Marginal Boundaries

One of the greatest challenges facing most U.S. travelers is the years of cultural brainwashing they have been submitted to in the form of propaganda throughout their entire lives. Since they were old enough to read they have been submitted to propaganda that bombards them with a steady stream of how dangerous, uneducated, dirty, backwards, immoral, corrupt and inferior the rest of the world is. It starts off small, with little nudges for the children in the form of animated television shows and movies from big names like Disney, and it moves upward from there.

By the time you graduate into adulthood, nearly every form of media you have consumed in the U.S. has been tainted in some way by the Great Machine, whether it’s the magazines and newspapers you read (all controlled by the government with their censorship programs) or the very news that you thought you could trust on the television. And what’s worse is that they openly admit that they have been controlling the flow of information and propaganda to keep people in the dark about international affairs, with one of the most recent admissions being that of Hilary Clinton talking about how the U.S. is currently failing at holding a monopoly on global flow of information (courtesy of RT.com, March, 2011) and how concerned the U.S. government is over the fact that people now have access to non-U.S. sources of news.

Which is one of the reasons the United States is so keen on passing SOPA, because impartial news outlets such as RT and Aljazeera have rapidly begun to gain traction in the 21st century with the advent of global Internet. With free, global information comes the ability for people to finally educate themselves without the presence of propaganda. They can read news from places such as RT and Aljazeera and see news presented as true journalism should be; without opinion and from all angles, which means the U.S. is covered just as impartially as Russia, Pakistan, Mexico or any other country. And more and more the educated masses are beginning to unplug themselves from The Matrix to realize the truth about the world we live in.

The ability to accept that all countries and all people are equal is an important aspect of traveling abroad and living in other countries.. It’s called traveling without assumptions. We are all of us human beings, and just because one country has gone a certain direction socially while another country has gone somewhere else does not make one of those countries inferior to the other. Yes, there are still crimes against humanity to consider, and there are certainly countries with human rights issues that are frowned upon by the global community, but that’s the important thing to remember: we are a global community, not merely “The United States versus Everyone Else”. There is no one country that has the right to dictate terms and policy to the rest of the world.

Just because you can legally drink a beer at the age of 14 in Bulgaria, marry at the age of puberty in Sudan, smoke pot legally in Amsterdam, carry cocaine on you legally in Mexico or have multiple wives in Islamic nations, does not make any of these countries inferior to another. They have merely gone a different evolutionary path on the social scale, and just as much as black skin is no different than white skin or worshiping Jesus is no different than worshiping Allah, the countries that you choose to live in are full of other human beings, just like you and I.

Traveling without assumptions is the ability to view all human being equally, regardless of where they hail from, where they went to school or what religion/color they are. It means being able to transition from the U.S. into Russia, China, Mexico, South Africa, Bulgaria, Colombia, New Zealand or anywhere else and view those people as your fellow human beings. It means accepting local customs in your host country as your own, because you are living there with the permission of that government, and just as much as you expect foreigners on your home turf to speak your language and respect your laws and holidays, you need to be doing the same for them.

It’s a small world, after all, and we all share it. There’s no room for cultural arrogance or attitudes when you want to be a global citizen. There is only acceptance and traveling without assumptions so you can embrace all people on an equal level. This is the reality you have to embrace if you want to live as a digital nomad, especially in an era where free information is so readily available at the click of a button. As Benjamin Franklin put it, “Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.”

This post is an accompanying topic to my recent post over at The Social Expat, where I write for the Location Independent weekly column. 

Cultural immersion is key if you want to get the best experience from the digital nomad lifestyle. As the article I wrote for The Social Expat talks about, there are numerous benefits to the language immersion side of things, ranging from increased cognitive abilities, better job opportunities and long-term health benefits as a directly result of challenging your brain on a daily basis with learning something new. And one of the side effects of language immersion is cultural immersion, whereby you learn what makes a culture tick. And by learning how to immerse yourself fully in a culture – to go native, as they say – you will find it a literal impossibility to not appreciate things from a local’s point of view.

