Always cover your assets: Learn about offshore banking, investing, and asset protection. Now is the time to diversify your portfolio and move outside the U.S. and its sinking dollar.
Friday, Dec. 14, 2007
Read more about offshore banking in International Living Postcards--your daily escape
There are several types of offshore jurisdictions that are financially attractive:
1. Tax havens--where a foreigner pays little or no taxes.
2. Asset protection havens--where local laws allow trusts, private family foundations and international business corporations.
3. Banking havens--where strict financial privacy laws guarantee banking secrecy. Some places combine all three.
The Austrian Republic is not a haven in the sense of low taxes, but it is a “banking haven.”
Read OnThe second of May, 1968 was the beginning of my investment adventures. American born and bred, and only 21 years old, I knew nothing about investing abroad.
Read OnThree ancient European kingdoms known best for their breath-taking scenery, spectacular histories and imperial monuments…also harbor "financial wonders" that few ever get to know.
Read OnThe Spanish island of Mallorca is Europe's favorite weekend destination. I'm able to visit often--for free--thanks to a running apartment-swap arrangement with friends here and in Moscow, Cairo, Prague, Zurich, Melbourne, and Venice.
Read OnLast year I made my first visit to the Principality of Liechtenstein, a little known nation that is one of the world's richest per capita (population: 34,000).
Read OnI really got ticked off recently by an article in the usually reliable Wall Street Journal by writer Rachel Silverman. Her article (you can read it below) correctly reported that in response to the IRS clamp-down on tax shelters in general (wildly so, I say), professional tax advisors are turning to more conservative tax avoidance tactics, though the writer suggested that some advisors still might be pushing the limits of the tax law. (And, as my friend Bill Buckley, often says: "Why should they not?")
Read OnThis will be an exciting year for the currency markets. On my radar right now are the following 12 currencies…the ones you should pay close attention to in 2006:
Read OnOpportunities for financing your real estate purchase outside the States are worth noting. Generally speaking, it's not possible to borrow money locally in Latin America or the Caribbean to finance your buy. Notable exceptions are Panama and, on a more limited basis, Mexico. The foreign lending industry in Panama is relatively developed and sophisticated; that in Mexico is emerging. Outside these two countries, though, your only options are to bring the capital you require from home (by taking out a second mortgage, for example, on U.S. real estate) or to hope the developer might be interested in carrying back some of the cost.
Read On