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Basic advice for lifetime financial planning
From 1750-1900 machines took over most physical work; from 1950-2000 computers took
over almost every logistical, planning and mental work. Humanity can truly obtain
every necessity of life through 5 to 10 hours of work per week.
1. Get price-level differences working in your favor:
- make money in the highest salary country or region, and
- spend it later, in a low cost country or region.
2. Get interest working in your favor:
- earn the money BEFORE you spend it. Don't borrow, even for a house.
3. Get currency differences working in your favor:
- save money in a strong currency (a decision unconnected with the country you live in)
4. Get tax differences working in your favor
- earn money where earnings taxes are low.
- move.
- spend money later, where sales taxes and asset taxes are low.
5. Get inter-generational wealth transfers working in your favor
- the national pension systems in every country pay good returns on investment for low
wage earners, by subsizing their pensions.
- Calculate the crossover wage level where yields become unacceptable, and
"earn" that much reportable wage. Get the rest of your earnings in some other
form.
- qualify for national pension at the optimal wage level in as many countries as you can;
take advantage of countries like Japan that do not have totalization treaties.
6. Avoid pyramid schemes
- don't gamble in price bubbles like the stock market.
- don't gamble on hard asset appreciation, either.
- don't be a sucker for gains that are not guaranteed by the offeror.
- don't be a thief from the losers of pyramids, either.
7. Avoid lossy storage mechanisms (rats in the granary)
- earn real earnings and focus on storing it intact, i.e. transferring it across time.
Savings is like a storage battery. Find one which is electrically efficient.
- both fixed income and equity securities are paper assets. All paper storage is subject
to major losses and wastage due to taxes, inflation, various fees and cheating by
financial institutions, and raids by outsiders such as lawyers and spouses.
- real estate is subject to major wastage by property taxes, crime, adverse demographic
changes and physical decay. Buy minimal real estate, in places far off the beaten track
where the future isn't bizarrely unpredictable. Avoid urban locations. The fun and
excitement aren't worth the costs.
- those tall buildings downtown-insurance companies, banks, investment companies-- rats in
the granary.
- conclusion: Invest in people and relationships. Relationships will get you through times
of no money better than money will get you through times of no relationships. You need
relationships with basic suppliers to get good deals, and with customers to get decent
income. When the customers and suppliers are the same people, you can drop out of the
money economy which is stealing 2/3s of your economic output.
8. Ask yourself, why pay voluntary payments?
- dare to NOT pay dues, fees, tips, contributions, or obligation-types of payments, unless
there is a reason. These expenditures are a worship of dreams in your mind. Get a grip on
your personal life energy. Don't pour it out to feed parasitic people and organizations
that are trying to hypnotize you, with all kinds of plays on your ego or your fears.
- governments, school districts, and other organizations are surrounded by flags and
images but actually operate only by virtue of their coercion. demand a reduction in their
role in your life. participate in hearings, initiatives, and yes, in government.
9. Focus on Maslow's hierarchy of needs
- work systematically on progressive levels of your needs: food, shelter, knowledge and
information feeds, social needs, spiritual needs. It is astonishingly easy to meet your
needs, with very little participation in the money economy.
- avoid being hypnotized by today's blizzard of advertising. You simply don't need 99.9%
of the crap being advertised.
10. Manage your Desires, never try to outrace them with income
- meditate carefully and thoughtfully on what your goals are. many desires can be
gradually defused by understanding, by long-range visualization of the entire path you
will endure to achieve them, and what it will actually feel like to get them.
- meditate carefully on past desires, sought after with much effort. Was your life
different as a result? Or did the object of desire fall uselessly from your hand, once
obtained? see what I mean?
- meditate on how many years you have lived, and how many years you expect to live in the
future. Remember, your hand will open, and all objects will fall from your grip when you
die. By this technique, it becomes quite easy and natural to let go of excessive desires.
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