However, the reason I focus mostly on cultural immersion in my Live Like a Local guides is because I honestly believe that the best way to achieve the most benefits from living on the ground as a digital nomad is to blend in, to go native, to immerse yourself in the environment. Speaking the language is only the first step. As the studies show, once you learn the language you will actually begin to understand cultural values and you will begin to understand things like the sense of humor or the political viewpoints of the people living in your particular city or country. And, by speaking the language, you will be interacting with people on a daily basis, which leads to more respect for you as an individual (local people always respect foreigners who speak the language) and consequently better prices on goods and services, as well as understanding how and why things work.

Customer loyalty, for example, is huge in Latin countries (unlike the West where the only thing merchants are interested in is quantity over quality), and once you start showing up at a tienda on a regular basic and making an effort to speak Spanish with the merchants you will quickly find yourself being offered discounts without even asking for them, because they want to inspire you to come back rather than shop elsewhere. And another example of something you won’t really “understand” until you live like the locals is something like la mordida, which many foreigners view this as bribery. It’s not. It is nothing more than an express fee, just like you pay back in the United States when you want something done right away, but until you understand the cultural point of view you will never fully grasp la mordida. To most tourists and first-timers, it’s bribery, pure and simple, because they don’t grasp the cultural connotations.

Cultural immersion is one of the only ways to truly experience life as a digital nomad. You will never receive the best prices until you not only speak the local language, but also appreciate and understand the way the local system works. For example, speaking Spanish in Mexico is a good first step, but if you don’t understand the culture, the way of life, the reason why this is called “the land of tomorrow”, you will continually be frustrated by certain elements of living here, such as why nothing is ever done today, why people are culturally 30 minutes to an hour late, and why no one really cares if they are late or something gets put off until tomorrow…or the day after. It is only through true cultural immersion that you can appreciate the people on a cultural level, to blend in and become one of them, and to understand them as human beings with a point of view that demands equal respect to all others on Planet Earth.

Respect the culture you are living in and embrace cultural and language immersion. Only then can you achieve the true local experience and obtain the most benefits from living like a local as a digital nomad.

Something I’m touching on in the current Marginal Boundaries project I’m writing is the “how” of it all. While the 30 Ways in 30 Days promotional ebook contains 77 pages of generalized information regarding how to begin the transition into the digital nomad lifestyle, it is just that: generalized information. That’s why it’s a free product, because it is not a specific guide, but rather an introductory book into the lifestyle.

However, there’s a lot more to the transition than merely unlearning what you have learned and expanding your horizons to accept cultural differences and having access to information on things such as how to avoid paying the high price of round trip tickets. While that information is certainly helpful, there is a lot of hands-on stuff that many first-timers lack knowledge of, and when it comes to the Internet there is so much chaff that has to be separated from the wheat that sometimes it gets hard to see from all the dust.

So with that in mind, I started work on a new project last week that is being designed specifically as a starter guide on how to make money as a digital nomad. I’m covering a lot of basic information, such as what you need for most visa applications in most countries around the world, but I’m also going into specifics and will be helping/mentoring readers on setting up multiple residual income streams before they even leave their home country behind. While some people might already have a pension or some form of freelance income established, not all people do. And even for those who have a regular source of income, this book will be a boon because it will help you add even more revenue streams to your current list, thus giving you more money to enjoy your lifestyle abroad.

To give you an idea of what I mean by that, let’s take a look at the following. Most people think they need hundreds of thousands of dollars to retire, so the fear of lacking sufficient funds is something that keeps them from making the transition from brick-and-mortar job to location independent lifestyle. The reality is that you can easily retire in a salary of a mere $25,000 per year in just two to three short years when you consider the fact that you can purchase a house for as little as $25,000 in places like Mexico, Colombia, Bulgaria, Uruguay and beyond.

