Comments by "Marvin Fine" (@torontovoice1) on "Where to Escape Klaus Schwab" video.

  1. I agree with you that Switzerland scores very high on all of the charts. Quality of life, healthcare, and general overall living. But there's a few drawbacks that I see. I'm not too concerned about the language, because I speak French having grown up in Quebec, and I also speak Yiddish, so I understand most of the German. The Swiss German accent might be a bit challenging, but I would probably be able to understand some eventually. The problem I have with Switzerland is the taxes. All of the cantons have wealth tax which can be extremely high especially if you are a uhnw individual. You can also pay a flat tax forfait, but I think the minimum is around $150,000 Swiss francs. When you factor in the cost of living, it's easily going to cost you $300,000 Swiss francs a year to live, not to mention that you have to buy private insurance to add to the cost. I have the option to go there because I have a Schengen passport, but I really don't see the value. The other thing that concerned me was that the people are very cold. Also, growing up in Canada but I hated most was the cold weather. Switzerland is not exactly tropical! Am I missing something? Please let me know. I put everything on the spreadsheet and it doesn't look enticing! I know our good friend Andrew Henderson tells us that there's 31 good countries to go to. I have looked at every country in the world. I started off with the global corruption index and I wanted to at least be in one of the countries in the top 25%. South America is way down the list. So if you're okay with going to a country like Mexico where everywhere you go you have to bribe a police officer or they'll find cocaine in your car, does not seem like you would live a peaceful life. There's a big difference between being a regular Joe, and being a well-known person. If you're just an average Joe and you have a pension of two $3,000 a month or whatever and you go to South America, I agree no one's going to bother you very much. They don't want to bother you because they don't want the press. They want others to come. So they'll pretty much leave you alone. I agree with that. There are isolated cases where people have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they're not the norm, and it can happen anywhere. But these corrupt officials are always on the take. So if they see someone coming in, especially if the person has done something which could be characterized as Gray, you're putty in their hands! Now this is never going to happen in Switzerland I agree with that, nor will it happen in any of the Scandinavian countries or in Germany. But there's a correlation between all of these different aspects. Now Andrew talks about American cities, and many of them are downright dangerous. You're talking about places like Buffalo New York, Chicago, etc. Yeah, you need security to walk around in these places and you got to be sheltered especially if you look like you have more than two nickels to rub together. I don't think the government is corrupt though, and they're not going to go after you even if you're a billionaire, as long as you follow the rules. Of course the more money you have, the more they'll put you under a microscope to see what they can get. But you don't hear about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates being prosecuted or sued? Finally, you want to go to a place where you're going to feel comfortable and have reasonable social circles. It's not easy to find the right country despite the fact that we are invited to choose from the buffet!
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  2. I agree with you that Switzerland scores very high on all of the charts. Quality of life, healthcare, and general overall living. But there's a few drawbacks that I see. I'm not too concerned about the language, because I speak French having grown up in Quebec, and I also speak Yiddish, so I understand most of the German. The Swiss German accent might be a bit challenging, but I would probably be able to understand some eventually. The problem I have with Switzerland is the taxes. All of the cantons have wealth tax which can be extremely high especially if you are a uhnw individual. You can also pay a flat tax forfait, but I think the minimum is around $150,000 Swiss francs. When you factor in the cost of living, it's easily going to cost you $300,000 Swiss francs a year to live, not to mention that you have to buy private insurance to add to the cost. I have the option to go there because I have a Schengen passport, but I really don't see the value. The other thing that concerned me was that the people are very cold. Also, growing up in Canada but I hated most was the cold weather. Switzerland is not exactly tropical! Am I missing something? Please let me know. I put everything on the spreadsheet and it doesn't look enticing! I know our good friend Andrew Henderson tells us that there's 31 good countries to go to. I have looked at every country in the world. I started off with the global corruption index and I wanted to at least be in one of the countries in the top 25%. South America is way down the list. So if you're okay with going to a country like Mexico where everywhere you go you have to bribe a police officer or they'll find cocaine in your car, does not seem like you would live a peaceful life. There's a big difference between being a regular Joe, and being a well-known person. If you're just an average Joe and you have a pension of two $3,000 a month or whatever and you go to South America, I agree no one's going to bother you very much. They don't want to bother you because they don't want the press. They want others to come. So they'll pretty much leave you alone. I agree with that. There are isolated cases where people have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they're not the norm, and it can happen anywhere. But these corrupt officials are always on the take. So if they see someone coming in, especially if the person has done something which could be characterized as Gray, you're putty in their hands! Now this is never going to happen in Switzerland I agree with that, nor will it happen in any of the Scandinavian countries or in Germany. But there's a correlation between all of these different aspects. Now Andrew talks about American cities, and many of them are downright dangerous. You're talking about places like Buffalo New York, Chicago, etc. Yeah, you need security to walk around in these places and you got to be sheltered especially if you look like you have more than two nickels to rub together. I don't think the government is corrupt though, and they're not going to go after you even if you're a billionaire, as long as you follow the rules. Of course the more money you have, the more they'll put you under a microscope to see what they can get. But you don't hear about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates being prosecuted or sued? Finally, you want to go to a place where you're going to feel comfortable and have reasonable social circles. It's not easy to find the right country despite the fact that we are invited to choose from the buffet!
