I've been going thru an expensive divorce for almost 2-yrs now.
However, I'm almost debt-free now. The latent costs for the legal fees is the only 'big-1" overhanging.
So. My own advice to everyday-plebs & patricians is: #1) No Debt 2) Have assets ready to liquefy immediately when it comes to paying the yearly-tribute-to-the-state called *income tax* 3) delay payment on any taxes because 'inflation' will reduce your costs with 10%-20% wherever One finds Oneself in the Western Anglo Empire Areas 4) net gain by depreciation of the value of the currency is very very real 5) Buy all *necessities* in-bulk when One finds products reduced-in-price. Here in Sweden, base food stuffs have increased in price by 50%-200%+ only these past 13½ months.
Hi Christopher - all sensible advice. Interesting, I also had a ruinous divorce (2018) which I'm still only recovering from. I'd add - for anyone who can, acquire a piece of farmland, even a garden, and some gold or silver in physical form (coins, not bars) to have on hand if necessary (more for bribing corrupt bureaucrats than for purchases.
Thanks Alex. We all find ourselves in different Life phases and Ages. I'm in my late 60's. Worst part for Me was...I was 100% totally 'unprepared'. She didn't even give Me any warning! 0 Null Zero. She just disappeared. Yep.
After 34 yrs of marriage. Yep. That baaddd. No Warning , no nothing.
Anyway, the best is no debt and preserve One's wealth in tangibles.
Good Skills, Good Health is actually the 1st prerequisites. Most people 'don't know sh_t'.
Yeah, I got big & beautiful apple trees, a cherry tree that haven't sprayed for 25+ yrs now. And of course a small garden.
Don't your countries know "separation of wealth" (Gütertrennung), which is quite the standard in DE + AT (dunno about CH)?! And always for business owners.
Of course Sweden does. However, because I'm still involved in *litigation*, it's not appropriate to disclose anything publicly, especially in an 'international forum' as Alex's blog is.
Sun Tzu. You surely have heard of Him Frank?
Here's an easy introduction that takes no effort for the Readers that haven't read his book *The Art of War* :
My question was far more rhetorical than its seems to have been perceived.
"Sun Tzu. You surely have heard of Him Frank? "
Sure but I find von Clausewitz a bit more concrete, more practical, while Sun Tzu seems more philosophical. But I have not read the whole book, to be honest. I have had 80-100 hrs per week for the last 30 years.
Why wander far and wide when good things are so close by. (an old German proverb translated)
Have a good evening!
P.S. I would not like to live in SWE as I like good wines and that was (still is?) all run by the state and used to be damn expensive and little choice. Most Swedes used to have no natural relation to alcohol (dunno if that has changed, but I doubt it). A bit like the Polish. Things are much better in coutries that grow wine.
Kopenhagen was the most nothern place I have been to but I know the Latin and all west-slavic counties quite to very well.
Mine left without warning also, or at least very little. He up and died leaving zero behind. Twenty two years w nothing to show for it. Good old 20/20 hindsight. Sigh.
What for Me became clear after her 'magician's act' of disappearing was, it was planned in advance. That-took-time. That meant, it was Deception/Deceiving 1's partner-for-life and an agreement blessed by a priest, before God.
Well. Why am I here at *Alex's Hangout Cafe*?
Same reason as Alex is.
i.e. "To tell Truth. Fight the bad. Promote the Good".
And, "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” ― Confucius
Not only is that a very hurtful and deceitful thing to do but it makes you wonder if you really ever knew this person and you then question yourself. After my husband died I found out things about him that were hidden from me. It's especially painful when you're the one who's being open and honest in the relationship. I used to have a dear friend, a gay guy who's passed also, and he always used to say "how well do we really ever know someone?" So true.
The absurd price-increase is mainly due to the power of huge corporations often with their local de facto monopolies.
I grew up in Germany when this was still an economy dominated by the huge "Mittelstand" (which is not the same as middle-class, but that's not the place to explain this very particular German speciality). Mittelstand used be be the back-bone and thrength of DACH (DE AT CH). The remainders are currently destroyed.
An absolute must for a new state and financial system is to free the new societies of dominating corporations (in Deutsch "Konzern") and to convert them back into owner-run companies. Germans have superb and long experiences with co-operations (Genossenschaft), which has nothing at all to do with socialism. It stems from the mid 18 hundreds (Raiffeisen). The word Genosse was much later stolen and abused by socialists.
