So now you’re thinking, I don’t want to have anything shipped because of Customs fees and etc. Well there’s a way to beat Customs fees quite easily. In fact since I have lived in Chile I have NEVER paid any fees for any incoming items. There’s a company in Santiago that’s a mailbox company but with a twist. When you sign up with them they will give you AN AMERICAN address to have items sent to and the items that are sent to that address are then forwarded to you in Santiago.

I used this service awhile back and found it to be much like Mailboxes Etc. I signed a six month contract and then they gave me a mailing address in Florida. I would order things and have them sent to that address. The company representatives handling parcels at the address would then express the packages or items to Chile the next day and then the company in Santiago would simply call or email me and let me know a package arrived. The service was fast; in fact the turnaround time was about 24 hours. Once the package reached the Florida address it was then shipped via courier to Chile.

You can avoid Customs fees because the mailing address in Florida appears to be a residential address and most times there are no Customs fees if, say, a relative sends you an item as a gift or if they think it’s from a relative or friend in the U.S. As long as it is not from a company, you can beat fees.

Another trick that’ll serve you well if you have items sent from the U.S. is to make sure it doesn’t come in the retail packaging. Meaning, if you have someone send you a new digital camera make sure they remove it out of the store packaging and put it in a plain brown box and send to you. Again, the principle is that there are no fees for getting a package of that sort because there’s no way to determine if the item is new, used from a store or a gift from a friend.

Make sure when your sender fills out the green Customs form at the post office they put “gift” on the form and for dollar value, make sure it’s something low, like $50 dollars, that way you’ll most likely avoid any Customs fees. Why should you pay twice for an item you already paid for once to get?

A word of caution about making purchases here and this is the ONLY thing I DON’T like about Chile and that is, once you purchase something here, and if you change your mind and decide to take it back to the store, they will not give you a refund. This is the only bad point I can see about Chile. I guess after being raised in the U.S. where if you bought something and did not like it you can get your money back, I got spoiled on that concept. In Chile you will NOT get your money back. They’ll, however, replace the item or get you a comparable item but again you will not get your money back, so when buying be very careful and make a good choice. Be sure about what you want because once the money is down, that’s it. So the rule of thumb is; make wise purchases.

Clothing and shoe sizes are a bit different than in the U.S. also. If you wear a size 8 shoe, you will not find any size 8 shoes here. Just kidding! A size 8 shoe in American sizes would be a size 40 shoe here in Chilean sizes. So you can use that as a gauge to determine your shoe size when buying shoes here.

If you’re invited out for coffee downtown be warned, many of the coffee shops downtown are considered gentlemen’s coffee shops. You’ll find that the windows to these establishments are tinted and that you can’t see thru them and that’s because while inside you’re served coffee by naked women and if not totally naked, pretty scantily clad would be the next best or most tasteful way to describe them.

While downtown it’s also advisable to always be watchful. Pickpockets abound. It’s a problem that the local police have made great efforts to crack down on. It’s best to keep your wallet in your front pocket and not your back, or if at all possible, don’t carry your wallet or purse at all, just some cash in your pocket is the most preferable way to operate.

If you’re looking for housing downtown you’re in luck! It’s very inexpensive to live downtown. That’s because no one wants to live there. Too much traffic, too many people, too noisy and after dark it can get a bit risky in some places.

One of the most inexpensive hotels you can stay in while in Chile is also downtown. It’s called the Hotel Vegas and it’s located at the corner of Paris and Londres (London in Spanish) Avenues, any cab driver can get you there easily. The accommodations are very nice. The average cost for a room is about $55 dollars per night and well worth it. I can tell you now, the area the hotel is located in is so old world European you’d swear you were in Paris, or some quiet street in an England suburb which of course is why the two streets the hotel corners on have been named Paris and Londres Avenues. The streets are narrow and cobble stoned and very charming.

The ride from the airport is about 45 minutes but it’s scenic. You can rent a car or take a taxi but traffic can be insane to drive in. Traffic here reminds me of New York City near Times Square during rush hour. You must drive defensively! There’s always traffic no matter what time of day or where you go, so get used to it. 

While you’re in your car, turn on the radio and enjoy the variety of radio stations available. Surprisingly, Chileans are all rockers at heart so you’ll find many rock stations, along with several 80’s music stations, pop and alternative also. Sure, there are Latin music stations, but Chileans are real diverse when it comes to music.

