I’ve traveled the world for over a decade –I ripped up the dating scene in Thailand, found me a wife in the Philippines, had two sons, lived through a military coupe, a drug war, and a pandemic without packing it in and going home with my tail between my legs, and have recently divorced.
Full circle. Not every passport bro gets their happily ever after, but I’m not finished yet and the dating scene is still favorable.
In this article I’ll fill you in on what passport bros are, why it’s a thing, and how to get started as thoroughly as I can for the uninitiated.
Hindsight is everything. In other articles I’ll discuss the pros can cons of the passport bro lifestyle, and where I made my mistakes.
I’ve had 10 years abroad, and 10 years traveling in my home country as a nomad. I’m not some shit talking influencer wanna-be trust fund that popped up last week, I’ve lived by my words –I’ve been creating content for as long as I’ve been on the road.
Aspiring passport bros, ask me questions if I miss anything in this post. Pick my brain. Hell, send me a voicemail and talk to me directly. It would help me kick off a podcast in your honor.
Table of Contents
Reading my series on the passport bro movement is a great place to do your research:
- How to Become a Passport Bro (you are here)
- Mistakes Every Passport Bro Should Avoid At All Costs
- The Pros and Cons of the Passport Bro Lifestyle
And then of course, there’s guide after guide about making money online in the most creative ways:
Explore salaries for common online jobs, find an entry-level remote job, design and sell merch online with no inventory, learn about dropshipping, start a blog or your own online community site, and learn how to make money in an absolute emergency. And that’s only the beginning.
Hey, Ladies!
Women are very divided on the passport bro ‘movement’ and half my audience are of the female persuasion –So naturally, I wanted to issue a disclaimer and a trigger warning. There are some hard observations from the male perspective to swallow within this article that don’t line up with The Message you’re being fed on girl blogs.
Think of the men in your life; your father at a younger age, your brother, your cousins. What would be your prescription for them on love and relationships in the current year? Does travel enter your mind?
You have innate dating preferences, but society dictates that men cannot. Women want security, men want a polite girl with a low body count. If they can’t find it locally, capable men have and will travel.
Every dating preference held by your average man is clapped down for being “toxic” and we’re over it. We’re looking for women that appreciate being treated well, and reciprocate. Equal, but different.
Young North-American women are instructed that the having children is selfish and harms the planet, that degeneracy is liberation, ugly is beauty, cooking is subservience, and marriage is slavery –to illustrate a few bleak and unnatural societal norms right out of the Bolshevik handbook. The end result is a makeshift genderwar and the destruction of the nuclear family.
And that is the kernel at the center of everything. Societal norms now counter biology, therefore society must re-calibrate or continue its dissent into oblivion.
American women have been played, hard. And so many of them lack awareness of this fact.
Yes, that was an actual fucking advertisement, to men, for razors –when the same company charges a buck more for every pink razor they sell women.
Note the black Jesus. White man bad. And Ana Kasparian, anything she touches is cancer. She’s so far left she’s headed right like Pac Man, give her a few years post-wall.
Compare that to the 1980s:
Social conditioning, nudging, programming of young men to forgo their biological imperative, whatever you want to call it, can eat my ass. It hurts men, it hurts society, it hurts women too, it throws order into chaos, that’s the goal, and fuck off.
Boycott the fuck out of any brand that toys with gender or race war. Bud Light is learning that lesson.
It didn’t work out for Three Identical Strangers, now there’s a clusterfuck.
But women eat up the war on men, hard, at various stages in their life.
So, men are breaking up with Western women and moving onto different cultures with old school values because Western women have cast them off.
If you think it’s low effort to uproot one’s life and travel for love, you’re not being honest with yourself. If you think non-Western women are lesser, you’re a bigot.
Passport bros love women, we don’t hate them. Any rational woman reading this may be wise to temporarily disarm herself and read this with an open mind. I care what you think, too. I happily include you in this discussion.
Both men and women are reading this same article to tune their awareness. I appreciate negative criticism on this topic as much as I value positive feedback. Please bring it.
Never Go Full MGTOW
I have to hand it to passport bros for not going full MGTOW. Your will is strong, and perhaps you have some future sons and daughters that will thank you for not giving up. I got two boys that I know will respect me one day when they understand.
But most of you will fail, I’d wager 90% of men looking for women abroad will suffer the same bullshit they would back home. And it might be more cruel, trust me –I’ve experienced it first hand. Your income, the income of a digital nomad earning USD spending pesos, is the key differentiator, and will arm you best for what may lay ahead. The financial advantage you choose for yourself by living abroad makes you stronger where laws are set against you.
