todofixthis

Lease is up in BKK, and I'm flying to Chiangmai early next week. Hit me up if you're in town.

Honestly, there are so many better alternatives to banks if you want privacy. Banking privacy is already incredibly rare - most countries' governments can already access banking info in their own jurisdiction; all FATCA did was attempt to get access for a particular government to that data in other countries. If you want to store your wealth anonymously, try storing precious metals in Das Safe or buying Darkcoin. You'll have to be careful how you purchase your assets, of course; the fiat conversion will leave a paper trail. Fiat currency is a government monopoly; more controls and restrictions are inevitable. Don't fight this battle on their terms.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA for short (I'm still amazed they didn't find a way to put a T at the end) is a law passed by the US government that requires foreign banks to enter into an information sharing agreement with the IRS. Basically, all foreign banks must share with the IRS account details for any of their customers who are US citizens. Of course, it would be absurd for a non-US bank to comply with US law, so here's where things get interesting. If a bank is found to be in violation of FATCA, the US government will impose a 30% withholding tax on any transfers originating from that bank that pass through the US financial system. This is interesting to me primarily because it has accelerated the move by other countries away from using the dollar as the world reserve currency. Unintended consequences... well, you know.... Anyway, foreign banks have responded one of 2 ways: - Comply with the new regulation, incurring significant costs to do so. For US citizen account holders, you can expect higher fees, and of course say goodbye to banking privacy (if there is such a thing anymore). - Refuse to accept any US citizens as customers. If you are a US citizen and have an account at one of these banks, expect your account to get closed. You can still hold precious metals anonymously, and digital currencies offer some degree of privacy as well, but these days - especially for US citizens - hiding fiat money from a government is quickly becoming (if not already) an impossible challenge.

If you're looking to publish a personal blog, then you'll want a platform that abstracts away all of the technical stuff so that you can focus on what's most important for you — producing and marketing your content. wordpress.com and blogger.com are both good options, as you don't have to do any coding, and you can pick from pre-designed themes so that you can get right down to business. And they're both free, which is a nice plus. I've been blogging professionally for about 2 years now. If you have any questions, drop me a line anytime (:

Ajá. PR = Permanent Resident. Uruguay is a popular country to establish a "residency flag", although I think that's changing as the government has been making it more difficult to complete the application process — at least, from what I've heard.

Super +1! I didn't get a chance to visit Uruguay when I was in South America, but it's on my list! Do you have residency there? I've heard that it's been getting really tricky to pick up PR in Uruguay these days..

That sounds awesome! I would love to break into the Pattaya network (: I'll PM you on FB. Bangkok is nice, but I'm looking for other places to check out this time around. I picked Chiangmai mostly because it is popular; it would be cool to find a spot that's maybe a bit more off the tourist radar, but with enough expat exposure that I could network with like-minded people.

Awesome! Hit me up when you're back in town (:

Hey Shea! Japan's on my list, but I'm not sure exactly when I'll be there. I'm loving Thailand! The culture is so friendly and accommodating, and I love love LOVE Thai food! (never mind that I am currently in Indonesia doing a visa run ) The cost of living in this part of the world is also very agreeable (: Even if I can't stay in Thailand, I will be hanging around in other SE Asia countries for the next couple of years. My current plan is to stay in Thailand for at least 6 months before jumping back into permanent traveler mode. Could go longer or shorter; we'll see. We should stay in touch! I'll PM you my contact details (:

I'm in Bali! This place is sweet! I came to Ubud originally because I wanted to check out the Hubud coworking space and explore the island a bit. Probably be here for 30 days or so before returning to Thailand for some hardcore moneymaking. Any FDRers on the island want to meet up?

Hey all! I just kicked off FYA Asia, and I'm starting in Thailand! I'll be in Bangkok and Chiangmai over the next few weeks (probably with a visa run somewhere in there). If you're in the area and would like to meet up, send me a ping! I started Five Years Abroad about a year and a half ago, initially to find a new home for myself somewhere in the world, as I never quite felt like I "fit" anywhere in my country of origin. But within a few weeks, I came to discover that the problem was never where I was — the problem was that my culture of origin had forced me to be somebody else, and I was only just now rediscovering my true self! Five Years Abroad started out as a blog, but I added a podcast show about a year ago, and I'm working on launching a video series soon! Aside from fanatical pursuit of self-knowledge, I'm very interested in emerging blockchain-based consensus technology (Bitcoin, anything that I3 is working on, NextCoin, and others), freelancing, software development, travel... and every now and then I like to kick back for an evening of Minecraft (: Looking forward to meeting up! PHX

