'On trip each single day': I left the U.S. to stay in Vietnam and solely have to work 15 hours per week

When Kavi Vu was 3 12 months outdated, her household fled to the USA, following a decades-long battle of their residence nation, Vietnam. After 30 years, she has returned to her motherland to “decelerate” and expertise her native nation.

Vu moved to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam, final 12 months, the place she at the moment works remotely as a contract artistic marketing consultant and videographer, bringing in about $11,000 a month, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. She simply must work about 8 to fifteen hours per week.

“I used to be in a position to considerably reduce my workload — means lower than if I had been dwelling within the States,” she stated. “I’m very privileged in that, in Vietnam, I get to say what number of hours per week I work, which I do know is insane. Coming from the States … I labored like 10 hours a day.”

“I primarily got here right here to work much less and observe extra,” Vu stated. “I really feel just like the U.S. is lots of doing, and right here, it is lots of being, being current [and] similar to present, and that is very nice, as a result of typically you simply want that area to untangle lots of knots in your head.”

Vu and her household fled Vietnam for the USA within the Nineteen Nineties to flee the fallout of the Vietnam Battle, which is also called the “American Battle” in Vietnam.

“My sisters truly had been boat individuals (refugees who fled Vietnam by boat), so that they had been in refugee camps within the Philippines. [They] got here to the States and had been in a position to sponsor my mother and father and me over from Vietnam,” she stated.

Vu’s household landed in Florida, the place they spent 10 years earlier than shifting to Georgia the place they lived on a small hen farm. Rising up as a minority within the U.S., she by no means felt a way of belonging, she informed CNBC Make It.

“We had been dwelling the refugee expertise,” she stated. “I imply, we had been the one Asians dwelling there, so it was actually — I suppose — jarring,” she stated. “You are all the time feeling like a foreigner.”

Her emotions of being an outsider grew as she grew to become extra concerned in politics in 2016. For about six years, Vu labored as a contract videographer on initiatives that geared toward participating minority voters within the Southern states, however she started to burn out.

Vu stated she was exhausted from juggling “1,000,000 various things without delay” and feeling like her mind is “always churning.” “The American dream simply began feeling prefer it was dwindling … and I simply felt like I wanted a break from America.”

In August 2023, she took the leap of religion and left the U.S. for Vietnam.

Now, Vu lives in a luxurious 1-bedroom condominium, for $950 a month. Her condominium is situated within the Bình Thạnh district, a central location in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis.

Vu’s condominium complicated presents a number of facilities together with group swimming pools, a health club, a restaurant, a bar and a spa.

“I really feel so privileged, prefer it actually looks like I am on trip each single day,” she stated. “After I discuss to individuals daily, I undoubtedly have … a fancier, nicer way of life, and after I truly discuss how a lot I pay for hire, amongst completely different teams, I undoubtedly pay like a few of the highest rents.”

In complete, Vu spends about $1,500 a month on her dwelling bills, together with meals, transportation and hire, in accordance with paperwork reviewed.

For transportation, she makes use of ride-hailing app Seize to get across the metropolis which often prices 50 cents to $4 per trip. She often opts to eat at native meals stalls and eating places, which value a median of $2 to $5 per meal.

“My cash goes actually far right here,” she stated. “Budgeting was straightforward, particularly if I will make American {dollars} in Vietnam … It is like the most effective life hack.”

Apart from freelancing as a artistic marketing consultant, Vu can be a content material creator and enjoys documenting her life in Vietnam. These days, she additionally has extra time to work on her ardour for poetry.

“All the things was shifting at like, two instances velocity within the States, and I by no means knew it, as a result of … I used to be always in it,” she stated.

Whereas dwelling within the U.S., Vu was all the time preoccupied with paying her payments and realizing the “American dream,” so she was always in a rush and felt like she needed to frequently optimize her time, she stated.

After shifting to Vietnam, “life feels sluggish,” stated Vu. “Although Saigon could be very hustle bustle, people are simply sitting [in coffee shops] for hours at a time and I do not keep in mind the final time I did that within the States for even minutes at a time,” she stated.

“It feels simply so luxurious to have the ability to simply sit there and ponder life and write it down. I simply by no means felt like I actually had the time or like an empty sufficient thoughts to really do it,” she stated.

Not solely has Vu’s transfer again to Vietnam given her a way of freedom to decelerate, however it’s additionally given her the psychological capability and air area to unpack and make sense of her household’s historical past and her personal heritage.

“One of many greatest issues that I am untangling over right here is rather like feeling lots nearer to my household, though I am farther away,” she stated. “I am simply understanding my mother and father much more [by] seeing how they lived over right here,” she stated.

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