#507 – The Expat Files Episode 507: Latin Insider Seminar, Remittances, and Life in Canada

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play And now that I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live, work, play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good, the bad, the ugly and the great And it's all right here so let's get started Okay let me start off by saying this show is supposed to go out on Friday, October 30th Which means everyone interested in signing up for my January 2016 Latin Insider Seminar You've got two days to sign up before the early bird pricing expires

[00:48] So on November 1st, two days from now, the seminar will revert to normal pricing Which is $500 per person more than the early bird discount So get on it, you've got two days left to sign up And do remember the price includes six nights at our three and four star hotels All breakfast included too So you can pay for the seminar all in one lump Through PayPal, your credit card or a direct bank wire to our seminar account You could choose the three payment plan too Which allows you to pay for the seminar over a three month period Three separate payments Now people have asked if they sign up for the three payment plan Do they still get the early bird discount Well yes, you just have to sign up for the seminar and send that first payment By November 1st, two days from now Oh and here's something important for all of you who've signed up already

[01:34] And those of you who are going to sign up One of my very good expat friends, John Galt Who came down to one of my very first seminars by the way And now he's living down here in Central America He's offered to be your personal Latin Insider Guide To one of the coolest destinations you'll ever see in your life Which is the Lake Atitlan region in Guatemala Considered by experts to be the most beautiful lake in the world Yeah, yeah I know Everybody thinks they've got their idea of the most beautiful lake in the world But let me tell you A while back I took a year off and traveled around the world I actually went around the world twice With over 130 separate country stamps on my passport So I'm no armchair quarterback You could say I'm kind of in a position to advise people

[02:20] As to what's really, really cool and what ain't Let me just mention that if you ever visit Lake Atitlan And you can't just go there for one day You've got to spend two or three days there Because there are 12 little towns around that lake Some of which can only be accessed by boat Which is an unforgettable experience in itself You just have to see it to believe it So anyway, if you're planning on coming to my seminar And those of you who've signed up already If you can, try to get three or four extra days Before the seminar or after it So you can tag along on that unforgettable tour of the lake region With the one and only John Galt I promise you'll be talking about that trip the rest of your life So you might be asking, who is John Galt? Well, you'll certainly find out if you take that tour with him Now, speaking of that lake region

[03:06] I don't know if you know this But I put together a special report Just on those cities around that lake And also a report on my own personal take of Antigua Guatemala A city that we'll spend three days in during our seminar So if you want a free copy of those reports Just send me an email Theexpetfiles.gmail.com And I'll ship it off to you Of course, everyone who signs up for the seminar Gets a free copy of those reports too So if they're planning on doing any sign trips They're clued in as to what I recommend you see and do So shoot me an email and I'll send you those two reports And don't forget, you've got two days to sign up For the early bird special on my seminar Just go to www.thenewexpet.com Click on Johnny's 2016 Latin America seminar link

[03:54] That's in the top middle of the page And you'll get all the sign up information Oh, and by the way, when you do sign up I'll be sending you six separate seminar messages Each about two weeks apart And these messages were put together To answer any questions you might have about the trip And to give you various tips on packing And money exchange and ATMs, etc. Those six seminar messages you'll receive Are just loaded with information to prepare you for the trip So it's not as if you just sign up for the seminar Book a flight and come down, land at the airport Hit your hotel and you're on your own You know, most of those big Latin retirement seminars International living seminars, even Doug Casey seminars Are a lot like that I mean, you land at the hotel and you've got your itinerary And you kind of float from room to room

[04:39] And listen to whatever speaker is on the agenda With my seminar, it's not like that at all From the day you sign up, we hold your hand all the way We get you started while you're up in the States Weeks before you get down here Even seminar attendees who've never been out of the U.S. before Report how well they were taken care of And how easy the whole thing was No stress, no worries, no apprehension We take care of you all the way And we'll have at least five 100% bilingual translators Hanging with us the whole time, so Even though we'll be well off the gringo tourist trail And most people won't speak English Our translators will be there at all times to assist Nuff said about that Okay, here's a little news that I'm sure you never get up in the first world Now, I mentioned before, most Latin countries, especially Central American countries in Mexico

