Transcription
In the wake of Donald Trump's election, a lot of Americans are looking for a way out. And yet, I think they're doing it wrong. They're looking to move to the wrong places, and they're looking to move the wrong way. I'm going to tell you the right way to escape the [Music] US.
One thing here at Nomad Capitalist, we don't judge. There are folks who are ecstatic that Donald Trump will be president again, and to you I say, you've got four years. I don't think the US can be fixed in four years. Better years too early than a day too late for what happens after he's out of office. If you're miserable that Trump is in power, I say consider your options. Ask yourself truly, do I want to leave? I think our fundamentals for wanting to leave our country should be stronger than one politician. But if you've decided to leave, I think a lot of Americans are looking at it wrong, and I've seen this story in a lot of places.
Here's one story from the Washington Post, which says that shortly after Donald Trump's election, searches for "move abroad" became surging in the United States. We see this every presidential election, every single election. Nomad Capitalist has more people from the left or from the right saying, "I want your help." They're watching videos; they're reading articles on nomad.com, and they're going to nomad.com/apply, asking to be a client. They want us to help them. I will come back to again how I would help them differently than they are suggesting here in just one moment. So people, people always come after the election, and yet they often come with the wrong ideas because, again, they're coming emotionally.
One thing I said back in 2015, when people started saying, "If Trump wins, I'm leaving the country; I'm going to Canada," I was one of the first people to say, "No, no, no. Move to Mexico. Lower cost of living, better weather, better food, oh, and almost, almost importantly, easier place to immigrate to." Something that I've met people with hundreds of millions of dollars who don't understand: As an American, you cannot just simply turn up and live in someone else's country. You need a resident permit; you need to be a citizen there; in some cases, you need to have your tax planning figured out.
And so the article says, "While many Americans looked for information about how to move to Canada—that's the proverbial one, let's just move to the north—others also searched further afield, Googling destinations including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand." Here's my thing, by the way: If you're going to move, you might as well move. I don't understand people who want to lower their taxes moving from California to Arizona. You're only lowering your taxes just a little bit in this grand scheme of things. If you're going to pack everything up, if you're going to move your house, if you're going to change the kids' schools, if you're going to put the dog in the car, you might as well move somewhere further away, where you really get some juice, where the juice is worth the squeeze. Moving up north to Canada? Why? Because it's closest. When did proximity ever indicate superiority? And yet, these countries, I would say for most people, are the wrong places to go. I don't think the rest of this article really, uh, makes a difference other than let's talk about some of the places that you don't want to go.
Canada, number one. The first thing that article says is the weather. Yeah, the weather sucks. Now, if you are left-leaning, and we do have some left-leaning clients, you might like what Justin Trudeau is doing. I don't know if anyone likes Justin Trudeau anymore. We see articles such as "The West is sleepwalking into Trudeau's woke nightmare." Now, if you're against Trudeau, you probably like Trump; you probably don't think you should move. But, uh, weather's bad; political outlook, uh, is bad; health care, uh, it is universal and tax-funded. Talk to people; they're not getting what they're paying for, in their opinion. Here's the biggest challenge: How hard is it to immigrate to Canada? Recently, it reduced its target immigration levels, saying it needs to reduce the pressure on its housing market. Canada's permanent residence programs require undergoing a number of tests, including a medical exam and language competency. But that's not really the biggest issue.
Now, we work with seven, eight, and nine-figure entrepreneurs and investors here. We generally don't work with people who are, uh, employees, unless they're very, very high-level employees. So if you can get a job there, then that is always a path to move, move somewhere. But if you don't have a job and you're saying, "Hey, I just want to come, whether I'm a remote worker, I'm a freelancer, I do my own thing, I have my own small business, or I have my own big business or investment portfolio," you can't just turn up there. Now, as an American, as a US citizen, you can spend about six months in Canada, but not only is that not permanent, uh, you're not supposed to live there on a tourist visa. In a country like Canada, they're not going to allow that. I mean, you are supposed to go there for non-remunerated tourism purposes only. If you go there and you start running your business from there, you are technically in violation, and they ask you those questions, uh, when you go there. So if you don't have that job offer, uh, there aren't that many paths to get into Canada, and they are expensive. They require an investment. The Quebec program has a fee that comes with it. It is an expensive proposition to move to Canada. And of course, once you go there, you're going to pay a lot of taxes. Yes, you do get the universal health care, but I can tell you, a lot of people aren't that happy with it.
