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- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 1
Jim,
I would love to hear how you decided on Monaco as your landing spot.
Cheers.
No. of Recommendations: 0
the cheap rents
No. of Recommendations: 9
sunny
No. of Recommendations: 1
I guess that's longer than "sun"!
No. of Recommendations: 1
"sunny"
Greece has become too sunny, not sure it's still desirable.
No. of Recommendations: 26
OK, a slightly more serious answer---
Various ways we arrived at it
* We're Canadian. Winter is brutal.
* We rented a vacation place nearby in France in 1998 and loved it, allegedly the best microclimate in Europe.
We searched for a place to rent near that for a longer stretch winter 1999/2000, largely for a vacation and a millennium party, and loved it even more.
So when it was time to go back to Canada in April 2000 we toyed with the notion of moving there...but the tax situation in France is pretty brutal.
Monaco was only a few km away, how much worse could the weather be?
By June 1 we had made up our minds, looked at a place, made an offer, and closed the purchase.
* Around the same era we had looked at various tax free places, or nearly tax free, just toying with the idea.
One was the British Virgin Islands. There was a very attractive property for sale on Tortola, I remember.
But...what do you do after the first few weeks on a sunny boring island?
And no great "world city" is exactly close, either.
* Monaco is nice.
No tax, no snow, no crime. What's not to like?
If you get bored, you can be in London or Paris or Rome or Amsterdam by mid morning.
We have friends who moved to Grand Cayman fairly recently. No tax, weirdly good food, very nice people, and Seven Mile Beach (sadly lined with big hotels).
But other than the beach, MAN that is an ugly piece of geography and townscape.
And not exactly a hotbed of deep culture, either. Not for me. And most of stuff there is at least as expensive as Monaco, from taxis on up.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 0
I think many of us have the fantasy. It's the pulling of the trigger that seems too multi-faceted to make real.
No. of Recommendations: 6
Here's a bit of advice I heard from Jim Cramer. "Do it when you can...."
My (retired) brother & his wife live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. High altitude, cold & brutal snowy winters. About 10 years ago they were thinking about selling and moving to some place like Florida. They didn't, and now are too old and weak to move.
When we retired (I was 58) we immediately started traveling the world, even spent a couple of days in Monaco. People advised us to wait, defer taking the pension & Social security to get the larger deferred benefit. Then in 2019 Covid happened and the world shut down.
No. of Recommendations: 6
"Here's a bit of advice I heard from Jim Cramer. "Do it when you can....""
while I fully agree with this and implement it in my own life (travel extensively will young and healthy) - I'm not sure Cramer is a good source for advice.
No. of Recommendations: 2
- I'm not sure Cramer is a good source for advice.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
No. of Recommendations: 12
- I'm not sure Cramer is a good source for advice.
...
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Maybe you give him more credit than is warranted...
Only a *stopped* clock is guaranteed to be right twice a day. If it's merely very slow, the right result could be quite a bit rarer.
The conclusion is clear: we can't be sure of that level of precision from Mr Cramer till he stops.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 2
One of my favourite quotes from Charlie is "If you think picking stocks is easy, listen to cramer."
No. of Recommendations: 4
I think many of us have the fantasy. It's the pulling of the trigger that seems too multi-faceted to make real.
I guess the bigger problem is that the bulk of the board members are "US persons" who don't get to stop filing for US taxes merely by emigrating.
There is a negligible tax advantage, and no paperwork advantage, moving to a place with a tax rate any lower than (say) Alaska.
Plus, life is hard without a bank account, the natural fate these days of most Americans not living in the US.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 3
My wife and I are Alaska residents, funnily enough, so I can absolutely understand fleeing those Canadian winters. We spend a hair under six months each year in the California desert.
I was not aware that Americans can't have a local bank account in Europe. If I may ask, are you citizens of Monaco, or residents?
My expat fantasies are long on chaises longues and short on financial ramifications.
No. of Recommendations: 3
I was not aware that Americans can't have a local bank account in Europe.
They legally can, but they practically can't, as banks outside the US usually don't want US citizen as customers as they are a huge hassle for those banks. That is because of the US government's special filing requirements for those banks, with the purpose to avoid that their citizens "forget" their US tax duties when living overseas. Strange. It's as if the US government doesn't trust it's citizens 😉
No. of Recommendations: 6
<<<< I was not aware that Americans can't have a local bank account in Europe.>>>>
<< They legally can, but they practically can't, as banks outside the US usually don't want US citizen as customers as they are a huge hassle for those banks.>>
I have a bank account in Europe. It was a bit of a hassle to set up as
a US citizen, but it can be done.
The most important thing as a US citizen with funds in foreign banks is
to file an annual FBAR. The penalties for failing to do that are draconian.
-Rubic
No. of Recommendations: 5
This discussion prompted me to look up housing prices in Monaco. $1 million for a studio apartment put rest to those fantasies instantly.
No. of Recommendations: 10
I guess the bigger problem is that the bulk of the board members are "US persons" who don't get to stop filing for US taxes merely by emigrating.
There is a negligible tax advantage, and no paperwork advantage, moving to a place with a tax rate any lower than (say) Alaska.
Plus, life is hard without a bank account, the natural fate these days of most Americans not living in the US.
Jim is Canadian, but knows the American conundrum all too well, better than most. He nails the key takeaway for me anyways, and that is, when it's all said and done, there really is 'negligible tax advantage.' I looked at this fantasy too, and took a quick tour of the real estate there. I lived and worked in Paris a long time ago and love the culture, so I could pick up where I left off with my French. I think I could swing it with the coin I've amassed so far, but I already live in the high rent district of Portsmouth NH, so I would just be trading one expensive lifestyle for another, and not gaining all that much in tax benefits. Yeah, you can exclude $100,000 in Foreign Income(not passive income!), but this lazy retired kid isn't going to be performing services or working on a trade in that part of the world. As it's been said already, there's no way around it but we still gotta file US Fed Tax, so setting up that bank account with reciprocal sharing of information will only mean that Uncle Sam can still remotely operate pesky surveillance over your financial situation. You can run, but not hide.
The only thing I've done to help minimize taxes was to choose a retirement state that doesn't tax any earned/retirement income or cap gains whatsoever ' and Governor Sununu just signed legislation to accelerate the repeal next year of our one and only remaining tax grab, the 5% Div and Interest Tax, so that's another plus. If you choose to rent, instead of buy, then there are no more property taxes either. But, as I said, Portsmouth is a high rent district, and I meant it. It's about the same here to rent as it would be in Monaco, if you were to skip a home buying decision in your later years. Some people do that'I'm considering it.
So, other than Federal Income Tax, there only remains just a small handful of states that can help mitigate the tax bite, and NH is one of them. Yes, we have 4 seasons, and I enjoy 3 of them here in a very enviable locale with lots to do. Seacoast winters are not all that bad here either, but if you go inland, yes, nor'easters can be brutal. I think I've decided however to simply put away the skis and jump on a plane and head down to Puerto Vallarta during the colder months, Jan-Feb. My German buddy goes there every year. He seems to be enjoying himself and has discovered a warm and reasonably priced place to hang out a few months of the year with a pleasant vibe.
No. of Recommendations: 0
If you choose to rent, instead of buy, then there are no more property taxes either.
I could claim the same for my property taxes that are paid by my bank from escrow funds. Unless you mean New Hampshire has chosen to except landlord owned property from property taxes (!), your landlord will pay the property taxes from money they receive monthly from you.
