Apply THIS And You'll Be Set FOR LIFE | The Wandering Investor

Summary

In this engaging podcast, the Wandering Investor, Llas, shares his insights on achieving freedom and prosperity through internationalization and diversification strategies. With a YouTube channel showcasing his adventures in real estate across different countries, he discusses his accomplishments, challenges, and philosophy towards investments and life. From overcoming the complexities of managing an international property portfolio to embracing life's unpredictability, Llas offers a unique perspective on navigating the ever-changing world with an open mind.

Highlights

• Llas manages a diverse international property portfolio, emphasizing adaptability and strategic investments. 🏘️
• He shares his unique approach to navigating the complexities of emerging markets by building authentic relationships and embracing local cultures. 🌎
• Having investments across continents, Llas stresses the importance of flexibility and not getting caught up in narratives. 📊
• Facing the unpredictability of life and markets, Llas advises maintaining a balance between risk-taking and strategic positioning. ⚖️
• He enjoys the freedom that investments bring, focusing on family and personal fulfillment over mere wealth accumulation. 👨‍👩‍👦

Key Takeaways

• Freedom and prosperity through internationalization: Llas emphasizes the importance of diversifying investments across different countries to achieve financial independence. 🗺️
• Facing life's uncertainties head-on: With a focus on flexibility, Llas encourages listeners to embrace change and unpredictability with an open mind. 🔄
• Building authentic connections: Llas highlights the importance of creating genuine relationships, not just through networking, especially in emerging markets. 🤝
• Risk tolerance and strategic positioning: Sharing insights on managing risk in investments, he discusses position sizing to avoid significant losses. 📉
• Challenging narratives: Llas advocates for critical thinking and questioning mainstream narratives to stay informed and make better decisions. 🧠

Overview

Navigating the complex world of international investments, Llas shares his journey of managing diverse real estate portfolios across regions. From Africa to Latin America, his story is one of embracing change and leveraging opportunities beyond borders. With a global mindset, he strategically places his investments to maximize returns while mitigating risks.

Llas's philosophy goes beyond wealth—it's about the freedom and flexibility that financial independence offers. He stresses the importance of questioning narratives and staying informed by consuming a variety of information sources. This critical approach enables him to make informed decisions, understanding global trends and their implications on investments.

Throughout the podcast, Llas emphasizes the essence of genuine connections. Rather than following the conventional networking advice, he builds relationships that add value and insight, aiding his investment strategies. With an engaging and reflective tone, he inspires listeners to think differently about investing and personal growth.

Apply THIS And You'll Be Set FOR LIFE | The Wandering Investor Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 ladies and gentlemen today the wondering investor Lisas helps individuals reach freedom and prosperity through the use of internationalization and diversification strategies he has an educational YouTube channel with 22,000 subscribers at the time of shooting literally walks the walk like he records the interviews in the places he talks about in the places itself so talks about Ken he talks about
• 00:30 - 01:00 Seria he talks about Mexico medin he literally travels to those places interviews uh lawyers all kind of professionals experts uh there and we met in Rio and something that I liked about Lisas is that in two minutes that we were sitting at the table he was already making friends with people next to us so it's definitely a pleasure to have him today in the show you're going to learn a lot and for the interaction that we had already previously it's
• 01:00 - 01:30 going to be very very fun a pleasure to have you here Nas welcome to the show the pleasure is mine Mel so where are you connecting from today um near Paris yes Europe fantastic so first of all what are three accomplishments that you are most proud of you know a lot of people like to create philosophy around these points
• 01:30 - 02:00 and and think hard about their biggest failures their biggest accomplishments Etc I I just kind of I'm more relaxed I just kind of live my life so in general terms I'd say the the accomplishments would be one my family and then to the level of Freedom that I've managed to achieve for myself and my family I think these would be the the really the the two things that matter to me any third point would just be cosmetic or just a
• 02:00 - 02:30 bit of like flattery to be honest with you what what does family bring to you in your life that it's something you you value so much put everything else in the in the other lower stages purpose you know it's at the end of the day it's the only thing that will mean something after I die you know making money blah blah all that's fun and well but you know once you you die it doesn't really mean much what matters is what you left
• 02:30 - 03:00 in the world so this um I'd say is my greatest accomplish accomplishment is it something you think about often about your death and Legacy yeah I mean I'm not I'm not scared of death I'm not worried about death actually I think that compared to most people I'm I'm okay with death um because a lot of people are just they're so self-absorbed especially in kind of this space of like internationalization and all that there's people have a lot
• 03:00 - 03:30 they try to build a lot of status they're obsessed with the self um but they they they're not able to look Beyond um so you know we talk about death I'm fine I could I could die tomorrow and I would feel I had a a very fulfilling life I see it is something I wanted to talk later on talking about real estate but since we already started the episode with this
• 03:30 - 04:00 and I know you're into these conversations that are you know just see not just superficial stuff but really like important stuff um it it is something you already planed like death what happens if I die tomorrow like this will happen do you have a wheel do you have something to perpetuate this generational wealth that the we you already created yeah for sure yeah there's a will in place yes and how is this going to be managed of course as as far as you feel comfortable talking about but how is this going to be
• 04:00 - 04:30 managed because it's incredible people will know in in a second like all the real estate that you have across the world like different countries like jurisdictions languages like everything as as diverse as you can get like ISL is like there you know so how is somebody who is not you uh going to manage all this what's the structure what's the system yeah the the the more International you are the the more complicated your legacy is going to be
• 04:30 - 05:00 totally to manage um so you know typically people would want to to have a trust in place but it's easy to say have a trust okay but once you actually start doing business on the ground having a trust um in some random country can lead to a lot of complications when trying to operate operationally um like actually on the ground you know if you're purchasing property in whatever country with a trust from you know the Cook Islands
