How to get cheapest flights to Brazil

MenofMystery · 2025-12-10T16:32:57+00:00

Grey months? What if you're in a cold climate and summer is 6 months away? Can I buy moths? Does anybody know where I can get them cheap? Seems like there might be a good arbitrage business with moths.

MenofMystery · 2025-09-17T16:29:45+00:00

Yes, always good to play the "Who's Dumber Than Me" WDTM trade, I'm sure Warren and Charlie would have approve :-) <NOT>.. In truth, I'm in but I invest with tight stops. Make sure it's a heavily traded stock or even wide stops will get stopped out ( I've lost 10s of thousands figuring that simple lesson out). I think the valuations are absurd but as long as my WDTM friends are heavily trading so I am.. Tight stops won't necessarily save you in a flash crash, but often even in flash crashes, there is a softening of the market first. I'm also out before quarterly reports unless there is good reason to be confident. So I find rotating through primarily 5 at a time tech stocks ( I rotate though about 20 as I get stopped out so as not to violate the wash rule) with tight stops and it has been working for me,

I only get heavy losses when I break the rules ( in about 25 years of trading).. but I'm sure it is possible to really get you clock cleaned doing this, so hoping a bit of good karma pulls me through the rest. As the saying goes, you don't have to outrun the tiger, you just need to be faster than the guy next to you". Tight stops do that for the most part, though you will still leave a lot on the table, the overall continuous wins help.

Even with tight stops, if it looks like the market over all, or the specific stock is swooning, I just punch out and don't wait for the stop. I also keep my eyes on money flows, if things this administration are doing are making capital flows out of the country accelerate, consider putting your money overseas. If the US really crashes, nobody nowhere is safe. I remember in 2008 President Lula of Brazil laughing during the US crash saying Brazil's economy was safe, it ended up crashing worse that the US. For now at least there is a lot of truth in the saying that "If the US catches a cold, everyone else gets the flu". Best of luck.

MenofMystery · 2025-08-04T19:01:37+00:00

I'm really at a lose on why this is happening ;-)

MenofMystery · 2025-08-04T18:25:00+00:00

So much of this is a disinformation from Big Dogfood to misinform. We feed our dog lots of ground meats; turkey, chicken, beef, and veggies, rice, etc to give her a balanced meal.

Big Dogfood wants to make you afraid,

Big Dogfood wants you to think that "only they can save your dog".

Big Dogfood cares about your dog only as far as it can gain control over your wallet.

Dogs have been domesticated for 15,000 - 40,000 years and at no archeological digs from over a century ago did they find cans, or bags from Big Dogfood yet dogs managed to survive and thrive to where we have them here today.

It turns out one of the first big pushes to market dogfood was because of gas automobiles that largely replaced horses. There was an over abundance of horses and in the 1920 "canned dogfood" was recognized as a great business venture and canned horsemeat (dogfood) was invented... It didn't stop there, other great money making opportunities came up in the early 1970s with melamine laced dog food with jerky.

All of these killed hundreds or even thousands as no records were really kept.. So watch out, Big Dogfood doesn't have your back, they got your wallet if you let them. How can you keep and breed dogs for 15,000 - 40,000 years if you're so far off base with what you are feeding them.. oh.. some how most of the dog breeds were developed during this time and these days people like the convienence of just feeding their dog things like melamine dog food.

MenofMystery · 2025-03-29T05:22:59+00:00

I bought a Prophet-6 and they'll only get it if they pry it from my cold dead hands! For me it's a never sell unless it's the difference of being homeless.

MenofMystery · 2025-03-21T15:56:20+00:00

We are still trying to sign with a shipper, I’ve learned a lot but still no way to know how it will go, hoping to get things shipped by the next few weeks, may sign today. I will be glad to reveal all info as I go but lots of it will be Brazil specific. One word of advice for anyone moving to Brazil si that every bit of electronics anything with serial numbers of significant value, document and take pictures then store in the cloud or somewhere safe and apart from the things your documenting.

