The Sovereign Expat: Next Evolution of Nomadic Living and Global Citizenship

As I sat on the short flight from Chiang Mai, the plane landed in Kuala Lumpur while I skimmed my handwritten notes from the last two weeks. Ten days in silence in the hill country of northern Thailand, followed by a few days of grilled meats, savory curries, and satisfying Thai beer, put life in perspective.

Almost 10 years after my first visit to Thailand with a goal to travel the world, my goal had changed – to simply live in the world. A perpetual existence abroad but not as a rambling backpacker chasing a thrill, or a digital nomad juggling geoarbitrage, destination, and online hustle, but as a global citizen, choosing a handful of locations, I felt at home, making the next adventure about pursuing depth of experience in the places that drew me in.

Intentional. Deep. Integrated.

But to do so required an interesting mix of self-sustained independence, strategically allocated resources, and self-awareness, as well as a desire to integrate into the place(s) I went next.

The life that I had begun envisioning required sovereignty as an individual.

Unaware, I actually had begun envisioning the life of a sovereign expat.

Jump to: [What is a Sovereign Expat] | [Toolkit]

At that point, I’d been lucky enough to wander through over 60 countries around the world, allowing for countless adventures, tastes, and friends. Backpacking the world was an exciting and irreplaceable experience. Nomading in those same places for weeks and months at a time let me connect more deeply with places, people, and other wanderers that opened a side of life and the world that I otherwise never would have been able to experience.

But all good things must come to an end. And, as my research into Digital Nomad Nation proved, all nomads burnout at some point. But, then, where do they go? As valid as that question is, it wasn’t the question on my mind. Actually, there wasn’t a question in my mind at all.

The thoughts in my mind were simple.

I missed enjoying an afternoon glass of red wine next to Plaza Serrano in Palermo. Not Everest Base Camp. Not the Tokyo nightlife. Not Carnival in Colombia. Just an afternoon glass of wine next to a cobblestone street, and all of the sights, sounds, smells, and peace that comes with it.

At the same moment, I missed the Thai hill country that I’d just left. The cool morning chill in the November air, with the monastery in view on the mountain top. The weekend markets are littered with mango sticky rice, live music, and Michelin-level variations of grilled meats. I missed the respectful flow that comes in a society underpinned by Buddhism, mutual respect, and respect for freedom of self-expression. I had literally just been immersed in these pleasantries for weeks and already missed them.

I wished I could design a life that slowed the pace a bit and unashamedly immersed myself in living a purpose-filled life as a member of these communities (as much as an immigrant can join a community anyway), while maintaining the freedom and mobility to see the 100+ countries in the world that remained for me?

Then the thought dawned on me – I could. I was actually broaching that life, just not fully committed.

The decision to fly from Bali to Thailand to train with Buddhist monks for 10 days was a last-minute decision, consisting of an email inquiring about a spot, confirmation, a flight booked for 2 days later, and Booking.com accommodations using points. The decision to fly back through Kuala Lumpur for top-notch dental care was icing on the cake, simply making the most of an all-around healthy trip. And sitting in that plane seat sparked the idea of actually how easy it would be to make my way back to Argentina – I just needed a backpack, some credit cards (and access to my bank accounts), and the desire to go, which was literally all I needed.

My mobility, my mindset about living around the world, my banking infrastructure, and my knowledge of the world and the places I love in it added up to sovereignty as an expat.

In that moment, my desire to slow things down and live more integrated in my chosen homes around the world led me to restructure my systems and infrastructure to make that vision a reality by becoming a sovereign expat.

The Sovereign Expat is not a wanderer, but a builder of systems, freedom, and a globally rooted life.

In this article, I will share how my vision to live in the places around the world that I love gave birth to a new perspective on living abroad and how you, too, can potentially become a sovereign expat.

