WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.660 Today, I'm going to tell you why I will very likely never 00:04.400 --> 00:06.160 return to the United States. 00:09.140 --> 00:11.020 It was the country of my birth. 00:11.580 --> 00:13.480 It was the country that I was last in. 00:14.120 --> 00:19.640 In June of 2017, I spent a week and gave up 00:19.640 --> 00:22.660 on the idea that I didn't want to go to the US 00:22.660 --> 00:24.860 for as long as I was an American living overseas. 00:25.040 --> 00:27.280 I didn't even want to fly through the US 00:27.280 --> 00:31.120 and have to deal with the immigration and the TSA. 00:31.300 --> 00:32.640 We'll talk about all that in a little bit. 00:33.320 --> 00:34.700 But I finally said, you know what? 00:34.820 --> 00:35.960 I had to go see a friend or two. 00:36.600 --> 00:40.340 I got a couple of things I can do and I'll go and spend a week. 00:41.780 --> 00:45.280 And little as I know, that would probably be the last week 00:45.280 --> 00:49.600 I ever spent, the last time I ever breathed actual air 00:49.600 --> 00:52.440 outside of a US airport because six months later 00:53.140 --> 00:59.680 in mid-December of 2017, I flew from Cancun, 01:00.360 --> 01:03.280 where I was hosting folks, laid over in JFK 01:03.280 --> 01:07.880 and went onward to where I would renounce US citizenship. 01:08.380 --> 01:10.260 And I'm going to tell you what exactly that means. 01:11.460 --> 01:12.820 Remember I had a friend of mine. 01:12.920 --> 01:14.280 I had a long layover at JFK. 01:14.800 --> 01:17.480 We actually recorded some videos 01:17.480 --> 01:21.500 that we've never ever shown before of my final moment 01:21.500 --> 01:22.820 standing on US soil. 01:22.960 --> 01:25.420 I remember walking out to the curb at JFK 01:25.420 --> 01:28.580 and just, you know, breathing in not the freshest of air, 01:28.680 --> 01:33.540 but breathing in at dusk on a New York day in December, 01:34.340 --> 01:37.180 the final time that I would ever be there. 01:37.860 --> 01:40.840 Certainly up until now and perhaps forever. 01:41.100 --> 01:42.680 Now, I know there's going to be people who are saying, 01:42.780 --> 01:45.560 well, if you left us and didn't fight 01:45.560 --> 01:48.540 and you wouldn't stand with us, then good riddance. 01:49.120 --> 01:50.320 You see a lot of good riddance 01:50.320 --> 01:52.420 when people leave for whatever reason. 01:52.800 --> 01:56.080 A lot of folks will leave in the UK and also the US 01:56.080 --> 01:58.360 and other countries because of the high taxes. 01:58.580 --> 01:59.940 These days, good riddance, they say, 02:00.020 --> 02:01.600 until they realize they're losing money. 02:02.220 --> 02:05.820 My departure wasn't really motivated by taxes 02:05.820 --> 02:08.700 as much as we do help people move overseas 02:08.700 --> 02:09.700 and reduce their taxes. 02:09.900 --> 02:14.080 I felt like the country was irredeemably going 02:14.080 --> 02:15.040 in the wrong direction. 02:15.180 --> 02:17.020 It would work against people like me. 02:17.660 --> 02:20.840 And I said, I don't want to be a part of that. 02:21.040 --> 02:24.900 And so if people who perhaps fit into why the country 02:24.900 --> 02:27.600 is in that position decide that I shouldn't come back 02:27.600 --> 02:31.560 and we don't want you back, well, at 40 years of age, 02:31.640 --> 02:33.940 I finally realized I don't get to control 02:33.940 --> 02:35.980 what other people think and that doesn't mean 02:35.980 --> 02:39.720 that I'm wrong or bad, but we'll talk about that. 02:40.220 --> 02:45.440 One of the things that I was so impactful to me 02:45.440 --> 02:46.660 and I didn't realize at the time, 02:47.060 --> 02:50.000 right before I was born, my grandmother got remarried. 02:51.000 --> 02:54.620 The nomad grandmas at work that we showed you her ancestry 02:54.620 --> 02:57.900 that came many generations before her from Wales, 02:59.100 --> 03:01.580 she remarried a gentleman who was born 03:01.580 --> 03:04.720 in Burnow, Czechoslovakia and his family 03:04.720 --> 03:08.300 and he were on the wrong side of the regime at that time. 03:08.620 --> 03:11.420 He fought for his own country in the wrong side of the war, 03:11.480 --> 03:14.780 eventually was granted passage to the US, 03:14.780 --> 03:16.500 became a naturalized US citizen, 03:16.500 --> 03:20.640 but was never able to go back because for as long 03:20.640 --> 03:26.160 as the Iron Curtain was in place, he was on the naughty list. 03:26.680 --> 03:30.580 He had been tried at Emsensia and my grandmother 03:30.580 --> 03:34.160 told the story of how even when they would go 03:34.160 --> 03:36.460 on a European river cruise, they said, 03:36.680 --> 03:40.260 don't get off in your old country. 