Don't buy your present by selling your future.
127
House full of Anchors
Look around at all the stuff you own in your house. Each object is a teeny-tiny anchor that keeps you trapped there. Have you ever heard someone say, “We can’t downsize; where would we put all our stuff?”
When I left America, I couldn’t get rid of everything. I sold off a lot of things, including my car, and the leftovers I put into a storage unit. The key for that place should say, “I’m an idiot.” There is no worse decision than putting your junk into one of those. I must have paid thousands of dollars to store stuff I’ll never see again. A few years ago, I had my bookkeeper open it up and sell off everything. I just let her keep the money from whatever she sold. When you can’t see stuff for a while, you stop caring about it.
The fees on a storage unit are always higher than the value of the stuff inside. I have a friend who has a car in storage in America. Now it’s on four flat tires, and he doesn’t want to fly back just to sell it. He’s paid more in storage fees than the car was worth when he first shoved it in there. That storage unit has turned into a neck wound that he can’t control. The bleeding will continue for years because he is stuck.
There is a reason there are so many shows about people who buy up storage lockers and sell off the crap inside. They are the ultimate sign that we make moronic decisions based on emotion.
Don’t pay real money to keep garbage in a dirty closet. Talk about sending good money after bad! You form an emotional tie to things that don’t make your life better, and it can keep you trapped for longer than you ever imagined.
It took me a long time to break those emotional chains, and I poured a lot of money into the toilet along the way. It was a hard lesson, and it still makes me frustrated talking about it. Hopefully sharing my experience with you will keep you from wasting money on storage units.
128
What do you Need?
I used to spend thousands of dollars on clothes. I had a personal shopper at a high-end department store, and I gave him one order – make me look good. I still have those expensive clothes. I mix them in with stuff that’s homemade now and nobody can tell the difference.
I simply buy a pair of shorts that I like. I then purchase a similar fabric from the store right next door, and I take both of those to a local seamstress on my island. She uses the pair of shorts as a template and creates ten more pairs for me that are even more comfortable than the store-bought shorts.
I never considered doing something so radical before in my life. I used to be obsessed with labels. My experience hasn’t changed even though my clothes now cost about three percent of what they used to. Yesterday, I was wearing a shirt that cost more than a hundred bucks. Right on top of a pair of my three dollar shorts. Nobody noticed, and nobody cared. Well, I cared a little bit. Because the shorts were more comfortable.
Remember, I’m all about cost control. We talked about business expenses, but now I’m talking about personal expenses. Want to be happy in your personal life? Kill the clutter.
Let’s say that you get dialed in with working online. You make $100 an hour. That’s a pretty good wage to make chilling by the pool with your laptop. Let’s say your cost of living is $10,000 a month. That means you have to work 100 hours every month just to maintain that lifestyle. But what happens if you realize that some of that stuff isn’t valuable? You start to focus on the value of freedom and you slash your costs down to $6,000 a month. There is a cost – you’ll have less stuff. But you get a full workweek of your life back every single month.
Let’s look at the equation from another angle. That last paragraph might have triggered your fear of loss. Would you like to drive the best car on the road and work twelve months a year or drive the second best car and work nine months? What would it be like to get three months of your life back? Is that more valuable to you than the prestige of driving the “best?”
My cost of living is extremely low now. It’s about 10% of what it was when I was single and living in America. Now I have a whole family to take care of, and it still costs way less. People think living on a tropical island is crazy expensive. And if you approach the idea like a tourist, it can be.
Tourists in America go to Hawaii, spend the whole trip in overpriced hotels in the tourist district and talk about how expensive it is there. They don’t do any research on what people who live there pay for things.
If you stay on packaged tours and stay in the lanes provided by your hotel, you’ll only see the most expensive offers. Have you ever looked at the prices in a hotel shop? They charge triple for toothpaste, so why on Earth would you assume that their liquor prices match the average island prices?
Misinformation often causes us to make poor decisions. We just assume something is expensive because it is desirable. On my island, I watch people overpay for surfboards seven days a week. A few minutes of research would save them so much money!
Most of the things that you think help you, actually limit your options. All of this stuff you have to dump or sell before you can move on.
We’ve been here a while and purchased a scooter and some surfboards. I bought them all used, so my financial investment is small. I could sell the boards within a week. The scooter too. But if I have to give it away, that's no big deal. I'm not going to let a few small purchases trap me. Because I’m a minimalist, I thought about those things when I bought them.
I plan on living here for a very long time, so I’m willing to set down some roots and make life easier. But I went into those purchases realizing that if I need to move for some reason, I still need to deal with them. You can own stuff, but I want you to at least have your eyes open. We have things we haven’t looked at in ages, but we keep them “just in case.” That hoarding mindset is a huge drain. It’s fine to be prepared, but notice when your decisions are emotional rather than logical.
