Recently I’ve been thinking about my long term life plan once I reach the theoretical FIRE number. Some big questions come to mind:
Do I want to stay in Switzerland?
Do I want to get a Swiss passport?
Do I want to buy a place to live in Switzerland?
What alternatives are there?
Recently one forum user reminded me of the existence of Nomad Capitalist, who deals exactly with these kind of questions. I watched a few of his videos and they sprouted even more questions in my head.
Since he posts a new video almost every day since a few years, the content is quite diluted. He just sits there and talks, and there is big overlap between his videos. So trying to watch them all to get an idea doesn’t seem like a good use of my time.
So I even considered becoming a client. He accepts clients with a net worth of at least $1’000’000, so soon I could become eligible. I don’t know how much his services would cost, and if I would really benefit from it, but it seems like even if I spent a few thousand for nothing, it would be worth a try, in case he opened my eyes to some stuff that is obvious to him (he deals with high net worth people every day), but unknown to me.
Are there any people here who were in a similar situation? Did you reach out to a professional or did you trust your intuition and googling skills to figure everything out on your own?
Here’s one video I liked, just to get a taste of what kind of tips he gives.
Just browsing his website now after reading your post… Having maybe spent 5 minutes on it and being interested in the discussion that will come afterwards I’ll post this here:
Just from the looks and names of the team (the ladies that work as sales associates - the list looks like basically a family wedding I’ve been to one too many times ), he helps people get citizenship in Serbia, Montenegro or Mazedonia it seems. What else does he help with? You could probably buy a piece of land there and find a way to get granted citizenship.
Serbia itself does not have a wealth tax, that’s why it’s attractive to him/his service
outsourcing IT to Serbia seems pretty common around Switzerland, it seems like his service is supposed to help with that too.
I’d be wary about those so called experts and get quick rich schemers on youtube. I feel like the really connected people don’t have to advertise like that. But hey, maybe they are out of our reach and we only have access to people like him, who knows?
Anyways, I’d be really interested if you replied with your experiences should you subscribe.
My parents are from Bosnia/Serbia. I have a Swiss and Bosnian passport and could get the Serbian passport anyday I want. So Serbia as residence country would be ideal for a digital nomad?
I don’t think he sells a get rich quick scheme. He’s rather addressing to already successful/wealthy people, who want to legally reduce their taxation or get the biggest bang for their buck. I think it’s a valid line of work: as a skilled specialist or an entrepreneur, you don’t have time to get into the peculiarities of international taxation etc etc.
That being said, it’s a good point that the guy may just be all marketing and no content. But is there real risk in sharing personal details with him?
What I imagined getting from him would be that he would see my personal situation and compare it to the dozens he has already seen and offer his input as to what he thinks is best: stay in Switzerland or hell no, leave! Don’t even think of buying real estate at these prices! Etc.
Just by watching his videos, I can tell that I like his mindset and it makes sense. I like the tagline “go where you’re treated best”. On the other hand, I know I am easily impressionable and tend to be naive
I mean there’s no harm in getting a quote from him. Having spent a little more on the videos he toures vineyards and real estate in Serbia in at least a couple of his videos so I’m even more sure that what I posted in my first reply is what he’s doing Have you checked reviews on reddit or other forums about his services?
3 years ago we considered moving to Serbia where I was born. The plan: I could keep my job, be 2 days of the week in office in Zurich and 3 days remote in Serbia. I planned it all, checking the flights e.g. Monday morning from Belgrade to Zurich and Tuesday evening back. We could stay at my parents house in Serbia. Cut the monthly expenses almost in half. I calculated with private medical expenses, private schools for my girls and a lot of money left for savings, still living like a king.
Well, my employer didn’t like the idea, because he didn’t like the remote part. I suppose today, would be possible (except the quarantine laws).
Biggest issues I run into:
having family and friends here --> solution: just fly to the friends twice a month or so, take a hotel
my whole family in Serbia said: you’re stupid, don’t do that
healthcare --> you can have the same here, but have to pay for it
I haven’t given up the idea, but I’ll wait until Corona fades and see if employers still offer remote jobs.
