Psst.

I have a secret for you…

Your body doesn't need 3 meals a day or 6 small meals a day or whatever nonsense you're buying into to be healthy.

In fact, as a 170lbs guy I find eating so often to not be natural to the body.

The reality is this…

The only reason we desire food every few hours is because we're eating carbohydrate, processed foods.

Excessive carbs do two things to us:

1. They don't satisfy our hunger and
2. They produce meaningful cravings

So no matter how much carbohydrates you eat, you never feel satisfied.

Ever ate and ate and ate until your stomach was about to explode … and then wanted dessert?

When you eat animal foods that are high in vitamins and saturated fat, it's much harder to over eat as it's quite satiating.

I'm not saying cut out carbs totally mind you.

Unless you're doing something extreme like a carnivore diet (which works for some, & others find incredibly boring) you need carbs for energy.

It's just that you need way less carbs than you think depending on your size.

For me, one serving a day of a few hundred calories of carbs in the form of sweet potato etc. is acceptable.

Fasting (Intermittent, 24 hour, 40 hour)

I typically follow intermittent fasting most days with 16 hours of no eating with an 8 hour window to eat.

Then once a week I do a full 24 hour fast (lunch to lunch) and every 6 months or so I'll pull off a full 40 hour fast where I get my body into ketosis where I will burn of 1-2 lbs of fat (it's insanely effective).

What I eat

To be clear, you need to be a person with healthy eating habits to get the most out of extended fasts (and don't do this if you have an eating disorder).

So here is what I eat on a weekly basis (not everyday):

• Steak and eggs cooked in butter
• Chicken or pork
• Sardines
• Veggies (I typically buy green juice locally made - no added fruit or sugar)
• 90% dark chocolate
• Macadamia nuts
• Rice dish 3x a week (I'm in SE Asia)
• One serving of fruit
• Coffee and tea
• Raw sweet potato

For supplements it's pretty simple. Creatine daily, protein powder after a workout, magnesium and zinc and NAC.

Now I'm NOT saying I eat all this everyday. It's just the selection of what I will eat for the 2 meals I have per day.

I'm also not super strict, yes I'll have tacos or a burrito. Pizza is fine once a month, popcorn and soda at the movies, beers with the boys.

I'm pretty strict with my eating habits most days but im not a psycho about it. You got to enjoy yourself.

40 Hour fast

For the 40 hour fast, I'll only do this when I have a huge dinner and have been a bit of a glutton overall. Think traveling, the holidays, drinking a bit too much, family visiting and eating a ton.

The type of huge dinner where you're feeling stuffed, like having a Thanksgiving day dinner. The last 40 hour fast I did was after a massive Korean dinner complete with beer and Soju with a group of friends.

Dinner wrapped up around 8pm and that's when the fast began.

12 hours

It's 8am and I'm waking up with zero hunger. I typically don't eat breakfast anyways so I had by black coffee and went about my routine like I normally do.

16 hours

12pm or so, now it's lunch time. I was not hungry at all by this point. Still a bit full from the meal from last night.

So no issue so far. Let's keep going.

20 hours

Now it's 4pm roughly.

I've finished my second cup of coffee by this point (typically around 1-2pm, 3pm latest) which helps blunt your appetite and gives you a much needed focus and energy boost.

Hunger is starting to creep in as well, with an overall feeling of fatigue due to blood sugar and glycogen reserves being depleted.

This is the point where I used to struggle with a fast because I started feeling low energy and is probably the hardest point of a 40 hour fast.

...psst, you need sodium idiot (get my recommended electrolytes).

Yea, I didn't know this until I did some research on this. Literally buy salt and pour it into a glass of water at a minimum.

Your body depletes sodium first so you need to drink water with salt in it or get quality electrolytes to maintain your energy levels.

24 hours

8pm.

Awesome, it's been a full 24 hours since dinner. By this point autophagy (which is your cells' natural cleaning and recycling process) begins to ramp up meaningfully.

I felt some hunger pains but nothing too bad. Sip on that salt and water, make a cup of green tea (like coffee, it helps suppress your appetite).

Go to sleep around 10:30 -11.

I'm the bear chronotype, so up at 7-8am and bed around 10:30-11 pm is how I naturally sleep.

36 hours

8am the next day, time for my morning coffee. Weirdly, I woke up and felt no hunger (well not exactly weird, ketones are responsible for this lack of hunger).

You should now be in a ketogenic state with your body burning that stubborn body fat for clean, stable energy.

If you've never been in a ketogenic state, I suggest doing it because it's quite fun and weird.

You're wired on black coffee and totally alert and ready to conquer the day.

Get a workout in

Once I was in a ketogenic state, time for a full body workout at the gym. I did my typical weight lifting regiment that I finished off with a 1 mile run on the treadmill.

I felt great by the way.

High energy, burning off even more fat as that was my bodies only fuel source.

40 hours

Time to finally break the fast and have lunch.

If you're feeling ambitious you could push it longer to 45-48 hours and wait for dinner, but I find doing around 40 hours fine.

I typically like to break this extended fast with some raw sweet potatoes, followed by a rib-eye steak and eggs cooked in butter.

Then I'll have fruit, a bit of dark chocolate and 3 macadamia nuts.

Results ⚡

Here is a breakdown of the results and benefits I experienced.

Fat burning

You'll burn 1-2 lbs of body fat.

If you do the workout in a ketogenic state it will likely be 1.5-2 lbs of fat. By far, a 40 hour fast is highly effective if you're looking to burn off fat fast.

Train your metabolism

Doing longer fasts occasionally also help to train your metabolism which can help make my everyday 16:8 fasts more efficient because the body becomes better at accessing and burning fat once the eating window closes.

Extended fasting (24–48+ hours) switch the body from glucose burning and storage mode to fat-mobilization mode. Growth hormone may rise too, helping preserve muscle while targeting fat.

Ketosis is fun

Being in ketosis with your body burning fat is simply fun and weird. Your energy levels are stable, you'll feel alert and ready to go.

Food tastes better & alcohol hits harder

Obviously, I DO NOT suggest drinking on the day you break your fast, but my girl at the time wanted to go to a cocktail bar.

So in the evening I had a negroni (my cocktail of choice) and the flavor tasted more complex and interesting and I had to go much slower as the alcohol hit me harder.

Also, food for that first day when you break your fast simply tasted better which was fun.

Wrap-up

So that's it for my 40 hour fast. The most difficult part is when you're sodium levels start dipping so make sure to sip on water with a bit table salt poured in or get quality electrolytes.

Also leverage coffee for is appetite suppression benefits.

If you want more reading on this, I found "The Complete Guide to Fasting" a helpful read. Maybe you'll find it useful too?

I get it, I've been where you are now. Thinking of moving here to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, looking at random YouTube videos of apartment tours and districts.

In all honesty you are going to just have to roll up here and hit the ground running so to speak because we all like different things.

I lived in Saigon from 2019 to 2022, bounced around a few different districts, and explored the city for all it has to offer. So let me walk you through each area, what I actually think about them, and help you figure out where you should be calling home.

Oh and before I dive in, a quick housekeeping note

The city is actually doing away with the district system. Everything is moving to the ward level.

They're merging smaller wards into bigger ones and phasing out the district structure entirely. So while I'll refer to districts throughout this because that's still how most people think about the city, just know that change is underway.

Alright. Let's get into it.

District 1 - The City Center

Let's start with the obvious one. District 1 is the heartbeat of Saigon. Skyscrapers, cocktail bars, clubs, nightlife, Bui Vien Street, the river, it's all here. It's beautiful, it's buzzing, and it genuinely has a lot going for it.

Would I personally live there? No. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.

Here's my thinking: I like visiting District 1.

I like going there for a night out, walking along the river, grabbing a drink somewhere nice, and then heading back to wherever I'm based.

When I lived in Bangkok, I made the mistake of being deep in the city center in Phrom Phong and I just didn't enjoy having all that noise and energy right outside my door 24/7.

I prefer being slightly on the outskirts, close enough to get in when I want, but far enough away that I actually get some peace.

That said, if you have a family, want to be in the thick of it, or just love that city center energy, District 1 can absolutely work. You just need to budget accordingly.

Rents here are higher than most other districts, so go in with realistic expectations, and you'll find some genuinely great spots.

Verdict: Great if you have the budget and love city center living but it's for everyone.

District 2 - Thao Dien & An Phu

District 2 is where I'd steer most expats, and specifically I'd be pointing them toward two areas: Thao Dien and An Phu.

Thao Dien has a reputation that some people call it the "expat bubble" or the "expat enclave" and yeah, I've heard plenty of YouTubers and online voices trash it.

"Oh, I'd never live in Thao Dien." Okay, cool.

But here's the thing: it's a bit more expensive for a reason.

First, it's quiet!

And I cannot overstate how much that matters. One of my biggest gripes about Vietnam in general — honestly my only real gripe — is the noise.

When I lived in Binh Thanh and before that in District 3, the noise was just relentless. Motorbikes honking, construction banging, dogs barking, chickens, the banh mi cart rolling past at full volume right when you're in the middle of my coaching cals or when I'm trying to record video content for my marketing business.

It wears you down.

Thao Dien doesn't have that problem to the same degree. It's noticeably quieter, which if you work from home like I do with making YouTube content, tutorials and coaching calls is a genuine quality of life upgrade.

Second, despite its "expat bubble" reputation, Thao Dien still feels like Vietnam. There are still locals around, local spots, local culture.

It's not like Canggu in Bali where you look around and there's not a local in sight and the whole thing just feels weirdly artificial. My friend Brian calls it "white people" land.

Now, An Phu is a bit different

It's on the outskirts of Thao Dien, and it's honestly not that developed. There are plenty of high-rise apartment buildings, so you can find a decent modern place to live, but in terms of the street-level culture, the cafes, restaurants, bars, casual hangout spots, it's pretty sparse.

If you settle in An Phu, you're essentially using it as a home base and then heading to a different district every time you want to do anything social. That's not a dealbreaker for everyone, but it's worth knowing before you sign a lease.

Verdict: Thao Dien is my top pick for most expats who want a quiet, but still authentically Vietnamese place to live. Easy enough to get to both Binh Thanh, District 1 and District 3. An Phu works if you don't mind a longer commute.

Binh Thanh - Solid but Noisy

Binh Thanh is where I lived for a few years, and overall it's a decent district. Location-wise, it's great as you're sitting right above District 1 and across the river from Thao Dien, with easy access to most of the city.

Rent is more affordable than District 1 or Thao Dien, and it's got a genuinely local vibe.

The problem? Noise.

Same issue I mentioned above. The noise pollution in Binh Thanh was what ultimately pushed me out. When you're trying to get work done and the street outside your window sounds like a construction site crossed with a traffic jam, it gets old fast.

If you're going to live in Binh Thanh, do your homework before committing to an apartment. Walk the street at different times of day, check what's happening nearby, and make sure the building you're looking at isn't right on a main road or near a market.

Verdict: Good location, affordable, local feel but vet the noise situation before you sign anything. I would suggest here if you're planning on being an English teacher.

District 3 - Hell No

I'll keep this one short because I don't have much good to say. I lived in District 3 for a month. There's a nice canal, the area has some charm, but my apartment was unbearably loud and I counted down the days until I could leave.

After one month I was done. I packed up and moved to Binh Thanh, which wasn't perfect either, but it was a significant upgrade.

District 3 might work for someone who gets lucky with a quiet apartment in a quieter pocket of the district, but I'm not going to recommend it based on my own experience.

