Chris Locher, Zurich, SWI asks:
You made comments once, that you sold your house and content and made Egret your home. Were do you legally reside? Do you still maintain a residency in FL, or have you become a "World citizen"? Is income for you a FL and US tax event? Where do you get mail? Who and how often do you have mail forwarded? Thanks for your insight. Some of these questions have come up, when we talk Nordies...
Cheers,
Chris

Scott Flanders from Egret responds:
Chris, I will answer what we can. We use St. Brendan's Isle, Green Cove Springs, FL as our mail and message center www.boatmail.net - 800 544-2152. St. Brendan's sorts our mail into first class, discarding the rest. When we e-mail SBI with our mail to address they send it best way or as we request. SBI has NEVER missed a shipment or given us the slightest concern in the 5 or so years we have used them. There are times we don't call for our mail for months at a time.

In Fla there is no state income tax or personal tax. We pay yearly U.S. taxes on income like everyone else.

We live very simply. We have no debt of any kind. Smith Barney pays our credit card bills and our few yearly bills (boat insurance, medical insurance, boat registration and so forth). In this part of the world U.S. dollars are king. We cash U.S. dollars for Argentine pesos. In Europe we used euros retrieved from ATMs with a debit card. We keep a small amount in our debit card account fed by a second account to help from avoiding disaster. When cruising, each geographic area is different for using or obtaining money. Local cruisers are your best source of information.

Along these lines, to help with questions you need to know when its Your Time, we'll also give you our health insurance information. After retiring, we used Cobra for 18 months. VERY expensive. We now use Global Insurance Net in Miami, Fla. www.globalinsurancenet.com 800 975-7363. Global Insurance requires us to be out of the US for 6 months out of each year. We carry a large deductible, $10,000, to insure us for disastrous issues only. For yearly checkups, dentist and so forth, we pay out of pocket. The premium is nominal compared to our previous Cobra Insurance.

Good luck with your plans. You are asking the right questions. Ciao.