11–20 of 98 posts
In some countries, merely visiting them for a holiday while being in charge of a business abroad is considered taxable.
The round the world ticket more or less forces you to keep moving as it'll only be valid for 12 months, and so you should be able to get by by just using tourist visas in each country. After a year of hopping around the world you'll be in a position to know whether you want to keep being a nomad, or if there was somewhere you visited that you'd like to go back to a little more permanently.
(Keep in mind that if you turn up to pretty much any country and say you intend to stay for 1 or 3 months as a tourist they'll want to know that you can support yourself - have your bank statements handy!)
But, yeah: go travel. Do it now before you start putting down roots. I once bought a round the world ticket to do 12 months of backpacking. 14 years on and i'm on my fourth country that i've 'permanently' settled in, with a fair bit of traveling thrown in along the way.
I just recently moved from the US, where my own company is based, to France, where my wife is from. I am still learning about the complications, but I can tell you of some of the challenges I've already dealt with: Currency exchange: rates fluctuate on a regular basis and that makes budgeting a challenge. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose depending on how the currencies move. Insurance: health insurance by a p…
I would totally agree with the "extended" vacations it's going to give you less grief then trying to understand tax law in every country. Plus proving to your home country your really living abroad.
The easiest way to go about it is to maintain your permanent residence in your home country and enter new countries as a tourist/visitor.
This officially means that you can't "work" in the country you are visiting. However, as long as your clients are not local and you get paid to your bank account in your home country, you should be ok.
I would highly recommend you review your tax situation for your country, and especially the country you will be visiting if you want to stay longer than their tourist/visitor visa allows.
I'm going through all this myself and have started blogging about it at http://expatentrepreneur.tv ... A lot of other people blog about the expat digital lifestyle. One I enjoy reading is http://exilelifestyle.com and he has links to quite a few others.
I highly recommend South America to you... it has a fast-growing tech/startup community (Chile, Brasil, Argentina, Peru) and there are tons of expats as well.
If you make it to Peru feel free to look me up!
I'm quite in the same position like you (web business), I tried to go to the US for one year, but the visa progress is hell, too over one year to first tell us it is going to be ok, later revoking it. The US visa system is seriously broken. Other than that issues, I think its a great idea.
The US visa system is seriously broken.
If I were the OP I'd stick to the EU, Australia or New Zealand (both of which have fairly liberal immigration policies, especially for UK citizens).
That being said thats really the only grumble I hear, the quality of life (weather especially!) seems to outweigh these issues.
Some useful links...
Btw, the best thing to do for you at this point would be to talk to the tax planning advisor. Pick a big accounting firm with lots of experience and in one hour you will know if you want to do I or not.
There are bunches of blogs from those that do this as a lifestyle. Thailand is a pretty popular spot for digital expats. http://thrillingheroics.com/about
I second that. Firsthand. Life is generally very cheap here. Overall, you will feel like walking on eggs for the two first years but after that things will be just fine. Culturally, you will need to be able to handle huge alignments. Honestly, there are ups and downs to this but you will feel alive like never before (this is a general statement about living abroad). I would advise contacting a good lawyer to help you…
If I found myself in your shoes, i'd probably be planning an itinerary with one of the round the world tickets offered by the various airline alliances. They're really good value and allow you to see a heck of a lot of the world. And keep in mind you can use the round the world ticket to get to, say, Hong Kong (I love it there - recommended) and then use local budget airlines to hop between South East Asian countries…
Definitely go around the world, but do it by purchasing a single one-way ticket. Travel overland as much as you can and when you hit the end of a continent, buy another one-way ticket to the next.
There's nothing worse than having a date on a calendar. It will mess up your trip over and over again, even if it's months in the future. Avoid dates at all costs. Get to the first place and let things work themselves out from there.
I've done 3 laps now, and the only regrets I've ever had have been things skipped to catch a flight or meet somebody at a fixed time/place.