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Security Halt!
Why Veterans Are Thriving in the Dominican Republic: John Davis’ Guide to Life Abroad
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Dreaming of a fresh start? In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with veteran John Davis to explore how moving abroad transformed his life—mentally, physically, and financially. From the crystal-clear beaches of the Dominican Republic to affordable world-class healthcare, John reveals why living abroad can be one of the smartest decisions a veteran can make. He opens up about the mental health benefits of escaping the daily grind, finding a supportive community, and embracing a slower pace of life. You’ll hear how John built financial stability while living overseas, the resources veterans can tap into when considering the move, and how giving back to the local community deepened his sense of purpose. Whether you’re a veteran looking for your next chapter or simply curious about life as an expat, this conversation delivers actionable insights and real-world experience you won’t find anywhere else.
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Security Hot Podcast is proudly sponsored by Titans Arms. Head on to the episode description and check out Titans Arms today. You know, not every veteran experience has to be the same. You know, not everybody has the long list of deployments and sometimes we tend to think that adventure can only happen in this military experience. So today, John Davis, welcome Security Hot Podcast. Brother, I wanna dive into what you're doing right now, which is living a great adventure outside of the confines of the United States. But before we dive into that I'm stoked.
Speaker 1:I'm fucking excited. Every morning your stuff comes on my feed and I think it's important to know that there's options. So I don't want to spoil it anymore. Take it away. How did you begin this life? How did it all start?
Speaker 2:Well, kind of like what you mentioned about adventure, I think military people are well suited to be expats, because we're adventurous type people who don't mind being outside of our comfort zone and if you think about your experience in the military, like that's one of the only places in the world where you really integrate into a brand new culture. So veterans already kind of have that down. Veterans are also way more likely to be like first and second generation Americans. So, for example, I live in Dominican Republic. You can see the flag behind me here. This is the only country in the entire world with the Bible on its flag. So for a lot of veterans things like community, god, family are extremely important.
Speaker 2:And then we got out of the military and you find yourself in an individualized America. That costs way too fucking much and you're stressed the hell out. So we started Veterans of Paradise, which is a veteran organization here at Dominican Republic me and another 20 year retired veteran and what we wanted to do was show veterans that maybe a more peaceful life at half the cost is available. So that's kind of just been taken off now, because initially when I started, I was just like posting pictures of myself on a yacht with like pretty girls drinking champagne, and the dudes I deployed with were like Sergeant Davis, what's going on? And I was like, well, I live in Dominican Republic, my rent is like $400 a month and life is way easy here. That's kind of how it took off. And then now I've written a book about the experience of moving and living abroad as an American veteran.
Speaker 1:Dude, that is awesome. Like I said, I found you online and everything I saw it just gave me that sense of awe, of adventure. But then you posted one video that really caught my eye. You posted a video of your VA experience in the DR and, before we go too far, I want to talk about that man being a veteran. You're out of the military, you're going to have to go somewhere for care and immediately when I think about living abroad, it's like okay, where am I going to get that care? Where am I in that? It looked more like a frigging spa than a hospital.
Speaker 2:And that is what it is. So a lot of veterans have no idea that the foreign medical program of the Veterans Administration exists. You don't think that you can get your care outside the United States and the veteran clinic that I go to in the Dominican Republic provides me a hundred million times better care than the VA did for me in America and I say that with all the seriousness in the world to where, when I was struggling in the United States, when I got out of the military and I wanted to talk to someone about mental health, I was struggling, I had to wait three and a half weeks to get in and talk to the VA. Here I was struggling. I had to wait three and a half weeks to get in and talk to the VA. Here wait times don't exist for veterans. You get to heal in a tropical environment.
Speaker 2:I get to see the chiropractor today getting healthcare for my back and have all these amazing options. We even have a chow hall. So to explain the foreign medical program in a way that kind of makes sense is I go into Dominican Republic. They see what I'm service connected for. So for me, my back, tbi, knees, whatever you're service connected, then they can bill the Veterans Administration for that treatment here. So I pay $0 out of pocket. I walk into the clinic, I get my back therapy, the chiro, mental health, whatever you want. I signed some papers. They bill the Veterans Administration. The Veterans Administration pays them based on the care that I receive. So it's basically just like privatized healthcare outside the United States at a lower cost, with nothing out of pocket for veterans.
Speaker 1:Wow and bro, the pictures and the videos you post make it seem like fucking Elysium.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we are actually in the process of starting retreats for veterans where veterans can come down here and stay at no cost. We're going to set up rooms for them and they can stay at no cost. American veterans beachside, right next to the beach, and you can do like 10 or 15 days free, paid for by the veterans administration based on your service connections. So for a lot of veterans I think that the retreat model of healthcare whether it comes to like PTSD, whether it comes to addiction the retreat model is actually the best and the most superior, with the most effectiveness. Because if you go to like mental health therapy once a week in the United States, you're not going to get what you want out of it because you have to disconnect from your environment and get some space to really reflect and heal, and a lot of veterans never get that space.