• 05:00 - 05:30 um you know it all sounds great on paper you'll see people on YouTube and on Instagram saying Cook Islands trust Cook Islands trust once you actually start putting all of these things together you're actually trying to close a deal it just it can just add a lot of complexity so sure as you're nearing death you should gradually move to such more complex structures uh but if you don't if you believe that you still have quite the lifespan you should prioritize rather being being flexible um to be able to grow your wealth and be able to
• 05:30 - 06:00 act relatively quickly um so in this case typically you know companies Etc are are a better way of operating so you know am I worried too much about the structure for my death now that I'm in my mid-30s no will my attitude change once I start hitting you know the big 60 yes so it's something that just gradually that is meant to gradually evolve and you know realistically whatever
• 06:00 - 06:30 assets or real estate I have now will still have it when I'm 60 it'll probably have shifted a few times around so you can still structure in things structure your investments in a way that are that are good for asset protection um without necessarily going into you know cook Island trusts just to give an example I see to give the audience uh and understanding some context share a bit more about
• 06:30 - 07:00 the countries you you put your you know your your flag you put like some real estate in so people can can grasp when we are talking about complexity because I know I talked with you about this before but share a bit if you feel like like the countries you you've been into yeah so they can grasp okay so just as a bit of background so I'm I mean initially I studied in Canada in Australia went to business in law school in Australia started working in corporate so at uh
• 07:00 - 07:30 Nestle the big food company in Switzerland at their headquarters and then they sent me to Africa for seven years so I spent actually spent most of my 20s in Africa uh managing various businesses for for Nestle and my last role there was being on the Executive Board of nesle Ghana running the milk business for a few West African countries so Ghana I co Sierra Leon Liberia at the age of 30 I was like cool it's been good um I did the whole
• 07:30 - 08:00 corporate thing in Africa with Nestle 30s I want to look for for new challenge so initially I wanted to look for a job in Dubai um because I i' like the Middle East but then I started doing deals you know I took a bit of a break started doing real estate deals and then it just never stopped um and then I you now I do this full-time so over the years I've had um and I have so real estate in in the Us in um West Africa in the Middle
• 08:00 - 08:30 East in Eastern Europe in the Balkans in Western Europe as well and in the last few months I have made a few moves in Latin America so Mexico Colombia Etc yeah so so many things here it's it's it's really complex like some people are just focused on what market and you chose to diversify which is by the way a signature of of
• 08:30 - 09:00 your brand right this internationalization this diversification um that you have in your in your moto because I'm interested in I look I don't have any strong look there are few ways to to make money one is to really specialize in something in a market you know you become the you know you specialize in like real estate in Holland or whatever and that's great that's one way of doing it another way of doing it is just to and that's always been my preferred way
• 09:00 - 09:30 because I've lived in I don't know like 12 13 countries by now I've traveled to 100 countries I speak a bunch of languages the world so you know if if you want to understand my framework in my mind there's always the map of the world right with a bunch of Biggers uh because I I spend my time I I read like I I read every day for hours
• 09:30 - 10:00 and at times things start coming out and start linking together and you're like there's probably an opportunity there from a macro point of view and then what you do so what I do then is I go there for a few weeks or a few months explore on the ground how do I play this right so when I did this for for Colombia for example went there um and I was looking okay cool how how can I play it you know what
• 10:00 - 10:30 what are the best ways to play it and then I ended up doing both real estate and the local stock market um I did this a few years ago where all the all the signs were green for usbekistan I went there initially with the idea of potentially buying some Prime real estate in Tashkent the capital city and you know I went into it and technically as a foreigner you're not allowed to own real estate but if you do do it through a company it's okay but if
• 10:30 - 11:00 you own real estate through a company you're not supposed to rent it out but they don't seem to care too much if it's just one or two it like the whole thing was just very gray and quite complex and then I looked at the local stock market and there were some companies that were dishing out dividend yields of 20% that have no debt on their balance sheets they're growing 30% a year I was like okay this is probably an easier way to play usbekistan you know how about I
• 11:00 - 11:30 buy a cement company that is just mint in cash um how about I play Real Estate this way through the cement company than buying the than buying the real estate so that's what I do it's I'm completely flexible in terms of where I go when I go I start with a macro focus and then go somewhere and then figure out how do I play it like two years ago I was in Serbia for quite
• 11:30 - 12:00 a bit because I I I liked it I like Serbia there's geopolitically it just made sense um I couldn't figure out a way to play it like real estate was already quite expensive it went up even more so I was wrong you know that could have been a good play um the local Mar stock market was just completely liquid and had crazy rules if you sell your your your stocks you have to wait like 6 months to repatriate your money cuz you need the government to certify that you
• 12:00 - 12:30 paid your capital gains taxes properly and just like some wild stuff so I I didn't find a way to play Serbia you know I like the macro story but there was no real way apart from I guess starting a business or something which I wasn't particularly keen on to to play Serbia so you never really know so you know you go to these countries and you see and it's typically countries that don't have as much in emerg markets you have less
• 12:30 - 13:00 data right they're they're typically data poor um so it's not like the US where you just go on Zillow and there's like the MLS and like you there's AI doing all the analysis like literally you could say you know what house should I buy in like whatever City and like an algo would say this one these are the best metrics it's like we're grally reaching this stage in the US like in these in these other markets um there's very little dat
• 13:00 - 13:30 like most things online are completely unreliable you need to to be there and to spend time to see what's actually happening well totally I I wonder when I listen to you and probably the audience is asking the same how first of all how do you find out there are 196 jurisdictions right how llas finds out about usbekistan you know and a cement company and the stock market and like