If we fail to achieve this, we lay ground for another Anglo-style carnivore capitalism that exploids the hard-working and kills the Mittelstand.
I know very well from my professional experiances with Konzerne that the majority of managers are of the same breed as the politicians, only a few grades more clever and intelligent but that makes "managers" even more dangerous.
I also know very well the attiude of family members running the family company. In almost all cases the spirits and "climate" of those Mittelstand companies was ways better than in huge manager-run corporations. And they are far more productive anyway.
Great feedback - directly corroborates what Richard Werner has been writing and lecturing about. It is the future for all humanity, but the crisis that's ahead will be tough and difficult to get through.
I wish you will be right in the end but I doubt that for many reasons. One is the absence of any "truth press".
A little known one is that far too many of the generation of my children fears the 60+ hours a week, the high taxes and the absurd bureaucracy that has been set-up with the distinct purpose of making the Mittelstand give up or sell their business.
Another little known view: All Völker in Europe including those formerly in the communist prison have a very long tradition of some type or another of Mittelstand. That is something that neither the Asians nor the Russians have ever had. Russia: From slaves of the Zar right into Stalin's sloughterhouse into US exploitation.
But none of that is true for all people who lived in the only ever well-working multi-cultural state and that was Habsburg (and to a much lesser degree also Prussia).
I saw this very clearly when I lived in Zemun (Beograd) for 18 Months in 07/08. When I was in the bus there were lots of older people many dressed relatively poor but with some style that showed that they had seen better times and that they had quites some culture - and that's what counts. They were not proletarians! Same BTW in Sovjet Germany.
Lemme tell you what passes for "M&A" in the anglo world: private equity/corporate raider/do-gooder quietly buys shares in target company as aid in delivering the head of target co. on silver platter to acquirer company. acquirer company has no intention of "merger", only "gutting competition". acquirer has side agreement with corporate raider/pvt equity to provide liquidating dividend from assets of target co to the corporate raider/pvt equity upon successful completion of merger, thus veritably reducing the cost basis of the pvt equity/raider firms "investment" in target co. Merger goes through, Raider collects dividend, immediately flips stock-received-in-exchange of acquirer onto market, exiting his position with a nice profit. Acquirer Happy having gutted competition. Target gone. MSM Anglo financial press (FT, WSJ) all talking about synergies...blah blah blah...dealmakers...etc etc. no one is the wiser! Welcome to paradise!
Why must you always be on the spot Alex? You're brilliant! Thank you very much for your insights. I hope one day I can afford to hop in on your paid subscription and Tom Luongo!
Nevertheless I highly appreciate your free content also!
Hi Ionut Manuel, that's too kind! Actually all the content is free, I never published anything on Substack that's behind paywall, so the paid subscriptions are tips, more or less. Substack - I think this is due to their business model that uses no advertising - strongly encourages readers to pay and writers to accept payments, but this doesn't oblige me to put anything at all behind a paywall.
Do you play the ball where it is, or where it is going? We have a confluence of three crises – inflation/interest rate crisis – banking crisis – dollar crisis. Where is the ball going? Thank you Alex for your insight and understanding as to what we are headed for - rough waters!
The current money system was invented in hell and has the purpose to disposess the hard-working to the advantage of the satanic elite. Stock trading is just a part of it, interest another.
That is why the ingenious German language uses one word Schulden = debt and Schuld = guilt. The "en" just converts a singluar into a plural. The major problem is the current "Debitismus" = debitism.
I am not trying to propose any alternative here. I only want to make readers aware of these facts as we are most likely a couple of months away from major changes to the current financial system. Digital money can only be worse and must be defined as the worst fascism possible.
If we "the Volk" do not succeed in agreeing on and enforcing any system free of any form of Schuld(en), we will undoubtedly end-up in absolute tyranny due to modern electronics.
I grew up in the divided Berlin literally in the morning shadow of the wall (thus you know in which part) and, of course, I knew both sides. I therefore am sure today, that I want neither of them.
Yes Frank. In Swedish/på Svenska it exactly the same *dual meaning* ie. Skuld= Blame Skyldig=Guilty Skuld=Debt.
