Stake Your Claim to Profits on the Next American Frontier

Dear International Living Reader,

A century and a half ago in San Francisco, Levi Strauss discovered the 49ers needed not tents, as he'd imagined, but sturdy work pants. So that's what he made with his canvas...and launched an empire.

Before John Studebaker got into the car business, he amassed a fortune selling wheelbarrows to gold prospectors.

Sam Brennan became the first millionaire in California by selling pick axes, pans, and shovels...and by purchasing vast tracts of land there, which he rented or sold at a mind-boggling profit to the fortune-hunters and dreamers who found their way west.

Leverage...value...entrepreneurship...and simply being in the right place at the right time. That's what investing profitably at the cusp of a boom is all about.

Sometimes...in some places...even a modest amount of money expands into something rather extraordinary. Right now, that place is Latin America, where a boom is quietly building in pockets across the region.

A new frontier that offers opportunity...freedom...and untold profit potential...if you know where to look and when to act, that is.

The Secret is Knowing When and Where to Act

In their time, Strauss, Studebaker, and Brennan knew... and reaped the rewards.

In our time, those rewards could be yours. This January 23-26, 2004, I've invited Latin America experts and some of the world's leading authorities in global real estate, banking, investment, currencies, and overseas living to join me and a select group of successful international entrepreneurs in Managua, Nicaragua for a southerly-focused event unlike anything we've ever held before.

We're calling this gathering our Latin America Investment Symposium. Our singular focus: To explore the best opportunities available to you right now on the next American frontier - in places like Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Honduras, Chile, and Argentina - and to teach you in practical, hands-on terms how you can best take advantage of them...while the timing is right.

The Important Indicators Point to Opportunity
in Latin America Right Now

At International Living, we watch for cycles...for booms and busts...and, too, for crises. When we see them, we look for ways a globally minded investor might profit from them. It could be in real estate, in equity or bond markets, in currencies, in business...

Take Argentina, which is a little more than a year along in its recovery from what may have been the worst economic crisis in its history. Inflation is running at 5%, though it was expected to be as much as 25% this year. Export revenues are up, and imports are running at half what they were during the crisis. GDP growth is on target for 5% to 6% this year and is being estimated at 4% for 2004.

With the recovery is following steady appreciation in property values. They're up 10% to 25% since July 2002, which is generally recognized as the bottom. Still, this country represents one of the world's best bargains, not only because prices remain low, relative to comparable markets, but because the country is so glorious. It boasts a distinctly European flair, with snow-capped mountains...clear, blue lakes...and a cosmopolitan, park-filled capital city that offers fabulous colonia-era apartments...

It's true that if you'd invested in real estate a year ago, your investment would have appreciated nicely since then. But it's certainly not too late to take advantage of good-value offerings. Right now, everything is priced as much in pesos as you'd expect to pay in dollars in the States. And right now, the dollar is worth nearly three pesos. In other words, you have a lot of buying power.

Today you can buy a large, well-appointed apartment in the chic part of Buenos Aires for $120,000. In any European capital, it would cost you $300,000 or more.

The best buys in Argentina, though, are in the Patagonia with its vast, shimmering-blue lakes and snow-capped mountains. There you can build a gorgeous log home in keeping with the style of the local architecture for a mere $40-$60 per square foot. (Again, a fraction of what it would cost you to build something comparable in the States.)

Some of the most compelling properties sit on a fabulous golf course development and resort, which offers not only several hundred acres of green space and lots for sale - with the sort of snow-capped mountain views that belong on a Sierra Club calendar - but also a polo field, horseback riding, close proximity to a ski resort, and more. In this place, lots list for $60,000 to $200,000 each. You could buy one, build on it, and then rent out your home and more than cover your costs...plus you'd have a place you could come to a few weeks or months a year. Or, you could simply buy the land, hold, and sell it later at a profit.

Currencies, Equities, Bonds...

But that is just one example of many opportunities we see across Latin America today. On the whole, Latin American economies are on the upswing. J.P. Morgan analysts project economic growth of 4% next year. Argentina, as I said earlier, is expected to grow 5% to 6% this year, while Brazil's growth in 2004 is projected at 3%.

In currencies, equities, bonds, and beyond...there is reason to look to this part of the world right now for handsome gains.

