#1325 – The Expat Files: Life in Latin America, Bitcoin, and the Challenges of Residency

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 as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad 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 back on the saddle again after a week or so layoff Nope, I was not sitting on my dead ass and at beach chair second down margaritas I was on the move during one of my expat insider seminars and man

[00:45] What a really great group of people we had this time not a clinker in the bunch man Show my age, huh? You have to be a boomer to know what a clinker is Oh and for the uninitiated a clinker is what you get after you burn coal in your furnace It's the leftover part that won't burn This stuff accumulates at the bottom of a coal burning furnace and you have to shovel it out once in a while Or well, you won't be able to get any fresh coal in So therefore when you use the term clinker it refers to something that's useless beyond useless lots of clinkers in this world It's a prerequisite for getting a government job So anyway as mentioned at the seminar not a clinker in the bunch Oh, but with other seminars, man, we have had our clinkers

[01:33] In fact, I'll never forget one particular lady who was such a clinker that people started coming up to me on the very first day Remember the seminar lasted an entire week and people would come up to me tap me on the shoulder and say Johnny Do me a favor at the dinners, you know the restaurants, please don't sit me next to you know So then what made her such a clinker Well, she was just an abrasive know-it-all if you got in a conversation with her. She wouldn't listen to you She wouldn't let you talk, you know the type, you know people who are absolutely in love with the sound of their own voice Hey, wait a minute sounds a lot like me Hmm just kidding Maybe anyway, lots of strange and interesting things happened along the way to and at the seminar itself

[02:22] Now you probably know, of course the seminar took place half in Guatemala and half in El Salvador First thing I want to mention is that the people of El Salvador absolutely love buccally. I mean you get into a taxi cab You don't even have to ask they start talking about buccally Funny thing too. He completely cleaned up the crime issue good example. I've been visiting El Salvador for years There's always cops everywhere. There was a time before buccally when all the cops even wore ski masks so that the bad guys didn't recognize who they were and Thus extract revenge against their families and now on this trip I don't think I saw a single cop and the airport used to be filled with teams of cops and now almost none and You know when visiting Latin America, that's always kind of a sticky point with tourists and gringos when they see lots of cops everywhere

[03:13] They're thinking why why is there a truckload of cops on that street corner? Why are there ten military guys? Standing near the entrance to that Mayan ruin. It's a double-edged sword sends two different signals, doesn't it? But I've noticed all of that has gone from El Salvador Because all the bad boys are in jail and man is that country booming everywhere you go There's construction sites going up everywhere malls houses road projects and everybody's got a job though inflation has kicked in just like it has everywhere in the world and why wouldn't it especially in Salvador where they use the US dollar and of course Bitcoin as we know the US dollar is being printed out of existence as For Bitcoin most people don't use Bitcoin except for gringos and expats making gland purchases

[04:03] For example or moving money around sure you can buy a cup of coffee there with Bitcoin But almost no one's doing it. Why would they even taxi drivers will tell you they use Bitcoin What little they have of it as a savings account because as you see everyone got $30 for the Bitcoin when the project first started a Couple years back and most people probably 95% of them didn't know what the hell to do with it Didn't know how to operate their little cheevo wallets. They're called cheevo wallets, by the way CHI VO cheevo. That's how every person in Salvador got their 30 bucks in Bitcoin on a cheevo online wallet a Freebie gift to all citizens from the government Anyway, most people didn't know what the hell it was or what to do with it So they just kind of forgot about it now those who did forget about it have seen their Bitcoin appreciate

[04:49] almost three times the original value to almost a hundred bucks and now tens of thousands if not millions of Salvador Enos are seeing that Bitcoin if you hold on to it is infinitely better than a bank account That constantly shrink due to inflation by the way just two years ago when all the Bitcoin was handed out by the government More than half of all the Salvadoranios didn't even have a bank account Isn't that funny people who never even had a bank account are suddenly learning about basic finance from the ground up But in a completely high-tech way through Bitcoin They've learned a great lesson that bitcoins not for spending on a cup of coffee or a pupus or a dozen tortillas It's something to hold on to because in the long run it appreciates like no Asset has ever done in the case of El Salvador that 30 bucks and the cheevo wallet has appreciated nearly

