Best of International Diversification Strategies

Why it’s essential you keep a portion of your savings in physical cash

[Editor’s Note: As we’re coming up on the end of the year, we thought it would be appropriate to republish some of our most popular articles. Today’s was originally published on January 6, 2016]

Think of the word “money” for moment. What’s the first image that comes to mind?

Perhaps the folded paper in your wallet. Or the balance in your bank account.

Or perhaps the investments in your brokerage account.

[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • December 21, 2017
  • Santiago, Chile

You can’t rely on Social Security. Do this instead

In the late in the 5th century BC, the government of ancient Rome came up with a new idea that has lasted for thousands of years.

I’m not talking about their roads, republican form of government, or water sanitation.

Their bold idea was to start paying retirement benefits to Roman soldiers.

This was a pretty big deal. In ancient times, you worked until you died. There was no such thing as retirement.
[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • March 30, 2017
  • Houston, Texas

If your country’s broke, don’t hold all of your savings there

On Friday March 15, 2013--just over three years ago--people across the entire nation of Cyprus went to bed believing that everything was OK.

The next morning they woke up to a different reality.

It turned out that their banking system was totally broke. After suffering enormous losses, banks no longer had sufficient liquidity or capital to maintain customer account balances.

People realized immediately that just because you can log in to a[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • March 23, 2016
  • Santiago, Chile

Why there is nothing dirty about Offshore Banking

“Offshore”. It’s practically a dirty word now. The O-word.

The mere concept of “offshore” is automatically associated with criminal activity, tax evasion, and terror financing.

Consider the notion of offshore banking.

The immediate image that comes to mind is some moustache-twirling billionaire tax cheat hiding his ill-gotten gains in a nefarious island bank.

The media crusade over the Panama Papers only reinforces this absurd stereotype.

But the reality is far[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • June 2, 2016
  • Hong Kong

Offshore Banking: The Definitive Guide With Four Excellent Options

Offshore Banking: How and where to open an offshore bank account
Offshore Banking:
How & Where To Open The BEST
Offshore Bank Account


AUTHOR


LAST UPDATED





What's the most important thing you need to know if you're considering offshore banking?


It's that not all offshore accounts are created equal... 

The number one mistake we see people making is that they focus only on the “offshore” part and end up with an account that is even riskier and[...]

Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • November 14, 2012
  • Santiago, Chile

Four alternatives to holding your savings in a bank

“Global yields lowest in 500 years of recorded history. $10 trillion of neg. rate bonds. This is a supernova that will explode one day.”
Those were the words of famed bond fund manager Bill Gross.

(Gross was actually the first portfolio manager inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society’s “Hall of Fame”. And yes, there really is a hall of fame for that.)

Gross wrote that more than $10 trillion in government bonds[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • June 10, 2016
  • Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

What your high school chemistry teacher never taught you about gold

One of the more unfortunate developments in human civilization over the last century is the devolution of money.

In fact, the word ‘money’ has now become synonymous with those funny pieces of paper that are conjured out of thin air by unelected central bankers.

Or even more ridiculous, ‘money’ has become the electronic representation of that paper.

Think about your bank account balance; it’s not like the bank has all that paper[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • October 22, 2015
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin

How much gold should you have in your portfolio?

While I was in Mexico for our Global Offshore and Investment Summit in Cancun in 2015, I was approached by Forbes Mexico for an interview on some of the key trends in the global economy as well as internationalization strategies for investors.

You can read the full article here in Spanish, and below I’m reprinting one of the questions on precious metals.

This is understandably a topic that seems to be on many people’s[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • May 20, 2015
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

Three super safe and private facilities to store gold abroad

At USD $1160, a lot of gold owners are looking at the paper price right now and panicking.

The conventional wisdom is that, because it takes fewer pieces of paper to buy an ounce, gold is a bad ‘investment’.

This isn’t the right idea. It shouldn’t be viewed as an investment at all.

Gold isn’t something that you buy with paper currency hoping to sell it later on down the road for[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • November 12, 2014
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

Second Passport: Four Passports ANYONE Can Get

Four Ways ANYONE Can Obtain A Second Passport

Second Passport:
Four Ways ANYONE Can Obtain One




A Second Passport is not just for the "James Bonds" and super wealthy of this world. The truth is that it’s possible for ANYONE to obtain dual citizenship.


