Dec. 31, 2009
Chicago, Illinois
PLUS:
- The Real Skinny On Crime And Violence In Panama...
- The Start Of The Ski Season In Domaine Du Tourmalet...
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Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,
What if you could go anywhere, do anything, spend your time and your money any way you wanted?
My question is not rhetorical, for, indeed, you could go anywhere, you could do anything, and you could spend your days and invest your capital however strikes your fancy.
All you have to do is to open your mind to the possibilities.
On the one hand, this living and investing overseas thing is terrifying. The opportunities, risks, investments, and speculations I introduce to you in these dispatches can seem intimidating, especially at first. The easy thing would be to ignore them and to keep living the way you've been living. What a thing to create a whole new life for yourself in a foreign place. What a terrifying idea. And what an exhilarating adventure.
In the quarter-century I've been covering this beat, I've spoken with thousands and thousands of people just like you who are, in fact, already living and investing overseas.
And I've never met one who regrets the experience.
Sure, sometimes, things don't work out as you expect. Markets zig when you're positioned for them to zag. Currencies go up when you're hoping they'll move down. Real estate values increase...but they also fall, sometimes quick and sometimes far, as we've seen over the past couple of years.
Sometimes, Paradise comes with humidity, bugs, broken-down taxis, and zero zoning.
You can be sure of a place or an opportunity...and then you can change your mind. A country can seem perfect...and then you realize that no place is perfect.
What's the worst thing that could happen if you take the leap and start along your way down this live and invest overseas path? Maybe you end up someplace you don't want to be?
So you move on. You make another change. You could always go back home.
However, here's my prediction this 2009 New Year's Eve: Once you embrace these ideas and begin to act on these opportunities, you'll never look back. You'll be started on a phase of your life that you'll treasure and that will lead you to places and experiences you could never imagine as you read this today.
Lief and I have been living outside the States for more than a dozen years. We met in Ireland 12 years ago last spring, where we both were scouting for new business ventures. I was intending a move from Baltimore, Maryland, to the Emerald Isle, with the business I was running at the time and my then 9-year-old daughter. Lief, living in Chicago, was thinking of ditching his cushy career-path job Stateside and pursuing adventures abroad, starting with a real estate development project in Ireland's Sunny Southeast.
We were engaged to be married two months after we met, married two months after that, and living in Waterford, Ireland, by the fall. Ireland led to Paris led to, now, Panama...
Along the way, we have had a child (Jackson, a dual citizen, born in Ireland)...launched businesses in seven countries...renovated apartments...and houses...bought and sold real estate in a dozen-and-a-half markets...made good deals...and some not-so-good ones...educated our children on two continents...shipped container-loads of furniture back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean...organized residency visas and work permits...opened bank accounts...paid taxes...hired staff...vetted attorneys and tax advisors and property developers and real estate brokers...
Would we go back home?
We are home. In Panama's old town now, Lief, Jackson, and I have made a home. (Kaitlin is off at college in the States now, or she'd be at home in Casco Viejo with us, too.)
We were home in Paris and in Ireland, as well, and sometimes I miss those lives. We all miss Paris so much that we've agreed that city is part of our long-term plan. We've kept our apartment there, and, when the time comes to flip the switch to the retirement phase of our lives, we'll spend three or four months every year in the City of Light.
Yes, sometimes, I also miss my life in the States...my family, of course, and my hometown friends.
Mostly, though, I recognize that we haven't finished our journey. Panama isn't a terminus. It's a stop we're embracing and enjoying and that will lead us who knows where. I couldn't say right now.
Opening your mind and your heart to these living, retiring, and investing overseas ideas comes with practical, quantifiable benefits. You could move to a new country and
cut your cost of living to less than US$700 per month. But, as I pointed out yesterday, a
reduced cost of living isn't the only or even the best reason to launch a new life overseas. Living or retired overseas, you could also reduce your overall tax burden, maybe to zero (legally and safely). You could cut your cost of health care in half or more. You could live where the weather is better, the cities safer, the neighbors more interesting, and the view from your bedroom window more pleasing.
Shift your perspective, and you realize that, despite what the talking heads are telling you, there's a world beyond the doom and gloom. Things are not, in fact, tough all over. In some places, in fact...from Panama to Uruguay, from Argentina to France, from Malaysia to Belize, to name only a few...the living is good, safe, healthy, cheap, and engaging.
Many U.S. real estate markets are in the toilet, but other real estate markets around the globe continue to grow, to appreciate, and to throw off nice yields.
When we moved from the States to Waterford, Ireland, a dozen years ago we never could have imagined that, come New Year's Eve 2009, we'd be living full-time in Panama City. We couldn't have predicted any of the turns or adventures along the way either. Of course, not everything has gone according to plan. But Lief and I and our children carry Ireland with us now...and Paris...and we'll carry Panama with us, too, when we move on. The experiences and the memories are with us for the rest of our lives.
Back home in Ireland, in Paris, and, yes, in the States is our "family." In each of the places where we've spent time, where we've been at home, we have made friends that have become permanent parts of our lives. We take them with us as we continue to move around this world.
When I began reporting on these ideas 25 years ago, they were ahead of their time. No more. You have more good reasons right now, as we move into New Year 2010, to launch a new life in another country than ever before.
So here's my New Year's Eve Challenge: Just do it.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. If you're just starting out on your journey, here's a road map to help you get your bearings:
How To Retire Overseas, Part I...and
Part II.
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"We spent yesterday
skiing up at Domaine du Tourmalet ski station," writes
France Correspondent Lucy Culpepper. "This is the area of the Pyrenees made famous by the Tour de France bike race. We picked the 'La Mongie' zone of the resort for its free novice area. You can ride five drag lifts free and have access to all facilities (restaurants, shops, hotels, restrooms, first aid) without having to pay a euro.
"I found a great online deal on ski equipment--42 euro for skis, poles, and helmets for two adults and two children for 24 hours. We had a two-course '
menu' for lunch at 9 euro per person and finished the day with a cup of hot cider for the grown-ups and hot chocolate and crepes for the children. A great start to our ski season here in the Pyrenees."
"I'd very much appreciate an honest answer to this question. I have become concerned after reading articles indicating a drastic rise in
street crime in Panama City and throughout the country. Is this exaggerated or is it true?"
-- Gary B., United States
Resident
Panama Letter Editor Rebecca Tyre replies:
"Yes, street crime, including the number of murders, has increased in Panama over the past year. I think it's important to point out, though, that random street crime is not increasing in this country. Random robberies and violence are uncommon here.
"However, drug- and gang-related crime and violence is on the rise, thanks to drug dealers and mules from Mexico and Colombia who pass through Panama transporting their goods. The crime that results, however, is largely invisible to the general population. You could live here for years and not be aware of it, certainly not come into contact with it. I'm more aware of it than the average Panama City resident because it's my job to stay on top of this kind of thing.
"That said, after more than four years living full-time in this country and even knowing what I know, I feel very safe here and believe that Panama City is safer than most mid-sized to large cities in North America (I'm from Canada)."
