An increasing number of people are coming to the conclusion that their home countries (particularly the US, EU and Canada) are in decline. More and more, such people are deciding to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the world.
Many of them have never “left home” before and are very unsure of how they should prioritize an exit.
Since International Man feature writer Jeff Thomas has for decades been advising those expatriating, we’ve asked him to weigh in on the topic.
International Man: If you could tell those who are planning to expatriate only one thing, what would it be?
Jeff Thomas: There are two primary priorities. Everything else would fall under sub-headings. The number one concern would be, “Get your money out.” I can’t stress that strongly enough. The number two concern would be, “Get yourself out.”
International Man: Investment advisors often suggest that investors salt away a portion of their wealth in another country – say, 10%. Is that sufficient?
Jeff Thomas: That would be prudent in times of prosperity; however, when your home country is heading toward a cliff economically, politically and socially, you’d be wise to put a very different number on it.
Imagine that you live in a large motorhome. It has, within it, all your possessions. The weatherman on television says that a massive tornado is headed directly for where you live and will arrive in twenty-four hours.
Would you load up the motorhome with only a few possessions, take 10% of your money from your home safe and drive to a safer neighbourhood? Or would you say, “I don’t want to save a portion of what I own. I want to save everything I own.” If you were to decide the latter, you’d pack up the motorhome and drive as far as you had to, to escape the storm.
Well, a major crisis like the one we’re heading into is much the same. Your bank accounts are at risk, because the banks now have the legal right to confiscate your deposits.
Your pension is at risk, because laws have been passed to allow governments to require that they be invested in Treasuries. Any precious metals you may have are at risk, because the last time an economic calamity of these proportions occurred, gold was made illegal to own. Your home is at risk, because the countries in question are heading in a collectivist direction, which means that private property may be nationalised or otherwise confiscated.
International Man: That covers the bulk of anyone’s possessions, but unlike a motorhome, you can’t conveniently pack it up and drive to safety.
Jeff Thomas: No, but you want to do the equivalent, if you possibly can. This means that, if possible, you sell your home while it still has value. If you like living there, you might just lease it back from the new owner, but you’d want to have it out of your name and to have liquidated your investment in it.
You’d sell any other property you could and expatriate the proceeds to the safest jurisdiction you could find that’s relatively near you. In Asia, that might mean Singapore. In the US, it might be the Cayman Islands. In Europe, it might be Switzerland.
If possible, you’d arrange not to receive the funds yourself. The buyer would wire the money straight to your overseas account. You’d do the same with any money that you had in banks, keeping only that amount that you’d need for operating expenses – say, three months’ worth in your local bank – so that you’d still have the convenience of a chequeing account or ATM.
International Man: But aren’t overseas banks becoming just as unreliable as banks in, say, the US? Wouldn’t that just be out of the pan and into the fire, except that the fire is farther away?
Jeff Thomas: In many cases, yes. Even well-run banks overseas will be hit hard in a crisis, so banks will become one of the poorest choices as places to store wealth in the near future. So, you’d want to pick a non-banking institution. Non-banking depositories pay no interest and therefore do not report to government agencies. Since they also don’t loan out your wealth, it remains right where you put it, even during a crisis.
A very important point here is that you first pick the best jurisdiction, with laws that protect the investor. The choice of depository is secondary. You’d choose the best depository that’s within the best jurisdiction.
Once the proceeds from your sales were realized, they’d be wired to that depository so that you didn’t have to deal with it at your local bank. It’s essential that it be done legally but also essential that it be done with as few movements as possible.
International Man: What about the number two priority: getting yourself out?
Jeff Thomas: Well, right now, that’s quite easy, but that will change over time. At present, most countries in the world welcome North Americans and Europeans. But that will change once an economic crisis has begun. They’ll be pulling in the welcome mat. So, the sooner you provide yourself with legal residence in another country plus a suitable residence (even if it’s rented), the greater your certainty of freedom.
At that point, you’d be able to remain in your home country, and when the crisis nears your doorstep, you can simply pack a bag, go to the airport and be in your destination-country the same day.
International Man: How do you know when it’s time to leave?
Jeff Thomas: I’m afraid that there’s no definitive answer to that. In Nazi Germany, the time to leave would have been before Kristallnacht, which occurred without warning on 9 November 1938. After that, for many people, it was too late.
There’s an old investment saying: “Better a year too early than a day too late.” In my belief, time is growing short. Our “1938” may have already begun. And remember, preparation takes time, if it’s to be done well. If done in a last-minute panic, things are likely to go wrong. In addition, new capital controls are being implemented – always without warning. So, the sooner, the better.
