Step by Step Guide To Going Off The Grid Without Leaving Your Couch [PDF]

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Step-by-step guide to going off the grid without leaving your couch... by Bobby Casey If you are reading this guide, you clearly see value in protecting your privacy and the implications for not doing so. I will save you the commentary on “why” you should do it and get right down to the nitty-gritty of how to get it done. Step One It is critical that you implement this step immediately. In fact, if you choose to ignore all the other steps, DO NOT ignore this step. I cannot stress this enough, do this NOW. You need to eliminate your home address from public record. No one should ever, for any reason whatsoever have your home address. No your bank, your credit card company, the DMV, Fedex, or anyone. Luckily, there is a very simple and low cost solution. Get a UPS box. Go to your local UPS store and sign up for a box. UPS has locations in virtually every city in the US. You can find them here: https://www.theupsstore.com/.

Do not get a PO Box from your post office. You need a physical address. With a UPS box, your address will look something like this:

John Smith 123 Main Street Suite 123 Anywhere, XX 00000

This is critical. Every financial institution in the US requires you to provide a physical address. A PO Box just won't do the trick. You need a physical address, but you definitely don't want to supply the address where you hang your hat. Once you have your physical address, you need to take a couple of hours and update all of your banks, brokerage firms, utility providers, credit card companies, insurance companies, phone companies, etc. with your new address. This will take some time. Do not leave out anyone. The reason is that databases pull this information to create a public profile of you. In today's connected world it is impossible to avoid having a public profile listed in some database. But you can provide those databases with the information you want them to have. It will take some time for this to take effect, but the sooner you do this the better. Next, you need to get a new driver's license. Go to your local DMV and get a new driver's license with your new address. Just tell the agent you need to 2

get a new license with your new address. This is critical as well. All government databases rely on your driver's license information to track your physical location. You cannot get a driver's license with a PO Box, but a UPS box provides you with a physical address perfectly capable of fulfilling the DMV's requirement of a physical address. This is important. Many DMV agents will ask you to provide your home address. This new UPS store address IS your home address as far as they are concerned. All they need is a physical address, no one cares where you hang your hat. If you are a registered voter, I would suggest either; 1- writing a letter to your local voter registry requesting that you be removed as a registered voter; or 2- updating your address to your new physical address with the local voter registry. These two processes are different for each state and sometimes even different for different counties so I cannot go into detail about how to accomplish this, but your address listed in the voter registration is used for virtually any database in the US. In many parts of the country, the court system uses the voter registration in their precinct for calling people to jury duty. So a side benefit for unregistering to vote would be that you would no longer get called for jury duty (in those jurisdictions). Step One-One This step is really a “next level” extension of step one.

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In addition to getting an address at the local UPS store, I would suggest getting a mail drop address at Traveling Mailbox. Taken a step further, I suggest getting an address with Traveling Mailbox in a state with zero state tax. In the US, there are only 7 states that do not have a state income tax:

1. Alaska 2. Florida 3. Nevada 4. South Dakota 5. Texas 6. Washington 7. Wyoming

With Traveling Mailbox you can get a physical address in a state like Nevada. The company offers a unique service in their ability to scan your incoming mail and let you view your mail once you log in with your username and password. You can view your mail and download it as a pdf if needed. If for some reason you need physical delivery of the mail, they will forward your mail as requested. I have found Traveling Mailbox to be tremendously useful personally. As a frequent traveler I need a place to receive mail, but in some cases it may be weeks before I am able to pick it up personally. With Traveling Mailbox, I can download my mail as soon as I get the notification. 4

If I know I am going to be staying at a hotel in Miami, I can give them my forwarding address for my mail or packages to ensure physical delivery. The added benefit of using a Traveling Mailbox address out of the state where you live is that this address will also go into various databases as the US Postal Service maintains a database of all individuals who receive mail in the US. To take this a step further for those of you so inclined, once you have your physical address in Nevada (for example), you can then change all of your listed addresses to your Nevada address; banks, credit cards, phone bills, insurance, etc. You can then physically go to Nevada and get a Nevada state driver's license, effectively changing your state of residence from where you currently reside to Nevada. You can do the same thing with your voter registration as mentioned in step one above as well. Of course the idea here is to show you have moved your residence to Nevada for the sake of public record. As long as you have taken all of the proper steps discussed in this report, you have effectively changed your state of residence. I don't think I need to spell out the implications of this any further. Step Two

You need to make sure that any asset of value with a title is not in your own personal name. This includes any real estate or vehicles. 5

Most important here is real estate. The idea here is to remove your name from public record as owner of any real estate of significant value. If you are sued for any reason whatsoever, the claimant's attorney will do a property search to see if you own any real estate so that he can get a lien on the property to satisfy a judgment. If there is no record of you owning any property, then there is no property for the attorney to put a lien against. There are 2 strategies for getting your name out of public record. The first is to deed your property over to an LLC. However, just registering an LLC in your home state without understanding the asset protection implications is not a good solution. For almost all of our clients who own real estate in the US, we create WY LLC's for their real estate ownership. Wyoming was the first state in the US to implement LLC statutes and thus has the oldest laws on record. Wyoming is also very business friendly. Meaning they have clear statutes protecting the assets inside an LLC and do not allow creditors of LLC members to pierce the LLC veil. Wyoming is also one of only 2 states that provide the same protections for single member LLC's as multi-member LLC's. Additionally, in Wyoming, there is no requirement to provide the members or managers of the LLC as a matter of public record. Said another way, if your creditor had some idea that you owned a property at 123 Main Street AND somehow deduced that this property was owned by an LLC registered in Wyoming, he could not get any information from the Wyoming Secretary of State about the beneficial ownership of the LLC. It is a significant roadblock.

