Reading Time – 8 minutes

About three years ago I did a video on one of my YouTube channels regarding the best countries to live in, but the world changes quickly so I need to update this list.

To be clear, I’m only discussing the best countries to live in or spend most of the year in. I am not talking about the best countries to do business, get residency, get a passport, do banking, and so forth. I’m only talking about your living flag here. As always, if you want to live a full international or five flags lifestyle, you’ll have other countries besides the country you live in most of the time to use as flags for different functions.

The criteria I’m going to use to determine the best countries to live in are these, listed in no particular order:

• Crime rates
• Tax friendliness, particularly to foreigners
• The Adjacent Enemy Rule (meaning no country you live in most of the year can be bordering another country that is warlike or hates it)
• Generally friendly people
• Cost of living
• Ease of getting residency relative to most other nations
• Friendly for foreigners
• General direction of the country’s economy

I’m going to leave out a few lifestyle factors such as weather, dating opportunities, racial makeup, and so on, since those things are subjective every individual will have radically different opinions regarding these things. I’m also going to do my best to leave out my personal opinions regarding these choices. For example, I think it’s a terrible idea to live anywhere in Europe, including Eastern Europe, but that’s 44 different countries so I can’t generalize regarding 100% of them and I know a lot of you would probably enjoy certain parts of Europe.

So with that context, here is the list. These countries are not listed in any particular order.

Thailand

Not as cheap as it once was, and it’s not growing as fast as it once was, but it’s still a very good place to live for most people. Friendly people, beach culture, growing economy, relatively cheap if you don’t live in Bangkok, lots of fun things to do, and its taxes aren’t horrible. It’s also in SE Asia which will be the only economically growing region in the entire planet for the next 25 years or so. Bangkok isn’t for everyone and the humidity can be a little rough, but it certainly earns its spot on this list.

Montenegro

I don’t like anywhere in Europe, but if you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose the least bad European country to live in right now, it would be Montenegro. Its economy is doing pretty decent for Europe and it’s avoided most of the violence that the Balkans has suffered over the past 30 years. It’s also very cheap for Europe and everyone I know who has checked it out or lives there really likes it. It’s a really beautiful place too. It’s also not part of the EU which is good, however, this will change at some point since their entry into the EU has been in process for a while.

Singapore

Not as cheap as most of the places on this list, but like with the UAE you can live in Singapore without being rich. As many have said besides me, Singapore isn’t perfect, but of the 195 countries on the Earth right now, it’s as close as you can possibly get to a perfect country. The only reason I don’t live there myself is because I don’t like the year-round humidity, but again, I said I wouldn’t factor weather into this list.

The only interesting thing about Singapore is that since it’s on the top of the list, it has nowhere to go except either maintain its spot or start heading downward. Many other countries are rising fast to meet or exceed Singapore, including the UAE (some may argue it’s already as good or better than Singapore), Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Qatar, and Baharan. So time will tell.

Mexico

One of my flags (I have permanent residency there) Mexico is fantastic and is an easy place to move to or spend time in for Americans and Canadians. It’s economy is really kicking ass in the manufacturing sector, even taking business away from China(!). The people are very friendly and fun, taxes are usually zero if you stay there less than six months a year (and not horrible if you stay longer), residency is easy, internationally it’s very well respected (outside of a few Americans who are scared of it for no valid reason), it has no enemies, and lots of oil.

One possible downside is that Mexico will indeed be affected by the collapse of the USA in our lifetimes, but one could avoid this problem if you had location-independent income not coming from the USA.

Chile

Not nearly as good as it used to be about ten years ago, and it barely makes this list, but it’s still good enough. I personally think there are better places in Latin America to move to, but Chile is on that short list, just at the bottom.

Colombia

Another one of my flags, Colombia remains a very popular spot for Westerners for many reasons. Great location, rapidly rising economy (as fast as Asia!), Colombia is a country that is really motivated to make things better, with only El Salvador beating it in this area. Just be careful about the taxes; if you stay there for longer than six months a year the tax burden can be pretty crappy as compared to other LATAM nations.

United Arab Emirates (Dubai)

My home, and probably the first or second-best country in the world right now by all measurements, rivaling Singapore. It’s not a “cheap” place to live but as I’ve shown on my YouTube channel you can live there just fine on an average income. Zero crime, zero wokeism, zero homelessness, zero drugs, zero taxes (except for a small corporate tax for some people), amazing schools, happy people, booming economy, easy residency, I mean, shit, is it any wonder why I choose to move here out of 195 countries I could have moved to?

Portugal

Again, I hate Europe, but if you put a gun to my head again and forced me to pick a Western European nation to move to, Portugal would be the least bad one. (Though again, in my opinion, you should choose Montenegro or nothing in Europe.) It’s cheap (for Europe), it’s a relaxed environment, and there are tax advantages. The economy is horrible and pretty much always has been, so make sure you have solid income from outside the country.

Vietnam

Currently the fastest-rising country in SE Asia which is the fastest-rising region in the world. With a poverty level now lower than China and India (incredible), Vietnam is a perfect storm of economic advancement; located in Asia, close ties to China, motivated government, and hard-working people. Its people aren’t quite as friendly as Thailand and getting residency is a little more difficult than in other countries on this list, but Vietnam is poised to be one of the next Singapores soon, so it’s a great place.