So Canada, one of the many English-speaking countries that has said, "We don't really want more people to come here, even if you can bring us millions of dollars to invest." That's something many Americans overlook when they think, "I'll just show up, and they'll be happy to have me." I think Americans have this idea that the world is, "Please, any American, come!" Like we've had people tell us, like, "Well, if I can't get citizenship when I land in Ecuador, what's the point?" Yeah, I don't think they need citizens that desperately. You know, there's a lot of people from around the world who are investing in residence permits and citizenship from China, from the Middle East, from so many places. Americans are just one of many countries, and I think the world has realized that. Sorry to break that to you.
The United Kingdom is next on the list. Again, very left-leaning now. So perhaps if you're anti-Trump, you like that. Health care system, by their own admission, has problems. Again, can you get a job? Sure, uh, it's harder to get. I saw an article in the London Telegraph, uh, where there's a, a British guy who is very typical of what's going on between the US and the UK. He moved to New York; he runs his company from there, but he hires almost all the staff in the UK, and they, a whole, you know, corporate structure that allows that. He says, "For every dollar I pay in London, I would pay $2 in New York for the same worker." So you're not going to make as much money in the UK. Housing is expensive; they just raised some of the taxes on housing; they're raising the taxes on petrol. There are taxes that don't even exist in the United States. And on top of that, uh, they've pretty much gotten rid of any, uh, investment residence permit that you have. We talked about that right before the Russia-Ukraine war started, under the guise of, "We don't want Russians moving here." They said, "Nope, we don't want your investments anymore; you can't move here." I asked Nigel Farage, who spoke at Nomad Capitalist Live, "Why don't you guys get together some kind of investment visa?" But alas, they don't have one. They have one if you invest in certain kinds of companies, uh, but it doesn't really work as it says on the tin, uh, and so very difficult to move to the UK, uh, unless you get what is likely to be a lower-paying job. And if you are going to go through all the hassle of moving, you might as well pay less in tax. Well, the UK ended their non-dom program after more than two centuries, so now you're going to pay top-dollar taxes.
Australia's mentioned. The weather is better there; the politics are center-left; again, universal health care. Don't have as much feedback from the Australians we work with on whether—I think I feel like the feedback on that is better. They have other problems with Australia. Yeah, here's the process again: Can you get a job? Yes. The investment program, honestly, can't even say I keep up with it. We have a backend system; we track every country in the world's, uh, residents and citizenship laws; we have AI sending us alerts all the time whenever anything changes, and, uh, you should ask our strategy and research team because they would know better than I do. You know, whenever Australia decides to have a program, it is millions of dollars—at one point, over 10 million Australian dollars—that's what it takes to invest. It's backlogged; it's slow; they don't really want you there.
New Zealand's next on the list. They did something similar. I guess if I had to pick one of any of those, New Zealand is perhaps the least heavy-handed, although that's kind of changed. The UK is maybe the best located. None of these are particularly good. Now, the one at the end which is actually functional if you don't want to invest millions of dollars or if you want to even get in it all, uh, without getting a job, which, by the way, generally you have to go there, and they want to interview you in person—like it's not generally easy for most employees—Ireland. Well-located, the government has a surplus. I know some folks on the right wing have said the country's become too woke. I've spent time in Ireland, and I suppose it's more woke than Malaysia or Colombia or Georgia. It is not as conservative as those places, but I get along with the people, and I can't say that, um, I've seen the stuff that my American friends complain about when I'm in Ireland.
The thing about Ireland is you can actually go there; you can start your own company, uh, without moving your entire company to Ireland. At their 12, a 12%, yes, it is still 12 and a half percent for all of us who are not Facebook and Google, you can move part of your company there for 12 and a half percent, hire a couple of local people, uh, one thing I found is there's some good talent in certain areas there. I mean, if you want English speakers, Ireland is very well revered around the world, um, you know, people might think, "Oh, the Brits, they're a little snobby; they may not understand them." No one has a problem with the Irish. So if you're looking to staff up, you could have a company that hires some folks in Ireland, contribute to the local economy, and you can take advantage of a pretty favorable, uh, non-dom tax system for yourself. Move part, but not all, of your company to Ireland. And so, unlike having to invest millions of dollars, uh, or again, not have any options at all, Ireland's the one on this list that works. And so if you're upset about Trump, I presume the politics of Ireland wouldn't bother you as much. I can't say, as someone who's not fully engulfed in the politics, I can't say it bothers me that much, uh, is there more homelessness than you will find, uh, in any of the places where we have "Live Like a King" episodes? We have Yerevan, Armenia coming up; we have Muscat, Oman coming up; even I guess probably Madrid, Spain. Yeah, you probably have a worse homeless problem in Dublin, in Ireland, than you do in those other places. But that's the list. Ireland, of the English-speaking countries that people are Googling to move to, is the one that I think the average person, certainly the average small entrepreneur, could afford to move to without having to commit a lot of money.
