About four years ago, Justin Keltner found himself travelling around the United States, looking for the “perfect” new city to call his forever home. During the process, though, the American who had spent the better part of the past decade living in Latin America realised that he wanted to go back. There wasn’t an American city on the map that was going to have the same open, friendly neighbours he had grown accustomed to and missed.
So he packed up and relocated to Guadalajara, Mexico.
Two years in, he started dating Amanda Abella, a fellow American. She came to visit him for about six weeks and never left. Abella had been considering an international move for some time, but seeing Keltner actually living it convinced her that the process wouldn’t be as difficult as she once imagined.
Plus, they were in love.
Today, the married couple runs Entrepreneur Expat. The company helps potential western expats figure out if they qualify for residency, and assists those who do in navigating immigration systems, real estate quandaries, tax strategies and more. Their team is primarily based in Mexico, but they do also have partners in Costa Rica and Panama, plus a budding network in Colombia.
The power couple joined us to talk all things American-expat, including business and personal finances across borders.
Moving to Mexico made Abella and Keltner’s financial lives much healthier. They estimate that the average cost of living is 30% to 40% lower in most Mexican locales than it is in America. This is a big deal as the number one reason Americans have cited for wanting to emigrate over the past seven months is the cost-of-living crisis, followed by political instability.
It’s not just that costs are lower, though. The couple finds the quality of living to be much higher, too.
“Healthcare, food, and general experiences living in cities here with much better urban planning than the U.S. – [it’s] not only more affordable, but you feel like you’re getting much more for your money,” says Keltner.
The spending-to-value ratio isn’t the end of things, either. Abella notes that Mexican savings accounts pay noticeably higher interest rates than American financial institutions. That means that while they’re saving money, their savings account is also increasing their income to boot.
Keltner and Abella raise a huge issue that nationals of other countries rarely have to deal with: If you’re an American citizen (or in some cases, resident), you do have to pay American income tax no matter where you live in the world. Expats are not immune.
That said, there are some legal workarounds. If you qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, the first $130,000 you earn while working in a foreign economy in 2025 is excluded from your taxable income for IRS purposes. There are nuanced rules around this exclusion, though, and the number varies according to inflation every year.
Many expats in 2025 get visas through a digital nomad program, so they’re working across borders for an American employer. Or — like Keltner and Abella — they own businesses based in the U.S., but complete most of their work online while living abroad.
In these instances, Keltner says there are still legal ways to reduce your tax burden, but your earnings won’t necessarily qualify for that foreign-earned income exclusion. You’ll still probably be paying some U.S. income and/or business taxes, even if you don’t breach the $130,000 mark.
Managing your finances in different currencies is tricky business. Abella and Keltner use a combination of PocketSmith and Wise to handle their personal and business finances, as they’re two of the few options on the market that allow for multi-currency budgeting and lower-cost wire transfers, respectively.
“It’s a lot easier than it used to be thanks to technology,” says Abella, “and you get used to dealing with different currencies with time.”
One pro of American finances that Keltner and Abella have noticed is that there are stricter consumer protections compared to Mexican regulations. They often find themselves using their American credit and debit cards in Mexico, both because of these regulatory protections and because it allows them to track their business expenses with fewer complications.
They do have Mexican banking accounts, though, and are working on building credit. On top of those higher APYs in Mexico, they have their eye on real estate and investing opportunities in their new home city.
Any time you move to a new country, there will be new norms to which you have to adjust. Keltner found the construct of time to be an interesting one.
“People in [‘Western’ countries like the] U.S., Canada, western Europe, etc. have a completely different perspective on time,” he explains. “When someone in the U.S. says that you’ll have a business meeting at 3 p.m., it actually means 3 p.m. But most other places — especially in Latin America — time is more of a human construct, which has its pros and its cons.”
Believe it or not, this does tie into finances. The construct of time as we know it was, in many ways, a direct result of the industrial revolution and wage labour tied to time clocks. These origins have roots in ‘Western’ societies like those found in England and the U.S. When you move to another country, you may find that time and money aren’t as hyper-connected as they are in America.
Keltner and Abella say that if you’re serious about immigration, start by building your business or your assets.
Many visa programs require hefty upfront investments or the potential to work remotely at a high enough level that you have a stable, sustainable income stream. That’s why — especially in the era of digital nomad visas — the couple’s business offers a coaching program teaching people how to build a remote, online business that will withstand immigration standards.
But their biggest advice to other Americans wanting to emigrate?
Don’t overthink it.
Prior to dating Keltner, Abella had spent years trying to perfectly coordinate emigration on her own. In the end, while there were some bureaucratic hoops to jump through, she found the process to be much easier than she had been making it out in her head.
“You can’t perfectly plan everything,” she says. “Also, you don’t always have the luxury of time because immigration all around the world is constantly changing.
“For example, we’ve seen a lot of people have the misfortune of now not being able to afford Mexico and no longer having access to a popular visa program because they took too long waiting for everything to be perfect. In that time, Mexico shut down the visa program they were banking on.”
Brynne Conroy is an award-winning personal finance writer, creator of the popular women’s finance site, Femme Frugality, and author of The Feminist Financial Handbook, which was an Amazon #1 New Release across multiple categories including Poverty and LGBTQ Demographic Studies. Her work has been cited in academic texts, and she’s spoken at venues such as Vanderbilt University, the Financial Planning Association and the 529 Conference. Here at PocketSmith, Brynne covers personal finance within American financial systems.
