Josh (00:30.326)
Dallas, I'm looking forward to jumping into this as we're going to talk about the three pillars to successfully transitioning or living internationally, if you will. Okay, let's get this out of the way. So your name is David, but you go by Dallas. Okay.

Dally (00:49.457)
Hehehe

Dally (00:53.141)
I go by Dallas and that was inspired in my teen years. Two of my books that I love to read and inspire me were Dallas Winston from The Outsiders and Winston Smith from 1984. So I go by Dallas.

Josh (01:12.082)
Nice, what a throwback. I haven't thought about the outsiders in forever. Nice. Okay, so you moved to Portugal and you did it at a time when maybe Portugal was less popular among people to move to back in 2016. Can you tell us what that process was like and kind of why you chose Portugal?

Dally (01:14.542)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Dally (01:29.221)
Yeah.

Dally (01:34.137)
It was totally happenstance. My sister's exchange student, she had many exchange students. She had an exchange student named Vasco and I was getting to know him. And I ended up turning into his kind of like funcle, his fake uncle, fun uncle. And we would hang out quite a bit. And, you know, when we first met, I said, okay, so where are you from? And he said, I'm from Lisbon. I'm like, Lisbon, where's Lisbon? I said, is that a country? Is that like a, where's that? He says that's in Portugal. I said, oh, Spain. And.

You got to really be careful. I always thought that was funny. I thought that was funny to say that to Portuguese people, but they actually find it insulting. I'm laughing at myself of being ignorant. That's how I learned a little bit about Portugal and Lisbon. Then we did the Google Maps and he educated me. He said, hey, if you're ever in Europe, come on down. You're welcome. Our home is your home. I was traveling through Europe and I just spun down to zip down to Portugal and fell in love with it.

Josh (02:04.526)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Josh (02:11.598)
Sure.

Josh (02:30.086)
Nice. And that was 2016, right? What was the process as you started to move towards residency, because you did it in a pretty unconventional way, especially at the time.

Dally (02:32.521)
Mm-hmm. Yes, correct.

Dally (02:41.513)
Correct. I'm kind of a rule breaker and I kind of bend the rules a little bit. And I did everything from Portugal. I pretty much once I was there for a week in my first visit, I'm like, okay, this is my next home. And I went back to the States and started a closing shop and getting fired from my job and then started transitioning and moving over to Portugal. So I did it pretty quick and pretty fast. And I have been in this unintended...

Josh (02:53.174)
Yeah.

Dally (03:09.773)
transformative process of minimizing and shutting stuff down. I knew something in my life as I was getting into my 50s and looking at my sucky career and everything else. I knew something had to change and was going to change, and that was part of my journey through Europe in 2016. I knew something was happening, something was going to change, and that finally was just like the aha moment. Okay, this is it. I'm moving to Portugal.

I knew very little bit about Portugal before I did it. I did it before, in my opinion, it was really cool to do it. So, yeah, well, no, I'm sorry. Before it was, yes, it was, I did it before it was cool to do it. That's, I guess, what I'm saying.

Josh (03:45.07)
It's still cool to do it.

Josh (03:53.986)
Got it. Got it, yes, okay. So what was happening in the States at the time when you decided to make the move? Like what was going on kind of internally and externally?

Dally (04:05.809)
You know, that was way before COVID and stuff, really not a whole lot. What I realized is for me, I was really getting stuck with, you know, being a creator and being innovative in the States. I felt like it was, it was harder for me to do that and, and to, to build something without a lot of regulations and limitations and banking and.

Josh (04:29.176)
Hehehe

Josh (04:32.663)
Yes.

Dally (04:34.377)
There were so many things that were just, and that was part of the reason why I also changed my residency to South Dakota. I was in a state where it was very oppressive for small businesses and regulations and taxes and so forth. And then that's when I moved my residency to South Dakota to open up my options. That's even before I knew I was going to be going international. So I think that's part of it. But really, the parts of the country in America that I really was falling in love with, I

Josh (04:43.428)
Hmm.

Josh (04:57.614)
Okay.

Dally (05:05.301)
like Southern California. I had spent some time there and I didn't live there, but I spent some time there. I was like, I would love to live here, but I knew I couldn't afford it. I was too late to the party for Southern California. So I knew I couldn't live there. Then when I visited Portugal, I'm like, this checks off all the boxes. It's like Southern California. It's like San Diego. It's like North County.

Josh (05:16.287)
Hmm.

Josh (05:19.519)
Right.

Dally (05:33.487)
at a quarter fraction of the price. You know, so it's like, this is my new home.

Josh (05:38.482)
Nice. Okay. So you started your residency process in 2017, but you're not, uh, you're not a citizen yet. So you haven't, you've, you've lived in Portugal for five years, but what's, what's happened in there? Okay.

Dally (05:50.117)
Yeah, yeah. I had a couple false starts, just meeting time. I'm not much of a, at the time I wasn't much of a taskmaster and it was a little too overwhelming for me to check off all the boxes. And at the same time, I was what's called a stealth digital nomad. I was working full time for a, you know, in the US remote, you know, under the radar. And so that takes a lot of your time and I would start the process and I'd miss a deadline or you know,

some of the documents would expire, I wouldn't get an appointment. So it took a couple false starts to finally get the process going and moving. And then I also had to build some connections at the consulate in DC that this was back before VFS when you could actually have a conversation with a person in the consulate. And so they helped me. Yeah, based by a decision maker, exactament. And so...

Josh (06:37.505)
Right.

person in power, right? Yeah.

Dally (06:47.285)
It took a little while to do that. I finally just said, I got to do this. I have to get this done. It's just, it's going to take too long. So, um, I just then finally worked through the tasks and got it done.

Josh (06:59.31)
Okay, fantastic. All right, let's jump into this three-legged stool, if you will, for someone to successfully move internationally and live internationally.

Dally (07:10.821)
Yeah, yeah. So first of all, I didn't invent this three-legged stool. I'm paraphrasing from other, you know, kind of health and wellness coaches and guides and stuff like that. And in other philosophies, typically in fitness and in health and well-being, they talk about the three-legged stool. And if one of those legs are missing, you know, you're going to fall over. Or if one's shorter than the other ones, you're going to wobble. Or if one's longer than the others, you know, you're going to wobble and possibly fall over. So that's really, you know, how I kind of fit this into the three-legged stool because it fits to the three primary

Josh (07:29.047)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dally (07:40.941)
pillars that I have found in working with clients and from my own experiences and friends, international friends that are really important for moving international.

