#1016 – The Expat Files: Banking, Health Insurance, and Life in Latin America

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 up to play and now that I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat 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 All right now for some news that probably never made it up to the states first Let's talk about Latin American banks now You've heard me say on this show many times before that gringles and expats absolutely need a Latin American bank account and now

[00:46] Thankfully almost all Latin American banks have a dollar and a peso or local funny money account and every bank has online banking now So what you do, for example, let's say you got Social Security or a pension payment comes in in dollars to your Latin American bank direct deposit lands in your US dollar account normally with no charges or fees as Long as it's a direct deposit and not a wire transfer where they'll take at least 60 bucks out of every transfer if you do A direct wire transfer through the Swift system, which is okay I guess if you're only doing a wire transfer once in a while, but every time it'll cost you at least 60 bucks You know, that was one of the reasons they invented Bitcoin But as for dough that you might get on a continuous basis like a pension payment You don't want to let it accumulate in your US bank account till you've got a certain amount and then wire transfer it down to your Latin

[01:34] American bank account cuz you'll pay that 60 bucks every time and you know signing up for direct deposit to a Latin bank is easy Once it's done. It's done. Your dough will arrive like clockwork, but maybe a day late But not much more the thing is you see when you finally made it down to your Latin American country of choice Except for Panama Salvador Ecuador and beliefs they use US dollars You'll have to buy everything in your country with the local country's funny money that includes paying utility bills, too So that means once your US dollars arrive in your US dollar account in your Latin bank You'll have to little by little switch your dollars over to your funny money account within the same bank Of course and then do it a lot of gringos to go to the local cash machine Pull out the pesos or doubloons whatever to have some, you know walking around spending money

[02:22] By the way your US dollar and your local funny money account will have a debit card attached So you can use that around town for purchases, too. Now as for me, I rarely use my debit cards I just don't like the idea of merchants and restaurants and stuff having my numbers So I always go to the cash machine pulls some cash out and pay for everything in cash or almost everything in cash Though sometimes you absolutely have to use one like check it into a hotel But you know using cash is a very good way to stay almost anonymous, too Now when you're in your Latin country of choice, you'll want to use the debit card Connected to your funny money account pesos boulevards doubloons colonis, whatever not the debit card attached to the US dollar account Well, you could use it. They'll take it because it's usually a V serve MasterCard But then there'll be a small currency conversion charge

[03:07] So use your funny money debit card within your Latin country and your US dollar debit card That's attached to your dollar account when you're outside the country where they accept dollars though as mentioned You could use either card because it'll be a visa or MasterCard You have a choice though Why subject yourself to extra charges if you don't have to now the really good thing is that you could do all your banking online Here in Latin America and almost all Latin American banks However, about 80% of all Latin American banks have their websites only in Spanish And that's one of the biggest complaints I get from gringos and expats They get flummoxed even stressed out when they're on the website trying to do their stuff in Spanish In fact, I know a lot of expats who just keep on copying and pasting whatever messages and notes They have on the bank's website. They're forever doing the Google Translate thing, which is a pain in the ass

[03:56] I even occasionally get roped into translating bank statements for friends of mine myself But there's light on the horizon more and more Latin banks have a dual language choice You know click this box for English In fact, one of the most highly recommended banks to use in Guatemala for gringos and expats Banko industrial has just created that option It's that bank I've spoken about in the past that has that very very good health insurance plan actually plans I've got a number to choose from that you automatically are eligible for once you've opened up a bank account there The only kicker is you have to be a resident of Guatemala to open a bank account there So you have to have applied for or have your permanent residency already Sure, there are a lot of other good banks in Guatemala and throughout Central and South America

[04:41] Most of them have an insurance plan you can get on once you open an account But Banco industrial also known by just the initials bi has one of the best health insurance plans I've seen that you can instantly sign up for without taking a physical You've got that option just for opening up an account. Anyway, just last week I got the great news that Banco industrial now has an English website for the first time You can get on that site and do all your transactions and read all the notes and comments and all the bulletins in English So what's not to like about that? And man, I'll tell you so many gringos and expats I know who you said bank have been waiting and waiting for the day when that would happen And you know, the administration at Banco industrial has been saying for last couple years now They're gonna have the website in English, of course, you know, everything in Latin America works on manana time

