Assets abroad
Last updated: March 25, 2023
Spreading your investments and attaining assets abroad is of great importance, because it protects you against most calamities – and, more prominent and thus more dangerous: governments and taxes.
Avoid having (a lot of) assets in a country where you are a resident or citizen, because this once again opens you up to the risk of having them seized and or taxed.
Having assets abroad is a crucial part of internationalizing your lifestyle, and anyone who wants to be a Citizen of the World should consider this.
It is a core part of setting up Bases across the world, together with Residency, Citizenship, Sources of Income, Banking and your Businesses.
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A pretty simple way of getting started with internationalizing your investments and attaining assets abroad is to simply invest in foreign stock markets and global ETFs/index funds, as this allows you to tap into the market of other nations.
An example of this would be Vanguard FTSE All World ETF.
I’ve personally had great success investing in this one, with a great increase and decent dividend yields.
But do keep in mind the manner of how you invest in these foreign markets, because doing it through a broker in your own country is not the best way to get the most out of this Base.
Local brokers are better, but perhaps not accessible to you as a foreigner. It depends on the situation, so do your research.
Buying real estate is another great option, especially in nations such as Vietnam, Uruguay, the Philippines, Colombia, Georgia, Indonesia, and so on, because the returns there are often double that of what you can get in the West.
In addition, it’s much cheaper to invest there, and the real estate prices go up every year because the economies are booming.
Investing in real estate also helps with attaining your Residence Base in some cases.
You can also purchase physical precious gems, gold, silver and platinum, and store them wherever you want (but again, ideally not in a Western nation or somewhere you have to pay taxes).
Investing in precious metals and gems can be done in a number of ways, such as purchasing the physical versions and storing them somewhere in a privately-owned company in a country where you aren’t paying taxes.
You could also buy ETFs or other funds which invest in these things, speculate on their prices, or buy stocks of companies active in this sector.
These assets come with a lot of benefits, such as more portfolio diversification, a sizable increase in value on a long-term basis, they offset inflation, and they’re usually valuable wherever you move to.
And let’s not forget cryptocurrency, which is a truly international asset and something you can carry around with you wherever you go, access whenever and wherever you want.
Crypto is usually completely off the grid, so you won’t have to pay taxes on it (in most cases, although in several EU countries they are now implementing rules which force brokers to report your crypto investments to your government).
You can buy crypto from dozens of brokers, or just from individuals.
Storing them on the platform you purchased them isn’t usually a great idea if a lot of money is involved (they could get hacked or compromised) – you’re better off buying hardware “cold” wallets and storing your crypto there.
That way, you can just keep your capital with you while you’re traveling. You could have millions of dollars’ worth of crypto in your pocket, and nobody would know.
Want to learn more about specific assets? Check out these articles:
Where to put your assets abroad?
Ideally, you would put your assets and investments in countries without a capital gains tax, such as:
For real estate there are other options, and if you invest in this without intending to sell, but rather to rent out, you should pay more attention to taxes on rental income, yearly yield, the ability to actually own real estate, and whether the law favors land lords or tenants.
I’ve done quite a lot of research into this topic for another project of mine (Becoming Financially Independent), and based on these factors, here are some of the best countries in the world to invest in real estate:
- Georgia
- Kazakhstan
- Uruguay
- Croatia
- Mongolia
- Vietnam
- Philippines
- Colombia
- Indonesia
Keep in mind that this is purely based on real estate investments, nothing else.
Keep in mind that this is purely based on real estate investments, nothing else.
However, as you might notice, countries such as Uruguay make an appearance as a recommendation for other sorts of Bases as well, making them suited for multiple Bases – giving you plenty of choices.
I’d advise against putting many Bases in the same country, for reasons discussed in the article about Five Flags/Setting up Bases.
Assets abroad: in summation
Attaining assets abroad is a crucial part of your international lifestyle.
This will provide you with more safety and freedom.
No single government or entity will be able to control all your assets, so even if one country starts to heavily tax you, or restrict your access to, or income from, any asset, you will still have your other assets abroad.
Great options are investing in foreign stock markets (either through ETFs, index funds or individual stocks), bonds, real estate, cryptocurrency and precious metals.
All of those have benefits and downsides, but they sure beat getting 0.5% return on a savings account which your government can seize at any point.
Do your due diligence – research this topic, and get started with investing and creating assets abroad.
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