Josh (07:52.91)
Let's talk about them. What's the first one?

Dally (07:55.021)
Okay, the first one, and this is almost under the same realm of when you are, you're stranded on a deserted island or something like that. What are the three things that you need to focus on? You know, your priorities are going to be shelter, water, and food. And these kind of fit in line with this. It is, it really is. And so that this, so in my opinion, the first is financial awareness and being technical savvy with your finances.

Josh (08:06.976)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (08:10.89)
Yeah. Like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Yeah.

Josh (08:24.48)
Okay.

Dally (08:25.217)
It's really important to understand your banking, understand how to move money quickly and efficiently. And what's really important is you have to have multiple paths and sources of senders and receivers for your money. You can't just have one tried and true way you do things and then count on that all the time. And my son is a recon.

in the Marines and he fought in Helmand province in Afghanistan. He taught me two is one, one is none. They were out in the field of the whatever six, seven, eight, nine months he was there. They were out in the field 95% of the time. They had to carry on their back everything. He said two is one, one is none. If you only have one of something, when that breaks, you have nothing. So if you have one path, if you have one big bank you work with, if you have one path of moving your money around.

Josh (08:58.882)
Hmm.

Josh (09:18.999)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (09:21.293)
and that fails, and Murphy's Law is going to kick in, it's going to fail when you need it the most, you're dead in the water. So I think that's really important to understand the multiple paths and learning how to set them up, building relationships with other banks, and having resources available. So if one of those paths gets blocked or locked out, you have other options. You're not freaking out.

Josh (09:26.978)
Sure.

Josh (09:47.546)
I totally agree with that. I mean, I actually just had this happen in the past 24 hours. So I've got like a little story to tell, a little story time. So my sister wants to visit London, and Kaylee and I have a friend that's in London that we actually just stayed with. And when our friend isn't in London, she typically rents her place out on Airbnb. Well, to kind of go off platform, I asked her if it would be okay if my little sister stayed there and she could, you know, pay whatever the fee.

Dally (09:52.438)
Uh huh.

Josh (10:16.71)
is anyways, they were having a difficulty because they were off platform paying. Right. So I asked my friend, like, is it okay if my little sister transfers you money? My little sister doesn't know how to do international transfer. Right. Then it's a matter of, uh, well, okay. My friend has an American brain bank account because she's British American. So it's like, okay. But my little sister still doesn't know she's 22. She's never done a transfer. She's only then mode.

age group that knows how to Venmo doesn't even know what Zelle is, although Zelle is growing in popularity in the States. So it got to a point where I went back to our British American friend and I said, do you have Zelle? She's like, well, I have a Bank of America account. I said, great, they have Zelle. So she goes to log in to set up her Zelle account after Kaylee and I do a test transfer of a dollar, which she wasn't able to receive it because she doesn't have an account yet. And

Dally (11:12.745)
Thanks for watching!

Josh (11:14.462)
And we go through this process of helping her try to set this up. And she's, she's really struggling with the tech side of it. And it's, it's frustrating her. I can tell. So I just said to her, how about, um, I wise you some money. So using like transferring on wise used to be called transfer wise. It was like, how about I send you the money the same way we did before when, uh, when we needed to transfer her money. And she said, uh, that would be great.

Like please save me the trouble. She doesn't use Venmo, doesn't have Zelle. So in the end, like I had my little sister Venmo me money, which I can put into my American bank account. So she sent me USD. And then I had to ask my friend, do you want this in pounds or euros? What works better for you? Cause she hasn't opened up a USD wallet. So it was this whole mess where we ended up using three different platforms and three different currencies.

Dally (12:05.649)
Hehehe

Josh (12:13.334)
But without, without having the use of, of that, of the different types of financial institutions, we might not have gotten this done in 24 hours. It might've taken longer. So a bit, a bit of a mess, but I totally agree with you. I think being able to have multiple avenues of, of transferring money, especially when you're living abroad is so darn important.

Dally (12:35.321)
It is. It is your lifeline. Your access to your funds, your money is your lifeline. And if that gets blocked and if you've got, if you can't get into your Chase account, I call it chase me away. And, and you call technical support or support and you're talking to a Susan in the Philippines and you're talking to Robert in India and they can't help you because they're telling you, your, your account has been flagged for fraud and you to go to, you know, you need to go to the nearest branch.

Josh (13:02.338)
Branch.

Dally (13:03.405)
and present identification to open your account, and you're explaining to them up and down, and they don't care, and they can't help you because they just got this script. You're screwed. You are absolutely, you are dead in the water. And I'm telling you, it happened to me, and it's happened to several other people I know.

Josh (13:14.465)
Yep.

Josh (13:21.278)
It happened to a friend of ours in Singapore. He was locked out of his account for 18 months because Singapore's a long way away from the US and he couldn't get back to a local branch to provide that ID. There was nothing he could do, so.

Dally (13:31.965)
No, no, they don't care. I mean, for good reason, but at the same time. So yeah, so that's very important. But I think I jumped a little bit ahead of the gun, maybe a little bit on the priority of the order. And really, I think financial awareness is really important and really understand. You don't need to move international, you know, being a multi, you know, having $5 million in the bank or whatever. You can be at any, you know, any resource level of financial status. You just need to understand.

Josh (13:44.654)
Sure.

Josh (13:48.468)
Hmm.

Dally (14:00.689)
what you have and what your limitations are or what you can budget. You need an expert to help you, a financial expert that can help you. Don't be intimidated by, oh, I'm going to have to pay thousands of dollars for this. No, you can have it done for hundreds of dollars, I'm sure. Talk to a financial expert or a financial planner to say, okay, when I hit my social security, what am I at? What is my Medicare going to cost me? What is this? What about this 401k?

Josh (14:02.881)
Yeah.

Josh (14:16.578)
Mm.

Dally (14:30.397)
How is this best applied to pay this out and blah, blah. And someone like Green Ocean, the great resource for people, especially in Portugal, because John knows who he lives here. Well, there. I'm not there right now. So he understands the incident.

Josh (14:47.181)
Hm-hm.

Yeah, he lives in Lisbon.

