Mike Smith, Buenos Aries, 15th April 2026

In preparation for becoming a Digital Nomad, I went through old bank statements from previous trips to understand how I spent money abroad.  If you are trying to operate globally across different currencies and cost structures, understanding your behaviour and mastering finances is essential.

Two trips stood out. Mexico and Switzerland. One is meant to be cheap. The other is one of the most expensive countries in the world. Yet the daily burn rate was oddly identical.

The reason was simple. Behaviour.

In Mexico, it was constant eating out, lots of drinks and “it’s cheap, why not” decisions. In Switzerland, it was hiking and using supermarkets and cooking most meals. Same spend per day, completely different approach.

Tasty meal but the best way to eat your Currency Arbitrage. 

That was the moment it suddenly clicked. One of the biggest cost drivers when travelling is eating out. If you cannot control that, the entire Digital Nomad model breaks. What starts as a plan to benefit from currency arbitrage quickly turns into a slow financial leak. Eating out every day simply does not work long term, especially in expensive countries. The numbers escalate quickly, and so does your waistline!

This is where most digital nomads get it wrong. They assume a cheap country will save them. It doesn’t. Meals are cheaper, so they eat out more often. Drinks are half price, so they drink twice as much. Behaviour expands into eating the Currency Arbitrage.

A cheap environment with poor discipline and eating out too much soon becomes expensive.

Cooking Skills Unlock The Digital Nomad Life

Once I understood that, I realised that being able to cook globally would give me control. Not just over costs, but over how I lived day to day. It removes dependence on restaurant pricing, which can fluctuate wildly.

Korean Class, Food Sorcery 2024

At the start of 2024, I took it seriously. I signed up to Food Sorcery in Manchester and ended up doing around fifteen excellent classes across different global cuisines. Vietnamese, Thai, Mexican to name but a few. Working with proper chefs and ex-restaurateurs was a game changer. What started as a practical decision quickly became something I loved. There is a real satisfaction in understanding ingredients, building flavours, and seeing a dish come together and learning from passionate chefs.

Vietnamese Class, Food Sorcery 2024

Alongside that, I practised relentlessly. I lived next to Chinatown in Manchester and did most of my shopping there. It forced me to work with international ingredients. Walking into shops where I did not recognise half the products, figuring things out, experimenting, and improving. That is where the real learning happens.

By the time I stepped onto the Eurostar in Sept 2024 to start my nomad life, I had spent hours obsessively building cooking skills and hardly any time planning travel. In fact, I had only booked my first Air B&B.

But I knew the maths: If I could cook, I could travel anywhere.

How it went…

Western Europe was the first real test. Airbnbs were expensive and eating out even more so. In many places, a decent meal is €40+. Without cooking, I’d have been well over £7,000+ a month. I managed to keep Western Europe manageable and in Eastern Europe, I benefited from currency arbitrage savings instead of handing it to restaurants.

Japan made it even clearer. I spent five weeks there and quickly realised cooking was essential. Tokyo at £120 a night isn’t cheap, but the supermarkets are excellent quality.  Seven Elevens in Japan are a real Japanese cultural experience too! By cooking most meals, my monthly cost was only £4,200.

This is the key point, it gives you optionality. Cooking stabilises your costs across countries and lets you choose when to spend, rather than being at the whim to currencies and restaurant prices. After all, it is great to enjoy a Michelin-level meal occasionally, but it should be a choice, not a financial drain.

Living like a local

Cooking naturally pulls you deeper into a place. It is not just about cost, it is about experience. Living in an Airbnb and cooking like a local feels far more organic than sitting in a 5-star resort, glugging cocktails that you can get in your local Yates Bar.

Ramen Class Tokyo, Japan, April 25

One of my favourite experiences was a ramen class in Tokyo. It was fun, social, but also incredibly practical. The recipe was genius — simple, repeatable, and built around ingredients available everywhere in Japan. I made that same Ramen multiple times and even replicated it in South America many times. São Paulo and its Japanese community in Liberdade, was a great place to stock up on Kelp for its base.

The results: Making Ramen in my Air B&B Japan, April 25 

In Vietnam, I visited a coffee farm and learned how to make traditional Vietnamese coffee. I now travel with a small Phin filter that produces better coffee than my £600 machine at home It is simple, effective, and works anywhere. Vietnamese coffee is on another level. When I’m home, my machine is getting sold!

