Greetings from Mexico City

[Christopherjart]

Hello everyone! I'm almost 36 and I've lived in the Greater Mexico City area including one of the cheaper suburbs (big mistake)for almost 11 and a half years working as an English teacher. I went independent several years ago. I was saving money slowly and spent it all during the big 2009-2011 recession and thankfully have recovered.
First of all, I talk about numbers in Mexican Pesos. I probably make less than 1/5 the money than most of you do at your jobs even though I'm doing better right now than ever before in the last 11 years. Of course everything could change next month since I'm working on my own and my only "marketing" is asking students and friends to recommend me.
I also sell artwork online. I started at the end of 2007 and slowly growing, but that really doesn't pay for more than my internet connection most months.
Issues:

Rent is a big issue. I share a 3 bedroom apartment in a poor neighborhood 5 minute walk to the nearest subway station, but my roommates are not very stable and they could move out any month.
Transportation is a big problem. Mexico City has a lot of opportunities, but since it is one of the largest cities and metropolitan areas in the world it is very normal to spend an hour or more to go from one place to another. I don't give classes near home, but not very far either.

It takes me typically between 1 and 1.5 hours between classes or classes to home ( I teach at the student's residence typically their office)

I take the bus and/or subway to get around.
Food cost is a big issue when I have a busy schedule (3 classes a day is a lot when you consider distances and travel time). I don't have an office fridge to store food and since I don't have a car either I really don't have the desire to carry packed food along with my books, DVDs, and other teaching supplies.
I've been lurking for about a week since I found the site and many of the ideas clicked. I could never get excited about retiring when I'm too old to enjoy it (How many 60+ are really in excellent health? perhaps half?)
Goals:

I'd like to own a tiny condo near central mexico city so I can't get around well on the subway. A tiny apartment in a poor area starts at 600,000 pesos so by the time I've saved up it will probably cost at least 700,000. By tiny condo, I mean approx. 45 square meters in a building with dozens of poor neighbors.
Goal 2 is to alternatively buy a relatively large property near one of the smaller cites for country living (I miss gardening). It would probably be cheaper to start, but I'd spend more on transportation since I'd need a car to go to the closest city.

I've been thinking about getting 800 square meters near Cuautla which is about 3 hours away by bus. I'm guessing it would cost me about one million pesos for a property of that size and build a decent house and a small pool on it although it could be done in stages. (1 buy a property and get a wall around it. 2. get the pool hole dug. 3. get house foundation poured. 4. build the minimal house and get solar power and solar water heater installed. 4. expand enough to be comfortable.) If I go with this option I'd keep renting and working a room here and go there on the weekends at least until I'm financially independent.
Meanwhile I keep saving and waiting for the shoe to drop.
I tried the Google Docs budget spreadsheet to figure out my years to FI, but it wouldn't work for me and started modifying my own budget spreadsheet (also G.D.), but I must be doing something wrong.
In my calculations it takes me 22 years to reach FI saving 50% of my income whereas the formula on the site "=25*0.2/0.5" says I will reach it in only 10 years....
Does anyone have the formula to get it right?

I also have a sheet where I'm adding real month by month income and expenses and I'd like to calculate how many more months to reach my goal based on the monthly average spending and monthly average spending and also per month saving and spending, but I can't figure out the formula...

please help

[DutchGirl]

Welcome! It could be that the formula doesn't work for you because you'll spend more money in the future than you do now, since you want to save up and buy your 700k or 1million pesos home. That home will probably be nice, but it is only going to replace the need to pay rent. You'll still need more money to pay for food, transport etc.
The simpel formula assumes that your expenses while working are equal to your expenses when you've stopped working, clearly, in your case, they are not.
Can you give us a breakdown of your income and expenses?

