The world is alive with opportunity for fun and for profit.
Let’s begin there.
And let’s meet in my hometown Baltimore to see where that perspective leads us.
I’d like personally to invite you to join me, Lief, and more than 100 of our Live and Invest Overseas colleagues, contacts, expats, and friends for our 11th annual Retire Overseas Conference. We’ll be convening, the big bunch of us, over three days in September (Sept. 23–25) with a single purpose:
To steer you toward the opportunities that make the most sense for you—and to show you exactly how to set yourself up for a new start overseas.
This year’s program will be built around a series of seven workshops, each addressing one of the critical issues you must address when planning for a new life in a new country.
At each of the seven workshops on our Retire Overseas Conference agenda, you’ll be briefed by teams of those who have gone before you and learned the hard way. They’ll show you how to tackle the practicalities you need to consider as you prepare to make your move… so you can realize the lifestyle you’re dreaming of in as little as 12 months (no kidding). Specifically, I’m talking about issues like:
Question 1: How Much Do I Need To Retire?
This is the first question on everyone’s mind. And it’s a tough one no matter where you’re thinking about retiring… even if it’s in the place where you’ve lived your whole life. However, no doubt, it’s doubly hard to answer if you’re moving abroad.
Retired to a new country, everything will be different from what you’ve known, making it almost impossible to project a budget for living expenses without some real-life, real-time help from people already living in the place where you’re thinking you’d like to move.
Workshop #1: Retirement Planning—Don’t Let Money Get In Your Way
What do you need to do to get your financial affairs in order for a move overseas? This is the workshop that will answer that question for you. Our panel of experts will reveal everything you need to know to make your own financial plan for retirement overseas, including:
- How much money you need to retire and move abroad…
- What to do if your retirement fund is on the skinny side…
- How you should invest (for the short- and long-term) to maintain a healthy portfolio…
- How to manage your day-to-day spending, complete with budget spreadsheets…
- How to cope with changing exchange rates…
- The best time for you to start taking Social Security as an overseas retiree…
- How to manage your credit cards while living abroad…
- Whether to sell or to keep your U.S. property…
- How to survive future crashes overseas…
- What this year’s U.S. presidential election could mean for Americans abroad…
The bottom line? Many learn that what they really need to live the life they want where they want is far less than what they feared they needed… and far, far less than what they’d need to afford a comparable standard of living in the United States.
Question 2: What About The Nuts And Bolts Of Banks, Brokers, Utilities, Language, And Finding A Good Plumber?
Your move to your new and exciting life overseas will come in two parts. First will be the preparation… the steps and planning you take before you select a country.
Next will come those things that you won’t run into until you’re actually a new resident abroad.
Workshop #2: The Nuts And Bolts Of Getting Established Overseas—We’ll Cover The Topics Most Important To You
In this important (yet fun) workshop, we’ll address all the nitty-gritty issues that you’ll need to know about once you’ve landed in your new country.
This panel is made up of current expats from different countries. These folks are doing what you’re thinking about doing… meaning they’ve already made (and learned from) all the mistakes we sincerely want to help you to avoid. In that spirit, this workshop is designed to help you experience the minimum amount of hassle (and the maximum fun) getting set up in your new home. We’ll cover things like:
- When, and if, you’ll need a new driver’s license…
- The ins and outs of opening a bank account in another country…
- How to pay your bills… both locally and back home…
- Organizing your household for shipping… how to decide what stays and what goes…
- Learning the local language… or getting by in English…
- Staying in touch—inexpensively—with friends and family back home…
- Getting utilities connected and choosing Internet service…
- How to find reliable craftsmen…
- Bringing your pets… details of the paperwork you’ll need…
- Tips for a smooth move if you’re bringing your household goods…
Question 3: How Can I Stay Legally In My New Country?
In considering where in the world you’d like to retire (whether full-time or part-time), there’s one critical issue that could be an obstacle… and it’s easy to overlook…
I’m talking about legal residency.