I'm a collector of old maps. Thru my 'learning period' and purchases, I discovered that...Gothenburg ie. Göteborg = Goth's Fortress.
And guess 'who' got the *Exclusive Rights to own/administer* the enclave?
"Gothenburg was founded as a heavily fortified, primarily Dutch, trading colony, by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. In addition to the generous privileges (e.g. tax relaxation) given to his Dutch allies from the ongoing Thirty Years' War..."
No surprise, our languages have the same roots. Just English, the Roman and Slavic languages do not or only rarely have this inner core meaning. Look at Wissenschaft literally = "knowledge create" versus science.
Well, I wonder how many of these "Dutch" people had changed their names to disguise where they really came from and who they prayed to.
I only saw now that you seem to be US born and finally moved to Sweden.
What a wise decision!
I left my home country in the end of the 90-ies after I had understood that Stasi was about to take over the US-Colony DE. And I since lived mostly in the bigger 4 Visegrad countries (but NOT in PL).
I was already wondering how many of the several tenths of millions US people with German roots can come back to replace the unwanted Mohammedanians and the Sub-Sahara people when we are "through with most". DE still has "ius sanguinis".
Good advise,Alex, however i've long been on a contrarian trajectory that's only beginning to pay off. Reading over some of the comments, I would only add that physical gold may not be the best alternative in today's climate. Sure, it's nice to have but if someone has a gun to your head chances are you're going to open the safe. Gold and other mining stocks( especially the juniors) are worth considering. They tend to be less risky in a gold bull market and actually afford more leverage ( imho). My main caveat here, is that they are already producing and have covered Capex.
I've been going thru an expensive divorce for almost 2-yrs now.
However, I'm almost debt-free now. The latent costs for the legal fees is the only 'big-1" overhanging.
So. My own advice to everyday-plebs & patricians is: #1) No Debt 2) Have assets ready to liquefy immediately when it comes to paying the yearly-tribute-to-the-state called *income tax* 3) delay payment on any taxes because 'inflation' will reduce your costs with 10%-20% wherever One finds Oneself in the Western Anglo Empire Areas 4) net gain by depreciation of the value of the currency is very very real 5) Buy all *necessities* in-bulk when One finds products reduced-in-price. Here in Sweden, base food stuffs have increased in price by 50%-200%+ only these past 13½ months.
Regards Alex.
Read this yesterday at your website.
:) No Worries. WE Win!!!
Hi Christopher - all sensible advice. Interesting, I also had a ruinous divorce (2018) which I'm still only recovering from. I'd add - for anyone who can, acquire a piece of farmland, even a garden, and some gold or silver in physical form (coins, not bars) to have on hand if necessary (more for bribing corrupt bureaucrats than for purchases.
Thanks Alex. We all find ourselves in different Life phases and Ages. I'm in my late 60's. Worst part for Me was...I was 100% totally 'unprepared'. She didn't even give Me any warning! 0 Null Zero. She just disappeared. Yep.
After 34 yrs of marriage. Yep. That baaddd. No Warning , no nothing.
Anyway, the best is no debt and preserve One's wealth in tangibles.
Good Skills, Good Health is actually the 1st prerequisites. Most people 'don't know sh_t'.
Yeah, I got big & beautiful apple trees, a cherry tree that haven't sprayed for 25+ yrs now. And of course a small garden.
Thanks Bro ;)
Wow. My divorce came after 16 years. Untreated pple and cherry trees sound fantastic!
@Christopher @Alex
Don't your countries know "separation of wealth" (Gütertrennung), which is quite the standard in DE + AT (dunno about CH)?! And always for business owners.
Of course Sweden does. However, because I'm still involved in *litigation*, it's not appropriate to disclose anything publicly, especially in an 'international forum' as Alex's blog is.
Sun Tzu. You surely have heard of Him Frank?
Here's an easy introduction that takes no effort for the Readers that haven't read his book *The Art of War* :
https://archive.org/details/art_war_ps_librivox
My question was far more rhetorical than its seems to have been perceived.
"Sun Tzu. You surely have heard of Him Frank? "
Sure but I find von Clausewitz a bit more concrete, more practical, while Sun Tzu seems more philosophical. But I have not read the whole book, to be honest. I have had 80-100 hrs per week for the last 30 years.
