The Best Countries for Canadians to Move Overseas

more canadians than ever are calling nomad capitalists and are moving overseas to go to places that have lower taxes are more free and are more safe and today i'm going to walk you through some of their thought processes and talk about some of the best places that they're going as we always say here at nomed capitalists there is no universal best so what i want to do today is walk you through the thought process and some of the particular places that stand out where canadians are moving this could also apply to americans or australians or others who are used to a western standard of living who want to leave their country now because they realize they're paying too much they're not getting enough return and their country is heading in the wrong direction if it's your first time here my name is andrew henderson the founder of nomad capitalist we're a boat team consultancy that helps seven and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors legally reduce their taxes overseas protect their assets and build their options with things like second passports and diversified portfolios i'm also the host of the biggest and best offshore conference called nomad capitalist live and so let me start with some things to consider if you are coming from canada and again similar thought process could apply to someone from the u.s australia new zealand what have you uh one of the big things is assessing your priorities taxes and finances freedom and lifestyle what are your biggest concerns are you concerned in canada about i'm worried my assets are going to be frozen or are you worried about my taxes are too high i'm paying a lot are you worried about your freedom what particular freedoms are you worried about and are you trying to build a bigger lifestyle that mean could mean getting away from certain cultural issues in canada or the u.s it could mean just building a better lifestyle somewhere that's warmer it could mean having an adventure so you can take tax freedom and lifestyle in different ways but you could assess what's best for you because i think that one of the things when it comes to deciding what's the best place for you is assessing those priorities for example you've seen a lot of people and when i was in mexico on a couple occasions last year ran into a lot of our fans who were there seeking more freedom the country was more open the lifestyle's great the weather is great the food is some of the best food in the world i mean they have a great freedom and lifestyle benefits by being in mexico now on the tax side is mexico the best place to live you know mexico there's certainly some nuance to mexico's tax code but if you can live in mexico full-time i mean that may not be your number one tax place to live certainly not everyone is living in mexico is paying taxes some of them perhaps should be some that may have an argument why they don't need to be but especially if you're leaving a high tax country like a canada and especially if you're running a business or have certain investments depending on those investments are there's many factors and we're not giving tax advice but there may be some reasons why mexico wouldn't be the best fit for you but if you say okay you know what freedom and a great lifestyle that could also mean lower cost of living if that's important to you then mexico morse may score very highly and you could figure out the tax stuff secondarily you may pay more than you would need to somewhere else but you know if the idea of you know mexico versus panama for example panama is generally speaking more expensive because the dollarized economy um it's an interesting place there's certainly things going on there but i don't think it's as vibrant as mexico for example i think mexico was a bit more open in recent years it was a bit easier to get into at times and so you know panama's tax policies are going to be more straightforward more beneficial for a foreign entrepreneur or investor but you've got to decide you know which am i prioritizing and so once you establish those priorities you can start to look at what are the other factors that go into those decisions one big thing that i'm hearing a lot about especially from entrepreneurs are time zones some investors too hey i've got to trade the market if i move to asia that's not the best place for me because i don't want to start working at 9 30 at night and work till 4 in the morning maybe some people you know invest in asian stocks i certainly have friends who did that living in the united states and they said now now they live in asia and not only do they get to you know see what's going on in asia and perhaps use that to influence their investment decisions but now they're at least on on the on the right time zone but if you're investing in in western markets or north american markets if you're doing business with north american clients certainly you might want to consider that when i spend time in asia i generally get a little bit later start i have our first you know team members that start around one in the afternoon that i'm talking to going up to about midnight and you know i may be working until one or two in the morning sometime if you have any kind of business in north america you know and you've lived in asia you know that's how it works and so if time zones are important to you if that's where your business is if that's where your clients are if that's where your investments are then you may want to live a little bit closer some people also when they're leaving western countries that have certain conveniences they feel a certain comfort saying you know i have those rental properties back in canada i have those rental properties in the u.s i don't want to be too far away it's sort of a safety blanket but i think that's a fair thing to take into account when you're first moving overseas is give yourself that safety blanket don't be too harsh on yourself and say i only want a strategic plan when i'm working with folks our entire team knows it's human plus strategic the human number has to be considered because if just because you know malaysia may be the best strategic place for you if you don't feel comfortable there you're not going to do it or you're not going to keep doing it and so rather than having you save taxes for a year and then move back why not just look at a place that has the similar attributes of malaysia what's the second best choice that suits the more human element and so time zones are one um