03:40.260 --> 03:44.800 He regretted because he had lost his parents 03:44.800 --> 03:46.360 that had both been sent to camps. 03:46.740 --> 03:49.660 I believe he reunited at one point with his mother, 03:49.720 --> 03:51.720 but he never got too good with his mother's grave. 03:52.360 --> 03:56.560 And as I got older and as I created my identity 03:56.560 --> 03:58.800 as someone who didn't want to live in the United States 03:58.800 --> 04:00.440 and moved out and eventually said, 04:00.440 --> 04:02.980 if I'm not gonna be here, why did I wanna be a citizen? 04:03.500 --> 04:05.400 I identified more and more 04:05.400 --> 04:07.280 and I understood more and more of that story. 04:07.280 --> 04:10.180 You know, one of the things that I have tried 04:10.180 --> 04:12.180 to practice in my life is not regretting 04:12.180 --> 04:13.140 and I don't regret. 04:13.540 --> 04:15.600 Even if I felt I regretted my decision, 04:15.840 --> 04:17.720 I can't do anything to change it 04:17.720 --> 04:19.100 because when you renounce your US citizenship, 04:19.120 --> 04:20.740 people ask, well, you can just go and get it back 04:20.740 --> 04:21.240 if you want. 04:21.340 --> 04:21.920 No, it's permanent. 04:22.760 --> 04:25.680 I can go and apply for some form of residence permits. 04:25.940 --> 04:29.040 I can make an investment thing in an EB-5 green card. 04:29.740 --> 04:32.640 I could perhaps go on an exceptional talent in 01. 04:32.960 --> 04:34.720 I could perhaps, there's numerous ways you can get in. 04:34.720 --> 04:37.100 I'm not sure if an 01 is immigrant or not. 04:38.080 --> 04:41.060 I help people leave the US and go to it. 04:41.540 --> 04:43.480 But I could find some way to get back in 04:43.480 --> 04:45.760 if they would grant me that residence permit. 04:45.960 --> 04:48.340 They might not and I could go through the same process 04:48.340 --> 04:52.500 and anybody else who applies and lives there 04:52.500 --> 04:54.000 and becomes a naturalized citizen. 04:54.640 --> 04:56.420 I've kind of thought before, 04:56.540 --> 04:58.860 I wonder if I became a naturalized citizen again. 04:58.980 --> 05:00.920 Could I run for president as I am indeed 05:00.920 --> 05:02.000 a natural born citizen? 05:02.520 --> 05:03.540 Obviously, wouldn't win. 05:03.540 --> 05:04.860 But it's not something that I regret. 05:05.100 --> 05:07.480 And yet, as I think about my grandfather's story, 05:08.040 --> 05:09.800 he obviously came to the US at a time 05:09.800 --> 05:12.120 when going to the US was very much in vogue 05:12.120 --> 05:14.580 and was a place you could go where you were treated best, 05:14.680 --> 05:17.840 just as my, his wife, my grandmother's ancestors 05:17.840 --> 05:21.860 had done a hundred or so years earlier. 05:24.840 --> 05:27.860 And the simple thing is, why not go back to the US? 05:28.260 --> 05:30.160 Well, for one reason, 05:30.320 --> 05:32.280 I don't have any particular reason to go. 05:32.280 --> 05:33.260 When I look at life, 05:34.000 --> 05:35.580 I look at the story of my grandfather 05:36.200 --> 05:38.360 and I look at it as having seasons. 05:39.040 --> 05:41.400 He had a season living in Czechoslovakia 05:41.400 --> 05:44.380 and you know what, his country turned against him. 05:45.960 --> 05:50.300 And for me, looking at, you know, 05:50.620 --> 05:52.860 some of the ways that the United States has changed, 05:53.180 --> 05:55.140 have they turned against me personally? 05:57.040 --> 06:01.300 No, but has the environment, 06:01.700 --> 06:04.860 is it different than perhaps when I was born for sure? 06:05.380 --> 06:07.620 And I think that seasons ought to change 06:08.220 --> 06:10.140 when they're meant to change, seasons ought to change 06:10.140 --> 06:12.480 when the circumstances change. 06:13.060 --> 06:15.400 And so, you know, we had Tony Fernandez, 06:15.580 --> 06:18.320 the CEO of AirAsia at Nomad Capitalist Live. 06:19.060 --> 06:20.440 What I loved and what I found striking 06:20.440 --> 06:22.200 about the speech he gave 06:22.200 --> 06:24.520 and the talk that we had with our VAPs, 06:24.680 --> 06:26.200 everything he talked about was so simple. 06:26.500 --> 06:27.980 Why do you have more female pilots 06:27.980 --> 06:28.660 along the other airlines? 