• 13:30 - 14:00 how in the world you you end up there you know or how what you say you read a lot yeah exactly that's what I thought but what okay what's the source of information like how how do you separate oh this is good source of information this might not be um most source of information is crap we're honest with each other because it's all everything's become so political so people need to people just need to
• 14:00 - 14:30 read from very different sources right um if if people are just going to be reading like the BBC and like you know whatever mainstream news they're they're very misinformed extremely misinformed um so it's absolutely non-negotiable if you want to go into kind of the macro space and not just specialize in your Market in this case it doesn't matter as much but if you're trying to like really understand Trends um and what's actually happening
• 14:30 - 15:00 in the world you need to be reading different sources of information so this means yes reading M Western mainstream movs or you know also reading like I've been reading The Economist since the age of 13 every week from like um the cover till the end um you know so every week it's like three hours or so um that I spent reading The Economist um and then you want to to read as well other sources of
• 15:00 - 15:30 information from you know other perspectives so you know read Russian news uh read perspectives from the from the Middle East such as Al jazer in Qatar or press tv in Iran um you know even go read some like radical leftwing stuff from the Venezuelan government like everything brings a certain perspective just understand that anything you're reading has an agenda right and also go and go read these
• 15:30 - 16:00 crazy crazy websites with like conspiracy stuff and it's not for to say that like you know the conspiracy theories are right the point is because anything you read in mainstream news these guys will like come up with like something that it's a conspiracy fine um but what it trains you to do is to always be very critical of everything right so obviously don't go spend half your time on conspiracy websites because you also have very
• 16:00 - 16:30 distorted view of life but do allocate you know a bit of time every week you don't just browsing these sometimes pretty crazy articles but there are some very interesting nuggets there and they they help you to think critically and when some of these things are right um you're generally way ahead of the curve so read read read and go everywhere you do not like people especially now people are just so
• 16:30 - 17:00 offended when they read something that they don't agree with or hear something that they don't agree with it's okay like I I don't mind reading stuff that I completely disagree with because it it there's always something to learn from the other side totally especially in an era where we have social media giving us feeding us more of what we like to to free to spend them on it's like we get more polarized every time right exactly and
• 17:00 - 17:30 and again there's there's an agenda Behind These there's a political agenda Behind These algorithms yeah yeah similar to bitcoin they want to have liquidity in the market and boom there's a lot of post about Bull Run and then this and then agenda with as well other illnesses or pandemics going on Etc totally totally true I I acknowledge something that is about what though for example I've I've been
• 17:30 - 18:00 to different countries and and it takes time to meet the right people the right contacts that provide you with the right information or with some insights that you can't even find on the internet because it's people who have been in let's say The Mexican government for 20 years and they have access to Insider information or or things that you cannot find mainstream um something I acknowledge and I Mar it's well you've done that dozens of times like you've literally went to you've never been before and start creating the roots the
• 18:00 - 18:30 network like what's your what's your strategy to or what do you do what's your thought process of okay I land in in in bistan or I land in Serbia or I land in Mexico for the first time in my life how do you make it to okay let's make the most of my time here to start getting this real juice Woods on the ground I knock at doors I go talk to people that's it you know um cold call
• 18:30 - 19:00 okay like SM what type people yeah lawyers you know real estate agents uh Brokers you know people who work on like for the stock market you know brokerages Etc just call them and make them talk you know say Hey you know I'm interested see what they have to say and talk to many because most people talk crap so just talk to many and then there's this whole there's this whole thing of like you see Twitter and all that people are
• 19:00 - 19:30 just obsessed with like the network and like blah blah blah blah sure you know it's important but you also people also need to just chill out because when when you meet some of these people that are just like obsessed obsessed with like networking and blah blah blah blah it's it's just too much right it's just too much it's you you're not able to have a a personal connection with someone who's just like constantly networking with everyone and who just views himself as a
• 19:30 - 20:00 networker and all of that just people need to be a bit more chilled especially in Emerging Markets you know this whole you see all these like Europeans and Americans they just like arrive and they're like ah like going to network and this and that that's not how things work in like Colombia or in Paraguay like sure you got to network but it you got to be a bit more chilled and you know spend a bit more quality time with people and I feel like a lot of uh a lot
• 20:00 - 20:30 of westerners just fail to understand this you know things take time in emerging markets and know you don't need to be like a networking machine um you know it's not because you talk to someone to for like 10 minutes and you exchange business cards or whatever that like that's your network um it's absolutely not your network it takes more to develop relationships in these countries more personal face Toof face time so
• 20:30 - 21:00 I I don't try to to be obsessed with any of this I just go I talk to people and then I just go with the flow and sometimes the flow just doesn't work you know sometimes you go to places and you just don't end up meeting the right people okay that's it and sometimes the flow takes you to very interesting places yeah and since you are dealing with Investments it's not just I'm going to go there and spend some fun time time and leave you're actually putting part
• 21:00 - 21:30 of your your net worth part of the the money that also wealth affects your family as you mentioned the future the Legacy right generationally um so it is something that you you must have developed like the sense of this I can trust this I cannot trust probably a sense of gut feeling of instantly like you know that the the [ __ ] like alarm you know what what's something that that helps you uh no okay this person I just met it's
• 21:30 - 22:00 trrap oh I can trust it is there is there something that you've developed over years that yeah the [ __ ] alarm is yeah my [ __ ] alarm has become uh relatively good I mean there there's still people that are just fantastic bullshitters and you only figure it out after the fact at your own expense um but generally and especially in these countries I mean you know you spend time and you know Brazil and uh and uh
