Episode Transcript
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(00:36):
Well, it looks like we're verysoon going to be checking out
Albania as a country to live.
We're currently here in Mexicoand we actually just finished a
few appointments in Guadalajara.
We have our private driver herewho took us to Guadalajara for
the day to go to our spa.
We got, we got our facials donethat, uh, we had bought a
package for those a while agobefore we had moved to Chip, so
(00:58):
we got our facials done.
Uh, did some other stuff intown.
Picked up a few things for somerental properties we're
managing, and now we're headedback to Chip Paul.
And we wanna do a quick videoabout the next country we're
looking at going to, which isAlbania.
Welcome to Entrepreneur Expat.
This is Justin.
I'm Amanda.
And on this channel we talk allabout the international
lifestyle, how to make moneyfrom anywhere in the world, and
(01:20):
so much more.
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We have a lot of content comingout.
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countries are great for Americanexpats.
(01:41):
Those are incoming.
So make sure to subscribe andfor those of you who need help
with either, global taxoptimization businesses,
diversifying yourself.
Immigration visas, residencies,all that fun stuff that comes
with this lifestyle, and youhave over a million dollars of
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(02:03):
because we can help you with ourteam here in Mexico.
We also have contacts in severalother countries who can help you
as well.
And if you don't have a milliondollars in net worth yet, not a
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We're probably one of the onlyYouTube channels.
Who talks about this that hascreated a lot of resources for
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(02:24):
description below, and will helpyou make the money that you
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In order to get those visas,whether it's a digital nomad
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(02:46):
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and apply to work with our team.
(03:07):
So on a recent video we did, wementioned how we were starting
to look at other countries otherthan Mexico.
We've been here.
Well, you've been in Mexico atotal of like five years.
Mm-hmm.
All the times that you've beenin Mexico.
I've been here a couple years.
We lived in the city, we're inGuadalajara now.
We recently moved out to theChapala area, which we love.
Uh, but Mexico was always meantto be a bit of a temporary thing
(03:29):
or a starting point to theinternational lifestyle.
We always knew that eventuallywe'd end up in other countries.
We just didn't exactly.
Know when, and on that recentvideo, we talked about countries
we were interested in, namelyUruguay and Portugal.
So if you didn't catch thatvideo, make sure to catch that
one.
What we forgot to mention wasAlbania, and that's what we're
(03:51):
going to be talking about todaybecause Albania has been making
a lot of noise in the expatspaces lately, but I feel like
it's still under the radarenough where it's not like.
You know, for those of you, alot of you in the comments were
like, oh, Mexico's gotten tooexpensive with their
requirements.
Well, maybe Albania might be anoption, for example.
(04:12):
And even if it's not about themoney, and even if you're like,
you know what, I have a lot ofnet worth.
I've got assets.
But when I look at Portugal andtheir, uh, highest marginal tax
rates of almost 50%, that's notworth it.
No.
And you compare it.
We're gonna talk about this ina, in a minute.
I don't wanna spoil it.
But when you compare some of thetax rates and things like that,
even if you are wealthy, and Iwould say almost, especially if
(04:32):
you are wealthy and you live inPortugal full time, you're
actually shooting yourself inthe foot just a little bit.
Uh, versus Albania is actuallymuch more business friendly in
terms of taxes and the climateto set up businesses than
Portugal.
So let's go into some of thereasons why we're considering
Albania, like seriouslyconsidering it like maybe in a
(04:53):
year.
We're there, um, while we finishsome things up here in Mexico.
Well, number one, it's proximityto a lot of countries that I
have been wanting to travel tofor a very long time.
I've had, for example, Turkey onmy list for a long time.
Greece has been on my list for along time.
Some parts of Northern Africahave been on my list for a long
(05:15):
time.
Then of course, obviously you'rea hot skip and a jump from the
Shein zone.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, which is most.
Western European country.
So, but you're not in the Sheenzone, which is kind of another
pro because you can feasibly goand live half the year in
Albania enough time to be onyour way to earning your
passport, which we're gonna talkabout in a second.
But, uh, you're a hop, skip, anda jump like Amanda said, over to
(05:39):
central or Western Europe andthe Sheen territory and all of
that.
So you could live three monthshere, three months there, and
then do it again and, uh, stillbe below the number of days or
right at the number of days thatyou can be in the.
EU she up.
So that's definitely somethingthat's very attractive to us.
We wanted to start with LatinAmerica first because we both
speak Spanish.