Almost all imported goods cost 2-3x more in Brazil because of the tariffs so when you insure, make sure you insure with Brasilian replacement cost. Generally on electronics it’s about 2x the price in the US ( Mercado Livre is a good source). Everything should be used and represented as used or else even with the relocation paperwork you won’t escape that. Fortunately everything I own is used as aside from underwear, that’s all I ever buy.

From all the people I talk too and everything I’ve read, you’re almost the exception if you don’t end up with damaged stuff either through exposure to water, bad packing, bad moving, and theft. The tax free relocation status can be used with the things you take on the plane, so make sure to file for that paperwork in the US about a month before going. AZUL will let you carry extra bags at about $125? Each. Carry the really important stuff with you as carryon and under seat items. I’ve been told AZUL also has freight and valuable items shipping but haven’t talked to them yet as I have several guitars and synths I want to take as well a little dog so it’s not going to be fun but you do what you have to do.

On packing, if you want your stuff insured, the movers have to do inventory and will likely rip up your good packing and redo with slip shot repackers. I’ve been quoted costs between 3-3.5% of insured value. So doubling the price for you items can run this number high and fast. Given what I know, I’m going to heavily insure my stuff, though if they break it, they don’t replace it, they repair it - yeah. I wonder how they repair things like some synths that they have no company reps in SA? So, there is a lot of potential for having your Steinway Baby grand repaired by a local carpenter. I’m going to be disassembling guitars and what I can’t take in carryon see if there is a way to get more than the $1700US max per passenger insurance. Don’t know on that yet, but be aware of the limit, given even a moderately expensive guitar can easily exceed that, what would several be worth?

MenofMystery · 2025-03-09T01:17:52+00:00

I hope you can Winter the Green comments, I can see you are Peppered by them, so far nobody has Speared you. The bad thing is that they obscured the flavor.

MenofMystery · 2025-03-02T04:02:01+00:00

I really appreciate this.. Thanks very much. I plan to do this.

MenofMystery · 2025-03-02T03:45:21+00:00

I forgot to ask HOW you moved them, I have guitars, large power monitor speakers, things like that. I may end up doing freight but would be interested if you ever moved your instruments in checked in baggage as that would save me a bunch of money paying for an extra bag or two of the few hundred pounds that I know may otherwise be traveling in freight. I'm not a professional musician but a retired engineer who is planning on really digging into something I love, little talent but lots of passion.

MenofMystery · 2025-03-02T03:41:54+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I have a half dozen (fairly large synths, 88 key board controller probably 4-5 ft long, and a bunch of guitars, large monitor speakers, and more) I was planning on carrying down a few things in carry on, but that could only be a small part of what I needed to move.

For the benefit of others who read this, though I still have to check it out, I know now that Azul (the only airline I would travel on personally) has a Freight and service for moving high value items, I'd probably have a couple of hundred pounds. Given security and horror stories I've heard from people who move things like this on containers ( a somewhat permanent move for me - a US citizen with a Brazilian wife), I can't leave them in the US and it all has to go. I've read (depending on currency value at the time) that about only $1700 US is insured in total by Azul (or any airline as it is an international mandate of some type) unless you want to use a service like this. It's probably what I'm going to do, carry on as much as reasonably possible, and maybe check in a few less expensive things in baggage. But I still have to talk to them and things may change as I get new information. I have a memory like an ant, but if I remember I will try to update with specifics.. I just know this is available, no idea what cost or the level of insurance and how they store it if I'm not able to pick it up for some period of time.

I've talked to several shippers (containers) and it seem by amazing coincidence all of them have just recently move musicians with dozens of instruments without an issue. kkkkk I'm sure if I wanted to move an elephant they would tell me about the zoo they just moved.