Learning Viet Coffee March 2025, Ho Chi Minh City

This is where cooking shifts from being a financial tool to something more. It becomes part of the journey. You start to engage with places differently. Instead of just walking through a market and taking a photo, you actually use it, buying ingredients and supporting locals.

Markets, ingredients, local techniques. You are no longer just passing through — you are actually living like a local.

How the system actually works

The system itself is simple, but it is what makes everything work.

You bring what is hard to find and buy everything else locally. Spice pastes are the perfect example. They weigh very little but form the base of full meals. A few tubes of something like Patak’s curry paste can unlock dozens of meals anywhere in the world. Once you have that base, all you need locally is vegetables and protein.

I also carry a few lightweight essentials. Soy sauce, salt, basic flavourings decanted into small bottles. It sounds minor, but it avoids constantly rebuying basics and gives you consistency from day one. Just make sure it is well wrapped up in a trusty Ikea bag.

The second part is equipment. Airbnb Apartment are inconsistent. Some hosts are good, many think good kit is an afterthought. I soon learn dicing onions with a blunt pairing knife is no fun! The two things that matter to a pro chef are a good pan and a sharp knife. Carrying them might seem excessive, but it gives you standardisation. You remove 80% of the friction by carrying them.

A genius Air B&B hack I learnt in tiny Japan Apartments. Noodles in the kettle.

The third part is organisation. Recipes, meal systems, combinations I know work are stored on a library on Dropbox. When you arrive in an unfamiliar store, you can pull it up your Dropbox, drop into Google translate and get ingredients quickly. I was even able to create a Chilli Con Carne blend in Brazil from scratch by translating into Portuguese.

Not just an Insta photo. Doing my weekly shop in Cambodia.

The final part is adaptation. This is where the real skill develops. You will not always find the exact ingredients you want. At first that feels frustrating as in the UK we are spoilt by excellent supermarkets A humble Sainsburys local is actually genius, one of the best things about the UK! Over time frustration becomes a great education. You learn substitutions, you experiment, and you improve. One of the best examples was in Konya in Turkey, where I used Greek yoghurt as a substitute for coconut milk. Far from the best Green Curry I ever did, but it was a decent enough.

That is the point where you realise you are no longer following recipes, you are cooking with passion and feeling, like a real chef.

Cooking in Cambodia, March 24

Conclusion

Cooking is not about saving a few pounds. It is what makes the entire system work. It gives you control over your costs, stability across countries and independence from restaurant pricing. Without it, you are constantly reacting to prices, currencies and whatever “Gringo Prices” local restaurateurs fancy debiting from your account that day.

It is the difference between a drifter with no plan and being able to operate globally. More than that, it changes the experience completely. You stop being a visitor and start living properly. Markets instead of menus. Ingredients instead of prices. Decisions instead of arbitrage leakage.

For me, cooking became as much a part of the journey as the travel itself. What started as a financial system, turned into a passion to experience the world through cooking.

For me cooking opens up the world.

Footnote: Thanks to all the amazing chefs I learnt from all over the world from Peru to Japan and most of all to Food Sorcery for getting my skills to the level they needed to be. Been a life changing experience.  

Mike Smith, Banos Ecuador, Oct 25

For years, the UK tax system has used Fiscal Drag like a silent mugging in broad daylight. Rachel Reeves has grabbed the weapon with both hands… Frozen personal allowance until 2031. Higher-rate threshold frozen until 2031. Extra 2% dividend tax. Using inflation quietly haul millions into higher bands…

The rising tide of living expenses and stealth tax rises is engineered so ordinary business owners feel squeezed, cornered and powerless. We are forced to draw more dividends/salaries and pushed into the higher tax bands even to afford a very basic UK lifestyle.

But here’s what the government hasn’t realised: there’s a perfectly legal, ridiculously simple way for business owners to reverse Fiscal Drag and avoid having to draw money out of their companies. No changing tax residency, no complexity, no foreign accountants. A method so simple it borders on comical. A method the government cannot stop unless they close down Heathrow and ban aeroplanes.

All this method requires is a one-way plane ticket and the courage to become a Digital Nomad.

