How To Move To Mexico – Perfecto

Here is a 2024 Update of the original “How To Move To Mexico – Perfecto” post, written when I achieved my 2016 goal of moving from Portland, Oregon, to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, after I sold my advertising agency. FYI = For my business readers, here is how to sell your advertising agency.

I live in San Miguel de Allende, a town Condé Nast Traveller named – get this – “Best Small City in the World” five times – not bad (OK, a bit of an overstatement, but I’ll take it). SMA is in the middle of the country, (high desert), is known for its culture, old-world colonial architecture, music, art, gourmet & street food, roof bars, and wonderful people. Plus, it has two international airports, each about 90 minutes away. The world-class Mexico City and its two airports are about four hours away by luxury bus or private van.

To date, the original blog post has been read over 10,000 times. In the seven days from November 2 through 8 alone, it had 2,800 visits. Based on this activity, there is no question that a few (a few 🙂 Americans are thinking about moving to Mexico—and beyond. People do wonder how to make a move to live in Mexico. It’s not that hard. Some info follows.

Interesting side note. My advertising agency business consultancy is based here. In the past couple of years, three of my clients have decided to move to Mexico full-time or buy a second part-time home. Let me know if you are interested. I’ll turn you into the right people who can make that happen.

How To Move To Mexico

Why move to Mexico? Nine reasons.

1. Mexico is a beautiful and diverse country – from mountains to beaches to serious city living and pyramids.
2. The cost of living is 50% of, say, Chicago.
3. You can get a permanent resident visa in Mexico. This isn’t possible in most other countries. Try being a full-time American expat in Australia.
4. We are in the right time zone (vs. Bali or Portugal.)
5. Easy flights to the USA and beyond.
6. The weather (especially in San Miguel) is a wow. The best I have ever lived in
7. Remote work — works here. Solid Internet solutions.
8. The people are very warm, and the culture is rich.
9. LOL – Mexicans are willing to elect a woman President.

Oh. Is it safe? Pleeeease. Read this from Newsweek:

According to data from the U.S. State Department, between January 2022 and June 2022, there were 115 deaths of U.S. citizens, of which 25 were homicides. The largest number of deaths in the time period was as a result of vehicle accidents, with unspecified accidents also accounting for 25.

25! Note that there were over 25,000,000 American visitors to Mexico in 2022. Do the math on your odds of being targeted.

Yeah, you’ll read about crime in specific Mexican states, and yes, it is a major issue. That said, it is essential to note that the cartel people kill each other. They are fueled by America’s drug love and need to sell weapons. The really bad guys do not want to kill foreigners. Bad for business.

Podcast anyone???

For you audio types, I had Google’s brand new NotebookLM AI tool make a podcast from this page. I put it at the bottom of this post.

The Move To Mexico – It Was a Rather Good Idea

My wife and I are now seven-plus years in and live here full-time. Six years ago, we built a house across from the neighborhood church in the Guadalupe neighborhood, which is well-known for its murals. Well, that was our old house—we sold it for a nice profit. We now live in a very modern house up the hill with a fantastic view. It is a ten-minute walk to Centro.

I am maintaining my global advertising agency consultancy (it helps that I can work digitally from any location); I recently finished a multi-year global photography project, which I started when I arrived in Mexico. After shooting in San Miguel de Allende, I photographed communities in L.A. and Selma and worked across India. I’ll be heading to Vietnam in 2025.

I published my second business book last year… “How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency.”

Back to Mexico…

I am convinced that my wife and I made the right move. San Miguel de Allende is endearing, culturally rich, and visually stimulating. The people are lovely and even welcome gringos like me. As I’ve mentioned, Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Traveller have named our town the best city in the world. Yes, it deserves its “best,” but one does have to kinda wonder who paid off the magazines for us to get signaled out.

By the way, check out my two-year San Miguel de Allende portrait photography series, La Gente. Please pass it on, especially to Americans.

Demographics: In the past few years, due to the growth of remote work, we’ve seen the gringo population get younger. The work-from-home shift has made moving and living in Mexico more accessible for 30 – 40-year-olds, and we are seeing more young families come down. We have decent bilingual schools.

NOTE: We did not move for political reasons. That said, living somewhere where most people smile daily and are not addicted to FOX, MNNBC, Google News, or Twitter is a ‘good thing’. LOL, sure, we have news and social media addicts here. But, at least we do not have to see red political hats when we go to the tienda to buy a mango.