Here’s those articles a second time:
Explore salaries for common online jobs, find an entry-level remote job, design and sell merch online with no inventory, learn about dropshipping, start a blog or your own online community site, and learn how to make money in an absolute emergency. And that’s only the beginning.
Anyway, back to the point.
It won’t be easy, and it isn’t all happy endings. I’m not anti-MGTOW, but it takes balls to be a passport bro. To take your chances. To not give up on women in this era, board a one-way flight, assume all the risk, and enter the unknown.
Even recently divorced, I still can’t give up on women, or love for the right reasons. Passport bros and the movement is not about hating women –it’s about loving them, and finding a way to punch through layers of shit when the odds are stacked against us.
But I keep my head on a swivel. I only respect MGTOW men who at least tried first. I’d never trust an over-self-protective cunt of a man in an end of world scenario. When you’re MGTOW with no scars, you’re a pussy.
What is a Passport Bro?
I’ve been a digital nomad and a passport bro since before there was a trending term for these lifestyles. The only thing that separates them is intent.
A digital nomad typically makes money online in a strong currency, and lives day to day on a weaker currency –enjoying the benefits of a greatly reduced cost of living. It’s called geoarbitrage.
A passport bro is pretty much the same thing, except they’re doing it to find a good woman in most cases. Or any woman at all, for some. The lower cost of living that’s possible is the icing on a very supple cake.
Digital bromad?
The desire for a clean-living woman shapes where passport bros go. Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, South America, all good ideas. A concept for another article.
I got travel guides, gents. Check out Medellin, Bali, Philippines, Thailand, and more throughout Hobo with a Laptop. I even wrote a best-selling book once.
You’re here reading this article just like I read similar posts back in my early thirties because you’re looking for a fix to what you feel is a very broken system, a sick culture, thousand cock stares for miles, and the highest levels of hypergamous hoeflation and misandry we’ve seen since the fall of Rome.
I’m not a misogynist, I’m a fucking realist. You can’t “..but men” your way out of this observation –a lot of women got gross. Sloppy joe levels of degeneracy, many have forgotten how to gatekeep and/or pair bond for life.
Women reading this need to either be honest with themselves about the state of women today, or listen up. Elevate men speaking on the subject, don’t speak for us. You’d hate that situation reversed. Do your part, share this post. Start a conversation with your female peers.
Background
I’m an average guy, I had an average life in Canada, I come from a lower-class income Dutch immigrant family, my dad was a truck driver and my mom worked a daycare out of our home. I’m the youngest of three siblings. My parents had it rough, but they never divorced. For all my mom’s strengths, she stuck her heels in, never gave up on her marriage, and I’m a better person for it.
Society doesn’t build up women like her anymore.
I was made fun of for being a poor. I fought hard for everything I ever earned. I’m a self-taught entrepreneur, and before I found myself working with marketing agencies in Toronto’s Liberty Village in my twenties I worked hard labor outside year ’round 14 hours a day at a lumber yard in Canadian weather. I was a line cook in my grandfather’s favorite breakfast joint, I worked in multiple departments at my local IKEA, managed a cafe in Montreal, and I made websites for $300 a pop in my spare time before WordPress existed.
Far cry from my income today. Progress was made. Today, I’m a six figure blogger.
I took the jump at 33 to become a passport bro and got me a one-way ticket to Thailand. Now I’m 42, I’m a single father, and I’m hard –not by choice. Travel and divorce kick the living shit out of you. Seeing the mother of your sons totally mask-off kills a piece of your soul. See it for an instant, and there is no spoon for the rest of your life.
The Push
Canada was ground zero for liberal feminist nonsense starting around 1999. By 2006, pointing out the inappropriateness of seeing a nasty girl’s thong ride up her back in the office was an offence equated to sexual harassment. There was a time in the post-grunge era where seeing thong straps was normal. They sold thongs for 7 year old girls at Zellers, La Senza, and Target.
Frankly, I found the double standard enraging when I had to wear a full suit with jacket to work.
“Who Hurt You?”
I saw the laws change and skew, I watched as Instagram played a role in every infidelity committed by the wives and girlfriends of my male friends, I saw the alimony and child support payments, and I didn’t like where things were going. And then they started policing speech, a la Jordan Peterson and that whole thing.
I saw a friend snap under the weight and his life was dismantled for it. Thank God he’s still alive today, but I’ve still witnessed the fallout of thirteen suicides in my life.
