Thoughts on Nomad Capitalist?

[Kelent]

For those who don't know, Nomad Capitalist produces a yearly Passport Guide for those who would like to look into dual citizenship. They also have started a Youtube channel. I'm not sure how I found them since I don't really follow Digital Nomad content, but I found it very interesting nonetheless. The way they go into depth on currencies, international real estate, dual citizenships, etc.

nomadcapitalist.com

Has anyone heard of this channel or website before? What are your thoughts on it?

Nomad Capitalist Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3k3floOm_HtKOv0l6JU-xQ

"Tier B" Passports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzrrqCZnVZ0

"Cheapest Passport for sale": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJyuoEDrga4

"Tour of Cheap Land in Montenegro": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbc9MWke4yc&t=993s

These are just some samples of their content, if you have not seen it. Please know I have zero affiliation with this group, I just figured I would share considering how some of the forum members have considered or are in the Digital Nomad/location independent lifestyle.

 

[BURNΞR]

I watch his YouTube vids on the regular. He looks soy but he is actually based and redpilled. Dual citizenship info is everywhere. This guy gives you cutting edge info on how to legally avoid most taxes.

I plan to actually see him one day about getting tax residency abroad. He costs a lot of money though, probably around 6-7k USD but if you have mid 6 figures or more definitely worth it. If you want to be location independent he is the go-to guy. Even Peter Schiff paid for his services so he's legit.

 

[Deepdiver]

A couple years ago I bought his Nomad Capitalist offshore banking guide for $99 and was disappointed - with Clientele like Peter Schiff who moved his residence and business to Puerto Rico for the 4% total taxes (No USA Federal Taxes) after shutting down his California EuroPacific Offices due to their State Millionaires 13% Surtax - I was expecting detailed reviews of actual experiences that his Clientele had with these banks and poll type review results. Instead, it was basic Google searchs of banks in his favorite Nomad countries - Panama, Uruguay and FSU Georgia with info like minimum deposits, if you can open accounts from the USA and if they had decent online banking - basically a pamphlet worth about $5 to $10 max. So I was disappointed and lost interest in his work - at least Banyan Hill and Agora give you fact-filled hard copy books for a fraction of the $99 price.

 

[TDevil]

The guy has quite the production value with his video's but I would avoid using his services. They are overpriced for what is just basic information about residency and tax structure options. At the end of the day you will still need to talk to tax accountants in both the country you choose and your home country.

burneremail82, had a bit of a laugh at the soy boy comment. I have met the guy and see him around Tbilisi from time to time, gives off a bit of a gay vibe. You should check out the video of him crying over him giving up his US citizenship.

Kelent, I would recommend you talk to Christoph at https://tax-free.today . He is much cheaper and more knowledgable about your options on residency and he will put you in contact with the right people.

 

[Kelent]

I watch his YouTube vids on the regular. He looks soy but he is actually based and redpilled. Dual citizenship info is everywhere. This guy gives you cutting edge info on how to legally avoid most taxes.

I plan to actually see him one day about getting tax residency abroad. He costs a lot of money though, probably around 6-7k USD but if you have mid 6 figures or more definitely worth it. If you want to be location independent he is the go-to guy. Even Peter Schiff paid for his services so he's legit.

I've considered contacting him, but I don't feel like I'm in his general demographic (20-30, under 500k net worth, whereas he seems to be primarily for high value clients only). His videos seem very on the mark though and have gotten me interested in using my experiences abroad to build myself a nice life. For instance I've always wanted to trade in currency, and have collected a lot of currency over the years as a hobby. I never in a million years would have thought that opening up an account in something like Georgian Lari would mean anything other than a money sink, but apparently the currency is inflating (which unless I'm reading it wrong, he presents as a good thing? Not sure about the economics behind it).

TDevil- thank you for that insight, I appreciate it. What was he crying about, the hardship of it all? I never would have thought he would renounce citizenship. To me that seems like a red line. Given his strategy of lessening tax burdens I would figure he would've found out how to only need to file rather than pay anything. How's life in Tblisi these days anyway, as an aside? I know a woman from there who said its not bad if you're a foreigner in your 20s. I've read a few datasheets but cant gauge how up to date they are.

 

[TDevil]

He gave up his citizenship to avoid US tax laws that follow you around, wherever you have your tax residency. It's not a red line as long as you have a solid second passport, but that is getting harder and harder these days (expense wise). At the end of the day, there are strategies to avoid US taxes with the right residency and the right structures.

The lari is in the toilet due to the country's trading partners. Turkey's financial situation is not great due to its debt and crazy president. The Russian situation is laughable too, man do they hate Putin and Russian's in general to some extent. They seem to be intent on shooting themselves in the foot for territory populated by people who don't want to be ruled over by the government. Bit of a mess really. You would be ok opening a bank account in USD and getting 4% per annum on a CD, pretty good in today's market.