I’m a serious movie fan. One thing I hate is when a movie is released in the U.S. it can be weeks or months before it comes to the local theatres here. This of course doesn’t really matter because you can buy just about any movie that’s in theatres, off the street in downtown. The average cost for a movie: $3.50 dollars U.S. or about 2000 Pesos. 

The people that sell the movies are called “Piratas”, which of course is Spanish for pirates. It’s considered a crime here but one that’s harmless. Most of the piratas that are selling the bootleg movies are not doing so to get rich; many are doing so to be able to buy food to feed their families. I would much rather like to see my money going to feed some needy family than in some greedy movie moguls pocket. Usually within one week of its American release you can get the film off the street.

You can buy them as CD’s or VHS tapes. The discs are usually of much better quality than the VHS tapes but you can wind up with a crappy movie at times regardless. Most of the discs are computer only, meaning you can only watch the movie if you have a computer. Invest in a converter, it’ll allow you to connect your computer to your TV and make VHS copies for more comfortable viewing.

Don’t buy any movies that are supposed to be DVD compatible because most of the time they won’t work in your DVD player unless you have a VCD compliant DVD player and even then it’s a maybe. I like the idea of being able to obtain any movie on the street. Every time I go to the movie theatre there’s always some jerk who wants to talk through the whole movie, or some idiot kicking the back of my chair or noisy people in general, so to me this is a better way to watch movies. I’m not advocating this, I’m just saying it’s there as an entertainment option. 

For those of you that like the old time way of seeing a movie there are several multiplexes showing tons of movies. The multiplexes are large, stylish and clean. The average price of a movie ticket? A paltry 3000 Pesos or about $4 dollars U.S. That’s a far cry from the $10 dollars you’ll spend to see a movie in the States.

Paying bills is a snap here. There’s a service called Servi-Pag, and what it is, is a little walk up booth found in most malls or supermarkets where you can pay all your bills in one fell swoop. Bills are computerized so once you pay it’s instantly listed as paid with the company you get services from, be it Chilectra, the Chilean power company or Telefonica telephone service, the Ma Bell of Chile. 

At Servi-Pag, I can pay my gas, cable TV, telephone, internet and other bills all in one shot. Many asked me in emails just what my approximate cost of living per month is and I put it at about $500 dollars U.S. and this includes rent. The breakdown is like this, my rent is $200, food is about $100, bills are about $100 and an additional $100 for miscellaneous ventures, you know, Blockbuster, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and other incidentals.

Usually, $3000 dollars U.S. will last about five months, give or take, but again this is because I have most of the comforts that are needed to prevent any frivolous spending. You need a computer, you need a DVD player or VCR, you need a stereo and the like, if you have these things then you will not find yourself out on the town every night because you feel bored at home. Which in turn, will make you spend money needlessly.

I live pretty simple so this is just average for me, it all depends on your lifestyle but I can’t see anyone paying more than $700 tops per month to live. Remember, the key to “Bi-Continent” living is in what you pay for rent. You want to keep your rent as low as possible, and then you can spend on other luxuries.

Many asked me of ways to make a living. You can go to the visa office and fill out a bunch of papers and go through the “proper channels” and eventually get a job, which is a long process and could take forever or you can get creative and make a quiet living on your own doing many things. It all depends on your skills. I know of some who teach English classes and collect a nice fee for doing so. I made and designed web pages and ebook covers to make a good living which afforded me the luxury to work at home in peace and comfort.

I opened a virtual store where I made a nice living selling computer parts. In Silicon Valley 128mb of memory runs about $20 dollars, but that same memory in Chile will cost closer to $70 dollars U.S. So I would buy computer items that would be fast sellers, such as memory, flash memory cards, blank CD’s, Mice, and the biggest money maker………….printer cartridges. I would then run an ad in the local paper for these items at “rock bottom prices”. I was easily able to bring a cache of these items with me through customs as they were viewed as my personal property and not commercial items.

I made a nice living doing this. How did I get the idea for this? Well, I was working on a web project for a client and my printer ran out of ink. The cartridges in the U.S. would cost about $45 dollars for all the colors needed including the black, so like a dummy I assumed they would be cheap in Chile also. So I got in my car and ran downtown to my favorite computer store and found that the exact same cartridges were nearly $110 dollars! I also found out most people buy generic cartridges and not the proper company cartridges for the printer necessary because no one can afford true Epson, HP, or Canon Cartridges or any of the other name brands for that matter.