If you are living somewhere such as Cancun (where I enjoy an upper middle class existence on a mere $600 to $800 per month) you only need about $10,000 per year to pay for your total cost of living, so if you have a salary of around $25,000 per year you can easily save up $30,000 in two short years, giving you more than enough to purchase a home, in cash, somewhere in another country (or here in Mexico). Then you can rent the rooms out to establish an additional stream of revenue, thus effectively covering 100% of your cost of living and rendering you retired…all for a mere 30k or so.

There’s a lot more to it than simple math, but that’s what the upcoming guides are for; to teach people how to do this for themselves and escape the hamster wheel of the American Nightmare. I’m here to take people on a step-by-step journey of how to establish your revenue streams to make a minimum of $25,000 to $30,000 a year (on top of whatever you are already receiving in pension or salary) and then successfully retire on that money in a short amount of time.

There’s also other options, such as living on bank interest. For example, if you have around $100,000 in the bank and can find a country where they have a roughly 15% interest rate account (such as a CD or investment account), you can be receiving $15,000 per year in interest income, which is more than enough to get a visa in most countries around the world and live a very comfortable upper middle class existence by merely renting a home, such as on the beach in Mexico or along the Black Sea in Bulgaria or the mountains of Colombia or in the countryside of France or Italy. The sky is very literally the limit when you learn how to survive as a digital nomad.

I know how much my life has changed since I took the plunge in late 2007, and I thrive on sharing that information with others and helping them unplug from The Matrix. Maybe it sounds silly, but I honestly get a rush when I meet a fellow digital nomad who tells me their success story and how they broke free of the system and established themselves as truly free and independent persons

The following examples are based on the United States and include data pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, USA Today, CNN Money and beyond. To grasp the intended breadth and width of this post, it is recommended you read all of the links. You should probably have a pot of coffee ready. 

Median household income (two breadwinners): $52,000 per year.

Median cost of living (family of four; two parents, two children): $60,000 per year. (The average is around $2,200 per adult, per month, so around $4,400 for two adults, and you can figure and extra $500 to $600 per month for two children in groceries, medical expenses and other sundries; this number will increase as they get older).

Mortgage on a three bedroom house: $221,000

Loans on two cars (one for each spouse): $60,000 and up (based on an article from USA Today in 2005 when the average was around $28,000 for a car; the rates have only risen since then).

College tuition for two kids – $8,000 to $10,000 per year at a public four year school, or $28,000 to $30,000 per year for a private four year school. $80,000 on the low end (for two children) to $240,000 on the high end. This does not take into account graduate programs, which are considered mandatory if you want to get a job in the 21st century.

Now, before we get any further, let’s just take a look at the top two items on the list. The average, median household income with two breadwinners is $52,000 per year. Now, let’s assume for a moment that those two working adults don’t have children. Based upon an average of $4,400 per month of expenses we are left with just under $53,000 in expenses. Using that math, without any children or college tuition expenses to take into account…the average, ordinary American is breaking even with their salary compared to cost of living. Add children into the mix and you start seeing how the average American is actually spending more per month than they make in salary…which leads to the reality most Americans face: living on credit.

Living in debt. Living beyond their means. Living in fear of losing their job. Living on borrowed money.

That’s the thing most outsiders from other countries don’t understand about the United States: most Americans don’t actually own their house or their cars or many of the items in their homes. Everything is purchased on credit, and in order to keep up appearances, in order to live the life of plenty and consumption, in order to keep the credit hounds at bay, the hamsters must keep jumping on that wheel 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks per year. From the outside it might look like people in the United States are living a life of plenty, but the reality is considerably darker, polished to a sheen to hide the flaws.

The car? On credit. House? Credit. College education? Credit (most students go on a combination of students loans and scholarships). And here’s another interesting fact: the average American doesn’t even pay off their home until they are between the ages of 60 and 65, with most home loans averaging around 30 years in length, meaning the homeowners started their mortgage around the time they were 30. (In comparison, the average mortgage in Mexico is for 15 years, and while the interest is higher the cost of a house in Cancun, for example, is around $35,000. More on this later on in this particular post.)

