The Value of Living Elsewhere

Usually, not obvious until you get there.

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Grocery Gift Card

The Ultra High End - 25-Piece Kate Wiser Chocolate Box

The Superpremium - Ra-men Gadou

The Premium Core - Ferrero Rocher

The Accessible Core - The Value of Living Elsewhere

The Affordable Luxury - Next Bespoke Prize

The Everyday Luxury - BBQ Update

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Grocery Gift Card [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Grocery gift card

• Contest Period: October 2, 2024 at 10 AM CST to October 29, 2024 at 10 PM CST

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winners

Congratulations to all the members that submitted and won the $15 Starbucks eGift Card! Everyone must be quite busy or do not like Starbucks, very few actually submitted for the first ever multi-prize week. Regardless, congrats to those that have submitted and check out some of the submissions:

Congratulations to all the winners of this week, enjoy the Starbucks. And you know what goes well with coffee, chocolates!

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: 25-Piece Kate Wiser Chocolate Box [ARV $90]

• Odds: For every 60 Ducky Tran premium members that submit a valid entry, I will give out one (1) box

• Contest Period: October 9, 2024 at 10 AM CST to October 15, 2024 at 10 PM CST

As mentioned in the Superpremium a few weeks ago, Kate Wiser Chocolate is a luxurious and artistic chocolatier that my wife loves. I'm too frugal to buy it often; however, I find it to be an amazing gift with the awe and surprise from the fancy chocolate art. This week you can win their new 25-piece chocolate box from their Artist Collection. Don’t forget to share!

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is Ra-men Gadou, or better known to Americans as Volcano Ramen. Specifically, the star and namesake of the restaurant, the Volcano Ramen. This ramen is the signature dish on Ra-men Gadou in Chatan Town located in Okinawa, Japan. It is named Volcano Ramen for many obvious reasons; however, you don’t realize the destructive power of a volcano until you experience first-hand.

I don’t think I can describe the Volcano Ramen experience textually and do it justice, so I found a video someone made that will clear your sinuses (watch from 4:33 - 4:43): click here for Volcano Ramen Experience.

If you watched the video, you can see how the hot and spicy steam would be the best stuff-nose remedy.

As I’ve brought up many times, I love spicy food! Ra-men Gadou allows you to pick your spice level, so obviously I asked for the max, LEVEL 1000! It was worth it, the ramen was flavorful, spicy, hot, and the experience was memorable. The spice scale is a bit random, but the ramen broth and ingredients are so good, the spice isn’t really the star… until later. The Volcano Ramen experience was so fun, so I had it a few times when I visited Japan. I can’t wait to find something like this stateside, as long as they have LEVEL 1000!

The Premium Core

The focus of this week is financial wealth; however, that doesn’t mean you have to splurge to truly enjoy it. There are things that are just fancy regardless in what environment, for instance, gold, spheres, chocolate, hazelnut, and fancy Italian names. No wonder Ferrero Rocher chocolates seem so fancy! They got it all!

Even though it’s so fancy, Ferrero Rocher is quite affordable and is often given as gifts.

Deal #1: This week you can get a 12-piece Ferrero Rocher chocolate box for just $2! Go to shop.duckytran.com and get the fanciest $2-worth of chocolates. The box is a variety box with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and coconut. There will be 15 boxes available.

The Accessible Core

The Value of Living Elsewhere

From the small to the big, anywhere you have lived, are living, or will live will have a lasting impact in your life. From the friends you meet, the sights you see, and the air you breathe, where you live can determine your physical, social, financial, and mental well-being. However, since this week is focused on financial wealth, let’s talk about the effects of where you live on your finances or even the other way around.

We all know that the cost-of-living in the major cities around the world is not attainable for the majority of the world. However, for work, family, school, and opportunities, people have moved to major cities regardless of the financial burden it may put them in. At the end, everyone is technically doing it for happiness. This technicality is the root of the disparity in effects.

We choose a specific job for its pay or workplace environment. We choose family and friends for their support or to support them. We choose certain schools for their merits, availability, or tradition. We seek opportunities as it promises joy in some form. However, did you know all those exists elsewhere in the world for others too? It isn’t just in your town, state, or country alone; yet, we are stuck there for reasons we place on ourselves.

In all my travels, I realized something that most people cannot comprehend the fact that all the happiness and issues that you may have exist elsewhere in the world too; however, only the values may be seen differently in different places.

If you make less money in a place that cost less to live then it would mean you make the same money. You could find a good job or better job elsewhere, but rather not work to find it. Once we move out, many of us may only see our families a few times a month or even less, yet we stick nearby for comfort. We want to make new friends, but don’t want to make the effort to open up our lives to others. We have a lot of control on the schooling we have after high school, but we are afraid to explore the unknown. Opportunities are everywhere; however, we tend to only open our eyes to the ones the matches our idea of greatness, rather than seeing all the possibilities.

The happiness we seek can be found everywhere; however, we will stick the easiest method. Those that try to break the mold a bit will get to see how happiness everywhere, but only those that have lived in different places around the world, even if it’s a single country, will learn to be happy anywhere. That being said, how does all this connect to us financially?

Simply, that means if we are smart with our money, not only can we be happy no matter where we are, but we can have more time and money to enjoy our lives. Many of us want to invest into passive means of generating money; however, most of the ways are too little to live on where we are. But as you may know, your money is worth more in different parts of the world. So let me give an example that anyone can achieve:

1. Assumptions: Average US income is about $59,000, average monthly rent for 900 sqft is $1,750 and cost about $150,000 to purchase. Assume we make the same every year we work from age 21. You save 10% of what you make. Let’s say you buy a $150,000 house at age 21 with the help of your family with no money down. (This is not the most realistic scenario, but this is so the numbers are easy for everyone to calculate and visualize.)

2. If you work for 20 years, you can pay off the $150,00 assuming you pay the mortgage and 10% that you save on top each month.

3. You can rent the house out for about $21,000. Yes, this $21,000 is less than $59,000, but money is worth different values in different places. Here are places where $21,000 is equal or more than $59,000: Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Philippines, Brazil, and Peru to name a few.

4. That means at age 41, you could technically have a live in other of the countries listed above, have a home there, renting your home in the US, and have an equal quality of life without actually working anymore.

I know there are many other assumptions and simply willingness or desire to live elsewhere, but this proves that it is just that simple but we are not aware or do not want it. This example also assumes no other investments, increases in wage, additional income from a partner or family, continuing to work or the chance of starting work at a younger age.

Now that we have 40 extra hours a week, we can enjoy the world around us or do whatever we always wanted to do. Imagine, true financial freedom was always there, but it just depended where you are and not how much you make.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 46 Community Poll Results

Last week’s results were a bit contradictory, but let’s see what you think. Here’s the results:

1. About 65% voted you live where you do because of family and friends, 20% because you where you’re at, and the remaining 15% voted because of money or work.

2. Then I asked if you had the means to move, would you? And 75% voted you would move! That was surprising to me because only 15% said you live where to do because of money or work; however, nearly everyone would move. That either means you would move closer to your family but to a bigger home, or for money you’d ditch your family. Or is there more to the decision?

3. Looks like everyone liked the multi-winner idea last week. Funny thing is more people voted for this poll than entered into the contest.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

Let’s try to schedule the BBQ Social and Charity event! It will most likely be at Hutchins BBQ @ 9225 Preston Rd, Frisco, TX 75033.

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