Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: There is a tremendous amount of people. They end up going to Bali and then they end up losing their job. You're putting yourself at a lot of risk not being able to support yourself. You need to not just move without knowing that you could support yourself. It has a reputation for a goddamn good diesel.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: You weren't born to sit in traffic, work for approval, or wait for Fridays. You were built to be free.
Welcome to Rich and Remote, the show for the ones who dare to do life differently. Here we talk about building businesses that give you choices where you work, how you live and what you create.
This is for the entrepreneurs who crave freedom, financial freedom, location freedom, and freedom from everyone else's expectations. If you're ready to design a life on your own terms, you're in the right place.
Rich and Remote, hosted by Alex and Carla Booth.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Hello, everyone. This is the Rich and Remote podcast. This is Alex Booth, and today we are talking about Bali. Is Bali remote life the dream? What is the reality? Is it the perfect place for digital nomads? Should you go there? What's going on with Bali? I'm a huge fan of Bali. I've been going for over 10 years, and the topic around Bali being a digital remote worker paradise hub has just not stopped. I thought it would be a fad and it would die down, and it has literally only gotten hotter and hotter. So today I want to dive into why is Bali this poster child for remote work? Is it really what everyone is making it seem? And what are some of the nuances regarding the visas community?
Does it support remote work? Is it only for certain types of people? Basically, let's get into the hype of Bali. What is going on there? So Bali is essentially, like I mentioned before, the poster child for remote work. And I think the reason why that happened was Instagram just caught fire with Bali and people went there on a vacation and they just didn't want to leave. They just fell in love with it.
And to be completely honest, the affordability, niceness of the Balinese people, the culture, it is addictive. And it is a place that pretty much anyone can go. And either they're working remotely as an employee, or they are trying to build a company with their own funds. Like, they just don't have that expensive lifestyle. It supports those people. And then there's also the side of people who maybe they have the funds, maybe they have the freedom, maybe they have everything. And. And it's just a lifestyle that is extremely attractive.
So I think Instagram really blew it up, but I'm Going to go ahead and give the real credit where it's due and that's to the surfers out there. I don't know if any of you have realized this or caught onto it yet, but when surfers find a place and they. A place, by a place I mean they find a good wave, then a lot of people will start to follow. I actually use this as an investment strategy in properties. If I know there's a surf wave and it's not very popular yet, I'll buy property there because inevitably people are going to come. They bring, you know, these surfers bring their friends. Photograph photographers are coming, they're taking pictures, people want to go check it out and eventually, you know, Instagram gets a hold of it and people go and check out what's going on there in a whole city and infrastructure gets built in. Bali is no different.
So, you know, it all started surfing back when I think like 70s there's a, there's a really cool movie about people going to Bali and really bringing surfing to the island. But these days I think Instagram is really the biggest culprit to why it's such a remote work poster child. And you know, the version between Instagram and reality, I think in Bali is not very different. To be completely honest. I've gone a ton of places where it looked really great online. People are making it seem amazing and then it just, it's a watered down version, right? I mean, heck, I even live in Playa del Carmen. If I go the tulum, it's beautiful, but it's nothing like the pictures you see in Instagram. All these models. It's just not exactly like that. It's a beautiful place, it's just not quite like that. Personally in my experience, maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time vacationing in Bali. It really is like that. Taking out the exception of traffic. Balinese traffic is absolutely horrible, but it's just absolutely gorgeous. And I think there's also a little bit of a bias in me because I am a surfer. So I've just had grown this infinity to Bali. It's just so easy to go surfing there. There's so many different options of waves. The people are awesome, the expats hit or miss, but generally pretty awesome. And there's just a great nightlife. So I think it passes for me based