Dally (14:51.033)
Yeah, he understands the ins and outs and the challenges of what you need for a deposit on a house or what kind of free income do you need readily accessible to secure housing and stuff, which is going to be one of the other steps, but other pillars. But yeah, so it's very important to understand and really grasp it. You think you may have an idea, you have a general idea, and you may not know in the next five, 10 years as you get to a retirement age or whatever what you have. And it's really important to understand.

Josh (15:05.599)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (15:20.737)
what you can afford and where you want to be. I had a client, Alice, she was absolutely awesome. And she said to me when she was in Lisbon, kind of deciding she was on a scouting trip, and she said, you know, she was talking about, you know, her financial status. And when she, she's coming to retirement age, and she's planning, and she said to me, she goes, if only I knew what year I was going to die, I wouldn't know how much money I could spend.

Josh (15:47.927)
Right?

Dally (15:49.762)
And those are some critical questions you need to understand and know. What's your burn rate on your finances? So those are very important.

Josh (16:00.21)
Yeah, I mean, I think what you brought up and what I heard is kind of the pre-planning needed in this financial awareness component. So it's not just about arriving here and knowing how the systems work, but there's a little bit of prep work that can be done that'll help set you up for success. Before you arrive, if you do that kind of pre-planning, yeah, you won't be blindsided with something that you hadn't considered financially.

Dally (16:12.709)
Absolutely.

Dally (16:20.07)
Yes.

Dally (16:26.853)
Yeah, yes. And when I do consultations with clients, I ask every one of them, especially when they're in their 50s and 60s, do you have a financial plan? Do you understand your financial well-being?

And they'll typically say, yeah, I got a financial manager, a financial planner here in my home state or my home city, but they're not international. They may be. You really need to have an inner, someone that understands international, someone who understands someone like a green ocean or some of your other, I've talked to some of your other resources that you guys have on your website as well. And you really need to understand people that have the big picture, that know the big picture.

Josh (16:50.902)
Yep, that's different.

Josh (17:10.174)
Yeah. Yep. Generally knowing the big picture comes with experience, uh, living the big picture, which John does. Um, our tax, the us tax guy, Steven does, uh, cool. So we talked about, um, multiple accounts pathways for, for transfers for, for moving money around. Um, what else kind of in this realm, what about like, um, authentication apps or, or OTPs, because that's a major headache.

Dally (17:14.765)
Exactly. Yep. Yes.

Yes.

Dally (17:28.041)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (17:34.214)
Yeah. Oh, boy. You go, oh, huge. Yeah, yes. And there's not many banks that offer the two-factor authentication apps, but if you can find one, use it. Because if you're relying on an SMS from a US number, you're really going to be eliminated. You got to do a lot of planning. And typically what happens...

Josh, people do their US phone number strategy like a week before they move. They should be doing that at least three months before they move. They need to move things over to Google Voice or whatever they plan. They need to start testing it and validating it. What works? What doesn't work? And come up with a mitigation plan. People are like, oh, especially Americans, we're so focused on this one number we've had since my first cell phone in 1997. And it's like to give up it.

Josh (18:23.978)
It's hard to give up.

Dally (18:24.865)
It is. And to move it over to trusting Google Voice and say, well, how's people going to call me on my phone if it's in Google Voice? We'll get used to it. You're going to have to get used to people calling you in Google Voice when you're in Portugal or wherever. You might as well do it now. Do it now. So get the kinks out of it before you move, because I can't tell you how many clients I have that move and then they change over to Google Voice and it says, oh, we need to authenticate your real number to your real phone, but you can't because you're international. And they lose their number.

Josh (18:36.944)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (18:53.046)
Yeah. I remember the first time Kaylee and I, well, I, I guess it wasn't Kaylee, but when Kaylee and I moved abroad, I remember the first time giving up my, my number and uh, it was, it was hard at first and a little scary. I mean, and I was only, you know, my mid twenties. So I didn't have that many contacts or that many people that, that knew the number. So I can only imagine someone in their, their fifties and sixties doing that. Um, I feel for people. However, I will say it wasn't that bad. Like,

Dally (19:14.629)
Yeah. Yep.

Josh (19:21.83)
I thought that I would just become disconnected from everyone. And this was really a time before, before Facebook was, was what it is now. Um, but you know, Facebook is how I've reconnected with plenty of people, uh, for better or worse.

Dally (19:34.953)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely.

Josh (19:38.953)
So you also talk about this component of like knowing your banker. Why do you find that to be important?

Dally (19:42.417)
Oh, huge. So huge. So we yeah, sorry to cut you off, Josh, but that's really that's near and dear to my heart. Know your banker and you can know your banker even like if you're with chase me away, or with if you're with I have another nicknames for the big banks, you can always go to a branch. Yeah, but I don't have a good name and nickname for them because actually Bank of America is not bad. They actually do pretty good with international folks and but with chase me away.

Josh (19:47.978)
You're fine.

Josh (20:02.359)
Bank of America.

Okay.

Dally (20:12.557)
They, you know, go to your branch. If you really insist on not having them in your portfolio, that's fine. Um, but go to your local branch and get to know a manager and tell them your story. Tell them you're going to start traveling and spending. Don't maybe don't say you're moving to Portugal. Say you're, say you're spending years. You're going to be spending summers in Portugal. And, you know, if you have any problems with your banking, can I call you and, and share your story and people love to live vicariously through us.

Josh (20:22.382)
Hmm.

Josh (20:27.944)
Moving a prawn.

Dally (20:41.625)
international adventurers. They love it. And you get to get a name and an email and a phone number. So when you have a problem and Robert in the Philippines or Susan in India can't help you, then you call that person and they'll probably be able to cut through all the riff raff and help you out. But really, I prefer regional and community banks. I support local banking.

Josh (20:44.122)
Hmm.

Josh (21:05.035)
Okay.

Dally (21:07.313)
And there's been a little bit of upset with that, you know, in earlier this year with the banking crisis on middle, mid-sized banks. But I really believe in getting to supporting local banking and supporting, you know, it can even be regional banking and also credit unions, big, and get, you know, give building relationships to people and be able to call, you know, actually call Susan in support and she can look up your account and she can say, oh yeah, no problem.

Josh (21:14.315)
Yes.

Josh (21:33.963)
That's it.

Dally (21:37.165)
Okay, yeah, I got it. You're taken care of, you know?