06:28.860 --> 06:29.560 We just did it. 06:29.560 --> 06:32.840 And I realized it was an absence of bureaucracy 06:33.740 --> 06:36.940 and red tape and BS that allowed him 06:36.940 --> 06:39.160 to be the same kind of an entrepreneur that I am 06:39.160 --> 06:41.720 and that maybe you are and take an airline 06:41.720 --> 06:43.060 that he bought for 26 cents 06:43.060 --> 06:44.940 and turn it into a big, big, big airline 06:44.940 --> 06:47.180 that dominates in Asia. 06:47.840 --> 06:50.140 And so, sometimes the simplest answer is the best. 06:50.500 --> 06:53.660 Why do I want to go to a country that I had my season in? 06:54.140 --> 06:56.040 Can't say it was the best season of my life. 06:56.160 --> 06:59.260 Can't say that I particularly loved being there all the time 06:59.260 --> 07:01.720 and forget that I thought, yeah, I'm paying too much in taxes, 07:01.900 --> 07:03.480 just didn't feel like the place for me. 07:03.520 --> 07:04.680 So why would I want to go back? 07:04.780 --> 07:07.440 I think I flirted when I renounced with the idea of, 07:07.520 --> 07:09.000 okay, well, it's no longer my country 07:09.340 --> 07:11.360 so I can be more at peace with them 07:11.360 --> 07:13.940 and okay, you know, they want to go bombing some country now. 07:14.040 --> 07:16.520 I don't agree with that, but it's not in my name. 07:16.600 --> 07:17.440 It's not my problem. 07:17.520 --> 07:18.740 I'm going to be more accepting of that. 07:18.820 --> 07:20.620 Hey, you do, you boo, and I'll be over here. 07:21.580 --> 07:23.500 I've kind of eased up on that feeling 07:24.020 --> 07:25.640 because I feel like, you know, 07:25.680 --> 07:28.540 the US does stick its finger in so many places 07:28.920 --> 07:31.080 and the whole you do, you boo thing 07:31.080 --> 07:33.000 doesn't really exist for them. 07:33.760 --> 07:36.200 They haven't really done anything to me 07:36.840 --> 07:38.840 because I always played it straight. 07:39.140 --> 07:43.500 But the simple reason why I don't want to go is, yeah, I, 07:44.780 --> 07:49.000 the TSA in Malaysia is pretty darn pleasant 07:49.000 --> 07:52.060 and it sets the tone for me in countries like that. 07:52.400 --> 07:53.880 Why when you can have pleasant 07:53.880 --> 07:55.140 would you go and have unpleasant? 07:56.160 --> 07:58.340 You know, why when you go to countries 07:58.780 --> 08:01.240 where I'm a citizen or even just a resident's permit holder 08:01.240 --> 08:04.320 and they greet you with literally loving remarks, 08:04.640 --> 08:05.920 would you want to go back to a place 08:06.500 --> 08:09.060 where when I was a citizen, they would scream at you 08:09.060 --> 08:10.460 and they would dump your bag out. 08:10.540 --> 08:12.540 And who goes to Italy for 11 days by himself? 08:14.500 --> 08:17.860 And I think honestly, I mean, I know people 08:17.860 --> 08:19.260 that because they live in Asia, 08:19.260 --> 08:21.020 get detained when they go back 08:21.020 --> 08:23.480 under suspicion of being child pornographers, 08:24.740 --> 08:27.340 which is pretty scary stuff that, you know, 08:27.400 --> 08:29.280 you live in Asia and you live a normal life 08:29.820 --> 08:32.020 and that's their impression of you, their citizen. 08:34.020 --> 08:34.720 So there's that. 08:34.860 --> 08:37.320 I just, I don't know what there is to do in the US. 08:37.520 --> 08:39.460 And I think that people in the US have this idea 08:39.460 --> 08:40.960 that there's, you know, there's nowhere else to go. 08:41.360 --> 08:44.020 I mean, I can go to a baseball game 08:44.440 --> 08:46.140 in a handful of other countries around the world 08:46.140 --> 08:47.920 if I cared that much, but I don't care that much. 08:47.920 --> 08:50.240 So I don't, I can go to Disneyland in Paris 08:50.240 --> 08:52.340 or in Hong Kong and I'll have to go in the US. 08:52.340 --> 08:54.300 I mean, what are the things that you can only do in the US? 08:54.900 --> 08:56.500 I've seen the stuff I wanted to see. 08:56.720 --> 08:58.920 I just, you know, you're never going to see everything. 08:59.360 --> 09:01.980 I think people should realize 09:02.400 --> 09:04.280 whatever they think only exists in their country 09:04.280 --> 09:05.340 exists in a lot of countries. 09:05.420 --> 09:06.740 I think that's what holds people back. 09:06.840 --> 09:07.500 And that's one of the things 09:07.500 --> 09:08.800 that I've tried to tell you over the years. 09:10.180 --> 09:12.220 But I, you know, that same grandma, 09:13.240 --> 09:16.640 she told me how her ancestors went to get on the ship 09:16.640 --> 09:20.000 to move to the US back in, I was 1851. 09:21.960 --> 09:23.000 And guess what? 09:23.140 --> 09:24.320 It wasn't, oh my goodness, 09:24.380 --> 09:25.400 you're going to the United States. 