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| By Nilus Mattive |
I love the United States as much as the next person. Yet I also recognize that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is an ideal that transcends borders or boundaries of any type … especially these days.
I recently started really digging into my own family history to see if I had any easy way to get an ancestral passport.
While I came up short in that department, I did learn a lot about my eighth great-grandfather.
His name was Henry Vanderslice, and he was the Sheriff of Reading, Pennsylvania.
On July 8, 1776, he rang a liberty bell in his town to let all the inhabitants know that the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain.
The bell is now on display along with a plaque dedicated to the event.
Henry didn’t stop there.
Even though he was 51 at the time, he joined the Continental Army, where he served as a Wagon Master.
I found a diary of his exploits, which included riding with General George Washington … attacking British soldiers in Amboy, New Jersey … and later supplying Washington’s troops with provisions during their long winter camped out in Valley Forge. The final entry talks about the British leaving Philadelphia.
As it turns out, several other ancestors of mine participated in the Revolutionary War, too.
This certainly helps to explain my general distaste for government overreach and undue taxation. It just runs in my blood.
That’s why I like finding the very best strategies we can use to gain greater financial freedom and independence for ourselves and our families.
And I hate to say it … but based on what I’ve been seeing lately, putting some of those ideas into action is only becoming more important.
I’m actually surprised at how few Americans seem to remember exactly why my distant relative rang that bell back in July 1776 … or what type of place the Founding Fathers hoped to create after the British left for good.
So, here I am — on July 4th — writing you from Costa Rica.
Next week I’ll be walking across the border into Nicaragua and checking out that country for the very first time.
It doesn’t matter where you are on this important national holiday. American ideals are in our blood.
And those ideals include freedom to pursue financial, physical and intellectual happiness … even if that means we have to find them outside our borders.
Don’t take that right for granted. I’m personally looking for more opportunities to move my money — and myself — offshore.
In fact, Dr. Martin Weiss and I are discussing this topic right now. I hope to be able to share more in the coming weeks. But for now, have a great 4th of July no matter where you spend it!
Best wishes,
Nilus Mattive
