all right, so things are getting really exciting. Stocks are at an all-time high, Bitcoin all-time high, and if you've been watching the news, you might have noticed something big just went down. It's not another Fed meeting where they lowered interest rates by a quarter percent, or Elon Musk, or President Donald Trump winning the election. I'm talking about this. This could be a new world currency that we could start seeing really soon, and that's all thanks to the latest BRICS Summit, which was held in Kazan, Russia, at the end of last month. And BRICS is the alliance of countries that are challenging the United States, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now several more countries that they've added to their team, which combined now have a bigger GDP, meaning they make more stuff than all the G7 countries combined. This meeting was so popular, even the Taliban was like, Hey, we don't see ourselves on the bill. Where we at? Now the good news, they were denied entry, but now BRICS is not just a buzzword, it's actually a group of

countries that are now creating their own payment system called bricks pay, which is trying to dethrone the US dollar as the world's main currency. But on the flip side, the dollar is actually getting stronger, and Russia says they might not ditch the US dollar now that Donald Trump is reelected. So, we could see some really exciting stuff. And in today's video, I want to help explain what was said in that bricks meeting, how all of this could affect our investment, how I'm investing my money, and I'll give you my portfolio update. So, let's get into it. Hi, my name is Andre J. Hope you're doing well. Come for the finance and stay for the bricks. I'm back, and I was in Japan and Thailand. Then my body got sick, and it just gave up. So, I was sick for 3 weeks, but now I'm back. My voice is still gone, but let me start by first breaking down what happened at the summit, and then I'll explain how I'm personally adjusting my own investment strategy. But

let's start with the very basic question of how did we get to a point where BRICS now represents almost 34% of the Earth's area, 36.7% of the world's GDP, 24.1.5% of all the export volume, over 45% of the world's population, almost 40% of the industrial production, and over 40% of the world's wheat harvest. And for that, we have to go back to the 1930s. Back in the 30s, the US was facing the Great Depression. Things were pretty bad; one in four people had no jobs. There was a lot of poverty and economic stagnation. But World War II changed everything. The US started to make stuff for the war, which boosted the economy and ended the depression. This shift made the US an economic powerhouse, and the dollar became the best money for global trade. Then, in 1944, at the Bretton Woods conference, the US used its economic strength to make the dollar the main reserve currency, or the world reserve currency. It's a move that

most countries around the world were in favor of because their economies weren't doing as well. Those countries started to tie their currencies to the US dollar, and in the 1970s, President Nixon ended the dollar's direct link to gold, which started the fiat currency era and then eventually the decline of the US dollar from that point onward. But that's not what caused all of this. Instead, over the years, the cause was global conflict, sanctions, and weaponization of the dollar. And now those BRICS countries view the dollar as a limitation to their growth, which is why they're now working on building their own financial systems outside the US dollar. And that's exactly what these BRICS meetings are all about. And here's what happened at the most recent one, and maybe one of the most ambitious announcements in that meeting was BRICS pay, an alternate payment system that doesn't rely on the US dollar at all. And the most interesting part about it is the controversial story of how it was created. Because in 2019, Switzerland's Bank of International

settlements started to work on CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), a global payment system to compete with crypto. So, Switzerland, along with a couple of partner banks, started to work on one of the highest-profile payment systems in the world called Project Embridge. In 2021, they reached what's called the MVP, or the Minimum Viable Product phase, meaning they tested it, it worked, and they were able to transport billions of dollars across the world instantaneously for almost nothing. And just a little over a week ago, the BIS suddenly backed out of the project. Now, the rumor behind why they backed out after its success was because of who was part of creating Embridge. It was China, United Arab Emirates, and Iran, which just happened to become the new members of the BRICS Alliance. So, the worry is that Embridge could be taken and used by people like Putin and Russia to create their own system for the BRICS countries. And it just so happened that a payment system was announced at the latest BRICS Summit, BRICS Pay. It's like Apple Pay.

