Читать книгу Millionaire Expat - Andrew Hallam - Страница 10

If I were hit by a bus, I can imagine my wife eventually venturing back onto the dating scene. But I'm pretty sure she wouldn't date a writer. I can hear the checklist in her head right now: adventurous, check; handsome, check; caring, check; intelligent, check; writer…oh shit. Writing is an anti‐social gig. The best part (for me, anyway) is gleaning stories from people that I can share and learn from. But then, as all writers do, I spend thousands of hours trying to make sense of it all. Only 0.01 percent of authors earn enough compensation to exceed a minimum hourly wage. I made that up. But it's probably true.

So, I have to thank my wife, Pele Hallam‐Young, for helping me with this book. She encouraged me. She helped with edits and ideas. And she worked tirelessly as my time manager, taking on tasks that I was “too busy” to do because I was writing a book. OK, so writing this thing did have some perks.

I would also like to thank the publishing team at John Wiley & Sons, with an especially deep bow to Kevin Harreld. I don't really know what to call Kevin. Is he my publisher? My editor? My marketing specialist? After writing that last sentence, I looked up his title on LinkedIn (and no, I'm not lying). It reads, Senior Acquisitions Editor. All I know is that he's my man on the ground at John Wiley & Sons who seems to put everything into motion.

Thanks also to John S. Woerth, Senior Communications Advisor at Vanguard. John always helps me with charts and he cheerleads my efforts. He's one of those behind‐the‐scenes brilliant guys whom Vanguard founder, John Bogle often praised. John Woerth also co‐wrote More Straight Talk on Investing, with former Vanguard CEO, John J. Brennan.

Thank you, also, to Vanguard's Mike Nolan, who John introduced me to. Upon request, Mike sent me charts faster than I could make my next cup of tea.

I would also like to thank the American fee‐based financial advisor Tony Noto. He was my go‐to guy for information on US taxes, with respect to IRAs for American expats. The Australian financial advisor, Jarrad Brown, also helped me with tax information for Australian expats. Thank you for your help, Jarrad.

Several Financial Independence (FI) warriors also deserve my heartfelt thanks. Several years ago, I met the impossibly good‐looking Sebastien Aguilar in Dubai. He founded SimplyFI a UAE‐based financial education group. Jen Lincoln began a Facebook group by that name and encouraged reams of people to join and organize events with Sebastien and his FI‐minded friends. This is now the largest FI‐oriented expat organization in the world. I profiled several of the group's members in this book. I couldn't include everyone who volunteered their time and stories, but I wish I could. Reading posts from SimplyFI's Facebook group continues to help me understand what questions people have.

The group includes several warriors for the cause, of which there are far too many to list. But I want to acknowledge Tuan Phan, whose name alone likely draws shivers from the creeps who sell investment linked assurance schemes. The tireless Facebook poster and presenter might know more about these products than anyone in the Middle East. He knows far, far more, in fact, than the people who sell them. I'd bet my portfolio on that.

Elie Irani and Steve Cronin are also indefatigable activators who inspire me to keep moving forward. Elie created a fabulous Getting Started Guide for the SimplyFI community and Steve (who organized my first public talk in Dubai) continues to help people on the Facebook group, and with his blog and workshops at, Dead Simple Saving.

To say I've also been inspired by PlanVision's Mark Zoril is a serious understatement. After introducing Mark to the expat community, he has worked tirelessly as an angel on their behalf. Knowing how many thousands of people Mark has helped also pushes me to try and keep up.

If there's something I want to convey more than anything else, it's this: we need each other. I'm not just talking about writing a book or managing money. We can all help each other in every capacity: socially, physically, emotionally and financially. So thank you, everyone, who contributed to inspire and help me. I'll keep doing my best to pay that forward.