physical proximity to to business knowing that like hey if i had to get back on a plane we've worked with a lot more brick and mortar business owners in recent years who want a plan b and they want to get out of canada for example right maybe you say hey if if the manager of my factory um you know if everything falls apart i want to know i can get back and it makes me feel comfortable that's a non-stop five hour flight more than i have to stop you know one or two way one or two airports along the way and it's it's 22 hours keep that in mind i think that's valuable another thing is proximity to family so are you taking care of elderly family i've always said number one bring your family with you they might get better medical care they might get cheaper medical care at a discount what i've seen from a lot of people in canada and a lot of people all around the world is we don't tell our parents we don't tell our family about this because they don't agree with us all of our concerns about where the country's going they don't get it or i've had people where it's like oh we grew up in a very middle class family we're the first ones to become millionaires and they're like why don't you just pay well mom because you know you're paying four thousand dollars a year and i'm paying four hundred thousand dollars a year it starts to feel like i'm not getting what i'm paying for and so a lot of people that i talk to that's why people come to nomad campus live to meet hundreds of like-minded people our live conference but you want to if you do have family if you do a friends if you can't bring them with you or if they don't want to come with you or if they don't agree with you i mean the more they don't agree with you maybe you just say listen this is not a relationship that needs to be nurtured more at a certain point maybe you say people are really arguing with their families sometimes i want to go overseas and there and they're berating them maybe that's not a supportive relationship but if you want to be close again give yourself that comfort give yourself that human element that hey maybe you take the second or third most strategic decision and again for a lot of folks from canada and from the u.s they're looking at latin america precisely because of that now let's talk about the last element and then get into some specifics development and consumer conveniences uh i have a home in bogota colombia i spent a little bit of time there there is amazon prime it's relatively efficient it's not quite the center of the us because a lot of the stuff comes from the us and it's shipped they have a pretty fast shipping system but it's not same day it's not next day it is affordable and you can get free shipping obviously countries in western europe have that uh i guess singapore probably has that and then in countries like malaysia you have services like lazada so laura different you know regions have you know in colombia and parts of south america there's arabi not nearly as good i think lazada in southeast asia is not nearly as good you know if you're looking for that amazon level convenience then that's something to consider so development and consumer conveniences we're going to go back to tax freedom and lifestyle one place that we've seen some wealthy folks from canada and the us live some of them came directly from there others had lived in the cayman islands and other places that they felt were becoming less free they moved to nicaragua now it was interesting because i was talking to someone recently from canada they said isn't that run by dictators i said did you mean canada or nicaragua nicaragua i've been there not a very developed place there's some beautiful parts of san juan del sur if you like surfing um you know northern nicaragua leoncinodega that can work for you so you've got a lot of the benefits by the way you've got some very organic foods you go and have just great fish tacos at a local local street market i mean it is definitely more laid back if you are looking for the cayman islands lifestyle you're not going to find it in nicaragua you're going to be basically left alone uh you're probably not going to be quite as safe as you would be in many other places i think you can find safety anywhere you could live in a gated community you could live in an oceanfront you know community with expats certainly there are places like that in a lot of places in latin america where you can be in the kind of community behind the locked door if that's what you want but that's the kind of example of a decision that someone might need to make is do i want to have kind of the ultimate of freedom plus tax you know plus warmer weather am i willing to give the development of my winding up a little bit of safety certainly latin america i believe can be plenty safe i think you know the capital cities of central america panama city excluded are definitely less safe you know from guatemala all the way down down to costa rica so if you're me and you want a city central america is not going to be your place if you consider mexico city central america if you consider panama city central america you would then those can be good but if you live in costa rica understand costa rica which you know does have tax incentives at least for the moment being um is good weather is a relatively straightforward residence permit does have great beaches does have a great expat culture i mean you're you're not going to be in a city and so latin america is popular but depending on where you want to be you might have to give up city living you may have to give up some consumer conveniences or you may have to be a little bit more adventurous right go down to south america you can go to uruguay and they have a great tax incentive and i think it's pretty safe it's also relatively boring it's also a lot further away from the us and canada from pretty much anywhere quite frankly i mean by the time you're flying to montevideo and you're driving to punta deste or wherever you're living um i mean you you could get to like eastern europe by that point i mean it's really not any further argentina not that different i mean chile tax incentives but that's far away as well and you're going to not have as much freedom there so a lot of south america is good if you live there part-time but if you can live in colombia full-time you're going to have crazy taxes to deal with not a bad place to live part-time but you live there full-time and you're going to be paying and so if taxes aren't important i would