In these days of tightening immigration control and rising visa costs, not everywhere may suit your particular requirements. And let’s not forget countries where you need to show a minimum monthly income (or have a certain amount deposited in a local bank) to be approved for legal residency. That said, at the same time, there are certain parts of the world that roll out the welcome mat for expat retirees, offering special incentives, perks, advantages, and benefits for the “silver-haired” crowd.
Workshop #3: Visas And Residency
At our Retire Overseas Conference, we’ll show you the three most retiree-friendly countries in the world…
In this workshop, you’ll learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of establishing a physical presence overseas. From this session, you’ll find out:
- The three most retiree-friendly countries in the world. In these places you can look forward to generous discounts—often as much as 50%—on goods and services from restaurant dinners to dental work and from airline tickets to closing costs on a home…
- The fast track to permanent residency in the world’s six top retirement havens…
- How residency affects your tax burden and how you can control and minimize this through careful planning…
- The benefits of using an attorney to guide you through the application process… when you must use one… and when you definitely should save yourself the expense…
- Easy immigration: Places where you can easily (and legally) stay long-term on a tourist visa…
- The “no complications” approach: Divide your time among three or four locales a year and you can avoid jumping through residency hoops altogether…
- The implications of establishing residency in a foreign country (for example, how local inheritance laws could affect your estate)…
- The many benefits of second citizenship and how to obtain it legally…
In the workbook from this workshop, you’ll get details for trusted attorney and immigration contacts in each of our top havens. Also note that, in addition to this workshop on general residency, we’ll also discuss residency specifically for each of our 14 featured countries in their respective country breakout sessions.
Question 4: How Will A Move Overseas Affect My Tax Burden?
It’s the one area that you just can’t get excited about when thinking about going overseas. But it’s one that you can’t ignore either. In fact, depending on your strategy in moving abroad, you could wind up paying far less tax than you do right now… or maybe none at all.
Workshop #4: Taxes For The Expat And Foreign Retiree
I’m talking about things like:
- How to earn up to US$211,800 per year tax-free…
- Two foreign assets the IRS doesn’t want to know about and that you can legally hold overseas without triggering a reporting requirement…
- The top four jurisdictions for low-tax or no-tax living…
- Getting good representation—the key to paying no more tax than you should…
- Where you’ll enjoy the lowest property taxes… and where you won’t pay any property tax whatsoever…
- Where and how to enjoy exemption from import duties on household goods and belongings you decide to bring with you to your new home…
- Understanding your options and how to structure your new life overseas can save you thousands of dollars in taxes each year… even reduce your tax burden to zero.
In addition to this workshop, we’ll have specific tax information for each of our featured destination countries.
Question 5: Should I Rent Or Buy A Home?
It’s one of the biggest issues in considering a move overseas, one that’s inspired many a heated debate, even among the Live and Invest Overseas team. Some of us have differing points of view on this.
Generally, I say rent first and maybe rent long-term. However, sometimes, depending on your situation, buying a home of your own and even buying right away can make sense. When we meet in Baltimore in September, our panel of property experts will talk this important question through for you, considering all the options and many different points of view.
However, regardless whether you decide to rent or to buy, you need to arm yourself with a clear and comprehensive understanding of how to navigate overseas property markets… which leads to:
Workshop #5: The Property Question
In this workshop, we’ll show you everything you need to know about buying or renting your new home abroad. Things like:
- The benefits of renting long-term…
- What to look for when choosing a rental, whether for short- or long-term use…
- How to review a rental contract in a foreign country…
- Where to start your search for a rental property and how and why to take your search local…
- What you need to know about buying property overseas, including the pitfalls and how to deal with them…
- 12 critical questions you should ask before buying real estate in a foreign country…
- How to protect yourself as a buyer in a foreign market…
- How to evaluate a selling price in any given market…
- How to structure foreign property ownership…
- How to address the tax implications of owning real estate in a foreign country…
- What the IRS needs to know about your property holdings overseas (maybe nothing)…
Question 6: What Sort Of Health Care And Health Insurance Options Can I Expect?