[Christopherjart]

Hi DutchGirl,

I was starting to think that there's no one out there
Both calculations were based on current spending not on potential cost of the tiny condo in the poor area or possible land+building house in a semi rural area. I would have expected my calculations based on savings and how much I needed based on 4% and the formula to have been close instead of double. It is very demotivating to not be able to finish my spreadsheet and see how many months & years I have to go as I add data each month.
My income is variable anywhere between nothing and 20,000 pesos a month. The last 7 months I've made about 15,000 a month. The previous year I made about 6,000 a month.

I can adapt pretty easily and when I make nothing I'm good at cooking at home and walking everywhere and washing clothes by hand. When I work a lot my expenses go up a lot, but at least I can save money when I work.
Lets assume that I can keep up the 15,000 average at least for the next 12 months. I'm saving about 50% now. When I started working more I had to pay off my credit card which had about 4000 pesos and I also moved to where I'm living now. I've saved 20,000 in the bank for emergency living expenses and put half in a certificate of deposit to get some interest for 90 days. Interest bearing accounts have really high minimum balances here. So now I'm starting my investing phase. I'm depositing money to my AFORE which is an independent retirement account that invests mostly in bonds and gets around 6-7%. I can't select investments the bank decides based on age groups. I can only withdraw money (any voluntary contributions) once every 6 months so it is good place to put medium to long term investments.
Rent 1267
(sharing 3 bedroom cheap apartment with 2 others) I don't think I could find cheaper near a subway station without moving to a neighborhood known for armed robbery.
Food 3000
This is one I'm working on because when I don't work this drops down to 1000 pesos. (when I don't work I cook and people think I'm vegetarian since I cut back on meat then too.)

I'm trying to get it down to 2000 while working a lot. 3000 a month is basically 100 a day (9 dollars a day +/- goes by so fast even buying food sold on the street and a soda.) I'm going home to eat between classes now twice a week and other days perhaps I can pack sandwiches or something)
Transport 1500

I teach in 3 different places right now. Atizapan (Northwest), Polanco (west-central), and Roma Norte. (almost central) I can't move near classes because 1. those areas have MUCH higer rent (perhaps 8,000 in Roma Norte, perhaps 16,000 in Polanco, and 3,500 in Atizapan) and in anycase if I lived near one I'd be far from the others and who knows when someone will ask for classes in some other part of the city.)

I take the metro (subway) and buses everywhere. It averages out to about 50 pesos a day mostly bus cost since the subway is partially funded by the state and the bus to Atizapan where I currently teach most classes is full price. If I stopped working I probably would not go there very often.
Internet 210
It is a good connection and I use it everyday when at home. I use it to communicate with family and friends and of course to check the sites where I upload artwork and designs.

When I'm financially independent I plan on just doing art and graphic design.
Cell 300

I'm on a two year contract. It is one of the cheapest plans I could find that would give me enough text messages and internet. I only get one hour call time, but I normally use its internet to send messages on facebook or whatapp. I had canceled the telephone service here since the roommates didn't want to help with the bill like they had agreed.
Laundry 400

I could wash by hand. I was working on decluttering this weekend, but we'll see. I notice that clothes wear out faster when I wash by hand even though I save on cleaning cost.
Supplies 500
stuff for creating artwork, personal care products, DVDs for backing up artwork, etc. normally 300-600 pesos.
Electricity 100

approx. it is actually a bill that comes every other month and split three ways. Electricity costs vary by usage and neighborhood. Poor areas pay less. Expensive areas like Polanco pay full cost. One of my roommates has the bill and he hasn't shown it too me and he's been at his parents' house all week. I'm worried that he's going to move back home.
Gas 100

Here you buy tanks of gas of different sizes and it depends on how often you cook and if you keep your water heater on hot, warm, or off between baths.

We actually don't have a tank connected to the water heater so I've been showering in cold water. I've done that off and on for years. It isn't enjoyable at all, but it is tolerable.

If I had my own house I'd install a solar water heater and panels, but you can't do that when you rent.
In total I am currently spending about 7,500 pesos a month on the basics + laundry, cell, and internet.