[05:24] Would not be able to survive If the illegal immigrant family members up in the States Weren't sending back vast amounts of dough every month Called remises, remember? And of course, the baffling part to me In all the long-term expats I talk to is How can it be that every year those remises are on the increase They never go down, they always go up Sometimes by double digits over the previous year So why is it that illegals up in the States year over year Can send more money back? Obviously more of them are working and getting jobs Meanwhile, the average American citizen's salary and earning power Continue to drop month over month, year over year With real unemployment fingers up in the States Around 20% to 23% I mean, ask any one of your neighbors Who doesn't know? The job picture is bleak That said, there's a little bit of news out of El Salvador today

[06:12] Now here's a new twist on the remisa game And it is a game It says, as you'd expect, remises coming from the States are way up In fact, in September 2015, remisa numbers are in And according to Salvador bank statistics 348 million dollars came in in September Up 4.5% over September 2014 figures Remember, El Salvador is a small country with only 6 million people And with 350 million a month coming in from remises Wow, that's real dough So then you might ask, how does that cash money Get from the States down to El Salvador? Because it is all cash money, you know It always starts out that way with illegals It's cash in the hand No US employer wants to write a check Because, well, that would be a record

[06:59] Of paying someone off the books, right? According to this article, it says 50% of all the remises Went as bank deposits from the US down to Latin banks Now, 42% of the dough transferred came through agencies like Western Union And here's the surprise From 1 to 5% of all the remises transferred Are being done in a completely new way By the way, on this, they say it's very difficult To get an exact number because it's quite anonymous So there's a new remissive transfer method That's just popped up this year Before that, it never existed Turns out now, in thousands of different telephone agencies up in the States You know those little kiosks And hole-in-the-wall cell phone repair joints They sell repair phones, unblock them

[07:44] And they sell those cheap prepaid throwaway ones, too There are a lot of places like that in the States Especially in the low-income ghettos Well, at least thousands of little kiosks Are now providing a remissive service Now, they're not exactly transferring money But what you can do now is go to one of these kiosks Fork over some cash dough And actually charge up the telephone of your relatives Wherever they might be That includes most any country in Latin America And some countries in the Caribbean, too Like, for example, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and a lot more Then you might ask, well, how can they charge up those phones from the U.S.?

[08:30] Well, that's because, for one, the biggest cellular telephone company in all of Latin America Is called Claro, owned by Carlos Sim of Mexico And it serves cell phone users in all the aforementioned countries, and more So you just go into one of those little kiosks Give them the phone number of your friends and relatives in whatever country And the cell company will instantly charge up that phone number With the appropriate cash amount in minutes Which makes the whole process anonymous and completely off the books The cell company never asks who's charging up the phone Who's paying for those minutes They just take the money and charge the minutes to the number you provide No matter what country it happens to be in So, in Latin America, phone minutes are just as good as hard cash Plus, believe it or not, you can transfer your minutes to another person's phone

[09:16] So it's pretty much like Bitcoin So you can see why they don't have accurate numbers On just how much money's being transferred in minutes Oh, and by the way, if you want to send remisses down By way of recharging a phone down in Latin America There's an internet site in Spanish and English Where you can recharge your phone anonymously If you do it the way most illegals do it up in the States Here's the exact site It's called claro.mobilerecharge.com And you can charge up and top off any Claro phone In that network of 20-something countries And you pay with any debit or credit card So illegals up in the States can get a friend or relative to do it up there for them Or, easier yet, you can get a rechargeable, reloadable prepaid credit card

[10:02] At places like Sears and Walgreens and 7-Elevens There are dozens and dozens of places that are doing that now So as far as sending remisa money down to families in Latin America New and anonymous ways of doing it are popping up all the time Oh, and as far as those prepaid debit cards A lot of Latins are actually sending them in the mail Down to their friends and family down in Latin America And I guess most of them get through or they wouldn't be doing it By the way, the common maximum balance on some of these cards is $2,500 Meaning if you're coming down to Latin America to get your boots on the ground Having a card like that would be a nice anonymous way To go trekking through Latin America now, wouldn't it? A lot of possibilities there, huh? Oh, and by the way, you probably didn't know this But at all my Latin Insider seminars I give every attendee one of those free prepaid phones

[10:50] With usually about 100 minutes already charged in them Yup, it's theirs to keep And generally, surprise, surprise, it's a clado phone Because, well, that means you can use it in almost every other Latin country If you take a trip or you're traveling around So in this case we have the seminar in Guatemala So you get a Guatemalan phone number And if you want to go to Panama, Honduras, Believes, Costa Rica, whatever And use that same phone, you just bring it along You go to one of the clado kiosks in that country Buy a SIM card for about $4 And now you got a new telephone number to use in that country And they give you usually 100 free minutes, too Oh, and by the way, you can use those minutes to call back to the states, too Usually it's about 10 to 15 cents a minute However, they run specials And right now, Tigo's got one for a buck and a half