One thing you can’t take with you from the United States when you retire overseas is your Medicare coverage… and, in many cases, your U.S. health insurance won’t travel with you either.
The good news is that there are options—very good and very affordable options—for the expat looking for medical coverage abroad. And as many of the expats you’ll meet at this Retire Overseas Conference will testify, it’s possible to receive quality care—sometimes even better than the level of service you’re used to at home—in many of the retirement havens we’ll discuss.
Workshop #6: Health Care For The Retiree Abroad
For some, this is the most important workshop on our program, and it has a double agenda: First, to help you understand what you can expect of health care in a foreign country; second, to present your options for health insurance coverage.
From this workshop, you’ll find out:
- Which of the top 14 retirement havens stand out in terms of top-quality health care…
- Where, among these top havens, you’ll find health care to be the most affordable…
- The differences between public and private health-care systems… and when to use the (possibly free) public systems abroad…
- Your top options for medical insurance abroad and the pluses and minuses in each case…
- The points to consider in choosing a policy that suits your specific needs…
- Why you should never buy insurance online… at least not until you’ve confirmed the answer to this all-important question…
- What your overseas health policy should cover… and what it likely won’t…
- How much deductible makes sense given where you’ll be living and your personal health circumstances…
- Cost details for sample insurance plans in a number of overseas retirement havens…
- What to do if you’re beyond the age for enrolling in a new insurance policy…
- How to evaluate a policy in a foreign country…
- The best international health and travel insurance policies on the market today…
Question 7: What If I Can’t Afford To Give Up My Career Just Yet?
In many overseas locations, it’s tough to find employment; however, it can be straightforward and lucrative to start your own business. It could be big or small… a local business or a new portable career.
A move overseas is a chance to break from the old and start doing the things you love—perhaps while making them earn some income to supplement your retirement nest egg.
Workshop #7: Funding Your New Life Overseas
In this workshop, you’ll learn about your best options for funding your retirement wherever in the world you decide you’d like to reinvent it.
You could, for example, start an Internet business… and you could do this from anywhere in the world. You could even start it now, from home, so it’s up and running (and generating cash flow) when you’re ready to make your move.
I’m not talking about any “get rich quick” schemes. Running a business of any kind anywhere in the world is not all fun and games… as we know from long experience. To date, my husband and I have started and operated businesses in six countries. The bonus is that it’s all on your own terms. It’s up to you how many hours you work, where you work from, how big you want your business to grow, and how much time you take off.
If you need to support yourself financially while overseas… or would like to have an extra income… then this session will be very important for you.
You’ll find out:
- How to generate business ideas—and how to identify a profitable market…
- How to select your products. In the import-export business, for example, certain products have restrictions depending on where you send them to or from…
- How to get started. You have a great idea… but you don’t know where to begin. Follow this 6-step Internet business start-up plan to get up and running anywhere in the world…
- Making money on the web: 7 strategies for drawing qualified prospects to your website…
- Countries among our top 14 retirement havens that make sense for running a business… and those that don’t…
- Where to find supporting staff. Depending on the size of your business, it may be helpful to have some in-country assistance. You’ll learn which countries have reliable, English-speaking labor pools and minimal red tape in the hiring-and-firing process… and which don’t…
- Legal, labor, and taxation issues you need to be aware of running your Internet business…
- Recommended software tools and online resources to help get you started in your new career…
I said we’d organized workshops around seven big questions. In fact, we’ve added a bonus session to the proceedings. This is one that will both educate and entertain you.
Workshop #8: Live and Invest Overseas Success Stories—Conference Alumni Share Their Real-Life Adventures
The panel for this session comprised of our Retire Overseas Conference alumni, will share their experiences and anecdotes with you on different aspects of expat life… certain things that don’t quite fit under the previous topic headings.
Above all, we’ll remind you in this session that, as a foreigner overseas, you’ll need two essential superpowers: patience and a sense of humor.
Work on both of these, and you’ll go a long way…
Kathleen Peddicord