Hey Ivan. I'm really sorry to hear about the situation you are currently living in. You're starting one of (if not the) most exciting parts of your life, and the two people that are the most acutely aware of that, who should be supporting you the most out of everyone, seem to be barely acknowledging you. I went through a time in my life where I had to live at my parents' house, and it was a similar situation — I isolated myself in my room all the time, and my parents seemed to be satisfied with that. It was a living hell. I don't know all of Stef's story, but I can tell you that nobody I've met has ever gone from starting out to thriving just like that. It takes a lot of work, learning and quite a few mistakes. It's easy to see the success story at the end, but the road that they had to take to get there is probably a lot longer and rockier than you would think. For example, I'm typing this now from Lima, Peru. I've been a permanent traveler for almost 1 year now (this Thursday will be day 366), and I work as a freelance software developer with clients in multiple countries. I'm at a point now where I have the freedom to pick up and move anywhere in the world that I want, and I know everything will be awesome when I get there. Here's what it's taken me to get there: Walking away from an 11-year career as a software developer for employers in the US (and burning a few bridges in the process). 2 philosophy changes (I adopted Objectivism for about 5 years before discovering UPB). 8 months of therapy (and counting). A little over a year of life coaching. Getting into business with corrupt people and losing almost all of my savings as a result. 2 other failed businesses that cost me valuable relationships and cash at a time when I couldn't afford to lose them. An entire month in Santiago, Chile where I was acutely aware that I didn't have enough savings to pay next month's rent. It's been a 12-year journey so far, and that's only if you start the clock when I began my software career. There were a lot of important things that happened to me when I was growing up that made my current successes possible as well. And everyone I've talked to who is really successful has a similar backstory. Heck, Derek Sivers spent 12 years trying to become a successful musician before he finally got the idea to start CD Baby. Don't worry too hard about "making it". You will. Before we get to your immediate concerns, I want to point why I am so confident about that last sentence: You have already achieved something very important to your future success. You have recognized that your life is your own responsibility. Your parents are doing about as much for you as the average soup kitchen. They put a roof over your head and make sure you don't starve. From what you've described, it sounds like they are giving you no guidance and certainly no support — at least nowhere near the level of support you would expect from two people who made the commitment to have a child and raise him to maturity. Everything besides those *bare* essentials, you've done yourself: - When you needed capital, you went out and found employment. - You maintain a 3.8 GPA despite a 20-mile bike commute each day. That's massive. I was never a very strong biker, but I imagine that must eat up 1-2 hours of each day — and it must be physically exhausting to boot! I also was never very good at school, so you also get a solemn hat tip from me for having the focus and determination to make it work. - And now that you recognize that your living situation is no longer working for you, you're taking it upon yourself to find or create a new opportunity to thrive somewhere else. Seriously, before we go on, I really have to applaud your strength and rationality. Really, well done! Ok, so the school thing. First, I have to put it out there. You don't *have* to get a college degree. Depending on what you want to do (which, by the way, you don't have to know right now, nor do you have to stick with the same plan for your whole life), a college education and/or degree might or might not be useful to you. I went to Michigan State University where I learned that I hate computer science, and then I went to Colombia College where I learned that I really just hate college. There are a number of people in my life who are waiting for me to fail so that they can come out of the wings and criticize me for dropping out. I've kept them waiting for 12 years now. So, it can be done. You can find/create opportunities for yourself without a college education/degree. Now there *is* a trade-off here. A diploma represents a bunch of really smart (or at least prestigious) people vouching for your skills and knowledge. That is a valuable asset, and if you don't have that, then you have to make some other decisions in order to compensate. If you want a successful career as a software engineer or computer scientist at a large company, then it will probably be in your best interest (at least in this current iteration of society) to continue your studies and do whatever you can to get that degree. The kind of work you'd be doing for a company like that will be very complicated and challenging, and you'll need a lot of formal knowledge to be valuable in that field. If you want to work at startups and other small companies, you can probably dispense with a degree, at least for awhile. Small businesses are more interested in your abilities than your credentials. The work will be less glamorous (at least at first), but you will build up a reputation and a network that will help you get access to progressively larger and more exciting opportunities. Incidentally, I've hired a few developers in the past year, and I never pay any attention to whether they have a degree (anyway, they went to school in all different countries, so I have no way to verify that those diplomas are any good!). I do pay attention to results and reputation, however. If you want to go the startup route, work on getting relevant job experience and building your professional networking skills. You can always go back and finish your degree later if you decide you want to switch things up in your career. And all of that is only if you're certain that you want to pursue software development of some kind. If you're just getting a degree to get a degree, then my goodness man; get out of there and stop wasting valuable time!!! And I am saying this from the very middle of my glass house — the only reason I went to MSU in the first place was because I thought that was what the other people in my life wanted for me, even though deep down I knew it wasn't what I wanted. I sympathize with myself back then – it took a LOT of abuse to break me – but oooh, if only I hadn't wasted all of that time at school! Alright, enough of that. So, what happens next? From your writing, I think you have the determination, intelligence and ability to make things work. I think the missing piece is creativity. If you want a place of your own, that means expenses, and that means you need an income (personally, I consider a student loan to be an extremely risky investment, so I'm wary of that, but it could also be an option). Ideally, you probably want to focus on school as much as possible (i.e., minimize the amount of time you have to devote to working), so there's three questions I would start with: 1. "What's my timeframe?" - Is it worth it to spend a semester or two working full-time and saving up capital so that you have enough to reduce your work hours (perhaps even to 0) for the next couple of years? - Can you stand your current living situation long enough so that you can find work before you move out, or do you need to get out ASAP? Either is a valid option, by the way; it just determines what you have to focus on. 2. "How can I reduce the amount of money I need to live on?" - The less money you need, the less time you need to trade for that money. - For example, renting an apartment is pricey — can you get a roommate, or maybe rent a room at a nearby house? - Be careful about skimping on self-care, though. Entertainment, eating well, hygiene, etc. are very important to your happiness, and therefore to your productivity and ultimate success. 3. "How can I free up more of my time so that I can minimize the amount of time I have to divert from my studies to my job?" - Imagine if you lived closer to campus and could reduce your daily commuting time from 1-2 hours to 10-20 minutes. - Are there ways you can make your studying techniques more efficient to save more time? Cal Newport might have a thing or two to say about that: http://calnewport.com/blog/about/ Depending on the answers to these questions, I think you'll get a much clearer picture of what the next steps are, and with that clarity, I bet it will be a lot easier to move forward with confidence. Good luck Ivan! I hope this is helpful, and feel free to ping me if you want to talk further. I'll add a reply to your Facebook post so that we can get in contact if you would like.