In this in-depth article you'll learn the four ways of how to get a second passport (potentially for free), that will provide you the lifelong benefits of having more options for living, working, investing, traveling,[...]

Click here to continue reading
  • Sovereign Man
  • November 14, 2012
  • Santiago, Chile

Is a second passport only for the ultra-wealthy?

When you think about ‘insurance’, chances are you probably think about term life, home insurance, or liability insurance.

But one of the best insurance policies you could ever get your hands on is a second passport.

Like most types of insurance, it’s one you hope you never have to use.

No one wakes up in the morning and thinks “I hope my house burns down today so I can cash in on[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • August 17, 2016
  • Santiago, Chile

Learn How To Get a Valuable Second Passport & Citizenship By Descent & Ancestry…




If you’ve got parents, grandparents (and in some cases even great-grandparents) from Germany, Italy, Ireland or several other countries, then you may be part of what I call ‘the lucky bloodline club’.

In this article you’ll learn how to take advantage of this and how to get citizenship by descent as well as a valuable second passport through your ancestry.

In This In-Depth Article...




What is Citizenship By[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • April 24, 2012
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Facts and Myths about Renunciation of US Citizenship

Vilnius, Lithuania
August 18, 2010

I was reading the Financial Times on board a recent flight from Vienna to Vilnius. Right smack dab on the front page was an article about the growing movement of Americans who are renouncing their US citizenship.

As the article goes,

"At the US Embassy in London, there is a waiting list that none of the officials likes to discuss. On the list are Americans hoping to[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • August 18, 2010
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

Obtaining a foreign residency is a no-brainer, especially if you have a family

By 2014, inflation was at 50% in Venezuela.

Just paying the bill at a restaurant now required a thick stack of cash.

When that happened, some people simply tightened their belts and stopped going out to eat. Others saw this as a warning sign to look for another, more stable country.

Then in 2015, supermarkets started facing shortages.

So in order to get the groceries they needed, people started lining up[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • July 8, 2016
  • Madrid, Spain

How to get a Permanent Residency, Passport and Citizenship in Panama

Panama Residency & Passport
If you’re looking for the easiest permanent residency program out there, then look no further than Panama.

In this article you’ll learn about the two best Panamanian permanent residency visas and how you can get an excellent Panamanian second passport & citizenship.

And as an additional bonus you’ll also learn about the incredible benefits you could get from Panama’s unique territorial tax system.

In This Article...




Panama Residency - How[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • March 11, 2015
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

Welcome to the Sue-nited States of America

On the morning of February 27, 1992, 79-year old Stella Liebeck and her grandson Chris pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through in Albuquerque, New Mexico and ordered a $0.49 cup of coffee.

Chris pulled the car over and parked momentarily so that his grandmother could add cream and sugar.

While doing so, she accidentally spilled the entire cup onto her lap, instantly scalding her.

Liebeck was hospitalized for eight days with third[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • November 13, 2017
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

How you can avoid dying as property of the state

January 30, 2015
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

The Japanese are known for being great savers and for prioritizing family ties. So it’s particularly important for them to make sure that their savings get passed along to their children.

It’s part of human nature to want to pass along our knowledge and our wealth to our offspring so that they can have better lives.

Sadly for Japanese citizens, their government is a miserable[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • January 30, 2015
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

Four important estate planning steps you should consider

EstatePlan
September 25, 2013
Sovereign Valley Farm, Pencahue, Chile

It goes without saying that parents want the best for their children... and that each generation wishes the next to be even more prosperous and successful.

For the most part, this has been the historical pattern since the Industrial Revolution; every successive generation has enjoyed an almost uninterrupted rise in standard of living, made possible both by the development of new technologies and the passing[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • September 25, 2013
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Civil Asset Forfeiture: What you can do about it

November 19, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile


Tan Nguyen was stopped on the highway for driving three miles over the speed limit. The policeman searched the car and found a briefcase of money that Tan said he just won at a casino.


There weren’t any drugs to be found, but suddenly the cop said he smelled marijuana and confiscated the money.


Now, if you or I were to have taken Tan’s money at the point[...]

Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • November 19, 2014
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Police seize over 5,000 ounces of silver from man’s home

Last week in the Australian state of Queensland, federal police confiscated a whopping 5,465 ounces of silver (worth roughly $106,000) from a man’s home.

This was part of a larger series of police raids instigated by the Australian Tax Office against individuals suspected of tax evasion.