Verdict: Pass, unless you find something exceptionally well-located and quiet.

Phu Nhuan - Authentically Local

Phu Nhuan is very much a local Vietnamese district. Middle class, authentic, and not particularly geared toward expats. You can find a nice place here, but modern developments are harder to come by.

If you want something newer and more polished, you're going to struggle. The building stock here, like Binh Thanh and District 4, tends to be older.

That said, if you love being immersed in everyday Vietnamese life and aren't fussed about having a shiny new apartment, Phu Nhuan can be a perfectly fine place to live.

Verdict: Good for those who prioritize local immersion over modern amenities.

District 4 - The Mafia District, Skip It

Similar story to Phu Nhuan and District 3, local, older buildings, not much in the way of modern development, not too much in the way of cafes or places of interest. It's not a place I'd spend much time trying to find an apartment.

It also has the reputation of being the Mafia District which used to be true to some degree from back in the day but not now.

If you want to look like a total bad ass and make a joke Saigonese love, say you're living on Tôn Đản street, as that was the actual "dangerous" mafia, tough guy street area.

Districts 5 & 10 - Too Far Out

District 5 is Chinatown. It's interesting to visit, but I genuinely don't understand why you'd want to live there.

We're talking 40 minutes to District 1 on a weekend night. You want to go meet your friends, head out for drinks, do anything social, that's 40 minutes each way. Every time. That would drive me absolutely crazy.

District 10 is in a similar boat. It's just too far removed from the action for my taste, and I wouldn't waste time hunting for apartments there.

Verdict: Worth a visit. Not worth living in as you're too far out.

Tan Binh & Go Vap - The Outskirts

Tan Binh and Go Vap are both middle-class, functional areas sitting well outside the city center. Go Vap is where the airport is and, I'll make the joke I always make every beautiful girl I matched with on a dating app when I was living here seemed to be in Go Vap.

But seriously, both of these areas are fine in a practical sense. They're just far. About as far as I'd consider Phu Nhuan being the outer limit of reasonable. Tan Binh and Go Vap push past that limit for me.

You'll be commuting a long way every time you want to experience the city properly.

Verdict: Liveable if you have a specific reason to be there, but not a top pick.

District 7 - The Isolated Korean Expat Area

District 7 is a sizeable area and where you land within it matters a lot. The district has a well-known reputation for being the Korean expat enclave, at least back when I arrived in 2019, there was a strong Korean community here, and the area reflects that with Korean restaurants, shops, and general vibes.

Here's the thing with District 7: it's modern.

There are solid new developments, good amenities, and you'll find the kind of comforts and conveniences that certain expats are specifically looking for. In that sense, it's a better-developed outskirts option compared to Tan Binh or Go Vap.

The trade-off is that you are genuinely far away depending on where in the district you are in. You're looking at 30 to 40 minutes to get anywhere meaningful in the city. District 7 does its own thing, and if you're cool with that lifestyle, set up your little world out there and venture in when needed, it can work.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. But I know plenty of people who love it out there.

Verdict: Great modern development, but you're trading convenience for comfort. Works for the right personality.

Thu Duc - Far, But There's a Train Now

Thu Duc is way up north and is almost its own separate city at this point. There was actually talk of merging District 2 into Thu Duc, which gives you a sense of the scale and distance we're talking about.

Living in Thu Duc means you're far from everything. Getting to District 1 from Thu Duc is also going to take you 45 minutes to an hour on a normal day.

The good news is that Saigon now has a metro system, and there are stations in Thu Duc. So the play, if you're considering this area, is to find an apartment reasonably close to a metro station, park your bike there, and take the train in when you need to go to the city.

The catch is that the the metro closes at 10 or 11pm and you can't leave your bike at the station overnight.

So if you're heading out for a late night, you'll need to take Grab to the station, take the train in, have your night, and then when you want to get home at midnight or 1am, you're looking at a full Grab ride all the way back to Thu Duc.

That gets expensive and annoying quick.

Thu Duc overall has affordable housing and decent buildings for the price point, which is its main appeal. If that trade-off works for your lifestyle and budget, it's worth considering.

Verdict: Affordable with metro access, but the distance is real — plan your nightlife logistics carefully.

So Where Should You Actually Live?

Here's my honest summary:

Best overall choice for most expats: Thao Dien (District 2). Quiet, still Vietnamese, modern apartment options, good access to the rest of the city. Yes, it's pricier, but the quality of life justifies it, especially if you're working from home.

Best budget-friendly choice: Binh Thanh. Good location, more affordable, just be careful about noise when apartment hunting.

Best for city center lovers: District 1. Increase your budget, find the right spot, and enjoy being in the middle of everything.

Best modern outskirts option: District 7. If you want newer development outside the center and don't mind the distance, this is your pick.

Avoid (in my opinion): District 3, District 5, District 10, Go Vap unless you have a very specific reason.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the "best" district depends on your personality, your work setup, your budget, and how much you value access to the city versus peace and quiet. But after three years living here and trying a few different areas myself, the above is where I'd put my money.

Hope this helps. If you've got questions about specific areas or want to go deeper on any of this, drop me a message.

— David

Bangkok has a way of pulling men in, especially newcomers, and trapping them in a loop they never intended to live.

World-class nightlife, beautiful women, beers with the boys, and an endless parade of rooftop bars and red light districts.

It sounds like freedom, and for a while,

...it genuinely is.

But freedom and a being stuck in a loop are two very different things.

The Dopamine Loop

Here's what the loop that I'm talking about looks like.

Step 1: You wake up at noon, spend the day feeling like shit, being wildly unproductive and not getting a whole lot of what anyone would call "work" done.

Step 2: Start feeling better the next day and go out again till 2-4am.

Step 3: Repeat.

Days blur into weeks. Weeks blur into months.

Your entire life narrows down to your dumb ass just going out drinking beer and sleeping with random girls you met off dating apps and in person.

Your health declines, your ambitions crumble to dust and somewhere along the way, what felt like the good life starts feeling hollow.

That's the black hole effect

You'll have fun in the moment, but you'll look back on this sort of lifestyle and realize you didn't really have fun.

The goal of living abroad isn't to chase the strongest dopamine hit available every night. It's to build a dynamic and interesting life that you couldn't have built back home.

Lower cost of living, new experiences, real friendships with expats and locals, travel, maybe a relationship. Nightlife has a place in that life. It just shouldn't be the center of it.

It's Okay to Indulge if You're Brand New

If you're fresh off the plane Bangkok will blow your mind with what it offers so go ahead and enjoy it. I did, and my only regrets are that I wasted a bit too much time there. 1 year was solid, but beyond that was excessive.

Have your rotation of random Essan girls you're seeing each week, checkout random clubs and bars, venture into the red light districts, maybe even find a girl who you could date (hard in Bangkok as every girl has strangers.com installed on their phone).

The city is genuinely unlike anything you've experienced if you're coming from the a simple middle class town in America. The energy, the food, the people, the pace.

Soak it in and tap into your degenerate side.

This warning isn't for your first few months. It's for what comes after, when the novelty should be fading but the habit hasn't.

When the loop is gearing up and you're unwittingly following it's path. When your degenerate side becomes you as a man.

Four Ways to Stay Grounded

Have some self respect, elegance and manly virtue. Don't transform into some sort of loser.

Here are some quick heads up advice:

1. Find a physical outlet and use it to meet people.

Muay Thai is the obvious one in Bangkok, but it doesn't have to be that. Run clubs, CrossFit, Hyrox, paddle, whatever gets you moving and puts you in a room with people who are doing something with their lives.

This matters more than just fitness.

The social circle you build around a physical activity tends to be a better one. Driven people who are in happy healthy relationships of all ages who aren't just there to drink or do elicit drugs.

I loved Muay Thai and meet a lot of great guys of all ages. Not only would we go out for beers, we would go off to random provinces where someone from our gym was having a fight.

2. Come with a purpose or nightlife will become your purpose.

This doesn't have to be some grand vision, it just has to be something.

Building an online income, learning a language, developing a skill, working toward a business or creative outlet, anything that gives your days structure and your life direction.

What is your 6am to 6pm like?

It better not just be the time recovering from the previous night out.

When your identity is anchored to something you're building, then nightlife stays in its proper lane. Without that anchor, your life in Bangkok will likely become a hedonistic pursuit of girls.

3. Be willing to do things alone.

Sometimes you just got to go it alone and do stuff.

When I did Muay Thai for the first time I just showed up to the gym not knowing anyone. After a few classes I started having a bunch of guys to hang out with.

I also took a trip to Khon Kaen Thailand alone. There I meet this Thai girl named Lita who works in Bangkok (she was a part time lecturer at KK University). She became a good friend to this day and is a "connector" as I like to call it.

She's from a wealthy Thai-Chinese family, is well connected and always invites me to cool stuff in Bangkok. Through her I meet other people like my buddy Romeo who's a fit, retired 40 something Korean American Army guy.

Connectors?

Every social group has people who seem to know everyone, who are plugged into everything. Once you find even one of them, your entire network can expand quickly.

But you only find them by getting out of your room, talking to people, and being a little patient.

You can't manufacture it, but you can improve your odds by showing up.

4 - Don't Fuck Up

I thought this goes without saying (which is why I didn't mention it in my video), but after seeing foreign guys in Bangkok I do now think I need to mention it.

Don't.

Fuck.

Up.

Got it?

What that looks like is you getting into a fight with a ladyboy, a violent drunken argument with some fat bald old guy from the UK or Russia who is in fact a total dickhead or getting that cute (but mentally unstable) 19 year old girl you meet off Tinder pregnant.

I've seen men complicate their lives in unbelievable ways. You're coming in with a world of promise and potential, make it happen in a positive way.

Bangkok rewards people who approach it with intention

The city will give you whatever you're looking for, if all you're looking for is a good time, that's exactly what you'll find, right up until it stops being a good time and starts being a rut.

The men who thrive long-term abroad aren't the ones who party the hardest in year one. They're the ones who figured out how to build something meaningful and lasting.

A social circle, a business, a routine, a life worth living while still enjoying everything the nightlife has to offer.

Bangkok can be a bit of a black hole. But black holes only trap you if you're not paying attention.

I've been watching David Bond in the Philippines and he confirms my personal experiences after having traveled to, and lived in South East Asia. Here I break down my personal experiences after 10+ years of being an expat and debunk a lot of myths and assumptions men who don't travel have.

I've lived in both Thailand and Vietnam for years. I didn't just travel to these places for a few weeks. I lived in both countries and have had both meaningful and casual relationships with women in both countries.

During my time as an English teacher in Thailand, I worked with numerous Filipinos so I am familiar with that culture as well.

If you're wondering, Filipinos work typically as English teachers or in hospitality here in Thailand. They are usually poorly paid as a teacher ($500 a month) and send their money back home to their parents and extended family which results in them being constantly broke and having to borrow money from one another.

It's a harsh reality for a lot of the Filipino teachers here working at government schools.

Remember though, I said teachers.

Not all Filipinos work as teachers. My friend Mike is from Cebu and does real estate here in Thailand and makes 80K Baht a month. A totally reasonable salary that is much better than what any western ESL teacher in a Thai government school is making.

They have a strong proficiency of English so its quite common to see them working at government schools around Thailand. Because they are so numerous, they usually form local organizations and support each other quite well whereas for American and European expats, our local organization is the bar (joking).

