[DaveR]

Great info in this thread. I have a few points to add:


Keep in mind that if you intend to move around a lot, you'll be living out of a suitcase and that will become very inconvenient and restrictive. When I was living nomadically, I found doing it by car massively improved my quality of life. You can only really concentrate on one continent by car, but it allows you to see a lot of cities comfortably.
Some examples:
- If you spend a lot of time behind a screen, working on a laptop sucks. if you go by car you can take a whole rig as well as a hifi or TV if those are important to you.
- you can take home gym stuff by car... power tower, weights, etc.. whatever you save on gym membership can be put to some other use, like a better apartment
- having your own pillows and bedding makes adjusting to a new place easier
- sporting equipment - bikes, surfboards, etc. are out of the question if you travel by plane

You'd be surprised how much stuff fits in an SUV or a big wagon like a Merc. E-Class or BMW 5-Series, and they can be bought relatively inexpensively. If you go that route, check into registration in Estonia or Lithuania (no annual registration taxes in either country, but you might need to establish a letterbox company). If not, Georgia doesn't require an address or residence permit for car registration, and as it's outside of the EU, you could buy an ex-corporate car with a 20% VAT (sales tax) discount... but Georgia is somewhat out of the way. Also, it can be done in Germany, I believe.. you'll just need someone who agrees to revceive mail for you - a lawyer or friend.
Clements offers international car insurance for nomads not driving in their home countries.


As you've identified, if you don't have a residence permit in the Schengen area, you'll need to manage your time carefully. Some others on the forum do so by staying in the Schengen area during opposing seasons (eg. winter/summer) and out of it during the other seasons. Something like the following:
Winter: Schengen - given your preferences, probably somewhere warm, eg. Spain, Southern Italy or Greece
Spring: non-Schengen - Croatia/Serbia/Bulgaria/Romania or Russia/Ukraine or UK/Ireland or further abroad - US/Canada/Asia
Summer: Schengen - Prague, Stockholm, Amsterdam, maybe the Baltics
Fall: non-Schengen - see above


Citizenship is hard to plan for and usually requires knowledge of the language as well as a very long stay or marriage to a local. There are a lot of citizenship-by-investment schemes, but they're more useful for:
- Americans, who have a reason to renounce their US citizenship for tax reasons
- politically exposed people who may have their passports cancelled by their home countries
- people from countries which don't have a lot of visa-free access (Russians, Chinese)

Basically, what you need to look into is residence in whichever zone you'd like to spend a lot of time. Unfortunately holding a residence permit in any of the Schengen countries usually makes one tax resident. So if you wish to spend more than 90/180 days in the Schengen zone as a non-tax-resident, citizenship of an EU member state would proove useful.


As far as taxes are concerned, there are a couple of options:
1. establish yourself in a tax-friendly country and make sure you spend enough time and have enough connections to be considered tax resident every year, therefore providing access to the protection of that country's double-tax treaties.
2. be a nomad and try to avoid tax residency in any country. Be careful if doing this, because a lot of Western countries have 'domicile' rules - if you're not tax resident by way of spending a lot of time in a country, you can still be deemed resident if you have strong ties to that country. Canada is particularly aggressive in this area. One strategy is to establish strong ties (real estate, licence, etc.) to a country which doesn't have the domicile concept, then spend less than 183 days per year in country (or whatever the rules are) to avoid tax residency.

Tax residency rules vary widely between countries , so you'd be wise to familiarise yourself with them. No need to go into the fine details, but having a general idea of what may make you resident in a particular country is important. Deloitte produces very good fact sheets - search for eg. "Deloitte - Poland Highlights"; it's usually the first result. Then find the section on "personal taxation" and try to get an understanding of the paragraph on tax residency and income rates.

I've heard that HK banks have become quite difficult for offshore clients recently. You might have to look around. Singapore is popular, and Cyprus works well for those who spend a lot of time in the EU.

(07-24-2018 05:39 PM)TheFinalEpic Wrote:  

I suppose a concern would be healthcare if living abroad away from Canada, and also severing residential ties. Do you have any personal experience with this Tiger Man (or anyone else)? Do you just bite the bullet and pay healthcare bills in whatever country you are living in? I realize that there is world class healthcare for far less than you would pay in the States in places like Mexico, and in some South American countries.