Being a digital nomad is arguably the easiest “tax scheme” available, because it isn’t a scheme at all. It’s legal, compliant and far more flexible than the traditional non residency path. You simply leave the UK cost structure behind and beat Rachel Reeves’ Fiscal Drag at her own game…

How It Works — it’s unbelievably simple!

The British government still behaves as if it’s 1997, the internet is new, remote work is a novelty, and every business owner must be welded to British bills and British inflation. But since Covid, the game changed. Remote work become well known. The laptop does not care where it gets plugged in and technology allows for seamless remote working.

Here’s the trick: You stay a UK tax resident but you stop living in the UK cost-of-living structure and live somewhere reasonable instead.

Colombian Pesos. Vietnamese Dong. Thai Baht. Currencies where your personal spending collapses. Once personal spending falls, your required drawings from your Ltd Company collapse. When your drawings collapse, your dividends fall back into the basic band. When they sit comfortably in the basic band… Fiscal Drag becomes irrelevant. You create personal deflation instead of suffering UK inflation and then Fiscal Drag.

In Da Nang, Vietnam, you could push it to an extreme and live below the £12,570 personal allowance, needing barely anything from your company. You remain a UK tax resident, paying 0% income tax not through avoidance, but simply because you don’t need to draw the money. You aren’t avoiding tax. You’re avoiding the need to draw taxable income.

Lower cost of living = lower drawings = lower exposure to Reeves’ tax thresholds = less tax paid. This is Reeves’ Fiscal Drag in reverse…

Digital Nomads Beat the Dividend Tax Rise Too

Rachel Reeves added 2% to dividend taxes in the 2025 Budget. Most Directors were angry at such an overt attack on ambition. But if you barely need to draw money, the rise hardly affects you. When it was announced, I was living in Banos in Ecuador, at around 60% of UK living costs. A +2% tax increase on –40% less drawings means HMRC get significantly less tax overall than the previous year.

If you escape Britain’s inflated cost base, HMRC loses its grip. You simply refuse to participate in the cost-of-living assumptions that Rachel Reeves’ tax system is built upon. It’s like an economic game of limbo where you suddenly go from being 6’6” to 5’1”.

Example: Da Nang vs Manchester

Based on standard UK accountancy advise to take a 12.5k salary then rest as dividends*

Annual Tax Saving by Living in Da Nang: +£4,341 per year. Plus of course another £36,000 not spent on UK living costs. In total + £40,000 a year extra saved up to invest in your Ltd Company. How many more years of this would you need to retire? You can get rich for just choosing to live on the beach in Da Nang instead of rainy Manchester where the rain washes away the profits in living expenses and tax… Wealth is what you keep, not what you spend after all.

Simplicity Is Genius

In 2025, a record 16,500 millionaires will leave the UK chasing 0% tax, hiring boutique accountants, counting day-traps like prisoners and pretending Dubai is paradise on Instagram, while secretly wishing they could drink a proper pint!

Meanwhile, a Digital Nomad with a UK Ltd company quietly wins by doing almost nothing other than stepping on a plane. No foreign accountant. No complex reporting. No need for even a bank account. You keep UK tax residency and simply pay UK tax on a much smaller Ltd Co drawings. If you are not feeling a place, you move on. You become a digital ghost moving between jurisdictions.

The only general rule? Stay under 183 days in any other country* If you enjoy travel, that rule feels more like a holiday than compliance. Even if the UK later invents an exit tax, it’s irrelevant. You never technically left the UK tax system.

The UK loses again…

City AM recently reported that an estimated 165,000 Digital Nomads left the UK cost the country £3bn in lost sales / £320m in VAT alone, the true number is likely to be higher. I will not appear on any government dataset. Manchester loses VAT and Da Nang gains VAT. In fact whole areas of cities like My An (Da Nang) have a skyscraper boom due to the influx of Digital Nomads. The UK government has not realised, the world has changed. The bigger the squeeze in the UK, the more of us will simply vote with our feet and leave and pay VAT elsewhere…

The (Ironic) Conclusion

Rachel Reeves is trying to raise more tax because the government keeps spending more money. Yet the entire digital nomad strategy works by doing the opposite: needing less, spending less, and therefore paying less tax. The irony is brutal. If Rachel Reeves behaved like a Digital Nomad: Cut costs, stopped over spending and lived within her means there would be no need for these tax rises in the first place.

