The Books That Helped Me Move Overseas

For all of us who’ve ever thought of moving overseas, something planted the seed of that idea. Maybe it was a year abroad in college. Maybe you kept on hearing the exciting stories from a relative who moved abroad. For me it was books.

Here are a few of the books that helped me on my move overseas – from giving me the idea through how to implement the plan.

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne

Harry Browne was the Libertarian candidate for President of the United States twice, which is a little odd considering what he wrote here.

In this book, I found two main points; trying to make other people change the world to fit your desires is generally a losing proposition, and we all tend to be trapped by our assumptions.

If you look at the problems happening in most of the major industrial countries, can you say that elections, protests, and riots have really solved any of the existing problems? Are the budgets balanced now? Are we fighting more or less wars? Are we becoming any freer? From what I’ve seen in the United States, the answer to all those questions is, “No.”

So we have the choice, we could stay in our home countries, protesting futilely and getting increasingly frustrated, or we can pack our bags and move to a place where we can live the lives we want. Since I’m writing this a continent away from where I was born, you can see the decision I made.

My theory is that everything goes in cycles. Societies have a certain amount of freedom until they reach a level of abuses and excesses. Then things swing to a “controlled” society, until it reaches a different set of excesses. Then things swing back the other direction. Assuming this is correct, you just need to find a place that is heading in the direction you want to go.

And this is something that isn’t based on any particular politician. It’s driven by the attitude of the people. They “get the leaders they deserve”, as the old saying goes.

This book spends most of its time discussing the “traps” that we tend to fall in to. These are beliefs we have that we assume to be true. You “have to have a job”. If you’re in love, you “have to get married”.

The author breaks those down to get you to think about what your true need is and how you can focus on accomplishing that. Do you need to have a 9 to 5 job, or do you just need a way to provide for food, shelter, and other requirements for living? Maybe paying cash for a small piece of farmland is the answer. Maybe you can housesit for people in their vacation homes and barter your services for food. Once you get to the true root issue, you open up more possibilities for solving it.

This book is out of print, and it’s expensive to get older copies (the lowest price for a used paperback on Amazon right now is $19.24). However, you can buy a downloadable copy from http://harrybrowne.org/. Look under the “HARRY BROWNE EBOOKS” section.

P.T. by W.G. Hill

Even though many of the specific details from this book are out of date, it’s a good read for people interested in having more personal freedom and becoming a citizen of the world.

P.T. doesn’t officially stand for anything, but it’s commonly said to be “perpetual tourist” or “permanent traveler”. The idea behind the PT plan is that, by never staying in any country for more than a few months at a time, you are never a tax resident anywhere.

This book also talks about the “Five Flag” plan. If you follow it, you have your citizenship in a country that doesn’t tax you if you’re a non-resident, you own a company in a different country that doesn’t tax you if you do business outside of its borders, you bank in another country, have legal residence in a fourth, and spend your time having fun in a fifth country. Even if you don’t plan on going to all those extremes, it’s an interesting book that discusses some useful strategies for protecting yourself and your assets by internationalizing yourself.

The Lifeboat Strategy by Mark Nestmann

Before moving overseas, I hired Mark Nestmann for a few hours to look over my plans and make sure they were solid and would keep my taxes as low as possible. For people interested in privacy and protecting their assets, his book “The Lifeboat Strategy” covers many of the details you’ll need to know.

This book covers the “why” of moving overseas, along with some of the “how”.

If you’re concerned about your privacy and are looking to protect the money you have, then this book probably has a solution for you somewhere in its 400+ pages. Even if you don’t decide to move overseas, you should still consider ways to protect your privacy and your assets.

You can visit Mark’s website at http://www.nestmann.com/