How would I financially survive an economic crash?
I know this is probably not the smartest question ever asked, but I've noticed many posters here have some financial savvy and might be able to point me in the right direction.
Say I have $5 million. I want it to be fairly liquid and portable, so if I wanted to flee the country I could take it with me.
I would also like it to be in demand enough that if there was a worldwide crash I would be able to liquidate some of my assets to pay for living expenses.
Here are my thoughts:
Gold: volatile, heavy and bulky, but it has been used as a currency since the beginning of time, so probably liquid enough even in the very worst of times. *** Is it even legal for a US citizen to own large quantities of gold?
Silver: same as gold
Diamonds: Light, easy to transport, but are they liquid enough that if the world economy crashed there would be someone to buy them
OR
Can I move the dollars to Switzerland and convert to Swiss franks?
Any other options I am not looking at?
BTW, I would not be attempting to avoid taxation and would be willing to declare the funds I was moving, just want to know how to protect assets/wealth.
Re: How would I financially survive an economic crash?
my knowledge is limited but i do know that the u.s. government will make life complicated when attempting to get a swiss bank account. i'm not sure if this is different if you were to move to switzerland, obtain residency, and then bank there. but a swiss financier customer referred to the united states as "fascist" when it came to opening accounts overseas.
i hope someone else can help more.
best!
Re: How would I financially survive an economic crash?
^^^ indeed a lot of changes have taken place recently in regard to US citizens' ability to open accounts with foreign banks. Supposedly driven by the US gov'ts need to track moneys financing terrorist activities, foreign banks who operate any business entities within the USA are now required to not only verify the identities of US citizen account holders ( in person ... i.e. actually walking in the front door of the Swiss bank ) but to also disclose financial transactions of that American citizen bank account to the IRS as well as withhold US estimated tax money on transactions that generated profits. While some foreign banks will still deal with UBER-RICH Americans ( with their definition of rich being 7 figure account balances ), in general most foreign banks now deem the US gov'ts compliance requirements to be so burdensome that they turn away US citizens seeking to open new accounts for 6 figures or less.
see
(snip)"Foreign banks, brokers, and investment funds, including private equity funds and hedge funds have three choices:
1) Enter into the agreement with US Treasury and thereby agreeing to:
A) Obtain information necessary to determine which accounts are U.S. accounts,
B) Comply with verification and due diligence procedures as required by Treasury,
C) Annually report certain information regarding U.S. accounts (including U.S. accountholder identification information and annual account activity information),
D) Withhold on “passthru payments” made to recalcitrant account holders, other FFIs that do not enter into an agreement with Treasury, and FFIs that have elected to be withheld upon (as further described below),
E) Comply with requests by Treasury for additional information with respect to any U.S. accounts, and
F) Attempt to obtain a waiver from the U.S. accountholder if any foreign law would otherwise prevent the reporting of required information or alternatively close the account.
(this options involves giving up all privacy and incurring enormous expenses.)
2) Not entering into an agreement with Treasury and suffering a 30% withholding tax on all payments from US sources and foreign institutions which do enter into an agreement with the treasury.
3) Close all US accounts and stop doing business with Americans. This is the cheapest, easiest solution which most institutions will choose.
Americans Becoming International Pariahs
1) IRS-SEC policies are wreaking havoc among Americans who live or bank offshore.
2) Swiss or other offshore banks also now must register with the SEC, an onerous and costly process, in order to legally provide advice to American customers with offshore investment or bank accounts.
3) Justifiably upset Swiss and other offshore banks are closing existing accounts of U.S. persons and refusing new American clients.
Conclusion: As I have said before, the danger to any investor in US assets (debt, equities, derivatives, etc…) isn’t a suddent loss of value, but a loss of control.
In other words, the true threat facing investors in US assets is the prospect (due to redemption restrictions, capital controls, etc…) of getting trapped in those assets. Most investors will not realize they are already trapped (because of redemption restrictions at money market and checking accounts for example) until they try to move their capital out of the US. At that point they will helplessly watch as the dollar’s rapid devaluation wipes out their wealth.'(snip)
As to crossing US borders with physical gold, silver, diamonds etc., if the amount exceeds $10,000 every US citizen is required to fill out and submit it to US Customs. This in turn will lead to SEC / IRS inquiries seeking a traceable 'paper trail' regarding the original purchase and US tax history of these assets. And of course, acceptance / sale of such assets by a foreign financial institution would be covered by the new foreign bank verification and reporting requirements listed above since, under the new US law, these assets are considered to be monetary instruments. As such, unless you are a registered dealer, you'll have great difficulty trying to 'liquidate' these assets at full value in a foreign setting.
The bottom line is that the recently passed HIRE act seems to have anticipated a future day when large numbers of Americans might be inclined to move their assets outside the US / out of the US Dollar !!! And the only real way to sidestep these new restrictions is to renounce US citizenship ... which if you don't wish to become a 'stateless person' and thus give up your right to travel internationally means first obtaining another citizenship from a foreign country. This is an increasingly long and difficult process ... well it is for those who aren't UBER-RICH anyhow !
Circling back to your original question, if the 'sky falls' economically speaking, there's no guarantee that foreign countries with close ties to the American economy will fare all that much better than America will. There's also the very real possibility that 'emergency measures' may be enacted that prevent travel and/or movement of cash or monetary equivalent assets across borders by US citizens. There is even the 1930's FDR precedent that US citizens could again be required to surrender any and all monetary equivalent assets they own to the US Treasury in exchange for payment in US dollars at an 'official' price level set by the US gov't. Again, the only real way to avoid being subjected to these gloomy possibilities is to already have a second citizenship and already be residing outside the USA on the day that the 'sky falls'.
~