I have a good understanding of the women in all three countries so I want to share my experiences with the women here in this post about dating as an expat.

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Having multiple women accidentally

To be honest I would love to settle down and have children with the right person as hook-up culture does get boring and I have more important things to do than just go out with women.

In both Thailand and Vietnam, I regularly have a rotation of 3-4 attractive girls I see. The relationship starts out where we would go out one time, sleep on the first date, then they would want to come straight to my place at night from there on out for the next 1-5 months once a week or so.

Then the relationship dies off and they move on to a new guy or it becomes a casual FWB type relationship where we go out once every few weeks.

I know this sounds crazy, but a lot of girls have their own rotation of men, which I don't think men who don't get attention from women understand.

Girls like men.

Girls like attention.

Girls like sex.

It's just that most women find most men unattractive.

When you get to a certain level and become that guy who is a YES for women, you start to see another side of girls most men never get to.

This is why you'll always hear the term that women are never single. They may not be in a relationship, but they for sure are seeing and sleeping with some guy you don't know about.

For more checkout my guide on how to know if you're dealing with a promiscuous girl:

6 Signs You’re Dealing with a Promiscuous Girl

Heartbreak and headache awaits you if you’re a big dumb dummy.

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

A disclaimer

Women are women.

They are not radically different from one place to the next, and no, these countries are not some 3rd world hell hole. Beautiful Thai and Vietnam girls have standards like any other girl, and you're not going to get access to them simply because you're white or have an American passport.

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You need to be physically fit, know how to talk, dress and have it all together. A lot of guys claim that Bangkok is "Chaded out" now. But the reality is that Bangkok is a major city with attractive girls who have options and standards.

So don't roll up to Thailand with your bald head, big gut, wearing a Chang T-shirt and a trucker hat with a scruffy beard thinking you're going to be getting high-quality women because "American women suck."

If you're unattractive in the USA, you're still going to struggle abroad. The burden of performance for men does not go away because you flew to Thailand or Vietnam.

Also, no I don't pay for women and no these women never ask how much money I make. Honestly, guys who lead with their wallets only do so because they have this annoyingly weird notion that it's all women care about.

These types of men also tend to be physically unattractive males who refuse to do the work about their style and fitness and don't learn how to converse with women so they emotionally invest in them; and instead zero in on the money aspect since that's all the think they can control.

The reality is when I have a one-night stand with some attractive Thai girl, do you think she knows or cares how much money I make?

Newsflash, NO.

The reality is that women like sex, but are much more selective about the men they choose to sleep with.

Most men they encounter it's a no, no and no.

So by becoming that guy who is a "yes" for women makes attraction all the more easier because it's rare for them to meet someone they actually want to sleep with.

Thailand

In a follow up to my popular email/blog post (and video) on dating Asian girls, this is what I've personally experienced dealing with women and how to become attractive to them.

1) Be Tall – Women want to look up to a man, literally and figuratively.

2) Be Rich/Successful/Ambitious – This type of man is equivalent to a beautiful woman. Have you ever seen a big chunky girl riding shotgun in a Lamborghini?

3) Be Handsome, Cool or Intimidating – You need a look. Sure, you will find some cognitively inept men bewilderingly proclaim “Looks don't matter” or the total opposite that it's only looks. We'll call those guys virgins. Looks matter. Be handsome, if you can't be handsome then be cool looking (like an artist or musician), if you're can't pull that off then be intimidating (big strong bald guy with tattoos archetype) as girls feel safe with this sort of man.

4) Be Jacked at Best, Fit at a Minimum – This applies even more if you're under 6ft. I have experience the difference of being a skinny fat guy at 163lbs and a fit, strong 175lbs man. When I'm in shape and women touch my arms and check my butt out, the first thing they say, with huge eyes, is “wow!”

5) Be Highly Confident – Women find being overly confident attractive, even if you're just being silly. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to make a ton of money and do whatever I want." They eat it up.

6) Do Not Defer to Her – Women want to feel safe with you, and they feel safe when you're a competent and leader. Not Mr. Jackass who doesn't know anything. You lead, she defers to you.

7) Be Sarcastically Funny but Not Self-Deprecating – Women absolutely love when you're playful, but they do not love when you make fun of yourself. She wants to look up to you so don't tear yourself down, even in a joking manner.

8) Do Not Be Needy – Enough said, we all know this.

9) Don't be a Typical Nice Guy – "Nice guy" now means harmless beta guy who's not capable of anything and people use and abuse because there are no consequences for doing so. Girls like nice men, not weak men.

10) Be Pre-occupied with Your Own World – Build your life, invite her in, and make her a part of your world. Whatever you are excited about she will genuinely become excited about as well. Do not become a part of her world – do not stay at home and watch Tiktok shorts and TV shows about gay dancers or whatever dumb shit that's popular right now. Do your own thing and make sure it is a priority for you.

11) Don't be Too Available – I am not saying play some teenager texting game. I am saying genuinely be too busy to reply to her messages and even see her sometimes. Remember, you don't need to reply back ASAP. She can wait and will be more attracted to you if you're legit busy.

12) Have Excellent Style – In combination with your physicality and overall look, know how to put yourself together that works for you. I'm telling you, when you look like the man, you're treated like the man.

13) Make Decisions – Lead, make decisions. Don't play the "well what do you want to do" game.

14) Be Aggressive in Bed – Women do not like timidity, especially in the bedroom. Be a Gentleman in public, be a caveman in private. This is also true for women: Be a lady in public and a whore in private. Here is an extra tip: Women absolutely love to be objectified. But only by winners.

15) Enforce Boundaries – Have your personal red lines that are non-negotiable. Do not allow a woman to walk all over you, put her in her place and maintain your bearings (or frame as it's called, I say bearings because I was in the military). I'm not saying lose it and act crazy, just enforce your boundaries in a stern manner. They'll respect you more for this.

16) Do not take advice from women about how to win a woman's heart – Women assume attraction, so they always tell you what they like and want from the top 10% of men they're already attracted to. Not what you need to do to become attractive in the first place. It's also advice for long term, not short term. On top of that if you hadn't noticed, women gas each other up too so their opinions are like the wind “no, you aren't fat! You should eat more! Your haircut doesn't make you look like a boy, it's super cute!!!"

17) Give Up Porn – Women have TikTok brain, men get their souls stolen from porn. Don't partake.

18) Don't Be Scared to Say Hi – Picking up women is simply a numbers game. If you see an attractive girl on the street, and she gives you some eye contact and other basic approach signals, go ahead and say something to her.

Pick 5-7 of the above traits and you will do fine with women. 

The real deal truth is that you need to concentrate on your career (money), your physique and health, take care of yourself and be the master of your own world and invite her in. Last, you need to hold yourself to a masculine standard.

No, you don't need to be in touch with you “feminine side”. If you worship the ground she walks on, she will not respect you. If you don't worship the ground she walks on she will follow your lead and everybody's happy.

So we're clearly living through a 4th turning, then end of an empire, the end of the dollar system hegemony.

As such, it's a good idea to get out of cash and into assets. No problem if you're in cash waiting things out, but long term you don't want to be saving in the dollar.

Take a step back, would you like to hold your savings in Thai Baht or Vietnamese Dong? Are you going "take profits" on your dollars and convert them into these weaker currencies?

No way.

Just go up one level and apply that mindset to the dollar.

Bitcoin - Cooperation Technology

My answer to the "what is money" question. I break down why you need to adopt Bitcoin now for a prosperous future.

BUY ON AMAZON NOW

Download the LUTS below.

So a while back I wrote about how I retired my old Sony X3000 and replaced it with my iPhone and the Boya Mini Mic.

It's not a bad setup and I recorded one of my more popular YouTube videos with this setup (on the best countries for dating Asian girls).

Related:

My iPhone Vlogging Setup - Simple and Easy for Beginners

The whole point of using an iPhone is to keep it simple. So in this short guide, I’ll share with you my light, easy to use setup.

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

Boya Mini Review - The BEST Wireless Mic for iPhone

I love my Boya Mini mic. Here’s why…

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

While I still think it's useful to learn how to turn your iPhone into a video making machine as let's be honest, the iPhone does have excellent video quality and video recording features.

I simply missed having a dedicated vlogging camera.

Your iPhone is good, but it's still your phone

It's one of your more important devices. Using it for vlogging you run the risk of dropping it, having it stolen, wearing out the battery etc.

Fundamentally, it's just not designed to be used as a primary camera. That's why I originally bought the Sony x3000 back in 2019.

Because every corn ball YouTuber would always talk about making "cinematic" videos using some big heavy camera with a fluffy microphone.

Like bro, I'm making a travel vlog, not a movie.

8 Reasons why I bought the Osmo Nano

With that whole preamble out of the way, let me jump into why I bought the Osmo Nano to record video content for the Edge of David YouTube channel.

1) Incredibly small and light

The actual camera device, once you take it off the vision dock is hilariously small and light. Smaller than my X3000, but with far superior audio and video quality.

Even attached to the vision dock, this setup is still tiny and easily fits into your pocket.

It comes with a few different attachments, one being this little suction cup tripod that actually works well to use as a makeshift tripod if you're looking for a way to hold the camera.

On top of that, if you buy a 3rd party attachment (it's cheap) called the Telesin Magnetic mount, it has a bottom screw mount that allows you to attach it to any tripod you like.

So I'm now able to use my Osmo Nano now with my old X3000 tripod.

Last, this 3rd party attachment let's you charge the camera directly without the vision dock.

So if you're running and gunning and want to leave the vision dock at home you now can (you need to attached the camera to the vision dock to charge the camera if that's not clear).

2) Excellent video quality with D-Log M

I've gotten a quite a few DM's asking me what camera I'm using to record my videos because the quality looks so good.

What I do is I record everything at:

• 10 bit color
• In D-Log M
• 4k at 30 FPS

D Log is a "flat" color profile. It's designed so you can apply a LUT when you're editing the video.

Applying a LUT is easy, every video editor has some sort of color option where you literally click a button to apply a LUT.

The more difficult part is getting quality LUTs. I'll add my LUT's to the Vault, so subscribe if you want access (totally fine if you sign up then cancel).

But compared to my X3000 and iPhone, I'm really happy with how this camera looks.

It looks like I'm using some big expensive camera. Nope, I'm walking around with a little action camera.

My LUTs I use For the Osmo Nano

Download the LUTS below.

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

3) Multiple angles

One thing I love about this camera are the multiple angles built in.

I tend to record using the vision dock in part to frame myself, but also so I can change the angles of different clips.

That way my videos are more fun to watch as I switch from standard to wide and ultra wide.

Ultra Wide (143° FOV)

This is the native, uncropped view of the lens. It captures almost everything in your peripheral vision. Has an obvious fish eye, but that's why I like it.

Wide (Standard)

This slightly reduces the extreme edges to provide a more traditional "action cam" look. This is your standard X3000 style vlogging shot where you want the scale of the scene without it looking overly distorted.

Dewarp (Linear)

This mode uses software to straighten out the curved lines, giving you more of a traditional camera look.

4:3 aspect ratio

The Nano can record in a 4:3 aspect ratio, so you have a lot of vertical data to work with. It provides a tighter crop that mimics a 35mm lens.

Vertical recording

Last, you can shoot vertical videos easily by holding the camera sideways. Perfect for short from content.

4) Rich audio natively out of the camera

While this camera can be used with a DJI wireless mic, I find that the audio quality out of the camera to be more than acceptable.