[11:36] You can talk for an hour to anyone back in the states So that is, you know, one way to call back to the states totally anonymously Unlike smartphones and Skype But here's the kicker If you don't recharge that phone with minutes About every three months The SIM card dies and you can't use it again So if you, for example, come down to one of my seminars And you bring that phone back with you up in the states Where it definitely will not work It'll only work in the country you bought it Nope, no roaming with prepaid phones Sorry But again, if you want to keep that SIM card active Like I said, you got to recharge it at least every three months So you can go on that online clado recharging service That I told you about a little while ago And to keep it active, recharge it with the smallest dollar amount I think it's five bucks

[12:22] So every three months, if you're up in the states You can go to that website and drop five bucks into your phone Then, if and when you come back down to Latin America You can bring that same phone and have the same phone number you had before And it'll be active Oh, and by the way, that doesn't just go for the claro phone number Another huge phone company is called Tigo They're the company I mentioned that's running that deal A buck and a half for 60 minutes to the US And there's one called Movistar and a few others too And most of those sell companies are international So they have presence in most Latin countries So what's the difference between those companies? Well, not a lot except for the specials they offer When you recharge your phone with minutes So when you get down to Latin America, which company should you choose? Well, just ask around Ask the locals and the people in the telephone kiosk

[13:08] And your lawyer, of course Ask which companies have the better coverage and the better plans There is a lot of competition between companies So they change their plans and their deals all the time Now, in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama, for example Most middle class and upper middle class and wealthy people use claro It seems to have the best coverage and the best deals Especially for business people Now, the poor and the lower middle classes And some of the middle class prefer a company called Movistar or Tigo Because when you charge up your phone with minutes They never have an expiration date Whereas in some Latin countries, claro has an expiration date on their minutes For example, if you charge up a claro phone with, let's say, $10 worth of minutes In a month's time, if you don't use them, those minutes will just disappear

[13:56] However, with a Tigo phone, they'll never disappear So then how are you going to know all that? Well, like I said, you have to ask around when you get down And by the way, for those of you coming down to my seminar You will get a package of 29 special reports that I've prepared And one of those reports is a 10 page detailed analysis Of all the phone companies doing business down here And all the best plans and deals and coverage, etc So note, when you come down here to the seminar We leave no stone unturned We make sure you're on the fast track to becoming an expat And we give you a couple of really good shoves in the right direction Which is why everyone says you get a 2 to 5 year running head start On becoming an expat just by coming to my seminar We really give it to you with the fire hose So just a little heads up there Oh and by the way, speaking of news I'm looking at the recent Sunday edition of a Panama newspaper

[14:44] And there's an ad in there from a German company called Trimble It's in Spanish, of course Have you ever heard of them? I haven't But get this They're the authorized distributor of high tech 3rd generation drones Yes, you heard me, drones And not the hobby store drones either So what's that all about? Well, just recently, and I mean very recently This company's been putting ads in all the big Latin American newspapers Offering, and let me translate here Our newest drone of the 3rd generation The Trimble UX5HP A highly precise German design drone Used worldwide for high precision photometrics Topographic surveys Digital modeling of terrain

[15:30] And general surveillance and security So this is another first in Latin America Offering sophisticated drones to the public Who of course can't afford them But it does say in this article that They offer financing and leasing of these drones Cool, huh? Hey, let's go out and lease a drone And see what the US embassy is up to But I digress Now, I know that sounds scary But even though they've got authorized drone representatives Down here in Latin America now Who'da thunk, huh? I don't think we have to worry about drone strikes As envisioned by Mr. O'Vomit Down here I'm willing to bet about 99% of the time If drones are used at all It's for topography, mining, farming, innocuous things like that And note, even if Latin governments get their hands on these things

[16:15] And of course, you can count on them being donated by the US In the failed drug war That said, no matter how many drones the US government sends down Just remember one very, very important thing about the Latin culture The word maintenance is not in their vocabulary Oh sure, first world franchises down here do maintenance But Latin companies forget about it For example, one private hospital administrator In a very first world hospital down here told me Yes, they have all the latest cutting edge first world medical equipment Like General Electric, PET, Tomography, CAT scanners, etc Everything in high end private hospitals down here is all digital now And the maintenance? Well, he says When they buy those machines, they always buy the maintenance contract

