In my bio, I disclose that I'm using a pen name. I hope you're comfortable with this decision, as it is to protect my identity. There are many obsessive and unusual people on the internet. It's better to be safe than sorry, especially when running a travel and crypto page like mine. For now and the foreseeable future, you can refer to me as Mary. Mary is derived from my second real name, so it's not too different from my actual name, lol. For branding purposes, I may use 'we' or 'our' to sound more in line with the brand's voice. I hope this makes sense.

I started this expat-themed page because I want to become an expat myself. I am from Greece and the situation here keeps getting worse and worse. So does the alienation I feel. Many people I know simply accept the situation in their country and don't look for anything else. They don't explore other countries to realize that things can be different, and if they do explore, they often resign themselves to their fate due to the convenience of a job in their home country or whatever. I don't blame them; I just wish I had someone to discuss these things with. Thus, Pocket Expats was born.

No. I admire Andrew Henderson and his work, but Pocket Expats will cater to a different audience. We want to focus on the small business owner or the kid who is just starting an online business. They may feel choked by their country’s situation and seek more value for their money, greater personal freedom, all while retaining some of the culture they cherish from back home. That's why we emphasize Latin America and Eastern Europe. Yes, we have also covered the expensive Caribbean islands on Instagram, but we are still looking for the most affordable options. In future posts, we will provide in-depth coverage of healthcare in these countries. Additionally, we will explore affordable real estate options and do various, general comparisons.

Since I am from Europe, Latin America was something foreign to me, so starting with it was an opportunity to get to know it in depth.

Judging by the country's tax brackets, one can make a lot of assumptions. Some countries in Latin America, through their tax systems, practically say, 'Come here, we want you!' while others send a clear message, 'We'll make your life a living hell.' One red flag we've noticed is the taxation of crypto in a manner similar to their progressive income tax. This shows that some Latam countries don't give a darn about this technology; they just want to collect the money.

Another thing we want to note is the hype surrounding some countries on YouTube and X. We see some American expats who are residing in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina hyping up these countries a lot. These countries have high taxation and high crime rates, so I don't know what these expats find so convenient about them. Certainly, starting a business there isn't the wisest choice. This is why expats fall into specific categories. Some are small business owners who simply want a low cost of living and access to affordable healthcare. Others are already somewhat wealthy and seek cheap real estate (Colombia). In any case, we'll aim to cover the specific needs of each expat 'type,' but for casual viewers, keep an eye out for any country-related hype and always do your research.

There is clearly some crypto experiment going on in Central America. In general, Central America is much more crypto-friendly, and like the Caribbean, it has multiple crypto projects. Central America also offers the most affordable citizenship/residence through investment, making it easy for most people to move to the region quickly if they wish. Most of the crypto projects that we found there are innovative and do good to the local society. However, in Honduras, some investors are attempting to establish a private city within a special economic zone. We are not sure how we feel about this. This move seems provocative to the poorer people in the area. It’s one thing to move to a low-tax country and set up whatever project you want, and another thing to colonize a special economic zone, whilst the rest of the country doesn’t enjoy any benefits. Maybe this private city project has some innovative things to offer, but in our opinion, this isn’t the way to go about it.

I have affiliates on my Instagram bio links, but I won't promote anything aggressively through newsletters. Perhaps an ad on the fifth slide of an Instagram post, as something subtle. In this newsletter, there's a feature called 'boosts.' Basically, I get paid when I refer you to other newsletters, and you sign up for them. However, I am on a free plan and I don’t think I have access to this yet, I’ll see. If I introduce a newsletter here, it'll be in a subtle 'I'll just leave it here' style. I’ll also make sure it’s relevant to you, the audience. So basically, there won’t be spam or any pushy, overbearing stuff.

Other than Pocket Expats, I run my e-commerce small business that’s taking its first steps, so I am very busy trying to earn an online income that will help me become an expat. I want this to be a relaxing newsletter that you read with your coffee. (I’m surpised people even sign up for newsletters, to be honest lol). So yeah, expect a newsletter once a week or two, or maybe once a month.

Next, we’ll cover these regions. I know these better than Latin America and let me tell you, the taxes are much lower in general (okay, except their VAT). So, I’m excited to present them to you. On Facebook and Minds, we only give general info about them. On Instagram, we cover the tax brackets for each country. We are posting like this because different social media require different forms of content. As for North, Western and Central Europe, we may cover some countries from them, but we’ll mostly skip them. North, Western and Central Europe have high taxation, high censorship, cold, fully materialistic and humorless lifestyle, and the only thing they can offer to people is a job with a high wage. Okay, I’ll be fair, they also provide good healthcare. In our opinion, these countries cater to the global working class looking for better prospects. We cater to people who want their own business, who want freedom and autonomy. So, we’ll focus on regions that provide just that. Most importantly though, we think these countries have potential. North, Western and Central Europe had their heyday. Their real estate market and population are oversaturated. The Balkans and Eastern Europe have very fertile soil for investments. But more importantly, they offer hope for a more humane society.

Certainly not now, but some time in the future, yes. However, we won’t fill our content with reels, just include them in our posts sometimes. After we finish all the destinations of our interest, we’ll revisit and view them through the lens of healthcare and real estate. After that, we‘ll be covering expat-related news for specific destinations. There is always content for this topic. We’ll try to make the reels unique and not cheesy or cliche.

Not now. Youtube and every video-type social media requires way more work than written content, something we don’t have the time or means to do now. However, we’re open to it in the future.

This is the epilogue of our first newsletter. Thank you for joining us and reading through our letter. We hope you gained some value from this. This has been a kinda rough newsletter without pictures. Next time, we promise to make it more visually engaging. By the way, we don’t delete unresponsive subscribers. We understand people have lives and can’t keep up with everything, so each subscriber is welcome to stay as long as they please! If you liked this newsletter, spread the word and invite more people to read us. Until next time, bye bye.