Consider the potential profit to be made on currency plays. As Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, Editor of True Wealth and an expert in emerging-market currencies sees it, South America is the bargain on the globe right now.

By his calculations, on average the currencies from Brazil and Argentina are currently 55% undervalued versus the U.S. dollar. Emerging countries' currencies are typically undervalued versus the U.S. dollar, but this is an extreme. At such an extreme, these currencies may rise in the near term, thus creating profits for investors holding them. (This January, Dr. Sjuggerud will be one hand in Nicaragua to talk about this dynamic...and how you can best position yourself to benefit from it.)

As the U.S. dollar weakens, fund managers are showing more interest in foreign stocks - and many are looking south of the States. According to Lipper, a New York-based firm that ranks the performance of funds, investors in Latin American funds averaged 11.2 percent in the third quarter of 2003...compared to just 4.4 percent for U.S. diversified equity funds.

Stock markets have soared in Latin America this year. The Economist reports that Argentine and Brazilian indices have both risen by 70% in dollar terms, and Chile's by 40%... compared to the S&P 500's 12% increase over the same period.

The Safe Haven Bounce

Then, in addition, there's something the Wall Street Journal refers to as the "Safe Haven Bounce." That newspaper reports: "Worries about war and terrorism are sparking a sudden spurt in the number of Americans buying vacation homes in the Caribbean."

Sales activity in the Cayman Islands, for example, the article reports, increased 62% in the first two months of 2003 compared with last...32% in the Dominican Republic last December and January.

Americans are looking for quiet getaways, where they can escape the worries of war, terrorism, and uncertain financial markets...peaceful retreats that are, critically, close to home.

We've noticed this ourselves. Interest is keen now among our International Living readers for not only Caribbean island destinations...but also Mexico, another place offering safe haven (that, in this case, you can get to by car). And Panama, also, makes more sense than ever - as one of the world's premier offshore havens and only a two-and-a-half hour plane ride from Miami.

This January, we'll tell you about opportunities in those countries and elsewhere, including...

• A hidden mountain valley where you can wake each morning to the exotic calls of tropical birds. The air is clean and crisp. The nearby town offers restaurants, shops, an English-speaking doctor. Yet a two-bedroom, two-bath home with views on a clear day out to the distant ocean, a lush garden, and lots of outside living space lists for a negotiable $98,000.
• A nation where nearly everyone speaks English, the capital city is sophisticated and modern, and just a little over an hour outside of it, you can own a new, well-built apartment overlooking the ocean for between $35,000 and $59,000. It's the kind of view you'd pay at least $500,000 for on a U.S. beach. At least.
• A Pacific-coast playground...a resort town where cruise ships dock and where Jack Kerouac stayed when he'd finished On the Road...a historic city center full of sidewalk cafes and boutiques...an opera house built in the 1860s...and extraordinary values on real estate, like a four-bedroom colonial-style retreat in town with a two-car garage, a detached casita, and a second lot with a huge yard for $220,000...

Baby Boomers are on the Move...
A Trend from Which You Can Profit

Nearly 4 million Americans live outside the United States...not including employees of the U.S. government and members of the armed forces. That number also doesn't include Americans who spend most or some of their time outside the U.S. but have never declared residency in some other jurisdiction. Furthermore, these numbers are increasing annually.

Americans, especially Baby Boom Americans, are on the move. If you gathered all these roving expatriates together, they'd make up the 26th largest state. It's not an inconsiderable market.

And Americans aren't the only ones buying outside their home country. In France, it's the British who are driving up prices in the countryside and along the coast. In Spain, the Germans are fighting each other for pieces of that country's coastline. In Nicaragua, I know personally investors from Austria, Italy, Spain, and Brazil (as well as old-fashioned American gringos, as well).

In Mexico, Belize, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica...people from around the world are buying up choice property. The trend is growing...and will continue. Buy right - beachfront is always best...but lakefront is good...mountainside can make sense...and certain city buys are among the smartest you could make - because these investments have intrinsic value.

There's only so much beachfront...only so many 19th- century classical apartments. Inventory is limited...and demand, I predict, will continue to expand.

