What Happens If You Sell Everything and Move to Vietnam?

What Happens If You Sell Everything and Move to Vietnam?

going all in. I was thinking if I’m going to leave Hawaii, I might as well go as far as I can go to Vietnam. So, I just really wanted that culture shock. Just go somewhere that I I don’t know anybody. Just like a fresh start to shifting your mindset to like I there’s no way I could do this to I think I can do this. The next step is probably like just being realistic like how much do you have saved up? Um I also like sold everything to I kind of like didn’t really give myself a backup. Hey, what’s up? I’m Evan. I’m Corey. Uh nice to meet you Cory. Welcome to the cost of living abroad, pod. Let’s just like jump right into it. Why take the leap? Why make the big move? Uh why did you leave the United States and home and come to Vietnam? I was born and raised in Hawaii uh for I lived there for about 30 maybe yeah like 32 years and for me like living on on such a small island I think it got too uh cramped for me and there was not that many job opportunities and I was looking for a way out for a long time. I was thinking of like just moving to the mainland of just trying anything really. But for so long I was kind of just stuck in the same place. I didn’t know how to leave. I didn’t maybe I was kind of afraid too. I was Yeah. I didn’t really know how to how to like get out of where I was. Your long-term plan like have you traveled elsewhere around Southeast Asia yet? Are you sort of like you got the Daang and you love it? When I was looking into living abroad, uh I did hear that there’s a bunch of digital nomad hotspots, right? Uh like Indonesia, Philippines. Uh, I’m not really sure exactly why I chose Vietnam, but originally everyone was telling me that I should just go to Japan because, well, I’m Japanese and uh, I speak some Japanese decently, but I think I just wanted to go somewhere that I’ve never been before because I’m just I was in my mind I was just so comfortable like being like in Hawaii, you know? uh just so used to seeing everything that I was already like that I knew. So I just really wanted that culture shock just go somewhere that I’ve I don’t know anybody. Maybe just like a fresh start. I guess one of the reasons why I took the job in in Vietnam was that I wanted the risk the challenge of going somewhere I’d never been. You know what if this is one of my last chances to really do that, right? To go somewhere totally new. People in North America don’t know much about Vietnam, right? other than the VQ communities, there’s not a lot of like broader knowledge about what it’s actually like here. Yeah. Now, yeah, let’s ship into that. What were some of the misconceptions or the stereotypes or the things you’d heard about Vietnam before you got here that you know, your experience on the ground and being here just kind of exploded or Yeah. I mean, when I first told my uh parents, they’re like, “Oh, but Vietnam is so dangerous. It’s like a third world country, you know, like maybe there’s no nothing there or I don’t I don’t really know.” And I didn’t know what to expect either. But I mean, just from what I saw in the YouTube videos and doing a little bit of research, I mean, I saw the statistics. It’s like, hey, actually Vietnam’s one of the safest countries in the world. So, I wasn’t too worried about that. But then also, yeah, everyone’s like, “But you don’t speak Vietnamese. You don’t know Vietnamese. How are you going to get around?” Yeah, I just kept digging, doing a little bit more research, and it seems like, yeah, there’s a big community of expats, and if you just join the Facebook groups beforehand, I think you can you can see you can talk to people who’s already lived there and see uh ask for advice, ask for tips. Facebook has a kind of different perception at home of what it’s for, how it’s used. But in Vietnam and other countries around Southeast Asia, it’s such an enormous like the community aspect through groups. Yeah. And then also like the marketplace and business aspect of it being like, you know, the equivalent of it’s like Craigslist. It is the Craigslist of of Asia, right? That it’s just like so actually when I was in America, I almost never use Facebook because yeah, I think yeah, just Americans don’t really use Facebook anymore. I’m not sure. But yeah, I joined I think it was just like I don’t know what the exact group name is, but just like expats in Daang or something like that. Then there’s like the housing renting apartments in Daang. Just seeing what’s out there. I think mostly though was watching YouTube videos and watching people walk around and like this costs a dollar. This, you know, yeah, you talked about it a bit off camera. The algorithm and the way the format of YouTube pushes certain certain things to the forefront and things that are like any legacy media that are attention grabbing, right? That are like headline headlines. But then there’s also the aspect of it that here is authentic, right? That you really can eat for a whole day in Vietnam on $10 or you really can go get a bowl of noodles for $1. Like it is not hard to find whatever a $200 apartment, a $500 apartment, $1,000 apartment. Tell me