Beneath the Surface
It’s January 6, Time to Reinvent Your Life
January 6, 2025 • 9 minute, 36 second read
Daydreaming an Overseas
Sojourn on a Snowy Day
“It liberates the vandal to travel — you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction.”
–Mark Twain
January 6, 2025— It’s early January in Baltimore. If we get snow at all, it usually arrives in February or March. But this morning, we woke to about 8 inches outside our door.
Snow in the mid-Atlantic, in the city, in our old neighborhood, is not like snow in New Hampshire or Colorado, where you anticipate and revel in each snowstorm. Snow in Baltimore is rare enough that you’d think a few flakes were going to end life as we know it on earth.
But it also allows for some very quiet reflective time. While walking our Corgi to the park to watch the neighborhood kids get in their one day of sledding this year, I took a moment to reflect on the reader mail I received from a Grey Swan member over the weekend.
We’ll share Dean’s e-mail below.
The mind does wander on a snowy day in Mount Washington. So… here we go.
It was peaceful enough that we began to wonder why we obsess over things like an impending “debt crisis” in the United States—a concept so esoteric it would take hours to explain to an alien form of life or longer for an unsuspecting neighbor.
On one level, we have to consider these matters because we want to protect our own little pile of capital, our investments, our future plans… our family and their collective prospects in the future.
It’s a no-brainer. America is on such an unsustainable path, that it takes a member of Congress not to see what lies in store.
From an outsider’s perspective, putting the nation’s finances on a sustainable path will require a combination of higher taxes, less government spending on goodies, and a lengthy bout of higher interest rates and higher inflation.
Not one of those things is palatable to the political strategist, NGO manager or hordes who depend on the government’s military adventures to make a living.
Yeah, this is not a fun line of thinking for the daydreaming dog walker on a snowy day when the city has come to a standstill.
How about this instead: Vote with your feet and take your stash, or at least a portion of it, overseas. Way better.
On December 21, 2024, the Bonners hosted a black-tie affair at the Maryland Club in the Mt. Vernon district of Baltimore City. The event commemorated 45 years of Agora’s mission to publish alternative investment ideas for individual investors like you.
It was nice. The food was delicious. We ran into a lot of old mates, associates and partners in crime. We even gave an address to the 200 or so folks in attendance from all epochs of Agora’s past.
We bumped into one such gentleman, Ronan McMahon. While he’s been a guest on the Wiggin Sessions several times, my most enduring memory of Ronan is his effort to teach a small group of us Irish ditties (drinking songs) in the wee hours of one early morning during a publishing conference in the Loire Valley in France about 20 years ago.
Through a high-end real estate project called Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA), Ronan has been helping readers of International Living, the original Agora flagship publication, “vote with their feet” between that conference and December 21’s gala.
Not like a whiny Hollywood brat who is personally offended by the election outcome, mind you. But more like a reasonable, thoughtful human being who sees the writing on the wall has some means and alternative actions to take at their disposal.
Barring a few signature cities like London, Hong Kong, and Paris — beacons for Russian oligarchs, beneficiaries of the Indian Raj, and Arab oil sheiks carrying their brand of monarchy into the 21st century — the rest of the world offers much more value if you’re planning to stretch your little pile of U.S. dollars and enjoy some well-earned relaxation unplugged from your laptop or smartphone.
The average rent in New York City is about $3,700 per month. But in Panama City, Panama, the New York of Central and South America, it’s about $1,500 on the high end.
Where you live, and the costs of where you live are key facets of your financial life. And you don’t have to live in the same place forever, especially following the pandemic and the rise of remote work.
You don’t have to go full “digital nomad” during your working years, either. However, that’s not a bad idea. You could simply buy a beachfront property in, say, Mexico at a fraction of the cost of doing so in the Carolinas or Florida, have it at your disposal, and use it for income.
Every year, Ronan holds what he refers to as The Gathering, a rendezvous of like-minded folks who have taken advantage of the real estate opportunities Ronan has unearthed, negotiated and brought to the group for their benefit. Dean, who wrote to me over the weekend, is one of the fortunate. You can read about his experience below.
Before we get too excited during this daydream, Ronan tells me that this year’s Gathering, which will be held February 20-22 in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, is sold out.
Boo!
