Labor Day Reflections on Five Years as an Expat Affiliate Marketer in Mexico

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In 2005 my husband Kelly and I sold our home in Colorado and moved to Mexico with our dog. It was an experiment in expat living, and it lasted five years. In the header I'm making notes, probably for my website about living in Mexico.

Not having savings or independent income of any significance, we continued the work we had been doing in the US, writing websites which were monetized by affilate recommendations to things for sale on other sites and also by products we created, ebooks and Kelly's ecological house plans. There was nothing we had to send by mail, which was a good thing as we found the mails unreliable there. One Christmas card that we sent to a family member in the US reached her in April.

Today being Labor Day, I was going to write about my plans looking ahead, but yesterday Eugene did an inspiring post that got me reminiscing about those years in Mexico. Here is his post:

Ready To Work Anywhere? Transform Your Life? Your Remote Lifestyle Is Waiting

Well, we did that. Our initial plan was to go back to a small town, Bernal, Queretaro, which we had liked on a previous trip. But it happened that some good friends of ours in Colorado were adopting a baby in Mexico and they were staying near Lake Chapala, in Jalisco not far from Guadalajara. They spoke little Spanish. Kelly spoke some Spanish with a good accent, and I would converse with the Mexicans about anything despite my terrible accent. So we ended buying a cute little cabin with a gorgeous yard, near our friends, for about $80,000 US. We lived there quite happily, with a little travel at times.

It had a swimming pool, in the shade so it was nice for swimming about half the year. But we put up a badminton net,and that got a lot of use. Also, we got a lot of exercise walking in our little town, San Juan Cosala, and in the larger nearby towns of Ajijic and Chapala. There were so many American and Canadian expats in the area that it was nicknamed gringolandia

The pool was a lot of work, and we hired a Mexican man to care for it and the yard, paying him the going wage at that time of about $4 US an hour. Roberto became a good friend.

The cabin was quite small, and our office was also our living room and bedroom, but it worked fine. Below is Kelly's desk area. Sometimes the electricity went out, and sometimes the internet did, but we got along fine without them for short times, once we got used to that. One trick I discovered was keeping the refrigerator so full of water in bottles that the food didn't spoil if the power was out for hours or even a day or two.

Regarding money, we kept our bank account in the US, and our affiliate income from Amazon and other places went into it. There were ATMs near our Mexican house, and we withdrew what we needed in pesos. Also, we had a post office box we kept in Colorado, and we paid a couple of good friends to get our mail, open it, and email us anything we needed to do. We paid them an amount that worked out to less than $600 a year, so we didn't have to do some American tax forms.

Our lives there took on a rhythm of plenty of work, time with our friends, and getting to know a lot of the local Mexicans. We had a great garden in our yard too.

It sounds so idyllic. Why are we not still there?

Hmm... well, mainly family reasons...

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Thank you Rosana
Sharing your experiences - a definite life change from the USA in Mexico. Your home looks wonderful & meeting new people from a different country & culture is rewarding. I am a Sydney Australian guy, similar age to yourself, & now live in Thailand. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would not be living in Australia. After my wife of thirty years moved up the coast & not invite me to go too LOL, I guess it was time to move on myself. Unlike you I do not speak the local language, I guess a bit lazy. I keep myself busy with Rotary involvement creating a newsletter for the club, & am a keen photographer.

The world is a small place really, & with the internet, ease of travel (not at this time due to COVID 19) one can experience other cultures.

Denis



Thanks for sharing this, Rosana. A lot of people in the US only think of Mexico in negative terms because our media tends to highlight the negative. I don't usually mention this because I don't think it's anyone's business but I have lived in Tijuana, Mexico for almost 10 years. I can't afford to live in the US but if I start making enough money to afford to buy a house in the US, I would probably move back. I speak very pitiful Spanish but a lot of people here along the border speak English.

It looks beautiful but you had me at pool. I miss having one in my yard. I used it every day!

Sorry you had to come back.

Debbi

I'd have to say that we *chose* to come back, due to various family members we wanted to see more, plus a few other things. But those were very full years.

Wonderful story thank you very much for sharing

What a beautiful story, and great pictures too.

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