Why did you change your name from Patrick?
I'm a Black Expat AMA
- Thread starter Wiseborn
- Start date
Why did you change your name from Patrick?
Budget hacks; Repats to Africa who come with a big bag tend to spend way too much and run out of money. It's important to establish a budget and stick to it.
Being in the 3rd world is subjective, for example you can get an apartment for as low as 100 bucks a month but it's probably not gonna come with A/C or a backup generator. a western style apartment can be as much as 700 bucks a month. You should always strive to spend less at first then spend more as you figure out how much things can cost, for example you can go to their version of a big box store and not get any cash back rewards because you're not a citizen.
When you make your budget separate you needs i.e household costs and food from your wants budget (everything else) for example my wants budget is less than 600 bucks less than 400 USD for household and about 200 for expensive imported foods. a dinner for two in a nice restaurant with drinks comes to about 85,000 COP or about 21.25 USD you can average a daily burn rate on wants to be around 50K COP or about 12.50 USD per day and that would be plenty. It's not enough to pop bottles in the club every night but enough to have a date every weekend.
Being in the 3rd world is subjective, for example you can get an apartment for as low as 100 bucks a month but it's probably not gonna come with A/C or a backup generator. a western style apartment can be as much as 700 bucks a month. You should always strive to spend less at first then spend more as you figure out how much things can cost, for example you can go to their version of a big box store and not get any cash back rewards because you're not a citizen.
When you make your budget separate you needs i.e household costs and food from your wants budget (everything else) for example my wants budget is less than 600 bucks less than 400 USD for household and about 200 for expensive imported foods. a dinner for two in a nice restaurant with drinks comes to about 85,000 COP or about 21.25 USD you can average a daily burn rate on wants to be around 50K COP or about 12.50 USD per day and that would be plenty. It's not enough to pop bottles in the club every night but enough to have a date every weekend.
I thought foreign places was supposed to be cheap????
what happens if you really have some money and you wanted to buy some land and build on it?Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread. Understand the last thing poor people want you to do is to buy up land then develop it and kick them out. That's basically gentrification. You can't stop it in the states but that's one thing any country can and will stop you from doing. Kenya had a deal where Quatar would pay for the Lamu port and road development. Qatar has beef with the UAE and Saudi Arabia and had problems getting food into the country so they wanted to do a 99 year lease on Kenyan land to grow food for Qatar.I thought foreign places was supposed to be cheap????
The people said Hell no so it didn't happen. There aren't zoning laws and property rights like in the states. Chances are who ever you buy the land from doesn't really own it. Now you can build a house in the city but I'd advise that you think hard about buying a stately Manor in the countryside.
Not saying you can't do it but you need massive research, I remember reading in the news about a mall owned by some Indians in Kenya that had to be torn down, turns out the land was in a flood zone and not supposed to be sold. they bulldozed homie's Mall and took the land without compensation.
sheesh, what about if you get in contact with a real legit real estate company or someone from the govtYou can but who can you trust? Again it's not like america where things are on the up and up. a Kenyan Congressman makes around 35K a year and he has to use his own money to get out the vote People straight up ask Politicians for school fees, funeral arrangements, money for bills
Clay Davis explained it best:
Where do you think they get the money from? Why do you think they want the job? Because foreigners will come through and they will get paid from you bribing the shyt out of them. Real Billioniares are quietly buying up farmland all over the world. because they can make money off of massive farms needed to feed all the people. If you're prepared to pay you can buy up land too.
Again I'm not saying that you can't get a mansion in the countryside but depending on the acreage you're displacing unemployed people. Now if you wanted to develop a house or a condo in the city that's easy especially a unit in an already completed building because someone else had to pay off the politicians to get the building built.
I explained about buying land building is a different thing, Like I said no zoning laws so you build on a flood zone that's on you, best believe whoever builds your property will cheap out where ever they can, shyt may not be level the pipes will be chaap, I had to rip out my pipes because they couldn't handle regular grease. After that I bought a dishpan and a grease trap. I had to change my shower heads because of something about "hard salty water" had something to do with the showerheads. I assume they just got worn out. The wiring in my place is fukked up, The bathroom lightbulb hangs from the ceiling.