Contents

• What is a Sovereign Expat?
• How do sovereign expats differ from digital nomads, long-term travelers, and traditional expats?
• The Sovereign Expat in Practice – Case Studies in Sovereign Living Abroad
• The Pitfalls of non-sovereign nomadism – and reasons to assess your nomadic life for sovereignty
• Pillars of the Sovereign Expat Lifestyle
• Global Citizenship and Ethical Immigration

What is a Sovereign Expat?

A Sovereign Expat is a location-independent individual who has consciously built a life abroad supported by robust personal systems: financial infrastructure, legal residency, optimized taxation, global health access, and intentional geographic choices — all aligned with their values and vision.

Why is the new label of “Sovereign Expat” necessary?

In short, the simple name isn’t necessary, but there is immense value in sharing ideas and possibilities of a “sovereign” lifestyle that allows aspiring and transitioning expats to recognize the unique situation and opportunities within a new and emerging demographic. By introducing this novel new way of living, as a sovereign expat, we encourage continued exploration into how to optimize that life uniquely available to and beneficial for independent, mobile, mature global citizens living abroad – sovereign expats.

How do sovereign expats differ from digital nomads, long-term travelers, and traditional expats?

In short, sovereign expats built a self-sustained life abroad that allows maximum mobility through strategic resources, infrastructure, and personal systems while still integrating as “global citizens” with their countries and communities of choice.

Category	Digital Nomad	Traditional Expat	Sovereign Expat
Mobility	High	Low	High
Stability	Low	High	Medium–High
System Mastery	Low	Medium	High
Legal Compliance	Ambiguous	High (job-based)	Designed (High)
Community Integration	Low–Medium	Medium	High
Endgame Strategy	Undefined	Retirement	Sovereign Stability

By contrast, Digital Nomads lack the stability and “full” independence of sovereign expats, and often burn out after 2 to 3 years, or linger in grey areas of residency, healthcare, and community.

Many of the travel adventures of digital nomads involve more of passing through countries, while sovereign expats actively plant roots in those countries they embrace. The mindset shift, from nomad to sovereign expat changes from “just visiting” to place aware, community engaged, and contributing, while maintaining sovereignty and location independent self sufficiency. While nomads optimize for novelty, sovereign expats optimize for lifestyle options and long term stability.

From escaping the system to mastering the systems – of visas, taxes, personal finances, healthcare, etc.

As such, their nomadic and unsettled lifestyle creates issues and ambiguity around visas, residency, and integration into communities. These commonly raised topics then branch into issues of negatively impacting local economies, gentrification, and tax legalities. Due to the sovereign expats’ well-planned approaches to visas, residencies, banking, investing, as well as slower pace and subsequent participation and integration into the small handful of communities they choose, the negative impacts and risks drop off significantly.

Traditional expats, such as teachers at international schools, oil expats, and foreigners employed by multinational companies, are heavily grounded in and attached to a single country or multinational company. Additionally, these traditional expats are generally financially and socially dependent on their sponsor company and country. In short, these are expats enjoying a life abroad, but without sovereignty and mobility. While the traditional expat remains rooted, likely in a 9 5 job in a different country, sovereign expats use their mobility to split life between locations and travel for leisure, medical tourism, and lifestyle optimization (e.g., chasing endless summer).

Sovereign expats live abroad, like the other foreigner demographics, but have cultivated a lifestyle and underlying systems that allow them the independence to live anywhere in the world and the mobility to change location and lifestyle at any time. These cultivated assets of financial resources, international lifestyle-friendly investments, banking infrastructure, tax, social and community connectivity, visa and residency options, etc. combine to create a system that allows the sovereign expat to live in a self-reliant way (not reliant on host country services or corporate sponsors). This opportunity manifests as a more mature foreigner living abroad (an immigrant) that better ingrains with the cultures and communities they choose, and formally establish ties (residencies, dual passports, tax, real estate ownership, investments) – all achieved while maintaining the mobility, location independence, resources, and expat savvy to split time between countries that aren’t their own to serve their lifestyle design goals.

