the brain as opposed to those that deal purely in logic. Budgeting allows you to spend less money on things you don’t need, and more on the things that enhance your life.

For example, I realized I probably don’t need to spend $60 a month on cabs and $30 for online subscriptions when I can just download movies and take the Metro instead. Had I never used Mint, I wouldn’t have come to this realization. Now, I occasionally spend that $90 on new clothing, something that I feel actually adds value to my life.

The one downside of using a spending tracker abroad is that your transactions will likely be in a different language, but you should be able to figure out what they are with relative ease based on their prices and dates. In Mint, you can even rename the transactions for greater clarity when checking in on one’s budget each month. Mint can even send you an email alert when you are getting close to overspending in a certain category.

This feature caused me to seriously look at my monthly budget and find out ways I could reduce it, with my rent payment being the first to get slashed.

2. Airbnb vs. renting locally

You can rent an apartment in LA for this much.

All across the globe, business savvy property owners have realized that they can rent out very average apartments to expats on Airbnb at a significantly higher rate than one would charge a local person. Do you really think your friend Igor or Oleg are paying $600 a month for their apartments? They’re not, and your landlord is laughing all the way to the bank.

Some cities have better Airbnb prices than others, with Kyiv and Tbilisi being among the cheapest. Even still, I encourage one to look elsewhere once they are settled into a country. Airbnb can be a great way of getting set up initially, but it is an irresponsible strategy long term.

For this, one can enlist the help of a local girl, or even contact hosts on Airbnb and ask if they are willing to work out a lower rate that can be paid in cash each month. To date, I have been able to convince all of my Airbnb hosts so such a deal after staying for a short period through the website. This is partially because there are no company fees involved, they likely won’t be paying taxes on cash payments, and I’ve presented myself as a trustworthy guy.

When I go to a new city, I never rent an Airbnb for more than a month, and I always include in my message I may be interested in staying another month afterward. In doing so, I’ve lowered my rent payments from $650 each month to right around $475, a significant amount to say the least.

If you’re saving money on housing, you’ll have plenty to blow on booze, women and other vices that are surely abundant in your developing country of choice.

3. Vices, vices, vices

What is going on here?

Living in a developing country can feel like a playground at times. The rule of law is far less of a factor when outside of the police state that is the USA, and one can feel empowered by a new sense of freedom that was missing in life before. As such, one may find that virtually anything can be bought and paid for at an extremely low price, each with varying degrees of morality.

The first month I was in Ukraine, I was hardly ever sober. It was awesome, and I now think of a short period of excess as a right of passage for many men who go abroad. I would walk around drinking beer, chatting up girls, and trying to land lays while discovering the city. This sounds gay, but it was pretty god damn magical. While I toned it down in the second month, many of my friends know of no such restraint.

This can create a big problem for some men. Similar to watching a rock star who suddenly obtains windfall earnings fall victim to alcohol, drugs, and cheap sex, expats in developing countries face similar issues. If one can go get plastered at the bar for $10 pay for sex for $60 afterward, a vicious cycle where one is overindulging in their vices can happen very quickly. Add drugs and an addictive personality to this situation, and one has a real recipe for disaster on their hands.

4. Limiting the scope of remote income

Don’t get too comfortable with your remote gig.

In my first three months abroad, I was making more cash than I knew what to do with. In making close to $1000 a week, my schedule was pretty damn full. Foolishly, I thought the line of work I was in at this point was to remain continually busy indefinitely, so I quit a $50 a week social media job I was doing for a small company in the United States. I was in for a rude awakening when December came around, and I found my online work was very seasonal, and it would not be returning until February.

Considering I was overspending to begin with, I had to live off of savings for two months until my work started coming in once February hit. I immediately regretted giving up the $200 monthly I was earning from social media, as it could have paid for half of my rent or my entire grocery bill each month.

Jobs that can be done remotely can be difficult to find at times, especially if they are somewhat less mundane than data entry or copywriting. Even if they pay less than one should come to expect, they are worth their weight in gold when one’s expenses are comparatively low. I suggest anyone who has multiple income streams think long and hard before giving one up to focus on another. This may be one situation where there really is strength in diversity.

