Jamaican Citizenship by Decent Part II: Jamaican World Investment Strategy
If you are looking for the guide on how to do citizenship by decent for Jamaica click here
It’s been a year since we gave an article on Jamaican citizenship by decent we know thing take time to process. Now that you got your Jamaican passport let’s talk about how to build your global strategy as a Jamaican. This article works for people who are native born Jamaicans as well. We’re going to look at wealth diversification strategies that you can do using only your Jamaican passport meaning countries that Jamaicans can visit visa-free. I think it’s important to use visa-free places because for some of you Jamaica is your plan-b and you can hop on a plane at the drop go to these countries as a Jamaican if you need to. There is power in the fact you can go visit and get comfortable in these places if that’s what you need to do to make a move and diversify yourself. Also, let’s do business with people who are open to doing business with us and we can push the government to open up visa-free travel to other locations. Let’s do business around the world and open up the world for future Jamaicans and show them international business is what we Jamaicans do. At the time of writing, this article Jamaican can travel visa-free to 87 countries. I will build a global diversification strategy using the best these 87 countries have to offer while also trying to diversify across the geographical region where it makes sense. We will talk about gold storage and banking since we are already in the Caribbean I will leave out some of the high profile “tax-haven” countries to get you diversification outside of the Caribbean. ( This is just for fun not investment advice)
Offshore Gold Storage:
I’ll start with Bullion because I think this step is the easiest to take because you don’t even have to leave Jamaica to get started. If Jamaica is your only citizenship think about this you live in Jamaica you get paid in JMD, your home is in Jamaica, your bank is Jamaica, and your investments are in Jamaica what happens if something happens in Jamaica? Even if that something is only a few days you’re screwed you don’t want all your eggs in one basket. Storing gold and bullion overseas is where Jamaicans can get easy diversification in foreign jurisdictions quickly. I think In particular Jamaicans have to worry about wealth preservation because the target rate of the Bank of Jamaica is 4% to 6%. At 6% the value of the Jamaican dollar will go down in half every 12 years. You can’t take that ride down it just doesn’t make sense to save in a currency that devalues at that rate. You erase all the work you did saving and earning your money. If you don’t think it’s a good time to buy productive assets, gold or other metals may be a great way to stay liquid and avoid inflation destroying your purchasing power. With a currency whose target inflation is 6%, why would you be holding anything above a 3-6 month emergency fund and household expenses in cash?
Of all the places we can go visa-free I think the best place to preserve wealth is in Singapore it’s a jurisdiction in the east and I like that because it gets you from under the thumb of Western powers. With a company like bullion star, you can store bullion at better rates than you can get in the Caymans which is a bonus. You can also purchase bullion with debit cards and cryptocurrencies. They also have a marketplace that allows you to buy and more importantly sell your bullion when you’re ready to convert back to cash. You can start with small balances you can buy one oz. silver coin for $28 or so USD or a 1g gold bar (~$73) if you felt inclined. I don’t buy anything smaller than a 1/4 oz. of gold, but you can if you wanted to which I think is great for those who want to test the waters before they send their money halfway around the world. With the Visa-free travel you have to Singapore you can have the ability to go to Singapore and pick up your bullion yourself right from their lobby. That is the power of visa-free travel if there is calamity you can get on the first flight out of Jamaica and head on over to Singapore you have access to your wealth. Bullion Star also offers safe deposit boxes where you can store bullion and other assets or important documents at very affordable rates if you wanted to.
*Side note Bullion Star would allow you to store your wealth in New Zealand a great place to store bullion, but this jurisdiction is outside of your visa-free travel which complicates bullion pick ups.
2nd place for me would be Israel This one is more under the thumb of the west, but Israel plays nice with Russia as well. These precious metals companies operate in Tel Aviv, so it’s not risky in the sense of them not having the ability to handle the bullion. This gives a Jamaican investor the ability to get a portion of their wealth into the Middle East which depending on your business needs is a plus.
3rd place is Panama. While the weakest on this list Panama is used to dealing with foreigners and has places where you can store gold and other precious metals.
*As a Jamaican, we don’t have access to the Caymans Islands which is crazy because when my grandparents were born it was part of Jamaica. (Which is crazy) If we get access to the Caymans visa-free I will update the list. While personally we prefer Singapore overall all things being equal, but something can be said for having the ability to hop on a 45 minute flight to get your gold and other precious metals if you felt the need to do so.
Banking
Let’s move onto banking. Off Shore banking is the sexy part of international diversification. Off shore accounts is a great way to protect your wealth. If a hurricane were to blow through Jamaica and knocks NCB or JMMB servers offline what do you do? Banking offshore is not all doom and gloom its a great place to protect your wealth and even can be a great place to get a return on your cash. With our number one choice you get a chance to open a non-CRS bank. While you should follow the law how is it any of the government’s business who you bank with or how much money is in your account and with non CRS banks you get a semblance of privacy. You can bank in euros rubles and dollars. Can earn 9/10% on deposits. Armenia gets you as close to Europe as possible. (It’s arguably in Europe) You can go as a tourist and open a bank account which is rarer and rarer these days. The process of opening the account is quick can be done in a couple days. Armenia also has the perk of getting some of your wealth in a landed nation which Jamaica and Singapore don’t allow you.
2nd place would be Panama. Panama allows you to Bank in the central banking hub of Latin America can open remotely. Which means you can open the account without coming to Panama. Panama is use to dealing with foreigners and is a short plane ride away.
3rd place is Malaysia. Malaysia is a tax friendly jurisdiction with good banks if you are interested. This would have your wealth in Asia twice and put your second bank account farther away.
Dis-Honorable mention
The US is one of the easiest places for foreign non residents to open a bank account. It is not on the visa free list, but if you can get here it would be worth the trip.
Using our number one Recommendations you now have your precious metals stored in Asia and your Armenian Bank account. You could open your BullionStar account on the flight to Armenia if you wanted to. Within a couple days you if you include Jamaica you could have gotten yourself diversified into 3 distinct and separate regions of the planet and dramatically reduced your counterparty risk of a over reaching government . If Jamaica has hyperinflation who cares you have your gold stored in Singapore waiting to save you. In a more practical sense if you are on a trip to Europe and your NCB card stops working you can easily switch to your Armenian account and not interrupt your trip. We believe Jamaica is a beautiful place with beautiful, but that doesn’t mean put all your eggs in one basket either people. Look for the next part in the Jamaican citizenship by decent series where talk about investing plus more.
