After so many years, this place is still amazing

Guest Post by Simon Black

Like many of our readers, I’ll never forget the Great Crash and the Global Financial Crisis from more than a decade ago.

Some of you may be too young to remember. But it was pretty gruesome.

One of the largest investment banks in the world collapsed in September 2008, nearly dragging down the world economy with it.

Practically overnight it became apparent that the global financial system was a house of cards. Some of the world’s leading banks were insolvent. Insurance companies were bankrupt. Entire governments (like Iceland) went bust.

Real estate prices sank. Stocks plunged. Tens of millions of people around the world lost their jobs. And taxpayers were forced to fork over a trillion dollars to bail out the financial system.

People were panicking.

The value of their retirement savings had been cut in half in a matter of days, and any plans for the future were put on hold out of fear of what might happen next.

I remember watching this all unfold and thinking to myself, “I want to set myself up in a way that none of this matters… where the stock market could crash, the economy could tank, the banks could fail, and it wouldn’t affect me one bit.”

So I began thinking deep thoughts about resilience, independence, and self-reliance… which quickly led me to sustainability and agriculture, and the realization that being able to produce my own food would be incredibly powerful.

As I traveled the world (I’ve now been to more than 120 countries), I kept these ideas in the front of my mind: where could I acquire some land to become resilient and independent?

Asia was out. With few exceptions, most Asian countries have laws which prohibit foreigners to own real estate.

Africa, for all of its potential, was out. In order to be resilient, I needed stability and predictability.

Most of Europe was out. In order to be resilient, I needed large scale– hundreds of acres of land. And purchasing land of that size in Europe (at least in the places with the most productive climate) would be cost prohibitive.

Same in North America.

So my search brought me to Latin America, and eventually to Chile: great climate, inexpensive land, stable country, and no restriction to buy property as a foreigner.

I liked this place from the first time I ever set foot on Chilean soil.

There was an energy and optimism here that was almost palpable, and every time I came back, I noticed that things had improved– more infrastructure, more development, more foreign businesses investing here.

Unlike most of the world, Chile had managed to avoid taking on massive government debt during the financial crisis. The banks were stable. The economy was steady.

By comparison, Chile was one of the few bright spots in the world. And the more I investigated, the more I became convinced that this was the place I was looking for.

In time, I found the land I needed– over 1,000 acres in an incredibly fertile valley about 2 ½ hours south of the capital city.

The soil is rich in volcanic nutrients from the nearby Andes Mountains. And the climate is the best that you could ever hope for in agriculture: warm and sunny… but not too hot. Mild winters. Predictable rains.

I can grow practically anything here that’s not tropical– so no bananas or papayas.

But just about everything else is exploding from my organic orchard: apples, oranges, figs, almonds, walnuts, nectarines, peaches, apricots, loquats, persimmons, pears, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, olives, etc.

We make olive oil from our own olives, flour from our own wheat. And there’s plenty of livestock like free-range chickens, pigs, etc.

I’m able to generate my own electricity and drink my own water (the ground water reserves are massive), and do so without any interference from the local government.

In general the government here just stays away… for which I am incredibly grateful.

They also make it extremely easy to come here: though they’ve recently started to change their procedures, Chile’s immigration laws have traditionally been quite fast and flexible.

Most of Team Sovereign Man lives in Chile, and they hail from all over the world– North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, South America. And they all obtained residency with minimal time and hassle.

That’s a rare treat: it’s highly unusual for a country to make it so easy for foreigners to obtain legal residency.

But as a business owner, it means you can literally hire anyone in the world if they’re willing to relocate, so you’re not just constrained to the local market.

I also found this country to be ripe with enormous business opportunities.

A few years ago I started an agriculture business that has now grown to become one of the largest producers of blueberries in the world, with over $100 million in assets, thousands of acres of land, and hundreds of employees.

In another ten years it will be a global agricultural powerhouse.

And it’s something that I could not have done in the US or Europe: the land prices and government bureaucracy alone would have killed it from the start.

But in Chile the business has grown from a simple PowerPoint presentation to a dominant player in the industry in just five years.

As many of you know, I relocated to Puerto Rico last year to take advantage of the island’s extraordinary tax incentives.

And I’m loving it. Puerto Rico is a wonderful place to live, and I really enjoy my lifestyle there.

But I do still travel back to Chile and spend time here. And even after more than a decade since my first trip here, I’m still impressed by the growth, opportunity, potential, and promise of this country.

So if you’re looking for a place that might fit well with your own Plan B, definitely put Chile on your radar.

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7 Comments
Dutchman
Dutchman
May 22, 2019 9:51 am

Hey Simon – suck my dick. Don’t bother coming back the the US when the shit hits the fan.

Anonymous
Anonymous
May 22, 2019 10:43 am

We will have a Pinocet moment as well.

Maybe a Giveyoushit Democrat is what’s needed first.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
May 22, 2019 11:03 am

Well, this is the conundrum. Galt’s Gulch is great and of course the best way to optimize the life/wealth/satisfaction for the greatest number of people. In the end though the envy of those who have less will infect the power of the state and the State in the name of “Fairness, Equality, Diversity, Climate Change, etc.) will use the power of the state to take your assets for their own purposes while promising the masses Free EVERYTHING……college, healthcare, minimum income etc. Just the way it works with humanity, we really are a terrible species.

So enjoy your success while it lasts because success only starts the clock on the time when it will be taken. We can fight the rise of authoritarian (and make no mistake no matter how it’s pitched it’s always authoritarian) via a constitution, laws and the right to self-defense but over time (and America’s reset is coming) the greedy unworthy rise up to take what is not theirs from the more productive. Lat-Am is notorious for this and no it is not going to be different this time.

john prokovich
john prokovich
May 22, 2019 12:51 pm

Same will happen once again next year.

BCM
BCM
May 22, 2019 1:44 pm

Wishful thinking for adventurous types with a bunch of cash.
I’d guess relatively few have the coin the snatch up 1000 acres down in Chile, with the stones to roll the dice at that craps table.
Sovereign Man might appeal to millionaires with wanderlust.
But to the average Joe, not so much, realistically.
Guess one can get lucky and try to hit the lotto.
Dream on for awhile.
Then get back on your hamster wheel, vermin.
Bills to pay, mouths to feed, and tax burdens as shackles.
Livin the dream, eh?
More like a nightmare for most.

TheDingus
TheDingus
May 22, 2019 8:23 pm

Arrogance abound and the guts to just but outright call anyone who disagrees with him a fool. Simon or whatever his name is manages to swing at least 1.2-1.5 mil in Chile and cant seem to understand why nobody else does.

Dutchman
Dutchman
  TheDingus
May 22, 2019 9:49 pm

They will come for his ass. Then we won’t hear any more from him.