5. Buying groceries at bougie supermarkets

Buy local.

For me, this has been the most difficult saving to achieve, and one I am still working on. It is no mystery that the majority of local people in developing countries shop at outdoor markets to buy groceries for a cost that can be as little as 1/4th of what one would pay at a supermarket.

Unfortunately, this often requires a bit of haggling and proficiency in a local language, not to mention it can be intimidating for an American who is used to the convenience of home. Even though it may be daunting at first, this can become one’s biggest source of savings next to their rent payment.

I invite you to look at this as a challenge and go for it. I’m no better than the local people of the countries where I live, and neither are you. If shopping at an outdoor market is good enough for them, it is sure as hell good enough for me. In the times I’ve been able to pull this off successfully, I’ve been able to buy up to a kilo of vegetables for less than 80 cents, a kilo of beef for less than $4, and cleaning products for pennies. The same vendors typically use the same stalls in the local markets, and once you buy from them a few times and they know what you like, the process becomes far easier.

Ask one of the girls you’ve been banging to take you to a local market as a “cute” thing to do on a walk one day. She’ll be able to giggle while you clumsily try to buy from the local babushkas, and will likely find it quite endearing that you’re living like a local person and not just being a rich Westerner who throws money away, a trait that most girlfriend quality women in developing countries screen for.

Too good to purchase from a local market? I’ll quote Jay-Z, “I’ll forgive your weak ass, hustlin’ just ain’t you,” and wish you adieu on your flight back to the USA.

Conclusion

In refusing to pay exorbitant prices in foreign countries en masse, we benefit the expat community as a whole. Furthermore, one can gain a new appreciation for how people in “poor” countries live by seeking not to be above them, but in trying to emulate and learn from their frugality. Sure, you can keep your designer jeans and above average apartment to bring girls to, but make a real effort to do away with your wasteful Western habits, and use your experiences traveling as an opportunity to challenge yourself and grow as an individual.

In doing this, one will inevitably end up with more money to save, build your portfolio, and ensure you will never have to return to the institutionalized hellhole that is the modern Western world.

Read More: 6 Rules All Expats Should Live By

61 thoughts on “5 Biggest Financial Mistakes Made By Expats”

  1. 6. NOT ALL 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES ARE MADE THE SAME
    Case in point, Brazil is a 3rd world country by almost every definition a 3rd world country (shoddy infrastructure, high crime, corruption, rampant poverty, lazy and incompetent customer service standards, etc.) but is arguably more expensive than the United States in many respects, and especially when the exchange rate was just 2 Reais to 1 USD. Those days were friggin’ crazy.
    Also places like Nicaragua are technically among the poorest in the western hemisphere, but are still considerably more expensive for rentals etc. compared to the noticeably more developed Thailand, Vietnam, or even Malaysia (a borderline 1st world country in some respects) in southeast Asia.
    What are called “newly industrialized” societies (like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Colombia, etc.) tend to offer the best value for money. As they have OK infrastructure, a relatively large domestic industrial base to satisfy the needs of the local population for foodstuffs, economies of scale (large populations), and yet the average IQ of the local population is too dull that they will probably never become genuine 1st world (and overly expensive) societies. Good knowledge for the future.

    1. Brazil is a country where over 90% of the 1% are J3ws. That is why Brazil is costly. J3ws aren’t welcome in SE Asia, especially the Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and to some level Thailand where Islam is tolerated a little but not too much for safety reasons.

      1. Brazil also DID bring in a considerable number of High IQ immigrants (Germans and Japanese among others) in the early 20th century which also comprise the countries economic elite, and the lions share of the countries Bovespa (Brazil Stock Exchange) investors.
        Problem was the duller IQ Portuguese (who were far more accepting of mixing with the even lower IQ Amerindians and Blacks), breed a lot faster than these top-tier immigrant groups, and Brazil gradually became the high crime basketcase country that we know today.
        There still is a very well to do 10% of the population though, which numbers in the several tens of millions. And you’re right, they accordingly make a lot of stuff a lot more expensive for everybody.

