#943 – The Expat Files: Investing in Crypto, Gold, and Preparing for Uncertain Times

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 out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat 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 You know with this coronavirus thing. I've been getting a deluge of emails So some of them kind of panicky and lately I've been getting a ton of emails about what to do How to invest and a lot of are very interesting indeed because you know some very very smart people

[00:47] Including a lot of geeks and nerds listen to this show. They've created the technical world Reliving, you know and they like to tell me things they're on the cutting edge and we're not and as you longtime listeners No, I was talking about this thing called Bitcoin when it was well under a thousand bucks In fact, I think I first mentioned it on this show when it was around 200 bucks And from then on every time I held an expat insider seminar and introduced the folks to our Bitcoin guys Bitcoin Dan Oscar Miner and of course the famous Captain Mango Well because of those introductions people who weren't so tech inclined and felt way out of their element Investing in something that seems so incomprehensible and nerdish Well after coming to my seminar and listening to the Bitcoin guys and hooking up with them because you know, we all become friends That's what you get when you spend an entire week hanging with the group

[01:34] So after hearing the crypto guys presentations a good percentage of the attendees always jump in That's why so many of us are crypto guys now with many of them buying into Bitcoin very early getting in under a thousand bucks So let's get started today with some crypto related emails Focusing on crypto and other investments in times of crisis as usual I'll throw in my two cents wherever I feel like it whether you like it or not Our first email comes from Alvin like the chipmunk and he says Johnny. I'm 63 and of worth 40 years in technology I've been screwed financially by the IRS and the Fed not just once or twice either Would you believe five years in a row Bitcoin for me is payback time? Sure, I'd love to get paid in Bitcoin when I work

[02:22] But my employer is not gonna be on board with that So yeah, I cost average and trade my fiat every payday for more Bitcoin and Satoshi's Come into your August 2020 seminar to to hear what your crypto guys have to say Just one question Do you take Bitcoin or any of the altcoins as payment for the seminar or just soon to be toilet paper fiat? Alright Alvin to answer that yes Attendees can't pay for the seminar with any of the top five cryptos Of course, you can pay with the usual suspects to paypal Plastic and as you've described soon to be toilet paper fiat funny money Alright, then Alvin goes on to say Johnny I wonder how many people understand that when they buy cryptos with leverage or borrow money or take out a loan to buy cryptos like Bitcoin they're buying a

[03:11] Contract for the difference and not the real coins themselves new people in crypto really have to look out for that Try not to get sucked in like I was then he says as for me I've been burned a few times buying tokens and leverage contracts and wish I would have just stuck with the coins themselves I found there's so many other Crypto investors after the fact that if I would have just bought and held some of the top five or ten cryptos Especially Bitcoin itself if I would have put it in a hardware wallet like a treasure or nano ledger and walked away Just left it there like a static bank account. You only check the balance on once a year I would have been much better off than to trade like a crazy idiot this coin into that coin Leveraging this contract for that contract. I should have just bought the stuff and held it

[04:01] So that's my recommendation to everyone, especially those new into crypto However, if you're a real chance taker and you love speculating You can put maybe five percent of your net worth into that space and by all means buy with leverage But never put in more than you can afford to lose. All right, I'll then I'll go along with that Thankfully early on I didn't have much trust in the altcoins known as shit coins Though I know a lot of guys who didn't got burned like you and you know what? They all say pretty much the same thing. They should have stuck with Bitcoin Held firm and not move their positions around All right, then we got one from clem. Clem. He says dear johnny I know crypto gold and silver are the only things that are going to survive in this blowout No matter what the government says nor their idiot syncophants. Tell us on the bought and pay for nightly news

[04:53] Government talking heads and the financial guys will always spin it in their favor They'll tell us what we want to hear but they won't be able to completely hide the intrinsic fear underlying their bs and market sleight of hand and then johnny as with every crisis the government will chip away at our liberties and We'll let them in the name of security In the words of that monumental idiot former mayor of chicago ramammanuel worst mayor since harold, washington Never let a good crisis go to waste Actually, i'd like to tell you how I really feel about the guy but not here Suffice it to say he will get his turn in an orange jumpsuit Oh, and did you know that four out of the last seven illinois governors have gone to prison And people wonder why I never want to go back to the states