• 22:00 - 22:30 Paraguay and you know like there's some really good bullshitters out there really really competent bullshitters um and and people from especially North Americans often fail to see it um because they come or Northern Europeans as well because they come more from like high trust cultures where they're just aren't PE as many people that [ __ ] um so they're likelier to get played uh but yeah when you look I
• 22:30 - 23:00 spent I'd say most of my life in Emerging Markets so look there there's usually a Target on your back I think it's fair to say when you when you're a Westerner and you spend time in Emerging Markets there's a lot of people that are trying to get a chunk of what you have through not the most honest means you know it's
• 23:00 - 23:30 not like Sweden so you naturally develop that that sense of being able to to tell bullshitters apart um and then as you do business in all of these different cultures you know spent a lot of time in Africa now I'm spending more time in in the um in the in Latin America you get to have a better better feel because again bullshitters
• 23:30 - 24:00 have some common traits across cultures and you just you get a feel for it you can weed them out a bit better over time it comes with experience but this is really important in these markets very important yeah totally and and something that you can perceive more as you mentioned something very valuable I want to highlight here for for everybody something I agree is meeting them in person multiple times yeah like because meeting
• 24:00 - 24:30 a lawyer pom from Paraguay when you are in Ecuador when you are in in Europe you know one time and be like oh I can trust this person to help my clients and this and that or even myself like I don't know you know even when you meet people two times twice like in person the third time like they act completely differently after something you said via WhatsApp between the second and the third meeting 100%
• 24:30 - 25:00 referrals work well as well because I mean I do have quite the network now to be you know to be fair um so often you know if I arrive somewhere often I kind of have like a list of people that I should meet so that's one of the benefit of you know knowing all these people so there's already a bit of weeding that that has happened but you're right spending time with people is is really important for sure so and like challenging people as well you know see how they react in the
• 25:00 - 25:30 face of of adversity how do you like to CH how do you like to challenge people just you say something that say something that might shock them a little bit you know provoke them a little bit just okay challenge them see how they how they react um because if they can't react well to a joke um or a challenge what is it going to be when later in business there's like a major disagreement and you need to work together to find a solution because again they're not markets again it's not America it's not
• 25:30 - 26:00 Norway uh where you know there's a disagreement it's like immediately you go to court I mean good luck going to court in Paraguay I mean you can go to court it's GNA take seven years you got have the right people yeah exactly and then it's not like actually about the court it's about the like who you know and who you're willing to pay off you know like you don't even 100% it's so like people like westerners that do
• 26:00 - 26:30 business in these markets really need to understand this like you're you're really on your own you're on your own and there's a Target on your back that's it and if things go south you are the one that's going to probably lose against a a local one who's been I don't know a 50-year-old a 60-year-old lawyer who has contacts for 40 years knows everybody yeah I've heard stories of yeah of
• 26:30 - 27:00 everything like literally a fun call and saying this person that needs to go to court like can't leave the country and like blocking at the airport like the exit of that person just with phone call it's like wait you're not going to leave the country until you come to court and we solve this and it's like no I'm going to take a plane one phone call and this person cannot take the plane so literally like that just one phone call and yeah the whole country like legally of course you can just take the the car do whatever like try to escape but it's
• 27:00 - 27:30 it's incredible like what they can do with the right context MH yeah um yeah and like I mean like uh like recently I had um I have some property in Ivory Coast in West Africa and I had a property manager a Frenchman he was fine he was doing a good job and then got a divorce went back to France and then I had his ivorian wife that like stepped
• 27:30 - 28:00 in I was like a little little worried um yeah I was right to be worried but I wasn't there gave her a chance she ran away with the money she ran away with a few months of rent and like the deposit and I'm like you know in like Colombia what you going to th right yeah what are you going to do so you know sure I have a lawyer in in Ivory Coast you know I like in my mind that money's
• 28:00 - 28:30 a write off uh but just out of principle you know if someone screws me over I'm not going to let that fly so out of principle I have a lawyer starting the court case and just like harassing her like it's just it's just going to cause her complications and then with her own bank accounts later she won't be able to have bank accounts she'll have to keep cash it's just you just you can't also tolerate people messing with you but um yeah these things will happen for sure totally part of the reward right is this
• 28:30 - 29:00 is this risk and and this is something I'm wondering where do you draw llas the line between risk and opportunity like I'm pretty tolerant of risk I mean I bought Russian stocks two two days before the Russians invaded so so at my own expense
• 29:00 - 29:30 at my own expense I'm very tolerant at risk um I don't know like you just wait out and then you see there's no magic formula there's a magic formula you know but do you think do you think being very like okay with risk um these Bolder decisions probably Bolder right now than when you were younger that maybe were more conservative because you were more like new more an noice in Market is like this or do you think you became more
• 29:30 - 30:00 conservative how this did that change over years I I I kind of like risk that it hasn't changed yeah um I'd say look risk is all about position sizing right it's about not losing your shirt right so sure I lost a bunch of money on Russian stocks but it wasn't like fatal um position sizing you know just size accordingly and you can you can have fun you know take some risk but size accordingly MH what's what's something you would share with your Lisas like when did you start by the way like
• 30:00 - 30:30 investing your first Investments uh My First Investments was with my yeah when I started making money working in corporate and uh first first major investment was a house in Texas in Austin prices were uh 2013 when prices were really low in the states yeah 2023 it's 10 years yeah what you uhhuh what what would you tell your younger
• 30:30 - 31:00 Lisas about investing if you could have a a conversation now that it's been a decade that's a good one what would I tell my younger self um to earlier on look at other asset classes um because I was always attracted to real estate and I I went very heavy real estate early on uh but the real is I should have also gone into into stocks