[05:38] 300% in two years Do you know how long it would take 30 bucks to triple if you had it in a standard bank account at today's bank account? Interest rates slightly over 1% more than a hundred years and don't forget that by then Inflation would have wiped out your account completely By the way as much as inflation hurts everyone, you know, the third world is used to it Nearly every Latin American countries had extreme inflation compared to what the first world is seen It's been the norm down here for the past 50 or so years. They're sort of used to it That's why they spend everything they have they save almost nothing and you know until about 2021 when that covid you think came around and massive money printing Became a norm up in the first world Americans Europeans and Canadians never realized the full impact of what high monetary inflation could do to a country

[06:30] Yeah, well first world folks are learning that lesson full Well now massive money printing is just one big step on the way to becoming third world Americans Europeans and Canadians are certainly learning that lesson now All right. Speaking of the seminar. I'd like to read you a part of an email from a seminar attendee Paul a super nice super cool very intelligent guy who stayed on an extra week. He's going through the Guatemalan residency hoops Here's what he writes and I'll paraphrase. He says Johnny I came to Guatemala for the seminar a week early I'm taking the week very easy by just walking around a little bit in zone 9 and 10 alright me Johnny here, you know Guatemala City's divided into 25 zones or neighborhoods and Paul's talking about zone 10, which is a very nice zone and zone 9 which has some good parts and some iffy parts

[07:20] Anyway, he goes on to say yesterday. I was fortunate enough to be greeted by one of three drunk Guatemalan gentlemen One of them called out. Hey white boy Now Johnny, he was a happy drunk and I wasn't getting any kind of evil vibes at all. So I talked to them Who would have known that two of the three spoke the perfect English? Turns out they were deported from the US and we're working at the UPS call center support lines in Guatemala City He says Johnny when I found that out I chuckled to myself as I recalled stories from your informative podcast during my lovely conversation with three drunk guys Then he says walking along in zone 10. I checked out Oakwood Mall Man, I was impressed at the way all the stores were so well staffed with well-mannered people very well stocked to clean and tidy

[08:11] It reminds me Johnny of how malls in the US used to be 20 years ago before strip malls took over So anyway, that's what he wrote just before the seminar started Now when he mentioned he met those three drunk guys that were deported from the US and working at a call center in Guatemala Maybe longtime listeners heard me mentioned I'm talking a long ago probably six seven eight years ago now The US used to catch illegals and send them back to Guatemala City and other parts in Latin America by air Sometimes there'd be two even three flights a day Returning Guatemala's to Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City and most of those guys at the time at least 90 to 95 percent of them Were not illegals that just slipped in recently picked up at the border

[08:56] Most were illegals that have been living in the states for years and therefore picked up a lot of English on the street Making them perfect call center material. So then how'd they get caught by US immigration? Well, most of them did not get caught by a US immigration They got caught first by the local cops wherever those Latinos were living and when they produced an idea that didn't pass muster That's when immigration got involved. So then you might wonder how'd they get singled out by the cops Well often it was driving and committing traffic violations Because you know poor folks have poor habits and they bring them with him or picked up for being drunk and disorderly Maybe a pissed-off landlord tipped off the cops You know lots of illegals in the states get nabbed on domestic violence calls You know wife and girlfriend beating is very common down here

[09:44] Don't think I've ever met a Latina who hasn't been hit by a guy Many illegal Latinos up in the states just get picked up for petty crime and you know lots of illegals up in the states work in loosely regulated industries like big meat packing plants and sometimes those plants get raided by immigration and previous to 2021 the covidia thing illegals caught that way quickly end up on planes being deported back to their home countries like Guatemala Obviously up in the states. They're not doing much of that anymore. You know that though occasionally just occasionally I've noticed the plane will come into Guatemala International Airport another load of returning illegals and it beats me how all the call centers Located in Guatemala City. There must be 25 of them maybe more they know exactly when those planes are landing because and I've seen this there are

[10:32] Representatives from the call centers waiting right there as the people exit the airport Handing out pamphlets saying come join our call center if you speak any English, even if it's just a little we'll train you up And man, I'll tell you a huge number of people go down to those call centers and sign up Mostly because they instantly offer a $500 signing bonus. How do I know that? I've read the pamphlets They'd probably even hire me. So what we've got is the fact that in the United States It's a training ground for call center jobs once Latinos get deported back to their home country. Isn't that cool? Talk about unintended consequences, huh? By the way call center jobs here in Latin America pay about twice the minimum wage About 600 bucks a month. So in fact, they're very desirable