about finding your apartment, you know, getting your visa, getting your bank. Like the first day I got here, that was a culture shock for me. I mean, I was like, how do I even walk on the street? I mean, the the sidewalks are cracked, there’s motorbikes everywhere, and everyone’s honking. Yeah. That was like so much uh that’s like so much input, so much new input. Like I I wasn’t used to any of it. And I was I was a little like worried at the beginning. Yeah. Like like what did what did I just get myself into? But I promised myself like before I went I said I would live here for at least a year and like really give it a chance and see if I could, you know, make it out here. So I wasn’t going to give up. Literally the next day I met a bunch of other travelers cuz I was staying at a hostel. Yeah. And yeah, they were so cool. They And then we just started hanging out a lot. They were so comfortable here already. They they they’d been here for a while. And yeah, I saw that, wow, okay, foreigners can really, you know, um be comfortable here because actually, yeah, when I first came here, uh I had seen all the YouTube videos on scams. Yeah. Like, um they’re like, “Oh, if you have your phone in your hand, somebody’s going to rip it out of your hand.” But I guess that’s mostly other places not daang the motorbike snatch and grabs and stuff which are still are real like that does happen but yeah probably more on like Saigon or Cambodia non pen or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. When I first got here I would just like I’d had my phone and I’m just like trying to I’m trying to find out where to go where to even buy a bottle of water. I didn’t know what I was doing. And then after I met um the other travelers they’re like so chill. I was like okay I’m being way too paranoid. And yeah, it’s it’s very safe here. So, I didn’t have to worry at all after that. Like, one of the first things on my list was just finding a place. Yeah. So, how did you find the apartment? I had a hostel for a week. Um, then I spent a little too long playing around with my with my new found friends and so then I had to rent a Airbnb for another week and then search. And so, yeah, I just went on that Facebook group, housing, apartments, Daang. Uh, I made a post. I just said my budget is uh I I don’t know, probably like 10 million. Uh studio is fine. Uh like fully furnished, just like whatever basic stuff. And yeah, in like 5 minutes I have like 30 replies. Everyone’s reaching out. They’re like, “DM me, DM me.” And so yeah, I just went on a couple uh tours or I mean there’s a bunch of agents that just took me around to a couple places and uh I think yeah, you really have to make you have to go check it out in person because yeah, the pictures aren’t what it looks like. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. It’s worth living somewhere for a week or a couple weeks while you’re here looking around in person, you know, like the websites on Facebook help, but also like seeing what’s out there because our preconceived notions of the value, right? Like in your head, what you said 10 million, which is like 400 US bucks. What you think in your head $400 is worth. Yeah. Apple or wherever you’re coming from versus when you get around here and you see what like, oh, okay, I can rent that house for 500 bucks or like, oh, okay, this luxury place is still $1,000 because it’s a brand new condo targeting tourists or short-term stays or whatever, right? Like, um, so tell me about the apartment you found. Yeah, it’s exactly like you said. Uh, when I first got here, I didn’t really know the relative prices of anything. And at that time, I was still really scared. I just got there. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was afraid of getting ripped off. Basically, after going to enough places after, you know, and seeing the price of each place, then I kind of got like an idea. I think, like you said, it would have been really helpful to have maybe a guy who’s bilingual who can show you around. That would be that would have been ideal, but I just did it on my own. Um, yeah. And I ended up finding this uh this spot like right next to the beach. It’s it’s really nice. And yeah, it’s about uh 5 million. 5 million a month. Oh, so it was great. So you’re paying half your half your original budget to live right by the beach. So I was shocked. Yeah. Yeah. $5 million is like $200 US, right? Yes. Studio unit, a onebedroom. What’s the What’s the living situation? It’s a studio, but it’s actually really big. I mean, the ceilings are so high. Yeah. Yeah. And it it’s quite spacious. Like perfect for me, honestly. Yeah. It comes with free cleaning bi-weekly. That’s like completely unheard of. like at home. Yeah. Yeah. So, free cleaning. Um I I do pay for electricity and water, but water is like $3 a month. Electricity usually under it’s between like 30 and 40 a month, depends on how much AC I use. Maybe now that it’s getting hotter, I need to use uh the cost might go up. But yeah, no, I love that place. things that I think of as being extremely luxury at home. Things like having someone else clean for you, eating out all the time, and child care for me is a big one, right? Like at