Expatriation as a wealth building strategy

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By Darrell Forte

Build Wealth, Retire Early, Enjoy Life… Yes, this is possible with an Expatriation Wealth Building Strategy.

In this almost post-COVID-19 world, many things have changed. One such change is the sheer number of professionals that have been advised that they not only are not remote/virtual employees, but some companies have even specified that their employees can live anywhere in the world. Two big changes and possibilities at the same time, and it is based on an Expatriation Wealth Building Strategy.

It is clear, the first declaration may take a minute to digest. The second will also take a little time to even imagine. So, let’s simply pose the idea and explain the concept so that your mental processes can start churning to embrace a new and amazing possibility.

Expatriation Wealth Building By Unsplash

Expatriation Wealth Building  – The Concept
The concept is actually very simple. If you move to a country for any amount of time you decide, where the value of your current income is 300%-500% more than where you currently live, you create to the ability to save and invest significant amounts of income to generate wealth, in a shorter amount of time, without sacrificing your standard of living.

Here is the scenario.  A remote worker (‘RM’) lives in California (USA). RM makes $150,000 in their current role. RM is married and has 2 children. We will assume that RM’s spouse works, but will make no assumption as to that work and its impact on this scenario. With this income, RM is a solid middle class worker with all the elements that we assume come this that, i.e. a home, two cars, etc. In RM’s current situation, the possibility of saving $100,000 a year is unrealistic, unless they substantially reduce their standard of living with a focus on the accumulation of wealth.

Expatriation Wealth Building – The Strategy
RM decides to use expatriation as a means to accumulate wealth for a specified time frame of three years. RM’s plan is to:

1. Rent their house and move to a country where living expenses are substantially lower than where they currently live,
2. Maintain, if not increase, their current standard of living, and
3. Save and invest a minimum of $100,000 a year for the next three years.

Is this possible? It is far beyond just possible; it is factually doable!

Living in countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador (this is a very short list of possibilities) makes this plan completely realistic. In fact, you may actually find it difficult to spend $50,000 a year in some of these places. (Feel free to review cost-of-living numbers in our “Living In…” series of articles in the Essentials menu option on our platform.)

Expatriation Wealth Building  – Cost of Living Realities
Leveraging a US, UK, Australian, etc based income in countries with significantly lower costs of living is a powerful strategy for wealth generation.  It’s powerful because it enables you to:

1. Generate significant wealth is a shortened time-frame
2. Generate that wealth with no change required in income or time
3. Generate that wealth without sacrificing your current standard of living, and embracing the possibility of increasing it.

What you need to do is look at the scenario detailed above and amend it to your situation. Run the numbers.

Take a Breath By Unsplash

Expatriation Wealth Building – Take a Breath
I realize this may be a bit to take in. It’s a fresh approach to an old concept, i.e. generate wealth, retire early, and enjoy that wealth with time and health. The goal is to realize the realities of a wealth-generating strategy in a shorter amount of time and to embrace it to the possibility of retirement much earlier than perhaps you ever imagined. Then, well… live the life. At no other point in history has this been more possible than now.

Will you take advantage of the opportunity?

Have you ever given this any thought? Let me know in the comments below. Check out my video series Expat Mental Meanderings on our YouTube Channel – The TCI Expat Community.

Editor’s Note:  TCI is a full-service provider of expat education and transition services. Our private platform allows our global expat community and our Expat Alliance of in-country expats and experts to interact so that all can successfully embrace the expat experience. Learn More…