Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
🇲🇽 Starting a Business in Mexico: Jesse's Journey from America to Ensenada 🏝️
557 Plays7 months ago
Watch this episode and subscribe on YouTube
Jesse, a former financial consultant traded his American lifestyle for a more fulfilling life in Ensenada, Mexico.
Jesse shares his remarkable journey of leaving his U.S. career to start a massage business abroad and find financial independence in a low-cost living area.
🎯 Episode Highlights:
0:00 - Starting a New Chapter: Jesse's inspiring transition from the U.S. to Mexico, leaving behind a stable consulting career.
0:31 - Making the Retirement Decision: How he balanced retirement options after receiving a windfall.
2:27 - Selecting the Perfect Location: Why Ensenada became the ideal location for his new business.
4:18 - Transitioning to His Own Business: From couch surfing to building a successful massage studio.
6:41 - Cultural Influences in Entrepreneurship: Navigating the cultural differences in business.
10:21 - Impact of Americans in Mexico: Understanding gentrification and respecting local culture.
16:05 - Tips for Entrepreneurs Abroad: Jesse's valuable advice for starting a business outside the U.S.
19:40 - Benefits of Low-Cost Living: Exploring the financial advantages of living in Ensenada versus San Diego.
23:28 - Personal Financial Independence Journey: Jesse's path to financial independence before and after receiving a windfall.
34:17 - Financial Independence Path: How strategic financial planning led to his success.
38:41 - Potential Changes with Windfall: What he would have done differently if he had known about the windfall earlier.
42:21 - Seeking Happiness Beyond Wealth: Finding joy through community, purpose, and meaningful connections.
📝 Key Takeaways:
The challenges and rewards of starting a business in Mexico.
The financial and personal benefits of living in a low-cost area.
How a windfall can alter your retirement path, and the importance of staying true to one's values.
Intentional savings accounts and their role in fostering happiness and fulfillment.
Jesse's Links:
📧 Email: [jesse@ensenada-massage.com]
🌐 Business Website: [ensenada-massage.com/blog]
Connect with Us:
Follow the Forget About Money podcast for more stories like Jesse's.
Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments below, and don't forget to like and subscribe!
#ForgetAboutMoney #StartingABusinessInMexico #FinancialIndependenceJourney #LowCostLiving #WindfallRetirement #EntrepreneurshipAbroad #AmericanExpatsInMexico
Recommended
Transcript
Jesse's Move to Mexico
00:00:00
Speaker
Would you leave your American lifestyle? Move to a beach town in Mexico and start your own business? My friend Jesse did just that. Here we go.
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Forget About Money podcast, where we encourage you to take action today so that you can focus on what matters most to you. Today, my friend Jesse and I are going to be discussing what it's like to start a business outside of the US, what it's like to live in a low cost of living area, and factors to consider when you have enough money, do you continue to work or do you go ahead and retire? Welcome, Jesse. Hey, thanks, David. I'm excited to be here. Good to connect. Yeah, we've known each other for a few years,
00:00:42
Speaker
It's been great to actually stay in contact a lot of folks come and go and don't follow up but you did appreciate that i have to talk about my path and what i'm doing my journey and it's more exciting cuz some people think it's exciting cuz i'm living south of the border.
00:00:57
Speaker
and try and find ways to be happy every day. What inspired
Transition to Massage Business
00:01:01
Speaker
you to start a business outside of the United States? What inspired me to start a business outside of the United States? Well, you could call it desperation or confusion. I was a place leaving my previous career track in financial consulting and international traveling.
00:01:20
Speaker
And I was in recovery from a medical situation where I wasn't gonna be traveling. So I started doing a massage. And I did a training course in that and started giving massages. And I really enjoyed it, actually. It brought me a lot of personal peace, something I had struggled with in my 20s, a lot of anxiety. And I decided just to keep doing it. And little by little, that became the more focus of my time and my income.
00:01:49
Speaker
Since i was living in Mexico i didn't have high requirements for income and also it was at the tail end of the great recession so my other job opportunities were not so great and eventually i would say that you know in terms of starting a business is when i started having other people work with me and for me.
00:02:10
Speaker
I was kind
Choosing Ensenada After Setbacks
00:02:11
Speaker
of a natural growth process of just realizing hey i love doing this but it's kind of physically exhausting and it's like a cool lifestyle but not something i can never travel on or. Accumulate you know savings and yeah i'm a little fearful gotta have some savings so.
00:02:28
Speaker
Now you set up shop in Ensenada in Baja, California, Mexico. Why did you select that location? Had you been to Mexico before? Great question, David. Yeah, I would like to tell everybody that I was spinning the world and went through a detailed list of all my needs and my future desires and picked the best spot for myself. But that is not the case.