[DutchGirl]

Hey Christopher, it's very late here, so I'll answer tomorrow (or maybe even later, tomorrow's going to be a very busy day). But I'll be back, and hopefully others will be around as well.

[DutchGirl]

Ah. I think you didn't fill in the formula in the right way, it is: working years=(1/SWR)/(r/(1-r)).
SWR is safe withdrawal rate. Since you work with "25", you apparently have assumed that you can savely withdraw 4% of your stash every year without ever running out.
r = the % of your income that you save. You put in 0.2 here and that is wrong. You spend 50% and thus also save 50%, so r = 0.5 . 1-r is thus also 0.5 .
Now the formula says: 25 / (0.5/0.5) and this is 25 years...
Disappointing perhaps, but on the upside: you could perhaps still decrease your expenses. You could also perhaps increase your income (given that you made 6000 last year and 15000 now, there is maybe still more growth potential?). Both actions will increase your r and thus shorten your time to retirement.
If you can even get your r to be 60% (spend 40%, save 60%), your time to retirement will be 25/(0.6/0.4)= 25/1.5= 16.66 years.

[george]

Hi Christopher
Its really difficult to comment on your post because we live in diametrically opposed environs. I live in a very sparsely populated area.
I looked on your expenses for an amount for clothes, library, entertainment expenses.
I wonder if you have covered these things under supplies and food.
Anyway, suggest putting them under separate categories as these are the easiest to manage
Just a thought

[George the original one]

Work on reducing the biggest expenses before worrying about the others: Food, Transportation, and then Rent.
By USA standards, your food is a far larger part of your budget than we have... typically for us, rent is the largest expense followed by transportation, food, and insurance.

[Christopherjart]

Hello everyone. Sorry to reply so late, but I got home just a little while ago.
DutchGirl, the 23 years I got in my own calculation makes sense now with your corrected formula of 25 / (0.5/0.5)

You don't know how much it was bothering me. Why 23? well, I imagine that my current saved assets made the difference. I was subtracting from my needed investments my current assets and then dividing by the money I planned to save. I'm very relieved that I wasn't losing my mind and just did the ERE equation wrong!
@george I normally buy cheap pants at discount stores like Wal-mart, Soriana, etc. so they're around 200 pesos. Yes, when I do buy clothes they normally go under supplies. Entertainment either will land in food or supplies. In any case I never spend more than 10% on Entertainment and I'll often skip entertainment to meet my savings of at least 50%. I'll consider separating them in the future.
@george the original one:

As I said I share an apartment with two others in a poor part of the city. It would be extremely difficult to find somewhere cheaper without getting shot or living very far away (in which case transportation would go way up and food too. And honestly who wants to have more than a 2 hour commute?)
Food costs can't be much lower than that in the USA since growers here export to the USA. They only need to keep ingredients barely affordable.
Of course, if I rented in a decent part of the city or in this area by myself I'd spend at least 4000 pesos on rent instead of 1267 by sharing here.
Perhaps I'll just have to cook beans and rice with staple veggies and pack that to get food costs to go down.
I don't pay for health insurance. One of my students pays for my government insurance instead of paying in cash so it isn't an expense for me. I never really use it, but it is there just in case. I don't need life insurance since I have no dependents. No auto insurance because lets face it, I can't afford a car.
Thank you for your comments! I really appreciate moral support.
One thing I'd like to know is how to pack food and not have it spoil while I carry it around. Since I give private classes, I don't have an office fridge to stick it in until lunch time. I'll have to carry it with all my stuff until I decide to eat.