XX
The Advantages of Travel
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
- Mark Twain
129
The FOURTH Chain
People move to the United States seeking a better life. That’s why your ancestors moved there.
I left for the same reason.
The government of the United States is a bloated train wreck. If it were a corporation, the CEO would have been thrown in jail decades ago. If you don’t believe me, go and renew your driver’s license in person. The last time I did that, the lady made me go home and get five letters and all these other documents. It took weeks of trips, phone calls, and headaches. They even demand that you have a utility bill to prove your identity. The government depends on private companies to confirm your identity.
I finally got all that garbage together and brought it in. She looks at the computer and goes “Oh, you’re already in here!” All of that hassle because she was too lazy to enter my name in the computer the first time.
If you deal with the government on a day-to-day basis, you know that’s not just an anecdote – if anything, I’m taking it too easy on them.
As long as you live in the United States, you’re running with weights attached to your shoes. If you buy a house and pay it off, you still don’t get to own it. Every year you have to come up with enough money to pay the taxes or the government will steal your home. If they want to put a road through your house, they can do it; it happened to my neighbors when I was a kid. The government paid them for the land, but the government also decided what it was worth. Don’t expect to get the full price when they want to turn your front yard into an off ramp.
Whenever I talk about this subject, there is always someone who thinks this means I don’t love my country. There is a lot that is great about America. But I’m also a pragmatist. I pay attention to the value tha
t I get for my money. In the past three years, I have had only one interaction with the federal government. A few months ago I needed a replacement social security card. And the embassy completely screwed me.
There are dozens of shipping companies in this country, and naturally, the embassy decided to use the only one that doesn’t deliver to my island. To send my passport back, they mailed it to another island. They refused to use any other service, even when I offered to pay extra.
These islands aren’t across the street from each other; it’s not like going downtown. There is one ferry there in the morning and one back in the afternoon. An entire day of my life wasted sitting on a boat, all because the embassy has no incentive to care about my experience. They know I can’t fire them, and they act like it.
Fortunately, I’m pretty sly, so I called the first shipping company and paid a girl who works there to take it to another delivery company and mail it to me. It cost me about ten bucks extra but saved more than six hours of my life.
Let’s imagine the nightmare scenario – I’m grabbed off the street by terrorists and they start splashing my face online. They are going to execute me live on the Internet if my government doesn’t meet their demands.
Do you think the government will send the Navy SEALs for me, or pay a ransom? No way. The government is a one-way street. They want every penny they can squeeze out of me, but unless I’m politically connected, they would never even consider rescuing me. My only hope is for my family to hire mercenaries to save me. Otherwise, I’ll be just another horrible video on Liveleak.
Our government was originally built on a social contract. The people paid the government to protect them collectively. Those days are long gone. There are only two countries in the entire world that tax you even when you don’t live there - The United States and Eritrea. That’s not good company. When is the last time you heard a good story about Eritrea or heard someone talking about wanting to move there?
If you want to know what Eritrea is most well known for besides having the same tax policy as the United States, it is having the worst human rights record of any nation on the planet. Wonderful company.
I have zero problem paying taxes, as long as I get something in return. I wouldn’t even hesitate at a high rate as long as I knew there was any level of beneficence between my government and me. But let’s be honest with each other. In America, I’m terrified of an encounter with the police. I know a lot of police officers and lawyers. I know how rigged the court system is.
Where I live now, the police take bribes all the time. But at least they are honest about it. In America, the police can pull you over and “arrest” your money, even if they don't charge you with a crime. Boy, do I wish I were making up that story. Just look up ‘civil forfeiture’ online and you’ll be ready to move countries too.
You get dinged every time you make a move in the West. You work your tail off and want to pass your house on to your kids? The government will charge taxes so high that they have to sell off your house and then take on debt. Instead of being able to leave a gift for your children, you end up leaving them a curse.
There are ways around all of this. You can set up trusts and offshore corporations and bank accounts and pay lawyers to fight for you, but you shouldn’t have to fight your people just to keep what you have!
I talked earlier about the three chains holding you back from freedom – if there’s a 4th chain, the United States government is it. Governments have power, and you shouldn’t assume that the one you were born under is automatically the best one for you.