[05:29] So no one was really holding their breath But hey, they finally did it now I'm only mentioning this because like I said, but when industrial has that great insurance plan and many gringos and expats and many who come down To my seminar really really when I get on that plan, but as mentioned you have to be a permanent resident meanwhile There are some other banks where you don't have to be a resident to get an account and if you come down to my expat Insider seminar our seminar lawyer can take you down to one of those banks and open an account for you And they too have insurance plans that you could get on right away once you've signed up But most all of them fall short when you compare their health insurance plans to the Banco industrial plan now many gringos and expats Who make it down get their plan be going they're working on the residency But it doesn't come through for a year or even more So in the meantime, they get a bank account at one of the other banks

[06:17] It doesn't require that you have residency and they shop around for a private health insurance plan through a broker and for 75 or 100 Or 150 bucks a month. You could get a fantastic private health insurance plan But they'll have an age limit generally from 59 to 64 years old depending on the plan if you're older than that You can't apply and you'll have to take a physical blood test and all that stuff Unlike the insurance plans offered by banks So keep that in mind all you guys and gals out there who've got many many pre-existing conditions Though you've heard me say this before you do not have to be very truthful when you fill out the application form That's what they tell me. Anyway still for example, if let's say you've had a knee replacement diabetes or heart stents

[07:03] I'm thinking you had to have to put that on the form because that stuff would definitely show up when you're getting your physical But generally, you know since we all absolutely want to get accepted for the policy We'll skip over certain things and conditions. We think just might disqualify us now I'm not saying you should lie on the form or leave things up But know this many people do because they know the people who are reviewing your papers at the insurance office Don't speak English and they're never gonna call your doctor back in the states and ask them about your medical problems or chronic conditions Besides that your doctor back home probably doesn't speak Spanish The fact is no one's ever gonna check back with a doc or a hospital back in the states to review your conditions Consequently most gringles and expats here in Latin America applying for health insurance leave out a ton of stuff when they apply for insurance here

[07:48] Again, I'm not advising you to lie or leave things out I'm just telling you what many smart astute expats do by the way, if you hear some construction noise in the background That's exactly what it is Sorry about that. I'm not in a studio with the isolation booth and hammer drills blasting on concrete Well, that sound will penetrate almost anything. All right, let's take an email. This is from Hannibal. He says Johnny What's that water filter setup? You keep talking about I know you're talking about using it in Latin America But there's tons of messed up crap here in the US water as well. All right Hannibal. Let's address that right now I'll send my water set up over to you right now Hannibal. Then he says Johnny Are you not concerned about inheritance taxes in Guatemala when recommending it for a second passport or residency?

[08:36] I looked it up. It seems a bit steep at 7% when Belize has none no inheritance tax at all So then Johnny why not get and stay on the residence permit forever by visiting Guatemala once a year in other words Never get your passport. All right H good questions But let me point out a very important thing You'll find out if you move down here to Latin America after a while, especially if you speak Spanish You'll find out that almost no one pays inheritance taxes So it doesn't matter if it's 0% 7% or 50% It's just a non-issue. So then you might ask how's that possible? Well, it's because you see Latinos with substantial properties and assets They put that stuff in an essay or LLC corporation and then when someone dies They just hand the corporation over the kids the wife. Whatever. I'm talking about the corporate shares

[09:26] If you have the shares you're the owner in that way No one's liable for inheritance taxes In fact, that's one of the most common uses of an essay or LLC corporation You put your land your boat your house your apartment your airplane Sometimes even your car if it's a nice expensive one in effect You've got that essay or LLC corporation owning that stuff not you personally, but you own the corporation So in effect, it's yours You just hand over the corporate paperwork to whoever you want to give it to or you put it in your will that The corporation goes to so-and-so and because there's been no ownership change in the National Registry No one's liable for taxes. It's totally 100% legal Oh, and that's another great way to sell a house and not accrue property transfer taxes You know in most countries when you sell a house, you have to pay a percentage of the total to the government

[10:13] Take Honduras, for example, I think it's three and a half percent So if you buy something for a hundred grand at closing you pay the Honduran government 3500 bucks However, if the property you're buying or selling is in an essay or LLC corporation at closing You just hand over the corporate papers to the new guy The seller signs over the shares of the corporation to the new guy the buyer and that's it No tax liability and believe it or not with many transactions like that the corporate documents don't even get Re-registered at the municipality. They just end up with you along with the shares or in a file at your lawyers office And you know Hannibal we talk a lot about that kind of stuff at my expat insider seminar In fact our seminar lawyers spends quite a few hours Explaining all those kind of machinations and they're all completely legal now

