Hugo Chavez’s death could mean that Venezuela is again an interesting investment haven; it could also have negative consequences for the condo investment in Panama City. By now, you’ve heard that Hugo Chavez is dead. Venezuela has scheduled elections to choose its new president in April. The question in the air now is: What does […]
The Death Of The 4% Rule (And What That Means For Retirees Overseas) Friend and colleague Paul Terhorst forwarded me an article from the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) that talks about the death of the 4% rule. Paul writes a column for the Overseas Retirement Letter about the financial aspects of retiring overseas, so this kind of thing gets [...]
The Plight Of The Middle-Class Millionaire At a recent conference, a colleague suggested that the definition of being wealthy is having enough passive income to cover your living expenses. A reasonable interpretation, but, by that definition, few of us are truly wealthy. Yet many of us have at least some wealth to protect and most [...]
Because I own real estate in Europe, friends and family have asked over the past few years about my position on the euro. They send me articles predicting the euro’s crash or the latest report on the dire state of affairs in euro land. Some try to get me worked up with their Chicken Little […]
Ecuador--For Retirement, Yes...For Investment, Not So Much Touring around Ecuador these past 10 days, I've been enjoying the infrastructure improvements since my last visit eight years ago. The roads, especially, are in vastly better condition than when I was last here in 2005. You now travel a new six-lane highway at least part of the [...]
The Plight Of The American Middle Class At dinner one night this week with a friend here in Panama City, the subject of the American middle class came up--specifically, the decline of the American middle class. This isn't a new topic, but my friend, Bruno, who is European, born and raised in Italy, but who [...]
Top Choice For Living The Self-Sufficient Life Self-sufficiency. It's what built the American West. Farmers and ranchers pushing toward the Pacific in search of their fortunes, pioneers building new lives on land where they laid claim and where they knew they could take care of themselves and their families themselves, beholden' to no one. That [...]
The most important tool in the U.S. expat’s tax toolbox is the foreign-earned income exclusion (referred to in tax-planning circles as the FEIE or ‘the exclusion’). If you qualify, it allows you to exclude up to US$97,600 in 2013 foreign-earned income from U.S. federal income tax.
My investment focus is real estate and other hard assets. When I’ve invested in stocks, I’ve mostly lost money. The problem for me with stocks is that you have to pay attention on a daily basis to each and every company in which you own shares. Hard assets make more sense to me for many […]
Give Your Kids The Gift Of Another "Voice" One benefit of going offshore for my kids that I didn't think about until I watched it happening is to do with language skills. Many Americans still think the entire world should learn English...and much of the world does. In Latin America, families who can afford it [...]
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