[subutai]

How about sharing the profiles of people you personally know who are living the type of lives that many of us on here aspire towards as well as a little break-down how they achieved their "dreams".

Let's keep things as anonymous as possible for the sake of privacy, but I'll start off with a few examples.

Friend of mine in his 20s, scouted the world for countries with the finest looking women on earth. He settled upon Eastern Europe. Once there, he lived on an extremely tight budget (cooking all his own meals, no traveling, no luxury purchases) and focused entirely upon building a niche software business in the extremely boring insurance industry. Jump forward a few years, and he's earning $250,000 per year, juggling anywhere from 5-15 fuck buddies (for real), and rides through the recent economic crisis without even a scratch on his revenue stream.

His strengths? Ability to elegantly architect and program a web-based software system in an area so boring, so dull, and so not sexy, that nobody else had the interest to turn it into a business until he came along.

[Vacancier Permanent]

I will provide a first hand testimonial of how I did it and how I'm doing it but I'm just too tired now. Maybe in the next few days if I get some free time, I'll chip in in this thread. Great thread by the way Subutai.

[OSL]

The closest example I can think of are different people who are making low six-figures from online poker. The problem with that is it's really time consuming. Even if they go to Thailand they are on the computer at least 6 hours a day, playing poker.

[NeVerGymLess]

(11-19-2010 03:28 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

The closest example I can think of are different people who are making low six-figures from online poker. The problem with that is it's really time consuming. Even if they go to Thailand they are on the computer at least 6 hours a day, playing poker.

Easiest way of making 6 figures from where I'm from is growing kush. At $3000 a pound and no jail time , makes you think .

[subutai]

Another guy I know decides to buy a book on web design because he's bored with his life in the US. He gets into it as a hobby, with no technical background whatsoever, and starts building small sites for friends and family for free. Pretty soon, he has clients contacting him from various parts of the US and he takes his fledgling business international, settling into a cozy spot in Western Europe despite the fact that he had plenty of success with American women throughout his entire life.

Flash forward a few years and his web design business is going gang busters, now earning a steady mix of dollars and euros, and he is firmly on the go-to rolodex for various European design agencies who subcontract work out to him.

He no longer finds American women attractive whatsoever and spends his weekends doing women from Vienna to Prague to Paris to other locales throughout Europe.

His secret? Actually doing the work received immediately without slacking off, responding to client e-mails quickly and intelligently, and being a genuinely nice guy with the people he meets during his time off. On the downlow, he assures me that half his work nowadays is just using the same templates he's built up, tweaking it, and offering it as a custom-built site with minimal hours put in. He never wants to step foot inside the US ever again.

[Brian]

are their any kind of citizenship issues with living overseas like this?

[OSL]

(11-19-2010 06:39 PM)Brian Wrote:  

are their any kind of citizenship issues with living overseas like this?

Citizenship issues in what sense? In terms of not getting in trouble with the US, as long as you are paying your taxes you are pretty much okay in their eyes.

In terms of the host country in which you reside, every country is different. In general though, as long as you abide by visa laws or have some sort of permanent residency it's not a huge deal I believe.

[Brian]

i mean in terms of the host country. i thought the US was pretty much the only country that lets illegals come in and get jobs

[rudebwoy]

Great post and this is certainly my dream.

Citizenship is easy to get around, I know in the UK a lawyer can "hook" you up for about 10,000 GBP - of which 2,000 GBP goes to the girl (polish). So based on those numbers I am sure it is even cheaper if you go directly to Eastern Europe.

[iknowexactly]

I'll describe not becoming rich, but escaping having a job-- doing it the dumb, plodding way for someone with no biz sense. I'm NOT making ANYWHERE NEAR 6 figures, and I'm not going to try. As long as I make a little more than most people where I'm going , the main thing is to get out of America.

I found a niche in health care besides medical school. There are a lot of things you can do, the best time investment is to become a nurse-practitioner, if you specialize in anaethesia, you can make up to about 200k. Requires bachelor's and master's in nursing, but that's still way less than BA+medical school+residency.

Other second level jobs like Medical Technician-- you help surgeons in operations. x-ray technician, all sorts of stuff if you look into it.

1) went to school for it (5 Yrs)
2) got the state license for it (2 yrs)
3) got a well-paid state job doing it, (7 yrs)

It was pretty rough sometimes, pumping yogurt in school, I had to work in max security prisons sometimes, very depressing, but I didn't have to doubt the positive humanitarian nature of what I was doing because it was health care.

I lucked out that my state gives you a pension after five years work. (They changed it so now you need 10 years)

I'm making 5 years soon, and have a small state guaranteed pension for life. It isn't much, not even enough to live off in America, but life is short-- even with money, no one looks too good at 70 or 75. So I'll spend my 50's and 60's deciding " Is 30 too young? Too old? I guess I'll have to give her another chance."

