Author: Damon Wilson

My girlfriend and I sat in a local restaurant serving a typical Argentina menu of pizza, milanesas, hamburgers, and lomitos.

Y a tomar? Said the waiter inquiring what I wanted to drink along with my lomito.

“Agua” I replied and instantly his expression changed into one of pure confusion, the likes of which I’d never seen at such a simple request.

He wrote what appeared to be 3 full sentences on the mini pad he used to record our orders.

I was recently interviewed by an expat portal regarding my experience in Argentina. Below is the interview.

Who are you?

My name is Damon. I’m 33 and was born in the United States in the San Francisco bay area in a city called Santa Rosa. For the last 10 years I have lived in San Francisco which continues to be my favorite city in the world.

I’m an industrial engineer by trade and after working for a large IT consulting firm in the US I now work for a startup software analytics company managing our large accounts.

I’ve landed in Córdoba, Argentina and objective numero uno is finding a long-term place to stay.

Living in a hotel still feels like a vacation and until I get settled into an apartment of my own it won’t feel like real life.

Before leaving for this country I put in a good amount of work trying to secure a place and found one that was incredible. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

My search started with the local newspaper (La Voz inmuebles) which has classified ads online like Craigslist but with less features and less crazy people. Here you can find temporary apartments for rent although the quality of the photos listed on this site baffles me. While most have a few grainy photos of one room in the apartment, many are listed without photos making the search from abroad quite difficult.

However I did find a very nice 1-bedroom apartment in Nueva Córdoba for a reasonable price. My girlfriend went to see it and confirmed it’s awesomeness so I told her to put down the deposit.

As I mentioned last month I’ve started a series of monthly financial reviews to track my own progress.

August Monthly Financial Review

August – Assets +1.87%, Debts 0%

With an upcoming trip to Córdoba, Argentina my single biggest financial goal has been saving cash. In August I was extremely fortunate as I was able to essentially double my cash holdings. I received a quarterly bonus at work and also had my Argentina trip officially approved meaning that several of the expenses that originally came out of my own pocket were reimbursed.

In 2013 I set a list of ambitious goals. Its now end of July and it’s time to check up on where I’m at with those goals. Overall I give myself a 6 out of 10. I need to get my butt in gear in the 2nd half of the year.

Looking at what is left I honestly think it’s accomplishable but only with good focus.

Here are the original goals and a quick update on where I think I stand –

1) ) Record an album of 10 songs, originals and covers

In the spirit of Austin K Wood and The Simple Dollar, every month I’m going to start posting a personal financial review.

The idea of these posts is that they will help me track my own progress. I could do this private but opening this up to a public audience will drive me to succeed. I also want to be honest about what is and what is not working. I’ll break things down by my assets and debts to calculate my net worth. Using these numbers I’ll set goals for the upcoming month.I’m sure these reviews will evolve as I get into them however here is the start.

July Monthly Financial Review

July – Assets +4.53%, Debts 0%

In July and August my single biggest goal is to build up a cash buffer for when I head to Argentina at the end of August. I did pretty well on this goal increasing my cash by 26% and that’s even after buying my flight to Argentina which set me back $1300.

My good buddy and longtime San Francisco bike guy, posted a great article about biking in NYC.

He’s the one who initially encouraged me to get a bike here in SF. And damn am I glad he did.

Biking has been one the greatest overall contributors to my positive life condition.

It is daily exercise. It makes you feel great. It saves you time. It saves you money.

“What is that?”

Those were the only words my sister said seconds after I told her that I was moving to Córdoba, Argentina – the country’s second largest city.

She did have a valid question. Sure I knew the city fairly well having spent over 2 months there spread across 4 different trips – 2 personal and 2 business.

But what did I know about living outside the US. Very little.

Keeping in shape while traveling is difficult. Between the nights out, the constant beer drinking, and carb heavy meals the pounds quickly start to add up. However this is the general strategy I use to stay relatively fit while on the road. If you recall one of my 2013 goals is to become incredible fit.