Category: Parenting


  • Why We Chose Brazil to Welcome Our Son

    We chose Brazil as the birthplace of our son not by chance, but through strategy โ€” balancing law, lifestyle, and legacy. Here’s why Brazil checked every box: citizenship by birth, family inclusion, autonomy, and real diversification.

  • The Ethanol Lesson: Don’t Optimize Your Way Out of What Actually Matters

    The Morning Everything Stopped I made what seemed like a smart decision. Here in Brazil, my car can run on both ethanol and gasoline โ€” it’s a flex-fuel vehicle. I’ve never bothered with ethanol before. I always filled up with gasoline because it was simple, reliable, and I knew it worked. But I kept seeing…

  • The Quiet Power of a Second Residency

    Thereโ€™s a kind of wealth most people never talk about. Not money. Not investments. Not even a passport. Just a small plastic card โ€” a second residency. It doesnโ€™t look like much. It sits quietly in your wallet, tucked behind your driverโ€™s license. You donโ€™t flash it around. No one ever asks about it. But…

  • What Actually Lasts: Why the Smartest Parents Are Leaving Their Children Passports, Not Just Money

    Every parent wants the same thing: โ€œI just want my children to have a better life than I did.โ€ Itโ€™s why we work late, save diligently, and build businesses that demand everything from us. We imagine our wealth as a safety net โ€” a guarantee our children will never struggle. But hereโ€™s what successful parents…

  • Brazil: The Top Choice Right Now for North American Families

    In the last few years, more North American families have come to us looking for at least a Plan B location, if not a complete Plan A. What they tell me is consistent: the city feels different, the school board keeps changing what’s โ€œnormal,โ€ the communities they’re part of become less aligned with what they…

  • France vs. Paraguay: Why Some Families Are Going Where the Billboards Aren’t

    If you’re location-independent and optimize for lifestyle ROI, Paraguay offers a better value proposition than legacy destinations like France. This isn’t about comparing apples to applesโ€”it’s about comparing strategic options for upper-middle-class families mitigating global political risk. Everyone knows France. Paris cafรฉs, Riviera beaches, Bordeaux wineโ€”and endless ads telling you to “retire in Provence” or…

  • Changing Their Choices

    I joined the Marine Corps in 2002. Not by accident, and not for lack of conviction. I joined because I believed in it โ€” because the idea of standing for something larger than myself, of courage, of doing my part, felt obvious. I was eighteen, and the world was simple. The war cycle happened to…

  • Where Should Your Loyalty Really Belong?

    Two Loyalties, One Lie Weโ€™ve been taught, from the time weโ€™re children, to conflate two very different kinds of loyalty. The first is loyalty to the people who matter most in our lives โ€” our families, our children, the communities we choose. The second is loyalty to a geographic location, to borders drawn on maps,…

  • Schooling Options for Your Second Residencies or Plan B Locations

    The System That Taught Me Won’t Teach My Kids I grew up in the public school system in a small Canadian town. It wasn’t great, but there were good lessons being taught. I excelled in math and engineering disciplines โ€” the kind of skills that got rewarded in the 90s and early 2000s. I could…

  • What Your Children Gain When They Grow Up Everywhere

    My son doesn’t know he’s lucky. He just knows that in Brazil, soccer meant running barefoot through neighborhood parks every evening, the whole community cheering from the sidelines. He knows Festa Junina means dancing in a straw hat while bonfires flicker and the air smells like sweet cake and smoke. And this weekend, like so…

  • Rethinking Education: How Global Thinking Can Change Your Childโ€™s Future

    A friend of mine has a daughter in high school who wasn’t connecting with her math teacher. Instead of accepting this limitation, she hired an english speaking Brazilian PhD engineer over Zoomโ€”someone who genuinely loves math and charges what amounts to a modest fee in U.S. dollars. After a few months of personalized instruction, that…