home, we would just have zero childare. Yeah. Like most kids in Vietnam start daycare at 18 months, right? And daycare is daycare is priced in a way here that like almost everyone can bring their kids to daycare, right? Whereas like That’s awesome. Yeah. At home, like that’s pretty rare, right? until you can get your kid in public school. So, what are some of the like things like the cultural gaps uh negative or positive? The sort of surprises about your life living abroad and like your life in Vietnam. Uh well, getting used to the traffic. I guess that’s like a big thing. That’s what everyone talks about. Yeah. Uh just like crossing the street and uh renting a motorbike. Uh, what shocks me is that it’s still like it’s like impossible to get a license as an American. So, everyone I guess is just ride and dirty. It’s funny. I was talking with someone about that yesterday. Yeah, it’s it’s very difficult to get any kind of real license. I had a Canadian friend come recently and he lives in Thailand. He’s not like a never left home kind of guy. Yeah. And the things that he expected when he got here, i.e. things you can get in Thailand, he was shocked. He couldn’t rent a car at the airport. Was confused in general that he wasn’t going to drive himself and his family everywhere. Yeah. How about the noise pollution in Vietnam? How has that affected you? Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of noise pollution. Uh the kadoke, the construction, like that is an issue. Uh I mean like sometimes I’ll wake up at like 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning and they’re already like hammering away. But, uh, I mean, if you have all your windows closed and you have earplugs, I feel like you can get used to it. It’s not too bad. Um, but yeah, getting used to the motorbike. Uh, when I first got here, I was using Grab for like the whole month, the whole first month. I was I was like too scared to drive or anything. Just I didn’t even know what I didn’t even know what the rules were of of the of of traffic. But, uh, yeah, after that first month, I eventually was like, “Okay, I got to learn how to drive at some point.” And, uh, yeah, I just rented a bike. Uh I talked to the rental person and she said like in her 10 years of renting out maybe like two people got pulled over ever that she knows of. And basically yeah you just have to follow the rules like don’t speed, don’t run red lights, always wear a helmet and there’s a pretty low chance of you getting pulled over at least in the city I think in the city of Daang because I mean all the police kind of know that you know all the foreigners are just Yeah, that’s interesting too. It’s hard those sort of like unspoken rules. There’s definitely a different vibe about driving in Daang and like yeah fully like there’s a t tacit understanding that tourists rent motorbikes and drive them here and it’s allowed uh like maybe the visa run thing right like a lot of people before they get here get the Southeast Asia in general don’t understand that there’s like a long and pretty accepted history of visa runs. I made like a video on like the border run stuff and everyone’s asking like is this legal? Yeah. But yeah, like yeah, you can just come go in and out. But I guess it’s cuz like Thailand doesn’t really allow that, right? You can’t It’s definitely changed. So yeah, like I can link an interview with my buddy Mike who lives in Kosamui, but he’s someone who did visa runs in Thailand for like seven or eight years. Oh, so you can Thailand now has a lot of different visa options, so they probably want you to use them. Ah, I see. You know what I mean? Like in other words, like now that they have a digital nomad visa, Yeah. They don’t want people doing border runs because they’re like, “No, apply for a digital nomad visa, pay for it.” Right? That makes sense. And you do have to wonder like once those visa options exist, maybe the visa runs will be phased out. I mean, even in the 6 years I’ve been here, especially in Saigon, I’ve seen motorcycle helmets really start being enforced. And then the other big one was drinking and driving. When I first got here, there were so many people so drunk on motorbikes all the time. Really? Yeah. And there’s still, and I’m talking about in Saigon, too, in really insane traffic. Uh, and there still is, but now it’s like there’s a big crackdown. I can’t remember when, 2020, 2021. And it was just sort of like FYI, if we catch you drunk driving from now on, we’re going to take your bike. And that that’s one of the ways that things are enforced here is like not a money fine or whatever, but like we’ll take your bike. And they they have trucks and they load the bikes onto the trucks. And for a lot of people, like their bike is their livelihood, right? It’s their job. It’s their freedom. It’s their commute for their whole family. So, it’s a it’s a real um I think that’s good. Yeah. To keep everyone accountable. And that’s one of the reasons why I chose Daang first because I saw that it wasn’t as crowded as Hanoi and Saigon. I was scared of the traffic there. And I think it’s really good to learn how to drive here cuz to me it’s it’s very safe. The only times I’ve ever heard of any of