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maxD

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Everything posted by maxD

  1. http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/05/24/mark-twain-on-politians/. In fact just read his latest post just now. This is to the point showing a few points i make above
  2. Armstong is far from mad. He just had a sold out conference at 400 a pop or something and has a huge international following. He is right on many many things. I personally was convinced when i found some old posts from 2006/2007 that confirmed his confidence model of the impending downturn. He is a great historian and his model combines that with maths. Let me make a summary of what he is saying what is going to happen. After an initial downturn the stock market will rally into late 2015. The dollar will appreciate because of capital flight brought on by a new soveriegn crisis in the eu. Probably france will be the catalyst being bankrupt and the reality will bite that unfunded pensions and overspending are a plague. There will be panic in the eu....this time there will be no bail outs! There is now a hunt on for capital, as governments cannot help themselves to your money, he makes it clear his total disgust for career politicians who only think about their own needs. Because there will be no bail outs this time, the imf will come looking for a "solidarity tax" and there will be a confiscation of accounts with a postive balance, probably 10% or so. There will be no inflation, deflation is going to be the theme as the governments think more tax is the answer. This follows historical patterns that have been repeated time and time again, apparently we are no smarter than our ancestors Another thing, he has been right on gold. Whilst others have been saying gold to the moon he has rideculed them and been right, he is the only person i listen too on gold now. He says gold will rise 2015 onwards as the soverign crisis unfolds. What can you do? Be careful of goverment bonds, detroit will be repeated an a much larger scale, if there is a crisis in europe they will destroy confidence by confiscation and bail ins. Do not think it can happen, i was personally caught up in the cyprus poo! So hide out in good companies, corporate bonds, real esate and eventually gold and tangible assets. Also one last thing, he keeps saying that there is no conspiracy as some like to believe. Politicians can see no further than their nose and think 30 days in advance, they are doomed to fail and make the same mistakes as they have no real world experience. The crisis is the mismanagement promising pensions, borrowing beyond what they can ever pay back and thinking their medddling can save the world.
  3. Just got back from a 4 month stint over the winter. I got a container from China all via Alibaba.com with renovation materials and furniture. Got massive a ton of bi-fold doors put in, Canary Island price was 28k, china price was 8K eur. Got 3 nice leather sofas. rattan garden stuff, tiles ( nasty shock eu have 80% anti dumping tax on these) air con, solar panels, beds, mattresses. shower screens, iron door, railings etc. All in was 26K + transport. If you need some help soldintime let me know if you want to go down the renovation route. I now have a beautiful villa that will serve my family for the next 20 years. I will be able to let this place out for 1400 a week short term, this is my day job and I understand short term rentals. Another way I intend to leverage the villa is by doing house swaps on homexchange etc in all parts of the world. Honestly I think the time is now to buy on the coast, forget inland spain, some places will take 20 years to sell in the cynical developments that were not thought through. After 7 years of price falls it feels like it is near the bottom. Some idiots still think their houses are worth 2007 prices, they will never sell at those prices and they need to accept the reality. Within a 500 meter radius of our villa others are being renovated by people who have just bought. Buy low and sell high, not the other way around. Nice places in the right areas for the right price are selling and there is definitely an uptick in construction. The Canary Islands are quite smart, there is a ban on new builds therefore your only option is to buy ready or renovate so I guess the overflow is being depleted slowly. People are always going to leave Northern Europe to retire in the sun, again I stress the point look for something under 1000 euro/m2 including the land. Maybe a bit more if it is done completely and to your taste.
  4. Yeah, know about this one. Transfer tax is up to 10% so many pay cash unsurprisingly to get around it, so now the government assess the property on their tables. No doubt for what I bought for I will get scrutinized.
  5. Just bought a 6 bedroom villa in canaries for 260k euro. Look for properties under 1000 euro per m2 and you are getting at below cost if it is a good standard. IN peak times it would have been over 600K.
  6. Still seems unfair to me, he gets hit with the lucky stick because he does not know much about contraception. Grumbingly I can accept it but you know that the net cost to the taxpayer in allowances/benefits/schooling far outweighs his contribution to society by banging peices of metal together in a factory on minimum wage.
  7. I guess channel 4 said they would pay for it, or half it I cannot remember. So the family will move in and pay reduced rates as it is a council house. I doubt the factory worker could afford a 6 beroom house on his wage.
  8. What I thought as well. Now they have a bedroom of their own they can go and make a few more. I want a new home too please. The guy looked pretty gormless but at least he had a job in a factory.
  9. I actually like a society that does not do what it is told. The problem with the UK IMO is that the people just take it in the ass and follow the rules when the powers that be are stiffing them for an unfair share of the pie. Maybe the change in the government will make the UK less of a police state. I quite like what I see so far.
  10. Basically get more money coming in than you have going out The rest you have to work out yourself.
  11. I am from the UK but live in Prague. I prefer to live here thanks. Less crime, people more civilised, less chavs, less tax, less violence, less speed cameras, women do not look like a bulldog chewing a wasp, less tolerance for lazy people, less crowded roads, less immigration, tolerant police force and affordable housing. My council tax is 150 pounds a year You can keep your over crowded stinking Island with all it's problems. I have a feeling when I am in the UK that there is crazy capitalism, combined with a socialist state that conspires against the population rather than serving it.
