allanos

There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to happiness! It is a unique, personal thing. It might be said that one man's happiness is another man's misery. And whoever believes that it is possible to be ecstatic, or happy, continually, probably resides in an asylum. Happiness will always be ephemeral. Not to say that it has a finite duration, but it cannot last but fleetingly. I think we are largely confusing contentment, here, with happiness. Contentment may be far longer-lasting, and is often more difficult to attain than the soon-vanishing "happiness", but is well worth the effort. For those that feel they have achieved a long-lasting happiness, then I say, long may it last!

Speaking from my own experience, since April, 2017 my gold has given me a 38% return. But it is a volatile investment. Today's price is around $1755.00. Last year, it hit a high of $ 2075.00. If US inflation takes hold, which analysts expect, gold should start going higher again, as a hedge against inflation and depreciating dollar purchasing power. Since 2019, my bitcoin has increased 3x. It is a much more volatile investment than gold, but shows commensurate higher returns over time. On average, 200% pa compounding, since introduction in 2009. For those outside of Thailand, good gold coins to hold are the American Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, and the South African Kruger Rand. I would recommend the one-ounce coins, not the smaller sizes. For relative ease of holding, ETF's are worth looking at, but they carry unique risks also. It's all in the fine print! For a good layman's immersion into the intricacies of gold, I would recommend reading, "Why Gold, Why Now?", a recently-published book by E.B. Tucker. It is relatively light reading, with a lot of useful information inside, and can be used as a worthwhile guide to investing. EB is a director at Metalla Royalties. Perhaps naturally, investing in a royalty product is his preferred route to wealth. However, he makes a compelling case for doing so.

Crypto isn't a good idea, it's a GREAT idea! And for those who don't know better, ANY software can be hacked, not just crypto exchanges. Poly's software had vulnerabilities, which the hacker exploited. Because of the transparency of blockchain, however, the route the purloined coins and tokens take can be traced to the end-user's wallet. So the hacker will be bound to be nabbed eventually. It is noteworthy that this individual didn't steal any Dogecoin. I wonder if Elon has noticed that! Fiat is becoming something of an anachronism in the modern world, but, quite obviously, even once it is digitised, central banks are going to hold on to it; manipulate it, just like they do gold. It gives them power over the masses. The holders of scarce, decentralised assets, like Bitcoin, however, will largely be out of the reach of such control.

I am NOT an armchair sleuth, an amateur Sherlock. But perhaps we should examine other possibilities, something out of the box, maybe. What occurs to me, simplistically maybe, is that the Swiss lady was befriended in or around her resort accommodation, by, possibly, a Westerner. They choose to go for a walk together to the waterfall area, and he decides to try his luck. She refuses his advances and one thing leads to another. Once the guy has raped her, there is a kind of no turning back . . . Would the perp have hung around, or hopped on the first flight out of Phuket? Possibly the RTP should start examining those who checked out of their hotels early, or examine the passenger manifests on flights over the past few days, to narrow the search down?