Americans used to be the great movers of the world.
Think of the pioneers who settled the West… traveling thousands of miles with nothing just to find a place where they could truly live free, far from the Old World governments that kept them down… looking for new opportunities on new lands because opportunities had dried up back home.
That was a hard life.
I remember the words of Captain Shea Brennan, one of my favorite characters in the “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883,” about a caravan of migrants heading from Tennessee toward Montana and Oregon…
“You are pioneers, and that’s all you are until you get there. You have no home. No job. No farm. You have the journey. That’s it.”
For the pioneers, the journey was worth it… because of the promise of what they would find.
I like the “Yellowstone” TV show because it’s a modern cowboy story. There’s edge-of-the-seat action, ruthless characters, and compelling twists.
But the series also has a lot to say about America—past, present, and future.
“Yellowstone” is in some ways just one more example of America’s red state/blue state divide.
“Yellowstone” is one of the highest-rated shows in America… but a lot of people in big cities have never heard of it.
The New York Times called it a “conservative fantasy”: “liberal audiences mostly ignore it.”
In the original “Yellowstone” series, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his family—owners of a vast ranch in Montana bordering Yellowstone National Park—fight to preserve their cattle-rearing way of life against developers who want to turn the ranch into a vacation resort for rich New Yorkers.
Developers want to build a city and pave over the grazing land, rivers, and forests that the Duttons have made their home for generations.
I’m not a warrior on either side of America’s “culture war.” I call it as I see it. And I like what I like.
Start Your New Life Today, Overseas
But it does not surprise me that “Yellowstone” isn’t popular in America’s big cities.
I think it might surprise a lot of people in big cities to learn that there are actually still cowboys in America today…
Dutton doesn’t care about what’s trending on social media or what’s the “politically correct” or “woke” thing to say.
He prefers working with his hands to staring at a computer… and prefers riding his horse to driving his truck…
Dutton runs for governor of Montana because he wants to make it the state where “progress” goes to die.
That old-school American way of life—working hard, just you and the land; the spirit of adventure, the kind that settled the West—is what Dutton wants to keep alive.
But Dutton knows he’s one of the last cowboys in America. That’s why he’s fighting so hard.
If you know anything about me, you probably know that I don’t hold my tongue. I “shoot from the hip”… I also like my Stetsons and my guns…
So, Costner’s character is my man.
Dutton fights by any means possible to hold onto the way of life his family sacrificed for, going back generations.
In a way, everything I do, everything I write about, is about building a legacy.
The opportunities I share with you… My views on maximizing your wealth by going offshore… It’s all about setting you and your family up for the future. Protecting what’s yours.
I’ve used the strategies that I recommend to build a legacy that my family can take over and carry forward into future generations…
So, I understand the mind of John Dutton.
But in a very important way, the hero of “Yellowstone” is wrong, and the pioneers of “1883” were right.
It’s a noble thing to want to hold onto a way of life that’s disappearing in today’s fast-paced, tech-obsessed world.
But the real Duttons of history… the pioneers who settled the West and who built what Costner’s character wants to preserve… they were driven by opportunity.
The opportunity to cultivate new lands. Build things where nothing existed before. They wanted to change their lives for the better. The freedom of open spaces and finding your fortune…
What made America great was that spirit of opportunity and adventure… that idea of freedom. Forging your own destiny…
Today, pioneering Americans (like me) can take that idea of freedom, find our fortune, and build our legacy even beyond the borders of our own country. Follow opportunity wherever it leads. That’s an incredible thing.
The American West has been settled. Many people feel that the same opportunities that once existed in America no longer exist there, and they’re right.
But here’s the thing: The whole wide world is your frontier, to find your fortune and build your legacy…
I’ve gone overseas to find opportunities. And I’ve found plenty… the kinds of wealth-building and wealth-protection opportunities I could never find back home. Thousands of other Americans have done it, too. And I can show you how.
Expats are forging their own path wherever it leads…
After years of investing overseas, I’ve found my personal “Yellowstone” on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, the “Sunset Coast.” This is where my wife, Kathleen, and I are staking our claim and building a two-hundred-fifteen-acre community called Los Islotes to enjoy open space that stretches to the sea, with hiking trails, an equestrian center, two beaches, and much more…
I’m hoping this community will pass down through the generations and still be around in a few hundred years, just like the fictional Yellowstone.
We consider ourselves stewards of the land an d protectors of the legacy we’re building in the same way that John Dutton does.
But it’s not a problem for us that we can’t live the life we want in America anymore. There are plenty of other places where we can. Places where the living is slow (if that’s what you want) and you can tune out whatever it is the keyboard warriors care about. The whole world is our frontier.
It can be yours, too. That’s what my new book is all about…
Lief Simon
Editor, Lief Simon
P.S. My new book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer”, collects all the wisdom I have learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.
It simply and clearly lays out the path for you to make money, gain true independence, and thrive in the face of crisis…
And today, we’re giving you the chance to claim a free copy. Take a look here for all the details.