Josh (21:40.914)
We have a mortgage with a small bank, a local bank for one of the rental properties that we have. And Kaylee absolutely loves it. And it's funny because the tech that the company uses is as good, if not better, than the tech that any of the big companies use. And the two factor authentication allows for emails as opposed to phone numbers. So like we can always get logged in as opposed to having to send the code to my sister.

Dally (21:44.789)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (22:04.477)
Yep.

Josh (22:10.418)
or Kaylee's mom so that we can access our bank accounts, which by the way, for the listener, those are possible hacks if you don't mind using family members. It's not the most convenient, but it works. As long as you're asking for that code at a waking hour, because there is gonna be a five to what, seven, eight hour time difference depending on the time of year. Yeah.

Dally (22:10.485)
Mm-hmm. Hehehehe.

Dally (22:17.681)
Yes.

Dally (22:23.037)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, that's the challenge.

Dally (22:35.741)
Yeah.

Josh (22:36.542)
Okay, so you talked about the local and regional banking and that's for the US, but I'm wondering, what do you recommend for people that are coming to Portugal and learning things like Multibanco or MBWA?

Dally (22:39.986)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (22:44.57)
Oh boy.

Yeah, that's a big one too, because so many people that are moving to Portugal, they're stuck in this, oh, I need to maximize my Charles Schwab with my zero fees and my great conversion. And so they do everything on their Charles Schwab card, which when you're in the touristic areas is fine, they'll accept it. But once you get out of the tourist areas, let's say you meet some locals or some people in the international community, they're going to bring you to a local.

place that nobody knows about and they're going to show you an amazing Portuguese meal and you say to them, hey, don't worry about it. I got this. Thank you so much. You pull out that Charles Schwab card, you will get the stink eye from the restaurant owner and they'll roll their eyes and they'll say, tourists, get out of here, you know, locals only. And then you'll feel all stupid and silly and you're like, oh my geez, I think I got my debit card for Novo Banka, but I've never used it. It's at home. I don't even know how to use it or what to do with it.

Josh (23:44.606)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the same exists for American Express. I mean, I know American Express has a great point system. Kaylee and I use it when we can, mainly for larger purchases. But there are a lot of places that don't accept American Express. So you have to be prepared for that and use a debit card that's either tied to MasterCard or Visa.

Dally (23:50.866)
Yes.

Dally (23:56.849)
Right. No.

Dally (24:07.109)
Yeah, and in many places, Josh, they won't even accept if it's not a Portuguese bank account. Yep, and then they have less fees associated when you use it, especially if you're using it as a debit and so forth. Some places are using MB way more, the soft purchase. I think really it's important because you're going to start paying your bills, your utility bills and stuff.

Josh (24:11.498)
Portuguese bank, that's right, that's right. The systems are different.

Josh (24:18.37)
Fees.

Josh (24:26.259)
Yeah. Yes.

Dally (24:35.261)
on your online banking and you can just, you know, people are like, oh, I got to go down to the so and so, the citizen store and I got to pay my gas bill and the lines. I'm like, no, go to online banking. You can do it in like three seconds and it's the same process for every bill. That's what I love about banking in Portugal. Banking in Portugal is like light years ahead of the US, light years. And

Josh (24:36.888)
Heh heh.

Josh (24:53.833)
Hmm.

Josh (24:57.624)
Hmm.

Dally (24:59.589)
be able to go in there and or go into your online banking and pay any bill, pay any person with just their e-bon number, it's really important for people to understand and learn that. Don't wait until you need it because then you're going to be muddling and you're going to be frustrated and you're going to be stressed. Start doing it right away.

Josh (25:17.57)
Totally agree. Okay, so have we taken care of kind of the first leg, which is financial awareness, kind of tech savvy? Okay, let's move on to the second one.

Dally (25:23.097)
I think so. I think so, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, stable housing. My, this is my specialty and my wheelhouse. So I talked to so many people, Josh, that they don't have stable housing. They don't have a long-term plan, a secure, maybe the right word would be secure housing. You know, they have a hard time locking into a lease or it's maybe, I have one situation where it's more of a friend than a client. I call them a fly-ent.

Josh (25:31.39)
Your wheelhouse. Yeah.

Dally (25:52.965)
where they got a lease in a place, it was hard to get a lease in the area that they were looking to live, and they got a lease in a place, and it was kind of like an off-market lease, kind of a gray market lease, where it was like, I'll tell you what, you can live here without finanches for X amount a month, but for two weeks in July, my family comes into town and you need to move out. And they're like, hey, no problem, we'll go to the Algarve, we'll do our vacations during those two weeks. Well, now that two weeks has turned into two months.

Josh (26:23.884)
Oh.

Dally (26:24.409)
You know, and so it's like when you don't have secure housing and how it can really change and affect, you know, how, you know, you are going to some people are can some people fly like me fly by the seat of their pants, but there's a lot of people they need that stability of a place that they call home. And it is harder and harder and people I see so often just people on a, you know, on a limited budget or, you know, whether they don't have the money or don't want to spend the money.

Josh (26:40.142)
Sure.

Dally (26:53.265)
come to Portugal and they're like, oh, I'm just going to Airbnb it. I went on Airbnb and I did a couple of searches and I get a place $30 a night, 30 euro a night, no problem. They don't go through the whole process nor do they go check out the Airbnb prices during the peak times. So they come here thinking they're going to spend 30 euro a night with their dog. And then they start really locking into like, oh my gosh, I'm paying 60, 70, 80 a night and fees for a dog and cleaning fees and blah, blah.

And they're like, I can't afford this. I can't, I can't afford to do, or I can't, you know, living with somebody with a flatmate and sharing a bathroom is driving me crazy. You know, I can't do this.

Josh (27:32.33)
Right. We noticed a lot of that happening when we first moved, because we moved during the pandemic. So like 2020, 2021, the prices on Airbnb because tourism was so low. And, and, you know, Airbnb is a platform where people take advantage of dynamic pricing. So when it's low season, the prices drop when it's high season, the prices balloon and, and people, I think started to get comfortable with

Dally (27:39.569)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (27:51.058)
Yes.

Josh (28:00.286)
low prices, you know, you could Airbnb a place for, you know, 20, 30 a night. And then everything changed. And now it's, you know, a hundred euros, 150 euros for the same exact place.