off of any place I've ever been. The Instagram versus reality check, I think that test is, is completely passed by Bali. However, from a remote work standpoint, what, what is it like, right, so I'm going to go ahead and call out the elephant in the room. If you are working with US clients, Bali is a horrible time zone for you. You gotta start work at like midnight and work till 8am this is if you have a job, you're working an eight hour job. When I first started going to Bali, that was actually me. I was working at Amazon at the time and I would go there for a month. You know, of course I would be able to take a few weeks off, but I have to work from home or remotely a few of those weeks as well. And it is just brutal these days. I actually live in Mexico, so that's why I live here actually is the. The time zone is great, but I'd say three out of four months of the year, my wife Carla and I, we have to live in the Philippines because we have family and we have a few other businesses there and the time zone's even worse. So just like Asia in general, when you're working with US clients, it is extremely difficult to do long term. You can make it last for a while. I've done it for six months at a time. And you know, if you get in the routine, you can make it work. You know, if you can actually get into a routine. But you just have to have such a tremendous amount of discipline. You can't be going out every single night. You honestly gotta kind of cut your day off around like 1 or 2pm so you can get some sleep and be prepared to work all through the night. And if you're a social person, just having the discipline to do that is really difficult as well as if you want to go out and do anything. There's just not a lot open in the morning, time to go, you know, do your nighttime type activities. But for me, like it made sense. Bollywood makes sense because I'm a surfer and I just want to go surfing in the morning. So it just depends on kind of what type of person you are, but it also depends on your business. I feel like the majority of people that go to Bali and actually make it long term, they're either content creators, where they're not really having to deal with these meetings all throughout the day at a US hour. Or maybe they have Australian clients or the ones I see being the most successful are going to be the SaaS or E Commerce owners. They just don't have to worry about the hours or having meetings. You know, they're taking their time out of the day whenever they want in order to actually work. They're Obviously getting work done, but the time constraints just really not much of an issue. So it really comes down to productivity versus a lifestyle balance in Bali. So if anyone out there is thinking, you know, can I make Bali work? Is it. Is it something that I can do? And you have a 9 to 5, but you work remotely, you can absolutely do it. You just have to have the discipline. You have to figure out, you know, is my lifestyle truly going to be able to allow me to do that? You don't want to fly all the way over there, root your life, and then find out that it's just not going to work, and you end up losing your job. There is a tremendous amount of people where that's the case. They end up going to Bali and then they end up losing their job. Or if you're wanting this, like, start a business, I'd say, you know, it's a great place to go and do that, but you should probably have a business in mind already. So you should already maybe have started a business, gotten a few clients and got to the point where you can afford to feed yourself and you're going to Bali just to focus and live the lifestyle you want, I think then you can really figure out is, do I have the right productivity versus lifestyle balance. Another thing I wanted to bring up with living in Bali, Bali being a support of place for remote work, is the cost of living. It is obviously going to be much cheaper than any of these Western countries like us, Canada, Australia, uk. You're really going to enjoy, you know, the lower cost of living. But I'm going to say, like, the prices have definitely increased dramatically since COVID just over the last five years. In general, there's a lot of people moving there. And whenever that happens, us gringos end up moving, raising the prices ourselves just by being there, because people know they can charge us more and we're willing to pay. And what happens with that is, you know, places like Canggu, which is the big hub for digital nomads in Bali, like the prices for villas there are just going up and up and up. I read somewhere that it's around 15% over the last few years for villas. Just the cost of living is it's gone up around 15%.
But it is all about lifestyle. You don't have to get the big fancy villa. If you're willing to maybe live outside of Canggu, get a bike, ride it in, check out places like Uluwatu area or maybe up in Ubud.
