Quote: (12-07-2013 12:25 PM)roid Wrote:
Quote: (12-05-2013 07:51 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:
Move to Singapore, live frugally in an Airbnb apt......
If necessary, become a citizen of Singapore and renounce your US citizenship to get rid of worldwide taxation for the rest of your life
AirBNB apartment is more expensive in Singapore than long term rental. Besides you cannot live frugally in Singapore. Everything here is fucking expensive. A studio apartment will set you back S$4000 a month.
Although Singapore is low tax country in terms of income tax, it has much much more indirect tax and as a result, it is much more expensive to live here than US. So you're just trading one poison with another poison when you change nationality.
AIRBNB / APARTMENTS
Since you can't get an apartment lease without an employment pass you use the airbnb apartment as a
short term living hack while you try to raise capital. You do not want to live in an Airbnb spot for more than 2 months. If you are trying to raise capital then you will need to find a solution between a long term rental and a hotel. That is exactly what Airbnb is.
Once you raise capital you gain an employment pass and then you can open a local bank account and also sign a long term lease on a rental. This is a catch 22 situation as you can't get an employment pass until you are "hired" by the corporation for which you raise capital. Thus you have to play the airbnb and tourist visa game for a period of 3 months or so while you are trying to hack the VC situation.
I know this hack from experience because I did it myself.
FRUGALITY
Living frugally is a relative term. For 3000 USD you are blowing through cash in Thailand. For 3000 USD you are frugal in NYC. The definition of frugal is thus used in the context of one's personal spending habits and not in the context of the absolute amount of money spent.
In the case of Singapore, frugality means not going to clubs and blowing through cash on drinks, not taking taxis when possible, and making use of public goods and services in general. Frugal in Chiang Mai is 700 USD a month. Frugal in Singapore is 2500 USD a month, which is a bit over 3000 SGD per month. Assuming you
get an Airbnb rental that is under 1000 SGD, you will be able to spend an average of 500 SGD per week after that - totally doable. Given the OP's savings, that is a reasonable monthly burn if he is taking public transport, eating at hawker centers, and living at one of the cheaper airbnb rentals.
I know this hack from experience because I did it myself.
TAXATION
WORLDWIDE taxation. Singaporean citizens are not taxed on income they make outside of Singapore as long as they do not repatriate it. US citizens are taxed on all of their income they make, regardless of whether it is in the US or not.
The trick once you gain citizenship is to not actually live in Singapore. US citizens get taxed on all of their income worldwide, whereas Singaporeans do not.
Get a SG citizenship and then live in Thailand, Colombia, Europe as a tourist. You also avoid local taxation in these countries if you enter as a tourist.
I know this hack because one of our investors is doing this.
-----
However, Roid is correct about the following:
1. There is a massive and ridiculous amount of indirect taxation in your every day life. This is most visible in booze prices.
2. Singapore is absurdly expensive. I perhaps should have defined "Frugal" a bit more clearly. What I meant was that you would be living frugally relative to SINGAPORE prices and not some standard global definition of what "Frugal" is. I didn't think anyone here is mistaken about the cost of living in Singapore so I assumed that would be obvious, my bad.
3. A (nice and central) studio apartment will set you back 4K SGD a month. Unfortunately yes, that is where rental prices have come.
Roid, please understand that this sequence of tips and advice is specific to people who are trying to raise capital in Singapore while not yet having an employment pass and that the taxation tips are specific to US citizens, who face a global taxation scheme that nobody else in the developed world faces.
Nothing you said is actually incorrect; I feel you may have misinterpreted the reason why I laid out what I said and especially in that particular order.
The assumption is that this is a US citizen who is raising capital in Singapore and wants to do it in the most efficient order possible.