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Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

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Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#41

Post by edge17 »

jasonkester wrote: post #20
goatforce5 wrote: post #12

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…

Absolutely don't buy a RTW ticket. 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 a…

RTW tickets are cost effective. You can usually pay some extra money to massage the dates, and it'll probably still be cheaper than buying tons of tickets (at least when I bought one... not sure how the prices have changes since)

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#42

Post by acabal »

jasonkester wrote: post #20
goatforce5 wrote: post #12

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…

Absolutely don't buy a RTW ticket. 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 a…

Costwise this kind of depends on where you're going... overland bus travel in Asia is much cheaper than, say, taking a train domestically in Germany.

But I totally agree on the schedule part. Every time I've booked in advance something has come up that has made me have to change plans, and I've regretted it. Buy one-way tickets and no more than a month in advance.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#43

Post by mgw »

jasonkester wrote: post #20
goatforce5 wrote: post #12

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…

Absolutely don't buy a RTW ticket. 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 a…

Have you been travelling alone or with a friend / girlfriend / wife?

I want to do this as well, but the biggest question for me seems to be who to go with or going alone (and then just trying to meet people everywhere)?

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#46

Post by davidw »

pmjordan wrote: post #13
kanwisher wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sorry, refusing to understand local tax law, or refusing to pay someone who understands it is terrible advice. Ignorance is not a valid defense.

Part of understanding may also be understanding what you can 'get away with'. That sounds bad, but may well be a fact of life in some places, especially if you're not really invested in staying there for the long haul.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#48

Post by pmjordan »

davidw wrote: post #46
pmjordan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, refusing to understand local tax law, or refusing to pay someone who understands it is terrible advice. Ignorance is not a valid defense.

Part of understanding may also be understanding what you can 'get away with'. That sounds bad, but may well be a fact of life in some places, especially if you're not really invested in staying there for the long haul.

Yes, absolutely. This may be as simple as periodically leaving the country for short trips, but you have to know.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#49

Post by nagrom »

andreshb wrote: post #22

It seems to me all the answers so far make it look far more complicated than what it actually is. What I've done is just travel as tourist staying in each country around 3 months. When I "lived" in Chile I just took weekend 'visa vacations' to Argentina and had my stay extended for another 90 days. Nothing changed in terms of taxes for me, since I never really become resident of another country. Earning money online…

This is great advice. I've done something similar and found that after about 2 months you can get a flavour of what life in that country would be like. It's a fantastic thing to do, and it will completely change your perspective on life in the UK!

It's incredibly important to have someone you can trust to take care of admin issues at home if you're gone a while though. My parents helped me out, but a lawyer or accountant will also work - but cost you a fortune. Possibly you can hire a temporary admin assistant, but make sure you trust that person to look after everything while you're gone; you never know what will happen.

The only problem that I've found has been getting a reliable internet connection for a couple of months at a time - if you have to work on sensitive things or you want to work on things for a long time, you don't want to work from public hotspots. I'd love to get some advice for that situation myself.

Re: Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

#50

Post by borism »

gommm wrote: post #24

I've been doing that for a few years now, first working in Japan, then living for some time in Malaysia, Thailand and China before deciding on settling here for some time.. For Japan, I was working there for a Japanese company so it's a bit different... For visas in Malaysia and Thailand, I just switched between both countries for 2-3 months at a time (but stayed more in Malaysia), so I didn't need a visa for such a…

> Since, my official country of residence at the time was france, I didn't have to pay any taxes.

I'm sorry, but I have hard time believing that. Since you were still a resident of France I'm sure you have to pay some tax to France in some shape or form.

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