Creating an unfavourable taxation environment will mean many more business owners work remotely and take advantage of the simple tax break that being a Digital Nomad is. Over time more people will realise that they just need to book a flight to avoid the UK’s high inflation and the UK’s high tax they will leave.

Since Covid the rules have changed and all that is needed to reduce your tax bill is an aeroplane ticket. Will the last business owner to leave the UK, turn off the lights!

* This rule generally applies but nuances do exist, as with all taxation matters you should seek your own accountancy advise related to your personal circumstances and personal facts.

Westminster has spent years obsessing over Section 21 and Renters Rights Bill Landlords have pushed back with the obvious warnings about red tape and clogged courts. But while everyone argues about legislation, something far more powerful has slipped quietly into every tenant’s pocket. The real shift isn’t legal. It is technological. It is informational. And it is happening right now.

The situation: AI now gives tenants the legal firepower of a housing expert instantly, for free. A tenant can type “what if my landlord missed the fire alarm test?” and receive a page of polished legal analysis under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, complete with instructions on how to escalate to the Fire Brigade and the Council.

That is a bigger power shift than anything Parliament has ever passed.

Rogue tenants just got a free lawyer

Landlords have always feared one archetype: the “professional tenant” who knows how to fake references, stall evictions, exploit procedures and live rent-free for months while pretending to be the victim. Their weakness was always cost and competence. They couldn’t justify hiring lawyers. They eventually made errors.

Now? Any tenant can get advise that reads like it came out of a Chambers on Chancery Lane. Residential law is relatively simple, and AI can strip away the informational advantage landlords once held against rogue tenants. Add in the increased difficulty in under the Renters Rights Bill to evict, it shows the importance of FBI-style referencing has never been greater.

Anything can becomes a legal complaint

A contractor of mine recently arrived a day early. The contractor made a minor diary mistake. The tenant responded with a letter stating her rights of Quiet Enjoyment under Protection from Eviction Act 1977 drafted with the precision of a Housing Barrister who would normally charge £500 for the privilege. It was created by AI in seconds.

She turned out to be perfectly reasonable when I rang her to explain the mistake, but the message was loud and clear: tenants now can now generate lawyer quality letters with a click. AI makes complaints effortless.  These tools can recommend next steps, including how to escalate to the Housing Ombudsman.

AI systems have confirmation bias is built in and it can easily make tenants feel a sense of righteousness. If AI is prompted with one side of the story misses the nuances of a situation. AI is like a supportive friend who will always take your side. The systems also hallucinate: inventing laws, fabricating case names, Judges in the US have already sanctioned lawyers for submitting AI-generated citations that were entirely fictional. If trained professionals fall for it, what chance does an angry tenant in a house share have?

Landlords should expect more minor matters to become Ombudsman complaints and associated workload will increase. For professionals who do a genuinely good job and follow the law it should not create major issues, just more workload. On the plus side AI tools allow property professional quick responses to concerns, gone are the days when I had to draft what I wanted to say and then re-draft for tone when dealing with a tricky tenant.

Fake AI documents are about to explode

Fake employer letters, payslips and references have plagued the industry for years. I’ve seen some painfully bad attempts, like the “CEO” supposedly earning £90,000 a year who applied for a HMO room, only for Companies House to reveal he’d registered his “company” the day before.

AI has turned dodgy photoshopped documents into a professional operation though. The FT has already exposed software that produces fake receipts so realistic they come with artificial coffee stains and creases to mimic wear. Tenants can now generate flawless payslips and bank statements in seconds. No typos. No formatting errors. No obvious tells.

This is going to force landlords into FBI-level verification. Every reference must be checked. Emails must come from genuine corporate domains. Bank statements and employment letters will have to be validated independently. Ironically, landlords will end up using AI to detect AI. The AI referencing arms race has already begun.

The twist: AI gives professionals a Teflon coat

Despite the risks, AI can give professionals a Teflon coat. A Teflon coat of being ultra professional. AI has helped me dig into updates to Fire Safety law, interrogate guidance and identify details. It has cost me a lot money on some improvements, but I consider it money well spent when tenants can challenge you with weaponised legal language at any moment. The need to follow every nuance of the law has never been more important and AI can give clarity on the ever-increasing regulatory environment.