But here's the real point: If you buy right (dramatic coastline or A-grade apartment...picture-perfect lakefront or rolling mountainscapes)...at the right time (best bet just this side of a bust)...then what do you care which way the market goes?

Maybe you make rental return from your investment. And maybe, at some point in the future, you resell...and pocket three, four, five times what you invested.

Or maybe not. Maybe you hold on. After all, we're talking about something worth holding on to...something from which you and your family can take enjoyment and pleasure...something you might pass down, generation to generation. And that has value, too.

Part of the appeal of the American west in the 1800's was the promise it held of freedom. As historian J.S. Holliday put it: "Suddenly there was a place to go where everyone could expect to make money quickly; where life could be freer; where one could escape the restraints and conventions and the plodding sameness of life in the Eastern states."

Today it's Latin America that offers that escape...that place where people can reinvent themselves. At home we find our freedom being checked...by regulations, taxes, anti-terrorism laws. Latin America offers a frontier - as California once did - where you can still take hold of a certain sense of liberty that seems to be disappearing at home...

Green Acres... Snow-Capped Mountains...
White Beaches...

Across Latin America, the possibilities for profit (and better living) are genuine. The fortunes of this region of the world are rising...and we'll show you exactly how you can ride the tide. In Nicaragua this January, our hand-picked panel of Latin America experts will reveal...

• The "Aspen of South America"...where, instead of Aspen prices, you can build a gorgeous log home in keeping with the style of the local architecture for a mere $40-$60 per square foot. In one world-class golf course development, owners enjoy the sort of snow-capped mountain views that belong on a Sierra Club calendar, a polo field, horseback riding, close proximity to a ski resort...and you can buy a lot there for as little as $60,000. It's a resort area, so the rental market is excellent...
• The Latin American country that offers, without question, the world's best incentives for foreign "retirees," including 25% off airfares...15% off doctors' visits...discounts on groceries, and more. Not only that, but you needn't even be retired. If you're between 18 and 78, you can qualify...and you only need live here four months a year.
• The country where, in these low-interest days, you can get a yield on a 20-year bond that that's 6.6 percentage points higher than that on American Treasuries.
• A nation where, just three kilometers from the hottest beach destination, you can buy nearly two acres with green valley views and glimpses of the ocean for only $13,500...or a gorgeous Pacific ocean view lot in an elegant, high-end development for as little as $52,900...
• Open a qualifying, "tourism-related" business in this friendly, warm-weather nation, and you'll pay no VAT on any materials or services you require and no import duty on anything you bring into the country to get your business going, not only when you're building your business, but for 10 years. Plus you're exempt from income tax...again for 10 years. And if your business owns land, you'll pay no property tax either.
• How, in one burgeoning, Central American country you could turn $40,000 worth of land and sprouting teak trees into $300,000... and help save the planet while you're at it...Oh, and your investment can qualify you for residency as an "investor" and maybe even a passport, too - both of which broaden your lifestyle options and could help reduce your tax burden in the States, too.
• A glorious retreat just a couple of hours from the U.S. where the weather lingers near 68 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, which means you can play golf January through December. Stores like Costco, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart stock familiar items at reasonable prices. Medical care is excellent...crime is nearly unheard of...and the pace of life is slow and gentle. For $140,000, you can retire to a bright, fully-furnished two-bedroom home with a blossom-filled garden and lake views.

Continued below...

A Hands-On Primer for Investing Outside the U.S.

As I've said, there's a global migration to places with great weather, little pollution, good views, a relaxed lifestyle, and low prices - many of them destinations in Latin America.

It's possible, even easy today to live, work, relax, or retire anywhere you want. It's the investors who recognize this trend and identify its path who will profit most. To make sure you're among them, we're going to start our conference with a tutorial - a hands-on primer, if you will - in how to invest internationally.

We've invited not only international investment experts...but also an array of speakers who have already done what you're considering. They've opened hotels...started import-export businesses...bought and sold real estate...

These speakers will share with you their own experiences. They won't be talking about theory. They'll tell you, straight up, what works and what doesn't. They'll explain what drew them to Latin America...and why they stay. And they will give you the kind of practical, hands-on advice they themselves could have used when they first jumped in. Over the course of three, power-packed days, you'll...