So, as you can see…the average American is just breaking even on the monthly bills…and they are working 8 hours a day (minimum), 40 hours a week (minimum), 50 weeks per year, with a mere 2 weeks off for vacation (average). There’s very little extra income put into the savings for a rainy day, for accidents or emergencies, much less extras that the kids need (assuming you have children).

This is the American Dream…or as more and more expats and foreigners are finding out, the American Nightmare. An endless grind of 40 years in the work force, caught in the hamster wheel of never-ending debt and never-ending spending to keep up with the never-ending need to consume, consume, consume. No time to breathe, no time to sleep, there is only time to work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

December, 2011. A record number of Americans are either looking forward to or already leaving the United States to find work and live in other countries, and immigrants are no longer looking towards the United States as their dream destination. Most of them cite the economy, lack of job security, cost of living and sheer feeling of hopelessness as their reasons for leaving the once Promised Land behind. But where are they going and what are they doing?

They are making the transition into the location independent lifestyle as digital nomads. Millions more per year are waking up from the dream, unplugging from the Matrix and realizing what myself and others have been saying for years: you can have absolute freedom to live life on your own terms and do whatever you want, whenever you want simply by changing your location and deciding that you no longer want to be the hamster on the wheel.

Forget barely breaking even with your average salary of $25,000 per year (take-home salary after taxes on the median income of $36,000) against a cost of living that is the same. Digital nomads are traveling the world and taking advantage of places like Costa Rica, the Canary Islands, Thailand, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and beyond, places where their average take-home salary of $25,000 per year is paired up against an average cost of living that is around $8,000 to $10,000 per year.

Where does that extra $15,000+ per year go?

Straight into their pocket where it belongs. It’s your hard work that earned that money. It’s you who should be able to spend it and enjoy it how you see fit. On living life, rather than on the cost of living.

These are just the very basics of what the location independent lifestyle is about, and what Marginal Boundaries (and so many other websites like ours) is on a mission to spread the truth regarding. When you can go to a country that has all the same amenities as what you had back in a place like the United States – high definition cable television, first class healthcare (which, ironically, doesn’t cost a dime or is mere pennies in comparison because it’s included in your taxes as a resident of a country that has a universal healthcare system), high speed Internet, reliable public transportation systems, first class education systems (which cost around 50 to 75% less in most countries outside of the United States and United Kingdom) and beyond – where your average cost of living is around $8,000 to $10,000 per year (for a single individual; it’s around $15,000 per year for a couple), you are putting all that money back in your pocket.

No more watching the Discovery Channel and dreaming about one day taking a vacation to those destinations you’ve always wanted to see. Pack up, move out and take your life to where the action is. No matter if you are a pensioner or a freelancer, so long as you have some form of income coming on a monthly basis via wire transfers or PayPal you can live anywhere in the world you want.

Want to know how much the average three bedroom house costs in Cancun, Mexico? Around $35,000 USD (I’ve actually found three bedroom places for as little as $25,000, but they need a few thousand of fixing up). Villas in Tuscany with a garden, land and outbuildings are around $50,000. You can pick up a small vineyard in Bulgaria for around $30,000 USD. A four bedroom apartment in downtown Bogota for $60,000 (my landlord there picked up his for around $60,000 and remodeled it into a five bedroom, 3 bathroom place). These are things you can pay off in just a few short years of working abroad as a digital nomad versus the 30+ years you are expected to slave away to pay off your mortgage in the United States.

This isn’t a dream. This is the reality of a location independent traveler. Once you look to the horizons you will see what myself and so many other digital nomads have come to realize is the true reality: you can live life on your own terms so long as you are willing to unplug yourself from The Great Machine and start building your own future, one where you are the only person behind the wheel. Stop relying on the way things have been done for generations and start looking towards the way of tomorrow. We are a Global People, and the entire planet is our home.

In the words of the late Steve Jobs, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”