The dating scene was trash, but I had access to top-tier women. I was a die-hard romantic, incompatible with open relationships and sneaky side dick. They ate me up and spat me out.
In my young mind, every girl who told me she loved me was going to be the mother of my children. Inevitably, I was always the flavor of the year, month, week, or day. I was training. I was a resource to be extracted.
I relish the memories but I was often cheated on, cycled out for bigger and badder, or replaced by someone of their own culture and heritage (Canada being as multi-cultural as it is, it’s different than going abroad).
If I ever defended the merits of a relationship, I was being “creepy”.
I sought out more conservative cultures, got a plane ticket, and left. I took comfort in the term “digital nomad” but “passport bro” would have been equally time-saving in debates when I got flack for leaving.
Shots fired, bullets dodged.
Of course I won’t say all Western women are trash, but the culture that consumes them is making it very difficult to be a traditional, masculine man. The kind that pays the bills, open doors, and says I love you sometimes too easily. And means it.
Canada, you ripped my fucking heart out.
Become a Passport Bro
Alright, so now you know me and it’s time to help you work up the cojones to become a passport bro. Knowing your next steps will make that easier.
To gain a well-rounded perspective, bookmark “How to Become a Digital Nomad” for later, as there’s overlap. I wanted to keep each article distinct and not tout the same points in both, so one makes a good companion for the other.
1. Get a Passport
Before you do anything, owning a passport will motivate you bigly. Unless you’re Canadian, the new passport is full of rainbows and ideological nonsense.
Pony up the extra money to get a 10-year passport with more pages. A passport in the US starts at around $165 and can take 13 weeks to obtain.
2. Make Money Online
Yeah, easier said than done. But lucky for you this entire website is mostly geared to all the different ways passport bros can make money online. Earn USD, spend pesos, enjoy a lower cost of living.
You can find a remote job on Flexjobs –the only job site I recommend these days, because you won’t waste your time papering the internet with your resume/CV.
The job listings are all active, people respond, and they have a team to help you find work. And they boot scammer jobs, so you don’t get screwed. All quality, not a fire hose with outdated job listings like everyone else. They will not waste your time, that is why you pay the very tiny monthly fee.
Down the line, start a blog. Put your existing home on Airbnb. Get into crypto. Look at drop-shipping. Seek passive income. Look around this blog for more ideas.
With zero social media presence I was cranking $20k+ USD per month during the pandemic with this blog.
In Asia, it’s reasonable to live on $600 – $800 USD per month. Renting an entire house for $200 per month is a very obtainable goal for passport bros.
Aim for $5k in the bank when you board your plane (after airfare expenses), at a minimum. Although I did it with much less.
3. Look Into Housesitting
Passport bros could travel and live rent free for years in really nice homes, exotic places, key locations, all for free. All you have to do is water some plants and take the dog for a walk.
I’ve got a massive guide to housesitting here; find out where to get housesitting jobs, how to manufacture demand for yourself with your online profile on TrustedHousesitters, and a whole lot more.
4. Get Internationally Banked
You’re going to need to move money across borders and from one currency to another, a card that’s passport bro friendly, and works around the globe for minimum fees.
I recommend Wise, but I’ve got a spread of international expat-friendly banking solutions here. If you need to make money superfast, here’s a few ideas.
Get this going as soon as possible; sometimes you have hoops to jump through to get your account verified and it’s best to do this before you get on a plane.
5. Get Your Gear and Purge!
Pack light –I’ve done most of my travel with nothing more than a carry on. Checking baggage means it could get lost.
You shouldn’t have to spend more than the cost of your flight, on your packing list.
Here’s my packing list, and a few gift ideas to float to family members around the holidays.
Sell your shit back home, chances are it’ll be obsolete when you eventually get back, if you ever do.
I ceremoniously burned all my personal belongings back home, and dumpstered the rest. I have zero things in Canada today. If you try to hold on and don’t purge, it will bite you –in storage fees, headaches, theft, whatever. Just get rid of your excesses and commit to being a passport bro, you’ll feel lighter for going all in.
6. Make Connections
The friends I made in the beginning are the kind of friends I’ll have for the rest of my life.
We shared something. I cannot express to you how important this step is.
Let me be your first friend on this journey, fellow passport bro. Sign up to the newsletter, leave me a voicemail and say hello. I’m listening.
It is so fucking cool getting to know readers, man. Truly. There’s obviously a philanthropic angle here I enjoy, so leverage me.