00:02:50
Speaker
I've been living nearby, waiting for another job to open up in my previous profession as an economic consultant. I had some things happen. I like to say it makes a cliche country song or a great blue song. I had a relationship end. I was about 29, 30. I was probably codependent emotionally, so I was pretty broken up. It was like a three and a half year one.
00:03:17
Speaker
I had fostered a dog and gave it away to be adopted and the dog came back and I was like, I gotta adopt this dog.
00:03:25
Speaker
So I had a new dog, so I wasn't gonna be traveling. And like a month later, I got a diagnosis of a tumor. I had testicular cancer. So that kind of shook me up psychologically, even the idea of like, I could die like a small percent, but it kind of shifts your thinking. You know, I had the tumor taken out, so it wasn't a big deal physically, but I needed to recover and make sure I didn't have any complications.
00:03:52
Speaker
So i thought you know i'm gonna go to a little bit bigger city where i can just chill out for the rest of the recession take care of my dog and take care of myself so on ten sonata. So can you
Starting from Scratch in Ensenada
00:04:03
Speaker
describe. What is like to actually move to and sonata and then how you started your business sure are the moving then sonata.
00:04:12
Speaker
I guess was the first process as I was just coming off of the tumor removal, having the dog. I was single, so pretty much I was living just 45 minutes north there, already in Baja, California, Mexico. So I threw my stuff in my blue Ford Ranger at the time, this pickup truck. I love that truck.
00:04:33
Speaker
And I drove it down. At that time, I was to find somebody on couch surfing and shared a house, paid for a room in a house and started to get settled socially. And essentially, that was the process for moving there. There wasn't a lot more tuxes already in Mexico. And at that time, there wasn't much hassle around having visas or worrying about immigration stuff.
00:04:57
Speaker
How did you transition from living on someone's couch to actually opening up your own massage parlor? Is that the right term for it? Yeah, I don't think terms matter too much. You call it massage parlor, massage studio is usually what I say. Sometimes for marketing I just say spa because people search for spa.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, so couch
Business Growth and Cultural Challenges
00:05:15
Speaker
surfing, I met somebody who was through the couch surfing community and they had a room for rent. That time, couch surfers were open, like a cool community of people looking for international travelers, and that was me. And then from there, I ended up getting my own apartment, which was cool. You know, I was like 30 and like, I could have my own apartment with my dog. It was a two-bedroom apartment, but it's a simple thing. You know, living in previously in big cities, San Diego, Washington, D.C., having your own place was like,
00:05:42
Speaker
Awesome. I started doing massage and actually started doing massage in the second bedroom of that apartment, just myself. And it was probably two years later. A year later, so I transitioned to a different place where a little more space. And then there were some problems with that one. I transitioned into more of a
00:06:05
Speaker
Office space that was separated my where i was doing massage from. I was living so then i had an independent place and from there i grew into doing couples massages getting other therapists involved fast forward five years you know.
00:06:22
Speaker
Oh, I got to build a website. Oh, I got to get other people. And then really with just really with COVID a few years ago, brought in a manager to make it a business or I didn't have to do everything, you know, answering every phone call and every email. So that was the course of it's been like 13, 14 years now. And over that 13 or 14 years, what kind of cultural influences either positively or negatively impacted your experiences starting a business outside the United States?
00:06:51
Speaker
Well, you know, I never formally started a business in the US before. I had worked, you know, as a kid mowing lawns. I was pretty entrepreneurial in that reselling candy in the lunch lot. And I did, you know, some consulting things in my graduate school program.
00:07:12
Speaker
I write consulting proposals but not really starting a business in the US at least so mexico was kind of a new thing and i can't say that i was a natural born entrepreneur i kind of liked school i did well in the formal environment i got all my pets in the back and good grades from that so. In terms of things that i noticed building the business that you know i imagine were different would be different in the US.
00:07:37
Speaker
Understanding the mindset of a client you know a latino mexican things a little bit differently in terms of you know how they value massage or the things are looking for in terms of price points.
00:07:53
Speaker
different attitudes about therapist gender. As a male therapist, there was a little bit of skepticism that I was doing professional massage at the time. This was like 13 years ago, I noticed that. Communication, the way it worked out
00:08:11
Speaker
People in mexico didn't get texting free for until after the us everybody was. All about facebook messenger like nobody would text so it was all on facebook message at the time so differences in preferences for communication.