[11:02] That's not to say all that stuff is legal in the States It's not but it's absolutely legal here in Latin America and now an email from Chris He says Johnny do you use ferrite beads or any anti EMF protection for health reasons? I put ferrite beads myself. He says on my air tube headset and headphones What else should I be putting those beads on do you think will they help health wise on my laptop router or television cords? Thanks sign Chris. All right Chris, but maybe some of our listeners don't know what you're talking about Well, he's talking about cutting down on EMF radiation that comes from all electronic devices The good news is that many electronic devices put out miniscule quantities of dirty EMF with numbers So low that meters can hardly read them

[11:49] But there are some devices that really kick out the dirty EMF and you're getting bombarded all the time If you're sitting close to some of that stuff or wearing some of that stuff Like for example, if you're using Bluetooth headphones and that smartphone You really are bombarding your head with a lot of radiation that can't be good for you Same thing if you're living within a couple of blocks of a cell tower now these little anti EMF ferrite beads Chris is talking about they're actually little clip-on magnets You probably have seen them on the cords of some of your electronic equipment like your TV or your computer People wonder what the hell's that and what's it doing? Well, you see that little ferrite ball Blacks and filters some of the higher radio frequency noise because you see the EMF noise loves long wires Like the wires attached to your computer and power cords and earbuds and those little clip-on ferrite balls block that stuff

[12:41] Though with anything you could go overboard And here's my suggestion Chris because I'm all into protecting against that kind of radiation In fact, you probably heard on my very last show about those cheap and dirty EMF ferrite cage filter bags that I bought To store some of my spare electronic equipment spare computer backup hard drives stuff like that in case of an errant solar flare Which would produce a nice big EMP pulse that could happen at any time when we've got no control over it Except we're gonna have advanced warning. What people don't know is that EMP pulses from the Sun don't travel at the speed of light They're slower. So there's a good chance. We'll have one to three hours notice Before one of those big very damaging ones strikes the earth and that should give you enough time to pull out some of those empty

[13:27] Faraday cage EMF bags the ones that you spoke about on the last show then you could shove your laptop smartphone hard drives walkie-talkies routers Whatever in those bags and when that Paul sits they won't be affected now I know what some of you are thinking Johnny you're way out there now I never heard of a solar mass ejection or gigantic solar flare EMP pulse doing any damage to which I say Just look it up There have been some very localized cases like up in Canada where the whole grid came down that was in the late 90s Luckily, they were able to reroute the grid through the US because that area wasn't affected But you see that was a localized EMP I'm talking about the big one that comes about every hundred years and we're overdue the big ones You know and you can look this up can't and will take out the grid for an entire

[14:12] continent the problem is what's at risk is the big multi-million dollar transformers and you know engineers and analysts say they will blow and Since it takes a couple of months to make them their handmade guess where in China There are no such manufacturing facilities in the States anymore. Isn't that nice? That means unless there's a lot of extra ones on hand. There's gonna be big trouble in River City and Cleveland But you knew that already Well, some of you did anyway Oh and besides the fact that dozens of those huge transformers will get blown Every little piece of electronic equipment that's attached to a cord will most likely fry to unless you've got it protected in a Faraday cage Or completely disconnected from the cord you see because the cord becomes an amplifying antenna for the EMP So it's your call to be prepared or not. I am and like I said for under 50 bucks

[15:02] I got a huge assortment of heavy-duty Faraday cage bags. Hey, it's cheap insurance, right? But as to Chris's question, he says do you use ferrite beads or any anti emf protection for health reasons yourself? Do you Johnny? well You longtime listeners have heard me mentioned many times that I have an emf meter a very good one cost me slightly over 100 bucks on Amazon There's a lot of bottles out there, you know But I've discovered one that's really good for me and I've been using it a couple years now And that Chris is the way you tell if there's enough emf in the area For you to be worried if it could be a possible health hazard or you could slap on those ferrite beads on Every single cord or wire in your house, which be kind of nuts wouldn't it? So as far as emf protection for me around the house, etc

[15:49] I did my walkthrough with my meter and I discovered a couple of places that had very high emf including within 10 feet of the Microwave oven believe me. I keep my distance. In fact, the meter itself is self adjusting and it tells you when there's Unacceptable levels of radiation and it's not just using the standards set up by US government agencies The government would never lie or fudge data now would they knowing that the meter company they use tables and measurements from Independent radio frequency researchers whose standards are much tighter compared to so-called official US safety standards that Independent researchers say are pretty lax So Chris all I can say is you should buy one of those meters go around your house and find the hot spots if you have Any distance yourself from it or just rearrange and stuff around the house. For example, you heard me say in a previous show