7. Choose Your Culture
Now the fun part –research cultures. Flip channels on your TV and watch news in other languages. Watch the ads, hell, even watch the drama soap operas. Observe the culture women are being fed where you want to go.
Get used to being surrounded by other cultures, languages, and be comfortable immersed in it.
Culture shock is a real thing, more on that in another post one day. But get used to being around people from other cultures, listening to them, observe their way of being, their style of humor, look for the light in their eyes, what brings them happiness.
Consider the majority religion, majority political persuasion, and observe what masculinity is in the cultures you’re interested in. What is a real man in their culture? Do you fit that bill?
Could you fit in?
Could you be a dark horse?
The culture is more important than the geography, IMO. Geography comes second. You need to feel comfortable inside your own skin, while inside another country out of your ordinary.
I fell in love with the Philippines when I saw grafitti on a wall that had Bible verses in it. That’s me. Find your own flavour. Make a list of your top 3, and slow travel through them over a year or two.
Other things to consider? Food –Philippines kind of lacks in this area, for example. No point in trying Thailand if you hate Thai food, am I right?
Conservative women that respect masculine men are all around the globe and most of the (developing) world has a solid grasp on the English language.
Pussy gets old quick if there’s no spark or substance that surrounds it.
8. Language Barriers
Language barriers have been minimal, as I typically live in places where English is reliably the second language. But picking up the Duolingo app and learning language basics before you book your flight will keep you motivated and prepare you for improvised situations.
Any tourist-heavy economy will speak English, but maybe you’d be better off in the more provincial, less tourist-driven areas which will require learning a new language. That’s for you to decide.
Learn key phrases in advance. For Chiang Mai, Thailand I made some phrase cards you can download and print for your first few weeks there. I wrote the book on Chiang Mai —check it out here.
If Thailand isn’t on your list, make your own phrase cards like I did. English on one side, the local language on the other. Hard copy. Because you won’t always have an internet connection for Google Translate.
9. Travel Insurance
There’s World Nomads and Safetywing, the only two I care about. I’ve been a client of both over the years as my needs change.
Here’s a side by side comparison of both companies, but confirm anything you read on my blog with the insurance provider.
They’re both cheap and they’ll insure your laptop, too. But there are differences, so keep an eye out for what matters to you.
10. Get Cheap Flights
I’m a diehard Skyscanner user. You can duct tape flights together for cheaper travel. You can read about how I always book cheap flights in this guide.
Simply put, a flight with proper connections and layovers protects you, because the second or third flight won’t take off without you, if your first flight is delayed.
However, you could save a lot of money getting a travel itinerary that is composed of separate flights that do connect, but they aren’t proper “connecting flights”.
Skyscanner will plot your trip, it will be cheaper, too. But if one flight is delayed too much, you could miss the second flight, and so it goes.
Whereas more expensive connecting flights are more reliable. Personally, I don’t mind the risk but that’s me. I save upwards of a thousand bucks per intercontinental journey by taking the risk of missing a connecting flight.
Related: How to Get Flight Delay Compensation
11. Get Fit
You’re about to embark on the journey of a life time, to chase tail and/or find love –don’t be a fat ass.
While traveling, your body will be bombarded with viruses and bacteria you aren’t biologically equipped for in our Western sterile, clean, open air prison.
Travel kicks the living shit out of you. Be prepared for it.
Being a passport bro makes dating a little easier, but there’s still plenty of male competition out there. Big a bigger fish.
Focus on free weights or resistance bands, and don’t be reliant on the big expensive machines gyms have. Burn fat more efficiently with L-Carnitine and CLA. That way you can stay fit anywhere you happen to be.
12. Leave a Comment
There’s always the potential I left something out, or your future new best friend is down in the comments somewhere.
Start networking right now, leave a comment below this article. Ask if other readers are headed in the same direction.
In my experience, comments on Hobo with a Laptop are usually productive.
Final Thoughts
Figuring out how to become a passport bro is easier than actually doing it. Don’t get stuck in the research phase –it’s paralyzing.
Yes, there will be shit you didn’t know, and yes, you’ll have to posses good improvisational skills. Those will come, you might surprise yourself.
If you’ve got a burning question, drop me a voicemail.
This is an income-killing topic;Â I’ve never used words like hoeflation, gynocracy, or “thousand cock stares” on Hobo with a Laptop before, and I know I’m going to alienate members of my audience, make Google hate me, and take a financial blow for embracing the topic.
Buy me a coffee if you want to support your friendly neighborhood Hobo with a Laptop. Sign up for my newsletter, and get first access to my online community when I start one.
