Thank you! I am exactly one year to this very day away from making Colombia my home. The peso puzzle is always on my mind.

Another great video Matt.....

Capital one credit cards so the same exact real time exchange rate when paying. Fidelity and Charles Swab reimburses all ATM fees. If your an American and have credit There’s no reason to use Wise card

If the FARC or ELN decide to start setting off car bombs in tourist areas the Col paso will shoot to 6000 peso to usd. In retaliation for the Colombia president’s attack on them 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

We live comfortably here in Cali for about $2K per month.  So my SS pretty much covers routine living expenses.  In the US it covered the mortgage payment.  We bought our unit here in Cali when we sold the US property.  So our only housing cost is the association fee.  We bought a slightly used car for cash and so swe onlyu have insurance and the annual car tax fees.  (I walk almost everywhere here as well in my neighborhood of El Penon).  We cook often, but also eat out more than we did in US.  Here I budget about $800 for two of us for both.  Utilitis (electric) just jumped, but stil far less than US for everything from phone, internet or streaming services.  We are happy here and don't sweat the exchange rate 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 is still a bargain.  When I do the bills for the coming month we simply use the exchange rate for that day as the proxy.  If it 3.3 or 2.9 or when it was 4.3, so be it.  It's not worth stressing over in my opinion.  Id be borwing significantly from retirement to live normally in the US.  Here that's holding steady and we simply trim off any gains for travel or remodeling or extras.  when I hear about the heating, cooling, gas and bills in the USA

I’d consider WU as well. When I did the math last month, Western Union came out slightly ahead of wise(exchange rate is worse, but less fees), and they could transfer using Bre-B which was nice.

My budgeting could probably be improved though. I’ve tended to budget in dollars and just scale up and down and make adjustments as needed. But that backfired a bit when that August low hit. Can sure feel it, but similar to you, there were some areas like my rappi budget that could be trimmed :).

Yeah, it sucks that everything costs more dollars now compared to a year ago. I'd be okay with it if the weaker dollar at least benefited regular Colombians who earn in pesos but even they are having a hard time and not really seeing the benefits of a stronger peso because prices went up when the dollar went up, but they haven't come down now that the dollar is down too; some people like coffee and flower producers are in an even worse position than us. Hopefully the price goes back to previous levels.

Hi Matt . The fast peak fluctuation of dollars in Colombia 🇨🇴 is due to 'flotación limpia' , an Economy concept where the exchange rate dollar to colombian pesos fluctuates due to only Supply and Demand Law.  This creates a problem for some sector of the Colombian economy as Tourism or exporting company. A weaker dollar in a short period of time affect directly these sectors.  Here in Peru we have 'flotación sucia' . Our Central Bank try to maintain the dollar to sol as stable as possible. The Peru's Central Bank BCRP buy (or sell ) dollars in the local markets in large quantities . Usually 200 , 300 , 600 millions of $ or even more than 1 billion. This is like a sort of shock absorver in both direction. The dollar still could have a devaluation or appreciation but not in a large stretch . The fast fluctuation of $  in both directions causes inestability in the market. E.g. the colombian exporters whos income is in $ could panic because their income is used for paying personnel in colombian pesos at lower exchange rate. Peru , Singapur and very few countries use flotación sucia. The main requisite for a country to control rapid fluctuation of $ ( up and down) using flotacion sucia is having a high international reserve to GDP ratio. It means liquidity in large quantities. Peru is the highest in the region about 30% of GDP ..... BTW Peru is almost always misunderstood. While Politics is chaotic , Economy goes in the other direction in an smooth way . A real Paradox only happening in Peru.

Hi Matt, thank you for all the information. Most videos are geared towards expats. Can you please create some videos that focus on dual U.S./Colombian citizens planning to retire in Colombia? My income sources are from the USA.

Hey Matt, another great video! I totally agree about the Wise card, been using one for over 4 years and it’s one of my most valuable travel assets. (And sorry about your crappy addiction 😂!)

Hi Matt. Where is the link for the Wise Account? Thanks.

Dude idk how you don’t drive I been driving since I was 16 it was the first thing I did. I spend like $550 a month just on gas . I road trip quite a bit and I like to off-road . I have an old landcruiser. Despite that I live here on $3-$4k a month and where I come from a 1 br is $2200 easy. So life costs about the same but I get more

I just did this check online:

The average monthly salary in the USA is approximately $5,359, while in Colombia, it is about $1,060. This shows a significant difference in earnings between the two countries.

So we should be surprised rents are cheaper in Colombia? Well they should be 5 times cheaper. In fact the rent you paying now is very expensive.

It's because of the wars in the world and the tariffs.

And... NY still seems expensive.

Your Rappi addiction is a problem....
A problem I had when I lived in Colombia and a problem I can't wait to have once I move back

It could be way way worse for you if you were Canadian