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  3. ​ @nomadcapitalist and most importantly, for people that are not millionaires and want inspiration and motivation to become millionaires
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  4. I don't think so, why is Africa so poor! They have the most natural resources. For some reason, all the cold countries in the world are the most prosperous
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  5. Yeah you're right. I think turkeys inflation is like 80%
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  6. I agree with you that Switzerland scores very high on all of the charts. Quality of life, healthcare, and general overall living. But there's a few drawbacks that I see. I'm not too concerned about the language, because I speak French having grown up in Quebec, and I also speak Yiddish, so I understand most of the German. The Swiss German accent might be a bit challenging, but I would probably be able to understand some eventually. The problem I have with Switzerland is the taxes. All of the cantons have wealth tax which can be extremely high especially if you are a uhnw individual. You can also pay a flat tax forfait, but I think the minimum is around $150,000 Swiss francs. When you factor in the cost of living, it's easily going to cost you $300,000 Swiss francs a year to live, not to mention that you have to buy private insurance to add to the cost. I have the option to go there because I have a Schengen passport, but I really don't see the value. The other thing that concerned me was that the people are very cold. Also, growing up in Canada but I hated most was the cold weather. Switzerland is not exactly tropical! Am I missing something? Please let me know. I put everything on the spreadsheet and it doesn't look enticing! I know our good friend Andrew Henderson tells us that there's 31 good countries to go to. I have looked at every country in the world. I started off with the global corruption index and I wanted to at least be in one of the countries in the top 25%. South America is way down the list. So if you're okay with going to a country like Mexico where everywhere you go you have to bribe a police officer or they'll find cocaine in your car, does not seem like you would live a peaceful life. There's a big difference between being a regular Joe, and being a well-known person. If you're just an average Joe and you have a pension of two $3,000 a month or whatever and you go to South America, I agree no one's going to bother you very much. They don't want to bother you because they don't want the press. They want others to come. So they'll pretty much leave you alone. I agree with that. There are isolated cases where people have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they're not the norm, and it can happen anywhere. But these corrupt officials are always on the take. So if they see someone coming in, especially if the person has done something which could be characterized as Gray, you're putty in their hands! Now this is never going to happen in Switzerland I agree with that, nor will it happen in any of the Scandinavian countries or in Germany. But there's a correlation between all of these different aspects. Now Andrew talks about American cities, and many of them are downright dangerous. You're talking about places like Buffalo New York, Chicago, etc. Yeah, you need security to walk around in these places and you got to be sheltered especially if you look like you have more than two nickels to rub together. I don't think the government is corrupt though, and they're not going to go after you even if you're a billionaire, as long as you follow the rules. Of course the more money you have, the more they'll put you under a microscope to see what they can get. But you don't hear about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates being prosecuted or sued? Finally, you want to go to a place where you're going to feel comfortable and have reasonable social circles. It's not easy to find the right country despite the fact that we are invited to choose from the buffet!
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  7.  @ilovesuisse1  Thank you very much for the response. I think you're missing the point though. Have some people have investments and assets. If it were only the cost of living, it's quite irrelevant to people even if it's high. Granted that the value added tax is low. But Switzerland has wealth tax. So let's say for example a person had 50 million dollars worth of financial assets, some cantons have close to a 1% wealth tax which would put a person like that into a tax bracket of around 5 million a year. Of course they could also opt for a forfeit, in which case they would pay a flat tax based on their rent for the value of their property. You probably don't have these problems, which is why you're not concerned about them. Having a lot of assets is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is you have the money, the curse in the country like Switzerland is that you either have to make a deal with a Canton and pay a forfeit or alternatively pay almost 1% of your assets and wealth tax. Do you think I have misinterpreted this?
