#1518 – Mail Forwarding, Electric Costs & Hiring Help 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 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 Alright got some really interesting and amusing stuff for you today. You won't be disappointed I promise though you do get what you pay for. Let's start by cleaning up the email pile Now you might remember a couple of shows ago. We were talking about Jade in Guatemala

[00:47] They've got some of the highest quality Jade in the world It's a big business there and if you were to take a trip down to Guatemala you'd find there's some nice little Jade stores all of them with backrooms where You'll see little gals and guys polishing up those stones and cutting them down. No masks. No gloves No air filtration another reason they call it the third world, right? Anyway, some shows back I got an email from Michael saying Johnny. I'm in the jewelry business myself. What can you tell me about the Jade business in Guatemala? I'd like to dip a toe in it And I told my story on this show of how me and a business partner of mine tried to get into the Jade business And we're basically stiff-armed out of it. Anyway, Michael writes back Johnny Thank you for reading my email message on your show regarding consultations for information about Guatemala and Jade Jadeite after listening to the

[01:34] Exped file show for Friday June 5th 2026 when you spoke about it. I know exactly which Jade shop your friend took his rough Jade to for polishing I had my own experience with the thugs that run that place I brought my own highly polished jade beads to that place and asked one of the men That came to the back room if they sold the same type and size of beads that I had in my hand Instead of a friendly customer assistance I thought I could get the man got super paranoid and asked me where I got my Jade from My reply was well, I know some people after me making that comment He wanted me to leave the store after going back to my rental I spent some time thinking about my bizarre experience with the business Then Michael said many months later after talking to someone very knowledgeable about how the Jade business actually works in Guatemala

[02:25] I learned that particular Jade shop was not there to sell trade But the place was used to launder money with protection from the government Well, it turns out you and your friend had an interaction with thugs and the boys who are really want to be gringo bullies You see there's a right way to get rough jade polished in Guatemala But you and your friend made a mistake and dealt with the wrong people signed Michael Well, thanks for that Michael. You know, I've been waiting a long time to fill in those extra pieces to that puzzle Thanks for doing that for me. I wish I would have known all that way back when though I did find out sometime later by hook and crook that there were some Guatemalan government people involved a sort of Protection racket and you know, it's always best for gringos and expats not to get involved with the local governments in any capacity

[03:14] in fact you long-time listeners might remember me telling a story where I was hired by the Guatemalan tourism agency to do a big voiceover for radio and TV a tourism promo with some beautiful drone shots, etc In fact for a long time the promotion was shown when you took a copa airline flight You know on those inflight monitors You're forced to stare at when you're eating that trashy airplane food Well, I signed a contract at the voiceover was supposed to be paid a certain amount. It just so happened though It was a year There was a changeover in government another thieving group of large-ass politicians were voted in over the last bunch who signed that contract with me then of course they fire all the old department heads and Bring in their new bunch of ass wipes and guess what the new guy running the tourism agency never cut me a check

[04:00] Yep, I had a contract spent a half day in a studio doing the recording The promo got done and was disseminated in lots of different media platforms. Alas, I never got paid It was a good lesson for me Anyway first and last time I ever did any work for a government though I have to tell you there was salt rubbed into that wound every time I took an air flight on copa How would you like to be sitting in an airline seat and hearing your voice over and over again in a tourism? Commercial for which you never got paid talk about rubbing salt in the wound All right. That's enough of that continuing on with some of these emails, you know, I Consistently get emails from people saying Johnny. I was wondering if you could share the mail forwarding service you use You know the one that you have a box in Florida and they send it to Guatemala or Mexico or Panama or wherever

[04:49] Well, here's how it breaks down There are just dozens of mail and package forwarding services working out of Miami or thereabouts always in Florida The problem is not that they come and go regularly, you know Start out great guns with lots of great advertising and promotions and then sort of fade away It's not that they start up and disappear They start out great guns and then their service gets shittier and shittier that just seems to be the way it works Take me. I'm probably on my seventh or eighth Mail forwarding service since I've been down here to Latin America That's one every couple of years In other words every three or four years something happens to the existing mail forwarding service and I change and guess what? I'm about to change again In fact, I've been using two different services and it's not that my main service has gotten so bad