Speaker 2:So for me, when I came to the Dominican Republic and I'm swimming in the ocean every day and I'm hating out on the beach and I'm living a higher quality life at a lower cost, I'm not stressed about money my health like skyrocketed, like I started sleeping through the night. And there's all these extra benefits of moving and living abroad, like that food here. I mean, you know as a guy that's traveled extensively, we don't have toxins in the food here, like I'm outside all the time getting vitamin D. And when you throw in the fact that we have these healthcare centers here for American veterans, people are like what the fuck? And that's why we have 20,000 American veterans right now that live in Wow 20,000.
Speaker 1:I, I knew it was probably going to be a lot, but I didn't. I did not think it was that much. But let's go back. We have veteran events.
Speaker 2:We have veteran community. A lot of people don't know like you know as a guy that's traveled like they have VFWs in Thailand, they have VFWs in the Philippines, they have American legions in Mexico and Costa Rica and all these kind of built in veteran networks. So what we wanted to do with the Veterans in Paradise thing is not really be like the American Legion or like the VFW, but to create just a cool community of veterans that hang out, do fun shit. We donate to the community, we coach basketball teams here, work out with kids, and it's just such an amazing experience to be able to give back as well, because people here are grateful and Americans not so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, yeah, I'll touch on that in a minute, but I want to go back to where you know, before you got there during your service service, like, let's explore that. You're a kid. When did you think about joining the military? What led you to that life?
Speaker 2:I failed out of college, so it's not just what, what you do it happens, man, that's real life especially as like 18, 19 year old kid.
Speaker 2:So I always tell people that I am probably the only person to fail out of community college, join the military and then end up going to Harvard on the back end. Because of what the military instilled in me Because I learned, one, the maturity, two, the discipline and that's actually how I got into veteran advocacy was working with student veterans. So my first book was about student veterans how to use the military mentality in higher education Because I kind of realized, okay, a lot of education is pretty fucking simple you sit down, you pay attention, you write, you take notes, you take the test Like it's pretty simple. But a lot of veterans, when they go to school, are older, have more responsibilities and likely have potential health issues and things like that, and you're more likely to have a kid and be married and all those things. So I started out with doing that when I got out of the military, after medically retiring as a staff sergeant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and, and. What happened to you? What was your military service like?
Speaker 2:I was an infantry guy. So I joined, did two deployments to Afghanistan and my second deployment got blown up. I came back, I came down on recruiting orders so I went to New York to be a recruiter, which every infantryman just can't wait to get recruiting orders obviously. So at that point, it's the kiss of death man.
Speaker 2:It's the fucking kiss of death and there's no way to get out of it. Like there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you once trade act like that has you. So I'm getting ready, I thought to go back on my third deployment and uh, then of course uncle sam hits me and says you're going to new york to be a recruiter, and I grew up in iowa so I don't know what the fuck they're doing. So I get up to New York, I can't take guns up there, you can't do anything. It's like a whole different environment. And then you get thrown into recruiting, which to me was a very challenging transition from the infantry, especially because I had no desire to be a recruiter. It was not, it was, you know. It's just not. No infantry guy wants to go be a recruiter. If they do, and it's not a good mission. I question if they were? Yeah, they ever deployed.
Speaker 1:It's a hard fucking job. Let's just call it what it is it's a hard fucking job. Yeah, every recruiter that I know has struggled with mental health and and dabbled in maybe too much drinking because they shit, they shit on you. Let's just put it out there. If you're a recruiter and you're listening especially if you're a higher command in recruiting treat your people better. The majority of people that I've come across that are on recruiting duties, they all say the same thing they treat us like shit and every day it's just have you met your quota? Have you met your quota? Have you met your quota?
Speaker 2:Have you made your phone calls? Have met you Cora? Have you made your phone calls? Have you done this? And I'll tell you.
Speaker 2:When I walked into my recruiting station for the first time, I was a staff sergeant. My center leader, my sergeant first class had never deployed, my first sergeant had never deployed and my sergeant major had never deployed, and this was like 2014. And I'm like there's been wars going on, so I had more ribbons walking in as a staff sergeant infantry than my center leader, than my first sergeant and my command star major. So I'm sitting there like this is not going to go well. And then, lo and behold, it did not go fucking well.
Speaker 2:And they're telling me you know, you get told things like okay, you're going to make 250 phone calls today, so you're just sitting there just calling people, getting told to fuck off, getting hung up up on. So that can be really damaging, especially when your success or failure to some extent is kind of just geared around what the fuck these 18-year-old kids do like, whether they join the military or not, and so I found that really challenging to transition into. And then you're not around a military base, so you're more isolated, you're doing something you don't want to do and you have a whole bunch of leadership that you don't respect and they also don't respect you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's now. I'm starting to form a picture that maybe that may have had something to do with the initial thoughts of saying you and fleeing the United States.