[05:39] By the way chicago's newly elected mayor lori lightfoot is chicago's first openly gay black female mayor Man, she ticked all the boxes on that one, huh? But I digress as usual. Where were we? Oh, yeah Back to our emailer who says I do have gold silver and crypto The question is johnny now that i'm on the right path I have another problem that no one seems to be addressing and I don't quite know what to do about it I recall on one of your previous shows last week You'd mentioned how a very big percentage of people are addicted to the news due to the corona virus Johnny i'm addicted to in a different way. Let me explain I've just become a member of the 21 million club. You know what that is It refers to the fact that there will only ever be

[06:25] 21 million bitcoins produced and I just became a member of that club I've got one whole bitcoin Took me a little over a year at 500 bucks a month or so chipping away at it But finally i've got one whole bitcoin at today's price around 6500 bucks. I should be happy I should be glad I should be elated But now i'm obsessed Bitcoin has literally ruined my life or so My wife says I feel like I can't go an hour without checking the bitcoin and shit coin prices By the way johnny, do you have any shit coins? I'm sure your listeners know exactly what those are too That would be every other cryptocurrency that came after bitcoin not including bitcoin. So johnny i'm obsessed I'm spending hours a day listening to cryptocurrency reports and learning more and more about the whole system

[07:15] In fact, I am thinking about getting to arbitrage and trading platforms now Which is an even deeper end of the pool and though i'm admittedly obsessed that doesn't mean i'm crazy or don't know what i'm talking about It's just that now that so many of us are stuck at home with all that time on our hands What else are we gonna do my advice in these crazy and uncertain times for everyone who's not into crypto yet Buy one bitcoin just one hold on and quit looking at the charts They call it hodling in the bitcoin world and never keep your crypto on an internet exchange Always have them in a hardware wallet like a treasure or nano ledger Have you heard the saying not your keys not your coins only crypto owners know what that means But it's all important and johnny as far as being obsessed with the crypto world

[08:02] My wife has started making fun of me in front of the kids And I don't like it much though I have to say the secondary effect of being obsessed with crypto news is that i've learned exactly how unstable and corrupt the traditional Financial system is stuff. I never would have found out if I hadn't stumbled into the crypto world So in the end my obsession that's made me much more aware of how fragile and perilous our financial system really is It's no coincidence that bitcoin was invented around 2008 right during the last big bailout It was intended as an antidote to the toxic fed corrupt politicians and banking system Manipulative wall street turds like jamie diamond and the banks and financial institutions. They work for like shitty bank and goldman sucks Hmm clem you do have a way with words, don't you?

[08:51] All right, then clem finishes up by saying just one more bit of advice johnny If your listeners can pull it off when you get that 1200 check use it to buy some bitcoin I firmly believe that within one year's time The financial world will be unrecognizable all the best johnny Sorry, but I can't say I wish you were here in fact. I wish I was there with you in guatemala signed clem from new bronzewick P.s. See you at the seminar if my wife lets me go and the planes are still flying All right, clem. I know your wife's picking on you, but i'm sure within a year She'll change her tune and thank god for your obsession. In fact, i'd say you should congratulate yourself Don't you see you'll come out of this way ahead You'll be on the cutting edge of the big financial shakeout. That's going to leave most of the world the debtors in the dust

[09:42] Besides wouldn't you say your obsession with crypto is a million times better than being obsessed with gaming or fake book or insta crap Or worse yet the retired asians Who I think are on target to age badly I'm protecting a few suicide attempts in that family. That is when the wrinkles in the cellulite can no longer be convincingly photoshopped So at least we got that going for us Unfortunately, though, it will mean an uptick in the ratings by the way My advice to boomers just like clem's is to buy some bitcoin even if it's just one and hang on to it What they call hodling h-o-d-e-l-i-n-g hodling after that Sit back and do nothing like you would have done with a u.s. Saving spot years ago Remember those and I say that because in my experience as a boomer myself boomers being americans and canadians born between

[10:34] 1946 and 1965 the problem is most of us boomers are not really tech savvy We weren't born in the internet age or the cell phone age We're out of our depth when it comes to certain smartphone apps and blockchain technology To name just a few of the more confusing technologies for the older folks in the room Whereas millennials and gen zers were born for this stuff with gen xers Not so much still as for it their leaps and bounds ahead of the boomers After all it was the millennials and gen zers kids born after 1980 The other ones that have created all the shit coins and the crypto platform trading that 95 percent of boomers Just don't understand and don't want any part of so my advice again if you're a boomer Don't ever write crypto off completely or you'll be shooting yourself in the foot