09:25.420 --> 09:26.620 That's the best place to go. 09:26.720 --> 09:28.700 It was, no, what are you going for? 09:28.800 --> 09:29.440 How dare you? 09:29.520 --> 09:30.440 Please stay back. 09:30.580 --> 09:31.520 We want you so badly. 09:31.680 --> 09:32.360 You can't do that. 09:32.440 --> 09:33.140 You're making a mistake. 09:33.240 --> 09:34.460 And they said, no, we're going. 09:36.520 --> 09:39.340 And you realize that even when people were doing something 09:39.340 --> 09:40.800 that we look back now on it and say, 09:40.880 --> 09:42.200 oh, wow, that's pretty impactful. 09:43.040 --> 09:44.800 Yeah, moving to the US, easy decision. 09:45.020 --> 09:46.260 Wasn't so easy back then. 09:46.360 --> 09:47.120 It's easy in hindsight. 09:47.380 --> 09:49.000 And people tried to talk them out of it. 09:49.000 --> 09:50.840 People tried to talk me out of renouncing. 09:51.280 --> 09:53.220 People tried to say, you'll come back to the US eventually, 09:53.300 --> 09:55.840 but I followed my own North Star. 09:56.920 --> 10:00.420 Now, the other issue is I've chosen to be a citizen 10:00.420 --> 10:01.620 of a handful of countries, 10:03.340 --> 10:05.780 what I call T or B and T or C countries. 10:06.900 --> 10:09.720 Seif Adidamus came to our event, Nomad Capitalist Live. 10:09.860 --> 10:11.380 He talked about how he could have become Canadian 10:11.380 --> 10:12.980 if he stayed and paid a bit more in taxes. 10:13.440 --> 10:14.780 He chose to stay Jordanian. 10:15.320 --> 10:17.020 I, pretty much all my passports 10:17.020 --> 10:18.600 are better than a Jordanian passport. 10:18.600 --> 10:20.580 He said, hey, I go and I get a visa, I'm fine. 10:20.920 --> 10:22.440 Now the US has no problem with him. 10:24.180 --> 10:25.640 And so he gets a US visa. 10:26.180 --> 10:28.340 My passports, I've got visa free travel 10:28.340 --> 10:29.900 to pretty much anywhere I wanna go in the world 10:29.900 --> 10:32.020 except for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand 10:32.020 --> 10:33.600 and a handful of like African countries 10:33.600 --> 10:35.080 that everyone needs a visa to go to 10:35.080 --> 10:38.140 or Turkmenistan that everyone needs a visa for. 10:38.640 --> 10:40.780 But the big ones are US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 10:40.900 --> 10:42.700 pretty much every other country on Earth I can go to. 10:43.480 --> 10:44.940 Now I can get a visa in New Zealand. 10:45.000 --> 10:45.940 I think I applied once 10:45.940 --> 10:47.820 and you have to send your passport off for three months. 10:47.820 --> 10:49.440 I said, I have better things to do than that. 10:49.580 --> 10:51.600 I've been to Australia, wasn't impressed. 10:51.840 --> 10:53.540 Sorry, not for me. 10:53.760 --> 10:55.580 We're all allowed to have different opinions, aren't we? 10:56.260 --> 10:59.640 Been to Canada many times, okay, great. 10:59.960 --> 11:01.800 Been there, done that, heading in the wrong direction. 11:02.700 --> 11:04.680 And I spent, you know, a good chunk of my life 11:04.680 --> 11:05.320 living in the US. 11:05.980 --> 11:07.800 So I felt, hey, I don't really care 11:07.800 --> 11:08.600 about going to these places. 11:08.620 --> 11:10.260 I got offered a speaking gig in Canada. 11:10.380 --> 11:12.600 I said, you know, I don't wanna bother, sorry. 11:14.380 --> 11:16.240 And so if I won't go to be paid, you know, 11:16.240 --> 11:17.440 tens of thousands of dollars, 11:18.200 --> 11:20.220 why would I care to go for free? 11:20.980 --> 11:22.500 So I have this collection of passports 11:22.500 --> 11:25.960 and with that I would apply for a US visa. 11:27.040 --> 11:29.020 I'm sure, I mean, there's people who have committed 11:29.020 --> 11:31.020 crimes who are getting US visas. 11:31.540 --> 11:34.260 But one thing is, it's pretty arbitrary. 11:34.860 --> 11:38.360 One person said, a big part of getting a US visa is luck. 11:38.700 --> 11:40.780 The US is infamous for having the most vague criteria 11:40.780 --> 11:43.380 for granting a visa, unlike the UK and European countries 11:43.380 --> 11:45.260 which have a much more objective set of criteria. 11:45.820 --> 11:47.240 It's mostly tick the box for them. 11:47.340 --> 11:49.680 But in the US, a lot of discretion is given to the interviewer 11:49.680 --> 11:51.160 and you better hope that they are in a good mood. 11:51.360 --> 11:53.860 Many people were denied simply because the embassy officer 11:53.860 --> 11:55.080 didn't like the face of the person 11:55.080 --> 11:56.580 and you can't do anything about it. 11:56.620 --> 11:57.260 There is no appeal. 