        1. Low IQ savages live in favelas where no expat would travel. The J3ws in Brazil have bribed politicians, looted the country and also used their corruption to inflate the housing market in cities like Sao Paulo. J3ws also funded the Slutwalk movement in Brazil. You’re missing the point. High IQ Europeans are not to blame for Brazil’s woes because the J3ws make a disproportionate percentage of the 1%.

        2. REALITY
          What are you? Seventeen, eighteen? This the reality.
          “Gradual…breed a lot faster”
          Like all of Latin America the Portuguese were MALES and white women from Lisbon could not be convinced to come to Latin America-this is the same reason US hicks are stupider than Britishers or East Coast ethnic whites…early white settlers had to FUCK Indians.
          The fucking with Negresses began when the first Afro female arrived and it was not GRADUAL…the country was build on it-Mestizo kids of Portuguese whites and jungle Indian women fucking Afros created the bulk of Brazil’s middle-class populace and black African buck studs fucking jungle Indian females created the Favela class.
          The “High IQ” immigration was post 1910 from Europe and by then Brazil had an fairly rigid racial caste pyramid-A few Portuguese families descended from Colonial administrators who imported some Portuguese women; a load of Mestizos beget from Portuguese low class white sailors or miners and jungle Indian females; a bunch of “Zambizos” and some black African slaves
          As for Jews, there were a FEW but the power was always with the Catholic chuch.

      2. 6 Million
        Fool, the ruling Brazilians are the descendants of Catholic priests and colonial administrators in Portuguese Brazil who had access to white women (Portuguese female orphans and prostitutes).
        Maybe Mike D and Ron Jeremy run Noo Yawk. Or even the US.
        But not everywhere.

        1. AUTOMATIC
          “Beastie Boy” is slang for a ghetto Jew who is from the hood/wigger Jew who acts black.
          Female species resembles Amy Winehouse.
          Drug of choice is cocaine and crack.
          Drink of choice is Jack Daniel’s or “Mickey’s Malt Liquor”.
          Since people in the Flyover think all Jews live in Manhattan and pull their pant

    2. REALITY
      I knew two American white fools robbed in Rio.
      The Negro and Jungle Indian blood fusion creates a very vicious and savage primitive.

    3. Bingo. Newly industrialised countries are definitely the best value for money. It’s because their public infrastructure and industrial base is approaching first world levels, while parasitic drags like red tape and socialist expectations haven’t had a chance to appear yet.
      Add Indonesia to your list. It does a better job at providing good value to the low end of the income spectrum, but it really resonates with a substantial minority of westerners. Tons of business opportunity there too.

    4. Vietnam has an average IQ of approximately 100, which is the same as in Germany. If we assume that Germany would have an higher IQ if immigration from third-world African and Middle Eastern countries was much more limited, perhaps 103, it’s still a small difference.
      Vietnam mainly consists of a population which is quite closely related to south Chinese clusters (north Chinese populations are quite distant from their southern counterparts, why the Han is fairly heterogeneous). It’s socialism/communism, not IQ, which is holding them back from a development perspective. Vietnamese people do in fact have much better math skills than their Western counterparts, despite socialism. However, erhaps this partly has got to do with larger quantities of homework and more a authoritarian and Confucian-oriented culture.
      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613000731

      1. Viets are shifty 3rd world people, bringing the worst qualities of Chinese and South East Asians together. I don’t consider them IQ equals for a second. Also 3rd world people only concern themselves with immediate family. If there is no strong central government taking care of the greater whole that isn’t overly corrupt these places forever remain impoverished winner takes it all societies.