AI even helped me draft a guarantor clause in a commercial lease, a task I would normally pay a solicitor £1,500 to write. By testing, challenging and iterating, I now understand the nuances of a legally sound commercial guarantor clause better than before. Not only did I save money, I learnt a lot, even as an 11 year veteran. AI as a learning tool is vastly underrated.

The gap between amateur landlords and professionals is about to become a canyon. That may be the best outcome for the sector. There will be nowhere to hide from AI from “Dodgy Daves” running unlicensed, unsafe, poorly maintained properties. Those who follow the law may finally be paid properly for delivering genuinely compliant, high-standard housing.

The Renters Rights Bill shifts the rules.
AI changes the entire game.

I saw a friend check in to St Petersburg on Facebook. No politics, no explanation. Just a quiet check into a country the West said was off-limits. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked how the hell did you get a visa? He was an ex-airline pilot. I received a detailed briefing, not advice. Fill this. Submit that. Get a sponsor. Say nothing about Ukraine. It was a detailed manual for crossing the new Iron Curtain.

Family said I was mad. I applied anyway. The Visa came through with ease thanks to Roberts military style briefing. Fly in from Istanbul, the closest airport these days to get to Russia. Show your sponsor papers. Say nothing about Ukraine. It was all going a bit too well…

Straight off the plane at Sheremetyevo Airport I was pulled aside. No smiles. No small talk. A holding pen. Hard stares. Men who looked like they belonged on ISIS watchlists, not arrival lounges. Eventually it was my turn and I was pulled me into a side room. A border guard with dead-flat eyes. “Purpose of visit?” Tourism. A raised eyebrow. They asked to check my phone. Searched my WhatsApp for “Ukraine.” I felt the first real bleed of doubt, what had I said on Whatapp? Qustions were then asked about my political views. Every Western media warning replayed in my head. Wrong word and I would disappear into a freezing Siberian Gulag. Thirty minutes felt like three hours. Then it broke. The guard paused, stared at the screen, and looked up. “You visit Syria, Mr Smith?” He held up a joke Islamic meme from my phone a friend had sent me. Silence. Then his face cracked. The room exhaled. We both burst into laughter and he promptly stamped my passport. Enjoy your visit Mr Smith! I was in…

A 56p Metro Ticket the best thing about Moscow.

Dystopian Adverts to join the Special Military Operation Moscow Metro.

The relief felt physical. Like someone cut wires tied around my chest. I was then rewarded with a magical ride on the Moscow Metro. A 56p ticket through Soviet Era Stations that were more like cathedrals than a metro stations. Due to GPS jammer in central Moscow it took me a while to find my apartment, the one strange things was adverts to join the “Special Military Operation” on the Metro. Door closed behind me. Quiet. That was when the adrenaline dropped and I realised: I was inside Russia. I had crossed a line most only debate online.

Life in Moscow felt almost too normal. Apart from the dystopian Z Army adverts on the Metro, it was calm, safe, polite. Starbucks had simply erased the “Bucks.” Stars Coffee. Same average Americano. Luxury stores boarded up like ghosts of a small town UK High Street. At the bank, a babushka devoured my US Dollars I brought to exchange. Click, clack, roubles counted with speed and pride. “Everything still here,” she said. “Just more expensive.” Inflation had bitten. Just like my insane gas bill back home. Yet shelves were full, streets clean, and those Western YouTube prophecies of collapse felt exaggerated for clicks.

I stood on the same bridge the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg films from, the Kremlin’s dome’s shimmering gold in the winter sun.  A surreal experience I was finally here. I walked through its gates later that day, yes, an Englishman can visit the Kremlin for a few roubles. What we are told is a Bond villains lair is in fact a tourist attraction! Putin is of course wise to stay well away from his people. The gift shop had, Putin Mugs, Putin Fridge magnets and the Putin Calendar. I resisted buying someone I didn’t like ultimate passive aggressive Christmas present!

Putin Merch available from the Kremlin Gift Shop. Didn’t see too many buyers!

