NOMAD CAPITALIST

How to Reclaim Your

Freedom with Offshore Bank
Accounts, Dual Citizenship,
Foreign Companies, and
Overseas Investments
 To Mila, for being the most supportive person I know.

Copyright © 2018 Nomad Books, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical
methods, without the prior written permission of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted
by copyright law.
ISBN: 9781980435099
 Table of Contents
Introduction : “Shuttles Are For Slaves”
Chapter 1 : My Five Magic Words – “Go Where You’re
Treated Best”
Chapter 2 : How to Be a Nomad Capitalist – “Do I
Have to Become a Goat Herder?”

E - Enhance Your Personal Freedom

Chapter 3 : The Location Independent
Lifestyle – “Come to Cuenca, Where Flowers Bloom
From Your Toilet Water!”
Chapter 4 : Second Passports – “I Welcome You
as the Newest Citizen Of…”
Chapter 5 : Birth, Love, and Children – “Is This
Only a Young Man’s Game?”
Chapter 6 : Nomad Healthcare – “Go Get a Big
Mac”

K - Keep More of Your Money

Chapter 7 : Offshore Banking – “In Other Words,
Just Being Smart”
Chapter 8 : Offshore Companies and Tax
Savings – “Choose Your Tax Rate”
 Chapter 9 : Foreign Asset Storage – “Super-Spy
Vaults or Tinfoil Chapeaus?”

G - Grow Your Money

Chapter 10 : Overseas Investments – “A Home
on Every Continent… And a Cattle Ranch Too”
Chapter 11 : Frontier Market Entrepreneurship
– “If It Isn’t Risky, It’s Too Late”
Chapter 12 : Conquering Dogma – “The Pigeons
Don’t Speak English”

Taking Action

Chapter 13 : The Nomad Code – 8 Ways to Activate

the Life of Your Dreams Chapter 14 : How to Get Started
– A Summary
 “Shuttles Are For Slaves”
An Introduction

Dateline: Las Vegas, United States

There was only one reason I had chosen to return to the
United States that cold January evening. After a year
basking in the warmth of the tropics, it wasn’t so that US
Airways could destroy my brand new luggage (as they had),
or so that I could gamble on the Strip (as I had many times
before). It wasn’t even for the fluffy cotton candy that
graced our dinner table that evening.
No, I was in Las Vegas as a messenger.
My mission? To deliver a wake-up call.
I stood in front of a packed conference room full of guests
and declared that there was no reason for them to continue
living, banking, doing business, or even being a citizen of a
country that no longer served them.
They had more options.
I knew this because I had spent years observing and
taking advantage of disparities in the way things are done
around the world. I had worked to benefit from everything
other countries have to offer, from higher interest rates to
nicer women. The past year abroad was simply an
intensification of those efforts.
Barely a year before the conference, I had sold my last
US-based business in order to go from frequent traveler to
full-time nomad. Tired of paying 40% or more of my income
in taxes and shopping at the same Trader Joe’s, I was ready
to totally transform the way I lived and did business.
 Finally free, my mission was to find all the gaps in the
system. I would go beyond Tim Ferriss’s version of
geoarbitrage – using cheap production and labor in one part
of the world and selling to high-paying customers in the
West – and delve deeper into the global economy to
leverage everything it had to offer. I would visit the world’s
emerging hot spots, places that few were talking about, and
discover the opportunities that still fewer could even
imagine. In doing so, I would create the conditions for my
ultimate personal freedom and economic prosperity.
And that is exactly what I did.
I spent all of 2013 traversing East and Southeast Asia,
deliberately planning each stop in countries like Laos,
Vietnam, and Cambodia to fully understand where the
opportunities existed in those countries, the world’s new
frontiers in an Asian century. I met with a cabinet member in
the Philippines, the CEO of Vietnam’s largest western bank
in Saigon, a private equity fund manager in Cambodia, and
countless startups, expat entrepreneurs, and nomads
staking their claims and making their fortunes in the world’s
final frontiers.
Along the way, I shared my experiences and insights with
a growing audience of readers, but I knew I could do more to
help them. After a year of non-stop travel and research, I
returned to the United States to reveal the opportunities I
had discovered abroad in person. It was a simple message
about how they could keep more of their money and live a
better life, but the crux of the whole conference was for
them to form their own game plan for everything offshore,
ranging from foreign bank accounts to second passports.
For the hundred or so folks who had paid $2,000 each to
attend, it was a chance to learn the “secrets of the
universe” as it were; a new way to live and make money
that few knew about or imagined could even be legal. For
me, it felt like Napoleon’s return to Paris; the story of a man
exiled, yet emboldened to come back one last time.
That was because it would be among my last times in the
United States. I had made the conscious decision – one you
can make, too, if you so desire – that the grass was greener
in the Malaysias, Serbias, and Mexicos of the world than
where I grew up. Times had changed and the United States
that was once lauded as the “best place to be born” was no
longer so.
Bearing the theme “Fight or Flight”, the conference was
designed to help the audience members – who knew little
about these greener pastures – decide exactly what they
needed to do to survive and thrive in this changing world.
Would they stay where things were familiar but in decay, or
go where the grass was indeed greener?
For most people, front page stories of chaos in the rest of
the world are cause enough to stay home; but not for my
guests, nor for me. We realized that the real world is far
different than the sensational headlines designed to incite
fear and keep people from bettering their lives.
Despite being more aware of the changing world than
most, my guests were naturally still confused about what
they should do. Should they move overseas? Open an
offshore bank account? Get a second passport? Bury gold
inside an ammo can in their backyard and mark the spot
with an “X”? They had come to my conference to find out.
Amidst the speeches and breakout sessions designed to
broaden guests’ mindsets to the world of opportunity just
waiting for them, a small group of VIPs and I took to
experiencing Las Vegas as Nomad Capitalists in a private
dining room with a balcony overlooking the city. The menu
was a ‘what’s what’ of hipster fare only found in the Land of
the Free, culminating with a dessert of cotton candy and
Oreos. Only in Sin City would a $150-a-plate joint serve up
circus food for dessert.
After dinner, as several of the event speakers and I sat
sipping cocktails and conversing about our travels (“I
disagree! Rwanda is better in the summer!”), a conference
manager came through the restaurant advising everyone
that the last shuttle back to our hotel was leaving.
When the manager earnestly advised a libertarian
raconteur not to miss the final shuttle, the man looked up
from what must have been (conservatively) his sixth or
seventh rum and Coke and remarked quite matter-of-factly,
“Shuttles are for slaves.”
His declaration took a while to sink in... “Shuttles are for
slaves.”
What exactly did he mean?
As our conference continued throughout the weekend,
however, I realized just how telling my friend’s remarks truly
were. We had all joined together to learn how to escape the
fate of becoming slaves to the system. We were tired of the
government telling us what to do and how much to pay. We
felt uncomfortable in a country that called itself “the land of
the free” but did not do much to qualify for the claim. We
were watching others pass us by as their businesses and
wealth grew faster.
We were bound and determined to do something to
change all that, and yet there we were, waiting for a shuttle
to take us from Point A to Point B.
How much of our lives is determined for us because we
give in to the simplicity of following the system? The masses
take shuttles because they are told that it is the way to get
from the restaurant to the hotel. We rarely ever consider
alternatives to what ‘the man’ tells us to do. If someone
says that there is a shuttle, people take it.
 Of course, they could spend ten whole dollars and take a
taxi and have the freedom to stay as long as they wish and
go wherever they want, but they are too busy following the
herd to think about what they actually prefer.
Don’t be a slave.
Don’t do what everyone else does.
That is what this book is about.
To thrive in an ever-globalizing world, you must do what
others do not do and go where others will not go. The world
economy is changing and those who operate at the edges of
this new economy will find the greatest success. The focus
should not be on surviving, but on actually thriving; on
enjoying the best of life.
The week before my conference, it was announced that
China would soon overtake the United States in the number
of self-made billionaires. Emerging world billionaires were
buying up more of the world’s assets than ever before. The
United States and western countries were not keeping pace.
Today, many in the West wonder if it is even possible to
be wealthy and live freely anymore. For the folks stuck in
the past, there is a lot to be miserable about. YouTube is
littered with documentaries on ‘forgotten Americans’ living
on scraps in former boom towns in places like West Virginia.
For those of us willing to venture just beyond our original
borders, though, the possibilities are endless. Better
investments, greater business opportunities, and
heightened freedoms are just a few of the advantages I
have discovered by choosing to live an international life.
My time in Las Vegas was focused on helping my guests
realize these opportunities and choose to leave the places
that were not improving their life – ‘flight’ – rather than to
stay and ‘fight’ in the hopes that things would get better at
home. Fighting is messy, it is dangerous, and it is not a lot of
fun. FARC rebels living in the jungle fight. Feral cats
defending their territory fight. Six- and seven- figure
entrepreneurs whose tax bills slow down their company’s
growth, on the other hand, would likely be better served by
flight.
There is no reason to stay in your home country and fight
for change, not when you can go to greener pastures where
the change you are looking for is already in place. That is
the key to making the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle work for
you. It is not about running from something, it is about
running toward something much, much better. Flight trumps
fight simply because there are so many green pastures
meant to be explored – greener pastures that can increase
your freedom and ensure the success of your businesses
and investments.
Why sit home and complain about the high-tax, high-
regulation, anti-freedom policies of your country when you
can just go elsewhere? You have dozens of options. As a
businessman, I do not have time to waste on the systems
that do not serve me. Chances are, neither do you. As with
anything in business, where you bank, incorporate your
company, or choose to live is a simple matter of finding and
applying a better solution.
Fighting leads nowhere. The people who protest paying
US taxes to fund wars they did not choose, or those who
object to the election of a president by fleeing to Canada,
will both end up paying just as much in taxes. They focus on
the bad rather than moving toward something good.
After Donald Trump was elected President, traffic to my
website surged with people searching for ‘fast citizenships,’
thinking that becoming Canadian was as easy as turning up
at a border crossing somewhere. Of course, it is not that
easy, but then again, becoming Canadian is probably not
the best solution. More on that later.
That is why this book is not about the doom and gloom
that has become so common within the offshore industry. It
is about solutions. Being a Nomad Capitalist encompasses
much more than the individual shiny objects like foreign
corporations or offshore bank accounts. Rather, being a
Nomad Capitalist is a lifestyle. It is about being happy. Sure,
it is about being prosperous and successful, but only from
the standpoint of achieving a better life. It is about being
able to have, be, and do anything you want.
I fully expect that the ideas in this book will be
controversial. Upsetting the status quo is never going to win
me universal popularity. When I sat down for an interview
with the Huffington Post to discuss my core philosophies on
life and business, the 6,000-word interview was swiftly
deleted and any mention of me banned within two hours. So
much for the free press.
But I would encourage you to approach these ideas with
an open mind. For example, why is it that only humans
submit to the idea of things like taxes and countries? Why is
it that so many of us spend our entire life blindly paying
taxes because ‘That’s what you do?’ We take the ‘shuttle’
our particular life circumstances have offered us without
thinking once about whether or not that shuttle will even
take us where we want to go.
When it gets too cold in the north, many birds fly south
for the winter for warmer temperatures and a more
abundant food supply. They do not feel a duty to stay where
it is cold simply because that is where they were born.
Doing so would be fatal to their survival! Instead, they go
where they can thrive. That is the natural order. You can do
the same, not only to find warmer locales but also to help
your business and your investments prosper.
 This book will help you adopt the mindset needed to do
just that. While we will certainly discuss the many ‘how-to’s’
of international living such as banking offshore, getting a
second passport, and even running a company in a different
country, the main purpose of this book is to open your eyes
to the possibilities of such alternatives to deliver a powerful
change in your life.
Most of the people I help are young and mid-aged
entrepreneurs who have had enough with the current
system. For years, maybe even decades, they have paid a
fortune in taxes only to see their government treat them
with less and less respect. They have been told “you didn’t
build that” and had their business accomplishments
dismissed by politicians still all too happy to take their
money.
The truth is that all of these problems are symptoms of
living and doing business in a place that does not serve you.
There may not be anything wrong with places like the
United States per se, but it is increasingly not a good fit for
many people. Whatever your situation, the lessons in this
book can help guide your path toward greater freedom and
prosperity using my ‘five magic words’ that I will share with
you in the first chapter.
This book will open your mind to ideas that you are not
even aware of yet, but that could be tweaked to massively
increase your happiness, wealth, and freedom. Perhaps you
do not know about the 100% legal ways to reduce your
personal and business tax bills. Perhaps you do not know
that it is legal (for most of us) to obtain a second citizenship
so we always have another place to go. And, perhaps you
have never imagined that you can invest all of the extra
profits you will earn by doing this into overseas investments
that will put the investments ‘next door’ to shame.
 Once you start to go where you are not only respected
but cherished, you will no doubt enjoy a snowball effect of
newfound success, prosperity, and fulfillment. The taxes
that you save by going to a business-friendly country can be
reinvested to grow your business faster, which in turn
increases your feelings of satisfaction, which in turn makes
you more open to meeting new people who share your
values.
This book will open your understanding of how the
changing world we live in means a new way for you to do
business; everything from hiring virtual assistants in post-
Yugoslav states, to paying far lower taxes in post-British
Chinese enclaves. And you can learn to do it all, no matter
your current level of international experience.
While most books will either speak down to you as if you
could never become an expert in living, investing and doing
business around the world, or will rely on pithy memes to
implore you to sell all but eleven of your possessions and
move to a hut in Bali, this book will do neither.
Even if you do not yet have a passport from the country
in which you were born, you can take steps to go where
you're treated best to keep more of your own money and
increase your freedom. As with anything else, someone new
to this stuff should probably refrain from selling their entire
401(k) to invest it all in real estate in Bolivia, but that does
not mean that you cannot take the first step now. After all,
walking in the right direction is more important than arriving
at the so-called destination.
This book will show you how to become a Nomad
Capitalist by improving your business, your life, and your
legacy step by step by step. It is part of a never-ending
journey based on a new way of thinking. And it all starts
with my five magic words...
Chapter One:
 My Five Magic Words
“Go Where You’re Treated Best”

Dateline: Sandusky, Ohio, United States

It was just another late summer day.
My parents, sister, and soon-to-be twelve-year-old self
were returning home from a typical day at the Cedar Point
amusement park near our home in Ohio, when my father
laid bare a revelation.
For about a year or so, he had been combing the internet
and researching exotic relocation options. He was
determined to find a better place for his family to live that
would best position us for the future. Most kids marvel at
the other kids who move to another school district or whose
parents got jobs in another state and leave town. What my
father shared with us on that balmy August day was a lot
heavier.
“Andrew,” he started. “We’re considering moving to
another country. Whether or not we do, I want you to know
that you don’t have to stay somewhere just because your
parents are from there. The world is changing and you don’t
have to live in the same city, the same state, or — come to
think of it — even the same country as where you were
born. Don’t stay here for us. You should go where you’re
treated best.”
I have to admit that, at the time, twelve-year-old Andrew
was more concerned with what would happen to his
relationship with his middle-school girlfriend than with how
amazing it would be to live in New Zealand. Despite my
budding entrepreneurial spirit, moving would have been the
end of the world from my adolescent perspective.
Ultimately, my parents decided against the move.
However, despite my initial reticence, I could never quite
get my father’s words out of my head:
Go where you’re treated best.
Those “five magic words” opened my mind to a world of
possibilities. It took years for them to fully sink in, but the
simple knowledge that I was free to go anywhere and find
what best served me unwittingly changed my life.
 The Default Mentality
Most people stay in one place by default. A recent survey
of my Facebook friends list shows that a larger percentage
of my high school classmates still live in the same town
where we grew up. Some made the bold move to a
neighboring suburb. When you think about it though, there
is no rule stating that they must stay there; the rule is only
in our minds. That is why I left.
Don’t get me wrong; you do not necessarily have to pack
your bags to ‘go where you’re treated best.’ Your hometown
could very well be the right place for you. But it should be
something you choose, rather than something you allow to
be chosen for you as ‘the thing to do.’
Most people never consider which place actually serves
their needs. Instead, they simply accept the default mode
set for them and impose silly barriers upon themselves such
as, “But I would need to buy a plane ticket!” and other
excuses that could be solved with the princely sum of about
$500.
The problem with this method of thinking is that you
never realize that there are other options. You could easily
have your money go where it is treated best and remain in
your hometown. However, the default mentality leads most
people to erroneously think that they have already got all
the best options laid out for them.
You might be surprised that where you live is ranked #1
in… absolutely nothing. It is not the best place for starting
or running a business, it is not the best place to get a job, it
is not the best place to invest, it is not the best place to
raise a family, it is not the best place for security or
education or quality of living or any number of important
factors we should all be taking into consideration.
 Now, there is no such thing as a perfect place. With so
many cities, states, and countries around the globe, the
chances of your dot on the map taking the #1 ranking in
every category are slim to none. And you may choose to
accept some of the flaws of the place where you live
because you like it. That is perfectly normal. But have you
ever stopped to realize that where you live is #1 in nothing?
The key here is awareness; the ability to realize that the
country where you were born was not sprinkled with some
magic pixie dust that made it the best for absolutely
everything. Most of us – at least in the developed world –
grow accustomed to living with whatever is offered to us
within our geographical comfort zone. Things are good
enough that we do not feel that we need to look elsewhere.
Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, most of my
friends supported the local sports teams. I never cared
much for sports and I never quite understood why everyone
in one place would universally choose to support the same
teams. Until 2016, no major Cleveland sports team had won
a championship in my lifetime. Heck, they had barely won
anything in my parents’ lifetimes. The Browns even
managed to go 0-16 in the most recent football season.
Why would everyone support sports teams with such a
losing track record solely because they played at a stadium
down the street? How is the geographic location of your
birth tied to rooting for some lousy team that clutches
defeat from the jaws of victory every time they are given
the chance?
It makes no sense.
When did we lose the spirit of the greatest American
pastime of all: immigration? Millions of people throughout
history have packed their bags and moved to a place that
treated them better when ‘the home team’ was failing. As
the United States was expanding, this meant pioneers and
later settlers moving west for better conditions.
What is particularly noteworthy about this westward
expansion was that settlers were not only moving from
something, they were also moving toward something.
Settlers could have sat at home along North America’s
Eastern Seaboard and griped about the government,
immigrants, or dwindling opportunities. They could have
worried themselves over the lack of good jobs and decent
land to farm. Instead, they staked their claim somewhere
better and came out ahead.
In a competitive society full of new immigrants, moving
west was about survival. Settlers were able to make a better
living in the new safe havens in the likes of Iowa and later
all the way to California. They would write letters to family
back east telling of the great success they enjoyed on the
new frontier and the incredible opportunities still waiting for
them. Sure, the chance of being attacked by a coyote was
higher in the Arizona territory than it was outside of Boston,
but so were the freedoms and chances to strike it rich.
When outside of their element, pioneers thrived.
For them, going where they were treated best did not
mean being unpatriotic or abandoning their home. It was
the embodiment of everything it meant to ‘be an American.’
Nothing has changed about that drive to explore and thrive
in the world’s final frontiers; and having that drive today is
the furthest thing from being unpatriotic.
What it does mean, however, is that you acknowledge
some cold, hard truths about the lack of opportunity to find
good jobs or create profitable businesses in countries like
the United States in the twenty-first century.
The gravitation toward the best opportunities is natural.
So, perhaps, is the nostalgic romance of ignoring market
realities to defend staying in the place where we were born.
We all want to have a place to call home, and it is easier to
stick with the one we were given at birth… even if it is not
the best for us. However, it is never too late to tap into the
natural instinct to look for and create something better.
 Imaginary Lines & Psychological
Borders
On a seemingly normal level, we make decisions to go
where we’re treated best all the time. I was born in a part of
Cleveland that set annual property tax rates at 2%. A mere
fifteen miles to the west was a modern form of pioneer
country: Lorain County. Family farms in Lorain County
realized they could sell their land to developers and either
move further out or retire.
With modern infrastructure, being such a short distance
from the big city was much less of a challenge for residents
than it was before. Yet, because the “pioneer” county’s
government had less time to run up big expenses and waste
taxpayer money, it was able to operate on a 1% tax rate.
Families could live in Lorain County for half the price of
their next-door-neighbors with many of the same services
they were used to in a higher tax city. So, my parents
packed up and moved all of fifty feet across the county line.
As it turned out, the home they built sat on land that
literally bordered the county we had just left. You could
throw a tennis ball out the back door and it would land in a
place with twice the taxes, all because of imaginary lines.
The neighbors on the other side of the fence were quite
snooty about the fact that they lived in the trendier county
and looked down upon the new settlers for wanting to live in
a modern-day “Wild West,” but that did not stop us from
enjoying the benefits while they paid the bills.
This was one of my first lessons that doing what is best
for you and your wallet will not always be easy. People may
snicker and sneer and try to belittle you if you buck the
trend. Ask most US citizens if they would live anywhere else
and they would laugh. After all, the United States is the best
country in the history of the world, right?
Seems a little too good to be true.
Uninformed boasts do not make something the best. You
can see that manifested in the very Lorain County I lived in,
where countless factories and automotive plants have now
closed and jobs have been lost as companies went where
they were treated best: Mexico.
In much the same way that my family moved a stone’s
throw across an imaginary line in the grass to cut our taxes
in half, US companies have moved manufacturing and
operations to — among other places — cities along the US-
Mexico border where labor is cheaper and the treatment is
better.
There are those imaginary lines again.
For years, factories in the United States have been over-
taxed, over-regulated, and generally treated poorly by anti-
business politicians. Now, they have options. And they have
used them. The CEO of Ford may still be a Detroit Tigers fan,
but that will not stop him from making the most pragmatic
decision for his company.
In the twenty-first century, the ability to do this is not
limited to big companies. We all have parts of our lives and
businesses that could be improved by merely walking across
some imaginary line called a border. The key ingredient is
simply to not put all of your eggs in the same basket.
It seems that before every election in the United States
these days, some B-list actor gets on television and
proclaims “If so-and-so wins, I’m moving to Canada!” (These
guys are always moving to Canada.) What they are really
saying is that they are going to take all of their eggs from
their US basket and move them to a brand new Canada
basket. All of them.
 The problem with the proverbial ‘moving-to-Canada’
solution is twofold: First, I do not know of anyone who has
actually followed through on the threat. Going where you’re
treated best is a positive mindset designed to seek out the
best, not flee from the worst. It requires commitment, not
just a desire to complain.
Secondly, moving to Canada merely replaces one set of
problems with another. Not only have you failed to spread
your eggs to multiple baskets but you have not managed to
upgrade to a better basket. While Canada may not have a
president you disdain, it would still give you the same high
taxes, more endless regulations, and the bad weather that
you detest in the United States.
Why walk across an imaginary line just to get more of the
same? Going where you’re treated best means getting the
best of all possible worlds by choosing only the best parts of
a place while discarding the less desirable elements. You
can cross dozens of imaginary lines to put your eggs in
numerous different baskets, placing each individual egg in
the best basket for its particular set of needs.
 In some cases, all it takes to put your eggs in a better
basket is to overcome the psychological borders that have
been placed there. What really makes Calexico, California in
the United States and Mexicali, Baja California in Mexico so
different? Both are extremely hot, rather boring cities in the
middle of a desert. All that divides them is an arbitrary
stripe in the sand. The United States can build a wall as tall
as it likes between Calexico and Mexicali, but that will not
suddenly make one that much different from the other. The
real border is in our minds.
These psychological borders impact much more than
geography. I remember traveling to Ireland and England
during the beginning of the financial crisis. Walking down
the streets of Dublin and London, I noticed something
curious: interest rates offered at banks were roughly triple
what banks in the United States were offering. Why, I
thought, would I keep money in a US bank where 1% was
pushing the limits when these banks seemed to offer 3% for
a similar product?
To the average observer, there is not much of a
difference between banks in the United States, the United
Kingdom, or Ireland. All three are wealthy western, English-
speaking countries with decent rule of law. Relatively few
people who live in any of them are worried about a banking
system collapse, even as the majority of people in each
country use said banks merely because they are part of the
‘home team.’
To an astute financial observer, there is also little
difference. While the countries are all wealthy, they are also
all broke. To top it off, all three offer fractional reserve
banking systems with low levels of liquidity — that is, most
of the money deposited is not sitting around the bank.
 If they are all the same, why doesn’t everyone in the
United States just put all of their money into banks in the UK
or Ireland where they will get a higher return? Why indeed.
Putting your money somewhere it will get a higher return is
one of the many ways you can go where you’re treated
best. If you can ignore the psychological borders, it is a
simple decision to go where the interest rate is higher.
Of course, the world is not a totally free market and
many countries (the United Kingdom and Ireland included)
impose restrictions on who can open an account. However,
there are plenty of other places that will allow you to open
an account that are actually better than the cash-poor
banks of western countries. All you have to do to gain
access to these banks and the many services that they offer
is to surmount the borders you have created in your mind
about where you can go and which places best serve your
needs.
 The Pepsi Challenge
Construction on these psychological borders begins from
a young age as we are taught to believe that our country is
‘the best’ from the time we are little. Americans in particular
are of the belief that their country is ‘the best country on
earth.’ Heck, even political types who believe the United
States is descending into fascism will tell you, “But it’s still
the best country in the world.”
Statistically speaking, though, it is rather unlikely that
your country – or any one country – is the best at
everything, let alone one thing. Over my career as an
international adventurer, I have learned to ignore those who
like to whine about home, yet always return to the ‘but it’s
actually not so bad’ argument.
Going where you’re treated best is not about going where
‘it’s actually not so bad,’ it is about going where you’re
treated best. However, it takes a lot of objectivity to really
understand and see each place for what it is.
Take the banking system in the United States as an
example. During the financial crisis years of 2008 to 2012,
365 banks were put into receivership in the United States.
Yet, many people still consider the US banking system to be
the best option.
However, even in an average year, at least one or two
dozen banks will become insolvent in the United States.
Meanwhile, the FDIC – the government agency that
promises to insure depositor money – has well under 1% of
all its insured deposits on hand, and the US government
that funds it is $20 trillion in debt. One big bank failure and
your life savings are at the mercy of an act of Congress. You
know, the guys that read “Green Eggs and Ham” to filibuster
a bill they do not like.
 In contrast, Singapore has never had a bank failure in its
fifty-plus year history as a country, banks actually keep cash
on hand, and the country itself has no net debt. In fact,
many banks in Asia are swimming in so much cash that they
do not want to open new accounts because they simply do
not know what to do with all the money.
When you objectively evaluate places to park your cash,
Singapore comes up at the top of almost every list. The
reason not everyone has their money there is a function of
habit: we are conditioned to go where we are familiar, not
where we are treated best.
It is like the age-old battle between Pepsi and Coca Cola.
Back in the 1980s, Pepsi was largely a regional brand
popular in the Southeast and Midwest, while Coca Cola was
already a nationally-recognized brand. In places like Texas,
Coca Cola outsold Pepsi nine to one.
John Sculley, the CEO of Pepsi at the time, decided to
change all that with what became known as the iconic Pepsi
Challenge. Pepsi knew that their cola performed well in blind
taste tests, but as soon as the brand was part of the
equation, Coke always won. So, Pepsi created an advertising
campaign built around a blind taste test with regular folks
off the street.
Their goal was to capture the expression of loyal Coke
fans on camera when – after taste testing the colas in Cup A
and Cup B – they would discover that the cola they had
chosen was actually Pepsi.
The advertisement that made Coca Cola go nuts was of a
granddaughter who persuaded her grandmother to try the
Pepsi Challenge while they were out shopping together. The
grandmother admitted that she did not know why she had
accepted the challenge — she had never had a Pepsi in her
entire life! But she went ahead and tried the two colas and
selected her favorite.
When they revealed the brands, the granddaughter said
in disbelief, “Grandma, you picked Pepsi!” The grandmother
replied, “I know! I’ve never had a Pepsi in my life. It must be
better!”
I am not going to weigh in on the Pepsi vs. Coke battle,
but there is a lot we can learn from the Pepsi Challenge
about the power of conditioning and what it takes to go
where you’re treated best.
There are very few companies that do branding better
than Coca Cola. At its core, branding is nothing more than
conditioning. Coke works hard to condition consumers to
relate the feelings of happiness and joy associated with the
Christmas season (or the Olympics, summer BBQs, etc.) to a
bottle of Coke. Just from reading this, you have probably
already pulled up the image of Santa taking a sip from his
glass of Coca Cola that we all have seared into our memory
by the mammoth branding genius that is Coca Cola.
Without knowing it, thousands upon thousands of
consumers have been conditioned to choose Coca-Cola, not
because it necessarily tastes better but because Coke has
conditioned them by developing their emotional relationship
to the brand.
All the Pepsi Challenge did was remove that emotional
conditioning and let people choose objectively. In doing so,
they were able to discover what they actually prefer. Going
where you’re treated best is no different. It is simply a
matter of putting a blindfold on our emotions and
objectively assessing what each place has to offer.
The United States has conditioned us to think that it is
the best ‘brand’ of country out there for everything from
banking to investing to living. However, if you remove the
branding from the equation, it allows you to objectively
assess what each country actually offers.
It is no longer about the brand. It is about the formula.
If you can get past the US brand of banking versus the
Singapore brand, it is easy to see that Singapore’s banking
formula is far superior. Going where you’re treated best
becomes a cut and dried matter of finding the countries
with the right formula to solve whatever issues you may
have at hand… and then going there to fix it.
The key is to recognize that no one country will have the
right formula to solve every issue. For instance, just because
Singapore has a fantastic banking formula does not mean
that it has the perfect formula for everything. While
Singapore may have rock solid banks, it may not be a great
place for you to live. A halfway decent one-bedroom
apartment can easily cost $5,000 a month, chewing gum is
not sold for fear of litter, and the mere act of sipping Evian
on the subway is punishable by a $400 fine.
The good news is that it is possible to open a bank
account in Singapore without living there (although it has
gotten harder and the low-minimum accounts are hard to
get now). You do not have to forsake chewing gum or sell a
kidney for rent money to avail yourself of one of the best
banking countries in the world.
Therein lies the difference between ‘go where you’re
treated best’ and the proverbial ‘move to Canada.’ When
you empower yourself to go where you’re treated best, you
get the good parts from every country without the stuff you
do not want because you only utilize the corresponding
formula each country has to offer without buying into their
entire brand. (Oh, and you actually do it rather than just yap
about it.)
 Your Top Priority
As a Nomad Capitalist, you do not have to give up what
is important to you to make improvements in your life. You
just need to change the way you look at borders. More
importantly, you have to decide that you are your top
priority. This advice is, by no means, a license to be selfish.
It is, however, an invitation to stop and take a moment to
examine why you do what you do.
We are wired to be part of a tribe. There are many good
things that come from this natural instinct, but it is our
complacency with the tribes that have been chosen for us
that causes us to go (or stay) where we are treated poorly.
Even in the worst of cases, our sense of patriotism can
cause us to stay where we are unwelcome.
Consider when the African nation of Rhodesia achieved
independence a generation ago. The enormous victory was
followed by a series of land reforms that devolved from a
fair process between willing buyers and sellers to outright
confiscation of large farms from the white minority.
Some of those farmers are still there in modern-day
Zimbabwe. They had years of advanced notice, but for some
reason they chose to stick around and watch their land get
confiscated. And they continue to live under that system,
fully knowing that it could all happen again.
Think about that: what would compel farmers living in a
country with such a storm brewing to stay and ride it out? It
is an honest question that deserves an honest answer.
Either they were (and are) blissfully ignorant of the
imperfections and challenges around them, or they are
willing to tolerate a great deal of injustice.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, some
conservatives proclaimed that the new president would
round up dissenters and put them into work camps. If I had
thought that my future at home was pounding rocks into
smaller rocks and foraging for food under the watchful eye
of prison guards, I would not have stuck around and
complained about the situation. I would have gotten in line
for the next flight out.
Most of us do not think in such extremes, but if you have
taken the time to read this of your own volition, chances are
there is something you would like to improve in your life or
business. You may feel that you are paying too much in
taxes and would like to keep more of your hard-earned
money. Or, perhaps you sense that there are better
opportunities for your entrepreneurial endeavors
somewhere else. Maybe you just have a nagging
uncertainty about your country.
You could have any number of concerns that have made
you look beyond your present borders. They may not seem
like pressing concerns, but no one is going to get an
offshore pang like they get a hunger pang. Yet, there is
something driving that concern and it is important to listen
to that to avoid becoming complacent because you are your
top priority.
 Open For Business
The basis of going where you’re treated best is about
diversification. If you rely entirely on one place, that one
place can come and take your wealth, freedom, or whatever
else they feel entitled to. It is the same reason wealthy
Arabs have poured money into Istanbul real estate for years.
While they may prefer living in Qatar, they know that they
need other options. And, of course, they want all those
options to be Muslim and be within a reasonable distance by
business class.
Now that Turkey has had its fair share of challenges, the
Arabs are turning elsewhere to countries like Georgia. And,
in true capitalist fashion, Turkey is attempting to lure them
back with the carrot of Turkish citizenship if they invest.
Competition at its finest.
The problem with diversifying internationally is that some
governments do not particularly like competition. However,
some do. In fact, one of my leading indicators for whether a
government seeks to compete for wealth and talent is
whether they used to be uncompetitive.
Some of the most business-, wealth-, and talent-friendly
countries on earth were communist hellholes in your
lifetime. Years ago, I was traveling through Europe and
enjoying dinner in a small town. Having the place to myself,
I watched as a commercial welcoming investment to the
small country of Georgia played over and over again.
As a marketing guy and a capitalist to the core, there
was something heartwarming about the idea of a country
advertising itself to the public as if it were the sovereign
equivalent of the Snuggie.
Mikheil Saakashvili, then-President of Georgia, took
power after the 2003 Rose Revolution and was determined
to turn the country into the next Singapore by ending
corruption and taking a sledgehammer to taxes. He
ultimately managed to flatten tax rates and reduce the
number of taxes from twenty-one to just six.
What better way to get the word out, he figured, than to
buy television airtime and broadcast the message that
Georgia was open for business. Saakashvili was a visionary
who realized that the world is an increasingly competitive
marketplace for countries, and his needed to stand out.
Today, there is a stark contrast in the former Yugoslav
and USSR republics of Eastern Europe. Some like Belarus,
have retained Soviet-era dysfunction, while those like
Georgia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, and Bulgaria
have opened their arms to business. While I first realized the
power of investing abroad in Western Europe, I soon realized
that any country, even those you cannot find on a map,
offers potential.
I surmised that, because Georgia remembers what life
was like under the USSR, they have made a point to not go
back. That is why just about anyone can open a bank
account in Georgia, no questions asked. You cannot do that
in the United Kingdom, where the government is more
concerned about making rules than about ensuring its
continued prosperity and capital inflows. Prosperity in the
United Kingdom is taken as a guarantee, whereas Georgia
remembers a time when prosperity was far from
guaranteed.
Chances are that that you grew up with the former notion
that prosperity was a given, that your money would always
be safe in the bank, and that your home was ‘the biggest
and best investment you will ever make.’ Once you had that
stuff down, all you had to do was show up for work every
day until they handed you a gold watch and you retired on a
comfortable Social Security check.
 That is, until the whole world fell apart and you began to
rethink everything.
In a post-financial-crisis era, you see people ‘leaving the
corporate world’ on a regular basis. More and more people
are beginning to realize that it is not the way forward. Like
Georgia, they remember the old way of doing things, and
they do not want to go back.
People who think like that need countries that think on
the same wavelength. While the West holds onto the rules
and regulations of their old corporate economies, the
Georgias of the world are forging new paths toward greater
market freedom and rethinking the formulas for prosperity
in the twenty-first century.
 The Connection
Most people give little if any thought to the biggest
opportunities available in the global economy, but the
opportunities are wide open. It is merely a matter of making
the connection between forward-thinking entrepreneurs and
investors and the countries that offer them exactly what
they need to succeed.
For instance, global outsourcing has become both a
business trend and a political rally cry in our lifetimes.
Companies like HP and Apple have lowered costs for
everything from production to tech support by having
workers in China and the Philippines do work formerly done
in more expensive countries. Whether unpopular or
controversial, outsourcing is not a new concept.
At the dawn of the industrial revolution, quickly emerging
nations often used outsourcing to cut costs and grow faster.
After their revolution in 1868, the Japanese realized that
their burgeoning industry required the help of experts to
flourish — experts that were not available in Japan. So they
summoned the people who did know to come to Japan and
get everything set up properly.
These on-site visits were more common 150 years ago
because, you know, that thing called the telephone did not
exist yet. Today, outsourcing services can be provided
remotely anywhere from call centers in Delhi to factories in
Shantou. More importantly, access to the tools of
international business is no longer an exclusive advantage
of big business, it is available to anyone willing to take their
business where it is treated best.
For example, I sat down with Jake a while back to discuss
the needs of his business working in affiliate marketing. He
had been in the game for almost ten years making a steady
$200-$300,000 a year while living in San Diego. About eight
years in, he finally decided to outsource a lot of the grunt
work of his business overseas. By the time he contacted me
two years later, he was making $1 million a year.
But now Jake had a bigger problem: folks who earn more
than $1 million a year are like shark bait to the California
taxman. The Franchise Tax Board is perhaps the world’s
biggest bully. Jake’s new success meant he would be
sending a $500,000 check to California the following April.
He never wanted to repeat that mistake again. $500,000 re-
invested would go a long way in his pocket rather than by
being wasted.
So, we got to work creating a plan to fully
internationalize Jake’s life and business. He had already
learned to outsource his work to increase his revenue, but
he needed to take advantage of every offshore tool
available to him to achieve all the benefits of going where
you’re treated best.
Jake told me that he loved the beach, so we found him a
great location on the beaches of Southeast Asia where he
could live the majority of the year. He could spend part of
his time visiting friends and attending industry events back
in California, but he would spend the rest of the year living
on a beach that did not cost him $500,000 a year in taxes.
From there, we got him an easy second residency in a
zero-tax country and moved his company from California to
two offshore jurisdictions. He had a few one-time costs to
move his business overseas, but once he paid that final bill
he was done forever. If he keeps things up, Jake will pocket
an extra $1 million by the end of the second year, and an
extra $7 million after reinvestment over the next decade.
All of this was made possible because Jake was willing to
pick and choose from each of the places that offered him
exactly what he needed to improve each aspect of his life
and business: outsourcing to eliminate time-consuming
grunt work, moving overseas to decrease his personal
income taxes, offshoring his company to reduce business
taxes, and so on. Each component went to where it would
get the best treatment, all while Jake was soaking up the
sun and running his business as usual.
Some will tell you that, in order to be treated best, you
must stay and fight. If you want lower taxes, just vote for
the candidate who promises to lower them. This democracy-
focused model misses the point that we are all individuals
and want different things. What is good for your country
might not be good for your wallet. That does not mean that
you hate your country but rather that you want what is best
for you.
If your internet business could grow three times as fast
because it paid a lot less in taxes – or even none at all –
waiting around for the next election is not only a pipe
dream; it will cost you a lot of money. I often walk business
owners through exactly how much they are paying in tax for
every single day they wait, and the amount is often
shocking to them. Besides, why wait for others to determine
your business success when you have the power to change
it for the better right now?
This is what I do, and it is what I help the people I work
with every month to do as well. I help entrepreneurs like
Jake who started a business doing coaching, or e-commerce,
or whatever else in their home country and who have been
successful, but only to a point. They are reinvesting all of
their profits into their business, but end up passing on so
many opportunities because they do not have enough to
reinvest.
Books like The Four Hour Workweek and my friend Chris
Ducker’s Virtual Freedom opened many of our eyes to the
idea that hiring virtual assistants in developing countries
was a great way to keep costs low (or in some cases, cut
costs completely), be more productive, and grow our
business faster. However, this is just scratching the surface
of all the options available to entrepreneurs willing to go
global.
Like Jake, entrepreneurs who hire an assistant in the
Philippines or Romania or anywhere else are going where
they are treated best to reduce the cost of labor for their
business needs. In the same way, you can reduce your taxes
and increase your returns by seeking international solutions.
As Jake experienced, the increase in your profits by making
a few simple tweaks to your business and lifestyle could
yield millions of extra dollars in your pocket in the next few
years.
That is why, when I say that I prefer ‘flight’ over ‘fight,’ I
simply mean that I make decisions about where I live and do
business through the objective lens of good financial
management and not through the emotional lens of patriotic
frenzy. You can love your country and still go where you’re
treated best. When it comes down to it, it is all a matter
mindset.
The biggest example of the ‘stay and fight’ mindset is
the people who stockpile automatic weapons in the hills
somewhere. They will tell you that they are preparing for a
doomsday scenario when FEMA camps and military force
come to fruition. While they may plan to sit on their roof
picking off Army Rangers one by one, I am sure the military
could just as soon send in a helicopter and pick them off
first.
These people live by the notion that being a patriot, loyal
to their country and government, is the most noble purpose
and must be defended at all costs. They condemn guerrilla
warriors in other countries, yet await the day when they can
do the same in their country... all while there are places
where their values are already en vogue.
I live by a different motto: fight for yourself, vote with
your feet, and go where you’re treated best. You come first.
You deserve the best. If things have come to the point that
you are stocking guns and dehydrated food, chances are
that the place where you live is not treating you best. As an
Eagle Scout who is risk-averse and a believer in
diversification I can respect the desire to be prepared.
However, at a certain point, you have to be honest with
yourself. Are you in the right place for you?
Similarly, if you have to call your accountant and dream
up crazy loopholes to get your tax bill anywhere close to
reasonable, you might also be fighting too hard and should
consider a different way. Every once in a while, I hear from
some hotshot business owner who is proud of himself for
finding some ‘brilliant’ plan to reduce his taxes, only to
come to me and realize that his plan is not even legal.
Why stay and fight the system the wrong way when you
can go somewhere else, get all the tax benefits of living
abroad, and then sit back, relax, and enjoy without the
stress? Especially when those all-too ‘brilliant’ plans often
only save you a few percentage points; a drop in the bucket
compared to the ocean of savings offshore.
In the 1973 Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee
is asked what his style of fighting is. “My style,” he explains,
“is the art of fighting without fighting.” This perfectly sums
up the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle. You may not like the
system where you are from. You may feel you pay too much
in taxes. You may not feel like you belong there and wish to
live somewhere else. So you fight without fighting and go
where you’re treated best.
 Whatever your discontent may be, choosing to go where
you’re treated best is the art of fighting without fighting.
Rather than wasting physical and mental energy trying to
change the system, you can move on to greener pastures
and keep more of your money, feel more at home, and
enjoy life more than ever before, with more wealth than
ever before.
 Planting Flags
Now that we know what we are trying to accomplish, let’s
get specific. When we open a foreign bank account or take
some other action that diversifies our assets, business, or
lifestyle to a more favorable place, that is called “planting a
flag”. Back in the 1960s, a man named Harry Schultz
created the concept of the “Three Flag Theory,” which
suggested that those seeking sovereign freedom do three
things:
1. Have citizenship somewhere that does not tax income
earned outside the country. This was the personal
safe haven.
2. Have businesses and investments in stable, low- or
no-tax countries. These are called the business
havens.
3. Live as a tourist in countries that support your values,
rather than society’s. These countries are the lifestyle
havens, or ‘playgrounds.’
The idea of flag theory, as it became known, was to live
life out from under the thumb of the taxman and the
bureaucrats that make life no fun. Those who practiced the
theory could become ‘PTs’ – known as ‘perpetual travelers’
or even ‘prior taxpayers – who would then jet set from one
locale to the next going where they were treated best.
While Nomad Capitalists who adhere to flag theory can
certainly choose to travel perpetually, it is also possible to
achieve the benefits of this lifestyle by obtaining two or
three home bases around the world and alternating between
them. Heck, you can even live in one place if you want,
confident that your bank account is somewhere else just as
safe.
The point is to take advantage of the best treatment
possible.
 For instance, the third flag is to live as a tourist because
countries often reserve their best treatment for the folks
who enter their borders as tourists. Unlike a resident or
citizen, tourists do not usually get heckled by the police for
stupid stuff like jaywalking. They do not have to pay local
income tax, either. There are nice offices dedicated to
helping tourists find stuff and, in many countries, they can
even get their sales tax or VAT refunded when they leave.
While most tourists head back to the reality of a cubicle,
snow in the driveway, and tax season when they return from
their vacation, Nomad Capitalists leverage this treatment
into an ongoing lifestyle.
As a Nomad Capitalist, you may choose to visit the same
places over and over again; one couple I know has three
homes in three different countries that they visit each year,
never exceeding their tourist visa status. They are not
residents or citizens of any of those countries; being so
would make them subject to the kinds of rules that residents
and citizens are subject to. Instead, they are happy to fly
under the radar as tourists. They know which cities are best
for shopping, which are best for eating and drinking, and
they leverage the best of each one.
Other Nomad Capitalists who utilize flag theory choose to
stay on the move. I used to prefer this method. I realized at
one point in my life that many cities started to bore me after
ten days, so I devised a plan to spend one year composed of
36 ten-day trips. It was a fantastic year. Now, however, I
tend to prefer slower travel and being able to settle in for a
few months at a time in homes that I own as both
investments and lifestyle properties.
Living the Nomad Capitalist life means you choose the
terms.
 It was not always that way, though. In the early days of
flag theory, a much smaller, much wealthier group
pioneered a way of living that can now be done with far less
money. In the mid-twentieth century, being a perpetual
traveler meant summering in Monaco, wintering in the
French Alps, and stashing money in Swiss banks accounts.
The idea of jetting from place to place in an effort to stay
one step ahead of the taxman – sometimes legally, and
others not – was a notion of whimsy for Joe Citizen.
It was also much more frowned upon. Tax rates in the
United States peaked at 91% before John F. Kennedy took
office. Back then, patriotic US persons seemed substantially
happier to pay than they would be in today’s more global
world. They also believed that they actually got something
for their tax money back then.
Today, tax rates are lower, as are the stigma and barrier
to entry of living a jet set lifestyle. In fact, it is so easy to jet
set around the world these days that plenty of modern
perpetual travelers choose to spend their winters in
Thailand and their summers in Amsterdam. However, most
of these folks are not fully availing themselves of the host of
financial benefits that come with the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle.
Unlike their jet setting predecessors, many of today’s
perpetual travelers did not escape the grind because they
wanted to lower their taxes – they just wanted to travel.
There is nothing wrong with that, but even if you did not set
out to reduce your taxes, why not enjoy all of the benefits
that come with the lifestyle?
I once helped a US citizen and entrepreneur who had
been living nomadically in Europe for almost two years. Eric
knew the basic tax laws for US persons living abroad and
filed a tax return accordingly each year and elected the
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Yet, despite working with
a US accountant, by the time Eric came to me for help, he
was still paying $81,000 in taxes every year.
Eric and I got under the hood of his business and
discovered that his US company had been set up improperly
from the start. We restructured his business to include both
a new US company and an additional offshore structure in
Asia that enabled him to legally avoid taxation on most of
his income, and pay about one-third of his previous rate on
the rest.
By planting just a few more flags around the world, Eric
will be able to save approximately $600,000 over the next
five years without changing anything about his nomadic
lifestyle. The ability to save all that money had been there
all along, all he needed to do was start thinking like a
Nomad Capitalist and not just a nomad.
These options are available to anyone willing to learn and
then take the necessary steps toward greater freedom.
 How Is This Legal?
In the fifty years since the concept of planting flags was
introduced, numerous revisions have helped expand the
theory into more aspects of our lives. Going where you’re
treated best is all about modernizing flag theory to fit life in
the twenty-first century – a time when we really can live,
work, and play anywhere we want.
Part of that process is to bring the philosophies of flag
theory into the light, examine them up close for all to see,
and then fit them into a perfectly legal blueprint.
Fifty years ago, the type of person likely to plant flags
was more inclined to live in their home country than to
travel. As glamorous as the jet set life seemed to be, most
people preferred the comforts of life in Boston, Seattle or
Dallas knowing that their untaxed cash was safely tucked
away in Zurich. Travel was a perk, but not their way of life.
This was also the time when Swiss bankers were more
than willing to cater to those very desires. It was common
practice for these bankers to arrange to covertly retrieve
stacks of cash from your house, fly them back to Europe on
their private jet, and deposit them into your anonymous
numbered bank account.
What was the problem with this activity? Simply put, it
was illegal. Not exactly a minor detail.
It would still be illegal if you tried to do the same thing
today. However, flag theory in and of itself is not illegal. It
can all be done in the light of day, 100% by the book.
I was recently having dinner with a business consultant in
Ukraine. As we dipped into another bit of Georgian
khachapuri, she asked incredulously: “How is what you do
legal?! It’s OFFSHORE!”
 Decades of media portrayals of illegal offshore activity
have made the public think that merely having an offshore
bank account is illegal. But not every offshore transaction is
made with stacks of cash, private jets, and numbered bank
accounts. When I explained to my dinner guest that, were
she to move to London, she would open a British bank
account and stop paying Ukrainian taxes, she seemed to
understand.
‘Offshore’ is not so dark and complicated. If it was, you
would not see me splashing my face all over the world’s
most-visited website for everything offshore. I like my
freedom, thank you very much.
There is no doubt that a lot of people used to seek a false
sense of freedom by breaking the law and bypassing the
system. But that was not real freedom. Who could enjoy
true freedom while in constant hiding? Real freedom comes
from adhering to laws, even those we don’t agree with. I
much prefer to find loopholes and exceptions within the law,
and create options for myself to ensure my continued
success.
Besides, western governments have tightened the
screws on offshore practices to the point that it has become
nearly impossible to get away with illegal offshore activity to
begin with. The rules of the offshore world you may have
heard about on some spy show on TV have changed.
Offshore banking, for instance, is not as easy as just
dropping a briefcase of dirty money onto an island bankers’
lap.
Going where you’re treated best has nothing to do with
illegal activity; and the people who follow those five magic
words do not concern themselves with the offshore world of
the past or in the movies. After all, why pursue illegal routes
to protecting your wealth when there are perfectly legal
ways to achieve your end goals?
 The EKG Formula
When we plant flags, we are internationalizing our
assets, businesses, and our social lives, giving us access to
the best the world has to offer. Over the years, I have
developed a simple three-part formula to help the folks I
work with determine which parts of their life and business
they wish to internationalize. I call it my E-K-G formula to
Enhance, Keep, and Grow your personal and financial
freedom.
This approach makes up the heart of the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle and applies the following principles:
E - Enhance Your Personal Freedom
K - Keep More of Your Money
G - Grow Your Money
Each person’s approach to planting flags is different;
there is no perfect order in which the steps must be
completed because the exact steps that make up your
strategy are different from anyone else’s.
For most of the entrepreneurs I work with, keeping more
of their money is important. However, if you have sold your
business or had some other windfall, growing your money
may be a more important part of the formula for you.
For all of us, enhancing our personal freedom, building
options, and creating redundancies are important steps.
What good is a 0% tax rate if you are stuck living in Syria?
Remember, the goal is happiness and freedom.
Each part of the EKG system works together as a puzzle,
and each part contains a number of potential strategies that
you can choose from to create your desired Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle:
E - Enhance Your Personal Freedom
 ● Living Overseas - Whether in one place, a few
places, or as a perpetual traveler.
● Second Passports - Obtaining citizenship in
another country for better travel, better treatment, and
more options.
● Digital Privacy - Hosting your website overseas or
using secure offshore email.
● Socializing Overseas - Make friends, dates, or a
lifelong partner in another country.
● Personal Happiness - Find the place where you
feel totally at home.
K - Keep More of Your Money
● Tax Reduction - Legally reduce or eliminate your
personal taxes by relocating your business the right
way.
● Offshore Banking - Protect your money in quality
banks and earn higher returns.
● Offshore Companies - Legally choose the tax rate
for your business.
G - Grow Your Money
● Frontier Market Entrepreneurship - Start a
business in a less developed market.
● Foreign Real Estate - Buy, rent, sell, or hold
property in fast-growing markets.
● Foreign Currencies - Earn high rates of return just
by holding another currency.
These are just a few of the ways you can take advantage
of what the rest of the world has to offer and go where
you’re treated best.
 Reexamine that list and ask yourself if the country where
you currently live offers you ‘the best’ in all of those
categories. Any objective observer would have to say no,
but most of us struggle with objectivity. Still, being objective
is essential to achieving results in anything. To be a
successful Nomad Capitalist, you must break free from your
preconceived understandings and look at the world with
fresh, unbiased eyes.
If you want to enhance your personal freedom to travel
without restriction, Germany actually takes the top spot as
the world’s best passport. That is not to say that having a
second-place Finnish passport is a total waste, of course.
However, most people do not consider that Singapore’s
similarly excellent passport comes with almost all the same
travel privileges, but without the high tax requirements.
If you are looking to enhance your personal happiness,
the Danes often claim to be the happiest nation in the
world. If you can get past the $24 beers in Denmark, then
working about twelve hours a week might make just about
anyone happy. (Having been born in America, slurring short
European work weeks never gets old.)
Yet Danes suffer the worst privacy protections among
their privacy-conscious neighbors, pay triple the price for a
car than other places in Europe, and they do not have any
banks on that “best of” list. Some dude even wrote a book
specifically telling men NOT to date Danish women. The
horror.
If your focus is on keeping more of your money, unless
you live in Germany, your local bank is not the safest in the
world. According to Global Finance, that title goes to KfW
Bank. Of the fifty safest banks, only twenty-one countries
are represented, and even that number is a bit skewed.
While the United States is represented by four banks (the
highest ranking at #33), three are agricultural credit banks;
not the type with drive-up windows in the suburbs.
Other countries on the list include China, Chile, Qatar,
and the United Arab Emirates; countries that, not too long
ago, were ruled by camels or were sleeping under a photo of
Mao. The four German speaking countries have always been
go-to places for handling money, but Abu Dhabi? Times
change.
And if you are looking to grow your money, it may come
as no surprise that the growth in countries such as China,
India, and many African nations far outpaces the economic
growth in any western nation.
As you can see, there is no ‘best’ place on earth. Not
even supposedly perfect places are perfect.
In Frank Capra’s fantasy Lost Horizon, diplomat Robert
Conway rescues ninety of his fellow Brits in a last-minute
escape from revolutionary China, only for their plane home
to crash in the Himalayas. As it turns out, the crash was no
accident, but was planned by a several-hundred-year-old
ruler who sought out Conway and his expertise to lead a
mystical paradise called Shangri-La.
The movie opens with a question that still applies to all of
us eighty years later: “In these days of wars and rumors of
wars, haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was
peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a
lasting delight? Of course you have. So has every man since
Time began.”
We all want to live our best life possible. That has not
changed. What has changed in the last eighty years are the
means by which we can achieve that goal. You may not be
able to find that perfect paradise with all the best in one
place, but you can build that life for yourself by going
beyond your borders in search of the best that each location
has to offer.
In today’s connected world, the best place is numerous
places. Some of those places are behind the scenes while
others are more obvious.
The first step is to simply recognize that where you live
may not be the mystical paradise you seek. All you have to
do is look around at the turmoil in the western world to see
that it is not the bastion of freedom and security it once
was. Factory closings have given way to “Make America
Great Again” signs dotting the lawns of those longing for a
bygone era. Stagnant wages and poor job opportunities for
many have led to a growing call for socialism and wealth
redistribution from ‘the rich.’
Meanwhile, seemingly endless terrorist attacks on the
West have given rise to a new security state. I have old
friends whose neighborhoods in Chicago, London, and New
Orleans have become meccas for crime, and others who
have bounced from one part-time job to the next in this
Uber economy, searching for the type of stable job their
parents had.
Yet, despite having little to lose, when I tell these old
friends to consider moving to one of my ‘new safe havens,’
they get scared. Of what, I am not sure. I live part-time in
the Republic of Georgia, which was ranked the sixth safest
country in the world. When I accidentally left $1,000 sitting
on a restaurant table in the capital city of Tbilisi, the staff
diligently walked the cash to my lawyer’s office, hours after
our lunch. Crime in Georgia is lower than most western
cities and there are no typhoons, or flesh eating viruses to
speak of.
Yet, for some reason, guys living in Chicago with bullets
whizzing by think to themselves, “If I can’t visualize it, it
must not be safe.”
I also own a home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a place
that certain friends refuse to visit me in out of fear that
Malaysia is a ‘Muslim country.’ They somehow imagine that
all visitors are required to dodge an ISIS firing squad to pass
through baggage claim. The media bubble has convinced
many that places like Tbilisi and Kuala Lumpur are off limits
and dangerous for us. Heck, remember the time when the
US State Department issued a travel warning against ALL
travel… everywhere in the world?
Do not go to Calgary, kids; you might step on a landmine
and die.
If you want to go where you’re treated best, you will not
get much help from governments that are better served by
keeping you on the reservation. Just as the Olive Garden
would prefer that you masticate on their inedible
breadsticks nightly rather than experiencing two Michelin
star fare elsewhere, national governments love it when you
hitch your entire wagon to their cart. It makes their life so
much easier.
They want all of your bank accounts. Every dollar, euro,
and shekel you own. They want your real estate investment
to be within their borders. The want all of your personal
assets – from cars, boats, and airplanes to gold and silver
bars – to be stored on their turf.
To them, this makes sense. It is like the cult leader who
asks adherents to sign over all of their belongings. Life is
easier as the cult leader when no one has the resources to
leave the compound.
And, in 99% of the cases, the country making these
demands of you is not the best place for you to be. It might
feel like the best if you have never experienced anything
else, but numbers do not lie. Just because Kim Jong-un says
North Korea is the best, does not mean that it is.
Different types of countries have a tendency to treat you
better. As mentioned, if you want your money under lock
and key, the stereotypical best bets are those near Germany
or Singapore. If you want a place that does not tax, look to
the Caribbean (although that is changing). If you want a
place that barely taxes, look to Eastern Europe or Asia.
Nordic countries have the edge on privacy and freedom
of speech. If you want to pirate movies and music, Spain is
your best bet; with everyone out of work, I guess they
figured, “Why not?” And then there is the United States and
Canada with free refills and clean tap water. Unless you live
in Michigan, that is.
Takeaway: This may all sound a bit tricky, but it is not
once you get the hang of it. Planting a flag can be as simple
as moving your server from the United States, with all of its
crazy laws for website owners, to Iceland where privacy is
sacrosanct. You can do that in an hour. Other strategies
might take a bit longer, but with the right plan, you can go
where you’re treated best in every way possible.
 Chapter Two:
How to Be a Nomad
Capitalist
Do I Have to Become a Goat Herder?