        1. Those high IQ Asians typically lack any form of creativity, backbone or common sense though…

      2. Several factors like IQ indicate that Vietnam should have been a 1st world country decades ago (akin to similar growth with South Korea) if it wasn’t for a communist takeover and wars.
        However, successful countries located within the tropic zone are quite an anomaly.
        Beyond the northern third of Australia with towns like Darwin and Cairns, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur etc. are about the closest the world gets to highly functional tropical metropolises. (Thanks British Empire and all your white man know how!) 😀

    5. Brazil is extremely expensive country to live in! The wages are low as hell too. Taxes are abusive, and the laws are totalitarian in nature. Freedom is an illusion there, and Feminism is codified in laws.
      The terms “Brazilification of the economy” describes it best. Just look at Brazil and you will understand the term. That means there is a colossal block of poor people (lower class poor, which is about 80%+ of population), the middle class is decimated (or flees to other countries with whatever they have left in wealth, or it vanishes completely), and the rich become insanely rich (FB’s Suckerberg, large multinational corporate CEO-types, etc). The number of these ultra-rich will be incredibly small, I am talking 0.00000001% or less of the total population.
      This is the Socialist model they have implemented successfully (to the detriment of regular people of Brazil). The ultra-rich pay off politicians, judges, and media to keep everyone under their thumb, and the poor class becomes huge and a massive government-dependent entitlement-dependent voting block. They live in misery, however, but get a “Cesta Basica”, a government-provided basic box with stuff inside, like beans, rice, soap, etc. They sell themselves to politicians for stuff even the poorest in America take for granted. The politicians then create a Socialist tax system to sorta maintain the massive welfare state going.
      The cost of living in ANY leftwing country is very high and wages will be crap. Taxes will be sky-high, and everyone gets shitty healthcare and have zero freedoms and no rights to free speech, self-defense, false rape accusations are enshrined and encouraged by their laws, etc. Like Sweden, Denmark, or Brazil, for example. Brazil is the poster-child for this hell.
      Southeast Asia, some of Eastern Europe, and a couple countries in South America (Argentina and Chile) still make sense to move to financially, due to reasonable cost of living. The rest of South America will be misery system of low wages and high cost of living. Brazil is the worst of them all, feminist women, bad laws, and sky-high cost of living.

  2. Know about the FEIE and what it can mean for you. It can save you a shit ton of money.

  3. They always charge expats more because you’re w stranger on foreign land and you usually have leverage aka funds. They’re not going to charge local dudes the same due to income disparity. This is a reality everywhere. You ain’t gonna charge some landed immigrant to Canada or US just cause their poorer. That seldom happens and you better be a good bargainer.

    1. I have lived overseas for decades and I learned right away how to get things cheaper than the locals. I hate being cheated.

  4. “Life is a constant struggle.” -Adolph Hitler. I am quoting this for the benefit of the SPLC. Whatever cat lady they have hovering over the keyboard 24/7. I just quoted Hitler for you. But it’s a quote you’ll have a hard time arguing. Haha. Lmao lol

    1. Here’s some red pill for ya. These organizations like the SPLC don’t really dislike “hate.” They love it, because it gives them a purpose. A person without purpose is miserable. The SPLC prays for more “hate groups,” because it gives their life meaning, otherwise they are worthless. Talk to me cat lady lol.

      1. The SPLC are worthless parasites. They contribute absolutely nothing of benefit to our society or economy. Just scare tactics to enrich themselves and propaganda designed to hasten the decline of America’s white population.

    1. Bingo. Which is why you should be happy to pay more than locals for an apartment in poor countries. Find a landlord you trust, become a repeat customer, pay in cash so he can avoid taxes. Now you have a reliable local who wants to keep you alive and who you can ask for advice about everything, including referrals to lawyers and medical care of necessary. Note that a girlfriend, unlike a landlord, may not always be interested in preserving your life and health.

      1. It’s a good start but only that. Mustn’t rely too much on any one person. Safer to build a network starting from lots of independent first meets. And remember that even in super friendly countries like Indonesia, one is ultimately expected to give something back. Work towards and treasure the day when you can finally give something meaningful back to your local friends.