International Man: Should those expatriating move to where they have moved their wealth, to be as close as possible to it?
Jeff Thomas: If they’ve chosen one of the best countries for storage of wealth, that shouldn’t be necessary, but the closer you can be, the handier it is to do transactions.
Each of the countries I’ve mentioned is costly to live in. You may wish to live in a country that’s less expensive, even though it might not be a reliable country in which to store wealth. You might keep your wealth in Singapore but choose to live in Thailand, which is very inexpensive and, in the northern provinces, a very peaceful place, where you’d be treated well by the locals.
You should always seek out a country to live in, where you think you could find a life that suits you. It may be different from your home country, but still, it works for you.
International Man: Is there any “best” country out there in which to live?
Jeff Thomas: No, it really does come down to personal preference. I live multi-nationally each year, and even then, I continue to travel, seeking places that suit me.
It’s important to say that there are no guarantees with any of this – there are only degrees of likelihood. In a crisis, conditions change quickly and dramatically. The goal is to not be the low-hanging fruit. If you’re now located in a country that’s at risk, get as far away from it as is necessary to gain as much safety and freedom as you can.
Above all, diminish the odds of becoming a casualty.
Editor’s Note: The economic trajectory is troubling. Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the course of these trends in motion.
The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation.
That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his colleagues just released an urgent new PDF report that explains what could come next and what you can do about it. Click here to download it now.
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Moving to another country is a big sea change and does require planning.
But… not everyone can go, the motorhome maybe mired where it is. So then what?? All you can do is prep for the worse and hope for the best. Hunker down, shore up, tie down everything that can be tied down and get extra provisions.
Imo, get your money out of the banking system. Buy assets, pm’s, trade goods and the equipment to defend against thieves and marauders. Tribe up where possible because there isn’t anyone coming to rescue, you.
Sometimes theres no escaping the storm and the only way left is thru it.
And many thx admin for the text change, greatly appreciated.
You like the new the new comment format?: upvote
What was wrong with the old one?: downvote
I don’t care, I just like to pretend that my contributions here mean anything to anybody but myself and it makes me feel like I’m alive when I’m actually dead inside. No Vote.
I like that there is no doubt who the responder is responding to.
I was hoping the CloudFlare sign in would go away though.
Hey, where’s the fucking edit button?
^ THIS ^
Guess we’ll have to type what we mean the first time now!
The issue I had was the light grey text on a blazing white page. Its the dumbest fad imaginable and many site use it. Thankfully admin graciously darkened it for blind asswipes like me.
I too like the ‘feature’ of having the person you are responding to listed. Some of these threads get lengthy and confusing to whom is responding to whom. But as always some will just….
according to their nature…
It is not open to a vote.
Wordpress decreed it, thus the debate is over.
If the site is to remain and our voices heard here, the knee must be bent.
So it bent. And here we are.
Deal with it.
My exit plan is right now. Goodbye TBD.
New formats = loss of control
It was fun while it lasted.
You’ll be sorely missed by anomynous persons.
Translation – Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya! And say hi to Satan for me when you get back home!
OH PLEASE DON’T GO!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHA!
The non echo of you ever being here will be remember by exactly zero people.
Adios, nobody.
Own the land you have to bury those PM’s under.
Why, dude? You KNOW that’s where they’ll look first! Maybe bury it under a fence post? Folks would just think you were patching fence. A 3 foot auger makes it really easy!
There are many obstacles to relocating one’s self and money to another country. Overcoming the barriers between you and a new life out of the USA will become more difficult every day. It’s been worth it for me and my wife.
Elizabeth has a home in Portland, Oregon, where I met her two months before leaving the Pacific Northwest, “forfuckingever”.
I had lived in Seattle, Washington for 35 years after leaving a small town in Florida, Vero Beach in 1980. It was two months after Mt St Helens erupted and there wan’t a summer in Seattle that year. I froze every day. I stayed there to raise two daughters after my second marriage dissolved.
Liz has lived in Portland 30+ years, raising two sons through two marriages (I’m No 3) as an ER nurse. My second wife and mother of my daughters was an ER nurse. I swore every kind of oath that I’d never even date another nurse.
I’m ‘Zero for Two’ on those ironclad resolutions, but Portland is only a summer flyover for me now. Liz returned a month ago and I’ll return in late June for softball season. Then, back to Sayulita for the last of summer’s south swells. In Portland, there’s no love lost for old, bald, white men with a southern accent and a loud laugh, so I minimize my overflights to avoid the kind of flak that might torch off a mostly peaceful 1-man protest featured on NPR as “White Patriarchal Rage”.