• 31:00 - 31:30 and other asset classes early on just to be more Diversified and and stocks often provide more Alpha as well so I think that would have been my my number one advice don't just look at one asset class across jurisdictions but look at multiple asset classes across jurisdictions I see what's something that got you attracted to real estate and gos so just just like everyone else um you know you can touch
• 31:30 - 32:00 it you can feel it you know you live in it so you feel you have a better understanding you see your own family uh my family's quite conservative so they were always dealing with like a lot of real estate stuff you know I figured I had a better understanding of that asset class than other asset classes which is true I did um but yeah that's it interesting and I guess that over this years you had influences probably
• 32:00 - 32:30 well of course through the authors what do what what you read what do or maybe people in person what are the three major would you say three people that you can like remember be like well this these three people really impacted my life in a in a positive way or even like changed the course of my life because of how big the influence was for me you know I I know a lot of people are going around saying they have mentors
• 32:30 - 33:00 they do all of that I don't know um you know I'm I'm I don't read like business books I never read any business books I don't read any of these like I don't know inspirational self-help all that like I'm not not criticizing them it's just not what I'm into um I I read a lot of history so I guess you know just books about history made me think about things um but I
• 33:00 - 33:30 can't say I have like mentors or like lifechanging moments or this dude that I follow that like inspired me to do this and that that's never been my process I've just always kind of done my own thing I'm like obviously I'm influenced by people and by what I read and what I watch and all that but um there's no like specific you could be somebody from history could be somebody from history could be somebody no nothing like you just pick from everywhere yeah just a
• 33:30 - 34:00 bit from everywhere yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah nice nice um I mean I I'll read a book about the like Russian Civil War you know when they were trying to fight off the the Bolsheviks you know about like some general and I'll read about the guy and you know that's great and then I'll read about the second world war and then I'll read about you know the cold war or you you know the Roman times
• 34:00 - 34:30 and you know there's no no one single person yeah yeah perfect before hearing record now I want to take another section of this episode before heing record you mentioned that you you had some challenge or you had some moment of more interaction more back and forth you wanted to go into is there is there a topic you want to bring into the table the two of
• 34:30 - 35:00 us I like I think people people need to understand that the world is changing at an objectively uncomfortable Pace the the the the pace of change we're witnessing in everything is quite scary if I can put it this way uh we don't understand what's going on um if we just look at like how the world
• 35:00 - 35:30 changed in the last three years I mean just look at what happened in the last three years like the the level of change and everything that went down and if we say that and there's still so much uncertainty so many things are unresolved if we run with the assumption you know that we might see just as much
• 35:30 - 36:00 change in the next 3 years and then the next 3 years Etc um we won't be able to to recognize our own world right now as it is I I think the biggest piece of advice that I would have for people is to stay extremely flexible extremely flexible to not get caught up in narratives it's very easy to get caught up in narratives and narratives are are there to provide
• 36:00 - 36:30 people with a false sense of comfort all right so question everything that you're being told everything and run the assumption that your life in 5 years time will be very different from what it is now and you'll have to continue adapting you mentioned comfort and also security it's a narrative of oh I can
• 36:30 - 37:00 feel safe because I know what's happening well you know what they are showing in front of you but you don't really know what's happening behind so it's like oh yeah I I yeah I can plan I can plan accordingly against what's happening or I can protect about this it's like yeah but you can't protect when you want to protect what's really happening it's too late already when they are showing you oh inflation is this rate it's probably been this rate for already five years and now they are just letting you know that this is the official inflation rate
• 37:00 - 37:30 now right or things like things like Argentina like it's crazy I was following Twitter this this week with the with the movement of of of the currency and it's crazy just like went 420 450 470 500 it's like like 7% inflation in a day just a change in a day it's like crazy but this has been cooking in the background for some time for now to be so like rocket I mean it's
• 37:30 - 38:00 not it's not like it's anything new for Argent argentine's I mean this is what happens to them every 10 years so you know they're no one's surprised let's put it this way but yeah I mean this could happen in other markets that are not expecting it for sure and look yeah to your point we don't know anything we do not know anything people who think they know don't know like there are being we don't know anything even
• 38:00 - 38:30 history we're just being told what I don't know what we're being told like is exactly we don't know anything yeah I think and that's the starting point for actually also any investment um in life decision is just admitting to yourself that you don't know anything you're just using whatever data points you think you have to try to make the the most sensible decision
• 38:30 - 39:00 possible I like having this this talk now because like with our chat now I can see more depth in your thinking and I can see more like a philosophical thinking behind your Investments behind the way you you operate um some of the things that you mentioned it reminds me of books like letting go which is like releasing what you mentioned before like read things that are not what you like to read read or what feeds your your thoughts and your beliefs right uh talk
• 39:00 - 39:30 to many people so let go of your ego which tries to protect you and be like no just read things that fulfill your desires and what you want to think or now when you say it don't trust anybody uh we don't know anything it's like this feeling of Letting Go and being flexible so yeah I can see a lot of philosophy behind your your thinking and also the values you mentioned the first 10 seconds of this P one minute of the podcast like like two things I had in life which is like the family you know
• 39:30 - 40:00 the purpose that family gives me the rest wealth and all that stuff it's just like secondary yeah like I don't I don't actually care about um money that much fundamentally I I never really did um I I value the freedom that money gives me but it's not it's not it's not about money it's not about like Fast Cars and spending and like staying in like expensive places I I don't really care about any of this I just like the
