What are You Doing to Protect Your Ass…ets?
protect your assets
One of the things I enjoy most about this lifestyle is the ability to interact with many interesting people. In my travels I have the opportunity to meet with many entrepreneurs, investors, and generally adventure minded people. While in Italy 2 weeks ago, I spent time with an Italian friend of mine. He left for Africa a few days before I left for the US. He flew from Milan with a one-way plane ticket and didn’t even know where he was staying his first night in Tangiers. And he was staying in Africa for 3 months. You don’t meet these people on your morning commute.
I truly enjoy hearing from my readers and enjoy the occasion when I get to meet face-to-face. You are the type of people I enjoy spending time with. If you are ever in my neck of the woods, drop me a line.
If you have been reading my articles for awhile now, you are certainly aware that I am increasingly uncomfortable with the state of affairs in the US. However, I am a very patriotic American. Recently I had a debate with someone who accused me of being anti-American, but that cannot be farther from the truth.
I think many people do get the notion of America confused though. America is not a place, it is an ideal. It stands for freedom and opportunity. Our founding fathers designed America to be the world refuge for those that were ambitious and repressed. It was meant to be an oasis of personal and professional freedoms while having nearly unlimited opportunity.
The United States is a place. It is a piece of dirt. From that perspective it is no different than any other piece of dirt. The real estate does not make it America. And the government certainly is not America. In my opinion, the government now is doing nearly everything it can to destroy America. And to be clear, I am not just anti-Obama. I am against any and all government intervention that restricts my freedoms and places limits on how I live my life.
Our government has decided that our morality can be legislated. It has decided that congress and the President know better how to manage our life than we do. And to be quite frank, this pisses me off. I don’t need legislation to determine whether or not I can buy beer on Sunday or if my restaurant is allowed to have a smoking section. I don’t need to fund a politician’s personal agenda to legislate MY morality and ultimately, my freedom to live as I chose.
Because of this, I have chosen to diversify my life. I have chosen geo-arbitrage. Simply put, this is the process of not having all your eggs in one basket. If you live in Kansas, run a business in Kansas, bank in Kansas, own property in Kansas, and invest in Kansas, you are putting yourself at risk. You are at political risk, financial risk, and litigation risk.
This doesn’t mean you need to drop everything and move out of Kansas. But it wouldn’t hurt to start implementing an asset protection strategy that diversifies your risk outside of Kansas, and maybe outside of the US. This could be simply forming an offshore LLC/IBC to do some banking and/or investing in an account held offshore. You could look to another country to buy real estate. You can move abroad for a year and establish residency somewhere else. There are lots of ways you can minimize your risk. But the key is action.
What are you doing today to minimize your risk and plan your financial future? Are you reading my article and others thinking, “those are great ideas…..for someone else…” Or do you keep telling yourself, “I will take care of this next week, when I’m not so busy.”
We are living in very strange times and I fear once the dam breaks in the US, it will be too late. The US government has put us in a downward spiral with soaring deficits. Eventually our creditors are going to demand higher interest rates to take on the additional risk of loaning the US money. Once that happens, we will see soaring interest rates and falling asset prices.
But really, my big concern is just the uncertainty of it all. No one knows from day to day what is going to happen in the US. We don’t know when the next legislation ‘bomb’ will hit. We don’t know when the next war will happen. Or when the next terrorist strike against the US will take place. Friends in Washington DC tell me it is not a matter of IF there will be another terror strike but WHEN. It feels like we are crossing a river in Siberia in the spring; you just never know when the ice is going to be thin enough to break. (fyi, this isn’t exactly a metaphor, I’ve done this).
I can tell you personally, I live abroad. I have residency. I have diversified my business holdings so they aren’t all in the US. Our firm also manages an investment partnership that has diversified into several asset categories across other countries. (I will be accepting a few new investors at the end of the year. If anyone is interested, let me know).
But I want to hear from you, dear readers. What are you doing? I would seriously like to hear about how you plan to navigate the unfamiliarity of tomorrow. If you are unsure of how to properly manage, we can help you with the asset protection planning process. We offer a free initial consultation to help assess your situation. If you want to proceed with strategic planning, we can provide a detailed analysis of your current situation and assess your risks as well as offer you various options on minimizing your risk and reducing your tax burden. With these uncertain times come great opportunities as well.
Call today for your free 30 minute consultation.
Bobby Casey
Managing Director
+1-347-410-5041
http://www.globalwealthprotection.com
Dear Bobby Casey
How to begin? I’ll just write one word after another…
The first time I stumbled upon your site was around 7 years ago. I’ve been studying it ever since, and the reason I’m a fan is that you’ve inspired me when I was searching for ‘something’ and not knowing quite where to begin.
You see, throughout my life I’d been constantly surrounded by an oppressive awareness that something was ‘wrong’ or ‘missing’ and that I was just enacting some kind of conditioned formula.
Hence, from the beginning, the stories, images and ideas on your site reached out and spoke to me directly and it felt as though I’d finally found my tribe.
Consequently, I bought several of the books advertised on your site – including a Travel-Writing course which I started but never finished. It didn’t matter. I absorbed it all the way to the end because it helped to establish the idea of ‘freedom’.
