WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.960 For years digital nomads have flocked to Southeast Asia for the low cost of living and the great 00:04.960 --> 00:10.360 weather. But today I'm going to tell you why wealthy people should be just as inclined to live in 00:10.360 --> 00:18.200 Southeast Asia. And I'm going to explain nine reasons why a seven or eight-figure entrepreneur 00:18.200 --> 00:23.040 or investor, the types of people that nomadic capitalist works with, might love having a home 00:23.040 --> 00:27.000 in Southeast Asia. Keep in mind you can have a home in Southeast Asia or anywhere in the 00:27.000 --> 00:31.340 world and live there 12 months a year, six months a year, three months a year. In some cases one 00:31.340 --> 00:35.600 day a year. It could just be a backup plan. But let's go through the reasons why this could be 00:35.600 --> 00:41.020 a place that is one of your homes or your main home. And the first reason is healthcare. A lot 00:41.020 --> 00:45.480 of people ask about this. People in places like the United States are paying through their teeth 00:45.480 --> 00:50.820 for healthcare. It is not extremely affordable in Southeast Asia, but it is of extremely high 00:50.820 --> 00:57.640 quality. The large majority of countries that score well for medical tourism are in Asia, 00:57.860 --> 01:01.560 and so you have some of the best hospitals in Southeast Asia, in particular from Glen Eagles 01:01.560 --> 01:08.160 in Singapore to Sami Tevej or Boomengrad in Bangkok. Prince Court, we've talked about a lot 01:08.160 --> 01:11.920 in Kuala Lumpur. And it's getting better elsewhere. I can tell you I've been going 01:11.920 --> 01:16.300 to Cambodia for a dozen years. And when I first was there, I'm like, I hope nothing happens to 01:16.300 --> 01:21.500 me because it could be more dicey. Now you have better healthcare facilities. So the entire region 01:21.500 --> 01:25.560 that they call ASEAN, that's a group of Southeast Asian countries, is getting better. 01:25.880 --> 01:31.540 But your Singapore's, Malaysia's, Thailand's, and to some extent the Philippines all score very 01:31.540 --> 01:35.960 well for healthcare. It's extremely affordable. You can go and check out our numerous episodes 01:35.960 --> 01:41.600 where I took my entire staff that came to Nomad Capitalist Live to Prince Court for an annual 01:41.600 --> 01:46.920 checkup. It costs pennies on the dollar, what you'd pay in the US, and it's much more efficient. So 01:46.920 --> 01:52.860 it's efficient, smiley, affordable healthcare, great quality, great doctors trained overseas. 01:53.600 --> 01:57.700 The second thing is just better health in general. Not all the countries, but if you 01:57.700 --> 02:01.620 look elsewhere in Asia, Japan is one of the healthiest countries by many metrics in terms of 02:01.620 --> 02:06.000 just the types of calories they consume and the foods they eat. Thailand also scored 02:06.000 --> 02:09.740 relatively well on that in terms of the countries with the healthiest food. Now you can 02:09.740 --> 02:13.860 eat healthy anywhere, but if you look at most of the English-speaking legacy brand countries, 02:14.100 --> 02:18.420 US at the top and then the UK, Australia and Canada, the majority of your calories are coming 02:18.420 --> 02:23.400 from ultra-processed foods. You can avoid that, but it's harder. And so it's a lot easier to 02:23.400 --> 02:28.560 avoid that. It's a lot easier to eat healthy. The food is often of higher quality in countries 02:28.560 --> 02:33.640 in a lot of places in the world, including Southeast Asia. The third reason is the weather. 02:33.840 --> 02:37.760 Not everybody loves the humidity, although there are plenty of places in Southeast Asia that 02:37.760 --> 02:41.600 are in the mountains. For example, parts of Thailand, you'll have less humidity, you'll have 02:41.600 --> 02:46.000 cooler weather. But you have everything from mountain life to island life to city life. 02:46.440 --> 02:50.600 And the weather in most parts of the region is nice year round. You're not going to have 02:50.600 --> 02:55.580 cold snaps in the winter. I spend my winters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I'm able to then 02:55.580 --> 03:00.280 go and do business all throughout Asia, manage my money throughout Asia. I'll come back to 03:00.280 --> 03:03.440 both of those points later, but it's a great place to go. If you want to wear shorts, 03:03.440 --> 03:09.900 if you want to wear linen in January, you can do that. It is not the eternal spring that 03:09.900 --> 03:15.260 Medellin, Colombia is, for example, but you've got warm weather, up to hot weather all year round. 