(05:59):
So that was a big plus.
And it was the same time zones,'cause we needed that for the
businesses that we had when westarted this.
Um, and, but that's not nolonger an issue, that's no
longer a problem.
We've got different ways ofmaking money now.
Um, that, that don't depend on,that don't depend on time zones,
which is really great.
And then, uh, everything that wesaid we wanted to do, we did.
(06:21):
We spent some time in LatinAmerica.
We said we wanted to go to theCaribbean, uh, in the winters.
Uh, this coming year will be thethird year that we end up doing
that.
So we're like, Hmm.
Time for Europe.
Yeah, so that's the first pro isthe proximity to a lot of places
we want to visit.
And I'll add a second pro inthere, which is the fact that
you are able to soon now withwhat a aban is, uh, now trying
(06:45):
to, to enter the EU in 2022.
They had actually started thatprocess of entering the European
Union.
Uh, once they do, I have afeeling that it's gonna be much
harder to get an Albanianpassport, but currently they're
not part of the eu.
But I have a very, very goodfeeling that by the time we earn
our permanent residency orcitizenship there, which we're
very seriously looking into,they're going to be part of the
(07:07):
eu.
And so that's gonna open uppotentially a lot of
opportunities.
In the EU for us as well,without having to go through not
only a much more expensive, butalso a much less tax friendly
country like Portugal, or insome cases Spain.
I know a lot of people weretrying to go the route of Spain
and the taxes there are justinsane.
So that's another pro.
Then a third pro that I reallylike is that you can get your
(07:30):
passport in Albania in just fiveyears and.
It's similar to Portugal in thatregard.
Obviously you would have tospeak Albanian in order to
actually get a passport, atleast basic Albanian.
Uh, you could get a permanentresidency even if you did not
speak Albanian and pass thecitizenship test.
But five years is really notthat bad.
That's on par with Mexico, andthen I'll add in.
(07:51):
In order to do that, you onlyhave to start with a digital
nomad visa where you can show anincome of a little under a
thousand USD per month.
We're certainly above that.
But, uh, the cool thing is, youknow, when you're running a
business, you are not always,well, I'll put it this way,
you're trying to have as littlenet income as possible.
I mean, everything essentiallyis a business expense if you can
(08:11):
relate it somehow to yourbusiness and to the activities
of your business.
If you look at a country likePortugal, they wanted for the
two of us, approximately$69,000per year in income, and that's
net income.
Which means not only would wehave to make that, which that's
the easy part, but then we wouldhave to like pay taxes on that
amount of money, whether or notwe would need to do that in, in
(08:34):
the course of normal businesslike operations or tax planning.
So that would be tricky becauseit would cost us significantly
more.
So it's a pro because therequirement is lower, which
means that our taxed income,both in the US and then also
moving forward in Albania, doesnot have to be anywhere near as
high.
What else do you have on thepros in terms of like culture?
I know we're talking aboutculture and lifestyle and
(08:55):
everything else compared tohere.
Well, it's a European lifestyle.
Everybody wants one of That's abig pro.
That's a big pro.
Yeah.
You've got Latin America.
And Latin America is beautifuland it's not that we're tired of
it necessarily.
We love it here.
But it's a different pace oflife.
It's a different culture.
And I, I am also EasternEuropean.
Right.
We've been with my cousins for awhile now it's time to go hang
(09:15):
out with, we're about to govisit my cousins in Albania
exactly, because I've gotUkrainian roots.
So it's kind of a little changeof pace, uh, of lifestyle and
culture.
Maybe learning a new, a newlanguage as well.
And then another really big prothat I love about Albania.
Is the tax scheme that they havethere.
So the first thing is they have,and of course, consult your tax
(09:37):
professional, whether it's inAlbania or anywhere else.
We've got people we can connectyou with.
If you do meet that criteria,you've got a million dollars or
more of liquid net worth, thenyou can book your
consult@entrepreneurexpat.comslash consult.
Uh, but tax situation there is,is much better even than in
Mexico.
Of course, most people inMexico, including expats, don't
(09:58):
really pay taxes to Mexico.
Maybe they're paying taxes.
Mexican to the us.
Yeah.
Mexicans joke that they don'tpay taxes.
I mean, they don't.
But, uh, typically, like expatsaren't paying too many taxes
here.
