Travel Panama
Panama Is Not For You If…
Jan. 31, 2010
Casco Viejo, Panama
PLUS: Retire Overseas Fundamentals...Best Retirement Buy On The Med...This Is Good Infrastructure? Compared To What?...
AND: Returns Too Big To Be True Probably Aren't...Resident Global Real Estate Investing Expert Lief Simon Shows You How To Calculate Your True Yield...
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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...
While 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.
Go Here Now For More Details
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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
"You and Lief obviously think Panama is pretty great," remarked a reader recently. "Maybe that's where I should focus my plans?"
"In fact, no," I replied. "I don't think so."
Lief and I could be living anywhere in the world at this point in our lives. We're in Panama because, yes, we think it's pretty great in many ways. For example, this country is the best place in the world right now to think about starting and operating an international business. For Lief and me, that was reason enough to make the move from Paris to Panama City a year-and-a-half ago, for, for the past 18 months, we've made our doing-business agendas our priority.
That is not to say, however, that Panama is the best choice for everyone.
You have other, better options if...
- You've got your heart set on the Caribbean. Yes, Panama has a long Caribbean coast, but I'm not a fan of Bocas del Toro, this country's key Caribbean choice. It's dirty and shabby. Plus, if you're interested in investing in a piece of Bocas all your own, you'll find that clean freehold title is hard to come by in this part of Panama. Your better Caribbean choice is the Dominican Republic. All the white sand, azure sea, and swaying palms your Caribbean soul could hope for, plus easy foreign residency, favorable approach to foreign taxation, and, right now, a down real estate market that has created great crisis buy opps. For all these reasons, the DR is my top 2010 pick in the Caribbean. Also, there's an interesting and welcoming expat community on this island, including an established French population.
- You want to get back to basics. With everything that's gone on in the world over the past couple of years, escape to the simple life sounds better and better. Yes, of course, you could live simply among nature many places in Panama, but Belize is my top choice for this. Unpretentious is what Belize does best. That's why friend Phil Hahn has chosen this country as the home for his latest undertaking, a riverfront community based on the cornerstone ideas of sustainability and longevity. Phil's concept goes beyond the typical "green" development concepts. You can read more here.
- You want luxury. We're living well in Panama City. We're enjoying full-time help around the house, plus a full-time personal assistant to help with administration, travel plans, and running errands. We dine out as often as we like, spend weekends at the beach whenever the inclination strikes, and go for shopping sprees at the mall. In other words, we're living more indulgently than we would be able to many other places we might call home. Are we living a life of luxury? The answer to that question might be endlessly debatable, but I'd say no.
Some places around the world, you aren't going to live a life of the rich and famous no matter how much money you're willing to spend trying, and I'd argue that Panama is one of them. In Nicaragua, Belize, and the Dominican Republic, certainly, but, again, I'd maintain, in Panama, as well, the luxe life can't be bought. It doesn't exist.
I'd say, though, for a place to qualify as luxury, it must allow you access to four- and five-star restaurants with wine lists to match; malls and boutiques offering internationally recognized brand-name indulgences; live theater; movie cinemas showing first-run and foreign flicks; an artist community; affordable help around the house and a private driver; to-your-door delivery services (for groceries and restaurants); specialty food shops; wine stores offering good vintages from around the world; English-language bookstores; and spa and salon services.
In fact, Panama City has all those things, and Lief, reading over my shoulder, is telling me I'm all wet. It's possible to enjoy a luxury lifestyle here in Panama, he's saying. Possible according to my own definition of the word.
Allow me to clarify further. For me, for a place to qualify as "luxury," it must have more than these commercial trappings. It needs also history and an ambiance of charm and culture, plus parks, squares, and plazas, places to walk and wander while enjoying the scenery, the architecture, and the people.
Where can you find all these things? I recommend Paris and Buenos Aires. Other luxury locales include places like Monte Carlo and Geneva, and life in either of those cities would be deluxe. It'd also be costly. In Paris and B.A., you can soak up all the good things this life has to offer even if your budget isn't royal.
- You don't want hot and sticky. Outside the capital city, the weather in Panama can be far better. Still, Panama is not the top choice if pleasant weather is one of your key criteria. Sunshine, sure. This country's got that in spades and is a great option for escaping Chicago winters or Seattle rains. But pleasant? That's not the first word that comes to mind when describing the climate in Panama. This is the tropics. For pleasant, look instead to Ecuador.
- You're a single woman looking to make a move and launch a new life in a new country on your own. In this case, I'd recommend you take a good look at Paris and Buenos Aires. Both these cosmopolitan cities offer tremendous opportunity for making friends and establishing a support network. In both places, you'll meet people (including interesting men) from all over the world. You could spend your days shopping and at museums and art galleries, your evenings enjoying any and every kind of diversion or distraction you could imagine. Restaurants, bistros, cafes, nightclubs, jazz clubs, movie theaters, live theater...of all types and to suit every budget. In B.A., it all comes with a spicy Latin twist.