Two obvious lessons come to mind which bear repeating:

1) As we discussed yesterday, only an idiot commits tax fraud or tax evasion. This goes without[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • September 9, 2016
  • Miami, Florida

Which of these would you rather have in your safe?

Let’s say you have two equal size safety deposit boxes.

One box you completely fill up with stacks of $100 bills.

The other box you fill up with gold.

Which of the two is “worth” more?

It’s easy to calculate. A stack of 100x $100 bills is 6.14 inches long, 2.61 inches wide, and 0.43 inches tall.

That’s a volume of 6.89 cubic inches (112.92 cubic centimeters… and we’ll use[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • December 8, 2016
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Top 5 FBAR mistakes: what you need to know before June 30th.

Taxes
June 25, 2015
Bali, Indonesia

If you’re filling out your FBAR this weekend, here are some things to keep in mind.

The FBAR is a disclosure form, not a tax form. So even though it goes to the treasury department, it’s not like there’s any money owed.

Nonetheless, this is not something to be taken lightly, as the penalty for failing to file can be anywhere from $10,000 to 50% of the[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • June 25, 2015
  • Bali, Indonesia

The incredible, intergenerational benefits of having a second passport

It’s been way too long since I’ve visited Managua, and since I was already nearby in Colombia, I thought it would make sense to come check out Nicaragua once again.

One of the people on my staff has a father from Nicaragua, and we were able to obtain a Nicaraguan passport for her as a result.

This is one of the things I encourage everyone to consider: having a second passport makes so[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • April 12, 2016
  • Managua, Nicaragua

Second passport lessons from Steve Wozniak and Albert Einstein

In January 1933 Albert Einstein was visiting the US under a research grant from Princeton University.

Meanwhile back home in Germany Adolf Hitler had just become elected chancellor and started creating an atmosphere hostile for Jews, intellectuals and pacifists, of which Einstein was three times guilty.

Recognizing the danger of continuing to hold a German passport, Einstein traveled to Belgium where he renounced his German citizenship.

By that time the Nazis had[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • December 23, 2014
  • Santiago, Chile

Three of the BEST ways to obtain a second passport (and one to AVOID)

Second Passport Citizenship
December 15, 2014
Castries, Saint Lucia

On October 9, 1939, Friedrich Nottebohm applied to become a naturalized citizen of Liechtenstein.

Nottebohm had been living in Guatemala since 1905, and as World War II started heating up, he became concerned that his German nationality might cause problems for him down the road.

It turns out he was right.

After attempting to enter Guatemala in 1943, he was denied entry as an enemy[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • December 15, 2014
  • Sovereign Valley, Chile

How to get a second passport without getting punched in the face

World champion boxer Roy Jones Junior is something of a Renaissance Man.

Roy Jones raps. Roy Jones fights. Roy Jones farms. Roy Jones designs fragrances (‘the scent of victory in a bottle’).

Roy Jones refers to Roy Jones in the third person. And Roy Jones loves Roy Jones.

This latter quality was on display back in August when the Champ sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to the[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • November 2, 2015
  • Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

How to get Chilean residency

If you are looking to get a second residency, Chile is an option that ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people.

One of the most important ones is that it has a very straightforward residency program. The country welcomes foreigners with
open arms, and there are a number of ways to be able to obtain residency.

And after five years of residency, you can apply for naturalization and obtain a[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • September 12, 2016
  • Santiago, Chile

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion: How to earn up to $102,100, tax free

Imagine someone told you this...
I'm going to make you a deal.

For the rest of your life, I'm going to be your silent partner. You're going to pay me 20% of everything you ever make. Forever.

In return, I'm not going to do anything. I won't add value to your life or your business. In fact, I'm actually going to be destructive.

For the rest of your life, I'm going to[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • October 24, 2015
  • Santiago, Chile

Legal tax reduction tactics that everyone should be taking advantage of

If you’ve been a reader of this letter for any length of time, you know I hate taxes.

I unequivocally believe that I have a moral obligation to reduce my taxes to the lowest level possible.

It’s not about Maseratis and private yachts (I drive a Volvo and get seasick easily).

I’ve slashed my taxes because I know that tax dollars pay for some of the most vile, immoral things imaginable.

[...] Click here to continue reading
  • Simon Black
  • September 8, 2016
  • San Juan, Puerto Rico