Still unshaken resolution number three: retirement in a tropical beach town with a great surf break. Becoming a legal, Residente Permanentes in Mexico was a slow but seamless process. Certainly not cheap or easy to obtain without significant financial resources.
Buying property on the ocean here and placing it in a Bank Trust has been a 25-year briar patch of constantly moving goal posts (new requirements every time you meet the old ones) and palms outstretched for more mordida. Just to get a ‘photographic’ phone-copy of public documents from 17 years ago (when I finished buying property there) cost me $1,000. Dollars, not Pesos. The clerk who texted it was afraid to retrieve the files and make a paper copy because everybody was under investigation and anyone pawing through dusty archives was most certainly a rat.
The President of Bahia de Banderas (the municipality overseeing administration of all the towns from Bucerias to La Penita de Jaltemba) and all her ‘lieutenants’ were arrested last month for corruption. She flew to New Mexico, whereabouts now unknown. The raid on her parents home was televised and four, burly Federal agents hauled a giant safe out of their house that barely fit through the door. Still, I think it’s less corrupt here than in the halls of our Congress. Here, one can get through legal labyrinths with the right application of fragrant grease. The grease we get from Uncle Sam doesn’t even help to lube our LGBTQ friction blisters.
I treasure my life here and my small 1 bedroom apartment in a lovely 4-plex with a pool ($800 w/utilities). My barrio, Colonia Bourbon, is a lower, middle-class neighborhood with dusty or muddy dirt roads, where everyone knows each other and offer greetings with every passing. Children, dogs, cats and roosters provide a noisy cacophony of life lived fully. Neighbors occasionally party through the night without any complaints, everyone is invited. There is rarely quiet before midnight, when the last of laughing street urchins and barking dogs return home. I grew up largely feral, a 50’s childhood, but children here have more freedom than I ever dreamed of as a kid. They are all outgoing, self-confident and happy.
Every child here runs around barefoot and they all learn to ride two-wheelers by the time they are three. Most are on motorcycles or quads by their teens, working odd jobs. Everyone seems occupied with earning and yet there’s no sense of urgency anywhere.
I have never seen any Mexican here, adult or child, in a heated, loud argument that invited violence. I have never even heard a loud disagreement between spouses here – except from gringos, including me. Gringos can be a real embarrassment for gentle, family-oriented people.
The USA can’t stop being an embarrassment because it has no shame and everything it does erodes family bonds, traditions and our future. It has shackled generations of our children with confusion and guilt. I see none of that here in Sayulita.
Loved Bucerias when we lived there.
I did some work for my landlord, Steve, at the time installing sat TV for all the canukistan expat’s. I’d def return in a heartbeat but can’t until our obligation here is complete.
The Sayulita Library, owned by my good friends Nancy and Ed, both canuks, is my favorite hunting ground. Their coffee bar and reading reading rooms attract every type of brainwashed liberal riding unicorns to Wakanda. When they ask what I do, I reply, “I’m a slave trader. Wanna buy a nigger?”
My wife frowns on this behavior at Portland bistros.
I have yet to see any Hispanic people holding up a sign “give me something”.
Occasionally selling fruits or vegetables, yes.
You ain’t been to Houston then whoever you are.
“International Man” can kiss my ass.
Everybody here that is willing to, or actually has the wherewithal to “leave” this country, please raise your hand.
Yeah….. that’s what I thought.
Where can you go to defend yourself with firearms?
A Whitey Yank “newcomer” will be viewed as a “rich” target to the locals.
I’ll take my chances here, thankyou very much mister rich guy with connections.
No harshness here, but I have never understood the idea that one can pick up and move to a completely foreign culture as an American and think you will blend in if the world falls apart, the reason many/most move.
I have traveled and worked on several continents. It takes more than really reasonable maid service and fresh produce on the corner to constitute a good life for me.
I was born in America. I will die an American, in America. I will quite possibly die in trying to salvage an America worth dying for, for those who come after, as those before us have sacrificed.
I don’t need a second passport, or even a first. I am rooted in this country, and will remain come what may, as God so directs.
Creative handle! And I endorse the sentiment as well.
My exit plan is to save the last bullet for myself.
My exit plan is to buy more ammo so when I exit, the government body count will be written about by astonished scribes for centuries to come.And my name unknown, but THAT FASCIST DC BODY COUNT!! WHOA!!! Who stacked ’em like that!!??
My friend you are on fire tonite…. lol
I said the last bullet was for me, all the other bullets will be for the evil others.
How do you know an NBFC is not going to ‘lend’ or ‘invest’ your money and evaporate it?