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By deeding your home (and any other real estate) over to a WY LLC, you are removing yourself as owner from public record. As long as you followed step one and/or one-one, and changed your address away from your residence, you have now eliminated your home address from public record AND removed an asset that you control from prying eyes. You can do the same thing with cars, boats, RV's and planes. Yes, I understand it takes some time and can be a bit of a hassle, but it is a one-time event and once you have finished with the process, you can sleep well at night knowing that you are now virtually untraceable. Step Three This step is about protecting your privacy online. This is much simpler than you probably imagined. I would recommend using a privacy VPN like CyberGhost. I have personally used several of them in the past and have found this one to be the best of the lot. What CyberGhost does is it allows you to mask your IP address. Your IP address is what determines your physical location based on your emails and your web searches. For someone tech savvy enough, it is not that difficult to find your IP address, and thus your physical location (or close approximation) just from looking at the message data in an email you send. CyberGhost (and other privacy VPN's) have many other benefits as well. For example, they do an excellent job of blocking any viruses and malware attempting to attack your computer. When surfing the web, it keeps your web searches anonymous allowing you additional privacy while online.

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With CyberGhost you can also chose the location of your IP address. As a frequent traveler, I have found this to be hugely beneficial. It allows me to access geographically restricted websites like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video while traveling to countries where they are not allowed. It also allows me to book my travel arrangements from poorer countries. You may be shocked to learn that if you buy a plane ticket while “IN” Romania, the ticket is typically cheaper than if you are actually in New York. The travel websites track your IP address and base their pricing on geography. Some financial institutions will only allow you to access their online banking or trading platforms if you are in the same country as the financial institution. This problem is easily solved with CyberGhost by choosing your IP address. Ultimately I see using a privacy VPN as cheap insurance to ensure my privacy in my web searches and email communications. There are additional steps you can take as well to protect your privacy online. If you use Google Chrome or Firefox, I suggest downloading and running the following plugins:

• AdBlock – will block adware • Ghostery – will block tracking software on websites • HTTPS Everywhere – will ensure that you only access encrypted sites when available • Popup Blocker – blocks annoying popups • SearchLok – makes your web browsing anonymous 8

All of these plugins are available on both Google Chrome and Firefox. I cannot vouch for other search engines. Step Four

Now is the time to remove yourself from the US banking system. Of course I recognize this is not 100% possible in today's world. We need a bank account and a debit or credit card in order to simplify many aspects of our lives. I am not suggesting that you live in an agricultural commune trading your corn for your neighbor’s tomatoes. I am suggesting that you minimize your reliance on the banking system. This means using cash when possible. If you have excess cash beyond your daily needs in your bank account, withdrawal the cash and put it in a safe in your house. If you have a big problem with too much cash (not a horrible problem to find a solution for...) buy assets like gold bullion, silver bullion, cashflow real estate, or make hard money loans. The idea here is to effectively opt out of the banking system as best as you can. If done correctly, physical cash and other hard assets are virtually impossible to track – thus giving you more privacy and freedom with your wealth and your life. I would also advise opening an offshore bank account. This allows you to keep a nest egg of cash outside the US banking system and thus outside the US court system.

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Here are a few options for you to open an offshore bank account very easily and completely online:

• www.N26.com – This is an online only bank in Germany. You can open an account directly in the app • www.Leupay.com – This is an online only bank in Malta. You can open an account directly in the app • www.WB21.com – This is an online only bank in Singapore. You can open an account directly online • www.Monese.com – This is an online only bank in the UK. You can open an account directly in the app • www.Circle.com – This is an online payment gateway that lets you connect your bank accounts, cards, or bitcoin and send money online • www.Uphold.com – This is an online financial service company that lets you connect your bank accounts, cards, or bitcoin, hold various currencies online and send payments instantly

I am not advocating you to send every last penny you have to an online bank in Malta, I am only suggesting that you open an account and put some money offshore, just as an “insurance policy”. For larger amounts of wealth, I would advise hard assets like real estate or precious metals, but that's another more in depth topic outside the scope of this report. Step Five 10

I highly encourage every single person reading this article to consider starting your own business in some way or another. This is not a pro-entrepreneurship article (although I am definitely pro-entrepreneurship). This is more about you taking control over your life and your privacy. If you are a W-2 employee, you are living within the realm of societal expectations. You have been programmed to get a good education and get a good job and pay your fair share in taxes. You are also forgoing a lot of personal freedoms by living this life as well. The moment you fill out and sign that W-4 form for your employer (don't forget to update your address with your employer as well if you have a job), you are “on the grid” so to speak. By working for yourself, you take back a bit of that control. You have more control over your income, your stability, and even the taxes you pay. It should be no secret that entrepreneurs and self-employed people get significant tax advantages and pay a significantly lower percentage of their income in taxes than a typical W-2 employee. Even if you are working a traditional job, I would encourage you to start some sideline gig to get your feet wet. See where it takes you. Summary To summarize, I firmly believe it is in your best interest to reclaim your privacy in this overly connected world. The benefits are tremendous. You can shield yourself from lawsuits, thieves, ex-business partners and even

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ex-spouses who are looking to negatively impact your quality of life. You deserve privacy. No one needs to know your daily activities or needs to have the ability to intrude on your private life. If you want to learn more about this and other asset protection and internationalization topics, you can subscribe to our free newsletter here (top right of page). If you are interested in setting up your own Private Wyoming LLC or even your own Private New Mexico LLC, click here and here. Until next time, live well.

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