03:15.440 --> 03:19.880 So, you know, your swimming pool is in use 12 months a year in many parts of Southeast Asia. 03:20.440 --> 03:24.120 And you have places where you live in a condo, even if you build your own house, 03:24.180 --> 03:27.740 or buy your own house, you have those things. I mean, unlike a lot of places in Europe, 03:28.020 --> 03:31.720 not only do you have air conditioning, but it works. I remember I landed in Kuala Lumpur, 03:31.720 --> 03:35.460 was it a year or two ago, when Germany was going through all of its power problems, 03:35.540 --> 03:39.680 people couldn't run their air conditioning in the middle of the summer. It was working perfectly well 03:39.680 --> 03:43.820 at affordable prices at my home in Kuala Lumpur, and they had that kind of stuff. They have pools, 03:43.960 --> 03:49.300 they have AC much more commonly than you find in the high tax countries of Europe, for example. 03:49.520 --> 03:55.740 The fourth reason to live in Southeast Asia if you are a wealthy person is the lower levels 03:55.740 --> 04:00.140 of crime. Singapore is always in the top 10. They have basically the lowest homicide rate 04:00.140 --> 04:04.700 in the world, outside of tiny, tiny, tiny countries. Overall, Singapore is extraordinarily safe 04:04.700 --> 04:11.860 on par with some of the Middle Eastern places, like Dubai and Qatar and Bahrain and Oman. 04:12.060 --> 04:14.400 It always scored very well. If you don't want to live in that part of the world, 04:14.840 --> 04:19.440 Singapore is right up there as well, always has been. Even Cambodia ranks safer than the 04:19.440 --> 04:24.260 U.S. overall for crime. A lot of countries do. Homicide rates in general are lower, 04:24.440 --> 04:29.240 not only than the U.S., whose homicide rate is not that low, but Australia has a relatively 04:29.240 --> 04:33.600 low homicide rate. A lot of the Southeast Asian countries are safer than that in terms of violent 04:33.600 --> 04:38.360 crime. Property crimes, you know, certainly is measured from place to place. I've never had 04:38.360 --> 04:43.840 any particular issues. Every country in the region except the Philippines has a lower homicide 04:43.840 --> 04:49.440 rate than the U.S. So for a violent crime, you're not as likely to have it there. The 04:49.440 --> 04:54.740 next reason high net worth nomad capitalists should consider Southeast Asia is the easy visa 04:54.740 --> 05:01.560 policies. Now by easy, I mean less bureaucracy, more straightforward, very welcoming, and more 05:01.560 --> 05:06.380 importantly, non-judgmental. Generally speaking, Asian countries don't really care where you come 05:06.380 --> 05:10.480 from. So we can say, listen, you could be Russian and you could be against the war. 05:10.760 --> 05:14.420 And yet a lot of places in the world don't want to let you move there. They don't want 05:14.420 --> 05:17.320 you to be able to go where you're treated best. And I think there's a number of countries that 05:17.320 --> 05:22.300 the Western world kind of frowns on or they treat differently. Asia pretty much is, 05:22.300 --> 05:26.600 did you meet the criteria? You're in. And I'm not saying there's not paperwork. I'm saying we 05:26.600 --> 05:31.100 help our clients do all sorts of paperwork and where to submit it and, you know, powers of 05:31.100 --> 05:35.460 attorney to make things go faster, all that kind of stuff. But the visas are more 05:35.460 --> 05:39.360 straightforward. The residence permits can be longer than other parts of the world 05:39.360 --> 05:42.940 and they generally want to see some kind of investment. So Latin America is, do you have a 05:42.940 --> 05:48.620 salary? Asia just kind of is a basic idea is are you investing money? Can you put a couple 05:48.620 --> 05:53.200 hundred grand in the bank? Can you invest some money in our stocks? Can you buy a piece of real 05:53.200 --> 05:57.960 estate? So if you've got a couple hundred grand, most countries will let you in. So you've got, 05:58.240 --> 06:03.060 you know, straightforward residents