Travelers: How And Why To Protect Your Assets Against Inflation

You might be wondering why I’m writing a blog post on how to protect your assets against inflation? A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post about Why American Men Should Be Worried About Inflation And The Dollar. This is the follow up post and I think it’s a very important one for certain guys who want to keep traveling in the future.

This particular blog post is directed towards American and English men. Both currencies and economies are in trouble and both the Pound Sterling and the Dollar will experience massive inflation in the short, medium, and long term.

For all of you who live in these two countries, inflation means a loss of your purchasing power which means many things get more expensive, including travel costs. As your purchasing power decreases against other currencies you’re once might dollar or pound will no longer go such a long way in foreign countries.

So the bad news is that your currencies are going down the toilet, but you don’t have to let your assets and savings be eroded away through inflation. One of the best investment options available to you right now is to invest abroad in countries which have better fundamental economies. You want to base your current investment strategy on owning real assets such as commodities, utilities, real estate (in certain places), precious metals, etc. You also want to own these stocks, bonds, and assets in countries that own a lot of commodities, as well as countries that have sounder economic policies then the United States and UK. Some of these countries include Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China to name a few.

If you listen to economists that predicted this current recession: Guys like Peter Schiff, and Jim Rogers, you know that the world is heading for inflationary times. Some countries like the United States are headed there in much worse shape and will get hit much harder. However, by investing in commodities and real assets abroad you guard yourself against inflation and you position yourself to prosper from inflation.

If you have your money safely stashed away in foreign currencies, stocks and bonds. You will at least preserve the current purchasing power of your savings and assets, and you may very well increase it. This means that you’ll be in a very good position to keep the same standard of living, and keep traveling, while many of your other country men will unfortunately be wiped out through inflation.

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Why American Men Should Be Worried About Inflation And The Dollar

It’s no secret the United States has experienced the worst recession since the great depression, but the real question is: Is the government perusing the right policies that will lead to an eventual recovery? Why is this important for all American men? Because one of the possible and likely outcomes of the current spend and bailout policy is that it will lead to very high inflation in the dollar, and possibly hyper inflation as a worse case scenario.

Why should American men interested in international dating, travel, and meeting foreign women be worried about Inflation? Because inflation erodes the value of your dollars. The higher the amount of inflation the more expensive everything will get, including your current day to day expenses for food and energy as well as increased expenses to travel. Not only will airline tickets get more expensive, when you travel abroad, as other currencies appreciate against the dollar, traveling to places like Latin America won’t feel like such a bargain.

Brazil is a perfect example. Just seven years ago you could get $4 Brazilian Reals for just $1 U.S. dollar. As recently as 2007 the dollars decline against the Real to hit $2 Reals for $1 U.S. dollar. More recently the real hit a new recent high of $1.7 Reals for $1 us dollar.

The same effect has been seen in Canada. Seven or so years ago, one dollar could get you almost two Canadian loonies. At the time, Americans were crossing the boarder to vacation in Canada in large numbers because of the great bargains due to the currency exchange rate. From an American’s perspective, everything in Canada was practically half-off.

But all of these trends have been drastically reversed.

Many of the economists that correctly predicted this current recession like Marc Faber, Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, and Gerald Celente, to name a few, all agree on one thing: Current government policy is leading us in the wrong direction.

The main problem with U.S. economy is that the low interest rates that have been offered by the FED practically this entire decade have made it unattractive to save. American’s have spent too much, and the people as well as the government have both incurred too much debt. The spending and borrowing which created the housing bubble was fueled by the easy money, and easy credit through credit cards and home equity loans, and low interest rates from the FED. Now that the party is over, the government is trying to spend even more money, bailing out everyone, and increasing the deficits to levels that are unheard of.

How will we ever pay this money back? 30 years ago the U.S. was the largest creditor nation, today the U.S. is largest debtor nation the world has ever seen. In the past foreigners would gladly lend us the money, but now they’re having their doubts. China, our biggest creditor is no longer interested in funding our out of control government spending, and other countries are following suite. Nations have raised there concerns about this problem by proposing oil be traded in other currencies (oil is currently traded in dollars), and even suggesting the dollar be taken off as the world’s reserve currency.

