We are so lucky to earn money in Canadian and US Dollars.
When I go to my country and spend my money in Colombian Pesos, I get a lot of value for my money.
My mother is spending her retirement years in Colombia because she can spend her money on things that would be prohibitively expensive in the US, such as having someone to clean and cook for her in her apartment.
There are hundreds of countries where your hard-earned money can go a lot further, including all South American countries from Mexico to Argentina, most African countries, and most Southeast Asian countries. With remote work, global income inequality is now accessible to most of us.
Imagine you are a regular employee who gets to work remotely. What is stopping you from claiming your Canadian Dollars earned from a company in Toronto and working from your home office in some beach town in Mexico?
The normalization of remote work means more salaried employees than ever before are escaping the cold for warmer shores, leaving small apartments in favor of houses with a yard, and moving away from tourist hubs towards more affordable satellite cities. This strategy also has the added financial benefit of lowering your cost of living—without taking a hit to your income. Wealth builders call it “geographic arbitrage,” which simply means growing your savings by earning income in a strong economy while living—and thus spending—in a weaker economy.
Is it fair? Absolutely!
In the US or Canada, a house cleaning service costs about $20 to $25 per hour. In a South American country, you will pay $20 for the day and you will be paying above the regular rate of that local economy. You are helping yourself by buying a desired service at a low price, and you are helping your employee earn a living and stimulating the local economy.
We do it every day. When we buy products on Walmart or Amazon, many of those products were manufactured in China or another country where labor is cheaper. We get a good product/service and we help someone who is on the other end of the world with our dollars.
My recommendations
When you travel, don’t just go to Paris or Rome, or any of those overpriced destinations. Experiment a little bit. Go to Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Argentina, etc. They have beautiful tourist destinations for a fraction of the cost of the overvalued destinations.
If you get to work remotely, consider that you can live like a king with your Canadian/US dollars. For the same price as a shoe-box apartment in Toronto, you could live in a real house with a backyard, 5 minutes from the beach, with maid service, in Santa Marta (Colombia).
If you are retired and receiving a work-related pension or government pension, you can count pennies for the rest of your life, or you can live with dignity in a country where the cost of living is much lower.