[oldnemesis]

(11-19-2010 03:28 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

The closest example I can think of are different people who are making low six-figures from online poker. The problem with that is it's really time consuming. Even if they go to Thailand they are on the computer at least 6 hours a day, playing poker.

Do you personally know them? I know a few online poker players, and none of them makes even close to six-figures reliably.
BTW, gambling (including online gambling) is illegal in Thailand, and they bust people for that.

[hydrogonian]

(11-19-2010 09:16 PM)oldnemesis Wrote:  

(11-19-2010 03:28 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

The closest example I can think of are different people who are making low six-figures from online poker. The problem with that is it's really time consuming. Even if they go to Thailand they are on the computer at least 6 hours a day, playing poker.

Do you personally know them? I know a few online poker players, and none of them makes even close to six-figures reliably.
BTW, gambling (including online gambling) is illegal in Thailand, and they bust people for that.

Ha. Because they probably didn't like the flood of western online poker players that go there and never leave. Thailand likes their tourists to come, and then go.

[oldnemesis]

I can tell you my success story. Myself, was born in Lviv, a considerably poor town in USSR farther backyard. Lived there for 25 years through Ukrainian requests for independence, split of USSR into different countries, bread lines starting three hours before the store opened and stretched over a mile, product cards, a piece of meat costing 1,000,000 rubles after the inflation (was 10,000x or so), the name and design of national currency changed twice, and other funny stuff. In 1995 one could survive in Lviv for $10 a month; I was making $100 a month working 9 hours a day and felt like a king. Got my fair share of pussy - and getting laid in Lviv is similar to getting laid in some small US Midwest village with population of 5,000, it is very conservative, with everyone watching and rumors spreading fast.

Got tired and wanted a new challenge, found a job in Kiev and moved there. Was making $500 a month and lived like a king. Got laid like crazy. Saved something around $2K in two years when I found another job in Moscow, and made my first move to a different country. Got married. Lived there around six years, saw Russia going through anarchy-democracy to KGB-style dictatorship. Got Green Card, found a 100K job in Bay Area after spending a month going through interviews via Skype. Moved there, purchased a cheap home under 1M, got three kids. Have been living over five years here, not like a king but not needy either. Have been paid over 150K in taxes every year when filing jointly, and while it sucks, I always thought it's better to make more money and pay more tax than making less and waiting for hangout. The move to US dramatically changed the way I'm getting laid, the most significant difference being that I do not find most of locals worthy spending any significant effort. Still, looking back and considering raw counts only I "scored" (funny word) over 30 chicks this year with one night stands (to be fair, some of you may skip nine from Thailand). My wife accepts my needs, and while she's not jumping through the roof because of it, it doesn't make her unhappy either. We equally dislike Democrats (who try to tax us to death), Republicans (who want us to live under Sharia law praising their fake Jezus), Libertarians (who have completely no idea what they're talking about) and Green, who ruin the environment by driving cars and using AC while claiming everyone else should protect the environment. We work hard, raising our kids, and looking forward for our next move, which we haven't decided yet.

Is it considered "new rich"? It depends. My old friends in Lviv expressed disbelief when I told them I do not drive Ferrari - which, by their beliefs, is something every rich should do. But I don't care. Money do not matter once you have enough of them, my wife and kids are much more important to me than money. And pussy is even less important than money.

That is it. If it sounds like I'm bragging, it probably is - I was never shy. Did I fulfill my dreams? Hell yes - and now I have even more challenging dreams. Let's see how it turns in ten years.

[subutai]

That's a great story OldNemesis. Are you sure the wife situation isn't a ticking time bomb if she knows about your 30 one night stands in one year? Speaking for myself personally, I've had girlfriends hack into my computer, laptop, iPhone, cell phone, and just about anything else they could get their hands on in the past. I even know of a guy whose girlfriend goes through his mobile phone every weekend and deletes any newly added female names!

Back on topic, I'll give my short story. I earn my living through a combination of consulting, real estate, and the occasional web site I make which I flip for a profit. When I first started my consulting firm years ago, I was told by a 30+ year veteran of the industry that I ABSOLUTELY had to live in the U.S., shake hands, meet people face-to-face, and put in the time every day to succeed.

Today? I can run it from just about anywhere in the world thanks to a combination of e-mail, a digitized workflow, and IP telephony/video conferencing. It runs hot and dry at times, but I know that the residential + commercial real estate (almost all of which will be paid off and mortgage free in 4-5 years) is going to be there for my distant retirement.