  5. EXPAT RULES OF LAW
    1) In Southeast Asia, Chinese run things. In Gulf Arab states, it is Gujarati. In Latin America, Spanish Criollos…cross the local market-dominant minority and you are fucked.
    2) Some of the Flyover hick fools and teenage rubes on this site still living with Mumma are saying “Joos run these places…” They don’t. Chinese run Southeast Asia. Gujarati run Dubai and Kenya. Spanish whites run Latin America.
    3) You have to really want to get away from blacks, Mestizos, Reservation Indians, Trailer Park Trash, Beastie Boys and other American species of scum to live abroad. Unless you are totally disgusted by them and by the US culture (I have not even been back in the US for 11 years and have not LIVED there in 19) you will not last overseas.
    4) Why move to Latin America? It is full of Mestizos and blacks who are destroying the US?
    5) Most of you Gen Y raised by your DOB 1960s early Gen X parents are such copter children that you will not last anyhow. You are not street smart or savvy enough.
    6) Most of you older guys who are nearing retirement age are too wrapped up in the US emphasis on justice and fairness to make it in a corrupt, undemocratic country like Philippines.
    7) To really thrive overseas you have to have left the US in your 20’s and really have despised the place (Or wherever you are from) and spent a lifetime overseas employed. Not just drinking with prostitutes in dive bars in Prague or Manila.
    8) You will observe HOW FAST the US goes downhill overseas. It is hard to return at that point; I left in 1999 and you would be amazed how decomposed the US has become since then.

    1. Totally agree with you, especially point 6 and 7. Most americans are so american they don’t even know how american they are. Applies to a lesser extent to Europeans.
      Out of interest, where have you spent the last 19 years?

      1. ANONYMOUS
        An Odd Duality-
        An American white guy who lives 40 miles away from a corrupt-as-fuck ghetto/barrio with 2 dead nightly will ignore this internal Third World (Detroit, St. Louis, LA) but will have a BRING DEMOCRACY & TRANSPARENCY TO THE WORLD Chimpout in the Philippines or Eastern Europe.
        Never mind that blacks and Mestizos are wasting one another twice as regularly in his state about 30 miles from his community…when he gets overseas he will suddenly want to overthrow the unfair and corrupt government of the Philippines or Russia (Or wherever) even though Nig-Nogs are dead in the fucking road in his state and Mestizos are beheading teen coke whores in a public park.
        Europeans are not quite SO STUPID and also they do not (Until George Bush’s War and Hillary’s Libya parlor games turned Europe into a Refugee Center) internal third worlds like the US so at least when they Chimpout in Philippines it is understandable

        1. Hey scum, stay over wherever the hell u are & keep your 2 cents with you. You’re a weirdo who stood out so you couldn’t fit into your community of origin & will always stick out until God has pity on you & allows you to die.

    2. >Some of the Flyover hick fools and teenage rubes on this site still living with Mumma are saying “Joos run these places…” They don’t. Chinese run Southeast Asia. Gujarati run Dubai and Kenya. Spanish whites run Latin America.
      Developing countries are the jews bitch just like any other place. Just because jews don’t have direct control locally doesn’t mean they don’t control big finance via the IMF, World Bank etc.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_financial_crisis

      1. I’m not Jewish but constant bashing of Jews is boring, tiresome and unimaginative. A one track blinkered mind. And even if Jews did rule every facet of every cubic centimeter of the world (which they don’t) a smart person would know how to game the system.

    3. 3 – Some good truth here. When I left the US I was SICK to death of the crap culture. That said, I lived in a roughly 90% white, 10% asian city and didn’t have to deal with the ghetto crap. I still hate US culture so much I won’t even talk to other Americans should I run into them. I just blend in with the Europeans now.
      4 – I don’t get the fascination with the 3rd world stuff around here. Plenty of good options in the 1st world and even with significantly lower cost of living.
      7 – Not sure about most, but I bucked this rule. I left at 33. My only real regret is not leaving a full 15 years earlier! Though honestly it wouldn’t have been possible. You need to have an established income to really make it. As it is, I’m getting a decent equivalent to a US salary while living in a cheap place. It’s amazing how much money you waste on living in the US.
      8 – Preach it brother! You’ve really had a front row seat to see the decline. I’m just 5 years out and have seen how tremendously the US is on the fast track downhill.