by investment programs in Malaysia, in Indonesia, 06:03.320 --> 06:07.380 in Cambodia, in the Philippines, you've got a very expensive one in Singapore. If you're not 06:07.380 --> 06:11.360 willing to invest a lot, then you've missed the boat on that. That's proof of why you want 06:11.360 --> 06:15.460 to get your residence permits and citizenship early because the prices tend to go up. 06:15.460 --> 06:20.840 Technically, in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong has brought back their program four times the price of 06:20.840 --> 06:24.580 what it once was a decade ago. Again, lots of people want residence permits. The prices go up. 06:24.640 --> 06:29.600 But at least in Asia, you can invest in stuff that you can sell later. You can get the money 06:29.600 --> 06:35.060 out later. You can use the house, whatever. But non-judgmental residence permits for 06:35.060 --> 06:40.440 entrepreneurs and investors. Now, Asia's not as likely to grant you citizenship. The Philippines 06:40.440 --> 06:43.780 is the one of the few countries where you can actually naturalize. If you do things right, 06:43.780 --> 06:46.480 you spend your time in the country. It's not a great passport, but it lets you can 06:46.920 --> 06:50.720 have the permanent ability to live in the Philippines. But I think a lot of people get confused 06:51.360 --> 06:55.020 with, do I need residence? Do I need citizenship? How does it impact my taxes? 06:55.400 --> 06:58.640 That's what we help people with here at Nomad Cal. This is putting all the puzzle pieces 06:58.640 --> 07:01.900 together because there's a lot of unknown unknowns if you haven't done this before. 07:02.440 --> 07:05.520 And so if you're only, you know, working on the known unknowns, 07:06.040 --> 07:09.940 you're going to be missing a lot of things that could hamper your plan 07:09.940 --> 07:14.660 or might have you moving or getting residence somewhere else. So if you're going to nomadcal.com 07:14.660 --> 07:18.300 slash apply, you'll learn how you can work with us to find the best places to move, 07:18.500 --> 07:22.280 the best residence permits to keep in your back pocket, the tax planning and how to make sure 07:22.280 --> 07:26.220 that you save as much money as possible when you move overseas because Southeast Asia 07:26.220 --> 07:30.420 is generally, as I'll tell you in a minute, a more tax-friendly part of the world. 07:30.740 --> 07:34.760 You want to put all the pieces together. This is probably not a place to chase 07:34.760 --> 07:38.160 citizenship. And yet I think every Westerner needs a second citizenship, 07:38.160 --> 07:42.700 probably even a third these days, because of the policies that are happening in Western countries. 07:43.140 --> 07:46.060 But you don't necessarily want to get your citizenship where you move to. So 07:46.060 --> 07:50.040 we can help you figure out which country in Asia to go to, how you do your taxes, 07:50.180 --> 07:53.640 and then you get a citizenship somewhere else by investment through your family tree, 07:53.920 --> 07:56.640 through whatever else, go to nomadcapitalist.com slash apply. 07:57.020 --> 08:01.880 Now let's talk about taxes. Thailand did make their tax friendliness a bit worse 08:01.880 --> 08:06.220 in the last year. I still think it's relatively friendly. Again, if you're a 08:06.220 --> 08:10.880 high net worth entrepreneur or investor, because what Thailand has basically done is 08:10.880 --> 08:16.460 created something kind of sort of like a non-dom program in Europe where the more money you make 08:16.460 --> 08:20.540 overseas and the less you bring into the country, the less that you'll pay. Malaysia is 08:20.540 --> 08:24.040 pretty tax friendly. They say, well, that's until 2027. I happen to think it'll stay 08:24.040 --> 08:27.700 tax friendly. Even if they don't, it'll be in the same category as Thailand. So again, 08:27.800 --> 08:33.080 the wealthier you are, the more money you're making every year, these Southeast Asian 08:33.080 --> 08:37.620 countries that are tweaking their tax plans a little bit to be a little bit less straight 08:37.620 --> 08:42.460 forward tax friendly, they'll work for you better. I think we've already come to a time where if you 08:42.460 --> 08:46.300 make $100,000 or $200,000 a year, all things included, you'd be better off living somewhere 08:46.700 --> 