Dateline: Cape Town, South Africa

I had not seen Bryan in thirteen years since he was a
missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
knocking on my door during the single year I spent at
Arizona State University. In all honesty, I mostly slept and
read books while I was in college. As a neurotic, business-
minded youngster, I was out of my league among the
throngs of Daisy Duke-clad revelers that surrounded me on
the rare times I decided to show up for class. As a result,
Bryan and I became friends.
Thirteen years later and I was landing at Bryan’s
hometown airport in Cape Town, South Africa. He was
patiently waiting, sign with my name on it in hand. I was in
South Africa to take in the sights and explore business
opportunities, while Bryan was eager to hear about my
location independent lifestyle and a philosophy that had yet
to hit South Africa in a big way.
“I want to do what you do,” Bryan said as he piloted a
late-model SUV along the M18 highway into town. “But do I
have to become a goat herder or something like that?” It
became apparent that an introductory course to the location
independent world was needed.
Still, Bryan’s question hit squarely at what most people
want to know about the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle. For
years, he had seen me post Facebook updates en route from
El Salvador to Albania, or celebrating the opening of a
business bank account in Singapore over gin and tonics at
The Cufflink Club.
Why was I in so many crazy places? What purpose did a
Singapore bank account serve? And who the hell would want
to go to Albania? All good questions.
To the uninitiated, going where you’re treated best seems
like an impossible fantasy. While I imagine Bryan’s question
was loaded with just a hint of sarcasm, it was not out of the
ordinary. As a 35-year-old married father of three kids, Bryan
was not exactly sure how to go where he was treated best.
But he did have a dream to be free.
That is how the process of becoming a Nomad Capitalist
starts for most people: a dream. The challenge is
manifesting that dream into a reality with a step-by-step
process for gaining not only location independence, but also
personal and financial freedom.
This book is all about helping you create a personal plan
of action to create freedom and prosperity through
geographical diversification. There are many potential paths
for you to take to get there. As with any process, the ‘how’
is not the only important part; you must also understand
‘what’ you need to do and, most importantly, ‘why’ you’re
doing it.
If you are reading this book, chances are you have spent
at least part of your life like Bryan. You have lived, worked,
paid taxes, and kept all your stuff in one place. Perhaps you
have dreamed of traveling the world or living on a beach, or
perhaps you just want a change.
About ten years ago, I was in a very similar situation. At
least 40% of every dollar I made was set aside for taxes,
down a few percentage points from the seven months I
spent living in California where politicians have busy careers
sucking blood from stones with a straw. Meanwhile, the sum
total of my wealth was locked up at Chase Bank and an
internet savings account. Monthly interest between the two
was barely sufficient to pay for a family bucket at KFC. While
I deployed some of my savings into other business ventures
that performed well, I was afraid to invest in real estate
where I lived because I believed it was in a bubble.
In short, my options were far more limited than they are
today, and I had far less money to work with. That was right
where Bryan was when I spoke to him.
The biggest things holding Bryan back were uncertainty
and fear. He knew he wanted to be free to live where he
wanted and raise his children how he wanted. However,
Bryan’s mindset was a bit off course. Rather than running
toward what he wanted, Bryan spent his time rationalizing
how to go where he would be treated best by using
spreadsheets.
Over lunch our first day, Bryan told me that if he could
earn $50,000 per year, he and his wife could afford to cut
the cord and live wherever they pleased. The first thing I
asked Bryan was whether or not that include taxes. He
replied that it did, to which I reminded him that he would
not need to pay taxes if he left South Africa. Like most
people who have lived in one country their entire life,
paying that 20-60% tax rate had become almost second
nature.
However, if Bryan and his family left South Africa, they
could choose to live in places that did not tax them on their
income, giving him an extra $10,000 to play with. That, or
lowering his annual nut by the same $10,000.
The second thing I told Bryan was that nothing was
stopping him from living the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle right
then. His employees may have been based in South Africa,
but his IT business was already global in scope. I explained
how he could easily use a foreign company and foreign bank
accounts to make doing business easier, bypass South
Africa’s growing capital controls, and keep his money in
dollars rather than the unstable South African rand.
He did not need to leave South Africa to accomplish any
of that.
The third thing I told Bryan was that his business could
be location independent if he wanted it to be. Like many of
us, he was afraid to leave his team in charge of the
operation. I asked what the point was of having sixteen
employees if not even one of them could be left to manage
the others while he lived the lifestyle he wanted.
The three challenges Bryan outlined are the same ones I
hear over and over:
1. He was attempting to work backwards to generate
enough income to ‘be free’ rather than working with
what he already had.
2. He was overlooking steps he could take now while
preparing to leave, such as setting up foreign bank
accounts and companies.
3. He believed himself to be tied to one location for
many of the usual reasons – employees who must be
managed, parents that want to see their
grandchildren, etc. – when that was not really the
case. Like a horse that believes it cannot run away
because it is tied to a cheap plastic chair, he falsely
believed that he was shackled to Cape Town.
The reality is that anyone can go where they are treated
best if they choose to take action to make it happen. My
parents are now at retirement age and have realized, after
twenty years of flirting with moving overseas, that life in the
United States is best for them. That does not stop them
from using tools like foreign trusts to protect themselves
from frivolous lawsuits, or foreign bank accounts to diversify
into other currencies, or foreign brokerage accounts to trade
on the Mongolian stock exchange.
For those of us a bit younger – Bryan included – the
options are much wider. If you already have a successful
business selling stuff online or doing consulting, you have
likely already realized that you can do that from anywhere.
However, you might not be ready to make that leap
because you tell yourself stories about something keeping
you where you are. Or, you might be confused about how to
handle your taxes if you leave. You might not even realize
that you will not necessarily have to pay taxes (at least in
most situations) if you move out of your country.
Or, you might suffer from the ‘all-or-nothing’ syndrome
where you figure that if you cannot run around with three
passports, a dozen foreign bank accounts, and a company in
a Caribbean tax haven, you may as well be living in
California and forking sixty cents of your every dollar to the
taxman.
This book will not teach you how to create a location
independent income; there are plenty of other books for
that. But this book will encourage you to step outside of
your comfort zone and, like Bryan, realize that you are not
as tethered as you think. More importantly, it will help you
reap the benefits that come with that realization.
Take Jay, for example. Jay runs a successful business
manufacturing and selling unique perfumes in the United
States. Jay has ten employees working at his production
plant and thought he could never leave. When he came to
me, Jay and I created a way for him to install a manager to
oversee the operation so that he could live somewhere else
in the world. And, because Jay himself will be managing the
business from outside of the United States, he can qualify
for a lower overall tax rate.
What this book will teach you is how to use your existing
location independence to manifest this freedom and
prosperity on a massive scale. Chances are, even if you
have started going where you’re treated best, there is still a
lot more that you can do.
I have spoken with a lot of internet business owners who
moved from San Diego to Las Vegas or Phoenix for tax
reasons. They did so because the tax savings on an income
of $500,000 could easily add up into the mid five-figures. If
you were not living extravagantly, you could easily live on
the tax savings alone, and then some.
While some may like the arid desert weather in tax-free
Nevada, a heck of a lot more people prefer the beaches, the
weather, and the popsicle-melting, sun-kissed California
girls in San Diego. The good news is that there are places
like San Diego all over the world. You can even find places
where the girls have less snark. You do not have to choose.
It is not an either-or situation.
You really can have it all.
Like Bryan, most people fail to realize the full potential of
going where they are treated best. A US citizen who moves
from California to Nevada may shave 10% or 15% of their
tax bill away, but a US citizen who moves from California to
Panama City, or Phuket, or even Puerto Rico can potentially
shave 100% of that tax bill away – all without removing
beaches from their life.
Think about that for a moment: you can get more of what
you want in terms of both lifestyle and finances by looking
offshore. No longer do you need to make small changes like
moving from California to Nevada to get only half of what
you want. As a Nomad Capitalist, you can get more of
everything you want.
 Overcoming Irrelevant Fear
Chances are, the only thing standing in your way is you.
If you already have a location independent income, it is
easy to make these changes. One of the best ways to get
over any mindset issue and maximize the benefits available
to you is to use an ancient technique that I shared with
Bryan.
In the third century BC, Zeno of Citium devised the
concept of stoicism, which espoused the idea that to have a
good life, you must overcome irrelevant fear. Zeno’s
disciples, called the Stoics, recommended that you take
time to imagine the worst case scenario – everything from
your house burning down to losing a loved one – in order to
better appreciate what you have. This technique has
become referred to as ‘negative visualization,’ in which you
imagine the worst case scenario before taking a particular
action.
For instance, if there were no insurance, you would be
much less likely to buy a home for fear that your villa would
go up in smoke and you would be out a lot of money. In the
western world, most people buy homes with high-LTV
mortgages and probably figure they could walk away from a
little equity if the fire damaged their home… which is
exactly why banks require insurance policies.
We can evaluate the merits of opening an offshore bank
account on a similar scale. What is the worst thing that will
happen if you move part of your personal cash from a bank
in New York to a bank in Singapore? Both institutions
function like the banks you are used to; they have branches,
take deposits, and make loans. Both countries provide
government insurance that insures the value of your
deposits to a certain limit in case the bank goes belly up.
Both countries also have agencies tasked with making sure
that banks are well run by stable operators and not a guy
using some watercolor paintings as ‘security assets.’
For all intents and purposes, banks in Singapore run just
the same as banks in the United States, with the difference
being that all three of Singapore’s major retail banks are
listed among the fifteen safest banks on planet earth – a
title no bank in the United States holds. So what is it that
holds us back from internationalizing our money… or any
other part of our life?
Let’s use negative visualization to determine a
reasonable response. Applying Stoic standards to banking
offshore, the worst thing that could happen would be that
you move your money to Singapore where it is promptly
lost. That would be an unacceptable loss, but if you follow
the advice in this book, you would not have transferred all of
your money to Singapore — or even much at all to start —
so chances are you would still be in business. Still, the idea
of losing all of your money certainly sucks.
Now, let’s take things one step beyond the standard
negative visualization. What would happen if you did not
move your money to Singapore? Imagine that you left your
money in that bank in the United States. The worst case
scenario would be that another major recession hits one
year later. In the last global recession, hundreds of US banks
went under, yet not one bank in Singapore did. Where would
you want your money under those conditions? In both
cases, the worst case scenario is the same. But if you had a
bank in Singapore, you could split your money between the
two and suffer only half a loss.
Going where you’re treated best means first realizing
that where you are is not the best, and accepting that. You
can still gorge on hot dogs and watch fireworks on the
Fourth of July without having to declare that the US banking
system is the most stable or solvent. In order to truly realize
why a Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is necessary, you must turn
the process of negative visualization onto your current
actions and find the holes in what you are already doing.
For those of us who grew up expecting to live every
aspect of our personal and financial lives in one country,
that is a lot of potential cleanup. If you have already
considered smaller moves – such as the aforementioned
move to Las Vegas – you just need to expand your thinking
a little further. One good deed begets another.
When you think about this stuff, you should quickly
realize that the worst case scenarios involved with moving
money overseas, getting a second passport or investing in a
foreign country are rather unlikely to occur. The risks are far
greater doing what you are doing now. The risks are less
than your current situation and lessened further by
diversifying internationally because you are reducing those
risks dramatically over a number of different countries.
A Swiss bank account is little more than a bank account
in Switzerland. Think about that for a moment. Millions of
Swiss citizens bank in Swiss banks every day, and you
would be hard pressed to find any who have had a small
problem, let alone had all of their money vanish. In fact,
they may look at the idea of banking in your country as an
unacceptably dangerous risk.
Doing this form of reverse negative visualization does not
give you license to be an idiot; moving your money into a
Sudanese bank or stockpiling Iraqi dinars is not a smart
idea. Nor is getting a North Korean passport (or trying, since
Pyongyang is not much of an epicenter for immigration).
However, making prudent decisions about your freedom and
your finances is an important part of breaking free from a
system where you are not treated best.
 If you live in a western country, the money you pay in
taxes was likely paid not because you wanted to pay it
(unless you are Warren Buffett) but because not paying
means you will end up in a cage next to Wesley Snipes. The
idea that refusing to follow the system of the country where
we were born will lead to punishment is something that
most of us accept blindly. And yet, the money we pay in
taxes pays the salaries of people we do not respect, for
violations of human rights with which we do not agree, and
for wars we do not want.
The money you are paying now – or have paid in the past
– would be much better spent, invested, or given away by
you rather than by anyone else. You have total freedom to
claim your legal right to go where you’re treated best. Doing
so can enable you to control exactly how your money is
used and to choose the moral causes that you support with
your money.
 The End Goal
Again, the key is to run toward something, not from
something. Run to the freedom to do with your money as
your conscience sees fit, not away from a government that
takes it away from you. Focus on the end goal.
One of the mistakes many people make when starting
this journey is that they get angry, criticize the government,
and look for scammy ways to accomplish their goals. There
has long been a cottage industry of shadowy figures using
pen names and hiding behind stock photos that foment this
anger in an effort to get business for whatever miracle cure
they sell you. Decades ago, this was Swiss bankers. Today, it
is guys on the internet selling “anonymous Vanuatu
companies with bearer shares.”
Going where you’re treated best is NOT about hiding
money or breaking any laws or doing anything shady or
immoral. Quite the opposite, actually. Rather than the old
guard of trying to run and hide, Nomad Capitalists are
running toward what they want. It is much more productive
to find the country that treats your business well and taxes
it lightly than to complain about how bad things are in the
United States.
Once you find those new safe havens, do not look back.
Being a Nomad Capitalist is about moving your life in a
positive direction, not encouraging you to get upset. The
money you paid in taxes last year is gone forever; there is
no sense in worrying about it. There is, however,
empowerment in deciding that you can change your life to
get more of what you deserve going forward.
The past is in the past, so focus on the present moment. I
am a big believer in the view that today is all we have; that
is why, as the cliché goes, they call it ‘the present.’ Look at
the strategies for saving on taxes, moving your money to
foreign banks, or having a second citizenship and examine
how they benefit you today. More money in your pocket
means the ability to reinvest in and grow your business,
upgrade to a larger suite, or give more money to your
favorite causes.
You can also look beyond the present to the long-term
implications of these strategies. I do not have children yet,
but if you do, you have no doubt thought about what kind of
life you will leave your children. Using the strategies in this
book, you can grant them such benefits as dual citizenship
or a larger nest egg with which they can start their own
careers.
Today’s tax savings are tomorrow’s real estate empire or
generational wealth. Money saved today will have a
snowball effect over time. So too will being geographically
diversified when the countries where you have invested hit
their stride.
Warren Buffett became famous as one of the most savvy
and prolific investors of our time. When you think about
what he has done, it really is not that much. Now, I do not
say that to be dismissive; he is, after all, one of the
wealthiest guys on Earth. What I mean is what Warren
Buffett freely admits: the success of Berkshire Hathaway
has largely been based on a few big hits. His mantra is that,
“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so
long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”
As such, Berkshire Hathaway focuses on long-term
investing. They do not buy ‘quick hits,’ and they certainly do
not day trade. Instead, Warren Buffett has focused his entire
life on value investing. Using this approach, Buffett and his
team review a company’s balance sheets before even
looking at the stock price. The aim is to determine the true
value of the company as if they themselves were running it.
Only once a true valuation is determined, Buffett will look at
the actual current market valuation on that company.
If a company Buffett pegs at $1 billion has a stock market
valuation of merely $200 million, he and his team figure it is
a safe bet to snatch up the stock and wait for the market to
realize the true value he sees. He once famously advised
investors to, “Stop trying to predict the direction of the
stock market, the economy or elections.”
 The Forty-Year Plan
Part of this philosophy is the idea of a forty-year plan. My
client Mark’s offshore journey perfectly illustrates how this
applies to the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle. He told me his
story over drinks at a bar in a little-known country that was
formerly part of the Soviet Union. Mark was in his late
thirties, had two kids, and was running a multi-million dollar
business. He had little fear that his businesses would stop
giving him an income, or that he would ever run out of
money.
As much as he was focused on growing his business, he
was also focused on creating his own version of a forty-year
plan. He was working with me to obtain second residency
and identify investments in the country’s capital. He had
come to me because he knew that his plans involved a
second citizenship in the country and that he would need
my help to get there.
“Imagine this place becomes the next Singapore,” he
said, echoing my oft-repeated sentiments about finding the
next Singapore among the world’s emerging markets. “If I
can become a citizen here, then not only will I have all of
those opportunities, but so will my children.”
His forty-year plan involved a unique form of investment
in the potential of the country itself. While few people know
about Mark’s country of choice, even fewer think of
Singapore as some dumpy breakaway state. However, a
mere half-century ago, that is basically what it was. After
race riots in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, the Chinese-run
Singapore decided to end its short-lived participation in the
Malaysian Federation to become a tiny city-state at the tip
of Southeast Asia. With little in the way of development, no
natural resources to speak of and a mere 277 square miles
of territory, most casual observers would have written off
Singapore.
That old school thinking completely ignored the way the
world works in the modern era when people can go where
they are treated best. Despite the odds, Singapore
established itself as a country of law and order, economic
development, and free markets. Eventually, people started
to come. Now, they are beating off foreigners with a stick.
They have too many of them.
Just as Cambodia is said to resemble Thailand in the
1980s and Colombia has many of the growth indicators of
Panama, today’s emerging markets could be a few decades
removed from the success of Singapore.
But why look to emerging markets when Singapore is
already on the map? There is one big difference: Singapore
has become so successful that it is now largely closed off to
business, especially at a small level. Sure, there are one or
two decent banks that will open an account for you if you do
not live there. The country’s private vaults are among the
best in the world, but the ability to personally participate in
Singapore’s success has largely passed.
The window of easy immigration to Singapore for most
entrepreneurs and investors essentially closed for good in
2013. Even those entrepreneurs already living there are now
having trouble becoming permanent residents or citizens
because the country has too many expats. Politicians are
under pressure by the natives to stop what they see as an
overflow of immigrants, and definitely to stop those
immigrants from obtaining precious Singaporean citizenship.
Rather than fight to get accepted in the Singapore of
today, Mark decided to focus on identifying countries on the
way up and to participate in their ascent. He is smart to do
so. Going where you are wanted is a crucial part of going
where you’re treated best. Emerging markets want investors
today, whereas Singapore does not necessarily need them
anymore.
Unlike a typical investor, a Nomad Capitalist like Mark
wants to participate in more than just an ordinary
investment market. Sure, the real estate market may be a
good investment in Mark’s country of choice, but the real
investment for a guy like Mark is the opportunity to obtain a
second citizenship in the next Singapore.
In this way, these emerging markets are the sovereign
equivalent of Tim Ferriss’s concept of geoarbitrage, where
companies hire workers in emerging countries, sell their
work product back home in the developed world, and pocket
the spread. Mark’s goal is to obtain citizenship in several
emerging countries in the belief that at least one is likely to
hit it big. He realizes the old adage of getting in on the
ground floor, and is seeking to get in early on countries that
have a lot of potential.
The best part is that Mark can do this without making a
lot of adjustments to his lifestyle. As an investor, he does
not have to live in these countries full-time, even though
chances are that one of them will catch his eye and he will
decide to spend at least part of his time there.
This is his version of a forty-year plan. Unlike long-term
investing plans, it does not require him to tie up his money
for forty years, merely to take a call option on the future of
a country. While going where you’re treated best means
creating the best life for you now it also means ensuring
that life continues to be great in the future, both for you,
your loved ones and for any future generations.
 The Principle of Nomadism
Contrary to how many interpret the meaning of the word
‘nomad,’ concepts like the forty-year plan show that being a
Nomad Capitalist is not about having to always move
around. In fact, you can lead a Nomad Capitalist lifestyle by
living in the United States if that is what you want. Likewise,
you can be a Nomad Capitalist without having to travel to
dozens of countries as I do, or by visiting every country on
earth as author Chris Guillebeau did. Of course, if that is
what you want, then being a Nomad Capitalist can enable
that lifestyle, too.
It is all about having the freedom to choose.
The core driver of going where you’re treated best is the
ability to find the three principles we talk about: enhancing
your personal freedom, keeping more of your money, and
growing that money — the E-K-G formula we laid out in the
previous chapter. While finding all of that freedom may
involve leaving the nest, it is not required. Remember, it is
not an all-or-nothing proposition.
Instead, think of the ‘nomad’ part as being similar to the
attitude taken by nomads on the steppes of Mongolia. These
nomads spend their time hunting and gathering. They are
not moving around haphazardly; instead, they hunt until
there is nothing left to hunt, or allow their herd to graze
until the pasture needs to recover. Then, they move on to
the next place.
By applying the principles of nomadism, you could
choose to camp out somewhere for the rest of your life and
pass all you have to your dual citizen children, or you could
choose to spend a short amount of time somewhere before
moving on to the next location. In the era when being a
Nomad Capitalist is possible, you no longer have to make
decisions based on where you will be in twenty years;
rather, flexibility rules.
You can create a lifestyle that is as fast-paced or as
sedentary as you like. Giving yourself opportunities for both
current and future growth is more important than the
physical location you occupy. The place that you and your
dollars occupy today might not pay off right away, but
investing with a long-term mindset should pay off down the
road.
I witnessed an unintentional example of this a few years
ago while taxiing into Dublin from the airport. The taxi
driver, in true Irish fashion, was brimming with excitement.
He was an older gentleman who had come out of retirement
to drive a cab in his early 70s after the global financial crisis
hit.
He took it all in stride, though, recalling how Ireland was
‘a third world nation’ when he was growing up. He recalled
stories of walking to school in bare feet some days, while
not having any breakfast to eat on others. He spoke fondly
of his grandchildren and their ability to live in a developed
Ireland that was now a member of the European Union and
had welcomed so many companies to its shores – from
Facebook to LinkedIn to Google – creating great tech jobs.
He became more emotional as he told me that, “For the
first time ever, I look at my grandchildren and think,” his
voice cracked, “they have a real future.”
Historically, many Irish citizens left the struggling country
to find work elsewhere. This continued into the 1990s until
the Irish Tiger of the early 2000s brought great hope to
Ireland. While the country was whacked by the global
recession along with everyone else, modern Ireland is light
years ahead of the country where my cab driver grew up.
And now his grandchildren are reaping the benefits.
 Had he escaped the country at an early age, his children
and grandchildren would have been born elsewhere and
would have missed the long-term payoffs that Ireland is now
experiencing. His choice to weather the poverty of his youth
means that, today, his family can take part in the economic
prosperity of modern Ireland.
You do not have to tolerate abject poverty in order to get
the same payoff. As recently as fifteen years ago, it was
possible to purchase Irish citizenship outright. Just as
Singapore welcomed businessman and investors with open
arms several decades ago, you could have waltzed into
Ireland 40 years ago and been treated royally. However,
now that my cab driver, his grandchildren and the rest of
Ireland are enjoying the benefits of the country’s
development, you cannot get the same treatment.
It is too late.
The entrepreneur residency program is closed to all but
the next Merck or Instagram. Put simply, it pays to get in a
bit early. Which means that if you do not take today’s best
options, you will be kicking yourself tomorrow. While you
certainly want to diversify across several countries, it is
worth it to take call options on emerging markets. It is
possible to become a citizen of and an investor in countries
whose history resembles that of Ireland’s, but without
having to change your lifestyle or hop on a boat for greener
pastures.
This type of diversification is what makes being a Nomad
Capitalist incomparable to practically anyone in history. Five
hundred years ago, even the wealthiest king could not
diversify his empire in the way that you and I can today with
our smartphone and a plane ticket.
Imagine what it was like for those who became Irish or
American before it was ‘the place to be.’ Countries most
people have never heard of will use low-tax, business-
friendly, people-friendly policies to vault themselves to the
same level in our lifetime, and you can be part of it.
 Diversify, Diversify, Diversify
One of the benefits of diversification is that you can
soften the blows of any failure while still enjoying the
benefits of success. Like the old saying about a problem
shared being a problem halved, diversifying your assets can
minimize the pain of any problems that may happen.
Take the example of my friend Matt whose family
business took on a wealthy partner not long before the
economic meltdown in 2008. Their business had been a
moderate success for years, but had never reached the
level of expansion they envisioned because of the capital-
intensive nature of their industry. Now, they had a partner
who not only had a lot of money at his disposal but other
businesses to help support theirs. This guy owned banks,
aircraft leasing companies, and many other ventures.
Then the Global Financial Crisis happened. The partner’s
banks all went bust and were taken over by the FDIC. The
aircraft leasing company failed as companies turned in
Gulfstreams rather than leasing new ones (I imagine the
new President’s condemnation of executive jet travel did not
help, either). Some of the partner’s other businesses
continued to stay afloat, but it did not matter because he
would soon have to file bankruptcy and have his creditors
take over any productive assets to pay for the bad apples.
Here was a guy who had spent a fifty-year business
career not only building a great business but a sterling
reputation. Just as he was planning to retire and hand the
whole thing over to his children, it fell apart. Years later, he
is still in bankruptcy court wrapping up his affairs. I can only
imagine how painful the whole experience must be.
Had this partner been diversified internationally, the blow
would have been far less severe. A financial crisis in the
United States would no doubt still have taken an ample bite
out of any businesses based there, but this partner had the
means to operate businesses on a more global level,
including in markets whose economies do not correlate to
the recession-prone bubble economies of the West.
He failed to educate himself about the global possibilities
– like the fact that Asian companies were buying and leasing
more planes than ever – depriving himself of the choice to
go elsewhere. Having everything in one country did this
captain of industry in, taking down others with him.
If your company had money in one of his banks, you
would have been reimbursed by the FDIC, the agency that
insures bank deposits in the US. However, if your business
had more than $250,000 in the checking account, any
excess sums could, quite possibly, have been gone forever.
That is why I was always a bit astonished when
institutional clients I worked with in my broadcasting
business would deal with only one bank. One client in the
precious metals business had a single checking account at a
major bank through which literally tens of millions of dollars
passed in any given month.
What would happen if something really serious occurred
and there was a run on that bank that ultimately led to their
failure? Perhaps the US government would try to stop it and
bail the bank out, but they likely would not be too
concerned with businesses that had $10 million sitting
around. They would be concerned about the little guy.
If I have $10 million in cash, I am surely going to diversify
it across multiple banks and, with the Nomad Capitalist
mindset, I am going to diversify it across multiple countries
too. Economic events in one country can spread, but they
are less likely to spread to other unrelated countries as they
are to spread to other banks in the same country.
 In the same regard, plenty of businesses that were
banking in Cyprus saw much of their money ‘frozen’ – and
then taken – because they kept more than the EU deposit
insurance limit of €100,000. When Cyprus ran into financial
trouble, the European Union decided that, rather than
provide bail-out funds, they would “bail in” the banks by
confiscating any depositor funds over that limit.
Doing so was far more politically palatable to wealthy
Germans fatigued by recessions all over Southern Europe
than having to dip into their pockets to pay for the mistakes
of an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean. In doing
so, the European Union screwed everyone with more than
€100,000 to their name, essentially taking their funds to
pay for the woes of the Cypriot government.
The hard truth is that what happened in Cyprus can
happen anywhere. We will talk about specifics in the chapter
on offshore banking, but suffice it to say that having only
10% of your money in Cyprus would hurt a heck of a lot less
than having all of it there. On the other hand, a diversified
portfolio of citizenships and investments can only benefit
you. When I convinced my father to buy Yahoo! stock at $25
in 1996, he did not complain after selling it at $50 and
watching it go to the moon. Combined with his risk profile,
he used the information he had at the time to make the best
decision for him.
Similarly, if you were to allocate 10% of your portfolio to
a project in a new country that delivers an excellent return,
you may wish that you had allocated everything to that 20X
return. However, hindsight will clearly explain why that
never would have been a reasonable approach. Venture
capitalists who invest in successful companies do not wish
they had put their every dime into Facebook, but rather that
they could find more companies like Facebook into which
they could deploy their capital.
 Opportunity Knocks
Fortunately, the world is brimming with opportunity these
days. In fact, there is far more opportunity today than in any
other period in our lifetimes. While the United States may be
slow to respond to the changing global landscape, other
countries have adopted the mindset of attracting people,
rather than trying to fence them in (or out).
The former Soviet state of Estonia has become an
excellent example of innovation in both the private sector
and government. In 2016, US presidential candidate Jeb
Bush suggested that his country should adopt a tax system
as simple as that of Estonia. Thirty years earlier, Estonia
was part of a failed state minutes away from dissolution. In
one generation, Estonians went from boiling stones for
dinner to inventing Skype and creating one of the most
transparent governments on earth.
The reality is that none of us can know what will happen
next. Like bankruptcy, countries tend to become irrelevant
very slowly… and then all at once. Betting the house on the
future of one country is risky, but fortunately you can
diversify and take the best parts of each place.
Second passports may have been the domain of the
world’s yacht and jet set elite only a few years ago, but the
process is becoming more accessible. Now, you and I can
become dual citizens as well, without the hassles of the Ellis
Island-style immigration that our great-grandparents had to
deal with. The same way Uber has allowed anyone to be a
taxi driver, the offshore world is opening up so that anyone
with even a modest income can not only travel the world
but become a citizen of the world.
While the idea of a Swiss banker driving to your front
door in a Mercedes to pick up a bag of cash seems sexy, it is
no longer the reality. For most of us, that is a good thing;
banking offshore has become available to the mass market
so that anyone with as little as $100 may benefit.
Even as recently as the turn of this century, few would
have predicted the rise of ‘digital nomads’ who live and
work anywhere in the world, using their laptop to get
business done from the beach. Back then, you slaved away
in an office for fifty weeks a year only to look forward to a
few summer weekends and two weeks’ vacation to Aruba or
Cancun – or whatever place the travel agency was pitching
on the back page of the local newspaper.
Today, location independent business has exploded and
will continue to do so. However, I predict that the next wave
will be what I call Digital Nomad 2.0: businesses that are not
only location independent, but government independent as
well. These businesses will not rely on any one country, nor
be burdened or rendered uncompetitive by one country’s
rules or tax policies.
There are some who believe in moving their entire net
worth into digital cryptocurrencies and storing ‘survival
food’ in their basement to become government
independent. However, we still have borders, and borders
still matter. Planting flags as we will discuss in the chapters
to come is, in my opinion, the best way to be free.
Takeaway: Those of us that live by principles of self-
reliance, entrepreneurship, and global diversification will not
only prosper, but prosper on a far more consistent basis
than those who have tied themselves to one economy. While
investing in a foreign stock or mutual fund was enough in
the 1990s, Nomad Capitalists operate on an entirely new
level of savvy diversification by going where they’re treated
best.
 E
ENHANCE YOUR PERSONAL
FREEDOM
 Chapter Three:
The Location
Independent Lifestyle
“Come to Cuenca, Where Flowers Bloom
From Your Toilet Water!”

Dateline: Medellin, Colombia

A full day had gone by with the members of my inner
circle at a small group mastermind event in Medellin. On
day two, we woke up to breakfast at the city’s best hotel.
Over our arepas and fresh-squeezed juice, we discussed the
investment opportunities in Colombia and the fact that the
average American thought Pablo Escobar was still running
the place.
“They would never believe the truth,” James – a younger
guy from Michigan who had come to scope out the city –
chuckled. “I mean, who would believe that the former drug
capital of the world is now a thriving capitalist market?”
“I’m glad it still has a bad reputation,” Linda chimed in.
“That means it hasn’t been totally overrun by the western
expats taking over other parts of Central and South
America.” Linda and her husband Rob were an older couple
who had lived overseas for decades after a chance meeting
in Liberia in 1970. Over the years, they had watched as
more and more places were overrun by retirees flocking to
live out their golden years on increasingly shaky Social
Security checks.
 “Colombia still has a unique vibe that makes it a great
place to stay,” Rob agreed. “It is fast becoming a hotspot for
investors, but at least it hasn’t made it onto the retirement
newsletters yet!”
“Retirement newsletters?” James asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Rob replied. “Websites and newsletters about
retiring abroad basically prop up the latest and greatest
places with punchy copywriting. Just imagine,” he continued
with his best dreamy infomercial voice, “you can walk down
white sand beaches, eat coconuts straight from the hands of
monkeys, and salsa dance in colonial plazas with your
sweetheart. All for a mere $623 per month!”
“It’s true,” Randy admitted. Randy had been hit by a car
and almost paralyzed before he realized that life was too
short to stay in a place he did not like. He had gotten a
second residency in South America and now spent much of
his time traveling throughout the region to figure out where
to live and which passport to get next.
“Those international living newsletters have already
burned through Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama like
yesterday’s news,” Randy explained. “Now they’re moving
to places like Ecuador. It’s only a matter of time before a
promotional email to pre-retirees will be cooing about how
the magical waters of Cuenca cause flowers to spring from
your toilet!”
We all got a good laugh out of that.
“In some ways,” Linda conceded, “the growing number of
bargain hunters living in these emerging cities is a good
thing. It increases the number of services available to all of
us.”
Rob countered, “But in other ways it’s frustrating
because some of the people who come are changing the
authentic fabric of each place.”
 I explained that this phenomenon is little different than
those who move from Boston to New Hampshire for lower
taxes, then vote for liberal politicians that promise free
programs that cause higher taxes.
“And it’s not just retirees,” James added. “I think most
people give in to the herd mentality. Sure, it’s nice to
connect with the other nomads flocking to havens like
Chiang Mai, Ubud, Barcelona, Berlin, and Bangkok, but I feel
like that herd mentality makes so many people believe that
their options are fewer than they really are.”
James hit the issue directly on the head. Being location
independent as a Nomad Capitalist has nothing to do with
following the herd.
Most folks reading this book are likely part of one of two
camps: they are either a successful business owner sitting
in their home country thinking that there has to be
something more, or they are already living life as a nomad,
perhaps even in one of the popular places my mastermind
group mentioned during our breakfast discussion.
If you are the location dependent business owner, you
are probably looking for something more: more life
experiences, more freedom, and more money in your
pocket. Conversely, if you are already location independent,
you are probably looking for less: less taxes, fewer hassles
running your business, and less nonsense from a country
that you do not live in any more.
Both are possible.
Unlike the solutions you will find by following the herd,
the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle encompasses all of it, from
the financial aspects of reducing or eliminating your taxes to
enhancing your personal freedom. The EKG formula begins
with the latter. After all, what would be the point of fixing all
the other moving parts if it did not lead to a more fulfilling,
happier life? And, since the definition of the ‘perfect’ life will
be different for each person, it is essential for you to start
there to know what you are trying to achieve.
Most people work backwards, chasing after shiny objects
and promises of getting rich while they travel. While it is
possible to travel and earn money, too many folks attempt
to do so without a full understanding of their options,
leading them to miss out on many of the benefits of living
an international life. This haphazard approach creates little
true freedom and can often cause more problems down the
road.
I like to call what I do Digital Nomad 2.0 in order to
differentiate it from people who are just getting started with
making money on the internet while they travel. There is
nothing wrong with strapping on a backpack and going to
live in Cambodia while you build a portfolio of muse
businesses. However, you are not in a position to worry
much about taxes when your goal is to make $1,000 a
month just to keep the noodles on the table, nor are you
likely choosing your destinations based on gaining another
citizenship.
Other people have simply ignored the benefits of travel
altogether and have chosen to stay where they were born
and build as best they can. Fortunately for them, Digital
Nomad 2.0 can also help those who chose to grow their
business the old-fashioned way and have since realized that
they need a better approach. These folks can plug into
instant tax savings, lifestyle benefits, and capital growth
while enjoying the comforts of a Four Seasons hotel – no
toiling in a hammock required.
Like many of the people I help today, I ran a location
independent business for years, acknowledging that I could
work from anywhere, but failing to act on that knowledge in
any sort of meaningful way. After slinking away from a party
school at age 19, I entered the lucrative world of AM radio,
connecting people who wanted to create infomercials with
other people all too desperate to sell them.
My business involved waking up at 11AM, calling people
running infomercials somewhere else and telling them I had
many other AM radio stations dying to air their show for a
low price. As with any new business, it was intense at first,
but over time I graduated to working with billion-dollar
companies and even a Fortune 50 company that let me do
my own thing much more than the ‘dollar-a-holler’ clients.
Either way, the business was entirely location
independent. Whether it was placing cold calls from a VOIP
phone (remember Vonage?) or managing a few emails a day
as conditions got more plush, none of it had to be done in
Phoenix, Arizona. At 21 years of age, I remember thinking, I
could do this from anywhere... but it never entirely sunk in.
While I took an increasing amount of time to travel while
running that business, and even debated moving to China, I
never took the leap.
The whole process all seemed so foreign. Despite priding
myself on being a citizen of the world and wanting to go
where I was treated best, I was holding myself back based
on the fear of the unknown. Perhaps you know the feeling;
while traveling is one thing, letting go of your identity as a
resident of Los Angeles or Montreal or Canberra can be
hard. You do not have to do it all at once, but you do need to
start somewhere.
I still remember talking to Steve and Anne, an American
couple living in Missouri who desperately wanted to leave
the United States and save, in their case, about $40,000 per
year in taxes. They did not want to travel non-stop, though.
They saw the life of nonstop travel I lived at the time and
thought that it was the only solution available to them if
they were going to live overseas and save on taxes.
 Fortunately for them, there is more than one way to live
as an expat, and many of those ways do not require that
you be a perpetual traveler. There is no “right way” to live
as a Nomad Capitalist. Just as you do not have to follow the
herd to any particular city, you do not have to live by
someone else’s definition of what it means to be a Nomad
or adhere to any stereotypes. You do not have to stay in
Airbnbs, work out of co-working spaces, or flock to the latest
co-living space where entrepreneurs live together. You can,
but you do not have to. Joining this lifestyle does not mean
you have to live the way others do, it means not caring what
anyone else thinks and doing what works best for you.
No matter how much, how little, how often, or how active
your desire for travel is, you can fit right in and make it work
for you. Having a location independent business and
lifestyle is all about personal choice. When it comes to
designing your lifestyle, it is nice to have a point of
reference to know what options are available. I have
identified the four main strategies for living abroad
throughout my travels that are conducive to the life of a
Nomad Capitalist. While there are no hard and fast rules,
let’s take a look at them one by one.

The Expat Strategy

Despite the fact that, until very recently, I generally
visited 30 plus countries each year, some people I work with
decide to follow the least aggressive strategy for living
abroad: being an expat. The Expat Strategy is pretty
straightforward: settle down in one city in a country
different than where you are from. That’s it.
There is nothing about being an expat that dictates that
you can never leave your new city. The same way you can
travel from the city where you currently live, you can be a
settled expat and travel, too. While being a full-time expat
may sound like the option most suitable to families, I am
also seeing more and more single people who want to have
a full-time home and only travel from there when they feel
like it.
Sometimes, it is best to “go as far as you can see, and
then see further” and, for many people, that means one
permanent home and an open mind for growth.
A lot of the multi-million dollar earners I have worked
with say that routine is one of the most important elements
in their ability to focus and achieve success. They do not
want to move around the world because they feel it would
be too distracting from their other goals. The good news is
that countries like Panama will generally allow you to live
there and only pay tax on your local income. If you find the
right country and create the right plan, you can still live tax-
free without playing the perpetual traveler game.
Think of being an expat as doing what you do now, just in
another place… only in this case, you get to keep a lot more
of your money and actually choose where you live. If you
like the idea of exploring, you can still travel on summer
vacation or take weekend trips whenever you please,
whether you go to another country or explore your new
home. The difference in your travels compared to a
perpetual traveler’s is that you will take Point A – Point B –
Point A trips that return you home rather than embarking on
never-ending journeys.
Some people like the traditional expat lifestyle because it
makes managing finances and life a lot easier. I can
understand the need. From time to time, I will pass up
otherwise great opportunities that I cannot handle when
traveling so quickly. The process of purchasing my home in
Malaysia, for example, would have been so much easier had
I been able to spend one or two months in the same place.
 Spending more time in one place may also help you
qualify for a second citizenship. While some countries allow
you to spend minimal time there and still become
naturalized, some of the best passports require you to
actually live in the country in order to qualify. Want an Irish
passport? Be ready to live there for at least five full years
within the next nine years.
The biggest challenge with the expat style of living is tax
concerns; living in Ireland may get you a passport, but it will
also get you a ‘Tax Return Due’ notice from Revenue Ireland.
If you want to stay in one place, make sure your plan
includes a way to ensure that you are not taxed, or at least
pay very little.

The Base Cities Strategy

The more time I spend away from my home country, the
more I crave a base. I have done the full-on perpetual
traveler routine, but my penchant for decorating and the
fact that I own a lot of suits and carry-on luggage means
that I prefer to have a base these days.
My first base was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is a great
base, especially because it gives you access to two airlines
that fly everywhere very affordably, plus quick access to
Singapore for even more options. KL is also a great base
because you can bank and store your assets in neighboring
Singapore while living in the more interesting and cost-
effective Malaysia.
However, having one foreign base can start to look a lot
like being a traditional expat if you do not travel much. That
is where the idea of multiple bases comes in. Perhaps you
never want to deal with winter. Or, maybe you are like me
and just cannot sit still. When I am in Asia, I start wondering
about what is going on in Europe, or vice versa. Having
multiple base cities simply means that you have homes in
different cities, usually relatively far apart so that you can
travel to nearby places from each base.
Base cities can also give you access to more regional
travel. For example, I have had bases in Malaysia, Georgia,
Serbia, and Montenegro. From there, I have easily been able
to get anywhere I want without hassles. While one of my
current bases in Tbilisi, Georgia is not the best-connected
city, it is close enough to get around Eastern Europe,
including emerging markets like Ukraine and Azerbaijan, as
well as interesting places like Turkey and the ‘Stan’
countries.
Conversely, a place like northern Belgium – a base I
considered but passed on – is small enough that it is easy to
get to the Brussels, Amsterdam or Paris airports from
anywhere by train and, from there, to anywhere in the
world. In KL, as mentioned, it is easy to travel to anywhere
in Asia, Australia, or Europe.
This is my current personal strategy. I like the flexibility of
being able to have several homes set up the way I want.
While I love staying at five-star hotels, I like the option of
feeling at home without having to stay at the often-
dreadfully decorated short-term rentals in the countries that
I visit.
The Base Cities Strategy also allows you to enjoy a
lifestyle buffet: the big city, the small town, the beach, and
whatever else it is you are after. And, if you choose your
countries carefully, you can get second residence permits
and eventually passports in return for buying property. Just
make sure that you follow the tax rules in each country so
you do not accidentally get sucked into a tax net.
For example, I own a home in Montenegro but do not
spend that much time there; just every other weekend in
the summer. I can ‘live in Montenegro’ but not pay tax there
because I do not really work there. I just live, soak up the
summer rays, and then head back to my base elsewhere in
Europe for the rest of the summer before jetting to Asia or
Mexico for the winter.
If you want to achieve something similar, there are
several important questions you should take into account
when setting up your Base Cities Strategy. First, how many
bases do you want or need? And what will you use them for?
Do you simply want the comfort of having a home? Or are
you setting up shop in Malaysia, for example, to have an
affordable place to live in close proximity to your assets and
bank accounts in more expensive locations like Singapore
and Hong Kong?
Next, how much time will you spend at each base? While
you may have a business base in Asia, you might have a
leisure base set up somewhere else in a more exotic
location that can serve various purposes. For example,
when I am not using my beach home in Montenegro, I rent it
out and receive passive rental income from the property.
The home is also an investment based on the likelihood
that Montenegro will join the European Union someday and
property values will rise. I doubt the home will go down in
value and I can make a few percent off of it every year
through occasional rentals – which is more than I would
make in the bank. So my Montenegro base functions as both
a beach home and a place to park my cash… with the added
bonus of being a place where I can satisfy my penchant for
decorating.
For me, I am seeing more and more the value of using
the Base Cities Strategy to have a home where things are
set up the way I like and I can be more productive. I may
overpay a little bit, but the added productivity that comes
from having a place to call home is well worth the
investment.
 The Base City + Focus Cities
Strategy
One of the best parts of living as a Nomad Capitalist is
the lower level of commitment to any one place. We are
taught that commitment is a good thing: historically
speaking, settling down and committing have been ways to
describe marriage that suggest that devotion to one person,
place, or thing is the best way to create happiness in life.
Here is the secret: being ‘uncommitted’ geographically
does not mean you cannot commit to other things you care
about. If you already have a family – or simply like the
stability of a place to call your own, but want plenty of
flexibility to roam – then consider merging the best parts of
expat life with the perpetual traveler life. I call this the
“Base City + Focus Cities Strategy” because it gives you a
base to call home, plus plenty of other opportunities to
roam.
This approach makes sense for a lot of reasons; for one,
most of the younger people I work with want to travel, even
if they do not want to do it all the time. Another reason is
that spending less than half your year ‘at home’ can often
get you out of the tax net in your home country. Spend a
few months per year in the Netherlands and chances are
they will not tax you; spend nine months there and they will
come looking for a check.
This strategy is similar to the Base Cities Strategy, but
instead of a few base cities, it involves one base and a
number of focus cities. If you are not familiar with the term,
airlines refer to focus cities as the cities they serve with
great frequency, but that are not full-fledged hubs. For a
Nomad Capitalist, focus cities function in a similar manner;
while you have not set up a permanent base in your focus
city, you frequent the area often enough that you feel at
home there.
In any given focus city, you know how to get around,
know where the best restaurants are, know where to get
your dry cleaning done, and know how to get back to the
airport without wasting time. You feel at home without
having a home there. Then, you simply determine how long
you want to spend in each focus city, or group of focus
cities, before returning to base. You will never have to deal
with the feeling of newness while in your focus city.
The benefit of having focus cities is that you can develop
habits there. For example, I have been to Singapore enough
times that I know exactly where I want to stay, where to eat,
and how to get around. And, most importantly, not only do I
know people that I can call and meet there but I have a list
of other people and businesses that I would like to get to
know.
A focus city can also be a city where you hold assets,
have bank accounts, or have other flags planted. After
dozens of trips to Hong Kong and Singapore, I feel extremely
comfortable in both; partially because I have made the
mental connection of having part of my assets there.
Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities in the world. There
is something charming about Hong Kong in an almost
boorish way. Whether it is fighting pedestrian traffic on Des
Voeux Road in Central, watching the old school ferries and
junk boats crossing at the Star Ferry Pier, or navigating the
tiny hutongs of Tsim Sha Tsui to get a custom suit at Sam’s
Tailor, the city is one of a kind.
That said, I could never live there full-time. Most people
could not do it. Going to Hong Kong is like driving to Vegas
and getting excited when you see the lights of the Strip
coming over the last hill. By the time Sunday afternoon rolls
around, however, you have had one too many Alaskan crab
legs and you just barked at a cocktail waitress after losing
three grand. The Middle Eastern girls from the buffet who
are spending two whole weeks in this blistering heat now
seem totally cray-cray.
For me, Hong Kong is a place to do business and visit on
occasion, making it the perfect focus city. I love Hong Kong
and I love to spend time there, but I would never live their
long term. Following the Base City + Focus Cities strategy, I
can get exactly what I want from a visit to Hong Kong and
then move on to another focus city or return to my base.
Building your personal list of focus cities takes time, so
this is a strategy that is best used by recovering perpetual
travelers, or people who are willing to visit a rotation of
cities frequently enough to get used to them. It has taken
me almost a decade to develop my list of focus city
candidates: Dublin, Warsaw, Brussels, Riga, Tbilisi, Istanbul,
Panama City, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Phnom Penh. Maybe I am missing a few… but you get the
idea.
As you discover the world and grow into a Nomad
Capitalist yourself, your list may be different. It is your world
to discover.

The Perpetual Traveler

Strategy
Many digital nomads choose to follow the Perpetual
Traveler Strategy. It is how I lived once I started spending
my entire life on the road. The perpetual traveler has no
permanent address and no permanent home, choosing
instead to live life out of a suitcase.
The ultimate draw of the Perpetual Traveler Strategy is
that you go at your own pace. For example, I spent the
second half of 2013 traversing most of Southeast Asia,
making connections and investigating deals in each country.
In order to do that, I gave myself one month in most
countries, which I eventually shortened to two or three
weeks. I started in Vietnam and continued to Cambodia,
Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, and finally the
Philippines. Then, the first half of 2014 was spent in Eastern
Europe, beginning in the Baltics and working my way down
to the Balkans at a slightly faster pace.
To increase the flexibility of your travel plans, you can
reserve your hotel or Airbnb one week at a time and then
choose to extend it or not. In most places there is never a
shortage of hotels, which means you can choose how long
you stay in each place based on your needs or interests.
This is why, for me, being a perpetual traveler is the
ultimate freedom.
There is no set approach to being a perpetual traveler
and there are many variations to this particular strategy.
The system I used a few years back could work as well with
shorter trips, or with more extended trips. Some PTs and
digital nomads bounce from place to place at lightning
speed; I believe my record was 30 countries in one year.
Others choose to go at a slower pace, spending months or
even years in a given location before moving on.
This is how I have structured my remote team – or, Team
Nomad – to work and travel. The best employees who come
and work for me get promoted to my remote team and they
all work together, traveling to a new city of their choice
every quarter. I selected this system because I realized that,
for the kind of work they are doing, it can be a pain to find a
new laundry place, cafés, and a co-working space every
week.
For me, however, I thrive on going somewhere new on a
regular basis because I want to see how different places
work, investigate the culture and figure out how efficiently
things run. I can do all of that with a short-term trip. Now
that I have begun to use the Base Cities Strategy, these
shorter trips are more spread out, but I still make time for
them. The information I gather is key to my line of work.
For someone who is not writing a blog on the investment
opportunities in different countries or studying the nature of
economies, then more of what I am doing with my remote
team could work. And, even if you would prefer more
stability in the long term, being a perpetual traveler is a
great way to try on different cities before committing to a
more permanent strategy. You can experience more and
work each new country into your global investment strategy.
No matter what pace you prefer, perpetual travel can
work for a number of different people and their various
needs. A real estate investor, for example, could spend ten
days in a city of interest before moving on to the next. This
would allow them the opportunity to scope out the local real
estate market before moving on to the next city and the
next after that. In the Balkans, for instance, they could
move from Belgrade to Kotor to Tirana to Skopje to Ohrid to
Pristina to Sarajevo. Once they have covered the region,
they could then reset to another part of the world and start
over again.
One drawback of this particular strategy is that it can be
prone to loneliness. It is often hard to maintain relationships
in places where you are only around for a short period of
time. However, it is also possible to develop a massive
network of friends throughout the world with this strategy,
especially in this digital age when you can stay connected
long-term with people you meet once through social media.
You will meet fellow Nomad Capitalists with whom you can
form deeper connections than you ever could with someone
who does not share your passions and world views.
 Another drawback is that it can also be difficult to open a
bank account, start a company or even get a second
passport without a permanent address. You may, however,
be able to get around this by setting up a virtual mailbox
that serves as both a permanent address and as a mailing
service that will scan all communications you receive via
mail and send them to your email.
The key is to go out and see what fits you. The small
challenges can be dealt with along the way. The bottom line
is to recognize that there are different ways to live as a
perpetual traveler and you can tweak the strategy any way
you want to make it work for you.

The Piecemeal Strategy

There are a number of doubts I hear people wrestling
with when they are deciding to become location
independent and reap the benefits that come with it:
1. What if I hate living somewhere else?
2. What if I don’t know where I want to live?
3. How will I make friends and spend time with my
family?
4. How will I get my daily green juice, or find a vegan
dry cleaner, or be able to listen to live acid jazz on
Saturday nights?
Some of these challenges are not that hard to solve and
expat groups online can help you clear up many of your
doubts. If you are choosing to live in a frontier market in
order to take advantage of low-hanging-fruit business
opportunities, then it is only normal that you may have to
forego daily kale juice. After all, countries like Cambodia and
Paraguay have so many opportunities precisely because
they do not have stuff that is common in many other
countries. The benefit of living there is that you can be the
first guy to sell green juice and have first mover advantage.
 For those of us who prefer 24-hour convenience stores,
Uber, and great shopping, the reality is that all of the things
you enjoy at home will likely be available wherever you
choose to move. When in my home in Malaysia, I make
small adaptations to my lifestyle, such as eating more
tropical fruit in place of fresh berries that are rather
expensive there. Nothing big.
One strategy that I recommend if you are moving out of
your home country for the first time is what I call
‘piecemealing.’ The idea is that you take a shorter trip as a
way to convince yourself that you have the option to return
at any time… which you do. It is also a way to test the water
before diving in headfirst. Most people who try piecemealing
end up staying out of their home country and enjoying the
tax relief and other benefits that come with it for years, or
even permanently. Some will also discover that the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle is not for them and that is fine too. This
way of living is not for everyone.
Piecemealing works by promising yourself a short trip –
say, six months – that could easily lead to a longer trip. For
instance, when I set off to spend six months in Southeast
Asia, I was not only interested in brushing up on business
opportunities but also in finding a long-term Asian base
where I could hang my hat.
In order to do this, I created a rough itinerary that
included approximately one month in each of the countries
of interest, as well as short trips to countries that were
purely of business interest. The idea behind this was that I
would spend enough time in any one place to be able to
make a proper judgment about living and investing there.
Doing this also protected my downside in several ways.
For one, if I hated the place, I only had to be there for a
month. Additionally, I was setting my mind up to believe
that I could return to ‘the old normal’ after the six months
was up. I had no intention of returning to the old normal, but
the option to do so was reassuring. I had traveled
extensively in Asia before and was sure that I could find a
place that suited me, but leaving myself that flexibility
meant that, at the end of the six months, I could also say
that I would rather live in ‘fill-in-the-blank’ instead.
Your piecemeal strategy may look very different or take
place in an entirely different region of the world. A good
starting-point, however, is to spend six or twelve months
doing something new. Any shorter and you will be hard
pressed to get the full picture; any longer and you will not
get the full effect of making a decision. One year seems
doable. Try more than that and you might not do it.
Let’s say you are working online from your home in Los
Angeles and you are reluctant to leave the beaches behind.
The good news is that the rest of the world has plenty of
beaches, too, so you plan a twelve-month piecemeal trip to
twelve beach countries. Your itinerary might include places
like Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in the fall, Southern
Hemisphere beaches like Chile, Argentina, and Brazil in the
winter, Asian beaches in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia
in the spring, and the European beaches of Montenegro,
Croatia, and (heaven forbid you would ever actually decide
to live there and pay taxes) Greece.
Over the course of a year, you would see a lot of different
options for potential bases. You might buy a beach home in
Montenegro for summers, another beach condo in Thailand
for winter, and spend the rest of the year traveling around.
Or, maybe you would just find one home, or decide to
merely rinse and repeat the whole country-a-month routine
again next year.
The other benefit of piecemealing is that it allows you to
gauge your preferred pace. If moving every month is too
stressful, perhaps you would prefer a life with one or two
bases and infrequent travel from there. If moving every
month seems too slow, perhaps a life of perpetual travel
suits you more.
The benefit of this approach is that you can start taking
advantage of the benefits immediately. If you are a citizen of
most any western country, that year away would qualify you
for tax benefits. I like to think of this as being paid by your
government to travel. As I will outline in the chapter on tax
savings, it is easy to legally avoid most if not all taxes by
being outside of your home country for the greater part of a
year. While you are investigating the world’s best beaches
as possible places to spend part of your life, you will also be
saving a lot of money.
 The Jet-Set Lifestyle
Finally, no lifestyle design is fully complete until you
know how to enhance the travel experience itself: flying. I
am not a travel hacker, nor do I churn credit cards to
squeeze out more frequent flyer miles. In fact on a recent
interview, my answer to “How do you fly so often on the
cheap?” was “I don’t.” Nevertheless, air travel is a common
component of the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle and I have
learned a few things along the way.
For one, I rarely travel first class. The amenities and
services in business class are nearly as luxurious as they are
in first class, and they come with a lower price point. I fly
business class over economy because I prefer the comfort
and productivity I gain by doing so. Flying first class, on the
other hand, is more for show – you get the same level of
productivity and comfort, so what else could motivate folks
to pay four times as much for a flight that will get them to
the same exact destination as everyone else on the plane?
There is a fine line between traveling in comfort to
increase productivity and blowing your $100,000 of yearly
tax savings on overpriced flights with lackluster Thai
Airways flight attendants. Why not save that money to
spend on champagne and a private bungalow next to a
breathtaking beach? Or, even better, invest it in real estate
that will increase your lifestyle options or passive income. I
would far rather invest the $30,000 or more each year I
save ‘cheaping out’ in business class into procuring a better
view or location when upgrading one of my residences.
This, of course, is my personal preference that I have
distilled over many years of travel. Your preferences may be
different. My personal goal is to avoid the creation of friction
and pay what it takes to get what I need instead of settling
for something less and dealing with the frustration. I am not
going to pay more if it does not serve those end goals.
Being a Nomad Capitalist means going against the herd;
if you want to fly first class, be my guest. If, however, you
are like me and can turn the money saved each year into
another rental property, do not feel compelled to blow all of
those tax savings on flights just to keep up with the Joneses.
In the same way you are free to follow any of the strategies
discussed in this chapter or create one that is wholly your
own, there is no need for you to rush to buy first class seats
to show off all the money that you have saved.
Oftentimes, the richest people are the ones who flaunt
their money the least while they do things that make them
happy internally. The location independent nature that
comes with the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle brings with it a
host of new decisions about what you are going to do with
your time, money, and travel. Do not let that overwhelm
you. More importantly, do not let the herd decide what that
lifestyle looks like. The point is to discover the lifestyle that
you want and enjoy.
Takeaway: Do not escape the rat race just to join the
herd. Be authentic. Be honest with yourself about what you
want and it will be easier to recognize the opportunities that
will help you achieve those end goals. It may take some
experimenting to discover exactly what those goals are, but
take the time to appreciate the fact that the kind of life you
have created for yourself allows you to do just that.
 Chapter Four:
Second Passports
I Welcome You as the Newest Citizen
Of…