[05:35] It's just that many of the packages are coming all banged up with corners punched in Retaped because they've been damaged in transit then rebundled with a lick and a prayer and that's something that didn't happen The first year or two. I was using that service. So then maybe six months ago I decided to try another service not quit the first one. Just see how the other service went Well, the first couple packages came fine And then I ordered a ceiling fan a specific kind of ceiling fan from Amazon Why if you could get all that stuff down here and you can well It was around 200 bucks for that fan down here and a hundred bucks on Amazon and with shipping maybe another 30 bucks I'd save 70 bucks getting it on Amazon. So I thought I'd give it a try. Well, it came. All right This is the second mail forwarding service

[06:21] I was just starting to try and guess what? I picked up the box and they handed it to me and I heard a thunk and right away I knew that ceiling fan was floating around in that box That means the parts were sloshing around inside that box Not good Considering it was probably handled by 10 or 20 different people along the way and tossed in and out of a couple of trucks and Airplanes too and when I got it home, I had my fingers crossed and sure enough I opened it up and parts were not secure. They were strewn all over the place But once I assembled it the thing actually worked except it was a big scratch down one of the nice solid wood fan blades Another reason I ordered it the blades were solid wood not some composite crap like at IKEA So then what do you do? Who do you bitch to? No one obviously, what are you gonna do?

[07:06] Send the thing back to Amazon in the States just for a scratched blade Like I said, there was no one to bitch to why because the package came all right. They handed it to me It was intact Well reasonably intact and by the way I always recommend you open the package as soon as they hand it to you right in front of the guy at the mail Forwarding office just in case and if there's any damage at all take a photo right there That way you could actually send it to Amazon saying it was damaged in shipping and maybe 60 to 70 percent of the time They'll send you another one for nothing and most times without much of an argument at all That's happened to me two or three times, especially with vitamins and supplement I've opened the boxes and seen pills scattered everywhere and broken bottles and in that case I'm almost always able to get Amazon to send me a new batch except you're stuck paying this postage again for the mail forwarding service

[07:56] A courier by the way You don't want to let Amazon or anyone you order from up in the States know that you're using a courier or mail forwarding service to send it out of the country and they usually don't because you've got your name on the box and it's going to Miami, but here's the mistake I see a lot of novice expats made they order something from Amazon or Home Depot ever it goes to their Miami box They get it in Guatemala or Panama or the DR. It's broken or bashed or whatever They get on line with Amazon or Home Depot Customer service, you know on that chat box thing, you know, they have on every site. Well, here's a little tip You never tell them you're in Panama or Guatemala or Mexico the DR Whatever you keep up the illusion that the package went to Miami and that's where you are And that's where you picked it up If you tell them you're in Belize or Honduras or the DR and had it forwarded

[08:45] They'll tell you they're not responsible for anything that's reshipped overseas So if something's missing or broken and you do get Amazon or Home Depot to send you another Just accept that and pay the shipping for your mail forwarding service Don't complain to the person or service bot about who's gonna reimburse you for the shipping to your Latin country by courier Don't push it. Don't say that or you'll lose the whole deal Oh, and sometimes that person or bot will say when you're talking about something that was broken in shipping They'll say okay, we'll send a replacement but send us back the damaged one Well, there's really no way you want to do that because it'll cost you money a lot of money to ship it from your country To Amazon Home Depot or Target in the States

[09:31] Just tell me it's sort of impossible because there's glass or plastic all over the place The supplements or vitamins are all melting and gummy. Just try to get out of sending anything back It's fairly easy. In fact one gringo expat. I know was really smart about it He told the lady or the bot He couldn't or wouldn't send the item back because he'd cut his fingers when opening the package He said because of that he was all pissed off might have to go to the emergency room and he sent them a picture of A bloody thumb and it wasn't even his thumb Anyway, there you have it some of the tricks of using mail forwarding services And as far as all you guys wondering what's the best mail forwarding service to use now? You might not agree with this, but I say go on grok or chat GPT Put in the name of the Latin American country you're living in and ask grok or chat GPT or anthropic

[10:18] Whatever which of the mail forwarding services out of Florida are the most economical and best rated at the moment and which ones have the least consumer complaints That's the best answer I can give you because as mentioned None of those mail forwarding services seem to be consistent over time So all I can say is let AI do those searches for you And by the way, just don't use one AI use two or three then make your decision Alright a couple of more emails and we'll get on to a great boots on the ground story I hope if not, we'll do it next time first off I'd like to thank Chris one of our expat insiders seminar alumni for sending me a photo of a guy with a Rolex watch So what's so unusual about that because I mentioned on a previous show Wouldn't that be the limit if someone tattooed a Rolex on his wrist?