00:08:28
Speaker
And then it was WhatsApp. They got WhatsApp way before the US in terms of higher adoption rates, so everybody wanted to communicate through that. Other small things, there's this stereotypical discussion around how different cultures treat time. Yeah, there's a different way of approaching appointments, the importance of keeping an appointment, how stressed out people are about being late and such.
00:08:54
Speaker
So that was, you know, there were some lessons around that for sure and how I decided to structure the business. Sometimes I did attempt to make more formal partnerships with Mexican businesses, hotels, and other spas, as well as working with a university where I was teaching before doing massage full time.
00:09:20
Speaker
There are some lessons around how those relationships work, what are the important parts are in terms of trust or being friendly, the importance of communication and clarity. Yeah, being vague, but just lots of lessons in any cultural situation where you're doing things.
00:09:37
Speaker
The key thought that emerges, and this includes also different times that I developed deeper relationships, because I was dating at that time in my 30s. A lot of the hidden assumptions on how we conduct life, relationships, business, and what we expect of other people are not always well articulated. And when you and somebody else have different hidden assumptions and act in different ways, it leads one person to get pretty upset or confused.
00:10:06
Speaker
And it's really a lot of emotional work to untangle like, what were you expecting? Ah, okay. So finding out those different ways of doing things to meet people's expectations or set them correctly and then not get upset about it.
00:10:21
Speaker
So you've
American Influence and Gentrification
00:10:22
Speaker
been in Mexico for over 10 years now. A common concern is that Americans go down to Mexico and then either diminish the natural beauty or don't take care of it or don't respect the culture. And part of that is when Americans move to like Tijuana or other places, the prices of things increase due to gentrification. What are your experiences and thoughts on that in the Ensenada area where you work?
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, okay, so sure, there has been, you know, there's always been a lot of people in Baja from California. Super common, talk to people up there surf trips there. And Baja, particularly Baja Sur is amazing for RV trips, camping. The nature aspect is gorgeous, especially further down in Baja.
00:11:12
Speaker
Ensenada is just two hours south of San Diego, so we're not really that far down. Super long, it's like 21 hours to drive down all the way to Cabo. So yeah, my perspective living there on how
00:11:28
Speaker
Tourism, particularly US and tourism affects it. Sure, there is some aspect of, I guess from the worst end, is like the party crowd. Yeah, people come across the border, just the party. There's a lower drinking age, the weekend away, and it's a natural thing when you're traveling outside your hometown, everybody thinks, ooh, nobody knows me here, I can act crazy.
00:11:52
Speaker
So yeah, some people overdrink and do dumb stuff. I see it on the cruise boats and sometimes folks get their party on and the businesses are set up for that. They want to sell the alcohol, so it encourages that. If that's your only experience of people from the US, you probably think we're a bunch of lazy party fools.
00:12:13
Speaker
In the same way I came from Wisconsin, my most frequent experience of Mexicans was working in the restaurants where I was a waiter. Of course, that's a very narrow view. Mexico is wide and there's super variety of people, income levels, education levels. There's tons of people, way more
00:12:37
Speaker
Living better lives and way more educated than me and it's just an amazing place the same the us you know it's such a diversity and sometimes you only see the party crowd so it does look a little a little silly if you're taking your perspective from the you know pop is in beer.
00:12:57
Speaker
In terms of living in the US, in Mexico, yeah, retirees is a common thing,
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
00:13:03
Speaker
always been happy in Mexico. My experience when I moved there was most of the folks who moved down, you know, they were in the second half of their lives. They had their relationships set up, their money made for the most part.
00:13:16
Speaker
So i do for comfort or just enjoy life the kind of group together in retirement communities is a place called up to bond up with the door of the amazing place great beaches. Yeah folks about there are in bahar other places you know getting communities.
00:13:36
Speaker
And that's cool, it's safe and it's totally tranquil. I had a different experience since I was about 30, so I was looking to, I guess, build life of business, income, relationships, and hang out. So I was pretty much in town and I wasn't really around a lot of expats per se. Plenty of people speak English and have international travel experience, but
00:13:59
Speaker
Not a lot of retired folks around where I was for those 10 years and still where I'm living is not kind of in that hot spot.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yes, there has been a little bit of an uptick around before COVID and with COVID, people working remotely because of remote, well, the ability to as well as improved internet access everywhere. So yeah, that's more of a lifestyle choice, people doing that. Also, yeah, I think the big factor is if people really want to make the effort to get over the language barrier and mesh themselves in local
00:14:35
Speaker
Local life you don't have to you can live in a you know your own little bubble like we all do of course In our own bubbles you can live in an expat immigrant bubble in terms of respecting nature I'd say it's that you know there is the there is the view occasionally and it's not as famous for the Baja 1000 the Baja 500 and
00:14:59
Speaker
Nora, these other dirt bikes and things. Amazing fun vehicles. But yeah, they do go through nature, through the desert and kind of tear stuff up. At the same time, they bring a lot of tourism money and they also make big efforts to clean up after themselves and respect as much as they can.
