There are many people, in many parts of the world, living life on their own terms. Away from The Man. Unhitched to a mortgage, career track, or any real obligations.
I’m not saying to uproot your life and move. If you have family, debt, and more—a corporate job will give you the stability you likely need to succeed. That doesn’t mean you can’t reconsider becoming an American expat down the road.
If you decide this is the life for you, here are six rules you should abide by to make the most of it.
1. Be Realistic With Yourself
To expect to make a million dollars within 6 months while working on a sandy beach in Vietnam is absurd. Be realistic with yourself, depending on where you are coming from.
If you have an established and respected online business, aim to double it’s revenue within one year of making it your full-time endeavor. If you have nothing and are going to live off savings, make it your goal to make your expenses within a year—to avoid dipping into those crucial savings.
2. Do A Little, Every Day
Abstract, long-term goals rarely get done. Saying you want to make $10 million dollars is too far out there, most cannot deal with that. That is a huge mountain to climb. Not to mention, no one ever writes how they will do it.
“GOAL: Make $1 million.”
Is it ever followed with a plan or a blueprint? Rarely.
But what about making ONE, SINGLE dollar? Far more realistic.
3. Learn To Live With The Haters
There are always going to be people who don’t approve of what you’re doing. Some of them think it’s bad that you like dating abroad versus marrying into the slut culture you’ve given domestically.
Other people think the finances of the expat are stupid. The only way to wealth is a 401k, a mortgage, and more, they say. While I think office work and 401ks have their places (people with families), to say that it is the only path to success is simply ludicrous.
People will project their own image upon you. Anything that is not their norm is not something that is acceptable to them. Haters will flood your personal life, online persona, and everything in between.
Ignore it all or be dragged into it. There is rarely an in-between.
4. Stop Thinking So Much
Roosh and I mentioned this several times in the podcast we did. Don’t think yourself to death over the trivial things..
- Healthcare — get some emergency care and pay cash elsewhere
- ATMs — get a Charles Schwab checking account (they don’t charge foreign withdrawal fees and reimburse you if the international bank charges them)
- Visas — do the paperwork, don’t break any laws, and you’ll be just fine
- Dating — come on, how much worse could it get than Stateside?
There are so many situations, ideas, and crazy things that stop people from setting out what they want to do. This isn’t just about travel or the nomad life.
Almost any situation where action is not taken can be derived to a root cause that is probably over-thought. Get out of your own head. Learn to funnel that over-thinking into action-based energy, and you’ll be be amazed at the things you can accomplish.
5. Let Things Come To You
You may learn on your travels that what you are able to do for two weeks is not possible for two months and into the future.
Even if you have past travel experience partying and going hard for weeks on end, this may not be sustainable to you over the true long term. It is one thing to go out and party hard for two weeks. In this case, you know you are returning to the corporate world, which is often drab and grey.
It lacks color and character.
Therefore, it is easy to “get it all out” during those two weeks of traveling. When you’re an expat, the overseas life is now your new, real life. Forever. To think that you can party every night of the week until the end of time is crazy.
When and how are you going to make money? When are you going to build friendships? When are you going to improve yourself in other aspects?
By all means, have your fun. You should, and need to. See the best nightclubs the world has to offer. Drink a bit too much, and have some nasty hangovers. Nurse them away by drinking more, if you so wish. Date lots and lots of girls.
But don’t think that it can go forever. Recognize the differences between the two. After all, if this is “forever”—you’ve “made it”.
6. Give Your Fellow Expats A Chance
Do not think that you do not need them. You need people who are in your actual new home country, who speak the same language fluently, and understand where you are coming from.
If you’re an American expat, don’t write off fellow Americans just because they are American. Do not think that they are the same people you wanted to escape from when you made the leap in the first place.
In fact, they are often just like you—in many ways. And they can relate to why you did what you did on a much better level than those aforementioned haters.
Yes, you need to also make local friends. People who know the language, have the right connections, and can give you an insight into the culture that you are now coming in to.
But don’t disqualify your fellow American expats as friends on the notion that they are American.
If you want to learn how to take advantage of dating in the digital world, check out my book Cracking OkCupid. For advice about escaping American women for greener pastures, check out Eastern European Travel.
Read More: 5 Easy Ways To Earn Free Travel