The Pitfalls of non-sovereign nomadism, and reasons to assess your nomadic life for sovereignty and sustainability

While there are absolutely downsides to a sovereign life abroad, the pitfalls of a non-sovereign life abroad – that either force people to return home or adapt into a sovereign life – are much more important and insightful.

• Visa Drift: Floating between countries unproductively and unsatisfyingly out of ease, limited by short stays
• Tax Fog: Existing in a tax grey area that isn’t illegal but complicates residency statuses
• Banking and Financial Optimization Hurdles: Getting locked out of accounts or having funds frozen due to a lack of 2FA, a lack of a tax ID, a lack of an approved residency address, or bad financial product practices (Wise, Revolut)
• Residency and Visa Issues: Limited stays, preventing bank access, and preventing access to services in the host country
• Lifestyle instability: Staying constantly on the move prevents healthy roots and cultivating a healthy community
• Health Blind Spots and Accrued Health Issues: Travel insurance only traveling through developed regions often postpones preventative care and proper checkups
• Legal Blind Spots: Immigration nuances for stays, work permit nuances
• Shallow relationships and Lack of Healthy Community: The longer one remains on the road untethered, the longer they exist without roots and community, potentially affecting emotional and mental health long term

The Sovereign Expat in Practice – Case Studies in Sovereign Living Abroad:

As I sat on the plane physically landing on the Malaysian tarmac in KLIA but mentally tucked between the ivy vines of a Buenos Aires café with wine in hand, my mind was actually running not to a vision of the future, but of a memory.

That moment was significant for two reasons.

First, it was my 40^th birthday, which, at several points, I promised to party away in Buenos Aires. I didn’t realize the most satisfying party of my stay would be day drinking Malbec during happy hour, but it says a lot that such an experience could be so satisfying.

Secondly, it was during that session of sipping that I realized I was transitioning out of one phase of my life and into another. Not from my 30s into middle age – I’d honestly felt healthier and happier than I had in 20 years.

Instead, I realized that despite my country-hopping and love for overly social hostels, I was no longer a “backpacker.” My tastes for travel had shifted from everything novel and new and every walking tour or street food cart on the list, to experiences that connected more with my values. More nature. More cultural insights. More pursuit of understanding myself better, the world better, and my place in it, as all three of those elements were constantly changing.

Despite writing for a living and publishing books online, I wasn’t a “digital nomad” anymore. The hype around the term felt…off. The meetups focused on bravado, façade, and the portrayal of how perfect their business-centered and imperfect tech startup plans seemed to oppose the admittedly lost yet enjoyably wanderlust-driven energy that launched me onto a one-way flight. Additionally, the ambiguity and questionability of lingering in so many places without attempting to deeply learn the language, history, and culture, and simply benefit from their culture (food, customs, politeness) and global price imbalances seemed less and less in line with the true traveler’s spirit. Pair this with annoyances with constant visa juggling and questions of residency, and “digital nomadism” felt like less and less of a sustainable solution.

Then, my mind jumped back to the present…to the sip of the wine beneath the vines.

I wanted to be here…if they’d have me.

I wanted to learn Spanish. I wanted to dig into and feel the history of the place, good and bad, from the Spanish and Italian immigrants, to the unfortunate stories of the indigenous peoples, the military dictatorships, the disappeared, and the economic crises – and how it added up to a quirky cluster of people I enjoyed interacting with on a daily basis.

I wanted to set up in a little apartment and collect too many books. I wanted to learn about the bodegas in Mendoza and the Casablanca valley, and stock up for afternoons reading on the terrace. I wanted to spend my time writing at home, to help others discover the possibilities in a life abroad. I wanted to become a regular at the jazz clubs hidden in alleys with artists pouring their souls into every night. I wanted this oddly stable setup as “home”. But I didn’t want it to end there. I still wanted to escape.