The Ballet at the Historic Bolshoi that night was unreal. Velvet, chandeliers, a Ballet that was magical the greatest show I will ever see. The Cosmonaut Museum the next day, a scorched re-entry capsule, frozen in time. A replica of Sputnik. One of the most increasable museums I have ever visited. Every tour was private. There were no tourists. None. I loved that energy of experiencing Russia as it should be and how it was in the 1980s. Even Moscow surprisingly had a hidden LGBT scene and a cavernous club, Central Station. The Western headlines don’t tell this part.

The best show I ever saw in 42 years. The Ballet at the Historic Bolsoi.

Next stop: St Petersburg. High-speed Sapsan train, smooth as glass. The Soviet era station was packed with soldiers heading South. At St Peterburgh I saw girl kiss her boyfriend in full military gear goodbye. No words. Just silence. It was like I was an observer on a 1944 movie scene.

On the Metro in St Petersburg, the war posters explained why so many men were heading south. “Be a Hero 2.2 Million RUB Reward.” In sterling, around £19k. At first glance it sounds low, but in Russia that buys a quarter of an average home in St Petersburg, roughly 10 million roubles or £77,000 to get an apartment there. It’s the equivalent of a 25% property deposit in UK terms, about £74,000 back home. The maths sound tantalising until you remember what there are really buying. The state isn’t offering cash: it’s offering a down payment on death. The oldest rule of economics: everyone has a price. On the St Petersburg Metro, it was written in bold red letters. People will do anything for money, including being fresh meat for Putin. Here, that old saying had a darker punchline.

My apartment in St Peterburg was a communist relic just off Nevsky Prospekt. Tiny kitchen. Thick walls. A relic without Wi-Fi. The city outside, part Vienna, part Venice. Palaces, canals, fog thick enough to chew. The Hermitage stunned me. Gilded halls, impossible ceilings. I paused before Catherine the Great’s portrait. For a second, I could swear she winked at a cheeky Englishman who has some snuck into her finest collection.

St Peterburg: The Venice of the North. 

The people were kind and some of the friendliest I have met on my travels. A free coffee when the Wi-Fi failed. The gym owner who looked like a bouncer, was keen to talk Manchester United. A stranger in a bar insisted on paying my tab and said “Thank you for visiting my country,” in perfect English. The irony: it happened in a faux English Pub called The Office. Union Jack on the wall and Premier League on the TV, I could have been in Weatherspoons!

The English pub in St Peterburg. Like England: friendly locals! 

I had a great time in Russia and was lucky to experience Russia in its true form.

I wanted to write this to say Russia is not Putin or the Z Army. Russia is the Ballet at the Bolshoi, Russia is Metro Station spotting in Moscow, Russia is the architecture of St Peterburg. Russia is the friendly & hardy folk who survived WW2, communism and will survive Putinism.

Simply: The people are not the politics!

Nigel Farrage: Landlord’s best friend or secret ally of tenants?

Mike Smith 10th Oct 2025, Medellin, Colombia

After years of suffocating regulation and tax raids, Britain’s landlords have been treated like public enemy number one. Successive Conservative and Labour governments have bled the sector dry for tax, while blaming it for a housing crisis they created. Then along comes Nigel Farage, the pint-swilling disruptor promising to blow the whole thing wide open.

Mike Smith, 1st October 2025, Bogota, Colombia

I went into my second year as a Digital Nomad with a one-way flight to Bogotá. I had nothing booked apart from a 9 day apartment. No plan, no expectations. Yet I found a city that for me is one of the most underrated destinations on the planet. My actions say it all. I booked 9 days and extended to 16…

For an English Digtial Nomad. Bogotá is far more practical than you would imagine. The weather sits in a permanent spring with no unbearable heat and no freezing winters. You can get a decent apartment on Airbnb for just £25a night (£750pcm) with all bills included. No contracts or hassle. Supermarkets are well stocked with surprisingly good quality products. When you leave the UK, you realise the everyday genius of British retailers is rare globally.

The heart of the city is La Candelaria, colonial architecture and murals that spill down the streets. You have great galleries like the Botero Museum where Colombia’s most famous artist fills entire rooms with his brilliantly distorted, oversized fat people. Oddly brilliant art!