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  8.  @r3dp1ll  You're making comments on basically people that are living they don't have two nickels to see God Walk on water. What if you came to Mexico and the Mexicans knew that you had 50 million dollars? Do you think your life would be in danger? You think the police would come in and start setting up drugs and everything on you and milk you for every penny you got under threat of spending the rest of your life in jail? If you're a nobody, and you don't have any substantial assets, then no one is likely going to bother you I agree. There have been cases where people have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but those are rather obscure. But the nomad capitalist is dedicated to people that have seven and eight-figure incomes. Do you have a 7 or 8 figuring income? I doubt that very much! And I think that's the big difference. And when you look at people that were thrown in jail in Mexico for no reason, there was always an issue linked to someone that was a tycoon. That's the difference between living in a country with due process of law, and living in a corrupt where people are bribeable.
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  9. You're absolutely right. All of these programs that you see are predicated on people having what they call portable occupations. Look at Andrew Henderson for example. He can be anywhere. Everything that he's doing is consulting. Now sure you could be a freelancer which is also portable. But how much are you going to make? And if you try to make a living in Mexico, good luck with all that! It's not going to work, the country is too corrupt and if you start to inch into anybody's territory, you will get a visit from armed gangsters who will assist you with protection. And that's if you're lucky! The other thing you could get is killed! There are people that do go of course and they find partners they're typically high up in the military and they'll leave them alone because they realize that they're in control of the company. But of course sometimes that can backfire on you as well. In the west we think about contracts, paperwork etc. You can put together hundreds of pages of paperwork. It means nothing in these third world countries. A gun supersedes all this paperwork. So you want to start off with the corruption perception index. 180 countries in the world. Try to be somewhere between 0 and 45. You don't want to be down at the end of the list like Nigeria for example or Somalia. I think North Korea is the most corrupt but it's kind of academic at this point. But you hit the nail on the head. What do you do if you're a mechanic a hairdresser truck driver a restauranter, a retailer etc. Even if you're a physician, are you going to treat people online! The only thing I've heard about is radiologists that have moved because they basically can receive all their documents online, write there reports and send them back. I've heard lawyers who work overseas and who come back to their home country for trials. Also maybe accountants and things of that nature but these are far and few in between. And they're changing the rules all the time. One of the things is they look at is the substantial presence test. Right now it's physical. In other words if you're more than 183 days in the country you're under their tax trap. But what if you're working for a company in the states or Canada? I think you might have a problem either today or going forward. The alwayscd is clamping down on all these initiatives. It's going to be harder and harder to do any of these things. If you're happy where you are, just get more creative, and try to work within the system. Most people have no idea what to do, and they just do the same thing they've done for the last 20 years. It doesn't work anymore!
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  10. Oh yes being great country, not! They have wealth tax.
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  11. I live in Netanya. Maybe I can give you some pointers. Drop me a line.
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  12. No
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  13. You know that's a good point you bring up about racism. Some people are black, some people are Jewish, and there are many countries that are very racist! You don't want to go to a country where you're going to feel that you're being picked on because of the color of your skin, or because of your religion. I grew up in Ontario primarily, and I never felt any racism whatsoever. But I have many black friends who talk to me about racism all the time. I remember a friend coming over to get his computer fixed and he parked down a laneway on the street. So I said okay your computer is all fixed you can take it. Amy said do you mind driving me down the lane? I said why it's a very short distance. He said yeah, but if I would put the computer under my arm and walk down the lane 50 people will be calling the police telling them there's a big black guy that just stole a computer! I was actually shocked to hear that. This guy used to go out and put signs up on the highway promoting his business, and the City used to get no less than 50 calls a night. There's a big black guy on the highway doing something very suspicious. And the police would say is there a big red truck there? And the guy would say yes that's correct go get him! And the police would say no no he's okay he's just putting up his signs he does it all the time. But the first time they going to call he was accosted by a helicopter with searchlights. Over the big loudspeaker it said stand still, put your arms by your side, don't move. Then three police cars came to see what the guy was doing. Now if he was white, do you think that would have happened? I never really thought about that until he told me the whole story and how he has to govern himself in such a way. He told me when he stands at the street corner the only thing he hears is power door locks going off. Quick lock the door! There's a big black guy here! So yes I completely agree with you that is certainly a problem, and you want to be in a country that is multicultural and welcoming of minorities, especially visible minorities. Canada has a lot to offer to people starting businesses. You probably haven't been speaking to the right people. There are millions of dollars available in grants and loans, and I'm not speaking academically. I received large sums from the Canadian government. They also have the small business tax which is only 15% on the first 400,000 of income. And there's lots of ways to quickly get ahead. You just have to know what you're doing, and how to do it properly. Of course most people don't, they do everything backwards. They look for things that are easy to do, require very little money to get into, and offer immediate cash flow. That's backwards!
