Hey guys, Mikkel here,
I’ve spent my career chasing signals.
Sometimes they’re buried in spreadsheets or deep within an obscure economic report that very few people will ever read; other times, they show up in the conversations I wouldn’t even have if it weren’t for the work I do every single day with my Private Clients at Expat Money.
Lately, it has become clearer than ever that people are more fearful about the future than ever before…
…and they’re telling me all about it.
Be it the father who tells me that he doesn’t trust the school system anymore, the mother who is worried about her adult son keeping up with his rent payments or the business owner who is concerned about his bank accounts being frozen for “saying the wrong thing online”, people are speaking up about concerns that are far different than what they were even just a few years ago.
In the past, fears like these were distant… something you might hear about in the news, but not feel in your own life…
Today, they’re here… and they’re no longer just distant concerns.
They’re happening, and they’re happening in your own backyard.
It’s because of these very signals that people and families just like yours are no longer staying quiet and just carrying on without taking real action.
They’re stepping up, making different choices, and steadily building something outside the old system that is no longer suitable to serve them.
When you read between the lines, it is clear that what is unfolding in front of us is the birth of a Parallel Economy: a full-scale shift where people aren’t waiting for broken systems to fix themselves.
People just like you are walking away from the old to be part of something
new - something more reliable, more durable and more honest.
Today, the Parallel Economy is on its way to becoming a fully viable alternative system that established families can rely on without compromise.
The Parallel Economy is a full-spectrum, end-to-end rebuild of the parts of life that matter most: health, food, technology, education, finance, and community.
It serves those informed enough to actually pull out of brittle, bureaucratic systems and replant themselves inside one where they have real control.
It’s not about “checking out.”
The Parallel Economy is simply the natural response when the old systems stop working.
Think about it:
When governments tax, spend, and print their currencies into oblivion, people look for harder assets, offshore structures, and ways to move their money outside the system.
When health care collapses into waiting lines and bureaucracy… people seek out private doctors and regenerative types of medicine.
When food systems are industrialized into tasteless, nutrient-depleted produce… what happens is that families look for ways to reclaim food quality and security.
When communities back home grow hostile to freedom and traditional values… people start building new ones, in places where their kids can play outside without fear, where neighbours look out for each other.
The Parallel Economy is alive and well in places like Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
You can see it on the ground: new communities sprouting up with their own water, food, security, education, and governance.
Most people are too scared to admit out loud (or even admit to themselves in many cases) that the “mainstream economy,” the one built on debt, inflation, government “protection,” and fragile supply chains, is falling apart.
But instead of waiting for collapse, the Parallel Economy is already being built by families who are done waiting, done hoping and done outsourcing their future to the corrupt and unreliable institutions, whether public or private.
If the first edition of this newsletter showed you that off-grid living no longer equals sacrifice, this second edition zooms out to the macro and shows you how entire systems are being rebuilt in parallel to the legacy world, and why that should matter to you, your kids, and anyone who’s counting on you as a leader.
Ok, folks, let’s get into it…
Health & Wellness: Taking Back What’s Yours
For decades, “healthcare” meant waiting rooms, clipboards, and the hope that when something went wrong, a faceless insurance provider or medical rep would approve the thing you actually needed.
You’d wait months for tests, fight for appointments, and if you wanted anything outside the cookbook, you’d hit the policy wall… permission denied.
That healthcare system is failing at your expense.
Doctor shortages.
Delayed surgeries.
Slammed waiting rooms.
Symptom-management over root-cause resolution.
Heartless gatekeepers deciding what treatments are “allowed.”
…and a billing scheme so corrupt that no one can explain why a five-minute procedure costs what a family vacation used to.
The Parallel Economy answers differently.
Inside the Parallel Economy, concierge and direct-care models are booming.
Families can pay a fraction of what they’d spend back home and get what they actually wanted in the first place: a doctor who knows their names, picks up the phone, and acts quickly.
