Feb. 14, 2010
Panama City, Panama
ALSO: Boquete Back On Our Favorites List...The Sometimes Hassled Life Of A Long-Distance Landlord...One More Reason To Get Up And Get Going Right Now...
PLUS: Lief Simon On: Fire Sale In Nicaragua...
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Dear
Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
"I'm really not looking forward to spending eight or nine hours sitting in the car in traffic tonight," remarked
Panama Letter Editor Rebecca Tyre on her way out the door from the office Friday evening.
"Well, would it make sense to wait? Why not leave tomorrow morning instead and avoid all the back-ups?" I asked in response.
"Sure, we could do that. But then we'd miss out on the full Carnaval experience," Rebecca explained.
The biggest fiesta of the year is upon us here in Panama. Local news reported more than 400,000 vehicles taking their leave from Panama City Friday evening. Everyone was making a break for the mountains and the beaches...headed for the party.
Carnaval celebrations are held all across the country. The biggest is in Las Tablas, on the east coast of the Azuero Peninsula. That's where Rebecca and her friends were off to.
Others from our staff departed Panama City Friday evening for Chiriqui, San Blas, and beach towns along the coast just outside the capital. The point is, you go somewhere for Carnaval. People save all year for their Carnaval experience, even opening special bank accounts for that purpose.
You stay in Panama City only if you have absolutely no other option--only if you don't own a beach house of your own, don't have a friend with a place on the coast or in the interior, can't manage to solicit an invitation from an old acquaintance, or don't feel like taking your chances on finding an empty bit of floor space in the home of a new one.
The effect is that, this weekend and through Wednesday, when all those vehicles will return to Panama City, again clogging the bridges and the highways that connect the capital with the rest of the country, this city is a ghost town.
We're taking advantage of the extra elbowroom. We're off this morning for a bike ride along the Causeway.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. Why didn't we join the rest of Panama City for the exodus Friday night? We're intrigued by the Carnaval tales we hear. But, frankly, we're also a little intimidated. I don't think Lief and I would survive the experience. Up all night, night after night. Dancing 'til dawn...then starting all over again at sun-up, with beer for breakfast. And these are the tales I can print. The off-the-record stories would curl your hair...
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P.S.
What else this week?
- "I returned to Boquete reluctantly," writes Panama Letter Editor Rebecca Tyre. "After a handful of visits, I concluded that I didn't much like the town. Too many expats, and the temperatures seemed too chilly.
"Not that Boquete doesn't have its charms--like a morning cup of locally grown Duran coffee or an afternoon snack of locally grown strawberries. But I couldn't help but think I might appreciate them better from afar.
"So I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled when Publisher Kathleen Peddicord suggested I put Boquete on my Panama Letter editorial schedule. 'It's time for another look at this much-ballyhooed retirement haven,' she said..."
- Our apartment in Paris is rented right now to an American couple and their young daughter. He's a university professor writing a book, she's a stay-at-home mom enjoying this chance to spend six months in the City of Light.
And the pair have been, alas, the most demanding renters we've encountered to date. The week they moved in, they submitted a list of special requests. They wanted curtains at all the windows that didn't already have them (including those with full working shutters)...they wanted more lamps...they wanted to know how to reduce the draft blowing through the 300-year-old windows...they wanted more seating for guests in the dining room...and on and on.
We were working our way through addressing their demands when we received word that the husband had slipped in the master bathroom, reached out to grab the leg of the sink to break his fall, and then toppled with the fixture to the ground, where, fortunately, he sustained no injury but the sink crashed into a number of ceramic pieces.
I cringed upon hearing the news but reminded myself that things could be worse.
The key to a successful experience as a long-distance landlord is a good rental manager. And in Paris right now, we've got one...
- "In the past few years," writes Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst from Buenos Aires, "visa (and reciprocity) fees around the world have shot up.
"In the old days, many visas were free, and countries that charged hit you for US$15 or US$20 or so. Now visas cost hundreds of dollars, especially when you add in the costs of travel to the consulates, special delivery mail, pictures and copies, shots, interview time, and planning.
"Taxes have gone up, too. When traveling to or from Europe, Britain, and North America, taxes and airport charges account for 30% or more of what you pay for 'airfare.'
"Meanwhile, airfares themselves have fallen since the Great Collapse of 2007. Fuel surcharges have largely disappeared. Air Asia, Ryan Air, and other discounters around the world keep fares low on short flights.
"You see where this is going. I predict that soon visa fees, taxes, security charges, and other state-imposed costs will exceed the cost of airfare..."
- "In a perfect world," writes international tax attorney Chris Rusch, "all U.S. citizens would file their U.S. tax returns on April 15 and make use of all the proper and available exclusions and deductions. Of course, that is not the case. In fact, the majority of returns I prepare for Americans living abroad are delinquent.
"This can be extremely costly if you're making use of the foreign earned income exclusion (FEIE). If you file late, and you are audited by the IRS, you could lose the foreign earned income exclusion and have to pay tax on 100% of your foreign-earned income!"...
PLUS: From resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon... In the current global climate,
crisis real estate investment opportunities are crossing my desk regularly. One forwarded yesterday by a colleague in Nicaragua got my attention.
My colleague has a friend. The friend owns some lots in
Nicaragua that he wants to sell. Quick. He's offering a cash buyer such a tremendous discount from his original purchase price for the lots that, in fact, I am tempted to jump myself.
The deal is simple. The owner has six lots. Five are about 3/4 acre each; the sixth is about 2 1/2 acres. He paid a total of US$540,000 for the six lots about three years ago. Right now, he's willing to sell them as a package for US$245,000.
Less than half what he paid...