Deep, rich, and good at blocking out background noise for some reason. This camera has two internal mics that record in Stereo at 48 kHz / 16-bit AAC.

If you turn on the "pro" mode in the settings you can also turn on wind noise reduction.

• Off is best if you're indoors.
• Standard (what I record at) is digital filter that cuts low-frequency rumble.
• High (best for a windy environment. Can make voices sound slightly more tinny.

For me the audio sounds great, turn on the camera and talk. Done.

I do increase the base and treble slightly in post but it's a minimal adjustment.

5) Attachments

When you buy this camera, included is a bunch of fun attachments (instead of being sold separately).

• Magnetic Lanyard: A classic wearable mount. You wear the lanyard under your shirt, and the Nano snaps onto it through the fabric for that "chest-cam" POV.
• Magnetic Hat Clip: Slides onto the brim of a baseball cap for a head-level POV.
• Protective Case: A simple sleeve to keep the lens safe when not in use.
• Magnetic Ball-Joint Suction Mount: My favorite, can double as a little tripod grip to hold the camera while vlogging. The suction cup can attach to any wall or table easily and the ball joint allows you to adjust the position of the camera.

On top of all that, don't forget that this camera is magnetic, so if you can also attach it to any metal surface (car, fridge, metal pole).

6) Vision dock to see yourself

The vison dock (included with the camera) is a smart accessory for previewing, charging, and transferring footage.

It was one of the reasons why I bought this camera over their Action lineup because the vision dock is a big screen, you can see yourself more clearly than the tiny square front facing screen on the Osmo Action.

I also like that I have the option to use or not use the vision dock.

Since the camera module itself is stripped down to be as light as possible, the dock is what transforms it into a professional tool.

Display and Control

1.96-inch Touchscreen: The Nano camera has no screen. The Vision Dock provides a bright, high-resolution display so you can actually frame your shots, review footage, and change settings.

It adds a dedicated Shutter/Record button and a Function button, making it much easier to operate than using the tiny button on the camera module itself.

Storage & Power

• MicroSD Slot: The Nano camera is where the internal storage lives, but the Vision Dock houses the main microSD card slot (supporting up to 1TB).
• Extended Battery: The dock contains its own internal battery. When the camera is slotted in, it charges the Nano. Together, they give you roughly 200 minutes of total recording time.
• USB-C Port: This is your primary hub for fast charging and high-speed data transfer to your computer.

Do you need to buy a microSD card for the Osmo Nano?

Honestly no. This is a "nice to have" feature but I have the 128 GB version and find that to be more than enough for my purposes.

7) Record up to 4k 60 FPS with stabilization

I'm still blown away that this little camera can record up to 4k, 60 FPS with stabilization.

My old X3000 could only do 4k 30 FPS, and even then the video quality looked bad (which is why everyone used 1080p 60 FPS with that camera).

I currently record at 4k 30 FPS as 60 FPS is a huge file to edit, but I'm happy with how the overall video quality looks.

Slow Motion

• 4K: 4× slow motion (recorded at 120 fps).
• 2.7K: 4× slow motion (recorded at 120 fps).
• 1080p: 8× slow motion (recorded at 240 fps) or 4× slow motion (recorded at 120 fps).

Other Time-Based Modes (Locked Frame Rates)

• Hyperlapse: 4K / 2.7K / 1080p at 25 / 30 fps only (with speed multipliers: Auto / ×2 / ×5 / ×10 / ×15 / ×30)
• Timelapse: 4K / 2.7K / 1080p at 25 / 30 fps only

Important Notes on Frame Rates & Features

• Maximum bitrate: 120 Mbps across all modes.
• Video format: MP4 (HEVC / H.265).
• HorizonBalancing (keeps the horizon level): Only available in 1080p (16:9), 2.7K (16:9), or 4K (16:9) at 60 fps or below. It is not available in slow-motion, timelapse, or hyperlapse modes.
• RockSteady 3.0 stabilization: Works in all normal video modes but is disabled in Slow Motion and Timelapse.
• SuperNight mode (low-light noise reduction): Limited to up to 30 fps and 8-bit color only.
• Frame rates and capabilities are identical whether the camera is used alone or docked in the Vision Dock.

In short you have a lot of options with this camera. Generally speaking, you'll be using either 25, 30 or 60 FPS to record with the ability to record in slow motion.

8) A ton of storage built in

I touched on this already, but I have the 128 GB model. All that storage is built into the camera device itself.

So after the software and settings, that leaves you with about 107 GB of usable storage. If you need even more storage then you'll have to put a microSD card in the vision dock.

But I think for 99% of people, 100 GB of storage is plenty.

Any drawbacks?

So is this camera perfect? No, there are a few annoyances I've found after actually using this camera to make video content.

The native color profiles look awful

You don't have to record in D-Log. The camera comes with it's own color profiles but I think they look pretty bad compared to my Sony X3000 or iPhone.

Rendering with a LUT applied, takes a longer

If you have an older computer, trying to render a 4k video with a LUT applied will take a lot longer. The newer your machine, the less of an issue this is.

Only works with DJI mics

My Boya Mini does NOT connect to the Osmo Nano. I asked support and they told me only DJI mics can pair with the Osmo Nano. Not a big deal for me as I don't want to use a mic.

Super night mode is "meh"

Recording at night? Well the Osmo Nano as something called "super night" mode just like the Osmo Action.

Except the Osmo Action is pretty good at night, and even with Super Night mode on, the Nano is still performs horrible in low light situations.

Can NOT be used as a webcam

The Osmo Action can double as a webcam, the Osmo Nano can not. I already have a webcam that I'm happy with so again this is a non issue for me, but may be a drawback for you.

DJI Osmo Nano Review Conclusion

That's it for my breakdown of this camera. Overall I'm quite happy with my purchase.

The small form factor, the vision dock with a large screen, the option to use or not use the vision dock, massive storage, high quality audio and video.

Yep, this camera pretty much ticks all my boxes as my "fun" casual vlogging camera.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I was watching this YouTube video of Joe Rogan talking about why Connecticut sucks and I nearly spit my coffee out all over myself laughing because it was so funny and so spot on (but obviously over the top).

"CT sucks" and "Connecticut sucks" are pretty popular search terms because Joe Rogan is right.

People who live there kind of know it sucks. Sure, it's got it's beauty and charm in it's own way and there are definitely worse places to live. But Connecticut could be a lot better.

Joe says Connecticut has a weird vibe. He says it has a feeling of despair, hopelessness and sadness and that it's just a highway between New York and Boston. That, it's not a real state and that it's a fifth world country.

For context, both Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle were heckled in CT and now refuse to do gigs there. While Rogan's statements on CT are very harsh, the underlying message is true.

Connecticut kind of sucks and here are my eight reasons why as someone who grew up there (escape Connecticut and other states that suck with my Expat Escape Plan).

THE EXPAT ESCAPE

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1) Economic downward spiral

I majored in accounting and finance as a 20-something at the University of Connecticut. School was so expensive (and has only gotten worse - A US problem not specific to CT) I was having the Air Force reserve pay for my tuition so I could get out ahead financially by being able to land one of those good jobs.

As such I was able to land a position with PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PWC). If I would have been located somewhere else being exposed to technology and websites I would have likely more learned a tech oriented trade instead of a trade that literally serves me no use now as a full stack marketer who works online and lives abroad.

Connecticut is a state with no tech oriented jobs.

Just old, boring companies like banks and insurance companies run by the boomer generation who are stuck in their ways.

If you want to live in Connecticut and make enough to live you're basically going to need to be an engineer, work in some financial capacity in a cubicle or learn a trade (which is good advice for any state).

If you have no talent for numbers and you consider yourself more of a creative type then Connecticut is not for you as you're going to be broke as the state lacks opportunities outside these narrow areas of banking, insurance or finance.

The state is also in this weird downward spiral because there is just a lack of high paying jobs, people can't make enough to live which then leads to increasing taxes to pay for things.

Particularly on the shrinking middle and upper middle income people as well as companies who actually pay taxes. This eventually drives these productive people away (see General Electric leaving CT for Boston - yes Boston, because Taxachusets is so well known for being a low tax state).

Creating a state like California with a small portion of the populace earning a high income and the rest struggling to stay above water.

Brain drain

Next, Connecticut has some of the best universities yet the state experiences a major brain drain simply because again the state only offers boring jobs working in cubicles in the areas of finance and accounting and has high taxes and a high cost of living.

Connecticut is one of the few states that experiences a population decline. Why? It's just not a place where young people can get on with living their life. Jobs pay too little, taxes are too high and the cost of living is even higher.

2) Low value for your money

Connecticut is a high tax state but what do you get for your money?

Nothing.

You get to live in the dark woods of Connecticut surrounded by either rich people or the poor people that work for the rich people.

If you want to see a fifth world place go to Waterbury Connecticut. A pit if i ever saw one. Ugly city layout, crime and no jobs besides working retail at Target. A damn shame because it does not need to be like this.

One of my biggest issues with the state is that you get so little for your money. Rent in Connecticut is outrageous. $1600 a month for what?

Yeah you can probably find a place somwhere for $800 a month but you'll be living in an unsafe area like Waterbury where your stuff will be stolen while you're at work.

My old condo in Thailand by contrast which had two rooftop pools and a gym cost me $350 a month in rent.

When I ask a good friend who is from New Mexico "how much does a place in Albuquerque cost" they told me a safe, normal no-frills apartment costs around $500 to $600 a month.

I laughed.

I cried.

A place like that literally does not exist in Connecticut. Also how are you supposed to afford $1600 a month for an apartment, utilities, insurance, food and going out if you're making $38,000 a year working in accounts payable in the bowels of some bland insurance company.

At least with other high tax places like California you get nice beaches, big cities and lots of fun events going on. Connecticut is sleepy, boring and expensive (though having all 4 seasons is pretty great).

3) People are stuck in their bubble

In Connecticut people are either in their work bubble, their car bubble or their home bubble.

It's challenging to network, meet new people and make new and interesting friends simply because Connecticut people stick to their friends from high school or from work.

It's lame, it's a cultural thing and I don't know why it's such a big deal to go out and socialize. Yet it is. If you land a good job in the state good luck trying to build out a quality social circle.

People just don't go out and do stuff partly because there actually is nothing really to do in Connecticut other than drive long distances in your car or wander around a bleak mall that's stuck in 1992.

Just stay home, go to work or drive around. If you like being alone (and some people do) then Connecticut is the place for you.

4) Lack of Connecticut culture

Connecticut in general lacks things that are uniquely Connecticut. Want to go to a bar? Most of the time you'll have to go somewhere lame like an Applebee's or some other big generic brand where that can put up with the high cost of living.

Want coffee? Well Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts is basically it in most parts of CT. To put it in perspective, my parents moved to Rhode Island and they love it there.

They actually have their own local culture and business. Narragansett beer, Dells Italian ice, local restaurants, and beautiful beaches.

Connecticut only seems to have big box stores and generic companies. Starting a local business is extremely expensive in Connecticut and it's just not worth the headache. Particularly when you consider the population decline and the overall brain drain.

Connecticut could turn this around though and embrace what makes New England cool in it's own way.

Mystic CT is a lovely port town with things to do, Clydes Cider Mill is a must visit in the fall and Louis Lunch in New Haven is famous for inventing the American hamburger.

5) Mediocre cities

I get it, not everyone is a city person. But after living abroad in Bangkok, Saigon, Seoul South Korea, Mexico City, and visiting Boston and NYC regularly it's something that is lacking in CT.

