Butler On Business

The episode continues from 224.  More of the things you need to consider as part of an early retirement strategy.

Everyone who slaves over a 50 hour a week job, sacrificing time from the family, the stress of meeting other people’s expectations, living paycheck to paycheck, dreams of exiting the rat race.  The hope of early retirement drives them to save more, work harder now, and one day they can tell their boss, “Take this job & shove it”.   But few understand the reality of what it looks & feels like after that event, and how it is easy to become a non-person in early retirement.

I am recording this episode at the end of the calendar year of 2023. It is at these times, when workers often get some break for the holidays, that their employers will praise them for their annual contribution – and often with some paltry “Christmas bonus” that typically is best portrayed in Charles Dickens “The Christmas Carol” with Ebeneezer Scrooge not rewarding Bob Cratchit with some hopeful bonus for a year of toil. And yet if only Bob Cratchit recognized his contribution and talents, and had the courage to ask for what he was really worth…

Recently the state of Arizona had one of its border checkpoints in Lukeville closed by the US Federal Government.  This was in response to an unexpected surge of inbound travelers and asylum seekers coming into the USA.  The immigration challenges that we hear about on the Nightly news are far from the real story here, so I wanted to delve into the real story of what is going on and how it affects those of us attempting to be unconstrained.

As many of you know, I had a career in the early 90s as a recording engineer in Hollywood.  I left that to make money to feed my family, as I didn’t want to put them through the ‘hit & miss’ nature of that industry.  After 25 years back in the tech space, I didn’t agree with where it was going, and in my mid 50s left it to return to my recording work.  The result was the building of a massive private recording studio in central Mexico.  I wanted to talk through the business case for this and why we need some serious ‘out of the box’ thinking when it comes to funding art in all forms for the future.

I’ve recorded a number of episodes on the perils of AI a few months back. As we march towards this innevitable chapter of our evolution, I realize that most of my issues with it is not because the technology is bad. It is the very limited few that will wield it like a weapon against us. So in what I think will be a thought provoking episode, I’m going to look int to the humans behind all of this and dig deeper as to what we have allowed our species to become.

The song ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’ might hold up well for a warm feeling as the temperatures drop, but it was co-opted by the retail industry in a way to control the mind of the masses into mass consumption. Retailers make more money in this season than at anytime in the year, and the constrained are enslaved in debt from being guilted into buying stuff for other people. Let’s go through a few tricks you can use to survive this period without having to be Uncle Scrooge to get through it.

The second half of the answer to the question "How much do you really need to retire?" after my shock of hearing the personal financial industry stating $4 million.  As someone who has been living financially free for quite some time, I can tell you that this is a total lie and I'll explain the truth of what really is required.

I came across this study on Seeking Alpha recently.  It found that younger millennials — those around age 30 — would likely need at least $3.6 million saved up to enjoy a comfortable retirement. To be on the safe side, it might be wise to round that up to an even $4 million. This assumes that you want to retire no later than age 62 and have not yet saved anything except emergency cash.  How the hell can anyone do that?  Well in this episode, I’ll prove why this traditional mindset is just plain wrong, and how you really can do this with 1/10th of the savings that these so called experts are saying.

I’ve had a lot of first hand experience in the USA at trying to get to simply see a doctor, and I’ve never seen it this bad before.  When I hear recent news that the billionaires are inserting themselves into the tech AI space for healthcare research, and all these unicorn & rainbow stories we hear about how AI will change the game for healthcare research and curing viruses, it seems so disengenuous when the average US person can’t get to see a doctor in a timely basis, or even afford to.  Let’s get the truth of this failed healthcare system in the USA and why it affects your safety and your very life expectancy in your attempt to be unconstrained.

I have tried to avoid any topic on politics because it just divides people. This episode has little to do with politics, however. But I would like to have an open, honest and frank discussion about government – particularly the US government, what I thought it was, what I discovered it was, and where I see this whole thing going.

This is a discovery that I came across while hanging out with other expats here in Mexico where I am as I record this. But few people in the USA or other western countries seem to understand this opportunity. So let’s talk about it.

This is the 2nd episode in an update on what it's like to build a dream home in Mexico and my experiences so far.

If you have been listening to me for any length of time, you know that I’m currently developing a large property in central Mexico.  Well in this episode I’ll do an update on where I’m at, what I’ve learned so far in the process and the trials & tribulations of doing what most people would fear to do, but to keep an eye on the epic results you can achieve if you are careful.

After selling our rental real estate, we were left with few forms of smart income.  I began searching for alternatives.  I realized that for the next few years, much of my time would be spent outside of the USA, so I needed something that didn’t require me to be physically present to manage them, but paid me a tidy sum each month.  This led me to dividend stocks, and so far I am very happy with the results.

In 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis in the US, I was heavily exposed to real estate debt due to some deals that had been done in the prior year, and ran the risk of being entirely wiped out. If it wasn’t for having assets in another country and sold them to fund the underwater position I found myself in, I would never have survived it. In this episode, I want to fast forward to 2023 and explain why you MUST have an international diversification strategy for your assets if you wish to mitigate the risk of an adverse event in your country.

Central planners are at it again. The fear of a ‘housing crisis’ has empowered government to create government housing by proxy. By using building regulations as a weapon, AZ government has created a trajectory towards 1970s style ghetto housing reminiscent of the low income apartments of Brooklyn. This model seems to be a reflection of the California model, which didn’t work either. Is this what we want in America and how is this happening?

It is now the third quarter of 2023, and already the media are gearing up to distract you, extort your attention and pumble your brain with more FUD, and anxiety than ever before.  This is all in the lead up to the US 2024 Presidential Election.  Regardless of the barrage of lies and distorted facts you will be subjected to, in this episode I want to give you a set of tricks you can use to hack the media and keep your sanity through these trying times.

You work hard, you earn money, but you are broke.  Why?  In this episode I’m going to put out there a theory in the western world why people are broke, and it isn’t the reasons the media and society will tell you. It is not rampant inflation.  It is not that you are not paid enough.  It is actually far simpler – it is about the decisions you make, and the fight to control your mind.

What happens with capitalism when AI takes over the economy? I’ve been giving this some thought, but to be honest I don’t have a conclusion yet. I cannot see an upside to this, and despite all the WOW factor that AI seems to have in the social construct, I don’t think anyone has really thought through the impact on capitalism & economics yet. Let’s give it a shot in this episode…