If you're financially stable, you're better off paying for routine medical expenses yourself (except maybe in the US). Insurance is useful for chronic diseases and emergencies, both to protect against financial shocks, and also because it takes the stress out of the paperwork and paying bills if you're unable to.
All of the large international health insurers like Bupa, Allianz, AXA, etc. offer worldwide/expatriate plans. I usually get mine through this broker: http://www.medibroker.com/

[Irish]

@ OP

Not sure if you've made your decision as of yet but I would throw in my current home base of Singapore into the mix.

Now you don't read too much on here about Singapore, particularly as compared to other SEA destinations such as Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta etc. But you need to make a crucial distinction here: Living somewhere and visiting/partying somewhere are two very different things.

I discovered this in 2015 when I quit my job and decided to go travelling for a bit. Initially I had great fun making my way around SEA and EE among other destinations but after a few months I soon became very sick of hopping from one airbnb to another and dragging my case about. Travelling around the world chasing skirt is all well and good. But I found that I can only really enjoy it in small doses. That and I pull much hotter better girls on home turf anyway, leveraging connections I've built and social circle game. On top of that I valued having a decent apartment, solid routine and good social circle with lots of mates to do stuff with and solid harem of high quality girls as more important. As compared to constantly moving between hostels/airbnbs, chasing sloppy 4s off tinder or in shit touristy bars recommended by outdated datasheets just to 'get the flag' and ticking off countries just to say i've been there tho having barely scratched the surface of any.

As for Asia you mentioned the likes of Bangkok, Vietnam and Japan. For a short term visit then for sure I would recommend all three above SG. However, to live, the chaos of the likes of Bangkok and Saigon which seems endearing and 'adds character' to a place during a short term visit is just annoying and stressful for an expat living there. And the weirdness and total lack of english in Japan which seems fascinating to travellers will make integration in the short term extremely challenging.

For me when choosing your home base you want it to be as easy going as possible. As you said, somewhere to chill while you're not travelling. So you want solid infrastructure, efficiency, cleanliness, easy to work, easy to make friends, good weather etc. Basically something which makes your day to day routine as stress free as possible.

Anyway, looking at it in terms of your non-negotiables I would say the following:

Quote:

1. It is a major hub (or close enough to a hub) so that traveling domestically and internationally would be a non-issue.

- Check. Add in that you have the World's best airport a 20 minute taxi ride from the centre. As one of the most connected airports in the world. You're a short, cheap budget flight away from some of the best party places in the world (Jakarta, Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, Bali, Taiwan, HK, Thai islands etc etc) as well as directly connected to most main cities in the world

Quote:

2. Close to the ocean or on the ocean.

- Check. Although decent beach options are limited to the island of Sentosa it's still pretty easy to get to

Quote:

3. Mild climate. I don't mind cool, but would like to stay above freezing year round.

- Check. It's definitely not cold thats for sure. However it can be too warm and humid which can get annoying when sweating through the front of your shirt when you go for some alfresco beers in the evening

Quote:

4. Relatively large city/metropolitan area. In excess of a million people for sure. I enjoy the bigger city vibe, it's inspirational to me, makes me work harder.

- Check.

Quote:

5. Fairly tax friendly for both corporate and personal tax rates.

- Check

In addition:

- The most modern and easiest place to live in SE Asia - As mentioned above, the madness and chaos of other SE Asian cities which make them so popular with tourists very quickly get on your tits if you're actually living there. Singapore is referred to as 'boring' and 'lacks soul' but everything works, no real traffic, superb public transport, everything is clean and day to day life is very stress free. In fact it's the most westernized city in all of Asia with english spoken by everyone, it is commonly referred to as 'Asia lite'. So it is very easy to integrate into when you move there, even if you've never been to Asia before.

- Healthcare which u also mentioned somewhere. Singapore's healthcare is among the best in the world, however it certainly does not come cheap. For non emergency stuff however you can easily fly over to the likes of Bangkok where you'll receive nearly as good healthcare at a fraction of the cost

- great expat networks. Particularly if you play sports. I signed up to a football club when I got here and almost instantly had 120 mates. On top of that the club was so well organised it almost felt like a semi-professional outfit. With full kits plus shirt sponsors, games with refs and linesmen on perfect pitches, regular club organised events and beer discount deals for bars around the island.

