Snag Your Free Canadian Expat eBook

Want to get paid a tax-free salary while working in a place where you don’t need to own a jacket or winter boots?

Here’s the nuts-and-bolts behind how my wife and I are enjoying deduction-free salaries, and watching our tax-free investment portfolios grow, while living in a world-class city.

If you’re a longtime reader of MDJ, then you might have been following along as two teachers decided to completely uproot their life in the middle of a pandemic.  Since I began writing about our Qatar adventure, I’ve gotten a ton of requests to answer Canadian-specific expat questions. 

This completely FREE eBook is my attempt to answer those questions.

Build Your Expat Pension – Taxes and Investing Away from Home

This is the result of many pandemic-isolation-fueled days spent Googling, reading, and on Zoom calls with super smart accountants and expats who have “been there, done that”.  

I cover topics such as:

• How to move abroad – and get paid more than you do at home – while paying less taxes.
• Why understanding investment details is even more critical for expat Canadians than folks who spend their working life in Canada.
• How I personally have decided to invest my money as an expat.
• Spotting predatory money management schemes aimed at Westerners.
• Staying on the right side of the CRA when it comes to your tax residency status.
• A checklist for moving back home to Canada.
• Quick wins on currency conversion and disaster-proofing your expat life.

While we look forward to coming home to Canada one day, the more I researched some of the options available to Canadians while taking a working “tax holiday”, the more sense we think it makes to maximize our current nest-egg growth in our quest to become financially independent sooner rather than later.  We’ve found many of our new colleagues are thinking along exactly the same lines.

However, while nearly every international teacher, post-secondary instructor, medical professional, or banking position gets paid very well here in Doha (with no paycheque deductions) we’ve found that many folks aren’t necessarily making the most “while the sun shines”.  (That metaphor doesn’t really work the same way in the desert.)

By optimizing the way you turn your low-tax or tax-free income into a diversified investment portfolio (that can grow tax-free in many countries – like one giant RRSP) you can supercharge your retirement goals for any age.  As Canadian teachers, my wife and I earned very solid wages, and were enrolled in excellent pension programs, but there was always the temptation to compare our journey to some of the early retirement dreams realized by folks in fields like engineering, law, or medicine. 

By going the international route, we have found that we’re easily able to save as much money each year as these people in higher-paid careers were able to back home.  Our investments are also free to grow much quicker – AND we get a pretty cool adventure out of the deal.

You don’t have to be working in one of the few countries in the world that hit “delete” on income tax, in order to benefit from earning an expat salary either.  Low-tax countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Georgia, Estonia, Andorra, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malaysia, Panama, Paraguay, and many states in the USA, have much lower tax + deduction burdens than in Canada.

Embracing an international adventure isn’t for everyone, but maybe it’s worth a second look?  While we definitely intend to return to Canada at some point, for now, we’re really looking forward to continuing life outside the homeland of double doubles.  Whether that’s as long-term international teachers or as eventual digital nomads is still to be determined.

Please enjoy the free eBook written for Canadian expats, by a Canadian expat!