Dateline: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

“Put your finger here,” Laurent said in a heavy French
accent. I had flown to Dubai on 24-hours’ notice to be holed
up in a junior suite at the Four Seasons with a guy who
came to meet me. He was carrying nothing more than an
aluminum briefcase that looked like it could protect against
stray gunfire.
Perhaps I had found myself in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
My guest’s salt and pepper coiffure feigned the look of a
US Senator. But I was not there to discuss politics, at least
not in that way; the man sitting across from me was taking
fingerprints for my soon-to-be-issued passport.
“You can hold this,” he said, casually handing me a green
passport with the words ‘Union des Comores’ scrawled
across the top. I had never held a green passport before,
probably because the majority of green passports are issued
by African or Muslim countries, and only one of them –
Macao – has any kind of decent travel.
Nevertheless, I was a kid in a candy store. The
Frenchman could have spent all day punching in numbers
and scanning my birth certificate for all I know; I was happy
just to flip through this empty passport and dream of how it
could be mine.
 It was quite the act of salesmanship, to be honest. Give a
guy a blank passport to flip through and let the rest happen
on its own. Normally, this works best when a pet shop owner
tells a family to take the puppy dog home… just for this
weekend. The return rate on that deal must be all of zero.
Just as I was thinking how brilliant Laurent’s subtle sales
pitch was, he stood up.
“Congratulations,” he said, his hand outstretched for
mine. “I’m proud to welcome you as the newest citizen of
the Comoros Islands.” He smiled as he handed me my new
citizenship identification and passport numbers.
Here I was in a hotel room in Dubai, about to become a
citizen of a country I had never been to, with a passport
cover written in two languages I do not read, and all it took
was sending a few documents, promising I was not a
terrorist, and flying to meet a guy in air-conditioned comfort.
The hotel even threw in a free fruit basket. Laurent,
however, refused not only a fresh mango but also my offer
to buy him tea in the lobby – no doubt afraid of the type of
public threats that prompted the aluminum briefcase.
“Now, all you need to do is send the money,” he quipped
on his way out, harkening back memories of the Swiss
banker in Casino Royale that advised James Bond that his
poker winnings “Vould be vired to any bank account you
designate in the vorld.”
Alas, the process of obtaining another nationality is rarely
as simple as showing up to claim some far-flung citizenship
in a modern-day nod to homesteading, but with passports
instead of dirt. This was entirely a business deal. In
exchange for $45,000, the Comoros Islands – a deeply poor
African nation of three (or, according to them, four) islands
off the coast of Madagascar – would grant me citizenship
and all of the rights that come with it, including that green
Comorian passport.
 With it, I would now be able to travel visa-free to a grand
total of 47 countries, most of them other unheard of places
in Africa, but also to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Indonesia and the casino mecca of Macau. At least I could
gamble with it. Such travel privileges, of course, pale in
comparison to that of a US passport, but that was not the
point. My aim was to enhance my freedom.
Few people could find the Comoros Islands on a map, but
that was exactly what I was betting on. My birth citizenship
in the United States was from a country everyone can find
on the map (okay, everyone except a few Americans).
Having an entirely different type of passport was an
interesting form of diversification.
Having a second citizenship, and the travel document
that comes with it, is an excellent way to diversify yourself
so that you are never subject to only one government. It is
possible to get a second passport for a lot less – or a lot
more – than $45,000, and there are different ways to do it.
There are also different reasons to get a second passport.
For some, it is the first step to dramatically lowering their
tax bill. For others, it is an insurance policy. For others still, it
is a way to connect with long-lost ancestors. And, for a
select few of us, at some point it is just fun.
When the personal shopper at Dubai Mall’s Zegna store
asked what I was in town for, I told him I was completing a
citizenship procedure. Knowing that it is practically
impossible to become a citizen of the United Arab Emirates,
he looked confused. Telling him the citizenship in question
was the Comoros did not help the confusion, either.
But before discussing how a second passport works, it is
important to understand how your first passport works, even
if you do not have the actual passport yet. First, second,
third, and even tenth passports all perform essentially the
same function, even if some allow more privileges than
others. With only one citizenship, your life is completely in
the hands of one group of (often unelected) government
workers. They have carte blanche to tax you, help
themselves to your assets, and to restrict your freedom of
movement around the world.
Having a second passport puts the power back in your
hands by dividing that control between different
governments and giving you the option to get rid of the one
that serves you least if the need were ever to arise. In many
cases, you do not even have to move anywhere to get one,
and it can serve as a "Plan B" if nothing else. Having a
second passport is the ultimate escape hatch no matter
what happens, but it also allows you to live, work, and go to
school in another country and gives you the ability to travel
and increase your personal freedom.
 The Origin of Passports
Passports used to be a simple tool of convenience. Rulers
would give their subjects a set of papers to show to another
ruler asking for their safe passage. One of the earliest
‘passports’ was mentioned in Nehemiah in the Old
Testament. Nehemiah was essentially a diplomat for King
Artaxerxes on his way to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Upon his request to leave the kingdom, Artaxerxes gave
Nehemiah a letter requesting safe passage from other rulers
on his way to Judea.
In those days, passports were of a different nature.
Rather than functioning as a document that determined
whether a person could leave their country, they were
requests from one king to the next soliciting safe passage
for the individual in question through the foreign territory.
Nehemiah received papers from his king requesting
“governors of the province beyond the river” to grant him
safe passage.
This letter, which came to be known as Safe Conduct,
was the beginning of a tradition extending across centuries.
The earliest true passport was authorized by the British
Parliament, starting with the Safe Conduct Act under Henry
V and becoming more common in the 16th century. Back
then, wandering around random lands as a foreigner could
pose a great liability – you know, savages and all – so the
Brits issued their citizens documents to prove their
nationality should they decide to head farther afield.
Not all kingdoms were so open-minded. The Holy Roman
Empire used the Diet of Augsburg to exile citizens who left
the empire without proper travel documents. Medieval
Europe issued scraps of paper to residents that listed the
names of other towns they were allowed to pass through,
however this only applied to entering the city walls. Traders
were allowed to enter via sea, as ports were considered
trading hubs and business travel was encouraged.
Today, business travel is encouraged only among certain
countries, which is one reason to obtain a second passport.
Nonetheless, very few circumstances actually used to exist
by which overseas travelers were required to prove their
identity or nationality when they arrived. While you might
have been subject to whatever risks existed in a foreign
land, it was not as if you had to show proper identification
when you landed at LAX. Back in those days, you just
showed up.
Now, passports are just another form of government
identification. Yet, as important a document as it is, the
quality of your passport is often determined by a genetic
lottery. And if your government takes yours away, your right
to travel will be removed entirely. That is why it is important
to have a second passport.
Obtaining another citizenship is all about diversification.
In a sense, it is an insurance policy. It also happens to be
pretty cool, which is why I caution people to remember why
they want one (for some people, ‘it’s cool’ is reason
enough). While worldwide taxation, lack of freedom to
invest, and freedom of travel (even US citizens cannot visit
places like Brazil without a visa) are the main reasons to
diversify away from one country, there are other reasons,
too.
In one example of the rule of (possibly) unintended
consequences, the US government created a law called
FATCA which requires all foreign banks and brokerages to
report accounts held by US citizens to the US Treasury
Department. Ostensibly, the law was designed to stop tax
evasion by hiding money overseas. The end result was that
foreign banks found the paperwork and procedures so
laborious that many just threw their hands up in the air and
said, “Screw it!”
Rather than deal with the nonsense, banks just stopped
accepting US citizens, greatly limiting their financial options.
These days, so many banks have shut the door to US
persons that not being able to open a decent offshore bank
account is a constant worry of many Americans.
US citizens are also forbidden to do business with a
laundry list of foreign countries, citizens, companies, and
charities that their government considers to be up to no
good. An agency called OFAC keeps a byzantine list of these
organizations that totals 2MB just in text format. That
means that US citizens are shut out from certain business
deals because of OFAC. In similar fashion, Israeli companies
are unwelcome in certain parts of the world. All of these
restrictions lead to fewer economic opportunities for those
of us unfortunate enough to be born with a certain
citizenship. In this way, your passport can be your albatross.
Having a second passport can help solve this problem.
While merely being a dual national does not always solve
the problem, it gives you options. You may think that if
having one passport could hold you back, having two or
more must mean you are really screwed. In reality, it does
not work that way.
I liken having more than one passport to the trick most
young children use to get what they want. When an eight-
year-old wants something, he will ask the parent he thinks is
more likely to approve the request. If mommy says no, he
will ask daddy in hopes that daddy will say yes. If you have
two passports, you can play the sovereign country
equivalent of the mommy-daddy game within limits.
With only one passport, that one country is in charge.
They can decide to take your assets or throw you in jail.
They can do this because you technically have nowhere else
to go; no other country has to let you in or provide you with
assistance.
This happened recently during the Arab Spring when
well-prepared citizens had second residency and citizenship
in another country, allowing them to leave Egypt or Syria
and head for greener pastures. Those that did not have
another passport were essentially sitting ducks at a time
when no developed country was eager to take in fleeing
Egyptians, even as tourists.
While you may think that madness of that nature is
confined to the Middle East, I look at the problems that
unfolded in the Arab Spring as possible anywhere. They say
that bankruptcy happens slowly and then all at once; sticky
situations like the Arab Spring happen the same way. Most
people are not aware of what is bubbling beneath the
surface until it is too late.
It is comfortable to think “Oh, that would never happen
here,” but I suppose that even most people in secular Egypt
felt that way… until they didn’t. The fact that a few
European leaders suggested revoking visa-free travel for US
and Canadian citizens in retaliation for their refusal to allow
all European Union citizens to visit them visa-free shows you
that nothing is off the table in the world we live in today.
When it comes to smart diversification, I often look to
Chinese culture. I have met so many smart and pragmatic
people during my times in China; their outlook on
diversification mirrors that of Nomad Capitalists. One of my
favorite stories was from a young man’s grandfather who
told him to, “Always have a second set of papers and some
gold coins in a fast junk in the harbor.”
Although I cannot remember how to tie a knot, pitch a
tent or shoot a bow and arrow, I do remember one thing as
an Eagle Scout: be prepared. That is why I call a second
passport ‘citizenship insurance;’ you may hope you never
need it, but you will be prepared if you do.
So let’s get specific. Why would you consider a second
passport?
 Citizenship Insurance Benefits
For one thing, having more than one passport means that
you always have a place to go. If you are a US citizen and
think things might get bad, being able to live in Panama
whenever you want, without fear of being turned away, is a
good thing to have.
I am not one to insist that UN tanks are coming to lock
you away in a FEMA camp, but there may come a time when
you simply do not feel safe in your home country. Sadly, the
mass shootings and terrorist attacks in the US and parts of
Europe could make the case that these countries are
already unsafe. In just one example, murders in Chicago
have outpaced US military deaths in Afghanistan by more
than three-to-one since 2001.
Should you decide to leave, it is possible that your home
country could cancel your passport while you are abroad.
Some governments have done this after accusing expats of
siding with unsavory political characters. Not paying your
taxes can also be a way to get your passport yanked, even if
you were not aware that you owed taxes.
On much the same page, some nationalities are already
unwelcome as a result of how the world views them.
Carrying a US passport is not the best of ideas in certain
places. If you had a choice between traveling as a US citizen
or a Swiss citizen, you might well choose to be Swiss,
especially in sensitive parts of the world. The same goes for
Israelis who are unwelcome in countries as tame as
Malaysia.
Buying an insurance policy is never fun; who wants to
talk about a head-on collision? But protecting yourself from
one, both personally and financially, is important if you drive
a car. The same goes for citizenship insurance.
 But enough of the negativity; what about the positive
benefits of second citizenship?
 Real Estate Investment Benefits
Citizenship often grants exclusive rights within a country.
In many Asian countries, this means the ability to invest. In
fact, outside of the Americas and Western Europe, most
countries restrict foreign ownership of certain businesses,
land, and even first floor apartments. If you have a
passport, you are able to invest in the best, most profitable
areas in a country.
When I was in Laos, for example, I met a young real
estate broker named Alika who had started buying up land
near the edge of the city center when she was 22 years old.
Her family had a moderately successful business and had
ascended to the middle class. Now, she wanted to take
things to the next level.
Alika showed me several deals she had done where her
real estate investments turned out to be highly profitable
speculation thanks to developers who swooped in to buy her
land as little as a few months after she bought it. A $5,000
piece of land was sold for $12,000 less than a year later,
while larger parcels saw similar gains. Alika was making
tens of thousands of dollars through little more than
throwing a dart at the wall. Of course, dart throwing is not
much of an investment strategy. Alika’s winning strategy
was actually in her genes: she was Laotian.
Foreigners are not able to own land in Laos, which is one
of the five remaining officially communist countries in the
world. Like China, Laos has opened up to free market forces,
but you are not welcome to invest unless you carry a Laos
passport. Even if you prefer free markets, it is hard to argue
with the built-in advantage of being able to buy up the best
lands at a discount because wealthy foreigners are kept at
bay. Someday, Laos is likely to ease foreign ownership
restrictions – such is the direction of the world – and Alika
will make a killing on whatever land inventory she owns.
At first glance, it is hard to believe that holding a Laotian
passport would add much value; visa-free travel on one gets
you into a mere 47 countries. Outside of Southeast Asia’s
ASEAN economic area, your best travel options include
Ecuador, Iran, and Tanzania. However, a Laos passport is
very useful as a way to cash in on the country’s
development.
If Laos feels a bit premature – no doubt, the bad Wi-Fi
there alone indicates it has a way to go – consider
Cambodia next door. Like the expat-friendly Philippines,
Cambodia allows foreigners to invest in apartments, but not
ground floor apartments or homes. My friend, Reid
Kirchenbauer, runs a boutique investment fund in Phnom
Penh and does very, very well, but I imagine he could do
even better if he could own commercial property or land.
In fact, a while back, there was talk of a quasi-legitimate
Cambodian passport whereby foreigners could donate
$60,000 to the government in exchange for citizenship.
Some US citizens I know told me this would be their
citizenship insurance policy; I told them they were crazy.
Traveling on a Cambodian passport would elicit plenty of
unnecessary scrutiny. What the government was really
selling, I told them, was a ticket to invest in otherwise
inaccessible property. The only advantage Cambodian,
Filipino, or Laotian citizens hold that stops foreigners from
scooping up all their land is a travel document. If the
government made that available to foreigners, there would
be plenty of profit to be made.
 Business Investment Benefits
Another reason to obtain a second passport is to gain
access to business and other investment opportunities that
are unavailable to foreigners. It is not uncommon for Israeli
citizens to obtain second citizenships in order to do business
in Muslim majority countries. There is plenty of money to be
made in Malaysia or Indonesia where Israelis are banned
from entering, motivating many to get a second passport
that will allow them in the country.
There is also plenty of money to be made in countries
like the United Arab Emirates where Israelis are allowed
entry but may be uncomfortable as Jews. Having another
passport gives them an opportunity to sell their goods
without intermediaries such as Cyprus getting involved.
In other situations, you cannot have access to certain
opportunities unless you at least have a second residency in
the country. Peer-to-peer lending services in the United
States do alright, but for my money, Twino in the European
Union is much more attractive. Twino offers yields starting at
12% for buying consumer paper, and in most cases
guarantees repayment. It is easy for them to do when some
of these short-term loans are billed out at 40%; then again,
they are doing all the work. The downside is that you cannot
use Twino unless you are a resident of certain European
Union countries. Similar crowd equity and crowd debt
services require you to be a citizen of those countries as
well.
Then there is the issue of restrictions based on the
citizenship that you do have, not the one that you are
lacking. The United States has made a big deal out of
‘protecting’ its investors by shutting off access to the
majority of the world’s mutual funds. There are ways to get
access to these funds through offshore banks and
brokerages, but to get full access to some of the best stock,
real estate, and private equity deals, you cannot be a US
citizen.
Another disadvantage for American businesspeople is
that it can affect your relationships (or potential for
relationships) with foreign business partners. Just by being
American you have an increased chance of being rejected
by banks or being refused a loan. Certain companies may
not want to work with you altogether, meaning that any
foreign business partner you may have will be taking on a
built-in risk to their business by working with you. This can
decrease your chances of finding and working with the best
business partners. This is an issue you can fix with a second
passport.
Having a second passport can also ensure that you
always have access to countries of interest. I had already
planned a trip to Turkey when the United States and Turkey
mutually denied visa services. Thankfully, I had a second
passport with me and was able to enter Turkey as a citizen
of another country. I was able to spend a lovely day in the
country avoiding any problems that would have presented
themselves to an American traveler.
Imagine if you needed access to a country for business
purposes and your plans were derailed because your visa
privileges were waived due to an international
disagreement? Having visa-free access to Turkey taken
away is a big deal for many business people with
connections in Istanbul. Having a second passport bypasses
these issues and allows you to change your identity so that
you can be the type of citizen that best serves your
purposes.
 Tax Benefits
And then there are the taxes. Ever since there was
citizenship, rulers used it to assess taxes from the
beneficiaries of such citizenship. In the medieval Islamic
Caliphate, passports were issued as a receipt for taxes paid.
If you failed to pay the zakat, you were not allowed to
travel.
We will cover all of the ways to legally reduce or
eliminate your tax bill later, but when it comes to
citizenship, two countries’ flocks are at a significant
disadvantage. One of these countries is a former war-torn
breakaway state on the Horn of Africa. The other is the
United States.
Nestled in between the romantic vacation spots of Sudan
and Djibouti, and a stone’s throw from Somalia, the Eastern
African republic of Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1961,
but spent thirty years fighting a bloody war for
independence, then spent more years fighting in the late
1990s. Some borders are still a source of conflict, and small
battles are still being waged.
With a GDP per capita of about $600, it is easy to
imagine that Eritrea was not exactly flush with cash to pay
its war tab that exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars. To
pay the bill, the Eritrean government had a brilliant idea:
impose a 2% tax on the Eritreans who had long gotten the
hell out.
Many of the taxi drivers in San Diego, California are
Eritrean citizens and, in a rare sense of camaraderie, are
able to talk about the so-called ‘diaspora tax’ that they are
subjected to with citizens from the only other country on
earth that demands payment, even if you do not live there:
the United States.
 By virtue only of their passport, US citizens are required
to pay tax on their worldwide income. In other words, no
matter where you live or where your income is sourced, if
you are a US citizen you must pay taxes on that income to
the United States. This concept, known as citizenship based
taxation, was more widely practiced in the past by primarily
(then-) communist countries like the Soviet Union, Romania,
and Vietnam. Nowadays, only two countries have the gall to
make such a demand of their citizens: the US and Eritrea.
For some odd reason, though, a lot more people are
afraid of Washington than they are of Eritrea. The Eritrean
taxi drivers I have met have not seem too concerned about
paying the 2% tax. Even if they do, well, it is 2%. Who cares,
right? US citizens, on the other hand, are liable to pay tax
on everything, at full market rates. That is where a second
passport comes in.
Let’s say you are an employee living and working for a
company in Dubai, earning a salary of $250,000. Dubai does
not impose an income tax, so if you were anything but
American, you would be off scot free because no other
country taxes you once you move out. As a US citizen, after
certain exemptions that we will discuss later in the tax
section of this book, it is possible you would still pay as
much as $60,000 in various taxes on your salary, even if
you never set foot back in the United States.
That’s $60,000 this year, next year, and the year after
that. After ten years, you would have paid $600,000, not to
mention the opportunity cost of not being able to reinvest
that money. The same goes for investors. Passive income,
such as that from real estate investments, is only exempted
if you pay tax overseas, meaning your entire rental portfolio
or stock trading activity could be taxed from the first dollar.
Now here is the news you may not want to hear: the only
way to get around all of these restrictions – the taxes, the
bank account reporting, the FCPA, OFAC, etc. – is to
renounce your US citizenship. That is where a second
passport comes in, but only to an extent. You can be a
citizen of the United States and 99 other countries, but so
long as you are a US citizen, you will be subject to their
laws. Think of it like the Spanish language rule that states
that a group of one dude and 99 women will be referred to
with the masculine tense, only in this case, if you have 99
other passports and one US passport, you lose money and
freedom.
One of the top reasons for having a second passport
today is as an escape hatch from current or future tax
burdens. It may not be ‘patriotic’ according to politicians,
but it is your money, and it is not nice of them to insist on
taking it just because you carry their passport. If you are not
benefiting from the roads, the schools, or the beloved
airport security of the United States, why pay?

How to Obtain a Second

Passport
So how do you get a second passport? I thought you
would never ask! There are four ways to do it. Let’s take a
quick look at all of them and then dive into each one
individually. The four methods are:

• The “Lucky Sperm Club” Method: One of my

friends is a Swiss and German dual national by birth. She
has the best of both worlds; the best EU passport with all
of the benefits of EU citizenship, and one of the best non-
EU passports from a country whose motto is ‘Don’t piss
anyone off.’ Not everyone is so lucky. However, even if you
were not born with a “silver passport” in your mouth,
there are other ways to take advantage of your family tree
to obtain a second passport via your lineage. This
particular method is also known as citizenship by
descent.

• The “Sit Back and Relax” Method: This is the

method you are probably most familiar with. Whenever
you see a group lined up like followers at a Sun Myung
Moon service to become naturalized US citizens, that is
the Sit Back and Relax method. Those folks started off as
temporary residents of the United States, then became
permanent residents and, after biding enough time,
became eligible for naturalization upon meeting certain
conditions. You can become a naturalized citizen of
another country as well. The good news is that many
countries do not require that you live on their soil full-time
to qualify for naturalization. That, and the lower cost of
this approach, make it the most popular method for many
passport seekers.

• The “Pay your Way In” Method: If sitting back

and waiting is not your thing, you can speed up the
process for a fee. While countries like the United States or
Norway are not so gauche and uncivilized to just hand
over a passport in exchange for a bag of cash, other
countries are not repulsed by the idea. It is possible to
gain citizenship in as little as two to three months by
making a donation or large investment to a country that
allows it. This method is also known as citizenship by
investment or economic citizenship.

• The “Fonzie” Method: Are you cool enough to

have the President of a small country recognize your
skills? If you are a star athlete, artist, or even an investor,
there are countries where the President or congress can
waive naturalization requirements just for you. This
method is also known as exceptional citizenship.
 The “Lucky Sperm Club” Method
If you are fortunate enough to have relatives from certain
countries, your days of passport seeking may be relatively
short. As mentioned, the formal name for this process is
‘citizenship by descent’ and involves obtaining citizenship
through your family tree. The idea is that if a family member
had citizenship, but you do not, you have been deprived of
your rights to citizenship and should be able to reclaim
them.
Sadly, the process is not always easy, and Byzantine
rules often make it hard to even find out if you qualify. As
opposed to the other methods of obtaining citizenship –
where qualifying is easy and the process is hard – qualifying
for an ancestral passport is quite easy once you have waded
through a swamp of bureaucracy that can often take years.
As obvious as it sounds, the easiest place to look is to
your parents, as most countries automatically grant
citizenship to children, including adopted ones. However, I
have known some US citizens who had one Canadian parent
and had never applied for Canadian citizenship. Ditto with
jolly ‘ole England. If one of your parents has a different
citizenship, you can probably get it as well, unless that
country (or your existing one) forbids dual nationality.
If your parents do not yield any assistance, the next step
is to check your grandparents and great-grandparents. Most
countries allow you to go back two generations and
occasionally three. Others allow you to go back to a certain
event, such as the founding of Lithuania as a country in its
current form. If you have an ancestor that left Lithuania
after 1940 and never gave up their Lithuanian citizenship,
you qualify to be Lithuanian. Ditto for Italy after 1918.
As of 2018, Ireland, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Greece,
Romania, and Latvia all allow individuals with grandparents
to apply for citizenship on the strict basis of being within
two generations of one of their citizens. These programs do
not always last forever, though, meaning that this list will
likely change.
Most citizenship by descent programs are in European
countries, perhaps for the reason that all European
countries award citizenship ‘of the blood’ rather than ‘of the
soil.’ As part of the Old World, they believe your family
should be the source of your citizenship; that is why children
born in Europe to foreigners do not become European
citizens the way children born in the US or Canada become
citizens based on their birthplace, hence ‘of the soil.’
However, if your ancestry is of New World stock, there is
one option. Spain made a one-time offer to Sephardic Jews
to come back and claim citizenship for their exiled
ancestors, but also allows natural-born citizens of Hispanic
countries to apply for Spanish citizenship if they live there
for two years. If you are a natural born citizen of a Spanish-
speaking Central or South American country, or the
Philippines, chances are you qualify to gain residence in
Spain and then to apply for a Spanish passport.
While the process is easy, do not bother. Living in Spain
might be romantic, but you will be subject to Spanish tax for
the two years you are there. To make matters worse, the
people I know who have followed this route have lived there
for two years, then needed another two years just to get an
appointment, then almost another two years for the
citizenship to be approved. In those six years, you could
have obtained another European citizenship – or many
others – in a more advantageous place.
Therein lies the challenge of citizenship by descent:
money versus time. If you have all the time in the world and
obtaining Italian citizenship will help you feel closer to Uncle
Giuseppe, by all means do it. I feel closest to my Norwegian
and Lithuanian heritage and would be proud to have these
passports, so I get the hobby aspect of it. But if you are
seeking a second citizenship for economic reasons, you will
probably be better served finding an alternative method.
Even if you hire a local on the ground in that country to help
you, you will still be doing a lot of the work in most cases –
and all of the waiting.
That is, unless your grandfather’s name started with “O’”
or “Mc”. Ireland has a very open policy of granting
citizenship to those whose family tree includes ancestors
from the country. In fact, there are 10 million non-resident
Irish passport holders taking advantage of dual citizenship
from the Emerald Isle. Best of all, the process is the most
efficient citizenship by descent program on the market. You
simply need to find your ancestors’ records in the Birth
Register and fill out some forms.
There is one twist on the Lucky Sperm Club that anyone
can take advantage of: having a child overseas. As I write
this, 31 countries grant instant citizenship to babies born on
their soil, hence the citizenship of the soil or ‘jus soli’
mentioned earlier. The United States and Canada have long
been targeted by foreign mothers-to-be as a place to give
birth to an American or Canadian child. For them, giving
their child such an opportunity would set them up for life.
Since the people I work with are trying to escape
bankrupt, high-tax, anti-privacy countries like the United
States and Canada, the other 29 countries are of particular
interest. We will talk more about them in Chapter Five.
 The “Sit Back and Relax” Method
For most people, the most cost-efficient and
straightforward way to obtain a second citizenship is by first
obtaining residency in another country. This can help your
business in many ways, including by reducing taxes.
Obtaining residency also gives you quick access to a place
you can go if you ever need to bug out and leave your
current location in the event of an emergency. And, on a
happier level, you can take as many vacations as you want
to this country without being asked why you are there.
Most of us are used to the old school way of
naturalization: move to a new country, put all your eggs in
that basket, pay taxes, learn the language, and wait. There
is nothing wrong with that, and a lot of people are still doing
it. Back in the 1990’s, my parents planned to move to New
Zealand in much the same way; leave a few bucks in US
banks but sell the house, the cars, and the furniture and
move everything to New Zealand.
This approach is no longer necessary. All you achieve by
moving to another country and putting all of your eggs into
their basket is a new location in which you remain
undiversified. If you want true diversification, there are a
good deal of countries that allow you to turn an ordinary
residence permit into citizenship after a period of time
through naturalization. And you can do all this while
spending as little as one day a year there, exempting you
from the tax obligations that would come if you were to
move your whole life to the new country.
In 2012, Panama unveiled its Friendly Nations Program,
which currently allows citizens of fifty countries to become
an instant permanent resident by tossing $5,000 into a
Panamanian bank account and paying lip service to doing
business or investing there. The residence permit requires
only one or two days in the country each year to remain
active. If you meet the requirement, you will be eligible to
apply for citizenship after five years. That means you could
ostensibly become a citizen of a country in which you have
spent the equivalent of an extended weekend vacation.
If you do not mind roughing it a bit more, the South
American nation of Paraguay allows you to become a citizen
after three years, with a requirement to spend just one day
per year in the country. You will need to learn some Spanish
and have knowledge of Paraguayan culture, but that is
about it. The country has been an open nation to
immigrants for as long as anyone can remember and is
happy to accept westerners with open arms. Sadly,
Paraguay had a scandal that rocked their immigration
system a few years back, so they will likely scrutinize
citizenship applications with much more caution in the
future.
Whether you prefer Latin America or Europe, there are a
number of options that allow you to spend anywhere from
one day to a few months a year there and maintain
eligibility for citizenship. (African and Asian countries do not
generally naturalize foreigners, at least with any ease.)
Outside of the European Union, it is often possible to live in
these countries part-time and avoid paying much, if any,
tax. A few other countries, like Montenegro, may tax you as
a resident, but at the minimal rate of 9%.
If you want a European Union passport, the stakes will be
higher. I generally only recommend that a western citizen
immigrate to an EU country for one of two reasons: one
being to eventually obtain an equally good passport if they
plan to renounce US citizenship, the other being for the
ability to live and work in Europe’s borderless Schengen
Area.
 A European Union passport is quite the perk because you
are not tethered to the country that issues it. If you can get
a Spanish passport, you can leave Spain, stop paying tax,
and move to any other EU country without the limitations of
a tourist visa. For those of us from the New World who are
thrilled by the idea of whisking our way through the Swiss
Alps, the romantic streets of Paris, and the not so romantic
streets of Bratislava, being able to live in Europe for more
than 90 days at a time would be a dream come true.
However, most of tourist-friendly Europe is flat broke and
they are not about to let a bunch of people move in and
become citizens of their country without making them
cough up some tax payments along the way. While it is
possible to obtain second citizenship in European countries
like Belgium or Ireland, you will find it far easier and less
costly to start the process with places like Serbia, Georgia,
Colombia or Armenia. You might scoff at these countries as
being subpar, but it is countries of this ‘second tier’ that are
often the best hope for an entrepreneur or investor looking
to keep costs and obligations to a minimum.
The second tier is greatly underrated in my opinion.
Consider that Mexican citizens can go just about
everywhere of significance that US citizens can, with the
exception of two countries: the United States and Canada.
Mexicans can go almost everywhere, but with the added
benefit that Mexico is not demanding that foreign banks spy
on Mexican citizens. For my money, I would much rather be
Mexican than American, given the trade-offs.
The European Union, on the other hand, is a great place
to get a second citizenship if you are willing to do some
work for it. Unlike the developed English speaking countries,
you may not even need to live there full-time; compared to
the nine months a year you have to spend in Canada to
become a citizen, even six months in a European country
(that would not know if you slipped across the border)
seems like a fair deal. But compared to the one day a year
requirement in places like Panama, Europe even looks less
desirable.
The Perks of “Second Tier” Citizenship
Before we get any further, let me warn you against the
notion of seeking citizenship or even residency in the United
States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. The
requirements to get in are strict, the taxpaying
requirements are high, and the marginal benefit you get in
return over even a second tier passport is surprisingly small.
Instead, I would urge you to consider these second tier
passports from countries that you may have never heard of
before. The fact that you have never heard of these
countries is one reason to pursue the passports they provide
because it means that they are under the radar. The United
States is constantly in the news for spying on its citizens
and doing all sorts of other crazy stuff. Second tier passport
countries create less fuss. Walk into a bank and tell them
you are Georgian and they will not give it a second thought.
Tell them you are a US citizen and they may well shoo you
out the door. Citizenship in a relatively anonymous country
can come in handy for all of the reasons you are seeking a
second citizenship in the first place.
As a diversification play, being British and getting Belgian
citizenship is a lateral move – few new benefits, but all of
the same problems. On the other hand, being American and
becoming Paraguayan is real diversification; you get visa-
free travel to most of the same countries, plus some new
ones, no tax obligations, and the anonymity of being from a
place few people could spell, let alone find on a map.
As a safe haven, the countries in the world like Paraguay
are perfect for western citizens who want a second passport
as insurance from high taxes, tough regulations, and
general government craziness. For Chinese citizens who
cannot go anywhere with their passport, paying some tax to
live in London is not much of a price to pay to escape
tainted beef and sucking down the equivalent of a coal
factory into the old lungs every day. The right second
passport depends greatly on the citizenship you already
hold.
For most Nomad Capitalists, second tier passports are an
excellent fit. They fall right in the middle of the passport
scale, where the US, UK, and Europe are first tier passport
countries and most of Africa and emerging Asia offer third
tier passports. The first tier countries come with a lot of
responsibilities, but excellent travel privileges. The third tier
countries do not offer much travel, even if you are willing to
wait in visa lines, but you probably do not have to worry
about the Cambodian government reading your emails after
you skip town.
The happy middle ground is the second tier passport,
which includes the aforementioned countries and a whole
host of others. You would not know it listening to Fox News,
but we have already seen that Mexico actually has one of
the best passports on earth. Mexican citizens can go
everywhere in Europe, Central and South America, both
developed and emerging Asia, and even Australia and New
Zealand visa-free. The only substantial difference between a
Mexican passport and a US passport is the ability to visit the
US and Canada. As a second passport, Mexico is practically
the gold standard: developed world visa-free travel with
minimal nonsense.
Even El Salvador, currently the poorest country in the
Americas, gets visa-free travel to everywhere in Europe
except the UK and Ireland. The passport of a country that
restaurant owners in Mexico look to for dishwashers is 80%
as good as that of your first world passport. For those who
want to use the Sit Back and Relax method, the trick is
finding a country like this that you either want to live in
part- or full-time, or one that does not require you to live
there much at all.
If you could spend a month or two a year in a second tier
country like Montenegro or Georgia or Mexico to work
toward citizenship, why not? These countries have beautiful
beaches and stunning mountains that attract tourists from
around the region. They would be great places to live for
part of the year, although most will not require that you
spend much time there to qualify for naturalization.
I do recommend putting in a little more time than one
day a year – you want to look serious when you apply – but
by spending the majority of your time out of a country, you
can generally avoid any requirements to pay tax there. Any
committed Nomad Capitalist will be able to find a country
that they would be happy to visit every once in a while as
they, quite literally, sit back and relax and earn their new
citizenship.
The Challenges of Naturalization
Note that going where you’re treated best does not
necessarily mean having the best. While the best passport
on earth is – depending on which standard you apply –
German or Finnish, having ‘the best passport’ is less of a
concern than having the best experience that gets you to
the goal of a second citizenship. Moving to Germany for
eight years is not worth the payoff for most of us.
There are several challenges with seeking naturalization.
The first of these is the time risk; the risk that some
politician will decide to change the laws either in letter or in
spirit. I know a couple that has lived in Panama for fifteen
years (ten years longer than the stated requirement for
citizenship), yet their naturalization request remains on the
President’s desk, unsigned.
The government can change the rules at any time, from
lengthening the number of years before you can apply, to
requiring you to learn the language, to practically whatever
they want. Then there is the de facto rejections such as my
friends’ experience in Panama, where nothing changed, but
bureaucrats have decided to sit on their hands rather than
issue formal denials. That is why, as with any other aspect
of a Nomad Capitalist strategy, it is important to find a
trustworthy country to which you can hitch your citizenship
wagon.
My experience with lawyers in Latin America has been
rather underwhelming. I do work with several good lawyers
there, but if you try and find one without a lot of trial and
error, you will probably do poorly. I flew to El Salvador to
meet with a lawyer I had known for a while and he could
barely be bothered to show up to get started. Then, he
literally could not handle the trouble of taking my money.
On another occasion, I learned that the first lesson of
doing business in Latin countries is to never pay more than
asked. While that sounds obvious, many lawyers will ask
you to pay half upfront and half when the work is done.
Quite frankly, I find this to be a deterrent to the client
because they are less invested in the process; the lawyer
cannot finish the work without the client’s cooperation.
Not wanting to send two wire transfers, I paid a
Nicaraguan lawyer in full upfront, only to hear nothing but
blustering and accusations when I asked what was
happening. It was the one time I gave up on a process and
cut my losses. My Nicaraguan friends told me that the
lawyer would have actually been motivated had the carrot
of more greenbacks been dangling over his head.
 You can see why, as a guy who does this stuff, I decided
to hang out a shingle and help a few people figure out which
passport program is best for them, and how to do it. Dealing
with lawyers on the other side of the world can be
confusing.
How to Avoid Naturalization Scams
And then there is the issue of scams. The term ‘second
passport’ is a bit of a misnomer because, while having the
actual travel document itself is important, it is the
underlying citizenship that matters most. And there are all
too many people who are willing to take illegal measures
just to become a citizen of another country.
Walk outside of the immigration offices in Chisinau,
Moldova, and you are sure to find ‘fixers’ willing to dummy
up some papers that make you look Romanian for about
$1,500. This practice started when Romania joined the
European Union and offered citizenship to Moldovans with
Romanian ancestors. Considering that Moldova was a part of
Romania until the mid-20th century, almost all Moldovans
qualify. And, since Moldova is the poorest country in Europe,
the number of people interested in the privileges of EU
citizenship via Romania is also almost all Moldovans.
Now, Moldova may be known for many inexpensive
things – including fantastic $15 bottles of wine – but
considering the price tag for even the cheapest economic
passports, $1,500 is too cheap to be legitimate. Add to that
the fact that Moldova is not known for stringent regulations
and the probability of a scam goes up.
You would think that a country where almost anything
goes would not be the unhappiest country in the world, but
somehow it is. And that means that the same person who
will help an ethnic Romanian find his grandfather’s birth
certificate might also help a blond-haired, blue-eyed, never-
believable-as-a-Romanian guy like me fake some papers. Do
not be tempted, though. This is clearly a bad idea. These
types of scams never end up well and could subject you to
fraud charges and potentially time in jail.
Even if you are not planning on trolling outside of
Moldovan government buildings in the hopes of obtaining
fake birth certificates, the risk of scams is still real. If getting
Panamanian citizenship in five years is a deal worth going
for, then getting it in five weeks must be amazing… right?
No deal. The internet is littered with illegitimate
organizations offering to speed up the citizenship process,
not only in countries that do offer programs but also in
places where citizenship is not even possible.
One website proclaims that “If it’s really urgent, your
Panama passport can be rushed within six weeks.” How do
you think the same government that takes a year to issue a
permit to replace a toilet can give someone a citizenship so
quickly? With someone on the inside, of course. An entire
cottage industry exists where dudes in aviator sunglasses
(do scammy dudes wear anything else?) work with corrupt
bureaucrats to get blank passports left on the remainder
tray that they can then snatch up and slap on anyone’s
photo.
Good luck trying to use this to actually travel anywhere,
and heaven forbid you renounce your US citizenship
confident in that Venezuelan passport you got without even
going there – unless the idea of a Caracas prison sounds
good to you. So what do you do if you want a fast second
passport but do not want to bribe a prison guard for a fresh
arepa? You pay up.
 The “Pay your Way In” Method
In a small but growing number of largely tax-friendly,
leave-you-alone type of countries, there is a legal market for
citizenship that you can buy and obtain in as little as two
months. Economic citizenship – also knowns as citizenship
by investment – is the practice whereby wealthy foreigners
exchange cash for passports.
The modern-day version of economic citizenship began in
1984 when the two-island Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and
Nevis decided to offer a fast track to citizenship to those
willing to make an investment in the country. For years, they
were one of the only games in town, but more recently, a
whole new crop of countries has started offering citizenship
in wake of the financial crisis.
Interestingly, even as supply has increased as more
countries begin to offer economic citizenship, the prices
have gone up. There are so many wealthy people in
emerging markets tired of waiting in visa lines to go to
Europe that supply cannot keep up with demand.
Conversely, some countries have shut their programs
down under pressure from big western governments that
resent such programs. The English-speaking Central
American nation of Belize, whose banks and government
have long been a punching bag for the US government,
used to offer Belizean citizenship for a mere $40,000 until
the early 2000s. After 9/11, the US government applied
pressure on them to stop the practice.
While $40,000 was a relatively normal price at the time,
by today’s standards it was downright cheap; the right to
live full-time on various Caribbean islands tax-free, and to
spend up to 180 days per year in London, was an enviable
proposition at that price. An even sweeter deal was in Peru.
A 1993 article in the New York Times spoke of the South
American country’s hush hush practice of offering Peruvian
nationality for a mere $25,000. Again, the deal might have
been more attractive as a lark back then, but by today’s
standards it would have been a solid growth investment. In
2015, Peruvians were granted visa-free access to the
European Union, and the growing Mercosur Union in South
America makes citizenship there even more attractive.
Today, more people than ever are looking at having a
second passport, but the conditions for approval are getting
tighter and the price tag is getting higher. At the time I
received my Comoros passport, it was far and away the
cheapest offer at a mere $45,000. But I would not
recommend Comorian citizenship to most people. My
purposes in obtaining a passport from the Comoros Islands
were unique. I do not suggest that anyone renounce their
US citizenship having the Comorian passport as their only
other travel document, no matter how much tax they were
paying.
The Comoros Islands does, however, offer excellent visa-
free access to parts of Asia that some other mediocre
passports do not, and I suspect that the African Union will
expand the ability to visit all 54 countries there from just
diplomats to ordinary passport holders within the next few
years. If you are like me and want to visit every country on
earth Jim Rogers style, having an African passport will save
you a lot of time otherwise spent in visa offices.
If being the citizen of an Arabic country with rather poor
travel opportunities does not sound like the kind of
diversification you are looking for, then Dominica — a
Caribbean island without the annoying distraction of
beaches — is the next cheapest at $100,000. I initially tried
the Dominica process, but being outside of my country of
birth made the process more challenging. I learned from
that experience that it is often better to start and complete
the economic passport process before you leave your home
country.
The decision you have to make when considering the
more stable economic citizenship programs is whether you
want to merely donate money to a government fund that
helps sugar farmers or other development projects, or
whether you want to invest that money and potentially see
it again someday. In many cases, the investments offered
are pretty weak and it is better to make the donation. That
means that anyone seriously looking at economic
citizenship as a true second passport should be ready to
shell out at least $100,000 plus legal fees. Quite frankly, I
do not see any significant difference between this and the
higher level Caribbean citizenships that can cost two or
three times the price, other than the ability to buy run-down
‘approved’ real estate.
You can spend or invest even more – around $1 million in
Malta, for instance – to get European Union citizenship in
about one year. However, just as everything else about the
EU is more bureaucratic, so is their citizenship by
investment process. It is worth considering if your current
passport is of poor quality, but even then there might be
better ways to go about it. Unless, that is, you are a Chinese
citizen and merely trying to impress your friends back on
the mainland.
But as far as citizenship by investment is concerned, you
can pay as little as $100,000 to buy a get out of jail free
card from one of two things: paying taxes in your home
country by giving up your current citizenship, or living in
your home country whose passport gives you limited travel
options.
There is nothing illegal or even immoral about doing this;
Tina Turner recently rescinded her US citizenship when she
was granted Swiss citizenship. The big media event, though,
was Eduardo Saverin, who was born in Brazil and
naturalized as a US citizen at a young age. Saverin gave up
his US citizenship after paying a boat load in taxes, but
before paying an even bigger boat load in taxes.
Of course, typical politicians like Chuck Schumer did not
like Saverin’s choice and branded him a ‘traitor,’ but hey,
the guy was not even born in the United States. And why
pay hundreds of millions of dollars in capital gains taxes to a
country you do not live in when all you want to do is make
investments and pick up Asian girls at exclusive clubs in
Singapore?
Eduardo Saverin already had Brazilian citizenship to fall
back on, but if you do not, a passport from Dominica
followed by renouncing your country’s citizenship could
absolve you of future taxes earned from your business, your
job, or your investments. I know guys working far from
home, making $1 million a year who still have to pay
$400,000 of those earnings to the United States. If that
sounds like you, the ROI on an economic citizenship could
be excellent.
 The “Fonzie” Method
But what if you are not part of a lucky family tree, do not
want to wait, and do not have at least $100K burning a hole
in your pocket?
Just ask Sergiu Toma.
While Toma has a law degree, his true passion is judo. In
fact, he has appeared at three Olympic games, including the
2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro where he proudly
represented the United Arab Emirates. He ultimately won
the bronze medal in the 81-kilogram judo contest, earning
the Emirates their second Olympic medal in history.
If Sergiu does not sound like an Arab name, that is
because it is not. Sergiu Toma is Moldovan by birth (and,
from what I can tell, does not have a Romanian passport.)
His first two Olympic appearances were on behalf of his
native Moldova. However, seeking to raise its profile on the
global stage, the United Arab Emirates handed out
passports to Olympians the country felt could bring home
some medals and Sergiu Toma gladly accepted to compete
for the UAE in exchange for citizenship.
Such is the concept of ‘exceptional citizenship,’ whereby
governments issue citizenship to individuals based on
promised contributions to the country, or contributions
already made. It happens more than you might expect.
Small countries like the UAE, Qatar, Singapore and others
that want to be players in the world sport and creative
culture are willing to dole out passports to those who can
get them their desired result.
Even if your athletic skills have you relegated to rookie
ball in the United States, those skills might be exactly what
some dusty country in the Middle East needs. The same
goes for artists. Singapore is not exactly known as an artsy
place these days, mainly because of its many skyscrapers
filled with boring bankers. When I told a couple of female
Russian bankers I met sipping mojitos on Marina Bay that I
always envied the idea of a banker’s office looking out from
up high, they laughed and said they kept their window
shade closed. They dreamed of living the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle because, despite the alleged glamour of working in
a skyscraper surrounded by luxury, they preferred flying to
Cambodia, staying at The Plantation, and doing real banking
in comparison to the jobs they had filling out forms.
Singapore is well aware of its stereotype as a city full of
boring professionals and – already filthy rich – is doing what
other wealthy individuals do: class their joint up. Just as the
guys who celebrated selling YouTube to Google at TGI
Friday’s might decide to go on an art-buying spree to join
adulthood, countries like Singapore already have enough
money and want to diversify into stuff that gets them press
in the cultural world. Particularly in Singapore, famous
artists, sportsmen, and performers may be eligible to
receive residency or even citizenship if their skills are
internationally recognized.
While Singapore and Dubai are cosmopolitan cities that
half of the world would be happy to live in, they are not
necessarily looking for more businesspeople and investors
to populate their tiny empires. That does not mean that
other countries are not looking for individuals who are ready
to do business. Many governments are ready to offer
exceptional citizenship to folks with skills in business and
investment. These countries turn the tables so that, rather
than Moldovans getting UAE citizenship to compete in the
Olympics, UAE citizens become Moldovan in exchange for
building up the Moldovan economy.
This is the way that we boring business types, unable to
pole vault or compose a concerto, can obtain exceptional
citizenship for contributing to another country. Instead of
adding to the art and sports scene of Singapore, we can
help create the next Singapores of the world. While the UAE
and Singapore concern themselves with fielding world class
Olympic teams funded by the oil and bank money pouring
into their debt-free countries, places like Moldova and
Georgia focus on building their economies. To do that, they
do not need Olympic athletes or famous artists, they need
you. And you can use that need to work your way towards a
second citizenship.
Countries like Montenegro, for example, have issues with
unemployment and need savvy investors to come help build
their economy. As we will discuss in more detail later,
Montenegro is one of a number of formerly troubled
countries that has opened its doors to investors with low tax
rates and a winning smile. But not many people know about
the country and it has not found a way to achieve the
reputation some western countries have as being an ideal
place to invest, even if it is.
That is where offering citizenship comes in. Right now, a
group of foreign investors is building a brand new Westin
hotel in Montenegro’s north county. While it does not take
much to attract investment along the gorgeous Adriatic
coast, the North has been overlooked despite its excellent
ski resorts (after all, Montenegro’s local name is ‘Crna Gora,’
meaning ‘black mountain’).
The company arranging that hotel is in the business of
working with Chinese, Russians and Arabs to grant
citizenship to investors, and I am confident that the guys
building the hotel are about to be handed shiny
Montenegrin passports, complete with the ability to spend
just as much time visiting Europe visa-free as Americans,
Canadians, and Australians.
 Invest money, provide jobs, get a passport. It is a simple
concept, and one not every country offers. Austria, which is
often touted as ‘selling citizenship,’ has made a tiny number
of exceptions for people who are not only willing to invest
on the order of €10 million or above but who also look
‘Austrian enough’ so as not to offend anyone’s sensibilities.
These exceptional citizenship programs are a series of
negotiations with the country. I am aware of about a dozen
countries that formally give power to waive naturalization
requirements to a high-ranking body such as the President
or the Congress. These are the best countries to work with
because there is no doubt of the legality of the citizenship
that comes from the authorized party. In the same way the
President of the United States can pardon anyone he wants
without the ability to undo his decision later, certain
countries allow for the government to make you a citizen for
life for any reason they want.
Exceptional citizenship is a particularly effective way to
get a second passport if you already plan to invest in an
emerging market. If your investing comfort zone ends at
New Jersey, you are probably out of luck; countries like the
United States, or those in the European Union, do not need
to dole out passports. Everyone from mom and pop to
crooked foreign dictators are already lining up to invest in
property in those places. If you want an exceptional
citizenship and you are not the next Da Vinci, you will need
to look to countries that need what you offer, which are
often the countries that supply ‘second tier’ passports.
As we discussed in the section on the Sit Back and Relax
method, the second tier passport is generally an excellent
fit for Nomad Capitalists. There are countries where the
Fonzie method can be applied to obtain a second tier
passport as well. You cannot match the reasonable cost (i.e.,
not $100,000+) with the quality. I have seen people get
citizenship in less than one year with a low-figure
investment in a second-tier passport country. Remember, a
second tier passport is far easier to get and will cost a heck
of a lot less. If you can be flexible, it is often the best way to
go.
There is this notion that being the citizen of a wealthy
western country means that the red carpet is rolled out for
you anywhere you go. Indeed, US citizens can visit 174
countries and territories without the need for a visa,
whether by obtaining a visa upon arrival (often for a fee) or
by obtaining an e-visa online (usually an easy process
designed to get $50 out of you). By those standards, the US
passport is tied for fourth best in the world; it shares the top
ten list with a bunch of Western European countries, wealthy
Asian and Oceanic countries, and even Malaysia.
However, numbers on a fancy table do not always tell the
whole story. Just because you are entitled to visit a country
on paper does not mean it always happens in practice. I
have experienced several delays, albeit no outright refusals,
even when traveling on a US passport. Perhaps the most
daunting was on a visit to London.
“What did you say you’re here for again?” the
immigration officer asked me as he balanced a scowl with a
sense of hubris. (As if there is any sort of other immigration
officer.)
“Tourism,” I replied. Always a good answer.
Undeterred, the officer asked me to be more specific.
When I explained that I was meeting my friend and
girlfriend, and had originally made plans to see the new
James Bond movie before its launch date changed, he
interrupted that those were not the details he was looking
for.
 In the forty-five minutes I spent waiting at his desk, the
guy did everything nasty short of throw a handful of mushy
peas at me, from commandeering my phone to asking me to
rattle off the phone numbers of everyone I knew ‘back
home.’
Just as I was about to tell him that the War of 1812 was
not my fault and I could find another cold, damp country to
visit, he stamped my passport and allowed me entry. Either
this guy was having a bad day, or the last US citizen he
dealt with tried to light explosives in her bra on fire in the
customs hall.
It goes to show that a little diversification cannot hurt.
 Dual Citizenship
Most people do not worry themselves with understanding
the many ways that they can obtain a second passport.
Many have never even asked if it is possible to hold dual or
multiple citizenship. And for those who have asked, they
have likely encountered a lot of misinformation on the topic.
Many US citizens, in particular, have errantly told me that
they will lose their citizenship if they get another passport.
In many cases, the answer to the question of whether or
not dual nationality is possible is yes. However, depending
on your current citizenship and how you obtained it, there
may be some complications. The general trend in the world
is toward dual citizenship. Since the turn of the century, a
number of countries have amended their laws to allow their
citizens to hold other nationalities as well. This is good
news, and even a bit surprising, as many of the countries
loosening their nationality laws are bankrupt and may need
people to pay the bills later.
Only a handful of well-known countries outright forbid
dual citizenship these days. Among those, some are well-
known for looking the other way or simply not having the
resources to police their citizens who obtain other
passports. I met several people in Malaysia who had a
family member – usually a child who had studied and
worked abroad – that held Malaysian and British citizenship.
Since the British government, like most others, is not in the
habit of broadcasting its citizen rolls, no one in Malaysia
knew the wiser. The only case where someone got dressed
down was when he mistakenly entered Malaysia on his
British passport.
As of 2018, countries that explicitly forbid dual
nationality include Austria, China, Estonia, India, Japan,
Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and
Singapore. Even among this list of most strict governments,
there are many documented examples of dual nationals.
There are many Chinese and Estonians, for example, who
hold other passports; Estonians mostly Russian passports,
and Chinese all over the world.
When people suggest that they are not allowed to
maintain dual citizenship, they are usually referring to some
law by which their country exclusively recognizes them as
their citizens when they are on that country’s soil. The
United States, for example, allows dual and even multiple
citizenship, but when you are on their soil, you are only
American to them. This is a common practice by which a
country will allow you to have other citizenships, but they do
not really consider you to be anything but theirs. The policy
feels a bit clingy, but does not really affect much. The only
real restrictions are that you must enter and depart a
country on its passport and that you may not seek consular
protection from any other nationalities while in the country.
That means that if you are a dual US and UK national,
you must only use your US passport when entering and
leaving the United States. To them, you are not British, and
to the UK, you are not a US person. Also, you cannot seek
protection from the UK embassy while in the US, and vice
versa.
This does bring up one issue worth considering if your
desired second passport is some third world hellhole; if you
ever plan to go to that country, you will likely be required to
enter on their passport, and as their citizen they may detain
or arrest you, or prohibit you from leaving. If that happens,
you will have no one else to turn to, as you are their citizen.
This has happened in countries in the Middle East, where a
western dual citizen is detained and not allowed to leave
the country because they are believed to be only Iranian.
 In our more enlightened age, dual citizenship is
becoming more recognized – by western governments in
particular – in response to inter-nationality marriages,
multiple birth citizenships and other factors. In today’s
world, the reality is that you may be more likely to lose your
citizenship to some government crackdown for something
as simple as not paying your taxes than for dual citizenship.
 Can Governments Take Your
Passport?
If you are a US citizen, the recently passed FAST Act
allows the taxman to revoke or deny your passport
(although, not your citizenship) for failing to pay a tax debt.
Just as medieval Islam conditioned travel privileges on
payment of tax, so too does the United States. In fact, if you
owe $50,000 or more to Uncle Sam, he can pull your
passport whether you are in the United States or overseas.
While $50,000 may seem like a large tax debt to incur,
high-priced consultants and small business owners with high
six- or seven-figure incomes could take the wrong deduction
and rack up a debt nearly that large. Even worse, the
government could wrongly apply your payment and believe
you never paid when in fact you did. This happened to me a
number of years ago when a company I ran conducted
business in California for one year. We filed a California tax
return, paid their ridiculous fees, and marked the tax return
as final to indicate we would rightfully not be paying them
again.
Yet, when the next year came, the California taxman
came asking for money, not only for the current year, but
also for the previous year that had already been paid. We
reminded him that we had pressed on and sent a copy of
the cancelled check for the money that was due. Apparently
they did not properly update our account because, one
morning, I woke up to find a couple thousand bucks levied
from my bank account. The reason: unpaid tax that was
either long ago paid, or never due.
According to my lawyer, levying a foreign state bank
account was not even legal, but if you were a large bank,
would you rather side with a 23-year-old kid, or the State of
California? Sadly, the banks will side with the more
powerful, even when the powerful are wrong. Now, imagine
you are not a nascent business, but a serious operation.
Multiply my numbers by ten and you could easily get to
$50,000 when you add in penalties and interest, enough to
put your travel plans on ice if you do not have a backup
plan.
If you are a US person living overseas and did not know
until now that you had to file tax returns, it is best to clear
things up immediately. The taxman can and will file tax
returns on your behalf if you do not, and he will not take
nearly as many deductions as you would, if he takes any at
all. That means that even an average earner could
accumulate a large enough tax debt with enough years of
non-filing.
I do not imagine that many readers of this book are
absconding from basic child support obligations, but just in
case, almost any past due child support obligation can get
your passport suspended or canceled, as well. Think more in
the $2,000 neighborhood. Of course, I am not suggesting
that you get a second passport in order to thumb your nose
at legitimate tax or child support debts, but the trend is
clear: if you do not do exactly as your government tells you,
they will use any means at their disposal to punish you,
including taking your passport.
And this is not just happening in the US. In 2015,
Canada’s Conservative government ushered in a law that
effectively created a two-tier citizenship program. The law
made second class citizens of anyone who was not born in
Canada. While natural born Canadians would never lose
their citizenship no matter what, naturalized Canadians or
those with another citizenship could be stripped of Canadian
nationality for various reasons.
As with most good laws, the Canadian government
singled out terrorism as reason numero uno for wanting to
yank someone’s citizenship. However, among nasty stuff
like espionage and saying “bomb” at an airport, the law also
specified “other demonstrations of disloyalty to Canada”…
which could mean just about anything. With the stroke of a
pen, Canada entered the same league as the newly ex-
Soviet Republics where the toppling of governments was
common after the fall of the USSR. In those tumultuous
countries, one politician would stage a coup to replace the
sitting politician, who would then have his citizenship
yanked for “crimes against the country” or some other
vague accusation.
The idea of cancelling citizenship through a bureaucratic
process is a slippery slope. What the heck is ‘disloyalty’
anyway? What if I could accuse you of being disloyal for not
buying two copies of this book? Canada took it one step
further by not only retracting citizenship but by actually
exiling offenders. One day you refuse maple syrup on your
pancakes, the next you are being launched out of a catapult
over the castle walls and past the moat.
Canada subsequently elected a more progressive
government that has promised to remove the most
controversial parts of the law. Even so, as many as two-
thirds of Canadians have supported leaving the law as it is.
This sentiment alone is a somber reminder of what people
are willing to sacrifice to increase their sense of security.
Now, chances are that Canada will get its act together
(just as you have a pretty good chance that the IRS will not
misplace your payment and banish you to Siberia), however,
a good Nomad Capitalist strategy involves understanding
trends and looking to the future. Governments are
increasingly clear: they will take away your travel privileges
and potentially even your citizenship if you do not do as
they wish. If anything, many laws create a slippery slope
that could be exploited if the government were to extend its
reach, which is not too hard to imagine.
 Know What You Need
The best advice I can give to anyone looking for a second
citizenship is to understand why you need one. That is why
we began this chapter with a discussion of the benefits of
second passports before we even touched on how to get
one. Now that you know both the why and the how, it is up
to you to decide your personal reasons for pursuing a
second passport and your specific path toward obtaining
one.
Perhaps you want better visa-free travel. I may be the
only guy on earth who thought about investing in a
citizenship just to avoid waiting at the Russian Embassy for
a visa, but if you are missing out on travel opportunities
because of your passport, a second passport could be worth
it. Or, perhaps you are more focused on paying less in tax,
or gaining more privacy. Knowing your reasons is important.
So, too, is focusing on those reasons and not chasing the
latest shiny object. My team gets a thousand or more
messages and emails each year, primarily from Indians and
Pakistanis, specifically seeking a Paraguayan passport. They
do not want just any second passport, they want a
Paraguayan passport. But they do not consider their other
options or really know what Paraguay has to offer. They just
know that it is fast and cheap. Paraguay itself means
nothing to them. Frankly, this approach is totally off track.
The actual passport you obtain is just one tool in your
tool chest. Each person needs a different tool. The US
citizen who needs a second passport to escape tax has
different needs than the Chinese millionaire who is tired of
applying for visas and worried his children are eating soup
with lead in it.
I am not saying that you should not get emotional about
your new country if you want to, but I highly doubt any of
the guys writing me from Mumbai are eager to start wearing
a Paraguay lapel pin on their suit jacket. They want what a
Paraguay passport has to offer: relative stability, freedom
from taxes, freedom from intrusive government and
excellent visa-free travel. It is a great deal, but it is not
Paraguay that they care about, rather what Paraguay has to
offer. Somewhere, someone told these guys that Paraguay
was the fastest and the cheapest and the ‘fast and cheap’
button in their brains went off. But cheap is not always
good. And fast is not always best.
The important thing is to avoid being reactionary. After
Brexit, my website saw a huge spike in traffic that nearly
quadrupled the number of visitors we usually get. Almost all
of the new traffic was from people in the United Kingdom
seeking information like, “The fastest way to get a second
passport” or, “How to get an EU passport.” They were
shocked by their country’s vote to leave the European Union
and suddenly started to realize that they would lose the
ability to hang out in Ibiza for six months every summer, or
to study in Paris without a visa, or to use the express
immigration lane when they go to urinate in fountains in
Riga.
Within a matter of days, though, the extra traffic died
down as the emotional frenzy settled. The Brits that came
searching did not really need another passport; they were
just looking for a shiny object to satisfy their emotions.
Some people spend their entire lives going from one
emotional ‘high’ to the next, but it is not a solid way to
diversify.
First of all, a British citizen does not need a second
passport to live in Spain. He or she already gets 180 days as
a tourist in continental Europe every year; for a nomad who
has several home bases, that could well be enough.
Alternatively, the British citizen who wants to live full-time in
Spain (which would be a tax nightmare, I might add) could
easily get a residence permit in any European country,
allowing them the freedom of travel they want.
If you are the aforementioned Chinese millionaire with no
passport offering good visa-free travel, then getting good
visa-free travel is probably top on your list. However, the US
or UK citizen seeking a second passport should consider a
passport that complements what they already have, rather
than offering more of the same.
If you are a British citizen, adding US citizenship to the
mix does not decrease your obligation to pay high taxes.
Becoming a citizen of Panama, on the other hand, does offer
that; along with the benefits of a country too small to care
what you are doing or what your income is when you are
living an ocean away.
The secret ingredient in second citizenship is not ‘fast,’
but ‘diversity.’ For most Nomad Capitalists who already have
a decent passport for travel, a second passport offers the
chance to be tied to a country that does not read your
emails or tax you into oblivion. The Indians who come to my
site have different priorities and may be happy to live in
Europe full-time for five years and pay tax the entire time.
After all, a better place to live is their goal. For those of us
who do not fear for our wellbeing in our home country, the
objectives are totally different.
Like anything else in your Nomad Capitalist lifestyle, do
not be dogmatic about what constitutes a good or bad
passport. Instead, focus on your desired outcome and work
backwards to find the best passport to meet that need,
rather than getting stuck on one particular option.
Takeaway: Having a second citizenship gives you an
‘escape plan’ from high taxes and violations of your privacy.
It also gives you better travel and investment options, as
well as another place you can go and live, among other
benefits.
 Chapter Five:
Birth, Love, and Children
Is This Only a Young Man’s Game?