[11:06] Well, some lucky moron did and Chris got a photo of it. So thanks for that Chris Funny how the more tattoos you have the more likely you're in the minimum wage club if you know what I mean And next comes this email from Roberto Talking about the usage of electricity when you're a gringo or expat in Mexico He says Johnny you had a great show on solar and Latin American electric power usage a few weeks ago As for my electric power usage in the compo in Mexico He says my usage varies from 150 to 350 kilowatt hours per month depending on the season And yes as you pointed out Latin American countries Subsidize electricity for poll folks who use minimum quantities of electricity. For example, he says

[11:52] There are three electricity rates once called bicycle one intermediate and one Excediente depending on how much you use monthly for bicycle. That's the first 75 kilowatt hours It's about six and a half cents a kilowatt hour for intermediate. That's the next 65 kilowatts up to 140 kilowatt hours That's about 8 cents a kilowatt Now, here's the killer if you use more than a 141 kilowatt hours a month. You're in the Excedente category and you're paying 23 cents a kilowatt hour Basically subsidizing all the poll folks by the way Roberto I'm personally sort of against that because I've noticed especially in the compo on Guatemala, etc The poll folks who basically just have a couple of light bulbs in the house and a TV and a refrigerator

[12:39] They often leave a light bulb or two on all night They don't give a shit about conserving energy because they pay so little for it So in effect subsidizing electric bills does not incentivize poor people to conserve just the opposite Anyway, Roberto goes on in his email to say that our power in Mexico rarely goes out But is subject to variances and can dip to 100 volts or so, but not often My last bill he says was 114 pesos. That's six dollars and sixty two cents US That includes Eva value-added tax, which I think is around 16% He says Johnny as far as my electrical usage I've had no big projects going during my last bill cycle Just a small fridge a computer on 14 hours a day and some lights half our LED and some fan usage

[13:30] Even with all this and my cheap bill. I'm considering going solar he says just for security based on current global trends and the equipment being available and inexpensive plus it's fun to mess with and So obviously Roberto doesn't have any big energy hogs in his house Like AC electric stove electric water heater or electric dryer Those are the so-called luxury items that pop you into the expensive kilowatt hour category in Mexico called Accidente, which by the way in English means excessive So thinking about that if you're up in the States and have those three appliances Air-conditioner electric stove electric water heater in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. That's considered excessive So Roberto once again, thanks for that update on Rural living for expats and gringles in Mexico now

[14:17] Of course if you're a gringo or expat living in a Mexican city You're almost certainly gonna have air conditioning a lot of lights and a microwave and electric dryer So Roberto here is expat living on sort of a more basic closer to nature lifestyle Which is in my experience not the preferred way most gringles and expats live here in Latin America now I could be wrong, but I'm thinking Roberto lives on maybe a thousand bucks a month sort of a rustic country like which if you're into That kind of life. It's nice and comfortable whereas most gringo expats living down here live on twice or three times that Fact is most retired gringles and expats get fifteen hundred or two thousand a month just in social security So anyway Bob if I'm wrong about that send me an email and straighten me out Since I don't think you ever did mention your monthly expenses there though

[15:04] I do know that you previously told us you lived on three different sailboats before moving to Oaxaca the Mexican countryside I'm sure lots of people envy that all right now an email from mr. D that covers a lot of ground now if you remember a couple of months ago I was talking about Hybrid cars and why I think it's a bad idea to buy one though I do see lots of them around it they have caught on but guess who they haven't caught on with my engineering buddies Yep, you might recall. I mentioned in a past life I was an electrical and biomedical engineer and yes I hung around with nerdy engineers all my life and guess what kind of car none of them will own a hybrid in that funny Engineers the guys who invented the technology of this world do not want to own hybrid cars isn't that funny now

[15:51] Why do you think that is well in that show a couple months ago now? I told you why I wouldn't want to own one and now we have this email from mr. D. He says Johnny good afternoon Hope everything as well first a little bit of a minor Mayacopa it goes back to the episode when you were talking about EV cars where you said folks buying hybrids were just delaying the Inevitable and not fully thinking it through and in my head I thought that's a butt-head thing to say Johnny pretty sure that's not the first time you heard that My next thought or excuse was about range Anxiety with electric cars and all that so maybe hybrids really are the best of both worlds I thought at least that's what's where my brain was at for that hot moment thing is Johnny I will be in the market for a new car in 2027 once I've settled in to our new home outside Antigua Guatemala since I'll be retired