One thing I tell people is, if you're moving overseas for the first time, set your plan up properly. We help our clients do this. You want to get your taxes in a row. Any of these countries are going to have more difficult tax systems to adapt to. Even if you move to Canada, your investments are not going to mesh up with your US investments; you're going to have some double tax; it is a mess. Ireland, at least, is the most flexible one on this list, but you want to set yourself up right when you move. And yet, give yourself a year; give yourself an exit button. If you don't like it after a year, put in all the effort you can, but after a year you don't like it, push exit, go back to your country. And so the fact that in Ireland you don't have to invest millions of dollars, uh, to get in is a benefit.
Now, here's where I think the whole system is wrong. These countries should not be the only countries. Why do people choose these? Well, they speak English. Okay, a lot of places speak English. Where else do they speak English? The Netherlands. Now, that's not a low-tax country, and many of our clients do want to lower their taxes, but the Netherlands has the Dutch-American friendship treaty, and so if you are American, you have a special track to move to the—ons. 95% of Dutch speak English. I was just in Amsterdam a couple months ago. Probably not a place I would live, but I enjoy going there; I enjoy the people. What is right below the Netherlands in terms of English-speaking in that category country? You probably haven't given much thought about that. That's Serbia, particularly in Belgrade. Excellent English, not just in the upper echelons; the taxi driver speaks English. Now, it's a little bit of a different vibe, certainly much lower cost, certainly more conservative country in terms of, uh, their personal views, but they speak English there. Malaysia. Most people in a place like Kuala Lumpur will speak English, maybe a little differently than you, but they speak English, and you can get around. There's places like Belize in Central America that speak English. There are enclaves in places in Latin America like Ecuador where people speak English. Even places like Mexico City, if you're in certain areas, people will speak English. But on top of that, you always learn another language, or at least you know parts of it. One of our colleagues moved from a very high-tax country to Georgia. We've talked about Georgia. English is okay there; it's getting better. 1% tax. He moved; he was like, "I want to be left alone; I'm tired of people who speak my language; I want to go and just be alone for six months." The 1% tax sounds pretty good. He hired my old Georgian teacher, and he's learning Georgian for 20 bucks an hour, and he's never going to be fluent, but you know what? He'll be able to get around. And if he can do that in Georgian, you can do that in Spanish; you can do that in whatever language where you move. But there's lots of places that speak English, and you can probably learn—I mean, Spanish opens up how many, a couple dozen other countries. So my point is, don't let things like that hold you back from expanding the pool because these countries, they have all the same problems the US does. They're expensive; they have high taxes; the governments are broke; they're going after people with money; the average person's upset that housing is expensive. I don't know the average person there wants you to move in. Now, maybe they'll get along with you, particularly, but as a grander scheme, I don't—the candidate isn't—they don't want more people. The government's literally come out and said it: "We don't want more people; housing is too expensive; they won't build more housing, but they'll tell you they don't want you." So why don't you, as we say, go where you're treated best? Go where you're wanted, at a bare minimum. And I can tell you, Latin America, for example, most countries in Latin America have a residence program that, rather than investing a million or millions of dollars to get in, says, "Hey, if you make $800, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 a month, just show us you have the money, and come on in." Worst-case scenario in most of these countries in Latin America, hey, we need you to put a year's worth of income in the bank, or maybe two years of income in the bank, so you know, $30, $45, $60,000 in some of those countries. Put that money in the bank; now you can move, and that's your money to take out if you ever want to, uh, go back home. Whereas in some of these countries, you're investing in stuff that you may not have the liquidity that you have of just keeping it in a bank account. But Latin America, same time zone, so if you have a business, you're working—a lot of our clients have brought that up—you don't have to really adjust. You have one language; you can move between them much easier. Residence permits to get on that track. You know, you can get citizenship in a country like Peru in as little as two years of living there. So if you're going to live there, and in the case of Peru, you're going to pay some taxes, then you can get a second citizenship. A citizenship in a country like Peru or Mexico, you can get that in five years, or Argentina, you can get in two or three years; Uruguay, if you really live there, potentially in three years. Those are some really high-quality passports. They're not quite as good as the US passport, but they're pretty good, and having dual citizenship is going to open up a lot more opportunities for you to where you don't feel tied to one country, no matter who wins. You've got options, and you know what? Some of those