Same job, new country: Location independence

[You wish to live Abroad?] The dream of living abroad comes with a lot of complications and with the condition of staying gainfully employed. It generally means taking a huge risk, selling all your possessions and moving out of your home country. The payoff is the chance to experience adventures far and wide, the downside to this is that the longer you stay away, the more at jeopardy your financial future becomes. However, this is slowly transforming.

In developed countries like the USA, working remotely is getting mainstream. The remote job opportunities are growing across the world and there are organizations who have successfully embraced the remote work culture.

Benefits of being location independent

Location independence gives you flexibility and helps in maintaining a work-life balance. You’d no longer have to go through the stressful experience of going to your boss and asking for a week off. With remote work, you can be anywhere in the world for however long you want and your work won’t suffer.

Surveys have proved that working remotely have a positive effect on your health. Since you have more personal time and you save yourself from the long office commutes, you can finally invest that time in your personal health. 

Remote work also allows you to be among like-minded people. There is always a possibility that you might not share the interests with the people in your office. But when you choose your own location and work environment it is easier to find people with similar interests.

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

Where to start if you want to move to a new country and work remotely?

• Decide on your ideal location - This does not mean choosing the country you’ve always dreamt of living in [Save it for the later, when you are pro at Remote Work 🙂 ]. While choosing a country to move to, you need to evaluate the following-
•  Tax rates - As a remote worker, you might already be paying a high rate of tax. If only you could legally avoid taxes, you’d be able to save a lot of money. Moving to a new country with low tax rates will not only save a lot of your money but will also benefit in providing you a better lifestyle. 
• Residency rules - Some countries do not allow foreign residency and if they do, they have a lot of additional rules that come with it. For instance, Hong Kong citizenship is easy to achieve and it’s tax rates are also low, moving to Hong Kong will help you build your remote business.
• Make a home base - Making a home base will help you in creating a second home for yourself when traveling across a region. Connie Biesalski, the founder of LiveYourHeartOut (originally from Brazil), made Bali her home base for years as she traveled South East Asia and worked remotely.

Setting up your remote business

Photo by Crew on Unsplash

• Working spaces - Coworking spaces can be a good way to ensure that your productivity does not decrease as you move to a new country. They will also ensure that you have comfortable seating space all the time and also a good working environment.
• Evaluating the extra expenses - Do not forget the extra expenses that are going to come your way when you move to a new country. Expenses relating to transportation, house rent, food, etc, need to be managed well otherwise it can be a huge burn for your pocket in a short span of time.

Moving to a different country and living the life they always dreamed of has benefited a lot of remote business.

Andrew Henderson from Nomad Capitalist shares a story of an Australian guy who was earning $400,000 a year with his online business but paying almost $200,000 a year in Taxes on it! Andrew got him out of Australia and had him move to Asia, where he could have the same lifestyle or better but without the huge tax bill. Now, his tax bills are minimum and he is saving almost $250,000 every year.

 He did not only save a lot more money but also enjoyed a much better lifestyle. And you can do this too.

What do you think?

Sounds interesting enough? Watch here. “How Connie Biesalski is traveling and working at the same time”.

To know how moving to a new country can help you save big on taxes. Watch the interview by Andrew Henderson.

Learn from experts like Andrew Henderson and Connie Biesalski about how you can successfully take your work with you and travel the world. Watch them talk about working remotely.