130
Hit the Road Jack
Leaving the country allows you to break the fourth chain. Whether you leave for a week or the rest of your life, there are a host of benefits to seeing the rest of the world. You don’t realize just how insular America is until you visit another country. Can you name the president, king, queen or prime minister of even a single foreign country? Do you even know if Canada has a prime minister or a president? (I bet you are going to pull our your phone to find out right now)
Americans are one of the few peoples in the world that speak only a single language. My daughter is three years old, and she already speaks three. Do you think she’s going to get job opportunities that your kid doesn’t? Will she meet more interesting people? Be more cultured? I think we both know the answer. Expanding your horizons will give you a better perspective; whether that causes you to move abroad permanently or simply teaches you to appreciate the good things about America, it will be worth it.
131
Adventure
The first reason to hop on a plane is an adventure. You get to see amazing things, experience wonderful cultures and meet amazing people. There’s something truly wonderful about experiencing truly exceptional things.
I’ve enjoyed fruit juice over the cliffs of Carthage while smoking a hookah. I’ve snowboarded on the frozen northern island of Japan. I’ve seen the world’s greatest DJs at festivals in Austria and tiny bars in Thailand. I have done shots in a London nightclub with a footballer on the England national team. I have enjoyed the wonder that is Angkor Wat. I’ve surfed one of the top ten spots in the world. I have DJed for crowds on three different continents. I nearly died climbing a mountain in Japan.
This is just a tiny sprinkle of the adventures that have filled my life and if you want to hear more of them, feel free to read the adventure section of my blog.
When the clock ticks down, are you going to be worrying about the next season of your favorite TV show? Are you going to wish you spent more time in the office or drove a nicer car? My greatest pleasure is taking the kayak out with my family. We spend the day on the water, getting some exercise and plenty of Vitamin D. Total cost for this excursion? ZERO. We own the boat and fortunately, the water here is free.
So often we talk about other cultures, but we’ve never been anywhere. America is the only country I’ve been to that never shows news stories about other nations. It’s so weird how we are national narcissists. The world is a beautiful and amazing place.
132
Taxes
The best reason to go abroad is that you save massive amounts of money. You don’t have to pay any taxes on the first $125,000 that you make as personal income abroad. In fact, that number is now much higher - check my website for the current figure. Even though the United States is the only country that chases its citizens for taxes, you can still save a huge amount. Make sure your expenses are all business expenses. Get a domestic bookkeeper to handle everything for you, and you’ll be okay. You can go more advanced and set up offshore bank accounts and businesses, but even just the basic tax saving is beautiful.
All the money that you make, you get to keep. You don’t have the stress of trying to track your withholding and playing the IRS tap-dance game. They change the rules every year, and it’s nearly impossible to stay ahead. You can live like a king or queen in most countries with a hundred grand a year in free cash. If you find a place you love, you can change your citizenship and pay no taxes. The super-rich do this all the time, and there’s a reason it works for them. Even switching to an EU passport massively changes your tax obligations. As long as you are living abroad most of the year, you don’t have to pay any taxes. This is one of the best ways to find freedom and take control of more of your money.
Land in other countries is far cheaper, and many countries will give you citizenship just for buying property there. They see the value of having someone make money in America, but spend it in their country. On the island where I live, I support between forty and fifty people financially. I have direct staff and all the places that I spend money, shopping, and rent, etc. All of that money comes here from America and gets spread around the community. Most of my employees have large families, and they have finances because I’m here to hire them.
Instead of paying taxes for a country that doesn’t care about you, why not check out a place that will love you for putting that money into the local economy?
Limiting your tax risk is simply smart business. When you work for yourself, you get hit the hardest. If you aren’t on your toes, you can end up owing taxes that are greater than your income. You have to spend a lot of time learning the tax game, setting up a corporation, tracking business expenses and keeping receipts. It’s a real bear of a task. I did it for a long time, and I hated it.
You pay all those taxes, and you never get any of the benefits. People who put money into the government get the worst return.
133
Cost of Living
The cost of living in most countries is shockingly low. The average salary in many countries is $100 a month. Think about what that means for land and rent prices. You can live in a mansion for about ten percent of what it costs in America. Right now, I live in a beautiful villa on the water, nothing but sand and surf as far as the eye can see. For the same price, I could live in a neighborhood in America where I’d have to sleep by the front door with a shotgun in my arms every night. Paradise costs the same price as an inner city nightmare.
You’re still making money selling your goods, services, and coaching to Westerners. So you get a western salary in a country where dollars spend like gold. My cell phone bill is around $3 a month. That gives me unlimited texting, which is all that I use. I also get like one or three hours of talk time. I don’t know. I never use my phone to call anyone. I use it to send a text to my girlfriend or someone else on the island and then we meet in person. There is no need for long phone calls when you’re in a small community.
Serve No Master: How to Escape the 9-5, Start up an Online Business, Fire Your Boss and Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur or Digital Nomad Page 24