Where is the best place in the world to live doing IM?

Bangkok

infoasian said:

Thailand is a great place, but not for BH IM. Use of proxies is prohibited and internet traffic is closely monitored. You can't legally work unless you setup shop and start up a CO LTD with 2 Million Baht capital. It will cost you approximately 8k US$ per year to maintain such a company.

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Dont worry this guy is completely misinformed.
Believe me there is no worries with working online in Thailand. The police here dont even know how to switch on a computer let alone discover your secret business. Even if you did do it legit and set up a thai company you don't actually have to have 2m of capital that's totally unnecessary. I know as I have a thai company. Oh and use of proxies is prohibited??? what the hell? They are not for a start, plus you dont even need proxies here for most things as IP's in general are not static.

Thailand is a great place to and work online.

At home with your mum and dad, so when everything fucks up, you have no bills to worry about.

weBay said:

Dont worry this guy is completely misinformed.
Believe me there is no worries with working online in Thailand. The police here dont even know how to switch on a computer let alone discover your secret business. Even if you did do it legit and set up a thai company you don't actually have to have 2m of capital that's totally unnecessary. I know as I have a thai company. Oh and use of proxies is prohibited??? what the hell? They are not for a start, plus you dont even need proxies here for most things as IP's in general are not static.

Thailand is a great place to and work online.

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Of course it is a great place, but not for IM. First of all you can not do any work as a foreigner unless you do have employment with a local company, a work permit and a non-B visa. Sure, you can try to live like a permanent tourist and take your chances of not being discovered. It will work for sometime, but after 2 or 3 years of consecutive tourist visas you may face some problems in explaining how you make a living. So far Thai people have been very generous to it's visitors, but policies are changing gradually. Visa rules are becoming stricter every year and rejections are more frequent. If you run a company, you know that you need to go to a hospital for blood testsing every year ... this was never asked before.

Yes, you can define company capital in other ways than in paid up cash, but you still have to pay taxes, fees, etc. Unless you are cheap flea bag who's working hour is worth less than 2 bucks, 8k$ a year will be your expense for such a company. You will also need to leave the country every 3 months if you don't have at least 4 Thai employees per foreigner.

Fact is, a lot of sites are blocked in Thailand and use of proxies for black hat typical use is prohibited if you cause harm to others:
http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/117
I remember 3 years ago Youtube was blocked in TH for 4 months.

Thailand is good for BHing as long as you are fully underground and really doing it BH style. If you need a company then you would be better to register it in Hong Kong, have your banking in Singapore, and just have a Thai bank account for withdrawing money from an ATM (ie. transfer it from your Singaporean account to your Thai account to save on ATM withdrawal fees).

I don't know about the legal status of proxies but many proxy sites are blocked - but you should be getting around that with a VPN anyway. You definitely do have to be careful about what you do online here because of monitoring from the MICT. I was having some major connectivity problems with a porn company that I work with as a consultant / creative. After much troubleshooting with their techs, it became clear that the issues were caused by proxying / caching upstream of my ISP (ie the Thai spooks were monitoring my shit, automagically or manually - who knows). What was freaky was that they were clearly monitoring form POSTSs not just GET requests (ie. they were monitoring what I was saying and doing, not just the pages I was looking at). A VPN is a must for sensitive online activities here.

Anyway Thailand is a pretty sweet place to be a low-footprint BH, not so much if you wanted to start a large legit enterprise.

infoasian said:

Of course it is a great place, but not for IM. First of all you can not do any work as a foreigner unless you do have employment with a local company, a work permit and a non-B visa. Sure, you can try to live like a permanent tourist and take your chances of not being discovered. It will work for sometime, but after 2 or 3 years of consecutive tourist visas you may face some problems in explaining how you make a living. So far Thai people have been very generous to it's visitors, but policies are changing gradually. Visa rules are becoming stricter every year and rejections are more frequent. If you run a company, you know that you need to go to a hospital for blood testsing every year ... this was never asked before.

Yes, you can define company capital in other ways than in paid up cash, but you still have to pay taxes, fees, etc. Unless you are cheap flea bag who's working hour is worth less than 2 bucks, 8k$ a year will be your expense for such a company. You will also need to leave the country every 3 months if you don't have at least 4 Thai employees per foreigner.