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  14. You're absolutely right. All of these programs that you see are predicated on people having what they call portable occupations. Look at Andrew Henderson for example. He can be anywhere. Everything that he's doing is consulting. Now sure you could be a freelancer which is also portable. But how much are you going to make? And if you try to make a living in Mexico, good luck with all that! It's not going to work, the country is too corrupt and if you start to inch into anybody's territory, you will get a visit from armed gangsters who will assist you with protection. And that's if you're lucky! The other thing you could get is killed! There are people that do go of course and they find partners they're typically high up in the military and they'll leave them alone because they realize that they're in control of the company. But of course sometimes that can backfire on you as well. In the west we think about contracts, paperwork etc. You can put together hundreds of pages of paperwork. It means nothing in these third world countries. A gun supersedes all this paperwork. So you want to start off with the corruption perception index. 180 countries in the world. Try to be somewhere between 0 and 45. You don't want to be down at the end of the list like Nigeria for example or Somalia. I think North Korea is the most corrupt but it's kind of academic at this point. But you hit the nail on the head. What do you do if you're a mechanic a hairdresser truck driver a restauranter, a retailer etc. Even if you're a physician, are you going to treat people online! The only thing I've heard about is radiologists that have moved because they basically can receive all their documents online, write there reports and send them back. I've heard lawyers who work overseas and who come back to their home country for trials. Also maybe accountants and things of that nature but these are far and few in between. And they're changing the rules all the time. One of the things is they look at is the substantial presence test. Right now it's physical. In other words if you're more than 183 days in the country you're under their tax trap. But what if you're working for a company in the states or Canada? I think you might have a problem either today or going forward. The alwayscd is clamping down on all these initiatives. It's going to be harder and harder to do any of these things. If you're happy where you are, just get more creative, and try to work within the system. Most people have no idea what to do, and they just do the same thing they've done for the last 20 years. It doesn't work anymore!
    1
  15. You're absolutely right. All of these programs that you see are predicated on people having what they call portable occupations. Look at Andrew Henderson for example. He can be anywhere. Everything that he's doing is consulting. Now sure you could be a freelancer which is also portable. But how much are you going to make? And if you try to make a living in Mexico, good luck with all that! It's not going to work, the country is too corrupt and if you start to inch into anybody's territory, you will get a visit from armed gangsters who will assist you with protection. And that's if you're lucky! The other thing you could get is killed! There are people that do go of course and they find partners they're typically high up in the military and they'll leave them alone because they realize that they're in control of the company. But of course sometimes that can backfire on you as well. In the west we think about contracts, paperwork etc. You can put together hundreds of pages of paperwork. It means nothing in these third world countries. A gun supersedes all this paperwork. So you want to start off with the corruption perception index. 180 countries in the world. Try to be somewhere between 0 and 45. You don't want to be down at the end of the list like Nigeria for example or Somalia. I think North Korea is the most corrupt but it's kind of academic at this point. But you hit the nail on the head. What do you do if you're a mechanic a hairdresser truck driver a restauranter, a retailer etc. Even if you're a physician, are you going to treat people online! The only thing I've heard about is radiologists that have moved because they basically can receive all their documents online, write there reports and send them back. I've heard lawyers who work overseas and who come back to their home country for trials. Also maybe accountants and things of that nature but these are far and few in between. And they're changing the rules all the time. One of the things is they look at is the substantial presence test. Right now it's physical. In other words if you're more than 183 days in the country you're under their tax trap. But what if you're working for a company in the states or Canada? I think you might have a problem either today or going forward. The alwayscd is clamping down on all these initiatives. It's going to be harder and harder to do any of these things. If you're happy where you are, just get more creative, and try to work within the system. Most people have no idea what to do, and they just do the same thing they've done for the last 20 years. It doesn't work anymore!
    1