I guess you could simply commute to NYC or Boston from CT but your a 3 hours drive away from both places.

So what about Connecticut cities?

They are pretty much non-existent unless you consider a 90,000-person population a city. The capital of Connecticut is Hartford, known lovingly as Fartford is a shrinking city with a population of about 120K with minimal shops and eateries.

During the weekend unlike other cities, it's totally abandoned you won't see anyone walking around.

Why you may be wondering?

Because no one who works in Hartford lives in Hartford. Hartford is simply a place residents drive to for work, then leave back to the suburbs.

Also as a city there is not a whole lot to do and it's surrounded by poor and dangerous neighborhoods. Nothing wrong with being on the lower socioeconomic ladder.

I've been to places like that in other parts of the world, but people in Hartford don't take pride in their property and there is too much crime to the point where it deters anyone from living there if they don't have to.

So you end up with a capital city that's not particularly attractive for young people. If you went to college or learned a trade and want to work hard and make a living. You want to be around like other like minded, hard working people. Not the gang banger, tough guy west coast rapper wanna be.

What about New Haven?

Yale is there so it must be nice right?

New Haven is a somewhat dangerous city with decent nightlife, a beautiful but small downtown area near Yale with excellent bars and restaurants and this weird dichotomy of a world-famous university located in a place with poverty and crime.

Don't believe me?

It was at one point ranked as the 4th most dangerous city in the United States. I'm from Connecticut, I'm not just making things up.

Waterbury as previously mentioned is a pit and should be avoided all costs. New Britain is filled with aggressive tough guys. It has a high crime rate and assaults. Bridgeport is an old rust belt city that is now like all our cities crime ridden.

So if you're looking to get mugged or to buy some heroin then I guess you could go check out Bridgeport.

Connecticut honestly does not have a single nice city.

Not even one city where people are just walking around, shopping, going out with their friends or family. There are nice spots in our different cities. A couple of gems for restaurants and bars. But it's more the exception than the norm.

6) Traffic and everything is far away

It takes forever to get anywhere in Connecticut.

All the major roads have way too much traffic, partly because the highway system in New England have these stupid left-hand exits so you end up having people that are in the passing driving lane driving fast having to slow down because they get stuck behind the guy who's exiting.

Also everything is just far away. It takes 30 minutes to drive to get food, then it's another long trip to the bank, then another long trip home. In CT, it's just the norm to live 40-60 minutes away from everything. People live in the suburb, home bubble.

This obviously contributes to the congestion because when people who want to leave their home bubble it's off for a 40-minute journey in the car bubble as I previously mentioned about Harford.

People live in the suburbs and commute so no one who is middle class actually lives in the cities of Connecticut. Who am I kidding, there is barely a middle class anymore in Connecticut anymore.

7) Reputation of being rich due to one area

Easily the most annoying thing about being from Connecticut is that we have this reputation of all being rich, white east coast liberals. The lecturing white liberals sure are here, but not so much the rich part.

Only one area of Connecticut has a lot of wealth. It's all concentrated in that little nose section near New York. There you'll find mansions and literal estates as well as boarding schools for rich families.

Connecticut used to have no state income tax so the state was able to attract high net worth people who worked in New York City, but perhaps did not want to live in New York. Instead opting for a big house with a yard in Connecticut.

It then gives the state this annoying reputation that everyone from Connecticut is rich or at least comes from money. In reality, most of Connecticut is pretty rural.

My dad was a city laborer and my mom worked as a nurses aid. Combined they made about $70,000 a year and raised four kids.

I really do not come from money at all, but I know I know, I'm white and I'm from Connecticut so my life must have just been so easy and everything was handed to me on a silver platter.

In reality Connecticut is a tough state to live in. It's way too expensive, it's hard to find gainful employment and you don't get value for your money.

8) Boring

Connecticut is boring. It's fine for a visit, but overall you'll find that there is not a whole lot to do here. There is nowhere to go other than malls and wandering around a Dick's sporting goods store, looking at hockey sticks and guns, contemplating ending it all there.

Connecticut lacks nice vibrant cities, everything is far away, people are nice but not friendly and don't socialize. It's expensive and it's just hard to have discretionary income. On top of that, all the surrounding states do something better.

You want a big city well you got New York City. You want a cool historical city with great sports teams, you got Boston. You want a relaxing beach then you have Rhode Island. You want to ski or snowboard then you have Vermont and New Hampshire.

You want an outdoor lifestyle and a good, small capital city then you have Maine. In Connecticut you have wasted potential.

Conclusion

You may be wondering, "wow you really hate your home state." NO WAY, I like Connecticut! It's just I'm from there and I can see the problems that are not being fixed.

The positives of Connecticut are that living in the suburbs while boring is actually quite safe. Perfect if you want to raise a family and are more of a homebody.

Connecticut is also very beautiful year round with four seasons. After traveling abroad and around the United States I always appreciate how pretty and laid back and pretty CT is, particularly in the fall.

To wrap this up if you're a person who wants a peaceful and boring place to raise a family and you're making the kind of money where you could actually afford to raise a family then Connecticut may be the state for you.

Oh, and the pizza is the best.

THE EXPAT ESCAPE

This no-BS course shows you exactly how to build your new life in Thailand or Vietnam without regrets or costly mistakes.

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Thanks for reading! -David

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This is a follow up to what is hell.

Freedom is not simply being able to do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want, however you feel without consequences.

Constraints and restrictions on your freedom to do whatever you want often result in more freedom because it protects you from the stupidity of others.

Huh?

It's like driving a car, with the rules of the road I can easily drive from New England to California at night without getting myself killed.

If everyone had the freedom to do whatever they want then you wouldn't have a functioning transportation system. Maniacs would drive 150 miles an hour, people would drive on whatever side of the road they felt like.

Driving would become impossible without rules and enforcement of those rules through constraints and cooperation.

Because of these rules and constraints you actually have more freedom to move about about as you please.

Freedom is not the absence of rules and constrains.

On the contrary, it's obtained through cooperation of set rules. The freedom to accept mutually accepted rules and constrains.

All areas are like this honestly.

If you want a fit body, you must constrain yourself through self-discipline.

If you want a clear mind, you must constrain yourself through self-development, study and abstaining from (or doing in moderation) your vices.

If you want a life full of love, you must constrain your nature (men wanting a lot, women thinking they can do better) to the confines of a relationship.

Finally, if you want a prosperous, peaceful world; private property in all senses of the word from your body, to what you buy and own must be respected.

"Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed"

Francis Bacon said it best: “nature to be commanded, must be obeyed.”

It's paradoxical, but if want to build a vehicle that can fly in the sky or sail across the oceans or race over the land, you must learn and adhere to the laws of physics.

This applies as much to the natural world and engineering technology as it does to human nature and engineering your own personal growth and success.

Freedom is not being able to do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want.

It's the ability to live, act, love and pursue goals in a way that is sustainable and respectful of others' similar abilities.

Rules are not the enemy of freedom; they're often what make a free society functional and expansive rather than a short, brutal free-for-all.

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Back in the day, it was technically possible to live month to month on just $1000 a month income if we're talking about being a single, debt free, healthy man.

Today? Eh not so much.

$1000 as a broke English teacher

When I first moved to Ratchaburi, Thailand in 2011 as an English teacher, my salary was 33,000 baht. That's roughly $1,000 a month and somehow, it worked.

1. My rent was 4,500 baht ($180).
2. Electricity? Add maybe $20-$30 on top of that.
3. Food was around $10–$15 a day max since I could eat at school and only needed to cover one meal outside.
4. My bike at the time cost me 1000 Baht a month ($30). I eventually bought a Honda CBR motorcycle.
5. I didn't pay for a data plan or internet at my home. I just used the free WIFI at my place and the free internet at any place I was at. I know, peasant mindset, dumb.

We as English teachers in Ratchaburi would also do the house party thing pretty regularly which involved getting a bunch of budget beers and talking shit all night.

It was possible because of where I was living and where I was in life.

Ratchaburi is a suburb about an hour and a half outside of Bangkok. Even back then, $1,000 a month wasn't going to cut it in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, or any major city in the region.

But as a young person doing the ESL thing for a year or two (which I highly recommend), it was totally fine and totally doable.

Why $1,000 Doesn't Go as Far Anymore

Things have changed.

Bangkok has gotten way more expensive (though it's still flexible as I would call it). Bali, which used to fly under the proverbial radar as a beautiful and affordable destination has seen prices climb sharply over the past five to ten years.

The same is true across popular expat destinations throughout Southeast Asia. But it's not just the cost of everyday life that catches people off guard. One thing that almost never gets mentioned in these "Asia is so cheap" videos and guides is the cost of visas.

Visa phantom costs

If you're living abroad long-term, you're either paying for a proper visa (my Muay Thai visa ran me about $3,000 for a year), shelling out for a Thai Elite visa if you're set on Thailand, or doing visa runs every three months if you're in Vietnam which means flights and hotels to neighboring countries.

Those costs add up fast and can seriously blow through a tight budget of $1000 a month easily.

What You Actually Need Today

The honest minimum for living comfortably in a popular area, think Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Manila, Bali is around $2,000 a month. That covers rent in a decent (not fancy) place, food (steak, eggs, fruit veggies, not street food everyday), and those visa-related expenses that most people forget to factor in.

If you're willing to live somewhere more rural, a smaller town in Thailand like I did, a lesser-known part of Vietnam or the Philippines, you should be able to be fine on $1,500.

But you have to be genuinely okay with that lifestyle. You're not living somewhere where all the action like Bangkok.

"Bro, I can easily live on that!"

Look, 2k is enough to cover living costs as a single, healthy, debt free man. No doubt.

But is it enough for having a girlfriend and eventually leading a family? Hell no.

What about saving for retirement? Nope.

I genuinely don't get how some men are not worried about not having assets to their name.

Personally, it stressed me the hell out being in my late 20s/early 30s and making only 33,000 Baht a month from my teaching job and few hundred dollars online from random websites I had.

I did have substantial savings from my time at PWC as an internal auditor which carried me, but at that time I did not have enough money to properly invest.

The goal is to not be a peasant

Your goal shouldn't be to scrape by.

You're not flexing on anyone talking about your budget apartment in Jomtien beach (popular spot for old guys in Thailand), the tatted up 37 year old single mom Thai bar girl you're dating, and eating a bowl of $1.50 noodles everyday at the Tesco food court.

Coming to SE Asia and surviving on the bare minimum isn't the dream. It's frustration pure and simple because you won't have access to the actual good life, you'll just be on the outside looking in.

You also haven't hacked the system or escaped the "matrix."

You're just bumming it in SE Asia, falling behind slowly.

...and ff you're behind in life, it's time to RUN not walk:

No Excuses: If You’re Behind, It’s Time To RUN

Let’s turn dreams into plans.

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

Sidenote - I'm not making a moral judgement. Life sucks sometimes, we all have our dark periods. It's okay to be struggling, it's just not okay to always be struggling.

A solid income out here is around $3,000 a month and beyond.

That's enough to cover everything, enjoy yourself, and actually put away money for retirement. From there, the goal should be to keep growing that number and become a wealthy expat.

So yes, $1,000 a month in South East Asia was possible, I lived it.

But that was 2011, in a suburb outside Bangkok, with a local teacher's salary as a healthy, single debt free man. In today's environment, in any place you'd actually want to live, budget for $2,000 as your floor and work up from there.

