Post: #26

So it's been about 10 weeks since I made the jump to expatriation. Things have been busy, so I dropped the ball a little bit in posting on this forum.

Not much has changed since my August 8 post, except the following:

* Got an apartment rental in Bangkok for 1 year for which I feel is a steal compared to US rental prices

* Made a trip to a neighboring country... it felt like a "vacation within a vacation", which was a mildly strange feeling

* Obtained a one-year multiple entry visa into Vietnam, which was unintentional (long story for another blog post)

* Getting at least one girlfriend each in three different countries... and trying to not spread myself too thin by making vague promises to visit them in the near future... unless I can clone myself? Or would too many CleanSlates running around in SEA ruin it for the other guys? Haha

* Met several other forum members for the first time, including Irish. Now THAT was quite the night out that ended in all 3 of us getting laid...

I'm happy. Not whoo-hoo-over-the-fucking-moon-happy, but I am content and relaxed. I don't have the stress and the feeling of being high-strung like I did back in the States -- that's gone.

There is still a little stress, though. But a different kind of stress where you're just figuring things out in a different language within a foreign country with organized chaos... all the while you're trying not to get hit by a motorcycle that jumped the sidewalk you're walking on. Managing a few different chicks at once. Scheduling dates. Trying different strategies on how to make a sustainable income. Figuring out which tasks are useless busy work, and which ones are actually helping me make money. Looking for ways to eat healthy while shopping in a grocery store with foreign language labeling.

I made $500 last week. Which is a start. Extrapolate that, and that's $2k a month which is enough to live a good life in SEA and in a lot of places around the world. But the real trick is find a way to sustain that level of income, or higher... not just a spurt of money coming in at the same time.

But I'm not worried... yet. I'll find a way to figure this out.

In early August I gave this a B grade. Now I'm upping this to a B+

Post: #27

Congratulations and nice guide! Nice info regarding taxes and LLCs. For anyone selling stuff on Amazon, look into forming an S-corporation to reduce self employment tax. Keep track of all of your receipts for rent, etc. Especially important for those living in the Philippines: a fraction of your electricity bills can be deducted as use for office.

Post: #28

New blog post - 2016 year in review:

http://www.masculinexpat.com/year-2016-review/

Post: #29

Hi CleanSlate, have you discounted freelancing as a means of sustainable income? If so, why - if you don't mind me asking?

Post: #30

Laga, freelancing is my main source of income right now. But I'm not on sites like Upwork, that's low pay stuff. I'm going after higher tier business clients with real money and actually values the work I do. So I present myself as a serious business rather than a "freelancer" per se.

Post: #31

Second 2017 Update:

For the past 7 months, I've been traveling and exploring as much as I can and banging chicks along the way. During the mornings and early afternoons, I tend to be working on my business.

I'm making money, but not enough. Taking the average monthly income of the last 3 months, I would have to at least double it to cover my expenses. Still, it's better than 6 months ago, when I wasn't making many money at all.

Although I'm burning through my savings at a slower rate, I'm at a "psychological" number in my savings account... and if I draw more from it, I'll have an "oh shit!" moment. Not going to reveal the dollar amount publicly -- I made that mistake by telling another forum member (not naming names) how much I had in savings and he tried to pressure me into using that money in a way I wasn't prepared to.

My savings is still robust... it's not like I've run out of money. Far from it... and with a slower burn rate, I still have about a couple of years to really make things come together.

But the time to get serious about hustling is NOW. More emphasis will be on networking and making business connections. No more half-assing it. No more udemy courses and no more feel-good tropical MBA crap. Time to stop reading and get to the real work.

My life depends on it.

Post: #32

(02-02-2017 12:22 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Second 2017 Update:

For the past 7 months, I've been traveling and exploring as much as I can and banging chicks along the way. During the mornings and early afternoons, I tend to be working on my business.