my friends getting pulled over, so I’ve never been pulled over, but any my friends only said that they’ve been pulled over when they’re doing like a road trip to like Hanoi or Huay or something. Yeah. You mentioned landing like having a soft landing first in a hostel and meeting people that way. How has social life been? Like obviously being sort of isolated or ostracized been one of the hardest parts about living abroad or expat life. So how have you found it actually? Yeah, it’s really easy to meet people here. I think there’s I mean yeah there’s so many Facebook groups uh so many social activities like uh I found like a chess group that plays at Mad Cafe every week. Um there’s like pickle ball groups, uh badminton. Yeah, basically anything you can think of. The only thing that I would say is I mean I’ve gotten used to like meeting people and then them leaving. So I’ve I’ve met so many people and then had to say goodbye. So I do feel like it’s rotate. It’s constantly rotating which means that yeah I have to keep finding new friends. Yeah, we’ve made lots of good friends and Dang, but then I also had a lot of them leave. Maybe not a struggle but it’s been a disappointment, right? It’s been disappointing to think like, oh, like, you know, we make friends with this family, our kids start playing together, and then they’re gone 3 months later, they’re gone 6 months later. Um, and it does sort of have that transient vibe. Yeah. Which maybe is just maybe that’s part of, you know, maybe it’s it is that place. It’s a tourist place. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, do you have thoughts of moving anywhere else in Vietnam or Southeast Asia then? Uh, I do want to explore Vietnam more now. So, I’ve been studying Vietnamese uh for the past like 9 months and now I think I’m getting a little better where I can maybe start venturing out and uh exploring more places and yeah, make more Vietnamese friends. How have you done that? What did you enroll at a school, study online, self-directed stuff or like Anki flashcards? Uh yeah, I did a little bit of all of those things. I started with Dualingo. Uh but then I quick when I came here, I quickly realized I didn’t know any of the tones. I didn’t know how to read it. I should have started with the very basics. Uh, but when I came here, I just went to uh like a Vietnamese school. It’s called Go Vietnamese in Antung. And yeah, so I have uh one-on-one lessons twice a week. And I thought that was that’s been very good for me. Has it like already changed your social experience here? Even just learning a little bit of Vietnamese. The language is really hard. Yeah. No I’m still struggling. And yeah, sometimes like recently I just went outside of the city. Like literally I drove 20 minutes outside the city. I was I went to a market and I couldn’t understand anything that the aunties were saying. I was like is this the same language? Like how is it like I went 20 20 minutes out and all of a sudden I don’t understand anything anymore. A lot of one of the things that I find insane is that or like so difficult is that almost everything you find online is Hanoi and Vietnamese, right? Duallingingo, all the online, all the YouTube, it’s almost all the traditional Hanoi and Viet. My entire experience was in Saigon. totally different. When we moved here last year, I was literally just like I wanted to like throw up my hands. Like I was like, “What the heck? I don’t understand.” And it was like so instant. It was like in the airport, you know? Like I was like, “Yeah.” So that’s the thing. When I Yeah. I was learning the Hanoi accent in Duolingo. And then when I came here, my teacher was like, “Okay, you got to you got to pick one accent to stick with.” And so I was like, “All right, well, if I’m going to be in Daang, I got to learn the Daang accent.” And so that’s when I stopped Duolingo. For the person watching at home, you know, they’re still worried about taking the leap. What’s some, you know, a couple basic tips, maybe two or three tips for that person who wants to live abroad for the first time? Well, I mean, the biggest thing for me, I think, was just, yeah, doing your research. I mean, uh, I just once I saw that first YouTube video, I think I got a little obsessed. And uh, yeah, the more and more you like do some research and kind of figure out like, hey, this might be possible. Like, I think I can do this. The more you get that in your head, like I can do this, I think that that’ll be that’s the first step to shifting your mindset to like I there’s no way I can do this to I think I can do this. Absolutely. I’m going to make this work. The mental blocks are real and they’re personal. Yes. Okay. And what about that? What’s the next step after getting over the mental block? The next step is probably like just being realistic like how much do you have saved up? So, I mean at that point I was Yeah, I was just trying to save up all my money. Um I also like sold everything too. So, uh, I kind of like didn’t really give myself a backup. I was just like, “All right, I’m going all in. I might as well because like if I’m going to I was thinking if I’m going to leave Hawaii, I might as well go as far as I can go to Vietnam.