Panama

Panama used to be one of my top five favorites, but because of increasingly horrible bureaucracy and paperwork requirements at the governmental level and one of the most dreadful responses to COVID-19 in the world, it’s dropped off of my top five… but it still remains in the top 15 countries in the world to live. Panama City is Latin America’s version of Hong Kong, with new, high-tech skyscrapers, an English-speaking population, cool people, strong quality of life, cheaper prices than anywhere in the Collapsing West, an economically important location with the Panama Canal, and a super friendly place to foreigners. 

Uruguay

The Switzerland of Latin America, Uruguay offers a strong standard of living, low crime, and low taxes but without the Latin insanity of places like Argentina, Venezuela, or Brazil. It really is the best of all worlds in Latin America, better than Panama or Chile and easily as good as Colombia, and keeps getting better and better. This will be my next flag.

Cambodia

Another booming SE Asian country, equivalent to rising power as Vietnam, but with a lower cost of living. Cambodia is a little rough around the edges and is the lowest-infrastructure/lifestyle country on this list, so it’s definitely not for everyone. However, with its booming economy, comparatively happy people, and lower taxes it’s the best “get in on the ground floor” county in the world right now.

Philippines

It’s not rising as fast as other countries in the region, but there are so many positives to living in the Philippines it doesn’t matter. It has the happiest and most fun people in the world, and I mean that. The cost of living is microscopic compared to the rest of the world and it has some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet, better than Hawaii. Getting residency is comparatively easy, the taxes are reasonable, and the infrastructure, while on the low end, is perfectly doable for most people, unlike Cambodia.

Paraguay

It’s my second home and my second-favorite country in the world, so I’m a little biased. The downsides are that the standard of living is lower (though not as low as Cambodia) and few people speak English. However, outside of those two problems, Paraguay is amazing across the board. With one of the most important free trade zones in the world, it has a booming economy and infrastructure, zero taxes for expats (territorial tax country), the most chill and relaxed Latin population you’ve ever seen, very low crime, no enemies, one of the safest geographic locations in the world, and a strong exports-based economy that economically benefits from all the bullshit going on in its surrounding nations. Residency is one of the easiest in the world to get too.

Malaysia

This is a little lower on the list but it still deserves to be on it. The people aren’t quite as friendly as in other SE nations and it’s not growing quite as fast. Regardless, it has a strong, growing, urbanized economy, one of the easiest residencies to get in SE Asia, very strong standard of living in Kuala Lumpur, and super low taxes for expats.

Okay, I just listed 15 countries that are far better to live in today than any collapsing Western nation you could name. So now here’s the question you should ask yourself: If you live in the Collapsing West right now, is there even ONE of the above countries that sounded interesting to you? I bet there is. Good, do some more research on that country. And if the country is Mexico, Paraguay, or the UAE, you can go to www.caleb.top/go and we can give you residency there.

To have your question featured here where I will write an entire article addressing it, click here. You will always remain anonymous.

Question of The Week:

Borrowing Money To Run More Ads

A.A. Writes:

In a business with residual income that can earn out its cost of customer acquisition in 6 months to a year, does it make sense to use debt financing to accelerate growing the customer base, then using the upcoming revenue to pay it off? For financing, this would be something like getting a bank loan or a new credit card with 0% interest rate for 12 months.

This is for a small AI SaaS that had a 3-month launch that finished a year ago. Counting the years of residuals, we made back about 75% of our original ad budget, however, that was after wasting money on traffic sources that got near-zero conversion, and with almost all of our income came from a single traffic source and campaign (so that campaign had a ROI of around 300%).

We’re about to relaunch after retooling our sales funnel, improving the email campaigns to convert more free subscribers, and only running ads on the traffic source that was profitable. If the 3-month results are looking like we’ll earn our money back in approximately 6 months in residuals we’d like to borrow additional money to supercharge it. What do you think?

There is no hard right or wrong answer to this question, so I’m going to give you my personal business opinion based on what I know.

I would not borrow any money for anything like this until I saw a hard and long track record of a steady and reliable CAC (customer acquisition cost) payback. You’re talking about a three-month time frame and are basing assumptions on that. I wouldn’t. I would much rather see at least 12-18 months of a consistent (again, consistent) six-month payback. Then sure, borrow the money and use the increased cash flow to run more ads. And yes, use as close to 0% financing as you can.

However, at the same time, you need to keep improving the funnel, which it sounds like you’re doing. You think you have a six-month payback period which is really good for SAAS, but A) you’re not 100% sure about that yet and B) if you’re getting a six-month payback that quickly that means you can knock that down to 4-5 months or less through funnel improvements.

If you wait 12-18 months you can improve the hell out of your funnel and get that six-month period down to something even lower, and be that much stronger when you get the financing. 

You’re doing really good and it sounds like you’ve got a money-maker here; just don’t screw this up by getting too excited too quickly.

Leave your comment below, but be sure to follow the Five Simple Rules.