but they pay now. What's interesting is that BRICS pay is based on decentralized technology, except their system uses a QR-based app for BDB payments and for institutions. And at that BRICS Summit, they gave out physical cards with 500 rupees on them as a symbolic gesture of what's to come. And they say that their goal is to be independent of Western payment systems by the end of 2024. And if they succeed, that would ultimately reduce their dependency on the US dollar. Now at that meeting, they also welcomed four new member countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Each of these countries brings something unique with their own strengths and resources. It gives them expansion into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. But another thing that happened at this meeting was that they promised to strengthen the New Development Bank by giving out loans to developing countries. Now their goal is to give at least 30% of their financing in the local currency of the borrowing countries as an alternative to the IMF. Now the IMF is a central bank.

that lends money to developing countries in exchange for policies that usually help the west and countries like the US. But this new development bank will offer loans without any Western strings attached, making it more appealing to countries that want nothing to do with the US. And the way they'll do that is the NDB will give out loans in non-US dollar currencies to ease repayment for developing nations. These steps are just to build the foundation for BRICS to gain resilience against things like US sanctions, which have been a point of tension, especially for countries like Russia. The question is, why does this even matter? And it matters because the US dollar has been the world's reserve currency for decades, meaning it's the default choice for global trade. And I cannot overemphasize just how much that status has helped the US economy and consumers and investors by making everybody that held assets denominated in US dollars a lot richer. So, if BRICS has its way, that could change. Now, my next question is, how would it exactly affect my portfolio of stocks, Bitcoin, and real estate? And one

thing we know for sure is that investors don't like uncertainty, and a rival Financial Group could create a lot of that, especially with the idea of creating new trading systems outside of Wall Street's influence. We're talking about a BRICS-backed commodities exchange potentially, and if it actually gets traction, oil and grain prices might start to shift. We could start to see a decline in US influence over global commodity prices. It's like what OPEC did with oil, but on a bigger scale and across multiple industries, and with more countries joining BRICS, it's becoming an attractive option for countries that feel sidelined by Western policies. Countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia are reportedly interested in joining, and so are dozens of other countries too. And why wouldn't they? For countries that want more independence or don't see eye to eye with US policies, BRICS offers a solution. And if this alternative takes off, we might see the dollar be used less and less in international trade transactions. And if we continue to print more dollars as a means to pay our debt, which is projected that that's exactly

what's going to happen in the next few decades. More dollars will stay in the US, and more dollars at home means more dollars chasing fewer goods, which means prices will continue to go up. Now, let's take a step back and think about this from an investment perspective. Because is there any asset class that doesn't turn red or green for the same reasons as other investments, and ideally something that holds its value internationally, and something that tends to increase in price over time? UBS actually did this amazing study showing that over 85% of the high net worth population that surveyed felt that art was a safe investment compared to traditional assets like stocks. Not just that, the art market is actually growing like crazy internationally right now, with the ultra-rich from China having the highest expenditure on art for the last year and a half, more than double that of any other region. So, let me show you how I became an art investor myself, but without needing millions. See, Masterworks has allowed everyday investors to get in on multi-million dollar investments like Banksy, Basquiat, and

Picasso. I've worked with Masterworks for a while now and have invested along with thousands of you. Masterworks isn't just an exchange; it's not just an app. They provide a service. Personally, I hold a stake in this bosot, and even better, Masterworks' most recent sale was actually another bosot, which sold for $8 million. Not to mention they've delivered annualized net returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5% to investors from their 23 sales to date. So, if you're interested, you can join me at Masterworks by going to the QR code or by clicking the description below. But besides a small diversification in art from today's sponsor Masterworks, here's how I've divided my net worth. Keep in mind this is just me; I'm not saying you or anyone else should do what I'm doing, but here it is. 20% of my money is invested in Bitcoin. Now, there's a lot of explanations for why Bitcoin should go up in price, but here is my favorite. This

right here is a breakdown of the global asset values, meaning the value of all the things in the world: stocks, real estate, art, bonds, gold, everything. It's worth about $900 trillion today. It's a big world, and it's a big number, so big that my tiny brain cannot comprehend that number. So let me just shrink it down to something that I can understand. Imagine the combined value of all this stuff is $100. This $900 trillion world is actually worth $100 right on that scale. Bonds in real estate take up most of this, with $33 in bonds and $36 in real estate. Stocks, by comparison, hold a very tiny $11 or so, and gold holds a tiny $1.78. Now you might look at Bitcoin right now, which is in the 70,000 or whatever it's at right now, and think that's expensive, right? That's probably too late to buy now. Well, today on this scale, Bitcoin is a fraction of a dollar. Today it represents 17 pennies of the $100 bill that makes up the world's

