#605 – The Expat Files: Gold, Silver, and Life in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wander Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right. Let's start with an update on buying gold and silver down here in Latin America You know so many emails come in for me saying Johnny have some gold and silver up in the states I'd like to bring it down with me But I know people are having problems getting it through airports and borders these days

[00:47] Even though you should be able to just walk it through especially since the face value on certain one ounce government minted coins is 50 bucks And the smaller coins like half ounce quarter ounce, etc Have very small dollar values stamped on them compared to the spot price, too Still people get stressed and can possibly have a severe case of the nerves when walking through airports and borders with the stuff So if the US government and the Canadian government are stamping out new gold coins that say 50 bucks on them One should be able to carry and walk up to 200 of those coins across any border Without having to report them on that little customs declaration sheet you get every time you fly You know where it says on that sheet if you're carrying instruments worth over $10,000

[01:34] You must list them here under penalty of confiscation And by the way, that goes for most foreign countries to including third world Latin countries You have to report if you're bringing out more than 10,000 bucks in what they call negotiable instruments Now they don't care what you bring into the country as far as negotiable instruments They want your wealth to be in their country, you know Why not that would be to any country's advantage and why if you can prove a monthly income from a foreign source? You can skip temporary residency and go right to permanent residency Yes countries want you to bring your money in but not take it out And if you have a lot of gold and silver the question always is what if you decide to carry 50 100 200 even 500 ounces of gold out at one time

[02:20] Well, if you don't write it on the customs form, they'll stop you question you and probably take it And you'll never get it back unless you go to court and then you still might not but what if you were dead honest and wrote Exactly what you were carrying on the customs form Well chances are they'll pull you into a side room and ask you all kinds of questions Because you know what a feather in the head it would be for a lowly customs agent to confiscate a big hoard like that It's a way for a government slug to get promoted, right? Unfortunately, they'll assume you're guilty until proven innocent and even in the best case if you're carrying a lot of gold Be prepared to miss your flight and probably call your lawyer So although you've always at least till now I've had a good case a very good case in claiming that gold and silver

[03:06] Coins not bullion now should pass through as the face value that stamped right on them For example the gold coins from the US and Canada that have a dollar monetary value stamped right on them Though really a small fraction of the spot price you could sell them for at the moment Still for example if the US and Canadian government want to stamp one ounce gold coins at $50 that way That should technically be the declared value as you bring them through borders even though the spot price is well over a grand So what then if you get pulled aside at an airport and the customs agent tries to assess the value of your gold at today's spot price Now I don't know of anyone who's actually been in that pickle yet, but the day is coming. We're gonna see that

[03:53] I'm sure and believe me. You don't want to be the one they pull that on you don't want to be the test case I'm certain it won't be long now before stories like that start trickling in as for my recommendation Take it or leave it I'd say the most you'd want to walk through a border talking about gold now is maybe 10 ounces and to be safe Do put on that customs form you have coins with a face value of 500 bucks. I must emphasize here I wouldn't put gold on that form. I would just say coins Then you're covered and how do I know that well? I've done it in fact a number of times and no one's ever messed with me Carry them in a coin roll and stick them in a little plastic tray when I'm walking through the metal detector and no one ever Said a thing ever now sometime ago

[04:38] I was with a guy who was carrying an awful lot of gold and platinum a mix of coins ingots and bullion He flew out with it from the States to Europe through a number of countries he had it in a small fishing tackle box that never left his side didn't even have a lock on it a total of over 300 ounces and no one at customs at any of those airports ever blinked. I was there I saw it, but that was before 9-11 back then customs guys were friendly today Overly suspicious so bottom line if you have a lot of gold and silver up in the states I'd say your safest bet is to liquidate all your silver It's way too heavy to bring down and if you're coming to Latin America and not planning on returning to the states Liquidate all of your gold except maybe 10 ounces and make sure those ounces are u.s

[05:27] Sand or Canadian coins because they have the dollar figure stamped on them And I'd advise not to bring any gold bullion down You know ingots and stuff because then customs and those TSA pinheads Can hold you up and screw around with you as much as they want if you have bullion in that coins you can't very well Say you're going to a coin show which again is why you should always bring down your gold in coin Then if quizzed it makes sense to say you're doing the rounds at the coin shows So I repeat stick with gold coins that have a dollar value stamped on them from the US for Canada That said there are some new developments on the gold and precious metal front here in Latin America People always ask me where they can buy gold and precious metals down here They want to know if they can buy this stuff the same way

