The expensive education
I left Canada a few years back. Portugal came first. Then more countries, enough that the moving boxes eventually stopped coming along.
Every border had the same welcome gift. The money system reset to zero. New bank, new proof of address, new rules that lived in no guide and every compliance officer’s head. The accounts that took weeks at home took months abroad, and the ones that opened easily were usually the ones I should have skipped.
So I made the mistakes. I applied for things in the wrong order and turned easy approvals into rejections that sat in my file. I waited in sequence on processes that should have run in parallel, and paid for it in months, which is the one currency with no exchange rate. I paid fees on routes that had cheaper versions I only found out about later, usually from a stranger at a dinner.
Somewhere in there I started writing the order down. First for myself. Then for the people at those dinners, because the questions kept coming. For the past year I have lived in Asunción and done this as work, setting up banking, structures and wealth preservation for business owners, entrepreneurs and expats who would rather skip the education I paid for.
This package is the version I wish someone had handed me at the first border. Everything in it runs on my own money or a client’s, in this country, this year.