September 10, 2010
Dallas, Texas, USA
I’ve really enjoyed reading so many of your insightful comments over the last few days as we’ve engaged in a serious discussion about the Age of Turmoil. Like you, I hate to dwell on the negative, but I think it’s critical to frame the solutions we’ve only started to cover.
The game is changing. Success or failure in the future will no longer depend on accidents of birth, but by people’s hard work, ingenuity, and self-reliance. This is good news for us, as far as I’m concerned… something to be excited about, not shy away from.
I know that each of us is powerful and capable, and we can succeed in this new environment if we’re simply willing to accept personal responsibility and take action to become more self-reliant.
This week, I began to outline what I believe to be the core principles of self-reliance:
The first is defining your reality– rejecting the limiting choices imposed by the old system while having the independence of mind to determine your own outcome.
The second is preserving your capital– recognizing that the standard options for safeguarding and growing your wealth are tied to a corrupt money system.
The third, which I will talk about on Monday, is declaring your economic independence– eliminating your reliance on a single source of income, and finding more reliable ways to put food on the table for you and your family.
There are others that we will continue to discuss in the coming days; afterwards, once I finish this series of articles next week, I’d like to introduce you to our new premium service.
We’re calling it Sovereign Confidential, and it’s designed to provide the tactical solutions and on the ground contacts for actually achieving self-reliance during the challenging months and years ahead.
Frankly, this premium service has been a long time coming.
For my business partner and I, the SovereignMan.com blog and daily e-letter is our passion project; we sincerely believe that helping others discover freedom and prepare for the Age of Turmoil is the most important thing we can do.
We’ve been doing this happily, and for free, for 17 months. This will continue.
And while the current setup affords us the opportunity to share certain information and inspiration, this public website is simply not an appropriate platform for the truly actionable information that I’d like to share with you about planting multiple flags and achieving self-reliance.
Furthermore, in order to offer you the level of actionable information you need in this rapidly evolving landscape, we need to go “all in”. We need to invest more in gathering, vetting and sharing the right information, as well as expand our material to help those who are unable to relocate.
So, in a nutshell, here’s what our “all in” premium service will include:
* A concise, actionable monthly newsletter that covers some of the key pillars of self-reliance– things like opening foreign bank accounts, overseas business and employment opportunities, second citizenship, networking events, foreign investments, etc.
* Specific information recommending courses of action and who to contact, straight out of my rolodex.
* A subscribers-only conference call where we can discuss the issues from that month’s issue and answer your questions with my panel of experts.
* A secure online forum for subscribers to meet, build relationships, and discuss issues privately without having to go through a public website.
* Plus, I’m also convincing my friends and contacts to provide deep discounts to you for things like tax and legal advice, incorporations, trust setup, etc.
We haven’t made up our minds yet on the price point of the premium service, but the first time it was discussed publicly, the price point suggested to us was around $1,000/year. Regardless what the price point ends up being, we plan to offer a *substantial* discount to Charter Subscribers (the first 500).
More details soon. Before signing off for the week, I wanted to answer a few of your questions; Jeffrey asks, “Hi Simon. I recently closed my account with Jyske Bank in Denmark. Now they’re sending me mail asking for my tax ID number. They never asked me before, what do you make of this?”
I’m assuming you’re a US taxpayer, in which case Jyske Bank getting ready to comply with the HIRE Act, which was signed into law earlier this year in the United States.
This innocuously named law requires foreign financial institutions to either comply with IRS reporting regulations, or to withhold 30% of incoming transfers. In asking you for your tax ID number, Jyske Bank is getting its paperwork ready for compliance.
It’s a pain, but remember– having a foreign bank account is not about hiding money, it’s about protecting your capital by moving it away from your home government. Just because they know about it doesn’t mean that they can control or confiscate it.
Last, Jimmy asks, “Simon, have you seen rumors about a 1% transaction tax? That just might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back!”
Yes. It’s as if politicians are really doing everything they can to discourage investment and entrepreneurship. The transactions tax is something that many G20 nations are considering as a way to punish the evil capitalists and raise government revenue.
My sense is that it could be a precursor to capital controls by imposing a financial penalty for moving capital outside a nation’s borders.
My recommendation? Open a bank account in Asia (I prefer Hong Kong, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, among others), and store some gold in a private vault facility overseas.
Last, Tommy asks, “Simon, you recently sponsored a youth conference in Lithuania. Is this something that I can send my kids to next year? And are you still in for our helicopter ski trip? Best wishes for your father’s speedy recovery.”
Yes to both, and thanks for the kind words about my father.