[subutai]

(11-19-2010 07:08 PM)Brian Wrote:  

i mean in terms of the host country. i thought the US was pretty much the only country that lets illegals come in and get jobs

In most countries, esp. "developing ones", they encourage "wealthy foreigners" to stay as long as they want by offering long-term residence permits.

Hell, you can even live Switzerland if you put enough money into one of their banks.

[oldnemesis]

(11-19-2010 11:04 PM)subutai Wrote:  

That's a great story OldNemesis. Are you sure the wife situation isn't a ticking time bomb if she knows about your 30 one night stands in one year?

Yes, I am. She already knows about pretty much all of them. It would be stupid to push this kind of setup without her knowing.

Quote:

Speaking for myself personally, I've had girlfriends hack into my computer, laptop, iPhone, cell phone, and just about anything else they could get their hands on in the past. I even know of a guy whose girlfriend goes through his mobile phone every weekend and deletes any newly added female names!

I had such a girlfriend in past, only once. Made it very clear to her that she is not allowed to touch my phone or my computer without my permission. If she wants to know if I fuck someone else as well, she can just ask me, but she might not like the answer. Always made it clear to all my GFs that I do not expect them to be monogamous with me, and in turn if I want to go and fuck someone, I may do it. Never asked any of them if they did, I really didn't care. "Don't ask, don't tell" is very applicable to this particular case.

Quote:

Today? I can run it from just about anywhere in the world thanks to a combination of e-mail, a digitized workflow, and IP telephony/video conferencing. It runs hot and dry at times, but I know that the residential + commercial real estate (almost all of which will be paid off and mortgage free in 4-5 years) is going to be there for my distant retirement.

So far I prefer to keep my cash in bank accounts, investment in RE scares me. Last years showed it very well how volatile the RE market really is, and there is still too much uncertainty in terms of possible government regulations.

[Entropy4]

I built an online business, dating/pick up... same niche as Roosh. You can look at it in my sig if you care. I've been mobile for the last year and a half, just hit my 20th country in the last 18 months. Have lived in Germany, England, Argentina, Thailand and the USA for more than six weeks a piece during this time.

It was a lot of work. Took years of busting my ass... Don't really care to get into the details, but I'm actually looking at settling back down in the US for a while. Being abroad and bouncing around so much gets a little lonely and tiring after a while. You never really see the same people/girls for more than a month at a time and that wears on you after a year or two. I've started to miss my old friends, family and actually dating girls for more than three weeks at a time. I'm looking at starting a second career as my pick up business more or less runs itself these days.

Re: the story of the web designer. I do all of my own web design and tech stuff. I lucked out because I was a dork and got really into it in high school and so when I started my business I already knew how to do all of it. Recently, I've ran into a bunch of people who've needed a web designer or who aren't happy with their web design. And when they show me their stuff I'm appalled. The web design industry is such a fucking scam, it's amazing. There are shitty ass designers charging like $3000 for websites that I could literally build in an afternoon. It's actually been tempting for me to jump over and start a web design company, but the problem with web design is that you actually you know, have to sit down and do work all the time. I'm more interested in businesses that work for me...

[Entropy4]

Oh, and just to relay another story. I know a couple poker guys who are mobile. And then I know two traders who are mobile.

The most notable of which was a Wall Street guy about 10 years ago. He hit Wall Street during the tech boom and made a bunch of smart moves and then cashed out before the crash... and actually cashed in ON the crash of 2000. So at that point, he was 25, was worth high six figures, had a bunch of great investments and an amazing talent for trading. So quit his bank and started traveling a couple years later. He's been mobile for about 6-7 years now and trades as he travels. He's been doing well as every time I've hung out with him, money hasn't seemed to be an object for him.

[subutai]

Hey Entropy,

Are you in touch with your Wall Street guy regularly? Would be invaluable to hear his advice on the markets, the types of investments he puts money into, and more importantly, the information filters he relies on to make his decision. I subscribe to a few affordable newsletters that I enjoy (Mark Faber for example, being one of them).

As an aside, have you not been to tempted to just settle down in a good spot abroad and split your time between there and the US? What have your favorite cities been thus far?


OldNemesis,

I own real estate in both the U.S. as well as abroad, so I find a little bit more comfort earning a monthly rental income in US dollars as well as a foreign currency. But you're right of course -- I worry every day about how the macroeconomic situation in the US as well as globally will change the landscape in the future.

[metalhaze]

From what I hear the web design industry aint the golden goose anymore as there as so many new entrants and a lot of competition.

people pay software developers (pc,mobile,console) (c#,C++,java) and software architects more than web designers, unless you are a graphic designer with a talented portfolio.

[rudebwoy]

@ Subatai - where are you now?

[subutai]

I'm in the good old U S of A.