[11:20] Buy a little bitcoin and just hold on to it And of course only in a hardware wallet like a trezor or a nano ledger Which will cost you anywhere from 50 to 100 bucks But believe me that's one of the only ways you can assure yourself that you're never going to get scammed hacked or ripped up Though if you're really stupid and other people have your keys or password all bets are off Now when clem was talking about not your keys not your coins What he meant was if you have your bitcoins or shit coins on an internet exchange like coinbase or bit pay or any of the other hundreds of services If something happens to one of those exchanges that gets hacked or goes under because of some kind of fraud or just stupidity You lose your bitcoins or litecoin, whatever Here's the rub Those internet exchanges like coinbase and bit pay allow you to create a wallet online to hold your bitcoins litecoins or any other shit coin

[12:12] at no cost That's why the vast majority of people put their coins in online wallets They're free. It's like a free email service versus one You have to pay 50 or 60 bucks a year for you know, those free email services aren't free They sell all your data and that's why you get all those stupid pop-up windows. Whereas with a private email service You can block all that Bottom line if you're into crypto and you really should be it's well worth spending the 50 to 100 bucks getting a nano Leisure or a trezor and remember there's some very good hackers out there Their specialty is hacking online wallets because it's a lot easier than ever being able to hack a hardware wallet And your 24 word key is in your possession You've actually got those 24 words written down somewhere on a piece of paper and hidden in a good place a very good place

[12:59] I hope So then where do those 24 words come from when you first get the device and you turn it on They're generated for you and at that very moment is when you write them down With any crypto wallet the lowest b12 or 24 keywords whether it's online with a service like coinbase or with the hardware wallet Like a nano ledger or trezor that looks like a little flash drive in any event If you have one of those hardware wallets, those 24 keywords are yours. They're in your possession and no one else's And you'll never have to put them online to gain access to or open up your wallet Now if you lose that hardware wallet, it gets destroyed or someone steals it from you They still can't get in and use it or steal your coins unless you've given them your password Which is completely different than those 24 keywords we were talking about

[13:46] So then how do you restore a wallet that's been stolen or gone through the wash? Well, you just buy a new one, which is an empty slate And when you fire it up for the first time you just restore it by plugging in those 24 words in order And that's why it's never recommended that you write those 24 words down in your computer Not at any time because you know, there are bots and hackers and viruses that can get into your computer Steal your info and even record your keystrokes That's why your 24 keywords are written down on a piece of paper In fact, some people inscribe those keywords on a piece of metal with a dremel tool So again, my advice to you boomers out there if you don't have any bitcoin now get just one According to some crypto nerd genius friends, I know There's a very very good chance that just having one bitcoin could set you up for life

[14:34] Just buy one and be patient You don't have to have 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 of them like geek nerds and friends are saying just one Then hide that wallet somewhere in your house for six months or a year Though never in a safety deposit box in a bank those can always be confiscated and locked down Anyway, you do that you just might find it's one of the best things you've done in your life Now i'm not giving you financial advice here just sage opinions from the geek squad Remember that famous biblical saying the geeks shall inherit the earth or something like that Oh, but bitcoin and other cryptos are not the only thing that smart people are accumulating They're holding gold silver and some cash too enough cash to pay their bills for three to six months Which brings us to this email from carol a guy carol with a k he says johnny

[15:22] If you think of gold and silver as jewelry or just barbarous relics Did you know that the bis that's the bank of international settlements? You might call that the international bankers bank where all banks eventually go to settle their international accounts Did you know on march 31st 2019 just a year ago bis the bank of international settlements classified gold as a tier one asset Even though for countless years banks and bankers have been calling gold a barbarous relic That a gold standard would be archaic and backward Meanwhile gold's been reclassified as a tier one asset With the only other tier one asset and soon to be a barbarous relic, too. Can you guess? Us dollars, so why aren't we seeing that on the six o'clock news?