If we’re unable to borrow money from the rest of the world, the only option left is to print the difference, and reek havoc on the dollar, yet government keeps getting larger, and current government policy is to spend more money and try to stimulate more spending from the American people.

If the dollar continues to devalue, and if government policy is not reversed, it may very well get very very expensive to travel. Not just abroad, but just imagine a $1,000 or $2,000 dollar flight from New York to Miami. Imagine hotels abroad coasting just as much, or more then hotels at any large U.S. city. A strong dollar benefits every American, not just those who travel, but American men who enjoy the benefits of a decently strong dollar today should be worried about the current inflationary policies of the U.S. government.

In my next blog post I’ll be discussing what you can do to guard your assets against the inflationary policies of the U.S. government, and what you can do to help change the course of the U.S. government.

What Happens To Game And Pickup During A Recession?

When it comes to dating in such a highly competitive environment such as the United States, you need stand out from the rest of the pack in order to date the most desirable women. It’s social Darwinism (for men). In the beginning of my book on international dating, I go into all the factors that make your local dating scene an uphill battle with many chips stacked against you, which practically forces you to work to stand out in some way, or stay single.

If you’re very wealthy, you’ll be able to meet and date the most sought after women because of your wealth. If you have great looks, this helps you stand out too, and you’ll meet women this way. If you have sophistication, and “game”, you’ll also stand out from the crowd and date the most desirable women.

Popular belief in the online dating community and seduction community holds that “game” trumps everything. In other words a guy who is really smooth, and sophisticated will get better results with women then a guy with a ton of money or guy with looks like a male model.

Whether or not this is true, one thing is for certain. As the economy continues it’s downward slide, money and wealth will become much more important than both looks or game, and here’s why:

First of all, let’s look at the past circumstances. In a country like the United States, a country with one of the highest recent standards of living, the average income is about 40k/year. Material possessions are common; credit is usually easy to come by. Having a nice car, or even your own small apartment doesn’t really make you stand out. In an area like Northern New Jersey/New York City where the average income is 50k/year if you make 60k/year, you’re just a little above average. That doesn’t sound like an income that really makes you stand outside of the pack, at least not where I live…

My point is, that in the past, “game” may have been more important then money. Why? Because when times were good, everyone had a good amount of money. What guy didn’t have money to spend on drinks for his date? What guy didn’t have money to buy dinner? Most men had money to buy a nice car. Most men had money to spend on the women they were dating, and most guys overspent. Which is one of the reasons why the seduction community teaches men not to spend money or buy drinks or dinner, so that they can stand out from all the other guys that DO buy drinks and dinner and overspend.

So, when money was falling out of trees, having a bit of it really didn’t set you apart. So maybe having “game” would set you apart more then having money.

But what happens during this long term downward trend where massive amounts of wealth is being lost, many men are loosing their jobs, credit is tight, and standards of living are dropping?

The truth is money isn’t as easy to come by as it use to be in the United States. And as money and wealth become scarcer, the law of supply and demand dictates that they will also become more sought after.

I’ll give you one small example (although I have many). I have many female friends back in New Jersey and while I’m back here in New Jersey, I’ve caught up with a lot of them. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about boyfriends and guys they’re dating is that they’re being cheap, or that they’re broke. One friend specifically mentioned that she was about to dump her boyfriend because he doesn’t buy her anything and because he’s being cheap. But guys aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. For example girls that were working in bars or as waitresses aren’t making as much money as they use, just to name one small industry.

The good old days of the “game” trump card are over. And as this economic downturn is expected to span at least a 5 to 10 year period if not more, you can expect that money and wealth will be what sets you apart from the pack the most, going forward.

Ever heard of phrase “cash is king”? It’s certainly starting to look that way.

How The Global Recession Effects Global Dating

How The Global Recession Effects Global Dating

Today I wanted to touch on a topic that has looming over our heads for a while now. It’s pretty clear we’re knee deep in a global recession and it’s not just effecting the United States. Practically ever economy in world is feeling the impact of this global economic slowdown. But what does this mean for global dating? How will this global slow down affect the men that are a part of this global dating movement?

Well, I have some good news and bad news and I’m going to lay out the pros and cons of this recession for you.

If you’ve read my book you know that I point out in one of the sections how the men from developing nations migrate to the wealthy nations in disproportionate numbers to the women. This leaves many single women back home and many single guys competing for the women in your local area.

