I was going to offer some financially critical tax advice (hint: the foreign earned income exclusion won't work for you) but . . . no comments on the blog, no contact info that I could find (maybe I am blind), and discussion of his plans are linked over to Facebook.

Kids these days.

I did a year like this in New Zealand. Changed my life for the better. Travel like this is great.

Too bad he shuts off -- rather than aggressively opens -- ways to communicate with the outside world on his blog.

Wow wow. As long as his income is sourced from the states, he has to pay taxes. If he was working abroad and paying taxes abroad, then the exclusion is applicable.

I've gotten off the exclusion for now and just deduct my Chinese taxes (which exceed american taxes), it seems to be simpler that way.

Can you explain why the foreign earned income tax exclusion won't work? I would think the foreign earned income exclusion would apply only if you pay taxes on that income to a foreign country, no?