Author: Joe Withrow

Numbers don’t lie.

You’ve probably heard about the magic of compounding. It’s the phenomenon where your money multiplies all by itself. But as we discussed yesterday, compounding is especially magical when it is uninterrupted.

Let’s revisit the ordinary compound interest for a moment. It’s simple: you invest money, it earns interest, and this interest earns its own interest. Before you know it, your investment is growing faster than you can count.

However, a big, ugly gremlin lurks in the shadows: market volatility. When the market takes a nosedive, your compounding interest doesn’t just pause… it takes steps back.

Continue reading “The Unseen Powerhouse: Uninterrupted Compounding through Infinite Banking”

So, your capital must reside somewhere. The question is – where do you store it?

Our investment membership The Phoenician League held its monthly discussion call last week. IBC specialist Brian Moody joined us to talk about the magic of the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC).

Imagine, for a moment, the perfect financial system… one custom-tailored to your needs. Imagine a system that’s absolutely guaranteed to grow, year after year. A system that grants you total control and liquidity. No ticker symbols going up and down here.

Need to access funds? No problem. Your money is there, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice. And guess what? You can access your funds any time, for any reason. There are no arbitrary restrictions and certainly no taxes or penalties.

With the financial system we’re imagining here, it’s your castle. No one can breach it. What we’re talking about is unique in the world of finance.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the standard financial advice. It says we should pour our savings into tax-tomorrow accounts. These are 401ks, IRAs, SEP IRAs, and similar vehicles. They allow us to defer paying taxes on our savings until when we want to access our money.

Continue reading “Unchain Your Wealth: The Magic of Infinite Banking”

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle… and the life of the candle will not be shortened. -Buddha

We’re going to wrap up our discussion on the philosophy of money this week. And we have to start with this – if we assess the great moral philosophers that have come to us over the years, we’ll find that many of them came to the same fundamental ideas… just from different cultures.

These ideas are like strings running throughout history. They are small and not easily seen. But they connect people, events, and philosophy across geography and across time.

One of the ideas consistent to moral philosophers across time is the “Retreat and Return” model. Both Jesus of Nazareth and the Buddha followed this model.

Continue reading “What Jesus and Buddha can teach us about money”

The overman represents the highest potential for human creativity, strength, and achievement – a sort of ultimate affirmation and embracement of life.

This quotes describes 19^th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the “Übermensch”. That word means “overman” in English.

There are different interpretations and misconceptions around Nietzsche’s overman philosophy. But on the surface it’s a simple idea.

Nietzsche suggested that life is individual in nature. That is to say, we each experience life as an individual. And the highest purpose for each of us is to become the best version of ourselves possible.

To do this, we must let go of ego, petty conceits, and external expectations. And we must focus our energy only on thoughts and acts that make us smarter, stronger, and more virtuous.

Notice how this is very much in alignment with the more popular work of Abraham Maslow. Maslow explained man’s “hierarchy of needs” in a 1943 paper titled A Theory of Human Motivation.

According to Maslow, humans are motivated by five basic categories of needs.

Continue reading “The Lonely Path to Financial Freedom”

“The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.” – Andrew Carnegie

We left off yesterday with a serious question: What’s the point?

We’re talking the philosophy of money this week. And I suggested yesterday that the true purpose of money is to acquire assets. Only then will we have the financial security we need to take care of ourselves and our families should our active income go away.

But the goal isn’t simply security. The ultimate goal is financial independence. We want to create a financial situation that allows us to walk away from our job or our active business at any time, should we choose to do so.

Still, even this falls short of answering our big question.

Continue reading “What’s the point of money?”

Is there a more snakier subject in the world of finance than money itself?

Sure, we all use money daily. Many of us spend most of our waking hours working for it. We know it’s important. We need it to buy the things we need to live.

But how many of us think deeply about our money? How many take the time to analyze it? To consider just what money is… and why it is?

I spent twelve years going through the public school system. Then I spent another five years at a large public university.

First I studied chemistry – but it didn’t take me long to realize that wasn’t for me. So I switched gears and spent my time studying finance and economics. I read their textbooks and memorized their principles and their equations. But guess what? They didn’t commit even a single drop of ink to the subject of money.

Instead, the finance and economics books presented their material as though money was a static entity. A cosmic fixture. Something that never changes.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Continue reading “The Philosophy of Money”

We’ve been talking all things money and monetary history this week.

Today we’re going to wrap up our discussion with the key takeaways from what we’ve learned. How can we position ourselves to protect and build our finances given the current economic climate?

Here’s my take (just click to play):

P.S. For more detailed information on how to construct a robust asset allocation model in light of the current economic climate, please see our flagship course Finance for Freedom.

Yesterday we took a deep dive into the world’s monetary history with a focus on the US dollar.

Today we will walk through what’s happening with the monetary system right now… and where it all leads. I’ll turn it over to my AI assistant once again to paint the picture.

Here’s Sir Arthur (just click to play):

Yesterday we talked about the weekend’s big news – the BRICS bloc may establish a gold-backed currency.

Remember, BRICS refers to the economic alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other nations outside of the West’s power structure. Their hope is that a gold-backed currency would instill trust in the new trade network they are building. 

A major development like this is inevitable. To understand why, we must understand monetary history. 

You see, money is not the static functionary that it’s presented to us as. Instead, money is constantly in flux. In fact, we’ve used four different international monetary systems just since 1900.

So to see where we’re likely going next, we have to know where we’ve been. 

And with that introduction, I’m going to turn it over to my AI assistant to walk us through a brief monetary history. 

Here’s Sir Arthur (just click to play):

And remember, for more on how to build gold into a customized investment portfolio, just go here: Finance for Freedom

-Joe Withrow

For making the new currency as good as gold, a truly sound currency, it must be convertible into gold on demand. Using gold as money, the unit of account would be a true game changer, no doubt about it… Against this gold stock, the new bank could, say, grant financing loans to exporters, and issue the “new currency”. Or BRICS exports will be sold against the “new currency” and/or gold.

That commentary comes from an interview with Thorsten Polleit over the weekend.

Polleit is the chief economist at Degussa Goldhandel. It’s a precious metals trading company based in Germany. Polleit was commenting on big news that broke over the weekend.

Word leaked that the BRICS bloc – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – plan to introduce a new currency backed by gold. In light of this, 41 countries have applied for BRICS membership.

Now, nothing is official yet. Sources expect the official announcement to come during the BRICS summit in August. The event will take place in South Africa.

That being the case, we shouldn’t give this news too much credibility yet. Any time there’s a leak like this, we have to wonder – who wants people to believe this and why?

So there’s a chance this is just a bluff on the world’s geopolitical chess board. After all, who will put up the gold necessary to back such a currency?

Continue reading “Golden Whispers”