Assistance on crucial decisions before FIRE

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41

It going to be an endless discussion, so I’ll end it here. The ranking can change based on the index: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report. Moreover, the index may be take into account income for locals, as a foreigner this won’t influence your well-being, ect.

I mentioned Portugal because of these videos https://www.youtube.com/c/OurRichJourney/videos

In short, you need to compare the countries, even spend some time and/or holiday to see if you could be happy there long term. See if you can be part of the community as a foreigner ect.

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At the same time it‘s one of the safest countries

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have to chime in with this topic:
@Bojack


Basically says it all. Just take a close look at Andrew from NomadCapitalist and you know that you cannot trust such youngish american big-mouths with your cash.
I did not lose money with him, but tried speaking to him. It is exactly as in the link posted. Do not proceed!

With all “Offshore” Guys you will really quick find out, that they can’t do shit themselves. They are sales men that transfer you to lawyers in the respective countries. They will never personally help you with bank accounts (if the bank declines you, you lost 500-1000CHF but nomad capitalist made his cut before) or company incorporation (has to be a national lawyer that has a license).

Look up the info (often with many grains of salt, as they are not using their products themselves most of the time) at NomadCapitalist, Staatenlos.ch, Casey Research, freedomsurfer, offshoreincorporate.com, etc. and then go the info pages in the respective jurisdictions and find yourself a lawyer in the country to do things for you. Cut out the middle man.
as an example – https://www.nevisfsrc.com/regulated-entities/#registered-agents
Offshore has some advantages, Asset protection, tax planning, a bit of anonymity (but not full) and so on but it is an incredibly complex topic that is changing every few months.

Helpful link to get an overview.


TL; DR: zero-tax is hard to achieve or you would probably not want to be there (muslim kingdoms…)
Territorial tax is a really interesting system for Mustachians.
Special tip: Cyprus has income tax start at 19.500€. if you can split your income/dividends nicely with your partner, that could be ca. 45.000 CHF tax free. more than enough to live a good live in relatively cheap Cyprus.

also interesting, things from flag theory
residencies.io or passports.io

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44

Yes I am thinking about this too. I actually like staatenlos.ch/blog because they are really thought provoking in terms of optimizing taxes, being mobile, etc.

I am still a bit torn between a) being rich means that you don’t have to worry about taxes / just stay where you feel home/happy and b) why not leverage the fact that you don’t need to stay in country x because of your employer and continue to grow your nw even more.

After spending quite a bit of time on this I am still somewhat undecided. Only thing that is clear is that there are a lot of countries (Monaco Malta Italy Cyprus Uae etc) that are very eager to attact mobile millionaires (or even ultra high net worth individuals). Those places aren’t necessarily great for graduates/people working their way up but great for folks post fire that mostly care about taxation of capital gains, wealth taxes, etc.

So it mostly becomes a question of personal preferences and relative priorities what to do post fi.

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45

Staatenlos?

" Nach über 1500 Beratungs-Sitzungen reduziert Christoph sein Beratungsvolumen auf 5 Gespräche pro Woche um sich mehr der Erstellung von Inhalten und Ausbau des Geschäftes widmen. Garantierte Beratung mit Christoph gibt es deshalb nur noch ab 997€ . Dies beinhaltet jedoch seine drei Ebooks zum Auswandern/Banking/Firmengründung und seinen Videokurs."

Come on, this reeks of being a scam.

Looking at the team page of NomadCapitalist. Call me cynical but 85% of the employees are young women. Either the guy has some weird preferences for his employees or it’s a strategy to gain customers.

Just clicking around on these sides has my scam senses tingling, so it’s weird to me that people here are impressed.

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46

That’s the one, thank you! I don’t think all that much is applicable to us, but to find a competent advisor about where to park your money, this book will have the right keywords to search for in it.

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On the topic of offshoring etc, maybe good to keep in mind that the world changed a lot in the past 5-10 years, automatic transmission is now a thing (that’s followed by many places that were known as a tax haven).

