Here are some questions Pam sent over to me:
Q: Are oil credits still associated with the dong? Who sets the dong rate?
DC: No. The US, IMF and China are involved with dong.
Q: What about the Zim?
DC: The Zim is our weakest deal, and I only bought some when one of our experts told me to get over it and get some. With Zim, I am out as quickly as I can get to the bank.
Tony: If they go to the bank, should they tell them all the money, or just what they want to exchange at the moment? Or should we tell the wealth manager what we have and at what rate we want to sell it when it goes into long-term capital gains?
DC: The banks don’t care how much you have of which currencies as long the total is enough to be worth their while. Also, they have different tiers, so if you have three million dinar, that means $15,000,000, and you automatically become a VIP. So ask yourself if your security is more important, or if getting the better deal with the bank is more important and therefore you are more willing to share all that information with the bank.
Tony: The banker wants you to bring in all your money in one lump so that they can make more money and get on with their business and yours. You have to consider if it’s worth picking up pennies and letting the dollar fall out of your back pocket.
Q: How do you verify dong that you picked up in the country years ago, without receipts?
DC: If you have plane tickets or anything to prove you were there in person, and you look prosperous, you’ll probably be okay. If you look or act suspicious, they will start to wonder. Be respectful of the bankers, answer questions as quickly and clearly as possible, and have as much documentation as you can. They want to get you through as quickly as possible; they will have security personnel there, and that is a good thing for both sides, it keeps you and the bank safe.
Q: Since I’ve told several about the upcoming exchange, but they didn’t get any, and if I take the contract rate and they notice I have a new house or car, and they notice and tell law enforcement, am I going to be in trouble?
DC: No, it’s like you bought Apple at $5 and held onto it and then sold it high. We live in America, it’s a capitalist country, and you are allowed to make money any you please so long as it is legal.
Tony: “So Tony was right, those idiots made a ton of money, and I had lunch with him yesterday and I know he got over three dollars for it…” and now they are pissed off and they want to accuse Tony of doing something underhand?
DC: Twitter attacks me on a daily basis, but I am so micromanaged that if I fart wrong they will catch me. I got a call today saying I was driving too fast! Most people are not going to get jealous, and if they do, they will either get over it or you can move and get a new friend. Often when you are massively successful, people get some sort of superiority or inferiority complex, but that is their problem, not theirs.
Tony: Law enforcement is not going to investigate every tiny claim.
DC: And Tony, Pam and I are under such scrutiny that if we do anything wrong, they’ll be crawling up our ass. I’m happy with that because if anyone accuses me of anything, it’s very easy to clear myself. I got that call just this morning!
Tony: If you have OnStar, they can contact you at any time about your car – my daughters told me I was driving too fast the other day. They can lock and unlock your car, too.
Q: What happens if it gets out of hand at the bank. Will it stop? If so, how do we find out if your site is down.
DC: Let’s say four days into the process, some jerk in Arkansas starts yelling, and they decide to shut the whole process down. We hope there is a plan to let people know, and we were supposed to be a part of that, but we just don’t know what that is.
Q: President Obama wants troops on the ground; what makes you think the RV will happen before then?
DC: It’s nowhere near as bad on the ground as you think. There is no reason to hold this up; military advisers are already there. A multi-country coalition is a massive pain in the ass to coordinate, and they are doing a great job. It’s basically a problem in Syria with some in Anbar and a few other places.
Tony: In a practical sense, the more advisers and security forces are in Iraq, the more willing people are to invest in the country, so this is a positive development for us.
423 caller: I’ve been listening for over two years, and we do donate. My wife’s favorite story is when DC ??? [couldn’t make it out] [Appreciation] We are thinking about an MCA, but would prefer to set it up before the exchange.
DC: A Multi-Currency Account (MCA) is mainly for those who live overseas or with international businesses. It lets you hold different currencies in that currency; there are fees and overheads, so most have a limit to make it worth the bank’s while to run something that complicated.
Caller: The bank I talked to said there would be a 1% overall fee and 2% transaction fee.
DC: That’s pretty standard.