countries are more conservative; some of them are pretty progressive in some ways. I mean, a place like Uruguay opened up—I mean, they're in some ways very conservative-minded, but you know, we're one of the first countries, you know, things like marijuana legalization or gay marriage. I mean, they were open on that, and yet you go there, and you don't feel it overpowering you the way you do in the US. So whether your left wing or right wing, I think some of those countries could be a better fit. You know, there's places like Dubai, for example. Not only can you lower your taxes in the UAE, but pretty much anyone can get a residence permit now. They want people to come. Southeast Asia does require an investment, so country like Malaysia, you're going to put money in the bank; uh, Thailand, you're going to put money in the bank, or you're just going to pay them a flat-out lower fee. Countries like that, they want you. Again, more tax-favorable. And then there's the places in Western Europe that don't speak English. Countries from Portugal, go to France, to Cyprus, have ways—if you've got a job, if you can prove some income, "Come on in; we want you." Why don't you look at places that say, "Come on in; we want you," rather than saying, "What are these monolithic legacy brand countries that are past their prime?" Why? Just because they speak English? If you're trying to solve a problem, sure, the politics are more left-wing in Australia, in Canada, in the UK, for now, and you know, people tell me, "Oh, why do you keep moving around the world?" I keep moving around the world because I have a lot of places around the, the world where I have homes and I have business and I have assets that I enjoy spending time in. What I don't want you to do is to move from the US because you don't like Trump, and then you move to a left-wing country, but then they elect some right-wing people three years from now, and now you don't like it anymore. Now, maybe that doesn't change the entire social fabric. I mean, those countries are still going to have universal health care; they're not going to get rid of some of the social benefits or some of the culture. Right-wing in some of these, you know, Western countries is not as right-wing as the US, for sure. But why not give yourself a chance to find the absolute best place for you? And part of that could be, "I'm just going to detach myself from politics; I'm going to find a place that respects my values." If I'm for gay marriage, if I'm for abortion, if I'm for low taxes, if I'm for anti-woke, whatever I'm from on any side of the spectrum, let me find the place that offers that. Right? Again, we were just, uh, just in the, in the country of Oman. We filmed "Live Like a King" Oman. I hope you check it out in January. Very conservative people, and yet extremely welcoming, non-judgmental, even if you're not from their faith. Why don't you find the place that serves you? And that might involve going and spending some time in some of these places. By the way, if you go to the places that I'm talking about, they're going to be more open about you coming for three months and saying, "Hey, yeah, I'm going to send a few work emails," than the UK, where if you tell the UK when you go, "Hey, I'm here, and I've got a remote job," their law says, "Yeah, you can't do your remote job here," and there's literally been stories of, "I'm putting you on the next plane out." Why not go to a country that just, to, to check it out for a few months, is going to be flexible with you? So there's a number of ways you can handle this, right? You can just move to one country right now and just see how it works. You can explore a few countries over the next year and see which one serves you the best. The bottom line is, why not find a place, rather than running from a politician, that serves your values long-term and that gives you the things you really want? And that means expanding the pie behind the typical five or six places that actually aren't that much different than where you're coming from and may fall into the same track of the one that you're escaping.
We help our clients do this. You can go to nomad.com/apply. When you come to us, it's not going to be, "Move to the UK." If you want to move to the UK, we're going to tell you, probably, you can't do it. But we had a client, one of our wealthiest clients ever, multi-billionaire, he looked at me once, and he said, "You know what I appreciate about Nomad Capitalist? I hired the big firms, and their advice was, 'Have you heard of Switzerland?'" He's like, "Yeah, I'm a billionaire; I've heard of Switzerland; I know I can move to Switzerland." You talk about the places that no one is talking about; you got your finger on the pulse. And there could be a place—we will figure out the place for you based on your values, your needs, your wants, your business, how it runs, your taxes, how much tax you're willing to pay. Some want to pay zero. If you are more left-leaning, maybe say, "Hey, listen, I'm, I'm happy to pay 25% tax; I'm happy to pay for the social welfare, but I'm tired of going to stuff I don't agree with." Everyone's welcome here, but we want you to do it the right way. Don't follow the herd; don't escape the USA doing what everyone else is doing. If you do that, you're probably going to come back eventually, not having solved much of a problem. If you do it my way—I've been doing this for a long time, living overseas; I don't even go back to the US, and I don't miss it—my way is we match the right places with you. And if you take that approach, rather than what the Washington Post is talking about, I think you'll be a lot happier. [Music]