If you want more of a step by step on how to go abroad then checkout the Expat Escape. It covers everything at total beginner needs to know to move abroad and avoid costly mistakes.

Keep the main thing, the main thing as I say.

That does not mean you can't do fun side projects and what not. We're all dynamic individuals with a wide range of interests, it just means that once you find your thing that works, keep going.

Don't get distracted by something else that syphons off your most valuable asset, your time. Keep your main thing the main thing and grow and expand it.

Don't have a bunch of unrelated products, multiple websites, building multiple things.

I currently manage three brands:

1. Edgeofdavid.com (this site obviously).
2. My professional content marketing brand.
3. My niche site on teaching online and abroad.

As I mentioned here:

How Plan To Make $1-3K/monthly With EdgeofDavid.com

Can I make money online with a casual, personal brand?

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

My goal with this brand is complete for the most part.

KDP books? Done.

A low ticket course with a one time fee? Done.

Paid subscriptions? You bet.

Now I all I have to do it make a video once a week and write an email once a week too. Because this topic pays low in ad revenue, if I'm going to maintain this brand I need something to sell.

I like Edge of David because it's truly my personal brand where I can write about and make videos about whatever I'm inspired by. I'm a creative type and do need some sort of fun, creative outlet.

But if I'm going to do this, then yes I need to be smart and build out monetization for this brand.

Now that I'm done, I can just let it roll so to speak and iterate as needed. Publish a KDP book here and there, maybe a new low ticket course at some point. Whatever.

The hard work of actually making stuff is done, now it's a fun side thing where I have products to point too.

Shiny object syndrome - How to Stay Laser Focused

The hard part is not just saying no, it's saying NO to good ideas that work.

So here are three strategies I've implemented that have been transformational about how I spend my valuable time.

1. Map Where Your Money Actually Comes From

The first thing I did was sit down and create a flowchart, a simple visual of all the things I'm doing and where the money is actually coming from. Break it down by what you do and how much money you earned from each item if any at all.

This sounds almost too basic, but it was kind of a slap in the face when I did it. When you see it laid out visually, it becomes painfully obvious where your time should be going.

My main content marketing brand is clearly carrying the weight and affording me my lifestyle abroad.

Everything else? Rounding errors.

My niche site on teaching online and abroad shad a great run from 2019 to 2022. Making roughly $1200-$1500 a month from Amazon Associates and AdSense, it even peaked at $8,000 in both July and August ($16000! I know crazy) during back to school during these years, but with generative AI killing the niche site game and online teaching as a topic dying down, the income is now a meager $50-100 a month.

Edge of David is a fun creative outlet, not a revenue driver, but will see if this changes with my product focused approach here.

Overall, having a visual of where you're money is coming from is so helpful because you can't look at it and justify spending hours on something that's making you a fraction of what your main thing makes.

It forces clarity and focus.

1. Edge of David - A fun, once a week side thing. One new vid with my action camera, one new email.
2. Niche teaching site - 1 hour a month on this. Log-in, update outdated content, make sure WordPress and plugins are up to date.
3. Main thing - 95% of my time and effort goes here

2. Budget Your Time Like Money

Once you know where your focus should go, you have to actually protect it. Time is a resource just like money, it's finite, and how you spend it determines your results long term.

What's helped me is treating my week and month like a budget. For my teaching sit I log in once a week during the week, maybe update something (content or a plugin as needed), check the analytics, check the earnings, and close it. That's it.

I don't think about it between check-ins. I don't log in randomly. It's on the back burner, and the calendar makes that official.

It sounds silly, but having it scheduled removes the mental load of constantly deciding what to work on.

The decision is already made. You're not going to work on that today because it's not on the calendar. Get back to the main thing.

For Edge of David, this is my creative outlet. So when I'm inspired to make a video which is typically once a week, I'll plan it out quickly and record with my action camera. Then these emails and blog posts that I send out, I typically write at the end of the week.

3. Define What Each Project Actually Is (And Isn't)

This one's harder, but it might be the most important. A lot of shiny object syndrome comes from projects being undefined, you haven't decided what something is, so it can become anything, which means it quietly expands and eats your time.

I had to get honest about what Edge of David actually is. I was starting to treat it like a second business, planning a newsletter, building out a website, thinking about paid subscriptions, books and products.

But when I actually asked myself if I had the time and energy to run two newsletters and two content ecosystems, the answer was no.

...and more importantly, it's not where my income comes from.

So I've been reframing it:

Edge of David is a creative outlet. It's where I vlog and create topical videos, shoot stuff on my iPhone, and make content for fun because I want to like this:

What is the Best (and Worst) Height For a Man?

One thing that always annoys me about “red pill” YouTube is when men compare girls having a height preference in men to a woman’s weight. The idea being that women want tall men and men don’t like fat women. But the reality is women don’t like overweight men too. It’s

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

Maybe it becomes something someday or maybe not. I just had to give the ole college try and get some low ticket products done here. But overall, it's not a brand I'm building in competition with my main thing.

Once I defined it that way, I was able to put EdgeofDavid.com in it's proper place and not become obsessed about it, spending a bunch of time on something that makes a small amount of money.

Matt Giovanisci went through the same thing

Matt who runs SwimUniversity.com, MoneyLab.co (he changed it to a personal brand around his name), and BrewCabin.com, went through the same thing.

He was about to go all in on Money Lab before he caught himself and realized he should double down on what's actually working which is his Swim University brand.

That's the move.

Keep Money Lab as a side thing, a creative outlet to talk business, not something that competes for your time on the main thing.

Inspired by Sam Ovens:

Just want to mention that this visual was inspired by a video from Sam Ovens. His main thesis is that time and focus is finite which it is.

So you should do less, not more. Meaning spend the same amount of time on fewer things (and not be lazy by actually doing less). You are limited by how much progress you can make by spreading out your time compared to going hard at one thing.

He shut down his old business which was doing well (Consulting.com) to go all in on Skool.com which has been a massive success. Instead of spreading his efforts and mental space between two things.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Are their any exceptions?

Only one person comes to mind.

Peter Levels runs multiple software companies that are all quite different.

Apparently I'm a minimalist.

It's not a moniker I hold onto with any pride or anything. I just realized that when I was home for Christmas, my aunts and uncles would ask me "so where do you keep your stuff?"

I'm like, ...uh what stuff you talking about? My apartment? Where else would I keep my things?

I realized I don't have that much stuff and it's strange to people. No furniture sitting in storage in the USA, no car that needs selling, no random trinkets that I stuff into some cardboard box each and every time I move.

Just one big travel suitcase, a smaller suitcase for domestic travel, my camera bag and a backpack for my technology.

That's it.

All my worldly possessions fit into these 4 things.

Since I get asked a lot of questions about different aspects of living abroad, here is a high level overview of all the tools, gear and services I personally use and pay for as a self employed expat living abroad that I find invaluable.

Welcome to my ultra light packing for minimalist travel & living.

1. Prioritize for small, light and usefulness. I use the iPhone Mini. My iPad is the iPad Mini. I bought the Osmo Nano because it's tiny. My laptop is a lightweight XPS, not a heavy gaming machine. If it's not clear, I prefer things that are small, light and useful. Ideally, I also like to get things that are multi-purpose as well.
2. Carry fewer things (duh). When I do an extended visa run, I take my backpack that has my laptop and accessories so I can do my work as needed and my small luggage ("the carry-on" from Travel Away) with as few things as I need. Makes travel way more enjoyable without carrying a big heavy backpack and multiple luggage pieces.
3. Optimize for your environment. Even when I travel light, I make sure to have something good to wear for a cocktail bar or a night out with friends. I bring clothes that I can bum around a hotel with or dress up as needed. Again, think multi-purpose.

You’ll need a travel credit card with no foreign transaction fee, first and foremost. When I first went abroad in 2011, I had a Chase "Freedom" credit card and they charged me a whopping 3.5% fee to use my card in Thailand—eating up any points or benefits in the first place.

Then you'll want a cashback credit card to use on all purchases where you don't get an optimal amount of points on your travel card and finally, you'll need a general-purpose backup credit card.

Best Travel Wallet

The Ridge Wallet - I ordered this when in America. It' cost me around $100, but unlike a boomer brown wallet that wears out and looks like crap after a year or two, this sleek minimalist wallet it built out of carbon fiber, lasts a lifetime and has RIF tech to protect your cards.

Best Travel Credit and Debit Cards

Schwab Debit Card - For Americans (sorry I'm an American) - this debit card reimburses you on all foreign ATM fees! Just don't abuse it. You can get this card by simply opening a Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking Account, which is an online checking account that has no fees and no minimum balance. 

Chase Saphire Reserve Credit Card - The best travel credit card on the market, plain and simple. There are no foreign transaction fees, which means that you can use it anywhere in the world at no extra cost to you. The Sapphire Reserve earns 3x points on dining at restaurants around the world and all travel purchases like airfare, hotels, and trains.

Even better, those points are actually worth something because the Chase Ultimate Rewards program allows you to redeem your points on a wide range of airline and hotel partners.

To top it all off, Chase Sapphire Reserve customers get a free Priority Pass membership, which scores you access to over 900 airport lounges around the world. Most people avoid this card because on the surface it appears to have an annual fee of $450.

However, the card automatically reimburses you up to $300 for travel, which means that as long as you're planning on spending $300 on travel during the year, the annual fee is effectively $150, which is a total steal considering the perks. If you're only going to get one travel credit card, get this one.

Gemini Credit Card – My current cash back card. Gemini is a crypto exchange that has a 1-3% cash back card. You get 3% on dining, 2% on groceries and convenience stores and 1% on everything else.

So if you spend $100 on dining, you'll get $3 in Bitcoin at the current price. This is huge because it ends up being WAY more than 3% long term. The rewards I earned when Bitcoin was 20k is now 5x more as the price is over 100k a Bitcoin.

Rewards are paid out in Bitcoin in real time. You spend, BTC gets bought and added to your balance. Then you can withdraw it to your wallet. Last, there are no foreign transaction fees.

Backup Credit Card - I'll leave this up to you. You need a travel focused card to earn points to help buy you flights and you need a cash back card. The final card is simply a backup you keep safe in your room just in case you lose your wallet, there is a fraud alert and you have to cancel your current card or have trouble using my recommended two cards.

Trust me, when the time comes for you to use your backup card, you'll thank me!

Wise Debt Card - This is a multi-currency debt card. Once you have a Wise account all you do is link your bank account to your Wise account and then you can buy 160+ different currencies and withdraw said currency at a local ATM.

So for example, say you need Thai Baht. Instead of using your US debt card that is linked to your checking account with a lot of money in it (risks of getting skimmed, eaten by the ATM ect), you can instead buy $100 worth of Thai Baht in your Wise account. Then you can go withdraw that $100 of Thai Baht (3000 Baht roughly) from the ATM.

Best phone for travel

iPhone – I carry the smallest iPhone available. I already have an iPad, I don't need some oversized piece of toast in my pocket. I prefer the smaller size because you still get an outstanding camera in a smaller form factor and it's more comfortable in your pocket.

No, I don't play games or anything like that. I use my phone to record stories for IG and YouTube, take pictures, notes and to message friends so the battery life is fine on a smaller device.

iPhone Case - I don't use a case. Yea, I'm one of those people. You should not be dropping your phone boys and girls.

Anozer Mini Tripod - A cheap, small, versatile iPhone tripod. Perfect for using as a grip to vlog.