00:15:18
Speaker
It's not really my thing, but it is a lot of fun. I see people have a ton of fun working on the cars, getting excited, and doing it. Sure, there's development around Baja and everywhere. Just like there's development in parts of the US. Money drives development. It's always sad to see change. Change is
00:15:38
Speaker
Hard of life. I like everything to stay small, but that's how it goes. And yeah, the good stuff, people come and pay for it and prices go up. Prices have gone up in Mexico. I haven't seen quite the inflation spike that I've seen up here in Southern California. But I wouldn't say that I've heard a lot or seen a lot of people who are at least around Ensenada upset about particularly US immigrants driving up prices and things.
00:16:06
Speaker
with many entrepreneurs working from home, like from a laptop, and that they're able to move outside the United States and live a nomadic lifestyle. I know Baja California is a place where many people go that want to live that lifestyle. In general though, what kind of advice would you give an entrepreneur who wants to start a business outside the United States?
00:16:27
Speaker
Well, I guess my experience or perspective in the, you know, my case study of one, me, you know, if you got if you're doing a digital online thing, that's amazing. And of course, you can do that for anywhere this idea or the reality or myth of the digital nomad. And I would say to that if I had any advice to give, but is to also consider like, you know, your whole your life as an ecosystem.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah you might go to be able to live someplace and work cheaply on a cafe in front of a tree. But you also probably as a person have social needs you want to have a community at some point. You may want to hear great music be involved in sports team or other things.
00:17:16
Speaker
So there might be something where you're always moving from one place to another. And if you're starting a business, of course, of other kinds that, you know, require stuff to happen, you know, shipping stuff, you got people to make things happen like a services business. My case study of one has been that, you know, the hardest part of business is the people, the people that work with you. So maintaining those good relationships, learning how to do that,
00:17:42
Speaker
I'm in the finding people will come to work and do the work when i talk to my friends in the us we have small businesses that's a big challenge finding keeping good people any place you're at. So whether it's mexico or someplace else you gotta kind of business involves people doing that treating them well.
00:17:59
Speaker
If you're able to develop training or whatever it takes because when they come and go the whole thing gets more difficult and less fun. For
Benefits of Low-Cost Living
00:18:08
Speaker
sure the mexican financial system is a little different banking and taxes but there's taxes you learn it's a bureaucracy pay taxes pretty much wherever you go. I do feel like in the early days i had less paperwork and bureaucracy that i would have had in here in california.
00:18:29
Speaker
For example my my development as a massage therapist i was already living in mexico so i did trainings there and i actually did trainings in mexico i did trains in india. Turkey and then california these intense workshops pain summit pain science summit and a lot of mentorship and apprenticeship.
00:18:51
Speaker
But I didn't do a license massage therapist, LMT, is one of the things that is required in Mexico and some parts of the US. I was able to piece together what really worked for me for learning and not just get the piece of paper that I was required to for the registration. At the same time, the first few years, I didn't have the business registration and all the insurance
00:19:17
Speaker
forms and all the things signed and dated and dotted. Things that I think are a little bit more required here in the US. That was an advantage at the time. Of course, since then I've formalized and got all that stuff in place as the business grew. But it was easier in the beginning to not have those startup costs as well as distractions of endless paperwork and stuff.
00:19:41
Speaker
You recently started renting a place here in San Diego and the price of living or the cost of living in here in San Diego is ridiculous by any measure, especially when compared to what it costs to live in Sonata. What are some of the benefits of living in a low cost of living area? Great question. Some of the benefits of living in a low cost area, this geographic arbitrage, is that what we call it?
00:20:04
Speaker
In the five community there is a sense of like you can hit a luxury and not worry about it. For most of my my life you know just. I go to restaurant first thing i do look the prices menu what's gonna fit my budget and what's gonna fit my what i'm hungry for today in my my health choices diet whatever.
00:20:25
Speaker
I don't really do that so much anymore. Occasionally, I go a place and it feels nice and I don't sweat about how much it's going to cost because I guess the luxury price point where I'm at is so much less than the luxury price point in Southern California or California in general.