• 40:00 - 40:30 the the you know true level of of Freedom where I'm able to to live the way I want to live um you know philosophically politically religiously together with with my family do you do you expect to share more of this in your YouTube channel because your YouTube I I see your Twitter like when I check check the feed what you post it's more of news what's
• 40:30 - 41:00 what's going on what do you see for example I'm in Paris and I'm filming an helicopter that it's you know flying on the ocean over the ocean and you share what what you see um similar to rumble you wanted to upload a video in Rumble when you're in France and it's like oh Rumble is not available in this country right so I can see you being like really like updating people on how you see the world through your lens via Twitter on YouTube I see more on on the
• 41:00 - 41:30 Investments talking to lawyers talking to accountants etc etc but never never saw this part of llas you know the more philosophical one the more you know the one that we are talking now I can see like this depth and and every like it this this essentialism of your values right is it something you you are willing to explore in the future like how do you see your your YouTube channel I want to know more about how do you how do you see it because it's obviously a platform that opens opportunities um I I don't think it's part of my
• 41:30 - 42:00 content strategy to have like one content pillar that is like lot of saus philosophy maybe a marketer would tell me that you know I should because it makes me more personable relatable blah blah um look I just people can just listen to this podcast and that's it yeah they can just listen to this yeah um I don't know like I'm just happy to just make content as I go around and look for you know business for Real Estate Investments stock market
• 42:00 - 42:30 Investments I just you know do the content uploaded easy happy you know it's informative for people but I I don't really see myself you know in front of a camera talking like philosophy um you know and honestly I'd run out of stuff to say pretty quickly yeah yeah it's been almost two years that you started this YouTube channel yeah the YouTube channel yeah roughly two years yeah something that I I check your oldest video and was loaded two
• 42:30 - 43:00 years ago like scrolling scrolling scrolling and it's like wow two years and and I'm wondering what's what's an opportunity that might have come up uh because of the YouTube channel is there anything that that happened it'd be like wow you know thanks to YouTube channel I was able to do this to do that or to meet somebody that you know you really liked what what opportunity came up through the YouTube channel well I mean it's good for lead generation um lead generation awareness
• 43:00 - 43:30 and then also when you like when I go around and I try to meet some people um being able to say hey I've got this YouTube channel you know as opposed to just a Blog because when you see a Blog a random blog you don't know how like you know my blog I've got quite a lot of people on my mailing list but like you don't know this when you read it when you see it but the YouTube channel you know kind of same thing with like
• 43:30 - 44:00 Instagram you're able to demonstrate that you have quite a few people following you so this for sure opens doors for for business um look to be fair I get better treatment um and service with service providers than most people you know um if real estate agents typically when I speak to real estate agents initially I don't even talk about my YouTube channel I just you know talk to them through my um because I want to test them right so I I talk to them through my um through
• 44:00 - 44:30 my like private number um but then if they figure it out then like sure I get like much better service than the average person gets so from that point of view it's useful um yeah I mean that's it it's just it's just a business tool like any other you know and YouTube's great now maybe in like seven years no one will be on YouTube and the number of subscribers like I have there won't mean anything I'll have put all this work for nothing you know so like
• 44:30 - 45:00 have like a big Myspace you yeah exactly I was going to say that if you have a million followers in my space be like yeah great congratulations good bro so I don't know I'm not I'm not trying to like overthink it I'm just doing what I like doing um I think this is very important as a content creator actually so you see just too many people out there they're trying to like do too many videos or trying to do this and that and and then they start hating it like they try to record the next video and they're like their
• 45:00 - 45:30 stomach hurts you know like my main priority is managing my own finances my own portfolio and spending time with my family like those those are my my like my core objectives then the you know making videos is secondary I need to make sure I enjoy it cuz I don't want to do something that I hate in life that would just be atrocious yeah even if it means the
• 45:30 - 46:00 business doesn't grow as fast it's fine yeah it's fine because I'm enjoying it you know I don't I don't want to have a fast growing business that I hate totally because you're clear on your values yeah that's not helpful yeah yeah totally yeah and actually as somebody who can enroll as a client they'd rather you know be with somebody who is too busy to make videos because he's
• 46:00 - 46:30 managing his 15 real estate portfolio you know uh homes properties around the world in 10 different countries than somebody who is just recording videos on what he reads on the internet but owns like one home it's like well I'd rather go with the with the guy that you know produces less videos but he's like busy all the time reading and what what you shared with us and with the audience today um what are your habits which is basically reading are there any other habits that you believe are are pillar
• 46:30 - 47:00 in your life right now yeah habits um yeah so reading time with the family um podcast you know um Church also is important Sports though I have to say um since I've been on this uh like traveling this much after I quit corporate I I haven't been able to work out as much as I'd like to um that's like one thing that I I should
• 47:00 - 47:30 prioritize that I I haven't been doing but I ideally this would be one of them I see and you're you're good at that I'm saying this because you seem to be very good at that like you keep the when it comes to the food and the sports yeah yeah yeah yeah I think it's something that I learned from my family early on like started with sports pretty heavily with 40 years old ni studied nutrition at University so
• 47:30 - 48:00 maybe these things shaped a little bit my life yeah in that sense but yeah yeah um regarding reading probably one of the um episodes one of the guests that we had in this in the show that reach probably the most as far as as you shared I'd love to know what are books that You' recommend your younger self again talking to llas younger llas 10 years ago or even like sharing it with your kids be like okay like this is something I wish I had read sooner or
• 48:00 - 48:30 even share with with the audience what are some reads that you really recommend could be in different areas cool cool um so one is I mean obviously the Bible um any I mean your audience is probably quite quite a lot of westerners any Westerner should you know understand their own cultural Roots whether they're Christian or not I mean the reality is uh Christianity has
