Six Reasons to Live in Western Europe

for many of us the first time we traveled internationally was to western europe and yet many aspiring nomad capitalists have entirely crossed western europe off their list of potential places to move today to give you six reasons why you might want to put it back on your list [Music] indeed for years we've been telling you how the west is in decline countries like the us and canada and australia have seen fewer freedoms they've seen higher tax rates their economies their freedom of speech their corruption all going in the wrong direction the culture is going in the wrong direction and many people have basically lumped in every western country along with that no doubt the european union has restrictions regulations they have seen some of their freedoms taken away countries like the uk left entirely with voters supporting the very premise we'd be better off on our own and yet is the uk particularly any freer in ways that may matter to you on a day-to-day basis today i want to talk about that if it's your first time here my name is andrew henderson the founder of nomad capitalist we're a boat team consultancy for seven and eight figure entrepreneurs and investors who want to legally reduce their taxes protect their assets and increase their options overseas with things like second citizenships i'm also the host of the biggest and best offshore conference called nomad capitalist live i think one of the reasons number one to consider western europe is it is a wide selection of countries you have some that are no doubt going through some problems where they are over-regulated where they are over-taxed and where the population is very much in favor of that you could make an argument for scandinavia and say hey listen people generally speaking like the idea of not having financial transparency and paying taxes to support general warefield and you know everything is taking care for the tear of them you could also argue that those economies while they are technically more free and different reports than the united states economy hey they're not great places to go and start a business and you get to make a decision now for the people we're talking to living in norway probably isn't that interesting but that is not all of the west you could certainly make arguments that norway is one of the least corrupt countries in the world it's very transparent they've done a good job of managing all that money they take in through their sovereign wealth fund for their citizens just as people often refer to africa as a country rather than a continent that has well over 50 countries in it i think that people overlook the fact that there are some hidden gems in western europe where they are trying to move in the right direction they may be part of the european union you're not going to get the maximum freedom you could get anywhere in the world but here's why i mention this we work with a lot of westerners here on a daily basis we've seen more americans more canadians more australians who are just tired of the direction that their country isn't going i think that the idea of western europe to them may be appealing in the sense of it gives you some of what you're you would like to have in a country it certainly has its share of downsides but it may be the kind of safety blanket move that gets you out of your country by saying here's something that is similar enough here's a brand name that i know where i can still make some improvements which is what i'm going to cover in these six reasons and so therefore it could be called the training wheels called the baby steps maybe it's the final place where you can go all of us have different desires whether it's tax freedom and lifestyle you can evaluate which one of those three or how those three are important to you but i think that despite the fact that the problems in europe are regulations taxes restrictions to some extent culture there are some potentially ways you can get around that and so number one reason to consider western europe is we're not talking about france we're not talking about you know norway for example we can acknowledge those countries may have some utility to some people they may have some benefits for certain kind of people but probably not for a seven or eight figure entrepreneur but you have some standards where countries like portugal for example is the government really that right wing no but they realize we're a small country and unlike spain next door we don't have the same brand name we don't have the same population size we don't have the same tourism we need to do things to bring people into the joint how are we going to get people in and to me is that the perfect approach no but it's a better approach than a country like a u.s where gavin newsom says where are you going to go where are we going to go there's 252 countries and territories around the world there's a lot of places to go gavin and so if you're in a place perhaps for some folks making an incrementally better move with a more familiar lifestyle is a good thing so number two there are countries in western europe that do have low taxes not necessarily headline tax rates that are low but tax rates that are low for foreigners or exemptions or non-dump programs or certain ways that you can reduce your taxes in many cases down into the single digit percentages if you are a seven or eight figure entrepreneur or investor and so for some people western european countries with their network of tax treaties and just the optics of living in europe that may benefit certain people there are certain people who come to us and say i want to live in a country that i'm proud to tell my customers and my clients about because if i say hey i'm packing up and moving to panama they're going to be a little bit weirded out and so you can get low tax rates in countries like portugal or italy or greece or switzerland or ireland or the uk that have certain tax incentive programs spain is a tax incentive program i wouldn't really give much thought to that but you have a number of countries in europe that have these incentives and so those incentives might last