Every few months, I wanted to leave briefly, in search of a new adventure. I wanted to scour the Chilean coast for uncrowded surf spots. I wanted to hike in the national park left by the late Doug Tompkins. I wanted to make a bet on a village for health-conscious nomads in the wine country at the base of the Andes. And I wanted more.

I wanted to go back to Japan for Okinawa. I wanted to visit the China that everyone outside of the US knows is already in the future. I wanted to taste a khachapuri in Georgia. I wanted to make the horrible choice of trying to repair a cottage in Japan as a home for part of the year. I wanted to punctuate it all by paving a path to spend my twilight years in the blue zones of southern Europe, among crazy Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards, after reconnecting with my African roots.

This little mental trip and the long list of desires within were unique. It stretched a timeline too long for the backpacker. It required too much mobility and freedom to travel for the average expat. And it focused too much on connecting with the places I was in, and relying on stability and a place and community to return to in order to fit the digital nomad lifestyle.

But it perfectly fit the lifestyle of a Sovereign Expat, which I was partly living, and partly designing.

A strong passport made travel easy, but the temporary residence in progress in a South American country went beyond just living and made staying and integrating a possibility.

Strategically chosen bank accounts, credit cards, and crypto wallets made it easy to travel to Argentina with $9,000 cash in $100 bills. The same financial setup made it possible to receive a residency permit and a potential path to citizenship.

A meticulous setup of investments, assets, and itty bitty businesses financed life anywhere – Argentina, Thailand, Japan – and was diversified enough to withstand the whims of the economic crises, the pandemic, and the creative destruction of AI.

While my “personal systems” and “sovereignty infrastructure” were far from complete, they’d made it possible to uproot, move around the world, and settle into stability as long as stability would have me (or I would have it).

The financial and social mobility and stability allow sovereign expats to move and base not just to travel, but in order to design their lives.

I say “their lives” because just like the yellow car theory (the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon), once I awakened to the possibility of a “sovereign life abroad,” I was more frequently noticing these mobile aspects that wouldn’t dare describe themselves as “digital nomads.”

There was the quirky character from Ohio who worked online part-time but primarily rented out his two homes in Cleveland (weird, I know). He’d decided to withdraw $9,900 in cash and fly down to Argentina with a backpack and a credit card. It was his third summer flying into Buenos Aires when all of the “Portenos” fled for the cool of Patagonia. During the American summers, he would fly into Spain for tapas in between jaunts to Scandinavia. But he always cycled through the same countries and cities like a global conveyor belt perfectly made for him. Showing up in each place like he’d never left.

Even after sharing my most recent articles on “Rentvesting” with stocks or ETFs instead of buying real estate, several readers chimed in saying that they were already taking this approach instead of real estate investment to maintain their mobility, maintain easy access to cash, and avoid sticky tax situations. One friend in particular on Bali mentioned that he already owns three properties, two in Australia and one in Bali. Bali was an experiment that proved any opportunity where he lacked a competitive advantage (such as being a resident) wasn’t worth the trouble. As such, they were preparing the Bali house for sale and decided on a whim to move the family to Vietnam – so (thanks to their sovereignty) they will pack and leave ASAP and leave the house for a trusted party to “liquidate” later.

From French families deciding to rent out their villa and travel the world before their teenagers become disinterested, to the Australian expat who motorbiked the world before finding love and great pastries in Portugal, the Sovereign Expat (as well as Sovereign Expat Families) manifests in forms that exceed the shades of colors in the rainbow.

What Sovereign Expats share in common are basic tools and principles that enable and empower their sovereignty in a life abroad.

Pillars of the Sovereign Expat Lifestyle

The lifestyle of a sovereign expat is possible because of meticulously designed infrastructure and systems that make moving to a place, living, integrating, complying (with laws and tax requirements), spending, and moving again all smooth, easy, and repeatable processes.

