Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide

What's your story? Discussions your reasons for going abroad.
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Contrarian Expatriate
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Cornfed wrote:
Contrarian Expatriate wrote:You know I have had a pretty privileged life, whether that was due to being born in the right family, or due to some black privilege (that has functioned to keep you ignorant and poor all these years) I don't care one bit. I have willingly reap the rewards from many things, and if Affirmative Action is one of them, GREAT!
You seem to misunderstand the concept of affirmative action. It is not the case that you have benefited from having a hand up and therefore enjoy the "success" that you would have enjoyed anyway, but a bit faster and to a bit greater extent. It is that the powers that be think you are a complete loser and non-entity and are therefore using you as a buffer between themselves and your betters who might otherwise be able to replace them. This is why affirmative action as it is currently practiced contains no expectation of performance. It is accepted that pavement apes, females and such like will suck in most contexts, which is why you are there. This is why the proponents of affirmative action openly admit that if it were about overcoming initial barriers to the genuinely able but not well connected, most of the recipients would be white men. But it is not about that. In fact its purpose is entirely the opposite.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if it makes you feel better about yourself, go ahead and think that.

The truth of the matter is most people in my former field, white, black and Asian do not make the initial cut. And once inside, whites don't dominate the ranks of the top performers although they are well represented at the top. They are OVERrepresented at the bottom and virtually every one that has crashed and burned or underperformed has been a white male or white female. No one likes to talk about those however. If anything those marginal whites should not have even been considered qualified, but Affirmative Action borne of white privilege gave them an unjustified leg up to the detriment of productiveness.

But none of that matters now. What does matter is I employ many white men (and others) who work for me a accountants, tax preparers, property managers, personal bankers, and attorneys.

Experience taught me that SOME white men can be great assets, and some need to be ignored and left to their own devices. I never use white men for real estate transactions nor for investment or finance advice because they tend to arrogantly believe that they know more then you and veer you into inappropriate properties or investments. Women, blacks, and Asians tend to give you the facts and let you decide. I use high-level white men do give good legal counsel and good technical expertise, but for decisions that require nuance, they are too be avoided because they get butthurt when it is clear you know more than they.

That is part of what is scraping at the anuses of Ghost and yourself, white male entitlement syndrome. You think you are at the top of the heap and you react with cognitive dissonance when it is clear you are not.

I get it, most readers here get it, but you two DOPES will likely never get it. You just don't have what it takes to understand how you suck so you can do something about that sucking.

It's all Affirmative Action's fault!!!! Ah, no. It's just you.......
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Ghost wrote:By the way, I have a question for you, CE. Apparently you've read some financial self help books. I remember you mentioned the book Millionaire Next Door. Have you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki? If so, what did you think about it? Did you agree or disagree with it?
Since you are asking a civil question, I'll give a civil response.

I first read a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich back in college to understand basic wealth principles. That book gave me insights into compound growth and investing early. But the really important read was The Millionare Next Door back in the 1990's which gave me a blueprint and an understanding of why high income earners often do not become rich, and why some modest income earners do.

For basic personal finance literacy, Suze Orman (a feminist lesbian, but she's good), and Dave Ramsey (likes to weave too much Christian blather into his expertise, but he gives great financial advice.

I spent $50 in college getting a personal session with a well known financial advisor who set out a basic blueprint for 20 years (I have since outgrown that blueprint but his consultation was important.)

A Jewish friend of mine (financial wiz) in grad school encouraged me to manage my own finances and never use experts and I thought he was crazy, but he was right!

Real Estate Riches by Dolf De Roos was important to understanding the free lunch that is investment properties (pre-bubble I might add, it is different now).

John Bogle of Vanguard fame, Warren Buffett, and Jim Rogers are also good to listen to for financial advise. Economists like Marc Faber, Nouriel Roubini and Peter Schiff are also credible truth tellers.

By no means listen to CNBC (aka Bubblevision), Bloomberg, Jim Cramer and the other pundits as they are there to cheerlead people into investing against their interest, regardless of the conditions. Ignore those channels and stick to books and people that educate rather than cheerlead.

Finally, trial and error was the best teacher for me. I know how markets behave and I have been out of stocks for about six months while Wall Street "experts" are currently losing their minds and wealth. Most "experts" are self-anointed and no one cares more about your wealth than you do.