One of the pros of this recession is that this trend is set to diminish and even reverse a bit within the next few years. As the global economies worsen the men that have migrated to will start to feel the economic pain of the recession. Many will loose their jobs, and many more will be making less money than they use to. For this reason, many of these men have already started to return to their homelands.

A recent article on newsday.com describes the fact that immigrants are now making a lot less money. You can read the article here: click here

I use to live in an immigrant community in the United States and I have a lot of personal friends that still live there and I keep in touch with them. I’ve already heard reports of vast amounts of men returning to their countries because of the economic situations in Europe, North America, and other places.

An article in networkworld.com gives us a glimpse at this trend. The article points out that:

Fewer companies filed petitions for H-1B visas this year as the economic recession continues to threaten U.S. jobs and shrink the demand for foreign talent.

U.S. companies since April 1 have filed some 42,000 petitions with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency for 65,000 H-1B Specialty Occupation Visas available for 2010, a fraction of previous years’ petitions. In 2007, the USCIS received some 150,000 petitions in a matter of days, and in 2008 the agency conducted a lottery after 163,000 petitions were filed in less than a week.

So what’s the good news about this bad news? The silver on lining on this particular cloud is that the male to female ratios in countries have experienced a lot of immigration, countries like the United States, will start to get a bit better.

The bad news is that as immigrant men move back home the ratios in developing nations such as Colombia, and Costa Rica will start to even up and won’t be as lop-sided as they use to be. In other words the rations won’t favor the men as much as they use to in places like Brazil. However in order for this to drastically effect either the ratio of men to women in the upper or lower tiers, it’s going to take a few years and by then, the global economy may recover and we will resume the trend in migration of men to more economically fertile pastures.

There’s also one very positive aspect to this global slowdown. With tough economic times ahead, many of the upper tier men who would have traveled, or who traveled in the past, will not be able to make the trip anymore due to the current economic situation. This means that the amount of upper tier men who make it down to the lower tiers will be far less during this economic slowdown.

My suggestion is to take advantage of this fact and make an extra effort to save money and slot some time. Since there are less foreigners traveling to Latin America, South East Asia, and Eastern Europe, it’s going to spell out better results for you in the end, as long as you can take your trip.

If your in a position to take a trip at this point in time, once you get to your destination it will be well worth it because now you’re competing with less foreign guys.

Many of the women I’ve met who have online profiles have told me that they talk to many guys, but for the most part it’s a waste of time because fewer men are traveling to visit them. Take this into account, when you’re saving up some time and money to travel to the lower tiers… with the current state of affairs, your trip now will mean a lot more to the women you will visit.

Finally, I’d like to add that safety may become a bigger concern as the world wide economies are impacted by the global slowdown. So be safe, no matter where you go! Although I haven’t seen too many signs of increased safety concerns in Latin America, I would advise everyone to be extra cautious due the current economic climate.

I’ll catch you later,

Global Dating During The Recession

Hanging Tough

I recently read an article in the New Yorker about companies who plow through recessions and even pickup spending, advertising, and costs through tough times. Sounds counter intuitive, doesn’t it? The article points out that many a time; these companies end up gaining lots of ground while other companies are cutting back and loosing ground.

I feel that this applies 100% to global dating. In the midst of this economic recession, many men are cutting back on travel plans. People are scared to take vacations for fear of losing their jobs. Less people in general are traveling. This might be bad for the airline industry, but its great for global dating and I’ll tell you why (at least from the men’s point of view).

As less and less men travel to places like Latin America, South East Asia, and Eastern Europe because of the recession, there is increasingly less foreigners you have to compete with in these regions of the world.

Also as less men travel to these places for vacation, business and leisure, you’ll be more of a rare commodity. As the supply of foreign men in Brazil, for example, dwindles, the value of these foreign men will inevitably go up.

Another thing to consider is the fact that the airline industry is suffering greatly at this point in time because of the recession. Right now, airlines are offering great travel deals in order to entice travelers who are no longer spending on plane tickets.

So don’t put off your travel plans if you have them. And if you don’t you might want to start looking a mid recession get away. Right now might be the best time to travel.
In my next blog post I’m going to specifically discuss the pros and cons the recession is having on global dating.

Talk Soon,