Practically, such systems make it easy to hop a flight, find a place to stay, navigate the location you’re in (geographically, culturally, and linguistically), and access cash to support your stay. If staying for an extended period, the visa/residency permit allows the expat to stay in compliance with local laws, contributing legally and ethically to compensate for the material and immaterial benefits of their stay.

Now, let’s go line by line and examine the systems and infrastructure you likely have cultivated as a sovereign expat, and can empower yourself by intentionally cultivating more in the future002E

Sovereign Expat Toolkit: The foundational systems that allow the Sovereign Expat to live a mobile, independent, international lifestyle

1. Location Knowledge & Location Sovereignty: Knowledge of global opportunities, travel opportunities, and other cultures to identify suitable locations and strategies
2. Mindset & Values: Personal outlook, knowledge of personal needs, preferences, and capabilities
3. Mobility Infrastructure and Strategy: Passports, residencies, long stay visas, where you go, and how you get there
4. Tax & Legal Planning: Residency rules, tax planning, tax treaties, company setups
5. Financial Infrastructure: Banking and bank accounts, cross-border financial products, investing, emergency planning (insurance)
6. Health, safety, and longevity planning: Medical hubs, fitness zones, prioritizing safety
7. Geoarbitrage and lifestyle design: Country planning, cost-benefit planning, lifestyle sculpting
8. Community, Identity, and Global Citizenship: Roots, Contributions, and Integration

Let’s review each pillar of the sovereign expat toolkit a little further

Location Knowledge & Location Sovereignty

Understanding where in the world offers what you need, easily, cheaply, and efficiently, and the insight that comes with this knowledge is possibly the most empowering asset in lifestyle design.

Understanding that Bangkok is amazing for medical tourism, Bali’s gym scene is perfect for three months of redesigning your body, and Greece’s pace of life can mentally reset years of living in corporate America are insights that will lead to the goal you’re looking for with minimal waste.

To cultivate a go-to list of locations for your lifestyle design, be curious and open-minded about everywhere, but make your search centered on your values and interests. Scour trip reports on the internet, listicles that may offer a grain of truth, and even dig through old school travel guides like Lonely Planet. Understand that anywhere that appears on a top 10 list has likely already been spoiled, but by constantly asking “where else has ‘X'” you stand the chance of hidden gems that offer what you love.

Seek out people like you who share your values and interests, and ask them directly, Where do they go for ‘that thing?” Where do they go for wine, for mountain biking, for a month of getting fit?

As you cultivate your list, continually aim to find multiple places that serve your values, interests, and goals, so you always have options.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list, begin looking into the logistical questions – visas, best neighborhoods, currency and spending strategies, times of year to go, and “second cities”. As you commit to returning to these places, this in-depth research will become more valuable to you and pay dividends over time.

Mindset & Values

Part of the value in having the “right” mindset and values, such as flexibility, global awareness, and an openness towards other cultures, is that it allows you to exist peacefully and enjoyably in any host country, for you and your host. The other part of the value is that understanding yourself, your preferences, and your needs allows you to choose better destinations that effortlessly fit you and deliver what you need.

In terms of cultivating the “sovereign expat mindset,” think about the tours you’ve been on and remember that time you had a “Karen” on board. Nothing was right. She demanded things to happen a certain way or adjustments. At times, you questioned whether she was enjoying herself and why she didn’t just go home. Now, compare that to the genie pants wearing hippie that was so go with the flow, you thought he was hiding shrooms. Things might not have gone according to plan, but man, was he happy and making the most of it. You don’t have to be the hippie; however, a flexible, open mindset that is appreciative of the “quirks” of the world around you will make for a happier existence when exploring the world around you.

In terms of understanding your needs, picking locations according to your needs is a no-brainer for satisfaction.