Hey Caine. You might like to check out CoFoundersLab. That community is very active; when my location was set in the US, I would get messages from potential cofounders every few days. Also, there's an entrepreneurs group on Facebook, and a number of FDR members are on that as well. Well, actually I'm sure there are a lot of entrepreneurs groups on Facebook But this one has some good folks on it (:

Hey Christopher. What country are you living in currently? Have you considered other parts of the world where there might be more opportunity, lower cost of living, etc.? If you are interested in mining, Mongolia in particular might be a really good place to check out, especially if you are entrepreneurially-minded.

Awhile back, I started a podcast series called Five Years AbroadCAST as a complement to my blog Five Years Abroad. The project focuses on building self-knowledge through living in a foreign culture. A recent episode is entitled, "Family and Friends", and in it, I talk about how to achieve a balance between living on your own in a foreign culture and maintaining ties to your culture of origin. A friend listened to it, and he described it as, "indirectly explaining the DeFoo concept to people who have never been exposed to it." I thought that was really interesting because I didn't think about that consciously when I was recording the podcast. I thought this episode might be of interest to the FDR community. I'd love to get your feedback on it and whether/how it complements the deFOO concept. https://soundcloud.com/fiveyearsabroad/episode-12-family-and-friends

Hey guys. Interesting opportunity just came up, and I'm going to be in Lima this week! I'd love to meet up with any fellow FDR members in the city. It's gonna be an action-packed 4 days. After Lima, I'm heading back to Santiago, Chile. Would love to meet up with FDR members there, too (:

That's it! Thanks Stephen!

Hey Moncaloono. Thanks for your thoughts, but I'm just looking for a link to the specific episode in this thread.

Aye, that's the one!

Heya. I'm looking for another podcast. In a podcast somewhere between mid-700 to 1000, Stefan talks about why it is important to be generous in one's relationships, as that generosity will buy you freedom. Either you will discover that the other person is virtuous (in which case whatever you put into the relationship was a good 'investment'), or you will discover that the other person is not virtuous — in which case you can end the relationship with a clear conscience. An example he gives during the podcast (note: paraphrasing from memory; details are likely to be fuzzy) is a girlfriend who wanted to produce a movie. Stefan spent a significant amount of money and time helping to write and produce the film... and then later on she couldn't be bothered to review a book he was writing. This gave him the clarity to be honest with himself about his girlfriend's character and end the relationship. Does anybody know which podcast this was?

That's the one (: Thanks so much!

I'm looking for an old podcast (episode number is < 800) where Stef examines the cost of buying a car and identifies all of the inflated costs and taxes that are introduced by government. Does anyone recall which podcast that was?