Now is a good time to buy silver, 2/28/21

 Now is a good time to buy silver, 2/28/21

Silver at 26.65 cents at or below that price is the current low end of the price for silver and a good time to buy it if your a trader or long term investor.

The best silver to hold in your possession is American silver eagles or 1964 or before silver coins other wise known as junk silver.

American silver eagles come with a high premium so if you want more silver for your buck then get 64 or before junk silver, such as dimes quarters and half dollars.

If your resident in another country then buy the silver coin of your country unless US eagles are popular and there is a lot of liquidity in that coin.

I think we are in the early inning of a inflationary spiral so now is the time to be buying silver and gold to protest a portion of your savings.

Good Luck!

Cost of living for a single man in Guatemala. 2021

 

Cost of living for a single man in Guatemala. 2021

What's the cost of living in Guatemala 2021? Well it hasn't gone up much in all the years I have been living here. 

I usually don't like doing cost of living articles because peoples expectations can be so different and people are diverse in there lifestyle and expectations of what is a good quality of life and what it should cost.

This is written from a perspective of living a low cost of living and saving some money to have for emergencies and travel at a latter date. 

One of the big issues talking about cost of living is some expats want to copy there US or European lifestyle they have and that can be cheaper or more depending on the luxuries and other variables.

It can depend on eating out if you need cable or even the kind of booze you drink.

It can depend on if you have hired help or you do your own cooking and cleaning. So in the end its a tricky question to answer. In my case I live on 500USD to 600USD a month and sometimes cheaper, but keep in mind that's not counting if I travel on the weekends or fly somewhere for a week or two, in that case I can easily spend 800 to 1200USD a month.

These are generalizations but you can rent almost anywhere in Guatemala for 300 to 500USD a month and much cheaper in places like Lago Atitlan and other small towns or cities. In some cases a 500USD house a month will include 5 or 6 bedrooms and 2 or three bathrooms like in Xela Guatemala.

In the Capital of Guatemala 500 or 600USD will get you a small place in the nice zones but it will usually be small ad noisy at night or can be it depends on the building. If you get out on the highway or the Pan American highway going towards El Salvador you can live in middle class neighborhoods for 500 to 600 a month rents and get fairly big places to live with plenty spaces to park and of course its all guarded and gated and many times have woodlands spaces and trails to jog or bike in if you like that and all the cool shopping malls will be minutes away depending on traffic.

Of course if you venture into zone one which most of the time I wouldn't recommend you can sometimes rent a studio for 200 to 250USD a month, but it will be small, and it will be noisy during the day and evenings. and not really safe to walk in the neighborhood past 8pm or 9pm.

Where I live in Xela, Guatemala i have never spent more than 350USD and that was a full house, and I normally don't do that but it was in a nice neighborhood and great place to experience. 

I have rented for 150USD to 225 and everything in between, those were either studios or one bedrooms or two bedrooms including a place to park a car. The secret to getting cheaper rents is to pay six months in advance and asking for a discount and receipt.

As for food, in my case I don't like eating out as much so I cook at home and my food budget including beer ect is 300USD or much less. I don't use taxis much because Xela is a smaller city and easy to walk around in.

Bottles of cooking gas can for 20USD or less and last me two to three months. My internet is usually included in my rent but if its not is 30USD or less. For my phone is 25 bucks a month and I get 15GIGS data I think, if you want to pay more you can get up to 20GIGS.

My electric bill seems to average around 7 or 8 dollars for the bill, but I don't use a lot of energy sucking devises so your mileage will vary. I don't need an air conditioner or heating devises because its not to hot or cold here year round although its colder than Antigua or even the Capital.

I have met people living on three hundred USD to four hundred USD per month but that wouldn't be comfortable for me but I could do it if I had to or was building up a business and need the extra money for that.

In general I will say you can live comfortably in the Capital or anywhere else in Guatemala for the equivalent of a average social security check which is 1,400 to1,500USD per month. Me  I can live on much less and save money and build up savings and money for travel on the weekends and whatever else.

The big budget buster will be if you hang out in bars every night and or eat out every night but in gringo type places then you pay the same as in the USA or close to it but many gringos do and enjoy it but can end up spending more here than if they were in the States. 

Things like deluxe cable can cost 100 or 120 a month to but those aren't my cup of tea, for like 40 bucks you can get an internet package and cable that includes a lot of channels but not sports channels or things like that, usually that's pay per view or extra.

