Live And Invest Overseas Conference, Uncut And Uncensored
“Kathleen, I don’t want to disagree with you,” said attorney Juan Carlo Gutiérrez from Medellin, Colombia, looking over in my direction with a grin. “It’s just that you’re completely wrong.”
Juan Carlo went on to correct my interpretation of the current situation for would-be foreign retirees and expats interested in establishing legal residency in Colombia. I’d indicated that it’s no easy thing for a foreigner to establish residency in this country.
“In fact,” Juan Carlo explained, “there are right now 17 options for becoming legally resident in my country…”
“Kathleen has told me I have to tell you about the downsides to Brazil,” said Anthony Archer, who, like Juan Carlo, joined us in Orlando over the weekend to introduce the 200 in attendance at our Retire Overseas Conference to top retirement and investment opportunities around the world right now.
“In my experience,” Anthony continued, “the biggest downside to Brazil is the risk of falling in love with one of the beautiful women you’re likely to meet there and then reinventing your whole life to make her part of it. Anyway, that’s what has happened to at least two of my friends…”
Anthony continued to detail other Brazil investment risks–these to do with currency fluctuations, exchange controls, and the local bureaucracy, which is legendary. Anthony has spent the past two-and-a-half years understanding the risks and establishing an infrastructure for investment that addresses perhaps the biggest agri-opportunity currently on offer in this country while controlling the potential downsides to putting money in this market. Anthony explained both the opportunity and the plan for addressing the associated risks immediately and longer-term.
After he’d described health insurance options for the retiree and expat overseas, from local, in-country choices to global plans with big international carriers like Bupa, Lief turned to his co-panelist for the “Health Care For The Retiree Abroad” workshop and said, “Now Vicki Terhorst will show you how to go naked.”
Vicki and Paul Terhorst have been retired overseas for three decades. In that time, they’ve considered and reconsidered their options for health insurance. Initially, they invested in it. Then, after a few years of experience moving around the world, they decided to go naked.
That is, they gave up their health insurance altogether. As Vicki explained to the crowd assembled in Orlando last week, that decision has saved them US$250,000 over the years.
“And it’s not as though Paul and I have never had medical emergencies or health issues to address,” Vicki assured the crowd. “We’ve both had emergency surgeries and procedures performed in countries around the world at different times.
“Our total cost of health care in all these years has been about US$20,000. Because in the parts of the world where we’re enjoying life, medical care costs nothing like what it costs in the United States right now.
“It’s also not that we’re settling for sub-standard care. We’re enjoying international-standard care. Really, we think the standard of care we’ve received in many circumstances has exceeded what we would have expected in the United States…”
Seven panel discussions, 20 individual country presentations, and another 20 workshops and breakout sessions detailing particular current opportunities, resources, and topics of importance for anyone interested in living or investing overseas right now.
“I’ve been to maybe a dozen conferences like this one over the past several years,” one attendee remarked to me Sunday afternoon, “and nothing else has compared. The way you organized this and the speakers and experts you managed to bring together…it’s all been head and shoulders above anything else I’ve ever seen…”
“This is my first time,” said another reader who joined us in Orlando last week. “After reading you for years, I finally decided it was time to come meet you and your people in person. All I can say is, I’m impressed. This is so much more and so much better than I ever expected…”
Kathleen Peddicord
