Each offers something unique. Let's break them down:
1. 🇦🇪 UAE: The Zero-Tax Haven
The clear winner with 6,700 millionaires expected to relocate there in 2024.
- Zero income tax (the big one)
- Golden Visa program
- Luxury lifestyle
- Strategic global location
- Sophisticated wealth management
Tax efficiency at its finest.
2. 🇺🇸 USA: Still the Land of Opportunity
Despite higher taxes, America draws 3,800 millionaires, due to:
- HNWI population growth: +62% over 10 years
- Unmatched economic scale
- Industry hubs (tech, finance, entertainment)
- Network effects of wealth concentration
Opportunity trumps tax efficiency here (for now...).
3. 🇸🇬 Singapore: Asia's Wealth Hub
Singapore has masterfully positioned itself as the financial center of Asia, attracting 3,500 millionaires with:
- Rock-solid financial stability
- Low personal income tax
- No capital gains tax
- Gateway to Asian markets
The Switzerland of Asia.
4. 🇨🇦 Canada: The Safety Play
Canada draws 3,200 millionaires seeking:
- Exceptional safety and security
- World-class healthcare and education
- Banking system stability
- HNWI growth: +29% over 10 years
Quality of life seems to compensate for higher taxes.
5. 🇦🇺 Australia: Lifestyle + Security
Australia rounds out the top five with 2,500 millionaires, attracted by:
- Climate and lifestyle benefits
- Safety and low crime
- Strong economy
- HNWI growth: +35% over 10 years
The ultimate lifestyle upgrade with a stable base.
Europe still offers compelling alternatives for those not wanting extreme relocations:
🇵🇹 Portugal: Golden Visa + IFICI (NHR2.0) tax regime, European access
🇪🇸 Spain: Beckham Law tax incentives, Mediterranean lifestyle
🇪🇸 Canary Islands: Spanish jurisdiction with better climate and lower costs
"The UK is in a death spiral."
Not my words. A recent UK relocator I spoke to gave this blunt assessment.
Why?
- Taxes up, services down
- Political chaos, policy U-turns
- Investor-hostile tax changes
- Family quality of life crashing
Why endure this when alternatives exist?
This isn't just about individual choices – it's about structural economic consequences:
When wealth leaves:
- Investment capital vanish
- Job creators leave
- Startup founders flee
- Global competitiveness erode
This has become an existential issue for the UK and Europe more broadly.
All indicators suggest this isn't a temporary blip but a structural shift.
HNWIs have new priorities:
- Tax matters, but isn't everything
- Quality of life now dominates decisions
- Political stability is non-negotiable
- Family prospects drive location choices
The game is changing drastically and the UK is already behind.
What does this mean for you?
Whether you're considering a move or just interested in where opportunity is flowing:
1. Options are expanding globally 2. The calculation goes beyond just tax now 3. Network effects matter – wealth attracts more wealth
The question isn't just where they're going, but why.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this wealth migration trend.
Are you considering relocating? Have you already made the move?
What factors would be most important in your decision?
Let me know in the comments 👇
P.S. For weekly actionable tips on how to unlock financial freedom for you and your family, join my newsletter!
I've analyzed every affordable, strategically located coastal town in Italy for a €200-300K budget.
Taxes, airports, cost of living, remote work infrastructure. I've called a couple of friends to confirm the data.
10 towns. The definitive guide for FIRE and Digital Nomads in Italy.
Thread 🧵
First, why Italy in 2026?
Three reasons:
• 7% flat tax for 10 years on ALL foreign income for retirees in small towns (pensions, dividends, capital gains), 50% tax exemption for remote workers
• Property at half the price of Portugal and Croatia
• Ryanair is opening bases and routes across the South at record pace
Italy is becoming THE game.
The real tax advantage for FIRE, explained simply:
Italy: 7% flat tax for 10 yrs (town under 20K people, southern region)
Greece: 7% for 15 yrs, but pricier property
Spain: no special retiree regime (standard progressive tax rates apply)
Portugal: NHR closed. Now progressive taxation up to 48% for pensioners.
Croatia: no special retiree regime
On €100K/yr of foreign income, Italy = €7,000 total tax. That's it.
- 0% capital gains tax
- 1 hour from Milan
- Swiss lifestyle with palm trees
This combination shouldn't exist. But it does.
Here’s why Switzerland's best-kept secret should be on your radar:
Lugano is a paradox. And most miss it completely.
It sits in Ticino, Switzerland's Italian-speaking canton.
Officially it’s Switzerland – but it doesn't feel like Switzerland. Mediterranean climate, palm trees by the lake, Italian spoken everywhere. Swiss quality underneath, but none of the coldness.
And here's what's interesting…
Swiss cantons are basically independent states with their own constitutions.
Ticino happens to be the one that speaks Italian and feels Mediterranean.
Milan is just an hour away by train. Lake Como is right next door.
You get access to Italian energy when you want it, and Swiss calm when you don't.
Here’s the full map: I had to build it manually because it simply didn’t exist anywhere online.
Green regions: automatically eligible. Any village under 20k residents qualifies (Abruzzo included). Plenty of great options.
Yellow regions (Lazio, Umbria, Marche): only specific villages in the official earthquake-area lists qualify. Very niche, almost unknown, harder to navigate, but absolutely possible.
For context: my grandfather’s village in Lazio hosted a Canadian family 50 years ago. They came every summer, built a villa, loved it, and everyone knew them. It was the only modern house in the whole valley. Nobody understood why they chose that place, but when you’re 15 minutes from a real town, have your own home, and want a quiet, culturally rich, food-driven lifestyle… it makes perfect sense. In retrospect, they were basically early adopters.
With that in mind, here’s a shortlist of the 5 most beautiful, American-friendly, high-amenity 7% towns in the yellow regions, close to real cities, fully on the eligible lists, and offering a charming, scenic, safe, year-round lifestyle.
*Important: this list ISN'T for everyone. In most cases, the lifestyle means owning a house there and spending plenty of time in the nearby larger city. Many of these villages are so small and niche that even most Italians haven’t heard of them.
The green regions include well-known, warmer, tourist destinations like Taormina.
1. Sarnano (Marche)
•Spa town + ski slopes nearby
•45 min to Macerata
•Excellent digital infrastructure
•Extremely charming and well kept
2. Norcia (Umbria)
•45–50 min to Spoleto; 1h15 to Perugia
•Gourmet capital (truffles, salumi, Michelin culture)
•Completely rebuilt after 2016 → spotless, safe
•Outdoors heaven (Sibillini mountains)
Feels like: Jackson Hole meets Tuscany. Personally top-tier for culture + food.