• Find out what basic building blocks you need to open a business in Latin America. While the specifics will certainly vary from country to country, you'll learn the five most important things to remember wherever you're launching your enterprise...and not only what to do, but what pitfalls to avoid.
• Use international and offshore structures to better protect your assets from attack...so you can make absolutely sure you don't end up wiped out as a result of some frivolous lawsuit. In fact, the structures you'll learn about can even help deter legal action...and secure you a more advantageous settlement if somebody does sue..
• Learn how you can protect - and even increase - your buying power in the face of a tumbling dollar.
• No matter where you go in the world, you'll face a certain amount of bureaucracy...but our speakers will give you some practical, proven tips for navigating through it, whether you're having the electricity turned on, applying for a visa, getting a prescription filled...
• Far from straightforward, property laws are in some places open to creative interpretation...in others very cut and dry. Find out, in easy-to-understand terms, what you should do to stay out of trouble and protect your investment.
• Find out everything you should know...cautions, suggestions, hard-won advice...about how to buy real estate in Latin America. We'll tell you what questions to ask before you commit...what differentiates a superior property from a merely adequate one...how to structure your purchase so you save on taxes...and more...

Get Your Questions Answered in Small Workshops

Throughout the conference, we'll devote the mornings to general-education sessions when you'll hear from our speakers and reserve the afternoons for interactive workshops with them.

These subject-specific workshops are arguably the most valuable portion of the program. They give you access to the experts and make it easy for you to ask questions and hear what other participants have on their minds.

You could come down to Nicaragua on your own...indeed, to any one of the countries we recommend...but you'd be hard-pressed to make all the right contacts. It could take you two, three, maybe ten times as long to get all your questions answered. With this workshop format, we ensure you save time, energy, and money. You'll be exchanging business cards with people we know and trust to provide you useful, honest advice and guidance.

The workshops are designed to be subject-specific, and they'll run concurrently throughout the program, so you'll be able to choose the sessions that most interest you and maximize the attention and relevant information you receive.

It's No Accident We're Hosting this Event in Nicaragua

Throughout the conference, you'll have access to our Exhibition Hall - yet another forum where you can meet with our invited panel of experts. Plus, in addition to them, we'll have on hand other local resources you'll find helpful...like representatives from local banks who can talk to you about what products and services they can provide...and government envoys who can discuss the incentive programs in place to attract investors like you...

We'll make accessible the resources you need to put your Latin American investment into motion on the spot.

We are not hosting this event in Nicaragua by accident. Nicaragua is, in my view, one of the most vibrant nations in this part of the world...and one where the possibilities for profit strike me as downright palpable every time I'm there. Things are changing so fast - new malls, hotels, highways - it's invigorating.

Nicaragua's President Bolanos is preparing to launch an aggressive campaign to increase the number of foreign visitors to the country from the current 475,000 per year to 800,000 per year by 2006. He wants to grow the average stay from three nights to five and the average amount spent per-person daily from $70 to $105. He's targeting the U.S. market (including, especially, the 600,000 Nicaraguans living in the States) and Europe.

Nicaragua offers the best land deals in Central America right now. This is not news to longtime International Living readers, but worth noting. Because we believe this will change in the next few years, as appreciation accelerates.

Nicaragua also offers a very appealing way of life. You can employ a full-time maid for $100 per month. Two people can enjoy an excellent meal, including a good bottle of wine, for less than $20. Plus, the tax burden is light. And as a foreigner qualifying for Nicaragua's pensionado program, you are exempt from import duties on personal and household goods and can bring a vehicle into the country tax-free once every five years.

If you are looking to start a business, Nicaragua's Law 306 for tourism investment provides extensive tax incentives to businesses like hotels, restaurants, and other tourist-related endeavors.

Put Your Latin America Strategy to
Work on the Spot

During the program, you'll hear from the staff of International Living's Nicaragua office; Eduardo Latorre, a businessman who owns one of the country's most successful property developments, a lovely lakeside retreat; representatives from Rancho Santana on the Pacific coast, a high-end project that has transformed the landscape of this nation's Pacific coast; Leonel Prevada, who represents Bancentro in Managua; Reece Guth, an American whose Nicaraguan import-export business is going gangbusters; plus we've invited a local attorney...an expatriate couple who have bought and renovated a home they live in part time...a couple who opened a B&B...and more...

