April 22, 2026

When Your Retirement Goes Global: The Tax Traps and Planning Moves Every Retiree Needs to Know

When Your Retirement Goes Global: The Tax Traps and Planning Moves Every Retiree Needs to Know
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Season 2

A global retirement can be incredible—until an unexpected tax bill, account restriction, or reporting rule shows up. In this episode, fiduciary advisor and lifelong traveler Jimmy Miller shares how internationally mobile retirees can spot risks early and make smart planning moves that preserve flexibility and income. If your life spans multiple countries, this is your playbook for fewer surprises and more peace of mind.

Ask Good Questions is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask Good Questions is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

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WEBVTT

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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We

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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,

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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No

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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio

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or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should

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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

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W FOURCY Radio.

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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,

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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at

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w four cy dot com. This week and every week,

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we will reach for a higher purpose in money and light,

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as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,

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let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we

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start with Asking Good Questions.

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Hello, and welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast. I'm

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your host, Benita bell Anderson, and I am so looking

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forward to today. I have some questions for myself as

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this has to do with travel. I've done a couple

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of travel related episodes, but this is a little different.

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I think You're going to get a lot out of this.

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I am excited to introduce you to my guest today,

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like to invite him to the podcast.

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Stage, Anita.

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Jimmy. Jimmy's actually in Florida but recently come back from Bali,

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and he has the kind of lit you know, I've

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thought about doing what he's done, but not quite. Haven't

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ever gotten there. But let me tell you a little

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bit about this guy. He is a fiduciary financial advisor

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like me. He's an author, he's a speaker, a lifelong

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traveler with a truly global perspective. He has lived internationally

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most of his life, and he understands firsthand the complexities

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of managing money across borders. He's the author of a

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book called Divorce the Irs, now in its second edition,

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and it explores tax time bombs, hidden tax issues that

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can quietly build over time and impact retirement income and

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financial flexibility, including for Americans that choose to live or

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retire abroad. So he has a company called Baobab Wealth

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Abroad and he focuses on educating expats and globally mobile families,

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emphasizing clarity, long term thinking, and helping people better understand

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how today's decisions can create consequences years, countries, some you

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know down the road. So welcome, Jimmy. Do you want

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to add anything to that.

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No, I appreciate the introduction, and I'm excited to talk

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with you about all those different topics.

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So when someone says to you, I'm thinking about retiring abroad,

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what would be the first thing that you wish that

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they would ask you?

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Have they ever been abroad? That's probably the number one thing. Right.

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There's the idea of living and retiring abroad, and then

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there's the reality of living and retiring abroad, and it's

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become much more popular, especially recently. I think the trend

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really started in my business. Where I really saw a

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pickup is when Tim Ferriss published The Four Hour work

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Week and he talked about lifestyle arbitrage and how much

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farther the US dollar can go overseas, and how amazing

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it is to live and work and travel overseas retire overseas.

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I think that's kind of really where I picked up

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and became quite popular. But recently it's quite it's picked

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up because of the political scene and different reasons in America.

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So people come to me from all walks of life

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for all sorts of different reasons of why they might

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want to live, work, retire overseas. But the first question

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for sure is have you been overseas or been where

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you're looking to retire?

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Yeah, because what I'm thinking of is I get emails

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and there's newsletters out there about retiring abroad, about living,

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you know, and it seems like it's almost romanticizing, just

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oh how lovely this would be to you know, any

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anywhere else would be better than here. And it's like, oh,

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you know, I worry about that. What do you think?

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I mean, Like, I've traveled a lot myself. I've been

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overseas quite a bit. But and I'm also a snowbird now.

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I go between Washington State and southern Utah. And so

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what makes an overseas retirement financially different than a long

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vocation or being a snowbird?

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Yeah? I think the easy answer to that is tax residency.

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So there are certainly two levels of retiring overseas for

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most countries in the world. If you're there less than

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one hundred and eighty three days or half a year,

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you don't become a tax resident in that country, And

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that makes things a lot simpler. So if you're just

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looking to go over to Spain or Portugal or Italy

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for four or five months each year to enjoy some

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time over there in a snowbird fashion, but international snowbirding

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type of thing, that's a lot simpler and easier because

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you never become a tax resident in that country. When

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you truly want to go overseas full time and become

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a tax resident and live full time, year round overseas,

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that's where things get a little more complicated for most Americans.

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Wow. So you know, in your opinion, what would be

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some false assumptions that people might have about moving overseas,

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what just might not be totally true.

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Well, from a financial standpoint, which is the way I

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look at most things, the number one thing would be

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if I don't live in America, I don't pay taxes

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in America, and that would be completely false. Unfortunately, America

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is the only country in the world that taxes their

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citizens worldwide. Most countries, My wife is, are.

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We that the US is the only company country that

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taxes their citizens worldwide.

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Well, there's a little tiny country called the Tria that

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also does that, But most people have never even heard

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of this tiny little country. We're the only major country

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in the world that doesn't. My wife is German. When

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she leaves Germany, she doesn't use the fire department, the police,

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doesn't drive on the roads, right, so she can de

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register from the tax system and she's not responsible to

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pay taxes in Germany. But an American that goes overseas,

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even if they've been overseas for ten years, as long

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as they hold their American citizenship, is still required to

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file a US tax return and pay taxes in many

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instances in the United States, even if they're not here.

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Now most countries, if you live there and you become

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a tax resident, you still are taxed on worldwide income.

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But that's different than being required to file taxes in

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the country you don't live in.

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Wow. So let's say somebody has done this and they're

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happily overseas in Portugal or something like that. What would

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be the top two or three quote unquote surprises that

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would show up one to three years after someone relocate.