So to conclude, you can live on 500 to 600USD if you live a simple life and if you enjoy that kind of lifestyle you can live cheap here but you will have to be flexible.

If you want a more exciting lifestyle then it will cost you more but not much more than say 1500USD but you will live well and in the more upper end of neighborhoods. It all depends on your specific needs and desires and wants. 

Bitcoin trading alert, 02/26/2021

 Here is the days trading opportunity for buying or selling Bitcoin.

This is only for traders, not long term buy and holders. Buy at 44,000 and sell at 54,000 USD per coin.

I would take a bigger position on the buy and sell it at the top end of the range or short a really small amount for a short time frame duration. I would have a tight stop loss if i was shorting too.

Good luck out their.

The crypto crash continues.

 The crypto crash continues.

The crypto crash continues, yesterday we got a little bounce in Bitcoin and Ethereum and other crypto currencies but tonight prices are down again from 8to 12% or more depending on the crypto currency.

Today we got a stimulus package from the Biden administration and it didn't seem to move the crypto currencies much or Bitcoin, except in a downward way.

If I had to guess it might be a possibility that this maybe the beginning of a 30% to 50% correction in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices and bigger moves down in the broad crypto currency space. Even though I think this might be the beginning of a Bitcoin bear market it still seems possible we will see more stimulus from Congress or the Fed that might propel Bitcoin and other crypto currencies higher, only time will tell.

We live in such unprecedented times its hard to tell if this is the beginning of a bubble or a bubble getting ready to burst, I lean towards the beginning of a great big reflation of most assets including Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Go here for the video

Crypto crash continues. |Bitcoin|

 The crypto crash continues. 

Bitcoin and other crypto prices are down from there most recent highs, and Bitcoin is trading at 48,000 and got as low 46,000 in todays trading. ETH went from 1,500 USD to 1400 to 1510 USD in todays trading.

The high for Bitcoin I think close to 60,000 USD in last weeks trading and I expect Bitcoin to trade down to 42,000 or somewhere in that range and now may be a good time to add to your Bitcoin stack if you haven't bought already.

I will average in today in ETH and if ETH trades down to1200 add a bigger chunk to my stack as I expect ETH to continue to out perform Bitcoin in the short term. I don't believe we are anywhere near the end of this bubble or bull market in crypto prices or Bitcoin or ETH in the medium term.

I will use this downturn to keep adding to my holding and then in the blow off stage may take my profits and buy gold or maybe a little silver too.

Here is the video if you like a video version of these comments or just want to see the You Tube channel. 

Is really scary hyperinflation coming? Jason Stapleton says yes.

 Is really scary hyperinflation coming? Jason Stapleton says yes.

Jason Stapleton says yes there is the possibility and its higher than ever. Jason has a You Tube channel called Wealth Power and Influence. Their he talks about marketing and sales and how to start a business, but todays episode was about the possible coming of hyper inflation and how to deal with it and how it could tear society apart.

My view is we will have mass inflation in the neighborhood of 10% to 12%, but not hyperinflation. His view seems to be we will have hyperinflation then a big deflation which is my view too. He seems to think at the end of all this the Fed will raise interest rates, years down the road and crush the share markets and bond markets and thus destroy all pensions and values of even housing but time will tell.

His view seems to be the Fed is closer to running out of options and that as inflation rises it will destroy the economy and the powers that be will have to find a scapegoat and start some kind blame game that could lead to hardship for everyone.

His solutions to protecting yourself are not the usual buy gold and silver and Bitcoin but he does mentions those options and how they can help you endure the coming hardships.

His biggest take away is starting a business and having an income that you can take anywhere including offshore. He seems to think not all countries will experience hyperinflation just some.

So if you can move outside your country of birth or at least to a small town you will be better off.

His other take away is having skills you can use to earn income anywhere on the planet because it may come to that.

Here is the video if you want to see it. 

Here is my video and remarks on what I see going forward.

Demand for gold is down 2021 "India"

 In my previous article on why gold is in a bear market, I stated mostly its because of higher interest rates. Higher interest rates creates lower demand for gold and in 2020 one of the biggest buyers of gold, "India" we can see the demand for gold is down, 42% as compared to last year.

Gold demand was at 315 tons in 2020 for India as compared to 544 tons in 2019. So with corona virus and the lockdowns in India the demand for gold buying by fathers of brides in India we can see why gold is trending down.