Speaker 2:That's some of it, and it's funny because some people are like, oh, you're a veteran living abroad, you're supposed to stay and fight for the country, and I'm like I don't know what that means. I don't know what you want me to do. I spent years of my life in Afghanistan. I still pay taxes, I can still vote. But if you're telling me you can have this higher quality life at a lower cost I can live by the beach, I could be around pretty Dominican girls, I can hang out with my friends Then why would I go back to Iowa? Why I left? Basically as a kid, you know. So one thing that I tell veterans it's kind of easier sometimes to transition to a different country than back to your hometown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's even you know, there's a lot of us that are first generation Americans that you know came here that you establish your foothold. I'm like, yes, I'm American, which is very much my experience you, you earn it feels like man. I feel like I can finally say I earned my spot here in this great American country. I earned my spot here in this great American country. But then when I look at what I make and what it takes to grind in the hustle to continue the American dream, like I'm proud of everything I've done, I'm proud of this country, but the majority of the people that I run into are very much in the same spot where, hey, we're working really fucking hard, right, yeah, in the same spot where, hey, we're working really fucking hard, right, yeah, uh, why is it getting harder, more difficult, to fucking live the american dream? Why is it harder, you know?
Speaker 2:and and we are the ones that fight for the american dream exactly less and less veterans are actually getting it. So, for example, you know, like if you're a 20 year, even say you do 20 years in the military, you're gonna get out. You know, maybe a hundred percent, maybe not. Like, if you're a 20 year, even say you do 20 years in the military, you're going to get out. You know, maybe a hundred percent, maybe not. But then you're going to be making like six or seven grand a month. Well, that is enough to live like a king in the majority of the world or be poor in America. The hard economic reality is if you make 60,000 American dollars a year, you are a top 1% earner in the globe Not in America, but in the world. If you want to be a top 1% in America, you got to make $800,000 a year, and nobody gets rich working for the government unless you're fucking elected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dan Crenshaw piece of shit, sorry. Yeah, that's one of the hardest things to understand and it causes. We have to say this and we have to understand it. Financial issues is one of the hardest things to understand and it causes. We have to say this and we have to understand it. Financial issues is one of the primary things that can lead our veterans into that downward spiral in mental health. When guys are going into that transition period, the number one thing I hear from people is like I don't know how I'm going to make enough money to survive. Even if they have their full retirement, with 100%, that is still the number one thing they worry about. They have kids to feed, a family to take care of. It's easy for us to fall in love or romanticize this idea, but how can we make it Right now in the DR with you? Are you seeing the same? Are you seeing mostly single? Are you seeing full families making this Full?
Speaker 2:families same like. Are you seeing mostly single? Are you seeing full families making the full families? We have full families here, especially a lot of veterans who, like you mentioned already, speak spanish. If you already speak spanish, you got it made in the shade, you don't have to worry about anything. So a lot of my friends here are dominican veterans who served in the american military. Maybe you're born here, maybe you're second generation americans, and then they get their military benefits and they come back here and they live a very high quality life.
Speaker 2:And, like you mentioned, financial health is mental health. When I got my first apartment in the Dominican Republic, it was a beautiful place, a block away from the beach, and the guy was like $4.75 a month and I said okay and I gave him a year up front in cash and then I didn't have to worry about a single thing for the entire year, like that's paid for and done. So that's what veterans do here and that leads to dramatic increases in mental health if you're not constantly stressed about the money, and then that lets you work on yourself, work on your healing, pursue hobbies. So every year for three years I gave this check or like five thousand dollars cash, like boom, and he's dominican, so he's happy as hell to get, you know, five thousand dollars. Give it to him and then I never had any problems in my apartment. You know like I came? I mean because they, they love me, they're like this guy's awesome five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:When veterans kind of come here, you see these crazy personal transformations. Like my roommate that I live with, I live with another army veteran. He did 20 years in the military. He came here within the first like three months. He lost like 30 pounds, he started sleeping through the night all those dramatic health benefits that you get from not only living abroad but also just living a less stressful life, because stress is one of the real killers of veterans. So many veterans are just like daily.
Speaker 1:It's a static load, man. It affects your heart. It's a leading cause of coronary disease. It's a fact of life that we don't pay attention to. I need to pay attention to it. You need to pay Everybody that has worn the uniform and they get out.
Speaker 1:We continue to live this fucking, we call it hustle culture now, but it's just literally the military mindset of go, go, go, go, go. I'm guilty of it, stay up way too damn late, but I'm passionate about this and I say that to joke, but to remind you anybody listening even if you don't decide to go to Dominican Republic or move to Thailand or move somewhere for for a better quality of life, you still got to address your stress. You still got to focus on this. Now, one of the things that I've noticed, too, is we have this culture of digital nomads, and veterans are part of this. They're they're a big part of the digital nomad ecosystem, and places like Mexico are starting to lash out because as soon as a group of americans move in you know, fucking colin green goes they're starting to push them out. They're starting because the rent goes up, the quality of life, everything starts to explode.
Speaker 1:Is this something that you've seen in dr how's like, do they just is it a bubble? Do you think it's going to happen more as more people hear this great lifestyle? Or is it just something that, um, you know think it's going to happen more? Is more people here, this great lifestyle, or is it just something that you know? Dr isn't going to be phased by it, like it's just going to be continued, like they're going to maintain the same prices.