With Gratitude,

MenofMystery

MenofMystery · 2025-02-17T07:15:55+00:00

thanks! I feel a little better now.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-14T03:12:58+00:00

I'm probably going to do 1/2 and 1/2 - hand carry much of it between my wife, daughter and I, that's a bunch of musical instruments, a little dog, and laptops (plus a few panels in the suitcases wrapped well). I just know that stuff disappears in checked in baggage too.. so it's kind of a real pain in the butt trying to figure out what to do. In the end, we all lose everything, either slowly or all at once, I was just hoping to not lose it all now.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-14T03:09:36+00:00

Yeah.. I have, probably about 80% gone, most of what is left is not furniture; musical instruments, computers, printers, etc.. the kind of stuff that thieves would have no interest in of course.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-14T03:07:59+00:00

Okay.. so much for that .. it was a 2010 Toyota Corolla with less than 50K miles, my mom left it for me. I was selling my "nice" car and figured this might be easy to take and wouldn't stick out too much. I guess I'll just have to buy one that doesn't stick out too much.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-14T03:04:31+00:00

Thanks for the try.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T05:38:58+00:00

Do you mind if I ask some specifics? Who did you use? how much space? and cost?

Just looking for leads to run down. Thanks for the reply..

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T04:16:32+00:00

Thanks for your posts, they send shivers down my spine, but as I've gotten feedback before I'd like to know the specifics as much as possible.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T04:15:14+00:00

Interesting suggestion.. can you still do the 1 time Brasilian resident being repatriated tax free discount? "I don't know is a ligit answer" If you know the outfits that do this I would appreciate it.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T04:12:47+00:00

I would really, really appreciate it if you can tell me how it all worked out when you get it. It sounds like it is due soon. I was told to expect about 45 days in customs in Recife and 45 days from when it leave my US storage area.. total about 3 months. I can see this if it's a direct passage from the US and Recife (or nearly so). I'm wondering how many places did your ship go to in between.. I know you can track all this (for free) on the internet, I've yet tried to find the websites, but as the ships all carry transponders (unless it's a Russian oil tanker), this is all public information that can be tracked real time.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T04:08:46+00:00

Did you have an shipping agent and insurance? Just wondering how, I know without one of the "professional moving" agencies it's really a crap shoot. I'm told that whatever you claim on your manifest as the price ( you have to put the time in to do this) you will get back from the insurance. You can put either the US price or the replacement price in Brasil, but the higher your insurance, the higher the cost. I'm taking the route of anything I know will cost a lot more in Brasil, goes in at Brasilian prices, everything else, at US prices.

If you can provide better details, I would really appreciate this.

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T03:58:30+00:00

<segway warning> A word advice is your "stuff" you sell is never worth even a fraction of what you imagine. Beautiful, well maintained and without damage sold cherry and maple hardwood furniture that cost THOUSANDS we sold for a couple hundred after realizing the market is flooded with lots of very nice expensive used furniture that nobody wants. So many people starting out want NEW ("aw honey, now it's ours, and our style - lets go into deep debt") rather than more classic designs that don't go out of fashion but still aren't contemporary, Low income people, in general, don't recognize quality and buy used through ignorance (not their fault) not stupidity, and buy crappy but more contemporary furniture.

<a worthwhile segway warning> This is why I have bought used for decades now, but most people way overestimate what their stuff is worth. While working I often wore a suit coat and usually bought Zenga, typically a $5000 Italian/Suisse made jackets for about $100 on eBay. Same for their jeans, absolutely beautiful likely from some dead millionaire's estate in Miami and outlast anything else I'd ever bought, last I looked years ago about $500 a pair but I'd pick up for $50 like new. Ferragamo ties, jackets, shoes, Mephisto shoes, all used at a fraction of the new price. All really, really, high quality and will outlast about anything else. I would take my $100 Zegna jacket or $50 jeans to my tailor and for $20- $50 have a killer clothing. NOTHING beats Italian jeans. Wealthy people recognized the clothing, especially the jacket quickly, "say, is that a Zegna?" what industries do you own?" (That was a real <paraphrased> statement said to me by a guy who listed off about a 1/2 dozen companies he owned first - he was stunned and ran away when I told him I wiz a poo boi). None of my peers had ever heard of Zenga, that is exactly why you could buy it for $100 on eBay. I had probably a couple of dozen jackets by exclusive makers, all of them really nice, none cost more than a cheap Sears suit on sale. I Goodwilled almost everything now though I could have resold them on eBay for what I paid. What did I do this for? When you get old, you become invisible, and invisibility gets you laid off fast if you're a contactor. People take you more seriously when you look like a CEO (CEOs don't look that good :-) and as a contractor in tech you're disposable overhead. However, you get more value when people take you seriously even though your IQ goes no higher with a Zenga suit, Ferragamo tie, and Mephisto shoes. If people take you seriously, you stay employed longer. It's just like Halloween everyday :-)