for 10 or 15 years they might apply to the money that you bring into the country they might apply to you know certain types of income you could potentially get your tax rate low you could add malls into that list you could add cyprus to the list you've got a good number of countries whether you want to live on a small island it's like malt and cyprus whether you want to live on a bigger island like ireland whether you want english speaking whether you want warm weather i mean you've got a broad diversity generally speaking southern europe has had more incentives because their economies are generally less developed and so you're not going to get nearly as many deals in a country like germany they don't really need to be giving out deals but give some credit i listen would i buy property in spain i would not would i buy property in greece or italy i've said that i wouldn't do that i guess i'd really have to like make it be a lifestyle purchase and just really love living there for me to do it and not worry about the financial implications but no as of right now i would not buy property in those countries but the idea that italy says listen our country financially is not doing that well we've got some problems so rather than beating up people no i'm there is some beating up of locals more on the tax rates but you know what in addition let's bring some foreigners in let's copy what switzerland's done next door they've got kind of the the creme de la creme of tax exemptions which is going to cost you if you're not an eu citizen it's going to cost you a pretty penny to get into switzerland but hey italy says let's copy that system and then greece says let's copy italy's system and let's make it to where you can pay one flat amount there are other territories like gibraltar and like jersey where you can go and you can also pay a flat about and sometimes you get to pay zero so depending on what kind of place you want to live in you can get low taxes and i think what people do is they sometimes write off europe thinking oh look at those crazy high tax rates if you live in you know fill in the blank country it's 37 that's crazy i might as well stay in the u.s well all the aforementioned places will offer certain exemptions some are better for cryptocurrency some are better for businesses you're going to have to go through more broad structuring it's not going to be as simple as just moving to monaco obviously monaco is also in western europe you can use that but you know it's not going to be as easy as moving to um you know panama for example but if you go through the proper destruction you can get low taxes potentially lower than you could in other places again the treaties or the optics or other reasons might help certain types of businesses but low taxes shouldn't stop you from going to western europe the third reason to consider western europe is you can work towards citizenship and citizenship with benefits so if you're actually going to live somewhere all things being equal you would want to live in a place where you can get citizenship now some people like living in dubai that's the lifestyle they want they like that it's just clean easy zero tax you don't need to be doing transfer pricing studies you don't need to be figuring out you know if you're running three percent of the business how much do we bring in we set up a local company that's some of the stuff you might be doing in europe you might be doing kind of you know management different countries i mean there's a lot of different things you might be doing in europe it's going to cost you a bit more to get those low taxes in some cases depending on what your income is the bigger your business the more of a cost obviously in dubai you don't have that what on the other hand what you don't get in in the uae is you're not generally working towards citizenship yes the uae is starting to open up citizenship it's not a conditions that most westerners uh would want and quite frankly anyone with money you probably would rather have a couple different citizenships than be a citizen only the uae and so hey if you want to live in nicaragua some wealthy folks that we're working with have decided to live in or you want to live in colombia or you want to live in uruguay or you want to live in mexico i mean those places will all give you citizenship and hey mexican citizenship is pretty good uruguay's citizenship is pretty good you know you can get decent passports in latin america but here's what you don't get you don't get access to live work study everywhere in europe and you don't get access generally speaking back to the united states if you're a us citizen and so the idea of having a western european eu citizenship means once you have that you've got not even by investing you can go and get malta citizenship they have a program that works in 18 months and we've been working with a number of folks to do that but you know if you say i'm going to live somewhere else anyway why not work your way towards irish citizenship or portuguese citizenship italian's going to be a little bit harder greece i think is less likely to naturalize people switzerland is a pretty tough one to get so some of these countries are better than others and by the way ireland is going to want you to live there longer every year than portugal is right and so you get to decide some of the countries if you get citizenship in the future that might make the tax benefits more difficult to manage and so if you decide you like it there you know maybe you don't want to get the citizenship so that it's the effect and this is why we create holistic plans here is you know what happens in five years when you get the cypriot citizenship right how is that going to impact your tax status and so if the citizenship and the tax does is important maybe you want to look at somewhere else or maybe you want to have a different strategy but the bottom line is you can be working towards a high quality citizenship if you are a westerner you're thinking one day you're not going to want your other citizenship is eu citizenship that diversified versus the us or canada no but the u.s already has