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    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

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  • Home
  • Countries

    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

    Global Living

    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

    Upcoming Events

    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    Learn More About This Event
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    • MORE EVENTS

    Contact Our Events Team

    Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
    1 (888) 627 8834
    From Outside North America:
    1 (443) 599 1221
    Working Hours
    Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

    Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

  • Store

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    Overseas Havens Reports

    • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

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    • Titles on living and investing around the world
    • Explore Our Store
    Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

    Services

    overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
    The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
    Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

    Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

  • My Library
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Home Investing

Top Alternative Investments For Diversification

The "Alternative Investments" I'm Looking At Right Now

by Lief Simon
Mar 27, 2023
in Investing
0 0
Two numismatists examine collection of coin

Adobe Stock/fakezzz

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to further diversify my asset portfolio.

On the real estate side, I try to add one property to my portfolio every year.

But, my portfolio is 95% real estate… I own very few stocks or other assets…

Which, as a stockbroker once told me, means I’m not really diversified.

I like real estate. Property is a sound investment that tends to significantly rise in value over time (and more consistently than the stock market)… It also provides regular cash flow through rentals.

So, real estate has been my number-one choice for growing my wealth.

I was OK with that for a long time.

But, as I get older, I want more liquidity.

I started to grow my stock portfolio. But my problem with stocks—and even mutual funds—is that you have to pay a lot of attention to them. The market is more volatile.

Nevertheless, my stockbroker colleague would be proud of my progress…

I’m branching out into other assets, too.

Coin Collections

A few years ago, I started a coin collection with the help of a group that speaks at Live And Invest Overseas conferences, International Coin Alliance.

That portfolio is slowly growing… but I don’t put a ton of money into it.

It’s part of my Plan B should the world turn to chaos and paper money become worthless.

Another alternative investment I’ve dabbled in over the years is wine…

I first bought some primeurs while living in France almost 20 years ago.

I still own most of those. They’re too expensive to drink, and it’s too much effort to sell them (and I really don’t need to sell them).

The kids will probably break some of them out for my funeral… I add to my cave here and there from time to time.

I’m on the hunt for even more ways to diversify.

As you can probably guess, I like assets that I can touch and feel. That makes them real to me. Tangible value.

Stocks are not my forte… and neither is crypto or NFTs.

It’s not for me.

But, other hard assets… I’m always open to those.

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Art Is An Alternative Investment

This year I decided to start adding some artwork to my investment portfolio.

We own some nice art pieces that are on the walls. Most of them are likely worth more than we paid, but we didn’t pay much and the artists aren’t “known”… and those pieces weren’t meant for investment. They were meant for lifestyle, i.e. looking good on the wall next to our furniture.

The art I’m interested in buying now that the walls are all full is investment art.

The problem is… I don’t know anything about art investing.

Therefore, I’ve sought out professional help (my wife says I need it for other things as well)…

I’ve found two resources so far (for help with the art… not my other issues)…

A gallery in the U.K. that offers turnkey art investment services, and a friend of my daughter who works in a gallery in New York.

The U.K. gallery sources the artists and artwork, stores the art, and suggests when to sell. The minimum hold time they recommend is two years.

They have no upfront fees (although I’m sure a commission for the sales guy is already in the price I’m paying) and no storage fees… just a backend upside fee of 20% of the profit at the time of sale.

That’s just like a hedge fund, which I presume is how they came up with the model.

I just bought my first piece.

Now, I’ll wait at least two years to see what happens…

Meanwhile, I’ll keep looking at new pieces they send and will likely buy a couple a year.

The low-end entry point is less than what I know some people pay for “cheap” designer watches, so it’s not big money… yet.

If the gallery can prove itself, maybe at some point in the future I’ll buy more expensive pieces. That would be a way to diversify assets.

Who knows? Maybe in five years I’ll have an art collection that could be put up for auction and I could make a killing.

A couple weeks ago, Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau sold 76 Hermes handbags and 1 Chanel handbag at a Sotheby’s auction for US$3.2 million.

Maybe Hermes purses will be my next alternative investment. 

I know my wife would like that idea.

Stay diversified,
Lief Simon signature
Lief Simon
Editor, Simon Letter

Tags: alternative investmentsartcoin collectioninvest in artinvest in coins
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Lief Simon

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked in 7 countries on 5 continents and traveled to more than 75 countries. His real estate investment career began with a $5,000 down payment on a three-flat building in Chicago. Less than three years later, Lief sold the building for a leveraged return of 3,000%—$150,000 in profit after closing costs and commissions.

From there, he turned his attention overseas and has bought property in 24 countries including France, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Belize, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, Romania, and beyond. Thanks to his decades-long career as a global property investor, Lief has built a multi-million-dollar portfolio that includes rental properties, significant land holdings, and 7 personal residences.

Lief has established residency in 3 countries and acquired a second passport from Ireland.

In 2008 Lief and wife Kathleen Peddicord made the most important investment of their lives—a 215-acre oceanside finca, known as Los Islotes. There, on Panama’s largely undiscovered Veraguas coast, they’ve installed underground electricity, water, and internet and built a forever family home that sits at the heart of their ultimate vision: a gold standard private residential community for those in search of a true safe haven escape.

Lief’s latest book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer,” collects all the wisdom he has learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.

He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches. For real estate investment opportunities, check out his monthly Global Property Advisor service.

If you’d like to meet Lief in person, join him for one of our upcoming in-country conferences. You’ll find further details here.

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HOME

Top Countries

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Panama
  • Belize
  • Colombia
  • Cyprus
  • Mexico
  • France
  • Montenegro

Best For:

  • Health Care Abroad
  • Retirement Living
  • Cost Of Living
  • Investing in Real Estate
  • Establishing Residency
  • Gun Ownership
  • English Speakers
  • Safety
BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

Resources

Global Living

  • Living & Retiring Overseas
  • Raising A Family Abroad
  • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
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Making Money

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  • Employment
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Meet Our Experts

Real Estate

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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

READ MORE

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Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

EXPLORE

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VALENCIA, SPAIN Sep. 17-19, 2025
Learn More About This Event

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VIRTUAL Nov. 13, 2025
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MORE EVENTS

Contact Our Events Team:

Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
1 (888) 627 8834

From Outside North America:
1 (443) 599 1221

Working Hours
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Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

Store

Overseas Havens Reports

  • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

Conference Kits

  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

Lahardan Books

  • Titles on living and investing around the world

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