I am a full-time trader I have better things to do with my time then list every nation with electricity outage one by one just to please you just because you are pedantic...
This thread was about finding a decent place with decent medical, security and other circumstances allowing a proper life during a multi-year stay. No language or cultural barriers (tried to learn Polish, Hungarian or Arabic?) - English well understood as is in the Nordic countries, NL or CH.
With a wide info for lot of countries, Jim Rogers bought a house for long-time residence in Singapore and Peking(???), if I heard correctly. Possibly Singapore may have some advantage in trading based on his reflection. OR possibly it is worth to learn Madarin for (human intellectual-lingual) investment next 20 years, at least for his young daughter.
Below is a link to the list of emerging markets countries listed by MSCI https://www.msci.com/emerging-markets I'd be surprised if more than a couple of those countries experience regular black outs in their wealthy urban centers. I wouln't be surprised if this applied to none of those. I spent years in urban areas in Thailand and China, both included in the list, and travelled to several more of those countries and the last electricity black out I can remember there is never ( they must have been quite rare if they happened at all). In the link below you can find a list of countries included in frontier markets MSCI indexes, I doubt most of those haven't figured out how to deal with electricity in their better off urban centers, Dubai is not exactly an undeveloped spot in the middle of the desert where beduins drink tea in the shade of their tent you know. https://www.msci.com/index-country-membership-tool D08's pics a few posts up are spot on, most countries have areas with modern utilities where the wealthier locals and expats tend to settle, it's not difficult to travel in Europe through areas that feel like the thirld world - even an alien planet sometimes - compared to good districts in emerging or frontier markets capital cities. What's much better in Europe is you find a lot of great cities/areas very close to each other and you don't get hit with a border checkpoint and different visa requirements as often as when you travel in the emerging world.
I agree with the general idea, but the language barrier depends on your background, there are quite a few people out there (to put it mildly) who would feel more confortable in a country where a latin, arabic or chinese language is dominant for instance. It's good to discuss of the opportunities available and each one can then attune his choice according to his cultural penchants
I`ve lived for considerable time in Jeddah and Dubai. Wonder why everybody there would prefer living in the US, UK or Europe. Dubai is a developed country ---- take your money there, get into some quarrel with locals and find out about the legal chances of a non-dubai, non-arab, non-muslim claimant inthe local courts. Singapore is a fine place, even taxwise. But try to find out the basic costs of a decent living there, housing... Latin america, Venezuela in my youth was considered a dream destination, rich, free health services...... Name me one country you could entrust your family, kids, health and wealth? Oh, I forgot about China. Take your family, kids, health and wealth there? Giving up on this thread for the time being. Just inform me, when there is new information from the Netherlands-
I'm quite a bit surprised someone with significant assets would just park them in the same country, spreading among various banks and political systems is more my style. Education and culture is similar, I like keeping the family among various influences, only chinese/western/arabic/jewish influence doesn't appeal to me, but I/we try to not isolate them from any of those, with a special focus on their more direct roots, which are different than yours. Legal system is usually better for the locals (in contrary to tax), it's an advantage to be the local in the conflict, not only in Dubai, the kind of thing one has to consider. Life is usually easier back home as well. Cost of life is another matter, with experiences on both continents, it's cheaper ,especially with a family, to live in Europe than in the posh areas of Asia, with Switzerland in a world of its own in Europe. Singapore dropped its Capital Entrant scheme a while back btw, it's more complicated to move there now. It would be my fav place in Asia. Considering the service we got I even found Monaco rather cheap on last holidays there - definetely wasn't during the Formula 1, nor summer actually. Nederlands seems dead cheap, offering a decent life standard, i'm afraid we would have very little cultural links there and wouldn't consider moving there - I don't find their cap gain taxation a great bargain either. China really depends on your roots, quite a few overseas chinese elect to come back once they get passport or long term residence permits in the West, I'm regulary in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong and like Shenzhen way more. Language barrier is huge though, and cultural gap quite large, it's tough on many western expat families. IMO the day Europe follows China or UAE's steps in its way to deal with labour and human right groups as well as with refugees, it will become a nicer place to live. It's funny also to deal with mainland chinese banks, even in the UAE banks hand out a Fatca form to sign, but in China I wonder if they could tell it from a sheet of toilet paper. I need to ask american residents if they have ever seen one there, I definetely haven't.
About medical services, one thing that has bugged me for years is the lack of emergency services in emerging countries. Those might have flashy hospitals but their streets are usually lacking of the buzzing ambulances one often sees in the west. Encountering oneself in a situation of emergency (say car crash or heart attack ) doesn't look good there
To anyone who is thinking of moving to Kenya for the zero capital gains tax: Rogue Monkey Cuts Power to All of Kenya http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/06/08/lone-kenyan-monkey-causes-nationwide-blackout.html "A single monkey caused a nationwide blackout in Kenya on Tuesday after going rogue at the country’s biggest hydroelectric station. The mayhem began around midday, when the monkey fell onto a transformer and tripped it, causing a domino effect as all the other machines at the Gitaru power station suffered an overload and failed. As a result, the entire country was left without electricity for four hours. The monkey, however, was left unscathed by the ordeal and taken in by the Kenyan Wildlife Service. The company that owns the plant, KenGen, announced that it would be “enhancing security” on the premises after the mishap."
The blackout was around midday local time, so when it was 4 AM in Chicago. When CME opened the blackout was already finished. Missing one day of trading because of a blackout is cheaper than paying taxes for a full year. And the chances that the monkey will do it again are zero.