But if you do get into the taxnet in Mexico, whether it's
because you're runningbusinesses locally here, or your
income is high enough where, uh,they start to ask questions, or
(10:18):
you're a Mexican and you're,you've got a salary here or even
a foreigner and you're workingfor a company here, the tax rate
in Mexico is very, very high.
The marginal tax rate goes toaround 38.
Percent, or in some cases more.
And you're also paying muchhigher taxes.
You're paying like anadditional, uh, around 10% or
15% on the dividends.
I'll double check that exactnumber for you guys, but you're
paying extra tax on thedividends as well, which could
(10:41):
even include income from an Scorp, which a lot of expats have
set up if they are businessowners.
So Mexican taxes very high.
Albanian taxes.
However, if you set up theproper tax regime there, which
is essentially you make yourselfa self-employed person there in
Albania working with foreignclients, IE your US based
corporation or businessesdirectly of US or Canadian or
(11:04):
other countries clients, thenyou actually get a tax holiday
for the first three yearsstarting now.
If you were to, to get that,that citizenship now or, or
start that citizenship processand residency process now,
because until.
2029, there are no taxes forinde.
Basically, independent businessowners.
Independent business ownersthere with clients outside of
(11:25):
Albania, you pay 0% tax on youractive income.
And then after that it's just15% per year, which is pretty
cool.
And we've already done somecalculations.
And yes, we would effectivelypay a little bit more tax in
Albania than we would say inMexico because of how things are
structured and enforcement andwhether or not they're actually
asking.
(11:45):
Expats to declare and filetaxes, but for the lifestyle you
get that we would be payingeffectively 30% in Portugal.
So we would be paying double insomewhere like Portugal.
Significantly more than doublein a place like Spain.
And Spain even has wealth taxes.
Albania does not, unless you'vegot assets in Albania and even,
even then, they're very, verylow.
(12:07):
So the tax rate is extremelyfavorable.
To expats in digital nomads.
Speaking of something elsethat's favorable cost of living
in Albania, we were looking isabout like what half of what
we're paying in Mexico and we'realready, we've really
significantly reduced ourexpenses just being in Mexico
while living a very good qualityof life.
(12:29):
I think a lot of Americans.
Still think in their minds thatif you leave the United States,
you're somehow downgrading.
No baby.
Not at all.
You're, you're trading up.
Okay.
You are trading up.
We got a private driver rightnow.
We went to the spa.
We have a Lakeview for 600 bucksa month.
You are trading up my friends.
At this point.
You get access to healthcarebetter quality food.
(12:53):
Sounds like it's a better dealthan, yeah, and it's not quite
half.
I mean, I think it would be alittle bit more than half.
Uh, it's, it's very similar towhat we're paying in Mexico, but
for, I would say arguably ahigher quality of life, European
lifestyle and all that, you canfind an apartment like fully
furnished in the city center ofa few different cities in
Albania, like Ana, for around.
(13:14):
Four to 500 euros per month.
Um, so that would be what,around like five to$600,
depending on the exchange rate.
So to get an apartmentfurnished, I mean, we're paying
about that.
We're paying a little under,like, we're paying like five to
$600 per month.
US for an unfurnished twobedroom condo that's in a small
town.
So it's like on par with Mexicoor a little bit cheaper,
(13:36):
especially for, for housing, butit's cheap enough.
So this is another thing I'lljust add here.
Compared to Portugal, if we wereto rent a, an apartment in
Portugal or even an Otay ineither of those places, we'd be
paying minimum about a thousandto$1,200 a month for like a
furnish rental, which we wouldprobably do at least at the
(15:09):
beginning.
Versus in Albania, we could geta furnished place that would
allow our, our pets andeverything.
For closer to$600 a month, so wehave enough money left over
where we could actually keep ourplace in Mexico.
Either rent it out on Airbnb orhave somebody house it, or have
friends or family just staythere for free.
And we're still spendingrealistically under a thousand
(15:31):
or$1,100 a month in housing.
And we've got houses on twodifferent continents.
Yeah.
In fact, it's cheap enough wherewe even could have another place
in Southeast Asia still rent itlong term if we wanted to and
just hop around between multiplecountries.
So another thing that'sinteresting about Albania is the
economic opportunities inAlbania.
And there's a few places to goto here, and I know you wanted
(15:52):
to talk about that, but.
Place number one is the factthat Albania is really just
starting to really develop, Ithink they're building their
third airport.
Now.
You might think that's a badthing.
That's actually a good thingwhen you get in on the ground
floor of a country.