So that’s when I got the idea that if I could bring over a bunch of actual brand name cartridges and sell them for a little more than what I paid, I could still beat the average prices the stores were selling them for and make a nice profit. Printer cartridges are a valuable commodity here; in fact the name brand cartridges are in some places almost non-existent because people cannot afford real Epson, Lexmark, Canon or HP cartridges.

When I ran out of cartridges, I would simply pick up the phone and call a buddy in the U.S. and tell him to buy some and send them to me. He already knew the procedure for sending items to me that we worked out before so I got the items with no Customs fees and I would then have the ad placed in the local paper a few days later. I would sit back and take calls on my prepaid cell phone and of course any incoming calls are free as explained in the previous article.

Once I sold to a few clients I found my cell phone rang off the hook for people wanting cheap, real name brand cartridges. Yes, it did become a nightmare as I was getting calls late at night also, remember Chileans are nocturnal people. I eventually got out of that business but it’s one business you can always get in with a minimal investment.

Making a living in another country is not hard. You just have to be resourceful and observant. The things you see in everyday life will give you ideas for ways you can make money based upon the differences of one country versus your country of origin.

If you’re a gamer then you know that the Playstation One is no longer the popular Playstation but rather the Playstation Two now is. You can get a new Playstation One for $45 dollars now but when they first came out they were costing $199 or more, but here’s the kicker; that very same Playstation One that no one is really playing with anymore since the big boy Playstation Two has come out, is still $110 dollars in Chile. 

A smart man could buy ten of them and run an ad in the paper selling them for, $75 dollars a piece and make a nice profitable business out of it, not to mention a nice profit per unit. Just remember to include voltage converters with them as a courtesy.

Another good business is a mail forwarding service. Take advantage of the fact that you’re not in Kansas anymore. Hey, who wouldn’t want to have an exotic mailing address in another country? You can become a mail service, accepting and forwarding mail for people, or even a virtual office, complete with fax and phone services and you can run it out of your home easily. Take out a small ad in an American business magazine and just see how many clients you’ll get who want an exotic address in another country.

Are you bilingual? Great, so open your own translation service and charge people a nice fee to translate letters or documents. You’d be surprised how much money you can make doing that and working from the comfort of your own home, on your own terms and on your own hours.

What skills do you have? Don’t think for a minute that you can’t make a living using what you know how to do, because you can. Don’t think that people will not pay for your knowledge because they will! I make an excellent living right now with a new company I’m working with to produce instructional videos based upon what I know and have learned about traveling and other countries. The company is howtwovideo.com and you can find many of my instructional videos there. Such as How to get a passport in 72 hours or less or How to stay safe when traveling abroad.

The secret to making money in a another country is in the “differences” between the two places, and its economies, the differences between what people buy and want and then being able to transfer the differences of one to the other. It’s the differences that will help you to make a business to generate an income.

There’s no limit to what you can do to make a living for yourself that’ll allow you to live the life you have always wanted and desired. Think outside of the box, be imaginative!

Chile has a great deal to be proud of, and yet Chile also has one thing it should be ashamed of; the men and women who make up the fire departments are all volunteers. Not one of them is paid. They risk their lives everyday saving others for absolutely no money at all, and that’s wrong. In the States firefighters are some of the most well paid workers, but in Chile they’re all volunteers. Most work regular jobs in addition to their duties as firemen. They are truly Chile’s unsung heroes. So if you ever go to Chile, take a firefighter to lunch and show your appreciation, after all if your house catches fire, they’re going to be the ones you’ll count on to save your bacon.

Outside of that, Chile is a wonderful place to call home, a place where true freedom does exist. If you’ve gotten to the point where you are tired of so-called “life” in the U.S. then look abroad, open your eyes, dream it, think about it and then find a way to make it happen. One of the most legendary commando units in all the world, the famed British SAS, have a motto they live by, and that is; Who dares wins. Take a dare. Take a chance on winning a new life. It may not be in Chile, it could be anywhere, but don’t allow yourself to feel trapped behind the invisible prison bars that are surrounding America…………………escape!

I welcome your emails. Email me with your questions, and if I can help I will, and for those of you that asked for more direct help in coming to Chile the answer is sure, I can gladly assist you in starting a new life here.

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