[06:15] They can buy it in the states at pawn shops and on the net well just this week I've been checking around in a couple of Latin American countries to find where you can actually go down to a physical place and Buy some gold and silver and coin or ring it just like you can up in the states And here's what I found first of all I investigated six Latin countries Costa Rica Guatemala Mexico Panama Colombia and Brazil and here's what I found except for Brazil There was other five Latin countries have at least a handful of places in their larger cities that buy and sell gold and silver and platinum etc including junk jewelry and Precious metal bars and coins and most all these places have a website too in fact You can find some of them on my favorite Latin buy-and-sell website Olx.com of course remember that site's all in Spanish now note that throughout Latin America

[07:05] There's hardly any market for the locals to buy gold silver coins and bars and ingots However since every Latin country once was on the gold or silver standard. There is a somewhat lively Newsmismatic group of individuals who are into coin collecting so these same shops that handle jewelry and panel collectible coins Too a good percentage of them do anyway now remember Peru and Mexico were huge suppliers of gold and silver During the colonial days in fact that's why Columbus and his boys Game to rape and pillage in the name of King Country Jesus and gold in fact It's been claimed that half of the world's gold and silver that exists today came from Central and South America Which is why it was so easy and profitable for Latin countries to produce their own gold and silver coins for hundreds of years

[07:56] In fact I run into Latins all the time mostly a little bit wealthier lands who have rings or pendants or bracelets That have beautiful old gold and silver coins and such in settings And they're not any coins that you and I would recognize they're from Latin countries minted many decades ago But there are a lot of them still around so like I said, there's a pretty active newsmismatic society throughout Latin America specializing in these old gold and silver relics and many of these places are now buying and selling some of the more popular Gold silver and platinum and palladium ingots the common ones we all know that are minted from around the world Okay, so I checked some of these different websites out in those six countries I mentioned and they're all in Spanish of course and I visited a few hole-in-the-wall jewelry shops that buy and sell gold, too

[08:44] And here's what I discovered I was theoretically looking to buy a one ounce gold Canadian maple leaf a one ounce gold American eagle and a one ounce Chinese panda and for those of you listeners who aren't to that those are three very very common and well-known and easily identified Gold denominations, which is exactly what you want to have You want to be able to walk into a jewelry store or some kind of market? I mean you show the person behind the window that thing They're gonna recognize it immediately and know that it's real and what its value is So first to start this analysis I went to a number of gold and silver bullion dealers on the internet that operate out of the states And I found out on that day in question I could buy any one of those three one ounce gold coins for $1,325 to

[09:30] $1,375 that was the spread now we're talking about US bullion dealers You can order on the internet and they'll ship it right to your house if you're in the states in Canada And I checked with a few well-known US pawn shops, too And their prices were in the same range though slightly higher by about 5 to 15 bucks No big deal So what I'm saying is if I was sitting in Cleveland that day and I wanted to buy a one ounce gold panda a one ounce Gold eagle from the states or a one ounce maple leaf from Canada I could order it from an internet company in the states and pay anywhere from $1,325 to $1,375 or go down to my local friendly pawn shop and pay five to fifteen bucks more now remember If you buy any gold silver or precious metal coins in the states

[10:17] You're gonna get on a government list the seller the internet company or a pawn shop will give up your name your social security The amount of your purchase and all that you know that is the frickin law in the states now And why is that well all the better to track and confiscate your stuff in the future my friend Yep, if you remember there's an IRS form 8300 you have to use if you're buying bullion or coins and Form 1099 be if you're selling bullion or coin and that stuff You know is not at all on the menu here in Latin America No, such reporting requirements exist down here in any Latin country which makes that reason number 2476 why it's a very very good idea to get that plan B going and come on down At least get something going down here in Latin America as you prepare for the worst up where you live