11:57.980 --> 12:00.980 In some jurisdictions, they have a pre-determined 12:00.980 --> 12:02.440 secret percentage of denials 12:02.440 --> 12:04.940 like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, 12:05.020 --> 12:06.620 and actually it's more countries than that. 12:06.980 --> 12:07.940 So in these jurisdictions, 12:08.160 --> 12:09.640 you have your application already stamped and denied 12:09.640 --> 12:12.520 without even hearing your case, even to millionaires. 12:13.280 --> 12:15.980 Now, do I think most millionaires can get a visa? 12:16.680 --> 12:17.120 Sure. 12:17.960 --> 12:19.800 This is not to say that if you renounce 12:19.800 --> 12:22.200 here US citizenship, you won't be allowed back in. 12:22.420 --> 12:25.640 I think having a TRA passport would be a better thing to do 12:26.500 --> 12:27.940 if you want to be in that camp. 12:28.500 --> 12:31.020 You know what also be good is probably not having a business 12:31.020 --> 12:33.420 that tells people what I, I mean, it's the truth 12:33.420 --> 12:37.060 and I believe it, but coming out here and talking 12:37.060 --> 12:39.480 about how the US is heading in the wrong direction 12:39.480 --> 12:41.640 as a sort of cottage industry probably doesn't help. 12:41.640 --> 12:43.440 Why? Because they do have discretion. 12:44.420 --> 12:46.480 I think in most countries that I would go to, 12:47.060 --> 12:48.980 you know, I've gotten numerous residence permits, 12:49.180 --> 12:50.100 citizenship's around the world. 12:50.260 --> 12:52.060 I've sometimes asked, hey, you know, 12:52.380 --> 12:54.780 here's what I do for work and they're like, 12:54.820 --> 12:55.640 what, why would that matter? 12:56.300 --> 12:57.340 Do you break any laws? 12:57.660 --> 12:59.160 No, I have a clean criminal record. 12:59.740 --> 13:00.960 Okay, so what's the problem? 13:01.260 --> 13:02.860 Well, maybe subjectively they don't like it. 13:03.020 --> 13:03.700 And nobody cares here. 13:04.000 --> 13:04.700 Do you meet the criteria? 13:05.120 --> 13:06.800 Are you a good person, dah, dah, dah, dah. 13:08.360 --> 13:10.220 I've said there are judgmental countries 13:10.220 --> 13:11.520 and not judgmental countries. 13:11.520 --> 13:13.240 I think most countries are not judgmental. 13:13.360 --> 13:14.840 Do you, do you tick the box? 13:15.000 --> 13:16.660 Do you, you know, do you have the amount of money 13:16.660 --> 13:18.480 needed to invest to get the residence permit? 13:18.740 --> 13:20.120 You know, do you have the clean criminal record? 13:20.840 --> 13:22.920 And I tick those boxes, but I'm not convinced 13:22.920 --> 13:24.580 and I don't want to waste the time 13:24.580 --> 13:26.440 to keep going down to the US Embassy 13:26.440 --> 13:29.280 and begging head in hand, please give me a visa. 13:29.460 --> 13:31.420 I think it's $190 every time you go. 13:31.960 --> 13:33.420 Why would I bother to do that? 13:33.520 --> 13:34.320 Well, I don't really want to go. 13:36.320 --> 13:38.440 And even the fact that even some people 13:38.440 --> 13:40.560 with TRA passports, this is pretty rare. 13:41.080 --> 13:43.180 When I talked to some of, 13:43.240 --> 13:44.720 there's a story from a Hungarian. 13:45.260 --> 13:47.040 He was in Canada, tried to cross the land border. 13:47.120 --> 13:48.040 He's got a remote job. 13:48.760 --> 13:50.880 Guy at the US border doesn't know what a remote job is, 13:51.080 --> 13:51.760 sends him back. 13:52.400 --> 13:54.040 Why do I want to be associated with a place 13:54.040 --> 13:55.420 where that's the criteria 13:55.420 --> 13:58.420 when almost no other country in Earth has that criteria? 13:58.600 --> 14:00.680 There's no such thing as what you could just visit, 14:00.840 --> 14:01.300 can't you? 14:01.800 --> 14:04.740 Either you touch US soil or you don't. 14:06.020 --> 14:07.700 There's no, I mean, you can't even fly through. 14:07.700 --> 14:11.560 If I want to fly from Dublin to Bogota, Colombia, 14:12.100 --> 14:13.740 I can't take the flight through Newark 14:14.520 --> 14:17.180 because there is no sterile transit in the US. 14:17.320 --> 14:18.780 You have to enter the country. 14:18.880 --> 14:20.520 You have to have a visa just to fly through. 14:20.740 --> 14:23.100 So when we fly people all around the world from our company, 14:23.420 --> 14:25.180 we generally avoid flying them through the US. 14:25.260 --> 14:27.100 If nothing else, it's just a time suck. 14:29.040 --> 14:30.840 And so you might think, 14:30.980 --> 14:32.540 oh, wow, look at what this guy's done to himself. 14:32.720 --> 14:33.660 He's cut off his opportunities. 