Mm-hmm.
So for example, a lot of you'vebeen saying, ah, Mexico's
getting crazy with itsimmigration and it's getting
very expensive.
Yeah.
Because Mexico's doing well.
(16:13):
That's why, um, that'shappening.
Well, the same thing is gonnaend up happening to Albania.
We're just getting in on evenmore of a ground floor.
Uh, than Mexico.
So when you get in on the groundfloor of a country, it's usually
a really good sign for investorsin business and things like
that.
And, you know, we, you just dida post about this on your
Facebook the other day.
(16:34):
A lot of Americans reach out tous and they're like, oh, can you
help us go to Canada?
Can you help us go to the uk?
Can you help us go to Australia?
And we're like, well, numberone, good luck with their
immigration systems.
'cause they're complicated andvery expensive.
Uh, Australia, forget about it.
And number two, um, all thosecountries are having the exact
same problems you're having inthe United States right now,
(16:57):
which is incompetent leadership,political polarization, economic
instability.
Increase in violence.
All the countries that mostAmericans would feel comfortable
in are all experiencing the samestuff.
So you have to start thinking abit outside of the box, like
places like Albania, which arevery safe, and then starting to
develop and starting to do well,whereas a lot of Western
(17:18):
countries are starting todecline.
So there's that.
And then of course, it's goodfor entrepreneur expat business
because.
Just like you get content there,we get contact, it's all
content.
We get more contacts, Robert andpartners there in the area.
They can help things.
Robert building contacts inAlbania as we speak.
But how many people here inMexico are gonna wanna go to
Albania that will then hire usto help them do it?
(17:40):
And vice versa.
And vice versa.
How many Americans we'reCanadians are in Albania.
They're like, I'm tired ofEurope.
Let me go to Latin America for awhile.
And then they could use ourhelp, uh, moving over here.
So of course good for businessand, um.
You know, travel is the besteducation in the world.
A hundred percent.
And I know you, you had someinteresting insights about the
business climate and economicclimate as well.
(18:02):
Yeah, I mean, because it's inEurope, uh, they, the benefit
there is a lot of people thereare going to speak English,
especially our generation andyounger.
And so that opens upopportunities for us to network
more.
I mean, obviously we're talkingto people in Spanish here, but I
feel like, I feel like in Europeespecially because.
They're Albania as a country istrying so hard to like get back
(18:23):
on top after many, many years ofbeing under communism that they
just essentially recently gotout of that.
I have a feeling there's gonnabe a very favorable business
climate there, and that's whatI've also heard.
And English is spoken very, verywidely and it's much more
connected to like a massive, uh,hub of influence of Europe
versus say Latin America.
(18:44):
I think here.
This is just my opinion, but Idon't think that people take
business quite as seriously in alot of places in Latin America
as they do in Europe.
Just from my experiencetraveling around Latin America
and traveling around Europe.
So even finding, I mean, in themajor cities, sure, but outside
of that, it's, it's not, uh,quite that.
And, and also because English isso prevalent there, I just feel
(19:05):
like it's a little bit easier tobreak into different communities
and make connections and thatsort of thing from a business
standpoint.
And then, uh, you were talkingabout tech.
As well that in that part ofEurope, you can find tech talent
and all those kinds of things.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
We visited a friend of ours inAhah who was saying that they
actually had a lot of, a lot ofreally good hackers in Albania.
There were a lot of, a lot ofgreat, uh, great hackers and
(19:28):
software engineers and thingslike that.
So we're gonna, we're gonnacheck out that crowd as well,
because we run businesses in thesoftware space.
And we have businesses where wedo technology consulting,
virtualization, software,websites, hosting, all that.
So we're always looking forgreat talent all over the world
to be able to help us with.
So some of those things, whetherit's for our own projects, our
own infrastructure, or someprojects that we do for clients.
(19:51):
So it's, it's great to be ableto build hubs of not just
influence and business, but alsothose talent pools all over the
world, because we're looking atexpanding business and getting
into more and more interestingprojects.
Every day because I can't keepstill, as you know.
You cannot.
You cannot.
The entrepreneur expat cannotkeep still.
And then finally, immigration inAlbania is easy.
(20:12):
Yeah.
They give you a one year visa onarrival for US citizens, and you
pretty much just have to spendsix months a year in the country
and after five years you can geta permanent residence or
potentially a passport.
Now I do want to go into some ofthe cons.