citizenship-based taxation and all kinds of regulations on its citizens canada's been talking about that i certainly think there's some risk of the eu doing that although whenever something sprouts up i have recently seen a couple of examples of that kind of fading away it certainly is a possibility but if i had to choose and if it was my priority to say listen if one day i'm not canadian i at least want a way to go back and visit well western european citizenship makes that easier so you have to make a choice sometimes people hear me saying like oh the eu's going this direction well why is he saying to go to the eu now because i'm saying and i'm trying to accept the fact that some people prioritize they will accept the low risk that maybe portugal decides to be a little bit less flexible on taxes for its citizens in the future in exchange they'll take that risk in exchange for you know what i don't want to be an american in six years and so i want a passport that i can earn that allows me to go back some people don't like the idea of malta they figure oh everyone knows what malta is i don't necessarily argue with that i also don't necessarily know that matters but if that's what you feel then it's my job to serve you to find the passport that you're comfortable having i think malta has a great program for someone who wants all these benefits of western europe without this sort of the obligation of living there that's going to come at a cost but if you don't feel comfortable with that then why not go and spend your time in one of these countries so citizenship with benefits and once you have an eu citizenship if you become portuguese you can decide you know what i'm going to go and live in ireland if you become an irish citizen you can even live in the uk and so you have the benefits not only of great travel but the ability to live in different countries and you know what that gives you if you're looking for freedom i know some folks say the eu isn't as good for freedom and obviously there are places that are more free have fewer regulations have fewer restrictions i get it but you know what you have more than two dozen countries and so if you had eu citizenship and later you decided oh my goodness this is just too much there may be a country in the eu like a hungary or poland but they push back in the eu there may be a country like bulgaria which has been well not open to foreigners more open i think internally in the last couple of years so you get to kind of pick and choose not all these countries are going the same direction they're not all belgium obviously some of them are in that league and you wouldn't want to go to those countries but i think having optionality is not a bad thing to do and for some folks who don't mind having a few more regulations this could be a way to get there the fourth thing is you have a great lifestyle for many folks now i get it i've been very adventurous over the years i'm getting to the point in my life now where i'm saying i want a little bit less laos and a little bit more la san i want a bit more of the culture i want a bit more of the services for some people it's weather right and so there's plenty of good weather in latin america there's plenty of good weather in southeast asia i would argue that there are some people who want cold weather and so obviously in europe you've had a lot of optionality and you could live in one and you could spend time in the other with the same residence permit but the lifestyle obviously is there and for folks who are seven and eight-figure entrepreneurs listen some of them many of you you know you don't want to be in panama you don't want to be in places in latin america there's not enough culture for you in southeast asia now some people say i don't care about that stuff you know i want to be outdoors people say hey i mean mexico city very cultural city amazing city great restaurants great everything so i wouldn't cross all the other places off your list i still believe in a lot of the up and coming places that we talk about and i would go there and check those places out before you just simply say oh italy is the only place with culture or portugal is the only place with a good lifestyle that's not true but i think that if the lifestyle is more similar to what you're used to that might be at least a baby step maybe you go and pay a little bit of tax with a little bit of complication for five years for example you get your lifestyle in you deal with some regulations and then you get your citizenship and then you make a decision do i want to live somewhere else in europe or do i want to go somewhere else and now you have the optionality that if you don't trust the u.s you don't trust canada you don't trust australia hey you have an equal quality even better passport so there's different ways to approach this but the lifestyle definitely there's something for everyone in europe even if it does come with potentially higher prices and and a few more restrictions number five is consumer convenience this has been on my mind since we've had a lot of canadians and australians as well as some americans who are really frustrated with the direction their country is going they weren't thinking about doing this a couple years ago and now they're looking now what i've always told you because i do believe in the up and coming countries we talk about eastern europe latin america southeast asia even parts of east asia i do believe um that there is value in those places and that you don't want to overlook them and that the reason many westerners just disregard the idea of go where you're treated best is because they think oh you know this georgia seems like a mess and they kind of make up stories about mexico and oh what about thailand i still believe that those places are good to go to but i also know this some people are just not going to move to georgia no matter how nice it sounds and how much i tell you about it they're not going to go there because there's just something holding them back and sometimes that thing holding them back is they're used to amazon prime they want things delivered next day they want you know