14:33.960 --> 14:36.200 It was never something I wanted in the first place. 14:36.740 --> 14:39.800 And so I think that what sometimes people think is, 14:40.060 --> 14:41.700 once they've burned the bridge, as it were, 14:41.820 --> 14:44.220 by the way, I didn't burn a bridge. 14:44.880 --> 14:46.100 I share my honest opinions. 14:46.320 --> 14:48.560 I'd be able to follow all the US laws if they live there. 14:48.820 --> 14:50.620 If they don't like that I have an opinion, 14:50.840 --> 14:52.980 kind of flies in the face of what the US was all about 14:52.980 --> 14:54.740 if they want to hold that against me. 14:54.840 --> 14:57.200 I thought it was all about, we're individualists 14:57.200 --> 14:58.160 and we have free speech 14:58.160 --> 15:00.080 and we get to speak out against the government. 15:00.260 --> 15:03.060 I guess that's kind of less of a thing these days. 15:07.500 --> 15:10.740 But I think people tend to regret stuff 15:11.070 --> 15:12.340 or they think they'll regret stuff 15:12.340 --> 15:13.900 once they've cut off an option. 15:15.200 --> 15:17.700 And I just don't think it's a healthy thing to do. 15:22.340 --> 15:25.080 Again, I left for a whole lot of personal reasons. 15:25.280 --> 15:26.640 I could have stayed at expat 15:26.640 --> 15:28.920 and continued paying practically no tax 15:29.250 --> 15:30.300 and kept the citizenship. 15:31.100 --> 15:33.860 Now, I would have had a few more restrictions 15:33.860 --> 15:35.340 on how I use that money, 15:36.420 --> 15:39.940 but even if that were a major criteria, which it wasn't, 15:40.920 --> 15:42.640 that's not that I'm leaving for the tax. 15:43.200 --> 15:45.140 I think my last couple of years I paid zero 15:45.140 --> 15:46.060 when I did it legally. 15:49.280 --> 15:52.420 And so the idea of, oh, well, 15:52.580 --> 15:55.280 if you leave for tax reasons, didn't, 15:55.980 --> 15:57.460 then you shouldn't be allowed to come in, 15:57.560 --> 15:59.280 kind of flies in the face of the fact that 15:59.760 --> 16:04.020 if I overstayed a visa, which is supposedly the reason 16:04.020 --> 16:05.520 that one would not be granted a visa, 16:06.680 --> 16:08.360 I would become a tax resident 16:08.360 --> 16:13.300 because US B-1, B-2 visas are generally good for six months. 16:13.760 --> 16:15.280 And if you spend six months in the US, 16:15.460 --> 16:17.000 you can be sucked into the tax debt 16:17.000 --> 16:19.300 and why would you give up citizenship in a country 16:19.300 --> 16:20.400 to have all the negatives 16:20.800 --> 16:22.620 without the citizenship in the passport? 16:23.180 --> 16:23.920 So it doesn't make sense, 16:24.020 --> 16:26.140 but that's why there's a handful of countries 16:26.140 --> 16:27.920 like the US which are judgmental. 16:28.570 --> 16:30.560 And I just look at everything like a relationship. 16:31.420 --> 16:34.740 I don't give extra points to people in my family. 16:35.040 --> 16:37.720 If people in my family do stuff that's wrong, 16:37.960 --> 16:40.220 they don't get extra points towards being wrong 16:40.220 --> 16:41.640 because we share blood. 16:42.340 --> 16:43.420 And in the same way, 16:43.460 --> 16:45.080 I don't think your country should get extra points 16:45.080 --> 16:47.780 because you subscribe to something called patriotism. 16:48.600 --> 16:50.460 If your country does something wrong to you, 16:50.460 --> 16:51.740 if your country is judgmental, 16:51.760 --> 16:53.360 if your country makes the wrong call, 16:53.360 --> 16:57.920 then you ought to extract yourself from that relationship. 16:58.080 --> 17:00.240 I did it in the most complete of ways. 17:01.500 --> 17:03.920 And what you realize when you extract yourself 17:03.920 --> 17:04.960 from bad relationships 17:04.960 --> 17:06.720 is usually the other person doesn't change. 17:10.540 --> 17:12.420 And I think that for me, 17:13.060 --> 17:16.440 my feeling when finally being out was okay, 17:17.740 --> 17:18.840 I'm not part of this, 17:18.980 --> 17:20.280 I'm gonna feel better about whatever they do. 17:20.400 --> 17:21.860 And I still to some extent feel that way, 17:21.900 --> 17:22.900 but they haven't changed. 17:22.900 --> 17:25.080 They're still going to judge me based on, 17:25.340 --> 17:27.940 hey, we think you don't like paying tax 17:27.940 --> 17:30.220 or we don't like that you say bad stuff about us. 17:30.280 --> 17:34.240 And we've had, we had some twerp from one of the embassies 17:34.240 --> 17:35.480 or used to work at one of the embassies 17:35.480 --> 17:37.040 commenting under his own name saying, 17:37.080 --> 17:38.060 oh, I hope you suffer. 