I was drawn to Panama in the pursuit of investment upside.
In 1996 I sent my property scout Bob Fordi to Panama City.
“You need to see this place yourself,” Bob reported. “I believe what’s playing out in Panama will translate to the greatest investment opportunity of our lifetimes.”
Lucky for me I listened when he sounded that alarm, because, boy, was Bob right.
Three years later, the United States turned over the Panama Canal to the Panamanians. When the GIs who’d worked and protected the Canal pulled out and took their disposable income with them, the country fell into recession. Values collapsed. You could have bought a house back then for $20,000—as many of my readers did—that’d sell today for a million dollars or more.
I moved to Panama to start a business. This country was and remains the best place in the world to run the kind of business I’m in and many other kinds, too.
By the time I made the decision to launch Live And Invest Overseas, I had managed businesses in eight countries. Based on that experience, I made a list of things important to the expat entrepreneur—from quality and cost of infrastructure and quality, availability, and cost of English-speaking labor to the country’s approach to taxation; the current administration’s perspective on foreign business and foreign investment; residency and work permit options; the cost of doing business, especially office rent; the ease of setting up a company; the stability of the local currency; the time zone relative to the business’ intended marketplace; local labor law; and the local standard of living.
In the context of these eleven questions, one country stood out—Panama.
Panama is a safe, stable, affordable country that uses the U.S. dollar as its currency, meaning no exchange-rate risk. The lifestyle on offer is international standard, even luxury if your budget stretches to allow for it.
The infrastructure in Panama City is the best in the region, in part thanks to the decades-long U.S. military presence while the Americans ran the Canal.
The cherry on top is Panama’s approach to taxation, both personal and corporate. Organize things properly, and it can be possible to live and run a business in this country and owe no taxes locally. The list of places around the world where that is true is short.
I raised my son in Panama by accident. When my husband Lief Simon and I decided we’d reposition to Panama—me to start Live And Invest Overseas, Lief to undertake the biggest property investment of our careers at Los Islotes—we told ourselves we’d be in Panama full-time for two or three years. Long enough to get the two businesses off the ground. Then we’re return to Paris and manage the enterprises from there.
Ha, ha.
You don’t start then stabilize a business to the point where you can move to another country and operate it remotely in two or three years.
Our son Jackson was 8 years old when we took up residence in Panama. He graduated from the French Lycée Paul Gauguin in Panama City and went off to NYU at age 19 leaving Lief and me behind still living and running our businesses full-time in Panama.
I don’t mean to suggest that I regret the way things worked out. Jackson got an excellent education. He graduated from a French school. Not a school where French is taught or where classes are in French but a school administered by the French Ministry of Education.
France exports its education system. It’s a unique model that includes more than four-hundred-and-eighty primary and secondary schools in one-hundred-and-thirty countries. These schools could all be in France. They follow the same curriculum and calendar as French schools and are staffed by French teachers. Textbooks, exams, field trips, extracurricular options, and grading are all just the same as in France.
And the French school Paul Gauguin is one of two-dozen excellent international-standard options for educating your child in Panama, all much more affordable than top-tier private schools in the United States.
Jackson enjoyed a well-rounded experience as a child then a teenager in Panama. He took lessons in fencing, martial arts, swimming, horse riding, tennis, guitar, and piano. He played in a basketball league and Pokémon tournaments. Weekends he went to parties, the cinema, and on dinner dates. Born in Ireland and raised to age 8 in Paris, Jackson became fluent in Spanish while living in Panama, meaning he graduated high school tri-lingual.
Jackson has zip-lined through the Panamanian jungle canopy, seen alligators up close, journeyed through the Panama Canal on a friend’s family’s private boat, learned to surf, fished for marlin, and camped among the indigenous Guna on the white sand of the San Blas Islands.
Still, looking back, I’d say that Jackson’s life in Panama was more cosmopolitan than outdoorsman. As Jackson grew up, so did Panama City. Always the only real city in Central America, Panama City today is more of a real-deal city than ever. Our day-to-day life there with Jackson looked a lot like our day-to-day life might have looked living in a comparably sized city anywhere.
I’ve been recommending Panama as a top retirement haven for the past twenty-five years. To that I now add that Panama can also be one of the best places in the world to raise a family.
Investors, entrepreneurs, retirees, families… Panama should be at the top of everyone’s list.
Today, thirty years after discovering Panama, I’m all in on this little melting-pot country I’ve watched work so hard to reinvent itself, but my perspective has shifted.
Yes, no question, you can still make money in Panama and every investor would do well to consider taking a position here.
But what’s on offer in Panama right now is about so much more than profit.
I’ve traversed the globe, traveling to more than eighty countries and calling four home. Panama, more than anywhere else I know, is a safe, welcoming harbor—for both you and your capital. In today’s world, that can be a priority agenda.
In the pages of my new book “Your New Life In Panama: Secret Worlds, Remarkable People, And Tips For Thriving,” I tell the behind-the-curtain story of how Lief and I came to be in Panama. The way for us here has not been easy or straight, but it has led to what we hope will stand out, when the final reckoning comes, as our legacy, and it has nothing to do with making money.
If you’re searching for where to reinvent your life, you’re right to be considering this hub of the Americas, where reinvention is the order of the day.
May the journey I share in the book I’ve just published inspire you to take your own next steps in that direction.
Until next time,
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