One of the best things about Bogotá is the instant access to nature. You are never more than fifteen minutes from a serious hike. Cerro de Monserrate is a perfect example. A steep climb, crisp mountain air and a sweeping view of the entire city from the monastery at the top. It is the kind of walk that resets you and it is right on your doorstep in Bogota. If you want to catch a football match Bogota has the atmosphere matched the passion of an English lower league game. Flags everywhere. People singing from the first minute to the last. Just raw football energy that felt like home! Many countries have technically good football, very few offer crazy passionate fans!

The food scene is another of the city’s quiet strengths. As a vegetarian, I found plenty of excellent options. My favourite was Marie Candella (La Candelaria), a vegan spot that serves veggie versions of Colombian classics. I munched my way through the entire menu and became addicted to their Menu De Dia for just £6! When you want something international you can find a proper bowl of ramen that would stand up against London or Tokyo. Medellín might dominate the Digital Nomad circuit, but the food in Medellin was tourist fare. On my “Bowl of Ramen Test”, Bogota scores 10/10, the one I make at home 6/10, and Medellín 2/10.

Bogotá also has one of the strongest LGBT scenes in Latin America. Theatron is the giant of the nightlife here. It is often said to be the biggest LGBT nightclub in the world and has a crazy latino atmosphere! I only lasted until 1am because of my 6am starts, but it is a must visit, even for a 42 year old who is slighted jaded with clubbing! You do have to be careful with apps in Colombia because safety issues of Scopolamine poisonings but meeting people in bars in Bogota is generally safer.

Then there is El Dorado International Airport which is easily one of the best connected airports in Latin America. Almost every internal flight in Colombia goes through it. I passed through 4 times in 7 weeks and found it surprisingly efficient. Once you try the chaotic Colombian coach system you will appreciate a Hub Airport even more. Weekends in other Colombian Cities or across Latin America are very affordable and a short flight away. More importantly also puts you just 11hr from London on a direct flight which makes Bogotá a realistic long term base for Digital Nomads who need to pop back to Europe.

I arrived in Bogotá with no plan and left wondering why more Digital Nomads have not discovered it. It is practical, cultured, affordable and full of life. Medellín might have the hype but Bogotá quietly gets on with being brilliant. It suited me perfectly.

I arrived with no expectations. I left with the expectation that I will be back. I loved Bogota.

Speech: Macroeconomic & HMO Market Update @ EMPO Property Luncheon

LINK : https://empo.co.uk

DATE: 2nd September 2022

ABOUT: Mike spoke to over 100 property investors about the Macroeconomic conditions and risk in HMO market at the EMPO Property Luncheon in Nottingham. A respected property group that has been around since 1942. Mike warned investors about the risk of rising costs and the risk of turbulent interest rate rises. Mikes opinion was HMO values had peaked. Delivered on 2nd Sept 22, his predictions were proven to be highly accurate when on 23rd Sept (a few weeks later) Liz Truss delivered he now infamous “Mini Budget”. HMO Capital Values and interest rates have never been the same again! See download link below.

DOWNLOAD LINK: Presentation – 2nd Sept

DATE: Talk given on Monday 28th June 7pm 2021 (See attached Powerpoint slides)

ABOUT: Talk give to the respected Unity Property Professionals Group for a presentation on 10 systems to save time and money on your HMOs. Included in the presentation are a number of money and time saving tips that will make your HMO business a lot more efficient and profitable. Download the powerpoint on the link below.

DOWNLOAD THE TALK HERE: UnityPresentation

There is a huge hidden risk in the property market right now that so few people are considering. It is one that could upend all assumptions about investing and make Covid 19 look like nothing. To fight the Pandemic the government unleashed a record £400bn stimulus, a peacetime record. Most of this was financed by the Bank of England printing money to buy government bonds and thus increasing the money in circulation. Unlike the last financial crisis, where printed money was created to shore up bank balance sheets, the majority of this money has been given direct to citizens and businesses. Schemes such as the CIBILS and Bounce Back Loans meant just about every UK business was given 50k minimum. Households and business savings rates are now setting new records and there is a wall of money about to be deployed in a market where there is less supply due to the pandemic. More money in circulation means classic demand pull inflation i.e. too many pounds chasing too few goods. This (along with the 0.1% base rate) is arguably why the UK property market boomed unexpectedly in 2020-21 with a 10% inflation of prices being reported. So are property prices the canary in the mine for general (CPI) inflation?