00:20:47
Speaker
So that does feel good that occasionally I can splurge and I don't feel sweat but I gotta save up for it and that means I can also be generous and treat other people. I found the generosity actually is brings me a lot of joy. I'll be nice and giving cuz you know I come from the midwest and a real coupon clipping living below your means kinda attitude and anytime somebody bought something for me it was like.
00:21:10
Speaker
Oh man, that's great. I'm getting something for a gift or for free. So yeah, that's a nice thing. A lower cost of living area. I felt like I kept a pretty tight budget for a lot of my time there building the business. I generally knew my expenses, but I wasn't like, I really wasn't like running mint on my finances and monthly things. Checking out all these little
00:21:37
Speaker
details. Another couple of benefits that aren't so obvious, often in lower cost living area, whether it's a rural Wisconsin or any other place in the US or developing country, usually there are fewer choices. There's less money there to demand a variety of choices and services. For example, I got my dog's nails clipped
00:22:01
Speaker
It was actually a really amazing service they hoisted her up and like trimmed her nails and because for me to do it is like it's a it's like fight it's like a fight. But like that's not an option and it's not there's like nobody that has a great service for that. So I'm definitely not spending on that because it's not even an option.
00:22:19
Speaker
But there's this psychological principle too. Many people are familiar with it. When you get a lot of choices, you're just overwhelmed. In Ensenada, I think there's maybe three, maybe there's five Asian restaurants. So that's your choices. You could spend an hour debating with your friends, hey, where do you want to get sushi?
00:22:42
Speaker
So i am wasting time on like a lot of option choices. From everything from buying in the store to a restaurant is just your choices. How does it really diminish my i guess my happiness and i guess give me back time.
00:23:00
Speaker
Another couple things, so of course labor is the big difference. Things that are tradable, electronics, a car, really not that much different driving across the border is the services. The mechanic, the maid, maybe some like the waiter, the wait staff, the embedded services. Having a maid has been amazing for me because I don't really clean that well. I don't really like it.
00:23:29
Speaker
So I pay somebody to clean my place and I don't sweat it. And it's, I gotta say that's like a big benefit. You know, other benefits, there is this funny thing, for me at least, a foreign currency. Kinda doesn't feel real. You know, you're spending a 20 peso bill. I don't think I got any with me right now. But it kind of feels like a little bit like you're spending lottery money.
00:23:51
Speaker
So, you know, sometimes when you're handing somebody a $100 bill, it's like, oh, it's 100 bucks. You got to pry it out of my hand. Like, hey, you're 20 pesos. You know, it's blue. It's different. It feels more fun, I guess. It's a small thing. Other benefits of living in a low cost of areas? Yeah, so bigger asset things like, yeah, a house. I could look at houses and I have looked at houses.
00:24:20
Speaker
So that was like more within my reach as well as renting things that are maybe able to get more what I wanted closer to the beach or away from city traffic. I think sort of quality of life that you might be willing to pay for if it's not too much. You mentioned housing. I know where we're sitting right now. This is a room and a house that I rent and I rent for $3,300 a month. What are some typical housing costs?
00:24:49
Speaker
Ensenadas and maybe other places in Mexico that you're familiar with. Sure, I'm definitely not a expert on all of Mexico. In general, there are places that are much less expensive than Ensenada. I think Mexicans will tell you that or people that are more in the know have this traveled Mexico and
00:25:09
Speaker
We're close to the border, so the border proximity kind of even pushes up prices in Ensenado. People can do long commutes and work in the US, definitely from Tijuana and Rosarito.
00:25:22
Speaker
It's two hour down to Ensenada, so not a lot. I don't think anybody's really doing daily commutes, but you know, that flow of money does drive up prices a little bit. So I rented a two-bedroom place, got a fenced-in yard, and I think I'm at like $875. I got a tiny ocean view from like one part of my patio, and it's got space for my dogs outside. So it works for me.
00:25:45
Speaker
There are definitely things that are a lot less expensive. Things that have smaller windows, just the way the construction is. I'm in a manufactured home and that's a private piece of land, not in an apartment unit. You get closer to the ocean, definitely you can pay more. And there's some really nice places too. I am not enough in the know on real estate because it varies so much from place to place.
00:26:10
Speaker
But I'm in a city, you know, Ensenada is a 600,000 people or so, a city, depending on how you count it, access to city stuff, not out in, you know, a small town where it would be probably way less, but not someplace I'm ready to live. And my elementary
Path to Financial Independence
00:26:24
Speaker
research, I think you can get a house for near very close to the beach for Ensenada, or maybe like 200,000. And here in San Diego, I don't know exactly, but I think a few months ago, the median or average
00:26:40
Speaker
I don't know if it's median or average, but we're looking at like $700,000, $800,000 for the average price of a home here in San Diego. That's not near the beach. If you were near the beach, it would be way more by multiples. So I think that could also be a huge draw for Americans who are tired of high cost of living areas and who just want to maybe get away for a while.