08:50.560 else than Thailand. You'd almost be better off living in Europe. In some places, 08:50.560 --> 08:53.280 because you get the second citizenship and the taxes in some of the European 08:53.280 --> 08:58.040 countries may be more favorable at that level than living in Thailand. But if you are 08:58.040 --> 09:04.140 seven or eight figure entrepreneur or investor, then generally speaking, taxation in Southeast Asia 09:04.140 --> 09:07.980 is good. Singapore is still relatively tax friendly, although again, expensive place to get into. 09:08.440 --> 09:13.840 Philippines is pretty tax friendly. Those are some of the best ones. What you also have in the region 09:13.840 --> 09:18.800 is banking. And so what I hear from some clients historically is, I don't want to be too far away 09:18.800 --> 09:23.980 from my banking. And so Singapore, one of the great asset protection hubs, Thailand is seen by 09:23.980 --> 09:30.080 some Asians as kind of a secondary asset protection hub. Hong Kong for certain people who want to be 09:30.820 --> 09:36.020 further away from the Western financial system. I think very stable financial system. Maybe you 09:36.020 --> 09:40.240 like Hong Kong, maybe you don't. But you've got within the region, within close proximity, 09:40.580 --> 09:45.140 Singapore being the best, I would say, a number of potential places to hold your cash. 09:45.460 --> 09:48.260 If you moved to Malaysia, you shouldn't move all your money to Malaysia. 09:48.780 --> 09:52.740 But even that said, I'll tell you, I think Malaysian banks are pretty darn stable. 09:52.740 --> 09:57.540 You don't really have bank failures the way you do in the United States, in this part of the world, 09:57.560 --> 10:01.440 or really anywhere in the world. But you have some very high quality banks. And so if you want to be 10:01.440 --> 10:05.060 close and you want access to investments in that part of the world, you're going to get that 10:05.060 --> 10:09.860 close to home. And I think Singapore, as I've said for years, our team talked about this and 10:09.860 --> 10:15.640 our nomadic capitalist R&D channel not too long ago. Singapore is a lot less friction than 10:15.640 --> 10:19.680 Switzerland is. And so if you want that proximity to talk to your bank at the same 10:19.680 --> 10:25.280 times than you can, investments are the next reason. And I think living in Southeast Asia, 10:25.660 --> 10:30.920 you're going to see how the world is changing. And you may not exactly know that or feel it until 10:30.920 --> 10:35.580 you do it. But I've been doing it for a long time at this point. And the perspective I get 10:35.580 --> 10:39.940 on how to improve my business on where to make investments, it's a much different perspective 10:39.940 --> 10:46.520 than what you get on the BBC or CNN or Fox News or Sky News. It's a perspective you get 10:46.520 --> 10:50.860 by being on the ground. What's actually changing? And what's changing is not always that feeling 10:50.860 --> 10:54.880 to the West. But you might adjust your portfolio or where you want to get clients for your business 10:54.880 --> 10:58.820 or customers for your business by actually living on the ground and seeing. Now in Singapore, 10:58.820 --> 11:03.700 obviously, it's a lot more like the United States or another developed country. There's 11:03.700 --> 11:10.160 not as many easy low hanging fruit opportunities. I told you since 2013 about all the low 11:10.160 --> 11:13.200 hanging fruit opportunities in Cambodia. I think there's still some juice in Cambodia, 11:14.000 --> 11:19.440 Bangladesh, Nepal, technically South Asia. But I think lots of opportunity there. I think Vietnam 11:19.440 --> 11:23.800 still has some opportunity to be seen what happens in places like Laos and how this 11:23.800 --> 11:28.160 opened up in the years to come. If you're in that area and if you travel around that area and you 11:28.160 --> 11:32.060 see what's going on, you're going to be, in my opinion, a better entrepreneur and investor 11:32.060 --> 11:35.740 in a way that's sitting in a Western country is not going to make you. And I think that 11:35.740 --> 11:40.460 Asia is a more accessible growth market than let's say one of the African countries, 11:40.460 --> 11:45.000 which may see great growth also. Latin America, I think will lag Asia in terms of performance as 11:45.000 --> 11:50.400 an investment. So if you're there, you're going to see that. And so lastly, connectivity. The time 11:50.400 --> 11:57.120 zone, if you're used to working with North America, it stinks. You could, I'm in Kuala Lumpur. 