Why wander far and wide when good things are so close by. (an old German proverb translated)
Have a good evening!
P.S. I would not like to live in SWE as I like good wines and that was (still is?) all run by the state and used to be damn expensive and little choice. Most Swedes used to have no natural relation to alcohol (dunno if that has changed, but I doubt it). A bit like the Polish. Things are much better in coutries that grow wine.
Kopenhagen was the most nothern place I have been to but I know the Latin and all west-slavic counties quite to very well.
Mine left without warning also, or at least very little. He up and died leaving zero behind. Twenty two years w nothing to show for it. Good old 20/20 hindsight. Sigh.
What for Me became clear after her 'magician's act' of disappearing was, it was planned in advance. That-took-time. That meant, it was Deception/Deceiving 1's partner-for-life and an agreement blessed by a priest, before God.
Well. Why am I here at *Alex's Hangout Cafe*?
Same reason as Alex is.
i.e. "To tell Truth. Fight the bad. Promote the Good".
And, "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” ― Confucius
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/58081-to-put-the-world-in-order-we-must-first-put
Not only is that a very hurtful and deceitful thing to do but it makes you wonder if you really ever knew this person and you then question yourself. After my husband died I found out things about him that were hidden from me. It's especially painful when you're the one who's being open and honest in the relationship. I used to have a dear friend, a gay guy who's passed also, and he always used to say "how well do we really ever know someone?" So true.
The absurd price-increase is mainly due to the power of huge corporations often with their local de facto monopolies.
I grew up in Germany when this was still an economy dominated by the huge "Mittelstand" (which is not the same as middle-class, but that's not the place to explain this very particular German speciality). Mittelstand used be be the back-bone and thrength of DACH (DE AT CH). The remainders are currently destroyed.
An absolute must for a new state and financial system is to free the new societies of dominating corporations (in Deutsch "Konzern") and to convert them back into owner-run companies. Germans have superb and long experiences with co-operations (Genossenschaft), which has nothing at all to do with socialism. It stems from the mid 18 hundreds (Raiffeisen). The word Genosse was much later stolen and abused by socialists.
If we fail to achieve this, we lay ground for another Anglo-style carnivore capitalism that exploids the hard-working and kills the Mittelstand.
I know very well from my professional experiances with Konzerne that the majority of managers are of the same breed as the politicians, only a few grades more clever and intelligent but that makes "managers" even more dangerous.
I also know very well the attiude of family members running the family company. In almost all cases the spirits and "climate" of those Mittelstand companies was ways better than in huge manager-run corporations. And they are far more productive anyway.
Great feedback - directly corroborates what Richard Werner has been writing and lecturing about. It is the future for all humanity, but the crisis that's ahead will be tough and difficult to get through.
"It is the future for all humanity"
I wish you will be right in the end but I doubt that for many reasons. One is the absence of any "truth press".
A little known one is that far too many of the generation of my children fears the 60+ hours a week, the high taxes and the absurd bureaucracy that has been set-up with the distinct purpose of making the Mittelstand give up or sell their business.
Another little known view: All Völker in Europe including those formerly in the communist prison have a very long tradition of some type or another of Mittelstand. That is something that neither the Asians nor the Russians have ever had. Russia: From slaves of the Zar right into Stalin's sloughterhouse into US exploitation.
But none of that is true for all people who lived in the only ever well-working multi-cultural state and that was Habsburg (and to a much lesser degree also Prussia).
I saw this very clearly when I lived in Zemun (Beograd) for 18 Months in 07/08. When I was in the bus there were lots of older people many dressed relatively poor but with some style that showed that they had seen better times and that they had quites some culture - and that's what counts. They were not proletarians! Same BTW in Sovjet Germany.
Lemme tell you what passes for "M&A" in the anglo world: private equity/corporate raider/do-gooder quietly buys shares in target company as aid in delivering the head of target co. on silver platter to acquirer company. acquirer company has no intention of "merger", only "gutting competition". acquirer has side agreement with corporate raider/pvt equity to provide liquidating dividend from assets of target co to the corporate raider/pvt equity upon successful completion of merger, thus veritably reducing the cost basis of the pvt equity/raider firms "investment" in target co. Merger goes through, Raider collects dividend, immediately flips stock-received-in-exchange of acquirer onto market, exiting his position with a nice profit. Acquirer Happy having gutted competition. Target gone. MSM Anglo financial press (FT, WSJ) all talking about synergies...blah blah blah...dealmakers...etc etc. no one is the wiser! Welcome to paradise!