[16:39] LED lights that everyone uses now they put out a ton of dirty emf But only if you're three foot or closer to the light as soon as you're three feet away There's almost no reading on the meter, but you get within one or two feet man. It's off the charts Same thing with laptop computers They named them laptop because you're supposed to put them on your lap what the rest of the world doesn't know is if it's on Your lap you're screwed. So what do I do? I have the laptop on a desk about three feet in front of me connect it to a big 42 inch monitor That's plenty big. So it can be a couple of feet away from me. Well, my meter shows that where I'm sitting There's almost no emf radiation at all But again when I get within two or three feet of that monitor or the laptop My emf meter insinuates that my testicles are being fried

[17:25] So the thing is Chris, you just can't guess where the emf is gonna be concentrated You need to walk around with a meter. Oh, and by the way, here's a question for you How do you know those little ferrite beads that you clip on to a cord? How do you know they work eliminate the dirty RF radio frequencies? Well, it's easy to check if you've got one of those emf meters You just put the meter in front of and then behind the clip on ferrite bead and believe me you'll see a big difference now there's another very inexact way to check if it's working just use a regular AM radio a Portable one maybe even the one on your cell phone when you bring it close to a cable or wire putting out emf It'll his white noise static which decreases significantly once you clipped on one of those ferrite beads So yes, those beads do work and you know what they weren't developed to protect the health of humans

[18:10] That wasn't their intention at all. What they do is stop dirty emf frequencies from mentoring your computer or your monitor Eliminating glitches and noise you might see on your computer screen or a low buzzing You might hear coming from your audio equipment. So those clip on ferrite beads really work question. Are you bored yet? I am so let's move on. Oh and here's a revolt in development an Entire new industry has grown up in just the past year. It's called the United States kovat 19 testing industrial complex Just listen to this disturbing article that just came out It starts by saying our new industrial kovid at testing complex turns out 2 million kovid at 19 tests a day Sucking up more annual cash than the revenue generated by Boeing Intel FedEx Facebook and Target combined

[18:58] Making a few people and organizations very very rich largely on the taxpayers dime Then it says the cost of a kovid at 19 tests range anywhere from 20 to 850 bucks The average cost of a kovid at test is around 129 bucks in the US and that's just a cost of the test itself The price range does not include the additional costs including the cost of the specimen collection and doctor's visit that puts the current daily Total cost for kovid at testing in America not including the additional costs at two 154 million dollars a day that means a test costs 7.6 billion dollars per month and 91.4 billion dollars a year and that's just in the states and it's a worldwide phenomena And the real scary thing is that the accuracy problem has not been solved with up to 40% of the test showing a false positive

[19:49] Or negative. So what's it all mean? Well with a new kovid at testing paradigm revenue Approaching a hundred billion dollars a year. That means predictably the kovid at testing Industrial complex is now and you may have heard this phrase before too big to fail. Therefore most probably Like government cancer and herpes it will grow like a weed and have many negative terrible secondary effects and will never go away All right. Here's a quick email from Zen won in Paris, France He says Johnny any thoughts on Dominican Republic Jamaica or Haiti as a plan B destination. Hmm. That was a short email I like it. All right first. Let's talk about Haiti. Yeah, it's considered part of Latin America It's connected to the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. Well, it's an absolute hellhole

[20:36] I don't care where you are. The power goes out every day So you need a generator of solar garbage pickup is bad So it stacks up everywhere and stinks to high heaven anywhere you walk sure They've got a nice hotel and business district in Port-au-Prince But as soon as you get a block or two away, it's super depressing No way would I ever want to live there? In fact if I won a million dollar resort on the beach in Haiti I'd sell it the next day Plus, you know, there's always some kind of civil unrest going on in the streets since the politicians are absolutely noted for stealing everything They go well beyond the usual and customary 20% skim You know here in Latin America, the public is used to a certain amount of stealing by every politician It's tolerable. It's the legacy It's just the way things are and I have to say a 20% skim is pretty reasonable and customary here in Latin America except

[21:25] In certain places like Haiti where the skim is well over 50% I mean, it's like an African country really oh and they speak French and their own dialect So good luck with that as for Jamaica. Well, it's got the thievingest population I know in fact a gringle friend of mine had a couple of Makila factories in Kingston They were well protected in a gated guarded Zona Franca, you know tax-free zone But still he said every month the local mayor or the local mayor's boys came around to collect a kind of a hidden tax You know, basically it was a protection racket run by the mayor Now, of course, Jamaica's a big island has a large population So it's got some very nice gated guarded communities and all-inclusive resorts But man, let me tell you don't want to wander too far away from those places because everybody

