Easy, everyone. Let's just brainstorm some ideas for protecting wealth how about?
I read a book a while ago about some wealthy people in the U.S. who came from a background of persecution, think it was Armenian, not sure but the specifics don't matter, and their solution, knowing they might have to up and leave any moment, was to buy and bury precious stones on their property. This was a while ago though, and it would be pretty tough with today's technology, to cross a border with diamonds sewn into the hem of your coat.
Strangely enough, it still seems to me that the best strategies of all are the oldest in the book, and that is why they are cliches that are often ridiculed:
Gold and cash at hand.
That is the reason that these two strategies are so widely ridiculed. Think of the doomsday gold bug, or the old guy who dies with all sorts of cash stuffed in his mattress.
But if you think about it, you want something that is portable, holds some value, and that you have access to. We have seen how readily the banks went to bail-ins over in Cyprus, and we also have the possibility of banks closing to prevent runs on the bank, so obviously, you want to have as few layers of abstraction between you and your money. Cash in addition to, or instead of a bank account, and physical gold rather than just an ETF.
I have heard many compelling arguments for Bitcoin, but it is just such an abstract thing really, that I can't really get myself to trust it over something I can at least feel and touch and hold. The history of anything to do with computers is the history of hacking for God's sake, so to tell me to trust a bit of code, and therefore its coders, is just too much to ask when there are other options.
Maybe we are looking at it from too individualistic a level anyway, since you are going to be looking for some geographical diversification as well, maybe we might also want to consider developing our relationships, and getting some people we can trust in different locations, so that we have places outside our own location where we can store things, or buy property or whatever, and have it in trusted hands. (I am well aware this is easier said than done.)
Also, has anyone ever looked into getting yourself hooked into a Hawala network for transferring funds? I know almost nothing about this except that it works on trust and the principle is that when you have enough people in a trusted network, you can bypass anything official.
Here is the basic definition from Wikipedia about how it works:
Quote:Quote:
In the most basic variant of the hawala system, money is transferred via a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars. It is the transfer of money without actually moving it. In fact, a successful definition of the hawala system that is used is "money transfer without money movement".
Hawala example transaction; see text for an explanation
The figure shows how Hawala works: (1) a customer (A, left-hand side) approaches a hawala broker (X) in one city and gives a sum of money (red arrow) that is to be transferred to a recipient (B, right-hand side) in another, usually foreign, city. Along with the money, he usually specifies something like a password that will lead to the money being paid out (blue arrows). (2b) The hawala broker X calls another hawala broker M in the recipient's city, and informs M about the agreed password, or gives other disposition instructions of the funds. Then, the intended recipient (B), who also has been informed by A about the password (2a), now approaches M and tells him the agreed password (3a). If the password is correct, then M releases the transferred sum to B (3b), usually minus a small commission. X now basically owes M the money that M had paid out to B; thus M has to trust X's promise to settle the debt at a later date.
The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers; the transaction takes place entirely on the honour system. As the system does not depend on the legal enforceability of claims, it can operate even in the absence of a legal and juridical environment. Trust and extensive use of connections, such as family relations and regional affiliations, are the components that distinguish it from other remittance systems.
(For some reason wikipedia isn't letting me link to the image. It can be found at the entry for Hawala at the link below.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala
Anyway, food for thought.