I love white wines that are either oaky and bold or slightly young and punch you in the face, just like I like a good creamy pasta with a side of steak. Additionally, I love the ocean! I’ve always loved the ocean, but only if it’s warm and I can see through it – because I hate the cold and I’m scared of sharks! Knowing these embarrassing details about me, look up Istria, Croatia. This Croatian-Italian mash-up delivers so perfectly on all these points – lovely white wines, heavy meals, and warm, crystal-clear waters on a cliff-diving-friendly rocky coast. And it does so on a budget. Because of this, I found Istria and the rest of Croatia hard to leave.

Ultimately, intentionally cultivating and understanding your outlook, your needs, your preferences, and your capabilities, and applying the same level of analytical rigor to researching where you can go in the world will help you draw better matches between the two.

The best resource for understanding both is to find people like you, online or offline, then interact, ask, and stay connected.

Mobility Infrastructure and Strategy: Passports, residencies, and visas

No matter where you want to go in the world and how well it may fit, none of that matters if you’re not allowed to visit or stay there.

I know for a fact that I would love living in Barcelona! If I had a year in Barcelona, they would be completely out of tapas by September. Lucky for them, my “very strong US passport” only allows a 90-day stay before I’m forced to leave, and they unhide that Iberian ham.

For the intentional sovereign expat, who understands what they want from the world and the places that offer it, a very intentional mobility strategy – revolving around long-stay visas, temporary residencies, permanent residencies, and passports – is pivotal to ensuring you can truly set up a home in a target location.

For instance, in the initial “Neverland Neverland” level of delusion in my plan to “live” on Bali, I hadn’t accounted for how difficult and complex the immigration situation can be on Bali, if you wish to do so legally, transparently, and with stability. For instance, a temporary residence permit in Bali, almost guaranteeing a two-year stay, requires pledging $200,000 worth of capital. However, in late 2024, while I was staying on Bali, that number was cranked up to $700,000 with minimal notice and some “interesting” penalties if you were called to show the cash and weren’t able to. During the time I was lucky enough to be a guest on Bali, I learned a new, more prudent approach to assessing a place for immigration potential.

While digital nomad visas have been all the buzz and are wonderful for the globe-trotting nomad who wants to stay six months to a year and leave, most of these visas aren’t renewable, do not have a path to permanent residency or citizenship, and have ambiguous tax situations. Ultimately, DN visas are perfect short-term travel band-aids, but cheat savvy expats of significant benefits.

Now, I heavily advise intentional sovereign expats to seek out base locations that offer clear temporary residencies integrated into an immigration system. For instance, student visas, independent means visas, rentista visas, and retirement visas all often come with clear tax guidelines as well as healthcare benefits, social benefits, and a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship.

If you love a place enough to consider staying long term (5+ years), you will want a permanent residency and to properly integrate into the tax and social system. If your target country is in a functioning union with clear benefits (EU, MERCOSUR), dual citizenship and dual passports become very worthwhile assets to research, consider, and potentially plan for.

Passports, residencies, long stay visas, where you go, and how you get there.

Tourist visas are good for getting a glimpse of a country with stays of 30 to 90 days. Temporary residencies are how you begin to feel what it is like to live in a country, dealing with their bureaucracy, registering with the tax office and for healthcare, and settling into communities over a 1 to 2-year stay. Permanent residency is a status that allows you to live in a country with a general 15-year validity and only requires a visit every couple of years.

To get started planning your mobility structure, pick a few countries of choice and research their temporary residences as a student, on independent means, retiring, via investment, and special skills, research their path to permanent residency and the associated tax requirements, and research the paths to citizenship.

Tax Planning, Legal Planning, and Income History

There are three certainties in life – death, taxes, and high-quality sushi in Japan.

If you intend to make a place your home, one of the first aspects you will want to research, based on your immigration plan (temporary residency, permanent residency, citizenship), is the tax requirements (personal and business), whether they make sense, and what you will get in return for your tax dollars. For many situations, understanding this will change a country’s prospects from good to bad or from mediocre to great!