Why must you always be on the spot Alex? You're brilliant! Thank you very much for your insights. I hope one day I can afford to hop in on your paid subscription and Tom Luongo!
Nevertheless I highly appreciate your free content also!
Hi Ionut Manuel, that's too kind! Actually all the content is free, I never published anything on Substack that's behind paywall, so the paid subscriptions are tips, more or less. Substack - I think this is due to their business model that uses no advertising - strongly encourages readers to pay and writers to accept payments, but this doesn't oblige me to put anything at all behind a paywall.
Do you play the ball where it is, or where it is going? We have a confluence of three crises – inflation/interest rate crisis – banking crisis – dollar crisis. Where is the ball going? Thank you Alex for your insight and understanding as to what we are headed for - rough waters!
Thank you!
The current money system was invented in hell and has the purpose to disposess the hard-working to the advantage of the satanic elite. Stock trading is just a part of it, interest another.
That is why the ingenious German language uses one word Schulden = debt and Schuld = guilt. The "en" just converts a singluar into a plural. The major problem is the current "Debitismus" = debitism.
I am not trying to propose any alternative here. I only want to make readers aware of these facts as we are most likely a couple of months away from major changes to the current financial system. Digital money can only be worse and must be defined as the worst fascism possible.
If we "the Volk" do not succeed in agreeing on and enforcing any system free of any form of Schuld(en), we will undoubtedly end-up in absolute tyranny due to modern electronics.
I grew up in the divided Berlin literally in the morning shadow of the wall (thus you know in which part) and, of course, I knew both sides. I therefore am sure today, that I want neither of them.
Yes Frank. In Swedish/på Svenska it exactly the same *dual meaning* ie. Skuld= Blame Skyldig=Guilty Skuld=Debt.
I'm a collector of old maps. Thru my 'learning period' and purchases, I discovered that...Gothenburg ie. Göteborg = Goth's Fortress.
And guess 'who' got the *Exclusive Rights to own/administer* the enclave?
"Gothenburg was founded as a heavily fortified, primarily Dutch, trading colony, by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. In addition to the generous privileges (e.g. tax relaxation) given to his Dutch allies from the ongoing Thirty Years' War..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothenburg
Yep, the Dutch/City of Amsterdam, almost 50 years before 1666/Oliver Cromwell as the Dutch-proxy conquered Brittain.
The Swedish Central Bank-Riksbanken was founded the 2 years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveriges_Riksbank
Probably only a...co-incident. lol
Dots...dots...connecting the dots anyone? :) & ;)
"dual meaning"
No surprise, our languages have the same roots. Just English, the Roman and Slavic languages do not or only rarely have this inner core meaning. Look at Wissenschaft literally = "knowledge create" versus science.
Well, I wonder how many of these "Dutch" people had changed their names to disguise where they really came from and who they prayed to.
lol. :)
I normally say to N.Americans, "Well, they sure ain't the Amish". ;)
Long-story-short, the my surname is from the German *Jung*, from Ossweil-Ludvigsburg.
My 1st German ancestors from *Palatinate* moved to what eventually became United States 300 years ago
Grusse Chris
I only saw now that you seem to be US born and finally moved to Sweden.
What a wise decision!
I left my home country in the end of the 90-ies after I had understood that Stasi was about to take over the US-Colony DE. And I since lived mostly in the bigger 4 Visegrad countries (but NOT in PL).
I was already wondering how many of the several tenths of millions US people with German roots can come back to replace the unwanted Mohammedanians and the Sub-Sahara people when we are "through with most". DE still has "ius sanguinis".
Good advise,Alex, however i've long been on a contrarian trajectory that's only beginning to pay off. Reading over some of the comments, I would only add that physical gold may not be the best alternative in today's climate. Sure, it's nice to have but if someone has a gun to your head chances are you're going to open the safe. Gold and other mining stocks( especially the juniors) are worth considering. They tend to be less risky in a gold bull market and actually afford more leverage ( imho). My main caveat here, is that they are already producing and have covered Capex.