As far as the city is concerned, it is pretty nice though it lacks greenery and is a little polluted/dirty due to too many cars and a lot of construction work. Very livable but it wears on you after a while but given the fact that the country has a territorial tax system (0% tax on foreign-sourced income) this offsets things. The dating market here is ok, only negative is the big noses/pale skin and the hipsterish dress style (short hair/sneakers abound). Expense wise it's very cheap and you can get most western conveniences if you look hard enough.

 

[BURNΞR]

Andrew seems like the type that does 1-on-1 consulting with rich guys that want to off shore without having to do their homework. If 7k sounds like a lot compared to paying income tax in your country then he isn't for you. I'm sure there are cheaper guys that give legit information but it's hard to figure out who is legit and can guide you step by step into offshoring your wealth and future income. everyone's situation is different and getting individually tailored advice is why you would pay big money.

Even without being a client I find that nomad capitalist drops some practical ideas that you immediately use to avoid tax legally. I won't get into it here because feds watching but im okay to discuss ideas via encrypted chat.

Relinquishing US citizenship is necessary if you are a high net worth individual. No bank outside the US wants to touch you with a 10-foot pole. And the institutions that actually deal with you report you to IRS for all your transactions. I like US gun rights but everything else like extra territorial taxes make US citizenship like a financial prison.

 

[BURNΞR]

The guy has quite the production value with his video's but I would avoid using his services. They are overpriced for what is just basic information about residency and tax structure options. At the end of the day you will still need to talk to tax accountants in both the country you choose and your home country.

burneremail82, had a bit of a laugh at the soy boy comment. I have met the guy and see him around Tbilisi from time to time, gives off a bit of a gay vibe. You should check out the video of him crying over him giving up his US citizenship.

Kelent, I would recommend you talk to Christoph at https://tax-free.today . He is much cheaper and more knowledgable about your options on residency and he will put you in contact with the right people.

I have also ran across the website you mentioned. I liked their information and contemplated using them too. How much for a consult you reckon?

 

[TDevil]

Yeah, he does deal with high net worth individuals but he is charging something similar to a Big 4 accounting firm. The quality of output is wildly different and I would much rather trust a Chartered Accountant than a soy boy off the internet.

The only reason I mention the price is the fact that it is only general information he is providing. You will still need to go to accountants at the end of the day for reliable information on the laws that change yearly.

As far as cost for tax-free today, I think it is $500 for a general information talk with him. Granted his book is pretty good and the information on his website is quite detailed.

 

[simpleminded]

I watch some of his videos. Pretty good production and I liked his real estate videos on Turkey and Montenegro and Serbia I think. I think he doesn't really know about law, accounting or finance. He keeps promoting bank accounts in horrible currencies just because they have high interest rates. The Georgian Lari is down about 50% in the last 5 years so even if you got 8% interest you would still be down money.
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GEL&to=USD&view=10Y

Also, he talks about things like popping into Cambodia for a week and buying some great pig farming business or something obscure like that and then the next week he is in Armenia buying some other obscure business. So all the while he is buying completely non related businesses in completely different countries with all different kinds of business laws and taxes and he is profitable doing that as if these countries are just waiting for foreigners to get off the plane for a weekend so they can present them with their best deals. lol It is hard enough to know one kind of business in your own home country.
It just sounds to me he is rehashing the old five flags stuff and putting a new spin on it and implying you can be some kind of business James Bond if you just pay his consulting fee and open some bank accounts in Georgia or wherever.
I opened multiple bank accounts in other countries back in 2010 to diversify from the US banking system during the financial crisis. I mostly regret it because of the financial reporting hassles doing FBAR.
My advice, unless you really are making $300K or more with a business that can be run from another country, don't even bother. Maybe move to a state with no income tax like FL or TX or NV.

 

[zoom]

The guy seems like a queer

 

[Kelent]

I watch some of his videos. Pretty good production and I liked his real estate videos on Turkey and Montenegro and Serbia I think. I think he doesn't really know about law, accounting or finance. He keeps promoting bank accounts in horrible currencies just because they have high interest rates. The Georgian Lari is down about 50% in the last 5 years so even if you got 8% interest you would still be down money.
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GEL&to=USD&view=10Y

Also, he talks about things like popping into Cambodia for a week and buying some great pig farming business or something obscure like that and then the next week he is in Armenia buying some other obscure business. So all the while he is buying completely non related businesses in completely different countries with all different kinds of business laws and taxes and he is profitable doing that as if these countries are just waiting for foreigners to get off the plane for a weekend so they can present them with their best deals. lol It is hard enough to know one kind of business in your own home country.
It just sounds to me he is rehashing the old five flags stuff and putting a new spin on it and implying you can be some kind of business James Bond if you just pay his consulting fee and open some bank accounts in Georgia or wherever.
I opened multiple bank accounts in other countries back in 2010 to diversify from the US banking system during the financial crisis. I mostly regret it because of the financial reporting hassles doing FBAR.
My advice, unless you really are making $300K or more with a business that can be run from another country, don't even bother. Maybe move to a state with no income tax like FL or TX or NV.