When I got advanced and more courageous, I started getting into Alternative Investments which is not marketed in the US very much because it often implies overseas opportunities. Precious metals (bullion and paper), legal offshore accounts, Limited Partnerships, Vulture Funds, and Angel Investing leave most Americans in the dust though some of those vehicles are restricted to Accredited Investors (high income/net worth) only.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Ghost wrote:A lot of things are different now. Putting aside affirmative action for a moment, there are other places where people could get the cash to start with. The other two main ways are probably being born with that good ol' silver spoon in your mouth or having to work a job for years first. The middle class is being gutted, and this shows no signs of slowing. This is a core piece of my book: things are very different now. Not that the American Dream was all it was cracked up to be in the first place, but at least it used to be there. People are finally awakening from the American Dream and realizing that things are very different now. Although I think you got your initial cash from the state instead of earning it, this is the other piece missing: there were opportunities before that simply do not exist now, or are out of reach for the average man. I don't doubt that 40 years ago, an average man had a chance - graduate high school and maybe college, work a 'normal' job, use his earnings wisely, and benefit. Now, that is what men have had to do - they didn't get it handed to them by the state. They weren't subsidized. If this was what you did, I see no reason why you'd conceal it.
As I mentioned before, that's immaterial and it tends to get readers off of where they should be focusing. That is, getting the highest paying job they can find, and sometimes working a second job to pay off debt and have more investable income.

What specific jobs I have held over the years is not as important as much as each new job was a substantial increase in salary. That's what I want forum readers to come away with.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Contrarian Expatriate wrote:As I mentioned before, that's immaterial and it tends to get readers off of where they should be focusing. That is, getting the highest paying job they can find, and sometimes working a second job to pay off debt and have more investable income.

What specific jobs I have held over the years is not as important as much as each new job was a substantial increase in salary. That's what I want forum readers to come away with.
So your advice is to get a high paying job, perhaps a second job, and then pay down debt and invest a lot of the money? Well no shit Sherlock, but the situation is not that most men are so incredibly stupid that they can't figure this out, but that they don't have the opportunity to do this.

The reason why affirmative action is relevant to the subject is that you may genuinely believe that all men have to do is show up somewhere and come close to meeting some minimum standard while avoiding chimping out and raping anyone or whatever, and they automatically get sought after jobs. It might never occur to you that they could ace all the tests and then be denied a place for frivolous reasons or no reason at all, since that would not happen to you because that would be rasis. Most men do not have that kind of privilege.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Cornfed wrote:
Contrarian Expatriate wrote:As I mentioned before, that's immaterial and it tends to get readers off of where they should be focusing. That is, getting the highest paying job they can find, and sometimes working a second job to pay off debt and have more investable income.

What specific jobs I have held over the years is not as important as much as each new job was a substantial increase in salary. That's what I want forum readers to come away with.
So your advice is to get a high paying job, perhaps a second job, and then pay down debt and invest a lot of the money? Well no shit Sherlock, but the situation is not that most men are so incredibly stupid that they can't figure this out, but that they don't have the opportunity to do this.

The reason why affirmative action is relevant to the subject is that you may genuinely believe that all men have to do is show up somewhere and come close to meeting some minimum standard while avoiding chimping out and raping anyone or whatever, and they automatically get sought after jobs. It might never occur to you that they could ace all the tests and then be denied a place for frivolous reasons or no reason at all, since that would not happen to you because that would be rasis. Most men do not have that kind of privilege.
I'm glad you responded, especially in the manner I forsaw because you have shown the attitude that has caused you to be a complete failure and will cause you to remain a failure for the entirety of your life.

If you are a white man who thinks that blacks are keeping you behind because of Affirmative Action, there is absolutely no hope for you. You are damaged goods and a sheep to be sheared.

I come into contact with recent college grads who are making it happen in spades, most of them white men. That tells me that you just don't have the intelligence and perseverance needed to get ahead in the game.

If it were not so fun, I would not even engage with a lost cause like yourself. There are too many smart young men who are creative, enterprising, and ambitious enough to MAKE opportunity for themselves to a variety of means.

So go cry me a river Cornfed. Woe is you and let the violins play the Brandenburg Concertos because you were defeated in life by Affirmative Action and other weak excuses.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Contrarian Expatriate wrote:I'm glad you responded, especially in the manner I forsaw because you have shown the attitude that has caused you to be a complete failure and will cause you to remain a failure for the entirety of your life.

If you are a white man who thinks that blacks are keeping you behind because of Affirmative Action, there is absolutely no hope for you. You are damaged goods and a sheep to be sheared.