I'm making money, but not enough. Taking the average monthly income of the last 3 months, I would have to at least double it to cover my expenses. Still, it's better than 6 months ago, when I wasn't making many money at all.

Although I'm burning through my savings at a slower rate, I'm at a "psychological" number in my savings account... and if I draw more from it, I'll have an "oh shit!" moment. Not going to reveal the dollar amount publicly -- I made that mistake by telling another forum member (not naming names) how much I had in savings and he tried to pressure me into using that money in a way I wasn't prepared to.

My savings is still robust... it's not like I've run out of money. Far from it... and with a slower burn rate, I still have about a couple of years to really make things come together.

But the time to get serious about hustling is NOW. More emphasis will be on networking and making business connections. No more half-assing it. No more udemy courses and no more feel-good tropical MBA crap. Time to stop reading and get to the real work.

My life depends on it.

Best of luck. We're rooting for you!

Post: #33

Some of your posts are good, and I'm sure there are some of us that want to possibly do something similar. I remember reading your posts and thinking you are really paying foreigner prices. It's not a good idea to pay foreigner prices when living in a foreign country long-term. Then again maybe there are things that came up. Do you own a car? You should list out your expenses or you could PM me if you want. Maybe you could get some ideas, or maybe I could see what I'm missing when thinking through expenses.

Post: #34

(02-02-2017 08:02 PM)MikeMcLaren Wrote:  I remember reading your posts and thinking you are really paying foreigner prices.

Which posts got you thinking that?

I've actually been good about keeping my expenses under control. Rent, utilities, food, transportation, and essentials amount to roughly $1000 a month. Plus $200 a month for operating business expenses. Toss in another $100 for health insurance coverage.

Another $500 a month goes to traveling, airfare, accommodations, and partying... I could trim that back a bit, but the benefit of life experience gained from this far exceeds the monetary value, however. I rather increase my income than cut this expense entirely.

The only things I know I'm paying foreigner prices are coffee, western food like burgers and pizza, and taxis. But cutting these out would maybe net me $50-100 at best... not worth trying to control.

And no, I don't own a car and would not want to unless I have kids.

Post: #35

That's reasonable. I remember reading something like you were paying $1500-$1700 dollars for an apartment in Bangkok, which seemed like foreigner prices for a regular place. Maybe, when you just got there.

Post: #36

(02-02-2017 09:04 PM)MikeMcLaren Wrote:  That's reasonable. I remember reading something like you were paying $1500-$1700 dollars for an apartment in Bangkok, which seemed like foreigner prices for a regular place. Maybe, when you just got there.

Ah... I probably meant *total* monthly expenses, not just apartment. My bad if I wasn't completely clear on that.

Post: #37

Thanks for the updates, CleanSlate, it's great to see you making it happen, I'll be making the move towards the end of the year.

For now, I'm taking care of some family stuff, renovating a home for my elderly mom and pop so they can have a nice place to live. Once I finish with that and replenish the bank account, I'll be abroad again, this time for at least a year, but perhaps indefinitely.

I spend a lot of time researching potential countries, going over the pros and cons of each, and running my numbers. I'm sure all of us on this road have gone through that phase many times, and it never really ends...I could see myself settling in one country for a decade or so only to move elsewhere after that, as the world changes and opportunities for adventure present themselves (North Korea, Cuba, various parts of Africa or Latin America).

Sometimes I feel like I'm living a dream and I'll wake up soon and realize I have to drive through snow to get to work, taking client trades all day as a stock broker again, watching the market.

But that doesn't happen, instead, I wake up every morning and I have freedom. Except I'm in America, instead of abroad...but hey, I'm still grateful. That said, I do admit to not valuing it enough at times.

If I can earn $500 to $1000 a month freelancing, that's $500 to $1000 more than I need to live abroad indefinitely, so things are looking pretty good. I just want to have a fatter bank account balance before I leave, so that any unforeseen expenses can be taken care of easily, but if I can start earning funds freelancing (web development), then I don't need to save as much and can wing it earlier.