Dateline: Hanoi, Vietnam

“Where did your mother go into labor?” a throaty voice
greeted me at the other end of the Skype call.
I had just arrived in Hanoi – the 1000-year-old historic
capital city of Vietnam – where I was about to embark on a
six-month scouting trip throughout Southeast Asia looking
for investment opportunities. In preparation, I had arranged
calls with several fellow nomads with experience in the
area.
On the other end of the call was Pete Sisco, a long-time
internet business owner who had perfected a system for
getting buff while lifting weights in your spare time. Having
lived a nomadic lifestyle with his wife for years, Pete knew a
lot about certain boom areas, making him one of the first
people on my list.
After his question, there was a substantial pause.
“Um, Cleveland,” I replied. For some reason, I had to
gather my thoughts before I knew what to answer.
“The US, as I expected,” Pete stated with a calm surety.
Pete explained that he asked everyone where their
mother went into labor as a sort of libertarian calling card.
As a nomad, Pete had long dealt with the challenge of
answering the question “Where are you from?” and started
asking his question as a cheeky alternate to throw people
off guard.
Alas, nomads have different ways to answer the
question, “Where are you from?” The author Taiye Selasi
tells people to ask instead, “Where are you a local?”
implying that where you feel at home is really where you are
from. Infamous anarchist commentator Jeff Berwick tells
people he is ‘from earth’ before explaining the whole deal
about how we are all just God’s creatures on one planet.
Pete’s quip, however, does raise questions for Nomad
Capitalists: Where are you from?
One of the key takeaways of this book is that each of us
is a rugged individual, able to go where we want to go and
be who we want to be. The judgment of having to fit into
someone else’s barriers is no longer important. If you want
to say “I’m Canadian,” do so. If you are a frequent traveler,
that may be enough. If you settle down somewhere, you can
say “I’m Canadian, but live in Serbia at the moment.” Still
easy enough.
But what happens when you obtain multiple second
passports, marry someone from another country, have three
homes on different continents, and never spend more than
three months in any one location? It may sound
complicated, but you will figure it out as you come to
understand your new identity as a citizen of the world. No
need to worry too much. The real conundrum is how so
many of us manage to pigeonhole ourselves into one
identity based solely on where we were born.
This was the exact riddle Pete wanted to discuss during
our call. If our birth location is what has caused us to pay
high taxes and deal with crappy banks for all these years, it
would be a good idea to identify what makes us paint
ourselves into such a corner against our best wishes.
 Pete articulated that, of the seven billion or so humans
on this planet, we are divided into approximately 200 camps
by a thing called ‘nationality.’ Based on which camp we are
in, we get a little book that allows us to travel around.
Seeing as we are all humans, you would think that we would
have equal travel privileges. However, the way our world is
designed, humans are not so equal. Because my mother
went into labor in Cleveland, Ohio in a place called ‘the
United States,’ I inherently have more freedom to travel
around the world than someone born on the same October
21st in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Where your mother went into labor can tell a lot about
you. For those of us born in North America, it dictates our
citizenship. While having a second citizenship is an excellent
idea, some of us benefit more than others from our birth
citizenship. Yet, whether we asked for it or not, our
nationality – our camp – dictates who we are and what rules
we are meant to follow.
If your mother went into labor in the United States, you
will be branded as an American by virtue of your birth and
childhood there. As a result, you will need to pay taxes for
your entire life, avoid anti-US government protests when
you travel, abide by any rules the United States government
insists upon, and never associate or do business with people
from other camps the CIA does not like.
You had no choice in the matter, but because your
mother went into labor on a certain point on the map, you
inherited characteristics, responsibilities, and debts through
the age-old ‘social contract.’ However, you can flip the
script on this situation by using many of the strategies in
this book to benefit from the system in a sort of government
arbitrage by which you take the best parts of each country
while tossing the worst parts. One way to do this is through
birth tourism.
 Birth Tourism
As Pete and I discussed the merits of his theory, we
discussed an entirely different angle of giving birth:
birthright citizenship. The concept of birthright citizenship
means that certain countries grant citizenship to anyone
who is born there, regardless of status. As we discussed in
Chapter Four, most of Europe and Asia determine an
individual’s citizenship by their parents. Two German
parents living in Thailand will give birth to a German child.
European and Asian countries, with rare exceptions, do not
award citizenship based on the location of birth but on
blood.
Most countries in the Americas, on the other hand, give
citizenship based on birthplace. This is why two Mexican
immigrants living in California automatically give birth to a
US citizen. I am a native-born US citizen, not only because
my parents are both US citizens but also because I was born
on US soil. If my parents had been vacationing on the other
side of Niagara Falls at the time of my birth, I would have
been Canadian by virtue of where I was born and American
because my parents would have no doubt registered their
new bundle of joy as an American born overseas to US
citizens so I could live with them back on the other side of
Lake Erie.
This idea of citizenship by birth is a loophole that Nomad
Capitalists can use to not only give their children more
opportunities in life but to plant new flags for themselves. If
you are planning on having children, why not take
advantage of the thirty or so countries that will give your
child a second passport at birth? Not only can you pass your
natural-born and naturalized citizenships to your child (as
well as your spouse’s citizenships) but you can also gift
them an additional passport by choosing to give birth
abroad.
If the thought of giving birth outside of your home
country has you worried, consider this: People give birth to
children all around the world every day – 353,000 on a daily
basis, in fact. Given current birth and death rates, we are
net adding one billion people to the planet every thirteen
years. Only 4% of those babies are born in the United
States, and barely 1% of them are born in England, Canada,
and Australia combined. That means that a lot of people are
having babies in places other than where you think you
‘need’ to have them.
While some politicians, particularly in the US and
Canada, frown on the practice of handing out citizenship to
the children of foreigners born on their soil, that does not
make the practice illegal or even immoral. Going where
you’re treated best means taking advantage of legal
loopholes to create opportunities that others do not see. In
this case, better hospitals, lower medical costs, and dual
citizenship for your children.
For the same reason that you should have a second
passport, your children should have multiple passports. Not
only will this save them the time and money that you
invested in reading this book but it will set them up to take
advantage of any number of opportunities as they get older.
It could also get you a new passport, as well.
So, where can you give birth to give your kids a leg up in
the second citizenship department? Sadly, not in Europe;
Ireland was the last European nation to abolish their law
allowing birth tourism some time ago. The countries to
investigate are the pro-immigration countries where anyone
can fit in. The Americas fit the bill, with Colombia being one
of the few exceptions. One of the most interesting loopholes
is the island of Dominica, which sells citizenship for
$100,000 per person, yet grants citizenship to children at
birth for the cost of a few low fees.
A more reasonable suggestion is Mexico. Mexico City and
other parts of the country have better healthcare than you
might imagine and, as mentioned, Mexico offers one of the
best passports in the world. Anyone can be Mexican, all they
have to do is be born on Mexican soil.
Another great country to consider giving birth in is Brazil.
There are some truly spectacular hospitals in cities like Sao
Paolo and any child born on Brazilian soil is instantly a
Brazilian citizen. Plus, anyone can fit in as a Brazilian:
blondes, Hispanics, blacks, and so on. If, for some reason,
you are worried you might raise a criminal, the Brazilian
government also has a standing policy that they will not
extradite native-born Brazilians to other countries.
In the past, people came to me to ask if obtaining
Brazilian citizenship by naturalization would help them if
they were ever on the run from the law (yes, I get a lot of
crazy questions). While many blogs will tell you it can, the
truth is that only those born on Brazilian soil get the
privilege. While I highly suggest evaluating your life choices
if extradition is a high-priority quality you are seeking, it
does highlight the fact that natural-born citizens tend to
have more rights. Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot run
for President of the United States by virtue of his birth in
Austria, the flip side is that any children you have in another
country will get special privileges there.
The best part is that, in countries like Mexico and Brazil,
you as the parent can put in a little time on the ground and
qualify for citizenship for yourself as well. Certain countries
(read, Brazil) are too bureaucratic for my taste to make this
worth your time. The process will likely drag out longer than
just the promised one year but, at the very least, you can
get residency out of the deal.
 While it can eventually turn into a citizenship parlor trick,
if you and your partner have different or multiple
nationalities, your children will be set with opportunities for
life. If you are a citizen of a high-tax country, your children
can have the perks of your home country passport as well
as the benefits of a more laid-back country that is not on the
warpath for cash. They will also be able to travel, live, and
work in a wide variety of locales. What better start in life
could you possibly give your progeny?
 World Schooling
Concepts like birth tourism are part of the remedy to one
issue I see again and again in my line of work. The problem
is that even those who decide to live overseas to save a
boatload on taxes and create a lifestyle of freedom tend to
think that they will eventually have to move back home.
About a year ago, I began working with Patrick, a young
Australian businessman who admitted that he was in this
camp.
“I’m saving about $300,000 a year since working with
you,” Patrick told me, “but after five or six years, Mari and I
will be married and we want to start a family in Australia.”
To Patrick and others like him, living overseas – whether
being constantly on the go or settled in one low-tax place –
was a young man’s game that ends when the clock turns
thirty. But age is just a number. There is nothing that forces
you to return to your home country and forego many of the
benefits you have gained by living overseas. There are
certainly social constructs that act as unwritten rules
dictating that digital nomadism belongs to the young and
only a rare breed sticks with it forever, but there is nothing
forcing you to pack up your bags and call it quits. Increasing
your freedom and prosperity through travel does not have
an expiration date.
Most people are born in one country, go to school, go to
university, get married, work, raise children, and die in the
same country. Many of those people do so in the same state
or province and, of those, some do so in the same city –
except perhaps for the short break they took to ‘escape’ to
university a few towns away. That is how ‘normal’ society
works. But you do not have to be normal.
Before you decide that this lifestyle is only a temporary
one for you, realize that doing it at all is already flying in the
face of society’s rules. Go to your hometown bank and ask
them if you can send a wire transfer to Cambodia. Go to
your hometown insurance agent and ask how to get medical
coverage for a trip to Bolivia. Go to your hometown tax
collector and ask how you can pay your property taxes while
living and banking in Greece. The result will be a series of
stunned looks and blank stares – a sign that while this
lifestyle is growing, it is still a long way from the days when
everyone will ‘get’ why you are doing it.
But they do not need to get it. You do. And if you can
understand that you can increase your freedom by banking,
investing, doing business, and living abroad. All that is
missing is to go one step further and ask yourself what is
holding you back from living this lifestyle at all stages of life
and not just during your carefree youth.
When I asked Patrick what made him think he had to go
back to Australia, he was ready with an answer, “Andrew,
we want to get married and have kids.” The logic seemed so
painfully obvious to him. “They’ll need to go to school.” My
friend’s voice exposed his impatience with my lack of
understanding of something so basic.
“Is Australia the only place they can go to school?” I
asked in feigned innocence.
“Well, no,” Patrick said in frustration. “But I’m not going
to send my kids to some mediocre school in some random
country. And how would that even be possible if we’re
traveling all the time like we do now? Besides, I know
Australia has a good school system.”
“Is it the best?” I pressed.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Is an education in Australia the very best you can offer
your children? Will it prepare them for the kind of success
and freedom you now enjoy?”
 “I don’t know…” Patrick stared at me perplexed. “What
else is there?”
“Great question!” I said cheerfully now that we were
getting somewhere. “When you started your business, you
never thought once about running it anywhere but Australia.
Why?”
Patrick mulled that one over for a minute and then said,
“I guess, I didn’t know I had options. I had always believed
that Australia was good enough, so why look elsewhere.”
“But you did, eventually. So, why did you?” I asked.
Patrick laughed. “My tax bill, of course! And as soon as I
started reading about what I could do to fix that problem, I
realized that there was great potential for my business to
expand and my investments to earn higher yields outside of
Australia.”
“So… could the same be true for your children’s
education?”
I could see a little light switch on in Patrick’s eyes as he
grinned back at me. “Possibly,” he admitted.
For each of us, going where we are treated best happens
in stages. When we first dive in, we do not wonder what it
would be like to be squirreled away in Panama City when we
are 89. However, with each step we take, we must
constantly reevaluate the fact that, yes, it is possible to give
birth to children overseas, or to raise them overseas, and
even to school them overseas.
Your children do not have to be raised in the same corner
of the world where you grew up. If doing that is truly what
treats you the best, then by all means do it. I am not
suggesting that you abandon your every desire to save on
taxes, but merely that you ask yourself whether the suburbs
of Melbourne are really so different from the suburbs of
Kuala Lumpur, far apart as they may seem.
The truth is, going where you’re treated best can add to
your ability to raise your children and provide for their
education. A child who can legally live, work, and easily do
business in multiple countries thanks to multiple
citizenships, who speaks multiple languages from growing
up in different countries, and who understands different
cultures from making friends around the world will be far
better equipped to become a success in any area they
choose to focus on. Fancy schools, towering debt, and
pieces of paper with Latin characters scribbled on them are
not necessary anymore.
The concept of ‘world schooling’ is one that has been
catching on quickly as an increasing number of expats and
world travelers discover that traditional schooling no longer
suits their needs or those of their children. The editor of
Nomad Capitalist spent months researching her book on the
topic and met hundreds of people who are educating their
children on the road in unconventional ways.
These days, if you want to teach your child
entrepreneurship, they will learn a lot more by selling gum
on the streets of Nicaragua with the other eight-year-olds
than they will waiting until they are 18 to attend a
theoretical lecture given by some wonk who quite possibly
failed at his own venture. Not only that but they can learn
Spanish in a natural environment and make friends along
the way too.
As my friend Taylor Pearson discusses in his book The
End of Jobs, the days of getting ahead by hanging a
sheepskin on your wall are quickly coming to the end. The
children you give birth to today will enter a totally different
economy than the one we were educated for. Numbing
indoctrination by college degree is no longer the meal ticket
it once was.
In the new entrepreneurial economy, countless jobs will
be converted from corporate to freelance and self-
employment positions. Employers no longer care about
credentials, they care about results. What will matter are
skills like critical thinking, connecting with others across
different situations, and the ability to communicate and
spread your message. If we raise our children as if it were
1993, they will be as ill-equipped to compete in the world as
a child raised learning inefficient farming practices after the
dawn of the industrial revolution.
Raising your children out in the world can provide them
with more educational value than anything they would
receive inside the four walls of a classroom. Be assured that
if you choose to live the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle long-
term, your children will benefit from your choice, not suffer.
Just as giving birth abroad will give your children a head
start with second passports, raising your children abroad
and giving them a ‘non-standard’ childhood and education
could be one of the best things you could possibly do to
prepare them for a life of freedom and success in a
globalized world.
 Dating on the Road
But what if you don’t have children yet? Maybe you have
not even met ‘the one’ who has you thinking about settling
down. Maybe you are silently wondering if it is even possible
to meet someone and develop a long-lasting relationship
while you are out traveling the world. You wonder if perhaps
you should just stay home until you find the right person to
go with you. What is the use of talking about birth tourism
and world schooling, you ask, when you are struggling just
to find someone to be with?
After all, “First comes love.”
To be honest, I debated whether or not I should include
anything about dating and relationships in this book, and
some people even told me outright that I should not. It is a
delicate topic with as many opinions on how it is all
supposed to work as there are people. But it is also a very
important topic and one that should not be ignored. We
would be lying to ourselves if we did not acknowledge that
we want to know how to develop real, lasting relationships –
even while living an atypical life.
At the end of the day, the goal is to be happy and to fill
your life with love. You would not think that the word ‘love’
applies to the offshore world, but it has everything to do
with it. Everything about being a Nomad Capitalist comes
back to loving your life, loving what you are doing, loving
the people around you, loving the relationships you are in,
and loving where you are. It may not be the first word you
think of when you think ‘offshore,’ but it is the foundational
motivation for much of what we do.
Creating meaningful relationships may seem like an
entirely different ballgame compared to the ins and outs of,
let’s say, getting a second passport, but when you boil it
down to the basics, the reasons are the same. And, as with
every other topic we cover in this book, the concept of
dating does not have to follow old norms either. Travel has a
way of opening up your possibilities and freeing you from
local notions and expectations where love is involved.
That is not to say that there are not already some
preconceived notions about what it means to date as a
Nomad. Some have the erroneous belief that their
relationships must be as nomadic as they are because
commitment to a place is somehow a prerequisite for
commitment to a person. Others simply want to ‘try out’
every culture before choosing to be with one person, always
putting off a real relationship until they have gone out with
someone from every continent.
Then, there are the guys who go to a place like the
Philippines with the sole goal of sleeping with a new girl
every day for a month straight – two a day if they can
manage it. I am not going to try and define the kind of
relationships that you should have, but that is probably not
the best use of your options. The point of Nomad dating is
not to go out and get a bunch of notches on your bedpost.
Setting a goal to sleep with 60 women in a month stinks
of the same mentality as the folks who inundate my email
asking about the Paraguayan residency and citizenship
program. They do not really want to be a citizen of
Paraguay, they have simply heard that the program is
cheap, easy, and relatively fast. It is a quick answer to a
bigger problem that they could actually solve if they took
the time to reflect on what they really want and need.
The travel lifestyle is not meant to be a dating
smorgasbord that you use to binge on a million different
meaningless relationships. Instead, it should serve as a
means of increasing your dating pool so that you can find
the right person for you. Some people see all the options
that open up when they travel and feel that they have to
pursue a certain kind of relationship lifestyle just because it
is available to them. You will naturally meet and date people
from various different cultures as you travel around the
world and you do not have to follow anyone else’s script
about how those relationships should play out.
The script for many digital nomads is to go out and get
drunk on the options. They move to Thailand or somewhere
else in Southeast Asia and suddenly the party lifestyle of
beer and drugs is cheap and they do not want to miss out.
So, they follow the party lifestyle script. Or, guys worry that
if they do not go out and sleep with every Asian girl who will
have them, they are a schmuck who is missing out. So, they
follow the script of the loose expat looking to get lucky.
You do not have to follow the script. Being a Nomad
Capitalist is not about following the crowd, it is about
knowing what you want and then utilizing the entire range
of options available to you to find the solution. You do not
have to use every option, just the one that works for you.
And that is the key – find and do what works for you –
because not everyone is looking for the same thing.
The benefit you get from taking your dating life
international is that it is much easier to discover what works
for you and then to find the people that match that picture.
This discovery is made possible because the simple act of
going to a new place can give you a new outlook on life and
open your mind to new ideas and new people.
September 11, 2008 seems like a long time ago. So long
ago that I was just getting started traveling the world, my
list of places to visit about ninety countries lighter. On that
particular day, I was adding Norway to my list of visited
countries.
But Norway was not the highlight of that trip. Along the
way, I met someone who would have a bigger impact on my
life than I could imagine. She had move from China to study
and work in Ireland and was using her six weeks of time off
in Ireland to get out and explore the rest of Europe. The best
news of all was that she already had plans to visit the
United States later that year. It was, to say the least,
serendipitous.
Every plan we made from that point forward always
entailed one of us getting on a plane. Seeing as we both
loved to travel, we made it work. Though the romance
eventually ended, this woman inspired me in a way no one
back home ever had. She had a view of the world that
changed my own perspectives and was what pushed me to
start taking more trips and eventually do what I do now.
Even when we first met in Norway, I remember looking at
how she had planned out each decision in her life and how
each country she had chosen was very unique and
specifically tailored to her needs. Her philosophies on life
mirrored the first lessons my father taught me about going
where you’re treated, and being a part of her life further
cemented the validity of those principles into my own.
Before meeting her, I had almost become complacent
with living in the US as I was consumed by running my
businesses in the United States at the time. Meeting her
began to change all that and I was reminded that where I
was from was not the epicenter of the world. She made it
easy to see that people are doing well in other parts of the
globe and that opportunity exists elsewhere, as well.
Before our relationship, I had been a casual traveler. After
(and because of) our relationship, I began to travel with
more purpose and intensity. I visited Switzerland to check
out the banking culture there, then traveled to Liechtenstein
to indulge my fascination with micro-states and how they do
things, I then headed to Austria to enjoy the music, and I
finally made my first foray into Eastern Europe with a trip to
Slovakia to discover the opportunities there beyond the
tourist zone in Bratislava.
That trip turned into so many others that have formed
the backbone of Nomad Capitalist, and I owe much of it to
the fact that I met someone during my travels who changed
the way I see the world.
That relationship also helped me realize that it is much
easier to for me to connect with people from other cultures
than with the culture that is technically my own. I have
discovered since then that I am not the only one for whom
this is true. It is a pleasant surprise for many to discover
that, by going overseas, you can meet people who are
better-suited for you.
When I lived in Phoenix, I met a lot of people that I just
did not feel comfortable with. I had no trouble meeting
people, but nothing ever seemed to work. Even when I left
the United States, I would occasionally go on Tinder and
meet people from the US and there would always be some
disconnect. I did not know what it was, but for the longest
time I thought there was something wrong with me. I finally
realized that blaming myself was not the answer. The United
States was simply not the place for me. It was not a good fit.
And then I met Asians and Europeans and I realized that
all the things that people got ticked off about or ghosted me
for back in the US seemed to do well with these cultures and
the women I would meet there. I have come to learn now to
remove the judgment from my life and look at US culture
and recognize that the people there are not terrible people
because we failed to connect. They were just not a good fit
for me.
And you will probably find that they generally are not a
good fit for you, either. Some may be and you could content
yourself with trying to find them but, by and large, I have
found that most people in the United States are not so open-
or globally-minded. If you want to be those things, it is
probably not going to work out for you to find someone in
the United States. It may not be the right fit for you.
This was the case for David, an incredibly smart guy I
met at a client mastermind a couple years ago. At the time,
David spent his days running a family business and his
nights making side hustle investments that few others
would want to touch. By all outward appearances, David
was a success. He was smart, accomplished, and had a
good deal of money. What he did not have was a life
partner.
David came to meet with me and other clients in
Colombia, ostensibly to see how I personally invested
overseas and to tour real estate for investment. However,
we spent much of our three days together talking about how
he could find a wife.
For a guy who could not get a date in high school, I was a
bit surprised to realize that David was coming to me for
advice. He told me that, in his city, most of the people he
met were government workers only interested in advancing
to the next rung on the ladder, too focused on blindly
following orders for his taste. The rest of his social circle
worked at the local university and, in his mind, treated him
with a bit of contempt for being the evil capitalist exploiting
labor for a profit. David had a hard-enough time finding guy
friends to hang out with, let alone a woman he could really
connect with.
Growing up, he told me, kids in school had made fun of
him for being smart. I could relate. While I imagine today’s
culture of seven-year-olds creating apps and making billions
from their bedrooms means that being smart is more
socially acceptable these days, those of us who grew up
before software started eating the world may remember a
different cultural norm.
Each place is defined by its culture. In Poland or Ukraine,
being ‘dumb’ gets you beat up on the playground by chess-
playing bullies. Everyone I have met from Central and
Eastern Europe cannot understand why being a science nerd
would not be considered cool. It makes sense; whereas
Times Square is adorned with banners of TV characters
wailing “OMFG,” Warsaw’s squares feature memorials to
Tesla. Even Christmas displays take on a solar system
theme.
Yet, in countries living on gravy, you might be more well-
liked for posting butt selfies on Instagram than for
checkmating a classmate. The OMFG and butt selfie crowd
might be exactly your type, in which case you should either
move as close to Times Square as possible, or put this book
down immediately if you can already see it out your window.
If they are not your type, you may feel extremely out of
place in your home country dating scene. Hannah, a
German woman I met in Central America struggled with this
very issue. She grew up in a small town and never found a
deep connection with someone else in Germany. Having
traveled to Australia as a high school student and
throughout Asia and the Americas in university, Hannah no
longer felt connected to German men.
Over a dinner of gallo pinto, Hannah admitted that she
wanted someone to understand her. And she was not
getting that in Germany. “German guys are tedious,” she
asserted, expressing greater command of English synonyms
than most Americans. Hannah was not bitter, she merely
knew what she wanted and that she was not getting it
where she came from.
 Normally, the 29-year-old me would have scoffed at a 22-
year-old saying she knew what she wanted, but I found
Hannah – like many Europeans I have met in my travels – to
be surprisingly mature. Perhaps she would outgrow her self-
styled verboten on German men, but for now she liked the
idea of dates that spoke in more dulcet tones.
The same was true of Alizz, a Colombian girl in Bogota.
“All Colombian men cheat,” she told me confidently. It
reminded me of my business, where employees will often
say, “Everyone is really upset,” or “All of our clients liked
that video,” and only upon further investigation is it
revealed that all of two people are upset and the employee
is acting emotionally. Nevertheless, emotions are real. If I
have learned anything from visiting nearly 100 countries, it
is to trust your instincts. If you are not happy where you are,
it may be time to make a change. You can go where you’re
treated best.
Fortunately, going where you’re treated best in your
relationships works about the same way as it does for
setting up your offshore bank accounts and companies,
making international investments, obtaining second
passports, and doing everything else that impacts the life of
a Nomad Capitalist. A great place to start is to simply go
somewhere else and begin to experience different cultures
and meet new people.
The more time you can spend traveling, the easier it will
be to start thinking about and naturally creating long-term
relationships with people outside of your own country. When
I was in Arizona, although I traveled, my trips were only
occasional excursions to Europe. If I had been looking for
love at the time, I probably would have stuck to Phoenix.
And maybe I would have met a girl there whose parents
were from Mexico, but even then, there was a good chance
that she was culturally American.
 If you are in a similar situation, maybe once in a blue
moon you will meet someone who has moved from another
country, but unless you live in New York, London, or Los
Angeles, you are probably not dating that diverse of a
population. And, even if you are, if you are not content with
where you are, your chances of finding someone with a
desire to travel as big as yours will be low. You will have a
better chance of finding someone who loves the lifestyle
you want by simply living that lifestyle.
If a place and the people do not appeal to you, do not
linger. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein ordeal in the US,
my assistant and I were reviewing Twitter when we saw a
that woman was complaining that Drake was building a
thirst dowry because he was buying Birkin bags for his
future wife. We were literally rolling on the floor laughing at
such a ridiculous claim. This is what people in the United
States are worried about? An entire culture has been
reduced to arguing about the evils of a celebrity buying
expensive bags for his future wife? Now that I do not have
to deal with this cultural mindset all the time, I can just
laugh at it and say “Wow!” and then move on.
I no longer need to worry about the silly things that
occupy the minds of a culture I have left behind because I
now know that there are people and cultures that value the
same things that I do. I can find people who are on the same
wavelength as I am. And you can find someone on the same
level as you are, too, to the point that it becomes effortless
to be with and date others.
Several years ago, while preparing for a Passport to
Freedom conference in Cancun, three of my friends and I
met four German girls standing out by the beach bar. Two of
us hit it off with the girls and we began to talk. I had been
hanging out with a bunch of Americans the week before and
so – as we were having this intelligent, deep conversation – I
decided to try a silly hand-reading trick that worked on the
Americans. The girl just looked at me in a very German way
as if to say, Dude, really? And then she simply said, “Just do
your thing. Be yourself. That’s interesting to me.”
I was blown away. There I was with four interesting and
smart women and the entire interaction was effortless. In
the United States, I had always felt that it was too much
effort to make anything happen, like I always needed to be
entertaining someone to get their attention. It was the
complete opposite in this situation and has been with so
many of the women I have met while traveling. Dating has
become effortless.
It is possible to find people who make it easy to converse
and create a relationship. By traveling to more places, you
are expanding your pool and increasing the possibility of
finding the kind of people you can effortlessly connect with
on a deep level. That can be difficult to believe for someone
who grew up in a village of 100 people where options are
limited and everyone knows who everyone else is dating
(and if you date too many people, you will be branded the
wrong way).
Getting out of the ‘village’ is a simple way to make the
world your new sample, not a village or a town or a hamlet
or even a city – the world. That does not mean that you are
going to go date everybody in the sample, it simply means
that you have a better pool to choose from. And with that
better sample, you can raise your standards and trust that
you will find someone who you can really connect with and
who truly shares your worldview and values.
Once you expand your pool, all that is left is to decide is
what it is you are actually looking for. What do you really
want? Do you really want to go out and hook up with every
girl you can? Is that really what you want? Or are you just
following a script? Be open-minded and honest with
yourself. This is not a self-help book, but I imagine that
someone who is doing that has some other issues going on.
So, ask yourself, is that really what you want?
What I have done in my personal life is to be upfront with
myself about what I am really looking for. For one, I want
something serious, more so than ever and that means that I
am more locked in on what I really want and not just what I
think I want or think I should have.
For example, I have admitted that physical appearance is
important to me. In the US, I felt like women could judge
based on appearance but if men ever said anything they
were considered a jerk because it is not about appearance.
But it is part of the equation. You need to be physically
attracted to the person. Now that I have acknowledged that
it is okay to feel that way and I have a larger sample to
choose from, I can be honest about what really attracts me.
I also want to find someone who is intelligent and
globally-minded. I do not want to date somebody who is
happy living in one place their entire life. I imagine that if I
lived in Rolla, Missouri, I would have a lot fewer options of
people who are globally-minded. I do not want someone
who knows all about the St. Louis Cardinals or who wants to
go to University of Kansas football games and dress up in
their school colors. Instead, I prefer someone who knows
who Nikolai Tesla is, or someone who is aware of the fact
that NATO bombed Serbia in the 90s.
At some point in my life, I had to accept that the girls I
went to high school with were more likely to fit into the
former category and not the latter. I am not interested in
pursuing someone like that. It may work for other people
and that is wonderful, but it does not work for me.
A more recent discovery I have made is that I want
someone who is warm. After ten years of dating cold people,
I have realized that I want warmth. I always knew that I
wanted someone smart, but I prioritized smart over warmth
and failed to realize that I could have both. The more honest
I am with myself about what I want, the more I discover that
it is possible to meet people who fit all those standards.
That is one reason I believe that finding who you want to
be with is more about your mindset than anything else. The
key is to keep an open mind and understand that there is no
need to be angry about the people and places that are not a
good fit for you because it is possible to find relationships
that are effortless. Do not spend your time complaining
about what is not working, focus instead on the good and
spend your energy going after what you want.
In the case of my client David, he was angry because he
did not think he could find girls in the United States who
wanted to talk about the things that he wanted to talk
about. He was not what they wanted. Whether David was
right or wrong about this, I told him that he could not take
that mindset with him. If he did, he would end up in the
same situation because his mindset would color all of his
interactions.
The power of your mindset not only applies to finding
someone you can connect with but also making that
relationship work long-term. Personally, I have decided that I
am going to pursue anything that looks like it could work
until it does not. I prefer this approach over playing the
mediocre game of putting in minimal effort in an attempt to
protect myself from rejection or, even worse, sitting around
and waiting for people to come to me. I am going to go for
what I want and be open about it.
I did this recently with a relationship where interest was
shown. Someone traveled across Europe to come to my
birthday party in Portugal and they were flirting with me
throughout the weekend. Afterwards, we were discussing
what was going on and I decided to drop what I was doing in
Colombia to fly and be with that person. We both decided
we would be upfront and honest so that we could figure out
what we wanted to do with the relationship.
We ended up putting the relationship on the back burner,
but I went after what I wanted. It was a freeing experience
to have the confidence of being overseas and totally being
honest about what I wanted without worrying about what
society dictated I should do. I could drop everything I was
doing and fly around the world at a moment’s notice and
play that relationship out.
Being free from the pulse of local society meant that we
could both do what made sense for us. And, even though it
did get moved to the back burner, there is a very loving air
about it between the two of us.
More importantly, it is that same mindset that has
allowed me to pursue and develop the relationship that now
matters most.
In the end, the greatest freedom I have gained from
dating overseas and focusing on what I want is the
realization that I would rather drop everything and leave a
country that guys go to just to chase after women so that I
could try to make things work with one woman I actually
care about and want to be with.
That is the most powerful part of Nomad dating: you
have the ability to reset your mindset and open yourself up
to the possibility of something real happening with someone
you truly care about who shares your worldview and meets
your wildest expectations.
Takeaway: You can enhance your dating pool and find
the kind of people you can effortlessly connect with by
choosing to date overseas. Once you find someone to create
a life with, there is no need to give up the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle. In fact, giving birth to and educating your children
on the road will give them a leg up in life and will create
more opportunities for you to plant flags.
 Chapter Six:
Nomad Healthcare
“Go Get a Big Mac”

Dateline: Bangkok, Thailand

“Go eat at McDonald’s. Get a Big Mac.”
You might expect to hear that from a lot of people. Your
doctor is not likely one of them. Yet, there I sat in
Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit district, one
of the most upscale districts in Southeast Asia, being told by
a trained medical practitioner that the answer to my recent
weight loss was to eat fast food.
Thailand, like many countries in Asia, is hardly a place
with a weight problem. In fact, of all of the countries where I
suggest to plant a flag, practically none of them rank among
the highest in the world for obesity. Perhaps there is
something in common between the attitudes that go with
healthy living and treating wealth more favorably.
I had been in Southeast Asia for almost three months,
making my way to Hanoi via Hong Kong, then south through
Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and now to
Bangkok. The journey was a hodgepodge of healthy living
and totally unhealthy living. My preferred mode of
transportation – particularly in new cities with poor English
skills – is to walk, meaning I would often walk five or even
ten miles in a single day. I was drinking plenty of water, and
at times would eat healthy local foods.
At other times, I was rounding out my twenties spending
days munching fatty western foods served at riverside cafes
alongside backpackers. Evenings were spent sipping
cocktails, even after narrowly escaping death by jumping off
a balcony to escape a group of Chinese dudes angry one of
their drunk girlfriends was talking to me.
During this time, I managed to lose almost thirty pounds.
For those not from the United States or Myanmar, that is
fourteen kilograms or – my favorite – a little over two stone.
In what I dubbed ‘The Southeast Asia Diet,’ I was perhaps
able to accomplish what infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau
was sentenced to ten years in prison for: “The fastest,
easiest way to lose weight… period.”
Who knew it was as easy as walking around Phnom Penh,
Cambodia in a pair of Zegna loafers, taking meetings with
real estate investors? Whether it was the Southeast Asian
humidity, the copious amount of water consumed, some
sort of higher quality food, or pure exercise, the pounds
simply melted off. As I never had a weight problem to begin
with, I had become rather thin to the point that I was
starting to feel my ribs when lying in bed. Hence my visit to
Bumrungrad.
I arrived at the hospital at 10:00 am, prepared for
whatever diagnostic tests they would throw at me. By
10:05am, I was introduced to two nurses who, despite sing-
songy Thai accents, spoke near-perfect English. They asked
me again why I was there and went on to inform me of the
battery of tests I would undergo to diagnose what was going
on.
Things were already off to a great start. Go to the doctor
for a 10:00 am appointment in the United States and you
will be lucky to have a clipboard of paperwork in your hand
by 10:30. In Thailand, nurses were waiting for you with a
cup of tea before getting down to business. Within a few
hours, all of my tests were done. I would go in and out of
various lab rooms, never waiting more than a few minutes
before being summoned once again. By the time it was all
done, I waited perhaps all of ten minutes before the Thai
doctor called me into his office to go over the results. We
joked around and he asked why I was in Thailand. I had
never seen anything like it.
Then he hit me with the results: a clean bill of health.
When I asked what the possible cause could be – after all, I
did lose quite a bit of weight in less than three months – he
chalked it up to different food than I was used to traveling in
Europe or North America. That is when he hit me with the
McDonald’s line. The weight loss was a non-issue to him,
and he was not concerned about it.
If I had gone on to die, I might be a little upset about his
nonchalant demeanor. However, the weight loss stopped
and my weight remained steady. Nothing bad happened.
Turns out, freaking out about every problem the way doctors
in the West do is not normal everywhere.
Ask a doctor in the United States if the hangnail you have
sought his counsel for could kill you and you will be told,
“Hey man, you never know. There have been some pretty
bad cases of acute paronychium osis going around. One
lady just dropped dead after a hangnail came free and got
stuck in her lung.” One time, when I went to the doctor to
treat a scratched cornea from trying to get a contact lens
out, I was cautioned that we could not rule out blindness as
a result of the incident.
For all of these circumspect admonishments, far more
people in the United States die of medical malpractice every
year than from hangnails or scraped up eyeballs. To make
matters worse, the cost of this care is absolutely out of
control. My bill for having my eye checked out topped $500.
“Can’t be too careful,” they say. If you were to listen to my
Thai doctor, maybe you can be.
 Meanwhile, in many countries with socialized medicine,
wait times are so ridiculous that many patients are simply
opting to go elsewhere for care, or paying out of pocket for
private care.
In an excellent balance between cost and quality of care,
Bumrungrad solves the problems westerners experience
when seeking care at home. This is a book about capitalism
and business, but the ability to receive quality care is
important to busy entrepreneurs who do not have time to sit
around in doctors’ waiting offices receiving alarmist scares.
The concept of medical tourism allows busy people to get
excellent care in comfortable surroundings without paying a
king’s ransom that could otherwise be invested.
Bumrungrad Hospital is no slouch when it comes to
quality. It has been accredited by the American Joint
Commission International multiple times. The medical chief
is an accredited physician in the United Kingdom, and many
of its physicians studied overseas. Bumrungrad was one of
the original hospitals built for medical tourism in Asia,
designed to attract not only the Asian elite and tourists with
sprained ankles but also patients from all over the world
who purposefully seek care there.
Two months later, I had a similar experience in Kuala
Lumpur when my gigantic tonsils got infected after a week
of getting little sleep. Being from the West, where seeking
medical treatment is often a last resort, I sweated it out for
two days before my hotel advised me to go to the
emergency room.
“The emergency room?! Do you think I’m dying?!” I
asked, suddenly fearing that death was again imminent, just
as the hangnail doctor had warned. It turns out that in Asia,
prompt, quality emergency room care only costs a few
bucks. So, I dragged my sickly self to Prince Court Medical
Center in the middle of Kuala Lumpur during the evening
rush hour. Despite the promises of prompt service that I had
received at the hotel, I knew that I had no appointment to
save me from waiting, and I was betting that the nurses
there would not bring me a cup of mint tea as they had in
Bangkok.
It turns out that medical care in Malaysia was even more
efficient than in Thailand. Within mere moments of arriving,
I was ushered in to have my vital signs checked and my
height and weight recorded. The Indian-Malaysian nurse
asked what I was there for and quickly put together a
treatment plan. This time, there was actually something
wrong: tonsillitis. I feared for the worst, preparing for a long
wait that would last into the night. As it turned out, I was
given some intravenous medications, did some tests, and
managed to see the doctor within an hour.
In under two hours, I was treated, feeling wonderful, and
sent out the door. My only sense of regret was that I had
wasted two days putting off the visit when I could have
come to such an efficient hospital, get the cure, and be on
my way.
I later learned that Prince Court Medical Center was
ranked the #1 medical tourism hospital on planet Earth. The
level of efficiency I experienced there bore that out. As in
Thailand, the doctor not only spoke excellent English but
had studied in London. Unlike doctors in the West, he did
not seem rushed and answered all of my questions without
trying to hastily bounce me out of his office.
Then came the bill, priced of course in Malaysian ringgit.
(I have converted based on that day’s rates.) It started with
a $1.56 hospital administration charge to cover the
beautiful facility. The nursing fee that covered an hour of on-
and-off care as an IV dripped into me was $4.67. The actual
consumables, such as the IV and bandages, were $21.24,
plus pharmacy charges of $82.01. And the cost of visiting
with the physician was all of $10.90.
All in all, a trip to the ER cost $123, charged to my
American Express card. You could not get the receptionist to
take a five minute break from filing her nails for that price in
the United States. Costs like this also raise an important
point about travel insurance while living and traveling
overseas; sure, it is important, but if you are going to the
types of places I recommend, the only time you will want to
bother with insurance is if you are hit by a bus. For $123, it
is just not worth the paperwork.
Going where you’re treated best means literally going
where the treatment is best. If I get some crazy illness, I
pray it is not in a western country. Getting sick in the United
States would cost a fortune, which is another reason I avoid
the United States. Getting sick in Europe is a coin toss; you
might get lucky and merely get a grouchy old doctor who
remembers ‘the good ‘ole days’ before microneedles, or you
might be unlucky and wind up in a state-run infectious
disease hospital.
In this day and age, the idea that the United States or
any ‘developed’ western country is the only safe place to
receive medical care is absurd. In fact, you might be doing
yourself a disservice, or even put your health in danger. In
the United States, medical error is the third highest cause of
death. Patients are literally dying by the thousands, and
likely hundreds of thousands, due to doctor error.
What is more, life expectancy in the United States
recently dropped for the first time since the first Bush
administration twenty-some years ago. Asia is where it is at
for seeking medical care, from Dubai to Singapore. There
are some surprising places to get top quality care; for
example, India is well known for excellent cardiologists, all
of them costing 90% to 95% less than cardiologists at top
US hospitals.
If you are used to only getting care in your home country,
venturing offshore can be concerning at first, but I can
assure you that the quality of care is better than anything
you have seen back home. Quite frankly, there are great
hospitals in most countries you will wind up in. While I have
occasionally thought, “Gee, I hope I don’t fall deathly ill
while I’m in Timor-Leste,” the places where you cannot find
a good hospital are few and far between.
Whenever I stay at my base in Kuala Lumpur, I make sure
to stop in at Prince Court for all kinds of services. In addition
to the occasional painful run-in with a street cat I may
attempt to help, the hospital offers efficient care for just
about anything you could need. That mole on your eyebrow
that you are sick of? Get rid of it with ease. That knee that is
not quite what it used to be? Get it checked out.
Experiencing chest pain? Head on over to Prince Court. They
have everything you need with greater efficiency than you
have ever experienced.
 Wellness Tourism
The biggest advantage of choosing to be treated well
when it comes to your health care is that it is easier to
actually stay healthy through preventative care. In the
United States and parts of Europe, it seems that medicine is
all about stitching you back up after you have fallen ill. In
Asia, on the other hand, I was able to actually take care of
my health before it became a problem. In that way, the term
medical tourism does not exactly fit.
A medical tourist gets on a plane to save $3,000 on a hip
surgery. Conversely, a Nomad Capitalist who is willing to go
wherever they need to in order to care for their general
health, wellbeing, and beauty can achieve a higher level of
healthy living. I call it wellness tourism. Keep your mind and
body in good shape and you will have more energy to live
the rest of the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle.
The principles of wellness tourism fit perfectly into the
mantra to go where you’re treated best – quite literally,
actually. If you want to be healthy, go where people live
healthy lifestyles. If you want to look sexy, go where people
strive to be sexy. For example, Venezuela has produced
about a gazillion beauty pageant winners thanks to parents
applying largely distasteful tactics for beauty. That said, if
you are in the market for cosmetic surgery, you might
consider the place where people have such a sick obsession
with it that a simple tummy tuck is child’s play. Who would
you trust as the expert in making people look good: doctors
in a country with never-ending pageant winners, or doctors
advertising on billboards in Manhattan, Kansas?
For now, however, you might not want to go to Venezuela
– what with the food shortages and, well, everything.
Colombia, Brazil, and South Korea are just as renowned for
elective procedures. While I do find some of the operations
people in these countries go through sad, remember that
going where you’re treated best does not always mean
changing the world. You will not get Koreans to stop having
eyelid surgery, nor do they want to, but you can benefit
from the expertise that exists because of it.
We all know someone in the West who dipped into
savings or ran up credit card debt to get a nose job or
breast implants. When I inquired with Prince Court as to
their average prices and compared them to prices from
surgeons in the United States, they were, on average, about
70% cheaper. If doctors were not such sticklers for ethics in
marketing, they would call it, “Get paid to get a butt lift…
and we’ll give you a free beach vacation with palm trees
and monkeys and coconuts.”
So, where can you travel to get quality care? Thailand
and Malaysia are two of the best, but many other countries
are getting into the medical tourism game, too. Singapore,
for example, is known for excellent quality cancer care.
Despite the expensive cost of living, you can save about half
on the prices in many western countries.
One US-based grocery chain had a policy of sending
employees in need of expensive surgeries to Singapore,
paying full price for the procedure along with round-trip
tickets for two. Even with the high price of hotels in
Singapore, the grocery chain saved money by sending their
employees to the other side of the world for medical care.
While Brazil is known for cosmetic procedures – they
have more plastic surgeons than any other country on earth
– they are branching out into general medicine. Hospital
Israelita Albert Einstein is the country’s first JCI accredited
hospital and has a five-star rating for care. If I were having a
child, I would strongly consider it (especially since my kid
would get a passport, to boot). The cost of childbirth in
Brazil is as much as 90% less than in the United States.
Even prices for plastic surgery are as much as 60% less.
India is building out a $2 billion a year medical industry,
supported by two of the top ten hospitals on the planet. The
Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai frequently performs among
the most complicated cardiology procedures in the world
and boasts the lowest heart surgery mortality rate at just
0.26%.
As for Malaysia, Prince Court in Kuala Lumpur has one of
the world’s most advanced burn units and IVF facilities. And
for those of us from countries where certain treatments are
restricted for moral or other reasons, Asia can provide care
that your home country’s government does not think you
can handle.
Even dental care can be better overseas, proving that
routine medical care is possible while living the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle. You do not have to go to your home
country every six months to have your teeth cleaned when
countries in Eastern Europe have become renowned for
excellent care. The most advanced dental clinic I have ever
been to was in Bucharest, Romania, and a regular check-up
and cleaning cost about $25, complete with advanced
images of all of my teeth to check for problem areas. Serbia
is also known for affordable dentistry.
When ranked by an independent group, the world’s top
ten hospitals for medical tourism were in Malaysia,
Germany, Lebanon, India, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey,
and Singapore. How many of those countries would you
have considered before? Yet, they offer world-class care with
the added benefit of often extreme efficiency, and – thanks
to currency devaluation in some countries – relatively low
costs.
 Healthy, Quality Food
Wellness tourism is not just about physician care, though;
it is about leading a full and healthy life. If you have spent
any time in the United States, you have likely heard about
‘Mexican Coke.’ By the level of ballyhoo, you would think
this was a secret miracle liquid, but in reality, it is merely
the cross border version of Coca-Cola. While the US uses
widely discredited high-fructose corn syrup to take
advantage of American corn subsidies, Mexico and the rest
of the world use real sugar. While sugar has now been found
to be pretty deadly stuff, many say it is still better than its
modified corn syrup version.
Some of the healthiest foods can be found outside of
your home country. Many foods in the West are bland,
processed and uninviting. There are fruits and vegetables I
found tasteless in North America, but love eating overseas.
In many small and emerging countries, most produce is
organic and grown locally; the vegetables and meat you are
eating were sourced locally, not on some factory farm where
chemicals and hormones are used.
Anti-poverty group Oxfam International published a
survey called the “Good Enough to Eat” index, which studies
food quality in practically every country around the world.
Of course, all developed countries ranked well overall,
buoyed by categories such as “Plenty to Eat”, but the United
States fell to 21st place thanks to mediocre food quality and
high levels of diabetes and obesity. Apparently, there is
something in the food there.
Stand-outs in terms of food quality were much of Western
Europe, but also New Zealand and Argentina. Some of the
best countries in the second tier were Ukraine, Macedonia,
Albania, Ecuador, and Estonia; these countries ranked as
well as some developed Western European countries.
 There is a reason the Chinese, who historically harbor
great fears about food quality in their country, covet
Australian beef and New Zealand lamb. In the same way we
may find better countries that tax us less, we can also look
for the best countries for food, where crops and meats are
organic and void of harmful substances. India has created
more organic farmland than any other country on earth in
an attempt to cash in on our desires for healthier eating.
Ironically, some of the healthiest countries for eating do
not offer the stereotypical ‘healthy eating’ options. In
Georgia, the juice bar concept is just finally opening up, with
several small stores blending fresh juices for healthy
consumers. The healthy smoothie concept is almost
nowhere to be found. However, produce in Georgia is almost
universally organic, locally sourced by farmers – even part-
time ones – and high quality.
Looking for a business to start? Let me give you an easy
one. Bring the healthy food culture to countries in Eastern
Europe and parts of Latin America. Quality foods are
abundant in many of these countries, but not the quick
serve delivery of them.
 Go To the Source
Living the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle can give you access
to the tools you need to live longer. Since you can choose
where to live, you have total control over the healthy living
habits you benefit from. The Japanese are known for their
long life expectancy, probably largely thanks to being the
world’s healthiest nation, with low levels of many forms of
cancer. They also have the world’s longest ‘healthy life
expectancy,’ which takes into account the amount of time
you can expect to be in good health. If you want to learn
their secrets, you can go to the source and learn directly
from the culture in Japan.
Just being around healthy environments can inspire you
in a way that merely being a tourist could not. The Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle opens your mind up to a new realm of
possibilities. Before spending time in Japan, I would never
have eaten seaweed, yet, finding it in so many dishes
convinced me it was an excellent source of protein and
great at fighting disease.
Likewise, I was never a tea drinker before spending
substantial time in Asia. Being in that environment
encouraged me to learn more about which teas were best,
including the fact that black tea – a fan favorite of the West
and the basis for Earl Gray – is the most fermented, most
caffeinated, and probably the worst tea for you. White tea is
apparently are where it’s at, with little fermentation or
caffeine and plenty of disease-fighting properties that make
it better to drink than even green tea. Somehow, I doubt I
would have gotten on the white tea bandwagon sitting in
Arizona.
Japan has also pioneered the concept of ‘forest therapy,’
which encourages citizens to take recuperative walks in
green spaces and the country’s temperate rainforests. You
can feel the healthy living culture if you spend enough time
in Japan, not only in much of their food, but in the way they
live.
Another example is Japan’s onsens, or hot spring baths.
They are widely known for their healing benefits and the
feeling of overall well-being you get from being in them.
Iceland, Georgia, and any number of other countries are
also known for similar sulphur or hot spring baths which can
improve skin quality and general health. Even Vogue took to
writing about Georgia’s sulphur baths, calling them “the
ultimate skin-softening soak.”
You may not want to move to Tokyo or Tbilisi, but you can
certainly pop in from time to time to enjoy the rejuvenating
benefits, without relying on inferior versions wherever you
choose to spend most of your time. Unlike the cheap knock-
offs of most procedures in your home country, you can get a
Thai massage in Thailand, cleanse your body in Istanbul’s
hamams, and get wellness treatments in Switzerland’s
famous clinics in the Alps.
No longer do you have to settle for London’s overpriced
spas importing what they claim is some mystical beauty
ingredient from the swamps of Namibia; you can go right to
the source for better quality care.
The best news is that you do not have to settle in any
given place to get these health benefits. You can devote a
few weeks a year for annual check-ups and any necessary
procedures, which can include revitalizing treatments not
available in your home country. You can experience different
foods and add healthier items to your diet, learn from the
locals, and take it all with you when you go.
Takeaway: The Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is about far
more than just money; without good health and a sense of
wellbeing, it might as well be for naught. Fortunately, the
lifestyle of going where you’re treated best means you can
have the best of everything, even for your health, directly
from the source.
 K
KEEP MORE OF YOUR
MONEY
 Chapter Seven:
Offshore Banking
“In Other Words, Just Being Smart”

Dateline: Bucharest, Romania

It was a productive day for me in Bucharest. I had safely
moved out of my short-term apartment in the capital city’s
depressing Unirii Square and into a beautiful hotel room in
the much sunnier University Square. The gloominess of
living on the ninth floor facing a dreary view had sapped my
productivity, but today I was refreshed and ready to do what
I came for.
I strolled through the trendy University Square which was
practically brimming with life. I decided to make a quick
stop before arriving at my destination and entered a quaint
restaurant. The waiter moodily shuffled over to my table,
practically threw a menu at me and then waited in silence
for my order.
I have come to expect poor customer service such as this
in many places in Eastern Europe, but I was still caught off
guard. Because of the progressive development of the area,
I had not expected customer service on par with the dark
days of Soviet oppression. I took this as a sign not to expect
great service from the bank I was about to visit, either.
I make a habit of inspecting the banks in almost every
country I visit. I have opened more unneeded bank accounts
than you would imagine, all to understand the banking
climate in each country. I have an entire team that helps me
research banks and calls them up to determine how they
operate, but nothing compares to physically going into a
bank and working with them in person.
Romanian banks had been on my radar for some time
before this particular visit. Remarkably, Romania has one of
the best budget situations in the European Union. They have
managed to avoid all the problems of Greece, with a tax
rate just a fraction of what France collects from its citizens.
My curiosity was piqued and I knew I had to check out the
banks.
My meal finished, I continued my walk through University
Square and entered one of the more well-known banks in
the area. I approached a stern-faced banker, bracing myself
for an unpleasant repeat of the poor service at the
restaurant. As she looked up from her desk and surveyed
me inquisitively, the sun reflected off the banker’s name tag
– Teodora, I noted.
“Hello,” I began. “I’m here on vacation and would like to
open a bank account.” While I did not consider my visit an
actual vacation, I have learned to speak in a language that
people will understand.
Without missing a beat, Teodora responded, “Sure. Have
a seat.”
Surprised, I explained, “Well, hold on, I just came to see
what you need from me and what documents to bring in.”
Raising an eyebrow Teodora asked, “You have passport?”
“Sure, I’ve got my passport.”
“Okay, fine. Sit down,” she insisted.
“You don’t need any other paperwork from me?”
“No, just sit down.”
I accepted Teodora’s advice and took a seat across from
her as she feverishly pecked away at her computer. Less
than 25 minutes later, she was handing me the paperwork
for my account. She gave me my token for accessing online
banking where I could answer any further questions and
then she walked me to the ATM where she explained that I
could deposit as little as one euro to activate my account.
“That’s it?” I asked in wonder.
Teodora nodded, “We’ll send card to address on file, but
you’re all done now.”
Amazed, I told her, “Wow, you guys make this easy!”
She threw me a quizzical look and simply asked, “Why
would it not be easy?”
She was certainly right, banks should have a large
incentive to make working with them a breeze. Why would
banks make it hard for us to hand our money over to them?
However, her response reflected a level naiveté about the
rest of the banking world where banking is increasingly
more difficult.
Many people I work with tend to think that they can open
a bank account anywhere, but most places offer nothing like
my experience in Romania. In some countries, banks will not
even open an account for you, in others they require much
more paperwork. Thankfully, there are still some countries
like Romania left in the world. You may need to know what
to do and where to go, but these countries are on the rise
and want to make it easy for folks like you and me to do
business with their banks.
Unfortunately, these banks are getting harder and harder
to find. The banking world has become a madhouse. One
study a few years ago suggested that banks in the United
States were only the fortieth safest in the world, and the
United Kingdom was slightly behind at forty-fourth. Some
European countries fared worse. It seems that every time I
turn around, some new stress test is uncovering a bunch of
insolvent banks putting your money at risk.
If you have not implemented a Nomad Capitalist strategy
yet, chances are that your money is held in one country and
in one currency. For instance, most people rely on a country
like the United States to not only store all their money, but
also to maintain the value of their currency. Ask people in
Zimbabwe, Turkey or Argentina how that worked out for
them.
Now, being a Nomad Capitalist is not about focusing on
doom and gloom. Nomad Capitalists are, first and foremost,
businesspeople and investors who focus on finding
pragmatic solutions. Sure, we understand that governments
and many financial institutions have their problems, but we
are not going to dwell on that. Instead, we simply take note
and then go where we’re treated best.
However, ‘taking note’ does mean realizing that the
banks in your home country are probably not the best in the
world. You may think that 40th is not such a bad ranking, but
go ahead and name 39 countries that you would say have
better banks than the US, or 43 countries that have better
banks than the UK. When you stop to think about it, that is a
lot of countries.
Since October of 2000, over 550 banks have failed in the
United States. This is due, in part, to the fact that the US
has many banks, but it is also an issue of US banks
investing in garbage and overleveraging their assets. But
remember not to dwell too long on how terrible the banks
are in your home country. Instead, simply recognize that you
can have better.
While a place like Singapore only has three banks, none
of them have ever failed or are likely to ever do so. Why
bank in a country where bank failure is a regular occurrence
when you can go to a country where it has never happened
and probably never will?
This is not to say that all US banks are bad. In some
situations, going where you’re treated best may mean
having a US bank account, especially for business. While it
is not necessarily true for US citizens or residents living in
the United States, the US is the world’s largest tax haven.
For US citizens living abroad and non-citizens outside of the
country, there are ways to bank in the United States without
having to pay tax.
It certainly is not the answer for everyone, but the US
may be the answer for some. Is it ideal? No. But if you are
looking to run a business, from an operational and logistical
point of view it can be the best. The key is to find the good
US banks. The person with Bank of America, for example, is
probably not researching their bank’s financials. Nomad
Capitalists, on the other hand, are doing their research
because they do not want to rely on politicians to bail their
bank out if things head south.
The good US banks are those that understand
international business, especially how to wire money
overseas. They are those that will take the time to get to
know you so they can comfortably keep your account open
while being compliant with ‘Know Your Customer’ rules. In
all honesty, the fact that most US banks do not know how to
handle clients with international lives, investments and
businesses is one of the biggest problems with US banks,
especially for Nomad Capitalists. While you can find the rare
gem here and there, most US banks do not have a clue
about other countries or what is going on in the rest of the
world. They have enough ‘easy’ customers to deal with who
fit inside the box that they do not have to deal with ‘difficult
cases’ like us.
 And they are even worse when it comes to servicing
clients who travel on a regular basis. During another visit to
Romania (i.e., in the European Union) I logged in and tried to
send a wire to myself with my Chase account and they
blocked my online access. Their solution, of course – like
most US banks – was for me to show up at a branch in the
US with my debit card. It was as if they could not
understand that someone on the other side of the world
would not find it inconvenient to travel all the way back to
the United States just to reboot their online banking or
reactivate a debit card.
Many US banks are not international friendly. There are a
few, but you will need to do your homework. Just make sure
that you are dealing with people who have a clue. And,
while US banks are not off limits, limiting yourself to just one
country is an investment risk that no savvy business person
should be making.
The key is to diversify.
Most people equate the old saying of ‘never keep all your
eggs in one basket’ to diversifying your assets across
numerous asset classes, such as growth stocks, blue chip
stocks, bonds, and real estate. And that is certainly part of
it. Nomad Capitalists add one more factor into their
diversification strategy: geography.
Many people in the West have never considered
diversifying geographically. That does not mean it is a new
idea, though. I recently spoke in Shenzhen to a group of
entrepreneurs, importers, exporters and Americans doing
business in China. In my presentation, I told the tale of two
people: one is a businessman who was born in Long Island,
New York. His parents always raised him to be smart and
think about business. He reads the WSJ every day and he
knows what is happening in Hong Kong, but he never
travels. Everything he has is in the United States.
 The second individual is the child of immigrants. Because
of his parents’ experience, he recognizes that you cannot
put your trust (or your money) in any one place. His parents
chose to go where they believed they would be treated best
and instilled that same belief in their child. As such, he
realizes that everything needs to be diversified beyond the
borders of just one country.
For the first individual, the United States seemingly offers
everything they could ever need. They diversify within the
‘greatest country on Earth’ and never consider diversifying
across countries. Perhaps they feel that it is a bit
unpatriotic, or even wrong to go out and invest in other
countries.
Let’s examine that belief. Is there anything wrong with
investing in short small cap stocks rather than blue chip
stocks? Or is there anything illegal or shady about investing
in bonds rather than equities? People in the US already
invest in African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries’ stocks,
equities, and mutual funds. Is that unpatriotic? No! They are
diversifying. So why not extend those investments to the
best other countries can offer when it comes to banks?
For me, this is just being smart. I have worked with
people who run $100 million businesses and, as far as I
could tell, everything that they did – all their money – was
with a Bank of America account. That just seemed
ridiculous. With that much at stake, would you keep all your
money in the same bank? No! You would spread it out.
Diversifying geographically simply means that you
accept that there is an easier and legal way to put your
money in other banks in other countries and get the
benefits of services that you would not have in your bank
account back home.
 For many people I work with, opening a foreign bank
account is one of the first steps toward internationalization –
especially if their life and business practices reflect the
mindset and situation of the first individual. It is a fantastic
first step to take because it brings with it numerous benefits
that can make the rest of your transition into the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle much smoother. Relative to getting a
second passport, opening an overseas bank account can be
accomplished with minimal time and expense.
 The Benefits of Offshore Banking
I am not going to be one of those guys who
scaremongers with stories that the US dollar is tomorrow’s
toilet paper, or that there is some vast conspiracy to steal
your money and give it to the Illuminati. Instead, I am going
to show you the numerous important benefits to legally
banking offshore for any high achiever.
Moving part of your money into another banking system
reduces your risk, subjects you to a different set of laws
than those from your home country, gives you a Plan B for
your money if things do get bad, offers the potential benefit
of high returns, gives you access to new opportunities and
foreign investments, and allows you to diversify your wealth
to new currencies. Having a bank account overseas is the
first step to protecting your wealth and your freedom.
Let’s look at some of the greatest benefits in more detail.

