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Author: Lief Simon

09 May
Beaech in Brazil

Why I’m Freeing Up Funds To Buy Beachfront Lots In Brazil

Why I'm Doubling Down On Brazil (And This Is Your Last Chance To Do The Same) For the past few years, I've been working systematically to consolidate my existing real estate holdings... while, at the same time, expanding my portfolio in a new direction. I'm selling properties that no longer fit into my long-term plans. [...]
29 Apr
An exchange rate board

Why I Focus On Real Estate Price And Not Exchange Rate

I don’t usually pay attention to exchange rates on a daily basis. However, being in Europe for the last month, I’ve been watching the U.S. dollar rate versus the euro. The euro has dropped from US$1.13 to US$1.115 since I arrived about four weeks ago. The difference of a penny-and-a-half—or a bit less than 1.5%—isn’t […]

18 Apr
A Portugal farm on top of a hill

Why A Farm In Portugal Should Be Your Next Investment

Why I’m Tempted To Cash Out Of This Investment (And What I Intend To Do With The Money Instead) As they say, it can be better to be lucky than to be smart. Best case, of course, is when you can be both. That’s what happened in 2015 when I bought an apartment in Lagos, [...]
15 Apr
algarve lagos portugal coast

Portugal Investments Offering Up Profit And Peace Of Mind

I’m Thinking My Next Investment In Portugal Will Be… Driving from Lisbon to Lagos yesterday afternoon, as I’ve done several times in the past when coming to the Algarve for our annual Live and Invest in Portugal Conference, I was struck, again, by how beautiful the countryside is in this part of this country. Softly rolling [...]
08 Apr
Blackboard with April 15 Tax Day written in big letters

Admitting Defeat On Tax Form 5471… For This Year Anyway

How The IRS Finally Got Me To Cry Uncle OK. I give up. I started working on my U.S. tax returns last week. Ordinarily, that'd have allowed me plenty of time to finalize everything in time to file on the 15th. But these are not ordinary times, dear fellow offshore American. The changes as represented [...]
25 Mar
Quito in Ecuador aerial view

Why I’m Looking Closely At Ecuador’s Real Estate Potential

After 20 Years, Ecuador’s Finally Got My Attention Ecuador has come a long way since my first visit in 1999. On my earliest visits and for some time thereafter, I used the term "Fourth World" to describe the country's infrastructure. The Quito airport was conveniently located in the middle of the city but a nightmarish [...]
21 Mar
A blue Paris cafe with people sitting on outside tables

Cost Of Living In Panama City And Paris Might Surprise You

Paris Most Expensive And Panama City Cheap? Not In My Experience… A friend sent me a link to a survey on the world’s most expensive places to live… Listed among them was Paris, where Kathleen and I own property and spend part of the year. Our home here is where I’m writing to you from [...]
18 Mar
A table with breakfast of coffee and orange juice and view out across Algarve

Where To Find The Best Real Estate Buys In Portugal

Too Late To Profit In Portugal? Broad market statistics show that property prices in Portugal bottomed out in the first quarter of 2015. I bought an apartment in Lagos in the summer of 2015. I could tell you that I’m some kind of savant, but you and I both would know I was lying. The [...]