From them you'll learn-

• What sets Nicaragua apart from its neigh-bors, from its strong benefits for retirees and its affordable cost of living...to it's excellent incentives for entrepreneurs in tourism and good-value real estate...and more...
• The various types of visas available to you as a full-time retiree, business owner, or simply occasional visitor. Find out which one is right for you and how, step-by-step, you apply for it.
• Where in Nicaragua real estate investments make sense - where properties are undervalued, where you'll find the best retirement living, where the best beach buys are, which colonial towns are likely to offer the steepest appreciation, which lakeside resorts are worth your attention...
• And much, much more...

Continued below...

Change on the Streets...
and Change in the Halls, too

In Nicaragua, as in Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Argentina, and beyond, there is real momentum for change...for "progress" if you will. And it's not just on the streets that you see it.

It's in the halls of the governments as well. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) - set to be signed by December 31, 2003, will liberalize trade between the U.S. and its Central American neighbors, "giving businesses greater security and helping foreign investors make longer-term commitments" as the Financial Times puts it.

Countries within South America have been busy forming trade alliances among themselves...looking to create something akin to the European Union. The push is underway to form a continent-wide trade pact before the end of 2003. While that timeline may be a bit optimistic...the intent is strong.

Merging Mercosur (the South American trade group made up of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile) with the Andean Community of nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela) would create a union with a combined gross product of $1.2 trillion and a population of 370 million people.

To put it plainly...Latin America is getting its act together. This regional coalition is meant to give these nations greater leverage as the U.S. pursues its own hemisphere-wide trade agreement. It sends the message that "we won't be bullied." If you're invested there...that's a decidedly good thing.

This Seminar Is Too Important to Miss

We've gone to great lengths to assemble an extraordinary group of high-powered experts in one place at one time. It would be impossible for you to gather, in just a few short days, the wealth of knowledge and the excellent contacts you'll gain in these top-level meetings and hands-on workshops.

You'll come away from this symposium will a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities available right now in this part of the world...and with a plan of action for how you might best take advantage of them.

You could easily spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to acquire all the know-how you'll learn in this one value-packed program. But when you join us in January for our Latin America Investment Symposium, you won't have to.

Make an investment of just a few days and a few hundred dollars now...and you'll come away knowing exactly how you can position yourself as a pioneer on the next American frontier...

Can you afford not to be there?

Your Guest Attends for 50% Off

The symposium costs just $995 per person (plus just $450 for one guest) for three full days of benefit-packed meetings and access to high-powered, well-informed contacts both from around the region and locally-based. In other words: You can bring an associate, a family member, a friend, any guest you like...for a full 50% off the regular price.

Plus, to make the program even more affordable, we're offering extensive discounts. When you reserve your place by December 15, 2003, you're entitled to $150 off the registration fee. That means you pay just $845 (plus $450 for one guest) to participate.

What's more, if you're a lifetime member of International Living, The Sovereign Society, or a Pirate Investor publication, or if you're a Chairman's Circle or Director's Circle member of The Oxford Club, you're entitled to an additional $50 off. That means you can benefit from the invaluable contacts and critical, life-changing advice this program will deliver...for as little as $795 (with a guest paying just $450).

In addition, we've negotiated excellent rates at the luxurious Real InterContinental Metrocentro in downtown Managua, where we're hosting this event. For a standard room - single or double - you'll pay just $95 per night (plus taxes and gratuities), which includes not only your accommodation, but also a continental breakfast daily.

To reserve your place, click here for your Early Bird discount, Lifetime members click here, or simply call our Conference Director, Michael Whetstine, today at (888) 968-8007(toll-free) or (561) 968-8007, or fax (561) 968-0840. Please don't delay. I expect this conference, a unique, first-time event, to fill up very quickly. Seats are limited, and I'd hate for you to miss out.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living

P.S. In addition to the formal meeting sessions and the workshops, we've arranged for an informal gathering - a cocktail party where you'll have time to get to know the speakers personally and mingle with other, like-minded participants. It's this rubbing elbows, this opportunity to chat with the folks on the ground who really understand the various markets we'll be focusing on that sets this program apart from a typical "investment conference."