Retire To Panama City’s Old Town

Good Company And Welcoming Neighbors

Sept. 13, 2009
Panama City, Panama

PLUS: This Country Is Rolling Out The Red Carpet For You...Vetting Brazil...The Simple, Boring Truth...

AND: Not So Sexy, But You'll Sleep Like A Baby--The Secret To Global Real Estate Investing Profits In The Current Climate

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The Perks, Privileges, And Peace Of Mind
Of Retirement Overseas

The trouble with some Paradises is that they make it difficult for foreign residents to enjoy what they have to offer...

And yet others roll out the welcome mat, offering benefits, discounts, and other perks for foreign residents. Some countries are even competing to get your attention, offering tremendous advantages and benefits for you...

Whether you're moving for a better life...a lower cost of living...or a chance to keep more of what you earn and pay less in taxes...

This is the Next Step Guide you need to make your dreams of a new life overseas come true.

More Details Here
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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

Why did we move last month from our brand, spanking new apartment with a view of the ocean and all modern conveniences in Panama City's sought-after Paitilla neighborhood to its old town, Casco Viejo? That's what our friends, still living in Paitilla, wanted to know when we visited with them yesterday afternoon.

We had no rational reply.

Paitilla is the more sensible choice. That's why we rented in that region when we moved to Panama last year. We made a list of the pluses and the minuses of living in Casco Viejo (where we wanted to live) versus living in a center-of-downtown high-rise (where, again, it seemed to make more sense to live). In Paitilla, we were closer to Jack's school. Closer to our office. Nearer to more restaurants, the city's two main shopping malls, and the international airport.

Plus, living in a high-rise apartment building on the water, we had access to a private swimming pool, a games area, and a children's playground (in the building's "social area," as it's called in this country; these days, buildings compete with their social areas, offering ever-more-elaborate amenities), plus underground parking, a security guard, and staff on duty at the front door around-the-clock to help with deliveries, directions, and whatever else you might need help with.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Yet I regretted our choice from the day we moved in. A year later, when it came time to renew the lease, I was able to say with confidence that, having given it a try, high-rise living is not my thing. "Can we take another look at Casco Viejo?" I asked Lief.

When we moved from Paris last year, we already knew Panama. Having spent time and done business in this country for more than a dozen years at that point, we were well familiar with its cost-of-living, tax, and, most important for us, doing-business advantages.

However, until last summer, we'd been coming and going as visitors, and that is not the same as being resident full-time. Fortunately, therefore, last summer, we took our own advice. We didn't invest in a new home in Panama City...we rented one, to give us a chance to become better acquainted with life here. We see now that our initial lifestyle option wasn't for us. However, because we hadn't committed to it long-term, no problem. We were able to choose another lifestyle option in this city and give it a try, too.

Now, in Casco Viejo, we're settling into a three-story, 150-year-old Spanish-colonial house with high ceilings, front and back balconies, and wooden shutters on every window. We've no sea view and no concierge on call in the lobby. Jack's ride to school is longer each day, and, if we want to go to the mall, we have to get in the car to drive there.

On the other hand, we can walk every Sunday afternoon (as we will later today) to Casco Viejo's main square, Plaza Cathedral, for the weekly antiques and bric-a-brac market. We can walk any sultry evening to the ice cream parlor a few blocks away where they make their own sweet frozen creations according to centuries-old French recipes (there's a strong French connection in this part of the city, where the French hung their hats while in Panama during their attempt to cut a canal across the isthmus).

Friday afternoons, local bands jam at the little bar just off Plaza Cathedral. There's a Cuban bar serving authentic mojitos. A jazz club. The best French restaurant in the city. And, under construction, a micro-brewery attached to a five-star boutique hotel.

On our brick-paved lane, nearly every 100- and 200-year-old colonial structure has been renovated, its façade freshly painted, its iron railings polished, its balconies over-flowing with bougainvillea.

Now, I look forward each evening to the ride home from the office. We turn off avenida Balboa, leaving the all-modern-conveniences Panama City behind, and we enter the Old World.

The new-and-improved, 21st-century Casco Viejo is a work in progress. If you see it today for the first time, you may wonder what I'm on about. Most of the centuries-old structures on our lane have been refurbished, but many, many throughout the region have not. Many are crumbling. Some are no more than shells. And, wandering among them, are some of Panama City's poorest local residents.

This is a barrio, still rough around the edges, a place where the living doesn't make sense but can be irresistibly appealing if you appreciate potential more than comfort, romance more than convenience, wood and brick more than steel and glass.

Over the centuries, Casco Viejo's charms have attracted Spanish conquistadores and British pirates, French engineers and Panamanian presidents. Today, it's attracting more than its share of forward-thinking gringos and other global investors able to see beyond the grit. We're finding these folks good company and welcoming neighbors.

