Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life). Kathleen Peddicord
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Keep Your Medicare
Living in Mazatlán, you could return easily to the United States to use Medicare. If you're considering this move as a retiree, nearing or over the age of 65, this can be Mexico's most compelling advantage. Mexico offers excellent health care, but Medicare won't pay for it—with limited exceptions, Medicare doesn't cross any border. However, if you retire in Mexico, you'd be only a drive or quick flight away from accessing your benefits.
This means keeping and continuing to pay for Medicare coverage in addition to any other health insurance you might opt for. This can be a good strategy for a Medicare-eligible retiree moving to any foreign country, a safety net.
The Cost of Living
While the living is not as cheap as it was in the 1970s when Americans began migrating to Mexico in volume, it's a global bargain and more of a budgeter's delight right now than it's been in a long time, thanks to the U.S. dollar's strength.
In some parts of the country, this translates to super real estate deals. But even where real estate trades in U.S. dollars, the strong dollar makes everything else—from a liter of gasoline and a week's worth of groceries to a suite of bedroom furniture and a night out on the town—a bargain. Two can dine five star, enjoying three courses and good wine, for less than 50 bucks.
#3: Cayo, Belize
Belize remains off the world's radar. Nobody is targeting or intent on stirring up trouble in this little country that's part Caribbean, part Central American. Most people don't give Belize a second thought. In today's world, that's a plus.
The country is one of the most important members of the Caribbean Community, thanks to its arable land and agricultural capacity. It helps provide food security for CARICOM, an international community of primarily small English-speaking island nations.
Belize has pristine marine, rainforest, and riverine environments and a small population, so, in addition to being food secure, it is a great vacation destination and an ideal place to live. Cayo is the breadbasket of Belize principally because of the industriousness of the Mennonites of Spanish Lookout, a booming town with thriving businesses and a back-to-basics, traditional way of life.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American meal travels 1,500 miles from farm to market. The movement is toward sourcing food from within 100 miles. In Cayo, your food could be sourced within 10 miles. Living here, you could even enjoy a zero-mile diet. Imported foods are available if you want them, but it's possible in Cayo to be food secure and not dependent upon an elaborate, vulnerable, and costly global supply chain.
Here are six more reasons Cayo, Belize, is an ideal option for a self-sufficient, resilient, sustainable, neighborly, and fun life …
Reliable Water Sources
Residents of Cayo catch, store, and filter rainwater, and groundwater is likewise in abundant supply. The rivers this area is known for provide a sometime alternative for garden irrigation and an everyday option for fishing.
Energy Independence
Living off-grid with solar and rain-catchment doesn't have to mean giving up the amenities of the modern world. In Cayo, you can live a fully self-sufficient life that includes high-speed internet, modern appliances, and all other comforts of the twenty-first century.
Low Population Density
During a disruption in the supply chain, as we are seeing now, it's good to be a safe distance from big, dense cities. Belize has a population density of just 37 people per square mile. The whole country feels like a small town. The small population makes it easy to become part of the community, and both locals and expats who've settled here are welcoming and willing to lend a hand or make an effort for a neighbor.
English Speaking
As a former English colony (and still a part of the English Commonwealth), Belize is the only officially English-speaking country in Central America. One of the biggest challenges you can face when making a move to a new country is communicating with your new neighbors. Anywhere you might think about moving, including Belize, you'll have to learn to overcome and adapt to cultural differences. A language difference makes that and everything else – from giving directions to a taxi driver and filling a prescription at the pharmacy to getting your broken hot water heater fixed and negotiating for the purchase of a new home – more difficult. In Belize, you don't have to worry about learning a new language if you don't want to.
Great Weather
The country is blessed with abundant year-round sunshine. The rainy season extends from June to November but, even during those months, skies are sunny more than they're not. The reliable sunshine makes for happy, healthy living and also a great growing environment.
Little Crime
Some small areas of Belize City suffer from a drug trade, gangs, and the activities that come with those cultures. However, those are localized neighborhoods. Avoid them. Otherwise, Belize is one of the safest places on earth and far removed from twenty-first-century troubles.
The Surest Strategy in the Race to Wealth, Health, Freedom, and Security
The surest way to prepare for whatever tomorrow brings is to diversify beyond your home borders, both your life and your investments. If you're searching for options right now, wondering what to do in the face of the current global landscape, we urge you to remember this critical truth. It's crisis times like these when a diversified lifestyle and a truly globally diversified portfolio of hard assets really pay off. So set the worrying aside. It only drains your energy and slows your progress.
How can you make sure you come through this crisis stage not only whole but stronger than ever? You must diversify into hard assets to generate cash flow overseas. It is the smartest strategy for protecting and growing wealth, especially in times of crisis. Gold prices and stock markets continue on a roller coaster. Real estate remains the slow and steady tortoise in the race to wealth and security.
Introduction
Earning Cash Flow from Real Estate Overseas Is the Same as Earning Cash Flow from Real Estate at Home … with These Three Important Differences
“It's perfect. I'll take it. How much is it?”
So said the Irish hairdresser to the Montenegrin real estate agent.
The agent was touring the young woman through an apartment for sale in the medieval town of Kotor. The woman didn't get past the entryway before making her buy decision. Indeed, she had been ready to invest before boarding the plane from Dublin. She was desperate to take her first step onto the property ladder but didn't qualify for financing at home in Ireland (the “do you have a pulse?” mortgages didn't become common in this country until a year later). No bother. Everyone was buying property abroad. She would, too.
The agent who sold the hairdresser that Kotor apartment told me the story when Lief met him the following week. We, too, were considering an investment in Montenegro.
It was 2004 and that agent (like all real estate agents in the country) was selling properties faster than he could count the commissions. All Europe and a few Americans like us were competing with each other to get into the hottest new property market on the Continent. Unlike the hairdresser, we didn't invest. The math didn't work.
That young woman from Dublin, like too many novice and even many experienced investors, was buying because she was certain the value