Recent content by HardRJones

One note on Italy. The laws on tax residency were updated in late 2024. They have a four-part test, of which AIRE registration can satisfy one part, but registration in AIRE is not the entire test itself. Residency - economic ties and from where affairs are managed Domicile - personal and...

It doesn’t require quite that much but it’s not the usual dating experience.

Took a drive yesterday and paid attention to prices at the stations. It’s about 11 MAD (€1) per liter now.

REITs are (were) interesting if you are in the US tax regime because a certain percentage of the dividend payout comes tax advantaged under qualified business income. Not sure if that was extended or made permanent in Trump’s Big Beautiful bulls**t though.

Unless Bulgaria’s economy matches that of those who set monetary policy for the Euro (effectively, Germany and France), adoption of a currency with a misaligned monetary policy will cause distortions in the Bulgarian economy that will cause stagnation and give incentive to increase national...

If China could, they’d destroy Bitcoin just out of sheer devil-mindedness and to maintain their capital controls and stem capital flight.

As of 23 May 2025, in my most actively traded taxable accounts, my 10 year alpha over the S&P500 was +33 and over the Dow Jones Industrial it was +38. In my less active taxable accounts and tax advantaged accounts, which use much more passive strategies, the worst performers are still ~+5 alpha...

You’re going to have a hard go to convince me they’ve cleaned up the random sinkholes and puddles of sewage, stray animals roaming everywhere, and undrinkable tap water. I’m sure they have a nice airport and train system now. I’ll be back that way eventually and give it another look, but as a...

Everything in life works until it doesn’t. It’s not that hard to do this if you aren’t greedy. If the business cycle or the premise of a constant growth economy breaks globally, we all have bigger problems. I would have added monetary policy to that list before but it is pretty much broken...

It’s an Islamic country. While Moroccans are more laid back about religious matters, dating will be restricted compared to almost anywhere else. On top of that, Darija is one of the most difficult Arabic dialects to learn, supposedly, so you’ll also be limited in how you can communicate. Many...

Between the lack of certainty in tax law with frequent changes, nearly constant military coups, restrictions on owning property and business, frequent changes to visas and immigration law, corruption, hot and humid jungle climate, third world infrastructure, and no less than four types of cobras...

I do. Frequently. Not the exact bottom, but it’s quite easy to see a significant pullback and take advantage by getting in either on the decline, the way back up, or both. It’s also easy to see an overbought situation and rotate, especially in a high interest rate environment that reduces...

It’s a developing country in North Africa. It is hot, dusty, there is horrible infrastructure, you can’t drink the water, and it’s earthquake-prone. You won’t speak the language…they mostly use Darija day-to-day and French only for instruction or official use. You aren’t related to anyone there...

You could have made the most boneheadedly obvious play this year on market index tracking ETFs and gotten your 10%+ for the year in one month back in April. Ten percent per annum is easy if you are a) patient and b) not greedy. One of my “autopilot” accounts in which I only trade regional...