00:27:02
Speaker
So you started your business, but that's not the first time you've thought entrepreneurially. In previous discussions that you and I have had, you have some formal finance management background and you took some other courses and your own personal endeavors included passion for finance management. So you were probably already on your way to financial independence through your business and maybe some other means.
00:27:30
Speaker
A few years ago, you got a windfall of money that changed that. Can you describe what your path was to financial independence before that windfall and how that windfall affected your outlook on achieving financial independence? Thanks, David. Yeah, just to touch on that previous question real quick.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think places near the beach, yeah, you'd be like three to 400,000 because they're going to build nicer places near the beach or near the ocean in Ensenada.
00:28:04
Speaker
The couple of caveats that I learned when I was kind of looking around, one of the awesome things is that the cost of owning a home, like the ongoing costs, I think are a lot lower in Mexico because of insurance stuff, the typical concrete block building.
00:28:22
Speaker
material. It's pretty low maintenance. You may not love its thermal qualities, but pretty low maintenance. And property taxes are very different as well. So that can be a really nice aspect for long-term ownership costs on a home. You asked about, yeah, my path.
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah, so this I'm now I guess an entrepreneur, I have several different businesses, the Ensenada massage that I started when I do massage therapy. And now I've got got like 15 part time massage therapists to do great. I work a lot on the cruise boat. So I've found my niche there in terms of clients and weekend travelers down.
00:29:09
Speaker
We go out and do mobile massage into the Vallée de Guadalupe, this famous wine region by Ensenada, like 85% of wine is made there in Mexico. Amazing hotels and things. We do that, call that Vallée Mobile Spa. And then we do excursions and tours, mostly for folks in the cruise boat or anybody's in town.
00:29:29
Speaker
So that's Ensenade Excursions and Tours. I was definitely not creative in my business names. So yeah, I ended up with, I guess, three businesses. I got three websites. But no, I was totally happy just getting good grades in school and working for a manager who said, great job. I was in a consulting position in Washington, DC, and doing the numbers, the spreadsheets, and working with some really cool people, but looking at my paycheck every week and wondering, okay,
00:29:57
Speaker
How can I get a raise in like a year? I get that one quarterly bonus where I had no control of my income, almost no control like even like the stuff in my office or the lights or when I could take my lunch break. So that was very different. Yeah, now I think the big difference there was just I really didn't at that time and I still am working on the emotional risk taking and the decision making that's constant for entrepreneurs.
00:30:23
Speaker
You never know what's the right thing to do and making a lot of mistakes along the way. In terms of my financial path, I did get started pretty early. I was lucky. I had a grandfather who read the Wall Street Journal almost every day. He came from a background. At least my American story was that he
00:30:47
Speaker
came from the middle of the country kentucky and the tennessee area and didn't have a very good education to the fifth grade he saw for his family that stock was a great thing and of course we had this amazing bull run. So he was reading the wall street journal and picking out his that he'd have a stock and he'd watch it and when i went down he'd buy it is a buying holder.
00:31:08
Speaker
So that got me interested in it and then when i was in high school and then starting college and i started a common stock clubs i forgot to recall that like you actually have in the green sheets reading fundamental analysis graphing out earnings per share, i would say i was an entrepreneur but i was like i was in the numbers and like the idea of money and savings so.
00:31:29
Speaker
I definitely had this idea of saving for the future. I don't think I had the idea of financial independence because I didn't know how, you know, what adult life was like and the requirements of work and the obligations of stuff and having to have time or money to enjoy life and more so. And then yeah, I did get lucky.
00:31:49
Speaker
And undergraduate I did have, there's a little club, the financial portfolio club I'll say real quick. And we were like picking stocks, fake portfolios, you know, we're college kids. And it was the tech bubble. So hey, we picked this thing, it was great. And so yeah, that was kind of had me thinking about it all along. And yeah, I was all into like saving when I got my first job really was maxing out my 401k. I was starting to put money into a Roth when I was in my early 20s. That took kind of like a 10 year break when
00:32:17
Speaker
I'm like, oh, you know, didn't like that job. Let's try grad school. Let's travel around Central America for a few years with some consulting income. So that wasn't really happening in terms of disciplined investing over those years, but I was aware of it and also was keeping my expenses low as well. Now, your question was about, yeah, you asked about my path to financial independence or financial ease in some ways.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah when i was in mexico and settled in sonata it was post the post great recession i just had a tumor taken out. I was alone with my dog i didn't have a lot to do for work and i was counting my pesos you know i was doing massage for twenty five bucks an hour out of the second bedroom my apartment yes i had a graduate degree in economics and finance but. I kinda left that identity behind the consulting stuff was too stressful after the tumor
00:33:17
Speaker
I'm getting the dog like new path I had no idea what I was doing. But eventually you know I was new had to pay my bills and so I was disciplined about keeping expenses low and making money. And I learned with a business where you can control your income. I know you work hard you gotta advertise more you gotta do this guy raise your prices so that was kind of nice to feel like I could do something and see a result.
