The Price of One Star
I stopped leaving negative reviews years ago. Three minutes in a market outside Lalibela is most of the reason.
I’m Lee Rosen. In 2015 I gave up having a home — hotels, Airbnbs, and 120-plus countries since. I write about what that life actually costs, legally and otherwise.
More about me →Start here
Six posts that show what this site is for.
If They Didn't Ask About Pre-Existing Conditions, You're Not Covered
If the insurance application didn't ask about your health history, the insurer is reserving the right to deny your claim later. Here's exactly how that trap is set — and how to spot a policy that actually covers you.
The $800 Corporation
Eleven years, one Seychelles corporation, zero payroll tax: the legal architecture, the real costs, and what it does to your Social Security check.
They Can Search Your Phone at the Border. Here's What That Actually Means.
Hong Kong passed a law making it a crime to refuse to hand over your device password at the border. The U.S. hasn't gone that far — yet. What border agents can actually do with your phone, and what you can do about it.
Everything I Own: 10KG of Carry-On
Everything Lisa and I own fits in two carry-on bags. Here’s what’s in mine, what it weighs, and why nothing else has made the cut in eleven years.
11 Truths for Older Nomads
Most nomad advice assumes a 28-year-old body and a 28-year-old budget. Here's what changes when you do this later in life.
2026 - 11 Years as a Digital Nomad Lawyer
Eleven years in. We sold the company, got on a plane, and spent a year finding out what's left when you keep subtracting: tigers in the rain, jets over Okinawa, a funeral and a kid waiting at a Bangkok gate thirty-eight hours later.
Travel
Eleven years without a home. What works, what doesn’t, what it costs.
Your Medication Is a Logistical Project. Treat It Like One.
I carry four prescriptions, nitroglycerin, Paxlovid, and a pile of other things. I've been through customs with dogs in Ecuador and machine guns in Iraq. Here's what eleven years of this actually looks like.
Four Passports and Nothing to Hide
Two Americans, four identical blue passports, and a Bangkok immigration officer with her hand out. Why the one thing I have never managed to travel lighter on is proof I'm allowed to travel.
Insurance
What the policy actually says. A retired lawyer reads the whole thing so you don’t have to.
You're Not Self-Insuring. You're Gambling.
"I self-insure" shows up constantly in nomad forums, usually from people who've never had a claim. Self-insuring is a real strategy. What most people are doing isn't that—it's just hoping nothing happens.
Your Evacuation Membership Doesn't Go Where You're Going
You bought the evacuation membership. You assumed it travels with you. It doesn't — and the line it won't cross is drawn by the State Department, not by actual danger.
The Medicare Stack
Medicare decisions are confusing enough when you live in one place. When you've left the US and have no intention of going back full-time, the choices get weirder. Here's my full stack — what I chose, what I rejected, and where I'm still uncertain.
Legal
Borders, passports, phones, and the rules that apply when you live nowhere.
Leaving Is the Half You Forgot
The standard nomad domicile plan goes like this. Pick South Dakota or Florida or Texas. Sign up with a mail-forwarding service. Fly in for a weekend, get the driver’s license, register to vote, and leave. Congratulations: you’re a resident of a state with no income tax, and
Border Police Ask? Short Answer. True Answer. Stop Talking.
Border agents aren't your friends, but they're not your enemies either. What they are is an authority with broad discretion. The correct strategy is boring, brief, and completely honest.
Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean the ATM Is Safe
The readers who were nervous about ATM cards weren't wrong. But they might be nervous for the wrong reasons. Here's the full breakdown — what the law covers, what it doesn't, and why the world is making this less relevant anyway.
Money
Policies, corporations, advisors. What they cost to buy, and what they cost to leave.
You Won
Six financial advisors auditioned. Most skipped the hard problem, and my favorite looked at the balance and said, “You won.” What fee-only actually buys, and why the hire isn’t for me.
The $800 Corporation
Eleven years, one Seychelles corporation, zero payroll tax: the legal architecture, the real costs, and what it does to your Social Security check.
The Life Insurance Nobody Will Help You Leave
Everyone will sell you cash-value life insurance and everyone will tell you not to buy it. Nobody will help you get the money back out. The exits, the tax traps, and where I landed.
Years
One long post a year since 2015. The whole story, in order.
