The ‘Dear Family’ Letter was written by Roderick MacKenzie, an entrepreneur and businessman who spent the past two years studying global economies, financial systems and world events. He writes to warn his family and friends about a coming collapse in world economies and a pending financial meltdown…and tells them where to access the information, tools and strategies to take advantage of this knowledge to prosper during the coming financial storm. Here it is:
Dear Family and Friends,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am sending it out first with friends and family in mind…then for pretty much anyone else Kimberly and I know well enough that we have their contact information. I believe the information I’m about to share could be the most important thing you can read to protect you and your family over the next decade.
I know that sounds dramatic, but I really do believe that we’re in a time in history where it’s more crucial than ever before to pay attention to what’s happening in the economy and prepare adequately for the future. If we don’t we could be leading our families into financial disaster, both in the short term and into retirement.
So Here’s the Deal…
You may or may not know that I’ve been studying the economy over the past couple years. I’ve also been looking for people in the financial industry whom I could trust to help me make the kind of financial decisions and investment gains I knew were possible, but didn’t have access to.
What I found prompted me to write this letter as a warning to the people I love and care about… because I believe that in the next 1-5 years (lately it looks to be a lot closer to one than five…) we will enter a worldwide economic collapse that could rival that of the 1930’s Great Depression.
I know that may sound a bit crazy to some of you…but I’m willing to risk sounding a bit crazy to pass on this information. I don’t feel right about preparing to protect my own family without letting you know my thoughts so you can decide if you want to take some steps to protect yours too.
I’m about to paint a pretty dreary picture…but don’t worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
No True Financial Recovery Since 2008
I know some of you don’t pay much attention to the economy, but even if that’s true, you likely have some sense that things are not quite right in economies all over the world. Actually, they haven’t been quite right for years…starting well before the financial crisis of 2008.
Over the past couple years mainstream financial commentators have been promoting the idea that the economy has been recovering. With just a bit of research, it is obvious that there has been no true recovery since 2008, regardless of what the talking heads in the media are saying.
Unprecedented currency creation and spending by governments around the world (the US government in particular) is the force that has driven the ‘recovery’ over the past 2-3 years,…but it can’t go on forever. Increasing debt and deficit spending does not make for real economic growth.
What Affects The US Affects Everyone
Many non-US residents look at the American situation and say “That’s them, it isn’t the same in our country. The problem is their massive deficits…their downgraded credit…their high unemployment…their real estate disaster, etc, etc. They are the ones in real trouble, not us, so we don’t have to worry about it.” This line of thinking is a huge mistake.
As the holder of the world’s reserve currency, all countries around the world will feel (and are already feeling) the impact of major US depression, especially a long term one. It would be even worse if there was an associated collapse of the US dollar. Unfortunately these are both very real possibilities over the next few years. Maybe the word ‘probabilities’ would have been more accurate in that last sentence…
If the US plans to get their debt and deficits under control, they have no other choice but to massively devalue the dollar by printing it into oblivion…causing huge inflation and affecting other currencies around the world, angering lenders who will be getting paid back with devalued dollars. Creating more currency is already a tactic they seem pretty comfortable with. As the biggest trading partner of many nations, a severely devalued dollar will have a massive effect on trade volume as well, creating unprecedented effects throughout the entire world.
Unemployment and Inflation
Unemployment in the US is already at depression levels. It’s a lot worse in Europe. Even the official US government unemployment numbers are too high, and the official numbers actually remove from their calculation part-time workers who can’t get full time work…and people who have been looking for work for more than a year. I’m not sure how these people are no longer considered ‘unemployed’, but it certainly allows ‘official’ statisticians to keep the numbers artificially low.
Calculated the way they used to do it several years ago, the actual US unemployment rate is closer to 20%. Some countries around the world, including countries in Western Europe, have been seeing over 30% and even 40% of the youth segment of their workforce unemployed…
Inflation is another problem that can lead to major trouble. ‘Official’ inflation numbers don’t seem too bad, until you realize that they remove food and energy (like oil) from the mix before they calculate them. I really don’t know how they can justify removing two of the most important goods and services to modern life from the calculations. Official inflation rates stay in the low single digits. Calculated including food and energy, these rates are closer to 10%.
