The $15 Personal Training Session

I’m sitting in a café in southern Brazil, having just finished my personal training session. Cost: $15 USD.

Not $15 for a trial. Not $15 with some promotional discount. Just $15 — no additional fees. No extra taxes. No tip expected.

In the US, this same session would easily run $40 on the low side, before tax and tip, probably not during peak hours.

Other lessons? Portuguese, surfing, beach tennis, all between $15 – $40 USD, all included.

But the cost isn’t even the most interesting part. It’s what the affordability unlocks: I can literally sample anything I want to.

The Cost of Curiosity

Back in Seattle, trying something new required serious commitment.

Want to take surf lessons? You’d need to find an indoor surf facility (if one exists in your city), figure out gear rental, pay $60-80 base rate per session, and commit to driving 20+ minutes each way to get there.

Want to learn an instrument? Private lessons start at $50-70 per hour, you’d need to buy or rent the instrument upfront, and you’d probably feel pressure to “make it worth it” by committing long-term before you even know if you like it.

The barrier isn’t just money. It’s the entire structure: distance, time, commitment, upfront investment.

So most people don’t try new things. They stick with what they already know they like, because exploration is expensive — in dollars, in time, and in mental energy.

Everything Is Accessible

Here in Brazil, the city layout makes things different.

My kids take soccer and swimming lessons. The teachers come to us. Not because we’re paying premium rates — because everything is about a 10-minute drive anywhere in the city.

No 20+ minute commute one-way just to get to a facility. No sitting in the car for hours every week just to access the activities your family wants to do.

Everything is together. Close. Accessible.

Bubbles and Constructed Environments

Does your life feel like a series of bubbles?

Home is one bubble. Work is another. The gym is a third. Kids’ activities are scattered across different locations, each requiring a drive, a parking spot, a scheduled block of time.

You move between these bubbles, but always commuting. Always in the car. Making your day feel like back to back appointments.

That’s how I felt in Seattle. Then we moved to Austin, and this aspect did not change. In Seattle, we’d drive 40 mph for 20 minutes. In Texas, it’s still 20 minutes — but at 60-70 mph. Same time in the car, farther distances.

It wasn’t that the cities were bad. Other things were great. They just required constant movement, making my life feel like a series of commutes, like a script.

Here in Brazil, I still have my routine. I still work. I still have commitments. But I spend a lot less time traveling between places.

I just get to do the things I want to do faster.

The Complementary Hub Philosophy

Here’s the assertion: no country is the best at everything.

There is no perfect country. No single location that optimizes for cost of living, quality of education, business infrastructure, healthcare, lifestyle, community, and global mobility all at once.

So it’s not productive to be looking for one.

Instead, find a second hub that complements your main location of residence.

If your primary base is expensive but offers great business infrastructure and income opportunities — find a second hub where your money goes further and lifestyle is more accessible.

If your primary base is convenient but feels like a series of isolated bubbles — find a second hub where community and proximity make life feel more integrated.

If your primary base offers excellent schools and career options but lacks cultural richness or affordability — find a second hub that gives your family experiences and accessibility they wouldn’t have otherwise.

The goal isn’t to replace your first hub. It’s to complement it.

What Brazil Complements

For my family, Brazil complements what the US offers in almost every lifestyle dimension.

The US gives us: strong business infrastructure, global banking access, high earning potential, excellent logistics, and world-class universities.

Brazil (at least in the city where we are) gives us: affordability, proximity to everything, a warm and vibrant culture that prioritizes family and community, and next beauty that makes once-a-year vacation happen every day.

My kids can take swimming and soccer lessons without even spending $60 per week per child.

I can sample a lot of lessons to learn more about myself, what I like and don’t like.

We can go to live music, attend local events, participate in community gatherings — not as the occasional tourists, but as integrated residents living normal lives.

What Does Your Second Hub Complement?

Ask yourself:

What does your current location do well?

Write it down. Reflect deeply. If you’re in a high-income area with excellent schools and career opportunities, own that. Those are real advantages.

What does your current location make difficult or expensive?

Also write that down. If trying new things feels prohibitively expensive. If your kids’ activities require hours of driving every week. If cultural experiences feel like luxuries rather than daily life. If your cost of living makes it hard to explore, experiment, or take risks.

What kind of environment would complement those gaps? Pick the top 2-3.

Maybe it’s a place where your income stretches further. Maybe it’s a location where everything is closer together. Maybe it’s a culture that values what you value but can’t easily access where you live now.

The Total Freedom Principle

In fact, this is the overarching goal of TotalFreedom.io: a comprehensive set of options, rather than trying to make one option work for everything.

You’re not trying to find the perfect country. You’re building a portfolio of locations, each serving a distinct purpose in your family’s life.

One hub might optimize for income and business.
Another might optimize for cost of living and lifestyle accessibility.
A third might optimize for education or healthcare or proximity to family.

Together, they give you options. Flexibility. The ability to move between environments based on what your family needs at different stages of life.

Living the Complement

My main business and financial hub is still the US. My business operates there. My financial infrastructure is built around it.

But I’m writing this from Brazil, where I just finished a $15 personal training session, where my kids’ teachers come to us, where I can try surfing for $30 without needing to commit to expensive gear or long drives.

It’s not about comparing it to the US. It’s just different. Complementary.

And that’s the point.

Your second hub shouldn’t try to replicate your first. It should offer what your first hub doesn’t — or can’t — provide.

When you build that way, you’re not choosing between locations. You’re choosing between versions of your life, each available when you need it.

That’s what complementary hubs give you: not perfection, but options.

And options, as it turns out, are worth a lot more than trying to force one place to be everything.