What follows is from: ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/security/perpetual-traveler.html -- Vince --------------------------------------------------------- <HEAD> <TITLE> Vince Cate's Perpetual Traveler Page </TITLE> </HEAD> <P> Welcome to <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/security/perpetual-traveler.html> Vince Cate's perpetual traveler page.</A> Send comments to me at vac@cs.cmu.edu. <P> The "Perpetual Traveler" can be a "Previous Taxpayer". People traveling through a country do not have to pay income taxes etc. while they are in that country, even if they are there for 3 to 9 months (depends on country). If you can work over the net, it is possible to work from anyplace. The IRS says that a US citizen has to be out of the country for 330 days of the year to not owe any taxes on your first $70,000. So by moving from country to country you can legally avoid taxes. <P> A home that can move around the world is not really more expensive than home that does not move. For example, the 65 foot long sailboat the "MacGregor 65" is only $149,000 new. This is a good price, and that is probably why they can say "best selling large yacht in history". One family, or 2 couples, could be very comfortable on a boat of this size. It will do over 10 knots under power and 20 under sail. For free information from MacGregor call (714) 642-6830. <P> After the 3 months, or whatever, that the country will let you visit, you can pull up anchor and go on to another country. At 250 miles per day, it would not take long to get to another country, especially in the Carribean where some island countries are 20 miles apart. <P> Boats cost a bit more to operate/upkeep than a house, but they do not have property tax. In PA the property tax is about 3%. For a house as expensive as the MacGregor 65 this is $4,500/year. Note that a self employed person inside the USA needs to earn like $9,000 to have enough "after tax" money to pay $4,500 property tax. If you only move the boat 4 times a year, the annual costs are probably between these two numbers. <P> You can always rent out a room on your boat. Strange as it sounds, it seems you can charge more for the rent of one room than you would be paying in mortgage payments for the whole boat. <P> So with this type of life style, one need not hassle with social security tax, income tax, health tax, property tax, investment taxes, etc. On top of having far more money and freedom, you don't have the paperwork! <P> At this time there is no mailing list for exactly this topic, but there are 2 mailing lists that are probably of interest. The <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/flotilla/flotilla> flotilla mailing list</A> is for a group of people that plan to all share one full internet connection by keeping their boats within radio range of each other. The second is the <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/flotilla/live-aboard> live-aboard mailing list</A> for people that either live on boats or want to. <P> I keep a file on <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/flotilla/wireless.email> how to get wireless email </A> while you are on your boat. <P> Charles Vollum wrote up an article on <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/flotilla/ham.radio.email> how to use ham radio for email. </A> <P> I also have a list of <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/security/banks> banks good for world travelers </A> and a <A HREF=ftp://furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/security/README.html> cypherpunk page. </A> <P> <H3><A href=ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/www/vincent-cate.html>Vincent Cate</A></H3>