I'm going to tell you 12 reasons why I'd move
to Mexico right now and then after that
I'm going to give you a few reasons
why I might not.
The first reason is the perfect year round climate
in most of the country.
For example, I'm living here in Queretaro right now.
I've actually been living in Mexico for about five years
but Queretaro is this beautiful colonial city
right smack dab in the middle of the country
and actually the vast majority of the country,
basically any inland city, is going to have a great climate
year round. But if beaches are more of your thing,
well, Mexico has some of the best
beach destinations in the entire world.
Number two is the food.
Oh my gosh, the food here is so amazing.
Before coming to Mexico,
I thought I loved Mexican food but what I knew
of Mexican food was like enchiladas, burritos, tacos.
But in reality, the food scene here is so much more diverse
than that and it gets way more amazing
than the best tacos I've ever had in the US.
Seriously, no matter what part of the country you're in
you're going to have a different type of cuisine
and Mexicans know how to cook.
The next reason is: if you're from a developed country
your currency is going to go a lot further here
than it does there.
For example, if I wanna see a cardiologist here
or some other kind of specialist doctor, a psychiatrist,
something like that, well then that's probably
going to run me about 40 US dollars.
If I want to go out for a super nice dinner here
it's probably going to be about $40 or $50 dollars
versus like 100 to 150 that it might be in the US.
My cell phone bill is going to be about $10 here
versus maybe it's $50 in the United States.
But overall, overall cost of living
factoring everything in, it's probably about one third
of the cost here than it is in Phoenix, Arizona
where I was living before.
The next reason is if I wanted to raise kids
I'd much rather do it here in Mexico
than in the United States for a number of reasons.
Number one, they're going to grow up bilingual
knowing both Spanish and English
and I think that's really important for my kids' future.
Another reason is that I can send my kids
to a very good private school here
for far less than something similar would cost
in the United States.
And on the kids topic you can make raising kids
a whole lot easier for you here in Mexico
because if you have the money for it,
you can hire a full-time cook, housekeeper, nanny,
who lives in your house and helps you raising your kids
and keeping your house tidy and all of that.
At the high end of the pay scale right now
that's about 550 US dollars a month
and that is paying them very well.
So for $550, you allow someone else to get what
they consider a very good job
and then you make your life way, way easier.
Compare this to my sister.
My sister lives in the Midwest.
She has two kids and she pays
over a thousand dollars a month just for daycare.
That's not a live-in nanny, that doesn't clean your house,
cook your food or anything like that.
That's literally just keeping your kids
for about seven hours a day and that's it.
A thousand dollars a month
versus 550 for a full-time live-in nanny here.
Next is Mexico's close proximity to the United States.
So if you have friends or family back
in the US or let's say you're covered
with some healthcare expenses maybe
you're a veteran or something,
well then it's reasonably quick
and easy to get back there for those various reasons.
I'm going to get crap for this one
but if I were a single guy,
I'd come to Mexico for the women.
Like I think Mexican women are great
but even other expats. Like if I wanted a great dating scene
this is one reason to come here
and I've been asked like,
"Hey, what's the best place to be to meet women?"
Well, I think that answer depends
on whether you're looking for Mexican women
or whether you're looking for other expats.
Well, if you're looking for Mexican women
I think any major Mexican city like Guadalajara,
Mexico City, here in Queretaro, Puebla, Morelia
like literally any one of these large cities
in the inland of Mexico,
in the Highlands, is going to be a great option for you.
And if you're looking to date other expats
well then I think the single best place
for you is Puerto Vallarta.
And this is a little counterintuitive
because Puerto Vallarta is known
for it being a huge gay male destination,
but that's the trick here because there are about
10 single straight women for every one single straight guy
in Puerto Vallarta because almost all of the guys are gay.
So like if you want the best ratio
of straight women to straight guys
well then Puerto Vallarta is the choice for you.
Variety. That's a reason I'd move to Mexico
because there is something for everybody.
There's small quaint mountain towns with beautiful nature.
There's old colonial cities like the beautiful Queretaro.
There's brand new modern cities with all the
greatest conveniences that you could want.
There's every climate you could possibly want from snow
to desert to beaches to hot springs on the side of cliffs
literally everything in terms of climate.
So there's something for everybody here
in Mexico. If you're looking to move abroad
there are a lot of countries
around the world that make it very difficult to move there.
With Mexico, though it's a reasonably straightforward
easy and not too expensive of a process.
Of course, there is still some government bureaucracy
like you have in every country.
However, compared to the other options out there
Mexico isn't too bad. And that's a win.
I love to travel
but I hate crossing international borders
because you never know what's going to happen.
You have to worry about "oh, do I need a visa to come here?"
"Do I need a negative COVID test?"
"Do I have to show proof of vaccine?"
"Is some border agent going to try to shake me
down because I have one too many phones
and they're going to issue a major fine
or put me in jail for carrying an apple
into the country or something stupid like that?"
But something I love about Mexico
is you could literally travel
for an entire lifetime to all
of the different destinations in Mexico
and always be seeing and experiencing something new
because there are so many amazing destinations here.
From all the beaches to the amazing colonial towns
to all the small Pueblos Magicos, the magic towns
around the country. There is an almost endless number
of things to see without crossing one
single international border.
Another reason I'd move to Mexico is
if I were a huge history buff,
or loved visiting archeological sites
because Mexico has so much history
and countless archeological sites.
In fact, there are so many ancient ruins
and pyramids and stuff in Mexico that they've given up
and have stopped digging them up.