[11:08] But I digress as usual however up in the states there are some interesting and cool Exceptions to those reporting requirements actually it's a bit complicated. I'm not gonna go over it right now It'll take too long but if you want to know exactly what metals purchases you have to report and Those you can buy and sell and get around that requirement Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And I'll send you a link to an article that tells all and of course I'll be talking about that in much more detail at my January 2017 expat insider seminar in Central America By the way this show first goes out on October 23rd And that means you've only got one more week to sign up for this seminar and still get the early bird discount rate Remember if you sign up by November 1st you get a $500 discount per person

[11:58] That's already built into the price on the signup page at www.thenewexpet.com Once there of course you click on Johnny's 2017 seminar link at the top of the page to find out all about it now I'm more than three quarters filled at that seminar, but there are some spots left So don't procrastinate and get the discount, but where were we? Oh, yeah talking about buying gold down here in Latin America Anyway, like I said I recommend if you have silver liquidated all up in the states And if you have gold coins you could walk up to 10 ounces through without much trouble at all Like I said, I've done it a number of times However, if you have a lot more than that, I suggest again liquidating And since there is a premium on gold coins right now, you'll probably get the spot price or even a little better Then when you get down here to Latin America as many listeners are wondering where can you buy that gold or silver again?

[12:50] Well, like I said, I just checked out six countries and with the gold spot price today being at around 1,290 bucks and US gold dealers selling one ounce cougarands pandas and US one ounce eagles from 1,325 to 1,375 which is about a three to six percent mark up on the spot price Well as it turns out in all those latin countries, I just mentioned except brazil you can buy those same coins for around 1400 bucks which comes in around an eight percent mark up over spot So you've got a three to five percent mark up if you buy them in the states and an eight percent If you buy them down here in latin america, that's the situation right now and you'll have to decide for yourself Which way you're going to go on that personally, I wouldn't quibble about a few points because there's huge upside with gold and silver

[13:39] And very little downside, but you know that already, right? Now again, these gold and silver coin and bullion dealers down here have their websites in spanish So you'll have to maneuver your way around that too So then what about brazil? Well, you can buy gold and silver and metals there But they'll tax the living crap out of you meaning retail prices can be more than 50 percent of spot price Did you know brazil and argentina have some of the highest world gold prices? In fact one guy from argentina writes me that they're charging 1700 us dollars for the latest iphone Which is why brazilians and argentinos with money who have the means to fly in and out of the country once in a while Smuggle in as many iphone and android products as they possibly can turns out the grand black market in electronics is huge in both

[14:31] Those countries by the way in 2013 president fernandas of argentina banned gold sales completely in that country Man now that sucks, huh? And though restrictions have been lifted somewhat If you enter argentino, you have to report all the gold you have on you now I don't know if that includes jewelry But all you have to do is check out the argentine government website where it says customs currency airport tax regulations, etc You'll see right there. It says gold must be declared. It doesn't say anything about silver platinum or palladium though Yet another reason to cross argentino off your expat list What is doug hacy thinking, huh? By the way, I mentioned brazil's crazy and medieval tax codes, which are even worse than the us if that could be possible

[15:18] No one not even professional tax accountants in that country can understand even a fraction of it sound familiar But they will tell you that brazil has an average 60% import tax on electronics items. So although argentina's Electronics items import tax is much lower. They nickel and dime it to death on other little auxiliary taxes So in the end, it's about the same 60 percent just like brazil That said if you need any more good reasons why you should be crossing brazil and argentino off your plan b expat list Just let me know and i'll give you some more bad news about those two countries Again, my apologies to doug hacy and his elite rich man's group Who continuously bombard people with the idea of living in a million dollar expat subdivision in argentina

[16:06] But you know if you're rich you can live anywhere you want and the prices won't bother you Or maybe they will since counting pennies is a way some people get rich In fact as a child, I remember my german mother saying johnny If you watch your pennies, they will turn into dollars which begs the question How many you listeners out there consider yourself rich dollar wise i'd say maybe five 10 percent at most And the rest of us well, we do have a budget and have to watch our expenses, right? By the way expat eddie and I had a discussion like that not so long ago He's nubo rich worth a few million now But still wears pieces from his old wardrobe the old indiana jones bomber jacket that his girlfriend hates so much Nope money hasn't changed expat eddie. That's for sure