• 48:30 - 49:00 been with us for many many hundreds of years and you know it was one of the the core pillar of our societies for so long so if you don't understand Christianity you don't understand your own family background so that's one two is 1984 by George orell um you people just need to read it I know a lot of people are like oh Big Brother 1984 sure sure people need to read it like actually sit down and read it um not
• 49:00 - 49:30 only is it a very enjoyable read but it will make you question a few things I think this is important you'll look at things differently um so this is really a classic and then the another one that I read recently which is really good is uh U I need to Google it here uh try to find the name again I forgot
• 49:30 - 50:00 it it's called Always With Honor the Memoirs of General Ral so he was the head of the White Russian army during the Russian Civil War who was fighting
• 50:00 - 50:30 against the the Bolsheviks and there are so many lessons in terms of sacrifice in terms of persistence sacrifice and persistence I think it was a beautiful beautiful book yeah persistence it seems like it's a word that resonates with you and
• 50:30 - 51:00 something you had to you know take many spoons you know in your life like persistence persistence because might be you know at some points tiring or maybe just go like wow I'm like I'm doing a lot is that something that happened you reach some point you need to you know question yourself should I forsum more or is it something you enjoy so much that you're like you're never tired you're always energized do what you do I mean that's also why being wondering investor yeah that's also why I'm pacing
• 51:00 - 51:30 myself that's also why you you know you're not going to see like a video every day U because you know slowly but surely that's how I prefer to to operate to again I want to enjoy the journey we're here on Earth only once um I want to enjoy my life and and how did you get out of a pitfall when you felt like you were born out or when you felt like was too much how did you get out of
• 51:30 - 52:00 there I mean I I left I mean it's one of the reason yeah I mean when I was working in corporate it's one of the reasons that I was like ready for a change like you know the career was going great Etc um I was working 60 70 hours a week in when I was working in Ghana I was on the board there I I can't say I'm a fan of working 60 70 hours a week you know even if the job was very well paid and you know I
• 52:00 - 52:30 had like create prospects for like you know the next promotion and all of this all of that I just don't enjoy working 60 to 70 hours a week waking up early in the morning going to work coming back late at night not getting enough sleep and just being constantly tired because you can never fully recharge like this is
• 52:30 - 53:00 just you know for a few years to make that money to be able to get that freedom that was kind of the price to pay um but uh yeah no that's that's unacceptable so you know I had to make a move I see and well you made the move what a move right yeah many moves I would say many planes many many moves totally um we are
• 53:00 - 53:30 getting to the end of this interview I'd like to to know about maybe something you didn't share but how living you said seven years in Africa mhm shaped your life especially in your 20s um I I don't I I just love freedom like the the freedom one has in Africa is unparalleled yeah in some of these
• 53:30 - 54:00 countries um and again I'm saying this from a position of privilege because I could afford the freedom uh but just this you can do anything um you're you're completely free you just was great like there's no you know you didn't I didn't have to deal with I don't know like stuff like just regulations and like you just do do you know do just do just live you know just do that's it I I
• 54:00 - 54:30 don't know how to explain it just I I understand I I kind of yeah exactly Latin America that's that's what I was going to say the land of the free you feel much free than much Freer than in Germany or not in Spain or when I was I don't know traveling Europe the UK like things like that yeah parag the US yeah I love like I understand why you spend a lot of time in Paraguay yeah I liked it a lot like sure it doesn't have all the like the fancy stuff but you feel free in Paraguay um and you get
• 54:30 - 55:00 that a lot of that freedom in in many African countries and again Freedom like this level Freedom comes with downsides um it comes with more uncertainty it comes with more risk it also means that the bad people have more freedom you not just you but I I am fine with this I I'm completely fine with this and I know it's not for everyone most people say they want freedom but in fact um
• 55:00 - 55:30 they don't they just want security and they want you know the government to provide for them whatever it is even if it's like health care or you know schools or or safety Etc I I don't care about any of these things I I just want to be free I want to be myself and I'm fine that the criminals have their own Freedom it's it's fine I'll I'll take this as a risk yeah what do you think it's a reason that experts Global Citizens Travelers they go to Southeast Asia they
• 55:30 - 56:00 go to Latin America but it seems like Africa it's there or there's not that much content there's not that much compared to you know other popular Hub spots um I mean the infrastructure is pretty pretty bad to be fair um in a lot of countries it's actually surprisingly expensive traveling around Africa is expensive um
• 56:00 - 56:30 like nothing's cheap like food's expensive restaurants are expensive like flights are super expensive and a lot of these countries you need visas and getting a Visa is a nightmare and this and that they they're not easy places for sure um so I think that's one like the the Practical aspect of it is is kind of tough and I think then there's U probably a bit of bias as well people think that Africa is super dangerous it's less dangerous than Latin America for sure um you know when I was
• 56:30 - 57:00 traveling in like Ghana and like Benin and Togo and like Ivory Coast and all that sure they're they're not the safest places um but they're certainly safer than being in Ian and Rio so the people people don't think that they just watch a few movies on Africa and the only movies on Africa are like movies of like genocide and like diamond Traders and this and that and
• 57:00 - 57:30 they just have this like false sense of what Africa really is and again Africa is just so different um you know southern Africa Eastern Africa central Africa and West Africa have like very little in common like you know if if you're in Ghana or you're in mosan Beek it's just as different as being in like Finland and Portugal and for someone who hasn't been to Africa yet where are two three four
• 57:30 - 58:00 places that you'd recommend for them to to start this continent cool um look if you want Africa light as in like easy affordable infrastructure the whole deal you go to South Africa you go there you rent a car don't take public transport you'll get mugged and just like dve around the country the roads are good hotels are nice the like the the restaurants are good it's great cap town