Higher Interest Rates

When people think of offshore, they almost always think
about numbered bank accounts (more on that in a minute).
And, since they do not want a numbered bank account and
do not have anything to hide they wonder, “What would I do
that for?”
Well, how about 11% interest in a currency that will likely
rise against the US dollar over the next five years? How
about doubling your money, just in a bank, in five or six
years? Going offshore is not about numbered and
anonymous bank accounts, it is about diversifying and
increasing your options.
Currency diversification through foreign bank accounts is
an excellent way to protect your asset base from the
destruction of one single fiat currency. It is also a great way
to obtain higher interest rates on your money. Many
overseas banks offer interest rates that are five, ten, or
even 100 times better than what you can get at home. If
you are used to relying on interest income, this can be a
game changer for you.
New Zealand bank accounts currently pay up to ten
times the interest that American banks do. If you are more
adventurous, there are emerging market currencies that
offer interest rates as high as 18%. The key is to know which
ones are good and which ones to avoid. In some cases, you
do not even have to sell your US dollars or euros to profit.
Several foreign banks pay 5-6% annual yields on US dollar
accounts if you do not want to invest in foreign currencies.
Banks in financial centers like Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Andorra offer as many as 12-15 currencies, all in one
account. You can easily sell your dollars and buy pounds,
euros, or renminbi at any time. An offshore bank account is
an excellent way to get exposure to emerging currencies
and profit from global financial trends.

Avoid Confiscation
Having your bank account under a different legal system
from your own can also prevent the government from
confiscating your money. As you already know, I have had
personal experience with the government bypassing its own
laws and bank policies to take my money when, because of
an error made by the California Franchise Tax Board, they
claimed that I owed them a tax fee for a year that I had not
even lived or conducted business in the state. They then
illegally confiscated money from my account to pay the fee
that I technically did not owe.
Situations like this cause you to wonder why people
make fun of all these banana republics when California is
not even following its own laws and courts. The fee I was
charged had already been ruled unconstitutional by the
courts of California, but the tax collectors continued to
charge it and the banks put up with it because… well, it is
the government. Having my bank account levied was kind of
a wake-up call for me as to what could happen. The
government could just dig in there and take my money any
time.
Having a foreign (also known as offshore) bank account
can give you that extra layer of protection between your
money and a government that feels entitled to it. The banks
in California did not put up much of a fight when the
government asked them to allow them illegal access to my
account, but a bank in another country does not have to
bend over backwards like this.
Unfortunately, account confiscation can take place for
many reasons in many different countries. Chances are,
your government is broke. The United States is the largest
offender, having run up a tab of national debt and unfunded
liabilities over $100 trillion. It is a ticking time bomb. Asset
confiscation has already taken place in recent years in
Cyprus, Ireland, Hungary, and Poland. Having an offshore
bank account can protect your money from fat-fingered
government agents and wealth confiscation, as well as
aggressive lawyers, creditors, and ex-spouses.
You may not know it, but bureaucrats can freeze your
account without having any proof or even charging you with
a crime. Imagine what would happen if you could not access
your own money for weeks, months, or years. Moving your
money elsewhere can protect your wealth and give you
peace of mind. It is all about being sovereign over your own
wealth.

Business Purposes
 Opening an offshore company is another ‘quick win’ in
the offshoring game. While some countries have an
overwhelming array of forms, other countries make it
extremely easy to form a corporation, even online. The
trouble for most entrepreneurs comes when you want to use
that company. The most important tool needed to use any
company, whether offshore or in your home country, is a
bank account.
Without a bank account, you cannot do much of
anything. Unless you are using your shiny new foreign
company to hold and license intellectual property –
something US citizens should be wary of – or hold tangible,
non-income producing assets, there is little use for a
company with no bank account.
Foreign banks are usually much more in tune with
internationalization than the United States. They understand
that a business based in Hong Kong with a bank in
Singapore is going to want to send money to an employee in
Mexico, a contractor in Australia and a law firm in Georgia.
Foreign banks oftentimes will not even blink at a situation
like this. The bank in your home country, on the other hand,
might just freeze your account if you attempted even one of
those tasks.

Planting Flags
I frequently tell people who come to me for help that
they can continue banking in the United States because that
is not a tax problem. However, for Canadians, Australians
and many Europeans who want to leave their home country,
having a bank account there is a problem if you want to
become non-resident.
If you have kept your bank account in Australia, it is hard
to tell the Australian government that you have left. Closing
your accounts in your home country and banking offshore is
a good way to become a non-resident and enjoy the full tax
benefits of living abroad.

Better Deposit Insurance

While the US dollar is certainly not tomorrow’s toilet
paper, it is always nice to have insurance against such a
possibility. The FDIC in the United States has well under one
percent of deposits in its reserves. If every US bank were to
fail at once, depositors would only see $1 for roughly every
$300 on deposit returned to them.
The US government has said for years that the FDIC is
insolvent and the FDIC has long operated in the red. Even
President Obama said that the FDIC is mired in red ink. So,
while I am not going to waste my time worrying about my
financial ‘house’ burning down, I am going to look for a good
way to insure it by turning to offshore banks.
Many foreign banks and countries offer deposit insurance
on their bank accounts. There are even a few places with
unlimited deposit insurance. The most important thing to
look for is bank stability, not which country the bank is in.
Chances are, the next round of ‘Too Big to Fail’ will make
your local bank account a target anyway.
Better deposit insurance is just one piece of the larger
benefit of having a better bank in general. Some of the
world’s safest banks are in Germany, Singapore, and even
Australia. Safe banks in the US and much of Europe are
fewer and farther between than ever. That is because most
of those banks only keep one or two cents per dollar of your
money on hand. Compare that to 20, 25, or even 30 cents
per dollar in some offshore banks.
Just because a bank is in a wealthy country does not
mean it is safer. If you have ever wondered what would
happen in a modern-day bank run, just look at Europe:
banks there have limited their customers’ access to their
money. And when banks went under, not even deposit
insurance protected them in some cases. If the entire
country is bankrupt, the government cannot very well
guarantee your money anyway.
Why not go with the best? Why not go with the
strongest? Why do you want to deal with a problematic or
tiny bank? Do you really want your money in banks that are
“Just OK?” Or do you want your money in the safest banks
on earth?

Build “Tunnels”
If you open an offshore bank account now – instead of
waiting for some hypothetical future date – you will be able
to reap another benefit to offshore banking: tunnels. To
understand this concept, think back to when you were a
little kid and you would go to your friend’s birthday party to
eat cake and play party games. One game at these parties
always got me going: musical chairs. You would run around
and around in a circle, waiting for the music to stop, only to
hope you could find a place to sit before all the available
chairs were taken.
I look at offshore banking today in much the same way.
There are many great banks out there, but if you take too
long to grab your seat, it may be too late. Yes, it is still
possible to bank offshore in Singapore, but you should be
aware that even this bastion of economic freedom is
starting to wake up to the reality that the bankrupt
countries of the world are gunning for it. Not wanting to be
isolated from the world financial system, Singapore may
take steps that will make it less attractive for people from
western countries.
Banks in places like Hong Kong have already started
limiting the number of new US customers they take on and,
in some cases, flat out refuse to open accounts. The strict
requirements on US persons has led many banks around the
world to simply deny service to Americans.
In 2010, the United States passed a law called FATCA –
the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – which mandates
that all foreign financial institutions report the details of
every American-owned account to the IRS or face a 30%
withholding tax. Because foreign banks need access to US
capital markets to conduct business, banks are forced to
comply with FATCA. That is why US citizens need to act now
if they want to open an offshore account before more banks
begin to decline their business.
Oftentimes, those who open accounts before
requirements are tightened get grandfathered in. This
strategy is also known as building a tunnel. For example,
there are banks like those in China circa 2016 that allowed
you to bank with them for a minimum deposit as low as
$1,000 or even $1 in some banks. In many cases, once you
have an account open, the bank will not close it. So, even
though these Chinese banks have now stopped accepting
new accounts from foreigners, yours will remain intact.
You have built your tunnel.
That is why it can be a great idea to open small accounts
now with the understanding that, if you do not, they may be
unavailable to you in the future. When I talk about acting
now, part of the reason is that flags available for you to
plant today will not be available tomorrow.
Those who will be affected the most by inaction will be
small depositors who do not have a lot of cash. Some banks
may continue to open accounts for foreigners, but only for
those able to deposit higher and higher sums. The person
with smaller amounts to their name will have fewer and
fewer options as time goes by.
 With greater compliance costs and more and more
wealthy people from the emerging world, banks do not have
time for foreigners that do not live there to drop $1,000 into
their bank. The key is to find banks that will take you now so
that when the door closes, you are already inside.
 What is Offshore Banking?
Now, for many, it is not enough to know the benefits of
offshore banking before they are ready to open their own
account. Ask the average person what they think about
offshore banking and they are sure to tell you that it is not
only illegal but also out of reach of all but the über wealthy.
Both points are false and only further prove that going
where you’re treated best means doing what others do not.
The rest of this chapter takes a closer look at exactly
what offshore banking is, what it is not, the requirements
you must follow to legally bank in another country, and –
most importantly – the best places to legally bank offshore.
When I say ‘offshore banking,’ what I really mean is
merely banking in another country. If you live in the United
States, your offshore account could be just a day’s drive
away in Vancouver, Canada. Even if connected by land,
Canada is just as ‘offshore’ for Americans as anywhere else.
What is a Singapore bank to a Singaporean? A local bank.
It is like the old joke that one friend tells another when going
to China: “Have some Chinese food while you’re there. Or,
as they call it in China: food.” Your offshore bank account in
Singapore is someone else’s normal course of business. It is
not different; it is just you using it as a foreigner.
Feel free to remove the mental barrier in your mind of
offshore versus onshore. All offshore means is having a bank
in another country. That is it. I mention this to help you see
the places that you should avoid, as well. Do not go rushing
off to the traditional ‘offshore’ locations like Belize, BVI and
the Seychelles of the world just because they are ‘offshore.’
You will likely suffer problems.
I use the term ‘offshore banking’ as a demarcation.
Really, it is just choosing to go where you’re treated best. In
many respects, Singapore’s banks are just better. They have
better online services, lower fees, and allow customers to
hold different currencies. You cannot do any of that in the
United States.
That is the difference: a different bank in a different
country with different laws. And if those laws and services
favor you, then going ‘offshore’ is merely going where
you’re treated best.
 What Offshore Banking is NOT
Since this book is called Nomad Capitalist and not The
Art of the Deal or some other artifact of the 1980s, it is
important that we bust some myths that were true twenty
or thirty years ago, but no longer are today. Banking
offshore has an image problem. It has a reputation that, for
some reason, is stuck in the 1980s. People picture a bunch
of rich tax evaders putting bags of cash together so that
some Swiss banker can drive by their house, pick it up, and
fly back to Switzerland so everything is undetectable by the
authorities.
Of course, this kind of thing still goes on, but it is not my
job to moralize over the rights and wrongs of the practice.
What I will say is that this is the old-school way to bank
offshore. At Nomad Capitalist we practice transparency in a
modern way and in accordance with the law. We are not
about hiding money. Unfortunately, a lot of the other videos
and resources that you can find on the internet are still
telling you reasons to open offshore bank accounts that
have illicit or shady overtones.
What is most unfortunate about such advice (besides the
fact that individuals actually follow it and land themselves in
a load of trouble) is that it is not necessary. You do no need
to hide your money or run around making backroom deals
to get second passports. You can follow the law and create a
life of greater freedom and prosperity for yourself. You just
need to know how.
So, to clean up the industry’s image and to help you
avoid the offshore traps and scams that are still out there,
here is what offshore banking is not:

Misconception #1: The Media’s

Offshore Bank
 Many of the false beliefs about offshore banking are
influenced by movies like James Bond and the profuse
number of spy shows on TV that show criminals dropping off
wheelbarrows full of cash at the doorstep of some shady
banker with overly white teeth and leaving with little more
than a numbered receipt.
An offshore banker once told me that he only knew of
one bank down in the Caribbean somewhere that was still
accepting cash deposits for a 16% fee. He said, “They might
as well have put up a sign that says, ‘We launder money.’”
Nobody wants cash these days. It is pretty much a dead
giveaway that you are a money launderer, so most banks
stay far away from it.
However, if you go to the Middle East, they still want
cash. If you go to Hong Kong, they still like cash. I closed a
bank account in Hong Kong once and they said “Hello, Mr.
Henderson, here’s your $23,000 in cash.” What the hell am I
supposed to do with this?! I was fortunate enough to be able
to go across the street to another bank that I had a business
relationship with and they opened an account for me before
I left Hong Kong.
There is nothing wrong with cash. Obviously, you must
report it, but who is carrying around cash? This idea that
people are just carrying around cash and depositing it into
some offshore bank account is a myth. The rest of the
world’s banks work just the same way they do in the United
States or wherever you are from: you wire money in, you
transfer money around Europe, you withdraw money when
you need it, you get an ATM card. Banks are banks.
If you are watching TV for your offshore advice (or news,
or pretty much anything else), you are going to land
yourself in trouble. If you are getting your offshore news
from someone who does not know offshore, you are
probably getting incorrect advice. Even if they are a
professional, if they do not know offshore, they do not know
offshore. And if professionals can get this stuff wrong, you
know that the media is way off the mark.
Takeaway: Get your information about offshore banking
from someone who actually knows the offshore world. That
includes ignoring the mainstream media’s portrayal of
offshore banking, as well as seeking out expat-focused
accountants, lawyers and other professionals.

Misconception #2: Offshore Banks

Are for Hiding Your Money
One of the big reasons people are advised to bank
offshore is to get privacy. We have already discussed the
benefit of putting a firewall between yourself and another
government or creditor by having an offshore bank. This
makes it harder for anyone to just come and grab your
money and that is good. What is wrong about the offshore
privacy advice is when someone tells you that your
government never needs to know.
If you are a citizen (or even a resident) of any number of
countries, including the United States, you have a legal
obligation to report your foreign bank accounts to your
government. That means that offshore banks are not a way
to achieve privacy. You are obligated to share that
information. What you are achieving is more distance
between your funds and your creditors.
Do not get confused between ‘privacy’ as a term for
confidentiality and ‘secrecy’ as an act of concealment.
Seeking privacy is fine, but do know that there are laws that
you must follow when it comes to declaring offshore bank
accounts, and you do not wish to run afoul of those.
Besides, if you really are living the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle, why do you need to hide your money? You want to
put up an extra layer of protection between you and the
government, sure; but freedom means having nothing to
hide.
Which brings us to one of the biggest myths about
offshore banking: numbered bank accounts. This is the idea
that you can open some numbered bank account in
Switzerland where nobody will know your name or identity
and you can move your funds without being traced. Let me
kill this myth now: numbered and anonymous bank accounts
no longer exist. And only in a few countries can you even
store stacks of paper in a box without providing
identification (more on that in the chapter on foreign asset
storage).
Two things happened that put an end to numbered bank
accounts, the first being 9/11, and the second being the US
government going bananas on Swiss banks for allowing US
citizens to evade taxes. As a result, opening the fabled
numbered Swiss bank account will prove rather difficult
these days if you are a US citizen, unless you live overseas
and have a ton of cash.
Chances are, many of the people who are reading this
book have never even heard of numbered bank accounts.
Just like people these days might not know what vinyl
records are (or even dial-up internet!) there are individuals
coming into the offshore world who have not been poisoned
by all this nonsense and illegality that went on in the 70s
and 80s. For them, they just look at Singapore and see that
their banks are strong and that they actually keep money
sitting around and they are easy to deal with and they think,
Why wouldn’t I go there? Why wouldn’t I go where I’m
treated best?
This is the mindset that gives me hope for the future of
international business and investment. This is a mindset
that does not go looking for anonymity and secrecy and
numbered bank accounts so you can do whatever you want
without anyone knowing. Instead, it allows you to harness
the systems that are in place with total transparency to
build a life of greater freedom and prosperity for yourself,
your posterity, and the many other people you care about.
However, if you are still bound and determined to
achieve anonymity, cryptocurrency is about the only way to
obtain some anonymity in your financial dealings. The US
recently issued an edict making Bitcoin unfavorable from a
capital gains perspective, but at least you can maintain
some anonymity.
If you are looking for anonymous banking, the first step
you should consider is renouncing your citizenship. There
are benefits to not having citizenship in a populous,
bankrupt country when it comes to availing yourself of bank
secrecy laws.
For example, Austria is still clinging to bank secrecy laws
despite pressure from the European Union. And, since
countries like Singapore do not much care what you do with
your money outside their borders, you will have more
freedom being from a country that is not a member of
groups like the OECD and that is not attacking your right to
bank privacy.
Takeaway: If you come across an offshore service
provider offering you a numbered bank account, run the
other way. There are legal ways to achieve greater privacy,
but there is no legal way to outsmart your government. If
your government finds that you are keeping money offshore
and not declaring it, they will come down on you like a ton
of bricks.
 Misconception #3: Offshore Banks
are for People Who Want to Avoid
Taxes
The term ‘tax haven’ in general is a troubling one. As
with privacy versus secrecy, it is a term that is often
misused as a way of appealing to people who are trying to
run from their legal tax obligations rather than set things up
properly. This is completely unnecessary.
There are ways to legally live overseas, operate your
business overseas, and bank your money overseas, all
without paying tax, but it is not so simple as upping sticks
and moving to Panama. You should be concerned by
anybody who talks a lot about tax havens and how you
should move to a tax haven country.
When we talk about going where you’re treated best,
that could mean where you pay the lowest taxes, but it
could also mean going where you have high-quality banks.
And some of the banks that I have seen in a lot of these so-
called ‘tax havens’ are low quality. They end up causing
people a lot of other problems, and they certainly do not
qualify as going where you’re treated best.
It is also important to note that if you live in the United
States, you are probably going to pay tax in the United
States. If you live in Europe, you are going to pay tax where
you live in Europe. If you live in Canada, Australia, or any
number of other countries in the world, you will need to pay
tax there. Sure, there is a way to legally avoid taxation on
what you do, but this idea that all you need to do is open a
Panama bank account and suddenly you are not going to
pay tax gets a lot of people into a world of hurt.
People have gone to jail, been fined, and worse, all
thanks to the advice they received from these nameless,
faceless advisors. They get told they can just open a bank
account and invest their money however they wish and not
pay tax. It does not work that way.
Takeaway: The marketing that talks about privacy and
tax havens and tells you that you will not have to pay any
tax because it is ‘offshore’ and tries to sell you a one-size-
fits-all solution at a supposedly low cost is a recipe for
disaster. At best, the guy who charges the least is offering a
very formulaic process. He does not care what you need,
and has not taken your specific circumstances into account.

Misconception #4: I’ll Automatically

Be Audited if I Have an Offshore Bank
Account
A lot of people in the offshore industry tend to play on
people’s fears. Their message is that the big, bad
government wants to take your money, so you better go
offshore and hide it. In all honesty, I doubt the government
cares that much. They care in the sense that they want to
keep money in their country, but the individual dude
working at the government office is not out to get you.
Yes, maybe the politicians are using shady tactics, but
the guy working at the IRS does not care. There is no need
to go around imagining that the entire Internal Revenue
Service is out to get you. Some people have this irrational
fear that they are going to get audited if they have an
offshore bank account. I have been in this industry for a
long time and I do not know a single person who has been
audited my entire life.
I do my taxes cleanly and I encourage everyone else to
do the same and play by the rules. Hire an expat accountant
and report bank accounts so that you will not be audited.
There is always the random chance that you might be
audited, but it will be because you were going to be audited
regardless. It will not be because of your offshore bank
accounts. Anyone can be audited – regardless of whether
you are set up in a high or low tax jurisdiction.
Takeaway: Banking offshore or seeking out low tax
locations does not mean that the taxman is going to come
after you.

Misconception #5: What If My Bank

Goes Under?
This misconception is rooted in the erroneous belief that
everything in your own country is automatically safe and
the best of its kind. However, as we have seen over and
over, this simply is not true. People who worry that their
offshore bank is going to go under are probably not the
same people worrying about the banks in their home
country – even though those are the banks that should be
causing them worry.
Imagine your local bank were to go under: who would
protect your money? If you answered, ‘deposit insurance’ or
‘the government,’ think again. Not only do many banks keep
mere pennies on hand to pay depositors, but sovereign
insurance funds in the West often have less than 1% of bank
deposits on hand. Having a bank account overseas can offer
you the peace of mind that at least you have diversification
in a worst-case scenario.
The US does have some of the highest deposit insurance
in the world (at $250,000), but that is because they need it.
People would worry too much about bank failures without it.
In some cases, when the FDIC knows that a bank is on the
brink, they will find buyers to come in instead of offering
insurance. For example, a bank like Capital One that has a
lot of money and wants to expand will simply take over and
pay you in full, even if you had more than the limit in your
account.
If your offshore bank were to go under, the situation is
generally resolved in much the same way. Do keep in mind
that not all countries have deposit insurance, but even in
countries that do not have insurance, many banks are still
too big to fail. If a bank in Georgia were to go under, the
potential damage to the economy would probably be
enough to convince the Georgian government to step in.
However, I have seen one or two instances in other
countries where the banks say, “You’re a foreigner. Screw
you.” The worst case is what happened in Cyprus where
they just did a bail-in; but Cyprus was not a great place to
bank to begin with. Everyone knew what was going on. I
was talking about it a year before the bail-in occurred when
I first started my blog. Everyone knew that it was the hot
money capital for Russians. The lesson, then, is to avoid
making a stupid decision going in.
It is easier to avoid stupid decisions than you might
think. Sure, some places fall from grace, but most of the
time you can see the writing on the wall from a long way
out. If you go to the right banks in the right countries, the
fear of bank failure should never be an issue.
Takeaway: Find the right bank going in. Look at your
bank’s numbers. If you do not have the time to do your own
research, then you can go to a consultant. Having someone
who knows what is going on in the world and who helps you
avoid the big issues upfront is important. Whether you do
your homework or have someone else do it for you, you are
far less likely to have a problem.

Misconception #6: Why Would I

Need an Offshore Bank?
 There is one final false belief about offshore banking, and
that is the belief that it has no potential benefit for you.
Because people do not understand the reasons for having a
foreign bank account, they fail to see that their bank is not
really that great.
Bank of America is leveraged to the hilt. Their service
stinks. They do not understand the rest of the world. If I
want to buy a property somewhere else in the world, I
cannot do it with a Bank of America account. They are going
to hassle me. I have had clients who have gone to their
bank in the United States and requested to send money to
someone overseas and received nothing but trouble. That
should not be the case.
For the Nomad Capitalist, offshore banking is part of a
diversified international lifestyle. People assume that the
only reason to have a foreign bank account is to hide
money, but they are mistaken. It is about getting the kind of
service you need for the life you live. If you are going to live
out your entire life in your home country, then maybe you
do not need an offshore bank. But if you plan to expand
your horizon, you will likely benefit from having an offshore
bank account.
Takeaway: The problem is that people have beaten into
our heads that offshore is wrong in and of itself. No! If you
follow the laws, there is nothing illegal or immoral about it
at all. It is a good diversification strategy and it is essential
for living a freedom-infused international lifestyle.
 The Legality and Requirements for
Offshore Banking
We all must follow the law. Having an offshore bank
account is 100% legal (and, if you follow my advice, there is
little reason to keep it a secret), but you must report it!
There is only one way to go offshore and that is to be
transparent, to report what you have to report, and to file
what you have to file.
I once helped an individual who was a US citizen, as well
as a citizen of three other top-tier countries. He had not
lived in the United States as an adult and he never even
thought about filing. He had almost a million dollars in bank
accounts and he could have been penalized half of that if he
did not come clean and report it. He was not purposefully
hiding it like the guys in Switzerland, he just did not know
that he had to.
But that is the penalty for hiding this stuff: half!
Are you willing to risk half your money to go after
anonymous bank accounts (that do not even exist
anymore)? Half is a lot. I do not care if it is a million dollars
or ten thousand dollars. I remember having $10,000 and
going to the ATM and seeing my balance and thinking
“Woohoo!” Imagine going in the next day and only having
$5,000. Not good.
Going offshore requires you to comply with the
government’s regulations. If you have foreign bank
accounts, you need to report them. Banks that are not
compliant with the US will give you problems. I know people
who have had their accounts frozen for six months just
because they got an account with the wrong bank.
Now, I am not a lawyer or an accountant. I am the guy
who dropped out of Arizona State to be an entrepreneur. I
work with professional accountants and lawyers to handle
everything for me so that all is as it should be. I strongly
suggest you do the same.
What I can tell you is that US citizens are required to
report every bank account they have if they keep $10,000
or more in all of those accounts combined at any time
during a given year. There is a form called the FBAR
expressly for this purpose and it is due on June 15 every
year. There are no extensions. The IRS takes this stuff
seriously. Other countries have their own rules, so it is
important to have someone who can help you figure them
out and ensure that you are compliant.
Takeaway: There is nothing illegal or immoral about
opening a bank account in another country. Nor is there
anything particularly unsafe about the procedure. Just report
and make sure that you are in compliance with all the laws
in your home country and you will stay on the right side of
the law.
 Where to Bank Offshore
The idea behind offshore banking is jurisdictional
diversification to ensure return of capital in addition to
better return on your deposited capital. That is why the best
offshore banks that are actually accessible to you are either
in places like Singapore that cater to foreign wealth and
have maintained an open-door policy, or places that actively
encourage Americans… again, because they have an open-
door policy.
While it is more difficult to open a bank account in many
countries today, other countries are moving in the opposite
direction. That is the beauty of going where you’re treated
best: where one door closes, another opens. Yesterday,
Switzerland was the en vogue place to bank, today it may
be Singapore, and tomorrow it may be Azerbaijan.
Before we discuss the best places to open an offshore
bank account, it is important to cross several places off our
list from the start. Going offshore does not mean throwing a
dart at a map and going wherever it lands, it means going
where you’re treated best. Some offshore banks are truly
terrible, others have been harassed and others simply do
not want your business anymore.
For example, all the offshore banks in the tiny Caribbean
islands have been harassed to the point that it is no longer
worth banking there in many cases. If you were the United
States and you wanted to find all your tax cheats, wouldn’t
you just go down to Belize and tell them that you are
coming in lock, stock and barrel? What is Belize going to do?
Even Panama has recently experienced their own little
scandal, but it was never on my list of favorites anyway.
Then there are the tax havens like the Seychelles where
the banks are hanging by a thread. You also have European
strongholds like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg
that are part of the old offshore world and, for many
individuals and businesses, no longer offer the perfect
panacea for offshore banking. And in countries like Cyprus
and Ukraine, the banks are either run by the mob or have
fallen flat on their face in recent years. As a general rule, do
not bother banking in any of these countries.
But who takes the title of “The worst offshore bank?” You
might think that a small bank in a rather inaccessible part of
the world with early 2000s technology would earn such a
title. In my opinion, the truly worst offshore banks are those
that appear to be good offshore banks, but fail to fulfill their
promises. If that is the case, then the worst offshore bank in
the world is HSBC. While it is supposedly the international
banking solution, the reality is that banking with HSBC is
miserable.
There are many offshore banks that are just not worth
the hassle and fees. That does not mean that you should
not bank offshore; it merely means you should do your
homework on which banks are best for you. Everyone
deserves a bank that is highly liquid and stable – an
increasing rarity in North America these days – as well as
one that matches their needs. For me, customer service is a
top priority because I conduct a lot of transactions and
occasionally have a question or need help. This is why I
have crossed HSBC off my list forever.
There are also banks in certain countries that just do not
want your business anymore. Hong Kong, for example, is
very conservative and stable and I would trust them more
than most with my money. However, they are becoming
incredibly difficult to work with, not because of the
government but because the banks are getting pickier about
who they will work with. Hong Kong banks do not waste
money on garbage and they will only lend on good projects.
That is the kind of bank you want, but they no longer want
you.
So many rich Chinese are coming in and depositing large
sums that they just do not need the small people anymore.
The banks have so much money that they do not know what
to do with it. So why would they take your money? If you
have ten million dollars and you are a wealthy Chinese guy
and the bank does not have to comply with US FATCA
regulations, then you are probably worth it. If you are the
average person, even with $100,000, it is just not worth
their time. And all of this is because their banks are good.
But Hong Kong is not the only place in the world with
good offshore banks. As with my investigation in Romania, I
am constantly looking for the next great place so that I can
take advantage of the arbitrage opportunities still out there.
The key is to find the banks that are good but that have not
quite realized it yet – the ‘next Hong Kong’ of the offshore
banking world.
I have found that the opportunity is usually in the middle.
Places like Hong Kong do not need you anymore,
Switzerland cannot take you anymore, and the tiny little
islands have been so harassed that they are basically under
the thumb of the West. So, look to the middle. Focus on the
places that need your cash just as much as Hong Kong or
Singapore did twenty years ago. Those are the places where
you will be welcomed.
It is also essential to work with the right foreign banks for
your specific situation. If you do not, you might end up
spending time closing bank accounts you wanted to keep
but no longer can, or traveling all over the world just to
close accounts that are causing you problems. The best
offshore banks for you depend on three factors:
1. Are you willing to travel there?
 2. What is your citizenship?
3. How much money do you have?
Knowing which banks will work for you and your situation
is a must if you want to avoid spending your precious time
chasing your tail. For instance, Cambodia is a country that
you may have never thought of, but if you invest around
Asia, it could serve a useful purpose. Add to that the recent
promotion I saw at a Cambodian bank for 11% on US dollars
and Cambodia starts to look even better. However, for
someone who operates in Latin America, a Cambodian bank
may not have so much utility.
Essentially, every country is a potential option. One
limiting factor is each country’s central bank. I have not
been to all 196 countries yet, but many central banks
around the world make things difficult. Some countries do
not want foreigners’ money. I once asked to open a bank
account in Bosnia and, after the banker picked himself up
off the floor from laughing at the fact that I wanted a bank
account in his country, he explained the process to me.
I needed to go ‘here’ to get this certified and ‘there’ to
get this stamped and then I needed to obtain a bank
reference letter and have it translated and this other
document apostilled and then get a copy of my passport
translated into Bosnian. Basically, I needed to get it kissed
by a priest and signed, sealed, delivered Stevie Wonder-
style.
Unsurprisingly, all these requirements came from the
central bank – not the banks themselves. Apparently, Bosnia
wants to stay broke and in terrible shape. In a region that I
like, it is not the success story. In Serbia, on the other hand,
the central bank allows you to open a bank account, but the
banks themselves are just difficult. The nearby country of
Montenegro has a different attitude and lets everyone know
that the central bank has no restrictions, they are pro-
capital, and they want your money.
Restrictions may also be based on the individual person
working at the bank. For example, when I tried to use a non-
US passport to open my account in Montenegro, they said,
“We don’t know where this is, do you have another one?”
When I went to a different branch of the same bank across
the road, it was fine.
Balkan countries like Montenegro are improving by leaps
and bounds. I have several employees from the Balkans who
have told me stories of hearing NATO planes off on bombing
raids fly over their homes when they were children. Roughly
twenty years later, Montenegro just got approved to join
NATO.
That is not the only progress they have made. They are
their own country and they want to be a great place to
invest. They do not want to become Greece. They want to
avoid their mistakes and be more open to receiving capital.
Because of that, they have built up a great banking
infrastructure and they have consistently increased their
deposit insurance.
On a macro level, Montenegro has said that they are
open to your investments. In Bosnia, I am sure the banks
are open to your money, but the central bank has stunted
growth because of all their rules. Some banks in Eastern
Europe only ask to see your passport to open an account for
you. They do not even want proof of address. In Switzerland,
they want your proof of address, your ID card, your
residence card, your passport, and ten million other things.
Some banks in Germany will also open an account for you,
but generally only for EU citizens.
Again, just go where you’re treated best. If you really
want to be in Switzerland or Germany, then realize that you
will need to spend much more of your time, money and
peace of mind to do so.
The country that tops my list, however, is Georgia.
Georgia is hands down the easiest place in the world to
open an offshore bank account today. Because it is
somewhere in the middle of the offshore spectrum, a
jurisdiction like Georgia has not seen the problems you find
at the top and bottom of the offshore world, precisely
because it is not a tax haven, nor is it a large offshore
financial center. It is not even on the radar of the vast
majority of the world.
It is possible to open a bank account in Georgia with as
little as $7. The process at my favorite banks takes as little
as ten minutes. If you are a US citizen or have US indicia,
you will be asked to fill out a few forms for the IRS, but that
is about it. You do not need piles of paperwork, you just
show up with the cash in your wallet, make a minimal
deposit, and get started.
Once you are in the door with a bank, opening additional
bank accounts is quite easy. Georgian banks do not offer
remote account opening, but service once you have opened
at least one account is good, and you can handle most
account functions from overseas once you are set up.
In fact, online banking for the Georgian banks I deal with
is refreshingly simple. Almost stupidly simple. For as much
as I love banking in Singapore, banks there sure do give you
a lot of codes, PINs, and access numbers to remember. In
Georgia, it is simple. You can move money between
Georgian lari, US dollars, euros and British pound with a
single click. Exchange rate spreads at the bank are
extremely small; if you are making a large deposit, you can
get one-way spreads of as little as 0.13% on the street.
 Banking in Georgia comes with many benefits. The only
real challenge is flying to Georgia to appear in person. Once
you make the trip and open your account, Georgian banks
offer both ATM and debit Visa Electron cards that can be
used anywhere in the world that Visa is accepted. It is also a
great tool to have for booking travel online in Europe, as
Electron cards incur lower transaction fees from cheap
airlines.
While bank fees there are rather low, interest rates are
quite high. I have even seen 5% interest rates on short-term
US dollar term deposits; and if you are willing to bet on the
Georgian lari, you can earn even higher yields. If you are
willing to get on a plane, I would strongly consider Georgia
for its ease of account opening and maintenance. I might
even be so bold as to say that it is the best place to go right
now if you are looking to deposit a mid-sized sum.
If you are not willing to get on a plane, you may be
tempted to consider remote bank account opening. This has
long been a staple of the internet’s nameless, faceless
promoters. If you are a remote worker, then you might think
that opening a bank account remotely would be a good
idea, too. While Caribbean islands like St. Vincent and the
Grenadines – and even European Union islands like Cyprus –
have long touted their willingness to open a bank account
for someone they will never meet, the practice is becoming
dangerous.
As you might imagine, authorities around the world are
cracking down on anything that makes opening a bank
account too easy. Tiny islands in the West Indies are
typically not as well-equipped with all the bells and whistles
that western countries would like them to have to stop
terrorists and money launderers. This has led groups of
western governments to make banking in those countries
harder.
 These days, if you want to open a quality bank account,
be prepared to show up. A client of mine recently contacted
me to tell me he wanted an extra bank account for his
company. Since having redundancies is a great idea, I was
happy to help him… until he asked what he could open
without leaving the couch.
If you are working with someone like me, you can
probably set up a power of attorney to open a good bank
account remotely. In my client’s case, there were a couple
banks that I could have helped him open remotely, but even
an experienced guy with people to support him like my
client would spend about $500 to open an account this way.
For $500, he could have flown to one of these banks and
knocked everything out in an hour or so.
For those who do not have a cadre of lawyers and people
like me, the trip to a bank is definitely recommended.
Traditional offshore banks – those on flyspeck islands that
few people live on – are not only very paperwork happy, but
fee happy. Open an account in St. Lucia and you will pay
$100 every time you receive a wire transfer, $80 to send a
payment, and $40 a month just for the privilege of the
online banking equivalent of one of those early mobile
phones you would wear around your hip.
In case it is still not clear, I am not a big fan of banks in
the Caribbean and other distinctly ‘offshore’ locales. In all
but the rarest of cases, they simply are not worth it. Just as
Swiss banks fell out of favor due to their aggressive
marketing of shady practices, banks on the tax haven
islands can no longer keep up with changing times.
Takeaway: As globalization continues its aggressive
march, the trend is for countries to become more compliant
with the world system. Since Nomad Capitalists are not
worried about hiding their money, this is not a big issue.
This is just the new normal. There are plenty of foreign
banks that will accept you as a customer. You can still open
an offshore bank account and receive all the benefits that
come with it. Everyone can open a bank account
somewhere. It just depends on where you can do it.
 Chapter Eight:
Offshore Companies and
Tax Savings
“Choose Your Tax Rate”

Dateline: Monte Carlo, Monaco The Mediterranean

glistened as it always does in Monaco. Nestled in between
France and Italy with its grand total of 0.6 square miles, the
principality of Monaco is among the world’s best known hot
spots for the jet set elite. Only here can a four-minute taxi
ride from the train station cost €20 and a mediocre
hamburger cost €37.
Port Hercule, the heart of Monaco’s harbor, is capable of
holding up to 700 vessels in its deep-waters. On that warm
April day, it was full, brimming with vessels from around the
world. As I walked up and down the rows of boats, I noticed
the mix of super-yachts, regular yachts, and outright
dinghies by comparison.
And then I noticed something truly interesting: On the
back of each vessel was not only its name – often something
cheeky like “It’s Hers,” but less so than usual since this was
Monaco – but I also noticed that the boat’s country of
registration was listed underneath its name. I saw yachts
from the Cayman Islands, the Marshall Islands, and Malta, as
well as boats registered to Liverpool, or even France.
What intrigued me most was that, consistently, the boats
registered to offshore jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands
were much larger than those registered in higher-taxed
Europe. The French boats were cute, but the Cayman and
Malta boats were the real gems.
I realized that in a chicken-and-egg scenario, the
wealthiest yacht owners sought out the most favorable,
lowest tax countries in which to register their yacht, while
those with smaller boats seemed, on a whole, less
concerned about choosing the best country. It was unclear
whether the offshore guys had more money to begin with
because they were accustomed to going where they were
treated best, or if their purchase of a larger yacht simply
implied more planning.
What was clear was that going where you’re treated best
meant a bigger yacht. Unsurprisingly, the same principle
holds true for your business.
 The Cost of Delay
Most of us run businesses in our home country and pay
full taxes. If you live in a place like Montenegro, where
profits and income tax are both a paltry 9%, it might not be
a big deal. However, if you are anything like I was running
businesses in the United States, your tax rate may well be
either approaching 50% or even higher.
The same is true of folks in most western countries, from
Canada to Australia to the UK to all over Western Europe. By
the time you add up federal income tax, state or provincial
income tax, local income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare
tax, and every other tax and levy, anyone productive could
easily be giving close to half of their income to the
government (if not more).
I could argue that taxation by the government bears little
difference to an extortion racket by the mob. Both control
territories through force and demand protection money.
However, as a pragmatist, I could also argue “Who cares?”
The government is not going away, nor is it likely to change.
What you do have the possibility to change is whether or
not you remain in the system.
Imagine the amount of money you have paid in taxes in
your lifetime. Now, imagine what you would do with that
money if you had it all back. In my case, my tab was
approaching $1 million before I decided that I had to change
something. While I was fortunate enough to realize that
these options existed in my mid- and late twenties, imagine
what I could have done with that amount of money.
If you are like most business owners, even an extra
$50,000 would make a huge difference to your growth
trajectory. My friends who sell online are always looking to
manufacture and launch new products but never seem to
have enough money to keep up with all of the opportunities
and demand.
Tim, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who had recently
launched his Amazon FBA, was in this very situation when
we met. Tim was living in Southern California at the time
making about $9,000 a month. To most people, he was
living the life. However, Tim had a problem. He did not have
enough money to reinvest in his company.
When I spoke to Tim, it was not difficult to identify his
two main culprits; one, his cost of living in the beautiful but
expensive San Diego, and two, the $43,000 tax bill his
accountant had just prepared for his first year in business.
Like most entrepreneurs, myself included, Tim started his
business without the proper structure or without even giving
much of any thought to taxes. He was just thrilled with the
idea of making money on his own terms.
The ironic thing is that most people, even many business
owners, earn just enough to pay their taxes and the cost of
living. It is the ultimate example of water seeking its own
level. Housing prices are correlated with local taxes, goods
and services are correlated with income and sales taxes,
and wages tend to be just enough to get by in many cases.
Even the engineer making $200,000 for Google in Venice
Beach will not have much discretionary income after taxes
and rent on his $7,000-a-month pied-à-terre near
headquarters.
As much as we entrepreneurs want to believe that we are
different, many of us have fallen for the same challenges
that befall salaried employees, barely scraping by no matter
how successful we become. The difference is that most
entrepreneurs can get out of this trap with much more ease
than a salaried employee tied to one location.
 In Tim’s case, his Amazon business was growing so
quickly that every $1 he invested quickly became at least
$3 as products launched and created new (almost
somewhat passive) income for him. I explained that, based
on those numbers, his real tax costs were actually $129,000
rather than the actual $43,000 he paid. The reasoning was
that, had he been able to use that $43,000 to grow his
business, it would have been able to grow into something
much bigger. He was losing the return on his investment.
The funny thing was that Tim’s business was already
globally minded in many ways. He had a Filipino virtual
assistant that he hired through Upwork and was planning on
hiring more people. When asked why he was not hiring
American workers, Tim said it just did not make sense for
where his business was at. Yet, because Tim himself was
running the business from California, he had no choice but
to hand over 40% of his income and seek ways to get
financing to expand his company, even if that meant paying
double digit interest rates for inventory financing.
Many entrepreneurs start out like Tim, setting up
corporations in their home country or merely acting as a
sole proprietor because they do not know any better. Many
others never thought their business would get so large;
even I started Nomad Capitalist as a retirement project after
selling my last US business and never expected it to be
more than a personal brand.
The issue with setting up shop this way is that it locks
you into paying taxes until you fix it. I know one business
owner in Asia who, despite not even living in California or
having any other ties there, uses a California corporation to
conduct his business. He is literally missing out on hundreds
of thousands of dollars of savings that could fund his
lifestyle or be reinvested in his business.
 Most of us are familiar with the tax loopholes used by
companies like Starbucks, Google and just about every
other tech company on planet earth. Starbucks operates ten
billion stores all over the world and has successfully shifted
much of its revenue from those stores to subsidiaries in low-
tax or tax-free countries by selling its intellectual property
and other assets back to itself.
Other restaurant chains and businesses do the same. You
may have heard about the recently neutered Double Irish
Dutch Sandwich, whereby companies like Facebook would
shift money back and forth around Europe before finally
parking it in Bermuda or some other speck in the Caribbean
where taxes are low or nonexistent. Your business can do
the same.
Not only is it possible in certain cases to pay zero tax –
unlike the 3% paid by companies like Starbucks – but you do
not have to set up a network of subsidiaries all over the
world and hang an org chart on your wall. In fact, the cost of
setting up your company overseas is quite affordable, if you
know what to do.
 What Companies Can Go Offshore?
Usually, the first step is moving the active control of your
company out of your home country. In Tim’s case, that
meant that, as the owner of the company, he either needed
to hire an entire organization including a CEO based outside
of the United States (which is rather tricky unless you are
approaching Starbucks volume), or to move himself, as the
owner and effective CEO, out of the country.
That is why the Arizona swimming pool company I
invested in would have never qualified for any kind of huge
tax break, but the consulting companies I built in the media
and financial industries could have. Having a bunch of guys
running around on the ground in Arizona means that Arizona
– and the United States – can make a good argument that
you owe them tax. After all, you are driving on their roads
and using their services for your direct benefit.
So, before we discuss who can take advantage of tax
laws to plant their company flag offshore and save big, it is
important to discuss who cannot. I recently received a call
from a lady who is a bankruptcy attorney in the United
States. She works with her clients personally, appears for
them in court personally, and does not want to abandon her
practice. As far as tax savings go, this is about as bad a
case study as you can get. Not only is this very nice lady
physically working in the United States – that is where her
company, or in this case, one-woman law practice, is
controlled – but she is appearing in US government
buildings for clients who also live in the US, to discuss their
US financial matters in front of the US government.
That is a whole lot of US, which means her income is
considered to be ‘US source.’ The source of income
determines where it is taxed. A rental property in Barcelona
is always going to be taxed in Spain because it is inherently
a Spanish source of income. There is no way to argue that
the income from that property should be taxed anywhere
else. After all, the Barcelona police protect it, the Barcelona
fire department keeps it from burning down, and the
Spanish government (despite my belief otherwise) believes
that its wonderful, high-functioning government is the
reason you have a potential tenant at all. Without them, the
argument goes, there would be chaos and no one would
want to live in your home.
By the same logic, the lawyer who called me is not only
doing work in the US, but also using their system. There are,
however, some ways she could save money on taxes that I
will share a bit later in this chapter. So, if you are a
bankruptcy lawyer and are willing to make some changes,
do not worry too much.
The question to ask yourself before deciding whether
your business should ‘go offshore’ is if you can make a case
that you and/or your business operate from the place you
claim. While I could have set up a Hong Kong company for
my pool business in Arizona, it would have complicated
things without any tax benefit since the work was obviously
being done in Arizona.
If you have staff or virtual assistants operating overseas,
that may be a good indication of where your company’s
work is being done. If you are living the true Four Hour
Workweek lifestyle and spending minimal time supervising
other people doing the real work, that will help your case
too.
 Choose Your Tax Rate
Now, let’s dive into the good stuff. If you or your business
are location independent, chances are that you can save
some serious money. E-commerce store owners, Amazon
sellers, Kindle publishers, coaches, consultants and, in many
cases, even passive income investors, among others, can
take advantage of greatly beneficial tax laws.
One way to look at these tax laws is to say that your
government will pay you to travel and live overseas in their
appreciation for you leaving. Even someone making only a
few thousand dollars a month could see enough tax savings
to pay his or her entire cost of living in a place like Tbilisi,
Belgrade, Cebu, or Phnom Penh. When your business only
uses the internet, phone lines, and human beings who can
do the work from Lima or Limassol, it becomes easier to
structure your business to either completely eliminate or
dramatically lower your tax bill.
For the average entrepreneur earning $100,000 per year,
these changes could mean savings of $25,000 – not just this
year, but every year. If you make $250,000 a year, you
might save $75,000. If you are in the seven figure club and
you are currently operating in a developed country, you
could easily save $500,000 on profits of $1 million.
That is where the concept of strategically planting flags
comes into play. There is a reason every cruise ship you
have ever sailed on is registered in a place like Liberia or
Panama. In the same way the yacht owners in Monaco
chose where to register their vessel, you can choose where
your company is domiciled. You can literally choose your tax
rate.
Where to actually base your company is the $64,000
question. Just because you base your company in another
country does not mean that you will pay zero tax. Think of it
this way: if you are a consultant living in California, you will
pay federal income taxes and state income taxes.
California’s state income taxes on high earners are the
highest in the United States at around 13%. Meanwhile,
nearby Nevada has no state income tax on personal income.
In simplistic terms, you could move your home base from
Los Angeles to Las Vegas and eliminate that 13% tax, saving
tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars a year. Of
course, Nevada is part of the United States and, as you still
live in the United States, there is nothing you can do about
the federal tax, but at least you save at the state (and, in
some cases, local) level.
However, if you are recovering from a wild gambling
addiction, you may choose instead to move to Arizona.
Arizona has substantially lower taxes than California, with
top rates of about 5% accompanying the generally more
business-friendly attitude there. Of course, 5% is not zero.
You will still pay some state tax on top of the federal tax
that you cannot control within the US.
Perhaps Arizona has better schools than Las Vegas, or
better weather or other amenities that make it so you are
willing to pay that 5%. Sure, you would love to pay 0%, but
for lifestyle reasons, cutting your state tax bill from 13% to
5% is good enough. This is especially true if it also means a
lower cost of living and less pollution.
Establishing your company offshore is not so different
from the process of moving your company to a different
state. And, if you are willing to move from California to
Arizona to save on tax, why stop there? There are many
countries that have rolled out the red carpet to those willing
to incorporate their business in their jurisdiction. A few
countries charge zero tax to just about everyone; all you
need to do is show up.
 Other countries offer special incentives to foreign
businesses, such as paying 0% tax under certain conditions
and low rates under others. And many other countries still
offer low rates of taxation but provide more in the way of
services, just like in the Nevada versus Arizona example.
In the old days, offshore for many people was about
hiding money. That is how phrases like ‘offshore company’
and ‘Swiss bank account’ got a bad reputation in the media
(politicians pandering to increasingly destitute voters did
not help, either). But a Swiss bank account is just a bank
account set up under the laws of Switzerland. And an
offshore company is merely a company incorporated under
the laws of another country. In and of themselves, they are
completely legal strategies.
They are not legal for hiding money, though, and I do not
recommend that you try. Today, more than 100 countries
have started working together to ensure that businesses
and individuals are not evading taxes illegally. And, even if
you did not have 100 countries peering over your shoulder,
why waste your time hiding when you could legally be doing
business offshore in the light of day? It is not only illegal to
hide your money with offshore companies but it also does
not make any business sense to do so. Why break the law
when you can get better results without the risk of ending
up in jail?
Moving your business offshore in a transparent way is
smart diversification. Today, we have the benefit of a truly
global economy that makes hiding money simply
unnecessary. More and more countries are lowering their tax
rates to attract businesses, meaning the options for where
to set up your company are almost too many. The breakup
of places like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia has created
nearly a dozen relatively business-friendly, low-tax
countries; and the desire for growth among many
developing countries adds more and more ‘tax havens’ to
the list each year.
While ‘mainstream’ politicians may call you unpatriotic
for going to a tax haven, the reality is that you are under no
obligation to base your business in their country, or to even
live there. And why would you want to pay taxes to a
country you do not live in or benefit from? You should get to
choose where you want to base yourself and what tax rate
you pay. And you can. You can go where you’re treated best.
 Offshore vs. Onshore
Doing business in high-tax countries does not really offer
as many benefits as you would suppose. It is much more
efficient to manage a company from the Republic of Georgia
– one of the most efficient governments on earth – than it is
a California corporation. While you may think the huge taxes
you pay are getting you some kind of special treatment, it is
probably the opposite.
Terms like ‘tax haven’ and ‘offshore’ can often get in the
way of understanding what it really means to
internationalize your life and go where you’re treated best.
They make a very natural, legal process of moving your
company to a jurisdiction where it can grow sound
mysterious and forbidden. Capital is fungible and tends to
go where it is treated best. That is the bottom line.
You can structure a company to legally pay no tax, or it
may make sense for you to pay a little tax and still save
80% of what you used to pay. Either way, you can probably
do better than where your company is incorporated at
present. That is the benefit of going ‘offshore’.
When we use the word ‘offshore,’ we use it to mean
‘somewhere other than here.’ It does not have to mean
some tiny island with treasure chests washing up on the
beach. By this definition, an offshore company owned by a
non-resident, non-US citizen could be in the United States.
While there are a lot of common mistakes that screw up the
whole structure, Delaware – when structured properly – is
one of the world’s great tax havens, just not for people who
live in the United States.
In a nod to the old adage that the neighbor with a salary
topping yours by $10,000 a year is ‘rich’ merely in
comparison, you might find it preferable to move your
business to Estonia where, despite being part of the
European Union, the country has taken great strides to
digitize almost everything and make company maintenance,
paying taxes, and banking easy from anywhere in the world.
Estonia offers a 0% tax rate for companies that do not
distribute capital, making it very efficient if you reinvest
your money. And when you want to take cash out, you pay a
moderate rate of 20%.
The Republic of Georgia has done the same thing, with a
relatively low corporate tax rate of 15%, a dividend tax of
next to nothing, and a recent adoption of Estonia’s model to
make profits you do not distribute untaxed.
If you are unfamiliar with how powerful the idea of not
paying tax can be – or at least deferring tax – consider the
‘penny a day’ story many of us learned in elementary
school. The story goes that a penny doubled every day for
one month might not seem like much, but it will actually
turn into a large fortune at the end. By merely doubling the
previous day’s balance, your penny will balloon to
$5,368,709 at the end of the month. The power of
compounding returns is indeed impressive.
What they do not teach you in elementary school is that
high taxes will knock those returns to the ground like having
a cat for a Jenga opponent. If you factor in a 30% tax rate on
each day’s gains – be it short-term capital gains in this case,
or profits tax in a more realistic example – your return
changes substantially.
Instead of that $0.01 turning into north of $5 million, it
turns into…
…a measly $48,197.
The difference between earning the equivalent of an
average salary and an average lottery win is simply taxes.
We have been trained to think that, “The only things certain
in life are death and taxes,” but that is far from the truth.
Nobody in Abu Dhabi is saying that. They are enjoying the
hypothetical $5.3 million because they are not paying tax.
If your company reinvests profits to grow, you can see
the difference between reinvesting tax-deferred money
compared to post-tax money. This is why growth companies
in places like the United States are such great success
stories. Imagine what companies working on only a fraction
of their capacity could do if they had more fuel in the tank.
It is also why anyone running a business – such as an e-
commerce business where investing in more SKUs and new
launches is the growth model – should consider forming a
foreign company to run their business.
The question is whether to go ‘offshore’ or ‘onshore.’
While we use the generic version of the term ‘offshore
company,’ there is a difference. ‘Onshore’ refers to
traditional mainland countries which will require at least a
little tax to be paid and will usually require you to keep
some kind of records. Onshore jurisdictions are what most of
us are used to, except that we will select a country with far
lower taxes, more lenient rules, and (particularly if you are
coming from the US) greater asset protection.
Offshore countries offer companies to practically anyone
and apply very few restrictions to the companies that
operate in their jurisdiction. These countries include, among
others, Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Seychelles, Belize, and
the Gambia. Many of these countries require little more than
payment of an annual fee and a registered agent in the
country the same way a US company would.
For instance, the Seychelles, a small archipelago of 115
islands off the coast of East Africa, has little to lose by
selling itself as an offshore market. Almost half of the
economy is based on tuna fishing and tourism. Guests to
the Raffles Seychelles, where standard rooms can run north
of $1,000 per night, care little about whether the Seychelles
government harbors a million ‘international business
companies,’ as long as there is also room for their boat in
that harbor. Nor has anyone ever protested by refusing to
eat fish sourced from a tax haven.
So, the Seychelles government sells access to an
environment where, for $100 payable to them plus agent
and legal fees, you can pay zero tax, file zero accounting
records, and keep your name from appearing on any public
record for prying eyes to find. The only restriction is that you
usually cannot sell to people in the country where your
offshore company is registered, but few readers of this book
will have many Seychellois clients. There is little harm to the
government in doing this, and with a population of just
90,000, those $100 bills every year do not need to be
spread out among a lot of beneficiaries.
Why, then, would you even consider going ‘onshore’ and
dealing with pesky taxes – even if they are only 5% – when
you can have the red carpet rolled out for you in a place like
the Seychelles? For one, doing business in a tax haven is
not as simple as it sounds. The fact that just about anybody
can set up a Seychelles company, do nothing, and move
money around with impunity does not sit well with
governments, particularly as they step up enforcement
against terrorism, drug cartels, and other shadowy activity.
In many cases, it has become harder to open these
offshore companies. Island governments have been put
under the microscope by the high-tax countries in the OECD
that ‘encourage’ them to crack down on companies. The
consequence if they choose not to cooperate is to be cut off
from the world economy.
As a result, many banks that used to accept offshore
companies no longer do so. Even in the last couple of years,
the more lenient banks in Europe and Asia have put out the
‘closed for business’ sign to these type of ‘anything goes’
companies. Foreign banks have little ability to control what
actually happens in the company and, given the reputation
among these countries for dirty stuff, banks do not want the
hassle. One misstep could put them on the wrong side of
powerful governments with an agenda.
Even PayPal caves to the pressures of such governments.
The company operates in most countries on earth, but the
limits on withdrawing money are far more strict in Panama
than they are in the United States. There is something about
a big, high-tax, militaristic country that makes banks do
what they say.
That means that while a Nevis company will require
anyone wishing to sue you to post a $25,000 bond and pay
their own lawyer, you will be hard-pressed to get a bank
account for your Nevis company. While there are some
reasons to have a company without a bank account (holding
patents, perhaps) it is not going to be very useful for most
entrepreneurs. It is possible to set up a second company to
be owned by your Nevis company and have that company
get a bank account, but that may be too complex for your
needs.
A small, but sure-to-be-growing number of countries are
even outright blacklisting these offshore companies. On a
recent trip to Asia, a real estate agent told me that his
country had announced that they would ignore the tax
benefits of any Belize company, and treat all assets held in
any Belize companies owned by their citizens as taxable
because they could not trust what they believed to be a
banana republic to prevent the money from going toward
wars and political payoffs.
Another point to consider is whether or not your
customers will like you doing business in Nevis, Seychelles,
or the Gambia. If you asked for my help in crafting your
perfect tax-reducing strategy and I asked you to send
thousands of dollars to the Gambia so I could get started,
you might think twice.
Again, there are exceptions to this rule. Maybe all of your
clients know and trust you and you do not need any more of
them. If they are happy to deal with the questions their
bank will ask them when they send money to the Bank of
West Africa and you are happy to live hoping that your bank
does not lose its right to send and receive US dollars, then a
simple Nevis company with a Belize bank account might be
just fine.
For the rest of us, a better solution is required, especially
if we do not want just any bank account. Chances are that
you will need good bank accounts with reasonable fees,
debit cards you can actually use, and online banking that
will make your life easy. That is where onshore companies
come in. Companies incorporated in more reputable
countries give you access to the bounty that a ‘real country’
offers, including all — or possibly far more — of the services
you currently enjoy. If you do not want to wait a week and
pay $100 every time you receive a wire transfer, these
countries will serve you better.
The trick is figuring out which one.
 Finding The Right Jurisdiction
You may have heard that all the cool kids like Uber have
set up shop in the Netherlands thanks to Amsterdam’s
favorable tax treatment of large multinationals, but unless
you, too, have offices in 92 countries, it is probably not
worth it. Many European entrepreneurs start their business
in the United Kingdom where taxes are moderate at a flat
20%, but for US citizens and some others, the total cost —
not to mention the high cost of compliance — is also a deal
breaker.
Nomad Capitalists still have plenty of other options. In a
recent study I conducted, my team and I found more than
forty countries around the world that had lowered their
corporate tax rates within the last five years. Some made
small changes, like the Baltic state that decreases its rate
by 1% bi-annually, while others made more significant
drops. Montenegro, Lithuania, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria,
Ireland, Singapore, and others offer tax rates of 10% or less
in many circumstances. If you are willing to go up to the
neighborhood of 15%, the list expands extensively,
including several European Union countries and other world-
class destinations.
The first step in knowing where to set up your company
is to answers a few essential questions. To begin, what are
you trying to accomplish? How do your customers pay you?
Do you accept wire transfers? Do you need PayPal? Or do
you need a full merchant account? Who are your customers
and what kind of service and experience do they expect?
Second, what do you expect? If you are planning to run a
clean business and move money around easily and
frequently, you will want a place that facilitates that with
ease; Swiss banks, for example, tend to dislike frequent
transactions.
 Third, what is your business about? If you own
intellectual property such as patents or trademarks, that
must be considered, as IP is often taxed differently. You may
also need to sell any IP you own now to a new foreign
company, meaning businesses with intangible assets may
have more planning to do.
Lastly, what is your citizenship? Citizens of the United
States are subject to more restrictions than citizens of other
countries when moving offshore. You will need to make sure
that you tick all the boxes at home before packing your
bags.
You will have a clearer vision of where to plant your
company’s flag once you know the answers to these
questions. There is no right answer that covers every
company and every issue, but for most small businesses,
zero tax or close to it is possible with some form of
structure.
The important thing to understand is that every country
has its own rules and its own priorities. Hong Kong, which
offers an interesting hybrid of both offshore and onshore
benefits for active businesses that meet certain criteria,
gets most of its tax revenue from real estate transactions.
Sir Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, made a
fortune in property on the island and helped build the
economy for real estate and the taxes that those properties
pay every time they are transferred.
Because Hong Kong makes a large part of its tax revenue
from real estate dealings, almost every other form of tax is
low. Corporate taxes are a flat 16.5% — a relatively low rate
considering how sophisticated Hong Kong is — but can be
reduced as low as 0% with proper planning. Payroll taxes are
practically non-existent. Hong Kong does not need your tax
dollars because guys like Ka-shing are footing the bill.
 This is similar to how Nevada can apply extremely light
taxation to businesses and completely cut out personal
income tax thanks to the hundreds of casinos run in the
state. Steve Wynn pays the bills so no-one else has to. The
same is true in the Gulf states where taxation is zero nearly
across the board due to heavy taxation of oil revenues.
People were shocked when Dubai went so far as to impose a
VAT. The point is that if you understand why a country offers
the incentives (or disincentives) that it does, you will have a
better idea of where your company can be treated best.
 Structured Savings
Once you decide where you will move your business
overseas, it is important to understand the role you play in
your business. For most entrepreneurs, that role is one of an
employee. I know, I know; we entrepreneurs hate to be
titled as an employee, but from a government perspective,
that is what we are. When you establish a Hong Kong
company and move your business assets there, you can
become an employee of that company. If properly
structured, a Hong Kong company’s employee based
outside of Hong Kong should not be subject to Hong Kong
salary tax, but rather salary tax in the place they live. And,
if you live the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle, the salary tax in
the place, or places, where you live should be very low, if
not zero.
That means low or no corporate tax for your business,
and low or no personal income tax for you, provided you run
the company outside of your home country and live as a
perpetual traveler with a home base in a country that does
not tax your foreign income. It may sound a little tricky, but
it is quite simple: spend the majority of your time in tax
friendly places. The good news is that tax friendly places
have a lot of the good beaches.
Let’s imagine you set up a company in Hong Kong and
establish that company as doing business outside of Hong
Kong. If set up properly, your corporate tax rate will be 0%.
You can then take a salary from that company, which should
also be exempt from tax there because you do not live in
Hong Kong. The only tax left to determine is your personal
income tax. That is where your living location comes in.
If you are a US citizen, there is an objective way to
handle where you live and how much you pay yourself: the
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (or FEIE). While US citizens
must file tax returns even after they leave the United
States, the FEIE allows each US citizen to exempt a certain
amount of earned income ($104,100 in 2018) from federal
and, in most cases, state income tax if they spend all but
about one month in a foreign country or countries.
This means that US citizens have a unique advantage in
that they can live as perpetual travelers so long as they are
outside of the United States and inside any other country.
That could be one country for the entire year, or a new
country every day. It does not matter. If you qualify, you can
simply check a box on your income tax return and not pay a
cent on the exempted amount.
If you are a sole proprietor, you will still have to pay
Social Security and Medicare tax because you are not an
employee of a foreign company. However, if you have an
offshore company, you are treated as the employee of that
foreign company. And, since employees of non-US
companies do not pay US payroll tax, you can avoid that,
too. US citizens who qualify for the FEIE are also exempt
from maintaining health insurance under Obamacare.
If you are a US citizen who wants to spend more than one
month each year back home, or you are a citizen of any
other industrialized country, things get a bit more
subjective. US citizens who establish a ‘bona fide residence’
overseas can spend nearly four months each year in the US,
but with far stricter requirements to qualify. Canadians,
Australians, and many Europeans can spend anywhere from
16 to 182 days in their home country, so long as they do so
as a tourist. Each country has its own protocol to meet in
order to bow out of their tax system but, in general, you
actually need to move. If you want to spend all your time in
your home country, most of these strategies will not work.
Let’s assume that you are a Canadian citizen who wants
to leave the Canadian tax system so that the income you
take out of your offshore company is untaxed. Even as an
employee of your foreign company, you will be subject to
income tax in Canada until you check out of the system.
That means cutting your ties with Canada. If you are
married, it means your spouse should be on board; ditto in
countries that recognize civil partnerships. You and your
entire family, if applicable, need to be on the same page.
In general, it is a good idea to obtain a second residency
in a country that does not tax you if you live there part-time.
Obtaining a second residency is, for many people, the first
step on the road to a second passport, but it is also a way of
showing that you live in that place now and not Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, or any other country that taxes you
based on your residence there.
As governments in the West get more desperate for cash,
it will be even more important to be able to say, “Here’s
where I live” rather than “I’m not in my home country.” Your
home country wants to tax you unless you can give them a
good reason not to. You need to craft a story for your life
and select a base of operations where you spend some
time, perhaps maintain an apartment, keep a little money in
the bank, and call home.
If you are already a Nomad and have not established a
second residency, I would strongly suggest you do so as
soon as possible. When it comes to taxation in your home
country, there is little room for error. You need to work with
people who know what they are talking about. When I lived
in the United States, I used a well-respected tax firm for
businesses, which successfully churned out an annual tax
return the size of a small town phonebook. However, when I
began traveling overseas long enough to qualify for a tax
exemption, my otherwise savvy CPA had no clue that I even
qualified for said exemption.
 I quickly learned that no matter how good your home
country’s accountant is, they likely do not know anything
about taxes for expats. My personal US tax attorney who
specializes in expats says that he has heard of clients being
dissuaded from even the most simple and straightforward
offshore strategies because some bean counter did not
think that it smelled right. If you plan to live an international
life, you will need an international accountant as well as
someone to quarterback that accountant with your other
service providers. A Canadian CPA will not have any idea
about tax laws in Hong Kong, nor will the guy in Hong Kong
know about your residency status in Serbia.
That said, as long as you have the right professional
assistance, if you are a consultant, coach, or run some sort
of services business where you and any other employees
make (or break) the business, then your transition into a
new offshore company should be relatively painless.
However, if you own valuable intellectual property or
passive income streams such as patents, royalties, domain
names, or even websites, you will have one extra step.
After all, you would not give away that $10,000-a-month
AdSense website, so why would your company in the United
States simply gift it to your shiny new offshore company?
You wouldn’t, and the tax man knows that. If you have hard
assets that you could sell, you will need extra professional
advice on how to handle your new company.
One last note on how to use a foreign company to go
where you’re treated best is to know what to do with grants
and investors. Most private equity investors want companies
in their backyard. Silicon Valley types do not want to fund a
Nevis company. That does not mean that those same guys
do not use the Cayman Islands as a more advantageous
place to raise capital, but they usually want to see it
deployed at home. Mark Cuban, the renowned investor of
“Shark Tank” fame, heartily implores investors to avoid
companies doing anything to avoid tax, arguing that
companies should pay their fair share. Meh.
If you want to raise cash for your new tech startup in
California, you might be stuck with a California company.
There are ways to structure US companies to pay very little
tax, but that may not be suitable for investors. Just as I
often advise people that I work with to give up on the idea
of credit card miles in exchange for huge tax savings, you
may have a harder time raising capital. However, the
Nomad Capitalist lifestyle means freedom, and I would
encourage you to re-examine your need for investors who
will prove a serious curtailment to your ability to do as you
please.
On a more positive note, it may be possible to set up
shop somewhere that offers grant money or other
incentives. The United Kingdom has a number of programs
to incentivize new technology ventures with cash. One of
my friends received a six-figure grant from the UK
government, which made the prospect of setting up a UK
tax-paying company more palatable.
Going where you’re treated best is not code for ‘screw
the government at all costs.’ Nomad Capitalists are not
angry; they are pragmatic. If you can get more in business
incentives than you will pay in taxes for a while, that may be
the better deal for you. Many businesses do not qualify for
those grants, but if you do, take advantage of them. You
should not look a government gift horse in the mouth. If
they are offering, you should consider taking.
Other countries have variations on the old-fashioned
grant approach. Chile, for example, has made it easy for
entrepreneurs to join its state-run incubator, Start-up Chile,
and receive an equity-free grant in exchange for setting up
a business in Chile, even if only temporarily. The prospect of
a pile of cash with no strings attached has brought many
primarily Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs to Chile.
___________
By now, you have hopefully started to get the idea that
having a location independent business is no longer just
about ziplining through jungles and taking selfies with
cheetahs. It is about saving a fortune and, with that fortune,
elevating your lifestyle and saving and investing for the
future.
Even if you do not need to invest back into your
business, you can invest for future passive income. Imagine
saving $50,000 a year on taxes and investing that into real
estate. In Tbilisi, Georgia, you can get a renovated one-
bedroom flat in the tourist center of the city for that
amount, and potentially $5,000 a year in rent. After ten
years, you will own $500,000 in real estate (plus any
appreciation in value during that time) and have annual
cash flow of $50,000 — the same amount you were
previously paying in taxes.
Or, if you prefer, you can up your game from the Ibis to
the Ritz-Carlton every day of the year. Or stockpile rare
comic books. Or whatever else tickles your fancy. I have
increased my charitable giving to causes ranging from the
environment to aspiring entrepreneurs in Africa now that I
am less subject to forced giving in the form of taxes. There
is plenty you can do to multiply the good in your life and the
lives of others with more resources at your disposal.
It is a simple matter of choosing to work smarter, not
harder. People talk about working smarter all the time, but
they say it in reference to increasing conversions on a
landing page by 4% by changing the button color from red
to green. Why not eliminate 50% of the expenses you have
to pay at the end of the day instead? That sounds like
working smarter to me. You can double your income by
eliminating taxation simply by moving your business to a
country that will treat it with respect.
That, in a nutshell, is what it means to have an ‘offshore
company.’
Takeaway: Like yachts in the harbor, you can choose
where your company is incorporated and managed. It is
possible to make both places either totally tax-free or very
low tax.
 Chapter Nine:
Foreign Asset Storage
“Super-Spy Vaults or Tinfoil Chapeaus?”