00:33:41
Speaker
Because honestly before I'd like write these statistical programming SAS or the Excel spreadsheets or write an economic report and somebody might read it a month later and then sometimes I get paid six months later. Not immediate feedback.
00:33:55
Speaker
but with a massage and having your own business, um, good feedback quickly. So from there, uh, the way it went for me is, um, I did have a lot of, uh, alone time. I was kind of a lonely guy because it was a new foreign environment, but I was saving disciplined and I came across, um, early retirement extreme. I'm sure you've heard of that. Uh, Jacob's London.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yes, yeah, amazing book. And you know, I just come out of graduate school a few years earlier, so I was like into reading and thinking and he was perfect because he writes in a super academic way, like no illustrations in his book, graphs and these like crazy theories, but I was into it. I'm like, yeah.
00:34:36
Speaker
live on 30% or less of my income, save the rest. So I was doing that. Every week, I was depositing into my account. I wasn't smart enough to automate. I was manually like moving money from one account to another. I had kind of like my path tracked down. I'm like, all right.
00:34:51
Speaker
I know my budget and you asked earlier you know living in mexico at that time. Like my my financial not as a single guy with a dog i feel like i was living pretty large on twenty four hundred bucks a month and.
00:35:07
Speaker
I'm like alright, that's what I need,
Impact of Financial Windfall
00:35:09
Speaker
I'm living good, and I'm saving the rest. That's what I was doing. And little by little, I was also building my business. That was a process, you know, exotherapists getting better marketing and finding the right clients. I figured I was just gonna keep doing that. I wasn't like the happiest guy in the world, but I was doing my thing. I could control my business, I could say alright, you know what, it looks like five, six years, I'll have my number,
00:35:35
Speaker
where I can live on this 2400 a month, pretty good and not stressed. So I had in my mind, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna keep doing this. I think it was, I had four or five years left in my time horizon. I didn't really have a plan, what I was gonna do. But that was the thing, right? You're like, get your number, like, all right, that's what I'm working for. Then I'll really have options.
00:35:56
Speaker
And then, yeah, I had a change in my family situation. I had kind of a windfall. So I suddenly had more options, but yet I was still on this path to be financially independent in Mexico, meaning that local costs there. So it took me some time to really digest that I had more options. Of course, this happened just before COVID too. So we all went through amazing, massive
00:36:26
Speaker
Terrible changes with covid for me, some of the things that have changed or the choices that I've made to keep working. I put my time into this business.
00:36:38
Speaker
And I find ways to make it more enjoyable to do kind of, I guess you could say, outsourced of stuff I don't like doing as much. Try and treat my people better so they're happier. So it's more fun for me. And then also know that I'm not milking it for every penny, every peso. I'm having fun with it, trying as much as you can. And yeah, I've got a little bit better managers in place, or actually have managers in place now.
00:37:02
Speaker
So i can travel a little more independently from the business so like i feel like i'm a real business owner now. I was before i was really a slave for the business i was there time i was away i was checking my phone i'm missing an appointment i go see friends i'd be like i'm losing money cuz i'm not there doing it also give me some other choices in terms of.
00:37:25
Speaker
You're being present for family, for medical situations. My father went through a traumatic medical situation and passed away and I was able to be there for that. My mother's had some medical changes, so I've really been giving her a lot of my time and care and attention, doing a lot of medical things with her.
00:37:42
Speaker
which has been amazingly meaningful to me. But at the same time, I'll be honest with you, like 10 years ago when I was saving from my nut, you know, I'm retired, my vision was not doing medical things with family and taking care of a dog that's like on his last legs.
00:38:00
Speaker
But yet I find that that's probably more meaningful and I'm super happy I'm able to do that. And it would be less possible or way more stressful at least if I didn't have financial comfort. And I probably would need a lot less than I have, but it's also my psychological, like, all right, I'm good. Also, it
Reflections and Future Goals
00:38:20
Speaker
works for my lifestyle. I've also, one of the things I've encountered, I have an amazing girlfriend, great partner. She's still on her path.