Boya Mini - If you're going to be using your phone for video work, you need a microphone. I use the Boya Mini for both my phone and laptop and am impressed with the sound quality. Full Boya Mini review here.

Google FI - Pay as you go monthly plan starting at $20 a month. Can turn it off and not pay for it when abroad and easily turn it on again when you need it. With Google FI you now have a dedicated US number, data in any country you visit and can receive SMS messages while abroad.

Viber credits - RIP Skype. I used to use Skype to call my bank and credit card companies while abroad. Since Microsoft killed of Skype the best alternative I found is to use Viber. Top up your phone with $5 of credits and you're good to go.

Important: You must be in the United States to activate your Google Fi number. So sign up now, get your sim card and activate it because once you’re abroad it’s simply impossible to do so.

Keys - I live abroad so I carry my motorbike key, key to my apartment and the key to open the gate to my building when they close it at night for security reasons. As such, I don't have much in the way of keys.

Best Travel Backpack

Ogio Renegade - This is without a doubt my favorite backpack I've ever had. I got it back during my time at PWC. I since bought the updated version. It carries all my tech easily in an organized fashion. From my laptop, chargers, Shure USB mic, iPad and more.

Canon Shoulder Bag - This bag easily carries my two lenses, my camera body and the charger with ease. It also has a front pocket that my iPad Mini fits perfectly in.

Dalix Gym Bag - This gym bag is a dream come true if you're looking for something small to fit ONLY your gym shoes and gym clothes in. Nothing fancy. I tend to fill this up with clothes and then put it in my luggage when traveling.

Best Travel Luggage

Travel Away Large - This suitcase is big, stylish and durable. Easily carry your shoes and clothes. Essential for international travel.

Travel Away Carry On - I use this for all my local trips and visa runs. You need a big suitcase for international travel and when you visit home, but a short 2 week trip to a neighboring country? The Ogio and this carry on are all you need.

Best Travel Laptop

Dell XPS - Most powerful Windows laptop on the market. This thing is thin, light and handles anything I throw at it. I also love all the ports. Makes it really easy to record video content using my DSLR camera as a webcam with a microphone plugged into the laptop. You can also upgrade the ram to 64 GB as well.

Macbook Air - The Air is almost on-par with the Pro models with the M chip series and 16 GB of ram. Honestly, I'm super impressed with the weight and build quality of the Macbook Air lineup. If you need power then go with the pro, but if all you're doing is video editing for YouTube and content creation the Air really can handle those tasks with ease.

Ankor 6-1 dongle - My dongle of choice for USB-C and HDMI connections. Small and lightweight. My XPS has a built in card reader so if you need that feature then get this one instead.

Best Travel Cameras

Osmo Nano - I love the Nano for it's small form factor and accessories. You can record in D-Log M that looks great with a LUT. I also like the large vision dock screen and that I can change the angle from standard to ultra wide.

Osmo Pocket - Want that blurry background for vlogging and recording videos of your travels? Then a solid alternative to the Nano is the famous Osmo Pocket.

Sony ZV-E1 - A small, full frame camera. Perfect for walk and talk vlogs, in studio recording and taking pictures. I suggest you pair it with the Sony 20mm F1.8.

Best Travel Headphones

Marshall Major V - I've had every pair of Marshall Major headphones since version 1 (now at version 5. Small, lightweight, pairs via Bluetooth or a wired connection. Built in microphone and it does a fine job of blocking out noise.

Best Travel Accessories

Targus travel adapter - You need this to you can use different outlets for different countries. I picked this up back in 2011 before I went Thailand for the first time and it's served me well. I like that it breaks apart into smaller pieces that fit different outlets.

HEAROS Xtreme Ear plugs - Cheap but very effective ear plugs. Combine these with headphones and it blocks out a ton of noise. Perfect for sleeping on an airplane.

Swiss Army knife - I have the Victorinox. Super helpful, from opening a bottle of wine in a pinch, to cutting something with the scissors, to opening a can or slicing something. You'll be surprised by how useful this thing is. Just make sure to put it in your checked luggage when traveling!

Ankor PowerCore - This is the best portable battery charger I have used. It is a combination wall charger and portable battery. You can plug it into any outlet and it will begin charging your phone and other devices like a normal charger.

Once the phone is fully charged, the Anker PowerCore will automatically begin charging its internal battery. Then you can toss it in your bag and charge your devices anywhere. 

Jetstream Pen - Yea it's just a pen but it's quality. Good to have in your backpack when you need to fill out immigration forms.

Clothing is a personal choice. But like James Clear listing out stuff he likes (like a Patagonia puff jacket or vest which you would NEVER catch me wearing), I figured I would do the same.

Best Travel Jacket

Leather bomber jacket - Pick whatever you like honestly! I like the style of this jacket and the fact that the hood is removable.

Best Travel Hat

180 Degree Ear Muffs - Stylish, small and fit in your jacket/coat pocket. I find these essential for cold weather. Not exactly a hat, but it's headgear none the less.

Best Travel Shirt

Uniqulo T-Shirts - I wear their "Supima" cotton T-Shirts. Come in a wide range of colors. Reasonable price, looks good for that "jeans and t-shirt" look.

Best Travel Pants

Levi 510s - Comfy, reasonably priced jeans. I'm around 1.77m tall, just under 5,10 at 172lbs so I don't have long legs and arms. I find form fitting clothing to be more flattering to my physique as baggy clothing makes me look small.

Best Travel Socks

Darn Tough Mountain Socks - If you're going somewhere cold, these socks are simply outstanding.

Adidas Low Cut - Great socks to wear with pants and shorts.

Dress Socks - Thursday boots is where I get my dress socks from.

Best Travel Shoes

Shoes are subjective.

I personally wear white Diesel shoes, they match both jeans and dress pants as they tend to be stylish. Perfect when I'm traveling and want to visit a cocktail bar.

I also bring a pair of standard, everyday white shoes that match both jeans and and shorts which are good for walking, like these Nike shoes.

As for dress shoes, I keep these in my apartment and don't take them when traveling unless I'm traveling for a wedding or something.

Best Travel Gloves

Lightweight gloves - I keep a pair of small, cheap little gloves in my coat or jacket pocket along with my over the ear, ear muffs.

Arm Sleeves - Incredibly valuable when in Asia and driving a motorbike around everywhere. These arm sleeves protect your arm from the brutal UV. A superior option to wearing a jacket like locals do.

E-Tree Small Bag - Finding a toiletries bag for men is super annoying. Everything is so dang big. I found this small pouch to be the perfect size for most men.

What I carry is incredibly simple:

• Toothbrush
• Small toothpaste
• Sexy Hair gel (travel size - yes that's the brand name)
• CeraVe Am Moisturizer (SPF 50 +Niacinamide & Ceramides )
• Deodorant
• Nail clippers
• Beard trimmer
• Chapstick
• Eye drops
• ibuprofen

Travel First Aid Kit

Things like band-aids and anti-biotics you can find when traveling. Depends on where you're going honestly.

Tiny first aid kit - My Korean ex gf bought me this cute little first aid kit (not this one exactly, but one in this style). It's small, made of nylon (not a hard shell) and it great for putting band-aids, pill sheets, sprays, ointments etc in.

Travel Supplements

I also like to take NAC and my Magnesium + Zinc supplements when I travel. Diamox is good if you have altitude sickness too.

For more:

Supplements For Men I Take (Almost) Daily

Optimize your health, energy, age well, and maintain yourself. I’m pretty intentional about the supplements I take and don’t want to overdo it or make this an overly complicated process/system. From my own research and personal experience with trying different products here are the supplements I take and have

EDGE of DAVIDEdge of David

Grab - The rideshare app of Asia. Stop haggling with random taxi drivers, just book a car or motorbike with Grab.

Kayak - An excellent search engine for flights, hotels and car rentals.

Booking.com - I tend to use Booking a lot for flight and hotels when I'm not using my Chase card.

Airalo - While I prefer getting an e-sim at the airport, Airalo does allow you to buy easily from their app.

Google.com/ncr – This is a hack for your laptop. If you've ever traveled to a different country and used google.com, then you may have noticed that you were sent to the local Google homepage for that country. NCR stands for "no country redirect."

Google Translate – Translation app. Can take pictures and translate text, write and most importantly you can download a language for offline use.

Conclusion

That wraps-up my ultralight packing for minimalist travel! Props to Mr. James Clear for inspiring this. I hope you found this constantly updated guide and packing list useful.

Thanks for reading and happy travels. Any questions let me know.

Every once in awhile someone writes a blog post saying that the biggest downside of being location independent is because it’s so hard to meet new friends in new places.

They say “Man, I really wish I was location independent, but I’ll leave behind all of the cool people I know in Kansas.”

This is true. Sometimes it can be hard to meet people in new places.

Meeting people is hard, but it doesn’t have to be impossible.

How to meet people when you’re location independent.

Over the last few years I’ve reduced my stuff to somewhere less than 100 things (some say 57), learned how to live and work from anywhere since 2015 roughly, and relocated to a bunch of new cities (Bangkok, Bali, Chiang Mai, Saigon, Da Nang).

Every time I move I have no problem establishing a social network of decent people within a short amount of time.

I realize that some people have trouble doing this, so maybe this article can help you learn how to meet new people easily when you’re vagabonding around the world running a minimalist business while living with less.

These tips can probably apply if you’re location independent or just trying to find new friends outside of your normal circles.

So no worries if you’re not doing the expat thing yet, you still might learn something from this!

If you’re really interested in the expat life, I built "The Expat Escape" for you. It isn’t for everyone, but if you're curious about how to properly move abroad long term then check it out.

THE EXPAT ESCAPE

This no-BS course shows you exactly how to build your new life in Thailand or Vietnam without regrets or costly mistakes.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Here are 10 strategies I’ve developed for meeting remarkable people:

1. You can’t be friends with everyone

First, recognize that a person who tries to be friends with everyone ends up being friends with no one. The best networkers realize that they won’t be able to connect with most people, so instead focus their attention on people they can connect with. This means, if you there’s no magic, then you need to drop it immediately and try to connect with the next person.

Like my buddy Brad once told me, conversation is like dancing. Some people you dance well with, others you don't. Conversation is like that, sometimes you hit it off, others it's a struggle.

Like I struggle to connect with guys who are all into sports. I like watching my team the Patriots because I'm from New England, but apart from that I could care less about sports. I don't follow anything, I don't care about the players, coaches.

It's just not my thing.

2. Discover something to do on a monthly basis

You need a social hobby. Preferably something that involves exercise. For example, I go to Muay Thai training every week. This means after a few weeks I started connecting with regulars who are doing something interesting with their lives.

I also tried out yoga with my buddy Romeo who just visited Saigon. It's a good way to wake up in the morning, and lot's of attractive women.

If you’re stumped as to what a social hobby is, here are some examples: any dance form, playing guitar, martial arts, running, rock climbing, writing workshops, dance parties, cooking. Almost everyone has one of these as a focus in their life.

If your hobby is drinking beer at the bar, watching movies alone in your house or getting high as a kite, chances are you’ll have trouble meeting people. Change it up, don't be shy. You got to put yourself out there.

3. You need a common interest

The best people to connect with are people who share some aspect with you. Like my friend Andrew who I meet in Bangkok through my friend Pinky. He was dating Pinky (Thai girl and yes Thai people have odd nicknames) and we hit it off talking about business.

He sold his agency for 1.5 million and we ended up talking about Fiverr, running ads, affiliate marketing and more. As people we're quite different, but we share this common interest that allows us to form a friendship.