There's a lot of places you can Live out in Bali. You can also just get a different place. You don't have to get the big baller villa. So there are still options. I will say that the cost of living is going up, so that is something to be aware about. Just know your budget and don't try to live like everyone else when you get there. Just know what your means are and try to live in them. But I don't think cost of living for the most part is an issue. What is an issue, I'd say for a lot of people is going to be understanding. Is there a community? Is there like a network for entrepreneurs? Am I going to have to meet all these people on the beach or at the bar or out surfing? Bali is one of those places where there's a ton of vacationers, right? And you're going to meet people that are only there like I was for a month. I experienced this in Playa del Carmen now, where you meet some people and they're gone in a few days. It almost feels pointless to meet new people when you're meeting them. But there are a lot of expats there full time in Bali. But you have to know where to meet them. And those networks and communities do exist. You know, there's. I feel like there's places that go from the Bali Time Chamber where it's. This is a temporary type of community. It's a men's only camp that you can go to and focus where you apply to go. You focus on your business and you cut out all the bullshit like drinking, drugs, alcohol, any of that and you just focus on your business and you have, you know, a gym there that's like one extreme. All the way to co working events, all the way to these gym like cultures I've seen over at Bali, like Nirvana Gym, for example. There's a ton of entrepreneurs that go to Nirvana Gym almost religiously. I've talked to some guys and it seemed like they were in a cult almost, but they're all business owners and you know, they go to this gym quite a bit and you know, they meet each other after that they do business. But there's a ton of, of different groups in Bali. So I'd say check mark for the different communities and networks that are available in Bali. You know, check mark on cost of living, check mark on the community and networks. So it's, I think it can absolutely support you there Regarding visas and like the logistics of going to Bali. Back in the day, there used to only be. I'm sure there was more than I was Aware. But there used to be like a visa on arrival situation where you arrive. If you know you're going to spend more than. I think it's like 30 days, then you need to go pay for this visa where you can get 60 to 180 days. So basically stay up to six months.
That still exists. But in today's world, there's a lot more options. You don't really have to do the visa runs, which if you don't know what a visa run is, it's essentially getting on a plane, leaving a country for a week or a few days and then coming back to reset your visa, which I know they are cracking down on. There are a lot more options these days, which I know there's like a multiple entry visa, so you do like 60 day sprints over one to three years. There's a remote worker visa, actually, it's up to a year, so you can. You don't have to leave the country for a full year. There's a second home visa and that's up to five to 10 years, but requires a big deposit. I think it's around like 130k that you have to put into an Indonesian bank account.
And then there's things like investor visas where I think you get up to one to two years and it's renewable. So there's a lot of different options.
They didn't really have that many a while ago. I think it's becoming a lot more conducive to remote work in regards to visas and like the logistics. So I'd say check mark there as well, especially if you are willing to do it legal, legally. I would really recommend that because they have all of these options, you do things proper that you make sure you're eligible, you meet all the requirements and you do get your visa. If all else fails, you know, you get your visa on arrival, go pay for it. I think it's like 95 countries are eligible for this visa on arrival that you have to go pay for. And you can stay up to 180 days. Totally worth it. Do things right. You don't want to wear out your welcome in Bali. And the Indonesian government, they rely on these tourist, these funds in order to make your life easier, be able to support you when you're there if there's an emergency. But more importantly, you know you're going to Bali to take advantage of an amazing culture and community. You want to give back, you want to pay your dues. I want to talk about the danger of chasing lifestyle before building an income this is really, really important. You need to not just move to a place like Bali or Mexico or Bangkok or Portugal or without knowing that you could support yourself. So if that means that you have these dreams of, you know, running your own business and living anywhere in the world, make sure you've started your business first. Make sure that you actually have income coming in. There's a lot of people who want to do it all at the same time. They don't want to wait. And I get it that Instagrams and the people out there doing it, it all makes the pressure so, you know, so intense. And you want to go do things now, but you're putting yourself at a lot of risk of, you know, not being able to support yourself, of having to put be behind on your plans. Maybe you had a legitimate purpose or legitimate goal of creating a business, but you jumped the gun too early and just because you wanted to travel and now you had to pick up a job you don't even like just to support yourself, I would recommend, you know, if you don't have, you know, it takes a while to start a business, so if you don't have one rocking and rolling income coming in, there's nothing wrong with picking up a remote job, one that's going to be able to feed you, pay the rent, you know, might not be lavish, but at least have one. And at the same time, you know, off hours, be building your business.