We'll see, but what you're doing is tremendously inspiring, man. Looking forward to your next blog post!

Post: #38

Haha, I remember seeing apartment; I'm not going to go search for it though. It's not a negative on anybody. Short-term it's hard to not get the foreigner price if you don't speak the language. There is really a market price with Airbnb/etc. gouging foreign renters. It's definitely an annoyance in living in some of these places trying to get the local prices.

Post: #39

(02-02-2017 09:33 PM)Spaniard88 Wrote:  Thanks for the updates, CleanSlate, it's great to see you making it happen, I'll be making the move towards the end of the year.

For now, I'm taking care of some family stuff, renovating a home for my elderly mom and pop so they can have a nice place to live. Once I finish with that and replenish the bank account, I'll be abroad again, this time for at least a year, but perhaps indefinitely.

Thanks man. Keep in mind that when you're replenishing your bank account, the financial discipline you learn will serve you well when you're finally abroad.

Post: #40

Hey Cleanslate

Good update. If I may ask do you just stay in the same city and do occasional short term trips or do you move to a new place every few months? What helped me immensely when I started my online business was that I committed to stay in one place for at least 6 months to get things going and not getting distracted by too many girls and too much nightlife. In my case it was Sofia, Bulgaria which is the perfect place in EE to just focusing on business during the week and still have great fun on weekends. It took me 8 months to double my income from my previous full time job and this was the time when I started living more like a digital nomad.

And you are right you need to stop reading these feel well blogs like Tropical MBA or Tim Ferris etc. These guys just make money selling people dreams while hardly providing any value. The same applies to listening to business podcasts and watching courses on Udemy or Youtube. At the end of the day you have to put you ass down and work work work until your business starts generating meaningful income.

Post: #41

^ I've been staying in the same city and doing short term trips. Nice work on doubling your income in only 8 months! It sounds like you really knew what kind of business you were going to get in before you quit your full time job.

That wasn't the case with me. I changed the direction of my business, twice, before finding a skill and niche that I like. That means I've wasted a lot of time before getting to where I am now.

So here are five things I wish I had known before quitting my job (could be a good blog topic to expand on):

1. Make sure your business model is viable
2. Have a legit plan to acquire customers or clients
3. Stay off freelancer sites like upwork or freelancer, they are a waste of time
4. Don't sign up for every newsletter about your _____ business (if you must, just pick one -- and ONLY one, otherwise you'll waste a lot of time)
5. Network more, make more connections, engage with them, nurture more business relationships

That's about it, I think. The good thing is I'm much more focused and streamlined with my business processes than even 6 months ago. When I look back at what I was doing a year and half ago (2015), I cringe at how disorganized and all-over-the-map I was.

Plus, I have a certain process in place that I use to acquire hundreds of prospects and clients, but I rather not reveal that publicly... for the same reason Amazon FBA'ers don't like to reveal what products they are selling.

Post: #42

I am at a point where I just got a location independent job and am now thinking of buying a place in one of my favourite spots. I'm a little concerned that if I loose my job (which isn't completely secure) I'll be in trouble having invested in somewhere where there are limited good paying job opportunities.

At the same time I feel in terms of building myself and my assets it makes sense and could drastically reduce costs in the years to come.

Post: #43

New blog post today:

Why I chose Thailand as my base

http://www.masculinexpat.com/thailand-for-expats/

Post: #44

(02-17-2017 02:57 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  New blog post today:

Why I chose Thailand as my base

http://www.masculinexpat.com/thailand-for-expats/

Might seem ironic after writing that blog post -- I've just left Thailand for Vietnam.

The catalyst for this move was when I applied for a new Thai visa and they rejected it, without any explanation whatsoever. Went back in on an exemption and got out before the 30 days was up. I still have plenty of time left on my Vietnam visa, so I might as well take advantage of it.