Dateline: Singapore
You could have heard a pin drop. Here, where the
wealthiest people on earth keep their amassed fortunes, the
halls were silent.
They did not exactly make it easy to get in. Just getting
through the first gate required an appointment that I spent
a full week arranging with my host who now guided me
through the cool, steely corridors beneath the balmy
pavement of a city that was nothing but swampland a mere
50 years ago.
Looking up, I noticed a zig-zag effect on the housing of
the rather dim lights, as if inspired by some caper movie
with rotating laser sensors that had to be stepped over in a
carefully choreographed pattern. Of course, anyone who
could pass by a steel gate, a blast-proof entry door, a metal
detector a backscatter machine, and a series of guards –
seen and unseen – would probably deserve to walk off with
everything behind the doors along this corridor, no lasers
required.
I stood inside the Singapore Freeport. All around me were
the trappings of wealth in their ultimate form, hard assets
from rare art to classic cars to the hardest asset of them all:
gold.
My tour guide was Joshua, an Israeli guy who had quickly
worked his way up the corporate ladder at a huge logistics
firm to be put in charge of his company’s operations here,
and he certainly looked the part. I had just started Nomad
Capitalist at the time and was introduced to Joshua through
a friend of a friend who suggested I call him and arrange a
meeting to discuss Ron Paul, or Venezuelan hyperinflation,
or whatever it is that gold bugs discuss.
Ever so kindly, Joshua agreed not only to meet but to
show me around the vaults. I was about five minutes late in
arriving, having found the only taxi driver on the island that
barely spoke English. Joshua politely awaited my arrival
before shepherding me through the so-called naked body
scanner machine.
I was now deep in the belly of the beast.
“That guy isn’t too happy today,” I said as I pointed to a
crate of five hundred 100-ounce silver bars. The spot prices
of precious metals were in free fall that week, and silver was
no exception, plunging by some 15% in a matter of days
and 25% year-to-date. However, the guy probably did not
even notice; those who likely did were the people who
stored gold and silver in the private vaults there.
The Freeport – since renamed Le Freeport to amp up the
air of sophistication even further – is among the world’s
most secure private vaults, where the world’s wealthy store
the stuff they do not need quick access to. Singapore’s push
to be a world wealth haven means that almost anyone can
store their own stuff here. When the Swiss government
capitulated to the the world’s high-tax countries and gave
up on the idea of banking secrecy, Singapore stepped in
with the promise of a discreet place to park cash and assets.
With dozens of private banks already established in the city-
state, the next reasonable step was a place to park physical
assets.
 Alain Vandenborre, the man who founded the Freeport,
explained, "When you go to a bank and rent a safe, nobody
knows what goes in. It's the same thing here.” Private vaults
like Le Freeport are not only much better protected than
your average bank safe deposit box but they do not have to
disclose who owns what is stored there.
Physical precious metals is one of only two assets that US
citizens can own overseas without having to report it. If you
have ever thought about going offshore as a way to gain
privacy, gold is perhaps the best way to go about it without
breaking any laws. While you are required to report your
bank accounts and balances to the taxman, you are not
required to list privately vaulted precious metals. Some guy
who worked at the IRS when they wrote the law must own a
ton of gold bars somewhere in Switzerland. The point is, if
you want to store wealth privately, the Freeport and other
private vaults like it are the place to do it.
Singapore made it easy for investors to move tangible
assets like gold bars into their country by introducing limited
customs controls on bullion and by ending taxes on the
purchase of it. That means that anyone can ship gold or
silver they already own to Singapore without having to
declare anything other than ‘gold’, and with no one’s name
in particular on the shipment.
The best part is that average entrepreneurs and small-
time investors can take advantage of this vestige of wealth
by storing their own gold there. Le Freeport, at its core, is
merely another commercial building available for lease. It
just so happens that it is among the world’s most secure
commercial buildings with tenants like Christie’s storing
what will no doubt be Steve Wynn’s thirteenth Renoir and
Jay Leno’s 117th classic car. However, it also has lesser
known tenants that rent their own private vault within the
facility and allow clients to store gold there.
 In fact, it is possible to store as little as one silver coin
worth about $20 in Le Freeport. It is also possible to start
with $20 and gradually build up each month. In the same
way that services like RealtyShares have democratized and
amortized the costs of investing in real estate with as little
as a few grand, services in Singapore – including one or two
in the Freeport – allow anyone to store a few bucks worth of
gold behind those steel bars.
But what does gold have to do with living the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle?
 A Nomad’s Gold Strategy
Admittedly, having anything stored in a super-spy vault
like the ones at Le Freeport is pretty cool. You should do it
just to tell someone at a cocktail party that you have hard
assets stored in such a private vault. More significantly, gold
is another asset class that you or your business can hold to
diversify your risk, protect your downside, and potentially
increase your upside. Just as you should not hold all of your
assets in one currency, you should avoid holding all of your
assets in currency alone.
For many offshore companies, owning gold is just
another investment. In a few countries, it can even be a tax
deduction, although those are typically the countries that do
not tax you to begin with. (No tax means no deductions.) For
some entrepreneurs, this can be an excellent way to
diversify.
Take the story of Chance, a young Australian
entrepreneur I worked with recently. Chance downright
hated the idea of having to do any accounting, which
effectively ruled out any of the more trustworthy places to
set up his company. While Hong Kong is willing to exempt
certain businesses from paying taxes there, they are not
willing to exempt them from filing audited statements every
year.
Chance was petrified of the idea of being responsible for
such accounting, saying his anxiety would cause him to
freak out any time a form came requesting information or
he had to work with an accountant. I helped Chance form a
company in the Caribbean where no books or records would
be audited. However, that limited his potential to open good
bank accounts, as most of Europe, Hong Kong, and other
high-profile banking centers are now all but done with zero-
tax countries in the Caribbean.
 After advising Chance of two of the only banks that would
accept his company structure, I suggested that he diversify
into gold as a way to protect his cash. Since Chance ran a
high-margin business, he frequently had a lot of cash just
parked in the bank, with no need to use it. Rather than rely
on the emerging world banks I recommended to hold every
penny of his business cash, I suggested he siphon money off
into a private precious metals account each month.
Sure, gold prices could drop (although they could also
rise), but over time his money would be relatively safe.
Additionally, it was one less bank account for his anxiety to
have to deal with. While I do not expect his banks to have
any problems, knowing that every bank on earth could go
under and his gold will still be sitting there, ready to be
converted back into cash, is a good feeling for him.
I like to approach business with a German sense of
calculation to determine what the downsides are, rather
than a traditional American sense of optimistic exuberance.
That philosophy applies to my banking, as well. No matter
what currency you and your business deal in – and
especially if you deal in shaky markets like South Africa
where currencies rise and fall – owning a little gold and
silver is a good insurance policy to make sure you are
always treated best. It is also a great way to plant another
flag outside of where you bank so that your funds are
distributed across more countries in case anything ever
happens.
Nomad Capitalists are all about protecting their wealth.
Sadly, the term ‘asset protection’ conjures up images of
some septuagenarian wearing a smoking jacket and puffing
away at a cigar while the sugar baby de l’année drapes her
svelte arms over his bald dome. The industry does little to
combat that notion.
 Protecting both your personal and business assets – be it
cash, shares in your company, property, or whatever else –
is extremely important, but the concept has become so
convoluted to the point that everyone thinks ‘asset
protection’ means setting up a $50,000 Cook Islands trust
when that is not necessary for most entrepreneurs. Gold, on
the other hand, is an easy, cheap, and low-barrier-to-entry
way to protect a part of your money.
If you think gold is a little bit of a kooky investment for an
entrepreneur, allow me to suggest otherwise. Your offshore
company can easily invest in precious metals titled in the
company’s name. If you run a cash cow business that leaves
money sitting in bank accounts, consider moving part of
that money into precious metals that are not correlated to
the same risk factors as currency. While gold is not as liquid
for making payroll or investing in inventory as cash in the
bank, it can be liquidated quickly and comes with the added
benefit of diversification.
As a cautionary tale, about a year ago, I got a call from a
frantic father-son business team. Their company was based
in Hong Kong, and HSBC was shutting down their business
account. They had amassed nearly $3 million in an HSBC
current account but were about to have nowhere to put that
money because HSBC Hong Kong no longer wanted US
citizens to hold accounts there.
Opening an offshore bank account is just the beginning
of the diversification process. It is one step, and certainly
not the be all and end all. In fact, this family’s story is why I
recommend that your company have at least two foreign
bank accounts, not just one. And, eventually, you need to
diversify out of just bank accounts.
Having $3,000 in one bank account is forgivable
because, if your account gets closed, you figure it out and
move on. Having $3,000,000 in a one bank account, on the
other hand, is irresponsible and reckless. You should not rely
on only one place to handle all of your money. You should
never, ever trust everything you have to any one entity.
So, while you may have never considered owning gold, or
have been turned off it because its most vocal promoters
wear tinfoil chapeaus, realize that it can be an excellent
alternative asset to hold in your business – if not personally,
as well. If you have spent a lifetime paying a good chunk of
your profits away in taxes, you might not realize how quickly
a tax-free or lightly taxed income can add up and, before
you know it, you will need more buckets to hold your wealth.
While offshore companies can often own assets such as
real estate or shares in other people's companies, such
assets may not be as useful if your business decides to
expand. With privately vaulted gold or silver, you simply sell
the asset, wire the cash back to your bank account, and you
are liquid again. For that reason, the best precious metals to
buy are those with a low spread, or a low ratio between the
buy and sell prices.
Gold and silver are the most widely traded and, as such,
usually come with the lowest spread if purchased correctly.
This makes them better than metals like platinum and
palladium if your goal is preserving liquid wealth that you
can use if need be. While Le Freeport might not get you the
lowest spread, others in Singapore can. As for what to buy, I
recommend buying gold bars that are small enough that
you can sell only part of your lot if you need to. Hundred
gram bars are good because their current sales price of
around $4,000 each allows you to own a number of them.
If you need even more portability and you plan to
physically withdraw your gold or silver to carry in your
backpack, then one ounce gold coins issued by major mints
may also be advisable, but you will pay an extra percentage
point or so for the convenience. Coins issued by mints like
the US Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, Austrian Mint, or Perth
Mint are easy to sell, not only because the people you
bought them from will take them back but also because
they are widely recognized by everyone else.
There are any number of places to buy and store gold,
from services with an e-commerce interface to large vault
operators themselves to Hang Seng Bank’s central branch in
Hong Kong. At the latter, you can pay cash in Hong Kong
dollars to buy up to about ten one-ounce gold coins per day
and walk around town like a Dark Ages monarch who kept
coins to toss at peasants.
There are also services that will offer you the chance to
buy a piece of a huge gold bar, or a fractional interest in
what is in their vault. While this might be better than a stock
because it is backed by actual gold and silver, these
services are not the same as actually owning a coin or bar
of gold in your own name. Your goal is to obtain segregated,
allocated storage of the metals you own, not just buy a
piece of someone else’s pie. Likewise, avoid bank safe
deposit boxes, as these require form filling by the taxman
and have little protection if your bank has a problem.
 Golden Insurance
Even if you do not have a bucket of extra cash, moving a
small part of your wealth into gold and silver as you
accumulate cash is an excellent way to be prepared, even if
gold is not perfect and subject to its own market
fluctuations. Unlike paper currency, gold has held its value
for thousands of years. Name one paper currency that can
do that, or that will do that long after we are all dead. Gold
and silver offer protection against the political and
geopolitical events that affect paper currencies, all while
remaining liquid, divisible, and universally recognizable.
The United States is no place for a young entrepreneur to
learn about currency collapse because no one has ever seen
one. Indeed, for most of our lives, the US dollar has been
relatively strong, propped up by the fact that the rest of the
world does not trust their own currencies, even when
perhaps they should.
As a student of the world wanting to better understand
the impact of currency collapse, I decided to go to a place
where people had more recent experience with a tanked
economy: the Balkans. While the Balkans now include some
of the most business-friendly countries on earth, things
were a lot different not so long ago. I knew a trip to present-
day Serbia could give me some insights into the region’s
past currency crisis.
After spending my first week in Belgrade, I had an idea of
how the place worked, but I still lacked a clear
understanding of the country’s history. I was not leaving
until I found out. One June night, as I walked back to my
hotel from dinner, a girl in a white button down shirt tucked
into trendy but sensible jeans caught my eye. Her refined
demeanor made her stand out on a street full of Serbians
and expats just out looking for a good time. I approached
with whatever seemingly high-brow conversation starter I
could muster.
“It’s refreshing to see someone that seems so
sophisticated,” I bumbled.
The woman laughed in the pleasant way a nice girl from
a wealthy family would acknowledge such an attempt and
extended her hand. “I’m Jovana,” she said, shaking my
hand.
After introductions were made, she agreed to join me on
my walk home seeing as she was going in the same
direction. As we strolled down the streets of Belgrade, I
learned that she was indeed from a wealthy and somewhat
prominent family. She had become a successful dentist in
town and busted on me for occasionally covering my mouth.
“Are you ashamed of your teeth?” Jovana teased. “You
shouldn’t be hiding them!” She had mastered the art of
charming European banter, the kind that leaves you feeling
like a million bucks.
Pulling my hand away from my teeth, I flashed her a
hesitant smile before summoning my courage, “I have to
admit why I decided to approach you,” I began. “I came to
Serbia not just to learn about how the country works and
the investment opportunities here but also to understand
the country’s past. When I saw you, I had a feeling you were
the kind of person who could give me some insights on the
topic.”
“It’s your lucky day,” Jovana said. “My family learned
some important lessons from the war. Lessons I’m sure
would give you the perspective you are looking for.”
“I knew my instincts were right!” I said. We had arrived
at my hotel, but before we parted ways, I suggested we talk
over dinner upon my return from neighboring Macedonia.
“It’s a date,” Jovana beamed.
 Over our dinner the next week, Jovana told me about her
family’s personal experience and how they had failed to
diversify. Despite being a successful family, their political
influence meant they kept a lot of their money in what was
then Yugoslavia.
When war broke out, the national currency – the dinar –
became a mess. Her family lost practically everything they
held in local currency. Their cash became worthless and
their real estate got whacked. However, her family had two
things that saved them from total ruin: a stack of US dollars
and, as she recalls, about fifty gold coins. Unlike the dinar,
gold was something the government could not print more of
and it was not subjected to the shocks of what happened in
one place on the map.
Yugoslavia may have been in the middle of a conflict, but
gold was global. It could resist the fluctuations of a
crumbling economy in the far reaches of Eastern Europe.
Because of that, Jovana’s family was able to maintain their
financial stability and eventually recover from the war’s
devastation.
My assistant from Montenegro, Marija, shared a similar
experience when, at an early age, her father would come
home from work with a bag full of paper money, greeted
with cries of “Daddy, you’re rich!” Then her father would
just toss the money at her and her brother and encourage
them to play with his now worthless hours-old paycheck.
I prefer to be optimistic and hope that none of us will
have to deal with the vulnerabilities of fiat currency like
hyperinflation, but that does not keep me from insuring
myself against such a possibility. Just as you would insure
your home against disasters that you hope never hit, your
wealth needs insurance from financial disasters that could
wipe out what you have worked so hard to build up.
Gold is that insurance.
 Storing Gold
Once you have begun to accumulate gold, finding the
proper place to store it is your next layer of insurance. The
best place to store gold is in an offshore private vault. The
reason is simple: like anything else, the country you live in
is probably not the best place to store gold. Nor is the
country you want to spend time in; while Thailand might be
a fun place to live, the periodic bombings and coups do not
make it an inspiring choice to store lots of shiny metals.
Seeing that gold and silver are as good as where you
store them, the more sane solution is to store them in a safe
place far away. That could mean buying gold directly from
the vault you want to use, or shipping gold you already own
to a vault of your choice. The key is that your assets are
stored in a place where the people in power are different
than the people in power where you bank or run your
business.
There are even services now in Singapore that will allow
you to borrow against your stored bullion. That means that
you can buy gold or silver, put it in a non-reportable private
vault account, and then borrow back a good chunk of the
value either for personal investments or business expenses,
depending on who owns the gold.
In the recent past, if you wanted to diversify out of paper
currency by buying hard assets like gold and real estate,
you would have to do each separately. For example,
$100,000 in gold and $100,000 in real estate would require
$200,000 in capital. However, thanks to innovation in
Singapore’s gold vault market, you can now purchase as
little as $125,000 in gold, store it in a private vault knowing
your exposure to paper currency is reduced, and then
borrow the $100,000 you need for property at an extremely
low interest rate.
 It also just so happens that Singapore is among the best
places to store gold. There is almost zero crime, so the idea
of anyone breaking into a super secure facility is rather
remote. While you cannot drink water on the subway
without being fined, people do carry cash and flash
expensive electronics around all the time without issue.
Singapore also has just about zero corruption.
Part of what makes Asia a great place to store assets is
that they are making a big push to do so. Where a pro-
business culture and desire to serve comes first, the Asians
are well positioned thanks to their eagerness to dominate
this market. The fact that Hong Kong has literally no
restrictions on bringing in or taking out cash helps, too.
 Storing Gold in the Old World
However, Singapore is not perfect, and it is not for
everyone. There are other countries in Europe that will also
be happy to store your gold under similar terms. And, while
Singapore’s role as a new country means that facilities like
Le Freeport are newer and have more robust security,
Europe has been successfully storing gold for centuries.
While you might imagine that Switzerland’s heritage as a
wealth haven makes it the best choice in Europe, you would
be mistaken. In fact, just like Swiss banks, some Swiss
vaults also refuse to deal directly with US citizens. That is
why perhaps the best place to store gold in Europe is
Austria, where a few private vaults take privacy to a whole
new level by allowing you to store precious metals
anonymously.
After my visit to Le Freeport, arriving at Auerspergstraße
1 in Vienna’s Museum Quarter was a bit anticlimactic. The
building was surprisingly hard to find using Google Maps,
and I was not about to start asking the few random
passersby, “Excuse me, do you know where the secret gold
vault is?”
My arrival at Das Safe was greeted by an exterior of dull
brick walls, a far cry from the Bourne-esque exterior of Le
Freeport. I walked inside the building where I was greeted by
slightly fraying red carpet and a man sitting at a nondescript
desk across a large room, much like I imagine Bond must
have felt when walking in on Karl Stromberg eating dinner.
“Hallo,” the older man greeted me from across the room
as I came nearer.
“I’m here to inquire about storing some gold in your
vault.”
 “Of course,” the man replied, hobbling up from behind
the desk. He had a slight paunch under his dark pinstriped
suit vest, just how I would imagine the overseer of a cryptic
European vault to look. “I’d offer you a business card, but
we don’t have them,” he advised, excusing himself per
Austrian social protocol. “Our business card isn’t the kind of
thing most people want their dry cleaner to find left in a
jacket pocket.”
The man began to show me the facility and, without
going into excruciating detail, explained that Das Safe was a
privately owned facility that used to be part of a bank. As
such, the building was well secured, despite its gloomy
exterior. “The police would be here in sixty seconds in the
event of any trouble,” he insisted.
He showed me how to enter a PIN to gain entrance to the
facility, promising that I, too, would be able to choose my
only combination of numbers. Upon being granted access
behind two sets of reinforced glass doors, we walked down a
ramp into the vault area.
My first impression was that the bland eggshell colored
boxes appeared like the kind of place a German trucking
company would store logistics records. Inside box #7241
could be Kiefer Müller’s route maps of the Frankfurt to
Warsaw route from 1999 to 2003. However, it was far more
likely that the facility housed any number of precious metals
and precious business and personal documents.
Nevertheless, without much to see or any silver in a cage to
point at, I summoned my tour guide to return me to the
lobby.
There, he shared the details of the real reason people
come to Das Safe: anonymity. For an extra annual fee, you
can rent a box at Das Safe with complete privacy. You are
not required to provide your name or any identification,
something the Austrian government is apparently totally
cool with as one of the last bastions of privacy in the
European Union. While I suppose some use this as a way to
protect themselves from drop-ins by the tax authorities,
there are a number of other legitimate reasons to want to
be left alone.
My host explained that the smallest boxes at Das Safe
had long been sold out, meaning the only boxes available
for rent were the large ones that looked like they housed old
shipping manifests. Of course, anonymity and well-secured
space in central Vienna do not come cheap, which means
that Das Safe is an option for someone with quite a lot of
metal or other stuff to store.
At a cost of about $600 to start and upwards of $1,000
per year, there are probably better options for someone
getting started with gold. It is also not much of a solution for
businesses because someone has to go down to the vault,
carry the loot out in a bag, and sell it to a dealer on likely
worse terms than in a managed vault.
The amazing part is that, while $1,200 or so sounds a bit
steep to those storing minimal amounts of gold (a
reasonable storage rate for gold is under 1% annually), it is
insanely inexpensive when you consider private vault
storage is actually available to the masses. It is yet another
democratized service formerly available only to the rich, but
now available to those of us in the know. If you do not
believe me, tell a girl on your first date that you have locked
away a box of gold coins in an anonymous Austrian vault.
She might think you are boring for telling her, but she will
no doubt leave thinking that you are also very rich.
Takeaway: Whether you choose to stack gold and silver
coins in a secret vault that you wear a trench coat to visit,
or whether you choose to establish a more straightforward
private vault account at one of the growing number of
facilities operating online, owning at least a little precious
metals is an important part of living the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle. In fact, it is ownership of assets like gold that
differentiate Nomad Capitalists from the more garden
variety digital nomads who are only focused on lifestyle and
not on securing and growing their money as well.
 G
GROW YOUR MONEY
 Chapter Ten:
Overseas Investments
A Home on Every Continent… And a
Cattle Ranch Too

Dateline: Phoenix, Arizona

A number of years ago, before I totally detached from the
United States, I was traveling almost as vigorously as I do
now. While I did not call any one place ‘home,’ I did rent a
formal condo in the US that I would come and go from when
needed.
Despite my many travels, I had not found the desire to
establish a base in any foreign locale quite yet. Besides, the
real estate market in the United States (and particularly in
Arizona where I lived) had taken such a beating that there
came a time when prices were so ridiculous that it seemed
silly for me to keep renting a condo for ‘flexibility.’ So, with
prices in the gutter, I went house shopping.
I called a real estate agent named William, verified that
he had the credentials I wanted, and hired him on the spot.
We discussed two properties that seemed great on paper:
newly renovated four-bedroom homes that were boring
enough for me to decorate to my liking, but would still be
easy to sell when I wanted to. William and I promptly set a
time to see both properties.
The first property was ideal. It had plenty of room, nice
finishes, a livable floor plan for a single guy, but still
marketable to families. The second place was a total dump.
 “Well, I think this is a good start,” William said while
standing inside his open car door. “I’ll pull some more
properties like the first one and call you to set an
appointment.”
“No need,” I told him. “Let’s make an offer on the first
one. We’ll need to be aggressive.” William was stunned. As I
have since learned, apparently many people in the western
world feel a compulsive need to peruse dozens of properties
before finally deciding. I, however, have come to appreciate
being able to take prudent action quickly.
In this case, I figured that not only did the first property
meet my needs well enough to preclude further shopping,
but even if I changed my mind in a few years, I could always
sell and buy something else. Surely, getting things done
quickly now would be a bigger boon to my business than
spending my days in search of some magically better
option.
I went on to buy that house for $170,000, barely half its
peak value a year or two earlier. (If you are not from the
United States, you may be surprised to hear that four-
bedroom houses with pools near civilization can sell for that
price.) A little more than two years later, I sold the property
for $262,000, a 54% profit and about 19% annualized. Not
bad for a snap decision.
In reality, my purchase of the home was not a snap
decision. I had done enough research on each of my desired
areas before even looking at homes. My mindset was that
research was just that, research – not merely dreaming and
blowing off steam as it can quickly become. Then, I created
a game plan for the type of property I wanted and executed
the plan.
The same principles can be applied to foreign real estate
investments. The only difference is that travel is the tool
that helps you determine your ideal area.
Today, I utilize a similar approach when making most
decisions: know what I want, research and find it, and then
attempt to make a decision the same day. For example, I
once bought an apartment near Georgia’s free trade zone
for all of $5,200. We needed an apartment for several
clients to use and the price could not get much lower. The
decision to buy was simple, so I went for it.
It was that deal that gave birth to a philosophy that I now
live by: know why you are buying. The reason this
philosophy is so vital is that not all investments are made
equal. Consequently, the decision-making process behind
each type of investment will change according to the
purpose of your purchase.
For instance, I often look at investment decisions in the
context of what else I can buy for that money. The idea that
you could buy a home – ratty as it may be – in Georgia or
Serbia or any number of other places for the same amount
some folks blow in one weekend in Las Vegas is astonishing.
Heck, you could buy land and build a small home outside of
the big city for that price. Being able to buy a home for
$5,000 in any number of cities reveals the potential of
investing overseas. It also demonstrates the benefits of
globalization and how the world is now an investing
playground for all of us.
If buying a home in a small village is not your speed,
there have been any number of turnkey investments with
minimums of $5,000 or less. The United States and Europe
lead the race with crowd equity and crowd debt sites like
RealtyShares, Peerstreet, and France’s Wiseed that allow
anyone to invest in a share of everything from residential
rentals and fix-and-flips to sprawling commercial properties,
and all with as little as $1,000.
 No longer do investors have to rely on real estate
investment trusts (“REITs”) to invest in high-yielding
property. Now, you can invest in a far more intimate way
where you actually see where and to whom your money is
going.
With such low barriers to entry, investing overseas could
become your form of recreational gambling. The benefit that
foreign real estate investments have over actual gambling,
however, is that you have a much better chance of making
your money back. In fact, while you can easily adopt a
solely recreational approach to foreign investment, there are
numerous benefits to investing overseas as a serious
investor.
Indeed, you may find it surprising that there is an entire
chapter on foreign investments in a book largely for
entrepreneurs. However, investing is an excellent way for
entrepreneurs to diversify, create long-term wealth, and
achieve their desired lifestyle. Let’s take a look at each
advantage.

The Advantage of Diversification

Foreign investments are an ideal method entrepreneurs
can use to spread the risks involved with running one
principal business. Even as many entrepreneurs extol the
virtues of letting go of ‘solopreneurship’ and working on
your business rather than in it, entrepreneurship still comes
with certain risks.
For example, I have worked with a lot of Amazon FBA
sellers – guys who source products from China, send them
to Amazon’s warehouses, then let Amazon do the selling –
and many of them are confident that it will not be a lifelong
business. As investor Robert Herjavec says, there is nothing
wrong with entering a business to make a ‘whack of cash’
and getting out when the market changes. However, it is
important to have some idea whether yours is a short-term,
‘whack-of-cash’ business, or something you want to keep for
the long-haul.
In the case of Amazon FBA, sellers are at the mercy of
Amazon, which can change the rules or even shutter their
business at any time. Investing offers a way to offset this
risk by creating passive cash flow to fund your Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle above and beyond what you earn from
your business.
For instance, comedian Jay Leno hosted The Tonight
Show for more than twenty years, yet famously claimed that
he never touched the money he earned from the gig.
Instead, he chose to bank all of it while living off of money
he earned as a stand-up comedian. In the same way, I like
to use investments to support my current lifestyle, while
leaving my business profits in the company.
This is a particularly profitable strategy for folks doing
business offshore. If you are a US citizen and your business
is pulling down millions, you cannot take that money out of
your offshore company without paying a lot of tax… but you
can reinvest it. The idea of sucking every penny out of your
company is not always the best idea anyway, even if you do
not have to pay tax. To that end, finding the right
investments is a critical step to funding your day-to-day life.
Personally, I prefer to let my main business be a ‘cash
cow’[1] that generates money for other investments that
then produce the passive income that I can live off of once I
begin reinvesting my business profits. Not every business
has to re-invest its profits, though. While the e-commerce
guys I have helped are constantly plowing every dime back
into new products and expansion, plenty of consulting,
coaching, and other ‘expert businesses’ bleed cash with few
expenses.
 I will never forget the day when my CFO told me that
Nomad Capitalist had just had its best month ever, spurred
by marketing spending of $337. We basically did – and still
do – zero advertising, relying on word of mouth and content
marketing to bring customers. The kind of client I seek
makes online advertising of limited interest because my
business grows when I share more of my life, not by barking
at people more.
Just because my company is a ‘cash cow’ does not mean
that your company has to be one in order to invest and
diversify. Whatever type of business you run, the point is to
diversify. Personally, I never understood the idea of the
perennial start-up machine where an entrepreneur puts all
of his eggs in one basket, betting the farm that his or her
latest venture will work out. Do not get me wrong, the
courage is admirable, but the risk is high.
A while back, I read an interview with Elon Musk in which
he said that he re-invested his PayPal fortunes into Tesla and
Solar City so promptly that he had to borrow money for rent.
While perhaps a bit hyperbolic, Musk is definitely a guy who
goes all in with his business ventures; heck, he basically
resuscitated the idea of a conglomerate in an era when
even General Electric had sold off a lot of non-core
businesses.
However, from my perch overlooking the fjords in
Montenegro, I ask myself if businesses that employ Musk’s
strategy are constantly in ‘chasing’ mode, going after the
next big thing but never really getting there. No doubt Musk
has become incredibly successful. However, not only is
there one Elon Musk for every 1,000 who do not succeed
but even the successes of Elon Musk have been called into
question by some investors who consider him more of a
social entrepreneur than one actually achieving the profits
he appears to be chasing.
 Ask yourself: do you want the appearance of success, or
its results?
If living the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is your goal, you do
not have to push as hard as Elon Musk. When I see investors
that are no doubt better at reading technical charts than I
am tossing $50 billion at Uber, I have to ask, “What happens
if it all fails?” Are they pursuing the life that they want or are
they just investing in the latest trends in order to look like
they have got it all together?
Rather than chasing after big investments, why not let
the life you want come to you? Why go all-in at dramatically
higher risk when you can enjoy the same lifestyle benefits
without the Silicon Valley mindset?
In that way, the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is the anti-
Silicon Valley. I take minimal risks, yet enjoy many of the
perks. I hire affordable, yet highly skilled and teachable
employees at a tiny fraction of the price of Bay Area help. I
pay almost zero tax without hiring an army of accountants.
And I am free to deploy the profits from my business either
back into the business or into the vast number of
investments we will talk about in this chapter.
As Tim Ferriss explained in The Four Hour Workweek,
many of the trappings of wealth we expect to enjoy once we
reach our own version of Elon Musk’s success are available
now, without waiting or killing yourself. Imagine any perk
that the average successful start-up has and chances are
that you can enjoy it now, or realize that you do not really
need it.
For example, even though I enjoyed driving a Mercedes
in the United States, I much prefer not having the hassles of
a car now. However, if you want to drive an amazing car,
you can lease the most exotic cars on earth for a few
thousand dollars a month. You are likely paying that in taxes
already, and one simple business tweak could essentially
make your dream car free.
You want multiple homes? You can have them, as I will
explain in this chapter. While my beach house is not in the
Hamptons, traveling around the world has made me loathe
that ‘scene.’ Nevertheless, you can easily rent a halfway
decent place in the Hamptons for a month for $50,000, or
find a better version of it overseas in Ibiza, Monaco, Rio or
Dusa Nua.
But how do you get to that point? How can you diversify
correctly so that you do not have to worry about your one
business going under and leaving you to beg your friends
for rent money?

Creating a Perpetual Runway

This is where your perpetual runway comes into play. A
‘runway’ is the amount of cash an entrepreneur has
available to burn before their next business needs to take
off. You might think that an entrepreneur who already had a
successful business would not need a runway, but the fact
that Elon Musk claimed to be one step from homelessness
shows that everyone’s resources are limited.
However, rather than worrying that your runway is
running out, focus on creating what I call a ‘perpetual
runway.’ This is done by focusing on the process I described
in the section above: reinvest business profits into ‘cash
cow’ investments that generate monthly income that you
can live on and use to enjoy a dream lifestyle, all while
focusing on growing your current business or businesses.
But how do you begin this process? Start small and work
your way up. Look at your first project in any area as a test,
whether it is a business running niche websites or real
estate in a new country. While the goal is to have a
profitable exit, the real benefit comes from what you learn
in the process.
For example, the first property I bought in Tbilisi, Georgia
cost $49,000 to buy and another $12,000 to fix up. While I
eventually decided to make the property my home in order
to scout out more investments, I was able to receive an
offer for $70,000 before I took it off the market. While a
$9,000 profit would not have been amazing, the benefit of
getting paid while you learn is powerful.
Along the path to that small profit, I got to see my
chosen contractor in action, learn about the city’s building
rules, figure out where to buy furniture, and generally have
an inside look at the process. As I like to say, the best way
to learn how to do something is to do it. Once you figure out
where and in what to invest, it is best to dive in and learn
along the way. In real estate and any other investment, you
make money when you buy, so figure out how to buy and
you will learn while making a profit.
For cash flow, I prefer to purchase a lot of apartments,
commercial real estate and other cash-flowing assets. I
focus less on properties with potential appreciation and
more on those that I am happy to have be linear (that is,
assets that do not go up in value in a big way in the long
term) but that throw off lots of cash.
As long as the market outlook is generally positive and
the government is friendly to investors, I worry less about
capital appreciation, so long as the cash flow is good. In
some cases, I am getting a 10%, 11%, or even 22% cash
yield. By following this system, I can double or even triple
my percentage return on subsequent deals.
Most people go a different direction and swing for the
fences on their first deal. Sometimes it works and
sometimes it does not. I have seen people get out of
markets with a lot of potential because they got burned on
one bad deal by going too big. On the other hand, going
small on the first deal and focusing on minimum viable
success will help you learn more lessons and scale.
I know of a British couple that bought one of the beautiful
old stone houses along Kotor Bay, Montenegro after
vacationing there for years. They invested almost their
entire life savings to pay €240,000 for the place and another
€80,000 repairing it to its former glory. Last I heard, they
had finished the renovation and had it listed for €500,000,
which I am told is a fair price. They will make a great profit.
However, imagine what would happen if something bad
were to transpire. Their entire life savings would be locked
up in a stone house they never intended to live in. Even if
the investment itself was not bad, they might have needed
that liquidity due to a job loss or a drop in business at home.
Not smart.
As Nomad Capitalists, we invest not to hit that home run
but to generate sustainable income flows from passive
sources like rental income or side businesses with scalable
processes. Most investors fixing and flipping real estate, for
example, do not create procedures on how to handle what
they do. They have to reinvent the wheel every time they
take on a new project, rather than automating the process
and the income it generates.
The first step, then, is to assess how you can automate
the processes involved in whatever investments you are
making and then carry out the automation. If you cannot
find a plausible form of automation, the next step is to
determine whether or not that particular investment serves
a different purpose beyond diversification. Take, for
example, land…

Foreign Land Investments

 Unlike investing in rental properties or automated
systems for fixing and flipping, investing in land will not help
you build your perpetual runway.
“But wait a second, Andrew. Doesn’t real estate go up in
value?” Sure. It also goes down in value. There are, no
doubt, places in the world where real estate has defied the
odds and gone up year after year. There are parts of
Istanbul that have not seen a downturn in twenty-five years.
And, up until recently, there have been fundamentals to
explain why – namely, investment from rich Arabs buying an
escape hatch from the Gulf.
However, you cannot live off of appreciation and keep
the investment. The Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is fueled by
cash flows from investments that work now, rather than
ones that you might be able to sell for such-and-such a price
later. However, foreign land investments do serve other
goals of the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle. For instance, owning
raw land is another way to diversify your wealth as it
accumulates. While land is not exactly liquid (buy the wrong
land and it could take years to sell), it can be an excellent
alternative to keeping money in the bank. It is more like
buying gold or silver bullion – it is a hard asset, but it
generates no cash until it is sold.
If you are a US citizen, foreign real estate is the second of
the only two types of non-reportable assets available to you.
That means that you can legally choose to not disclose to
the IRS your ownership of property in another country,
adding an element of privacy to your finances that no bank
account can offer. In addition to privacy, owning land can
either serve as the beginning of your next great business
opportunity – such as my hotel friend’s interest in building
an $8 million hotel that could net $3 million a year – or as a
long-term hold to increase your wealth over time.
 In that regard, agricultural land is one of my favorite raw
land investments for long-term growth. There are several
reasons to consider including agricultural land in your
foreign investment portfolio. One of my favorite reasons is
that you can often get crazy deals on this particular type of
land since there are times when people really need quick
cash in exchange for their land.
This means that you can pay less than its current worth
because what it is worth now is usually a less-than-tangible
number. Unlike on a residential property (the price of which
can more accurately be pinpointed), the price of agricultural
land is more of a range rather than a specific value. The
only judge of the worth of agricultural land is what someone
is willing to pay for it.
You can get some very attractive entry points on
agricultural land. Compare that to similar long term assets
like gold and silver, which have highly defined entry points.
Everyone knows exactly what the price is, and you know
what an ounce of gold is worth to the penny. Because of
that, no one is going to sell you gold for $200 under spot
just because they need quick cash. They do not have to.
Precious metals are a well-defined liquid market.
Agricultural land is not like that; you can get some very
attractive entry points on foreclosed land or quick sales. You
can also get very cheap land in emerging markets by buying
in bulk and cutting it up and reselling it in the future.
Agricultural land also has some pretty solid long-term
fundamentals behind it. As the world population rises and
economies develop, emerging countries will demand more
high-quality proteins. If this plays out, the value of
agricultural land will surely increase.
Because of that, whether it is agricultural land or some
other piece of raw land, these type of real estate
investments are a great way to build up your long-term
wealth over time. You may make more money starting a
business, but you should not want all your money in
businesses. Nomad Capitalists want diversification and not
just total return.
Land allows you to put some of your money into assets
that cannot be taken from you and in locations that subject
your money to a different set of rules. Depending on where
you go, foreign real estate could be adding currency
diversification to your portfolio too. If you accrue key land
investments along the way, you can diversify to serve your
long-term goals. In fact, I recommend investing overseas
over traditional retirement planning.

Investing for Long-Term Wealth

For years, I have been telling people to avoid putting
money into retirement accounts such as IRAs, RESPs, and
other plans in their home countries, even if they are tax-
deferred.
For one thing, no matter where you live, your retirement
account is always at risk of the government helping
themselves to it. Bankrupt countries from Ireland to
Hungary to Argentina, among others, have a history of
taking their citizens’ private wealth by dipping into
retirement funds when they need to plug a gap somewhere
else.
Politicians prefer to merely kick whatever fiscal problems
exist down the road. Then, one day, when the problem
explodes, they will reach in and take what they can. It is
hard to ignore the over-$20 trillion in debt the United States
has racked up over the years and the high debt-to-GDP ratio
other western countries have managed to produce.
With over $25 trillion in retirement accounts in the US
alone, it is not that far-fetched to assume that your broke
government will succumb to the temptation to dip into those
retirement funds. Eleven countries and counting have
already done so in the not so distant past, so it is not
without precedent.
In the United States, even Republicans who have long
argued against means-tested Social Security have begun to
argue that the government needs to cut benefits. I could
easily see these same politicians argue that while you have
$200,000 in your government IRA, since you have $2 million
in another account they are just going to borrow some of
your money — as already happened in Poland in 2014.
As a Nomad Capitalist, I am not ready to hand over the
control of my retirement funds to a government that can
change the rules at any moment and make it legal to
‘borrow’ my money. And, even if they do not change the
rules, I still want the flexibility of doing with my money what
I want. I cannot get that with an IRA that tells me where I
can and cannot invest, and when I can and cannot touch my
money.
While tax-deferred retirement accounts may make sense
for someone planning to sit at a desk for forty years and
retire with a gold watch, they make far less sense for
entrepreneurs and investors. And they make absolutely no
sense for entrepreneurs and investors living the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle.
For example, politicians have discussed forcing private
retirement accounts into buying government bonds or
treasuries. Those things throw off pretty paltry returns,
potentially preventing any funds in your retirement account
from keeping pace with inflation. This is confiscation by
stealth.
Entrepreneurs should not be squirrelling their money
away for low-single-digit returns when they could easily take
that money and turn it into a profitable business. If you are
smart, you can double, triple, or even 10x your money. If
you can do that, why would you tie that money up in an IRA
just to get a tax deduction?
To the average citizen, the idea of a ‘guaranteed return’
on their retirement account sounds halfway decent. For
entrepreneurs, the idea of locking money up in an account
that they cannot touch for decades should come as an
absurd idea, especially when all you get in exchange is a
piddily tax reduction.
You get a tax deduction on the money you put into
certain retirement accounts the same way Wile E. Coyote
lays down birdseed for the Road Runner on the exact spot
where the boulder is supposed to drop. It is just a distraction
to keep you from realizing the true cost of remaining in the
system.
For example, when Roger came to me wanting to save on
taxes but reluctant to leave the US for the full tax benefits, I
asked him how much he had paid in taxes the previous year
and what he would have done with that same amount of
money if he had gotten it all back. He answered that he had
paid $200,000 to the taxman and indicated that he would
have invested that same amount of money in property.
“Alright,” I persisted. “And what would that property
make you in a year?”
“It could have easily earned 10% a year,” came the reply.
“So, $20,000.”
“Okay, so not only are you missing out on the $200,000,
but you’re also missing out on the $20,000 that you could
have earned by investing it?”
“Yes,” Roger admitted.
I continued, “And if you put the $200,000 into a property
today and you made $20,000 in the next year, you wouldn’t
just stop making money, right?”
“No.”
“In fact, unless the property burns to the ground, it will
make $20,000 every year, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, if you buy a house for $200,000 – free
and clear, no mortgage – and you can net 10% every year
for a $20,000 annual return, after ten years you’ll have
made $200,000 back. Could you get that kind of return by
putting your money in a retirement account in exchange for
a small tax deduction?”
“Not a chance,” Roger conceded.
“Unfortunately, Roger,” I told him, “that’s the real cost of
paying taxes. That’s the cost of living in the United States.”
And that is the cost to you as well, whichever tax-happy
western country you currently reside in.
One of the most powerful ways to build long term wealth
is to be in control of your own money. Don not put it in low-
yield retirement accounts that subject you to a list of dos
and don’ts when you can put it into businesses and
investments that you control and that will give you a much
higher return. And do not count on tax reductions when you
could just take measures to exit the system and completely
eliminate your tax burden.
If you already have an IRA in the United States, it may be
possible to roll it into an offshore company that can make a
far wider range of investments on your behalf. However, this
is often counterproductive for younger people, since I advise
having at least $75,000 in an IRA to offset the expenses
involved. If you are young and just getting started, the best
approach is to get out of the system now.
 You do not want to end up like Mark, who had both US
and Canadian citizenship and wanted to renounce his US
citizenship to reduce his taxes. However, because he had
more than $2 million in assets, he would have to pay an exit
tax in order to renounce. Despite his high asset value, Mark
was in the tricky situation of having very little cash on hand.
His assets included a house and a bunch of pensions in
Canada. He had bought his home for next to nothing but,
like everything in Toronto and Vancouver with all the
Chinese coming in, the home’s value had shot through the
roof in recent years. So, between his house and his
pensions, he had more than $2 million in assets.
Consequently, after applying the exit tax, the cost to
renounce his citizenship was roughly $300,000. And,
because his money was tied up in his home and his
pensions, he could not afford to renounce his citizenship. He
either had to sell his home or take out a loan.
The moral of the story? First, there is a benefit to having
cash on hand, not just to renounce your citizenship, but to
pursue all the other opportunities that are available to sharp
businesspeople and investors. Investing in retirement
accounts and pensions is counterproductive to this goal. You
want ‘cash cow’ investments that give your assets flexibility.
Second, get out before you are too big. The ‘safety nets’
many western governments have put in place for retirement
are not tailored to someone like you. You will fare much
better on your own.

Making Lifestyle Investments

We have already seen how pursuing opportunities
overseas can help you find better investments in order to
diversify business risk and create long-term wealth, but
what about the kinds of investments that allow you to build
your desired lifestyle?
 As I mentioned earlier, many of us erroneously imagine
that our desired lifestyle is unattainable in the here and
now. On the contrary, achieving the life you want is usually
a matter of making a few tweaks and doing the right
investment deals.
The first step is to determine what kind of lifestyle you
actually want. While you can probably list off several lifelong
dreams right off the bat, it could take you some time to
figure out your exact dream lifestyle. As we discussed
earlier, there are many ways to live abroad, from the
perpetual traveler who never stays in one place too long to
the expat who picks a spot and settles down. The kind of
lifestyle investments each individual will make will vary
depending on those preferences.
For example, I once worked with someone who wanted to
own a condo on every continent, both to live in and to
invest. This is an incredible example of how you can live a
dream lifestyle by detaching from your current reality. I am
working on a somewhat whimsical list of dream residences
of my own, as well. Instead of a home on every continent,
however, I prefer a home for every kind of mood or activity:
the ski chalet in the Alps, the beach home in Montenegro,
the cattle ranch where I can build my ‘Summer Palace’ and
get away from civilization, the list goes on. Owning land
gives you the flexibility to customize each location to your
liking.
As a profit-minded investment strategy, the idea of
managing a single piece of real estate in Mexico City,
Medellin, Amsterdam, Sydney, Bangkok, and Dakar is
daunting. (And this coming from a guy who has about 23
plates spinning at any given time.) As a lifestyle investment,
on the other hand, it may make perfect sense.
While I love staying at five-star hotels on a regular basis,
it is nice to have a place to call home. If you choose to make
a similar investment, just recognize that it is a lifestyle
investment, which is very different from the other
investments mentioned in this chapter.
The most basic rule when it comes to lifestyle
investments is to avoid making stupid ones. For me, the
best way to prevent stupid investments offshore is to
evaluate opportunity cost. When I first set up a base in
Kuala Lumpur, I evaluated apartments in my desired area
near the Petronas Towers. Why live in a city of skyscrapers
without a view of one of the most iconic skyscrapers on
earth?
I quickly found that while the apartments themselves
seemed overpriced, considering the never-ending building
boom going on in town, rental prices were quite cheap – no
doubt a result of that same overbuilding. Back then, the
Malaysian ringgit was stronger and a nice two-bedroom with
a view was running $650,000. However, one of those same
apartments was available for rent for a mere $1,700 a
month.
Faced with buying a property that earns a tiny 3% gross
yield – what I would expect in Switzerland or some other
boring, super-secure country – or being the guy to run the
property into the ground while someone else assumed the
currency risk and the low yield, I chose the latter.
Fortunately for me, the ringgit ended up falling apart during
my tenure there and my rent dipped as low as $1,200 a
month for a brand new, gorgeous penthouse in the hottest
part of town.
The lesson I relearned from this experience is that home
ownership is dramatically overrated. In the West, real estate
agents tell you that, “Your home is your best investment.”
Nonsense. If you averaged out the people like me who make
large profits selling property in the US with everyone who
has broken even or taken a beating, the results would not
be pretty. When I rented my home in Malaysia, I not only
avoided a terrible investment property, but I got to keep
$644,900 in my pocket because I was renting and not
buying.
The reason to buy your own home is so you can control
what you do there. It is not an investment, it is emotion.
Emotion is worth something because being happy and
comfortable in your home has value. In fact, I rarely stay in
Airbnbs or other vacation rentals because most people are
not as OCD about home organization and that makes me
less productive than in a sparkling clean hotel room.
Productivity from comfort equals money, but labeling an
emotional real estate purchase as a pure ‘investment’ is not
accurate.
You are investing for a certain lifestyle, not necessarily
for profit. That is fine, so long as you know what you are
doing. Problems emerge when you are consuming when you
think you are investing.
If you are pursuing the full Nomad Capitalist lifestyle and
intend to plant flags wherever you go, lifestyle investments
can also include those made to obtain a second residency or
passport. I am currently working on a residency in Eastern
Europe for which I am required to purchase a home in the
country.
Fortunately, there is no price threshold; you can buy any
house for any price. And the cost of land in this particular
country is dirt cheap. While I found one 600 meter home for
€4,300, I plan to purchase a 2,000 meter parcel of land for
€6,000 that will allow me to build a second structure, or
whatever else suits my fancy.
In this case, with one minimal real estate investment I
will be able to qualify for a second residency, purchase a
home, and have extra land available that grants me the
flexibility to do whatever I want with it. For me, I could not
ask for a better situation. It may not be a profit play, but the
purchase fits perfectly into my lifestyle.