Dally (28:05.342)
Right.

Dally (28:13.437)
Yep. Yeah, it's, it's great. I mean, I, I do. And I see like in the Azores, I see places in the summer going 100 a night. You can't find anything under 100 a night. And it's just, it's like, what? Yeah. And, and maybe people maybe do their analysis early in the game and they're like, oh, this is easy. This is affordable. And then they don't check again. And then, then they're, they're firming up their trip and they start checking and they're like, um, oh, I got a problem here. This is going to be really expensive.

Josh (28:16.13)
That's rough.

Josh (28:26.367)
Yeah, yeah.

Josh (28:43.07)
Yeah, for sure. Well, it's definitely growing an expense for places like Lisbon and Porto that have become much more popular for people to live, not just foreigners, but for locals as well, wanting to be in the cities where there's opportunities. People can still go out to the more rural areas and find places for rents that are really cheap by American standards.

Dally (29:01.395)
Yes.

Josh (29:09.558)
But in general, those aren't the places people want to end up, right? Because they end up isolated.

Dally (29:12.518)
No.

They do. And we'll get to that in the third pillar about isolation and building community. But you're right. People do. They end up doing that. And they think, well, I'm going to move into an isolated area, or maybe I'm going to move to the silver coast on a smaller village just outside of the popular areas and get a much lower rent price. But then they're dealing with isolation and not building community. You know, it's a challenge for most.

Josh (29:34.882)
Yeah.

Josh (29:41.662)
Yeah.

Dally (29:43.405)
Some are like it. Some are like, hey, I don't like people. You know, I want to be alone. Or I want to be just... You have to know yourself. Yes.

Josh (29:46.258)
Yeah, yeah, you have to know yourself, right? If that's your type of personality. So a part of stable housing, would you also consider like the quality of construction part of that pillar? Like in terms of heating and cooling and, and the electrical grade because sometimes you could have your kettle on and your microwave on and then your power goes out.

Dally (29:57.938)
Ah ha ha.

Dally (30:04.895)
Oh my gosh.

Dally (30:09.917)
I have a property like that and it's an education process every time a new client comes into there where after you take a shower, you can't turn on the stove and the microwave at the same time and reheat the water because you're going to blow a breaker. This is a newer apartment, so yes, that is a big part of it. I think the biggest thing is air conditioning in Lisbon. I can't speak for Porto. I think you're probably okay up in Porto.

Josh (30:35.252)
Okay.

Dally (30:38.673)
People who say, ah, my landlord says I don't need air conditioning. I asked about it, but she said, nobody has air conditioning in Lisbon. I guarantee as an international, you will have a few weeks that will feel like a few months of miserable living if you don't have air conditioning. And the biggest thing is it's not necessarily the temperature of the air, but it is the freshness, the staleness of the air, be able to turn on an air conditioner and just...

Josh (31:01.963)
Yes.

Dally (31:06.609)
If you freshen up the air for a little while, it makes a huge, huge difference. And I tell everybody that asks my opinion and most often when they don't ask my opinion, I tell them, you need air conditioning. You need air conditioning if you're in Lisbon, especially if you're away from the Taggish. If you're away from the ocean, you should have air conditioning, especially at the prices that internationals are paying for their rent. And you really need to look at a unit that has air conditioning.

Josh (31:34.922)
Nice. Okay. So we've talked about financial awareness as pillar one and pillar two being stable housing, anything else about that before you go on to the third? Sure.

Dally (31:38.439)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (31:43.725)
Yeah, if we have time, I'd like to talk a little bit about really important about idealista and building relationships with people and stuff. So too many people get hung up on idealista being their holy grail for finding a problem. And that is the worst strategy. That's like your buddy or your family member who's between jobs for eight months and they complain because every day they spend three hours filling out online applications, but nobody ever calls them back.

Josh (31:48.832)
Okay.

Josh (31:56.109)
Okay.

Dally (32:12.333)
And then you ask them, like, do you go volunteer with your professional expertise? Do you share your expertise in a volunteer? Do you go network with people? Do you go meet with hiring managers? Do you network with your ex colleagues? Do you do anything? No, I don't do it. I just go online. And that's the same with Idealista. Yes. And you're dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of applicants.

Josh (32:33.694)
One dimensional.

Dally (32:41.877)
And all of them are flakes that, you know, I want to view your listing. I want to view your listing. And most of these property owners, they look at 1% of them, maybe 10% of them, because there's so many and they're all the same generic request. And they're like, no, I'll reach out to this person. They'll never contact me back. So, you know, forget that. So really, Idealish is a tool to understand the market, what's in demand.

You know, what's out there, what are the prices, what's going on with the prices? Maybe you can reach out to a couple, but be very personal. Build a good profile, include a picture, include a little story in your inquiry. Don't do the automated requests. Nobody looks at those because they get hundreds of them. But really what you need to do is build relationships with both internationals and locals in your communities. And the best strategy I tell people is your accommodations will find you.

Because some, you build relationships with people, you go to the networking events, you go to the Facebook group events, you are open and friendly and you're building relationships with people, you are helping other people when you don't need something in return, you're not being transactional. And someone's gonna say, hey, my neighbor, the owner of the building, they're renovating an apartment and it's gonna be ready in two months. Do you wanna take a look at it? And the best strategy you can have is,

to find a place before it goes on idealist, before it goes on the market. And I guarantee you, if you do, if you work hard and you do your, if you put some effort into it, you will find the perfect place at a lower price because it's off the market and you're dealing directly with the owner before they put it on the market. You're not dealing with an agent, you know, something like that. Yeah.

Josh (34:18.915)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (34:25.77)
Nice. Great advice. Love it. Pillar three.

Dally (34:30.705)
Pillar three, health and wellness. This is a huge one. This encompasses many things. It's not just our physical health, but wellness can also be our emotional and our mental health. And I think those are all connected. Our emotional and mental health definitely relates to and impacts our physical health. We really need to have a strong body, mind and spirit. And to have that comes in many ways. Of course, the first and the most important is our physical health.

Understanding the healthcare system in Portugal can be just in any, I imagine in other countries, in developing countries, it's even worse to master that or to learn it and to dip your toe in that process. But understanding your healthcare system and the private system and the public and how to leverage both of them and how to use them, get all your ducks in a row, build your relationships with your healthcare professionals before you need them. That is...

very, very important. And that's why I also recommend Serenity Health. They are a lifeline for people going abroad. And I can, when you get a healthcare policy, a private healthcare policy in Portugal, I don't know if everybody knows this, but you, most of them include a, I would maybe a biannual every two year full checkup. Having, even if you go to like

Josh (35:48.703)
Hmm.