[16:51] And I said eddie now that you can live anywhere in the world you want and not really care about the prices Where would be your picks and eddie said well i'm not that motivated to move I like it exactly where i'm living now, but if I had the money I have now and was starting from scratch I'd still live in the altiplano in central america And maybe just maybe i'd have a place somewhere in south america. Maybe chili argentina Because I used to be a snow skier he said and down there they've got the four seasons But he said I can only take the snow in the cold a couple of weeks a year. That'd be enough So eddie who could afford to live anywhere said he'd do pretty much what he's doing right now Then he added johnny to tell you the truth. I never want to step foot in the us again

[17:36] But my girlfriend keeps pushing. She wants to go to nova york and orlando and my jammy And johnny, you know what i'm running out of excuses Seems like a common gringo refrain down here in latin america gringo expats especially long-term gringo expats Just don't go back unless they absolutely have to funerals business legal stuff Those are about the only good reasons long-term and gringos have for going back to los estados Well as one cynical expat put it the land of the freaks and the home of the slaves Tax slaves that is So what would you do if you had all the money in the world and I know most of us aren't in that position Instead we're actively looking for that plan b to preserve our assets and our lifestyles

[18:22] By the way, you know, I got a lot of emails from people saying they absolutely love to come to one of my expat insider seminars And you know as things get progressively worse up in the first world I don't know how long I can keep doing these things In fact after the election all bets are off if hillary wins We can expect more loss of freedoms and ever more tightening of the screws and if trump wins chaos will certainly ensue Though the can will get kicked down the road a couple more months. I'm sure So yes, the freight train is heading towards the cliff So it doesn't really matter who gets in there'll be a catastrophic tipping point and it'll be like hitting the societal reset button The question is are you ready? Do you have your plan be going? Hope you do the clock is ticking though Okay, moving on i've had some emails lately from people who are avid bikers

[19:11] That would be bicyclists and to call them avid would be an understatement since some of these emailers are talking about bringing down Their three to five thousand dollar bicycles. So is that a good idea? Is that wise? Well, if that's what you're into though, there are a few things you should know Anyway, these listeners they're wondering how safe it is to bike And if there are nice delineated bike trails like up in the states and more to the point Do they have first world style bicycle shops and repair places cycling clubs to join and such? First let's talk about whether you should bring that expensive bike down. I say yes by all means Disassemble it box it up and bring it down with you when you fly Bring it through as an extra piece of luggage. Don't ship it

[19:57] At the most it'll only cost you 50 bucks as a third or fourth bag Now about exotic bike parts and bike shops, etc. Yes, they've got all that I've seen any number of high-end bike shops, and I really don't know how they stay in business I never see anyone buying anything there who knows with 300 a month labor down here Maybe they only need to sell one of those three thousand dollar bikes a month to make their nut But it's true. You can get all the high-end brands down here and the parts Hey, not my cup of tea I have a standard cheapo bike that I paid around a hundred bucks for new made down here in latin america You know practically every latin country has its own bike manufacturing plant or two with its own local brand name You know when things are made or produced within a latin country, they always stick the word national after it

[20:47] So, you know, it wasn't imported but made or produced locally In other ways when you see a bike for sale and olx or wherever and it says basically the national That means it's a local bike made in a local factory same with food For example, if you see aguacate national, that means it's an avocado that was produced within the country By the way, it's a good thing that bikes are made here in latin america for one thing They're very inexpensive compared to the imports Of course down here as in the rest of the world bikes do get ripped off a lot Yep, you'll have to be vigilant. So where do you put a bike that's worth three to five grand? Well, if I had one i'd build a wing in my house for it Now as far as bike trails and marked off bike paths. Yes, they're all over the place here in latin america

[21:33] Especially in wealthy high-end suburbs Which by the way is about the only place you'll ever see a bike on one of those trails None of the locals really respect the space marked off by the lines In fact, they don't even know why they're there The population being totally unused to seeing marked off bike trails that stuff just didn't exist down here three or four years ago So again, it's a lag time thing coming directly from the first world Some local gringo wannabe politician or bigwig trying to spiff up and gringoize his neighborhood, whatever And yes, the high-end bike stores sell bike paraphernalia and gaudy fluorescent biking clothes And the people who buy that stuff stand out like sore thumbs and everyone knows they have money It's like wearing expensive jewelry and to them that's the point. That's just how they want to come off