[DutchGirl]

We Dutch people often pack sandwiches for lunch (and we also give them to foreign visitors, I noticed when doing my PhD, sorry 'bout that, famous professors from abroad...). As far as I know, two slices of bread with a slice of cheese or with a slice of meat or with peanutbutter in between do not spoil between morning (when making them) and lunch. Bring a piece of fruit with it that can be eaten straight away or with a small fruit knife, and we Dutch consider it a good lunch.
By the way, food costs are indeed probably the same or lower than in the US, but because your income is much lower too, the percentage of money you pay on food is higher... I think that is what George means.
Good that the formula now works. However, I would try to predict real annual expenses when retired... Say you think you'll spend 1 million on a house once, and then spend 4500 on everything else monthly (food costs and travel costs will be reduced), then your future annual income should be 54,000, which means (if your SWR is 4%) you need to save up 25x54k is 1,4 million PLUS 1 million to buy the house, is a total of 2,5 million.

[Christopherjart]

@DutchGirl I suppose it depends on the food. Some processed food is probably more expensive, but the staple food is only going to be slightly lower since the Mexican farmers will want as much money for what they grow and if they can make 20/kilo - shipping selling to the USA, they don't have much reason to sell to people in mexico for much less than that cost except to sell surplus. That's why you probably won't find food at 1/5 the price. Income doesn't follow the same rules as produce exports
I'll go ahead and start packing my sandwiches. Unfortunately it is too late to go to the supermarket tonight (almost midnight! and I have to get up at 6am to be in class at 8am)
It would be great if I had an amazing income like so many here. If I did, I'd be able to retire in a couple years. The most I've made in a month is 4,000 pesos more with a full teaching schedule (3-4 classes a day) I'd need about 4 more hours of class a week to reach that. It would be difficult, but I am trying to encourage my students to promote me.
I'd like to increase my art and graphic design income, but shipping costs from the PODs (print on demand) companies is too high for most Mexicans to consider buying from me so I normally just sell something when someone does a search online and they happen to find something I've made.

[Hoplite]

Welcome!

@DutchGirl answered your questions on the formula, but I would also consider the wiki page:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/wiki/ ... Retirement
The key is the ratio between income and expense, and in your case (as you know) the income side of the equation is lagging. The focus here is on the expense side, because that is usually where the problem lies, but sometimes you just need more income.

You mention going for more class hours and your online business; is there anything else you might do to earn a higher income for a couple of years without increasing expenses? Many here do earn good incomes, but almost all of us know what low pay is like too

[Christopherjart]

@hoplite,

I really am not sure what else I can do for income except just work harder on my art and design when I'm not teaching, but I'm already working 6 days a week on average. If I had a laptop I would be more productive processing photos and all that, but I doubt that any increase in sales from the extra few hours of production not at home would be equal to or greater than the cost of a laptop computer which would eat about 2 months of planned savings (assuming no classes are canceled)
I'd love ideas for increasing income. Really anything I could do on the bus or subway between classes would be perfect
I used to do some affiliate marketing, but that dropped off when the economy went bad in 2009 and I was spending about the same amount on hosting and domain registration as I was earning so I abandoned that effort.

[Hoplite]

@Christopherjart

Something on the bus or subway is pretty much limited to writing or editing (or busking music?). Without a laptop, securing a printout to work from might be ok. FWIW, I would be looking in the U.S. online, craigslist to start, for opportunities something like this:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/wri/3000894142.html
You clearly have the English skills to do this work and it might pay better than what you have now; dollars vs. pesos if nothing else. And I hear you on the 6 day week--more/harder work is probably not the answer.
Interesting that you tried affiliate marketing. I don't know much myself, but have heard that the market has mostly recovered since 2009. It might make sense if you can promote within niches that you actually like and know something about, by blogging, commenting and reviewing the affiliate products for that niche audience. If your interests are not too obscure, it may work for a small side income over and above registration and hosting, both of which are very cheap now. If you have many interests, try to choose the one with the most potential. I believe Jacob once lamented his niche of selling information to tightwads

[Hoplite]

@DutchGirl's suggestion of carrying a sandwich/fruit lunch is what I use myself, though I don't carry a fruit knife because it's just too easy to get into trouble here with security, metal detectors and overzealous law enforcement.
But if the weather is hot and I don't think the sandwich (the filler really) will last too well, I fill a small plastic bag with frozen vegetables to keep with the sandwich; it keeps the sandwich cool and the vegetables will thaw in time for lunch.

[DutchGirl]

About income: ... I'm wondering whether you're asking enough money for your teaching / make sure the balance between income and business expenses/time spent is right?
If a certain teaching job is far away, or it requires more of your efforts, is that reflected in your salary? Can you be picky and not take a certain job if you aren't paid well enough for doing it + traveling to/from it?
So for example: you could ask a client to pay you more if educating him/her means traveling for 2 hours instead of 0.5 hours. You could ask for more if the job is urgent. Or if they ask you to teach two people instead of one. Et cetera.
The book "Your Money or Your Life" has a method at the beginning for calculating your real salary per hour. It asks you to not only calculate hours worked, but also hours traveled, hours needed to recover from working, and money spent on "work" (for example money you spend on representable clothes or on lunch bought instead of enjoying lunch at home)).

[Christopherjart]

@dutchgirl You asked a good question. Many of my friends say I charge too little (I charge 300 pesos per hour if one hour and drop it to 250 per hour if they take at least 1.5 hours per class.) Most groups don't take more than two classes a week and EVERYONE wants either 8-9am or 2-3:30 pm. so that pretty much limits me to a certain number of hours of class. Then someone or other has to cancel a few classes...
I have NO classes within 30 minutes of where I live. One class is an hour and five-ten minutes away. The others are between an hour and fifteen and thirty minutes away. Mexico City is one of the largest cities. One hour is considered normal and two hours long. 30 minutes is like almost neighbors
If I have to travel 2 hours to a class I'll ask for 350 per hour, but most people aren't willing to pay that much. I actually charge by group not per student so if there are 3-4 people it is actually cheaper per person than your typical English franchise.

I unfortunately don't know a lot of people wanting to take classes with me (and actually pay for them)

I tried offering classes at home and that never took off. People weren't serious about the classes and would skip half of them without even a message and they wanted a big discount since I was saving time.

Mexicans are very brand aware. They prefer brands first and cost second. They of course ask why me when they can go to X franchise school and get a stupid certificate after a year (they don't learn much, the get the paper)
anyway to get back to the cost issue, My friends say I charge too little whereas everyone else says I charge too much. I know companies charge between 250 and 350 normally to send a private teacher so I have to be in the right range. I guess I need to find the right way to promote or get people to take a less desirable schedule to get more classes during the day. yes, I can refuse any class I want (I am independent), but I don't have that much demand. I suppose there are many people out there who would take classes if they knew about me and had a group ready, but people are lazy they just want cheap and to take class when they want to... It's complicated.

What do you think?

[Christopherjart]

Just a minor update.
1. One of my groups ended unexpectedly. One of my students decided to buy a car so he can't pay for classes and since they were sharing the cost the others are not going to continue since they'd have to cover the difference. That happens.
2. I managed to get my average food expenses down by about 20 pesos per day (now 80 instead of 100). unfortunately that means eating more cheap carbs and less fruit and less vegetables when away from home.
3. It looks like my cheap housing will become expensive housing (3x higher) that will totally eat my savings. One and possibly both of my roommates will be moving out in the next 20 days. I've talked to the landlady and she has no problem with me taking over as the one in charge, but I still have to find people to live in the other rooms. It shouldn't be hard if I advertise to strangers, but I don't have a lock on my bedroom so risks of losing my stuff and other problems will be higher. Of course, I haven't had good luck with people I thought where friends so perhaps a stranger or two won't be so bad after all.
I discovered after an in person chat with the owner that the extra month of deposit that I paid the end of March was pocketed by the roommate that will have to go. He hasn't been here all month nor paid the new month on the 15th, but his stuff is here. He only just admitted that he was leaving a couple days ago when I called him and asked him directly

when he was going to come back to live here.) He never showed up to give me his part of the rent 2 days ago (and several days late)
The other roommate has only been here on weekends and I don't know his plans either.

[Christopherjart]

Hi everyone just a quick update. One student who had suspended his classes for two weeks changed it to indefinite due to business trips and a big project implementation so my income is much lower.
Last month I only saved 4000 pesos from first half o month income. I had been bugged by a couple modeling agencies to work with them since last year, but thought it was fake. Well the agency is still there so I had gone ahead and paid about 2500 pesos for photos which includes a CD of 40 images which I can distribute and the prints for the agency to distribute. I really doubt that I'll actually make more money as a model than I spent on photos, but I thought it might be nice if they turn out to send a professional photo to my parents or aunts and uncles before middle age sets in ( I turned 36 this month)
I picked up the disk and the composite sheet looked ok, but I haven't decided how far I want to take the experiment, but with classes cancelling, I'm sure I'll be motivated to go to castings. Modeling jobs seem to pay pretty well from what was explained, however you have a lot of competition for that work so it is very possible to go to hundreds without being selected. Plus I'm not in very good shape and most male models spend a lot of time at the gym and I don't even have dumbbells.

I was also told by the person who decides who they invite to castings that since I don't have a neutral (aka mexican) accent to my Spanish, I I won't be sent info for commercials that require speaking. That didn't make me happy. I'd rather let the casting people decide that instead of the agency. I was sent info for one casting of two that I'm in the age range for, but I didn't go since it was from 11 to 5 on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately I have my lunch time (lunch in Mexico is from 2-3) classes in Atizapan those days and since transportation is at least an hour and a half, I wouldn't be able to make it without risking being late or missing class.
Hopefully I'll get info later about castings on Mondays and Wednesdays since I teach closer to where the castings would most likely be. Since my classes are private, if I get offered a modeling job, I could cancel classes while doing a job.

I'm just trying to decide how much time and $ to put into something that probably would only be good until I'm 40. I suppose I could upload the photos to a new fan page and make a twitter account as a model or whatever, but If I have to take an accent "fixing" class or pay for a gym membership then I'll be lucky to break even.
My housing expense went up in June since I still haven't found another roommate so I'm paying for 2 of the 3 bedrooms in the apartment. Renting by myself would be a little more expensive so I'm not planning on moving out. I could go back to renting rooms in other apartments, but that would be much more expensive than what I'd pay once I find another roommate.

[GeoffK]

Hi Christopher,
It seems to me that your trying to save for early retirement with a part time job (in terms of chargeable hours) and a massive commute (commutes all put together). Add to that current uncertainly with your roomates and the people you teach and you're in a bad position.
The commute is costing you in terms of both time (not working) and money (fares). If you read the MMM post on the cost of commutes you can get some idea on how bad over time they are.
You mentioned you spent all your savings in the 2009-2011 recession. From my point of veiw it seems something needs to change. While you are getting by now and saving a small amount, a event in the future like another recession or a medical mishap could sap your savings again leaving you back with nothing again.
I think there are three strategies you can take if you plan to stay in Mexico City.
1. Carry on teaching english to locals but having them come to you. I know you've tried this in the past and that your students tended not to show up but I really think you need to try to make this work. By getting your students come to you, you can teach more. When one class ends another can start straight away, more like a full time job. Plus you would get rid of your travel time and costs.
So how to do this? As you know your students and market you'd be the best to come up with ideas for this but I would suggest first of all make it as easy as possible to get to you. This means you may need to teach at a central MC park or other area that all the subways go to. There is cost in this for you to get there and maybe to hire a small room somewhere central for this but if you can teach there a good part of the day it may be well worth it.
Second lower your prices if they come to you. If you're working more full time you can get away with a lower rate and still make more because your working more hours. An incentive scheme with the fifth lesson free or something like this can help people keep coming.
Third do some more marketing. Make up some leaflets and give them to your customers to give to friends and family. Be a bit cheeky by putting up flyers on posts and walls near an English school.
2. My second strategy would be to reverse your market and teach Spanish to English speakers. With this market probably mostly from the U.S you could charge more. It would mean starting from strach in terms of customers but this strategy can be used in combination with the first one. So still have locals but gradually shift to english speakers as you get more of them. Airports, bus and train sations and less expensive hotels might be a good palce to market at.
3. Start up a english website or blog on Mexico City. With the angle of showing Mexcio city to visitors from a locals perspective. The best cheap restruants etc. This could have advertsing and funnel people to guided tours of MC you could host.
One last option is to go back to where you taught before you became independant and see if you can get some work there in addtion to what your doing now.
All of these options involve change and work and it might seem easier and safter just to stick with what you're doing now. However if you truly want to to retire early I think something has to change.
- Geoff