[11:20] But as you probably know there are very tough jobs too because you've got quotas so many calls and sales to make whatever kind of Call center you might be working for and normally I hear it takes about six months at a call center before you're completely burnt out But man, I'll tell you if you're gonna start a business down here and have employees Those are the best employees to have those have been trained by a call center Because after about six months in a call center Their English is very very good and they've been trained to be prompt So they've had the money on the time thing beaten out of them those call center survivors. Anyway In fact, some of my best seminar ladies including my number one Rita She's been my seminar logistics lady for at least five years now. She is one of those call center survivors With almost perfect English and she understands what first-world businesses require of their employees

[12:08] Sure, you'll have to fine-tune them when you train them up But the call centers have done 90% of that for you By the way, you know who runs some of the biggest call centers here in Latin America Xerox. Nope. They don't make copiers anymore They've moved into call centers and that's where the real money is. Oh and talking about US immigration control ICE What a joke just another lard ass cancerous government institution and it's been that way for years You know, I mentioned this on my show many years ago. So probably you don't remember My brother used to run a gigantic meat packing plant that made almost all the McDonald's and Wendy's meat patties for the entire USA They ran three shifts constantly in North Chicago and he had at times four or five hundred employees under him

[12:54] He told me 95% of them were illegal Latinos, but they all had IDs and social security numbers all fake But it wasn't the company's job to determine whether they were fake or not as long as they could show an idea They got hired now. My brother was in control of the whole plant during his shift So he walked the floor all the time and he knew all his workers That's how he learned his awful ghetto sort of Mexican barrio street Spanish He said those illegals work their asses off though. He did say they like to drink a lot They'd come in with hangovers sometimes, but they work their asses off Some of them lost fingers hands and arms too along the way, you know, you come in drunk get your hand caught in a machine Well, that's why my brother always said anyone who eats at a fast-food hamburger joint is an unknowing

[13:40] Cannibal because for sure they shut off the machines when there was an accident But do you really think they're gonna throw out thousands of pounds of beef just on account of someone's fingertip getting inadvertently caught in The mix now, of course, he said that didn't happen every day But maybe every month or so and more during the holidays more guys with hangovers, you know, and he did say Immigration ICE would raid the place once in a while But they picked up no great numbers of illegals because there was a grapevine between the meat packing plants in the Midwest Turns out he said a couple hours before ice would arrive Someone in the plant would get a phone call and within 20 minutes everyone who did not have a decent ID that would pass muster Would be out the door and a wall for the rest of the shift Anyway, just a little inside information about illegals meat packing plants and fast food joints and the moral of that story

[14:32] There ain't nothing happy about a happy meal Alright moving on. Let's catch up on another email. This one's from Fred He says Johnny and I'll paraphrase this a bit. He says Johnny. I'd love to be down there at your seminar I love to be down there permanently as it is But although we've gone for many visits the wife and I to Mexico My wife is dead set against spending more than a week or two or maybe stretching it to a month Anywhere far from home. It's all about the kids and the grandkids fact is Johnny We have a pretty nice place here in Northern, California But that plan B idea which I've been talking about for 30 years to the wife just doesn't resonate with her She just doesn't get it. I tell her our future here in California as nice as it is right now is Gonna be just cat food floods and forest fires in the future. She says I'm just a dyed in the wool pessimist

[15:24] Meanwhile, she talks about how the world is gonna die from climate change unless Trump ruins everything first, you know Johnny I think I'm just stuck here. All right me Johnny button in for a second There's more to this email, but let's hit on that point for a second. You know Fred I can't tell you how many times I've heard that same old song I'm talking about husband and wife who are not on the same page at all One of them wants to get the hell out of Dodge The other one is comfy and cozy were she or he is right now though I have to say more often than that It's the wife who does not want to leave and as much as the man of the house I can still say that can I or let's just say the person with the swinging Reproductive appendage wants to get a plan B get the hell out of Dodge He'll never quite make it past the border because his other half just won't go along

[16:13] Well Fred on the optimistic side your wife is an optimist with Trump derangement syndrome. Obviously, maybe she'll learn to like certain brands of cat food I'm thinking the folks at hamburger helper could jack up sales with some rebranding there. What do you think? Anyway, Fred goes on to say Johnny by the way, how about that Bitcoin, huh? I'd love to hear you discuss what it's like to convert Bitcoin to dollars or a local funny money Because up here in California, the only way I know is to have it go directly to a bank account He says I'm wondering how it works down there in Guatemala or El Salvador can strike or other exchanges work through the local banks and One more thing Johnny even though I don't seem to be a candidate yet another subject I'd be interested in you discussing is how to get Guatemala in temporary residency

