Wise’s Exchange Rate Tracker: The little things in Mexican expat life that excite me

Nicole  | 

I had never heard of Wise as a money-transfer application until I started frequenting Mexico and needed to send money to landlords, pay for goods by transfer, etc.

I once attempted to pay for rent with Paypal and literally – F that – Paypal’s fees are astronomical! So I asked around and was told Wise is a great option as an American in Mexico (Wise is a British company and only permits transactions in certain countries and currencies). I used my friend’s referral code to sign up (which I’ll give you mine at the end if you need to download Wise after hearing my story) and that means for you as a new customer, Wise will waive the fee on up to 500 GBP (or equivalent) of your first transfer! Score!

Wise gives a really fair exchange rate comparable with the true market price and guarantees the rate locked in for 8 hours when you start the transfer. The fees are pretty low, in my opinion and I love their due diligence of giving you comparable options of ways you may save more money with other companies. Who does that? Good companies who want you to trust them.

So what excited me today? The exchange rate of the dollar to peso has dropped substantially in the past year. After the Mexican presidential election, the exchange rate became more favorable towards the USD. For expats, amazing news especially for bigger spendings like rent.

I found that Wise offers a currency exchange tracker! You can tell the system where you’d like to be notified when the exchange rate hits a certain point. For instance, I have two trackers set for 18.50 pesos per dollar and 19.00 pesos per dollar (wishful thinking).

This morning I had an email from Wise that the exchange rate hit 18.50! For me, that means it’s ATM run time! I literally threw on clothes are rushed to the ATM to get cash from my USA account. I love using Charles Schwab checking because they do not charge any fees world-wide with ATM withdrawals. And get this… they REFUND your ATM fees from the other banks every month! WIN WIN!

What a sexy email to receive! Want to get started with the best banking methods as a digital nomad or expat? Here’s my resources:

Get your Transfer on with Wise!
Wise Exchange Rate Alerts
Get ATM-fee free transactions with Charles Schwab

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Self-Employment Expenses

Nicole  | 

As I mentioned in my previous post “Expat Taxes – Can you do them yourself?” I am slowly learning the process of completing my own taxes. Now, my taxes aren’t straight forward – I own a Limited Liability Corporation, which means I have business tax expenses. I have student loans, which I have interest as a deduction. I have some investments and dividends, and I have an IRA.

I have always tracked my own expenses on a spreadsheet (Yes, I know- there are apps by the millions to do this) but I am stuck living in manual-land under a rock. I did my best based on limited knowledge to make tabs to “help” my accountant. Surely, they didn’t help now that I know more.

The first thing I’ve started working on is researching all of the self-employment expenses that can be deductible. I made a much bigger, badder spreadsheet that makes more sense to which items are deductible and a main page with each category, an explanation of what is considered and not considered deductible within that category, and which line on the tax return that will be entered.

Step 1: I’m currently working through my credit card statements to fill out the spreadsheet with expenses placed into the proper tabbed categories.

The War on House Plant Mealybugs

Nicole  | 

Have you heard of mealybugs? They are fuzzy white insects that infest plants, feasting on the sugar within the crevices and leaves of the plant, eventually sucking out all the life from them.

They’re extremely contagious to other plants and apparently, they “walk” at night to other sections of the plant and to other plants!

I have never witnessed these bugs before and first noticed them on my very long, beautiful pothos leaves which looked like a residue. The plant lives next to an open window so I chalked it up to that and cleaned the leaves with water and a towel. Little did I know, the infestation had begun.

I have no clue where this started, as I had that plant for months. I did get a new plant which sat at the bench below the dangling vines. My best guess is I brought the mealybugs home with this new plant and they hitch-hiked onto my beautiful pothos.

Soon enough, I realized that there was something more than a residue on my plant. With a simple google search, I figured out exactly what the infestation was and could even see with the naked eye full-size mealybugs, fuzz and all.

Photo by Ravi Kant: https://www.pexels.com/photo/macro-photography-of-a-mealybug-5136274/

I immediately quarantined the plant in the kitchen above the refrigerator away from all other plants in the house. I took hours to clean every single leaf and crevice of the plant with 70%+ isopropyl alcohol, as the internet suggested. This was a heck of a task the first time. I figured after doing it once, I would just need to watch for stragglers. Wrong.

These terrible creatures hide and procreate like there is no tomorrow. Soon enough, the plant was fully infested again.

The internet suggests when it gets to this point, it’s likely in the soil as well. The best bet is to throw out the plant and start anew. But then there’s me… the stubborn one.

Last week I began plucking out piece by piece of the pothos, cleaning each piece from root to leaf. I placed them in glass jars on my terrace – still quarantined. I figured the cleaning must have done the job finally. Wrong again. I checked them days later and low and behold- mealybugs. Not a lot, but some.

I read a little more and found about making a spray of half 70%+ isopropyl alcohol mixed with half water and a few drops of dish soap. I decided instead of making a spray because most of the mealybugs were hiding in the crevice where the leaf meets the stalk, I made it into a bath.

The already displaced pothos pieces- I washed the pothos from root to leaf with a toothbrush and dish soap, and doused them into the alcohol bath. The spray recipe said to rinse off after 5-10 minutes, so I after the bath, I set the pothos on a paper towel with a 10 minute timer. I then rinsed them thoroughly and placed them back into the jar with fresh water and returned them to the terrace.

I dug up a few extra pieces from the main plant and repeated the process. The longest vines (close to 5-6 feet) are still in the war zone with the mealybugs. I ran out of alcohol, so I will get more tomorrow and make a larger bath for them. I hope this solves the issue so I can replant them and get them back to their barren shelf in my bedroom.