      1. GUAN
        I left in 1999, aged 25. What was strange was that during the Bush years, shit went WAYYYY downhill.

      2. You don’t need an established income. You just need to be resourceful. How resourceful depends how little you have.
        I know an Englishman who left England with absolutely nothing when he was 18. Spent a few years traveling around Europe, mainly working as a Chef in Vienna and making big bucks, and then started traveling East via Turkey and the Middle East. Eventually he ended up in Malaysia, where he basically lives the ROK dream. He earns a regular enough income from computer consultancy and/or setting up kitchens, bags himself a local girlfriend whenever he needs a car/apartment, and lives fancy free from day to day. If he wanted to dig deep and create something solid for his future, he certainly could do. The lack of capital is no issue at all.
        I’m also reminded of a long term traveler I met. He traveled slowly on a bicycle with his dog in the trailer. I met him in Turkey, where he was on his way to Russia to spend the winter in Siberia. He’d been all over the world, saved money as much as possible, and worked where he needed to. A hostel in Hungary, a bicycle job in Beijing. He taught me how it’s possible to live for free – camp on the beach, bathe in the sea, boil water for tea with a fire made of driftwood, ask bakeries for old bread for his dog and then eat it himself, dumpster dive for the rest. Frequently, his eccentricity would earn him a place to stay for a few nights and even gifts of money/clothes. It was no playboy lifestyle, but it shows how it’s possible for someone with truly nothing to start.
        Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

        1. This is called a “homeless lifestyle”.
          You have nothing and beg your host country for free stuff.
          He is the bottom of the social ladder at home AND in foreign lands.
          An expat is the exact opposite.
          A person with a decent income, often much higher than the local average, who is bringing money into his host country.
          He will spend the same he would back home but with a much higher standard of living and often also improved social standing.
          All this will add to his passive SMV and he can date much better girls than he would get at home.

  6. EXPAT LAWS
    Other societies will resemble ethnic US ghettos on STEROIDS-
    Palermo is the sort of country Tony Soprano would run…so if you go to Italy remember that.
    Brazil is the sort of country that Mulatto son of that Mud Shark slut daughter of the rednecks down the road would run (Like Obama).
    Nigeria is the sort of country Tyreece would run.
    India is the sort of country that slimy IT asshole or Sikh banker you met at a party would run where men bellow at one another in public.
    And so on.

    1. I’d avoid all of Sicilia and a good portion of southern Italia. At least if you’re looking to live somewhere. Otherwise plenty of great spots provided you don’t have a need to get income locally.

  7. Is this article for expats or tourists? None of the authors on ROK seem to have any real aptitude for traveling. They’re just playboys who want to live beyond their means and leverage their foreignness to bang hot girls. If you just want to have fun, fair enough. But please be aware that you’re not integrating and that you will be spat back out somewhere down the line when the immigration laws and/or economic differential render your way of life unsustainable. I’ve seen it happen so many times to English teachers in China and ‘expats’ in Thailand, both of which are notorious for skimming along the surface of their host countries and never getting any deeper than their girlfriend’s vagina.
    If you want some suggestions for how to do things sustainably, how about:
    1) always come alone. avoid other foreigners.
    2) live as cheaply as possible. live as close to the streets as possible. don’t be afraid to sleep rough.
    3) learn the language from day one and spend lots of time hanging out with locals to get a feel for how the country really works. Conscious learning is only half of it. The other half is subconscious. You need to emulate body language, tune into their emotions, work out subtle feelings, etc.
    4) work out how society is divided and which groups perform which activities.
    5) Get in bed with the groups you need to get in bed with and form a network that deems you valuable enough to rescue should you have financial/legal issues.
    It’s not easy to do properly, which is why 90% either return home or become neither-nor interlopers living only off a first world income stream and being completely at the mercy of the economic conditions in their home country.

