On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran and, within days, Iran retaliated by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz- the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply flows. By early March, Brent crude had blown past $100 a barrel for the first time in four years and, as I’m writing this in early April 2026, oil is hovering around $110-114 while spot prices have touched $141… And the IEA is warning that April will be worse than March… Gas stations in Australia are running dry. Airlines across Asia are canceling flights. Europe is rationing jet fuel. And soon Americans are going to need a down payment and financing for a Chipotle burrito bowl.
If you’ve been watching Gary Stevenson’s channel, none of this surprises you. Gary came back from a six-month hiatus specifically to talk about this, and his argument was sharp as always: whoever owns the real resources profits from crises. Everyone else just ends up paying more. He said it plainly enough to sting: “If you are watching from America and you are paying more for energy despite the fact that there is a ton of oil in your country, that’s because you don’t own your oil. I do.”
And he’s right. He made hundreds of thousands of pounds from oil he already held, not because he predicted the war with Iran, but because wealthy people own diversified portfolios of everything: oil, wheat futures, corn futures, property, stocks, bonds… When a crisis hits, the value of those real assets goes up, and the people who own them collect. The people who don’t own them pay higher prices at the pump, at the grocery store, on their energy bills. That’s the wealth gap in real time, playing out right now while a lot of people are still arguing about interest rates.
What Gary Gets Right (and Why His Audience Should Listen)
Gary’s core thesis, the one he’s been building across dozens of videos, is that money is just a representation of real resources. Confusing money with actual wealth is, in his words, “the root cause of most economic policy failures”. The real constraint in any economy isn’t running out of currency. It’s running out of capacity: people, energy, land, materials. The stuff you can actually use.
He’s been saying this for years, and the Iran crisis just gave him the most compelling proof yet. Oil goes up, food prices follow because everything gets shipped on trucks that burn diesel, heating costs spike, and suddenly the gap between people who own productive assets and people who earn wages to buy those assets gets a whole lot wider. His proposed solution is a wealth tax. I respect that, and it’s a conversation absolutely worth having, but also a policy fight that could take decades to win at the rate that partisanship in the US is going…. And your rent is due next month.
So here’s my question: if you agree with Gary that owning real resources is the answer, what counts as a real resource?
He talks about oil, housing, commodities, stocks- all valid- but there’s a category he never mentions. One that wealthy families have been quietly accumulating for generations, and it might be the most overlooked asset class of all.
The Real Resource Most People Forget: Geographic Diversification
I’m talking about legal status in multiple countries. Second residencies. Second passports. The right to live, work, bank, invest, and build wealth in more than one jurisdiction.
This isn’t about travel perks and it’s not about collecting passport stamps or bragging about how many countries you’ve visited. It’s an actual asset class, and the ultra-wealthy have treated it that way for a long time. Millionaire relocations hit 142,000 in 2025 and are projected to reach 165,000 this year, the largest migration of wealth on record. The firms that advise ultra-high-net-worth families on this stuff (Henley & Partners, Arton Capital, CS Global Partners, etc) are not selling vacations, but jurisdictional and geographic resilience.
Think about it through Gary’s lens. He says whoever owns the resources wins when a crisis hits. Well, what happens when the crisis isn’t just about oil prices? What happens when your country freezes bank accounts during political unrest? Or changes tax law overnight in ways that wipe out your retirement planning? Or when inflation destroys your purchasing power but you’re locked into a single currency because you only have legal status in one place?
A second residency means you have somewhere to go. Somewhere with its own economy, its own currency, its own legal protections. It means your kids have options. Your business has options. Your retirement has options that don’t depend entirely on one government getting every decision right for the next 30 years.
That is a real resource. And just like Gary’s oil holdings, you acquire it before the crisis, not during it. I say this often but if you’re trying to organize yourself at the start of a political, economic, or social collapse… you’re too late.
Not Just for the Ultra-Rich (Not Anymore)
Here’s where this gets interesting for Gary’s audience specifically. His viewers aren’t billionaires. They’re working and middle-class people who feel economically squeezed, who see the wealth gap growing, and who want to know what they can actually do about it. Gary tells them to push for policy change, and that’s valid long-term, but in the short term the question is always the same: what can I, personally, do to protect myself and my family?
The traditional answer to geographic diversification has been “have $500,000 or more.” And yeah, some programs cost that much. Portugal’s Golden Visa used to start at EUR 500K, Greece’s prime areas now sit at EUR 800K. Those are real numbers and they’re out of reach for most people.
But here’s what Gary’s audience doesn’t know, because nobody in the personal finance YouTube space ever talks about it: there are legitimate residency and even citizenship programs that start at $5,000 and max out around $100,000-$150,000. That’s the price range of a used car to a modest home renovation. It’s not pocket change, but it’s not hedge fund territory either. Additionally there are plenty of rising BRICS and global south countries with digital nomad and retirement visas that allow you to acquire residency by proving and maintaining very reasonable, affordable monthly incomes.
Real Programs, Real Numbers
Let me give you specific examples, because vague advice is useless.