For instance, Argentina generally doesn’t tax unless you stay in the country at least 11 months a year. Paraguay and Dubai are very accommodating on taxes (compared to the US and most EU countries). At the same time, Indonesia taxes your global income regardless of your location or the number of days you spend in the country if you have a residency permit. Knowing these small details beforehand will affect how suitable a destination is for you.

Beyond the country’s tax laws, you will need to familiarize yourself with your home country’s tax treaty with that country. Most economically strong countries establish treaties so that tax residents of both countries are not subject to double taxation. For instance, a US citizen working in Bali only has their earnings taxed by Indonesia; however, villa rental income will be taxed by both Indonesia and the US IRS. Knowing this subtle detail will change your math significantly.

But don’t stop at the research.

Consult a tax professional and, based on the home bases you decided, your visas and residencies, and your financial infrastructure, aim to craft a plan that leverages your mobility to minimize your taxes.

But to get started, research the personal and business taxes for your target country, the length of stay that makes you a tax resident, and the tax treaty with your home country. Then, consider contacting an international tax professional to craft a strategy.

Financial Infrastructure

I always joke that all I need to travel is my credit cards and the clothes on my back. If you have access to cash or a means to pay, you can figure out everything else on the road.

But in practice, banking and access to cash while living abroad for more than one year become difficult. From two-factor authentication, to compliant residence addresses, to having specific accounts for safeguarding money, for quickly transferring money, and for accessing cash cheaply and quickly, creating a personal financial system as a sovereign expat with the essential bits of financial infrastructure is as complex as it is important.

In order to maintain easy spending power and access to your money while abroad, I recommend all of the following:

• Home Country Bank Account
• Local (country of residency/home base) Bank Account
• Cross-border “financial products” for moving money quickly: Revolut, Wise, PayPal, etc. – ensure redundancy and manage these, assuming they will mysteriously lock you out one day
• Virtual address for the permanent address to receive financial documents

Optional

• US-based bank account – optional but recommended due to fraud protection, purchase protection, and FDIC insurance
• US credit cards – optional but recommended for travel points, purchase protection, and fraud protection
• LLC (US, Dubai, Paraguay) – to support bank accounts and proof of income for visa applications, residency applications, and applications to financial institutions

Health, safety, and longevity planning

If you don’t have your health and fitness, all the opportunities in the world of travel will be wasted on you.

Additionally, for those with global mobility, amazing medical treatments and immersive health experiences are available, and will be more beneficial than the high-cost health insurance in many developed countries.

I had a friend at a gym in Bali who snapped a tendon in his wrist while doing an iron cross. I was shocked and disgusted to see his wrist go limp. But I was more surprised to see him training again at full intensity two weeks later, thanks to stem cell treatments in a place that I won’t mention.

The point is, if your mindset and self-knowledge include proactive awareness of your health, there is ample opportunity to plan your exploration around the world for medical tourism, to immerse in fitness tourism zones to rebuild your body, and prioritize living in places where air quality, infrastructure, and crime rates all add up to better health and a longer life.

As a sovereign expat, to start building your health systems, consider starting with assessments of your health and teeth. I highly recommend Thailand, Malaysia, and Panama as places to start researching. The simple cost of examinations (or lack thereof) will give you insight into the arbitrage opportunity. Then, get proactive about scheduling the exams, procedures, and checkups you need, and use the trips as an opportunity for healthy and leisure activities.

Beyond the hospital, immerse yourself in fitness and longevity hubs. Say what you want about the new Bali, but there are few better places in the world to schedule 30 days simply focusing on the gym and recovery. I jumped on the bandwagon and, in 3 months, reversed countless usage injuries from my time in the Marines.

Last, consider “safety” in your destinations. Not from a fear standpoint, but from a freedom standpoint. Consider visiting countries where it’s common and safe for people to walk around at 1 AM, where the food doesn’t need warning labels, and where politically stoked fearmongering hasn’t reached the masses.

