One of the most common questions I get from people is how to make money in Mexico.  I’m a strong believer that if I can do it, anyone can because of the pretty unique hurdles I face with my legal situation.

Many people who follow me know that I came to Mexico with nothing and started a new life, working within an expat anarchist community within Acapulco, Mexico.  I fully admit that life without that community would have been extremely hard. Shit, even with the community at times life was hard.  My first 8 months in Mexico, for example, I slept in a house without a bed so I had to use a hammock instead.

Over the years I’ve met many people coming to Mexico to “live the agorist life” without really much of an idea of what that even means.  Some attempt to start businesses and others just live off of savings usually earned earlier in their lives.

The reality is, it can be just as hard for people to make a living within Mexico as a foreigner as it can be to make in the US.  There’s really one big reason for that: Mexico has nationwide cartel governments which extort business owners for the privilege of remaining open and alive.

Now, I’ve mentioned this in podcasts, but I think it’s worth pointing out here.  The old adage is, “if you don’t get involved in drugs in Mexico, you will never have to deal with the cartel.”  The reality isn’t conducive with that statement as far as my experiences are concerned.  I know a good-hearted taxi driver who was murdered because he didn’t want to give up his brand new taxi. A tortilla shop owner who refused extortion and was killed. Occasionally, monarch butterfly sanctuary owners are killed for defending the forests in which the butterflies reside for logging.

The point of this is not to scare you but to alert you to the very real possibilities.  The point of living in Mexico for me is not about safety or the ability to start a business, what it’s about for me is quality of life.

The reason so many people are obsessed with the idea of moving to Mexico in spite of it’s flaws is deeply rooted in quality of life.  Even with the violence (which exists in the US too, don’t be fooled), the basic quality of life for even the poor is higher here.  People are happy, more able to enjoy their lives and their families.

For a gringo, the Mexican culture in general can be extremely welcoming and refreshing. Despite all that I’ve lost here, I feel I’ve gained even more.

I’ve dabbled in everything since moving here.  First, it started with an in-house restaurant.  I even worked at a smoke shop in Acapulco for about 6 weeks making 140 pesos, that’s right PESOS, a day… About 7 dollars a day, so I know what it’s like to try to live off of Mexican wages. I mention this because people often ask me what it’s like getting jobs here.  Unless you like working hard for very little, you want to source your money outside of the country.

Which leads me into the meat of this post, actual ways to make money while living in Mexico.  I started this post with the talk of cartel stuff because its important to assess the risks when doing business here in Mexico.  A lot of gringos come here all starry-eyed, telling everyone who will listen that they have bitcoin. Or they come with the idea of starting a business, do so, and have to face extortion issues.

The internet is your friend as far as work in Mexico is concerned.  There are plenty of people who start businesses here without extortion, don’t get me wrong.  But if you are looking for a life mostly free of extortion, you will have to drastically change how you do business.

The first and easiest way to make money in Mexico is via remote work.  This is what most of us start off doing at the least. If you don’t have a savings and want to work from home in Mexico, have at least 600 USD a month in income lined up before you cross the border to have the best time.  If you need to flee, flee, but as someone who did that avoid it at all costs.

Remote work includes:

Virtual assistants

Copywriting

Video/Audio Editing

Web Design

Programming

Data Entry

Transcription

Voice Artist

Graphic design

Sales

Social media.

….you get the idea.

The routes for getting these jobs are varied.  I had the struggle of not being able to access traditional sites like upwork.com and other freelancing sites.  As a result, I basically had to build a brand and following and tap into that for odd jobs.

When getting started in freelance remote work, expect the beginning to go very slow. Try everything you can and fully expect to hate some of it, and love other parts.  Lean into what you like.  Sometimes it will take you doing work without the promise of money, for the sake of getting your name out there as someone who gets things done.  If you leap in and just try, after awhile things will pay off.

There are ways to start businesses within Mexico without much risk if you do most of your business online.  Basically, you can have an online store front if you want, or even be simple like I currently am with my crochet business, namely, keeping a handwritten list of custom orders to fill one by one.  I take all of my orders online, get paid online, and ship most of my products I make back to the United States.

I ran a restaurant out of my house in similar fashion.  If you love to cook, move to a part of Mexico with a lot of expats and rent a beautiful house.  Get to know the community and open a private in-house restaurant.  I used to just pick something to make and whoever was interested would come and buy a plate and eat with us, with that spectacular Acapulco view.  We were successful but never had issues because we were technically closed to the public.

Content creation is also an option, but that will also take building a following and finding people willing to pay you for their content. I built my following on the early days of Steemit.com.  It’s not so easy to make big amounts of money, but is useful for getting your content out there. It also provides an easy to use platform for people looking to practice producing content. Now there are so many options including hive, lbry(Odyssey) and more.

For anyone trying to make a living online, its highly recommended to make a website regardless of what you do.  You can have it be a blog, or simply a place to contact and hire you. My personal website is a somewhat neglected mix of both of those things, yet it still provides me with jobs here and there believe it or not. People take you more seriously when you have a personal website as a freelancer for some reason.

And finally, to bring it back around, let’s say you are successful and are making thousands of dollars a month online in Mexico.  Life is good, you can afford anything you want! Here’s the best tip I can give you, STAY HUMBLE.  Don’t talk to the locals about money. If they ask, tell them you make enough to survive, para los basicos. Resist the urge to spread the word about crypto until you really get to know people, because crypto robberies are real and just as scary as regular robberies.  Finally, do your best to treat those you do business with here with the utmost respect and you will live a long, prosperous life in Mexico.