Another reason I'd move to Mexico
is if I could figure out a way to earn money working
for a foreign company, or earn money
as a freelancer or earn money from starting my own business.
Because if you can make a stronger currency working remotely
and then spend that currency here,
well then that allows you to live
a much higher quality of life.
And this doesn't just apply to US dollars in Mexico
but this applies to any stronger currency
in the world versus any weaker currency in the world.
If you would like to start a business coming to Mexico
let me know in the comments
because I have an almost endless number of ideas
of businesses that I would love people to start
or I think that would be in really high demand
so I could do a video on that if you wanted me to.
And right after I tell you that 12th reason why I would move
to Mexico today,
I'm going to tell you the reasons why
I think moving to Mexico would be a bad idea.
The 12th reason I'd moved to Mexico today is
if I needed a pharmaceutical drug that was really expensive
in the country where I was living. Because a lot
of these pharmaceuticals are a lot cheaper here
and with those really expensive drugs, that could literally
mean the difference between scraping by
or living a good life.
Maybe in some cases it can even mean the difference
of life and death.
Why might moving to Mexico be a bad idea?
Well, number one, when I first came to Mexico
about five years ago,
I considered Mexicans to be very welcoming
and they loved having foreigners here.
But over about the past 18 months or so
I've noticed this trending in the wrong direction
and a higher and higher percentage of the population
do not want foreigners here at all.
They would rather all foreigners move out of the country,
not have any foreign investment or anything like that
and if things continue heading in this direction
it might not be a good place for foreigners to live.
Another reason I wouldn't recommend moving to Mexico
is if you want it to be exactly like where you're from,
but cheaper. Because that's just not going to be the case
and you're going to have to adapt
to a lot of cultural differences.
Another reason I wouldn't move to Mexico is
if you're looking to get a job here
because the truth is the jobs just don't pay that well.
So I recommend starting a business
or figuring out a way to work remotely
or work as a freelancer or something like that.
Another reason why you might not want to move
to Mexico are the dangers here.
Granted, I do think the dangers are way overblown
by the US media, but they certainly exist
and I can't just gloss over them.
For example, I was driving
with May just the other day and we drove
past this house that had security guards outside
and I was like,
"Was that security standing outside that house?"
And she's like, "Yeah, that house is where the owners
of this business in Queretaro live.
And one time they had a kidnapping in their family
and ever since then they've paid for guards
to stand watch 24/7."
Another example is I met a Mexican who comes
from a wealthy Mexican family
and many years ago her father was kidnapped for ransom.
They paid the ransom and then they killed him anyway.
So, I mean, I can't just gloss over the subject
of dangers because this stuff is real.
It does happen here.
A lot of women go missing here.
So be especially careful
if you're a young single woman in this country
and it's something I would seriously consider
as a reason to not move here.
There are certainly ways you can live here safely.
For example, living in a safer city
like the one I live in, Queretaro,
honestly, living in a nicer neighborhood
will reduce your risk of bad things happening.
So there are a lot of ways you can take precautions
to live a safer life here.
Also, a lot of bad things can happen when you're driving,
for example there's a lot of carjackings
and things like that.
So there are precautions you can take.
For example, you, you drive during the day
you drive on toll roads
and there are precautions you can take to stay safe
and live here safely.
But the dangers is a real reason why you might not
want to live in Mexico.
Another reason why I wouldn't live in Mexico is
if I had health insurance in my home country
and I had a preexisting condition that would be
expensive to take care of or manage in Mexico.
Because if you come to Mexico
and you have a preexisting condition,
you ain't getting insurance that covers that condition.
You could get insurance that covers everything else
but not that.
Another reason why I wouldn't recommend living
in Mexico is if you don't like noise.
As I've been recording this video
there's been church bells going off almost constantly.
People playing loud music, people driving loud trucks,
loud motorcycles, up and down the streets.
There is a lot of noise in Mexico and it might be
a reason that you might not like living here.
Granted, I can say that living
in a more expensive neighborhood here
will reduce the noise around you dramatically
and a lot of times down to almost nothing.
But that comes at price.
Another reason why you might not want to live in Mexico is
if you cannot meet the financial requirements
to get temporary residency or permanent residency
but if you can't meet those financial requirements
that's not the end of the story.
There are other ways to get legal residency here.
A couple examples.
You could marry a Mexican and get residency.
You could have a child in Mexico.
It doesn't even have to be with a Mexican.
As long as the child is born in Mexico
you automatically qualify for permanent residency.
You might be able to snag a humanitarian visa.
There are actually quite a few other ways to get residency
that don't involve financial requirements,
but you may or may not be able to qualify
one of these other ways.
Another reason I would seriously consider not living
in Mexico is if I were a dark-skinned Mexican
or a dark-skinned individual coming
from another Latin American country.
I hate that this is the case here
but there is like a lot of prejudice
or whatever it is against darker skin individuals here
and there's especially a lot of classism.
And if you have European ancestry,
well then you are expected to be higher class
and people usually are. And the people who are lower class
are treated much worse.
So if you go into a restaurant and you have dark skin
you're probably going to get a lot worse service.
than if you have lighter colored skin
because the truth is, here, people
with darker skin aren't treated nearly as well.
Now, I've seen some vlogs
from African Americans who have come here
and have vlogged about living in Mexico
and it seems that this doesn't apply to them.
So I think this only applies to Mexican heritage
or other Latin American heritage, but it's definitely
definitely something to seriously consider
if that applies to you.
Thanks for watching, watch this video next
if you would like to learn more about living in Mexico.