also argue tax compliance is an issue right how long does it take you to do the work but if you don't care about taxes if you want freedom and lifestyle i mean colombia like many latin american countries you know they say certain things and people don't do it and the lifestyle is good you can you can live an affordable life you have to decide so that's what latin america is western europe a lot of folks from canada the u.s they think well that's not going to be any more free what do you have in western europe you have countries that are surprisingly tax friendly whether it's portugal ireland italy switzerland even the uk we've had some folks who have gotten uk citizenship by descent even double descent for grandparents and we've helped people do that and then you can live in those countries um if you happen to be a uk citizen by descent you may not qualify for the tax incentives there may be a way to do it um but anyway plenty of countries in western europe where you can get good tax rates obviously the quality of life is good there's plenty of services there's plenty of developments listen plenty of good roads in mexico plenty of good roads in colombia if you're going out into the countryside the roads do start to fall apart in some countries but there are roads everywhere maybe a little bit better in western europe tax friendly is good lots of services the continent is reopening but i think some people think oh the european union that's not the most free place in the world i think it may be a little bit more free than canada or australia um australia where they want their own citizens into the country i do think that europe potentially in some ways i mean a lot of those countries do score much higher on on not having corruption to where they do in some ways try at least try and work for the citizenry more than you might find in the us or canada um but it's not the ultimate in freedom so the question is latin america versus western europe for example am i willing to live in a place that does have some more regulations that are actually applied in order to have the greater quality of life maybe i'll live in one of those tax friendly countries where i can have a very low tax rate um i don't suggest that anyone moves to france if you want to move to eastern europe that's certainly an option we've had a lot of folks from canada australia moving to serbia moving to montenegro moving to georgia those countries either have very friendly tax policies for foreigners or they have very flexible tax codes that can be made tax friendly for foreigners so that can work as well but listen you are going to have more services available to you in dublin you are going to have obviously more english spoken in dublin than you are in belgrade pretty good english in belgrade quite frankly compared to dubli not as good of english right so am i willing to go somewhere like it to bilisi georgia where the tax policy is great the immigration policy straightforward tech you can live as a tourist for 360 days zero to one percent tax rate wide open organic food healthy you know pretty much back to normal or do i want those greater creature comforts and i think the answer in finding your best place is again prioritize tax frame and lifestyle which is most important there are some options where you can find all three but it's never quite perfect you have to understand what you're giving up and to understand what you're willing to give up you have to understand what you're gaining dramatically lowering your taxes is possible protecting your assets you have to move to protect your assets you can move the assets but if you want to move and protect your assets maybe that's an indication you shouldn't be there anymore you can certainly find more freedom you can certainly find a better lifestyle better weather more consumer conveniences nicer people better relationships what have you but which is number one because you're always going to get something that's missing asia by the way slower to reopen for most folks who are asking this question where should i go along with the time zones along with the proximity asia just isn't as popular right now if you just want to get away from everybody and you don't care about that stuff then asia could be interesting we've always talked about malaysia singapore thailand those are places that that are starting to reopen but it's latin america western europe and eastern europe but each comes with its own benefits and so if you assess those priorities that's important and then if you realize what are the actual safety blankets what are the safety blankets that you want in your life do you want good english a country like belize in central america ireland the uk those are places where you can go and obviously you know you've english right out of the box right if you speak spanish or you're willing to learn spanish before you go obviously that opens up a number of countries that said spanish spoken in uruguay not nearly as easy to understand as in colombia which is not as easy to understand as in mexico for example where they probably speak more of an americanized or north americanized way and so those are the things you've got to ask yourself um what am i compromising and what do i really need in my life i i would always put the human element in any plan when i'm working with folks because understanding i just want to speak english is an important piece of self-awareness that will help you make the decision because the goal is not to sprint the goal is a marathon the goal is to find a place where you want and at least dip your toe in if you live in ireland for the next five years and you save some money and you build a lifestyle there and then you start poking around and discover you know what now we're ready for serbia now we're ready for montenegro now we're ready for whatever the next place is nothing wrong with that you can do that but i think that the the risk is if you find a place that you're being a little bit too aggressive you're going to go back too quickly you might lose the tax benefits that you got certainly you wouldn't get any future tax benefits you would go back to a place where maybe you don't agree with the country you don't like the freedom so be a little gentle on yourself when finding the best place for you and that's the criteria that i would use to do it

Channel: Nomad Capitalist

Views: 276,881

Keywords: nomad capitalist

Id: 5XdsSFlt5Qg

Length: 16min 26sec (986 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022