How to Invest Overseas

Once you know why you want to invest overseas, the
next step is to determine exactly how to do it. The first issue
you must address is how much money you have available to
invest. After factoring in monthly expenses, I prefer to save
a set percentage of my earnings as part of an emergency
fund for the cost of living overseas. You want this to be a
one-to-two year emergency cash reserve that is easily
accessible, regardless of what the situation may be or where
you are located.
After that, I calculate the amount of money I want or
need to reinvest in my business in the next six months.
From there, I consider all remaining money part of my
immediately investable assets, which I then divide between
cash-flow properties, long-term land investments, gold,
businesses and other overseas investments.
I recommend putting 10-15% of your investable portfolio
in something like agricultural commodities that have a long-
term upside. Personally, I choose to invest roughly the same
percentage in long-term agricultural investments as I do in
precious metals. If you were to allocate around a third or a
quarter of your investable portfolio in tangible, long-term
assets – part in precious metals, part in land – you could
then have somewhere between 10-25% in cash, while the
rest you would invest in income-generating assets that are
much more liquid.
In my case, I want a much greater percentage of my
portfolio in real estate that I can sell relatively quickly at a
comparatively reasonable price. For instance, residential
property that I know people are buying and for which there
is an active market. I want a lot more of my money in those
kind of properties that bring in income and that I know are
relatively liquid compared to other lands. But, I still want
that smaller, yet significant part of my portfolio in land
investments that I can sell in the long-term.
Having addressed your asset allocation strategy, the next
issue to resolve is how you will find the properties you want
to purchase. There are several ways to find land for sale
overseas. However, none are immediately obvious if you do
not have any knowledge of the country you are looking to
invest in.
One option is to use a broker. This may work for
apartments and commercial properties, but most real estate
brokers do not deal in land. In fact, many brokers do not see
the long-term value of owning a non-reportable hard asset
with improvement potential, meaning you will be hard-
pressed to find someone able to help you with such long-
term land investments. Another option is to search for
foreclosed real estate. I have purchased bank-owned lands
before, but most banks only have a limited selection of
development land. Micro-finance institutions sometimes
have parcels of land as well.
The best strategy is to conduct personal on-the-ground
research in your chosen location. I have been able to apply
basic investing and negotiation principles in each market
and have never overpaid for my first property in any
country, but you will not get the truly great deals on your
first go. And you most certainly will not get them if you are
not willing to put in a little time where you are looking to
buy.
I like to search out real estate deals in every country I
visit. In some cases, I choose to visit a country precisely
because I want to research their real estate market. In
general, all the advice that you will receive from folks about
this market or that country has some kind of bias. That is
why nothing beats going to a place yourself and checking
out the deals in person.
For that reason, after many years of hearing conflicting
opinions about the real estate options in Albania, I decided I
needed to go there myself...
“Mr. Henderson, as a valued Starwood guest, we’ve
upgraded you to our best suite,” Natasha, the front desk girl
at the Sheraton in Albania’s capital of Tirana announced as I
sat slumped in a chair in front of her.
I cannot say that I was surprised. Tourism to Albania is
not exactly big business, and especially not in December.
Natasha – whose above average height, blonde hair, and
soft features made her seem a rarity in the Southern
Balkans – handed me my room key and advised me to enjoy
my stay.
Upon arriving in my room, I realized exactly why I was
there. While the Sheraton’s staff was quite generous, the
hotel itself – even the proclaimed best suites – were in need
of an upgrade. Well-maintained but dated furniture
reminded me of days spent in my father’s Cleveland, Ohio
office in 1997.
I had just arrived in Tirana from my summer home in
Kotor Bay, Montenegro. The four-hour drive along winding
coastal roads was aided by the Mercedes my assistant sent
to chauffeur me along my southward path. Truth is, had I
wanted luxury, I could have just stayed put. Instead, I was in
search the of the next great European beach city; a yet-to-
be-known hamlet with potential, but few investors.
In that regard, the Egyptian-style table lamps that
adorned my suite were just perfect. As opposed to
Montenegro (which at least had the Hotel Splendid that was
featured in Casino Royale and the overly ballyhooed Regent
Porto Montenegro), Albania had no real trophy hotels that
would attract a high caliber tourist.
While countries like Serbia and Montenegro have enjoyed
considerable development in recent years, neighboring
Albania has found itself far behind. In my world, that spells
potential opportunity. Earlier in the year, I had befriended
the executive vice-president of a mid-size hotel chain based
in Greece. He had helped the company grow from a couple
of hotels in Greece to two dozen around Southeastern
Europe, and now he was looking for new places to expand.
Over dinner in Bulgaria several months earlier, he
suggested that Albania was the last slice of undeveloped
coast in all of Europe.
He was right. Western Europe has long been well-
developed, Greece is Greece, and the former Yugoslav
states of Croatia and Montenegro are already a growing
playground for affluent beachgoers. Albania is the odd man
out. It is funny how the idea of lines on a map dictate which
beaches we go to and which ones we do not.
As an example, Sarande, Albania is basically just across
the border from Corfu, Greece. Corfu is so well-known in
some circles that no one actually calls it ‘Corfu, Greece,’ it is
just ‘Corfu’ – like Cancun.
Meanwhile, Sarande has a smattering of low-priced
waterfront condos, but no huge draw. As an investor, I would
far rather invest in Albania with its flat 15% tax rate and
openness to investors than Greece, which hiked property
taxes by some 700% a few years ago. There is much more
potential in Albania.
Similarly, on my frequent drives from Phoenix to Los
Angeles in the mid-2000s, I always wondered who would live
in Blythe, California when Quartzsite, Arizona was just a few
miles away. On one side of the invisible stripe in the sand,
residents paid high California taxes and dealt with crazy
California regulations. Just down the road, residents paid
moderate Arizona taxes and were left well enough alone.
Same ugly desert, much different costs of doing
business. It was not as if Blythians were lapping in the fake
boobs and air-conditioned parking lot lifestyle of Orange
County, so why would they want to bear the brunt of
California’s anti-business policies? Why stay on the wrong
side of the imaginary line?
In the same way, there is not much differentiating the
beaches in Corfu to the beaches of Sarande. I believe that
countries like Albania will eventually develop as more and
more tourists are born each day. Not only do many middle-
income countries like Malaysia and Serbia want affordable
places where they can travel, but an entire swath of wealthy
travelers are growing up in places like China and the Gulf.
That means we will need, among other things, more beach
resorts. And better ones.
My hotel friend had told me that oceanfront land in parts
of Albania started at prices as low as €25 per meter, or
about 150 times less expensive than prime land in Beverly
Hills. I remembered a friend of mine who had spent much of
the early 2000s buying up oceanfront land outside of San
Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, which — in terms of my Arizona-
California example — is about as close to the far more
developed Costa Rica as you can get in Nicaragua. Within a
decade, his land was worth ten times that, and now
probably even more. The takeaway? If you find the next big
place, you can make a fortune.
Hence, my trip to Albania. The morning after checking
into the Sheraton, I woke up early to the Egyptian-style
lamps and a wake-up call on an old-school hotel phone. I
quickly went down to the lobby where Natasha was sitting,
acting as if she was waiting only for me.
 I explained that I wanted to visit several beach towns
with potential. On the list were Durres a mere thirty minutes
away, Vlore two hours away, and Sarande five hours away.
As one of my mentors often says, “Go as far as you can see,
then see further,” so I figured I would start with the closest
one and go from there. Why overexert myself?
“I’d like to go to Durres,” I told Natasha.
“Shall I call you a Mercedes?” she replied, alluding to my
comfortable journey into town the day before.
“No,” I told her. “I’d like to take the bus.” I realized that if
I wanted to see how everything in Albania worked, I should
forego the Mercedes.
Natasha, in typical Balkan fashion, was unfazed. She
explained that Tirana did not have a formal bus station, but
rather an ad hoc departure point for buses heading all over
the country.
Upon my arrival at the bus station, I was met with the
typical chaos you would associate with a bus terminal in an
emerging country; guys selling bootlegged cigarettes and
any number of buses itching to run you over if you linger in
one spot for too long. I spotted a bus headed to Durres and,
as it appeared to be taking off at that very moment, ran to
the door.
There, the employee on the bus welcomed me in and
shepherded me to what seemed to be the last seat at the
back of the bus. Of course, a welcoming bus attendant in a
country like Albania can be a double-edged sword, and just
as we hit the street, he welcomed a rather rotund lady to fill
in the half-seat next to mine. Then, the kid sitting next to
me started making the kind of noises you would expect from
a horny lion. I suppose you cannot expect much for $1.
Other than my portly seatmate digging her elbow into
me from time to time, the ride was quite pleasant. At one
point I even thought, Why don’t I slum it on the bus more
often? Then, just as the amalgamated body odors of the bus
passengers began to cut through the uncirculated air like a
knife, we arrived in Durres.
There I was, a mere forty minute drive from the capital
city, at some of the last remaining undeveloped coast in
Europe. As I walked from the grim bus terminal into the city
center, I stopped at a mini-market to buy a Coca-Cola where
the owner determined I was American and proceeded to
point at me and shout ‘American’ to other customers and
passersby. It was as clear an indication as any that the
hordes had not yet found this place. Imagine if every
American in Barcelona received such a reception.
Shortly after arriving, I received a phone call from a guy
selling an apartment near the beach in Durres. My assistant
had contacted a lot of potential sellers, but few had the
investments I was looking for. While I was in Albania
specifically to investigate cheap oceanfront land, I decided
to see what the apartment market looked like as well. My
assistant informed me that few people respond to emails in
the Balkans; you have to email them, then call them to tell
them you emailed them.
I managed to visit a 1,000 square foot apartment two
blocks away from the sea. While the price was good on a
global scale – about $600 per meter – there was nothing
about this place that screamed ‘beach holiday. Plus, the
elevator in the lobby was plastered with random
advertisements and did not seem to be in good working
order.
Upon climbing the four flights of stairs, I discovered that
the apartment was in poor working order, too. There was no
way to fix it up and remain within any confines of reality,
especially considering my goal here was to find the ‘next
great beach city,’ not to buy a dump that might rent out in
ten years.
The problem with beach apartments in many cities is that
you can build so many of them. In cities like Budva, Durres,
Hua Hin, Antalya, and countless others, anyone can simply
buy land and build another building. There is no scarcity.
That is exactly what seemed to be the case in Durres. If
anyone can just build another apartment building next door,
your beach condo is dime a dozen.
I called my assistant and told her to pass on the
apartment. Having a clear vision of what you are after is
important, and I had allowed myself to get distracted.
Fortunately, my assistant informed me that she found a
seller with something much closer to my goal: five acres of
land in the untouched Cape of Rodon, not far from Durres. I
quickly hailed a taxi to leave Durres, realizing it was not for
me.
In the end, I did not purchase any land in Albania. As
much as I wanted to find the perfect deal, for the time
being, Albania did not make the cut. I never would have
been able to make a proper judgment, though, if I had not
taken the trip. That, in itself, is valuable information, as it
meant I could confidently strike it off the list for the time
being and move on to the next place.
Buying land can be a pain no matter where you go. It is
doable, but difficult. For some, the difficulty of finding the
real deals either keeps them from entering the foreign real
estate market or leads them to seek easy options that never
lead to the best deal.
If you look online, you will find properties that are not
real, were sold several years ago, have the wrong number
listed, or are reported in hectares when they should be in
acres or vice versa. It is not as sophisticated or as organized
as in the United States and other more developed markets.
But that is precisely why the opportunity is so golden for
those willing to put their boots on the ground and seek out
the great deals.
The foreign real estate market also works quite
differently when it comes to purchasing. You may be used to
the idea of getting a mortgage when you buy a home, but
not only do the 3% down mortgages often seen in the West
not exist in most countries, but most foreigners will have
difficulty getting a mortgage when buying property
overseas.
Bankers are boring and not particularly progressive. They
do not want you to live the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle, which
is precisely why finding the best offshore banks is important.
If bankers were interested in working remotely and traveling
the world, they would not be stodgy bankers.
As a result, their perfect candidate to loan money to is
someone like them: an employee who clocks in at 9:00 am,
drives the same car to work every day, and plans to live in
their home for the next thirty years as they pay back their
home loan with automatic withdrawals from their interest-
free checking account. You do not want to be that person.
You will not have much luck convincing a Spanish bank to
loan you money for an investment property in Barcelona.
You do not have a Spanish credit record, nor does the bank
have any recourse against you other than taking the
property. Still, I never quite understood why a bank would
not be willing to put up half of the money, figuring that
rarely does property drop 50% in value. After all, they are in
the business of lending money, right? Alas, it does not work
that way.
In your home country, if you default on a loan, the bank
knows where to find both you and the property. That is not
true overseas. One of a few exceptions to this policy is the
United States, where both US citizens living abroad and
foreigners can theoretically borrow money. However, as
difficult as it was for me to borrow money as a self-
employed business owner when I lived in the United States,
you can imagine how hard it can be if you live overseas.
Even US citizens who use the tax strategies in this book will
have challenges.
If you want an easy loan, go to Belize. A few of the banks
there will loan money on almost any property in the Central
American countries down to Panama. While they prefer to
loan on the overpriced bubble properties built for and
marketed exclusively to gringos, you might be able to
convince them to loan you money on something you could
actually resell for what you paid for it. In exchange for the
privilege, they will give you 50% of the money and charge
interest rates in the low double-digits. Basically, higher than
the ‘hard money’ rates developers pay in the United States.
The situation is the same in my beloved Georgia where,
once in a blue moon, a bank will lend money to a foreigner
who has obtained residency in the country. The caveat is
that interest rates are the same rates your parents paid
during the Carter administration, hovering somewhere in
the low- to mid-teens. One developer friend of mine offered
me as much as 23% a year to lend him money on a project
because even he could not fully fund his projects with the
banks.
To me, though, there is a silver lining to a lack of
financing overseas: it forces you to find good deals. When
you are buying an asset entirely with your own money, or
your company’s money, you find better investments
because you can use leverage (i.e., a loan) to cover it up.
This, of course, brings us to the final question: where can
you find the best foreign real estate investments?
 Where to Find the Best Foreign
Investments
We have looked at the fundamentals, you know why you
are investing, you are willing to put in the effort and do on-
the-ground research, and you have the money to invest in a
property. Now, where do you go?
If you want exceptional gains, you either need to know
the market and do a lot of work (i.e., fix and flip), or find a
place that is growing. Finding a growing market means
understanding how that market operates. In Europe, for
instance, the city center is still the central business district
and the most valuable real estate. This can be a shock to
those of us from the United States or Australia who are used
to companies moving into the suburbs in exchange for well-
manicured lawns and free, easy parking.
While you can play the gentrification game in already
expensive cities like London where you can invest where the
growth is moving, finding the best opportunities in those
situations can be challenging. What I find much easier is
studying a country. Unlike London, where you need to live
there to know what move to make, you do not even have to
leave home to create a list of candidate countries with
growing real estate markets. If you want to earn passive
income while growing your principal over time, investing in
up-and-coming markets is an excellent way to do so.
It is important to note that these markets should be ‘up-
and-coming’ and not already ‘on top.’ The goal of investing
as a Nomad Capitalist is not to chase what is already
obvious. Your first instinct upon hearing that Hong Kong is
capitalism run amok, has low taxes, and is filled with
neurotically hard-working people might be to rush there and
buy any real estate you can get your hands on. The only
problem is that you are about thirty years too late.
 Investors like Jim Rogers and speculators like Doug Casey
often use the term ‘crisis investing’ to describe investments
where the knife has no lower to fall. These are investments
where a place has gotten beaten up so badly that the deals
are now excellent. It can be tough to know when a country
has taken its final blow and is on the way up, so new
investors might want to avoid crisis investing for the same
reason they would be well-advised to avoid catching falling
knives.
Hong Kong in the late 1980s, however, had some of the
markings of a crisis investment situation. For some time, the
British had been negotiating with China over the return of
leased territories in Hong Kong, with the Chinese suggesting
to Margaret Thatcher that their military could take over the
whole place by lunch. Eventually, the negotiations resulted
in the British handover of Hong Kong to China.
Hong Kongers panicked. Despite the idea of ‘one country,
two systems’ that would grant Hong Kong special rights to
retain its über capitalist leanings for at least fifty years, tens
if not hundreds of thousands rushed to apply for residence
permits in the United Kingdom, not wishing to live under
Chinese rule. Property prices plummeted, a true sign of
desperation among Chinese investors who typically view
real estate as an infallible investment.
In short, the place was a mess. However, as time went on
and the transition moved along, things went back to normal.
Some people made 1000% returns on property. Today, Hong
Kong is back and more expensive than ever, with $100
million properties dotting the hills near Victoria Peak, and us
commoners forced to live in $15,000-a-month one-bedroom
closets along the MTR line.
Hong Kong is viewed by many foreign investors, and
even more so by mainland Chinese investors, as a bastion of
security. As such, prices have become insane and yields
have become quite low. To many Chinese, real estate prices
always go up, and that has proven true for many years in
Hong Kong. However, the territory does not exactly offer the
best conditions for a Nomad Capitalist seeking to invest.
Hong Kong is now at the top of the hypothetical bell
curve of a country’s success, which is exactly when it is too
late to invest in a country’s real estate market. Instead, as
we discussed earlier, the key is to find the ‘next Singapore’ –
a place that is moving up the bell curve, but has not made it
past the peak quite yet. These are places where growth and
friendly policies will lift the country into a future success
story.
In contrast to the falling knife scenario, Singapore started
out at the bottom of the curve and had to work its way up.
After becoming an independent nation in 1965 following its
exit from the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia), the
country was a mere speck on the map. Singapore was
nowhere near western levels of development and some
cruelly joked that it was not much farther along than it was
in its days as a muddy swamp some century and a half
earlier.
But the country was willing to do whatever they could to
not only survive but also thrive. They wanted to be big and
that meant they needed to attract the right investors and
businessmen to jumpstart their microscopic economy. The
late President Yusof bin Ishak is now a legend in Singapore
for his vision and leadership as he implemented policies for
racial harmony and economic openness that ushered in
unprecedented progress.
Today, it costs between $50,000 and $100,000 just to get
permission to drive a car in Singapore. And the apartment
buildings they park those cars in are far more expensive.
Like Hong Kong, such properties offer relatively poor
investment metrics other than the promise of bank-like
stability. And, like Hong Kong, Singapore is now at the top of
the bell curve.
Once a country makes it to the top of the bell curve, not
only do investments no longer make sense but other
opportunities begin to vanish as well. All those favorable
policies once put in place to attract investors are cancelled
as politicians move their focus away from attracting
powerful investors and toward ensuring that the streets are
clean and their citizens get the entitlements they tend to
vote for.
In 2013, Singapore closed its immigration program down
and it is now very difficult to get citizenship or even an
EntrePass residency there. Likewise, Hong Kong recently
shut down its Capital Entrance and Investment Scheme in
which you could put $1.2 million anywhere (even the bank!)
and get residency. At this point, why would Singapore or
Hong Kong need another guy with a million dollars to come
in?
If you have $100,000 to invest in a country, that is great.
That is better than what most people can do. But Hong Kong
and Singapore are not looking for that level of investment
anymore. The good news is that there are still countries out
there that are looking for the kind of investment you can
offer. These are the ‘next Singapores’ of the world, the up-
and-coming markets that not only need your investment but
make it clear that they want it with favorable policies and
attractive offers.
Now, up-and-coming markets may be up-and-coming for
any number of reasons. Real estate in some parts of Italy
doubled in the two or three years following adoption of the
euro. Estonia’s real estate saw gains of about 60% in its first
three years in the Eurozone. On average, that kind of gain is
excellent and is due, in large part, to the political and
economic impacts associated with joining the Eurozone.
 The most common cause of up-and-coming markets,
however, is purely organic growth. Quite simply, the
population of the world is growing, particularly in emerging
countries where populations tend to be younger. You do not
need to be a rocket scientist to discover these countries.
Other indicators of a country going in the right direction
on the bell curve include pro-business and pro-wealth
policies, improvements after a war or conflict, urbanization,
climate change, and countries with a growing middle class
or with low per capita GDP where both institutions and the
workforce are undergoing a transformation.
What you want to find are not the countries like Nigeria –
which are at the very, very beginning of the bell curve – but
the countries that are moving up the bell curve and will
continue to move up. These are places like Georgia and
Montenegro and, to a certain extent, even Serbia and
Nicaragua – maybe even Mexico, too, for openness,
investment and residency.
You want to go where you’re treated best. So, where do
they make it easy? Go there. Where do they have a good
attitude toward business? Go there. There are countries out
there that will jump at you like someone desperate to get
into a relationship. If they have good fundamentals, go
there.
Once you find a place that is headed in the right
direction, do not wait too long to get in. The European
investment programs that allowed you to get an affordable
EU residence have largely come and gone. Hungary’s
€300,00 investment for residency? Gone. Ireland’s business
and investment program for residency? Gone. Now they
only want you if you are the next Merck or Facebook. They
went up and over the bell curve and the opportunity was
gone before you knew it.
 While some countries will welcome you with open arms,
do not adopt the arrogant attitude of many in the West who
simply assume that because they are from the US or the UK
or some other western country that everyone else in the
world is going to cater to their every need. These countries
want to know how you are going to help them advance. If
you are in a position to do that, you have a great
opportunity to invest, but do not assume that they will
always want your money.
The world is advancing at an incredible pace and inaction
will become costlier as time goes by. This is what happens
with globalization. No longer do we have the haves and
have nots of the first world versus the third world. There are
still places that have their challenges, but in less than sixty
years, the percentage of the world’s population living in
abject poverty has gone from 45% in 1960 to 10% in 2015.
Think of that, in your parent's’ lifetime, nearly half of the
world lived in extreme poverty! Now it is below 10%.
Takeaway: The world is becoming wealthier, and with
that growth come opportunities to invest; but it also means
that those opportunities will be fleeting. The countries that
are making their way up the bell curve today will be at the
top sooner than you know it. If you invest now, you will take
part in their growth and grow with them. If you wait too
long, you will miss the boat.
 Chapter Eleven:
Frontier Market
Entrepreneurship
“If It Isn’t Risky, It’s Too Late”

Dateline: Siem Reap, Cambodia

The rhythmic beat of my feet hitting the pavement
created a familiar cadence as I walked along the bustling
streets of Siem Reap, Cambodia. The cozy tourist
destination is famous for the Angkor Wat ruins, an ancient
temple complex that forms the largest religious monument
in the world.
But my feet were not taking me toward Angkor Wat that
morning.
I had heard rumors of a modern-day Cambodian legend
born in the same city just over a decade before and I was
marking a path to the reputed location of its legendary
birthplace. I soon arrived at the Sofitel Hotel of Siem Reap
and stepped out of the heat.
My contact, Jacob, was waiting for me in the lobby and
escorted me to the hotel restaurant overlooking the
beautiful Sala Lake. As we savored the expansive breakfast
buffet, Jacob began to tell me the story of The Blue Pumpkin
and how one French expat and his Thai wife became
millionaires by starting a simple fruit and cake stand in
Cambodia.
It all began with Arnaud Curtat, a French expat who
worked his way up to become one of the top pastry chefs in
Bangkok’s competitive hotel scene. Then, sensing
opportunity further east, he and his Thai wife packed their
bags and moved to Siem Reap where he took a chef job at
the very Sofitel in Siem Reap where I sat enjoying my
breakfast that morning.
With no job, his wife started a small business in a tiny
storefront that cost about $250 a month. She first sold
carved fruits to locals, then she took a leaf out of her
husband’s playbook and sold small cakes. The fruits and
cakes were a hit, and she expanded into other baked goods.
Within a year, Arnaud Curtat quit his job at the Sofitel
and joined his wife to expand the product line of the
business that they would soon name The Blue Pumpkin.
Fresh baked breads were made and quickly sold out – they
could not keep them in stock. Arnaud used his connections
in the Siem Reap hotel scene to sell large orders to
seemingly every hotel in town and the business grew.
As time went on, the Blue Pumpkin empire expanded.
Fruits and cakes turned into bread turned into ice cream.
The original small storefront on a dusty road was replaced
with a much larger facility and, eventually, nine company-
owned locations throughout town. More and more places
around Siem Reap wanted to sell Blue Pumpkin products,
which are now available in practically every supermarket
and tourist area of the city.
In well under ten years, Blue Pumpkin went from a tiny
fruit and cake stand like countless others in Cambodia to a
food empire. Blue Pumpkin locations are now ubiquitous
throughout Phnom Penh, as well, with a non-stop flow of
tourists buying ice cream cones and cheesecakes in the
company’s western-styled stores. Local Cambodians have
taken notice and appreciate the more international theme of
Blue Pumpkin’s stores. Arnaud never wanted his stores to be
in the traditional Khmer style; he realized that tourists and
locals alike want a taste of another part of the world every
once in a while.
After ten years in the business, Arnaud sold a little over
half of his stake in Blue Pumpkin to some serious investors
for around $1 million – quite an accomplishment for a
couple who came to Cambodia with just a dream to work for
someone else and a desire to make a second income for
their family. Now, after more than 15 years in business, they
plan to franchise the concept to Thailand and Malaysia,
hoping to become the first Cambodian brand to expand
outside the country.
Just like immigrants who traveled to The Land of the Free
long ago, countries today like Cambodia offer immigrants
‘fresh off the boat’ the opportunity to do whatever they
think can make a buck, without a lot of government
interference or the need to know and adhere to a lot of
regulations. That leaves people like Arnaud the ability to
focus on creating great products rather than being hassled
by bureaucrats.
Compare that to opening a bakery in California: you
would have to jump through hoops with numerous three-
letter state and local agencies, take hours of bakery classes
to get certified, buy special equipment that has passed
standards, and hope you did not violate any of the
innumerable ordinances, laws, and regulations governing
everything from food serving to hiring to advertising. In a
frontier market, you rent a space, hang your shingle, and
start baking. It is a lot easier to start making money quickly.
If you live in a western country, a bakery is probably not
at the top of your list of businesses to start, anyway. The
return on your time invested is just not that great, and the
barrier to entry is so low that supply exceeds demand,
leading many businesses to fail. In rapidly developing
markets, however, demand often outpaces supply, creating
an enviable position for business owners on the ground.
But how do you find the right frontier market for you and
the business ideas you have been itching to give a try?
Cambodia is just one of many frontier markets where
conditions are right for an adventurous entrepreneur to
come in and create a successful business on the ground. You
literally have the entire world to work with.
Unlike the strategies we discussed in Chapter Eight about
offshore companies and tax savings, where you simply take
the business you have now and incorporate it in an offshore
jurisdiction, frontier market entrepreneurship entails doing
actual business in the local market. You can still choose
where to incorporate your business, which country’s rules
you will play by, and what your tax level will be, but you can
also choose a specific market where conditions are perfect
for your particular product.
Whereas the first option follows more of the Four-Hour
Workweek model of running a business that markets to
western consumers while living on the beach in some exotic
foreign locale, becoming a frontier market entrepreneur
involves doing business in those exotic foreign locales.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s
examine these various locales to understand their different
markets and why frontier markets in particular are where
you want to establish your next successful business. For the
most part, investors tend to break the world up into three
different markets: developed, emerging, and frontier.
Developed markets are usually those that seem like
they have everything figured out: high per capita income
and gross domestic product (GDP), ease of capital
movement (developed capital markets with high levels of
liquidity), efficient market institutions, decent economic
growth and security, high levels of industrialization, a
generally high standard of living, and widespread
infrastructure. They also tend to have higher levels of
education and literacy and relatively good health indicators.
Just think of the most economically advanced countries in
the world and you have got yourself a list of the world’s
developed markets. This list includes countries in most of
Western Europe, as well as Canada, the United States,
Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand,
and South Korea (at least on some lists).
There is a good chance that you are in one of these
countries right now. And for all of the great things about
these places on paper, you have probably begun to realize
that there are downsides to developed markets as well,
especially for entrepreneurs.
The most obvious downside is that the taxes are high. It
is not that hard to start a US LLC or UK Limited Company,
but it can be incredibly expensive to maintain one thanks to
the taxes. Developed countries are often run by imperious
governments that do not want or need you, yet make it hard
to leave.
They can also make it difficult to get anything done.
Some emerging markets can make things difficult as well,
but if you find the right one it can be worth it. But it is
usually the developed markets that have become more
bureaucratic. If you want to build a store, for example, they
will probably ask to do a soil sample on this and a study on
that and will require numerous proposals and endless
presentations. In a developing country, if you let the
government know that you want to start a business, more
likely than not, they will clear out and let you have the area.
But it is not just about the government or the taxes they
charge and the hoops they make you jump through.
Developed countries are slowing down. They have some of
the slowest growth rates in the world, many with well under
2% growth in GDP a year. Birth rates in developed countries
are also so low that they are now below replacement levels.
Where is your market going to be with birthrates like that?
Who is going to buy your stuff?
There is also a growing malaise in these countries that
begs the same question. If you go to the United States, it
seems to get poorer every year. Where is the middle class
that is ready to spend money? Compare that to a place like
China where they are currently growing middle-class
consumers like weeds. From my perspective, the lifestyle is
just not there. I find so much more excitement in a place like
Mexico where things are developing and growing instead of
a place where they are developed and stagnant.
Mexico is one of many emerging markets around the
world that offer a more interesting prospect. By definition,
emerging markets have a little more work to do before they
‘emerge’ into a developed market. This usually means that
they are in the process of rapid growth and development.
While they share certain characteristics with developed
markets, they have lower per capita income and less mature
capital markets than their more ‘advanced’ counterparts.
Emerging market countries include places like Brazil,
Russia, India, China, Chile, Malaysia, Eastern Europe, Turkey,
South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, Colombia, and
others.
For the investor or entrepreneur, there are other
characteristics that make emerging markets attractive. For
instance, while they certainly present some risk, they have
an expanding middle class, improving standards of living,
increasing social stability, as well as encouraging
institutional transformations, more economic openness and
greater fiscal responsibility.
 I recommend including emerging markets in your
international investment portfolio, but when it comes to
entrepreneurship, emerging markets are often already
saturated and the competition can be high. If you want a
wide-open playing field as a global entrepreneur, I suggest
you look to frontier markets.
Frontier markets are a rung lower on the development
ladder; they have begun to develop, but have not become
completely stable. They also have smaller market
capitalization, higher volatility, fewer financial regulatory
institutions, yet are still open and accessible to foreign
investors and entrepreneurs.
The risk involved in pursuing these final frontiers is what
keeps a lot of investors and businesses from entering the
market within these countries. However, for the risk-
tolerant, this means that you will have open access to
countries with great fundamentals for high returns and
incredible business success.
 The Benefits of Frontier Market
Entrepreneurship
There are numerous benefits to doing business in a
frontier market, let’s examine just a few of them.

Contribute to Positive Development

From a less profit-minded perspective, the first benefit of
frontier market entrepreneurship is the knowledge that you
are contributing to the growth and development of other
countries. The reasons these countries are open and
accessible to foreign entrepreneurs is because they would
love to have your contribution. That is why they have
policies that encourage you to come there.
When you go where you’re treated best, you are helping
people. The people living in Poland under communism, for
example, were not going to Egypt and spending money on
five-star resorts like they do now. As a result of Poland’s
development, Egypt’s growth went up. The same thing can
be said in regards to Cambodians eating hamburgers, the
Chinese driving more cars and Latin Americans fueling the
fastest growing smartphone market on the planet.
This is why, whenever folks choose to paint successful
entrepreneurs who want to do business overseas as tax
cheats or unpatriotic, greedy thieves, I have to respectfully
disagree. I see frontier market entrepreneurship like the
concierge medicine trend that is growing in the West. People
often question how the wealthy could ever dare to have
concierge medicine that costs them $40,000 to $160,000
out of pocket every year while the masses could never
afford such service. I have to shake my head at such
questioning. Some of the most important advancements in
medicine that are now available to the masses at much
lower costs have become available precisely because the
wealthy were willing to pay much more for them first.
While the objectors concern themselves with the tiered
healthcare system at home, we already have a tiered
system throughout the world. Folks in the US may be
wondering how these wealthy individuals dare to get better
medical care than the rest of their fellow Americans, but the
real question is how dare Americans get better care than
someone in Guatemala. We are all human. Borders do not
change our shared humanity.
But I am never going to improve the wellbeing of the
folks in Guatemala or the United States or anywhere else by
living in a hut so that we can all be equal. We cannot
poverty ourselves into equality. Just as the wealthy
individual who pays for concierge medicine pushes for
medical advancements that will one day be available to the
masses, the frontier market investor pursues the profits in
growing markets, contributing to the development of the
countries that are most in need.
If I go where I am treated best – where there are sound
investment fundamentals and positive government support
for entrepreneurs like me – I am going to do so knowing that
my money and my businesses are contributing to the
growth and development of these countries. This is how the
world advances.

Long-Term Growth
But going where you’re treated best does not mean
going to frontier markets simply because they need the
help. You are obviously looking for something in return. The
good news is that the rewards are high for those
adventurous enough to explore the world’s final frontiers.
The biggest reason why you should look at frontier
markets is the potential for long-term growth. Imagine being
able to get in on the ground floor in an emerging market like
Thailand forty years ago. Between 1970 and 1990,
Thailand’s GNP quadrupled, per capita income tripled
between 1965 and 1995, and the country topped the charts
of the fastest growing economies for almost a decade with a
peak growth rate of 13.6% in 1988.
While Thailand’s economy has slowed down considerably
since then, the city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia today is the
Bangkok of thirty years ago. Look at Bangkok and compare
the markets from the eighties to the more developed
markets now. Imagine how many times people have made
their money back. Those same opportunities are still
available today, but you are more likely to find them in
Cambodia than the more developed Thailand.
This all goes back to what we talked about in Chapter
Four when we discussed second passports and how they
factor into having a 40-year plan. When you start a business
in a frontier market, you are investing in the country and its
potential long-term growth just as much as you are
investing in your company.

Higher Returns
By placing capital where growth is just taking off, you are
putting yourself in the perfect position for monumental
gains in the future. Even small increases in the standard of
living in frontier markets can create serious returns on your
investment.
The same thing that makes frontier markets an excellent
investment opportunity is the very reason fewer people
actually invest: namely, the risk. Because of the risk, there
are fewer foreigners on the ground doing research and
investing in less developed, but rapidly growing economies.
This gives those of us with the appetite for a little risk
another good reason to invest – less competition and a
greater potential for yield.
For example, my friend runs a property fund in Cambodia
and can conservatively buy properties in pretty blue-chip
areas and get 10-15% rental yields unleveraged. Compare
that to somewhere like the UK, the United States, Australia,
or, God forbid, Switzerland, where you might be looking at
low single-digit returns. In a frontier market like Cambodia,
you can expect to reap a good double-digit yield while you
are waiting for that long-term growth to materialize.

Diversification
Another great benefit of frontier markets is that they are
often isolated from the rest of the world, making them less
dependent on the global monetary system. Because of this,
they are generally immune to global recession and
depression.
Cambodia has not had a recession in more than 20 years.
In fact, there has not been a single year in the last decade
when growth in Cambodia has been less than 7-8%. It has
even enjoyed double digit growth. It has been one big
growth chart. Skipping the Asian Financial Crisis of the
1990s, the tech bubble of the early 2000s and the Global
Financial Crisis of 2008, Cambodia’s economy has shrugged
off the rest of the world’s problems.
So, while frontier markets may be risky by one account,
they can also be an important part of a diversified portfolio.
An entrepreneur who spreads their risk by placing some
capital in overlooked markets that are in their infancy will be
better off than those who place all their capital in
‘developed’ markets that are all susceptible to global
financial crises.
Obviously, there are challenges, but if you know what
you are doing or you have someone who can do it for you,
you can enjoy uncorrelated growth even while the rest of
the world suffers. In this way, investing in a frontier market
may actually protect some of your investments in a way
that a developed market cannot.

Low Competition and High Potential

for Success
In the West, smart businesses have become all about
niche. With so much supply in the market, it can be a death
sentence to compete with huge, established players in a
large market. In frontier markets, if you can offer affordable
products for a market with increasing buying power,
opportunity is everywhere.
There is huge potential in these markets precisely
because they have very few of the services common to the
western world. In some developing countries, the types of
businesses which you might take for granted in your home
country often do not even exist yet. If there is no pharmacy
chain or high-end furniture store, it offers the perfect setting
to create your own.
Investing overseas is not just about the real estate
investments we discussed in the last chapter. E-commerce
and simple service industries all have a greater chance of
succeeding in a market where competition is almost
nonexistent. Not only that but without the risk of an
economic downturn every seven or eight years, as happens
in the West, more businesses are capable of riding out
periods of global financial crisis.
When you realize that the frontier and developing
markets’ penchant for western style affluent living is largely
untapped, your list of potential opportunities will grow
exponentially. That, combined with a simpler process to
many business practices, should ignite your passion for
finding new products and services to market by answering
the call of these rapidly increasing economies.

Lower Costs
Another factor adding to your chances of success is the
low entry costs for businesses in frontier markets. Rather
than developing some complex business plan that may or
may not work after investing tons of money (and, if it does
work, will subject you to huge taxes), you could go to Laos
and open a parking lot. Or you could set up a delivery
service for products like cosmetics, which cost as much as
70% less in Thailand and are subject to low import duties.
You could engage in any number of businesses which you
could easily sketch out after observing things for just a few
weeks.
Every business I have started began with a small amount
of money and a basic concept of improving an existing
market. I have never dumped a million bucks into a
company because I was ‘just sure’ it would work. My small
investments have brought almost immediate cash-flow and
future appreciation.
At the end of the day, solving simple, everyday problems
in simple ways is what entrepreneurship is all about. I just
so happen to believe that it is a lot easier to not only get
started and to do business but also to be successful in
emerging and frontier economies.
It is pretty easy to start a website these days no matter
where you are in the world, but if you are the brick-and-
mortar business type, you can set up shop for a heck of lot
less in somewhere like Vientiane, Laos than you could in any
city in a developed market.
Renting office space is also much cheaper in frontier
markets compared to western prices. Average prime office
space rents per square meter are as low as $21 in the
Philippines. Plus, if you want to save on the cost of renting
an office, the region is home to some of the best cafés and
co-working spaces around.
The lower costs of doing business hold true when it
comes to hiring labor, as well. Average manufacturing
wages in Vietnam are still just $107 a month; and in
countries like Laos they can be as low as $45 a month.
Southeast Asia has a large and growing labor pool, high
birth rates and a relatively young population. Countries like
Malaysia and the Philippines have highly literate, English
speaking workforces, which is useful not only for someone
launching a service-sector company, but also leads to
opportunities in complementary industries.
In The End of Jobs, Taylor Pearson points out that by
2020, “there will be 40% more 25-34-year-olds with higher
education degrees from Argentina, Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa than in all
OECD countries.” This is just one sign that there are better
places to be hiring than in the West. And the fact that you
can get better labor for lower prices while also paying those
individuals a good wage for the cost of living in the country
where they live makes it a win-win situation for everyone
involved.

Lifestyle Benefits
As we discussed earlier, there are great lifestyle benefits
that come with living overseas. These benefits will not
disappear if you decide to set up a location dependent
business in a frontier market.
The model that many expat entrepreneurs and digital
nomads have followed has been to move to Southeast Asia,
enjoy the low costs of living and freedom from US income
taxes, and make money selling a productized service or
other offering to Americans back home over the internet.
 This strategy has often included following the Four Hour
Workweek model of outsourcing your technical work to
people in India, the Philippines or another less developed
country. While this model is still an option, those looking for
something more ambitious – say, those that might have
been attracted to Silicon Valley ten years ago – should
consider a business that is not only based in Southeast Asia,
but markets to its people as well.
You get all the same coconuts and low costs of living, but
you are also tapping into one of the highest-potential
markets on the planet. More importantly, you do not have to
reinvent the wheel in order to find success in this region of
the world. Several of the world’s newest and most
successful unicorns (companies valued at over $1 billion)
are Asian startups that simply copied existing concepts from
the West.
With a little bit of thought and local knowledge, bringing
an American concept to Asia can lead to huge returns. And
you can enjoy all the lifestyle perks while you are at it, too.

How to Find the Right Market

There are many different frontier markets and each one
has a unique profile. From Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and
Namibia in Africa, to Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Latvia in
Europe, to Asia and the Middle East, there is no shortage of
frontier markets to choose from.
One of my favorite frontier markets is Cambodia. I visited
Serendipity Beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia a few years
back and spent much of my time talking to expats who
came to Cambodia from places like the United States,
Australia, and Canada with a small amount of money and a
dream to start their own simple business.
And when I say ‘small amounts of money and simple
businesses,’ that is exactly what I mean. Many started out
with as little as $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 and began
businesses like restaurants, guest houses, and bars. And,
like Arnaud Curtat and his wife did with The Blue Pumpkin,
these expat entrepreneurs also achieved great success.
The best news of all, however, is that their success is just
the tip of the iceberg of what they can experience down the
road. Tourism is going to be a big driver of the Cambodian
economy as more people from the western world realize
that Cambodia is a great place to visit, and as more people
in Asia have disposable income and want to use it to
explore.
Cambodia offers a great opportunity to start a simple
business now. It is not as prominently on the tourism map
yet, but you can enjoy a low cost of living and make good
money without a lot of overhead and very few regulations.
By getting in now, you can set yourself up to reap bigger
rewards down the road.
The country is a great place for an entrepreneur with a
sense of adventure to come with a small amount of capital,
do something low key and potentially be very successful.
But not all frontier markets are at the threshold of growth
and development like Cambodia. Some certainly are, but
the right indicators are not always obvious to the everyday
business person. That said, here are some of the most
important trends to look for that indicate the greatest
potential for growth and business success.
 The Fundamentals
Finding the right frontier market largely depends on
knowing the fundamentals. If a country has solid
fundamentals, it is worth stopping in to take a look around
and get the creative juices flowing to whip up your next
business idea. Some of the most important fundamentals to
look for include:
● Low Per Capita GDP: Countries with low per
capita GDP have room to grow, but the best
combination to look for is a country with low per capita
GDP where both institutions and the workforce are
undergoing a transformation.
● High Population Growth: This leads to an
ample working-age population, which can give a
powerful boost to GDP under the right conditions. One
look at a world age chart will tell you everything you
need to know. The West is getting older while emerging
and frontier markets have population projections that
almost perfectly mirror their varying degrees of
emerging status.
● Health: Good health is essential for growth and
productivity. Data on life expectancy can give you a
general idea of the overall health of a population. Still,
do not completely write off countries with lower life
expectancy. Improvements to health and sanitation
facilities can greatly improve living conditions and lead
to the kind of economic growth that is good for
business.
● Urbanization: Larger cities can increase
productivity in frontier economies because they
encourage economies of scale in production and
distribution. Companies also benefit from knowledge
transfers and a larger, more diverse labor pool.
 ● Widespread Tech Usage: Knowing basic
statistics like the number of mobile phone subscribers
in a country is vital to future success. The same goes
for any type of e-commerce businesses. While in its
infancy in many frontier markets, e-commerce has the
potential for explosive growth in many areas of the
world.
● Ease of Doing Business: This is a crucial factor
to take into consideration when determining which
markets will not only be open to your business but also
make life easier when it comes to setting up and
running your business. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing
Business Index is a great place to find information on
the business atmosphere in each country, as well as
the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.
It is important to take these and other factors into
account when choosing where to invest or do business.
Setting up shop in a country simply because it is a frontier
market can be a very foolish move. South Africa, for
example, has great beaches (tourism potential) in Cape
Town, but the fundamentals — especially on the
government’s end — were never in place and the economy
has subsequently come crashing down.
Find a combination of a young and growing population,
some progress towards development, and governmental
understanding of economic freedom and the need to attract
talented people. If you can find these fundamentals in one
location, you will put yourself in a great position to take
advantage of the new economy that is unfolding.

Culture Matters
Many people never consider one essential fundamental:
culture. Culture matters. The culture in the West is simply
not business friendly. Do you feel that people respect
successful business people where you are from? Do you feel
that they are accepted as valuable members of your
community? If the answer is no, then it might be time for a
change.
In many places in the West, businesspeople are disdained
as the greedy one percent. But the cultural issues do not
stop there. Western culture makes for unattractive hiring
conditions too. When I do any freelance hiring and an
American and a Venezuelan both apply for the position,
asking for the same pay, I am going to hire the Venezuelan
because I know that they will take the job more seriously.
For one, you are actually paying them a good wage per their
cost of living. And because of the rising educational levels
around the globe, the quality of work is likely to be very
similar.
Americans get upset that Mexicans work for much lower
wages but ignore the fact that they live ten to a house in
order to live on that wage. It is as if they assume that
Americans are entitled to a white picket fence forever…
because America.
I do not say all of this just to bash on the United States –
it has its perks – but it is hard to deny the cultural flaws that
make it less attractive to do business and hire workers
there. The entitlement culture is largely a phenomenon of
the West. You can still find people throughout the rest of the
world who are hungry to do great quality work, and without
demanding holiday pay, maternity leave, contributions to
their retirement, overtime, or unionizing.
And there are plenty of countries where entrepreneurship
dominates the culture. Instead of looking down on business
people, they welcome them with open arms. Countries like
Uganda, ‘communist’ China and Vietnam, and others like
them rank at the top of the entrepreneurship reports. In the
meantime, only 12% of folks in the United States plan to
open their own business in the next three years. The culture
is simply more conducive to success in frontier and
emerging markets.

Countries to Watch
So, which countries fit all these parameters? There are
quite a few. On a regional level, I personally lean toward
both Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. While the typical
raison d’être of digital nomads in Southeast Asia is the
cheap cost of living, it is also one of the easiest places in the
world to start a business. Though Eastern Europe is also a
good place to live, hire, and run a business, Southeast Asia’s
competitive edge is that it has larger domestic markets.
Companies from Rocket Internet to Lazada have poured
into Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and even more
developing markets like Cambodia. Today, some of these
countries represent the hottest commodities in the tech
space, from regional e-commerce to SaaS to FinTech and
more. In Malaysia, Penang is the hotspot for start-ups. It
offers a diverse workforce and a culture far more open to
foreign business than Thailand.
Vietnam has a huge domestic market of 92 million
people, among the largest in Asia, and its role in the region
will likely only increase. Major investment is driving the
startup scene there, as is a small incubator and a new
innovation fair that aims to make Da Nang the ‘Innovation
Hub by the Sea.’ Foreign investment in Vietnam has always
seemed to be a long game, so I would not expect overnight
success, but Da Nang is on a lot of people’s radar.
One of the most interesting trends in recent years has
been the lifestyle business scene. Idyllic places like Bali –
Ubud and Canggu in particular – have become digital nomad
hubs, leading some to call the island ‘Silicon Bali.’ While
much of the growth in Bali has been driven by digital
nomads, the impact on Bali’s entrepreneur community is
now well-formed and it is possible that Ubud could rise from
a cheap lifestyle haven for bootstrappers into a startup hub
in Indonesia.
If the likes of Vietnam and Indonesia are not adventurous
enough for you, Laos is the final frontier market I would
recommend considering in Southeast Asia. Just like in
Cambodia, the middle class is growing. The mountainous
terrain of Laos makes it seem a world apart, as if it were a
country that has never been exposed to the outside world,
but almost every house in central Vientiane has a motorbike
these days. Average wages have gone from paying $100 a
month or less to several hundred dollars in just a few years
and domestic consumers are spending more money.
The entrepreneur in me sees a lot of opportunity in Laos,
in the same way I do in Cambodia. Considering that there
are already numerous cafes in Vientiane, along with a few
western brands, Laos is not exactly a blank slate, but it is
close. Any large-scale business requires good connections.
You cannot expect to open a franchise store in Laos without
knowing a few people and paying your respects to the
government. However, you could start a small business with
the intention of growing it throughout the country or
throughout the region.
Laos is still a one-party socialist government but, unlike
neighboring Myanmar, Laos is much more open to
foreigners coming in with small businesses. Whereas being
small works in your favor in Laos, you would need to be the
size of Coca Cola to enter Myanmar. That means the
fundamentals in Myanmar are not quite there yet, while
Laos definitely shows potential.
In Eastern Europe, I favor both the Balkans and the
Baltics. While Western Europe favors complicated revenue
systems with high rates and multiple tax brackets, many
Eastern European countries prefer to stick with one low flat
tax. The market in some countries in Eastern Europe may be
too small to reach a critical mass, but there are some true
gems throughout Eastern Europe that I can recommend
without hesitation.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many former
Soviet states began to embrace pro-business economic
policies in an effort to turn things around. Like neighboring
Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia is one of the great Baltic
success stories. All three Baltic countries offer something
different, but Estonia in particular is working hard to cater to
business people and was the first country in the region to
introduce a flat tax in 1994. Estonia continues to be the
clear economic leader in the Baltics and was ranked as the
most entrepreneurial country in the European Union
according to the World Economic Forum.
In addition to business-friendly laws, Estonia is finding
innovative ways to attract capital and preserve freedom,
including their e-residency program and zero corporate tax
model. It has some of the best offshore banks in the world
and its capital, Tallinn, is fast becoming a hub for
entrepreneurship. As any Estonian will proudly tell you,
Tallinn is where Skype was founded.
The Balkans present an even greater opportunity. It is a
very interesting, emerging region. If you want to invest
somewhere that is absent the EU but close to European
markets, the Balkans will provide you with more area to
grow.
Montenegro is very open to business and foreign
investors. For entrepreneurs looking to do business on the
ground, options are somewhat limited to tourism due to the
country’s size and small population of only half a million
people. But they are very open and eager to do business.
Literally, I met with the prime minister’s right-hand man to
discuss investment promotion. That does not happen in
every country I travel to, but you will find that there are a lot
of open-door policy small countries like this.
Macedonia is another good country that is trying very
hard to stand out. Geopolitics are making things a little
difficult for them, but the country is becoming more and
more transparent and attractive for business. Macedonia is
very well-located close to other markets where you could
expand your business.
More importantly, nobody knows that they copied
Estonia’s zero corporate tax model in which you pay zero
tax on profit until you pay yourself. Even better, unlike
Estonia where the corporate tax rate is 20%, Macedonia’s
tax rate is just half that at all of 10%. Macedonia is a very
interesting place, but it is not for every kind of business. It is
a small market and it will take some time to see how conflict
in the region plays out.
Another great country in the Balkans is Serbia; however, I
enjoy living there much more than the idea of running a
business in the country. The tax rate is a decent 15%, but I
do not see as much potential in Serbia for someone starting
a business on the ground. However, if you are looking to
hire, Serbia has some of the best talent out there for great
prices.
If you want to be in the EU, Romania and Bulgaria are
easy to work with. They do not have all the benefits of the
countries I just mentioned, but if you want a base in the EU
it is better than doing business in high-tax France. Romania
is very pleasant when it comes to doing business and
Bulgaria is very stable and quite progressive with a flat tax
rate of 10%.
My favorite frontier market in the region, by far, is one
that is often considered to be a part of the Middle East
instead of Eastern Europe. The country of Georgia is the
kind of place where everything is easy. If you have a big
enough idea, they are open to hearing it, there is very little
bureaucracy, everyone you deal with in the government and
elsewhere is young, and it is easy to get land. Everything is
easy. The fees are low, taxes are just 15% and the
government is open and eager to make things happen.
 Residency Options
Another approach to selecting the country where you will
establish a business is to not only consider the
fundamentals of the country itself but what the country
offers you in return for merely setting up shop and staying
in business. Specifically, you can obtain residency in a
country in exchange for planting your business on their soil.
Most countries have some type of program by which they
grant residency in exchange for your business, especially in
Europe. For example, residency in Belgium can be obtained
by anyone willing to start a small business there. There are
no official requirements, but the most important factor in
getting approved is to provide a good business plan, which
should usually include hiring at least one part-time
employee.
There are more specifics about what they do and do not
want. For one, your business should not be set up as an EU
company because they want you to specifically be in
Belgium. You could also qualify by simply demonstrating
‘significant means’ to support yourself (usually around €1
million). The cost of setting up a business as an
entrepreneur in Belgium is still cheap: €12,400 in paid-up
capital, or potentially even less if you have a business
partner to go in with you. And, while income tax in Belgium
is high, capital gains taxes are zero.
Many other countries in Europe have similar programs. I
have a guy in Bulgaria who obtained a residence permit in
Bulgaria by hiring ten people. He can now live in the EU
and pay 10% tax. Lithuania will grant you residence if you
hire just three people and make a small initial contribution
to your company in the low-five figure range.
Portugal’s Golden Visa program is, in some ways, even
more attractive than Bulgaria’s program if you compare the
requirement to hire ten people at face value. Portugal has
higher taxes, so I would probably just run a staffing agency
through the country rather than live there. However, if you
prefer to live in Portugal, you can get a visa and pay the
higher tax rates.
Other countries are not as explicit about what they want
you to do, but they will take you if you can show you have a
good business. Ireland is like this and generally all you
have to do is hire one person. Turkey will give you a
passport if you hire 100 people, which I think is a little
overpriced, but it is an option. And Macedonia will give you
a passport if you hire ten people.
There are several countries outside of Europe that will
also give you residency in exchange for starting a business
there. Malaysia has a program where, if you have a
business that pays enough tax, they will give you a
residence permit.
Singapore and Hong Kong both have programs but
they are very strict and high-end. You do not have to have
as much money to get a permit in Hong Kong as you do in
Singapore. Still, Hong Kong may not be the best place to
pay taxes (although it is getting better), but if you hire
someone you can get a residence permit there.
One place you may have never considered is Colombia.
Anyone looking to start a business there can get the added
benefit of a second residency in Colombia with as little as
$20,000 in capital that you can spend immediately on your
company. You can get the residency without hiring locals,
but you have to show that something is going on in order to
qualify and the easiest way to show that many times is to
hire someone.
If you have been planning on starting a company or were
already planning on investing $20k in your current
company, you can deposit that money into a Colombian
bank account and then use it to build your business there
and qualify for residency.
The interesting thing about considering residency as a
factor for where you will set up your business is that many
folks often only think along the lines of going to a place with
low or even zero tax. However, there may be a place you
have not heard of that has an even more attractive option
than zero tax, like residency or even citizenship in exchange
for your business.
 Fund Someone Else’s Business
The final option for someone interested in investing in
frontier markets is to invest in someone else’s business. If
you can provide venture capital, you do not have to start a
business on the ground to benefit from the incredible growth
in frontier markets. There is plenty of room for improvement
in these countries, starting with basic infrastructure such as
transportation, banking and telecommunications.
Many companies have already established themselves in
these markets and there is always a need for investment. If
you are looking for something less hands-on, there are
investment funds that will allow you to invest in these
businesses without much hassle. However, if you want more
control over the kinds of investments you make and the
potential return they will give, here is my fail-proof strategy:
When I go to a new country, I start by hiring a great
lawyer. I overpay them. They then introduce me to other
people that I need to connect with – real estate agents,
developers, government officials, the ‘who’s who’ of the
local entrepreneurship scene. My lawyer then helps me
figure out how to place job ads and does stuff that even a
lawyer usually would not do. He or she becomes my point
man.
From there, my lawyer might hire an assistant and
together they go out and bring in people with properties and
companies. They ferret out the bad ideas and then I talk to
the best of the best.
It is as simple as that.
There are even opportunities to purchase great
companies at steep discounts in many frontier economies
during times of general market weakness.
 Another option is to invest in crowd equity funds. In
Europe, for example, crowd equity into start-ups has
become quite a hot trend, with investment minimums as low
as five euros. Companisto, for example, allows you to invest
as little as five euros into start-ups and growth companies
throughout Europe. For less than the price of a cheap
sandwich, you can invest in companies ranging from craft
breweries to beach review websites to security companies.
Some of Companisto’s companies actually have real
revenues and a proven track record of making sales, as
opposed to much of the fare we see on shows like Shark
Tank that have brought on more and more ‘pre-revenue’
companies as they cleaved toward Hollywood and away
from real business.
 The Challenges & Risks of Frontier
Markets
There are reasons why the entire world has not flooded
into frontier market investments yet. They can be very
difficult to gain access to and often require being on the
ground and figuring things out yourself in an unfamiliar
environment.
If you want to trade stocks in Mongolia, you will need to
personally visit the country and set up a brokerage account.
It is the same deal with real estate. Doing market research
in a foreign language, finding contractors in a place where
services do not usually meet international standards, or
simply finding a grocer to buy the food you want while you
are there are all challenges that most people do not want to
deal with. That is why there is an opportunity for people like
us who are willing to go through with it.
Just looking at the data will not paint a full picture of a
place, nor will it prepare you for the various challenges of
investing in frontier markets. It takes time to learn the
economy’s unique commercial environments, estimate the
demand for products, and navigate the country’s financial
and legal infrastructure. There are challenges. There are
risks. No great opportunity comes without them.
After years of doing this, I prefer the risks of frontier
markets and all things offshore in comparison to the risk of
becoming entrenched in systems that no longer work. I
would rather be at the forefront of the new economy than
following the herd.
Just ask yourself: What else used to be considered risky?
In the twentieth century, college was not only considered
risky but also something few could obtain. For many, even
today, starting a business is considered a risky endeavor. If
you are reading this book, chances are you have already
reaped many of the rewards for being one of the few to take
that risk.
But are you really on the edge of the new economy?
Perhaps you feel you have pushed so hard and come so far
that you have made your way into an entirely different
world of opportunity. And you have, because everything that
you have done up to this point is risky. But why stop now?
Why content yourself with being an entrepreneur in the
West when there is more opportunity in the rest of the
world?
If you are willing to take on the challenges and risks of
frontier market entrepreneurship, there are several tips you
can follow to not just reduce the risk of failure but multiply
your chances for success:

Be On the Ground
There is nothing as crucial as being on the ground when
it comes to doing business in a frontier market. The best
and often only way to learn about the opportunities in any
given country is not from reading blogs or calling lawyers
but from boots-on-the-ground intelligence.
You cannot effectively scout out a great business idea
without being there in person. While books like this can
serve as a tool to provide guidance, suggest ideas, and
point you in the best direction for your interests and risk
tolerance, they will not replace seeing an opportunity with
your own eyes. Setting foot in a new place gives you the
chance to observe trends that are going on there. You can
read about these places all you want, but things only really
come into focus once you can personally see for yourself
what you have been reading about.
A few years back, I helped a friend of mine start a
property fund to invest in Cambodian real estate. Though it
is very open to foreigners, Cambodia presents some of the
typical challenges you will find in frontier markets. My friend
started his business riding around on his motorbike looking
for deals that were not available publicly. He learned the
Khmer language for ‘for sale’ and would write down the
phone numbers from the signs he would find. Then, he hired
an assistant to call the phone numbers. It was not
glamorous at all. It was not the sort of work you learned
about in the ivory tower of a business school, but it was
exactly what needed to be done.
Once he found a property, payment was made in cash
and fingerprints were taken at the local town hall (which is
like a hut) to seal the deal. More often than not, frontier
markets will require this level of hands-on work.

Network & Have a Foreign Business

Partner
One step you can take to both improve your chance of
success and reduce the amount of work you must do on the
ground is to network and find a foreign business partner. I
have always focused on creating a strong network of locals
who know the ins-and-outs of deal making in their specific
market.
Local associates substantially decrease your risk of being
‘ripped off’ and increase your chances of finding the best
deals. If you want to hire someone for help, plan on
overpaying a little bit. It will make a world of difference,
especially if you are employing the help of an English
language person working on the ground.
It also helps to have a foreign business partner. You can
have the best business idea in the world, but if you cannot
execute on it, it will not matter. You will still need to do your
own work scouting out the country, especially since it is
hard to find a local business partner sitting at home on the
couch. Many countries make it plenty easy to start a
business on your own. However, dealing with government
interference and adapting to the culture can be done with
greater ease by finding the right partners for your business.

Adapt Your Culture and Improve on

Local Culture
When it comes to doing anything offshore, there is a
delicate balance between the culture and ideas you bring
with you and the culture, practices and ideas that you will
find along the way.
The importance of finding this balance applies to frontier
market entrepreneurship as much as it does to investing,
living, banking, and everything else offshore. In fact, it is so
key that the following chapter is entirely dedicated to
dissecting the key components of this balancing act.