Drawbacks:

Not everywhere is perfect so below I have listed off what I think are the major drawbacks of living in SG

- Fuuuuuucking expensive. Booze in particular. And rent if you want a decently located place. Not everything is super expensive however, cabs aren't too bad and food courts are good value also. If you land yourself a decent job then you should be covered. However which leads me onto my next point...

- Hard for an expat to get a job Depending on your specialism the job market is potentially shrinking as roles are moved out to lower cost locations. On top of that the government is cracking down on the number of foreigners working here also, making it harder and harder for them to get employment passes and forcing firms to strongly favour local talent first.

You mentioned you're in software development. Not sure if you're looking to continue that from being location independent, if so then it will need to pay very well for Singapore to be a factor. So point 1 above might be a dealbreaker. Otherwise you'll be looking for a role locally, in which case point 2 might be a showstopper.

- Mediocre nightlife & girls. As compared to the rest of SE Asia anyway. Compared to most of the west however it probably is still superior, girls-wise at least. Regardless however, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as mentioned above you have tonnes of awesome party destinations well within reach so any weekend you want to go nuts you can just book a <$100 return flight. After a huge Jakarta weekend, I see flying back to Singapore a 'return to normality' and if you want to take it easy, try get back into shape and save money, there's not much temptation here to throw you off your plan. Plus for girls, you'll inevitably meet plenty crackers when you go travelling around SE Asia and they're never going to turn down a weekend trip to Singapore. So if the local girls don't stack up to your standards you can always fly others in.

Dunno if that gives you a bit more favour for Asia. For me SG is ideal even though I do most of my partying (and pulling) in Jakarta. I can definitely see me staying here long term for sure

[Fitman2018]

orlando is good and tampa too, both parts of florida have UT USF, UCF colleges and good sized cities, Miami is hard to beat though in Florida with the hostels, women of all ages coming. I feel nightlife in central florida is good because of the college scene which I am 30 so i am starting to get older for that.

[worldtraveler3]

Singapore is not good for digital nomad software developer. Too expensive and not fun.
You might as well be based in bangkok.

However it’s great if you are working in a corporate job and on a relatively high pay.

The place I would recommend is Bangkok as its much better value and it’s exciting as well. The only draw back is visa runs which might be annoying if you want to live long term.

You could try KL to see if that suit your needs . They have a second home program which you can invest in real estate.

[Irish]

(02-27-2019 12:03 AM)worldtraveler3 Wrote:  

Singapore is not good for digital nomad software developer. Too expensive and not fun.
You might as well be based in bangkok.

However it’s great if you are working in a corporate job and on a relatively high pay.

The place I would recommend is Bangkok as its much better value and it’s exciting as well. The only draw back is visa runs which might be annoying if you want to live long term.

You could try KL to see if that suit your needs . They have a second home program which you can invest in real estate.

Well hard to argue against such in depth analysis...

Given OP had listed off the likes of NY, Vegas, Barcelona and Japan on his shortlist of places I think it's fair to say that despite his relatively young age he's probably not one of your usual broke as shit digital nomads. Hence why I think SG may potentially be a decent prospect for him. As far as a home base is concerned, personally for me there is no other place I would rather stay. Had multiple forum members come through here and express the exact same sentiment. But again, everyone's circumstances are different.

For sure BKK is more fun to visit (although personally I find it a bit overrated as the nightlife seems to be too riddled with whores and ladyboys). But as I said, living there is a different prospect altogether. Plus OP mentioned he wants to travel a lot. I can't imagine he will fancy the pain of flying out of BKK or god forbid Don Muang every other weekend.

That said however, I've always felt that there's another layer to Bangers that I've been missing. Unfortunately my only experiences there have been either lads weekends partying down Soi 11 or hanging with PUAs/RVFers who spam the RCA religiously every night. But I get the sense that if you live there and start making connections there's a whole lot more to the city underneath the surface and the established expats there take great care to segregate themselves from the drunken farang tourist hoardes. For sure it has potential which is worth researching a bit more. Particularly if OP can dictate his own hours (there's always stuff happening midweek as well as weekends) and be earning the same money no matter where he stays (which would mean massive cost savings as compared to SG). Not sure if there are any guys living in Bangkok on the forum here who can chime in on what it's like living as a long term expat in the city.

