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I think freelancing can be a good way to achieve financial freedom and I'm considering doubling down on this approach. However I think an essential element is using geographical arbitrage. So while continue working for western wages you move to a country with a low cost of living. If I want to work in Europe I might consider Egypt or Morocco, or if time differences aren't a problem, probably SE Asia. Achieving FI through work requires you to be really thrifty, I think you should be saving 60-80% of your income to reach FI in a reasonable timeframe. [1] The other thing is that I think you should look at more advantageous tax setups. Look into flag theory. With it you can reduce your tax substantially. In Sweden, where I live, I have to pay about 50% of what I invoice in taxes. So by not paying taxes and keeping living expenses the same I would automatically save 50% of my income. For me personally, I "like" paying taxes, so I probably wouldn't be looking at the most extreme setups. What I would consider is running my business through an Estonian company as a way to defer taxes. In Estonia the company tax is 0% on profits you leave in the company and reinvest, on profits that you take out as dividend the company has to pay a 20% tax. So you can say that the company tax is deferred and instead of paying it the same year as earning the money, you pay the tax when you take the money out of the company. I would take out as little money as possible from the company keeping most of the money in the company, un-taxed. Investing money pre-tax compared to post-tax makes a huge difference on return. Once I had built up enough invested capital in the company I would over time stop working and take out the profits from my investments as dividend. Then I would of course have to pay taxes, but at that point I think it's something that I can afford. So it's more of a tax deference scheme than a tax planning scheme. Also, an Estonian company is super easy to setup, and to many it doesn't feel as shady as BVI, Cayman or UAE. Of course, IANAL, and this is stuff I read on the internet from people that may be just as misinformed as me, and which country you're a citizen of plays a huge role. For example, for a Swede it's very important to found the Estonian company after moving out of the country, otherwise you could have to pay taxes to Sweden on all dividend from the Estonian company for the next 10 years, no matter where you live. [1] https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50... |