You build from the ground up and this is the least of your problems unless you're on the scene watching people do the work.
damn it seems like a major hassle... I just want to get a basic idea of how to pull this off.... what about buying already established real estate???You can buy already established real estate easily. You can even build but I wouldn't build unless there were other clouted people in the neighborhood.
Neo. The Only. The One.
THE ONE
One of the best threads on this site.
Airbnb hacks.
I generally book for a few days to see if I will like a place. Location is extremely important. You can save a buck or two if you stay slightly out of the tourist areas especially if it's near public transportation. However you want to be within walking distance to a grocery store You can save a decent amount of money if you are able to walk to the grocery store. A Cab will gouge you especially when it's raining.
Side tip about Uber, Download at least one other app like Indriver or DiDi after a while you should have a ballpark idea of what trips should cost, I know where I live It should never cost more than about 5.50 USD no matter where I go at anytime. But sometime's Uber be tripping just wait about 10 to 15 minutes and try it again. If the price is still high go to another app. I think the price drops because they realize that you're going to another app. This probably works in the States as well.
I can't remember a time that I have been in a place where the wifi was not able to stream a movie and surf the web at the same time. i was able to do this using my phone as a hotspot but that being said get a wifi speedtest before booking.
In Africa I'd would be careful about booking with anyone other than a superhost. Just like with Uber used Booking.com or vrbo as backups although I've found that Airbnb's are still king. When making a decision check the reservations. If there's tons of availability negotiate a lower rate. Nine times out of ten they will cheap out on bed linen and towels. The reason why most Airbnb's aren't guest friendly is because they don't want to provide additional towels. Tell the host you'll buy some more linen if he lowers the price.
I generally book for a few days to see if I will like a place. Location is extremely important. You can save a buck or two if you stay slightly out of the tourist areas especially if it's near public transportation. However you want to be within walking distance to a grocery store You can save a decent amount of money if you are able to walk to the grocery store. A Cab will gouge you especially when it's raining.
Side tip about Uber, Download at least one other app like Indriver or DiDi after a while you should have a ballpark idea of what trips should cost, I know where I live It should never cost more than about 5.50 USD no matter where I go at anytime. But sometime's Uber be tripping just wait about 10 to 15 minutes and try it again. If the price is still high go to another app. I think the price drops because they realize that you're going to another app. This probably works in the States as well.
I can't remember a time that I have been in a place where the wifi was not able to stream a movie and surf the web at the same time. i was able to do this using my phone as a hotspot but that being said get a wifi speedtest before booking.
In Africa I'd would be careful about booking with anyone other than a superhost. Just like with Uber used Booking.com or vrbo as backups although I've found that Airbnb's are still king. When making a decision check the reservations. If there's tons of availability negotiate a lower rate. Nine times out of ten they will cheap out on bed linen and towels. The reason why most Airbnb's aren't guest friendly is because they don't want to provide additional towels. Tell the host you'll buy some more linen if he lowers the price.
One of the main benefits of Global Arbitrage is the tax savings.
Like I said one of the main reasons I left the states was I was tired of supporting race soldiers through my taxes and fees.
While as long as you hold that blue passport you will owe taxes globally you can deduct up to 108,000 of that if you're out of the country for more than 330 days.
That's not counting the fact that if you're earning US dollars in a country like Colombia where it's like 4000 pesos to 1 dollar.... Yes inflation is up everywhere but I benefit because although inflation is up the US dollar is stronger than it ever was.
Something to think about.
Like I said one of the main reasons I left the states was I was tired of supporting race soldiers through my taxes and fees.
While as long as you hold that blue passport you will owe taxes globally you can deduct up to 108,000 of that if you're out of the country for more than 330 days.
That's not counting the fact that if you're earning US dollars in a country like Colombia where it's like 4000 pesos to 1 dollar.... Yes inflation is up everywhere but I benefit because although inflation is up the US dollar is stronger than it ever was.
Something to think about.
Assume that your cost of living will be much lower overseas. For example I never paid more than 550 bucks per month for a spot to include gas water and electric and internet. I know a guy who got a good deal on a four bedroom apartment (unfurnished) in Santiago DR for 330 month. I generally pay about 200 a month on groceries. add up your other "must haves and your entertainment and 12 to 1300 a month is good in most places that aren't in the states or europe.
Money Be Green
Superstar
What the hoes looking like out there mayne?