17:39.120 --> 17:41.220 Kind of a sick kind of place to go to. 17:41.420 --> 17:42.700 You know, I live in a lot of countries. 17:42.860 --> 17:44.460 I have homes, I talk to people. 17:45.280 --> 17:47.380 And nobody's ever said they hope I suffer. 17:48.460 --> 17:50.200 That kind of tells you something about the country. 17:50.940 --> 17:55.440 And so as the U.S. becomes more and more, 17:56.820 --> 17:58.960 well, quite simply more and more poor, 17:59.440 --> 18:01.740 I think that people like me fit in even less and less. 18:01.860 --> 18:03.900 Here's a comment from someone who doesn't like 18:03.900 --> 18:04.900 something I said. 18:05.680 --> 18:07.700 How many people are sitting around drinking their coffee 18:07.700 --> 18:09.360 this beautiful morning having the cash 18:09.360 --> 18:11.380 to run it and buy a place in Vanuatu? 18:11.800 --> 18:13.340 Not the majority by any means. 18:13.500 --> 18:15.820 And how many Americans want to run like scared chickens 18:15.820 --> 18:18.920 while nemesis like Russia or China nuke our country? 18:18.920 --> 18:20.540 By the way, I don't know about you. 18:21.020 --> 18:22.780 If someone's gonna nuke your country 18:22.780 --> 18:23.980 and you have the chance to run, 18:24.460 --> 18:26.480 I don't know, I would get out. 18:26.620 --> 18:28.540 I would escape the blast radius. 18:29.280 --> 18:31.280 But I also know, yeah, 18:31.640 --> 18:33.280 the majority of people don't have the chance. 18:33.400 --> 18:34.140 I think he's talking about, 18:34.140 --> 18:35.580 we talked about Vanuatu citizenship. 18:35.940 --> 18:37.740 You buy stuff there and get citizenship. 18:38.980 --> 18:40.140 I can afford to do that. 18:40.600 --> 18:42.160 What the reality is for everybody else, 18:42.520 --> 18:43.560 I mean, we should always be aware 18:43.560 --> 18:45.420 of everyone else around us. 18:45.500 --> 18:47.740 But for me, yeah, I can afford to do that. 18:47.740 --> 18:48.600 So what? 18:48.680 --> 18:49.980 I should be taken as a joke. 18:51.380 --> 18:54.340 You know, again, it was just at nomad capitalist live 18:54.340 --> 18:54.840 out that long ago, 18:54.920 --> 18:56.100 talking to speakers from all around the world, 18:56.200 --> 18:57.020 very high level people. 18:58.420 --> 19:00.080 And when you talk to them about this stuff, 19:00.120 --> 19:01.680 they're like, yeah, of course that makes perfect sense. 19:01.800 --> 19:03.680 It's not like, oh, well, 19:03.700 --> 19:05.100 who do you think you are to do that? 19:05.800 --> 19:09.100 And you just realize this is a country of butthurt people. 19:09.960 --> 19:11.800 You know, in Ireland, people leave Ireland, 19:12.100 --> 19:13.540 nobody ever calls them a traitor. 19:14.020 --> 19:15.760 There's a history of immigration as part of it. 19:16.140 --> 19:18.400 You know, people leave, I've been all over Eastern Europe, 19:18.400 --> 19:20.000 people leave and they go and they get a passport, 19:20.100 --> 19:22.600 they come back, people don't call them a traitor. 19:23.140 --> 19:26.420 There's something about the US that it's like, 19:26.580 --> 19:29.020 if you didn't do exactly what I think you should do, 19:29.700 --> 19:30.940 then you're a bad person. 19:31.800 --> 19:33.220 No fighting back, he says. 19:33.380 --> 19:35.840 I suspect these cowards who plan to run from the fight, 19:35.940 --> 19:37.560 which isn't really what I did. 19:37.660 --> 19:41.440 I think it was more about looking at opportunities 19:41.440 --> 19:43.060 somewhere else, wanting a sense of adventure. 19:43.300 --> 19:44.660 Sure, if I can keep more of my own money, 19:44.660 --> 19:48.240 that's nice, probably about the girls over there are nicer. 19:51.140 --> 19:53.820 But you know, to Americans, I've always run, 19:54.000 --> 19:55.360 why go back and hang out with those people? 19:56.020 --> 19:58.520 I hang out with Americans who have liked mine with me, 19:58.780 --> 20:01.980 people who are like our clients, but most are not. 20:02.280 --> 20:04.400 Why go back to an entire country, these people, 20:04.520 --> 20:06.840 who think that I'm a coward and who assumes 20:06.840 --> 20:10.060 I must have voted for Biden, wasn't a citizen to vote? 20:10.620 --> 20:11.800 So be gone with you. 20:12.280 --> 20:14.120 I'm staying and defending my country 20:14.120 --> 20:17.460 to whatever I can, whereas I've chosen to have a good life 20:18.840 --> 20:23.060 and have my values and have the biggest impact 20:23.060 --> 20:25.500 by not being suffocated by that system. 20:25.980 --> 20:27.960 So why go back and remind myself? 