[16:11] All right, then mr Carol with a k says if you don't believe the financial systems on the brink Look at oil at 20 bucks a barrel is the most amazing one-month collapse in the last 20 years Losing 60 of its value in one month. I say and all america would probably agree with me too except oil company execs I say The arabs and opac let those backward corrupt hypocrite pedophiles with their gold plated toilets and camel brushes drown in the stuff Though us consumers were slowly winning that battle with solar and electric cars Now with the corona quarantine, no one's driving airplanes aren't flying and cruise ships aren't sailing So those backward corrupt hypocrites are truly drowning in the stuff Then he says johnny by all means people should buy gold but trying to buy gold without leaving a record. That's difficult

[17:03] If uncle sam knows you have a supply of physical gold in the states Then the jig is up though. There are some gold coins your dealer or pawn shop doesn't have to report You're still on the books. You're on file. Whatever you bought the stuff whether it's cash credit cards or wear transfers Your transaction will show up in a dozen places. That's why it's imperative to own some gold But you have to get it offshore to a foreign jurisdiction Then it's impossible for big brother to get to it tax it lack you out or confiscate it Though you could go to the pawn shop with your 85 year old grandma And have her buy it for you She might agree at her age. It's no skin off her back Or if your pawn shop or whoever you're dealing with locally asks for id and they probably will Go ahead and give him your dead grandma's social security number

[17:49] He says as far as i'm concerned those big brother feds and skunks deserve nothing more All right that came from carol whose opinion seems to be if they screw with you screw with them Hey, just reporting an email here Now as far as being anonymous with your crypto and gold You can do that all day long if you're living here in latin america Then you can use non-us exchanges and bank accounts and or have a non-us citizen friend lawyer business partner or better half Buy gold and silver for you and if it's crypto, you can then have it transferred to your hard wallet Not again a wallet on an exchange Not your keys not your crypto. Remember? How about this email from lance in texas? He says dear johnny I don't have any gold

[18:34] But I have ample stores of brass and lead combined in an easy to handle size available at your fingertips I even have handy spring-loaded containers that hold 15 or more of these at a time But seriously johnny if you live in the usa ammunition is probably the best investment going forward That's especially true in light of this virus lockdown notice how europe and all the socialist leaning countries and gang Saturated narco regions like mexico have banned firearms with fools like occasional cortex Telling us by voting in the new breed of social democrats. We can all look forward to turning in our guns If you want to take this thing out to its final conclusion, johnny If a total economic collapse happens in the us and that looks more and more probable day after day

[19:23] In that case, I won't need to buy gold All I need is a large non-perishable food supply and a gun with lots of ammo With a gun I can get all the gold and anything else I need from those who don't have guns Mostly from those anti-gun folks. Oh, and by the way, I can get a list of gold owners from the local pawn shop Guys got everyone on record. That's the law Oh, and it's hysterical how all those anti-gun legislators have bodyguards who are packing heat People forget or they don't want to remember the first thing china mexico, venezuela, cuba Nicaragua, north korea and by the way hitler and stalin did was to ban firearms for use by the general public And now the eeu australia and the uk have done the same which brings us to a related email That just came in from four toad jones

[20:10] He says johnny. Do you have any recommendations for a gun store in guatemala? He says i'm in panachella at the most beautiful lake in the world and with the cops in military patrolling And curfew at four o'clock in the afternoon. We're looking for another two weeks of this crap I've certainly got enough of everything myself But right now is the first time in three years since i've been here where I wish I had a gun I planned on buying one next year after I do a few other things But it's just been put at the top of the list lately signed for toad jones Well, mr jones, the good news is that in most latin countries except mexico, nicaragua, cuba and venezuela The usual suspects all you have to have is permanent residency to be able to own a gun legally The hitches you'll have to have some local professional vouch for you, you know, give you a good recommendation and that will be your lawyer

[21:01] I'm sure another professional like an accountant or doctor might do but your lawyer can really push things through fast They know the procedure how to cut through the red tape By the way, most lawyers I know have guns So when you get down do make friends with the lawyer, of course in most cases He'll be the guy that gets your residency through in the first place. So you're probably dealing with one already Oh and just to comment here You know, it always amazes me Everybody seems to think life goes on as usual every day is going to be kind of like the day before And then comes the calamity a lockdown a hurricane a tornado a tsunami an emf pulse a big time hack Whatever kind of crisis and all of a sudden people are freaking out. They want to buy gold silver guns bitcoin Oh and yeah, they want to suddenly get off the fence and get that plan b going

[21:48] I know I know we've all got a procrastination gene stuck somewhere in our dna Problem is when disaster strikes everyone seems to have the same idea Which pushes up the price and scarcity of gold cash and guns especially anything involving government paperwork Well, good luck with that since the government offices are all closed and they're on manana time when they're not That's why normally down here in latin america if you walk into a gun store with your lawyer and say hey I like that shotgun or that 38 over there Well, even when you fork the doe over on the spot, it'll take at least a week Maybe two to get it through the system even though most lawyers will say it only takes three days That's normal manana time when there's not a crisis. Why so long? Well, you have to submit a local police report saying you've committed no crimes They'll do a check on your lawyer or whoever else is your fiador or reference sponsor