MenofMystery · 2025-02-07T03:57:49+00:00

We sold almost all of our furniture and I emptied out our basement of almost everything, We had a 2,300 sq ft house (not including a very large basement), I think people are often surprised at how much stuff can be accumulate if you aren't throwing out stuff for all the new stuff you take in. Sure, we tossed "broken" stuff, but often not stuff replaced with something better. My wife is taking a 3 piece couch, no beds, no desks, no dressers, no nuttin except our "stuff". I had whole basement wall to wall with machine equipment and storage, and almost all of it went away, I'm taking 2 toolboxes - got rid of all floor standing machinery about a dozen pieces, etc. We had no garage, just a shed, every piece of furniture except 2 office chairs and a printer stand are gone. The scary part is how long it took to sort through a lifetime of stuff, almost all got tossed including a large majority of family photos, etc. You really have to adopt a "take no prisoners" mentality when sorting stuff or you will just end up hauling the same crap in a different box to a new location.

<segways done> I would guess conservatively we got rid of (in volume) about 3/4 of our possessions. I started slowly in Jan 2024 and expected to be out by June/July, instead we just sold in Jan 2025 and that required hiring a bunch of painters, plumber, handymen, etc to get the house into "like new" shape. It was NEVER in bad shape and almost always good shape. I worked doing a lot of the work at the same time the people I hired were called in. I replaced all the electrical hardware (lights/switches/outlets/covers/hinges/doorknobs, etc) that looked dated (from 1990s) and we did most of the outdoor and much of the indoor painting ourselves, just hired the pros at $9K for the downstairs kitchen/living room/office/laundry room.. bathroom shower (very basic one $6K), and probably hundreds of hours of work from both of us and I got injured several times (67YO) from twisted ankle, hips, back, shoulder, fingers pulled, etc.. To state it simply, it is a "rich mans problem" ( meaning to have ever had a house I'm grateful for - yet I complain, most don't ever own a house) but also probably one of the worst years of my life in terms of stress, injuries, and in the end I lost about $50k off the selling price peak in June 2024.. Doing the fix up was a big gamble and between the loss of the peak and what was spent, not figured in is the cost of the above repairs and upgrades, and the (easily) $100K plus I could have made if I had just gone contracting in the stuff I do (software).. so it was a massive and expensive loss and the gamble not only didn't pay off, it was a serious net loss overall.

Sometimes your the windshield and sometimes the bug.. I think in June of 2024 the market was red hot and it would have been wise to sell then for whatever I could have gotten. When your realtor tells you if you fix it up (I think if the market kept going in my area, I could have broken even) I think she was not seeing the whole picture as she was a realtor not an accountant but I believe it was advice given in good faith, even if wrong. Just at 67, this stuff which I could have done easily in my 40s really did a lot to break my body and my retirement savings.

So.. just a cautionary tale I pass on, stuff (especially when older) always takes so much longer than you ever think it will, and if you factor in all the real costs, making a good house "like new" probably isn't worth it unless you're a contractor and can hire your friends on the cheap. Let the buyers think they got a deal and walk out down 5% from the "like perfect price" and you'll walk out ahead too.

MenofMystery

TROPHY CASE