[16:59] He finishes off by saying I try not to miss any of your shows and I've been listening for a long long time now signed Fred from Northern, California Well, Fred, thanks for that and about the Bitcoin thing in Guatemala and El Salvador They've got various avenues to switch back and forth from Bitcoin to fiat money In fact, there are some gringos and experts who've set up their own legit exchanges on and off-ramps Within both countries Salvador and Guatemala By the way, when you're in El Salvador or Guatemala or anywhere in Central America, they don't say El Salvador They just say Salvador Just like Canadians say Costa Rica and everyone else says Costa Rica, you know, Salvador or Panama or Nicaragua Mexico, whatever when they're talking about El Salvador, they don't say the El they say Salvador

[17:48] That means a person from El Salvador is not at El Salvador año He's just a Salvador año By the way If you're an El Salvador and you want to exchange small amounts of Bitcoin and fiat money You could do it at any local Bitcoin ATM. I'm seeing them all over the place though I've never seen anyone use one. I've seen them all over the place as well as little blue ATMs called chivo ATMs if you remember chivo is the name of the local salva Tereño national wallet the one they put 30 bucks worth of Bitcoin in for everyone in the country a couple years back and As for Fred's last question about getting temporary residency in Guatemala The latest word on that process from local Latino lawyers is to skip it go right to permanent residency

[18:35] It's easier and faster. And all you have to do now is get a clean FBI report and prove that you get at least $1,500 a month continuously from either a pension social security a trust or rental income There are lots of ways to fulfill that requirement But you also have to come down to Guatemala for five to ten working days to get the process going get the paperwork underway, etc Alright moving on. Here's a short but interesting email from Jeffrey one of our expat insider seminar alumni He sent me a link to a study It's a study showing the countries in the world with the biggest increase in life expectancy in the last 50 years and The interesting part is this in all of the countries in both South and North America

[19:21] The three countries with the largest increase in life expectancy over the last 50 years Believe it or not. Number one is Guatemala with a twenty seven point one percent increase over those years Number two is El Salvador with a twenty six point two percent increase and Bolivia's number three with twenty six point zero Increase over that 50 year span some of the main reasons are better hygiene better Nutrition and more calories consumed daily, which makes you wonder if all that's been happening in the last 50 years What about that thing called global warming? Everyone's been whining about hmm. Shouldn't life expectancies be going down? Yeah, isn't it something we know it's going down in the US Canada and Europe amongst the vaxxed right

[20:06] I'm sure you've seen the latest reports about all cause Mortalities a huge increase in young adults who rarely died from kovat itself But somehow after they were completely vaxxed died well before their time allotted on insurance company actuarial tables Insurance companies are reporting up to 40% more deaths and young working people people covered by group employer insurance plans And with insurance companies whose payouts are predicted by actuarial tables Governments may try to hide the facts, but the insurance companies are gonna blow the lid on this thing They're saying that 40% increase is strictly due to the vaccine Because all working people were forced to get vaxxed or lose their jobs, but you knew that already, right? All right. Our next email comes from Dave and I'm a reload, Texas

[20:55] Hmm. Let me grab my Dave reference sheet here. Yeah, this is Dave number 64 He says Johnny could you provide an update on the health insurance options available through Guatemalan banks? I'm inching closer to 60 years old myself and thinking I may want to restart my Residency process there in order to get a bank account and sign up for that cheap health insurance offered by banks do Salvadorian banks offer the same health insurance coverage. He says, thanks very much Johnny I still want to make it to one of your seminars, but that will probably have to wait till next year All right. Thanks for that Dave just to remind everyone once again down here in Latin America Your bank the one you bank at will probably offer health insurance You longtime listeners might remember I mentioned only about 10% of Latinos have private health care insurance

[21:43] Why because they all get free national health care But we all know nothing's for nothing and as shitty as those national health care hospitals might be they're better than nothing though Not by much now like everything in Latin America Everything's on lag time that includes private health care insurance You know when I first got down here to Latin America 30 something years ago There were very few private health insurance options almost no one had private health care insurance except transplanted Gringo's working in administrative and executive positions in transnational companies like Siemens Volkswagen Toyota Walmart Costco and Gringo's and expats and foreigners working in embassies Naturally health insurance companies want to expand every business wants to expand They found the best way to do that was to partner up with banks