I also believe because of rising interest rates we will continue to see demand for gold as a safe haven go down. I think in late Fall we may see a reversal but time will tell.

Here in a link to the article on gold demand in India

For the video version of these comments go here.

Is the price of gold predicting a bear market in shares?

 Is the price of gold predicting a bear market in shares?

The price of gold from August, 2020 hit about 2075.00 USD per ounce and sense then has slowly trended down sense then and the entirety of 2021. At the same time interest rates have been ticking up, the 10 year treasury has gone from about .5% to now 1.3% Today people are predicting a crash in share prices and suggesting the share markets are overvalued.

Some prognosticators are suggesting that the price of gold is in a downward trend and suggesting this will bleed into the share markets and lead to a correction in share prices or a crash. The price of gold is down about 15% sense its most recent high in August 2020.

Will we see a correction in share prices in 2021? 

I don't think so, that's the short answer. While its true the markets are over priced by traditional parameters this time I believe we have a ways to go before we see a market correction in the price of shares.

I believe the reason the price of gold is correcting is because interest rates are trending up, and the reason interest rates are trending up is because the economy is reflating and causing the bond market to reprice interest rates at a higher level.

I think if we do see a correction in share prices it will come closer to Fall and if we see a slow down in economic growth then we will see shares crumble down and then see the Fed intervene in the economy visa vee lower interest rates or more likely more money printing and the Fed will put pressure on congress to do more stimulus programs to get the economy growing again.

I believe the resent stimulus program being proposed by the Biden administration will propel share prices higher and around the world share prices will rally.

I think the soonest we may see a correction is early Fall but even if we do get a correction I see the Fed intervening to bail everyone out so I will expect rising share prices from a lower level than today and then it will spill over into the price of gold.

In the end we might be witnessing the biggest bubble in modern history, and the only asset that is not really in a bubble today is gold and other commodities such as oil, silver, of course gold and maybe Bitcoin.

When we finally see pressure on the Fed to stop bailing out banks and the establishment then we will see the final crash in asset prices such as shares, gold, commodities ect and maybe even Bitcoin, until then I expect the bubble in shares to trend up with possible selloffs of 15% or less like we are seeing in gold right now.

Go here for a video version of these comments.

Why is gold in a bear market? 2021?

Why is gold in a bear market 2021?

I want to make a comment on gold and why its down 15% from its peak in August 2020 high of 2075.00USD per ounce. 

I believe the answer lies in interest rates. As interest rates on the 10 year treasury bond hit a low of .4% to .55 back in August of 2020, gold was at 2075.00 per ounce. As of today 18/02/2021 the ten year treasury is yielding 1.3%.

I believe interest rates and the price of gold are inversely correlated. So as interest rates go down the price of gold goes up and as rates rise and the economy grows or reflates gold goes down.

As of now the share markets of the world are at all time highs and going higher so I expect interest rates to continue going up and the price of gold to trend down.

I expect the price of commodities to continue going up priced in dollars and the USD to continue going down.

I expect Tech shares as well as Bitcoin to continue going up, and most of the worlds shares markets will continue going up and being overvalued for the time being.

I believe the reason for golds downward trend is its viewed as a currency and when the worlds economies go up as well as share markets and interest rates gold usually goes down.

As we have seen in the recent past gold and the USD can rally together at the same time. I expect by the end of the summer to late Fall we will see a correction in markets interest rates and then another financial panic and the worlds Central Banks will reflate there currencies to re avert a recession depression thereby causing a panic into USD Dollars and Gold and the bull market in gold will continue.

So to recap as long as growth continues in the Western World we will see gold trend down as well as the USD and Bitcoin and shares of the developing world and the Western World go up. Intel we get another panic I think this will continue. I believe by late Summer or Fall we will get another panic into the USD dollar then Gold will shine again.

Go here for video 

The Great Reset 2020

Is this the Great Reset?

For a few months now I have been seeing videos on what YouTube bloggers have called the Great Reset. Many bloggers describe the Great Rest as the beginning of a mass inflation and or the beginning of a big clampdown on people's personal freedoms and liberties.

For example with the resent start of CoronaVirus some countries like Australia have started a policy of not letting there citizens not leave the country for a year or two or until the authorities decide they can leave, basically treating people as serfs or slaves, I didn't confirm this but read it in the press and did the best I could to try to confirm it. So that's my limited understanding of the situation there. 