Ah, a Map. The arrow points to San Miguel de Allende.

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My Original 2016 Blog Post About the Why and How To Move To Mexico

Why Mexico? And – How To Move To Mexico

This post explains why I moved to Mexico, where, and how, and provides some details should you want to follow me.

The move has been a two-year process for my wife and me to decide to make the move and then choose where to live. We selected San Miguel de Allende (for its culture and high-altitude weather) over Puerto Vallarta (too beachy); Baja (too close to California); the Yucatan (way too humid); Oaxaca (a close second); Mexico City (too big); or Lake Chapala (boring – though near Guadalajara).

I like moving to new places and do so about every 7 years. The upside is living an adventure and having to creatively deal with unknowns. The downside is leaving friends behind. But, some visit and Zoom plus Facetime keeps everyone face-to-face.

In addition to pure wanderlust, there are other factors that seem to make me move around. Here is a new one. I recently read the Wall Street Journal article, Nature or Nurture? What Makes You an Expat? Is a lust for travel, adventure and new surroundings built into your DNA? The article covers the idea that moving and living in a foreign country might be, partially, a function of your DNA. My kids are in their twenties, and they now live in Buenos Aires and Budapest. Is the Levitan DNA responsible? Who knows. But, this is an interesting concept to digest.

OK, so why am I moving to Mexico?

I grew up in New York City, went to college in Boston and San Francisco, and then moved back to New York, to Minneapolis, to New Jersey when we had kids, to London, and back. And 16 years ago, my family split from the post-9/11 New York metro to go to Bend and then Portland, Oregon. Was it our moving-on genes? Wanderlust? Career building? I think all of the above.

Why Mexico?

We love Mexico and Mexicans. And, I can run my consultancy from anywhere, so why not head south?

We are not alone. Mexico has the highest number of American expats. The actual numbers are a bit flaky but the U.S. government estimates the number at over 1.5 million. These include people working in Mexico, folks just hanging out, Mexican Americans, and many American retirees.

But, hey, this blog post is about me.

My reasons to move to Mexico…

• Numero uno: Adventure (life is short.) See David Bowie for inspiration. ‘”Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strange) Turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-Changes”
• Our new home is San Miguel de Allende a town in the middle of the country. That’s one of its most famous scenes in the picture. SMA is one of the coolest towns in the world (yes, the world.)
• If you don’t mind skipping heat and humidity, San Miguel de Allende’s weather is perfect (high desert at over 6,000 feet.) See the map at the bottom for its location.
• The people in San Miguel are always smiling. OK, an overstatement but kinda true.
• It’s safe. Please stop the silly ‘gringo’ question… “Is it safe?” Get this: most of Mexico is safer than New Orleans and Detroit. And, you know that if Americans stopped doing tons of coke, meth, and fentanyl, we’d help to solve the cartel problem. The key is that you don’t go hang out where the bad guys do business because that is where the crime is.
• Mexican culture combines indigenous and Spanish influences. There are endless street, art and music festivals, and a very vibrant art scene.
• The cost of living is about 60% or less than living in the USA. In our first ‘test’ year, we are renting a fully furnished 4-bedroom house with 3 days of housekeeper service and a gardener for $1,500 per month (this is considered on the higher end). At over 18 pesos per dollar, the dollar is as high as it has been in years.
• San Miguel has the second-best restaurant scene in the country after Mexico City (OK, Oaxaca, too). It has become a major weekend destination for Mexico City residents.
• Surrounding towns deliver sweet day trips to visit hot springs, local ice cream meccas, and university towns. And… truly exciting things like Queretaro’s Costco, the largest shopping mall in Latin America and Shake Shack.
• I can easily fly nonstop to L.A., Dallas, and Houston out of two local airports and internationally from Mexico City.
• Getting a long-term visa is easy. Try living long-term in the U.K. or France or Thailand. Not going to happen.
• I avoid CNN and FOX and MSNBC.
• Oh, and I can work from anywhere I have a laptop and WIFI. Plus, my town is conveniently in the central time zone.

Have you considered living in Mexico?

A recent research study I did testing Google Consumer Research focused on where Americans want to retire. My findings show that 13% (13%!) of Americans between 45 and 65 “have considered retiring in Mexico”. By the way, you do use easy-to-use-super fast Google Research in your business development program, right?

Who will thrive in Mexico? [Read more…] about How To Move To Mexico