question about money and Argentine peso.

[mini]

Once again, I appreciate a "real" answer, i still have hope in you yet! How will the fact that I will be making my money in the US and still paying taxes in US (I trade on a US online broker site) even when I am in BA effect all this. Because, unless I have a job in BA, I actually wont be earning a cent from, or in, Argentina. Also, I plan on having a student visa, does this all apply still?

Because you pay taxes where you live. If you have a student visa you need to be, um, in school.

 

[syngirl]

Mini's correct -- Argentina will tax you on your worldwide income, doesn't matter if you're American, if you're residing (legally) here you will be taxed.

The USA I believe also requires a certain amount of days per year to maintain residency, I'm not certain, I'm not american.

Student visa will require that you are studying full time. If you're not in school (at a proper university, not just a spanish "school") you won't be able to get one. The visa you'll actually need to start organising pretty far ahead of time, there's a few people on the board with student visa's that can share their woes.

A lot of things currently can be worked around, but immigration is getting stricter than before, so again, a lot of questions will have to wait for 5 or so years before they can be answered.

 

[igor]

Because you pay taxes where you live.

That does not necessarily mean that you don't have to pay taxes where you don't live. His brokerage for sure will report his trading income to the IRS and he will have to pay taxes in the USA.

The USA I believe also requires a certain amount of days per year to maintain residency, I'm not certain, I'm not american.

IRS operates with terms like "US person". And word "resident" can have different meaning for different purposes.

There is a substantial ~90k foreign earned income exclusion if you live overseas. But to claim it to be "earned income", you need to trade systematically and treat it as a business. Money that you get from passive investments will not qualify as earned income.

Besides if it is income and you are doing it on your own, you will have to pay 15.3% self-employment taxes.

 

[steveinbsas]

- Since I am a college grad, I will go in starting as an E-4 and my pre-tax pay over 6 years will be almost exactly $150,000. And that is not counting any promotions or BAH. And BAH is very generous...i know many soldiers that get over $1000 a month while only using a third of it for rent. And you can add $323 a month for grocery allowance. And this is all if I dont pursue OCS after the first 3 years to become an officer...then my pay (and my BAH) would almost double over the last 3 years. And I havent mentioned any signing bonuses or any of the many types of incentive pay. Plus all the awesome investment opportunities through USAA that are only available to military. and i guess i should mention that each year the scale gets raised a couple percent. For instance, 2010 had a 3.4% pay increase over 2009...which had a 3.9% pay increase over 2008

and i plan on saving EVERY cent...pretty much the whole reason Im joining army is to save a ton of money and then leave the country. Truck is paid off, no credit cards. I will literally have nothing to pay for while in the army...only time i plan on spending any significant amount of money would be visiting friends on while on leave once or twice a year.

Thank you for sharing this information. I wonder how many others like you are in the Army for the same reason. It strikes me as somewhat ironic that you claim to have a desire to to work with orphans when you are going to work for (and be extremely well paid by) a branch of the US government that creates them.

 

[clooz]

this might ramble on for a bit, but any input is helpful.

I plan on moving to BA in about 5-6 years and Ill be 32(ish). very soon, I will be embarking on a employment endeavor (that means joining the army haha) and I will be trained in IT type stuff. So I am not too worried about finding a job in BA because everyone needs IT...heck, even 7-11 needs an IT guy.
Anyway, Im not trying to be tacky, as most people consider it tacky to talk about personal finances. But, I will have about $120,000 usd saved up and will make around $30,000 usd a year off that money from dividends, short term trading, etc... I dont want to live like a king. but I plan on getting at least an "ok" furnished apt in palermo. I want to join a gym, take advantage of being able to play organized baseball and american football, probabaly buy about 6-10 nice pieces of clothing per month, and spent alot of time volunteering at orphanages and with street chidren, own a motorcycle...and maybe get a job if I can find one that works for me. I also plan on getting a "spanish for foreigners" certificate from one of the universities and maybe pursuing another masters degree after that. other then that I plan spending my days in as many social situations as possible.
So, is my vision of a future in BA a realistic one? will approx. $30,000 usd a year and a $120,000 usd head start make this possible?

also what is everyones opinion on the Argentine peso? Every online article I have read about the future of the Argentine peso is from 2005 or earlier. Right now 1 usd is 3.9720 Argentine pesos. Do you think this will go up or down or stay the same?
thanks

For me having a clear concrete 5-year vision of where I'd like to be after a long period of work or school is very helpful. I don't need the vision to be assured, just plausibly reachable and attractive. i did something similar to what you outline, and it worked for me. I like your vision. Its reachable. You can revise it every year - make it more concrete, reachable, swap one city for another etc.

As for BA cash flow projection, if you have a spreadsheet with rent, utilities taxes etc, if you PM me I'll look at your data and compare them to my numbers. These of course show great sensitivity to inflation and exchange rates. Maybe you can tell me what to buy to insure against exchange rate risk.

 

[JoeBlow]

anyway this is all beside the point…I shouldn’t even have had mentioned it. Instead I should have asked if its possible to live pretty nicely on 30000 usd a year in BA?

I don't know if anybody answered you yet, but I'll help you with a short answer: you and I can both live very comfortably off 30.000USD a year.

Do you want to be friends?

 

[whammy]

Thank you for sharing this information. I wonder how many others like you are in the Army for the same reason. It strikes me as somewhat ironic that you claim to have a desire to to work with orphans when you are going to work for (and be extremely well paid by) a branch of the US government that creates them.

I see what your saying, but I might get the chance to help and save some people as well. And If it wasnt for the financial position that joining the army is going to put me in, I wouldnt get the chance to help anybody at all in the future, orphan or otherwise, because I would just end up being a cubicle warrior, paying $3000 a month in bills and spending the rest of my pennies at happy hour like everyone else in this city.

anyway...this whole moving to BA thing is overrated. Its not going to be as cheap or as easy as I want it to be so f*ck it! Im moving to thailand! haha peace out board, thanks for your help

 

[steveinbsas]

anyway...this whole moving to BA thing is overrated. Its not going to be as cheap or as easy as I want it to be so f*ck it! Im moving to thailand! haha peace out board, thanks for your help

It looks like your mission here has been accomplished.

Moving and living in Argentina is so much more difficult than you could imagine, especially if you haven't ever been here.

You might find posts by BKK to BA worth reading. He decided to return to Thailand after less than a year in BA.

Thailand VS.Argentina