Dally (35:56.033)
English speaking is they're very strong with English speaking, but still you get professionals in there that don't speak well enough English that if there's a problem, not a problem with your health, but a problem with the process, you're just muddling and you're struggling to communicate with them. But when you, if you have a, I highly advise anybody that's going in their, their biannual, bring a Portuguese, native Portuguese speaking person with you. I don't care if it costs 25 bucks an hour, 25 euro an hour.

It is worth the weight in gold and serenity also in certain areas provides that service. I had problems getting my echo for my heart done, just a routine procedure. And it was all muddled up and having someone there to explain to the caregiver and the professional is actually a doctor that was doing it. It was just, it was a lifesaver. And I'm telling you people, I really encourage you at least for your

Josh (36:41.632)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (36:51.333)
your first or second biannual, two and four years, have someone with you to, because you're gonna be going around, it's almost, you go through this whole process, it's very impressive. You go from this area to this area, you get your blood work done, you get this echo done, you get an x-ray done, you get it, you know, you're getting all these procedures done in one or two days. So anyway, yeah. Yeah.

Josh (37:08.566)
Yep.

Nice. I'm going to put the, uh, the different links in our show notes for the people that you've shouted out because we've talked about green ocean global. We've talked about Serenity, Portugal. Um, other ones are going to pop to mine and I'll make sure that those go down in the show notes or the description section, depending on what platform, uh, you're listening to this on or watching it on so that people can, uh, can check it out. Um, okay. So

Dally (37:18.599)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (37:36.47)
Totally agree. I mean, I think that Portugal does an amazing job at preventative care. Uh, wish other places, uh, did as much as well. I mean, we get messages like once a year saying, okay, we've scheduled your, your annual checkup. So it's like, you don't even have to schedule it. You've, you've already registered with your center of health and then they ping you and let you know when they want to see you. Obviously if something, you know,

Dally (37:41.367)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (37:52.293)
No.

Dally (37:59.066)
Yep. Yeah.

Josh (38:01.938)
more urgent pops up or you're not feeling well, then you can reach out to either your center of health or go to a hospital and you'll be seen as well. But the fact that they do have this eye on preventative care is awesome. Because I personally do not like calling up a doctor and making an appointment. Like, yeah. I think most guys are like that.

Dally (38:07.069)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (38:15.164)
It is.

Dally (38:18.745)
No, I'm a typical guy as well. Yeah. And my strategy, I've changed it recently this year. I usually go to the Duluge clinic, you know, the outpatient clinic for like, what, primary care and they're good, but it's always to get an appointment their way out, you know, a couple of weeks out and you go in there and they're very stressed for time. I found a local clinic, young doctor speaks English very well.

Josh (38:29.706)
Okay, yep.

Josh (38:37.101)
Yeah.

Dally (38:47.565)
And I do all my basic, you know, primary care through him. And it's awesome. And then anything of complexity or procedures he thinks I need, then I go to Duluth. He writes me a prescription and then I'll go to Duluth for that. I think that's, and that's great. That's back to building community and building relationships. You can find these doctors, these, you know, healthcare professionals in these smaller independent clinics that will actually take time to work with you and, and be flexible. And.

Josh (39:02.859)
Nice.

Josh (39:15.862)
They do, yeah.

Dally (39:17.534)
and really learn who you are.

Josh (39:19.818)
Yeah. I mean, as an American, it's like night and day, like comparing, comparing the interactions that we have with healthcare professionals on average in the States compared to, you know, what it's like here in Portugal, it's, it's pretty wild in a positive way on the Portugal side. Anyway. Yeah. Okay. So that's the health components of, or the medical health components of, of this. What about some other things like community, uh, friends? What do you think?

Dally (39:22.492)
Yeah.

Dally (39:26.185)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (39:31.001)
It is, it is, yep. It, I agree completely, yeah.

Dally (39:41.394)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (39:45.617)
Oh, yeah. That's a huge one. I struggled for the longest time building my community in Portugal. And part of it was I was in a part, I was in between Lisbon and Cascades in more of a Portuguese community. And so I did, there wasn't, it wasn't very much of an international community. So I had to travel, even if it was going into Lisbon or let's say Cascades, um, to, for international community and building.

building friendships. And so it's always a challenge to go into those areas, you know, when you're, when it's an hour or two process to get there. And once I met one person, international, and then that just kind of, there's just this like, I don't know what you call it, this effect where then you meet their friends and then their friends, and then all of a sudden it mushrooms. And I'm telling you, when that happened, it completely changed.

Josh (40:36.082)
and mushrooms. Yeah.

Dally (40:44.537)
my perspective, my happiness, my, just having a community of, I call peeps, you know, having your peeps that you can do things with and that are, you know, like-minded, they're intentional, they contact you, they're just not your fake Facebook friends. They're people that want to know how you're doing, you know, and check in with you and you're going and eating for coffee, you know, you're going having dinner and you're meeting in groups or you're going to the Facebook groups as a group, you know, and I'm telling you that is just...

But for me, it really truly, and I don't use this word lightly, it was transformative to be able to finally build my, I really thought there was something wrong with me. I'm like, am I that socially inept? And I mean, Josh, it would be where I'd be at the market and I would hear someone speak like British English. And I'm like, what, who was that? Who, where'd they go? And I would follow them. And I think they were worried I was stalking them. I'm like, please be my friend. Can I talk to you? You know?

Josh (41:23.2)
Oh yeah.

Josh (41:31.854)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (41:43.3)
Oh, that is epic.

Dally (41:44.745)
Yeah, and even these, and to emphasize this more, back to the housing people who either they're limited because they bring dogs, pets with them, or they're limited on budget or maybe a combination of both. They can't be in their ideal location that they want to be where it's more international centric. They end up in the rural parts of a city. They come into these Facebook events and they just...

They just like talk, talk. They're like, oh my gosh, I have people to talk to. And it's like the event is coming to an end and they're like, please don't leave me. I don't want to go back yet. I want to still talk to you. You know, and it's, and it happens all the time. And we actually, like my group of my friends, we've actually been learning how to find these people and invite them then into our circle and reach out to them and, you know, yeah, yeah. And so that's really important.