There have been many lockdowns in Europe the United States or partial lockdowns in the States California and New York being the most famous of these.

To pay for the destruction of all the business going under there have been big bailouts of big business and in some cases unemployment and special programs for smaller business. 

There was no rise in taxes to pay for all this, mostly it was paid for by rising deficits and money printing, this happened in the E.U.. The United States,and New Zealand, Australia ect.

With all this happening there have been many bloggers suggesting this is the Great reset. 

So far this money printing has not led to hyperinflation or a collapse in the economy, it has lead mostly to recession and briefly a depression which it seems like we are coming out of.

My view is we will remerge into a recession and eventually more inflation. As the world economy slows down the E.U and North America and Japan ect will panic and try to coordinate some kind of worldwide bailout by reinflating their currencies to try to get their economies going again.

My view is there may be a short term rally in the USD but so far the US dollar has been weak, now trading at 1.20 to 1.21 to the USD.

Many emerging market currencies are declining against the USD but one that has been rallying is the MXN or Mexican Peso. That's signaling to me inflation is in the pipeline in the USA.

As of today the price of gold has been trending down from over 2,000 per ounce to just around 1,800 per ounce, I dont believe gold will rally intel the E.U. and the U.S. gets big bailouts thru there respective political process and that may be why gold is trending down. 

Bitcoin and Tech shares meanwhile have been on a tare to the upside. Bitcoins trading between 20,000 to 18,000 per coin.

There has been talk of the Central Bank of Switzerland taking its currency down and buying Apple shares, It has been seen as a way for Central Banks to retain purchasing power of there treasuries without holding gold or as a compliment to gold, we may see Central Banks holding Bitcoin for the same reasons.

My view is we will see slowing economies, rising unemployment and more pressure on governments to do something and that something is deficit spending and money printing and the issuing of their own Central Bank Digital currencies. The Fed has written papers on how they may go about doing this, if you can't fall asleep just read the papers!

Here is my video on my views and some possible ways to protect your savings.

Should you buy gold coins now in 2020, with prices at 1900 and above?

 Idealy you should have bought years ago at 900USD per ounce or even lower when the prices were at 350.00 USD an ounce. 

The question now is it to late to buy gold coins? I think if you answer yes to these questions then you should buy gold coins now and protect yourself from the coming USD devaluation. 

What are the questions?

1. The USD is not to be trusted now that we are not on a gold standard or any other standard and the Fed can manipulate its price to bail out its cronies.

2. The Government is not to be trusted. You get the picture.

3.My retirement plan is secure, most arent and are based on pipe dreams and unlimited stock market gains.

4. The Fed is not to be trusted. 

5. The long term outlook is darkening.

6. The worst is behind us.

Gold is the best way to hedge against all these problems. To hedge against all these problems would take to much gold so I suggest 20% or max 25%.

Its unpleasnat to watch the gold price go up. To buy gold means your looking at things realistically and that can be unpleasant and go against the trend of what most people do.

My view is its tough to buy gold, its not like shares or bonds where most people buy, its unconventional so most people dont have the stomach to buy. If your stomach is churning at our most recent reactions to covid19, where the Fed increased the money supply to bailout the financial elites then id buy and buy wherever the price is but if your disiplined buy at the low end of the range,

Buy the best take delivery and pay cash, thats the best way to do it.

If your in the States buy gold eagles, Canada buy Maple Leafs ect. Buy the gold coin thats minted from the country you live in, if thats not posible buy Eagles or Sovereigns, or Kruggerands.

If you procrastinate, then buy when you can or when your stomach is churning.

How to survive and prosper in the new politcal envirenment,2020

 In the past I read books like Harry Browns the coming devalutaion and Doug Casey,s Crisis Investing, That was years ago and in the eighties.

In those books it was suggested to open a bank account offshore in Switzerland or Austria or even the Bahamas or Caymans, or sometimes Isle of Man or Channel Islands, does anyone remember Sark?

Anyways the days when an American could easily open a bank account and have strict bank secrecy have been over for years so that option is out.

The other advice in those books would usually be use said offshore account to accumulate gold silver and hard currencies like the Swiss Franc or Dutch Gilder or even the Austrian Shilling, with the exception of the Swiss Franc those currencies dont excist and have been folded into the Euro and now days the Euro and Swiss franc have the same central bank policy of devaluing the currency over time and or in a coordinated fasion.

