The Nomad

I've had the same conversation at least fifty times in airport lounges, co-working spaces, and Telegram groups. Someone made serious money in crypto. Then they discovered how much of it their government expected back. The answer, almost always, is: more than they expected.

Everyone asks me what the first step is. I used to say "book the flight." Now I say something different — because I've watched too many people book the flight before they were ready, and come home six weeks later more lost than when they left.

I used to pay 32% income tax. Then I moved. Not to a beach — well, eventually to a beach — but first to a spreadsheet that changed how I thought about where I live and why.

I didn't realize I had a complicated relationship with money until I was sitting in a café in Lisbon, watching my bank balance grow for the first time in my life — and feeling guilty about it.