Speaker 2:The Dominican Republic, like pretty much the entire country, is about tourism. So like 30% of every dollar here is from tourism. So Mexico obviously has a much bigger economy and Dominicans are actually like very, very kind of conservative type people. You know, abortion is not legal here. They don't really do the transgender stuff here. They're very strict on border patrols because they on the border, because they border Haiti. Yeah, so they.
Speaker 2:You want to talk about people that care about border security. Dominicans care about border security very much because they have a failed state next door, but in four years of being here, I have not had one safety issue. I have never felt like in a dangerous situation. Of course you have stuff like people trying to overtard you, but that's just kind of part of everyday life. So I don't see that happening here, because the people here are so welcoming and the country is basically supported entirely by tourism, to where a lot of people I mean, I gave my entire military retirement here to make an Republic Like I spend that money here, so they are happy to have us here. And then the immigration stuff for Dominican Republic is very easy compared to other countries like Mexico. They might be a little more strict and then there's more of a a culture problem with mexico in the united states with the current border.
Speaker 2:Yes, then they're here absolutely so they have you know they, I feel like it'd be more of a welcome, more, more of a welcome, and the american face doesn't come across as being uh, you know, a xenophobic asshole coming into your country right and and one thing, that one thing that we do is we make sure that we give back to the community, like that's a very important part of what we do. So like last month we gave like $500, with the backpacks, to a sporting team, you know. Then next month we're giving, like we're supplying entire school with school supplies. So if you do things to give back and a little bit of money really goes a long way and you walk in and you give these kids backpacks or school supplies and they're so happy and grateful, so I don't see that pushback happening here.
Speaker 2:But on a global scale, of course, things like gentrification are a concern, like things are just becoming more expensive. But that's one reason why I'm here, because I couldn't afford to live in New York City. You know, I don't see how people do and people will ask me like you live to make public, how do you afford that? I'm like, how the fuck do you afford America? Like what are you talking about? I can. I can go out drinking all night for very cheap, I can get food very cheap, I can go to the ocean for free. So I yeah, that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now and I have to imagine that, being on this side of your journey, like if you're looking back to where you started how fast did you make the change from somebody that may have been struggling to where you're at now, obviously providing support, being a resource for others? Like, when did you notice that? Like, holy shit, like I can breathe now, for?
Speaker 2:me. It was like my thing was just to let veterans know, because a lot of veterans don't think about moving abroad. You know, we're the United States of America, we're the country that people come to and not the country that people move from. But as the cost of living has skyrocketed in the United States, as political division has been extremely difficult for veterans, and as the United States has just become this kind of hyper-stressed rat race culture where it's harder and harder to get ahead, then if you're a veteran and you did your time in the military and you have your benefits, then why wouldn't you want to live the highest quality life that you possibly could?
Speaker 2:And a lot of veterans don't know that we have healthcare centers for veterans to make in the public. A lot of veterans don't know that you can use your GI Bill in other countries. A lot of veterans don't know that these resources are available to you, that you can get your VA disability abroad, that you can get your social security disability abroad, that you can get your military retirement abroad, that you have this worldwide community of veterans everywhere, from the Philippines to here in DR, to even the American legions in Mexico that I've gone and visited. So for me, it was like this information is lifesaving, because I've talked to veterans who have been to the edge and then they've come here and they've been like wow, I like just it all kind of comes crashing down because they can live this mentally healthy, stress-free life that is becoming more and more difficult to live in America.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, man. Are you thinking about doing the dual citizenship, or is that something you've already done?
Speaker 2:So here in Dominican Republic there's no need for that. In other countries there is. Yeah, in other countries there is. That's one reason why so many veterans are here, because the paperwork aspect is basically nothing and veterans hate paperwork Like when I lived in Thailand, for example. That country is a little more difficult to stay in long-term. You might need to leave and come back and do a border run, or you need a certain amount of money or you have to be a certain retirement age. There are some countries that don't have retirement ages, such as like Panama and Costa Rica, to where if you go in and you say I get like $1,300 a month, then you can qualify for a retirement visa there. Places like the Philippines also easy to stay in long term. But some countries make it more difficult and some countries make it next to impossible unless you have a lot of money and then you're basically set with anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're exploring this journey with you, man like do you miss any aspect of the united states? You find yourself like longing for anything, or can you envision a world where you're going to go back and and uh, settle down in atlanta or iowa?
Speaker 2:I. One of the problems that I have is people ask me you know I am a pretty strict, like no kids, no wife, no problems type of guy, like that is kind of where I'm at. Obviously, like a lot of veterans, I was married and divorced twice before I was 25. So when you finish, when you do that, you do a couple of deployments, you come back and then you come to a place like this where the dating scene is absolutely incredible for single veterans.
Speaker 2:If you're single American and you want to have a good time, especially if you're an American man, go to a Latin American country.