20:28.300 --> 20:30.900 Maybe the US is a lot less individualistic 20:30.900 --> 20:32.880 than it wants to think when you're supposed to agree 20:32.880 --> 20:34.880 with what this person says is the majority. 20:35.480 --> 20:37.980 This to me is the face of what a lot of Americans think. 20:38.080 --> 20:40.240 They don't know what the policies they create do. 20:40.240 --> 20:44.140 They don't understand that people need a tourist visa 20:44.140 --> 20:44.940 to come to the country. 20:45.040 --> 20:46.860 Remember some folks asked a friend of mine from Egypt, 20:47.160 --> 20:48.400 why haven't you been to the US? 20:49.320 --> 20:51.360 These are people who voted to keep everyone 20:51.360 --> 20:53.220 from the S-hole countries out. 20:53.400 --> 20:54.200 That's what they supported. 20:55.140 --> 20:56.160 And then they're like, 20:56.220 --> 20:57.640 why doesn't a single woman from Egypt 20:57.640 --> 21:00.240 who's like statistically the biggest visa overstay risk, 21:00.320 --> 21:02.280 why wouldn't she be allowed to come to the country? 21:02.740 --> 21:05.640 People make these policies, they support these things. 21:05.720 --> 21:06.640 They don't even know what it's about. 21:07.080 --> 21:08.280 At least in some other countries, 21:08.280 --> 21:11.480 people have some idea what their politicians are doing. 21:12.220 --> 21:13.880 But what I also find interesting is, 21:14.900 --> 21:16.820 people say, oh, you abandoned the country. 21:17.260 --> 21:19.440 How many people move from Wisconsin to Florida 21:19.440 --> 21:22.140 to save a few points on taxes or for better weather? 21:22.620 --> 21:23.780 They abandoned their people, 21:23.960 --> 21:25.680 but it's okay because they just went to Florida 21:26.050 --> 21:27.180 and not Uruguay. 21:27.880 --> 21:31.680 So bottom line is there's just not enough in the US 21:31.680 --> 21:33.380 for me to want to go back. 21:33.540 --> 21:36.900 And that's not me saying I hate the country. 21:36.900 --> 21:38.960 It's not me saying I wish anyone ill. 21:39.200 --> 21:41.480 It's me saying and answering the question, 21:41.560 --> 21:42.800 why don't you go back? 21:43.200 --> 21:44.020 People ask me all the time, 21:44.140 --> 21:45.120 how often did you go back? 21:45.280 --> 21:46.340 I don't. 21:47.760 --> 21:48.160 What? 21:48.360 --> 21:49.240 Because they have great beaches. 21:49.520 --> 21:50.440 We have the Nomad Beach Index. 21:50.920 --> 21:52.320 Lots of great beaches all around the world. 21:53.260 --> 21:54.820 People on Instagram post about, 21:54.980 --> 21:56.440 oh, thank goodness I'm back from Europe. 21:56.560 --> 21:57.520 We have air conditioning again. 21:57.780 --> 21:58.720 Yeah, I've got air conditioning. 21:59.840 --> 22:02.360 I'm good in Malaysia, it's cold. 22:02.620 --> 22:03.700 It's cold air conditioning. 22:04.520 --> 22:06.700 And I have all the things that I want somewhere else. 22:06.980 --> 22:09.880 And I think that it's hard for me to make a choice. 22:09.960 --> 22:11.220 I live in places all around the world. 22:11.360 --> 22:13.340 I have never found the one place 22:13.340 --> 22:15.100 that I want to stay and live the rest of my life. 22:15.140 --> 22:16.220 Not because I'm running away, 22:16.380 --> 22:18.680 yes strategically having levers is a good thing. 22:19.020 --> 22:21.200 But I find too many places interesting 22:21.200 --> 22:23.060 and yet the US is not one of them. 22:24.640 --> 22:26.100 Having acceptance to me is important. 22:26.220 --> 22:27.480 And I think just saying, you know what? 22:27.520 --> 22:29.440 At some point it's good just to close something off. 22:30.240 --> 22:31.660 Don't stay in touch with the X 22:32.480 --> 22:33.500 and the relationship, 22:33.740 --> 22:35.120 enter the best time as possible. 22:35.440 --> 22:37.260 If they want to think you're a bad person, 22:37.320 --> 22:38.640 let them go off and do what they're gonna do, 22:38.680 --> 22:40.080 what you do, what you're gonna do. 22:41.620 --> 22:42.560 I don't regret. 22:42.920 --> 22:44.900 And I think sometimes moving forward's the best thing. 22:45.440 --> 22:47.880 Cutting off an option as much as I like collecting options. 22:48.060 --> 22:49.580 If you have the chance to cut one off, 22:50.040 --> 22:50.820 I think it's a good thing. 22:51.160 --> 22:54.160 And it is for that reason that I don't go back 22:54.160 --> 22:56.160 and don't expect to go back. 22:56.400 --> 22:57.540 Could I always change my mind? 22:58.260 --> 23:00.560 Of course I could, that's the benefit of. 23:01.010 --> 23:04.820 Being human and adapting and evolving. 23:05.650 --> 23:07.020 But there's your answer.