Ted Baumann is International Living’s Chief Global Diversification Expert. He's traveled to nearly 90 countries and is a dual citizen of the United States and South Africa. Born in Washington DC, he grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
As a young man he moved to Cape Town, where he attended university, earning postgraduate degrees in economics and history. For the next 20 years he worked in the global non-profit sector, specializing in urban development. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Director of International Programs for Habitat for Humanity International. After that he switched gears, writing financial and wealth protection newsletters for affiliates of Agora Publishing.
Ted has been published in international research journals, as well as media outlets such as Barrons, Forbes and Cheddar. He co-authored Where to Stash Your Cash (Legally) with his father and former U.S. Congressman, Robert Bauman.
The debt-ridden U.S. government is desperate to keep your money inside the country. That’s why the government will always be spreading misinformation…such as the lie that offshore asset protection is dead. The truth is that, for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the offshore option is alive and kicking. It’s never been a more necessary part of your personal wealth preservation plan than right now. It’s also never been easier.
When it comes to taking your life and assets offshore, few tools are more valuable than a second passport. I have one, and it makes my life easier in many ways. For example, I am able to enter Brazil and several other countries on my second passport (South African) visa-free, since Brazil requires visas for U.S. passport holders. And when I go to certain countries—ones that aren’t big fans of the U.S.—using my second passport helps me avoid attention.
For U.S. citizens looking to retire overseas, one of the main concerns is their tax obligations. How will the big move affect the taxes they have to pay? And will they still be able to access their retirement income overseas without difficulty? By and large, these issues are more straightforward than you might expect.
The United States was founded on the principles of personal freedom and individual liberty. Unfortunately, we seem to have wandered far from these standards. In 2013, U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden told us just how far: The government can look into our personal lives via phone records, emails, and our internet histories. The NSA has the capacity to reach nearly 75% of all U.S. internet traffic. It can read the written content of emails and access the information of phone calls made via the internet.
Back in November 2013, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) floated the idea of a “one-off wealth tax” to help pay off the debts of heavily-indebted developed countries, like the U.S., Japan, and much of Europe. Such a tax had been used earlier that year in Cyprus. It wasn’t just the IMF, either: The European Union, the German Bundesbank, and the Bank of England had all been dropping hints that a wealth tax could be coming soon. Ideally (for government, anyway), a “wealth tax” would be imposed on households’ net worth —including their shareholdings and fixed assets such as real estate—but this would pose difficult logistical and enforcement problems. So the most likely scenario is a levy on bank balances, as in Cyprus. Banks would simply be instructed to deduct a certain percentage of the balance—say, 10%—of each savings, checking, or deposit account and transfer it to the government or central bank.