Understand the Government’s Hot

Buttons
Finally, if you are going to do business in foreign
countries, it is important to understand the government’s
hot buttons. I have lost track of how many different
countries I have gotten the tip to stay under the radar.
Running a quiet business that grows over time is fine.
Running a crazy, in-your-face business… not so good.
Just because there are far fewer rules in frontier markets
than in your home country does not mean that there are no
rules at all. In order to navigate your way through those
rules, it helps to follow all the tips we have already covered
here. You have to do your research, put in time on the
ground, and preferably involve a local in your business.
Even frontier market governments have their limits.
 To me, the most exciting thing about frontier markets is
that things are happening all the time. After years of
running offshore businesses and making overseas
investments, the air is still as fresh as ever. Frontier markets
are exciting.
As unemployment and underemployment become a fact
of life in the developed world, it may not be long before
entrepreneurship becomes a means of survival worldwide.
The lesson to be taken here is that you should take steps
now to start growing a business and to protect your wealth
while you are still ahead of the impending pack.
Frontier market investing is not for everyone. There are
two types of people who are suited to this type of high-risk
investing: someone with a large amount of risk capital or a
young person who has nothing to lose. For the average
person looking to invest in a frontier market – someone who
is not really that adventurous and who is a bit freaked out
about the risks and the chances of getting ripped off – you
should probably just have someone handle it for you, to be
honest. My recommendation: look into investment funds.
If you are anything like me, though, just do it. Figure out
what level of risk (and adventure) you are willing to take on
before deciding to invest in frontier markets and then go for
it. Just know that by the time this stuff is no longer
considered risky by the rest of the world, it will be too late to
invest.
Five years ago, I was in Singapore looking into the
EntrePass residency program offered there for folks planning
to start a business in the country. One person I spoke to let
me in on a little secret and said that one of the things the
Singapore officials really loved to see were restaurants.
Inspired by the story of The Blue Pumpkin, I asked out of
curiosity if opening up an ice cream shop would be the right
fit.
 The answer? They would love it.
I was not really looking to start an ice cream business in
Singapore, so I let the opportunity go. About a year later,
the Singapore government changed the laws of the
EntrePass program and they no longer accept folks with
business plans for low-end, small business ideas. All they
want now is big businesses, making it extremely difficult to
get into Singapore. The moment was there, and then it was
gone.
Singapore was not necessarily a frontier market five
years ago, but the opportunity illustrates the principles of
successful frontier market entrepreneurship: it is frontier
because the time is limited. There are business
opportunities and flags out there, but you have to hurry to
fully take advantage of them.
Takeaway: Maybe you do not want to start an ice cream
parlor or sell cosmetics in Laos, but there is always an
opportunity for you to do something, somewhere. The world
is advancing and markets are growing and developing
across the globe. This is great news for the folks who want
to be a part of that development and help bring it about. It
can present some challenges and risks, but when the risk is
gone, so are the rewards.
Chapter Twelve:
 Conquering Dogma
“The Pigeons Don’t Speak English”

Dateline: Wroclaw, Poland

My first visit to the charming city of Wroclaw was very ill-
timed. In a deeply Catholic country that values family as
Poland does, visiting in the shoulder month of April when
temperatures are still chilly and the students empty out of
town for Holy Week meant that I spent the Friday before
Easter finishing work in my apartment before going into the
town’s almost abandoned Rynek, the central ‘market
square.’
Owing to the mass exodus of students who made up a
large part of the city’s population returning home to their
villages, many of the restaurants in touristy Rynek had
shuttered. My best choice for my first meal of the day was a
small kebab shop with no room to sit inside.
Taking a seat at the wooden table amidst the cool gusts
outside, I retrieved my shawarma and began to indulge in
my meal. Before I knew it, two pigeons descended on my
food with a vengeance. On any other day, they would have
had a wide selection of diners to disturb in hopes of a meal
to peck away at, but today, I was their only hope.
As I began to shoo the pigeons away with my hands, an
older man in a fedora walked through Rynek heading in the
direction of the kebab shop.
“Go away, pigeons!” I bellowed as he slowly sauntered
by. Then, the elderly man stopped. “The pigeons here don’t
speak English,” he said calmly before continuing into the
shop and placing an order.
 His comment stopped me long enough to end my
frenzied battle with the pigeons and consider what he had
actually meant. It was a needed reminder that I was not
immune to one of the great mistakes nomads of every kind
commit while abroad: cultural isolation. All too often,
despite being physically present in the world, we create a
bubble around ourselves based on our own experiences and
comforts, essentially isolating ourselves within the culture
we left behind and preventing ourselves from learning
anything valuable from the people and places in our
immediate surroundings.
As a result, we tend to dismiss the experiences of others
and the way things are done by people and cultures that are
different from our own. We do not do it because we intend
to be mean, but because it is easy and comfortable to live in
a state of what we know. But, as with most things, living
inside our comfort zone leaves us little room to grow.
My dismissing of Wroclaw’s pigeons in English is a simple
example of how we operate in that bubble. After all, if the
pigeons spoke any language, it should have been Polish. If I
were to banish them from the proximity of my meal, I should
have howled “idź stąd!” or, in the event they were older
pigeons from Wroclaw’s days as part of Germany, “geh
weg!” Why would I think pigeons in Poland would speak
English? While Wroclaw is home to as many as ten
universities with students of varying English proficiency
levels, few sexagenarians in Poland (or pigeons, for that
matter) speak any English at all.
All too many of us assume that the rest of the world
operates in the same way we do, whether we expect
everyone to speak English, be on time to everything, or
have great customer service. But giving in to the temptation
to do or demand what is culturally comfortable for us will
only hinder our results when seeking better opportunities in
unfamiliar territory. So, how do we overcome the
temptation? Start by getting out the door.
One of the chief benefits I have gained through the
Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is a sense of reflection that is hard
to get anywhere else. Living far away from the cultural
surroundings of home can be the beginning of beneficial
reflection and help to shatter limiting beliefs.
One example of this is how my western belief concerning
car ownership changed after living overseas. If you live in a
western country, you no doubt own a car. Who doesn’t,
right? The US, Canada, and Australia, in particular, are car-
happy to the point that it takes a lot to stand up and say
that you do not need one. It is even worse when you
consider that these countries have limited public
transportation options, with taxis and Ubers costing a small
fortune.
I enjoyed driving a Mercedes around before I left the US,
but I never owned a car during the time that I spent
traveling from hotel to hotel, giant Tumi suitcase in tow.
When I set up a base in Kuala Lumpur, my local friends
asked me if I was going to buy a car. I had not even thought
about it until they asked. When I left the United States and
stepped into ‘Nomad mode,’ I never felt the need. Cars are
depreciating assets, they require upkeep, and occasionally
you bang your side mirror on the garage door. Who wants to
own a car?
If you live in one place, you may imagine that life without
a car would make you as lowly as the maligned maid taking
the bus. However, something magical happens when you
break free from the dogma of living where you come from.
You abandon what does not serve you and begin to focus on
what does. For someone living the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle, living without a car can be a simple way of not only
going where you’re treated best, but also doing what treats
you best.
Doing what treats you best does not mean that you are
forbidden from living inside your own little bubble from time
to time when you travel. I would be lying if I told you that I
have become fluent in Malaysian culture while living in
Kuala Lumpur. KL is a place for me to live as a base, not
somewhere to invest in real estate, start my next company,
or hire the best and brightest talent at reasonable prices.
Because of my specific needs, and because most people in
Kuala Lumpur’s center speak very passable English, I have
never truly acclimated to the local culture.
I understand that your move to Montenegro may be more
a vote in favor of beautiful beaches and low taxes than it is
a desire to learn the Crmnički Oro. You do not necessarily
have to assimilate into a new culture everywhere you go.
Perpetual travelers would face quite the challenge if they
tried to learn the language and culture of every different
country they spent time in.
However, some of the best advice I was ever given very
early on in my travels was to avoid being dogmatic – in
other words, to avoid the assumption that the way things
are done in another country are inferior to what you are
used to. In many cases, sticking to what you think is the
right way of doing things will not get you the results you
want or expect. You will not be doing what treats you best.
 Adapting Your Approach &
Expectations
I see this principle manifested in business on a regular
basis. Recently, I was helping a guy named Jack negotiate
the purchase of some rental properties in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Jack arrived from London ready to wheel and deal. At our
first visit with a seller, he was ready to make an offer.
“$39,000,” he told my assistant who was translating. The
seller, who was asking $50,000 for the newly renovated
property, was taken aback. In Georgia, as in a number of
other countries, making quick lowball offers is not the way
to get deals done. And Jack’s more aggressive style was not
helping anything, either. Acting like Kevin O’Leary batting
down a startup’s valuation may work in the West, but it does
not work in countries used to a more personal touch.
That does not mean that you cannot make lowball offers
in these countries. I have shaved off quite a bit from many
asking prices, but it requires a certain finesse. Admittedly,
finesse is not my forte – I am as inclined as Jack to bark out
a number and beat the seller down until a deal is done. That
is why I employ translators and lawyers to help me operate
within the system that they understand.
Despite my early efforts to tell my lawyers and assistants
to ‘be more aggressive’ on certain deals, they knew better
than I did and worked within the local culture. They knew
how the deals could be made successfully. And they always
came through for me. For example, I once saved nearly 30%
on a property in Georgia by not only having one of my
assistants call to negotiate the deal in Georgian but also by
having my lawyer call and make a much more serious
presentation. The deal was seamless and I saved a five-
figure sum as a result of entrusting the process to
professionals who understood the local culture.
 We all have our way to negotiate, but sometimes it is
better to admit that we do not fit the local culture and
accept that we either need to change our style or let
someone else handle things for us.
Adapting your approach and expectations can also help
you find deals and not just make them. For example, while it
is the main method used in the West, turning to the internet
to research real estate for sale in foreign countries is usually
a terrible way to find potential properties in many emerging
and frontier markets. While helping a friend find land for
sale in rural Ecuador a few years ago, we came across a
website with a wide variety of appealing listings. Upon
calling the firm, we discovered several setbacks.
The first was that no one at the firm spoke English. My
friend was somewhat surprised that in Ecuador – official
language: Spanish – nobody spoke English. The assumption
that we would find eager professionals waiting to serve us in
our native tongue did not hold up. Since Spanish is a widely
spoken language, I have found that many Latin Americans
rely on doing business within the world of their fellow
Spanish speakers; no need to learn English when there are
enough native speakers of your own language to keep food
on the table. You probably do the same with English – are
you busy learning Russian, or are you happy to keep your
interactions to your native tongue?
The second and more difficult issue was that the listings
of interest had been sold four years earlier. Yes, my
employee and I were speaking in our patchwork Spanish to
a real estate agent who had not updated their website in
four years. If this were anywhere in the West, agents would
be freaking out if their Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads were not
updated in the last four hours.
You could get upset with a situation like this and walk
away, or you could let go of your dogma and adapt to the
situation as it is. In our case, we realized that the very fact
that no one at the company spoke English and that the site
had not been updated meant that the prices for the
properties that were available would be lower than on
websites targeted to an English audience expecting a pretty
website and perfect English.
Ecuador may not have been the easiest country to
navigate for real estate, but it made for a great place to
invest in a developing real estate market at entry-level
prices. If you are willing to deal with issues like this that you
will not likely run into at home, you will open yourself up to
possibilities that are not even available where you are from.
 Becoming a Global Citizen
However, if you think your country does everything
perfectly, you will never leave. Why would you? Just as we
are conditioned to go where we are comfortable and not
where we are treated best, we are indoctrinated into
believing that everything we need is at home. The danger of
this belief is that it keeps us from growing and attaining
greater freedom, both personally and financially.
I recently met with a couple in Mexico that had come
from Colorado in the United States to check out Merida as a
potential new international base. Kathy and Nate loved the
area, they were enchanted by the city and felt that the
whole region was a truly hidden gem of Mexico. Merida has
free Wi-Fi on its main streets, everything is being renovated,
and the beauty of the city is unparalleled.
Nate was ready to move there that instant, but Kathy
was unsure. She loved the area just as much as her
husband, but she had several concerns that she did not
hesitate to voice.
“What about the kids with school?” She began. “And how
are we going to make friends?”
I was about to answer when she continued to list her
concerns, “And what if I can’t find someone to replace my
hairdresser? I’m sure no one here is as good as Kim. And
where am I going to get my organic kale? I’m not going to
go to Walmart and I doubt I can really find good quality kale
at the street markets.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond anymore. Kathy’s concerns
reflected the mindset of many of the people who come to
me for help who are focusing on all the wrong issues. The
answer to her quandaries was not to point her in the
direction of a good hairdresser.
 “I understand that you have concerns, Kathy,” I began.
“But I have to be honest with you, you are not going to be
able to walk into everything being perfectly figured out. You
may have to test out a few new hairdressers. Nothing is
going to be solved overnight, but that shouldn’t hold you
two back from making a change for the better.”
I do not know if I adequately assuaged Kathy’s concerns
or just managed to step on her toes, but perhaps I can help
resolve some of your concerns. It is easy for many of us to
recognize that our lives are not exactly perfect at the
moment, but it is much harder for us to make a change if we
cannot see that the future will be perfect. We tie ourselves
to a mindset in which it is better to accept where we are, as
unhappy as we may be, than to take a chance on a future
that is uncertain, even if it is certainly much better.
But the future does not have to be perfect to be better.
And you cannot expect to be perfect at living abroad when
you begin an international life, anyway. You cannot expect to
just step into an entirely new way of life without a few
hiccups. You can start out like Kathy and Nate with all your
worries and cultural preferences and little by little you will
become more of a global citizen.
For instance, every British guy I know seems to speak
English wherever they go. They could be in Brazil where
people clearly speak Portuguese and rarely speak English,
and yet they will insist on speaking in English and expect
that everyone else will understand. As annoying as that is, it
is okay for you to be that person when you start out. Do not
let that keep you from going. The point is to change as you
go. You are going to find your sea legs and you will figure
out where you want to be, learn the language, get
accustomed to the culture, and take on whatever challenge
comes next.
 There is no need to think in black and white as if your
only options are to be a homebody or an expat. You do not
have to fully be one or the other. And you certainly do not
have to be a full-blown global citizen in order to understand
that not everyone is going to speak English or do things the
way that you expect them to be done. It is easy to paint life
abroad as a walk in the park and to see things in black and
white, expecting high costs of living and high taxes in your
home country and total and complete freedom elsewhere.
The truth is, there are costs to living overseas.
There are always costs.
When my friend first visited me in Malaysia, she made
the startling discovery that strawberries at Kuala Lumpur’s
western-friendly grocery stores cost at least 1,000% more
than they did in her native Europe. When her friends came
to visit, it became a source of amusement to send them to
go buy strawberries at the market just to see their sticker
shock.
For some Nomad Capitalist hopefuls, the high price of
strawberries could be a terrible disappointment. But there
are other ways to view the situation. While they do not grow
strawberries in Malaysia, they do have papaya, melons,
coconuts, dragon fruit, jackfruit, and more. Is it a bad thing
that you now have the opportunity to try papaya and
beautiful limes and dragon fruit and pineapple and
coconuts, but have to sacrifice strawberries?
More importantly, are you going to sacrifice half a million
dollars in taxes more than you would like to pay just so you
can eat cheap strawberries? With all the money that you will
save on taxes, you will be more than able to afford the
strawberries at twelve times the price you are used to… if
they are really that important to you. But you could also just
adapt to the dragon fruit. Why spend your time fretting over
expensive strawberries when you could be enjoying the
great variety and abundance in the world?
For me, these differences are part of what makes global
citizenship so enjoyable. When Europe is frozen over, it feels
great to be in Southeast Asia eating tropical fruits and
shopping at modern malls. By the time summer rolls around,
the urge for something different kicks in. You can use the
need to adapt to your advantage and get your fill of
different local foods, experiences, and places. You can
explore new and exciting things and save thousands of
dollars in taxes.
Not every experience or place will be exactly what you
expect, but that is part of the adventure. And if you are
going to successfully adapt to the Nomad life and embrace
your new global citizenship, you will eventually have to face
the reality that it will be a bit of an adventure from time to
time. You will be living somewhere that is different from
what you are used to. I do believe that the quality of life in
most places will rise over time, but for now you will need to
learn to adapt if you want to thrive overseas.
 Are You Coming Out Ahead?
If you are really worried about the language or the
amenities, you can always move to Dubai or any English-
speaking country. Many older people move to Belize for the
beaches and the fact that they speak English there and they
will not need to learn a new language. You could also move
to countries like Malaysia, Singapore, or Hong Kong where
English is common and modern infrastructure and amenities
are above and beyond much of what you will find ‘back
home.’ You can wade into the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle in
any of these locations and start by going where you feel
comfortable.
The question you have to ask yourself is, what makes
you feel comfortable? What do you value? Do you want the
language or the strawberries, warm weather or a big city? I
have joked for years when people ask me if I miss the
United States by telling them that occasionally I like clean
tap water or free refills on soft drinks. Sure, there are some
places that I travel to where it is annoying to pay five euros
for a bottle of water or the service is lacking or the people
are too rigid or too slow, but I value other things more for
me to give up on the entire lifestyle just to get free refills.
I have also found that many places outperform the US on
every single one of those amenities and services. The best
service I have ever received was in a boutique in Mexico
City. The staff spoke perfect English and they were helpful,
knowledgeable, and altogether on the ball. Dogma would
have dictated a different expectation. So, while you may not
find things exactly the way they are where you are from,
there is a good chance that you can find something similar
or even better by traveling to new destinations.
An even more important question to ask is, are you
coming out ahead? So many people get stuck in a rut
because they fail to see the potential that lies beyond the
horizon. Whether they stick with a job they hate or stay in a
country that they believe has taken away their freedoms, it
is easy for them to justify inaction by assuming that it
cannot get any better – even if they really know that it can.
I know from experience that it can get better. Between
visiting dozens of countries to get the scoop on investment,
business, and expat opportunities, my travels allow me to
spend time relaxing in some of the most beautiful places on
earth. I can sip on guava juice for all of $0.25 and spend the
afternoon strolling through one of the world’s best shopping
districts. My work allows me flexibility, fulfillment, and
freedom. From my perspective, I am coming out way ahead.
You will have to ask yourself the same question, but in
most cases, the answer will be yes. It just takes having the
right mindset to see it.
 Adjusting Your Mindset
If you are sitting in your home country thinking that it is
the best country in the world, but have only ever traveled to
a handful of other countries, you are probably not qualified
to become the authority on what makes a country ‘the
best.’ And if you stick to that mindset, you will never
discover the place that really is the best for you.
It is the same paradox that occurs in countries like the
United States that are so busy believing that they are the
greatest country in the world that they fail to realize that
other countries are doing things ten times better than they
are. Why follow the example of other countries and improve
things if you are already the best? It is no wonder that ‘pride
comes before the fall’ because it keeps you from seeing
what you need to fix.
Several years ago, the comedian and political
commentator Bill Maher argued that the US had to stop
bragging that it was the greatest country on earth and start
acting like it. He recognized that the US had done many
great things, but then asked what America had done for
itself lately. When the US is number fifty-five in one category
and ninety-two in another, it looks a little silly to keep
waving the big foam ‘number one’ finger and pretending
that it is 1955 when the US was number one in everything.
He then pointed to an ad campaign at the time that
promoted decreasing US dependence on oil by using
alternative fuels. At the end of the add, Bill Clinton made an
appearance to say, “If Brazil can do it, America can, too!” In
response, Maher asks, “Since when did America have to
buck itself up by saying we could catch up to Brazil? We
invented the airplane and the lightbulb, they invented the
bikini wax, and now they’re ahead?…. As long as we believe
being ‘the greatest country in the world’ is a birthright, we’ll
keep coasting on the achievements of earlier generations,
and we’ll keep losing the moral high ground.”[2]
If you insist on maintaining the dogma that the US or the
UK or Australia or wherever you are from is the greatest in
the world, you will lose more than the moral high ground.
You will miss the opportunities that are all around you,
whether you stay at home or decide to travel the world. You
could travel to every country on the planet, but as long as
your mindset stays at home, you will miss the boat toward
greater progress and freedom.
It is the countries (and people) that recognize that they
have room for improvement that achieve some of the
greatest advancements. The country of Georgia, for
example, is the first country in the world to be putting its
real estate on the blockchain. They innovate because they
know that they have to do something interesting and
different to stand out and make a name for themselves. You
want to find countries that are a bit self-conscious like that
because they are more responsive to opportunities to
change and improve. In a sense, you need to be the same
way when it comes to your personal mindset toward growth.
 Business Dogma
If you can combine an open personal mindset with a
country that has an open mindset as well, you are well on
your way to going where you’re treated best. Take, for
example, doing business in Vietnam. Unlike other more
insular Asian cultures, Vietnam is aware of its smaller size
and has a willingness to work with foreigners. Compared to
China or even Japan, where tightly-connected family
networks run highly-insulated business networks that no
blond guy with blue eyes could ever penetrate, many
Vietnamese prefer to work with foreigners over locals.
But just because Vietnam is open to foreigners does not
mean that you can expect to do business exactly how you
think it should be done. You have to be open to change as
well. Like any other foreign culture, leaving your notions of
how things ‘should be’ at home is essential. You can run an
online or location independent business with no hassle, but
if you open a cupcake shop, you will likely have to pay
homage to a few local authorities. It will not necessarily be
expensive, but it will be a part of doing business. Vietnam is
open to foreigners, but you still need to be open to doing
things the way they are done in Vietnam.
Even if you do not start a business on the ground
somewhere, it has become increasingly important to learn
how to work with individuals from other cultures as online
businesses turn toward hiring virtual assistants overseas.
The lower costs are just one reason many entrepreneurs
look to places like the Philippines to hire VAs, but I have also
heard plenty of people complain about the quality of work
completed by the foreign VAs they have hired.
While there is always a chance that you just hired
someone who is incredibly incompetent and lazy, my first
suspicion when someone complains about an individual they
hired is that misunderstood cultural differences are at the
root of the problem. My friend who lambasted Filipino
workers may not understand the Filipino culture of micro-
management. For the most part, there is no such thing as
autonomy when tasks are handed out to workers in the
Philippines. Bosses sit on employees at every turn. And that
means employees have been trained to wait for
assignments every step of the way.
If you are not interested in micro-managing people, then
the Philippines may not the best place for you to hire, but
that does not mean that it is not the right fit for another
business or that Filipinos are lazy and incompetent — just
different. And that kind of different may even be perfect for
you if you can learn to adapt to the work culture. Wherever
you go, learn to respect the culture and make an effort to
understand how it works outside of the normal business
culture you are used to. You may learn a thing or two.
 More Reasons to Stay
Whether you are doing business in Vietnam, hiring VAs in
the Philippines, buying real estate in Ecuador, or adapting to
the local culture, the counsel to avoid being dogmatic
affects everything in the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle.
Adapting is essential as trends, laws, and attitudes change
every day. I once advised against obtaining citizenship by
investment in a country where I am now a citizen. As
circumstances changed and I was presented with more
facts, the bad economic citizenship turned into my perfect
solution.
Narrow-minded views of the world are everywhere, even
in today’s globalized era. The western media is littered with
stereotypes about ‘third-world countries’ and how bad it
would be to live there. We have all seen images of children
begging in the streets on dusty roads in Central America or
Africa. I even saw a TV drama on a flight once where the
main character threatened to send his rival’s daughter from
the US back to Bucharest, Romania to get what he wanted.
Oh, the horror of being sent to a charming city in a
European Union-member country!
However ignorant the West may be about the rest of the
world, you can still use such ignorance to your advantage.
While all of your friends and colleagues are crawling over
each other to get VC funding for their ‘pre-revenue’ app that
is likely to fail, you can go another direction. Instead of
fighting for a small piece of the cake, take advantage of the
largely untapped emerging and frontier markets to stake
your claim and build a legacy.
The world’s emerging markets are crying out for more
options, better service, faster fulfillment, and greater
product selection. Consider starting and basing a business
overseas. It will give you the flexibility to live cheaply, hire
affordable labor, potentially save on taxes, and tap into fast
growing markets. True, you will need to learn about your
new local culture and there will be a period of adjustment,
but if I can handle it, so can you.
Do not assume that another country is ‘worse’ than
where you come from just because they do things
differently. Learn to adapt and let the inessentials go. I
understand that living overseas may not be what you think
or expect it to be, but if you make the leap, I promise that
you will find more and more reasons to continue the Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle as you go.
You are likely to find that the reasons you have for
leaving today will change with time as well. When I first
began traveling and exploring with greater intensity, I
watched the movie, Up in the Air and it sparked something
in me. George Clooney’s character flew 350,000 miles each
year around the United States to fire people. The 322 days
that he spent in seat 2C were only offset by ’43 miserable
days at home.’ I told my friends that I wanted more travel
like that in my life.
And that is exactly what I did as I moved my life
completely out of the United States and pursued a life of
perpetual travel for many years. However, I recently
watched Up in the Air again and I found myself with an
entirely new perspective of the movie all these years later.
The movie’s screenplay took four years to write and
reflected the writer’s changing attitudes toward life and
love, and the same thing had happened to me. Watching
this move again after so many life changes made me realize
that no amount of glamour or wealth or adventure is worth
a life whose chief accomplishment is the collection of hotel
statuses, airline miles, or meaningless countries on a list.
But as I have flown across the world and accumulated
hotel statuses and airline miles, I have also developed
friendships with people I have met along the way and
relationships with the people I work with and help. I have
found places that feel like home to me more than anywhere
I have ever been. I have learned from other cultures, grown
as an individual, and been inspired by the people in my life
to continue fighting for a truer sense of home and the
relationships that count.
Takeaway: Just as I have found more reasons to
continue the Nomad Capitalist life, I have also found ways to
adapt to those new needs and desires. You are going to find
reasons to continue doing what you are doing as well. And,
even if you do speak to the pigeons in English when you
start out, you will get better at it as you go. But you will only
become more of a global citizen and less dogmatic by
getting yourself out the door to travel and realize all that
the world has to offer.
TAKING ACTION
 Chapter Thirteen:
The Nomad Mindset
8 Ways to Activate the Life of Your
Dreams

Dateline: Cancun, Mexico

For three years, Nomad Capitalist hosted an annual
conference called Passport to Freedom, with keynote
speakers like Peter Schiff and Jim Rickards and a host of
offshore experts. But in January 2016, I stood on the stage
in Cancun and announced that I was done.
Our theme for the conference, I told the audience, was
‘abundance,’ the idea that taking action alone was not
enough. Coming to conferences every year, only to do
nothing and then return for the next party was certainly not
enough. We had to act abundantly and with purpose, willing
to invest what was required to accomplish our goals. I had
decided that I was no longer going to enable what I called
‘faux action taking’ by hosting conferences.
I had a lot of fun getting together with a big group each
year to discuss the stuff you have read about. However, too
many people would pay for their ticket every year, fly down
to Mexico for a few days, hear some speeches, commiserate
with other freedom seekers, and then go home… to do
nothing. One lady attended all three conferences before she
asked me where to get the paperwork to open her offshore
bank account, a process that would have taken her a matter
of days… had it been done two years earlier.
 So, how do you start implementing these strategies in
your life? It all starts with the right mindset. Mindset
comprises the vast majority of what it takes to successfully
execute your own Nomad Capitalist lifestyle. It is possible to
achieve success in the offshore world with the wrong
mindset, just as it is possible to find a life partner while
being bitter, or become a successful salesman while being
dishonest. However, you will have a lot harder time getting
there and may be dissatisfied with the result.
I started out like most people in the offshore world,
chasing shiny objects and doing things that made me feel
like I was taking action, yet never yielded any real results.
Throughout the years, I went from making phone calls,
reading articles, and doing excessive research — all while
clinging to my pennies — to opening up and getting stuff
done in a positive way. From experience, the satisfaction of
getting things done feels great and not only inspires more
action but answers many of the questions that cannot be
answered fully until you stop thinking and start doing.
Here is what worked for me:
 1. Have a Growth Mindset
In the excellent book, Mindset: Changing a Fixed Mindset
Into a Growth Mindset, N. Louis Easton explains why brains
and talent do not necessarily bring success, and how
keeping a ‘growth mindset’ can help you greatly enhance
your results in whatever you do.
The idea is this: in a fixed mindset, we believe our
intelligence or talent are fixed traits unable to be changed.
We are happy to have them, but may have a tendency to
use them to delude ourselves. We spend our time keeping
tabs on our talent and intelligence rather than developing
them, believing that merely possessing these traits makes
us better equipped to achieve success and the life we want.
Easton suggests that this mindset is the wrong way to
look at things, suggesting that focusing on ‘how smart we
are’ is a trap that holds us back. In the context of Nomad
Capitalists, this often manifests itself in people talking about
all of the suckers still paying taxes, or still banking in their
home country, or still investing in real estate at home.
“They don’t even know that there’s a huge bubble about
to break. They’re sheep! They’re drinking the Kool-Aid!”
These are the retorts I have overheard at offshore
conferences by perfectly pleasant, well-meaning people
excited that they are at least several steps ahead of the rest
of society that has yet to catch up to the realizations they
have made.
Those other people who have yet to ‘figure it out’ do not
matter. Only you matter. What they think and how they live
is a reflection of exactly where they want to be. Ask them
why the Federal Reserve has not raised interest rates and
they may reply with a blank stare because they have made
the decision not to worry about it. And that decision is none
of our business.
 One of the hardest but most rewarding things I have
done is to let others and their opinions be. You are not likely
to change hearts and minds, nor is it your job to. As
compelling as it may be to try and convince our friends to
stop investing in that ‘bubble’ real estate market, or get
your parents to move overseas with you, they have to make
the decision on their own.
When we apply a fixed mindset, it appears that we need
others to agree with us in order to prove that we are right.
For instance, my parents extolled the virtue of going where
you’re treated best throughout my life, but they never
moved out of the United States. They ultimately did what
was best for them, and that is just fine. Nothing about their
decision makes my beliefs any less valid or any less real.
In other words, before making the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle a cause you promote, it has to be a cause you live.
Once you apply it in your life, you will find the peace to
allow others to live theirs. Not everyone will share your
vision or even agree with what you do; that is for them to
decide.
There is something about those of us who want to buck
the system that makes us different. We refuse to live by
others’ rules, preferring instead to live on our own terms.
We tend to stay ahead of the curve on everything from
location independent businesses to frequent flyer miles. In
our world, life is one big thing to be ‘hacked.’ However, this
can sometimes come to a point where the idea of ‘this-or-
that hacking’ seems to have gone too far.
What is wrong with the idea of beating to our own drum?
Nothing… until it impacts our ego. It is so easy to get
wrapped up in the idea that we have cracked the code on
life that we spend our time defending our beliefs to others
when we there is no need to. Feeling superior to others who
have not reached your level will only hold you back.
 This is why I argue for a carefully curated network of
friends while living this unique lifestyle; it is important to
have people who understand your lifestyle but also to
ensure that you do not fall into the trap of only hanging out
with expats who insult the local culture in a dogmatic way,
or angry grudge-bearing libertarians who only complain
about the system instead of constantly improving.
 2. Have an Abundance Mindset
The Four Hour Workweek and the countless digital nomad
blogs inspired by it have popularized the idea that traveling
the world can be done on the cheap. Travel hacking,
geoarbitrage, and a host of other strategies have been
designed to help you live a life of travel. I love those
strategies and have used many of them.
As much as I appreciate the finer things, I still shudder
when I think back to the $800-a-night hotel room in
Vancouver or the $41 hamburger in Monaco. We all get a
thrill out of a room upgrade at a hotel, or free airport lounge
access from our credit card. However, it has become difficult
to know when you need to hire a professional to handle your
offshore needs. It has become easier than ever to live the
multi-millionaire lifestyle without being a multi-millionaire,
but you still need to be thinking like a multi-millionaire, and
that means not cheaping out where it counts.
That is why I like to call the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle
Four Hour Workweek 2.0. If Tim Ferriss’ sage advice on how
to start and scale a muse business was the first step, then
going where you’re treated best is the second step. You do
not get an offshore company for your first muse; you get an
offshore company once your muse is established and you
cannot stand paying that $47,000 in taxes any longer.
As a Nomad Capitalist, nothing you do should be
average. That does not mean everything has to be
expensive. As my friend and marketing guru Matt Dubiel
says, “Avoid the middle.” If you own a car, get the beat-up
truck or the purring new BMW. Do not get stuck in the
middle. When you live the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle, you
can choose from tasty pad thai in Hua Hin, Thailand for $1,
or Sichuan lobster medallion at Hutong in Hong Kong for
$250.
 I have found a nice blend of my taste for luxury and
generic cheapness by setting my average hotel price at a
goal of $250 per night. That is enough to get me into the
nicest hotels in most cities whose name is not ‘London’ or
‘Vancouver,’ while allowing wiggle room in other cities. The
Ritz-Carlton, The Majestic, or The Shangri-La in Kuala
Lumpur will run you as little as $100, which leaves you room
to splurge on other nights at the London Edition, or the
Gresham Palace in Budapest, or the penthouse suite at
Wynn Macau.
While there are some perfectly comfortable three-star
hotel chains (Ibis comes to mind), my suggestion is to stay
at nicer hotels or Airbnbs that you will not want to leave.
Working from cafes and other digital nomad hangouts has a
tendency to make you feel rushed in many situations, and
bouncing from one Starbucks to another is not exactly
productive. Test it out and see if you can notice the
difference. Being a Nomad Capitalist is all about high
performance – the old ‘work hard, play hard’ – and if you are
earning the kind of money where the tax savings can add up
to real money, you can afford to stay at a place with a few
extra thread count.
One area where you cannot afford to be cheap is with
your actual Nomad Capitalist strategy. Sure, you can Google
‘cheap offshore company’ and get a number of decent
articles on the topic (heck, you will probably find one of
mine telling you that they are not a good idea), but you will
also find a lot of inaccurate and uneducated information. In
the offshore world, you get what you pay for. The ‘lawyer’ in
the Seychelles hawking offshore setups for under $1,000 is
likely not too familiar with his own country’s laws – few as
they may be – let alone your country’s laws (which are the
ones that matter even more). Those types will tell you that
your offshore company is tax-free, which is true in their
country, but may not be in yours.
 Worse yet, low prices are the hallmark of most offshore
scams. Note the lack of deductive reasoning there; not all
low-priced offers are scams, but most scams use price as a
lure. In one case, a couple of guys tried to use an ‘inside
connection’ to offer passports in an Eastern European
country until their rogue hook-up flew the coop on them.
Panicked, they had to find another country where they could
move their clients’ business and ended up having a local
agent dummy up papers to get clients passports under the
table.
We are trained to look for a bargain. That is especially
true considering the likelihood that these clients’ motivation
was citizenship as an insurance policy. Who wants to pay for
insurance? However, some of these clients eventually
landed in hot water – or at least got quite a scare – when
they realized what had happened behind the scenes and
saw just what a ‘cheap’ second passport looked like. If it is
worth your effort to get a second passport or save on taxes,
it is worth doing right. That means paying for quality.
I get it: you are a smart person. You would not be reading
this book if you were not smart. When it comes to going
where you’re treated best, most bad information, gringo
pricing, and outright dishonesty can be avoided by paying
for a little help. One of my favorite tactics comes from the
motivational speaker Joel Weldon who suggests that you
shout out “I won’t pay it!” when a service provider gives you
a price. Bewildered, the provider might offer to take 10% off
the price, but Joel will suggest going the other direction. His
philosophy is to never negotiate on price and, instead, even
offer to pay more to make sure that your case is treated
with the best care possible. In the offshore world, this is
great advice.
 3. Be Decisive
Derek Sivers, who sold his business, CD Baby, to a
charitable trust for some $17 million, lives by a simple
principle: “Don’t say ‘yes’… either ‘hell yeah!’ or ‘no’.” The
idea is that we are all busy and need to be decisive in order
to avoid overload. An excellent motivational technique
involves swapping the words ‘I might’ or ‘I’m thinking about’
with ‘I will’ or ‘I won’t;’ similarly, replace ‘but’ with ‘and.’
There are so many options and possibilities in this world, but
focusing on the ones you really need is critical to getting
what is important done.
I have often theorized that most people are not really
busy, but still claim to be so to avoid commitment while
allocating plenty of time for television viewing and what
they actually want to do. When you go where you’re treated
best, however, you will be faced with more options for what
you could do than ever before. The question then becomes,
what will you actually do?
That means that decision making is more important than
ever. When I need to make a decision, my goal is to decide
on the same day that the opportunity is presented to me.
For example, if I am visiting a country to scope out a new
second residency opportunity with me as the ‘guinea pig,’ I
will do my research on the opportunity as best I can and
then make an appointment with a top attorney there.
During my meeting, I will listen to the opportunity, ask
questions based on my research and past experience, and
then try to come to a decision right then and there, before I
leave the office. When it comes to real estate or other
investments, I will often ask for ‘until sundown’ or ‘24
hours,’ and promise to do any further calculations and
advise them of my decision in that time.
 This means that I have real engagement in the process
before even setting foot in the real estate agent or lawyer’s
office. The opportunity has to be a potential ‘hell yes’ before
I even take any action. I resist doing pointless research
when deep down I know it will not be worth my time. There
is great power in not making excuses and telling people
‘yes’ or ‘no’ promptly. So much so that it has helped me get
the greatest results when I put myself on a clock.
This offshore stuff is sexy. Beach bungalows and James
Bond-like second passports are just the tip of the iceberg
when it comes to all the cool things you can do as a Nomad
Capitalist. That said, I do not recommend dedicating your
valuable time into researching them unless you are fully
committed to executing on them. Having an offshore
company is exciting. Researching them and knowing a lot
about them is not.
That is why I suggest that potential Nomad Capitalists
should sit and plan what they are willing to commit to, then
jump in. Once you are out of the research and due diligence
phase, commit to being in the decision phase. If you think
you want a second passport, ask yourself why you want
one. If you cannot think of a good reason (even if that good
reason is “I’m rich and it will be fun!”), that might mean you
should not do it. If you can think of a good reason, go
forward and find the best way to get it done.
Getting it done means just that. If you are committed, do
not make excuses. I have learned firsthand that wishy
washy delay eliminates the ability to get the results you
want. There are lawyers who I told I would “get back to
soon” six years ago, before I devised my system of action.
And even taking action is not enough. You have to take
the right action. Living the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle will
present you with more opportunities than ever before and
you will need to get good at screening out the ones that do
not serve your specific end goals.
Because few people ever venture out of their home city,
most people deal with very few choices. When it comes to
real estate investment opportunities, most folks are taught
to go to university, get a good job, and settle down in a
house financed by a thirty-year mortgage that will keep
them in debt and tether them to one place for the best
years of their life. This tethering is convenient for
government, too, as it means thirty years of living in one
city and paying whatever taxes are decreed by the
politicians.
Adopting the Nomad Capitalist mindset means that not
only can you invest all over your home country but you can
also choose to invest outside of the country to get a better
return. When you go from one city in one country to
thousands of potential cities all over the world, you have to
be clear about your goals and in your ability to say ‘no.’
That is why the key to being decisive is all about knowing
exactly what you need.
 4. Avoid Complaining
As we discussed in the last chapter, “Don’t be dogmatic,”
was some of the best advice I ever received about living and
doing business internationally. The logic was simple: the rest
of the world operates in a different way than you are used to
and if you want to survive, thrive, and be happy, you need
to be able to adapt.
Some aspects of internationalizing will be difficult and it
is possible to become confused or even irritated. If you are
used to setting up a limited liability company in the United
States, you might be surprised to discover that an offshore
company requires a few more procedures than just filling
out a one-page form and paying $50. Those procedures can
often be handled by a professional in a day or two, but the
work is still there.
If you gripe about every minor hassle, your Nomad
Capitalist lifestyle will not be nearly as enjoyable as it will be
if you go with the flow. Put your trust in professionals and
use the expertise that they have spent a lifetime acquiring.
Whenever you feel the urge to complain about your
circumstances, realize that by living the Nomad Capitalist
lifestyle you are among the most free people in the history
of the world. You are leaving behind the things that do not
serve you, and that is something to be happy about.
 5. Do Not Follow the Herd
Going where you’re treated best is all about living on
your own terms. You do what you want without reservation
or judgment. You accept that others may not agree with
you, but you do it anyway. The last thing you want to do is
copy what everyone else is doing as you build the life that
you want.
At times, it seems that some of the digital nomad flock
stick together as if they have replaced the cubicle at an
insurance company with a cheap apartment and a
motorbike in Thailand. There is nothing wrong with living life
on the cheap in Southeast Asia if that is what you want, but
avoid being sucked into the latest trends of the work-and-
travel crowd. Make your own trends.
If you want to live in a $200-a-month apartment and eat
street food, do it. If you want to live in a $5,000-a-month
penthouse and dine at fancy restaurants, do it. Socializing
with other people on the same journey is important, but I
have found that too much of it can result in groupthink – the
very groupthink that you avoided in order to go where
you’re treated best.
Being a Nomad Capitalist is all about choosing your
culture, not being a product of it. This way of living and
doing business is growing, but it still has a lot of growth left
in it. When I started visiting China for business in 2009, I
remember learning that cell phone numbers started with a
different area code than landline numbers. Any home-based
freelancer or consultant was effectively ‘outed’ as not
having a ‘real office.’ Fast forward just a few years and
nobody in the western world really cares that your office is
mobile; other parts of the world are not quite there yet. We
can expect many more changes like this in the years to
come as the number of people like us increases.
 The best part about living as a Nomad Capitalist is the
lack of cultural norms to follow. My life as a perpetual tourist
in Malaysia meant that I was never tied deep enough into
local Malaysian culture to be mocked for not owning a car.
No matter how many locals insisted that a car was
necessary for getting around (which is not true if you live in
the city center), they never slighted me for hailing Ubers.
After all, I was just a guy visiting. Not having to conform is
liberating.
Compare that to the social pressure on high earners in
big cities in the West. A Danish friend of mine once told me
about all the law and accounting firm partners he knows
who earn $300,000 a year, yet are totally broke because
their entire salary goes toward keeping up with the Joneses;
a nice house on the right street, a highly tariffed Range
Rover in the driveway, and perfectly groomed Danish kids
sent to the right schools. Just hearing him tell me about it
was exhausting as we kicked back €3 glasses of wine on the
cobblestone streets of Croatia, far from the showmanship
we both escaped.
Being a Nomad Capitalist means choosing what you
want, whether that is a $15,000 month-long stay at the
George V hotel in Paris or a cheap co-living space in
Bucharest. No longer do you have to rent ‘the right
apartment’ in midtown to impress your boss and colleagues,
but feel free to rent that apartment if that is what you want.
 6. Have Thick Skin
In 2011, the television show 60 Minutes ran a long-form
hit piece on companies moving their operations to
Switzerland. Calling the moderate-tax country ‘the new tax
haven,’ the show used extreme examples and sensational
language to gin up anger against companies that were not
paying their ‘fair share’ of taxes in the United States.
Let’s face it: most people do not like the sound of the
words ‘tax haven.’ That is why politicians and the media use
them. They are playing to their base. Watch any television
show that involves offshore banking in the plot line and you
will no doubt hear terms like ‘money hole,’ ‘tax cheat,’ or
‘money laundering’ used. Despite the fact that numbered
bank accounts have long gone the way of the dodo bird, the
news and entertainment media speak of them like every
crook and his dog still have one.
The bottom line is that you cannot trust the mainstream
media to accurately report on the realities of doing business
overseas. And, since the average Joe thinks banking in
Singapore must make you a crook, you will have to develop
thick skin when dealing with people not in the know.
Sadly, humans are hardwired to try to diminish anyone
climbing farther up the ladder, out of spite. When a few of
us decide to put aside cultural norms and do what is right
for us and our families, those who have not yet discovered
how to do so will complain.
Rather than lower taxes for everyone, politicians blame
those that exploit the loopholes they themselves created
through their backroom dealings and attempt to make them
pay more to make things ‘fair.’ Somehow, a whole host of
countries make do with personal income tax rates of 10-
15% – or even 0% – but high-tax western governments will
not rest until the guy paying 20% pays 30% because some
other poor sap already does. Rather than let everyone keep
more of their own money, they argue that those not paying
enough should pay more.
The scary part is that people on the street eat this stuff
up. They pay no mind to the idea that their tax rate could be
lower, except for general talking points like ‘more child care
deductions.’ For the most part, citizens of high tax countries
have been so indoctrinated that when I joked with a
conductor in Sweden that a train delay should be impossible
for all the taxes they pay there, he responded that things
were running poorly since taxes had been cut to 55%.
Do not waste your time trying to convince the
indoctrinated that there is a different way to do things. You
are not going to change the world. You have a big enough
job to change yourself. The Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is
emerging, but as it does, so are calls from tax-hungry
politicians to demonize it. Some might call you a ‘traitor’ or
a ‘tax evader,’ but these statements are not legally true
because doing business offshore is legal if done properly.
Many people do not let the facts get in the way of their
opinion. You will have to learn to deal with it, or better yet,
keep your affairs to yourself. Ultimately, the most important
thing is that you know that you have made the right choice
for you.
 7. Be Trusting
When I was merely running from one threat or
annoyance after another, the magic never seemed to
happen in as big a way as I would have liked. Now, I run
toward my desired results and everything works much
better. I have found it to be much easier and better when I
place my confidence in the right people and trust that it will
work out.
If you are going to go offshore, you will be in situations
where you are not sure who you can trust. The first time you
do anything, it is hard to know who to trust, or whether to
trust the process itself. In Georgia, many properties are
purchased for cash. When I say ‘cash,’ I do not mean just
purchasing without a mortgage, but by slinging a stack of
Benjamins across the table like a spy making an offer you
cannot refuse.
My first property in Tbilisi was a bit more expensive, but I
bought it through a developer who allowed me to pay in
installments and via wire transfer. The next property I
bought was a retail store for the grand total of $22,000 and,
being that it was in an emerging part of the city, the seller
was old school and wanted US dollars. All two hundred and
twenty banknotes worth.
I remember going to the bank with my lawyer and
withdrawing $22,000. Before doing so, I thought about what
could happen to the money, like if I were attacked by a
Georgian ninja on the way to the closing, or I stuck the
money in one of my needlessly shallow pockets and it fell
out without my knowledge. And so I withdrew the money,
jammed it into an envelope, and put the envelope in my
jacket’s breast pocket as I began a five minute walk with
what I imagined looked like an elephant on my chest. But no
one noticed and I made it to the closing table where the
seller was also surprisingly ninja-free.
To this day, I take extra precautions to make sure things
are setup properly. Each time I purchase property in a new
country, I ask my local representative to make sure there is
no funny business. To date, there has been all of none.
However, that first time I bought property in cold, hard cash
reminds me that the fear we have is mostly of our own
making.
One other principle that has served me well in trusting is
having an abundant lifestyle. For most traditional digital
nomads, the key identifying point of their lifestyle choice
can be summed up in one word: ‘cheap.’ An entire cottage
industry has been built up around people who prefer living
on $1,000 a month in Chiang Mai to working in the City of
London for $100,000 a year. There is nothing wrong with
that lifestyle, but it does condition you to think, “How can I
get this done for cheap?”
If you search on digital nomad forums or social media
groups, you will quickly find people asking total strangers
the most sensitive and complicated of questions, including
many in the field of tax, all in the interest of avoiding a $500
phone call to an accountant. This can be a false economy;
as I say, sometimes the cheap offshore company you set up
on your own can end up costing you a lot more down the
line when you realize it was set up incorrectly.
Living the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle is not ‘cheap.’
Nickeling and diming will not lead you to have more money
to splurge at five-star resorts or take care of those you love.
This will only come from investing in yourself in a big way.
Remember that you are choosing this life so that you can
enjoy yourself and live in abundance. Distrust is not part of
the formula for an abundant life. It keeps you from getting
things done and it keeps you in old patterns that are better
left in the past. Abandon the distrust. Trust the people you
are paying. And enjoy the life that you want.
 8. Feel the Pain
Being in pain is a powerful transformational tool. You are
reading this book because, somewhere, you have a pain
that you would like to solve. Something is not working quite
the way you feel it should. But few of us crave a ‘second
passport’ the same way we crave Oreos.
I remember talking to an American guy who came to me
seeking help shortly after I started working with people to
create their own Nomad Strategy. After he told me of his
frustrations with the US government, the high taxes there,
and everything else, I asked him, “So are you ready to feel
more pain to make the pain go away?”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “Why would I want more pain?”
For him, the idea of digging in and doing the hard work was
too painful. And when I looked back at his initial ‘pain,’ it
was not really pain at all. It was the anger and frustration
that, for so many people, is the emotional high sought out in
order to feel cathartic.
Getting a second passport takes some work. If you
choose to do it yourself, you are going to have to figure out
what to do, who to get to help you, and then fill out a bunch
of forms and make all the payments. The same goes for
getting your company set up overseas, or for buying
property. There is a period of pain that is required before
getting to the pleasure.
As a guy who works at my laptop a lot, I frequently find
myself with sore shoulders from hunching over the
keyboard. Of course, because I go where I am treated best, I
am often in places where a good Thai massage costs a mere
$10 or $20. During the hour I receive the massage, the
active pain of a fist digging into my shoulder is often far
worse than the passive pain of simply having a knot in that
shoulder. A massage is not necessarily meant to feel good
during the experience but to make you feel good afterwards.
Humans are so focused on instant gratification that we
push the pain away as soon as we encounter it. That is a
mistake. The dull shoulder pain that makes it uncomfortable
to lay down is the same as the ongoing pain of paying taxes.
At a certain point, it does not seem right, but you have
become used to it. The idea of encountering more pain to
make the pain you already have feel better seems silly. But
that is what is required if you want to fix the problem.
Just like the guy who yelled at me for wanting him to feel
more pain before things got better, I frequently encourage
people to sit in the pain. Merely dulling the pain may feel
good, but it is not a recipe for success. Instead, use that
pain to transform your life and get more of what you want
and less of what you do not. Acknowledge and use the pain
you are experiencing to transform and create a long-term
positive change.
This approach is common in business, but not one we
take in our personal lives. Whenever I hire a new team
member, that person needs to be trained. Investing my time
to train them, and in many cases my money to have
someone else train them, may seem like money better
spent elsewhere. If you have ever had to fire someone, you
may have thought – as I have at times – that it would be
easier and less expensive to keep the underperforming
employee rather than fire them, find someone better, and
train them.
But the underperforming employee is likely costing you
more than you realize. For example, I once hired an expat
girl who was working for me for $1,500 a month. (The
benefits of globalization). After about two months, I found
myself repeating things too much for my liking, but figured
that the girl was fundamentally a good person and smart,
and that she would learn. It was not until I asked my team
leader to look into her emails that we realized the big pain:
$60,000 in lost business due to the underperforming
employee not following the original training.
Boom! I went from passive pain to active pain and
frustration. And now I had to take action. Taking over some
of the work myself while my team leader and I trained an
existing employee to handle the most important tasks was
not an option, but a necessity. Before the discovery, rather
than having the pain of the employee who just blew
$60,000, I had the pain of the guy with a sinking suspicion
something was wrong, but no great urge to investigate.
We tend to look at taxes the same way. The tax lawyer I
screamed at for wanting to charge me $15,000 to help me
slash my tax bill by moving overseas was on the wrong end
of a guy who found the idea of paying $15,000 more painful
than continuing to do what I had already done. Not long
after that, I paid three months of taxes that surpassed what
I could have paid the lawyer to help me solve my problem
long-term.
If you feel more comfortable sending a large check to
your government than stepping out into a brave new world
that can legally eliminate that tax bill, you never will. That is
why I ask people who want to save on taxes what they
would do with the money they save. If their answer is too
vague, I can safely assume that the person is unlikely to do
anything to actually lower their taxes. When you realize the
$100,000 you paid last year could have been re-invested in
Facebook ads and generated $300,000 in additional sales,
you start to realize what is at stake, just as I did when I
discovered my employee had chased $60,000 in business
out the door.
Studies show that the feeling of experiencing pain is a
powerful motivator to change, and even Proverbs warns that
“pride cometh before the fall” for those who do not
acknowledge their pain. Saying you would like to pay less in
taxes ‘just because’ is a much less powerful motivator than
connecting with the reasons behind that desire, whether
they are slumming it in four-star hotels rather than the Four
Seasons, or not being able to reinvest in new products to
grow your revenue. Find the pain and lean into it; that is
where the solution lies. Be the person who fights the pain in
the face of a challenge.
—————
Takeaway: The strategies I have listed above form the
kind of mindset that is important when going offshore. I
have learned (often the hard way) that how you think is
more important than what you do when deciding to
implement the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle.
For some reason, we are often hardwired to believe that
we cannot go where we are treated best. This leads us to
find excuses and put up roadblocks to stop us from
achieving what we want. Considering how many people
have told me that they want to live this lifestyle, versus how
many actually take the necessary steps to do it, mindset
and the willingness to take action is far more critical than
knowing the specific steps to take. If you are motivated
enough, you will do what it takes to find out.
 Chapter Fourteen:
How to Get Started
A Summary

Dateline: Prcanj, Montenegro

It was a gloomy autumn day along Montenegro’s coast.
The hordes of Russian tourists in too-tiny bikinis had long
vacated town and, in their place, came a constant drizzle of
cold precipitation. Anka, the general contractor I hired to
handle the renovation of my new summer beach home
there, piloted a muddy wagon along Kotor Bay as we
departed the worksite to search for the best sofa and
furnishings to complete my new home.
As she skillfully batted away a barrage of incoming calls
like some kind of real estate ninja, Anka and I discussed the
plans for the apartment furnishings as we debated whether I
should rent it out when not there. We discussed the merits
of white furniture in the Santorini-themed apartment, to
which she suggested I would not allow children to stay
there, but I replied that horny couples might pose an even
greater risk.
Then, she reached into the center console to offer me a
mint.
“Mentos?” she asked, her voice a unique cross between a
sultry cocktail waitress and a steely Russian spy. Here I was
with a woman I had just hired on the advice of a woman I
barely knew, going furniture shopping and being offered a
mint. Perhaps, I thought, Anka was making a move.
As it turns out, Anka was merely competent at her job.
Extremely competent. As we got to know each other on the
drive, I asked her if she would prepare the documents
proving my ownership of the flat so that I could apply for
residency.
In Montenegro, owning a property automatically qualifies
you for residency, even though obtaining citizenship is not
possible without greater effort. The trouble is that my
Montenegrin lawyer, Vesna, had not only proved to possess
poor communication skills but was also unable to tell me
what was required so that we could complete the process.
Anka told me that not only could she retrieve the
documents, but that she could handle the residency process
for me herself, and likely with far more competence than
the lawyer who made a living shuffling paperwork.
While attorneys are often a great source of contacts (and
I have made a lot of money from connections made through
good ones), I have also often found myself helping my non-
western-world attorneys organize their business processes
to complete my case. One of the biggest services I offer the
people I help is making it easy for them to complete simple
processes that local lawyers (and governments) make
complicated for some reason. Over the years, I have
developed great relationships with attorneys that started
with me organizing their workflow in order to streamline the
process for my clients and me.
Part of what I do traveling around the world is to test new
opportunities and also new people. Sometimes, I go to a
new country with high hopes, only to realize that the place
is unworkable. Likewise, I also make a point of going to a
new place to test out different service providers and find out
who can really help me. This can involve a lot of trial and
error.
Many people think that hiring a lawyer in a shiny office
tower is the best move. In some cases, they are right.
However it is often better to work with someone who has
actually done the work on the ground if you want real
results. Lawyers are great for connections, but they often do
not understand why you are doing what you are doing.
Vesna certainly did not understand or care why I wanted
Montenegrin residency. She definitely did not know enough
to point out what I already knew: if my ‘why’ was
Montenegrin citizenship, residency through property
ownership was not the way to do it.
Like many lawyers, Vesna dealt in the art of robotic paper
pushing. As an entrepreneurially minded person, you may
well have no patience for robotic people. I would much
rather deal with someone who understands my needs than
just have my papers put through and be forced to figure out
the actual strategy on my own. After all, the best way to do
something is to do it.
The reason I pay experts thousands of dollars to do
research for me in everything from Thai real estate to
remote African residency programs is partially so that I can
sit at home and eat Bon-Bons while their experience does
the heavy lifting.
Paying someone is a commitment. You have to determine
what it is that motivates you to make that commitment and
put it in place so that you can get started and not end up
like one of those folks who is always promising that action is
just… around… the corner. Every day that you do nothing,
there is a cost. It is up to you to determine what that cost is.
And do not tell yourself that ‘doing nothing is not an option.’
Doing nothing is always an option, and it is the option that
most people choose.
 Most people claim that they are taking action and that
they want help and want to do something, but then they
continue the cycle of information consumption that they
have grown accustomed to (reading articles, calling random
lawyers, scouring the internet, etc.) and they rarely make
the progress that they deserve.
Often times, the people who come to me for help tell me
that they are different, they are an action-taker, but then
they proceed to waste more time, make more excuses, and
ask more of the wrong questions. I should know, I used to be
one of them. But after several years of trying to master the
offshore world on my own, I realized that I could accomplish
my goals with greater speed if I learned to trust the experts.
Since then, I have capitalized on the strengths of the
professionals I seek out in each field and each country
wherever I go. Because of this, I have achieved incredible
results. I have become the expert, a general contractor of
sorts able to master the entire construction process of an
international life for myself and other people.
You can do the same, but you have to do it, not just talk
about and research an endless array of topics about going
offshore. You need to be decisive and take action and you
will figure the rest out as you go along.
I have people who come to me for help who ask me
questions like, “Andrew, can we buy a van in Tbilisi if we
move there?” I am sure that you can, but that is the wrong
question to be asking. If you focus on what you need to do
to get there, the van will figure itself out. So many people
hold themselves back with little excuses when they just
need to make a decision and go for it.
Making a decision means you are done asking questions
and you are ready to act. That said, you will need to ask
yourself a few important questions before you know what
kind of action you need to take to get started. Instead of
asking yourself if you can buy a van in your new home or
whether or not you will be able to get kale at the local
market, ask these questions instead:
“How much will I pay in taxes tomorrow, this month, and
this year if I keep doing what I am doing now?”
“What changes would I like in my lifestyle that I will not
enjoy if I do not make a change?”
“How will my retirement plans be affected by continuing
to do what I am doing now?”
“What will happen in five years if I keep only one
passport? Or, what might happen that I am not willing to
risk?”
There will always be a level of uncertainty when it comes
to living an international life. The only thing that you can
really be certain of is that you are going to pay 46% tax
next year on your entire income. That is for certain if you
keep doing what you are doing. The uncertainty comes
when you make a change for the better.
As one of my coaches likes to say, “Uncertainty is where
the magic happens.” If everything were certain in life, you
would never progress. Most things are uncertain, so just
allow them to be so and throw yourself into taking action.
That is where beautiful things happen.
If you are like many of the people I help who are paying
$100, $500, $1,000 a day or even more in taxes, feel
insecure about being tied to one country, and want to make
more money to retire early and enjoy life, then you need an
action plan.
I recommend that everyone start by opening an offshore
bank account. While the process of opening your first
offshore account is a bit more difficult now than it used to
be, it is still relatively easy to open an account, especially if
you are willing to get on a plane.

Where you go from there depends on your goals. I tend

to look at your personal Nomad Strategy as a puzzle; each
piece on its own is useless, but when fitted together, the
completed puzzle works beautifully. Which pieces you need
are up to you and what you want to achieve.
If you would like some help figuring out which strategies
you need, which you do not, and which specific puzzle
pieces will help you reach your goals, I have developed a
process that not only delivers massive results but also holds
people accountable to achieving those results by preventing
you from doing what has failed for others. I help five
motivated people each month figure out what needs to be
done, and then I help them to do it.
I have learned that the best teachers are those that do
and not just teach. If, after reading this book, you are ready
to take action and want an unbiased strategy that puts the
puzzle pieces together in order to get you to your desired
result, I may be able to help you. Feel free to reach out and
apply to let me know about the personal puzzle you are
trying to solve.
I ask every person who reaches out to me to answer
some questions about their situation so that my team can
get back to them to determine if we can help. Whether the
best person to help you is me, someone else, or simply
yourself, I hope that this book encourages you to take the
kind of action that accomplishes your desired result so you,
too, can follow my five magic words and go where you’re
treated best.

Yours,
 Andrew Henderson
The Nomad Capitalist

[1]
‘Cash cows’ are companies with good market share in mature industries.
They are my favorite type of business because of the income they throw off – if
not also for the name itself, which indicates that they can be ‘milked’
continuously with little effort.
[2]
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/883964-new-rule-america-must-stop-
bragging-it-s-the-greatest-country