meal prep delivered now i would argue you know what i've adapted my lifestyle i don't have alexa spying on me i go to the mall and buy stuff i don't buy a lot of stuff online i kind of enjoy a little bit of a more simple lifestyle and i can afford to order stuff online you know i can afford to have people bring this stuff to me but sometimes it's just nice to have a bit of a simpler lifestyle i kind of like that um but yet if you're used to consumer conveniences and you want to ease into an offshore lifestyle western europe is worth considering because they have that they have amazon they have a lot of the stuff that you're used to now again you know the consumer conveniences are in parts of latin america or asia i have a couple different properties where we go to renovate and they're like what do you want to do with the maids room i don't have a living maid yeah do you always seem kind of weird to me and so you know i'm like all right that's the storage room or that's the room the cat will go when we when we adopt a cat or whatever and uh you know that's a different you know culture right i mean people have we know families in colombia they've had the same made for 25 years they're part of the family and so the maid is part of the consumer conveniences you don't need meal prep delivered from some you know service you found on youtube you know lupita you know is the meal prep service and there's nothing wrong with that but you know for many of us we feel a little bit weird about having someone living in our house so if you want the consumer conveniences you know i remember talking to a friend of mine from switzerland old client many years ago i'm like hey you know how much could could you live on in switzerland he was saying oh maybe 120 000 you know frank's a year i said i would even made for that amount made made what made we don't made obviously people in switzerland have mates but you know the average person is not going to have a mate at the same extent someone in malaysia would have made or someone in mexico would have made which is much more affordable so if you want those consumer conveniences this could be a good place to go and i would see keep your mind open to being adaptive to other approaches either the simpler life or hiring a staff or what have you but again soft landing could make western europe a place for you to go the other thing is central location again i'm talking to a lot of folks who never thought they'd be moving you know years ago we worked with a lot of folks who they just wanted more of an adventure it was all about lowering tax they wanted an adventure those things are still very important but now we're getting very serious entrepreneurs and investors people who sometimes make tens of millions of dollars a year sometimes people who run billion dollar companies and they're like you know what andrew i love that you're malaysia i'm i'm there with you man but uh i gotta be able to get back to the uh the hq in a day uh i gotta be able to uh make phone calls i don't want to stay up until one in the morning i don't mind staying up till one in the morning but i'm finding a lot of the people that are now coming in are like i'm up at five in the morning they're they're working early and living in asia for example doesn't work for them and you know maybe living in south america isn't as safe as they would like or doesn't offer as many benefits as they would like or again they want to work towards their good passport they want their kids to go to a top school that could be another reason but the central location works to where folks from africa you can go back you know south africa belgrade same time zone um you know so very similar times out of africa four five six hours ahead of north america uh as much as what seven or eight hours to the west coast um you know south america is pretty close i mean you're kind of right in the middle of everything so you're never really doing these crazy hours in europe you might be a little bit earlier in the morning it might be a little bit late in the afternoon but you don't really need to be doing anything at one in the morning and so it's easy to manage a lot of people that we're working with have decentralized teams or teams in different parts of the world where there's some folks in the u.s there's some folks in germany for example living in europe you are close to that and you've got obviously a lot of a lot of travel options asia being slower to reopen has been a little bit more difficult but certainly asia going back to north america is a bit more frustrating you've seen some reduced service in recent years not even just in the last two years so it's a little bit harder to get back there whereas europe you've got all kinds of different service and so i think those are some reasons why you might want to consider western europe i'm still a big believer in eastern europe uh in southeast asia and latin america as i said not all those countries offer passports and most of them don't offer the high quality passports that europe does for folks who really need that high quality passport you may not but this is why at nomad capitals we've got a service and it evolves as as our client asking you hundreds of questions that we come up with based on what you tell us to figure out whether western europe is for you which place in western europe would be the best place for you or is there somewhere else so for folks who are open to europe i think those are some reasons why you might want to continue understanding that it's not for everyone

Channel: Nomad Capitalist

Views: 40,824

Keywords: nomad capitalist, go where you're treated best, second passport, dual citizenship, second citizenship, andrew henderson, six reasons to live in western europe, leaving america, cbi, leaving usa, cbi program, moving to another country, Living in Portugal, living in europe, How To Move To Another Country, Consumer Convenience, How to Get Maltese Citizenship, investing, moving to europe, best places to visit in the world, best places to travel, top travel destinations

Id: rtsik1A1FUY

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Wed May 25 2022