KL I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. It's basically like Bangkok or Jakarta except minus the nightlife, fun and chicks. Had to go there multiple times with work, hate it every time. If they offered me an amazing expat package I would maybe do 6 months where I would focus on saving cash, gym, business and forget about partying/chicks with the occasional chilled night out in Bangsar (where I would probably stay). Or I would fly out every weekend, but not sure I could be doing with the pain of the 1-2 hour drive to the airport every friday

[RoadTo100]

Personally --- have not had a 1-year lease since 2014 (late 20s currently). I've been through periods where I get tired of traveling, but then I read another datasheet on the RVF and think "Damn, I gotta check that place out" (Uganda anyone?).

So in short, I blame the forum! (for me not having a homebase)

Now, reading through this thread I see a lot of talk about the tangible qualities of a place... For example the OP's list:

(05-18-2018 10:23 AM)TheFinalEpic Wrote:  

1. It is a major hub (or close enough to a hub) so that traveling domestically and internationally would be a non-issue.
2. Close to the ocean or on the ocean.
3. Mild climate. I don't mind cool, but would like to stay above freezing year round.
4. Relatively large city/metropolitan area. In excess of a million people for sure. I enjoy the bigger city vibe, it's inspirational to me, makes me work harder.
5. Fairly tax friendly for both corporate and personal tax rates.

But nothing about the people/culture/your pre-existing relationships/friends/acquaintances.

Personally, the conclusion I'm coming to is that there is no perfect place, no ideal place. Everything "evens out". Hassle-free places with nice weather are going to be more expensive (and as an online worker the higher salaries do not make up for that). Places with shitty infrastructure/corruption are going to... Well, obviously be a shitty pain in the ass requiring tons of patience on a near-daily basis. Supply and demand at work, basically.

While mid-20s is still quite young, chances are you already know/have met most of your closest friends already. Don't discount those relationships. And your family. To me, that is the X-factor that makes one place a clear winner over another. Whatever place you pick, it might take 5+ years to recreate the kind of ties that you already have today.

As I mentioned, though I don't myself have a homebase yet the above is starting to dictate my travel plans more and more. In 2019 it looks like I might only spend ~2-4 months in "new places", with the other 8-10 months spent revisiting places I've already been to and spending time with the people in my life who are important to me. The way I figure, over the next few years the "gravity" of one of these places that I keep revisiting is going to grow and grow until it's a no-brainer which one should be my homebase. Most likely, that will be getting serious w/ a girl from one of those places, but it could just be establishing deeper and deeper ties/relationships with friends in that place.

To me, that's a much more organic approach to picking where to settle down as someone who is location independent.

[TheFinalEpic]

The information in this thread continues to provide!

Recently, I relocated to Montreal, Canada as an interm base of operations. I will be staying here 6 months per year (the best months - ie. Summer), and shipping overseas for the colder months of the year and events that I must attend. That's not to say that it's my end all be all city, but it is a significant upgrade from where I was previously living.

I feel that it is definitely a hub with access to most places in the world with a direct flight or short layover, and with ease of access to other hubs like JFK in NYC and Toronto Pearson that this is a non issue. The climate in the summers is excellent without question, and the city is amazingly beautiful with historical touches that have left me in awe. The ocean thing is a bit of a misnomer for Montreal, as it is an island, but its in the Saint Lawrence River. I travel enough that I can probably have my fill of this the other 6 months of the year. It's the second largest city in Canada, with 4.1ish million people living in the metropolitan area including Laval and other communities. The tax friendliness is kinda something I will be dealing with however.

In addition to this, I wanted to get my French to a point of fluency, and this city is the second largest French speaking population in the world besides Paris. The people have all generally been super friendly, and the women... compared to home, are ridiculously beautiful. The Moroccan blue eyed women here... don't get me started. Everyone walks, so there's vastly fewer overweight people, and the city's metro system and busses are all you really need to get around the island of Montreal.

I'm also a huge fan of how there are fewer chains here, more independently owned shops, and the prices are all relatively inexpensive. Rent is also very reasonable, with 2 bedrooms in excellent areas going for $1500 CAD. All in all, not too many complaints as of thusfar, but I will continue to comment here and in specific threads as to my experiences.

I will continue to look into this as an exercise in lifestyle design and finding out where I best belong via my travels. I am stoked to be in a new city though, and so far things have been solid!