About
For a growing number of Americans considering a life beyond their borders, Jim Kellett has become an indispensable guide. Through his YouTube channel, "Living Overseas TV," the professional video producer has crafted a new form of service journalism for the expatriate age. With a subscriber base exceeding 158,000 and a library of 144 videos that have garnered over 19 million views, Kellett provides a detailed, on-the-ground playbook for retirees, digital nomads, and adventurers looking to relocate. His work is not about escapist travel fantasy; it is a thorough documentation of rental prices, monthly budgets, neighborhood dynamics, and the tangible realities of building a life abroad.
Living Overseas TV: History and Growth
Before launching his influential channel, Jim Kellett operated as a professional video producer, photographer, and film director based in Denver, Colorado. His portfolio from this era, including excerpts from a documentary he produced and directed titled Victorian Cycles-Wheels of Change, showcases a polished production skill set that would later define his YouTube presence.
The "Living Overseas TV" channel was created on August 30, 2017, but its strategic direction sharpened around 2020 when Kellett relocated to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In a YouTube community post from the period, he confirmed, "I'm living in Puerto Vallarta now," a move that led to a deep dive into the Mexican expatriate scene. The channel's content from cities like Puerto Vallarta, Queretaro, and San Miguel de Allende resonated with a locked-down world dreaming of elsewhere, cementing his initial audience.
A significant geographical pivot occurred in 2023. In a May interview with KTRH News, Kellett was identified as calling in from Bangkok, Thailand, signaling a new editorial focus. The channel's content production in 2024 and 2025 has been heavily concentrated on Southeast Asia, with detailed guides to living in Thai and Vietnamese cities. This evolution reflects Kellett's personal philosophy of what he calls "traveling slowly" — embedding himself in a region for an extended period to gain authentic, firsthand knowledge.
Living Overseas TV Content and Style
The channel's success is built on a foundation of intensely practical, data-rich content. Kellett bypasses vague lifestyle vlogging in favor of actionable intelligence, primarily delivered through three core formats.
His cost-of-living guides offer thorough budget breakdowns, as seen in his profile of retired expat Francine Britton, who detailed her $1,125 monthly budget in Puerto Vallarta's Zona Romantica, or his analysis of Hoi An, Vietnam, where a comfortable life is possible for under $950 per month. Real estate and neighborhood tours provide a visceral sense of place and price, taking viewers inside a $235-per-month canal-side condo in Bangkok, a $476-per-month studio in the city's Punnawithi neighborhood, or a Palompon, Philippines apartment renting for just $112 per month. Finally, profiles of fellow expatriates provide relatable, human-centered narratives that ground the financial data in lived experience.
How Living Overseas TV Makes Money
The primary business engine for Living Overseas TV is YouTube AdSense revenue, driven by its substantial and engaged viewership. This is supported by an official website, livingoverseas.tv, which serves as a minimalist brand anchor and mission statement rather than a content hub. Kellett has deliberately consolidated his digital presence, avoiding actively maintained profiles on Instagram, Facebook, or X to funnel his audience directly to the primary video platform.
Evidence suggests a methodical expansion of his business model is underway. In late 2024 or early 2025, Kellett posted a poll to his YouTube Community tab, directly surveying his audience on how they would prefer to access more personalized content. The options — "YouTube Channel Membership with private videos," "Live Q&A video sessions," and "Patreon membership with exclusive content" — reveal a cautious, data-driven strategy. Rather than launching a new venture unilaterally, he is co-designing the channel's next phase with its most dedicated viewers, a move calculated to build goodwill while exploring direct audience-support revenue streams.
Living Overseas TV Collaborations
A cornerstone of Kellett's content strategy is a network of on-the-ground collaborators. This model grants him local credibility while providing his partners with significant exposure to a targeted audience of potential clients. His network includes real estate entities like House Hunting Queretaro in Mexico and a Bangkok-based professional named Ploy, whose WhatsApp and Instagram details were shared directly in a video description. He features fellow travel content creators like "My Deztination" (Dez) for an inside look at her $300/month Puerto Vallarta apartment and profiles expatriates like "Carefree Chris" to document the cost of living in Palompon, Philippines. This collaborative approach allows him to produce authentic, hyper-localized content that would be impossible for a solo creator to replicate consistently across diverse international markets.
Living Overseas TV: Public Reception
The channel's public record is overwhelmingly positive and free of controversy. The most significant piece of third-party media coverage is a May 2023 interview on KTRH News (iHeartRadio), which positioned Kellett as an established expert in the expatriate lifestyle niche. Speaking from Bangkok, he articulated his core philosophy, advising that moving overseas should be driven by a desire for "change and adventure and experience," not purely financial motives. He also directly addressed common safety concerns, offering a comparative perspective: "I didn't see one incident of crime at all," he said of his time in Mexico, "and I can't say that when I go back to the United States. I see a lot more crime in the United States than I saw in Mexico." This external validation, combined with a clean public record, has solidified his reputation as a trusted authority.
Living Overseas TV Today
Jim Kellett has successfully transitioned "Living Overseas TV" from a chronicle of his personal journey into an essential resource for the global mobility movement. Currently focused on the growing expatriate scenes of Southeast Asia, his next strategic move — a carefully considered expansion into direct audience support — is being shaped in public by the very community he serves.