But I have secured a stage-door invitation for the Grey Swan Investment Fraternity paid-up members to go check out Ronan’s latest projects. Ronan and I have promised to reconnect in 2025. And if you’re interested in doing a bit of daydreaming yourself, you can check out the Real Estate Trend Alert right here.
(If that’s of even just the slightest interest, it’s worth a few minutes to see what’s available)
Given the ever-rising costs of real estate and the cost of living in general, considering adding real estate in a far less expensive location could be an interesting addition to your portfolio. It could also put your own “retirement” destination within reach.
Grey Swan Investment Fraternity reader Dean just chimed in about International Living, and why you may want to have it on your radar. Works for me. And beats shoveling snow while a Corgi attacks your boots in 23 degree gloom. ~ Addison
The Investment Journey of a Lifetime…
Dean M., Grey Swan Investment Fraternity
Memories keep dropping out of my brain. Yesterday, curious to know more about you, I looked you up on Wikipedia. We definitely crossed paths back down the time road. My wife and I got involved in Agora back in 2006. She was just retiring from 27 years in the Navy, and we both were looking for possible futures. Somehow, we learned about International Living.
We attended a conference in San Diego, I believe. We subsequently took two exploratory trips, one to Mexico and one to Panama. Although we found the possibility of retirement living internationally, it seemed like more of an adventure than we were up to. I really like Mexico and we subsequently took two more trips there. I especially like San Miguel de Allende.
Newly in both our second marriages, I didn’t understand that she wanted, more than anything else, she to become a heavy Nester in the U.S. She had spent her entire career moving homes every two years. Although a very successful Captain at sea and at the Pentagon, she craved becoming a homemaker and has become the queen of our homes.
My passion has always been history, and I made a career as a family historian for clients. After retiring from that field, I became interested in building our retirement assets. Beginning from scratch and with her superior military retirement pay, I launched a new interest in building that.
Some 30 years ago, having moved back to California, I shifted gears to local history. In 2006 and 2008, I had two local pictorial histories published. Working on one of the community histories developed a passion that lingers today. The deeper I read contemporary Navy files related to Port Chicago, the more obsessed I became with the deep background and “the rest of the story.”
If I could maintain focus here in my old age I could prove that the events in that little backwater were of international consequence. Like so much of history, including macroeconomics, the real story defies public perception.
I run on, but you may have seen my name associated with that unfinished work. I so look forward to building my wife’s estate with the help you provide, along with Bonner and his friends. Best of luck in your new endeavor. ~~ Dean M., Grey Swan Investment Fraternity
Regards,
Addison Wiggin,
Grey Swan
P.S. Back to reality now. We found this post amusing from Reason’s Liz Wolf this morning: Kamala Harris’ Very Long Day:
Today, Kamala Harris has to certify the results of the vote she lost: It’s January 6, and it’s time to certify the election results (no shamans needed). The vice president presides over this process, which means that Harris is in one of the most awkward positions possible. Whatever kind of day you have, Harris is having a worse one!
Al Gore had to do this back in 2001, and Richard Nixon in 1961, so it’s not the first time in American history that a veep has been forced to carry out the office’s constitutional duties in this way.
“This is the first time in 100 years that a candidate for the presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated and announced the victory of his opponent,” said Nixon at the time, saying that he did not think “we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system.” (The previous vice president to find himself in that position? John Breckinridge, two months before the Civil War.)
“In our campaigns, no matter how hard they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict and support those who win,” said Nixon. Kumbaya. Let’s hope Harris can channel some of this energy today.
Following the chaos four years ago, the government adopted new rules in 2022, making it more difficult to object to a state’s certification. Though members of Congress may still choose to object, their statement “needs to be in writing and signed by one-fifth of the members of the House (the lower chamber) and one-fifth of the Senate (the upper chamber),” per the BBC. The election results have not been widely contested this time, and today’s proceedings are likely to be drama-free.
P.P.S. Heh. I’ll take a snowy day in Mt. Washington, thank you very much.
Let me invite you again to say “aye” and raise your hand to be involved should we add an online community app to the paid section of the Grey Swan website. And keep sharing thoughtful responses like Dean.
As always, send your own comments on the top Grey Swan events of 2025 here: addison@greyswanfraternity.com
So… hit us with your best shot… fire away! Respond to this email address: addison@greyswanfraternity.com