[22:13] I mean, everyone's out to gouge you from the tour guide to the taxi driver to the shoeshine boy Everybody's got an angle and if you're a gringo or expat you stick out like a sore thumb whether you're white or black Asian or whatever we Americans have that look and the way we dress so we're spotted out in a second. Nope I scratched Jamaica off my list a long time ago for me It's not even a good place to visit You can expect to be hassled and hustled the minute you walk out the airport now as for the Dominican Republic I've been there quite a few times. I like it. The downside is it's not in the alti plan Oh, it's extremely hot and because it's an island just like Jamaica Everything's a bit more pricier than a Latin country on the mainland most everything except for basic food items has to be imported So I'd say it's about 25% more expensive than living in Honduras

[23:00] El Salvador Guatemala and the rest of the Latin American countries considered to be off the gringo tourist trail But again, if you've got the money you can live anywhere Oh, and by the way since Columbus first discovered the island of Hispaniola and set up shop basically in Santo Domingo The capital of the Dominican Republic. It's a really great place to pop in for a week or two on vacation It's got a fantastic historical colonial section with tremendous and restored original colonial architecture But oddly enough 90% of all the tourists that come to the DR They never ever get to see the historic district because they fly it right into Punta Cana La Romana or Babano those are three little towns on the east coast of the island where all those white sand beaches and hundreds of all-inclusive Hotels are located about three hours by car from the historic district in Santo Domingo

[23:48] So that side of the islands all geared up for tourism and it's first world expensive, too But as for the rest of the island besides Haiti, which is on the opposite side It's livable and cheap enough though about 25% more expensive than Latin countries on the mainland However, I've noted that if you live in the Dominican Republic and you're not in a gated guarded community or residential tower They've got a real petty crime problem In other words if you take off for a week or two and don't have someone watching your house Well, you just might come home to find a couple of things missing though Again, if you're in a gated guarded community or residential tower, that's not an issue at all But I can tell you one thing when you talk about the happiness factor, man, the Dominicans have it I've never seen such happy people when they're not working It seems they're always having fun and partying yet 90% of them live from hand to mouth and don't have a pot to pee in

[24:34] Speaking of happiness. Here's an email from Nick. No, not Saint Nick. Just Nick He says Johnny you talk of happiness in Latin America how Latinos seem happier and more content And I guess more easygoing compared to many anal and uptight stressed out Americans But you see I think using the word happiness is asking for trouble Doesn't happiness mean different things to different people then he says one of the first persons to analyze happiness was philosopher Aristotle He said happiness consists of lasting and justified satisfaction with life as a whole So in effect you by looking at others can't decide how happy they are only they know how happy they are For example, when someone says to you in a survey or whatever How happy are you you might answer pretty happy because in that moment nothing hurts

[25:21] You've got no stress. You're probably not working. It's the weekend or after work, whatever So then what kind of answer would you get if you asked that same person? While he was hunched over his punch press machine at the factory at 9 in the morning So the happiness thing depends on when where and how you phrase the question if someone answers I'm pretty happy they might really mean I'm doing okay And I can't complain or they might mean things are generally a lot worse, but right now I'm okay One thing's for sure even in Latin America where people seem to be much happier They almost never answer a question like that by saying I'm very very or extremely happy That would be an unusual response for anyone How many people do you know who just seemed to be most of the time bubbling over with happiness?

[26:06] That would be extremely rare unless you caught a manic depressive in his manic state Then he says I read somewhere that film and music producer David Jeff and a multi-billionaire Once said in an interview with a sad smile on his face Show me someone who thinks that money buys happiness, and I'll show you someone who's never had a lot of money He said show me someone who thinks happiness in old age comes from having been rich or famous And I'll show you someone who's not old yet Hmm all good points Nick You know that reminds me of what my dear departed grandpa once told me he said Johnny you ever noticed how many times in The day you hear people talk about their work They say I gotta go to work or after work or works of pain or I like my work or I can't wait to get out Of work work work work work work you hear that word all the time

[26:54] And you know it must have wrinkled my grandpa such that he pondered it a bit and put some thought into it He said Johnny if you've never been a miner a logger or a farmer You don't know what work is by the way He was a farmer and man he was right I remember when I was around 14 years old School was out. It was the summer. I was looking to make some money My mom said why don't you go work grandpa's cabbage truck? He was paying 15 bucks a day That would be around 75 bucks in today's inflated funny money So I went to the farm and hired on with the Mexican migrant crew I lasted two whole days and had two whole weeks of muscle pain You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America if you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult

[27:41] Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com No spamos