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E49: My Airbnb Makes $100/day. I Live in Mexico for $35/day! | Slow Travel & Geoarbitrage
Coming to you from my little casita in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico — better known as Rocky Point!
Here’s something I never expected to say.
One of my smartest lifestyle decisions started with a cheap Airbnb booking and a simple question.
I thought I was paying $150 a month for a little room in Mexico.
Turns out, I was buying myself freedom, flexibility, and a backup plan I didn’t even know I needed!
And THAT is the Mexico chapter of the NorthAmericanDarrell story.
On June 24th, 2017, I booked a room, met the owners, and asked if I could rent it monthly.
They said yes.
Nine years later…
I’m STILL paying rent!
Hear me out!
I use the place less than three months a year.
So why pay for an empty room?
Because when my condo in Mesa, Arizona, is booked on Airbnb, I already have somewhere to go.
No hotel searches. No scrambling.
I head south, open my door, and I’m home.
Rocky Point is about four hours from Mesa.
Sometimes I take a shuttle from Phoenix for 60 bucks.
My light-gray 2003 Ford F-150, which I bought brand-new off the showroom floor in Texas, waits for me here.
We’re both getting older, but neither of us is ready for the scrap yard!
And it’s not just the room.
It’s Fortunado, better known as El Jefe, and Lupe.
My Mexican family.
El Jefe runs the show.
Lupe makes legendary homemade food, even feeding guests heading home from the Rocky Point motorcycle rally.
You can’t put a dollar figure on being welcomed back like that.
Now, this is a SMALL studio.
Comfy mattress, Oilers hockey on TV, Sonos speaker, little office, air fryer, barbecue, and a beer fridge with priorities!
Paddleboard? Check.
Bike? Check.
Golf clubs and fishing gear? Check.
Actually using them?
Let’s not start making wild accusations!
I’ve even hung my clothes on a line.
International traveler, early retiree, and part-time laundry attendant from 1955!
When I first rented the casita, I was working five days a week and hoped to visit monthly.
Later, four-day workweeks meant more opportunities.
Sometimes I’d come down every weekend.
Other times, I wouldn’t visit for months.
But I always knew I had a place in Mexico.
Then came my brilliant plan for 2024.
I’d already worked remotely from Hawaii, so why not Rocky Point?
I installed backup power, Starlink, and a proper office.
Every possible technical failure covered!
Except…
A BACKUP JOB!
In February 2024, I got the layoff news.
And my Arizona condo was already rented for another THREE MONTHS!
My first thought?
THANK GOD I HAVE A PLACE TO STAY!
No scrambling for housing.
I had my casita, severance, six months of healthcare, and time to figure things out.
I’d planned to work remotely from Mexico.
Instead, I started RETIRING remotely from Mexico!
And suddenly, travel no longer required a return ticket.
Now, here’s the financial icing.
Or, as I’ve said before…
The guacamole on the tacos!
My rent is $150 a month.
Internet adds another $25.
That’s less than SIX DOLLARS A DAY, even though I pay year-round!
When my Mesa Airbnb is booked for a full 30-day month, gross rental income is around THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
That’s $100 a day!
Now, that’s gross income, not profit. The Arizona condo has its own expenses.
Down here, I budget $200 a week for food, drinks, and fun.
Add the casita, and my basic daily budget works out to roughly $35, excluding my other bills.
I’m not competing for the Cheapest Guy in Mexico trophy!
BUT…
I recently got a haircut and hot shave for 20 bucks.
And I consider that premium retirement maintenance!
My spending philosophy is pretty simple.
If Friday arrives and the week’s allowance is gone…
I stay home a little more.
If there’s money left?
I briefly consider launching a beer hedge fund!
My favorite beer costs 70 pesos, roughly four dollars.
Skip food entirely, and I could theoretically buy about 50 beers a week!
That’s a dangerous concentration of liquid assets.
Better order tacos!
But seriously…
THIS is how slow travel, my Airbnb side hustle, and geoarbitrage work together.
Airbnb brings in income when the condo is booked.
Slow travel gives me routines, familiar faces, and a sense of belonging.
And geoarbitrage helps stretch my money.
But the real payoff?
It isn’t the spreadsheet.
It’s having CHOICES.
My mom understood that.
She spent more than fifteen years living independently in a little trailer in Yuma, Arizona.
Doing things her way.
And if anybody disapproved?
She’d say…
“If they don’t like it, they can kiss my ass!”
I miss her every day.
And when people tell me I remind them of her…
I’ll take that compliment every single time.
I enjoy nice hotels and restaurants, too.
I just don’t need them every day.
This little studio isn’t for everybody.
And it doesn’t have to be.
What started as a cheap room became something much bigger.
A second home.
A Mexican family.
And a backup plan that turned out to matter when life changed.
I didn’t know that when I booked the room back in 2017.
But looking back, that $150-a-month decision gave me something money alone can’t buy.
Peace of mind.
And the freedom to choose what comes next.
Because the goal isn’t to live like ME.
It’s to have the freedom to live like YOU!
This is NorthAmericanDarrell — solo slow traveler, freedom-driven global geoarbitrage storyteller, and a legend in my own mind!
READ, WATCH, LISTEN…
And most importantly…
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!
Cheers, everybody!