Proof Of Existence (And Other Challenges) For A Third-Culture Kid
I’ve recently been commiserating with one of our editors-at-large…
She’s also a third-culture kid. Born in Singapore—with British and Canadian lineage—she was raised for much of her life in Asia and the Middle East.
Like me, she has few real roots to any one place in this world, which comes with its own set of complications…
She hasn’t had a permanent residence since she graduated college nearly 10 years ago. She’s realizing only now what a serious impediment that is. A kid just out of college has little life administration to attain (what 22-year-old has ever thought about needing to maintain residency anywhere?), so the fact of a permanent address didn’t even occur to her back then.
But also, this stuff wasn’t quite so critical even 10 years ago. PayPal didn’t need so much proof of being a legitimate person to open an account… bank accounts were being handed out with little regard to the customer’s credentials beyond their starting balance… airlines didn’t ask you to prove your right to enter a country before they let you in (as is common now—either show you’re a resident or show your proof of onward travel before the expiration of your tourist visa).
Nowadays, you can’t do much of anything anywhere without a host of “proof-of-person” documentation. My colleague’s primary objective in life right now is to establish herself legally, so that she can renew her driver’s license, finally get the red flag lifted from her PayPal account, and perhaps apply for a few new credit cards.
Luckily, the diversification education she’s gotten as a LIOS editor has prepped her for all this nonsense…
For my part, the dawning moment came when my husband and I realized that we’d have no Social Security (not that I think anyone else our age will either, but that’s another issue) or 401(k), which, if nothing else, many working Americans can count on.
Again, it was through editing the content we publish here at LIOS that informed me of this fact. And, it was Simon Letter contributor Paul Terhorst—the so-called “George Washington of retiring early”—who offered the quickest-to-implement, lowest-capital answer: a U.S. index fund.
We started investing in one as soon as we had some extra money to put into it, and we’ve made the maximum contribution each year since. If nothing else, we know there’s a chunk of change out there earning some extra money for us.
We’ve gotten in on a few Global Property Advisor investments, too. I get a real kick out of saying I own a field full of truffles. And, the plantation manager assures me that, if I bring my dog over, they can train her in a day to help us hunt truffles. Sounds like a fun autumn outing…
What really attracted us to this investment, though, is that it pays out in euros—everything else we own is subject to the exchange rate loss coming from U.S. dollars. Living in France, it’s nice to know that this investment will yield steady payouts that won’t shrink when the conversion rate is unfavorable.
I’ve been trained through osmosis to identify above-average interest rates, which led me to open a digital savings account that yields 2.25% APY—a giant leap above the paltry 0.01% my savings account with Bank of America offers. I just checked; I’ve earned a whopping 65 cents in the last year with BOA. And I’ve earned US$12.06 with my online account since opening it last December. Nearly 20 times more than I would have earned with BOA… in half the time.
Digital banking options may seem scary, but they offer far more attractive benefits and are often more flexible than traditional institutions—paramount for those of us with less than normal circumstances. Harry found a German mobile bank that would allow us to open an account before we had established residency in the EU. Quelle horreur, say the French bankers who turned us down time and again, no matter the lengths we went to.
If not for that German account, we’d not have been able to do… well, anything, really. Everything in Europe with a recurring charge must be connected to your bank account as opposed to a credit card. Everything you try to do, you’ll be asked for your “IBAN” (a 29-character account number). To get internet and phones, to start a gym membership, sign up with a food delivery service… you name it… if it’s paid monthly, you must have a bank account with which to pay it.
I don’t consider myself to be a financially savvy person (I can’t keep three numbers in my head without mixing them up), but I am a planner. I like the feeling of security that comes with confidence in some aspect of the future…
This attitude can, of course, work against us in this unpredictable world.
But I have taken one thing to heart in my nearly seven years with LIOS:
Most things are out of my control, so those things that I can control, I will.
That… and diversify, diversify, diversify.
Hence my multi-currency asset yields, my multiple bank accounts in multiple countries, and my backup residency.
It’s this philosophy that acts as the bedrock for our upcoming 2019 Offshore Wealth Summit. As I say, it’s taken me the better part of a decade to put all these pieces together—and I was born into it.
How are you to manage all these balls in the air if you’re only just discovering that the balls exist at all?
The answer is to get help from the experts who have pursued these ideas themselves, put them to practice, and reaped the rewards.
Better still, you won’t have to spend seven years figuring it all out piecemeal like I did…
Over three power-packed days this Oct. 9–11, on the ground together in Panama City, Lief Simon and his international team of offshore advisors and friends will walk you through issues including how to…
- Drastically reduce your tax obligations or even live income-tax free…
- Set up an iron-clad defense against future litigation, frivolous lawsuits, or divorce actions…
- Discover the five easiest places to obtain offshore residency, often without having to even live there…
- Get to know the world’s best havens for bank privacy and legal offshore structures…
- Discover three ways to profit from the best international real estate investment opportunities…
- Learn the value of holding physical precious metals offshore: something that can be legally non-reportable to the IRS…
- Learn the many benefits of incorporating and doing business in an offshore location…
- Discover six easy ways to diversify safely outside the U.S. dollar to obtain a truly diversified portfolio (and never worry about a declining U.S. dollar again)…
- Rediscover the true privacy that existed in the United States 50 years ago.
Right now, this event is closed to the general public. When it opens, however, readers will be able to reserve their place at the already discounted rate of US$845…
However, today—and for the next 48 hours only—I am going to allow you to reserve your seat… as a VIP… for only US$495.
That is more than 40% off the normal rate, and it is the lowest price we’ve ever offered.
Kat Kalashian
