Are you ready to move to another country to escape this hectic rat race and get back to a place of peace and freedom?
This will be my second time going back to Colombia. The first time we went we lived in Medellin. While there, I’ve personally met people from the United States living on a $1,300 per month retirement pension (I’ll try and see if I can find that interview I did with the guy – it got deleted like all of my previous videos).
It’s very possible to do this in Medellin, but even more possible in other parts of Colombia outside Medellin, and in other parts of South America.
You won’t be allowed to work in most countries without a work visa, and if you’re moving to another country to live in or retire to, you must come with your own source of income.
In this post, I’ll attempt to share some of the simple ways one can earn income to support themselves while living in another country. These are things I’m currently doing to earn income.
In a previous post, I showed a 3 bedroom condo with a pool and great views, that was fully furnished with utilities included (phone, Internet, cable tv, water and electricity) for $376 per month in Ibague, Colombia.
For many in the United States, the mortgage or the rent typically is half of a person’s income. And between the mortage/rent and car payment and insurance, there just isn’t anymore money left over to enjoy a quality life.
But when your rent/mortgage is only $376/mo, with all utilities included, it frees you up to enjoy a more quality life. That’s only if you’re willing to go outside of conventional wisdom and consider moving and living abroad.
Making Money Sharing Your Knowledge, Skills, Talents or Passion
Almost 8 years ago I believe, I wrote a couple of books and published them on Amazon’s Kindle. Honestly, both books were rushed and I really didn’t take the time to do it properly.
Your boy is a published author, lol…
Nonetheless, I’ve been collecting royalties from these 2 books for nearly 8-years. And as a result of having the book, I landed big clients that have paid me in excess of $10,000 – $50,000 over the course of a few years.
Books give you clout and even though it was sloppily written, I’ve earned tremendously from it.
Here’s a screenshot of the royalties I collect from Amazon each month. They’re not huge payments (i haven’t updated the books since writing them), but these are a very small sources of monies that comes in each month from work done 8 years ago.
BUT … every now and a again, a client will hire me to do work for them because of the book (most people never read the book – as marketers, we create these books for positioning purposes. Not to make a fortune from book sales).
I only got 2 books … I intended on writing 10 but never got around to it; although I will write a book on moving and living abroad this year.
So if you got something to talk about, put it in a Kindle book (they’ll also print it and ship it to your customers as well).
Getting Paid to Recommend Products and Services
In the screen shot above, you’ll see 3 commissions I’ve earned from a company called Shopify. It totals $145 (that’s almost half the $376 rent for that 3-bedroom condo)…
Anyhow, I usually earn around this $150-$175 range each month from recommending this service to people who want to build their own website to sell t-shirts online.
Back in the day when I was actively promoting this, my commissions averaged around $500-$700 per month.
This method of earning money by recommending products and services is called ‘Affiliate Marketing’.
There are a bunch of companies that will pay you commissions to refer people to them. You get your own special link that identifies you, and whenver someone clicks the link and makes a purchase, you get the commission.
Commissions range anywhere from 5% to as much as 80%. Some companies will even pay you recurring commissions. Meaning, if the service has a monthly cost to it, the company will pay you a commission each month that customers’ payment goes through.
This affiliate marketing model works best if you have a following of fans. Whether these fans are subscribers on your YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, you must have some sort of following where these people know you, like you and trust you.
It doesn’t cost any money to participate in these programs, but you’ll usually need to have a website to join these programs.
Here’s another example:
Depending how much time I put into promoting my stuff, this check could easily be $300 … But again, I haven’t been working my stuff the way I should.
Between these three things, it can cover my rent and maybe some groceries.
I’ve purposely showed you the smaller stuff so it’s more believable. But if a person did affiliate marketing, you could easily make $1,000 – $2,000 per month recommending other people’s stuff as it relates to your fan base.
The easiest way to build a fanbase is to talk about a particular topic you’re passionate about or enjoy.
Up until now, for me it’s always been about marketing and growing a business … Now, I’m starting to shift more towards living a life that brings you joy and happiness.
It’s no longer about making a ton of money … It’s about doing the things that brings fulfillment. You can have a bunch of money and still be empty and stressed.
Traveling makes me happy. Spending time with and raising my 2 remaining kids make me happy. Reading my books makes me happy. Watching my shows on NetFlix, Hulu and Amazon makes me happy.
And guess what … Living in South America allows me and YOU to do what makes us happy without having to break our backs for the next 20, 30, 40 or 50 years.
Selling Courses or Providing a Service
Another way to earn income is to package your knowledge into some sort of course. That course can come in the form of an eBook, consultation, coaching, or a membership website (this is where you might post content or videos explaining your stuff inside of your website where it’s locked down – and the only way they can access it is by paying to get a username/password)
I’m hoping you can see this … Click it to enlarge if you must. These are transactions from just ONE of my Stripe accounts (payment processor) from the last 2-days. It totals $495+$295+195 = $985
Now between this and the income from up top, I could live in parts of Colombia solely off this income and be very comfortable. The minimum wage in Colombia is $275 per MONTH.
So do you see how $1,300 per month can take you a long way?
I’ve got ebooks and courses created on a variety of topics. Many of these courses were created 10-years ago.
For example, I frequent antique auctions on the regular. I buy chairs, stools and benches for cheap, and then I resell them for big profits.
I wrote an ebook/course on how others can do it.
I made a ton of money selling religious t-shirts on the Internet. So I wrote an ebook/course on how others can do it.
I sell that course for $379 (if all I ever sold was 4 of these per month, it’ll get me pass the $1,300 monthly thresh hold).
So … Whatever it is you know how to do, or whatever you’re passionate about, or whatever you’re going through (a divorce, blended family, juicing for weight loss, whatever it is), package it up into a course/ebook.
It can fund your lifestyle abroad.
Most of you don’t need to make a million dollars a year to upgrade your quality of life if you’re willing to move to another country and live abroad.
$1,300 – $2,000 is more than enough for a family of 4-5 to do this. I know firsthand because we lived extremely well while living in Medellin a few years ago–it was 5 of us then.
I’d encourage you to start looking at some ways to earn some income to support yourself while living abroad. The Internet makes this much simpler now.
Many jobs now offer remote working opportunities. All that’s needed is a reliable Internet connection.
Check out Indeed.com. Many companies will send you the equipment to connect to your PC computer that’ll allow you to take calls and offer customer support their customers.
You can take this equipment abroad and connect to the Internet from anywhere in the world. Most of these companies are paying anywhere from $12-$15 per hour.
At $12/hourly, that puts $1,920 in your bank account each month. More than enough to live abroad in a foreign country where the cost of living is much cheaper.
So get creative and explore the opportunities available to you. There’s more than one way to live the American dream–and living it somewhere else is an option.
If you need to get some guidance or help, click here to discover how my Protege Insider program can get you direct access to me!
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