One of the cons, I'll say frommy perspective, and you can feel
free to add to this.
Mm-hmm.
But one of the cons isdefinitely that.
You're in a obviously other sideof the world, right?
(20:34):
You're on the other side of theworld.
You're going to have to dealpotentially with time zone
issues if you have clients thatmaybe you're meeting with at
certain hours or doing a lot ofsynchronous communication with.
In our case, we're not reallydoing a whole lot of that.
Uh, most of our sales come fromprojects that don't require too
much synchronous communication.
We're not really doing too manylive calls anymore, and we've
(20:56):
automated a lot.
Yeah, we've automated a lot.
We're doing a lot of coursesales.
We're already up to about 10 or15% of our income.
Coming from online core salesthat are like semi-passive, and
then other things where you'reon Slack and you respond to
clients when they havequestions.
I mean, we have a lot of those.
And then, uh, we're also doing alot of relocation where in
Mexico we've already got ourpartners and now we're gonna
open ourselves up more to othercountries, uh, in the Eastern
(21:18):
hemisphere.
So that's not as much of anissue for us as it might be.
For example, for somebody who'sworking a remote job.
Um, sure.
We might have the occasionalcall at six or seven o'clock in
the morning, which is fine'causewe're up early or like nine or
10:00 PM Occasionally we, wewill probably run into those,
but like, that's, that's allright because it's not gonna be
all the time.
Versus if you did have afull-time job and you were
(21:40):
expected to be available, let'ssay Eastern standard time hours,
you'd be working into the weehours of the night, which, uh,
coming from somebody who had to,to work while he was traveling
around the Middle East,including Israel and also in
Europe and other, other places.
Uh, that were not aligned timezone wise with the us It's a,
it's a real pain.
It's not very fun to do that.
(22:00):
So you're gonna Yeah, and we'vebeen actively working the last
two years to move away from somany calls and having to be on
US time zone in US hours.
And we're making, which, we'regetting there, we're making it
happen, which is why we're like,okay, time to start expanding.
A little bit.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Other than that, I mean, I can'treally think of too many cons.
Uh, the one that I would maybeadd is also like really long
(22:22):
flights back to the us.
So maybe coming back either oncea year or once every couple
years for the holidays.
It's definitely a longer flight,especially if you're traveling
with two animals like we are.
Um, so when we go back for shortperiods of time, we might just
find a house sitter or a petsitter or a hotel for them.
Or something.
Um, but that is one other conobviously it's a little bit
farther than Mexico, but we're,we're really getting ready to
(22:43):
explore more of the world.
And it's, it's a nice hop, skipand a jump even over to, to the
Middle East, to Turkey, toSoutheast Asia.
It's nowhere near as far as itwould be coming from the US more
Mexico.
So the cons for us really aren'ttoo bad.
Am I missing anything?
Um, I would just say based onwhat we've been researching, you
know, and this is particularlyfor like Americans who are used
to.
Things working a certain way,uh, or Canadians or perhaps
(23:06):
some, uh, Western Europeans.
Uh, you know, because it's moreof a developing country, maybe
sometimes there's issues withthe power, sometimes maybe.
Mm-hmm.
Um, just it's more of a cashsociety, for example.
So it's not as much digitized,which is actually not that big
of a con.
Yeah.
'cause I, I'm not really so bigon the US and Canada and Western
(23:27):
Europe with all these cbdc, theCentral bank digital currencies.
Right.
The cryptos that they're gonnause.
Uh, not the ones that are, well,none of'em are really private.
They're all on a ledger.
But basically the ones that areactually tied to a specific
currency, uh, Albania isdefinitely far off from that.
And I think philosophicallythey're probably gonna try to
avoid things like that becauseof the totalitarian, uh, regime
(23:50):
that they did not, you know,that they had not that long ago.
Right.
Um, so they're, they're far awayfrom the.
The government overreach, cbdc,and digital IDs and all these
other things that are happeningin the West.
So maybe the cashless part isactually not that much of a bad
thing in a lot of ways.
Oh, you mean, no, it's cashSociety, not cash.
No, the cash Society.
(24:10):
Yeah, exactly.
Maybe the, the cash society isnot that much of a bad thing.
Just something to get used to.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Other than that, you know,that's basically where we're at
right now in terms of talkingout this decision.
But we've been looking atseveral countries and so far
albania's like.
It's, it's come to the topposition in terms of where we're
going next.
(24:31):
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(24:52):
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(25:14):
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