John Gaver:  

Life After 2 years at Miller HS and graduating from King HS, I went to Del Mar and U of H, with a break in the middle to play sailor. While in the Navy, I worked as a magician in my off hours. I had a fabulous girlfriend (Sherry) when I joined the Navy and didn't, when I got out. That led me to spend the next 18 years as sort of man about town. When I graduated from college, I moved to Houston to work for my high school friend, Keith Hudson. But, when Keith went to prison a little over a year later, I was looking for work again. By that time, the job market had opened up and I managed to get a job in the computer field. Over the years, I worked at places like NASA, nuclear power plants (I still glow in the dark just a little), military bases, aircraft manufacturers and a few oil related businesses. I worked my way up to running all IT operations for a large company, with 23 networked offices across the US. I eventually started an import/export business and an IT consulting company. I eventually allowed those companies to wither, as I became heavily involved with international investments in the natural resources arena and didn't have the time for them. We're involved in timber plantations and trading in mostly petroleum products. But we've dabbled in copper powder, precious metals and scrap metal. For about a year, business had us living in London. But, we're glad to be back in Houston. As for my love life, I was pretty much of a man about town till 1986, when a girl that I dated occasionally introduced me to her best friend and it was truly, love at first sight (literally FIRST sight), for both of us. She had the total package fabulous looks, with brains and personality to match and hundreds of other little things that are hard to define. Naturally, she fell in love with me. I mean, after all… I'm me. 😎 Anyway, having blown my first opportunity with a fabulous woman years earlier, I knew how rare it was and I wasn't about to blow this chance. Becky and I were married 8 months later and have now been together for over 35 years. The only thing that we can't agree on is that I'm sure that I got the best end of the deal and she thinks that she did. We compliment each other well, since I am the engineer and wheeler-dealer type and she is the CPA and business type. In the past, I have enjoyed such sports as racing motorcycles, hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving and flying ultralights, to name a few. However, Becky isn't as crazy as I am and somehow, I've managed to get older. Go figure… Between the two, I tend to limit my risk to things like riding an electric unicycle. I would also like to bungee off of the Bloukrans River Bridge in South Africa. We used to do a lot of cruising. But our recent travel has been limited to trips to tropical destinations, where we were considering retirement. At one point, we were considering the purchase of a yacht, but changes in the economy and government have caused us to make a dramatic change in our plans. We are currently in the process of moving offshore. Although we've lived offshore in the past, we maintained a residence in the USA. But this time, it's going to be permanent. Bummer… We'll keep our citizenship and continue to pay U.S. tax. But we'll have a buffer against whatever the DC Establishment does. We've considered this for some time, but managed to put it off and put it off. We didn't really want to leave. But with the woke crowd now in power, who are more concerned with pronouns than the fact that Biden is trashing the economy, opening our borders, and threatening higher taxes on the producers, we see no other choice, if we want to preserve what we've earned. If you're interested in more detail on why we're doing this, read my book, "The Rich Don't Pay Tax! …Or Do They? — Second Edition — Revised and Expanded" or follow the blog of the same name. After you read that book, you'll understand. But to put it into a single phrase, if you live in a country that produces 100% of it's needs (a net exporter), you own your home in fee simple, and your investments are diversified, then there's very little that can hurt you. It just feels strange, after all these years, to shift from a "risk" mentality to a "bunker" mentality. Oh, we'll continue to take some risks. We'll just keep the risks short term and hedge a portion of our positions. We'll also do it from a safe distance. Our other safety net is that we're just as experienced at shorting the market as we are at going long. In fact, we prefer volatility - up or down doesn't matter. There's profit...Expand for more