00:38:29
Speaker
So she's in a 40, 50 hour a week thing. So I'm like, all right, this is a great fit for me relationship, but there's also a time thing. So hey, I got time to work too.
00:38:42
Speaker
If you knew you were going to get a windfall, how would that have changed the last 10 years of your life as an entrepreneur or in your personal financial life, if at all? So if I knew I was going to get a windfall, would that have changed or how that would have that have changed things for me?
00:39:00
Speaker
Well, I may have made a few different capital investment decisions. My businesses, I don't use a lot of capital in them. And also maybe now in my more maturity as a business owner, I could have made that business investment, bought the building that I was working in, and 10 years later, that'd be like a huge asset. Or maybe invested in higher quality, maybe a website.
00:39:28
Speaker
Things i would have done differently personally i may have taken a little more time to invest in like my own personal development like i play blues harmonica so. If i take a little more time off to be with.
00:39:44
Speaker
You know some guys I used to play music with unfortunately he passed with covid but I had an amazing group of like guys I could jam with that was such a great learning experience and just just joyful for me and I relegated it to like one afternoon every other week probably.
00:40:01
Speaker
I probably would have traveled a little bit more to do the things like harmonica training, retreats, and I may have paid a little bit more for personal coaches or things, whether it was fitness or music. Yeah, I did a lot of cool stuff.
00:40:20
Speaker
I may have done it a little bit nicer like when I went to India to study free massage and yoga. Maybe I would have stayed in a little bit nicer place or I paid for the smaller class, more private lessons rather than the group class. I probably would have been more generous with people around me.
00:40:38
Speaker
I think in general, I mean, I've always taken a lot of fun time for myself, got scuba dive training, living in Guatemala, working just after graduate school. In retrospect, a lot of fun. At the time, you know, I felt like I was being serious and adult, and it was, but compared to other options I would have done if I'd stayed in the States or stayed in a cubicle doing the consulting job, building my 401K, I had pretty amazing experiences.
00:41:06
Speaker
Other things I would've done differently, I think I would've invested probably in better kitchen and food stuff. My personal health is really important to me and there's always a little bit of tug and pull in the quality of ingredients and kitchen appliances and stuff. When you're renting, every time you move, a lot of times you gotta upgrade stoves and pans and stuff. Yeah, I would've splurged a little bit more on that kind of stuff. That gives me daily enjoyment.
00:41:33
Speaker
So in your future, we're going to see a culinary expert, massage therapist, retreat enthusiast, harmonica pro, maybe you're going to start your own band. Well, I look forward to seeing what the next 10 years brings you. Before this conversation, I didn't know a lot of those details that you shared today. So thank you very much for sharing all of that. And thank you for being a friend. Thanks for always reaching out and trying to have conversations and meeting up.
00:41:56
Speaker
and continuing to have connection. And you're right, it seems like the older that you get and the faster pace the world is, those connections dwindle. Thank you for prioritizing that. And thank you for being on the show. Hey, you're welcome, David. It's a lot of fun. Don't get to be on a podcast very often.
00:42:13
Speaker
One final piece of advice you know sometimes people look for tips i'm still on my financial independence journey of life two things i will say one it is true that you know getting a windfall doesn't really make you instantly that much happier.
00:42:29
Speaker
I still have up days and down days i still work really hard just take care of myself so i feel good good energy sleeping well. I have a little more choices on how to do that make it easier the game of being happy. Is really independent in a lot of ways from what's in your bank account and there's no reason to delay building a happier life.
00:42:52
Speaker
Also, one thing that was really helpful for me and like the saving process, because I really didn't have a community. I came into like the early retirement extreme by myself alone, eventually found Mr. Marty Mustache and you know, great, everybody's found, heard of him and the community. But just save it by yourself. I mean, you can get excited about putting numbers into an account, moving them from here to there. But what was really awesome for me,
00:43:20
Speaker
Was when i made savings accounts that had like what they were for like alright. This is saving for the trip to can can this account is saving for the harmonica retreat next june like that was like super meaningful. Moving money there because just vaguely throwing money into a huge pile for some future like. Thing it didn't do it for me for a lot but that that was a one thing that really help me out.
00:43:51
Speaker
Thank you also for having me. I appreciate the friendship and the connection, because just keeping life happy, connections are really important, and that's a really valuable thing. Appreciate that. Well, thank you again, Jesse, and thank you all for watching and listening.