Analyze. Adjust. Adapt. Overcome.
At 8 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 20, I will take center stage in the meeting rooms of Panama City’s Veneto Hotel to begin leading discussions that will continue for three days. The topic?
Options and opportunities for taking control of your life, your assets, and your future, continuing and expanding activities of the U.S. government and others who seem determined right now to make those straightforward agendas as difficult to realize as possible notwithstanding.
You understand the realities we’re facing right now, thanks to the so-called Patriot Act, the HIRE Act, FATCA, and the coming 30% withholding that’s going to be imposed on any U.S. person trying to transfer money to what the IRS deems a “non-compliant bank.”
There was even, last year, legislation proposed that would have made it possible for the IRS to take away the passport of any U.S. person it accused of owing US$50,000 or more in back taxes. The IRS wouldn’t have to prove the accusation…just make it. And the American in question would find himself without a passport. This legislation was shot down, but I believe you can expect to see it put forward again.
This is the climate we’re all navigating. What can you do?
You can moan, groan, and complain. Woe is me…
You can wait, watch, and hope for someone to come along to help…to show you what to do from here. But who would that someone be? Some government? It’s government that has gotten us where we are today.
Your only sensible option is to take control yourself.
Analyze. Adjust. Adapt. Overcome.
And diversify. Bottom line, that’s what we’re talking about. Three flags…five flags…seven flags…call it what you like. The point is to spread your assets, your investments, your business interests, and your life around.
If you’re diversified among different asset classes or investment types but all in the United States…you’re not diversified.
If you’ve got several bank accounts but all Stateside, you’re not diversified.
I’d bet that, right now, you have more than one credit card in your wallet. That’s a start. You need more than one credit card, more than one bank account, more than one residency, and, I strongly recommend, more than one citizenship.
You need options. That’s the key to surviving and thriving in the face of what’s to come…whatever’s to come.
How do you get started organizing your life to allow yourself as many options as possible? Here are the three steps to taking back control of your life, your money, and your future:
First, establish an offshore economic base. Move your assets, your investments, and your business interests offshore.
Second, find a suitable new country for establishing residency. Note that it’s possible to be a legal resident of a foreign country without being physically resident there.
Third, obtain a second citizenship. This can follow from your foreign residency…or, depending on your circumstances and the jurisdiction, it can be the result of genealogy or a direct investment.
Follow these three steps, and you’re in control. You, not any government anywhere, are in the driver’s seat of your life and your future.
As I said, this will be the starting point for the conversations I’ll lead over three days here in Panama City in November. This event, my annual Offshore Summit, is nearly sold out. If you’d like to reserve your place to be in the room, I encourage you to do it now.
Lief Simon
Continue reading: Retire To Puerto Cayo, Ecuador