    1. Westerners are worthless in 3rd world countries. You’re always on your way out unless you marry in, but even then good opportunities are rarely there.
      What you suggest is silly. Living like a local peasant is what 3rd world dirtbag types do that wear flip flops, shorts, drive a scooter in their late 30s / early 40s and talk like a local peasant while being married to a peasant girl.
      There is no moving up as a foreigner. If you don’t come from a solid background back home forget about working in high level positions or getting any real opportunities and even then you might end up as a fall guy for local corruption.
      Coming to a 3rd world country and profiting off corrupt local connections built over decades if not centuries between families is a fantasy.

      1. Anything wrong with driving a scooter in your late 30s / early 40s in Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan etc. ?
        I find it a hell of a lot more fun and invigorating exploring the countryside on a scooter than some clunky gas guzzling car. You can buy a good used for just several hundred bucks while even a new Toyota Corolla is what… $17,000?

        1. I’m normally not a judgy type but you’re living like a low IQ 3rd world peasant waiting to get killed by reckless / drunken 3rd world drivers.
          Do whatever you please but sinking on 3rd world peasant level is a slippery slope of losing any kind of standards for yourself and others.
          It’s the south east asian version of becoming a wigger.

      2. Your posts sound rather bitter. Did you try already and then give up and go back home?
        Personally, I’ve come across a few Westerners who have succeeded big time in Asia. I’m thinking of a Frenchman who started a recycling business in his Thai wife’s back yard and who now presides over one of the most valuable recycling operations in Bangkok. I’m also thinking of a Swiss who set up a factory automation design firm (mechanical engineering) in Malaysia and who ran it happily for 20 years before retiring into teaching.
        Note in both cases the foreigners used their scientific/technical abilities to do what locals couldn’t. As others have pointed out, Thailand and Malaysia’s private sector is run by Chinese. They are truly great at business, but they are often sorely lacking on the technical front. A lone Westerner can add some serious value and profit accordingly, if they play it right. The key is to find one’s niche and to work _with_ not against. Don’t be afraid of being ripped off, just work out what you can do that no one else can do and start building accordingly.
        As for flip flops, shorts, and scooters .. that can either be a loser on their way down, or an entrepreneur on their way up. One never knows.

        1. I’m not bitter but a realist.
          I moved on from South East Asia to China. South East Asians are low IQ genetic garbage and I have never met any foreigner there #winning with a local biz.
          In China, where a lot more foreigners actually try to run businesses, the vast majority fail due to greedy landlords and local corruption / anti foreign sentiments when it comes to enforcing rules that aren’t enforced for locals.
          I’m from western Europe but rely on US income for a living. If I could live in the US I’d still do so despite it’s downsides.

        2. How can you say SE Asians are low IQ garbage? Business isn’t run by the indigenous folk, it’s run by Chinese. If you use your European mind to run a technical business in SE Asia, you’ll spend almost all your time interacting with smart people. As for the locals, just enjoy the small talk when you go out to eat rice. Their mental capacity may be limited but they’re nice people with good hearts.
          I can’t comment much on China. I’ve only been through as a tourist. My impression is that white skin is a fast route to a comfortable job, but that the barrier to real entrepreneurship is much bigger than SE Asia. Setting up a company, for instance, requires a lot more paperwork and a lot more capital in China than in Malaysia/Singapore. Indonesia and Thailand technically have a massive amount of bureaucracy also, but it’s common to skirt the rules. In Indonesia, for instance, it’s common not to incorporate a company until the business is underway. And licenses? No problem.. wait a couple of years until the local government work out something’s going on, and then talk nicely to them about settling the paperwork.
          It seems that you personally prefer a first world country. That’s fine, but I think you’ve got a unnecessarily pessimistic view of SE Asia and other ‘developing’ countries on account of your personal dislike. For those of us who genuinely feel happier in these cultures, the opportunity is very much here.