✈️ Moving to Vietnam? Watch my 60m starter class first →
👉https://www.costoflivingabroad.com/offers/anCu4L3a

Moving to Asia? Or want more videos? Subscribe to my newsletter https://www.costoflivingabroad.com/newsletter

In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod @costoflivingabroad we compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam.

Follow Corey on: https://www.instagram.com/adventure.khoi/

Full episodes available on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@costoflivingabroad

WATCH MORE VIDEOS:
20 Reasons Not to Retire in Vietnam https://youtu.be/JmkBaOP068E?si=S_BsmeUw40hB9uG4
Best Place to Retire in 2025 https://youtu.be/g9R9xgC_fu8?si=W4NDpZuqku6mh5OZ
Life in Vietnam on $500 https://youtu.be/R4G73dVNAug
If Not Thailand, Where to Retire? https://youtu.be/N-OcJK0mnb4?si=JkAJlKfh4zl2sxB4

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC224bB24ee43tWYpaD6QWkQ/join

Cost of Living Abroad Podcast interviews: https://youtu.be/AoK0w44GQNQ

🎧 Prefer to Listen?
Subscribe to the podcast version on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZEKcjfJp6sgYfjKhS97I5
Leave a review — it helps more than you think.

💼 Tools & Services I Actually Use (Affiliate Links):

SafetyWing Insurance for Nomads & Expats:
https://safetywing.com/?referenceID=26268054&utm_source=26268054&utm_medium=Ambassador

Transfer your money instantly from home to Asia with Wise:
https://wise.prf.hn/click/camref:1100l4cqgP

Buy, send and receive your Bitcoin, Defi and Crypto safely on Coinbase:
https://coinbase-consumer.sjv.io/xLqLzA

Protect Your Privacy and Data Abroad with a VPN
NordVPN: https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c?offer_id=15&aff_id=122487&url_id=902

Book Hotels in Vietnam
Expedia Vietnam: https://shorturl.at/WKzk2
Trip.com: https://trip.prf.hn/click/camref:1011l4hHv9/creativeref:1101l133638

Get TEFL Certified to Teach English
Online TEFL Course (Ninja Teacher): https://academy.ninjateacher.com/p/online-tesol-tefl-course?affcode=217387_moopg3vo
In-Person Course in Ho Chi Minh City: https://academy.ninjateacher.com/p/vietnam-tesol-tefl-course?affcode=217387_moopg3vo

Find the Cheapest Flights
Skyscanner: https://skyscanner.pxf.io/GKQJzV
AirAsia Move App: https://airasia.prf.hn/click/camref:1101l575Cq/creativeref:1100l135049

📬 Questions about moving abroad? If you’re serious about living abroad, check out my full course, membership and resources: https://www.costoflivingabroad.com
— visas, budget templates, digital income, and more.

📰 Join my newsletter for expat tips, travel hacks, and relocation advice:
https://costoflivingabroad.com/newsletter

🎧 Prefer to Listen?
Subscribe to the podcast version on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZEKcjfJp6sgYfjKhS97I5
Leave a review — it helps more than you think.

Thanks for watching — don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share if this helped you!