assets. So, here's what I think will happen next. All that's going to happen is just a reshuffling of a small percentage of assets shifting toward Bitcoin, like a deck of cards being reshuffled, right? Same deck, just a different order. Now, here's the hypothetical scenario. Let's say maybe $5 comes out of real estate and into Bitcoin, maybe $2 comes from stocks and into Bitcoin, and maybe 50 cents comes from gold and into Bitcoin. Now, fast forward to 2045, 20 years later, and I think the world would look closer to this. The world's wealth is now 4,000 trillion, quadruple what it is today. On that scale, Bitcoin is still smaller than almost everything else, just like today, except now it's visible on this scale because out of $100, Bitcoin is now $7. What's Bitcoin's price over $13 million a coin over 20 years? That's an annual compound growth rate, or CAGR, as the nerds like to call it, of a very reasonable roughly 28%. That's not impossible considering

what Bitcoin has done in the past since it's been created. Now, could all of this be a stretch? Yes. Will I look silly in 20 years? Maybe. Will this guy look worse? Definitely, because this guy's a lot smarter than I am and wealthier, and he has more to lose since it's his data. But hopefully, you understand that bitcoin's value going up is not dependent on some YouTuber saying so. It's not because of Crypt Bros and moon boys joining the industry. All that has to happen is just a reshuffling of the world's cents and dollars, not to mention new participants like States, Black Rock, Banks, countries, Pension funds. Now, how do we know that dollars will be shuffled into Bitcoin? I don't know. Nothing is guaranteed. But why I think this will happen is because of the generational wealth transfer. As kids inherit money from their parents, their grandparents, they will sell some of their less performing assets like bonds and gold or maybe real estate that is too expensive that they don't want to maintain, and they'll put that somewhere.

that is performing something they do understand, which for my generation is Bitcoin. And now that Mr. Trump is reelected and anti-crypto people are out of the picture, I think banks will start to custody our Bitcoin and hold it for us, and maybe even offer us a yield on it like a dividend. More money will flow into it than has ever before, and if the US adopts Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, we're talking about a whole other level. But that's Bitcoin. 20% of my money is there. Another 20% of my money is in the stock market. My portfolio here is spread out into dividend stocks that pay me monthly, and the other half is in an ETF called VTI, which represents the entire US stock market. Now, if I had more courage in my own intelligence, or lack thereof, I would probably put all this money into the NASDAQ or tech stocks. But I look at my stocks as a conservative strategy and one that I know works based on history, where my Bitcoin is extremely aggressive and it doesn't have a lot of

history and between the two, I feel pretty balanced. But if all I had was tech stocks and Bitcoin, then I would have a heart attack every day. But that's my fault, proving once again that it's called personal finance for a reason because it might be different for you. Now, another 20 to 25% of my portfolio is cash in case there's an opportunity and the world goes to a dark place and I need to pay my bills because I don't want to sell. That's my cash. And 20% is in real estate across my house and one of my rentals because that's my base of solitude. If all else fails, I got a place to live that makes me cope easier when investments are on a roller coaster. And then maybe another 15ish percent is miscellaneous collectibles, watches, investments in fine art with Masterworks, along with a few other assets to diversify. So, tying everything together, if BRICS succeeds in building these alternative payment systems and they continue to attract more and more countries, we could see a world where the

dollar is not the only World Reserve currency, and that means it's super important to stay invested in global assets over time because inflation pushes up not just the price of groceries but the prices of assets too. So, staying invested is what I'm doing. This strategy is not for everyone, but for someone in my position who's a bit younger and who has some time, that's as good as I can come up with. But I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below. As always, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Smash the like button, subscribe if you haven't already. I'd love to see you back here next week. I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.

BRICS Summit Bombshell: The New World Order in Finance

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