Freedom from the life I was living. Freedom from the shitty ‘day jobs’ I was forced to endure as a struggling actor. Freedom from convention. Liberation from the government (I’m an Australian citizen though I’m originally from Serbia)… and the list goes on.
Unfortunately, most people don’t have the luxury of time it takes to nurture their bodies/minds and make the necessary inward enquiries because we’re all being kept insanely busy doing the things we’re ‘told’ to do.
To cut a very long story short, at the age of 39, I finally gave myself that time and did what I needed to do. I sold my house, quit my job, ended an unhappy long-term relationship and vacated my country. That was 4 years ago. Since then, I’ve used the money from the house to travel and find out what’s really important.
Cut to now:
I fell in love with a crazy Frenchman and moved to the south of France. We live in Marseille.
We have the same philosophy. ‘Work less – Live more”.
We’re not rich in a materialistic sense but we’re rich in time and have a great lifestyle. We love to travel. Last year we spent 2 months in Tunisia, 3 months in the Philippines and 3 months in Australia. Our next trip will probably be Mexico and Panama.
The future looks a lot like a small sailing boat for perhaps 6 months out of 12…but who knows?
I certainly don’t. And for now, I don’t care.
I’m lucky to have love in my life. I’m learning a new language. I’m writing, eating great food – and drinking seriously good red wine :)
I managed to find some freelance work via outsourcing internet sites (yet another EscapeArtist idea).
Currently I edit books, papers and write online. Being new to this type of thing, the money’s not great but I don’t care. I love the work. It’s challenging and it’s fun. Best of all, I get to work in bed!
Of course life isn’t always chocolates and roses. I’ve had plenty of challenges along the way. It’s never easy starting over. Learning a new language, and being immersed in a new culture can feel isolating at the best of times. Due to the language barrier I haven’t done any acting for over 3 years. Maybe I never will? Besides, I’m looking for a new place to put some of my energies to better use. To give back. To find more meaning.
But hey, I’m not complaining…
Via your site, you’ve provided a vehicle by which to open peoples’ eyes. A vehicle by which to turn a dream into reality. I wonder just how many people you’ve inspired? People, just like me.
Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.
Best wishes to you and your team
Tanja
Hi,
I am always interested to hear how others are tackling the problem of securing a decent future.
To go right to the point, my wife and I were “self employed” for most of our working lives and as such didn’t take the millions that we “self employed” individuals make and build for our future. We did other frivolous things like, buy groceries, pay rent, buy some new equipment and even the ultimate extravagance—paid ourselves a wage!
In my businesses I have always, for some unknown reason, sought small profit but from many people. To wit—I once owned an alarm company. The real profit in that business was from the monthly payments for monitoring their systems. In my marine business, it was from maintenance contracts and from the CCTV business it was from monthly leasing of equipment. You get the idea—I offered a great deal to the customer and then generated my income based on their small, but continuous, monthly payments.
I feel it is a better scenario, especially in an economic market like the one we have today, to get a little bit of money but from a lot of people. If one person drops out of your portfolio it is not a disaster.
Now I am doing the same thing again. My wife and I (now in our 60’s) are building a small development in Panama, close to the border with Costa Rica. Driven by the fact that we could not afford to live in our home country (Canada) and by the idea that many people, just like us, will be facing a “hard time” in retirement because of housing costs, drop in retirement savings and just a need to live where general cost of living are more affordable, we are building quality condos and now a “casita” with affordable costs—like a condo for under $80k and monthly fees of only $80 per month—or our casita at under $20k. Our profit is in the annual recurring revenues generated from the services (electrical, water, internet, grounds maintenance etc.). What this all adds up to is a super deal for a person looking for a way to get the most out of their savings and a good “annual recurring revenue” for my wife and I. Why spend so much of your savings on a home when you could be using it to “Escape From America” and enjoy your life!
Well there you have in a nutshell how we support ourselves in our retirement.
Cheers,
Jack
Right on… escape America and show others how to live for less!
After 2000 I assumed my vote didn’t count. In 2004 I KNEW my vote didn’t count so I began making plans.
In early 2005 I saw that the ” use your house as an ATM ! ” was a huge scam and bound to turn out very, very badly. Real estate around me was soaring so I jumped and sold too !
I sold every single thing I owned other than a dog, a backpack and some kitchenware and books.
I’d been vacationing in Costa Rica since 1986 and watched real estate profits soar yearly and ,with my timing being right, I knew there were ATM houses down here that people would have to get rid of or lose their asses_ets in the empire.
I was right. I bought an unfinished 4300 s.f. house on a good sized farm, with an as new S.U.V. , a custom made, ready to install commercial kitchen for less than the owner had in block, rebar and cement work !
The timing is still great as many of those Americans desperately trying to hold on to ATM purchased vacation homes are rapidly losing the ability to hang on.
The prices are back to where they should be, 1998-2000 prices in the rural parts of the country.
I built a botanical garden and a couple of cabins for tourists and grow all of my own food, meats and fish.
We make everything at home including nearly all condiments, corned beef, hams, sausages and even Gyro meat from grass fed lamb.
Life is good.
Go for it.
Lake Arenal.