Josh (42:23.54)
Yeah.

Josh (42:33.43)
reach out to him. Yeah, nice.

Dally (42:39.025)
both housing and with building community.

Josh (42:41.726)
Nice. I want to touch on something to do with that, but first I want to say that episode one, uh, sorry, season one, episode 23, we, we talked to a guy named Michael where he had the same experience and, and he didn't really know any foreigners and it was kind of feeling detached. And then he met one person and that changed everything. He, he, he said yes to, to kind of a, a meetup among, uh, random people. And, um, and then that just blew his friend group up.

Dally (42:59.017)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (43:11.466)
And then he was able to feel confident and feel like he was making inroads with his life here in Portugal because he was on the brink of giving up. So if anyone's interested in hearing that story, that's season one, episode 23 on that. I want to ask you a question because when you started this, you said that you were living in a Portuguese community and you didn't have an international community. Why do you think it's important for people to.

Dally (43:21.209)
Mm-hmm. I can, yes.

Dally (43:28.178)
Yeah.

Dally (43:33.839)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (43:41.09)
to have that international community versus just staying among Portuguese when they move here.

Dally (43:43.036)
Yeah.

Dally (43:46.989)
That's a tough one. I think it's up to the individual. I think some people like, I want to fully integrate into the Portuguese community. I'm going to be, you know, part of them and they maybe take those efforts to really integrate and learn the language and so forth. I have lots of Portuguese friends and professional resources, but still just that community of neighbors and stuff into unless you really understand or know the language, it's a challenge. It's been a challenge for me. I am very challenged with learning the language.

Josh (43:49.774)
Okay.

Josh (44:16.535)
Okay.

Dally (44:18.014)
And the other thing too is in my opinion, many Portuguese, they're very, they're not very open, they're very closed as far as opening up their home or opening up their lives and wanting to get to know you. And there are some, but a lot of them are, especially these people that I hear from people that move out to the...

Josh (44:26.09)
Hmm.

Dally (44:39.165)
rural areas outside of even Lisbon in a near rural area that's nearby and all the neighbors, they don't want to talk to them. They don't want to make eye contact. They feel very isolated. I think a lot of it too, Josh, is I have so many Portuguese that apologize for their English and I look at them and I say, no, don't be sorry. I'm sorry. I'm in your country.

Josh (44:43.498)
Hmm.

Josh (44:50.83)
Hmm.

Dally (45:05.497)
And I don't, I can't speak to you in, you know, in competent Portuguese. I'm sorry. Don't you? And so they, they feel sorry and they don't, they're feel shy and they feel incompetent with their English and so they don't want to talk to you. And we take it personal.

Josh (45:12.864)
Hmm.

Josh (45:19.922)
Right. Yeah, I think that that's that is most likely the case in these rural areas where it's not that maybe someone's being unfriendly. It's that they don't feel confident in their English to be able to communicate with you knowing that you're a foreigner living there. So I would I would say that that's probably the root cause of it. But overall, you know, this Portuguese English fluency levels are like incredible, really. Yeah.

Dally (45:35.782)
Yep. Yeah.

Dally (45:40.519)
Right.

Dally (45:47.389)
They are, yeah. Just.

Josh (45:49.11)
But you will you definitely will come across those that don't feel confident or can't speak English very well. And like you said, we're in their country. And we need to learn and speak Portuguese better.

Dally (45:53.617)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Dally (46:00.809)
Exactly. Yeah, you know, I think really important and this is what I really struggle with and I really get turned off by is these transactional relationships or the people that just live inside the Facebook bubble, you know, and reference everything on, well, Facebook told me this and Facebook told me that. And, you know, it just, I find it very irritating.

Josh (46:03.536)
Any other things in terms of health and wellness you can recommend?

Josh (46:18.56)
Okay.

Josh (46:23.674)
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good point.

Dally (46:29.869)
And it really turns me off. And, you know, we really need to build authentic relationships with people. Facebook is a great tool. I finally had to turn on my Facebook again in 2023. It's great. I use it as a one-way resource. I use it as a resource to find the groups, to see what's kind of going on, maybe get some questions answered. I don't like to post. I don't like to throw that stuff out there because you will find 10 haters. Guaranteed. No matter what you post, you will have 10 haters that are going to take you out and take you down.

Josh (46:37.483)
Yes.

Josh (46:54.071)
Yep.

Josh (46:58.514)
Yeah, yeah, it seems like these days there's more people that are looking to spew hate than be helpful. It's so weird.

Dally (47:03.761)
Yep, yep, yeah, exactly. I don't understand it.

Josh (47:10.09)
Yeah, I can't understand it either. I mean, I totally agree with you in calling it a tool. I think it's that's a great way to frame how to use Facebook is use it as a tool. One of the things that Kaylee and I noticed, especially like within the first six months to a year when we were living here, we saw the change in information and the process of moving to Portugal happened pretty rapidly. Like things were changing by the week, right?

Dally (47:17.446)
Yes.

Dally (47:37.432)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (47:38.454)
So there were new experiences happening, yet there were people in the Facebook groups that were giving outdated information, and they were muddying the water. And it's gonna continue to happen because things are just continuing to change in kind of the process overall. So you really are better off like having a resource or a source of information that knows it, as opposed to anecdotally knowing it, like you'll find on these Facebook groups.

Dally (47:44.893)
Yep.

Dally (47:53.37)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (48:06.429)
Yep, you always get the person that knows everything and they want to be the know-it-all and tell you that you're wrong and they're right. That's very frustrating. I think too with Facebook in the groups and stuff, actually one thing I would love to do this, no, I'm not going to say that because I don't want to offend anybody. One thing I would say, what I say to my clients is we talk a lot about hacks as far as for their process of getting to...

Josh (48:26.638)
I'm gonna go to bed.

Josh (48:33.28)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (48:35.049)
Portugal and once they get here. And there are several hacks that we talk about that I don't want to be on Facebook. For one thing, it's almost like a trade secret because if someone puts it on Facebook, then everybody, that secret way to get an appointment at CEPH, everybody will be doing it and then they're going to ruin it for, you know, that's part of it. And the other part is you put on Facebook like, hey, there's this shortcut for getting your consulate, you know, proof of accommodations.