[17:01] So those are first world people coming down doing maintenance on those things And that's why Latin first world style hospitals remain first world in quality However, when you're talking about Latin governments buying drones Or really anything high tech or even medium high tech For that matter, even plain old low tech cars and vehicles Well, if you remember in a past show, probably 250 shows ago now I mentioned the example of the Costa Rican transit cop division Some stupid do-gooder first world country With a black Irish president named O'Vomit Sounds Irish, right? Though I could be wrong, no one's ever seen the birth certificate But I digress, as usual Anyway, the idiot bureaucrats in this country Donated dozens if not hundreds of high tech breathalyzer machines

[17:51] To the Costa Rican transit cops And they all went into the field right away See, though after six months, not a single one of them was in service anymore And quite a few of them went missing Get the point Bottom line, first world equipment with no first world maintenance contract That's a sure recipe for disaster But where were we? Oh yeah Looking further through this Panama Sunday newspaper And a few other Latin American Sunday newspapers Today I see something else I've never seen before It's a product recall Wow, that's one for the books So here we have a third of a page ad Coming from none other than Costco here in Latin America It's a product recall of a certain sparkling cider

[18:36] Martinelli's gold medal And it gives a lot number and the expiration date So then why is it getting recalled? Well, it says There's a possibility that shards of glass Got mixed in with the sparkling cider Ooh, not good And if you have any of these bottles at home Come into Costco in the members area And we will reimburse you the full value of the product Now, of course, you see these things all the time up in the states But down here, this is very unusual In fact, I guarantee you that 95% of the people who go to Costco And have a membership card will not read this ad Because people down here who get the paper only read the front page The sports page And the all-important entertainment section Of course, to keep up with the ever-changing

[19:21] Gluteal and sex organ permutations of the Kardashian family But where was I? Oh yeah Anyway, this is the first recall I've ever seen And remember, Costco is a first world company So if there ever was going to be a recall notice down here It would come from a first world company So is that bad? Is that a reason not to come to Latin America? No, it really is a pretty good wake-up call to first world people Who should be taking charge of their own lives So in the end, buyer beware is not a bad phrase It just means you should be taking more responsibility for your own actions Which means if you love being coddled by the nanny state Then I guess Latin America isn't for you Down here, you're totally responsible for your own actions What an amazing concept, huh? Meaning if you do something stupid, there's no one to sue

[20:09] That means even if you slip on a rock or fall in a pothole in a Walmart parking lot Unlike in the states, you will not win the lottery In fact, you probably won't even be able to get a lawyer to take your case And if you do get the court, the judge is liable to laugh in your face He'll say, gringo, you got two eyes, use them So again, if you were brought up in the states and you know and love the welfare state Well, Latin America is not for you Which brings me to this very interesting but cool email I just received Starts out, hello Johnny My name is Daryl, I'm 36 years old Married and have two young beautiful daughters Hey there, where are Canadians living in Montreal, Quebec? I just want to say that I've discovered your radio show slash podcast about five months ago And finally caught up to date last Friday

[20:55] Johnny, you've filled my daily travels from one FedEx location to another with pure joy and a wealth of information Since I was a young child, I always had visions of myself traveling abroad and seeing other countries As I grew older into my teen years, I started believing that one day I would pack up and leave Canada And move to guess where? The USA I always had the American dream in the back of my mind However, getting older and starting to understand politics a little more And after a few years of working and really just starting to grasp what life is all about My views on the US and North America started to change The so-called life living here in the fast-paced society where everything is based on performance and stats Has already taken a toll on me from my young age

[21:41] No, I'm not saying I'm lazy and contrary I'm rather active and have held some fantastic careers Until my burnout a few years back There are actually many other factors that drove me simply nuts about living here Some usual things like the cold winters and cost of living, lack of family culture And making your career a priority over your family Some other issues that are a lot touchier too Like the language flaws, French for example But I won't get into that Anyway, in 2002 I was supposed to do my first move Like a big boy, me and my best friend planned to move to the US west coast And we were so psyched about it And finally, when the time came, he had left one week before me to find a place And I was to join him the following week

