Jan. 24, 2010
Casco Viejo, Panama
PLUS: Lief Simon's Four-Pronged Approach To International Property Investing...Building The Perfect International Property Portfolio...Going Blue In Belize...
AND: Anatomy Of A Missed Opportunity...
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For The First Time Ever:
Live Overseas Personal Consulting
Here's how you launch your new life overseas in 2010--you get help from someone who has already done it.
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Dear
Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
A couple of months ago in Paris, I had lunch with another long-time American expat, whose children, like ours, have grown up outside the States.
"We're moving back," he remarked that afternoon, "to Bethesda."
At first, I thought he was joking. After more than 13 years in France, he was opting now for Bethesda, Maryland?
Then he explained. "Only for a couple of years, until our youngest son goes off to college. We feel like we need to do something to help his transition back to U.S. life. His older brothers have struggled with it so."
Then I understood.
I've told you the story of our initial move overseas a dozen years ago. Our daughter, Kaitlin, 8 at the time, resisted the relocation entirely. She begged to be allowed to return "home," to the States, to live with her grandmother, her aunt, whomever. The point was she wanted no part of this new life in this new country, and she made sure we were aware of this fact every single day for the first full year at least. "I'm an American. I belong in America!" she'd cry.
Fast forward seven or eight years, and Lief and I were, finally, feeling vindicated, finally allowing ourselves to believe that pulling Kaitlin from her family, friends, school, and everything safe and familiar at such a tender age had not, in fact, as she'd claimed during our first months abroad, ruined her life. We breathed a sigh of relief watching her embrace our unconventional way of life, living, at that time, in France. She was doing well in high school in Paris, with loads of friends from all over the world, speaking a second language fluently, spending her weekends at art museums and gallery openings, and emerging as a delightful and self-confident young woman.
Ah, but not so fast, Kaitlin.
Just as all the parental worries we'd harbored all those years were finally being put to rest, we did it to her again. We yanked Kaitlin from the life we'd help her make abroad and dropped her back Stateside.
That's a mother's overstatement. What happened was Kaitlin graduated high school in Paris and opted to return to the States for university. She and we made the plans enthusiastically, excited to launch this next phase of her education and of her life, as completely unaware and unprepared this time as we'd been the first time around for the shock that lay ahead.
Kaitlin chose to pursue her higher education at St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland. Annapolis is a charming, historic town on the water, and St. Johns is a unique school that attracts a diverse student body. Altogether an ideal situation as far as we and Kailtin were concerned.
Except that Kaitlin was unhappy from the start for reasons she couldn't quite articulate and more unhappy with every passing month. "I don't feel like I fit in with these kids," she'd say when I spoke with her on the phone. "I don't have anything in common with them."
Finally, midway through her sophomore year, Kaitlin asked if she could try something else. She didn't want to return to St. Johns for a third year, but she didn't really have any idea what she wanted to do instead. She was completely adrift.
Fortunately, I knew other expats at the time facing this same crossroads, including the one I told you about who has since returned Stateside and is living in Bethesda so his youngest son can spend his final two years of high school at the French
lycee in that city. If I hadn't known others struggling through similar situations, I would have panicked more than I did. But I knew that the problem wasn't Kaitlin and it wasn't us and, most important, that it would all be all right in the end.
Kaitlin was right. She didn't have much in common with the other students at St. Johns. She, like all the other expat kids I've known, didn't fit. The transition from high school to college is a challenge for all kids, but for kids who've spent the better parts of their lives in different countries, different cultures, and different educational systems?
When you put it that way, it seems obvious, doesn't it? This is no easy thing. Lief and I, though, like all the other expat parents I've known, underestimated just how difficult it'd be for our high school grad to deal with this culture shock in reverse.
What's the story today, two-and-a-half years later?
Kaitlin is in New York now, going to school on East 71st Street. After two-and-a-half years rediscovering life Stateside, I'm happy to be able to report that she has adjusted nicely and that Manhattan is proving a far better fit than Annapolis.
What's the plan post-graduation? Kaitlin's enjoying the Big Apple, but her heart now lies in Paris. As soon as she's able, it'll be back to the City of Light for this young lady.
Kathleen Peddicord
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They Pay You To Do What?
December 1988: I've got no job, no money, and seemingly no prospects.
January 2010: I've got the most glamorous job in the world, enough money to give me a very comfortable lifestyle, and the prospect (no, the certainty) of all-expenses-paid trips to China, Estonia, Barcelona, Malaysia, the Cape Verde Islands...
How did I become a globetrotter who stays in luxury hotels, dines out on gourmet meals, and knows how to order beer in at least 15 languages?
Easy. And you can do it, too.
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P.S.
Resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon has had the floor all week, helping us to interpret current key markets worldwide and to plan where to place our real estate investment capital this 2010...
- "Buying wholesale or otherwise getting into a development early is one of the four ways I look to make money from global real estate," Lief continues. "And here's a great current opportunity to do just that. Friend and fellow developer Phil Hahn is launching a new "green" project in Belize. Phil has partnered with a local friend to develop a riverfront community based on the cornerstone ideas of sustainability, longevity, and independent living.
"With nearly 1 mile of riverfront and natural forests surrounding the property, this new project is the perfect setting for a "green" development of the kind Phil envisions.
"Phil's new development undertaking is called Carmelita, and, if you're in to all things "eco" and would like to have a house yourself in that type of community, Carmelita is definitely a place you should consider.
"But how does Carmelita stack up as an investment?"...
- Further from Lief: "Buying wholesale, path of progress, crisis investing, real productive assets...why bother with all these different real estate investment strategies? Why not just focus on one? Wouldn't that be simpler?
"Yes, sure. It's be more simple, but, over time, it'd also be far less effective.
"One of the fundamental advantages global real estate investing offers is diversification. You want to capitalize on that advantage every way you can.
"All those bubble investors in the United States who "controlled" millions of dollars worth of pre-construction condos found out the hard way what putting all your eggs in one basket can mean for your wealth when something goes wrong. Your net worth can disappear, and maybe you'll have to, too, for a while, until the smoke clears.
"The first opportunity international real estate gives you for diversification, to state the obvious, is the chance to own property in more than one country. It can automatically give you currency diversification, as well, if you buy in a country where real estate changes hands in a currency other than the one you use at home (a rental apartment in Paris, for example, if you're shopping with U.S. dollars). However, the opportunity here for diversification is much greater and has to do with holding in your portfolio different types of real estate with different investment windows and different exit strategies..."
PLUS: About 10 years ago, on a visit to Panama, a friend extended an irresistible invitation. "Let me show you the best of
Panama City," he teased.
My friend picked me up from my hotel and drove us 10 minutes down avenida Balboa, leaving the high-rises behind. Bearing left, we passed a crumbling arch and then came face-to-face with what could only be described as squalor. The barefoot and unwashed local population meandered back and forth across the road oblivious to traffic. We progressed slowly, carefully, and I couldn't help but wonder where in the world we were headed.
On and on, we rolled past block after block of derelict buildings. Decrepit but not abandoned.
Au contraire. These structures were over-occupied, some by dozens of people, leaning in doorways, hanging out windows, resting on balcony railings, all with seemingly nothing else to do.
Some places, the streets were inches deep with litter. Windows were broken, wood was rotting, concrete collapsing.
I couldn't wait to get out of the car and have a closer look...