Globalization has changed our personal financial circumstances dramatically in a way that was unthinkable for our grandparents. My own situation is not unusual - I am domiciled in one country, live much of the year in another, and holiday in a third, holding citizenships of two of them.

This globalization of our lives opens up business and investment opportunities. But it also increases the complexity of our moneycraft as we move beyond our familiar base to places with different modes of behaviour, tax and legal systems.

Getting appropriate guidance on dealing with these issues is not easy. Much of what passes for information about global personal financial planning is naïve and simplistic, depending too often on what suits fund managers pushing their own financial interests, rather than yours; their natural tendency to promote the assets they know best; what suits professional advisers to say to avoid attracting the hostile attention of the authorities.

There is the additional problem that much decisionmaking has to be influenced by not only where you live and work, but also by what citizenship you hold and the tax regimes to which you are subject.

In trying to chart your way through the complexities, it's important to keep in mind the basic principles of sound international personal financial planning.

Here are some of them…

And:

Who's right? A friend offers this "lesson in irony" from the US…

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the federal government's Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever, to 46 million people.

However the Department of the Interior asks visitors to national parks: "Please do not feed the animals," as it doesn't want them to grow dependent on handouts and fail to learn to take care of themselves.

David Fuller's view Did the Department of the Interior learn that from Tocqueville?