[22:27] Well, during that week I met my wife So as luck and fate would have it, I never did leave Now just a few years ago I started to share my vision of leaving Canada with my wife I wouldn't say she is completely all for it yet but she does like the sound of it Any woman in my opinion keeps her man grounded and nothing happens without a plan So I'm okay with that and I respect her viewpoint but I am more daring than she is You know, honestly, my heart has left this country, Canada, many years ago I despise it here, Johnny I'm more miserable than anything else How is it possible that so many young people do just pack up and leave Or just sell everything one day and go How does a normal working guy like me, living paycheck to paycheck

[23:13] Say good riddance once and for all to this forsaken turd hole of a place Johnny, the thing is I just do not want to work till I'm 67 Retire, get cancer and croak here in Canada If that happens I assure you I'll never rest in peace So to bring this long story to an end because I really can go on for hours I'm nowhere close to my retirement nor do I have tons of money hanging around However, thanks to informative podcasts and websites I know what some of the requirements are to receive residency in a majority of Latin countries now So as for me and everyone else in my spot, all I can say is Save, save, save, or win the frickin' lottery Thanks for that, Daryl, nice thoughtful email Couple of comments from me, of course

[24:00] One is, down here I run into Canadians all the time And now, many of them are a lot different than the Canadians I used to meet 10 or 15 years ago Back then they were always happy snowbirds, just loving it in the sun and fun But always ready to go back to the great white north to their real life back home Skiing and hitting a few hockey pucks Back then I almost never met a Canadian who was down here permanently However, these days I've been meeting a type of Canadian I never encountered before Pissed off Canadians, Canadians that hate their government Canadians have been ripped off by the tax system Canadians who talk about the stiff heavy hand of Big Brother up there In fact, these are Canadians who do not fit that usual Hey there, happy-go-lucky Bob and Doug McKenzie stereotype These are smart, thoughtful guys and gals who are voting with their feet

[24:49] They're getting out Quite a change from the old days, I can tell you that And you're absolutely right about another thing, Daryl If the wife's not on board, it's not gonna work I'm talking about coming down to Latin America and becoming an expat Now, I'm not saying she has to be on board, hook, line and sinker, 100% If she's neutral about it or even just a little bit positive, then it certainly can work out However, if she's putting up resistance from the start, well, that's not a good sign You know, there's an old Chicago saying and I'm sure it's true throughout the world If Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy I'm sure y'all know exactly what I'm talking about Now, another thing Daryl suggests is to keep on saving and saving and saving or win the lottery The object being, of course, is to move your ass and your assets down to Latin America and get started on a residency

[25:35] But again, I always hear people talking about money as the roadblock But it's not really true Remember, you can come down here and instantly get a teaching job at a helicopter school or work at a call center Sure, you'll only make five to maybe 800 bucks a month But that's twice, even three times the minimum wage So suppose you've only got five or ten grand when you come down Take a teaching or a call center job for a while then I'll tell you, if within six months you haven't thought of a half dozen really good low budget business ideas Maybe that old blues song is really true and you were born under a bad sign You remember that line, if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all? Well, unfortunately, we all know people like that now, don't we? Now, I don't care if you're the most average American there is

[26:21] When you come down here, you instantly have so much going for you Not to mention the gringo advantage, especially when you're off the gringo tourist trail Now, over the years I've known a lot of fuzzy-brained mediocre gringos In fact, one such guy, a German, came down some fifteen or twenty years ago as a backpacker Opened up a little crap-hole Italian restaurant in a very kind of tacky district, too A lot of traffic, though I mean, come on, imagine that, a German guy owning an Italian restaurant Anyway, fifteen years later, the guy's got his own brand new Porsche And he flies his own airplane Now, I know, I know, he's an idiot for buying the Porsche But, remember, he's a German far away from home And he wanted a nice piece of German engineering and he got it A Porsche Now, he can barely drive the thing around because of all those speed bumps

[27:09] Never mind that his teenage kid wrecked it twice already Yes, my very successful German friend is kind of soft in the head Now, believe me when I tell you, he's a very nice guy But he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer And now he's got twenty-five restaurants He came down as a backpacker years ago with only seven grand to his name And get this, no cooking skills Yep, and he's not ashamed to admit it You've been listening to The Expat Files Living in Latin America, coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me, theexpatfiles at gmail.com And if you want me to help you sort out your own Latin American plans Schedule a one-on-one consult with me Just send an email and let me know at theexpatfiles at gmail.com

[27:56] Nos vemos