While there's a lot to like about both countries, I appreciate the change of scenery more than anything. The cafe culture here is very strong and I've been doubling down on my online business with more focus and determination. Hopefully it really takes off from here.

Next blog post coming sometime next week.

Post: #45

(02-02-2017 12:22 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Second 2017 Update:

But the time to get serious about hustling is NOW. More emphasis will be on networking and making business connections. No more half-assing it. No more udemy courses and no more feel-good tropical MBA crap. Time to stop reading and get to the real work.

My life depends on it.

These are the posts I like to read. Real life and those of us that are independent can laugh in the reality of this.

Funny about the Tropical MBA and endless Udemy courses.

Several guys are supposedly supporting themselves while meeting 5 girls a day and juggling more and more. Most of us that have even come close to one new girl a day know that is a drama nightmare. And you can't get any work done as an entrepeneur. Some, yes, but not that many. It's just distracting.

I read one guy recenlty in Colombia said he hoped to have a Penthouse with 4-5 girls and become an artist. Where a few weeks earlier he was sharing a room rental to save money. Since then he hasn't been working on his business but instead talking about all his dating.

I'll leave it to someone else to call them out on it. But things don't add up.

I like that your posts put it all together. The reality and sustainability of this. These are the only posts I have time to read with real info.

I'm in the same boat as you. Recently I've had to cut back on women while not abroad. This gives me time to focus on my business for better things and better women. Hopefully to have a base to sustain myself. Still I think it is a fine line between being prepared and making the jump.

I'm looking forward to hearing how Vietnam is and how you compare the women there to Thai. Do you go into your opinions of Thai women beyond the sense of humor difference? I don't know if there is another country where the opinons of the women vary so much as Thailand.

Post: #46

(03-17-2017 11:06 AM)stpete Wrote:  These are the posts I like to read. Real life and those of us that are independent can laugh in the reality of this.

Just keeping it real.

(03-17-2017 11:06 AM)stpete Wrote:  I'm looking forward to hearing how Vietnam is and how you compare the women there to Thai. Do you go into your opinions of Thai women beyond the sense of humor difference? I don't know if there is another country where the opinons of the women vary so much as Thailand.

I haven't gone into it yet, but I might. I've had conversations about this with other forum members offline, though.

I think it's just me. My personality jives better with Vietnamese and Filipina women than Thais -- generally speaking (there are always exceptions).

Several other forum guys like Thailand and I agree there is a lot to like about Thais. It could be something about their culture that I don't personally jive well with. I don't know.

Post: #47

(03-17-2017 11:06 AM)stpete Wrote:  Several guys are supposedly supporting themselves while meeting 5 girls a day and juggling more and more. Most of us that have even come close to one new girl a day know that is a drama nightmare. And you can't get any work done as an entrepeneur. Some, yes, but not that many. It's just distracting.

I usually take such comments with a healthy pinch of bullshit. There's quite some amount of big talking which tends to go on, particularly when guys have only recently met eachother and are still sizing eachother up.

Generally the truth gives itself away soon enough when they instantly ditch you midway through beers for a tinder 6 who just showed up. Or inquiring how much drinks/cover is in the club your going to after banging on about how much of a baller they are.

Anyone I know that is legit doing well with the ladies or in business always have the same thing in common: they never feel the need to get into a dick measuring contest over it

Post: #48

Awesome posts, keep them coming.

I am currently pulling in around 2.5K on my location independent job and I'm spending around 1.5K

My goal right now is to reduce expenses, without lowering my quality of life. I am thinking of buying an apartment with some of my savings, which would bring costs under 1K to live relatively well. That way if I loose my job I will be in a better position to make ends meet.

Post: #49

As someone who wants to become location independent and 'significantly raise my notch count abroad', this thread was an awesome dose of reality. Really love reading the updates, keep with it!

Post: #50

Another blog update -- explains why I moved to Vietnam. This one's a longer read than most of my blog posts.

http://www.masculinexpat.com/leaving-thailand/