Speaker 2:You will, your ego will go up you people, people smile at you. You know, like, for example, I'm short and the last girl that I approached in New York City was like years ago and I went up to her and I said, hey, you know, if you're single, I'd love to buy you a drink. And she's like you're too short to even talk to me. And you know, there's that dating scene in the United States. And then, but the week, the next week, I'm in Columbia with a girl who's six feet tall and the prettiest girl in the entire world. So those kind of shifts, I think, are a big mindset thing and a lot of the dating culture in America for single men is terrible, because if you're not a six-figure guy, a lot of veterans get out. So then that's why if you go to the Philippines, you see every Vietnam vet with a 25-year-old Filipino wife just living their best life and I'm like and thank you. Thank you, you deserve it.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about this nonprofit man, like, I think, a lot of guys, initially, when we struggle we have to go through this journey, get better in ourselves, with everybody, everybody I've talked to. When you get on the right side of your journey, the first thing you want to do is start figuring out how to help people. How did you start this journey into building this nonprofit?
Speaker 2:A guy that I deployed with was going through a divorce and called me and he was like hey man, I see that you're down in the Dominican Republic, I see you're living down there now, and I was like he was to the point of ready to become become one 22. So I invited him down here, he booked a ticket, I sent him up with a 30 day stay at an apartment for like 500 bucks. So then he gets here and that was four years ago and that guy is still in this town living his best life. So when stuff like that happens and he confessed to me, like I was really close to killing myself, like you know. Then I came here and I get to swim in the ocean every day. He picked up scuba diving, you know golf year round, all those types of things.
Speaker 2:So then I realized that there was such a gap of information about living abroad and no other veterans in the world were talking about it, like no other veterans in the world were putting out information on how you could take your military benefits and live a higher quality life in another country. I mean, it's just not something that people talked about. So after being here for a while, I researched things and I found the first, the American Legion of Mexico, and I flew from here to Mexico. I met with the American Legion commander, I found out the resources about that and I wrote an article on my blog about it. Then I traveled to Costa Rica, did the same thing. I met with the Marine Corps League. I met with the American Legion. I met with even private education, things like that to find where it's like you know, putting out that information for veterans, because a lot of veterans just have no idea that you can get your VA benefits in another country. Seeing the response to it was very, was very motivational for me.
Speaker 2:And then, personally being a part of changing veterans lives, of providing this pathway, and for me, like, I don't care if I don't move abroad or not, I want to provide the information so they can make the best decisions possible. That's why, like, even though I listen, I'm selling the book. It's on Amazon. I have sent this to over 2000 veterans in the past month because I'm giving it for free as well. So if you want to copy this book, which has it's a 300 page book with everything you need to know about moving and living abroad, I will send it to you. Absolutely free for you to explore the concept on your own. That's going to answer pretty much any question you could possibly have, from healthcare to TRICARE abroad, to safety abroad, to mental health abroad, to connecting you with veteran resources, even in places like Columbia.
Speaker 2:Like a lot of people don't know, there's a really big group of American veterans in Columbia so they have like a Facebook group. You know American vets in Columbia. They have Facebook groups to connect veterans. So a lot of what I do is just kind of like second, like passing on information. There's a lot of veterans like oh, I want to move to Costa Rica. Okay, well, I know someone who works in private education there, who was a former Marine and you can talk to him about it. So it's kind of like the handoff. But what we're really going to start doing is finding like kind of like navigating the program to have veterans come here to check stuff out First for like retreats. Like if you can come here and stay for 10 days and we can put a bunch of veterans up in a hotel at no out of pocket cost, then that could be such a big winner when it comes to veterans who are struggling with ptsd and addiction or even msd or things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah man, you, you lay out a beautiful vision and I'm already thinking of how many podcasts I could produce.
Speaker 2:Hell, I could establish a fucking proper studio down there you, you could come here, we could do it on the beach. Man, like I said, and a lot of times I think, because, like I was like, because I was recruiting, I used to talk to people about that, like, so, for me I don't, I didn't have any downsides of moving abroad. I found a community of veterans, guys that really like to hang around, we do fun things. One thing about veterans is the civilian world can be so isolating for us because we're so used to being surrounded by like-minded people all the time. And here I can go scuba diving with a couple of veterans tomorrow morning if I want, I can, we, can we all do like a weekly dinner. On Saturday, july 19th, we have about maybe a hundred veterans getting together for a veteran social night where you can come in and network and help each other and all those things. Oh, for me I didn't have any downsides because it was like oh, you mean, I don't have to worry about money anymore. Oh, I can walk to the gym, I can walk to the beach, I can walk to the bars.
Speaker 2:Pretty girls like me, like, why would I? There's no downside for me. That's not to say there's not to the veterans, and they struggle with isolation and moving abroad. There's not challenges to it.
Speaker 2:But that's why I interviewed a lot of veterans for my book and had them talk about moving abroad everything from single females to families. Because, kind of like what you touched on, I thought when I started doing this it would just be single veteran dudes, that's kind of what I thought. And then I had all these single female veterans reaching out and then started getting all these families asking me questions and because I had taught English and Thailand and Cambodia and worked in international education, I was kind of more suited to answer those questions. So I included the section in the book about families moving abroad because I'm not sure if you've seen the state of American public education, but a lot of international private education is far superior for kids and provides them the same pathways into, like american colleges as american public education yeah, and it's free of the indoctrination or the inclusion of things that a lot of us necessarily don't want our kids learning about.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, it's um, you do not need to worry about a drag queen talking to your kid and to make our public is. I've promised you that's you go, that you're done. That's the last thing you need to worry about. And and then you also. You know like we can say what we want about America, but school shootings don't exist in places like this and that could be a concern to parents. The indoctrination doesn't happen here, because you have a much more socially homogenous society. In other countries, like in Japan, it's Japanese, like that's what it is, like they stuff is clean, people are quiet.