Rise in Interest Rates
Inflation isn’t only an “invisible tax” that makes every one of our dollars worth less…it also eventually stimulates an increase in interest rates on our loans.
If you have variable interest debts like credit cards, lines of credit and variable rate mortgages, a jump in interest rates could be devastating. They were up in the teens in the 1970’s. Some commentators (who have a history of being right about this sort of thing multiple times in the past) expect to see similar rates over the next few years.
Regarding all these numbers, people seems to either:
1. Trust the government enough to take things at face value.
2. Don’t trust them enough to pay attention to anything they say.
3. Or haven’t been educated well enough about finances and the economy to know why things like inflation levels are relevant in the first place.
I’m afraid reason number three is true for most otherwise highly educated people around the world…with a fair amount of number two thrown in for good measure.
Things are getting worse rather than better and even if world governments somehow ‘straightened everything out’ tomorrow, there is nothing they can do that would mean our children won’t be paying for it for generations to come. Of more immediate concern though, is that we will likely be paying for it ourselves a lot sooner than that…starting within the next 1-5 years.
We will pay for it with downgraded lifestyles, rising inflation, rising taxes, and stock market collapses that will put the average retirement plan in a major tailspin…and this time there will be no false recovery in the markets like they managed to create last time around.
World Economies Are Impossibly Interconnected
Today’s financial world is so interconnected that what happens in one place affects pretty much everywhere else…German and French banks, for example, carry huge amounts of debt from the bankrupt or near-bankrupt countries of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy, as do other banks around the world.
North American banks have sold insurance on the debt of these same nearly bankrupt countries. This is an example of the credit default swaps you may have heard about on the news. When European countries default on their debts, banks in North America will take huge hits. Some of the big banks would be in big trouble if governments weren’t hell bent on bailing them out no matter how irresponsible they have been with their lending practices or their over-leveraged investing. Though Canadian banks have fared better, they won’t escape unscathed once the US Govrnment can no longer hold the economy together.
Sovereign debt purchases and credit default swaps are just two examples. There are many ways financial systems are connected all over the world
I’ve heard some commentators say that central banks are not “printing money”, but when you look at the base money supply in the US, some charts show a three times increase in the money supply since 2008. Most show at least two. The basic law of supply and demand states that when the supply increases, the demand for (in this case, the US Dollar) decreases. Its value has already decreased over 90% over the past century. Accelerated devaluation of the world’s reserve currency will have far reaching effects on all currencies around the world.
The Coming Financial Disaster
As I said before, I’ve been studying and reading about the state of economies and financial systems around the world for the past two years. I’ve been following multiple analysts and financial commentators and I am convinced that we are on the brink of another financial collapse that could be worse in scope and take longer to recover from than anything the world has ever seen before. I’m convinced enough that I’m willing to stick my neck out and say so.
Most of us sense there’s something wrong, but unless we have been diligent enough, or lucky enough, to find someone who can help us figure out what to do about it, we have no idea how to act to protect ourselves.
Because of the current state of world economies, especially the US economy with it’s failing financial system, there is potential for:
- A financial collapse and depression on a greater scale than the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
- Very slow recovery taking many years.
- Inflation that causes severe increases in the cost of goods and services.
- Interest rates going up into the teens like they did in the 1970’s.
- More job losses due to corporate cuts, and government cuts to programs and services, many of which we take for granted today.
- As this progresses, even on a modest scale, social unrest is likely to follow, even in the self-proclaimed ‘civilized’ countries around the world.
Many of these things have already begun to happen around the world.
Hey, I could be wrong, and I hope I am…but it’s not the chance that I’m wrong that I’m worried about. It’s the chance that I’m right.
Kimberly and I are preparing for the worst to happen over the next decade, and we want to warn those we love and care about so they can at least make an informed decision to look at things further and decide if they want to prepare as well.
Current Financial Strategies
I’m not writing about this stuff to scare you, just to try to make you more aware of the magnitude of the situation and the reasons why financial systems around the world are on shaky ground.
Unfortunately, the ways we have been conditioned to take care of our finances are more likely to hurt than help us. We need to take a look at how we manage what we have and make double sure we are comfortable with it…and by that I don’t mean we have to make sure we have a financial advisor who is putting our money in mutual funds…that is a recipe for disaster.