You become a person again, not a walking dollar sign.
Wellness clinics pair evidence-based longevity protocols like stem cells or PRP therapy with realistic health protocols that are actually aimed at curing, not sucking thousands of dollars out of you.
Sleep, nutrition, strength, sun, stress management are being promoted, before pills… imagine that.
And here’s what matters most for families in their 40s, 50s, and beyond: proximity.
When something happens at 10pm, you don’t want “we’ll see you in nine weeks.”
You want a 20-minute drive to the people who will take care of you and fix things.
You want a care team that sees you before you become “complicated,” not after.
You want to pay for outcomes, not overhead.
In many “first-world” countries, you now live with the constant awareness that if your spouse needs an MRI or your child needs a specialist, the bottleneck isn’t medicine… it’s the system.
You don’t control that bottleneck… and that could cost you far more than money.
The Parallel Economy removes the bottleneck.
You buy back time, certainty, and options… and you do it before you need them.
Your health doesn’t need to be something you outsource to a fragile bureaucracy…
…in the Parallel Economy, health is something you own.
Food Systems: From Price Shock to Daily Abundance
Look at your grocery receipts since 2019.
You don’t need a PhD in economics to see the truth: the bill climbs, the package shrinks, and the food feels…less like food.
Meanwhile, the supply chain wobbles.
A strike, a war, a storm, or a “temporary disruption” turns a routine shop into a guessing game.
That’s fragility.
….and you pay for it financially and physically.
The Parallel Economy flips the model from scarcity to abundance.
You step outside and harvest bananas, citrus, and greens from a food forest that matures while you sleep.
Your kids collect eggs.
Your neighbour trades you his mangoes for your tomatoes.
You buy meat from a caddle rancher three roads over and honey from the beekeeper up the block.
Dinner is fresh, nutrient-dense, and yours… regardless of whether a container ship hit a delay at the port or not.
This isn’t about turning you into a full-time farmer.
It’s about de-risking your future where you can.
Fruit trees don’t raise their prices when demand goes up.
Chickens don’t go on strike.
A greenhouse doesn’t care who wins an election.
…and with every passing season, natural upgrades your yield as things like soil health improve over time, meaning YOUR SYSTEM becomes more generous and more reliable.
The Parallel Economy turns “What if the shelves are empty?” into “What can we share at tonight’s cookout?”
That’s not survival.
That’s abundance.
Technology: Options Through Connection
Ten years ago, the obvious weakness of off-grid life was connectivity.
People equated “leaving the city” with “leaving the world.”
That deterrent (or for some, that excuse) doesn’t hold up anymore.
Think about the cost for big-screen TVs fifteen years back… or the constraints of owning now.
You needed a buddy just to lift the box out of your truck and into your living room.
Today, you can have one delivered straight to your door for a couple of hundred bucks.
It's no longer a major financial outlay.
That’s technology progression.
What was once rare becomes routine, and what was once expensive becomes accessible.
Connectivity followed the same path as big-screen TVs.
Starlink beams high-speed internet into valleys, mountaintops, islands, and coastlines where no cable company bothered.
Now, you have business-grade reliability in places that used to be the definition of “remote.”
You can run a global company from a ridgeline.
You can process payments, ship products, manage teams, and jump on a video call while the breeze moves through your kitchen.
In other words, technology has stopped being a tether to broken systems and has become the tool that liberates you from them.
Because of that shift, the people who once felt trapped by geography, jobs, or institutions are now carving out new ways to live and work.
Slowly but steadily, that choice is giving shape to something far larger than “off-grid life.”
It’s the foundation of a Parallel Economy; a world where independence isn’t retreat, but progress on your own terms.
This isn’t about abandoning the modern world - it’s about using the best of it to build something better.
A life where you decide the rules, set the pace, and shape the future for yourself and your family.
That’s the true beauty of the Parallel Economy.
That’s the freedom that the Parallel Economy offers.