• 58:00 - 58:30 for example yeah I mean do Cape Town for sure but don't SP I mean that's Europe like Cape Town feel like Europe I'm so sure go there but then go into like a bit more north um Lio go into quu natal going into panga and then you drive into the little countries around like istini you go into lutu the little country inside of South Africa like you do these things okay and you can do all that with a rental car that costs like $25 a day
• 58:30 - 59:00 and it's cool like really cool so that would be number one um if you want to go for and you can do all the safaris you want in South Africa they're really nice and a lot more affordable than doing safaris in like Tanzania and in Kenya so like South Africa just ticks so I lived there for four years South Africa ticks like so many boxes um actually if you were to ask me what's my favorite country I could live
• 59:00 - 59:30 somewhere um if if the taxes weren't so horrific and if it wasn't so far away from everywhere I'd be in South Africa still amazing um lifestyle like truly amazing but again crime violence but Freedom also then I would highly encourage people to go to Madagascar Madagascar from a nature
• 59:30 - 60:00 point of view is absolutely stunning every National Park is completely different from the other um in term I mean it's an island that has its essentially own ecosystems um like everything's different the animals are different the trees are different everything's different Madagascar it's just like it's just beautiful um so I'd really encourage Madagascar it's the only place place whenever I go there I come back super sick I I'm always sick when I go to
• 60:00 - 60:30 Madagascar so that's a bit of a caveat um and any recommendations to don't get us sick I don't know I don't know okay I don't know I feel no way just like just assume it as part of the trip oh look last time I went there I came back to South Africa oh was just like so bedridden um and so I had the they did all all these like blood tests on me like just everything I was like I was so
• 60:30 - 61:00 sick and then it was the the tropical diseases Center of Johannesburg so I mean in terms of like tropical diseases you want to go to like London Paris and like Johannesburg you know best in the world right and the doctor was like yeah um when people come back from Madagascar um they often have stuff we don't quite know what it is just you know rest they discover they
• 61:00 - 61:30 discover illnesses from I mean just like just like everything is different in Madagascar like like I said an like uh flora and fauna everything's different they they had their own Evolution probably the bacteria viruses are different too so you know zero immunity just boom each time I'm down so that would be the second one and then the other one the right now it's a bit a bit quite a few issues but I guess it's
• 61:30 - 62:00 still pretty possible is Ethiopia Ethiopia was never colonized pretty much the only country that was never colonized I mean the Italians came through for a bit but it was more of an occupation rather than colonization and they have um so many interesting cultures uh I mean you know they have Islam they have Judaism they have like one of the oldest orthodox um churches historically that's that's there like
• 62:00 - 62:30 they practice the same Orthodox Christianity as they have like over a thousand years ago it hasn't changed so you go to these monasteries in the mountains that were carved into the um like into in directly into the mountain and monks like Ethiopian Christian Orthodox monks have been living there continuously for like over a thousand years you see stuff like this and it's it's really wonderful so I remember going to
• 62:30 - 63:00 Easter Mass uh during Orthodox Easter in Adis Ababa it was uh in one of the the cathedrals it was an exhilarating experience um so culturally Ethiopia packs a bunch for sure wow beautiful now we have three destinations yeah to go and you know expecting to get sick in one of them but but all good all good you enjoy the wild life like the animals and everything in
• 63:00 - 63:30 Madagascar oh beautiful we're wrapping up this interview and GNA ask the two questions that I ask at the end of every episode the first one that is L is if you had the opportunity to write something on a giant billboard that would display for 24 hours in a capital of the world and that the whole world
• 63:30 - 64:00 would see it streamlined you know everywhere for 24 hours what would it say there you are being lied to where would you place it in what capital of the world any most just like most of them you are light to you're being light to yes being light too okay and finally who do you think who would you like to see coming next in this podcast who who
• 64:00 - 64:30 should go next as a guest yeah I think you should reach out to um Scott asherov um he's a fun manager based in usbekistan that I interview once in a while and I think he'll give your um audience a very interesting take on how the world is changing and is really bifurcating between east and west West and what some of the implications are uh from a Commodities point of view from an
• 64:30 - 65:00 energy point of view so it's more investment focused macro Focus um but I think people I mean your audience is mostly Western westerners we need to understand that we are not the center of the world anymore yes we were the center of the world for the past few hundred years amazing great it's brought us to where we are um things are changing and people don't necessarily like us that much and we need to be ready for
• 65:00 - 65:30 the changes that are that are going to be taking place um because right now people just still live in in like La of land changes that are taking place would you say especially in the Middle East yeah from a macro point of view yeah like what some of the policies of our governments are are going to bring us from umly lead us to from an economic point of view like complete mismatch management of of energy policy and and also geopolitics uh we we are shooting
• 65:30 - 66:00 ourselves in in the feet MH and we are probably not going to in aggregate going to become much richer as countries and Scott can share and shed some light on these topics yeah I mean he's got his thesis he's got his thesis um and I'm his thesis is very interesting love it thank you for your generosity nlas for your time for all the topics
• 66:00 - 66:30 that we covered even like the philosophical part that people don't usually see in other places thanks for sharing from your values go ahead yeah we started the podcast talking about death so I hope people didn't like leave within the first two minutes yeah but the right ones will have state so it's it's going to be a good a good filter what we mentioned right people should get offended more more often and start listening to to things they don't usually listen to
• 66:30 - 67:00 thank you for your time it's been a pleasure and ladies and gentlemen thanks for staying tuned you're going to find Lisas where they can find you well I'm going to put all your links here below but any place in particular they can find you yeah yeah the best thing is to subscribe to my free private list so it's like a mailing list on the wanding investor.com and then people will get updates um as I travel around the world looking for unique investment and immigration opportunities with a particular focus on emerging and
• 67:00 - 67:30 Frontier markets everything is going to be linked as always in the description of where you're listening or watching this from and yes stay tuned follow llas uh you're going to get ton of value and ladies and gentlemen I'll see you in the next episode be extraordinary Alo