Think about all of the best friends you’ve had in the past?

Finding new friends means admitting that you need to meet people who are share some aspect similar to you. If they aren’t similar, you start talking about the baseball, everyone gets bored and you aren’t helping anyone.

This is also why you always have a party every time you’re staying in a Hostel. Because you can all connect around the common experience of being a traveller.

4. Use existing infrastructure.

One of the biggest obstacles is quite simple, and easily avoided: a lot of people try to re-invent the lightbulb instead of just flipping it on.

You see, we live in the modern age, and yet so many people insist on not entering it. Let me cut to the chase: 80% of people meet new people over the Internet.

Why?

Because it’s easier than interrupting people who might already have plenty of friends on the street asking if you can hang out. People on the Internet looking for friends on the Internet generally want new friends, and thus are much easier to become friends with them.

So don’t be afraid to use Instagram, Facebook groups or email to find people in your new city to meet.

Don’t leave friendship to chance, or you’ll be wandering alone for a very long time. Use existing infrastructure in order to establish local relationships that last for a very long time.

5. Value real relationships

I’d rather have a couple of really good friends in every city than hundreds who barely know me. Don’t focus on meeting everyone. Meet a few people that you click with and build from there. Maybe you only need to meet 5 people before you find one with an existing social circle that extends across the entire city.

I always think about The Tipping Point, where Gladwell stated most people can manage only 150 real connections. However, some super-people end up being connectors that know just about everyone. Every good social circle has a few connectors that introduce everyone and basically lead the party. Find these people, they will introduce you to everyone.

6. Live with people

Still stuck at home? Don’t live by yourself. Yes, living with people is more difficult, and sometimes the dishes don’t get done. But if you’re moving to new cities this is a great way to step into a social network that already exists. My friend Brad did this by moving into a cool house district 1 in Saigon with his work mates.

His house ended up being a fun spot to visit every week for house get togethers. Right now I’m living alone and I prefer living alone, but I have a group of friends here already and a GF so I'm properly setup.

7. Have no expectations

It can be really hard to find friends if you really really need to find friends. Be okay with being alone, and let things happen. I call this "friendship purgatory."

Don’t be running around asking everyone on the street ‘will you be my friend’ ‘will you be my friend?’ No one wants to be friends with you if you’re like that. Instead focus on what kind of value you can add to the lives of others when they come in contact with you.

8. Go it alone

It’s really hard to meet people if you’re always with an entourage. Chances are, if you’re always hanging out with your best buddy, you’ll never find new ones. Be okay with being alone. Meet people without dragging your friends or your only friend with you. This will make it much easier to connect and listen to the new people you’re meeting.

Like doing a yoga class solo for example or taking a solo trip somewhere because you really want to go while no one else does. Like my dad would always say, "you don't know unless you go, but you if you stay here 100% nothing will happen."

9. Leave your house

This is obvious, but if you stay in doors watching YouTube and Tiktok all day, you’ll never meet new people. Instead get outside!

For example, last Saturday I ran into my friend Alex Stevenson of Ninja Teacher while getting coffee in Binh Thanh District here in Saigon. We subsequently made plans to do a double date next weekend.

This doesn’t happen when you stay at home.

10. Be open to adventures

If you start every relationship with ‘I’d really love to meet up, but I can’t until next Tuesday at 12 noon because I have an really obsessive e-mail checking schedule’ you’re not going to make many friends.

The value of being a location independent expat is that you can also have an open schedule. If someone calls, just say ‘yea, why not now?’

Don’t afraid to jump on the back of a motorcycle if the opportunity should present itself. You might just end up at a fun random event in Bangkok unexpectedly.

Yes, you didn’t KNOW you’d be there. This is what living the moment is, you can’t plan everything. Planning nothing is usually a way better way to engage with the world.

Just be open, and let the relationships come to you.

But you do need to put yourself out there.

THE EXPAT ESCAPE

This no-BS course shows you exactly how to build your new life in Thailand or Vietnam without regrets or costly mistakes.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

When I started blogging here back in 2010 my goal was to become a professional blogger making a full time income.

I know, I'm an idiot.

I straight up failed (obviously) because I was giving life advice as goofy, out of shape 26-year-old living in Connecticut who had just quit his job and was working one-off jobs at Robert Half Account Temps to make ends meet while figuring out his next move.

Not exactly an inspirational life, but I now see how risky that was and how that risk and pain is required for serious change. I eventually went abroad to Thailand to teach English and during that time I built my content marketing business over a few years.

I wasted a lot of time on this site back then to be honest because I didn't understand content marketing, SEO and how my blog would even make money in the first place.

But it was a necessary learning experience about content marketing, business and finding your thing.

Edge of David as my creative outlet

So after 2 years or so of blogging here, I was able to get this site to about 150 visitors a day, making roughly $50-80 a month from ads and around $100-300 from affiliate marketing.

This was great because I eventually went abroad and worked at a government school in Thailand as a broke English teacher making 33,000 Baht a month, roughly $850-1000 a month given the exchange rate.

This was enough to cover my expenses but not save, so an extra 150-300 USD flowing into my life made a huge difference.

However, anyone how knows me knows that no way was I content with being some English teacher. This is why I made my popular "teacher trap" video because too many guys get comfortable scrapping by, drinking a big LEO (a cheap beer in Thailand) every night and dating some lo-so farm girl they think is a 10, but eveyone else sees as a 4.

It genuinely pissed me off when I would go to Bangkok (I lived in Ratchaburi at the time) and not have the funds to go to a nice rooftop bar, always having to worry about how much things cost, having to leave Bangkok on Sunday night for a 3 hour van ride back to Ratchaburi and meeting guys who were living the life I wanted - a life of freedom and self-sovereignty.

I didn't give up

I kept trying different things and was ok with acknowledging that all the time and effort I had put into edgeofdavid.com was a learning experience but if I had kept at it, it would become a waste of time.

I had to accept that despite starting in 2010, I was starting over from scratch with a new project. That's a painful realization because time is valuable and you want things to grow, but failure is part of the process like all the clichés state.

So I decided that going forward, I'll always keep this brand as a personal thing. As I live abroad, travel and was growing a business I just needed a place to create. I even started my vlog for the same reason. I wanted to figure out video content.

In the back of my mind I did think that maybe vlogging would be my thing. But like edgeofdavid.com the EOD vlog never took off.

I'm actually thankful it didn't because I love, absolutely love my current business model of making educational tutorials, helping people with their digital products, websites, online stores etc.

My work is truly remote and I'm glad I'm not stuck creating travel content and always having to go somewhere to make a video.

The vlog however like the blog did teach me how to make videos which proved essential for my main business.

Funny how things work out.

Now I want this brand to make money

So let me break down the income and how I plan to do it with this website and how to make money blogging in general if you're curious.

Make quick and easy topical videos with an action camera.

My YouTube channel for this brand is monetized, depending on the views I get I make anywhere from $1 to $8 a day. More in the range of $1 to be honest. So ad revenue is not really a primary monetization option for me.

I also enjoy making topical videos instead of vlogs. They have the potential for more staying power (that means getting consistent views from search and recommendations) which means more ad revenue and people watching.

I really don't have the gift for gab or the personality to carry a vlog so topical vids make way more sense. I want to use my action camera (I bought a DJI Nano) instead of my iPhone because I like having a dedicated device for this sort of thing.

From YouTube promote my Ghost newsletter website.

I'll promote my Ghost powered blog/newsletter website. I would like to grow my subscriber base here, currently my open rate is 40-50% which is not bad. YouTube is one way to grow my newsletter. The other way is from organic search content as my emails I also publish as blog posts and those do get search traffic from Google and AI.

Promote my KDP books, get reviews, publish more KDP books.

My Thai friend Tip makes around $1200 a month from her KDP books. I enjoy writing so I want to do something similar which is why I published a few KDP titles of my own.

So far the sales are meh.

New books with no reviews don't rank well or get pushed by the algo. On top of that I have a small audience and my books are not super focused on a keyword. I just really wanted to write because I wanted to write. Like my Bitcoin book. Just a passion project I wanted to create.

As the newsletter and traffic to the site grows, I'm curious if I'll make more sales from having a low ticket offer in the form of a KDP book.

Part of me thinks I should just price them at $9.99 and sell them as a PDF with a traditional sales page, but Tip showed me that once your books are ranking you'll make sales everyday without doing any marketing which really appeals to me.

UPDATE:

I'll use a service like Book Bounty or Pubby to get all my books to around 10 reviews each. The I'll run ads to my books for a month then let the algorithm do it's thing.

Move Expat Escape to Thrive Cart, develop sales page with Carrd.

I'm proud of Expat Escape but I would like it to be it's own stand-a-lone thing and not tied to EdgeofDavid.com. So for that I'm going to move it (all the videos and written content) over to Thrive Cart. I can also use Thrive Cart if I decide to pivot from Amazon KDP.

Thrive Cart is a shopping cart platform that costs a one time fee of around $500 USD. You get the ability to host digital products and create beautiful, high converting checkout pages with bump offers.

Carrd is a one page website builder that works really well for creating sales pages.

Bring back a low ticket $5 subscription offer for my site.

I deleted my paid subscription offer on my blog where I kept private, members only blog posts so I could instead offer Expat Escape.

I'm glad I did this because I learned that this was a mistake. People will subscribe to your newsletter if the price point is low. So instead of having a Patreon, I'll just again create a low ticket subscription offer here.

UPDATE:

Done! This took 2 weeks to build out Thrive Cart, the checkout page and the sales page (using Ghost.org not Carrd).

THE EXPAT ESCAPE

This no-BS course shows you exactly how to build your new life in Thailand or Vietnam without regrets or costly mistakes.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Run display ads on Edge of David

Right now my site is getting around 150-200 daily visitors. It's an 80/20 rule with all the traffic going to a few blog posts, so perhaps it it might make sense to run ads on the higher traffic content that does not have a clear offer?

With any ad network, you want to look at your website from a holistic approach and run ads on the pieces of content where it makes sense. Content, where it makes sense is where there is no clear affiliate offer, or offer for your email list or product.

UPDATE:

Low hanging fruit so to speak, slapped some ads and making a few dollars a day now.

Affiliate marketing

I'm still surprised after 10 years people have no idea what affiliate marketing is. You can sign up as an affiliate for companies and promote their product and service.

If people click your link and purchase, you get a commission. With the right traffic source and content, this can scale up to tens of thousands of dollars a month.

The catch?

You need the right traffic and content, which is not easy, as everyone is going after lucrative keywords because that is where the money is.

You'll also need a lot of content ranking well for many transactional keywords where people are searching for help or advice on a purchase decisions or they need help learning how to do something.

Most people are lazy however and won't stick it out. They will create create five videos for YouTube or start a blog and write 6 blog posts and then you guessed it, quit.

I don't mind this reality because this work is the actual barrier to entry to keep lazy, stupid people at bay.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent revenue stream for this site. With sending out emails and linking to various products and services that are a good fit, it's simply a matter of creating more affiliate focused content.

Like in my Gemini credit card review post which I published a few years ago. Funny because every financial YouTuber is now pushing this card even though it's been available for years.

Keep the main thing, the main thing

With all that said, it's important to keep the main thing, the main thing. Edge of David is a fun side thing, but it does not pull its weight enough to spend a ton of time on.

My goal this year is to get a bunch of digital products done and get to a point where I create videos and a once a week email here.