- You don't want to learn even a little of a new language. You can move to Panama speaking virtually no Spanish. I did. And you could live in this country for years never making any effort to change that. But I don't recommend it. In Panama City, many locals you meet, especially in the business sector, speak English, but certainly not all of them do. And, outside the capital, the percentage of English-speakers drops significantly. Your life will be more challenging, frustrating, and isolated than it needs to be if you try to live in this country with no Spanish whatsoever.
If the idea of learning a new language terrifies you, I don't think Panama is your best option. Look instead to Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras, or, in Euro-land, Ireland, where everyone speaks English (sort of).
Kathleen Peddicord
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Discover Panama, Warts and All!
No marketing hype, no rose-colored glasses.
That's the promise we make with the Panama Letter.
Panama is right now the world's top retirement, investment, offshore, and doing business haven. To get the most out of this little country with such an abundance of upside right now, and to determine which opportunities might be right for you, you need to know the full story. You need to understand all the facts, straight, complete, and current.
You need to see Panama for what she really is.
Let us open your eyes to the good, the bad, and the ugly of living, investing, banking, and doing business in this much-talked-about little country. Only then can you set yourself up for success here.
Announcing: The Panama Letter.
This is Panama without the sugar coating. From a team of expats, investors, and businesspeople with, together, many decades of experience spending time and making money in the Hub of the Americas.
Go Here Now For The Full Details
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P.S. What else this week?
- "Lost in the largest covered bazaar in the world, I am surprisingly relaxed," writes Correspondent Eoin Basset in his firsthand report from Turkey featured in this month's issue of the Overseas Retirement Letter.
"It's only to be expected, though, I guess, after the vigorous massage I enjoyed at a local hamam. The bathhouse is a Turkish specialty. Soaking up the steam while strolling among the inlaid woodwork and delicately painted ceramics is an experience to relish.
"In the market's tiny workshops, craftsmen are bent over precious metals, fashioning jewelry just as their grandfathers once did. Carpet-sellers sip tea from flower-lipped glasses. Down the hill, in the city's biggest spice market, the air is heavy with the aromas of heaped spices, the flavors of two continents.
"The briny smell of the sea pervades the air--Istanbul is a maritime city--and the Muslim call to prayer carries out overhead on a cool sea breeze. In front of me is the fabled Golden Horn, the deep-water inlet of legend, and, spanning it, Galata Bridge, its parapet bristling with the fishing rods of locals out to hook a light lunch.
"At one of the restaurants tucked into the base of the bridge, I stop to order a cold beer and watch as dozens of commuter ferries--many of them converted steam ships from a bygone age--bounce back and forth over the narrow stretch of water dividing the modern neighborhoods of Beyoglu and Galata from the historic center.
"Istanbul is a microcosm of modern Turkey--and Turkey has it all. A vast country, it stretches from the turquoise and azure waters of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas--where you'll find most expats--across towering pine-covered mountains, on to the rolling plains that mark the beginning of the great Eurasian Steppe, then on over lush green mountains to the Black Sea coast, legendary home of the Amazons.
"Often overlooked in favor of more established Mediterranean destinations, Turkey offers a vast array of choice and bundles of potential for anybody willing to do a little homework and leg work. The country is immense, but, thankfully, you can focus your interest on four regions in particular: the Aegean coast, the Mediterranean coast, Istanbul, and Cappadocia..."
- Sparks flew in our office as the assembled staff and friends returned to a long-standing internal debate: What makes for good infrastructure...and which countries boast it?
We were reminded of these questions by a reader who wrote in to say, "Kathleen, you repeatedly refer to Panama's good infrastructure. Compared to what? Haiti? It is improving, but the average person will be gravely disappointed upon actually moving around this beautiful country..."
"I have to agree," replied Panama Letter Editor Rebecca Tyre. "The infrastructure in this country is probably not what people expect.
"Look at the pot-holed roads and the broken sidewalks, for example...and the banking industry! Sure, there are lots of international banks operating here, but service is terrible, fees are high, and only some banks offer online banking and debit cards. It's no easy thing to open an account in the first place. Then, when you do, you're plagued by questions about any transactions that don't fit your typical pattern."
"None of that is untrue, Rebecca," I replied, "and, in fact, you've gotten to the heart of this issue when you say you worry that the infrastructure in this country probably isn't what people expect. Quality of infrastructure is relative, and your perception of it depends where you're coming from and where else you've spent time. It depends on the expectations you bring with you..."
PLUS: From resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon...
A current worry among many real estate investors around the world (the ones who haven't lose their holdings altogether to foreclosure or other calamity) is that their property assets are worth less today than they were a few years ago. We're all in this same boat. However, worth less is not the same as worthless. Remember that capital appreciation is only one play in the real estate investing game, and property investors paying attention, including my colleagues and clients, have turned to a different one. About 18 months ago, we began investing, not for growth, but for yields... |