I come into contact with recent college grads who are making it happen in spades, most of them white men. That tells me that you just don't have the intelligence and perseverance needed to get ahead in the game.
No-one thinks that affirmative action types are in and of themselves holding them back. You are there as obedient lickspittles of the massas, and it is easy to see why. You yourself regard the system as having completely screwed up black America and would presumably conclude that they were screwing up much of the rest of the world, right? Well, what kind of people would they hire for such activities? Competent, far sighted, morally staunch, ambitious visionaries? Of course not. They would want either screw-ups or people/simians who were technically competent in given areas but who were too morally bankrupt and sycophantic to authority to oppose their evil agenda or care about its results, and this is where you come in. You define your self-worth by how much the massas pat your fuzzy head and hand you bananas, thereby being emotionally beholden to the very people who you admit turned your community to shit. This kind of thing makes me think that blacks are a feminine slave species bred to serve the elite. You only universally see this kind of attitude among blacks and females.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Contrarian Expatriate wrote:If it were not so fun, I would not even engage with a lost cause like yourself. There are too many smart young men who are creative, enterprising, and ambitious enough to MAKE opportunity for themselves to a variety of means.
I would actually be very grateful if you could expand on how exactly you can MAKE opportunities happen in toda'’s world. For example, if it is against the policy of the establishment (govt, corps, banks) to give you a break, do you get a high paying job or whatever without them somehow, or do you MAKE them give you one, and if so how (blackmail?)? Seriously, it may be too late for me, but it would be awesome if you had any sensible advice on MAKING opportunities happen for the benefit of younger men.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Cornfed wrote:
Contrarian Expatriate wrote:If it were not so fun, I would not even engage with a lost cause like yourself. There are too many smart young men who are creative, enterprising, and ambitious enough to MAKE opportunity for themselves to a variety of means.
I would actually be very grateful if you could expand on how exactly you can MAKE opportunities happen in toda'’s world. For example, if it is against the policy of the establishment (govt, corps, banks) to give you a break, do you get a high paying job or whatever without them somehow, or do you MAKE them give you one, and if so how (blackmail?)? Seriously, it may be too late for me, but it would be awesome if you had any sensible advice on MAKING opportunities happen for the benefit of younger men.
I'm going to be serious for a quick second and give you what I think you can build upon.

From what I see in your posts, there are a few things you should work on to better be able to advance yourself:

1) Change your mindset from one that makes excuses about how hard it is now or how the Illuminati (or Affirmative Action) is keeping you back. THERE IS VERY LITTLE IN LIFE THAT YOU CANNOT CONTROL OR STRONGLY INFLUENCE, BUT IT STARTS WITH MINDSET.

2) Read the very short book called, As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen to learn how negative thoughts can doom you before you have even begun. You would do well to read that very short book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh

3) Find someone who you admire professionally and offer to work for him as an apprentice or view him as a model to emulate.

4) Find your life passion(s) and develop it to the point where you can work and develop it into a skill or expertise that can make you a living.

5) Always have an eye towards OWNING your own business whether you build it from the bottom or you buy out some old man who is about to die off.

6) Lose your tribal (us vs them, those people) mindset. Smart people know that stereotypes are often based on truth, but you have to be clever enough to pick out exceptions to the rule and have them available as allies when needed.

7) Understand that women and feminism are far more inimical to your progress as a man than any minority group. Women voted and gave rise to welfare, to affirmative action, to alimony, to child support, to sexual harassment laws, to, stalking laws, and to every law or public hysteria initiative that targets and exploits men. You seem to have misplaced disdain for things and people who have little to no impact on your well-being.

8 ) Stop seeing wealth and success as a zero sum game. In other words, someone else's good fortune does not mean you have to have less, it means it is another opportunity for you to learn the ropes and expand your knowledge and wealth too.

9) Select a circle of friends made up of people you aspire to be like. If you surround yourself with dopeheads, guess what? If you surround yourself with people on an upward trajectory, they will rub off on you and keep you on a path of success.

10) Reinvent yourself so people can respect and admire you, not attack you. If you have bad news to give, give it politely or with tact. Honesty is good, but give it with a dose of sweetener.

I do not know where you live nor what the economic and educational options are in your area. If you live in a craphole of an area, MOVE to an area that has a high demand for labor in your area of interest. Don't have enough money to move? Work two or three part time jobs till you do have the money to move.

Do not skip important steps before moving abroad. You have to first highly develop yourself in the USA and save up the capital (and/or transferable skills or the web based earning) to get over there and have options.

Right now, forget women (who will often jerk you around and get you off of your plans) until you retire early abroad and pull girls half your age. Less horny older men can easily pick out quality women, young men can only pick what's hot to them which is often the head case types.

Bottom line is, your set of life choices will determine your destination; make it a good destination.
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Re: Expatriation Apocalypse - My New Guide For Broke Guys

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Ghost wrote:So, CE, what about Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki? Did you read that one?
No. I am very familiar with Kiyosaki, but I know him from his articles, videos, and interviews only. That book never struck me as informative enough for what I needed when I flipped thru it many years ago.

That book has also had a high share of criticism in the past, although I don't know if it is warranted. Some of the Amazon reviews are downright scary.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad

John T. Reed, a critic of Robert Kiyosaki, says, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad contains much wrong advice, much bad advice, some dangerous advice, and virtually no good advice." He also states, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the dumbest financial advice books I have ever read. It contains many factual errors and numerous extremely unlikely accounts of events that supposedly occurred."[7] Kiyosaki provided a rebuttal to some of Reed's statements.[8] Slate reviewer Rob Walker called the book full of nonsense, and said that Kiyosaki's claims were often vague, the narrative "fablelike", and that much of the book was "self-help boilerplate", noting the predictable common features of such books were present in Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He also criticizes Kiyosaki's conclusions about Americans, American culture, and Kiyosaki's methods.[1]

The book I recommend you read first to get practical know-how instead of preachiness is:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-G ... guide+rich

If you read that, than this: http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next- ... F3WFCEVDS3

You will then have a basis of practical knowledge to blaze a wealth trail.
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