[22:20] Which is counter to one of our prime expat rules for living down here You should try to blend in not stick out So if you're out on this sunday, which is everyone's day off and you'll see bike riders and groups like that In their spiffy first world uniforms, you'll instantly be able to spot the color coordinated gringo wannabes So in a nutshell, yes They have bikes bikes of all kinds and bike trails and bike paths that no one respects In fact, i've seen a number of these marked off bike trails in big cities That were eventually crowded out and taken over by street vendors in their little kiosks Yep, the low-end vendors eventually moved in because there were virtually no bikes on the bike trail to show them what those Delineated lines were even for but note if you live in a gated guarded community

[23:07] You'll have plenty of nice scenic biking by the way There are always Sanctioned bicycle racing events a couple times a year where they block off roads and piss off all the people in cars Wore shed on weekends in nice neighborhoods You just might spot a car full of bodyguards Trailing a pretentious jerk or two decked out in matching fluorescence on their three thousand dollar bikes again infuriating people in cars Who are trying to get somewhere now speaking of the general public the average middle class or lower middle class latin family? Of course have some kids and they always want bikes But unfortunately here in latin america not all parents can afford them In fact as it turns out only about one in four latin kids has had a bike when you think about it It's kind of sad and why I think it's a great idea for you

[23:55] Gringos who have cleaning ladies and maintenance guys and such when you're thinking of christmas and birthdays and gift giving You really can't do better or create more pleasure Than to give a poor kid a bike because you see it's those cleaning ladies and maintenance guys who have families of kids That can't afford it even a used rusted kind of mangled little bike is well appreciated in poor neighborhoods By the way, there are used bikes for sale all over the place here, too And in fact, there are a lot of small little neighborhood bike repair shops that don't cater at all to the fluorescent matching tights Graphite frame high-end biking crowd those little scruffy hole-in-the-wall bike repair shops Well, they exist so the average guy can keep his bike patched together So that it can get handed down to every last member of the family and maybe the grandkids too

[24:45] Because you see bikes down here are patched and welded and duct taped They're reinforced with bondo and chicken wire the same treatment middle-class latins give their motorcycles and their cars You see in latin society people don't throw things away Everything's got nine lives So bottom line if you want to give a gift that keeps on giving Give one of the kids in the neighborhood a bike and while you're at it throwing a nice sturdy bike lock Too because if not the thing will get stolen. All right changing gears again people are asking about netflix here in latin america Yep, you can get it You just subscribe as usual In fact, I just spoke to a latin dentist the other day and he says he has it and pays around 10 bucks a month Does that sound right? I don't know. I don't subscribe that said anything you can get on the internet up in the states

[25:32] You can get down here, too Although sometimes when you're doing searches You'll get a little pop-up window that says this program downloader video is not available in the country that you're originating from Well, you should never let that stop you from achieving your goal The solution just get an ip changer a lot of free ones out there, too And once you've hooked up with an ip changer They'll actually let you pick the country you want your ip address to appear to be coming from So if you get blocked with a pop-up window like that just do a search on your browser for ip changers Click in select your country and redo your search. In fact, i'd say I probably get one of those messages at least once a week But that never stops me. I have an ip changer Well, it's that time again. We're getting towards the end of the show

[26:19] Hey, you know so many listeners these days are thinking about and talking about their plan b By the way, how far along are you? Of course, a lot of people are on the fence and others They just can't swing coming down to one of my expat insider seminars Not right now Anyway, could be the money could be just can't get the time off work or break away from that treadmill Whatever, perhaps you can't get away not even for a week But all is not lost. You can still move forward with your plan b right from where you are by going to www expat plan b.com where you'll be able to check out my new expat essentials course There's 35 videos with over nine hours of content all designed to help you get your plan b rolling From right up there in the states You know people have been asking me to put something like this together for a long long time

[27:08] And finally here it is. So just go to www.expatplanb.com that's where you'll be able to check out my three videos explaining everything you need to know about the program and finally don't forget to go to my youtube channel That's youtube slash the expat files. All one word It's where you'll get to see the slides and the photos that go along with the show Do subscribe it's free south of the border This is the expat files living in latin america If you want me to help you out with your own plan b just schedule a one-on-one consult Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to learn how to move forward with your own plan b from right up there in the states go to www.expatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos