Making Six Figures While Living Abroad (NO W2!) to FI Even Faster

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Would you move abroad to reach FI faster? That wasn’t Brooklin Nash’s original goal when he left the US and began freelancing from afar. But now, years later, he realizes how much of a leg up he has financially by going all-in on “geo arbitrage.” He’s saving a boatload in Guatemala, paying less to live the life he loves, and enjoying a tiny tax bill. Now in his mid-thirties, he’s already Coast FIRE and works when and where he wants. But Brooklin’s money story didn’t start so stable. Being raised in a home with “risky” finances, to say the least (pyramid schemes, gambling, etc.), left him scarred and constantly worrying about keeping enough money in the bank. Thankfully, he changed his ways and realized that making money, rather than just saving every cent, was crucial to becoming financially free. He’s paid off a significant sum in student loans and did it all while making a very meager income. Then, he scaled from freelancing abroad to building an entire business, making a phenomenal income while living in a low-cost-of-living area. He’s living his dream life outside the US, making more money than Americans at home. Imagine what THAT can do for your FIRE number! In This Episode We Cover Using “geo arbitrage” to save more, invest more, and lower your cost of living An almost unbelievable income tax exclusion Americans abroad can access How Brooklin paid off $80,000 in student debt (even on a lower income) Turning your freelancing work into a full-blown (and VERY high-paying) business Why the optimal FIRE lifestyle may actually include working a few hours a day And So Much More! Links from the Show Mindy on BiggerPockets Scott on BiggerPockets Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Join BiggerPockets for FREE Email Mindy: [email protected] Email Scott: [email protected] BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group Beam Content Try Baselane, the One Platform for All Your Property Banking & Finances Reach FI Faster with “Set for Life” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area The Best (and Worst) States in the US to Retire in 2024 (FIRE Faster?) Connect with Brooklin (00:00) Intro (01:00) Pyramid Schemes, MLMs, and Risky Bets (04:35) Paying Off $80K Debt (10:30) Finding FIRE and First $100K (14:19) Freelancing to Boost Income (16:40) Building His Business (20:11) FIRE Progress (26:40) Why Live in Guatemala? (30:54) Investing from Abroad (32:43) Geographic Arbitrage 101 (38:19) Connect with Brooklin! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-582 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're very excited to have Brooklyn Nash on the show with us today. Brooklyn grew up in a household
0:05.3	with unstable finances, but he was able to break the generational cycle with a few creative moves,
0:12.0	namely geo-arbitrage and starting a small but very profitable writing business. These are going to
0:18.2	set him and his kids up for a very different financial future.
0:22.3	With your current circumstances, you may be a long way from fire, but what if relocating
0:27.8	was the only thing that it took for you to reach your financial independence number?
0:32.6	And should you do it? Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.
0:37.0	My name is Mindy Jensen,
0:37.9	and with me as always is my not arbitraging his geolocation quite yet. Co-hosts Scott Trench.
0:44.3	Thanks, Mindy. Good to see. You never get tired of trading out new introductions for me.
0:48.7	All right, Bigger Pockets has a goal of creating one million millionaires. You're in the right
0:52.5	place if you want to get your financial house in order because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for
0:56.7	everyone, no matter when or where you're starting. Brooklyn Nash, welcome to the Bigger Pockets
1:02.5	Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today. Me too. Thanks, Mindy. So Brooklyn, let's jump
1:08.0	right into it. We understand that your family had a sort of unstable or risky relationship with money growing up.
1:16.2	Can you share a little bit about what that looked like?
1:18.5	It was, risky is the word.
1:21.8	All the financial advice that has become so prevalent over the last decade with Ramit Sethi and even, I don't know, all the
1:29.7	fundamentals weren't there necessarily. So I do give them a little bit benefit of the doubt.
1:35.4	But there were a lot of pyramid schemes. There were a lot of get rich quick schemes.
1:40.1	They were Y2K preppers. We had pampered chef in the house, like those shows, Excel phone lines.
1:49.7	They did the essential oil thing, pyramid scheme, like anything to make a buck.
	...

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