For those of you reading this who are financial advisors…I apologize in advance if the next part rankles a bit. I’ll assume you are not the type who blindly follow your company policies when it comes to helping your clients.
Frankly, the majority of financial advisors know little more than what Wall Street or Bay Street (or wherever the big financial district is in your country) has taught them, and “Financial Street” could care less whether you and your family survive the next economic catastrophe as long as they are getting their cut of your investments. The vast majority of advisors do care…it’s just that they are playing with the same disadvantages of the rest of us.
The strategy of handing over cash to an advisor to place in mutual funds where fund managers and transaction fees whittle away at your returns is dead. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still popular, but it is a recipe for disaster. Just ask any of the thousands of people who had postpone their retirement after the 2008 crash. Most mutual fund investments are so widely diversified that they will only show gains if the overall market is growing steadily. Some managed funds can actually pull out as much of your gains in fees as you do in returns over the lifetime of the fund!
Michael Edesess’ studies also show that there is a 50–50 chance that a managed fund will outperform the market averages…no matter how the fund manager has done over the past five years. This means that if there is a five year history of a fund beating market averages…there is still only a 50% chance of beating the markets in year six…and a 50% chance of under-performing in year six as well
There are other ways to invest. Other financial management strategies. Other asset classes. Better uses for your investment dollars.
The best aggregate of information for all of this stuff I can find is an organization called The Elevation Group. Go here for a free webinar presentation to find out more about them and what they offer..
Since I started studying the economy and investing, I ‘fired’ my traditional financial advisor. I actually now use more ‘advisors’ than I ever did…just not the same kind of advisors as I used to. I now make my own decisions based on advice of those who are truly educated. One of the economists I follow writes a financial newsletter whose recommendations saw over 100% returns each year in 9 out of the last 10 years…all documented. My old advisor thought we were lucky to get 10 percent…and was satisfied with seven.
Those who know what they’re doing are on an entirely different playing field than we are exposed to by the big financial companies that we are used to doing business with.
What Can I Do About It?
If we do end up with another meltdown, there are things you can do to protect yourself… If the markets collapse and we enter a period of extensive economic depression around the world, those who are prepared will not just survive, but should actually be able to grow their wealth more quickly during the meltdown. There were more millionaires created during and after the great depression in the 1930’s than at any other time in history.
Kimberly and I are preparing to prosper no matter what happens. There are no guarantees, of course, but I believe we’re in much safer territory than we’ve ever been with our investme0nts before.
I put together a more detailed report in the members section of our new website, and we are offering all friends and family…and their friends and family…free access to everything we post in the premium members section of the site. There you can access this report and lots of other education, tools and strategies. We want to make this information available to our loved ones and give you some steps you can take to prepare if you agree with our assessment of what may happen over the next few years. You can sign up, check things out, and decide whether or not you want to take action in some way.
If you think I’m crazy and decide to do nothing, at least I’ll be able to say “I tried to tell you!” if things go down like I expect them to. Maybe you’re right and everything will work out just fine. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of people around the world who will suffer financial hardship if you’re not, I sure hope so.
Unfortunately hoping for the best and burying your head in the sand won’t protect you or your family, so please at least look at the detailed report and see whether you think there is any truth in it. I believe we are in for tougher times than any of us have ever seen. It only makes sense to see what you can do to insure yourself and your family in case that happens.
I hope this has at least made you think. I know I can speak for Kimberly as well as I wish you success today and into the future, and hope to see you all sometime soon!
Sincerely,
Rod
That’s it…you can get more detail on these issues in The Elevation Group:
Our hope is that this letter triggers a response in you. A response that makes you say “No One Cares More About My Money that I Do…so I need to learn what I need to know to protect and grow it like I never have before.
More Millionaires were created during and coming out of the Great Depression than at any other time in history. A time is upon us that will present the same opportunities, and many of them are already in their early stages.
Winston Churchill said “The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” This time in history will prove life changing for anyone who sees the opportunity in these difficult economic times.
Sign in above to access the “Dear Family” Letter, along with more financial and economic nuggets to get you on the right start in protecting your family and getting them on the right side of the unprecedented 50 Trillion Dollar wealth transfer that will take place over the next 5- 10 years.
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