Caller: We followed your advice and got a PO Box and cell phone. Also, when banks want you to keep a lot in their bank, will they manage that for you, pay interest, or what?
DC: It’s really a good idea for security reasons to separate your personal address and phone from your name. You don’t want people to know how much you are worth. It’s best to keep as much out of your own name as possible.
Also, when the bank says they want to keep a certain amount in their bank, they will usually have some in an investment and some in a checking account. You will not make much on your deposits, generally. If you have munis and corporate bonds, which many wealthy people do because they are tax-free, the bank will charge much less than if you want them to manage your overseas small caps fund. Make sure that they don’t charge a lot for your super-conservative investments; if you are only making 3% on munis, you don’t want them charging 2% to manage them!
951 caller: This thing is getting to be like the Second Coming of Jesus Christ – everyone knows he’s coming, but when?
Tony: You only just registered that point??
Caller: I have listened to you for the last four years, and I’m frustrated. People say how thankful they are all, but deep down they are pissed off, because it’s like “we’re going to the bank this weekend” and then it’s another week and another week. Why not just have one call on Friday? It gets nerve-wracking. I have friends who no longer listen because it’s just too much – it never comes to fruition.
Tony: If you’ve been here for four years, and this is your second time on the call, you must be getting something out of it, because you’re still on the call. Let me explain it from our point of view. When I started this call, I was told I’d be here for a week! As we went through this, and got the news/articles like everyone else, that was their intention at the time: to get this done, IF Maliki had done what they requested, if people weren’t being blown up in the streets, if the government had come together. Over those four years, we got involved with people who were at the bank and government meetings, people who would walk out, pick up the phone and tell us what had just been decided in that meeting. Two years ago, we got people IN the meetings listening to the calls and giving us information. That’s why I’m not at PTR today, because they couldn’t handle being in the moment, being part of the process: Monday X is happening, that didn’t pan out, some other thing got changed on Wednesday and on Friday this other thing occurred. Right now, we are telling you “this IS the schedule” and if nothing else happens, we are getting there now. I agree with you that is has been hard for everyone, and we’ve told people all along that if you can’t handle the day-to-day, and now we are actually involved in the decision-making, then people shouldn’t be here – they should wait until someone calls them with “this is all over and this is what you should do”. If someone wants to hear a weekly update, they should pick a day and only listen to that call! By being here three days a week, we can give people details AND we give you education about our government and banking system as well as the date and the rate.
DC: AS I have said at least 20 times, most people should not listen to us on a daily basis. We are not making money or selling ourselves here, and it’s brutal, especially for those with financial and/or medical problems. It’s heartbreaking to hear the stories, and for them to get the up and down from the live up-to-date information. Those running this have changed their minds hundreds of times, and also they have adapted to new realities as this goes on. We are giving you as much information as we can, but nobody knows the entire picture. If we know 60% at any given moment, we’re doing well. So most people should only listen once a week or once a month, depending on what they can take. My own family and friends can’t do this any more, and I understand that – it’s just too much. I thought I’d be here for two weeks, and it’s been two years! It’s just something we have to go through. Tony, would you have done this for four years if you had known? Hell, no! I just wanted to help Tony and his team for a few weeks. We are all going “holy crap!” They are in the meetings going up and down, just like us. Even the leaders are so exhausted by this thing. They are not enjoying this process; they want to get it over with as well. The problem is that there isn’t a solitary belly button to press – it’s all across different groups, countries and cultures. They have already had a dozen parties and celebrations all set up, with people in tuxes and ****tail dresses with chilled champagne just waiting for this… and it didn’t happen.
Tony: We don’t do this just to get people pumped up and excited. If you think you are on a roller-coaster, ours is bigger, higher, lower, faster and every hour, not just three times per week.
DC: This is what we go through every day: I start talking/emailing with people from 3-4 in the morning. Some heavy hitter will call me and say “this is going down in Iraq this morning!” Then on the US side, they will say, “No, Obama wants something else, it will be at least seven months.” Then someone in Iraq will call and say “Abadi says NO to the US, this is going down now”… and it will go back and forth like that 10-12 times in any given hour, with meetings and exchanges and rumors and recommendations and timelines from the different parties. That happens all the time. That’s how often it changes, how live it is, and how close it is. That’s why we don’t’ respond to a lot of the things on the boards, because we’ve heard it two days prior and it’s already changed.