  12. Ha, I would rent a van then Booze and fags are not drugs?
  13. I am saying that is me personally. If I was skint I would not really care about contributing to society as it is a matter of survival. I also put far more in than I get out, so no I would not feel bad about it as a temporary measure. Long term, I do not think I would feel good about it. Most self employed people in CZ actually do cheat on taxes like it is their duty to deprive the State of funds. They see politicians doing the same, the politicians in turn understand the game everyone plays and try and put as much as they can into the private sector. IMO in the UK there is too much money sloshing around in the government's pockets. I think as individuals we can spend our money far better than the government can. Of course some things only government money can do but better to keep the beast at bay by having smaller more effiecient adminstrations.
  14. I agree with you but there has to be some motivating factor. As your benefits drop your ass gets into gear. I believe the US has a similar benefits system.
  15. Yes. Also I would not declare the crap I was selling on ebay either. If I was skint and needed money I would rather deprive the state of revenue so I can live OK.
  16. Everyone in the UK gets a free education, that is a valuable resource. There are also endless government courses for training and so on. Show an employer you are serious about getting skills and they make take you seriously. If I was sat at home all day on the dole I would be selling crap on ebay to subsidise my income. Go to France and get cheap fags and booze or something. There are still plenty opf ways to make money.
  17. I live in the Czech Republic and I can tell you they do not take unemployment lightly. You lose your job, you are given time to find a new one. Fair enough, but if you do not move your ass it becomes progressively more painful. The same with debts here, it is hard to walk away and say, sorry man I am bankrupt. I think in gerneral it is a very healthy attitude, the conservative government also want to make the State as small as possible. They learned from communism what too much state intervention can lead to. You are responsible for your own decisions in life from education, career choices, savings, overtime, bank loans, mortgages etc. All these decisions are soley yours. Blaming others for the decisions you made will not make you strong and resilient. Of course you can have some bad luck but you should have planned for that you numbskull instead of spending all your money. I suggest if you are unemployed start making decisions that will improve your life whether it be learning a skill, re-educating, taking a job that could lead to something or starting your own business ( although I can appreciate start up capital would be hard). My personal opinion of the unemployed reflects the Czech goverments. You lose your job, we show respect for what you have paid into the system but the longer you stay on benefits the harder it becomes for you. As for the super long term unemployed, I have no respect for them at all. They should be forced into something that will wake them up or lose all benefits all together.
  18. I have a business in Barcelona and Madrid but live in Prague. Had the choice of living in BCN but chose Prague in the end as it is a lot more mellow, that was 7 years ago now. Barcelona is great for visiting though + you have the beach. Also property has dropped if you are going to rent. Check our idealista.com as it has quite a nice feature that shows average prices per m2 in certain areas. We renegotiating rents on our business now from 21 euro/m2 ( signed in the good times) down to 14 euros. You can even get 9 or 10 in decent areas if you are not too fussy. We also have a second baby on the way too
  19. http://www.zillow.com/homes/florida_rb/ check this site it is brilliant. Do not just look at foreclosures look at overall price, size and area, It is possible to make good money on a rental but not in Orlando. Too many people bought and now there is over capacity. I would buy up the coast from Miami, somewhere quiet where there are not too many rentals on the rental sites. Get some big FO property with a pool that will look impressive when you market it. They are cheap now, the ones who really need to sell. A lot of people are in denial but that is what zillow above is for. I have been watching a house for the last year, the guy is always full 2 months in advance, charges 2000 USD a week. That gives him 96k income, take away inusrance and house tax and running costs. So he is still clearing 60 a year. The house was worth 500k. I would say 9 year pay back is not bad,
  20. See the film Leon? No roots will get to you one day. I am not sure how old you are or if you have kids but in the end everywhere sort of ends up the same. I travelled the world for 10 years and in the end I really needed to stay in one place for a while. I would give Andorra a miss though, a few days there and you will be boreddddddd.
  21. http://www.scribd.com/doc/29520921/How-to-Profit-From-the-Coming-Aussie-Property-Crash-and-Banking-Crisis# Check it. Only worked in chrome for me. 49% of Oz banks goes on housing lending. They are so fekked when it goes down
  22. I have a hotel business in Europe in a number of cities. We lost a huge chunk of turnover because of the health and saftey muppets in the UK deciding it is not safe to fly. When you have businesses like airlines and hotels they have huge monthly expenses, ovbviously airlines far far larger than a hotel. In any case if your supply of custom is cut off for a week it has huge repercussions on your business. Say our expenses are 700k a month and the bungle went on for a month, no custom for a month means 700k of bills that need to be paid. That means bail out from the owners or bankrupcy. I cannot see getting any bail out money, so as you say us as individuals are going to have deal with "commercial risks" that some idiot bureaucrat made.
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