This is a series about my search for liberty and purpose. You can find all articles of this series here. Subsequent parts will follow soon.
Yodeling in the Swiss Alps
My inclination to leave Germany in combination with the fact that an option to move to the United States would not be arising in the near future forced me to consider alternative locations. Originally, this was a process of discovering if there even are other countries that could come into question. Although freedom-oriented countries exist, not everyone fits to my situation.
For instance, Switzerland, which is about 90 minutes away from my home, provides an elevated level of freedom combined with low taxes. During covid, Switzerland, which has a strong federal system and limits the power of elected representatives with direct-democracy referendums, was among the first countries to scale back the encroaching “safety measures” and embrace a normal life again. Taxes are in the low-double-digit range, and the nation has a great history of avoiding international troubles, even given the fact that it is located between influential world powers.
Unfortunately, immigrating for a young professional like me is quite difficult. As already mentioned for the US, if you have a business sponsoring you, moving to Switzerland is certainly possible, but, since I don’t have decades of work experience, finding one that wants to incur the costs of this bureaucratic process is a challenge. Moving without a company or family ties, is almost impossible, and, even if it was, life in Switzerland is expensive.
Nomads and Expats
Therefore, a year ago, I started my search for alternatives. For one thing, I argued with AI models about where I should move. First, I only got the default ideas that come to mind: countries like Switzerland, the United States, or Singapore. At this point, the US and Switzerland were already out of question and Singapore is not very freedom-oriented on the social scale. However, after I described my situation more precisely, the models delivered some interesting suggestions mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
For another thing, I did research online. I investigated some suggestions from the AI models, and discovered that there is a whole community of digital nomads—individuals that don’t live in one place but change their location regularly. This community has grown to such a size that there are companies providing products and services specifically for nomads (such as nomad health care) and many countries offering nomad visas. However, while I like traveling and experiencing new places, I want to be grounded somewhere. I question whether you can find long-term meaning as a digital nomad. In the future, I might want to consider digital nomadism again, but only for a few years.
At the moment, I want to have some certainties and don’t want to be forced to move every few months. Hence, I continued my search and stumbled upon another related community—the expat community. Living as an expat—basically, emigrating—is an idea I can get behind. Like with digital nomad visas, there are also countries offering expat visas. However, they are generally more targeted towards retirees, as they don’t include the permission to work. Permission to work is included in Citizenship by investment programs by some Caribbean countries. If you invest a 6-digit dollar sum into the country, you obtain citizenship. However, I don’t have that kind of money lying around. Nonetheless, as I have a strong can-do attitude, I continued my search.
Expat Money
I was exploring various expat channels and found a lot of helpful information with interesting offers from different expat-consulting businesses, but one really stood out: Expat Money. Although the cost of their services (residency and citizenship abroad as well as offshore investing and wealth protection) is above my pay grade, I’ve been reading their weekly newsletter about world events that impact personal liberty around the world for some time now.
Last October, I joined the Expat Money Summit (digitally) to learn about opportunities to relocate. Listening to such relocation experts and realizing what is possible lightened my mood considerably during a time of great uncertainty. I saw that it is possible to live under a government that doesn’t despise its own citizens and leaves me alone. If you are interested in the topic of protecting your family and your wealth by looking beyond your country of origin, I can highly encourage you to check out this year’s Expat Money Summit with legendary speakers like Ron Paul. If you aren’t interested in this topic, I encourage you to join anyway, as I come more and more to the conclusion that being able to relocate to another country fast and having a plan b is necessary to protect your freedom. What if another covid-event happens? Maybe the arrest of Pavel Durov signifies a wakeup call. Measures of Agenda 2030 are being implemented, and countries are more and more willing to force their people to stay if they want to leave.
EcoVillages
One company that I heard about on last year’s summit is EcoVillages. EcoVillages adopts the ultimate DIY posture and just builds complete communities. On their website, they describe themselves as creating “non-divisive, freedom and sustainability oriented communities that use EcoSensible (not EcoFanatic) methods to save you money and provide you with a high degree of self sustainability while you live among like-minded people.”
EcoVillages reminds me of Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s description of how an anarchic world would consist of covenant communities—voluntary associations of property owners who agree to live by certain rules. Although the EcoVillages communities are bound to the laws of countries, they aren’t necessarily enforced. The communities, located in different Latin American nations, generally a few miles away from neighboring cities, are made up of like-minded, liberty-seeking individuals, and overarching measures like mask or vaccine mandates would not be enforced. Furthermore, house prices lie in the low- to mid-6-figure range. I really like what EcoVillages is doing and will probably return to the idea of living in one of their communities at a later point in my life, but I won’t be moving there now. If these communities sound interesting for your life situation, I invite you to check them out.
Now, I have rummaged through the internet, and shared two businesses that I will keep an eye on, but my personal route leads somewhere else. In a bit more than a month, I will fly there and experience the country firsthand…
Think for yourself and question everything, my fellow liberty people!
Thank you for sharing your research 🙂 I will check both avenues you listed. Wondering why you think US ( besides Switzerland, which is great but not attainable for me either) is still a good destination for freedom loving people? Communist Neocons have a strong grip on US gov and institutions and they will implement UN agenda 2030 enthusiastically to force digital prison... unless Trump wins, maybe😏Thanks for your insights!
I attended the Expat Money online summit last year, too. Signed up again for it this year. I enjoy the education, even if I don't have the financial capital to do what they do.