[16:42] It's likely the last car I plan to buy and being sort of a research nerd I've been doing some deep research into EVs and hybrids after all that I've come to consider that at first glance Hybrids are quite tempting especially the plug-in hybrids due to the extended range etc But now thinking back. They're also the worst of both worlds pure EVs have something like 90% fewer parts than traditional gas cars that means 90% less things to go wrong and of course traditional and plug-in hybrids have both Systems the gas engine and transmission drivetrain though They may be smaller in size than the regular gas powered cars on the road Both require their own sets of maintenance as a retiree on the budget and all things being equal

[17:29] I want less maintenance to worry about not more Short story long my digging into it has made me come around to your side more and more especially since I planned in 2027 to put solar on the house in Guatemala Then mr. D goes on to say a bit more about his prospective solar setup Anyway, if you listeners out there are still doubting my take on hybrid cars I'll ask you to do just one thing go to a dealer or a friend who's got a hybrid ask them to Open the hood and take a look in the engine compartment You'll see it's so jam-packed with wires cables tubes compressors Condensers and heat exchangers there isn't a square inch for a cockroach to settle in in other words There's absolutely no way for a common man even a handyman to do maintenance on it himself So with every little idiot light that pops on you're gonna have to take it to the shop and if you know any mechanics

[18:19] They'll tell you they're a nightmare to work on with half the job and tailing Disassembling a dozen things to get access to the potential root of the problem On the other hand if you open the hood of an electric car and EV you'll see there's all kinds of space in there With many wide open spaces where you could actually see down clear through to the surface of the road Super easy to work on super easy to diagnose problems In fact if an all-electric car and EV has a problem it will diagnose itself Enough said about that, but there's a second part to mr. Dz mail that will or should concern many many expats and future expats since all of us sooner or later hire a cleaning lady Gardener or maintenance guy as for me over the years. I've had full-time and part-time domestic help right now

[19:04] I have a cleaning lady who comes in three days a week. I pay her about 20 bucks a day. That's $250 a month Remember that's three days a week now. That's more than the going rate more than the minimum wage Which is about twelve to fifteen dollars a day, but with this next part of mr. D's email. We're talking about Guatemala now Concerns how certain gringles and expats can get buffalode when hiring domestic help Mr.. D says I've mentioned before in other emails that I lurk in a few Facebook groups for Guatemala Slash Antigua expat living all right me Johnny here. Just a comment You heard me say those Guatemala expat fake book groups in fact all Latin America gringo expat Fake book groups are just filled with woke us teachers and ex-government employees

[19:53] I personally stay far away from those things though You'll find there's one thing they can be good for when those woke gringos and expats turn tail and move back to the states They sell other stuff, so sometimes you can catch a fire sale otherwise those sites are just contaminated Anyway, mr.. D says he occasionally lurks in those expat fake book groups He says recently one of those fake book group members asked a question about the going rate to pay a gardener in Guatemala He says well It's a legitimate question a few of the people who responded gave what they thought were reasonable figures in Quetzalas That's the local funny money saying the going pay rate was from 150 to 200 Quetzalas a day That's 20 to 27 us dollars a day

[20:39] However a bunch more fake book posters and responders throughout numbers between 400 and 500 Quetzalas a day That's roughly 50 to 65 dollars a day Consider that that's about a thousand dollars a month to a little over $1,300 a month if you look deeper The people posting those higher costs were very often woke do-gooders says mr.. D mostly white liberal women or actual locals in the area who would provide that kind of service or Had family members who would provide those kinds of gardening services how very interesting and convenient Johnny, huh? Mr.. D says here's the part. I really think you'd appreciate Johnny nerd and data guy that you are

[21:25] He says one of the people arguing for the higher per day cost Produced their AI search results to back it up turns out they'd asked Google's Gemini And I'm attaching that screenshot here for you to see and Gemini came back citing that 300 to 350 Quetzalas a day figure you know the 50 to 65 dollar a day figure sounds perfectly authoritative doesn't it? Except when you actually look at the sourcing listed at the bottom of her screenshot her screen capture You'll see it's pulling from the same Facebook chat groups where this and similar conversations were happening in the first place in short She had her AI prompt scrape the same Facebook chatter group