[Entropy4]

(11-20-2010 10:38 AM)subutai Wrote:  

Hey Entropy,

Are you in touch with your Wall Street guy regularly? Would be invaluable to hear his advice on the markets, the types of investments he puts money into, and more importantly, the information filters he relies on to make his decision. I subscribe to a few affordable newsletters that I enjoy (Mark Faber for example, being one of them).

Yeah... I don't know a whole lot about trading, but he definitely knows his shit and is full of fascinating information when I talk to him. He doesn't so much look into valuations of companies or bonds, but looks at trends and what everyone else is doing. To use poker as an analogy, he doesn't play the cards, he plays the players.

But his knowledge and experience is pretty incredible. I just hung out with him in Bali last month and he explained a lot of the trades he was doing. Apparently the US Fed announced on Nov. 2nd that they were planning deflating the dollar to help unburden a lot of the US debt. This pissed off a lot of foreign up-and-comers (Brazil, China, etc.) and affected a lot of the forex markets. He had his positions in place way beforehand and made $10k-20k just in the few weeks we were there.

The ups and downs are tough though... again, like poker. This year has actually been his worst year since he left Wall Street. Through August he said he had lost close to $200k, but he said that he's almost made it all back in the three months since then.

Quote:

As an aside, have you not been to tempted to just settle down in a good spot abroad and split your time between there and the US? What have your favorite cities been thus far?

Yes and no. What I'm going to start doing in 2011 is I'm going to do like a 8-month/4-month split or a 9-month/3-month split, with the 8 months being living in one place in the US, and the 3-4 months living in ONE place abroad.

Up until now, I've only lived in the US for a couple months at a time and then picking up and hitting like 5-6 countries over 4 months. It's been fun but it's been ultimately unfulfilling, as I haven't been able to root down anywhere.

I miss having a stable life somewhere, a stable social network, being able to date a few girls over periods longer than a week or two, and having a regular routine. I'll probably still do one-off trips here and there, but more or less I want to establish myself in the US again and then live abroad for 1/3 of the year or something.

As far as places that I could see myself living long-term. Only a few... Berlin, Thailand (either Phuket or Koh Samui), and maybe Brazil (only spent two weeks there and one was Carnaval... need to go back).

Don't know if I'd take the plunge and actually split time between to places. I'm actually looking at starting a second career since my online business more or less runs itself at this point... either in writing (like publishing books writing) or in music. If I did music, then I'd most likely want to set myself down in NYC if I was going to get serious about it.

We'll see though... There are still a couple major holes in my traveling, namely all of Eastern Europe.

Where have you lived? And where were your favorite places? What was splitting your time between two places like? Pros? Cons?

[subutai]

Hey,

I *may* be doing the 9 month - 3 month or 8 month - 4 month split myself next year. I'm not sure how long this arrangement will go on for -- depends on personal/family things I have going on. But I've lived abroad full time, with maybe 2-3 week visits to the US per year, for many years now.

Choosing a place to live, either full-time or part-time, is a tough one. As you no doubt discovered, no place is perfect. And a lot of it will depend on where you feel comfortable and have a pre-existing network of friends and fuck buddies already in place. I don't know about you, but for myself, I know for a fact that I like living in a place where I am relatively "rich" compared to the locals than in a place where I'm just "average" in income. I also have an elderly, retired mother quite comfortable in the US who needs to spend more time with me, so I can't just go live in Moldova or Bulgaria for kicks (even though financially I could without a problem), since she'd find such places traumatic even to visit.

I usually break up cities by a few different factors:

1. Cost of living (I don't want to pay over $1200 a month in rent for a very nice, large pad)
2. Availability of beautiful women (Europeans for my tastebuds)
3. Level of civility and tolerance (I don't like skinheads)
4. Architectural beauty and ambiance (I like UNESCO heritage cities)
5. Weather (I like the 4 seasons)
6. English-language ability among the locals (I don't like gaming in another language)
7. Availability of amenities/attractions for families/elderly (not important for most of the guys on here I imagine)

Given these factors, I've ruled out all of Southern Europe and East Asia. Almost all of South America is ruled out as well, esp. now with the Brazilian real having shot up in value in a massive way. The only reason why South America is still interesting to me is the very low cost of living in some parts of that region. Same with SE Asia, mostly ruled out but kind of interesting. I won't leave the US just to go to another Anglo country so the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are also ruled out.

This leaves Eastern & Western Europe. However, the Eurozone is expanding, and I don't want to be subject to the fluctuations of the Euro-Dollar foreign exchange rate, esp. if the US decides to devalue the dollar to partially inflate away its debt. In other words, this is still something I need to think through. However, I still like countries like Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland in the Northeast and Austria in the Southeast.

[manilaguy]

1.) Don't get married young
2.) Don't develop any addiction
3.) Wake up early and work hard until it's time to sleep

Should do the trick!