You can do that and in Bali, still network and go to these different communities and coworking events, meet other entrepreneurs in your spare time. And that's where you can, you know, get the advice that you need in order to build a business or heck, even gain clients. I will say that I've heard mixed reviews from people I know that have lived full time in Bali regarding the entrepreneur side of things. People saying, you know, it's a really small businesses, people that maybe like, aren't as serious about building a big business. And then I've met some other people who completely have a different opinion where they're, you know, rubbing shoulders with a lot of people making 500k a month and all these big businesses. So it really just depends on the crowd you're in. I think you're never going to know until you go for it. But regarding chasing the lifestyle before building an income, just a big, no, no, it's not worth it. Make sure you just at the very least get yourself a remote job where you can support yourself and then go and build something. But in probably the best, putting the best foot forward I would build something, get the income, build the career first and then go chase, you know, all the different adventures you want in Bali. I mean, I think that brings me to my next point of like, who is Bali great for? Bali is great for obviously there's going to be a younger crowd that appreciates Bali a lot more than I think the older crowd. And that's just because there's a lot of younger people in Bali. And I, when I say younger, I mean twenties to, to forties is typically the people you're going to see over in Bali. I don't see a lot of, you know, older businessmen in Bali and maybe that's because I'm not in places those guys would be. But I think it's really great for those entrepreneurs that are around, you know, 20 to 40, they like to travel in general, but they're not kind of tied down. So they don't, maybe they don't have, you know, a home or, you know, a ton of responsibilities. I think Bali is really good for the people that just don't have a lot of things that are kind of bringing them back to either the States or wherever you're from. Because it's a place that seems almost like a stepping stone and where you're going to meet a lot of like minded people and you're probably going to end up, you know, doing trips with these people and it's a little bit addictive. So if you have these like big goals of starting a family, I would know if you're going to Bali, you're probably going to put all those on hold. And I want to talk about who is it actually bad for? So Bali has so many different types of personalities coming in. And I'd say the clear and obvious one, if you're, if you're an asshole or just someone who just can't get along with other people, maybe you're not a social person. I would say Bali is not the greatest place for you. It is. It's a very social atmosphere, really friendly people and obviously just no assholes. Just don't go. Those who already have a job, I think, I know I've said before, you can get a remote job and you can go, but I think in a general role it's best to go to Bali. If you have an, if you are an entrepreneur, if you've already created your job and if you do have a job, I'm not saying you can't go. It's just a little bit harder for you just because of the working hours and obvious and you just want to go out and do things too.
And having a job and your responsibilities, you know, on a particular time, that makes it really difficult for you to enjoy Bali for what it is. These little side adventures, meeting people, going and doing these trips, socializing, it just becomes a little bit more tempting and you're going to lose that productivity versus lifestyle balance. And then next I would say anyone who has like an agency and servicing the US or US clients or just like the US time zone, it is really difficult for you to really make it work in Bali. I'm including myself in that. I've tried. It just is not working. And you know, I, I told you, I spent six months in, in the Philippines, which is similar time zone. It's actually a little worse and it's just not conducive long term. Unless I had a SaaS business or I, if I had an E commerce business, something where I just wasn't taking those calls. My personal take on volley for remote work. I think it's probably got its reputation for a goddamn good reason. It's gorgeous. It is conducive to, you know, a bunch of digital nomads building a business. There are some obvious conditions to that, you know, with the working hours, the Bing Asia time, but it has the communities, it has the visas to support you, the cost of living and it's just beautiful.
So in my opinion, it, it has a reputation for a reason. And I think it's absolutely one of the best places you can go as a remote worker. Let me know your thoughts if you've spent time in Bali, if you're thinking about going to Bali, would love to hear from you guys. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Alex Booth, Huckleberry, that's my company, Huckleberry Consulting. Reach out and let me know if you've been to Bali. If this episode. If you've listened to this episode and are considering the go and have any questions, would love to know your actual thoughts on this. Thank you all.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: Thanks for listening to Rich and Remote, where freedom isn't a dream, it's a decision.
This is Karla, this is Alex Booth, and this is our journey to our dream rich and remote life.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: If this episode inspired you, share with a friend who's ready to live life differently too. This is perfect for entrepreneurs who crave financial, financial freedom, location freedom and freedom from the opinions of others.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: And don't forget to leave a quick review. It helps more freedom seekers find this show. Big thanks to our sponsors, Huckleberry Consulting, GETCSM and proximity Outsourcing See you in the next episode.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: And check out our online hangout spot, richandremote.com.