Kathleen Peddicord

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The Best Advice in the Business

You can't invest in foreign real estate from your armchair. You can't research an opportunity online, act on it, and expect to come out on top. And you should never take advice on investing in any overseas property market from someone who hasn't done it himself.

You have really only two options for making money in international real estate:

• Invest the time and money to check out every property opportunity personally, yourself...
• Or follow the lead of someone who has already done it himself...and made money at it...

• "In the end, I chose Belize," writes Correspondent from that country Ann Kuffner, "because it provided me with a safe haven in this difficult time. And moving here allowed me to retire eight years earlier than if I had remained in the States. Through Belize's QRP program, I obtained my residency in less than four months. That part was easy. The difficult part was making the decision to make the move in the first place. But I'm proud to say that my husband and I took the leap, and now we live on 'Temptation Island'..."

• "Whenever I think about the perception of crime in a foreign country," writes Malaysia Correspondent Wendy Justice, "I remember the last U.S. presidential election. I was living in Malaysia at the time, where it was being reported widely that people at certain campaign rallies across the United States were shouting, 'Kill him! Kill him!' referring to the Democratic candidate. This was sensational news in the foreign press, and, going by the reports, it seemed the U.S. had devolved into a terribly violent and out-of-control nation. Yet, when I returned to the States around this time, it didn't feel any more dangerous than when I'd last been in the country, four years earlier.
  
  "People ask me all the time whether this country is stable. Aren't there Muslim riots? Military confrontations? I tell them the truth. I've always felt safe living in Malaysia. Indeed, the United States certainly could be considered more dangerous.
  
  "It is also true, of course, that Malaysia has been experiencing political challenges recently. In the last few years, opposition parties have been challenging UMNO, the political party that has been in power since Malaysia's independence. This is an unprecedented event in Malaysia's modern history and a big step toward establishing an ongoing democratic dialogue. Being a racially and ethnically diverse country has presented many challenges to this young nation. But protests and demonstrations in recent history have tended to be non-violent gatherings. Malaysians of all ethnicities enjoy increased freedom now to express themselves and to air their grievances, and this is a good thing.
  
  "You've got to look beyond the headlines in the newspaper. If I'd been a foreigner preparing to move to the United States during the last presidential election, I would have had grave concerns about my safety. But they would have been unfounded, a misperception created by the world press. The simple, boring truth wouldn't sell many papers, I guess..."

• "A pre-construction resort rental is one of the most sensible investments you could make right now," writes our man in Brazil, Anthony Archer, "and this northeast coast of Brazil is one of the most promising markets for this kind of investment vehicle. However, in the current climate, investors are understandably cautious. Levels of risk aversion are running high. If you're new to pre-construction investing, the Brazilian marketplace, or both, how can you satisfy yourself you're making the right buy? Here are the eight keys to vetting a pre-construction investment buy..."

• "You still read about promises of triple-digit investment returns in a matter of weeks or months," writes resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon. "It'd sure be nice if these were realistic. We've all taken hits this past year, in the stock market and elsewhere, and we'd all like to find quick, easy ways to regain some of our losses. But the smart investors are going back to basics. (The smartest, of course, never abandoned them.) Slow and steady. It's not sexy, but it's the formula for long-term investment success. And slow and steady are the kinds of returns you can get from global yield-generating property investing.
  
  "I've got my work cut out for me, I understand. Options traders and others who've known big returns in recent years turn their noses up at a rental investment generating a net yield of, say, 7% a year.
  
  "I take a different point of view. A 7% annual yield compounded with perhaps 3% to 5% capital appreciation a year (in a normal market) gets you into double-digit total annual returns. Throw in some leverage, in the right market, and your return on investment can jump to 20% or even 100% a year. Yes, leverage increases your risk, but a little leverage can go a long way and, coupled with the right buy, can enhance your overall returns significantly.
  
  "Even if we stick with the 7% net yield per year and assume even 3% annual appreciation, your total annualized return is 10% with no leverage. Add in low volatility and a downside that doesn't approach zero, and rental real estate looks better to me than any stock option. Not as exciting, maybe. You don't have the wild ups and downs of stocks and options to look forward to. But, frankly, the older I get, the more I value a good night's sleep.
  
  "Rentals aren't the only real estate that can produce yields. Productive land--to farm trees, produce, or cattle--is another, and here the potential for annual return can be much greater. However, most real estate investors prefer more passive opportunities, so running cattle might not be in the cards (though leasing your land to a cattle farmer for a fixed rate plus a percentage of the herd could be a great long-term play).
  
  "My preferred productive-land play, however, is the most passive of all--forestry. Not only is this a buy-it-and-forget-it kind of investment, but it also boasts the highest risk-adjusted returns of any investment vehicle. Generally speaking, a direct forestry investment can generate an annualized return of 12% to 15% and more over 20 years and longer..."