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Well thanks a lot. This is such a bummer, it’s sad he’s not a real expert. $8500… some nerve…

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@trotro I mentioned the blog content – check it out and tell me where you find comparable insights for free?

Speaking for myself, I have never contacted these guys but I would consider 10-20k consulting fee a real steal if that allows me to save a few hundred k in taxes etc per year.

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Funnily enough I copy/pasted part of your sentence into google:

investigative journalist takes the courses to become a wealth advisor for the ultra-wealthy

and it was the first result :smiley:

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51

Welp… Poop! I only used Duckduckgo, but I just tried google with that exact query and only found blogspam. Thanks for being my proxy, I guess.

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I’d check if you don’t have some extension (or malware) messing up with your browser.

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Thank you for your concern, I just double-checked what I have installed. It looks all trustworthy to me. I may be blocking some things too aggressively… IDK how that would make this result vanish completely. FWIW proxying Google via Startpage also doesn’t bring it up, and another opinion (via TOR) doesn’t show it either…

Anyways, back to the book, thanks to s0974748 I was able to find what I meant: @Bojack The certification I was talking about is from the “Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).” On their website you can find advisors in Switzerland. I cannot vouch for any of them, but from what I read in the book they should be quite competent to answer your questions.

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That’s weird, it’s the third result from me (the article, not the book).

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I like spending time on little compilations. So I created an excel with the taxes I’m interested in, for 150+ countries. All without the help of Nomad Capitalist, but with some inspiration from him.

Want to know where Swiss emigrate to?

  1. France
  2. Germany
  3. United States

Where to have 0% capital gain tax and the lowest cost of living?

  1. Turkey
  2. Malaysia
  3. Slovakia

Best quality of life with costs that are 50% cheaper than in Switzerland?

  1. Oman
  2. Portugal
  3. Lithuania

Cheapest place to live temporarily while withdrawing pillar 2 and 3, where Swiss tax at source will be reimbursed?

  1. India
  2. Colombia
  3. Turkey

Live tax-free (income, capital gain and sales tax)

  1. Brunei
  2. Bermuda
  3. Sark

Maybe you just want to travel and invest? These two guys share a common passion

But I understand not everyone is willing to go the extra-mile or spend time sifting through all the info available on the internet.

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The flag theory makes for good reading (or listing) but beware of the people offering their service. Looks like another ne has just been exposed:

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Real MVP here.

What would you have to pay in local taxes though?

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I know a guy who went to Ukraine for that, also cheap.

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It is a good idea. The bad side of such file is to keep them updated as the rules constantly move.

I prefer to use https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/ for tax comparison between countries. It is great for a 1st overview before going deeper.

For example,Turkey, the 0% capital gain tax on stocks is limited to certain instruments. The general rule is to have a capital gain tax. Turkey - Individual - Income determination

Hope he didn’t invest in the Donbass.

While some countries may be seen as tax peace heaven, the political and economical situation can turn swiftly for the worst.

From my point of view, old European countries, even if the situation is far from perfect, offer more securities.

Brunei seems appealing with its

Let’s not forget that Brunei has Shariah law and applies death by stoning and whipping.

TWhen choosing a country, tax must be one factor in the middle of many. Personal moral compass is important too

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Yeah, as much as I’m in awe for the effort of checking tax rates of over 150 countries, I can’t speak for the quality of the analysis. Were all exceptions and peculiarities taken into account? The island of Sark is home to 500 people, you can’t drive a car there, but you can jog from one coast to the other. Is it even possible to move there?

I would personally cross out many countries on the list for the following reasons:

  • too small and insignificant => not reliable (Bermuda)
  • too far away => don’t replant old trees (Bahama)
  • too exotic => don’t replant old trees (Oman)
  • too much in debt => not reliable (Portugal)
  • too politically unstable => not reliable (Turkey)

For example, as much as I like Portugal for being neat and yet cheap, it has a very high debt-to-gdp ratio and an aging population. I wonder if they stay friendly to retiree expats for long.

He went to Kiev for a month or so to withdraw his pension fund money. Had a party, then returned to Poland.