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So there could be a lot of them, depending on

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how much research they did before they went, but one

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of the top ones is the fact that they still

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need to file and probably pay tax is back in

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the United States. Another big one is that most countries

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around the world won't recognize US accounts the way that

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America does for tax purposes. For example, most of your

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listeners probably know and love their WROTH IRA tax free growth,

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tax free retirement income, but only if you're here in

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the States, and only in the States. That couple in

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Portugal that you just described, they're going to find out

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after they've been there a year or two when they

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file that first Portuguese tax return that the WROTH income

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is fully taxable over there. They don't recognize it. Even

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with the tax treaty, they don't recognize that as a

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tax free account in most of Europe, most of the world.

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There are a couple places the UK recognizes the WROTH,

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but most places won't. And that's a real wake up

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call and that can change your plan completely. If all

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of a sudden you have to pay Portugal level taxes

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on an account that you were acting to be tax free.

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That's a that can make a big difference you receive.

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Yeah, so you talk a lot about tax time bombs,

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So what does that mean? I mean, I think of

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a you know, a cartoon, you know, ticking away. What's

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it mean in plain English? And why do they catch

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people off guard?

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Yeah, it's a great question. So I wrote a book

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called Divorce Irs, and it really outlines eight tax time

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bombs that catch people off guard before and throughout retirements.

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And really what tax time bombs are are unexpected tax

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surprises that pop up at certain points in your life.

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A couple of them we can control, a couple of

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them we can't control. But they're things like I often

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find people get their first Social Security check right and

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they paid into that system for years with taxes, and

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then they're very surprised when they find out that eighty

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five center their Social Security can be taxed. So that's

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a good example of a tax time bomb, or depending

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on how they structured their income, that they might have

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to pay more than somebody else for their medicare premiums

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when they get to retirement, or when rmds kick in

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and they have to take out more than they wanted

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to from a pre tax account and forced to pay

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taxes on it. The widowers penalties another good example when

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one spouse dies and the other spouse becomes in the

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single tax brackets and pays a lot more in the

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taxes than they expected. And then the final one that

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I have in the book is paying taxes from the grave.

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Oftentimes the kids will inherit those iras when they're in

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the highest income brackets of their life, and now they

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have to take all that money out within ten years,

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no more stretch IRA and they might get pushed into

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a higher tax bracket and get that tax time bomb.

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So those are the examples of some of the tax

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time bombs that I try to educate people on. I

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think that in your podcast you're trying to educate people

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on and make them aware of those things that might

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become their way down the road.

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Yeah. I've been married to my husband now for sixteen years,

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and so when I had gone through a divorce, he

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had lost his wife, to his first wife, to cancer.

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And when I met him, he's a retired pharmacist and

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he was working. He went into the Social Security Administration

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because of his wife dying, and they said, well, why

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don't you start your social Security and why not? And

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so he didn't know. He didn't have a financial advisor

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to tell him otherwise, and so he was still working

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as a pharmacist. He's now getting sold security. But then

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at this point it was still age seventy and he

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had to start taking iras out of distributions, out of ISIRA.

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So when I met and when we met and we're taught,

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and we started talking about finances and I did and

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what and so yeah, he had no idea that he

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should have done things differently. So what else can you

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think of when it comes to retirement income tax traps?

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I mean, the ROTH is a good example, people, I

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mean you know, like that's like, oh God, I wish

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I could just change everything in my traditional IRA to

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a WROTH.

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And they can, right, So everybody is eligible to do

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a ROTH conversion. You don't even have to have earned

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income to do a Roth conversion. There's no income limits.

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I talk about Roth conversions. I don't like to call

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a Roth conversion. I like to call it refinancing your IRA,

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because that's really what you're doing, right. Americans do this

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in another aspect of their life all the time, mortgages.

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If if somebody has a six percent mortgage on their

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house and interest rates drop to all time lows, say

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two or three percent, most Americans will rush out and

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pay thousands of dollars in fees, usually stretch that mortgage

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back to thirty years again, so they can take advantage

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of those low interest rates. Now, converting into a wrath

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is really the same type of thing, right, It's taking

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advantage of today's historically low tax rates. And if you

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google tax rates in America, you'll see very clearly that

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we are in a historically low tax even though we

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do it doesn't feel like it. Today's totally get it.

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We are historic and historically low tax rates. And you

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have an opportunity, done smartly through a conferenceive financial plan,

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to refinance all or part of your IRA and pay

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some of that tax now at historically little rates and

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lock in those tax that tax free growth for the future.

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00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.840
And it's not just for you. Whoever inherit your roth

227
00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:55.159
IRA will also inherit it tax free. But going forward,

228
00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:57.639
you know, I tell people, every time you make a

229
00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:00.320
dollar in your IRA or your pre tax four oh

230
00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:03.399
one k, it's not a dollar for you. It's you know,

231
00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:06.120
maybe eighty cents for you and twenty cents for the irs.

232
00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:08.840
But every time you make a dollar in your wroth IRA,

233
00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.960
that whole dollar is for you. Right, So I describe

234
00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:14.879
it as every time you put money into a pre

235
00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:18.080
tax account, you're not really getting a tax deduction, because

236
00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.840
really what you're doing is putting the problem off till later.

237
00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.039
But it could actually be more aptly described as a

238
00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.639
loan from the IRS. When you put one hundred dollars

239
00:14:27.639 --> 00:14:29.960
in that pre tax account and you're in the twenty

240
00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:33.120
percent tax bracket, just to make math easy, and your

241
00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.720
paycheck goes up by that twenty bucks from that so

242
00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:38.679
called tax deduction, it really wasn't a tax deduction. You

243
00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:41.399
just took a twenty dollars loan from the IRS that

244
00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:45.480
you will have to pay back someday. You will, and

245
00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.080
if that account grows, you might have to pay back more, because,

246
00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:50.720
of course, the goal that one hundred dollars is to

247
00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:53.279
become two hundred or three hundred or four hundred dollars

248
00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:55.919
by the time you get to retirement. And if you're

249
00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.200
in that same twenty percent tax bracket and you've grown

250
00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:01.200
to four hundred dollars, you're going to pay eighty dollars

251
00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:05.320
of taxes on that twenty dollars loan basically that you

252
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:09.399
took from the IRS in the beginning. Now, the most

253
00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:11.679
common argument I hear right away, and probably what all

254
00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:14.279
your listeners are thinking right now, is, but I'm going

255
00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.840
to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement and

256
00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:21.360
you're not really, And I call that the myth of

257
00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:25.279
the lower tax bracket. That's true. Some people may be,

258
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.080
especially those who waited right to the end to save,

259
00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.519
or they're just unfortunately going to be poor in retirement.