Speaker 1:You have those kind of cultural aspects where united states culture has just kind of like lost its way yeah, it's sad and a lot of us worry about that and I think a lot of us have had that. You know what if? Conversation with our spouse like, hey, what if we move somewhere? And a lot of us aren't thinking of the dr. A lot of us are always thinking of the DR. A lot of us are always thinking of, like you know, places in Europe and the places you know. But the reality is like, why not DR, why not Costa Rica, why not Panama, why not Colombia?
Speaker 1:And you touched on something that's really important, like the community is already built there. That's the important. We have expats there you can reach out to and talk. But for the viewer at home, the person that's actually listening to this, and it's like me that's like, hey, you know what? Like my money goes a little further down there, I could be having a lot more fun. Where's a good place to start? What's the first thing you would recommend people do? Because there's so many questions, there's the what ifs like you, hey, I have a, I have a small business or I'm enrolled in school right now. What are some of the first things you would tell somebody or advise them to do before they book that ticket?
Speaker 2:The most important thing that I think where people go wrong on is they don't do an adequate trial run Before you move abroad. Before you like sell everything and try it, you know, bail off to a third world country to live like a king, you should come down and stay for like 30 days, whether it's Dominican Republic, whether it's Mexico, whether it's Brazil, whatever. You should come and stay for at least 30 days to get a feel for what it's like living here and not just vacationing. Because one reason our veteran organization here exists is because it is very easy to fall into unhealthy behaviors If you're a dude with too much time on your hands, and I was like that in Thailand. Like when I first got to Thailand and I discovered that red light districts exist, I was like, okay, well, this is not good for an instrument that likes to drink and party and has a bunch of money on my hands. Like I get that government disability check every month and that is going straight to the red light district in Thailand. So you, but eventually you kind of get burnt out from that.
Speaker 2:But we do want to save veterans from making mistakes. You know whether it comes from anything, um, so a lot of that is, forming community around those things, around more positive things, around things like beach workouts we do like yoga together. I mean there's so many amazing things. But uh, I would say that that was kind of the one of those kind of starting things was just to form that community of get people to answer. But so I think it's trial run to answer your question is most important thing to do.
Speaker 2:And then on my blog I have a lot of articles that kind of get into different things about like tips for moving abroad, the financial planning aspect of it, because we can talk about anything, but the most important thing in the world is money. You need enough money to live the life you want to live. So it's kind of setting that up and understanding how your benefits work abroad, understanding that your income level. You know a lot of veterans like you might rent your house in the States, you might have your military retirement and you might do something online, so you're going to be good. But a lot of veterans if they just move abroad on their 100% and don't have any money saved up, then you can run into problems. But there are countries out there where you can live very well on just your 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, one thing that you know we got to touch on are the opportunities for jobs. So we have to remember, like some of us aren't ready to give up on working and there's something to be said about having a meaningful employment, whether it's, you know, getting involved with a nonprofit, get involved with the local schools, like, what opportunities do you see there in DR for Americans coming abroad or coming from the states to try to find meaningful employment?
Speaker 2:A lot of veterans. If you're going to come here and you want to continue working, I think it's about more about having a purpose than necessarily making money. Like I have some friends who are veterans who have like beach restaurants and they basically like break even every month. That gives us something to do. You know they like to go eat at their own restaurant. I know another veteran is a scuba diving instructor, so a lot of like those types of things happen.
Speaker 2:But if you come to someplace like Dominican Republic, you need to have money to make money or you need to have, like, online income. You're not gonna be able to go to many countries and get a high quality, good paying job that's worth the money to do. It's just not gonna happen. A high quality, good paying job that's worth the money to do it's just not going to happen. So if you're not already working online like you touched on the digital nomad thing a lot of people work online and make really good money and there's ways to maximize your income you can do your GI Bill abroad.
Speaker 2:A lot of veterans don't know, so how GI Bill works in different countries is it's a flat rate, half the United States average. Right now it's like 2,500. So if you want to go to a school in the Philippines which they have in-person schools you can go to, you'll get $2,500 a month, whether you're there, whether you're in Brazil, whether you're anywhere else. So a lot of veterans move abroad to go to college, which is a good idea. There's some really good GI Bill schools around the world. So in my book and in information I explain how to find schools abroad that take the GI Bill. So things like that are very important. But if you're a veteran expecting to move abroad and get a really good job, I would not count on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems like the best idea is to be able to self-sustain on something you created being able to do your remote job, being able to host a podcast or studio or just live off your retirement, I mean, or just live off your retirement, because those American dollars go far.