Deal of the Week: Lot 11 at Veritas Village, Chiriquí, Panama.
Veritas Village, in Chiriquí, Panama, is a far smaller, more intimate development project relative to what is happening at Coronado, the flagship Veritas Villages site I told you about in the first edition of Off-Grid Plan-B a couple of weeks back.
Although it's smaller, it is still a master-planned community designed around freedom, sustainability, and resilience.
This is a place for families who want independence from fragile systems while still living in a beautiful, modern, self-sustaining environment.
Here’s what makes Veritias Chiriquí stand out:
Riverfront lifestyle means year-round swimming and fishing.
Community orchards & gardens provide food security built right into the neighbourhood.
Community-led HOA means governance by the community, not by bureaucrats.
Amenities that matter, like social gathering areas, a pool, fire pits, and a shared orchard.
When you combine these features with the philosophy of Veritas (Freedom, Independence, Resilience, Self-Sustainability, and Transparency), you get more than a homesite… you get a livable hedge against the collapsing systems of the West.
This week, I have secured for you a lot inside this masterplanned off-grid development for a significant discount.
Regularly priced at $84,900, this fully titled site is being offered for just $72,165 (exclusively available for readers of the Off-Grid Plan-B newsletter and The Expat Money Community).
One of the biggest questions people ask me about projects like this is, “yeah, but what about the construction side of things?”
That is simple.
Unlike the endless headaches you’ll face building in North America, like permits, inspectors, delays, and endless red tape, the process here is streamlined and straightforward.
Select your lot (in this case, it's Lot 11 at 15% off the market price), and work with the in-house team to choose one of the available home models (or bring your own designer/builder if you prefer).
The entire process is managed for you… start to finish.
No chasing contractors.
No battling with city hall for approvals.
No surprises.
Lot 11 at Veritas Village is situated in one of the most strategic locations in all of Panama.
You’re minutes from hospitals, clinics, grocery stores, and restaurants, so you’ll still have everything you’d need from the “outside world” with easy reach.
Drive a little further and you’re in Boquete, world-famous for its coffee culture, vibrant expat community, and mountain air that has made it one of the most desirable destinations in all of Panama.
Head the other direction, and in under an hour you’re standing on Playa Barqueta, a 10-mile stretch of wild Pacific beach where you can walk for hours without seeing another soul.
…and surrounding it are National parks, waterfalls, and Volcán Barú.
Lot 11 is being made available at this discount for one reason: to give our Off-Grid Plan-B readers a chance to plant a flag inside Veritas before the remaining sites are gone.
Inventory here is very limited… I am talking about 14 lots in total.
Just 14.
…and they won’t last.
This is your chance to secure a foothold in one of Panama’s premier off-grid communities at a below-market price.
At Veritas, you can either:
Treat it like a cottage - your weekend and holiday escape where you can unplug, breathe, and reset in the mountain air.
Treat it like a vacation property and use it when you want, rent it out when you don’t, and let it become a cash-flowing investment while also being your family’s getaway spot.
Or you can go all in and make it your primary residence - a fully functional, resilient, safe, and comfortable base in one of the most beautiful parts of Panama.
If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to act, this is it.
This isn’t about picking up and struggling to “make it” within abstract systems. It’s about upgrading your life.
The only question is whether you’ll watch it from the sidelines… or step into it while the best land, communities, and opportunities are still available.
If you want in, or even if you just want to learn more about what life inside Vertias would look like for yourself and your loved ones, all you need to do right now is send an email to my partners at [email protected].
My partners at Veritas have already worked with a ton of my clients from Expat Money and are awaiting your call to discuss Lot 11.
Again, even if it's just for the sake of exploring your options, I highly encourage those of you interested in the off-grid lifestyle to reach out to my partners right away.
The Parallel Economy is alive and well, my friends, and it will continue to accelerate exponentially in the coming months, years, and decades.
Don’t miss the train.
Speak soon,
Mikkel