[22:29] Well, I found out by hook and crook from an insurance executive I know that when private insurance companies first came into existence here in Latin America They started with car insurance and they soon discovered Latin Americans may want insurance, but they're bad payers In other words, they'll start out with good intentions by a policy pay monthly and suddenly monthly payments arrive later and later late payments turn into missed payments the insurance companies send out notices They phone people up but still payments are missed and policies lapse just a nightmare for insurance brokers So some 30 years ago when they first started thinking about offering health insurance. They weren't gonna go down that road again That's why they partnered up with banks because then they could debit your savings or credit card account monthly So no one would miss a payment. It would be automatically deducted

[23:17] That's the reason why so many banks here in Latin America have affiliated health insurance and car insurance programs Just a little background there even so Not even ten percent of Latin Americans have private health care insurance and get this the latest figures show that only 17% of Latin Americans who own cars have car insurance Even though by law you're supposed to have minimum liability third-party coverage, which really is cheap as dirt But you'll find out if you get into an accident You better have coverage because the odds are great that the other guy won't but back to banks and health insurance Now the thing is because of American FATCA laws and all the paperwork that needs to be filed if you have a foreign bank account Very few Latin American banks will let you open an account unless you're a permanent resident of that country

[24:05] In other words, you just can't go on vacation to Guatemala, Salvador Costa Rica wherever walk into a bank and say I'd like to open a bank account like you could do 10 or 15 years ago with ease. They just don't want you anymore We're just too much trouble for Latin American bank administrators too much paperwork to file You know how those government maggots up in the states have their hands in your pocket no matter where you live So pretty much the only way to get a bank account in Latin America is to have residency in that country Because then they figure you're gonna live in that country and there'll be a lot of movement through your account and a bank Who makes some money off you now referring back to Dave's question a bank in Guatemala called Banco industrial has the very best health insurance program But you have to have an account there and it do that you must be a permanent resident Now there are many other banks in Guatemala that offer health insurance programs

[24:53] But most of them have an age limit to get in of either 59 or 64 And once you're in a plan usually there's no age limit to stay in the play though I've seen a few plans that'll kick you off when you turn 99, which is okay So your goal should be if you're living in Guatemala to get residency get a bank account at Baco industrial and get on that plan It's a fantastic plan Generally, you won't be paying more than a hundred bucks a month. Last I checked there's a $250 per year Deductible, what's yours? $2,500 $5,000 or $10,000 now as far as El Salvador and most of Latin America It's the same thing banks have health insurance programs By the way Dave if you come to my next seminar You'll see I spend about three hours on Latin American health insurance

[25:39] I go through about ten different insurance plans bank plans private plans I go through health insurance plans available to gringos and expats living in Guatemala, Colombia Ecuador Dominican Republic we review the coverages the costs It's really a pretty complicated issue because almost all policies are in Spanish though I've translated many of them into English and changed the local funny money to dollars and I make copies of those insurance plans Available to everyone who comes to my seminar another very good reason to come on down All right before we close out here I want to mention that I saw one of the greatest acts of kindness in a long long time I was in a big supermarket down here in El Salvador in front of me was a tall skinny Latino who had some Very basic food items bread salami sack of flour dried beans some stuff for a baby

[26:30] You know diapers in that I'd say the guy was maybe 23 years old Obviously a minimum wage kind of guy a member of the working poor Well, he was in front of me put his stuff down on the little conveyor belt and right in front of him was a Sixty-something year old gringa lady pan for her stuff with a credit card She spoke Spanish to the cashier. So she'd been down here a while her Spanish was pretty good She paid her bill took her bags and left and the guy in front of me with the bread and the diapers, etc Pulled out his wallet waiting for the cashier to ring up his stuff. She said don't worry about it. It's paid for She said the lady in front of you gave me $20 and said I'm to give you the change if there's any money left over How about that a totally selfless act the lady didn't even want him to know

[27:20] She didn't want to make a scene or put him in an awkward position thinking, you know This rich lady's paying for a poor guy's stuff. Anyhow, he couldn't thank her cuz she was gone Everyone ought to try that sometime. Don't you think? 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 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