Josh (48:45.955)
Hmm.

Dally (49:04.517)
and you will get 10 people. How dare you cheat the process? You are ruining it for everybody else. I had to wait 12 months, I had to pay 12,000 euro. You have to do the same as me.

Josh (49:17.266)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay. So you were talking about some hacks and I know this isn't like a perfect segue, but I do want to ask you about, um, about world post.io because you have, you have a hack for people that are looking to, uh, receive mail and get that kind of component taken care of. Um, so can you tell us about roll posts?

Dally (49:30.837)
Yeah.

Dally (49:39.461)
Yes. Okay. Great segue. So let's plug World Post. No, no, but yeah, in all fairness, I asked you today if we can talk about it, that would be helpful because I'm here right now in Sioux Falls. The operation's in Portugal. I'm to the point where I have resources there that I can confidently leave and sleep at night here. And so I'm back in Sioux Falls. I have a

Josh (49:44.625)
It wasn't, but I mean, you know what I'm saying?

Dally (50:07.045)
virtual mail service here in Sioux Falls for people who want to change, who understand and value and want to change their residency, their tax residency in the US. This is for US people, of course, it doesn't have to be, but they want to change it to South Dakota because it's a very friendly, in my opinion, it is the most friendly state for international US citizens moving abroad. It's the most friendly state tax wise and understanding, not living here and so forth.

Josh (50:14.997)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (50:28.686)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (50:35.721)
World Post is in Sioux Falls. We cater towards the international person that needs virtual mail and residency. We have had three people so far come through. I have resources here in Sioux Falls building a team. I've been doing this over the last two or three years. We pick people up at the airport or we arrange transportation for them when they fly in to get there to change their residency to South Dakota.

We have accommodations for them if they so choose. We help them get all the paperwork taken care of. We help them with their virtual mail address. And we will help them almost like a concierge service. And I really want to build this out to continue to offer this. And really, I can tell people don't understand that's a whole different show, Josh, is the importance of your state tax residency, the importance. People in California and the sticky states on both coasts.

They really need a strategy because if they say, oh, I'm just going to get a virtual mailbox in Florida and now I'm a resident of Florida, that works until it doesn't. And when it doesn't work, it's too late. And you really need a strong plan. And financial planner should be an internationally focused financial planner should help you with that as well to prove your theory and stuff. Or you say, my sister has a winter home in Florida. I'm going to use that address for my residency.

Josh (51:26.729)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (51:36.706)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (51:52.733)
That works until it doesn't either. So it's really important to have a strong strategy. And that's what we're doing here at World Post. And we're also, what's really cool, whereas I go back and forth so much and I have clients going back and forth. We have a mail and a small package relay service where we will network with people that I know when they're coming to Portugal or going back. And then we can relay small things. We have to do some validation process, of course. But we'll, especially with people that need their passport and stuff, we will have that, get that across the pond fairly quickly.

in someone's carry on. Yeah.

Josh (52:24.759)
Nice. Well, it's interesting that you bring it up because just Monday, Kaylee and I met with a couple. They're patrons of ours on Patreon. I actually made a post, if anyone follows our Instagram, of this couple that moved to Medeta about a year ago, and they're now scouting out Porto, thinking about possibly moving from Funchal. And we started to learn more about their story, and they essentially use South Dakota as...

Dally (52:31.593)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (52:52.162)
the state that they wanted to, to move from the U S from for a myriad of reasons. Um, and they talked about how, you know, all you have to do is spend one night in South Dakota. They ended up spending, I think they either said it was like six, seven or eight months there. Um, basically the nicer months when the weather was, was agreeable, uh, before they made their move, but they kind of talked us through the strategy that they use and you're basically you're echoing all the same things and reasons that people should do it.

So very interesting.

Dally (53:23.993)
Yeah, do I have time for a quick story on that specific, not them specifically, but a similar situation. So I had a couple that were in Phoenix, Arizona. They were going through against my advisement, but they wanted to play it safe. They were going through the San Francisco consulate. It took them six months to get their visa stamp to move well beyond their accommodations that they planned three months out, so forth. They are stuck in Phoenix.

Josh (53:27.794)
Sure. Yeah.

Josh (53:45.847)
Yeah.

Dally (53:53.873)
during the Super Bowl time and you go to these, what do you call these monthly hotels? There's an extended living hotels and they have a big sign out front, $250 a week and you're like, oh, right. Then that third week, it's doubled the price and then you got fees for this, you got fees for that. The next thing you know, you're paying $800 a week to stay in these, $700, $800 to stay in the, they're stuck and they're paying all these fees. I would advise anybody and that's maybe what your friends did.

Josh (54:00.926)
Exten- yeah. Exten- stay.

Dally (54:24.441)
If it's conducive to the months, go to South Dakota. You can stay there for a fraction of that and just hunker down there, get your residency. If you don't, if you're waiting to get to Portugal, you could do that. But other thing I strongly advise, go to South Dakota, change your jurisdiction to Washington, DC, which now is Texas and Florida. They have now VFS offices there if people don't know that. Change your jurisdiction to the East coast.

Josh (54:43.344)
Mm-hmm.

Dally (54:56.486)
I have clients that are going to Washington DC and they're getting their stamp in seven days. Calendar days. One of them got it in six. They practically got home and they got their email saying, you've been approved. Yes.

Josh (55:03.846)
Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah.

Josh (55:12.87)
Yeah, send us your passport. Nice, I love it, I love it. Well Dallas at Expats Everywhere, we believe that living abroad transforms lives. How has living abroad transformed your life?

Dally (55:25.625)
I think it's getting out of your comfort zone and really seeing, we're so egocentric in the US and we think the whole world is like us and getting out and seeing the world. And just, it really, really makes you aware of how big the world is and the different cultures and so forth. So yeah, I would say that it's just getting out of your comfort zone and just really opening up your life to.

Josh (55:35.906)
Hmm.

Dally (55:54.481)
Being uncomfortable, that's how we learn. That's when we learn.

Josh (55:57.482)
Nice. Well, to reiterate the three pillars of successful international living would be financial awareness, stable housing and health and wellness. Yeah. All right, Dallas, thank you so much for your time. Always great to have you on the podcast.

Dally (56:08.599)
Yes.

Dally (56:12.249)
My pleasure. Thank you.