[22:14] She was already part of the one that posted the inflated prices Then she presented the compiled average as if it were independent and authoritative and real But it's not it's just reflecting the same bias already in that group chat room Something most people would never catch or pick up on he says artificial intelligence can be a great tool however It's not as independent or objective as most people think it can be easily manipulated Just as that person who basically cited herself and her group to reflect those high-end prices She wished to show as a source, but Johnny in all actuality I don't think she intended to include the sourcing But her laziness and copying and pasting it here has come back to bite her in the ass in my opinion well Johnny

[23:02] That's my story for today I look forward to more specifics on your next seminar and yeah I will give Rico's books a try the ones you mentioned on the last show Keep up the good work and yes I wish you were back to two episodes a week But I fully understand how much time and dedication that takes so I guess I'll be re-listening to some older episodes Take care signed mr. D. Well mr. D. Thanks for that I've got some more information to add to the mix on that Gardener pay scale thing you see I just spoke to the expert captain mango. Yeah, he's been living in Guatemala now for about I'd say 10 or 12 years He's got a house out in the compo right in the middle of a coffee field in fact He runs a little coffee plantation, and he has workers to make sure that coffee fields in order

[23:48] And he also has a general full-time maintenance Gardener guy, and he says as far as coffee plantations and gardening etc the guy can do anything a Super hard worker, and he's been on the job for a long long time many years guess what he gets paid 400 quetzales which works out to be around 50 bucks us not 400 quetzales a day mr. D 400 quetzales a week, so he makes 50 bucks a week Full-time gardener maintenance guy and captain mango Who's his boss says that some guys are full-time gardeners and maintenance guys making only 300 a week? They're not happy about it, but take it That's about 35 to 40 bucks a week so as you can see by checking out those expat fake book groups You can really get misled, but hey if you want to pay a gardener maintenance guy or even you're made 50 bucks a day

[24:39] Go ahead and do it your prerogative meanwhile the going rate can be as low as 10 bucks a day Not 50 so in effect the gringo advantage doesn't seem to exist on those expat fake book groups now Admittedly and captain mango brought this up He said Johnny if you're talking about maintenance gardeners and cleaning ladies in the Antigua Guatemala area where the most gringos reside Certainly the prices are probably gonna be a little bit higher But not five times as high as the rural areas or non gringo areas not even twice as much maybe 20 or 30 or 50 percent more than a rural areas But not as demonstrated by those out of this world prices you see on those gringo expat fake book groups And you know the same kind of thing happens with real estate prices

[25:25] I'm always getting emails from people living up in the states who've never been down here to Latin America They say they go on the big remax and century 21 websites here in Latin America Yep, it's true remax and century 21 exists down here in Latin America. They have a very big presence Anyway, if you check their websites out and look at houses and rents, etc People will write and say Johnny. Where are those nice apartment rents for five and six hundred bucks? You're always talking about and where are those two and three bedroom houses for sale for? 120 to 150 thousand bucks Well, guess what you won't find that stuff on a remix and century 21 English language sites Nor will you find that stuff in real estate ads on those gringo expat fake book groups But once you get down here and start walking around town

[26:12] Checking out those for sale and for rent signs you see everywhere once you know your way around get the feel of things and start Checking things out yourself. You'll soon see what is meant by gringo pricing Oh and one last thing as mr. D says don't get suckered in when you investigate prices using chat GPT and other AI sources Oh and one less little unrelated factoid. Did you know that since the year 2000? 28 Latin American presidents have been arrested convicted or jailed due to crimes they committed while in office So in a way you got to hand it to the courts in Latin America They know every president vice president cabinet member deputado That's what they call senators and representatives in Congress deputados They know every last one of them is a corrupt piece of shit and they have a history of putting them in jail

[27:01] That as opposed to the United States political system We're every federal and state politicians a corrupt piece of shit as well and everyone knows it They walk into office as regular people and walk out as millionaires They use the system to become filthy rich Everyone knows it, but they never go to jail So the question is who's got the better court system which brings us to term limits in my proposal that Every politician serves two terms in two terms only four years in office and four years in jail your choice Which stretch you want to do first? 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

[27:51] 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