Real Diversification - Banks, Passports, Residencies, Driving Licences, Assets

--- by D. Petkovski ---

As investors, many of us understand the role of diversifying our portfolio across assets and asset classes.

However, if you’re pursuing a free and abundant life, handling the financial aspect is just the base layer of the pyramid.

In this post, I want to give examples of diversification that most people don’t consider – but are extremely important and will increase your personal freedom index significantly.

Table of Contents

Diversifying Bank Accounts

Imagine being a Russian developer that found work in the EU and started a life there.

Because of conflicts involving politicians in a country you’re not even residing in for years, one day, your bank account is frozen.

You can’t buy food, pay bills, or afford your mortgage.

Imagine a UK national living in his own country and responsibly managing his family’s investment portfolio.

One day, he decides to take profits from his Bitcoin positions and withdraws $GBP from his exchange. All of a sudden, his bank account is frozen.

No food and utilities for the chap as well.

Imagine being a Canadian exercising your freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

But since the regime really doesn’t like what you stand for, your actions are labeled as “rise of ideologically motivated extremism”.

And you know where this leads… Bank account frozen, no food for you as well.

These things can happen to anyone at any time. You can’t prevent them as it’s not up to you.

But what you can do is position yourself in a way where your life can continue normally even if a financial institution decides/is ordered to close your account.

Diversifying Passports & Citizenships

Having a second citizenship can be literally life saving in many cases.

Especially for people that live under more oppressive regimes or suffer from government overreach.

But to keep this section light, I’ll describe situations of more practical nature. And I think I described it best in my post 7 Reasons to Acquire Multiple Citizenships:

When I moved to the Netherlands as a non-EU citizen, I needed to do a Tuberculosis test as part of the residence permit requirement.

My girlfriend that moved with me from the same country didn’t have to do it because she had a Hungarian passport.

…

A few years later, we got married during the Covid lockdowns and embarked on multiple journeys shortly after.

Both of us have acquired Dutch citizenship by then.

When travelling back from a non-EU country, we were asked for vaccination certificates or negative Covid tests. We didn’t have any, but we had an extra passport.

We just gave this piece of paper and the requirement to be inconvenienced magically disappeared.

Same people, same travel destinations, but imaginary rules didn’t apply anymore.

Don’t get me started on how it felt my whole youth wondering why my home country almost never even showed up when I wanted to register for any global financial service…

But people from Iran, Cuba, or Russia can understand even today…

Unless they have a second nationality.

Diversifying Residence Permits

Residence permits are pretty related with nationalities, but oftentimes you can have the right of unlimited stay without being a national of a country.

Every EU citizen knows this – we have the freedom of movement and residence anywhere in the union. No questions asked.

But if an Australian is fed up with some new regulation that’s significantly affects his family, he can’t just leave the country. He’d need to either find a job, a spouse, or satisfy any arbitrary condition of an arbitrary country to be accepted as a legal resident.

But if I don’t like paying the Dutch wealth taxes, I can cross the border and settle in Belgium, case closed. Something similar happened on a larger scale – an exodus of French millionaires when France introduced net worth based taxation.

Tax optimization is not for everyone, but remember that legal residence in a place also grants other benefits: work opportunities, higher quality education & healthcare, safety measures… All the way to human rights.

So the more residence permits or long-term visas you can acquire, the more your personal freedom index grows. And you’ll feel it in day to day life, because you’ll know you don’t depend on a single government and that you have a choice.

Diversifying Driving Licences

I wondered if I should include this, as it’s more on the practical side rather than maximizing freedom.

But still, you enjoy your new car on an empty German autobahn and you get flashed from a sneakily positioned speed cam. Maybe due to your negligence or due to bureaucrats being petty after failing at managing their budget.

Regardless, they issue a driving ban and your German driving licence is revoked for a season.

Nevertheless, you go on vacation in the USA and you want to rent a car for your trip.

You give them your Georgian driving licence and life goes on as usual.

Diversifying Assets

And last but not least, our bread and butter, the diversification of assets.

Most people, even those that pursue personal freedom, usually aren’t really diversified outside of traditional assets.

And of course everyone should double down on a market they understand and made a fortune in. I also manage a stock portfolio and even have eye-opening series on the topic: Learn to Invest in Stocks and EU Investors’ Handbook.

However, diversifying in the decentralized realm is the only way, and the first opportunity in human history, to actually own an asset without having to ask or trust anyone or anything. Especially if you practice prudent self custody.

It’s your only opportunity to escape a system that’s rotten and stacked against you via relentless government spending, raging inflation, and overregulation.

And if this sparked your interest, your next stop should be Bitcoin for Beginners.

Author

D. Petkovski

📓 The Author Husband & Father
Software Engineer StrengthCentric
₿itcoin Hodler Long-Term Investor
🌍 Everything Enthusiast 🔥 Optimist

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