[Christopherjart]

"You mentioned you spent all your savings in the 2009-2011 recession. From my point of veiw it seems something needs to change. While you are getting by now and saving a small amount, a event in the future like another recession or a medical mishap could sap your savings again leaving you back with nothing again."

One of my students who has class once a week pays for benefits as if I were his employee instead of cash so I could go to a public hospital for care using that.
Well, when I offered to teach classes at my home. I actually charged 1/3 of my regular fee. I was never able to get my schedule full though because everyone was still asking for classes in the same schedule as the at-the-student's-office fee.
"Third do some more marketing. Make up some leaflets and give them to your customers to give to friends and family. Be a bit cheeky by putting up flyers on posts and walls near an English school."

I tried the flyers thing once and only got a phone call from a woman who wanted a woman to take care of her kids while teaching them English at her home. The funny thing was that the flyer was all focused on serious English needs. It didn't even mention children. I lost the design. I'll have to think about this and a design and where. I use a lot of media so if I taught at a park (there isn't one nearby), I'd have to invest in a laptop for playing movies and other listenings. Renting an office space would be like paying two more rents or more. I don't see how I'd make more money after expenses with either option, but I could try offering classes at home again and see what happens.
"2. My second strategy would be to reverse your market and teach Spanish to English speakers. With this market probably mostly from the U.S you could charge more. It would mean starting from strach in terms of customers but this strategy can be used in combination with the first one. So still have locals but gradually shift to english speakers as you get more of them. Airports, bus and train sations and less expensive hotels might be a good palce to market at."

There is a good program for English and other non-spanish speakers to learn Spanish at UNAM, but that sounds very interesting. I have no idea how I'd go about finding them except through the Mexico City blog/tour idea.
"3. Start up a english website or blog on Mexico City. With the angle of showing Mexcio city to visitors from a locals perspective. The best cheap restruants etc. This could have advertsing and funnel people to guided tours of MC you could host."

That sounds like fun. I often joke with friends that I'd make a great tour guide since I know so much more of the city than most people due to having taught classes in so many different areas over the last decade+.

Of course cheap places to eat are easy to find. They are the street stands near most subway stations or in front of houses at night.
"One last option is to go back to where you taught before you became independant and see if you can get some work there in addtion to what your doing now."

If I wouldn't mind making less than half of what I currently charge per hour,I'd do that. I know something is better than nothing. I'm just not convinced.
"All of these options involve change and work and it might seem easier and safter just to stick with what you're doing now. However if you truly want to to retire early I think something has to change"
I agree 100%, something has to change either in spending or saving probably both. Although people say you can do ERE on minimum wage, my minimum wage equivalent income (which is several times minimum wage in Mexico) has me at least 20 years from now saving half of my income.

I really appreciate your ideas. I'll meditate on them. As a friend told me in a Tarot reading last week, I'm going through a period of making important decisions.

Blogging, Art & Graphic design, teaching, modeling, etc. All of them have pros and cons and I hope to find the right mix or find some other opportunity that is well paid.