Caller: Okay, but when does it end? Iraq has to pay people and pay for goods and materials and services. When does it stop? A lot of my friends don’t listen any more.
DC: There is no back wall; it’s when enough pressure is applied and everyone is in the right mood for it to get done.
740 caller: If I exchange, will I lose my Social Security? Any banks in Marietta OH?
DC: I don’t know; ask your attorney about that. If the town is over 100,000, there will be places to exchange, such as Columbus. Wells Fargo is the lead bank, but all the big banks will either do exchanges or have corresponding banks.
Caller: I think whoever is doing this is driving with their foot on the brakes.
Tony: this could have happened years ago or months ago, but the results would have been different. It’s about who is in charge, what laws are in place, and how it will affect our economy and the world’s economy. They are ready now. I have said for a while, “Just do it and fix it after” but if they had done it earlier there would have been much more chaos. I like to look at these things from the other person’s point of view, because there is more going on here than what affects us personally. We can’t solve an individual’s problem while ignoring the impact on 350 million other people. Yes, you need to take care of yourself first, but it’s important to keep the perspective, too.
Caller: I owe money to the IRS, and I’ve been using that money to help others get food and keep their lights on…
Tony: I owe them money as well, but don’t tell them. When this happens, the IRS will be all over it, I promise you.
954 caller: I’ve had better days.
Tony: Well, hopefully this weekend we will ALL have better days.
Caller: If I come across a pile of currency with a receipt on it, can I exchange it with someone else’s name on the receipt?
Tony: I doubt they will let you exchange it that way, but you can always try! You can probably find some dinar/dong lying around that someone threw away thinking it was worthless, but if it has a receipt attached, that is a whole different story. That is between you and the bank. You’re in Florida, right? Everyone there needs to watch the street!
609 caller: DC, a question, if you could answer it slowly, please. Can someone go with you to the bank if you assistance?
DC: If someone has a disability or needs some other kind of help understanding something, then they can have a helper with them. The banks would prefer you to come in individually if you can, but if you need help, then bring someone with you.
304 caller: I do enjoy listening to these calls three times per week. I’ve only been in this for a short period of time, and I appreciate all the information. I have a question: a relative bought some Zim for a friend, twice, so there are two separate transaction slips. Can he put them on one letter?
DC: I have a number of trusts and companies, and I wrote all the transactions up on one page with dates and amounts, and my attorney said that was okay. In general, the more documentation, the better.
601 caller: I watched PM Abadi’s speech in Germany, and it was fascinating. He paused when someone asked him a question, and he said that because of issues with contiguous countries and clans, Iraq can handle the ground attacks but not air attacks. So when President Obama made his statement saying that the US would not send in extra ground troops but be part of the coalition air campaign, that made perfect sense to me. I would not want to be on the ground because the air attacks can deliver a bomb right into your bedroom these days.
DC: I agree, and I’ve experienced it. That’s why the coalition is so effective, because they can agree on what goes where. You need people who understand what to use where, including air controllers and pilots as well as the military leadership from the various services and countries. Coordination is a constant pain in the ass, so it’s better ot have the different country sending their own forward air controllers for their respective air forces. I think they are going about this very efficiently and effectively, much more so than getting involved in a ground war.
Caller: Abadi said, ‘If you give us the equipment, we’ll prosecute the ground war and paint the targets.”
DC: Exactly. In the past, ISIL was effective because they exploited the different clan groups. It’s better to have Sunnis fighting Sunnis, and Shi’a fighting Shi’a. That is why I think Abadi has done a fabulous job (with the Council and the Kurds) to pull this together.
Caller: Abadi was pitch-perfect in Germany. I disagree with the caller who wants you guys to step back. Through you, I have been able to inform people in high places and help them understand. Other people say things, and I come to you guys and that squares it all up. Otherwise there would have been a vacuum, and Nature abhors a vacuum. I don’t like them either!
