Digital-era entrepreneurs whose businesses exist entirely in cyberspace have unparalleled flexibility with their personal logistics. Not only can they work from anywhere they choose with a high-speed WiFi connection, but so can all of their employees. E-commerce has become enormously liberating for entrepreneurs, but it is important for them to realize that the physical world has limitations and hazards that the freedom of the virtual world can sometimes obscure. 

From College Mediocrity to International Entrepreneur

CNBC’s Millennial Money series featured 24-year-old the founder and CEO of venture capital branding and e-commerce firm Manifest Five: Steven Guo. A born entrepreneur, the China-born, Canadian-reared Guo started his first business at age 12 with a video game host server he built that earned him $10,000. 

Guo’s obsession with building his own subsequent e-commerce businesses detracted from his studies, but his experiences taught him practical lessons that have led to creating Manifest Five, which is on track to gross $1.7 million this year. 

With his entire business existing solely in cyberspace, Guo’s 19 employees all work remotely from various countries. Guo himself, an avid surfer, relocated from California, where he had been attending University of California, Irvine, to Bali, Indonesia, where he lives a posh lifestyle on the $254,000 compensation he will earn in 2024.

Living a Frugal Kehidupan Mewah (Luxury Lifestyle) in Bali

Steven Guo works a 30-hour week and devotes his free time to surfing, dining out locally, and traveling to places like Portugal and Australia, where his girlfriend still lives. Thanks to the US Dollar, which is the currency Guo primarily holds and earns from his businesses, is worth roughly 16,000 Indonesian Rupiah per dollar, Guo can spend frugally but live like a king in Bali. Nevertheless, he, like a growing number of Gen-Z, is taking savings and retirement seriously and is disciplined enough to spend wisely and not wastefully. An overview of his spending habits for September would appear as thus:

Item	Amount	Qualifiers
Savings & Investments	$5,583	Roth IRA; Robinhood Investment A/C
Discretionary	$1,942	shopping, travel, gifts, health
Housing, Utilities & WiFi	$1,691	Large AB&B rental share with 3 friends
Food	$539	Restaurants and takeout
Subscriptions & Memberships	$430	AMEX, streaming services, storage, personal assistant
Insurance	$223	Health & Travel insurance
Transportation	$97	Scooter and Taxis
Phone	$30	Wireless Service
Total:	$10,535
Investment Account to date	$340,000	Various index funds
Roth IRA to date	$17,000

Expats Take Heed

It is easier to find like-minded associates on the internet, where real-life threats and the physical world’s dangers and prejudices can’t do any genuine harm. While there is a romanticism to foreign nations that is often alluring, cultural differences and beliefs can be at odds with the fantasy, and the maxim, “forewarned is forearmed” is a good one to bear in mind for any exotic locale for expats.

As a Chinese-Canadian living in Indonesia, Steven Guo’s selection of Bali as a place to live is the safest choice he could have made. There are several reasons:

• Bali is the sole Hindu island within Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim nation on Earth. Bali is the only Indonesian locale where foreigners can live in relative peace, without local interference or intrusion. While outgoing President Joko Widodo has managed to maintain a moderate Islam in Indonesia, pockets of terrorist-minded fundamentalists still remain.
• Indonesia has a history of Anti-Chinese sentiment that dates back centuries. Anti-Chinese laws regarding citizenship and Chinese-owned business restrictions to cities like Jakarta were codified during the reign of President Suharto in the 1960s. Much of the sentiment led to wealthy ethnic Chinese families like the Riadys of Lippo Group assuming Indonesian names. Jakarta, Medan, and Surabaya are the Indonesian cities where Chinese families have been able to form communities.
• The Malacca Strait, which lies between Indonesia’s Sumatra and Malaysia, is a major hub for piracy in the South China Sea. Wealthy expats in Indonesia are routinely targeted for kidnapping and ransom.

On a more general basis, Steven Guo and other ex-pats might wish to consider the following:

• Indonesia, along with Malaysia and Vietnam, has ascended to “pre-membership” in BRICS. As such there is speculation that, due to Indonesia’s significant commodity, oil,  and precious metal holdings, the Indonesian Rupiah can see an appreciation against the US dollar and other currencies if it is inclusion in The Unit, which is the forthcoming BRICS cross-border trade settlement currency. Converting a portion of his liquidity from US dollars to Rupiah ahead of time might make for a lucrative exchange.
• Creating a domestic Indonesian company with an Indonesian national as a partner that can be a standalone business apart from Manifest Five can offer him some political and economic protection in the event that anti-foreigner sentiment revives.

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