The large price inflation seen in the property market is now starting to be seen everywhere. Andy Haldane the Bank of England’s economist stated “It is hard to find very many goods or assets which aren’t going up in price”. He is not wrong world commodity prices have been rocketing with copper setting a new all-time record as are world food prices. Warren Buffet at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting “We are seeing very substantial inflation, we are raising prices. People are raising prices to us and it’s being accepted.” Michael Burry, the mathematician who was featured in “The Big Short” Movie has gone as far to compare the current situation to 1920’s Weimer Republic Hyperinflation. “Germany [the US] started by not paying adequately for its war [on COVID and the GFC fallout] out of the sacrifices of its people – taxes – but covered its deficits with war loans [Treasuries] and issues of new paper Reichsmarks [dollars]. ‘ #doomedtorepeat,” Burry tweeted. The Bank of England and other central banks dispute this though, and have maintained that inflation is all under control. Andrew Bailey the governor said: “In the Monetary Policy Report our forecast suggested that inflation… will rise to target and be above 2.5% this year. We then think it’ll come back down.” The trouble with inflation is that it can soon spiral out of control and despite the best intentions of Central Banks increased prices will not just fall back and can soon lead to an inflationary spiral that gets out of control i.e people expect prices to be higher next year so they raise their prices to mitigate it.

So what does this mean for property people? Moderate inflation is actually good for investors as it deflates the value of mortgage debts and with the flexibility of an assured shorthold tenancy, rents can be revised upwards with reasonable ease. Even in a moderate rise, build costs undoubtedly could increase and don’t be surprised if a contractor calls up asking for more that the contract price to complete a job. Building materials are currently rocketing in price and supplies low at many merchants even at the time of writing. When the general public start to wake up to inflation, we should expect to see further property price rises, as property will be increasingly seen as a safe haven asset, there is “nothing as safe as houses” after all… The “safe as houses” mantra does have some truth in it but buying property using finance or at an silly price is a trap that will suck in many unsophisticated investors should inflation run far too hot…

In the runaway inflation scenario that Michael Burry is suggesting, the Bank of England only has one option. To raise interest rates sharply, this would upend all assumptions held about property and it is somewhat disturbing that so few investors are considering that money might suddenly become more expensive. Sharply rising rates would mean that property values fall, in a world that relies on finance, clearly increased mortgage cost affects affordability / value of the future cash-flows. Many developers using bridging finance or development finance are especially at risk, as GDV’s will be unpredictable and interest costs substantially higher overnight. It could be that lending stops, slows or developers have to refinance on very unfavourable terms. Sharply falling values could also mean lenders request revaluations of portfolios to test if the properties meet LTV covenants. This would cause major issues for the no money down brigade who promote maximum leverage with none of your own money. Equity is sanity in a situation where rates have to rise sharply. Rising rates will also have a catastrophic impact on the wider economy, for the last decade companies and households have gorged themselves on cheap credit and arguably are dependent on low rates. Rising interest rates sharply would almost certainly lead to a recession far larger than the short one we saw in 2020, leading to a lot of unemployed tenants, repossessions and have serious ramifications for investors.

So what can you do to mitigate risk? Cash is always seen as the safest asset but it is now clearly very risky to hold as its value could be deflated quickly. Using excessive leverage should be avoided too due to the risk of rates rising and getting caught out by LTV covenants within mortgage contracts. So how would you get cash off the books but without using finance? The only logical conclusion of this is to buy cheaper properties in cash without any mortgages, meaning that there is equity on the balance sheet that is not held in cash. Should values fall, having un-financed units is also a hedge against LTV covenants in existing mortgage contracts. The bank can be offered a charge on the un-financed property to bring the LTV back to the required level or finance quickly raised unit to satisfy the covenant. Another option for smaller sums is investing in listed property companies (REITS) which typically do quite well in inflationary episodes. As with everything do your due diligence and watch out for REITs who are using excessive amounts of debt, or have credit facilities up for refinancing soon. Another risk management strategy would be to ensure that all mortgages are on the longest possible fixed rate term possible.

The next few months are a very risky time in the property market, the range of scenarios is incredible and so few people have considered that interest rates may change sharply, a huge hidden risk that everyone could be sleep walking into. The million-dollar question is, are the Central Banks correct in their assumptions it will be transitory inflation? Or will they be forced to raise rates sharply?