11:57.560 --> 12:00.840 There's times you're up till one, two in the morning. I'm at the point in my business where 12:01.400 --> 12:05.140 I don't talk to that many people anymore. We push things down through the organization, 12:05.260 --> 12:09.280 through leadership. And so I have them kind of adapt to me. They're calling 12:09.280 --> 12:12.700 me first thing in the morning from Europe or if they're in Latin America, they're calling me 12:12.700 --> 12:16.340 end of the day or their evening. But if you're talking to folks, that is a challenge. 12:17.300 --> 12:22.320 And yet you can get around very easily the region. It's, I think, one of the best connected 12:22.320 --> 12:26.500 parts of the world, I guess, second to Europe. You can get flights all over the region. You 12:26.500 --> 12:29.460 can see the investment opportunities. You can go and meet your banker. You can go and 12:29.460 --> 12:32.740 see the stuff you're investing in in Cambodia. This year we've got Reed again, 12:32.920 --> 12:35.620 coming to Nomadic Capitalists Live, talking about investing in Cambodia, 12:35.620 --> 12:40.240 investing in the next frontier markets in Asia. It's a lot easier to get there 12:40.240 --> 12:44.020 within the region, of course, but you've also got great connectivity to the US, 12:44.200 --> 12:48.560 to Europe, one of the best connected regions in the world. So I'm not pushing or promoting 12:48.560 --> 12:51.820 any of these particular countries. I do happen to live in Malaysia. I've been there 12:51.820 --> 12:56.200 for over a decade. That's my personal favorite. It may not be your favorite. The entire region 12:56.200 --> 12:59.740 may not be your favorite, but the good news is if you come to Nomadic Capitalists, 13:00.000 --> 13:03.500 you're going to get a unique perspective. Most companies you go to, and I met a client, 13:03.500 --> 13:07.880 who's a client about four years ago, met him on the street by happenstance recently, 13:08.340 --> 13:11.080 and he said, you know, I got to call you guys again, because I've been talking to this asset 13:11.080 --> 13:15.340 protection guy or this trust lawyer, and they all have the one thing they kind of want to push on 13:15.340 --> 13:20.140 you. I'm not going to push Southeast Asia on you. All I want to do is raise awareness that 13:20.140 --> 13:23.220 you can be a seven or eight figure entrepreneur and have a great life. And I'll 13:23.220 --> 13:26.480 tell you what, I enjoy living there and having, I still call my friends, 13:26.600 --> 13:30.120 I just had a great lunch for two dollars. It was the most delicious thing I've ever 13:30.120 --> 13:35.220 eaten. And yet I can also go and have caviar and champagne at night. You get to choose the 13:35.220 --> 13:38.260 level of lifestyle you have, because it's just so many different lifestyle options, 13:38.600 --> 13:43.580 so much great food. It's affordable, more money to put back in your portfolio. It just feels nice, 13:43.820 --> 13:46.780 feels comfortable. The people, by the way, the people are very nice in these places. 13:47.060 --> 13:51.220 Add that as a 10th reason, Malaysia in particular, I think, but people are nice 13:51.840 --> 13:54.940 in much of the region. So I'm not saying this is the place for you, 13:54.940 --> 13:58.520 but when you come to Nomadic Capitalists as a client, you're going to get the 13:58.520 --> 14:02.260 perspective on everything where we actually represent you. We're not representing the one 14:02.260 --> 14:07.400 country that we do business in. We're not pushing beliefs on you. If Southeast Asia isn't for you, 14:07.500 --> 14:11.220 that's fine. But it's worth knowing maybe it fits into your banking plan, 14:11.540 --> 14:14.880 maybe it's part of your residence plan, maybe it fits into your investment plan. 14:15.240 --> 14:20.200 It could be one, two or all of those. But that's what we help people figure out. The 14:20.200 --> 14:25.180 unknown unknowns go to nomadiccapitalist.com. I think it's a region that should be on your radar. 14:38.120 --> 14:40.100 This is Kuala Lumpur. 14:51.140 --> 14:53.100 Craziest live like a king you've ever seen.