Geoarbitrage and lifestyle design

All of the previous tools and the insights learned through research add up to the opportunity for geoarbitrage.

Geoarbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of price differences between two or more countries in order to save money on everyday expenses and achieve a higher quality of life for less money. By using the higher income potential from another location and spending that money in a lower-cost-of-living location, we improve our quality of life, save money, and move closer to achieving financial independence.

However, with the insights into your favorite destinations in the world and understanding your deep preferences, you will carve away the fluff by only visiting places that serve your desires, values, and needs, and uncover gems not touted by influencers that over-deliver on geoarbitrage for you.

In finding these relatively low-cost places that deliver a lifestyle you would willingly pay a normal price for, you unlock rocket fuel for your lifestyle design efforts.

Community, Identity, and Global Citizenship

One of the biggest differentiators between sovereign expats and digital nomads is the level at which these sovereign individuals aim to engage with, connect with, and integrate into their communities. While most of us wanderers will never truly “become” one of those that host us, the mutual respect, and balance that comes from taking personal responsibility for a place that hosts you, and truly embracing the culture or people brings a next level experience that is priceless, few will know, and only the wandering sovereign individual that dares to join a community long term will know.

This pillar and how to achieve it are difficult to put into words, but be open-minded, be respectful, be willing, and join in the dance when invited.

Practically, if you wish to make a place your home, learn the language. Not just pleasantries or broken conversation, but truly attempting to learn their language, their nuances, and the unspoken bits within. Read about their history. Ask about their customs and culture. Respect and participate in their holidays. Aim to understand, and if you don’t, be accepting. And at the end of the day, be an appreciative guest.

Unique opportunities and tools available to “sovereign expats” that are in view but out of reach of the public

Beyond the standard toolbox of the pillars of the Sovereign Nomad’s system, there are countless other opportunities to add in as parts of your plan that increase opportunities. These are some of my favorites.

• Year-long live-aboard cruises
• Akiyas (cheap houses in Japan)
• €1 houses
• “Back to homeland” experiences
• Long-term, sustainable, voluntourism
• Geoarbitrage
• Globally arbitraged education opportunities
• Medical tourism – and tourism for longevity (living in a fitness-encouraging location)
• Rentvesting combined with geoarbitrage
• Dual passports achieved via residency

Global Citizenship and Ethical Immigration: Are Sovereign Expats immigrants? Absolutely. Keeping that in mind helps Sovereign Expats become better global citizens.

With the cycling mainstream narrative around “immigrants” and the undertones, it is worth highlighting and addressing that there is nothing inherently wrong with immigrants or being immigrants. By contrast, some of the groundbreaking changes in modern history were due to immigrants. Albert Einstein was an immigrant. Steve Jobs, who started Apple, the smartphone revolution, and poured rocket fuel on the pace of adoption during the information age, was the biological child of a Syrian immigrant. Multi-national firms in China hire European and American foreigners to facilitate better cross-border knowledge exchange as immigrants. And all three of these cases are arguably positive.

Ultimately, Immigrants face and pose the immense opportunity of sharing resources, knowledge, and perspectives – if they are responsible in their attempts to become immigrants.

As immigrants, sovereign expats deciding to reside in a country, take on residency, file taxes, learn (and respect) the culture and language, and take the personal ownership and gratitude that leads to giving back to their home country, ultimately live out the best case scenario for immigrants and countries welcoming immigrants. As responsible global citizens acknowledging the often-unspoken social contract that comes with immigrating to a country, sovereign expats not only live their best lives in a safe, legally protected way, but they also thank the country welcoming them by respecting it and enhancing it.

Sovereign Expats Are the Future of International Living

For those who love their lives abroad but crave something more sustainable and want to connect with the places they love more deeply, while still exploring the world as a whole, the Sovereign Expat life may be the next adventure you’ve been looking for.