    2. Good advice here.
      I hit Poland first, and then moved on to southern Europe due to the weather. (Or the women, not sure which it really was. 😀 No disrespect to Polish women, I just prefer a little more… fire.)
      Living to excess can actually alienate you from the locals in a hurry. It’s much better to keep a lower profile. Don’t get the fancy car (even if you can afford it). Don’t show off the latest 1000 dollar phone. Don’t flash your money around everywhere. It’s like painting a target on your forehead for thieves or something much more insidious: the woman that wants to use you to get out of her country.
      That right there is the biggest danger if you’re looking to marry.

    3. This is not “expat” …this is homeless, dirt-poor refugee style.
      With this background you are best suited in a socialist country like sweden, germany, france etc. where you will get all kinds of free stuff from the goverment in return for high taxes. Taxes others will pay who in fact earn a decent living.
      The ROK expat style make a lot more sense.
      It brings a real benefit for the young person who wants a better life with better girls.
      Your advice makes poor miserable people stranded with nothing in a foreign land. NOT GOOD.

  8. Rok comments about Brazil is hilarious. Most of you never came here. You look afraid of getting raped in the ass when travelling to other places, so better stay at home.

    1. Why would you got to a place where violent robberies are common place?
      Now I’m surely generalizing as Brazil is big and not everywhere is like Sao Paulo or Rio, but being around mestizo savages that get my spidey senses tingling by their mere presence nah thanks…

    2. I’ve been there. Once. Going to have to agree with your suggestion of staying home. 😀

    3. Nope. I’ve been mate. Twice.
      I like the women and er……. the women…. but everything else is admittedly kind of inferior to the US. Value for money, safety, service standards, quality of roads, massive taxes slapped on imported goods, wages for the locals, etc.
      It all takes a big dive. Like “people” has been Ireland’s greatest export. “Wives” is pretty much the greatest export of Brazil.

  9. The biggest mistake is just living way above your means, especially on uncertain incomes. The people I have witnessed doing this were generally spending way too much on housing and pissing away money at parties and group dinners.
    Unless you’re a rockstar coder with a good network remote jobs can be very very very hard to replace and it might take a year if you had good pay.
    >Too good to purchase from a local market? I’ll quote Jay-Z, “I’ll forgive your weak ass, hustlin’ just ain’t you,” and wish you adieu on your flight back to the USA.
    Yeah I’m too good for that. I’m rather working a shit job in a first world country than living like a 3rd world local. I have never been to Ukraine so I can’t say anything regarding that but in Asia quality produce costs money and I’m not there to live like a local peasant.
    Also “hustlin’ like a negro rapper” is a meme. Jay Z was made by j*ws. How many selling crack on the corner or hawking some bullshit “hustlers” do you see getting anywhere? Working smart and hard is where it’s at, not some silly crack dealer worshiping.

    1. Speak on what you know & be silent on what you don’t. Crack DISTRIBUTORS actually make a lot of money, hence the reason countless black boys & men risk life & freedom trying to climb up the ladder. Also Jews did not make Jay-Z. Jews generally don’t produce anything. What happened is Jay-Z made himself, the Jewish play makers realized his potential & then approached him later on with a deal for his soul.

  10. 1) The obsession with the Jooze is one nice reason to leave the US. Not that I am one, but to hear day in and day out how you cannot leave Mum’s basement because of Ron Jeremy and Mike D of the Beastie Boys.
    2) Wiggers is another obsession truthfully. Who wants to see butt-raped white males who would fall to their knees to suck the cocks of black ghetto thugs. In 1999 when I left the US Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans for example were proud to be Micks and Dagos and not trying to imitate black ghetto thugs.
    3) White males these days live at home and jack off to porn when they are 30 years old. It is deeply sad and disturbing to see “man-boy” Gen Y who jerk off in their basement and never leave home.
    4) Rubes at the mercy of the East and West Coast…what happens when Hollywood producers tell people in the Flyover to stick their dicks in blenders? I bet they will, too. Because they are told it is the right thing to do.
    If you are overseas for even 5 years you see how fast the US goes downhill. It is hard to anti-globalist when everyone who stayed in your childhood neighborhood is an idiot or a junkies and your property was worth nothing when you sold it.

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