Speaker 2:I always tell people like this an American dollar bill, this is worth 6,000 Dominican pesos. So the best financial strategy you can possibly have is make dollars and spend pesos and that is it. And that is how you thrive abroad as a veteran. If you come here and you want to find a job or you're not financially set, that is a mistake. You do not want to be broke in another country and I've seen that happen to veterans. I've seen people not have enough money to go back home. I've seen people who don't set their medical care up right. Things like that happen. I mean mean veterans are amazing at fucking their lives up and like there's never been anyone better at fucking their lives up than american veterans. You bring up a valid. You bring up a valid point.
Speaker 1:You have to understand what you have and be able to be responsible yeah, you know we're some of.
Speaker 2:It's like a moving abroad timeline. You want to get a timeline for moving abroad where you work into, like your trial run and things like that. Um, which I get into in the book, which I'll you know, I'll say again, if you're a veteran and you want this book, I will send you the digital copy for free. Just hit me up on social media or email me. It's no problem for me to forward it to you. Um, obviously I'd prefer if you bought it, but yeah, let's do this, let's do this get the information out there yeah, you pause, pause, right now.
Speaker 1:There's here's the link right here. Go to amazon, spend the money, or how about this? Use the text feature on this episode and five of you will get the book for free. I'll cover the fee, but you have to hit the text message. You have to send a message to me and I'll get you the book we got to support our veterans. This man is doing a great service by breaking this down on the episode. Don't make them send the book for free, damn it. Go through the app, send a text message. The first five people to text us we'll buy the book. We'll get it to you. It's important, man.
Speaker 1:I think that we're living in a very different time right now. There's always been a lot of distrust in the government and in the last few weeks, in the last few months, a lot of people are starting to wonder if what they fought for, if what they served for, was worth it in the end. That's for everybody to make it up on their own. I fought tooth and nail to be an American. I live here, I've established a family. The only way I would move is if my wife was fully on board. And you're making DR sound really amazing, but the truth is, in reality, I probably won't be moving anytime soon, but for a lot of our veterans, they will be making that move. They will be leaving the United States, focus on their mental health, on their well-being and having the life that they dreamed up, that they deserve. After serving 20 plus years, yeah, you kind of fucking deserve to live your best life, and if that means sucking down my ties on a beautiful Dominican Republic beach with a bunch of single ladies next to you, god bless you. I wish you the best, but before you do that, I want you to let me let me hype you up, because I don't think you give yourself enough credit to the way that you're documenting your journey abroad.
Speaker 1:It's certainly caught my attention. For all the right things, you're just showing people that there's a different way to live, that there's a third option. You don't have to live the same life, and if life here in the United States is, it's costing your mental health, it's costing you to worry. You can't break even, you can't survive, and you've always dreamt of doing something adventurous. Maybe this is an option for you. Maybe Be willing to explore it, but from an educated point of view, like be willing to talk to John. I would imagine people reach out to you all the time through social media, so is that the best way to get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, social media is great If you want to talk about moving and living abroad, and I always tell people, if you, if you go through and you actually buy my book on Amazon, I will give you as much time as you need to sit down and talk to you over zoom to go over some of your concerns. Uh, if you read the book and everything, some people would hit you up and they're just like asking a bunch of questions like that's why I wrote the fucking book, so you can read it, that's why I have the articles, that's why I have all that. Oh, do that first. And, like I said, I really don't mind sending the book for free. Uh, just because I think that it's valuable. It's so valuable information because it is a. It's the only book of this kind in the entire world.
Speaker 2:There's no other veterans guide to moving abroad that covers how your military benefits work in other countries that go over everything you need to know as a veteran. There is I mean, you know because you're obviously an SF guy, but there's enough fucking books on leadership that I didn't need to write anything on that. There's enough guys that do that type of thing. So I'm not even touching that, not getting into it. What I know is I've lived abroad for five years. I've lived in Thailand and the Dominican Republic, so I understand it in a way that someone who's lived abroad for a long period of time can understand. And I'm a younger, single dude. I enjoy that life. It is for me and if you want that life, it is far superior in the Dominican Republic than like in Boston.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And you said you wrote this on a blog. Where's your? Where can we find your blog?
Speaker 2:JohnHDavisWritercom is my website and on that website not only do I have articles written by myself, but I also have articles written by other veterans who live abroad.
Speaker 2:So, for example, if, like, I have an article about being a black veteran in the Dominican Republic, I have an article about being a female veteran in Mexico, obviously not written by me. I have a guy who lives in Peru who wrote an article about his experiences living in Peru. I have an article in Germany, because a lot of veterans love Germany, because so many of them station there, fall in love with the culture. So I have an article on living in Germany as a veteran. And then I have articles I've written of places I've traveled to and been to, like the Dominican Republic, like Costa Rica. So if you're a veteran and you're interested in writing about your story living abroad, in a different country, you can put it up on the website you know, to get the information out there, because a lot of veterans might not know what it's like to move to Brazil, might not know what it's like to live in Argentina or Africa or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, man. It's important to get those perspectives out there for people, and I don't think we're going to. I think we're going to see an exodus, unfortunately, unless we figure our shit out. Because, like we both touched on man, like after serving in the military and doing everything you could for your country, you want to make sure that you live your best quality of life, and I would argue that for a lot of us, a lot of our veterans, the American dream is getting harder and harder to find and live. And, um, when we continue to vote and put idiots in charge and those idiots continue to dick us down for lack of a better word it makes it really easy to fucking leave.