Paraguay: The $5K Backstop
Paraguay offers one of the fastest, cheapest paths to legal residency anywhere in the world. The government fees are around $363 USD. Even with a lawyer and full service, you’re looking at $1,200-$2,300 total. You fly in for 3-5 business days, submit your paperwork, and processing takes 60-100 days. No investment requirements. No language exam. No interviews. You get a two-year temporary residency that converts to a 10-year permanent card, and after three years of permanent residency, you’re eligible for citizenship and a Paraguayan passport. The country has no minimum stay requirement to maintain status. For someone building a geographic safety net on a budget, this is about as accessible as it gets.
Panama: The Americas’ Financial Hub
Panama’s Friendly Nations Visa is available to citizens of over 50 countries, including the US, Canada, and UK. You need an economic tie to Panama, which means one of three things: a job offer, a $200,000 property purchase (which can be financed), or a $200,000 bank deposit. Processing takes 2-4 months. For people who already have some capital, this is a direct path to permanent residency in a country that uses the US dollar, has a territorial tax system (meaning foreign income isn’t taxed), and sits at the crossroads of the Americas with excellent banking infrastructure.
Portugal: Europe’s Open Door
Portugal’s D7 visa is the quiet workhorse of European residency. You don’t need to invest hundreds of thousands. You need to prove passive income of EUR 920 per month, roughly $1,000 USD. Pensions, rental income, dividends, freelance income, they all count. The visa costs EUR 110 to apply. You get a two-year residence permit, renewable for three more years, and then you’re on a path to citizenship. One big caveat though: Portugal recently extended the citizenship waiting period from 5 to 10 years for non-EU and non-Portuguese-speaking citizens. For Americans, that means a longer wait. For Brazilians, the 5-year path still applies. Processing can take 6-12 months with the current backlog, so this is a “start now” play, not a “wait and see.”
Caribbean Citizenship: A Passport in Your Back Pocket
If you want to skip residency entirely and go straight to a second passport, the Caribbean CBI programs start at $100,000 for a government fund contribution. Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia all offer programs at that entry point. Grenada starts at $150,000 but comes with something the others don’t: eligibility for the US E-2 investor visa, which lets you live and work in the United States. St. Kitts and Nevis, the oldest CBI program, starts at $250,000 but has the fastest processing and strongest passport. These programs give you a second citizenship and passport within 3-6 months, no residency required, no physical presence needed.
Why This Matters Right Now
Look at what’s happening. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil is over $110. The IEA says April will be worse. Trump is threatening to bomb Iranian power plants. Gas prices are up everywhere. Food prices are following. And here’s the thing about crises: they compound. The oil shock feeds into inflation, inflation erodes savings, eroded savings force policy responses, and those policy responses always hit regular people first. Capital controls. Currency restrictions. Emergency taxes. Bank holidays. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios from a textbook. They happen regularly in countries all around the world, and when they happen, the people with options do fine while the people without options absorb the damage.
Gary Stevenson is telling his audience to own real resources. I agree completely. But “real resources” isn’t just oil and wheat and property. It’s the legal right to exist and operate in multiple jurisdictions. It’s having a Plan B that doesn’t depend on any single government, any single economy, any single currency holding its value.
The ultra-wealthy have known this a long time and they’ve been building multi-jurisdictional portfolios for decades, pairing their financial diversification with geographic diversification. What’s changed in the last few years is that the programs making this possible have become accessible at price points that working professionals and small business owners can actually reach. You don’t need to be a millionaire to get a second residency. You might need $5,000. You might need $100,000. But you definitely need to start considering where you stand and what your options are before the next crisis, not during it.
What You Can Actually Do About It
If this resonates with you, here’s where I come in. I run Flare International Solutions, and this is literally all we do: help people map out their geographic diversification options based on their budget, their nationality, their goals, and their timeline. We work in the $5K-$200K range. We’re not a firm that only takes calls from people with seven figures. We believe this kind of planning should be accessible to the same people Gary is talking to, the people who are getting squeezed by the system and looking for real answers.
We offer a free 15-minute Discovery Call where we look at your specific situation and map out what’s actually available to you. No sales pitch, no pressure, just a conversation about what your options are based on where you stand right now and where you’d like to be. You can book one or reach out to us at flareintl.com/contact.
Gary is right that owning real resources is the move. I just want to make sure you know that “where you’re allowed to live” is one of the most powerful resources you can own… and right now, most people are leaving it entirely on the table.
References
- CNBC, “Oil prices rise as Trump warns Iran to open Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday,” April 5, 2026 – cnbc.com
- CNBC, “Oil supply crunch will worsen in April, IEA warns,” April 1, 2026 – cnbc.com
- Time, “The Strait of Hormuz Crisis Is Driving a Wave of Global Energy Rationing,” April 5, 2026 – time.com
- Wikipedia, “2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis” – wikipedia.org
- Gary Stevenson / Gary’s Economics, YouTube – youtube.com/@garyseconomics
- Hubbis, “The Power of Global Mobility in 2026: Residence, Citizenship and Strategic Optionality,” 2026 – hubbis.com
Immigration policies change frequently. The information in this article reflects requirements as of April 2026. Always verify current requirements with official government sources or a qualified immigration professional before making decisions.
