It's been five weeks already and this week I've been thinking about what it really means to be travelling internationally, and how it can change your perspective on things like taxes, community, and finance. Plus, some exciting development things to share. Plus plus, there is also a big announcement at the end - things are about to get even more spicy .
Choosing your tax residency is probably only second to who you choose as a partner in terms of the impact it will have on your life. Choose well and you'll have access to great public services in a peaceful and friendly country, and paying taxes will feel good because you're contributing to improving your surroundings and community. Choose poorly and you'll feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment each month as your income evaporates, and as other types of taxes are applied across most things you do, for seemingly little impact. This is worse still if you see the funds being spent inefficiently.
One of the things that's changed significantly since leaving the UK has been the way I think about taxes. As a commercial software engineer (in London), a portion of your income will probably be in the top tax bracket ( which in the UK is 45% *). This means that almost half of any amount in that bracket and beyond is gone before you see it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing , after all, to be taxed at that rate means that your income is already well above the national and local averages. However, it also means that if you look at the raw amount of how much you're taxed versus the impact paying those extra taxes has on your quality of life, there is essentially no difference.
In other words, you could pay $40,000 in income tax or $100,000 and the quality of the services, the healthcare, and everything else, is the same. The question then becomes; is contributing the $60,000 difference to stay in this system worth it , or would my quality of life meaningfully improve if I travelled elsewhere? This needs to be balanced with the likely reduction in income that moving/travelling would bring, plus the relationships, community, and everything else that ties you to your home town/country. But all that considered, I personally want to explore different parts of the world and see if the UK really is that great, or if there are other places to live which offer a higher quality of life without as big an impact on my financial future.
I'll do a full episode on international personal finances in the future if you think it would be useful!
The development thing I wanted to share is that there is now a showcase page at show.ojsgroup.net which gives an example of some simple analytics/pipelines which are now live, just to give a flavour of what types of services I can set up as part of OJS Group .
I'll be updating and expanding this page with more as I build, but just as a quick aside for the software engineers reading this; it's such a great feeling waking up to continue building something and knowing that you maintain ownership of the entire system, it reminds me of writing my thesis all those years ago, and I thoroughly recommend it.
In other news, the major announcement I hinted at in last weeks episode is that in 5 short weeks I will be relocating once again from Aix En Provence to Da Nang - the fourth largest city in Vietnam with some of the top beaches in South East Asia. The motivation for this move comes in two parts, the first is lifestyle and the second is adventure. For lifestyle; when I imagined leaving London I was picturing morning walks on the beach, mountain views, and luxury as a part of daily life rather than as an occasional experience. From what I've read so far, Da Nang can check that box. For adventure; Da Nang's location means direct flights to all neighbouring countries, access to the best beaches in the world , and lots to explore in a culture and language completely different to the UK/Europe. It's a big move, but if it works out then it might be one of the best decisions I've ever made.
In case you're thinking of something similar, making this move from a paperwork perspective has been surprisingly straigthforward. Vietnam offers a renewable 90-day E-Visa, which means 'border-runs' every quarter, but all through a short online form with confirmation after a few days (plus a $25 fee). For most nationalities the simplest option is to take a one week trip to Malaysia (which is 30 days visa free), renew the Vietnam E-Visa during that trip and then heading back. I'm not sure if that's the route I'll be taking, but I will of course let you know as it happens. Coming back to the topic of taxes ( and none of this or any future episodes are in any way financial advice ), I'll be considered a tax resident in Vietnam if I stay for more than 183 days per tax year, so it's not that relevant yet, but I'll definitely be factoring it in as I think about where I'm staying over the next 6 months.
That's all for this week, we're up to 52 subscribers now (welcome to the new joiners 👋), so with a projected 4% increase per week we'll be at almost 108,000 in just 4 years!
Next week I'll cover exactly how I'm sourcing data for the ongoing lead generation project, plus some of the interesting things I've found along the way. See you then!
Thanks and all the best,
Oliver
* There is the higher effective rate in the tax trap, but lets not get into all that this time
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