260
00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:34.360
But for most people that I work with who are planning,

261
00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:36.559
and the people that are listening to a podcast like this,

262
00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.080
they're planning for their future and their savers, and they're

263
00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:42.159
not going to be in a lower tax bracket when

264
00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.720
you factor in that all their tax deductions are gone

265
00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.399
in retirement. The mortgage interest is gone, the kids credits

266
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.120
are gone, the HSA credits are gone, the four oh

267
00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:53.480
one K like, it's all gone, and they're in most

268
00:15:53.480 --> 00:15:55.759
cases eighty five percent of the solid security is going

269
00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:58.080
to be taxable. And so even if they are in

270
00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:02.399
a little bit lower tax bracket retirements, it's never generally

271
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:06.519
low enough that they actually save anything on their lifetime

272
00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:10.919
tax bill, because in my example, even if they go

273
00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.639
down to a ten percent tax bracket from the twenty

274
00:16:13.639 --> 00:16:17.120
they cut their tax brackets in half, ten percent on

275
00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:19.480
that four hundred dollars is still going to be forty

276
00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.720
dollars of tax for that twenty dollars tax deduction or

277
00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:28.159
loan that they took in their working years. Even in

278
00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:30.960
that example, half the taxes is they're still going to

279
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:33.919
pay more taxes than had they just put the money

280
00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.679
in a roth IRA. In the beginning, I used to.

281
00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:44.080
Many many years I was teaching Social Security retirement income

282
00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:47.600
planning classes and one of the things I would ask

283
00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:52.120
the class is what does I R A stand for?

284
00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:56.840
And if everyone is listening, thinks, now, oh, I know

285
00:16:56.919 --> 00:16:59.759
what it stands for. It stands for individual retirement A

286
00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.279
count And I'd say, no, you're wrong, one hundred percent.

287
00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:06.359
And people would do this over and over. They think

288
00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.880
it's retirement individual retirement account. I said, no, if you

289
00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:13.400
go to publication five ninety in the IRS and look

290
00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:17.839
at what it is, it's individual retirement arrangement. And who's

291
00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:22.720
the arrangement with the arrangements with the IRS, which is

292
00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:25.640
just what you're talking about. And people don't realize that

293
00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:28.720
they've made an arrangement with the IRS their whole life.

294
00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:34.839
They absolutely I mean a simple you know, if you

295
00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:38.279
and I just made one small difference in our savings,

296
00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.000
we both worked at the same company. We made the

297
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.880
same salary, but I chose the WROTH four one k

298
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.240
and you chose the pre tax for one k. Man.

299
00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.480
Just that one difference when we both signed up for

300
00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.119
the four one k over twenties or thirty years of

301
00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:55.839
working can make a huge, huge difference to retirement income

302
00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:58.839
because you know, I don't know if you've ever done

303
00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:02.039
a show or taught your listeners provisional income, but that's

304
00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.240
something really important to learn about. That's the calculation that

305
00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:07.160
the IRS does on you when you get to social

306
00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:10.079
security age to determine how much, if any, of your

307
00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:14.400
social security will be taxable. And most people I find

308
00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:17.279
don't ever learn about provisional income till it's too late

309
00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:19.880
and they're already a year or two into their Social

310
00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:23.000
Security and wondering why they're paying so much taxes on

311
00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:26.160
this benefit that they earned by paying taxes.

312
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.160
So what would you say would be an example of

313
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:36.519
a small decision quote unquote small decision that might seem harmless,

314
00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:42.039
but it could be expensive if you change countries.

315
00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:46.680
Yeah, that's a great question. So back to the international

316
00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:50.880
piece for sure, and that is the roth ira that

317
00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:53.920
we already discussed, because in most countries that's going to

318
00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.119
be taxable. So that's small choice. And what you did

319
00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.440
thinking that you were going to stay in America and

320
00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:03.599
then you decide to go overseas can make a big

321
00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:05.000
difference for sure.

322
00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:07.559
So I'm wondering if there's a way to get around it,

323
00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:09.880
So I'm just going to do it. What if so

324
00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:11.759
so say I want to go overseas, but I know

325
00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:18.880
about this? Can I do a distribution from my roth

326
00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:23.599
IRA into my US bank account and then take distributions

327
00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:25.200
from my bank account. Is that a way to get

328
00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:25.880
around it or not?

329
00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:30.920
Great thought? Yes and no. Depends on where you go.

330
00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:35.079
So that is a strategy to let's just take all

331
00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.240
the money out of the wroth tax free before we

332
00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:40.920
go put it into a non qualified or bank account.

333
00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.319
That definitely works in some countries that follows the letter

334
00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:49.079
of the law for sure. Other countries will only tax

335
00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:51.720
on the cost basis. So for a few countries you

336
00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.079
can just sell everything in your wrath and then buy

337
00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:56.759
something new in your wrath to raise your cost basis

338
00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:59.960
for all your investments in there and get away away

339
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.200
with withdrawing only above cost basis. Some countries won't allow

340
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:06.119
you to do that. They'll look at the actual cost

341
00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:08.880
basis of what you contributed to the wrath, not just

342
00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:11.720
the cost basis of the investments inside of the wrath.

343
00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:16.480
So each country has its own playbook. In the real world,

344
00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:20.279
I also see a lot of expats still use their

345
00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:23.960
wrath and not report it in the other country. Now,

346
00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:28.839
technically that's against the law in that country, but the

347
00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:33.119
wroth income doesn't show up on your tax return. So

348
00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:35.079
even a country that's part of FATCA or has a

349
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:38.480
tax treaty and they can request your tax return in America,

350
00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:42.240
oftentimes they can slide that wroth income under the rug

351
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.000
because they just feel like that country shouldn't be able

352
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:46.920
to tax something that they work so hard to have

353
00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:49.680
tax free in their own country. Now, I tell people,

354
00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.680
you know, I'm agnostic to help people do their taxes, right,

355
00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:55.000
there's always the letter of the law, but there's always

356
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.920
people doing their own thing out there as well. Some

357
00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:02.039
people roll through a stop sign. So there's there's things

358
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.240
that you should do, there's things that I see people do.

359
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:07.000
It's there's a lot of gray area as well when

360
00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:10.039
it comes to those expat tax rules.

361
00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:14.599
Well, so we're talking about you know, and I think

362
00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:18.119
probably this might be the reporting rules might be one

363
00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:22.799
of the biggest misunderstood things about this whole thing. What

364
00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:28.559
are the most overlooked issues around you know, reporting rules

365
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:32.279
which you were just talking a little bit about that

366
00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:38.200
can create stress or god forbid, penalties. I can't imagine

367
00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:41.119
what that would be like to be having this wonderful

368
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:44.039
retirement overseas and then have penalties from the US.

369
00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:47.920
The two big ones are the f BAR and the

370
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:53.039
p FECT. We have lots of abbreviations for everything, so

371
00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:58.559
financial bank account reporting the f BAR or FINN send

372
00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:01.480
one one for to get real technical, if you have

373
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.519
a bank account overseas, and most people who are going

374
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.960
to retire overseas, even if they snowburn, retire overseas. We'll

375
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:10.000
open up a bank account and so they can, you know,

376
00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:14.079
do regular life banking pay bills get euros out where

377
00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:17.960
Japanese CN or Australian dollars. So the US says, if

378
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.480
you have a bank account overseas, that's totally fine, but

379
00:22:20.599 --> 00:22:22.960
if you ever have more than ten thousand or the

380
00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:26.000
equivalent of ten thousand US dollars in that bank account

381
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:28.880
on any single day of the year, you need to

382
00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:33.039
report that bank account voluntarily to the IRS, and you

383
00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:36.480
do that through the f BAR or the finsen Form

384
00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:39.480
one one four. You can do it online. It doesn't

385
00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:41.119
have to be filed with your taxes. It's a lot

386
00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:42.920
of people do file it with their taxes, but it's

387
00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:45.119
a separate reporting just to let the IRS know that

388
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:49.119
you have that bank account overseas. And the reason they

389
00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:51.519
want to know is because you're obligated as a US

390
00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:54.920
citizen to pay taxes in America on worldwide income. So

391
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.119
if you have a bank account more than ten thousand dollars,

392
00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.440
you're probably earning some interest somewhere and the IRS wants

393
00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.599
their share of that foreign interest that you're in that

394
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:04.359
bank account.

395
00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:05.200
Of course.

396
00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:10.599
Wow. The other one that I mentioned, Yeah, the one.

397
00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:12.880
The other one that I mentioned is what we call

398
00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:17.240
the PFIIC or passive foreign investment companies. A lot of

399
00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:20.440
people that go overseas to be expats. They want to

400
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:22.960
be local, right, they want to buy property, they want

401
00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:25.960
to have a bank account in their currency. They also

402
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:31.000
oftentimes want to invest locally. So somebody who goes to Europe,

403
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.440
for example, might see EI their local bank or financial

404
00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:38.319
institution that they can buy Vanguard or I Share ETFs

405
00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:42.079
right there in Germany, Italy, Portugal, wherever they're at, and

406
00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:45.720
so they get the idea, well, I'm already buying Voo,

407
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:48.960
I'm buying S and P five hundred at Vanguard. Why

408
00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:50.920
not just buy it while I'm over here in Italy

409
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:54.039
or in Germany. And that's a mistake that a lot

410
00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:57.799
of them make because although it's literally the same ETF

411
00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:01.200
managed by the same company company, has the same five

412
00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:05.839
hundred stocks in it, same manager that oversees it, probably

413
00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:09.400
even the same expense ratio, the US version of that

414
00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:13.160
ETF and the European version that ETF, called the U

415
00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:17.599
sits are legally different entities, and the IRS is not

416
00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:22.599
too happy with people that buy the non US versions. Now,

417
00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:25.759
technically it's not illegal to buy that version, but in

418
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.279
order to discourage Americans from trying to move all their

419
00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:31.000
money overseas to hide it or shelter it from taxes,

420
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:35.160
the IRS says, if you buy the foreign version of ETF,

421
00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:39.400
or a mutual fund, or really any pooled investment, cash failure,

422
00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:42.599
life insurance, money markets, anything that we can considered a

423
00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:45.440
pulled investment, it's going to fall under the p FIT rules,

424
00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:48.640
which basically means you have to report it. In America,

425
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.519
there's about twenty pages of reporting for each individual mutual

426
00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:55.200
fund or ETF that you have, and you don't get

427
00:24:55.240 --> 00:24:59.000
the long term capital gains rates. They tax you with

428
00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:02.359
either ordinary income learn in some cases you basically have

429
00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:05.559
to pay half of whatever you make in taxes to

430
00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:08.880
the IRS. So it's just it's not as great as

431
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:12.079
just keeping your money US based and taking advantage of

432
00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:15.160
those long term capital gain rates that we get here

433
00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:17.880
in America. And that's one that sneaks up on people,

434
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.359
usually after several years, because most of the people that

435
00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:23.839
are going overseas are buying hold type investors like I

436
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.480
imagine a lot of your listeners are, and you know

437
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.039
they'll buy or they'll buy lots of that over time,

438
00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:31.960
and they don't realize till they go to sell those

439
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:35.559
investments over there that they're going to lose so much

440
00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:38.559
money to the IRS and have so much reporting to

441
00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:41.440
do on them that it wasn't in their best interest

442
00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:43.559
to do that. So it's a common mistake.

443
00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:50.000
Well, okay, so when one more little we're gonna you know,

444
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:53.160
I think even though it's like, oh, this sounds like

445
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.359
a lot of work, it's still this is so important

446
00:25:56.359 --> 00:25:59.240
for people to understand. Let's talk a little bit about

447
00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:04.799
you know, you talk about restrictions. What does that mean

448
00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:10.079
when an expad gets hit with account restrictions or what

449
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:13.799
if their US bank says, hey, your account is closed.

450
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:17.240
Yeah, So it's a comment one. I get a lot

451
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:20.920
of phone calls for that because people will often call

452
00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:23.559
me when they run into a problem. And one of

453
00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:26.599
the major problems for expats, for sure is how do

454
00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:28.880
I keep my US based accounts if I'm not in

455
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:32.519
the US anymore. Now. Some custodians are very friendly for

456
00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:35.960
US expats and some are not. So there's a couple

457
00:26:36.039 --> 00:26:38.480
tips I can give your listeners here. For sure, if

458
00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:41.359
you are going to go overseas and really break ties

459
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:43.759
as much as you can with the States, not be

460
00:26:43.799 --> 00:26:47.240
a snowbird international expet or something like that, then it's

461
00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.799
important to find a custodian that's going to be happy

462
00:26:50.200 --> 00:26:53.559
having a foreign address on their account. So a couple

463
00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:57.880
examples Interactive Brokers, and I don't recommend any one of

464
00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:00.319
these over another. I'm just giving this for advice here.

465
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:03.799
Interactive Brokers is a really good do it yourself platform

466
00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:08.319
that works well with international expats in many countries. Charles

467
00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:12.519
Schwab is probably the biggest expat friendly custodian out there.

468
00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:16.200
And if you're working with certain financial advisors. Some the

469
00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:19.960
financial advisors have the option to use a custodian called Pershing,

470
00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:22.839
which you might not have heard of, but they're owned

471
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:24.599
by the Bank of New York Melon. They're very big,

472
00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:28.319
but they only work specifically with registered investment advisors. So

473
00:27:28.359 --> 00:27:32.319
those are the big three that work really well for expats. Now,

474
00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:34.440
other ones that you can think of, like Fidelity and

475
00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:38.599
e Trade things like that, they're not so expat friendly.

476
00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.400
They just don't want to have to follow all the

477
00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.960
rules and do all the tax treaty stuff. So oftentimes

478
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.960
I find expats come to me because they have their

479
00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:49.240
accounts of Fidelity. They've logged in too many times from overseas.

480
00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:53.279
Fidelity tracks those IP addresses and once you have so many,

481
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:55.720
they put a freeze on your account and ask you

482
00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.880
to prove that you are here US based in order

483
00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:03.680
to unfreeze or account. So that's a very think about it.

484
00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.960
Boy, that would hit you, wouldn't it, man, that you

485
00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:11.160
you're logging in from overseas and they're tracking it.

486
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.519
So I recommend to anybody that's doing that if they

487
00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:17.799
want to keep their Fidelity account, either keep a US

488
00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:20.960
based address on there. But when they're overseas, make sure

489
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:24.480
they use a VPN to put themselves back in America

490
00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:27.519
when they're on the web, so they log in, they

491
00:28:27.559 --> 00:28:30.599
look like they're they're in America. That's a that's the

492
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:35.359
easiest way to not to not get your account frozen. Wow.

493
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:41.400
Well, so okay, so let's back up. Everybody might be going,

494
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:45.480
oh my gosh, so what should they do before they

495
00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:51.400
move to reduce the odds of losing access or you know,

496
00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:54.000
having issues like what we've been talking about.

497
00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:57.920
Yeah, that's a great question. They should. They should educate themselves.

498
00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:01.920
There's a lot of content out there. There's several companies

499
00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:07.000
besides behind that specialize in Americans going over going overseas,

500
00:29:07.559 --> 00:29:11.440
and there's YouTube channels about it, there's guides, there's books

501
00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:16.519
even or parts of books about it. So to educate themselves, right,

502
00:29:17.079 --> 00:29:18.799
And a lot of people they come to me just

503
00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:21.200
to do a side by side comparison. They say, Hey,

504
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:23.680
I'm thinking about moving to Italy and I want to

505
00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:26.240
learn from somebody who does it every day like I do.

506
00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:29.799
Or another professional like me, and so they can see

507
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.839
what would life look like financially if they lived in

508
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.160
Italy full time versus if they stayed in America, side

509
00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:40.119
by side, tax comparison, side by side, tax reporting, all

510
00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:42.079
the things that they would have to report to go

511
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:45.640
over there, tax traps like the roth Ira in some cases.

512
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.160
So that's a really good place to start if they're

513
00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:51.759
thinking about going overseas, is to start educating themselves as

514
00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:54.039
soon as they can about all the issues that we're

515
00:29:54.039 --> 00:29:54.599
talking about.

516
00:29:55.319 --> 00:29:58.119
So we've talked a little bit about addresses and stuff,

517
00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:02.799
So what what would you say would be common mistakes? Well,

518
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:11.680
another commitsion's residency and like phone verification, that is those

519
00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:13.119
things or can be triggering.

520
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:18.160
Absolutely absolutely. Another common mistake that I see is people

521
00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:22.839
will leave from a state that has state income taxes. Right,

522
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:25.920
So forty three of the fifty US states have state

523
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:28.759
income taxes, So likely you're a listener out there in

524
00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:31.839
a state that has state income tax. Now, not all

525
00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:33.880
the states are equal and how they treat it, but

526
00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:37.359
some states are very aggressive, especially the high tax states

527
00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:42.160
like New York and California and Hawaii. Right, if you

528
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.640
go overseas and you're not living in that state anymore.

529
00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:49.279
Are you're still subject for sure to federal taxes, but

530
00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:53.319
are you subject to state taxes? And that's debatable in

531
00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:57.200
some states. Now, most states would say as long as

532
00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:59.920
you're not here and you've severed ties from the state,

533
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:03.559
you don't have to pay state taxes. Other states have

534
00:31:03.640 --> 00:31:07.279
a little bit more stance on it that if they

535
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:10.319
can prove that you have any intent in the future,

536
00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:13.079
at any point in time to return to the state,

537
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:15.720
then you're still subject to the state income tax while

538
00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:19.960
you're overseas. California is the state that's known best for

539
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:23.000
this one, and so if somebody still has their bank

540
00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.519
accounts and still owns property, their family is there, California

541
00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:30.440
can make a case that you have an intent to

542
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:34.400
return to California someday, and if they can show that

543
00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:37.440
there's an intent to return, you're still subject to the

544
00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:41.440
California state taxes while you're overseas. So I always recommend,

545
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:43.720
especially if you're in one of those states, you might

546
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:46.359
want to think about changing your US domicile before you

547
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:49.880
go overseas. Change it to one of the states that

548
00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:53.519
doesn't have income taxes. At Washington, Alaska, Tennessee or Florida.

549
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:57.279
That's why our tax residency is Washington State because there

550
00:31:57.359 --> 00:31:59.240
is any state income to though they are trying to

551
00:31:59.319 --> 00:32:01.279
change that right out.

552
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:04.319
They are they are well, So Florida is a safer bet.

553
00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:08.240
Alaska is a fretey safe bet. There's even services that

554
00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.240
help with that. There's one out there called the Savvy

555
00:32:11.319 --> 00:32:14.519
Nomad and that's the only thing that they do, savvy

556
00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:17.880
noomad dot com. He helps people, especially that are already

557
00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:22.000
overseas and having this problem, domicile themselves from whatever state

558
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:26.880
they came from to Florida legally while they're overseas, and

559
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:28.640
make sure that they don't have to pay state income

560
00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:29.599
taxes going forward.

561
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:34.440
So talk a little bit more about where money should

562
00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.960
be held, you know, because that seems like wow. You know,

563
00:32:38.039 --> 00:32:40.160
you want to be able to have access to your

564
00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:47.079
money to pay monthly expenses and stuff. But liquidity, safety, simplicity,

565
00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:49.119
you know, those are all going to be things that

566
00:32:49.160 --> 00:32:52.839
are going to be hard to deal with. What do

567
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:53.279
you think?

568
00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:57.000
Yeah, and the other one is exchange rate risk.

569
00:32:57.640 --> 00:32:59.240
Yeah a lot.

570
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:02.079
So as a general rule of thumb, if you're a

571
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:05.880
US citizen, you should keep all of your money except

572
00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:09.759
your day to day banking money, all your investments, retirement accounts,

573
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:14.079
all your that's up US based. US still has the low,

574
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:20.960
most complex, most liquidity, most regulated financial system in the world.

575
00:33:21.240 --> 00:33:25.039
I can still build an all European portfolio for somebody

576
00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:28.839
living in Europe for lower cost and less liquidity than

577
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:31.799
you can do on any of the exchanges in Europe. Now,

578
00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:34.319
Europe has been coming down in cost as they've been

579
00:33:34.359 --> 00:33:37.079
maturing financially, but they're still not to the level of

580
00:33:37.079 --> 00:33:40.200
the financial markets in America. So Americans always want to

581
00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:43.880
keep the main all their investments for sure US based,

582
00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:47.279
avoid the PFI rules and things like that. It's okay

583
00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:49.359
to have that bank account. We've already talked about that

584
00:33:49.480 --> 00:33:52.720
report it with the FBAR and most of the custodians

585
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:55.200
that are that are happy to take Expats like Charles

586
00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:59.200
Schwab for example, will easily convert money to euros and

587
00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:02.640
send it across US to Europe and euros or Australian

588
00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:05.519
dollars or Japanese n I keep talking about Europe because

589
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:08.440
it's a popular destination for Americans. There's also a lot

590
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:13.599
of Americans going to Southeast Asia or Australia. There's lots

591
00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:17.480
of destinations, so custodian like Schwab will convert to whatever

592
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:20.480
currency that you need, send it to your bank accounts

593
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:25.719
over in that country. It's pretty easy to manage it online. Now,

594
00:34:25.719 --> 00:34:29.159
we also mentioned currency risk there. When you're holding cash

595
00:34:29.239 --> 00:34:31.960
or cash equivalents, you're always going to be subject to

596
00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:35.719
currency risks. Currency is always fluctuating, and some months you're

597
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:38.679
going to get more euros or Japanese n and other

598
00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:41.400
months less, and there's not much you can do about that.

599
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:44.440
That's just part of that expad lifestyle. Most of the

600
00:34:44.440 --> 00:34:46.920
countries that people are going to, the currencies are fairly stable,

601
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:50.880
so it's a manageable thing and it doesn't impact their

602
00:34:50.920 --> 00:34:54.480
life that much. When you're thinking about their investments, like

603
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:56.480
they're roth their Ira, they're old four oh one k.

604
00:34:57.559 --> 00:34:59.440
There is no currency risk. And this is one of

605
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:01.880
the big mis inceptions that I see out there. There

606
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:05.840
is no currency risk when you're holding investments like stock

607
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:10.519
ETFs or individual stocks. People always think there is, but

608
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:15.119
there's not. You know, let's use a Microsoft or Apple,

609
00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:17.719
you know, big, a big company for an example. You know,

610
00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:21.480
Apple is a big company. It's worth exactly what it's

611
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:24.280
worth and you can measure it any day in any currency.

612
00:35:25.159 --> 00:35:29.360
It's not worth more in one currency over another. Currency

613
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:32.360
is only a measuring stick. And so I explained it

614
00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:35.159
often like it's like if you had a small tree, right,

615
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:37.440
if we measure that tree, it's exactly as tall as

616
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:40.159
it is, whether we use centimeters or inches. The tree

617
00:35:40.199 --> 00:35:43.880
isn't taller in one measurement over the other. And if

618
00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:47.079
the tree grows, that's great. And maybe the relationship between

619
00:35:47.159 --> 00:35:49.880
inches and centimeters has changed over time when you measure

620
00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:52.280
your tree again. But again, the tree is just as

621
00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:55.320
tall as the tree is. It's not taller in one

622
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:59.920
currency over another. So that's something that expects don't need

623
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:03.760
worry about in their investments, their stock ETFs and things

624
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:07.280
like that. There is no currency risk when you're looking

625
00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:09.559
at those long term type investments.

626
00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:15.760
Wow, I'm just I'm thinking just to let everyone know

627
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:19.079
we are, we're getting short on time. There's still a

628
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:21.519
whole bunch of questions around this that we haven't even

629
00:36:21.559 --> 00:36:23.599
covered yet. So I think we are going to do

630
00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:27.639
a part too. But before before we start wrapping up,

631
00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:35.599
what about if somebody gets sick financially? What what do

632
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:40.079
you think about about that? With visa and residency rules.

633
00:36:41.320 --> 00:36:44.880
How can getting sick impact people?

634
00:36:46.519 --> 00:36:48.199
Yeah, that's a really good question because that's part of

635
00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:51.239
real life. You know, if you travel internationally, you're going

636
00:36:51.280 --> 00:36:53.800
to get a little cold. You could also use your age.

637
00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:56.639
Especially retirees, healthcare is an important issue and they can

638
00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.639
get sick. Healthcare is different in every country, So for

639
00:36:59.719 --> 00:37:04.719
most retirees, like especially in Europe, you're either required to

640
00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:07.719
buy private health insurance in order to qualify for the

641
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:11.360
retirement visa, or the retirement visa comes with access to

642
00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:14.760
their public health care system, and then often retirees will

643
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:19.679
buy insurance to supplement that public system as well. Now

644
00:37:19.880 --> 00:37:24.079
most retirees will also be eligible and keep their Medicare.

645
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:28.199
In America, not many people on medic you know, there's

646
00:37:28.199 --> 00:37:32.320
not many people on Medicaid that are going overseas, but Medicare. Now,

647
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:35.400
Medicare doesn't cover you while you're overseas, so some people

648
00:37:35.519 --> 00:37:37.840
elect not to have it because they feel like it's

649
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:40.800
a waste depending on how long they're going to be overseas,

650
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:42.880
but a lot like to keep it for when they

651
00:37:42.920 --> 00:37:45.199
do travel back to America or if they did get

652
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:50.199
a serious illness that's life threatening, cancer heart attacks broke,

653
00:37:50.440 --> 00:37:53.320
they can still come back immediately to America and have

654
00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:59.159
that Medicare insurance in place. Most of the world, the

655
00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:03.039
insurance is cheaper as well, and healthcare is less expensive.

656
00:38:03.679 --> 00:38:06.199
So I also see a lot of expats just paying

657
00:38:06.280 --> 00:38:10.320
for out of pocket expenses when they're overseas for health care.

658
00:38:10.679 --> 00:38:12.440
And there's a lot of world class healthcare out there

659
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:15.440
that it's much less expensive than America depending on what

660
00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:16.679
country you're in.

661
00:38:18.679 --> 00:38:22.199
Yeah, so that's a whole other beg of beg of

662
00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:26.360
chips that I can see that you could delve into

663
00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:32.519
that in a big, big way. Well, say somebody, So,

664
00:38:33.239 --> 00:38:34.880
I think what we're going to do is we're going

665
00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:37.119
to wrap up for today and then we're going to

666
00:38:37.159 --> 00:38:40.960
go into some other issues another day. Probably in about

667
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:43.280
a month or so, we'll do a part two. But

668
00:38:43.360 --> 00:38:46.199
what I want to do is say, Okay, say somebody's

669
00:38:46.599 --> 00:38:49.320
thinking about all the different issues that you brought up today,

670
00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:55.239
what would be like a minimum starting point plan for

671
00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:00.719
someone who wants to test drive retire abroad.

672
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:04.920
Yeah, try to spend as much time in the country

673
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.440
or countries that you're considering going as go visit as possible. Right,

674
00:39:10.519 --> 00:39:13.800
I've got I know a couple that recently retired to Portugal.

675
00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:16.599
They'd been there several times. It was their dream destination.

676
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:21.320
But when they were there, it wasn't the burning season

677
00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:23.519
for the crops in the field. So the part of

678
00:39:23.559 --> 00:39:25.719
Portugal that they chose to live in, in the countryside,

679
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:27.679
they didn't realize it for three or four months of

680
00:39:27.719 --> 00:39:30.079
the year. They clear all the fields and then they

681
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:33.960
burn all of it to get it to get rid

682
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:35.760
of it in that part of the country, and they

683
00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:39.719
had COPD and asthma, and they bought a house and everything,

684
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:42.360
and then realized they can't even live in that part

685
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:45.239
of Portugal because it was giving them terrible coughing and

686
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:48.880
respiratory problems. And unfortunately, within a year I had to

687
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:52.239
sell that house and move somewhere else. So there's lots

688
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:54.159
of things like that that if you've never lived in

689
00:39:54.199 --> 00:39:56.639
a place, you just don't know. The more time you

690
00:39:56.679 --> 00:40:01.239
can spend where you're thinking about going or renting for

691
00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:04.079
a year before you decide to purchase a house and

692
00:40:04.119 --> 00:40:07.400
get excited about that place is always a smart move

693
00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:10.199
for expats going overseas for retirement, right.

694
00:40:10.920 --> 00:40:13.320
I mean, well, like we've been in Hawaii for a

695
00:40:13.400 --> 00:40:17.280
year doing a mission. Well, it's a whole lot different

696
00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:20.760
living in a place than it is going to a

697
00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:24.280
resort on a beach for a week. And we've seen

698
00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:26.960
the good and the bad and the ugly of We've

699
00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:29.800
seen the storms, you know, there's that's been in the news,

700
00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:34.159
the storms and the horrific flooding and all these things

701
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:38.559
that have happened. And we have seen how people who

702
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:41.599
were visiting here were impacted by all the bad weather

703
00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:46.239
that Hawaii was having. So that is not something that's

704
00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:50.639
you know, you know, just Hawaii, that could be anywhere

705
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:54.800
around the world. And so I think that's wisdom Jimmy

706
00:40:55.480 --> 00:40:58.239
to go visit and maybe go visit a couple times

707
00:40:58.280 --> 00:40:59.519
at different times of the year.

708
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:01.079
Absolutely.

709
00:41:01.840 --> 00:41:08.760
Yeah, Well, so let's wrap up today. What would you

710
00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:13.280
like to leave people with today to you know, besides

711
00:41:14.679 --> 00:41:19.960
let's see so I'm thinking there's two big things. Educate yourself. No,

712
00:41:20.199 --> 00:41:24.920
so what kind of education do you provide you have,

713
00:41:25.079 --> 00:41:28.960
like exporce or something like that. Well, your book would

714
00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:29.920
the book being worth.

715
00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:33.119
Yeah, the book is worth it for I think for anybody.

716
00:41:33.239 --> 00:41:35.760
I mean it's it's a book about taxes, which I

717
00:41:35.840 --> 00:41:38.360
get is not the most exciting thing people want to

718
00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:41.559
read about, but it's very beneficial. It'll really teach you

719
00:41:41.559 --> 00:41:44.440
about those tax traps going forward and give you that

720
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:48.639
starting education that we just talked about is so important.

721
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:58.400
So reading your book plan a couple of maybe two

722
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:02.400
week three week vacations at different times of the year.

723
00:42:03.880 --> 00:42:05.639
Is there anything else that you would think of that

724
00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:06.920
would be a good thing to do now?

725
00:42:08.280 --> 00:42:11.079
If you're looking to go overseas, there's also quite quite

726
00:42:11.079 --> 00:42:15.000
a few forums about living overseas in different places, and

727
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:18.280
that's also a good place to explore trying to make

728
00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:20.760
some friends through some of the forums that maybe already

729
00:42:20.760 --> 00:42:23.880
live there or I've already ahead of you in your journey.

730
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:27.039
You know, I get people all the time that come

731
00:42:27.079 --> 00:42:29.239
to me and because they're interested in going somewhere that

732
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:31.840
I've already lived or been, And I'm always happy to

733
00:42:31.880 --> 00:42:35.360
help another person by sharing the experience, learning a little

734
00:42:35.360 --> 00:42:37.159
bit more about him, pointing them in the right direction,

735
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:40.440
or introducing them to other people I know that have

736
00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:43.320
done what they're trying to do. Right, So most people

737
00:42:43.360 --> 00:42:46.159
have already done what you're trying to do out there,

738
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:48.400
and if you find that person, you can learn a

739
00:42:48.440 --> 00:42:51.639
lot from them. The mistakes they made, the things that

740
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:54.239
they were happy about. The Other thing I really want

741
00:42:54.280 --> 00:42:56.239
to leave people with is I feel like we've talked

742
00:42:56.239 --> 00:42:58.320
about all of these things that can get you, these

743
00:42:58.360 --> 00:43:01.440
tax traps and report issues and things like that, and

744
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:05.119
I don't want to discourage anybody from going overseas. For sure,

745
00:43:05.360 --> 00:43:08.360
it's wonderful out there. The world is an amazing place,

746
00:43:08.840 --> 00:43:11.239
as most of your listeners probably know. And most people

747
00:43:11.320 --> 00:43:14.480
want this number one thing that I hear as the

748
00:43:14.519 --> 00:43:17.880
goal for retirement, probably you as a financial planner as well.

749
00:43:18.079 --> 00:43:19.920
I mean, when you talk to people at retirement, it's

750
00:43:19.920 --> 00:43:23.360
always about that world travel they want to do. So

751
00:43:23.480 --> 00:43:25.559
get out there, get out there and do it. It's

752
00:43:25.639 --> 00:43:28.320
not that hard, it's not that complicated, you know. And

753
00:43:28.360 --> 00:43:30.280
if you don't want to do it yourself, find an

754
00:43:30.360 --> 00:43:33.440
expert like myself. There's lots of others ones out there

755
00:43:33.679 --> 00:43:35.719
that can help guide you along the way. Make sure

756
00:43:35.760 --> 00:43:37.760
that you're educated, that you don't make any of those

757
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:40.039
mistakes that we've talked about, and get out there and

758
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:40.920
live your best life.

759
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:45.960
Well, Jimmy, there are several other things that people can say.

760
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:48.880
What could they possibly also? Well? There, trust me, there's

761
00:43:48.920 --> 00:43:51.880
a whole bunch more that we haven't even touched on today,

762
00:43:52.639 --> 00:43:58.360
so watch for when that second part two will be happening, happening.

763
00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:01.679
So with that, Jimmy, thank you so much for joining

764
00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:02.280
us today.

765
00:44:03.719 --> 00:44:05.480
Yeah, my pleasure great to be here.

766
00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:09.639
Great And so thank you everyone for joining the Ask

767
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.840
Good Questions Podcast and we will see you next time.

768
00:44:17.039 --> 00:44:19.800
Today's episode is over. But we need to ask good

769
00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:23.239
questions again, didn't We don't miss out as we broadcast

770
00:44:23.519 --> 00:44:27.559
live every Wednesday six pm Eastern Time on W four

771
00:44:27.559 --> 00:44:32.400
CY Radio at w fourcy dot com. Joined Benina Bellmerson

772
00:44:32.559 --> 00:44:37.239
next week for more conversations with experts on finances, retirement,

773
00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:41.880
behavioral finance issues, health and wellness, and more. Until then,

774
00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:45.199
remember to ask good questions.