Speaker 2:I think for veterans, like it is tough to give everything and then feel like the real battlefield is at home, that to live in a country that feels like it's a war with itself and for me the political division was was honestly kind of like stressful, especially when you get into things like the race aspect of it because, like for a lot of veterans, that's like that doesn't matter, like we're all americans, we're all red, white and blue. So then you come back to a country everybody's just screaming at each other all the time and you're like, okay, well, I'm out. And that's kind of what I said, even though I love america intensely, patriotic america's greatest country in the world, but to me it's not the greatest place to live, at least in a lot of cities yep, there you go, man, that's uh, that's the absolute truth.
Speaker 1:It can be absolutely. I mean, I I think there's pockets, but, um, the stupidity, the craz, craziness, like there's common sense, things that we grew up, truths that all of us grew up knowing, are now being questioned, and I think it's ridiculous. There's no place for it in the classroom, there's no place for it among decent society. It, if you talk about it, you're labeled a heretic, you're labeled a hate monger, and I don't want to deal with it anymore. I really don't. I'd rather not give it any space. And yeah, you make it seem very magical to live in DR, right?
Speaker 2:now, yeah, and maybe I shouldn't lay it like it's just. I'm just saying for me, like, listen, I own ATV, I ride it around town, I go to the beach, I like scuba diving. For me it's been a very good life. That's not to say it's for everyone, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to write the book to address the pros and the cons.
Speaker 2:But, like you mentioned earlier, before we started going like from, it sounds like your best military experience was in other countries. You know, I mean, that's some of, and as veterans I think we look back at that time as kind of nostalgic. And then when we get back to America, the country that we did everything for, you can't afford rent. So you're like, okay, well, why wouldn't? Why wouldn't I go live in a place like Peru where I can live in nature, where I can have a higher quality life? So for me it's just been kind of fun to get the information out there and I'm going to continue doing social media videos. I'm going with a group of veterans to columbia in two weeks because they're opening up new veteran clinics in columbia where veterans can get health care through the foreign medical program. Uh, so if you're a veteran interested in there. I'm going to be writing another article and showing videos of the veteran center and medellin that they just opened up this month.
Speaker 1:Bro, tag me or send me those reels. Let's collab so we can share this and get it out there, man, because I know a lot of Green Berets too that decided to move to places outside of the United.
Speaker 2:States and you speak other languages.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're already an expert in the culture. You already at least have a 1-1 rating or can stubble your way, or at least marry somebody that can talk for you.
Speaker 2:Sometimes that rating or can stumble your way or at least marry somebody that can talk for you. Sometimes that's the key, but that's why sometimes that's a good idea too. But hey, I don't know why you don't just hop on a plane.
Speaker 1:We'll do a podcast here bro, with the intense bro, last night I went to bed at 2 30 and then had to get up to do all of my other stuff, my pre-production stuff, get my kid and yeah, the the amount and my wife's still in. So I mean maybe, maybe in the future we can retire somewhere.
Speaker 2:But uh, dude, I am dual military couple retires. I mean you are rich as hell anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1:You know that's, that's not a we're actually gonna have a talk about that at dinner tonight. We're gonna.
Speaker 2:We're gonna talk about this because if you're gonna buy the, you can give her a copy.
Speaker 1:I mean it the first five people. If you go on Spotify, use the text feature, send me a message. In fact, tomorrow morning I'm recording an episode that's just nothing but the text messages, the questions that we get. So, yeah, I take those questions to heart. I take all your feedback. I'm even going to highlight the crazy shit that some of you motherfuckers send, completely just out of left field some of the shit you guys are sending me, but please continue. It's entertaining to read in the morning when I wake up to do my workout.
Speaker 1:John, I can't thank you enough for being here. Man, again, if you're a veteran and you want to live abroad at John's book, or just text and me name your address the first five to do that, when this episode airs, I will purchase the book and I will send it to you. Because we got to support John, we got to support our veteran authors, because it's not about just telling the stories. It's about the people who are on the other side the advocacy space that want to share insightful truths that will help our veteran community. I'm sure there's people out there that wrote five or six, maybe 10 different books about veterans living abroad, and they may not be veterans themselves. But I want you to hear the truth from John, because he's one of us, he's just like you and if he's doing it and he's thriving, that lets you know that you can do the same, john. Thank you so much for being here, brother. Thank you for being in the fight, and I cannot wait to have you back on the show and to hear your stories about Columbia. If you see a half-Columbian-Panamanian kid about you not my kid I swear it's not my kid.
Speaker 1:Thank you all for tuning in. I'm Denny Caballero. Oh, one more thing. Please do me a favor. Head on over to the episode description, click all those links, give us a like, give us a share, give us subscribe and leave us a comment. Leave us a little. You know, hey love the show. Thank you for what you're doing. You care. We'll see you all next time. Until then, be good. Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head over to the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today.