Under some cercumstanses you can still open up an offshore account and buy gold and silver but its easier now just to open up a goldmoney.com account or an account with bullionvault. Both are offshore for Americans and both have easy sign up procedures and vaults of gold and silver that is audited and allocated. So its one option of storing wealth offshore in gold and avoideding potential wealth taxes that may soon be coming our way.

Then the other suggestion in those books would be to have a residency offshore usually in Europe or sometimes in Latin America, or the carrebean.

Those options are still available but more expencive than ever and are harder to set up as there are many new requirements that are time consuming and in some cases many Americans cant meet. As an example many countries need a FBI background check, which is ok if you havent been convicted of anything but if you smoked weed or got a DUI you cant immigrate easily to some countries with those things on your record. There are still options if you have that problem but there mostly in Latin America but the window is closing or already closed for some, so get in if thats what you walue.

The way I see it to survive and prosper in these new polital envirenment you will need a residency in Latin America if things get to interesting in the United States or Canada, or wherever you live. As the welfare state comes unglued the state will start taxing more wealth in the form of pension assets and just plain old wealth taxes not to mention the inflation tax.

So to that end I would have a residency or a place I can retire to in South America, Paraguay has a relitively easy process to get residency. Then you can live work and play and continue working on your online business there. Panama has another residency package that many are taking advantage of but its not always leading to a passport, but maybe will work for you.

The second thing to consider is getting some of your savings either offshore or out of your local jusrisdiction. A simple offshore account can do that but in many places if you dont have residency they wont open the account or require an opening balance that is in the six figueres or even higher, if you cant meet that requirement your not welcome to bank there. So as I said bullionvault.com isnt strictly speaking a bank account but its offshore there vaults are in different parts of the world and your gold will be allocated and audited and you can protect your saving from currency devaluation.

If thats not an option consider an LLC set up in your jusrisdiction of choice those can come in handy and are easier to set up.

The next thing to think about is how you earn your living. We live in a world where traditional ways of working are coming to an end, I mean working in an office or in a manufactering plant. Most of those jobs are being outsourced to lower wage countries and soon those kind of jobs will be gone.

I suggest working for yourself as a contractor or starting an online service business. Or start selling and earning commisions either online or on the phone and have the commisions paid to your offshore LLC or SA company.

I say all this because its never been easier to work online and now with corona virus many companies will want you to work online for them anyways so you can live anywhere in the country or outside your country of birth.

I want to talk about crypto currency. I see it as not money but a new tech. As such you may want to consider speculationg in it. Bitcoin can be stored on a wallet and hidden away from inflation, wealth taxes and if you ever need to leave the country you can have your cold wallet or trezor hidden away and safely move a portion of cash or wealth quietly to where ever you decide to start all over in.

So if the developing world of defi assets intrest you check it out. I think it will change the world forever and bring more liberty to people all over the world.

Another strategy to consider if your single and can earn income online or on the phone consulting is the P.T. lifestyle. I wont describe it in to much detail because it can mean different things to different people.

Basically you have a bank account or business in one or multipe juristictions then a residency in another and various playgrounds you hang out in, so as not to be a tax resident. If you can get a second passport or residency its easier to live tax free without breking any laws.

In my case I like residency in Latin America then spending part of the year in Canada or the States hiking and or doing other business  projects, then spending another chunk in Asia, like the Philippines or Thailand or wherever. Then its back to the residency country.

Now its easy to live that lifestyle or it was before corona virus but if you have said second passport or residency its still pretty easy.

Even without a residency you can live part of the year in Mexico where its cheap to live and they have nice beach resorts and colonial towns to beat the heat, and then its easy to get a tourist visa and then you can leave for your home country and come back or continue on to Central America or Asia.

Its never been easier to make money in different countries too so you dont really need as much money as you think. One of my friends she used to home sit houses all over the world so she would make a small amount of money online which she built up over time and in some cases she got paid to house sit.

She had many opportunites like that and over the years built her income up from her online activities she gave it up and just pays rent, but rent can be your biggest expence and if you can get it to zero then you dont need much to survive out there just an internet connection and money to buy food and in many countries an airbnb will be 250 USD and food 200 USD and 100 USD for everything else and thats under 600USD and if you can live like that and enjoy your life and then build up your assets and business,s thats one option.