[22:38] Then they'll ship your gun to the weapons division fire a few rounds through it for a ballistic test A totally useless step involving more red tape since firearm crimes here in latin america are never solved with ballistics Yet they insist on that step. Anyway, why because they do it up in the states That's why then it gets shipped back to the gun store. They give you a call and you can go down and pick it up However these days with almost all of latin america in the world on lockdown And like mr. Ft jones said there's a four o'clock curfew in guatemala. Good luck with that Oh and it's not just guatemala Every latin country has some kind of curfew now most likely you do too wherever you live up in the states And yes, mr. Jones seems kind of pissed off that the military and the cops are patrolling right at curfew time Well, guess what they're doing that in every latin country

[23:24] However, if you're caught out after curfew at your own fault Why would you want to test the system unless of course you're going to the pharmacist or the hospital? Hell I certainly don't want to be haggling with a cop or a jarhead about being out past curfew Though i've heard of a few cases where that's happened and the cops actually drove the guy to the drug store Would a cop in the states ever do that? I doubt it All right along those same lines. Here's an email from sally She says johnny. I own 2 000 ounces of silver junk coins I much prefer junk silver over the newly minted silver us mint coins and other newer bullion coins Junk silver being dimes quarters halves and silver dollars in circulation before 1965 In times of crisis junk silver is easily recognizable and convertible by almost anyone

[24:12] Best of all, there's no way to counterfeit them Anyway, I walked into my usual pawn shop supplier a couple days ago And I wanted 2 000 more ounces of silver junk coins at roughly 12 an ounce spot plus a 5 commission I basically got left out of the store. Johnny. They told me they'd part with junk silver at 22 bucks an ounce About a 90 markup. How does that work? The market says it's worth 12 bucks, but you can't find it anywhere For under 20 bucks. So what you're reading and the market is telling you is pure crap By the way, johnny i'm coming to your late august 2012 seminar even if you won't take silver All right, sally. Yeah, i'll take silver, but I think you're gonna have a hard time dragging it across the border You know that stuff weighs a hell of a lot Though again, you're much better off having your silver or gold outside the country or it's non-confiscatable or taxable

[25:04] Oh, and by the way, you longtime listeners might remember a year or so ago I spoke about counterfeit gold and silver coins that the chinese are pumping out like crazy and they look absolutely perfect They even have the right weight density and volume. They consist of a heavy metal alloy that's plated with gold or silver So they look and feel right Anyway, I put together a very valuable little report that tells you how to distinguish between the real and fake stuff when you're buying Including a really cool test called the ping test that you can download for free on your smartphone All you have to do is take a supposedly gold or silver coin Balance it on something like a pencil eraser Give it a little tap or ping with your finger and if it's real gold or silver The app will tell you exactly which coin it is to me. It's one of the greatest apps around

[25:50] I mean of all the thousands of apps out there you tell me which one could be that useful If you want that report send me an email the expat files at gmail.com Then there's this email from philly says johnny people are panicked buying precious metals and guns and ammo now Why didn't they do that when gold was three to five hundred bucks an ounce? Those downright stupid comments from those so-called experts that gold does not pay interest or provide dividends is just plain crazy All the real physical gold I have in my possession that I purchased since 1999 is now worth at least five times What I paid for it and it's highly liquid But I have not sold a single ounce of my gold and will continue to hold Since it'll soon be worth 10 times more than I paid for it though Unfortunately with the 10 000 limit in effect for cash and equivalents going through borders

[26:40] That means it'll take more than 20 trips for me to get my gold to panama where i've been establishing my plan b Now about buying gold and silver in latin america If you look around you'll find there are little pawn shops and jewelry markets everywhere and lately because i've been keeping my eyes open I've noticed quite a few little jewelry stores have a sign in the window saying gold and silver bought and sold here But swindlers are everywhere, especially in the time of fear and anxiety. That's my two cents johnny I know you're not big on panama and it is kind of expensive and i'm not married to the idea of living there So i'll be seeing you at your next seminar. All right, me johnny here again speaking of the next seminar I've pushed it forward a couple of months. It'll be starting on friday august 21st through thursday august 27

[27:26] So to get on the early bird waiting list send me an email the expat files at gmail.com You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com