I tend to agree. I recently saw his video on banking in Armenia and the bank he mentioned, Evoca, will give you supposedly $0.06 a day on $450 USD denominated deposit. I'm really not sure if that's "good" or not. I'd much rather hold HKD or Singapore Dollars, if I had to hold a foreign currency. Does it really make a difference to bank in USD in a different country? I don't really understand the logic behind it, would it be that the USD in that account would be based off of the home bank currency or something?

It seems to me like he's investing 50k here 50k there into frontier/emerging markets, and hiring a local lawyer to sort things out for him. As someone who has always wanted to own land abroad, his videos in Serbia and Montenegro were what got me into his channel originally. I really enjoyed those, because it showed that you don't necessarily need to be a HNW individual to own land if you look in the right places.

 

[BURNΞR]

Touche on the high interest accounts. The interest rate is high for a reason.

Outside buying undervalued property in Cambodia he has talked about some business ideas like owning a real estate business abroad, or a pool cleaning business (in the US) which I would never do. I don't doubt there's some money to be made but I just don't have interest doing these things.

He talks a lot about Georgia so I looked into it and for the moment it seems like a good deal. It's a non-CRS country (for the moment) so that immediately sets it apart from most tax havens that report your account balance to tax authorities overseas. Georgia doesn't tax any of your foreign income (0% tax if you don't earn money locally). Probably need a residence permit to get all the perks but this seems increasingly difficult. I'm not that keen on spending 182 days in Tbilisi. There are other ways probably but they are costly like everywhere else. The tax-free website mentioned earlier even offers to get you a Georgian bank card while you remain overseas for 600 euros on their website. Again, without a residency permit you won't have tax residency in Georgia so I'm not sure just having a bank account to wire money into is going to let you be tax free in Georgia and this might be a problem. I'm going to keep an eye on the place for now and keep doing research.

 

[BURNΞR]

I took a call with Andrew - cost me thousands of dollars for a custom report which was clearly boilerplate and not customized.

He didn't even bother to change the countries from someone else's report to my circumstances and it was riddled with errors.

After paying thousands for this report - I still had my problem which he couldn't resolve - so I went to flagtheory.com and had a call which only cost me $200 instead of thousands i paid for andrew...

Anyway I also think they are much more trustworthy as they have a bunch of free sites such as passports.io and incorporations.io - lesson learned for me is that a person SHOULD be judged on the quality of their free content as it often points to how greedy or generous their service is.

Thanks for posting this. Quite shocking at how bad the quality is. I always imagined that for thousands of dollars he would at least listen to your problem and tailor a personalised solution and if he couldn't, at least forward you on to someone more suited. Goes to show throwing more money at the problem doesn't always mean you get a solution.

Thanks for the links.

 

[nixtnext]

Regardless of this type of advice, I still think you need to do your own research and eventually check all the facts on the ground with a local lawyer / specialist. Tax regimes and requirements have changed a lot in recent years with FATCA and CRS and tighter KYC, and change all the time. That's least the route I've taken.

Deloitte and the other big consultancies produce free annual datasheets on all countries worldwide which are really useful (eg. google "deloitte indonesia highlights 2019") and there are also some service providers like Healy Consultants who have quite a lot of free info on their website.

 

[Vladimir Poontang]

Mostly positive reviews, but the negative ones are very negative : https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/nomadcapitalist.com

 

[BURNΞR]

I don't particularly like the fact you pay 9k and get pawned of to a female assistant and some guy named Greg. For that kind of money I want to at least be talking with Andrew. Will shop around.

 

[Vladimir Poontang]

burneremail82, had a bit of a laugh at the soy boy comment. I have met the guy and see him around Tbilisi from time to time, gives off a bit of a gay vibe.

What the hell are you talking about? Gay vibe? What gay vibe?

 

[Vincent Chase]

I also watch his videos from time to time, he's clearly a bit of a weirdo but does have good information on occasion you won't get so easily elsewhere. Not going to pay a youtuber for advice, just find a lawyer who specialises in it (even though most of those are shit).

 

[Vladimir Poontang]

I actually started a little project some time ago that has something in common with what he's doing. My service is helping people decide which country and city to move to. Nothing else, just that. I send the customer a set of questions that cover almost everything that a person would need to consider, they answer the questions and tell me anything else that they'd like to add, then I get to work and do the research. I narrow it down to cities that match as closely as possible their preferences and needs. Then I send them a PDF report with profiles on the best cities for that person, as well as resources for them to do their own research. What I'm selling is clarity, objectivity, and the luxury of me doing all the legwork.

I'd love to have some customers. I think I would be very good at this, but I'm a nobody on the internet and I don't know how to be a somebody. I emailed Andrew Henderson a few months ago to ask if he'd like to collaborate on something or other (I forget the details) and the person that replied politely turned me down.

I really would like for this to take off. I'm so poor and lonely, but with so much to give. I'm not trying to promote this and I'd never dream of suggesting that my website can be found by following the link in my signature, I just thought I'd share my thoughts.