970 caller: [Appreciation] May I present my game plan and you could add to it? I have some physical dinar, and more in a layaway; I also have physical dong. My plan is to get money to live on, so when it goes, I will exchange at least one 25K note. Can you excahgen more than that, or some dong?
DC: If you are not in Dallas, SF or NYC, you will probably get in within a day, we hear that some banks will allow you exchange up to TWO 25K dinar notes over the counter at the international rate.
Caller: But by the time I pay off the reserves, you said we probably won’t get the contract rate. However, I can put in a sell order, and have that money pay off the reserves, and exchange those through the dealer at market rates?
DC: That is probably the case. You can ask the bank if they will give you contract rates, but there is only so much in the contract pool. The dealer can then wire that exchange money to your bank account. That money will just show up at your bank, so there is no way to bump it up to contract rates.
Caller: So if I go to the bank, I could explain that I have reserves, and when I am able to bring in the physical dinar, might they still exchange at the contract rate?
DC: It’s worth asking.
Caller: What about the dong? If it comes out at eight cents, what should we do?
DC: We do hear it will come out at $.08, but that could change in a second. When we originally got into this, we thought 5 cents would be amazing. Vietnam and China would like that to be much higher, and we don’t know how long that will take. If the dong is your risk money, you might want to just hold onto it, or you might want to exchange it and buy more dong, or invest in Vietnam Stock Exchange or mining or manufacturing.
We don’t know if it will come out and stay at $0.8, rapidly go up to .47, or if something bad might happen and it could even go down. You have to assess the risk for yourself.
Tony: The contract rate for the dong has disappeared, but everything could change at a moment’s notice. We have seen rates over a dollar, or .47 or this .08 that came suddenly out of nowhere. I don’t see that this $0.8 rate will hold. Even if it takes five years, my sense is that it will go up.
So you bought your dong at the bank, and the bank got its fees for buying it, then the bank makes money when you exchange it at way more than you bought it for – we’re still all winning! Pay the wealth manager to watch it and see what happens.
Pam: It’s a two-hour call and you have four more minutes.
DC: Everything looks really good all over. We are looking for the laws and Budget to come out this weekend; that is the expectation. Let Iraq do this on their own timeline; they are not as stressed as time as we are. Both Iraq and the US are making a strong attempt to get this done this weekend, so everyone needs to take a chill pill. We are so thankful to everyone who has given their time, expertise and information to help you all out, both Pam and the TNT team and all our other sources. When we had the Twitter campaign because we were going to get cut out after the VIPs went through, there was that elder statesman who stepped in with his team, and that gave us a seat at the table; we may be silent but we are still there.
Pam: TNT seconds everything you just said. I also thank the Mods; it would be chaos without the Mods, Honorary Mods, transcribers and note-takers who make them available immediately after the call, and those in the chat room who help others. If I tried to name them all, I would forget someone, but you know who you are. As Tony says, take care of yourself first – you can’t build a house without a good foundation, so solidify your foundation, let your money make money before you spend it, and don’t give away the Golden Goose when you eat the eggs. And Tony, don’t forget your sweethearts because it is Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
Ray: Continue to enjoy this Financial Freedom Friday.
Tony: All my sweethearts are taken care of. Some people think we should have forced this to go through a year ago; that was never our position. We only wanted to make sure we were included and treated fairly. That is why so many people around the world from multiple parties, banks and countries came in to support us. At one point it got personal, and I don’t understand why, because we were just trying to support the country as a whole. You guys can pick on DC if you want! We are here, we are done, and thank you to everyone who helped. We still have another call to do; according to the last update, we will be able to do four calls, but that could change again. I am absolutely positively expecting something weekend from the timings that we have. I can’t guarantee that – it might be Monday or Tuesday or something might blow up. However, I can tell you that it is in the Gazette and they will make it very public, and I believe we will see the rate we were looking for at that time. By the time we do OUR call, we will see the rate we were looking for. Stay calm, wait for the tweet, and we’ll take it from there. It’s a sunny day here, 72 degrees in Sacramento [and 80 degrees here] with people in shorts driving around with their tops down… that’s for people in Michigan and Minnesota and other places where it’s zero degrees. Somewhere it’s a good day, so have a great day!
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