Fact is, a lot of sites are blocked in Thailand and use of proxies for black hat typical use is prohibited if you cause harm to others:
http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/117
I remember 3 years ago Youtube was blocked in TH for 4 months.

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Fair point, but I still cant see where your $8k figure comes from. Soemthing like $3000 would be more accurate in my experience. Anyway I agree its much better to live here legitimately then do visa runs every month - not much of a life.

best place for doing IM? how about HOME?

weBay said:

Fair point, but I still cant see where your $8k figure comes from. Soemthing like $3000 would be more accurate in my experience. Anyway I agree its much better to live here legitimately then do visa runs every month - not much of a life.

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You are right, my 8k$ is a luxury version. If you pay yourself minimum salary and remain within lowest tax bracket one can manage with 4 to 5k.

minimum income tax 1200 $
virtual office 1000$
accounting 1500$ including all returns and fees
work permit, visa, hospital 800$
4 visa runs at 400 each = 1600$
Total medium budget version imho = 6100$ per year

you can make it less, if you are on a budget.

Again I say ...BRAZIL!

imperial444 said:

what about Miami?

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Miami is a crime ridden dump, ditto for Fort Lauderdale. Only thing nice about Miami is South Beach. How do I know? I live in the area and can't stand this place. People here are extremely rude and customer service is non-existant.

Don't do California either unless you want to be nickeled and dimed on taxes. Beautiful state, F-ed up government.

For me, I'm looking at the Caribbean. Going to start scoping out the keys to buy a vacation home and rent/use it. Originally I was looking at some of the other islands but I like having the reliability of US infrastructure.

If I didn't have a child I would probably go to one of these:

- Ecuador
- Panama
- Costa Rica (getting overpriced though, Panama is similar to it but cheaper)
- Malta
- Mexico (depends on the area since the country is a bit chaotic right now with crime)
- Dominican Republic (been told some great things about the women there but not sure what it's like to live there)

deviatus said:

You only have to make a few thousand more per month to erase the extra living standard costs from living in the US or Europe.

The best place to live for IM is around San Francisco, Palo Alto, and San Jose. That's where the IM industry IS.

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I plan to move here next year when I'm 18, for school (UCLA or Stanford). I'm really excited, as I've been to California once (Palm Springs) and it was great motivation. Seeing Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Rolls Royces on the road everyday is not something common where I live.
People are talking about living in a 3rd world countries, but I don't know how motivational that is. Expensive things really motivate me personally and I know a lot of other young bucks on here are the same. My biggest day to record was when I was at a family vacation home, in a private community where millionaires and billionaires hide away. Anyways, that's what works for me, anyplace with a lot of wealth.

the new place should be foreigner friendly... a multi cultural countries, such as France or UK... They are much more better than eastern European countries

I believe Canada is a nice place for living as crime rate is very low there... but its so cold...

may be Beverly hills in USA is a good choice as well... a luxury city only for rich people... elite people around the world are living there

5 starred the thread keep them coming guys..I am planning onto make a list

Inexpensive countries with excellent climate, and vibrant culture and party scene:
E. Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia. W. Europe: South Italy, Spain (not that cheap at all). S. America: Argentina, Uruguay.

I'd go for the Balkans, esp. Croatia, you have the very best of both worlds. You have the law, but it's not that strict, the weather is fucking fantastic!, gorgeous nature if you're into that, horny girls, NO TAXES basically, and the majority of things are cheap. What more you could wish for? =)

$1000+ a month and you're good to go.

btw. If I had rather passive income, I'd live for some time in these and a lot more places.

Brunei Darussalam. A small country in South East Asia.

No income tax here [Check]
Cheap cost of living [Check]
EXTREMELY EXTREMELY LOW Crime rate [Check]
Fast internet speed [Maybe check]

Chiang Mai - Thailand
Medellin - Colombia
Sosua - Dominican Republic

Your girlfriends house...rent free.

I been trying to narrow down where i will go to do IM, I love this thread it gives many ideas. A place that has good weather, good people, cheap living, and a carefree government when it comes to making money is what i am looking for. Panama seems like a great candidate. I also dont want a place with horrible jails, like Mexico or something where they are quick say your guilty and throw you in jail and in the jail they are quick to give you happy faces on your throat smh

Republic of Georgia, Batumi city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlBzGbZ3b9M

Belize
Philippines
Costa Rica
Thailand
Cambodia
Bali