PS. I like to watch the nomad capitalist, because it gives me a lot of ideas I would never consider. It’s not just the move to another country part.
FYI they might still not like it (out of country remote), as it might not be as straightforward as it looks for them (due to regulation or taxation implications for them).
My impression is that long term cross country remote are usually done on a local contract (e.g. you’d be paid through a serbian payroll companies) or via non-salaried status (consultancy or similar).
Checking on linkedin jobs, there are now far more “remote-only” jobs than they were few years back. If I’m lucky, I’ll find the one who would accept this.
PS. I like to watch the nomad capitalist, because it gives me a lot of ideas I would never consider. It’s not just the move to another country part.
Do you mind sharing what kind of ideas? I’m not asking you to summarize all of the videos obvisouly but just to get a general idea if it’s worth spending a day going through the videos.
For people targeting HNWI, It’s a bit odd to have a large yt presence though?
If they are successful on youtube, then they might earn good money from their channel. At this point they might put more effort/time on it than what their original activities were (and they become primarily youtube content producers/marketers and will optimize for that).
That said it certainly doesn’t look as bad as the bloggers racking money with p2p affiliates
Out of curiosity, what’s the tl;dw of the videos (on things you didn’t know/wouldn’t have guessed)?
Edit: poked around the website, I guess his main job is indeed marketing (he’s listed as chief creative officer) and there’s a couple of people who probably do the consultancy. Personally I’d probably go for a company that has a lower profile (sounds a bit to me like getting a lawyer from a tv ad but maybe that’s just because I’m conservative)
Amerika nije rad i znoj
stulicu lag’o si,
jebo li te onaj stih tvoj
Amerikanci su supci, ona najgora mraka
kod njih ti se radi
od jutra do mraka
nema ko kod nas ono:
pauzica kafica cigara
kod njih se sve vrti oko para
nema onog u goste nenajavljen
sa kesom mesa sa rostilja
kod njih se iz fiseka
pije piva (e jebiga)
al’ gotiva je plata,
standard je jebiga, dobar
imas za zivot
cak i ako si sobar
…
a kad donesemo para
onda nas dole svi jos vise vole
misle nama je lako
pa dobro, jes nam lakse
al’ nikog ne zanima
kakve su brige nase
Sure…
Two years or so, I never considered opening a off-shore account in some shady countries. But after googling a bit, it’s quite easy and cheap. I thought cool, I can do what billionaires do. But than I realized I need to invest too much time in researching how I would really benefit from it.
Further example, investing in land and realty in other countries. I never considered until then to buy an apartment in Tiblisi for 20k €. Well, I didn’t buy, but there are far more possibilities to invest than I considered until then.
How do taxes on dividends (or maybe capital gains) work as a digital nomad with the residency in Serbia? And can you keep your account at IBKR or do you need to look for alternatives?
I have read that some countries don’t tax foreign income (income from stocks is considered foreign) like Portugal and Cyprus.
Check “Our Rich Journey” https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChObmEJP3bgGUXJGc2ePP3Q for Portugal expatriation. A couple of American which fired in Portugal. It’s really interesting. They explain why they have chosen Portugal in Europe, a lot of cool tips and they are selling nothing.
Thanks for starting the topic. It is really interesting
I arrived at the conclusion that before choosing a country you need to know what you would like to do:
Do you plan to start a business?
Do you plan to live only on your net worth yield?
Do you plan to change country regularly to travel? (you could become a non-resident full time)
The answer will be completely different in each case. If you don’t know what you would like to do, I’m not sure spending money on consulting is useful. If I’m not mistaken, Nomad Capitalist is mostly on how to reduce taxes and get residency.
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), he helps people get citizenship in Serbia, Montenegro or Mazedonia it seems. What else does he help with? You could probably buy a piece of land there and find a way to get granted citizenship.
Isn’t this just part of our culture! Everything is nice and great in Switzerland/Norway/Canada/Australia/US but it sucks there 