The Dark Side of Retiring Abroad

Retiring in Low-Cost Countries May Not Be As Glorious As It Seems

First Published Date: December 29, 2014

It’s hard not to come across those alluring and glorious ads, websites, and stories about retiring in a low-cost country. The promise of living in a heavenly beach resort bungalow or ocean-view condo for $1000 per month is hard to pass on. However, things may not as glamorous as promised. Before you board a plane to a tropical paradise to catch your dream, consider all the ins and outs of living in a foreign country. Today, I will mention a few of them.

Security – This is my number one concern. These low-cost countries where heaven is promised for $1000 or even less a month are still 3rd world countries. Security and law enforcement are nowhere near comparable to countries like Canada, USA, Australia, and so on. If you keep an eye on news, you will often come across those where foreign retirees in these countries were killed in their ocean-view bungalows by intruders during a robbery. Are you willing to take your chances and live somewhere where corruption is widespread and security is non-existent?

Friends and Family – Living in a foreign country means you are losing your network of relatives and friends and also the support you receive from them. Yes, you can communicate via Internet or phone, or even possibly visit them once every few years – but it’s not the same when you have your friends and family available for you 24/7.

Health Care – Access to universal health care is a must-have during retirement years. Even if you are able to buy healthcare in these low-cost countries, it will not be nowhere near in quality and technological advancement as your home country. Also, if your are from a country like Canada where health care is free, you will have to spend a lot of money for health care in your new host country, and as you get older health care spending will grow larger.

These are only a few I mentioned above. There are much more, as retiring abroad adds layers of complexity to every aspect of life. Before deciding on moving abroad, do your homework and make educated decisions to live a happy life, whether at home or in a foreign country.

Condos in Panama

Panama Real Estate Investment

Published Date: May30, 2009

The first thing anyone will say if you ask them to mention something about Panama will undoubtedly be the canal. Some will even work in the famous palindromic pronouncement by Leigh Mercer: “A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!”. And when a nation of such limited size is dominated by a large – and very famous – canal, then it is no surprise that that will be the case. The Panama canal plays a major part for the country’s importing and exporting, for its transport and tourism. Although there is clearly much more to Panama than the canal, it would equally be pig-headed to deny its importance.

One element of Panama’s wider importance, however, is its real estate market. Investors from all around are looking at picking up property in Panama – and with good reasons, too. It is an investment opportunity that is worth investigation at the very least. Panama, being as it is the southernmost country in North/Central America, is therefore something of a frontier before one crosses from one part of America into another, quite radically different part. This makes it a crucially important spot in the Americas, frequently passed through by people traveling from the North to the South or vice versa. It has thus become the fastest-growing economy in Central America and the largest per capita consumer.

A country of such economic importance in the region will therefore need to be attractive to visitors. With the location a dual benefit – both in terms of people planning to travel through and, thanks to the scenery and the climate, also ready to stop here for a holiday – Panama will bring people in, almost without effort. It is keeping them around for long enough that needs to be addressed – something which is happening currently and is manifesting itself in, among other things, an improved real estate sector. This is where much of the external investment in Panama is coming from.

Oceanside apartments in Panama are cheap. This is one major reason why investors are interested, and it does not come at the expense of quality. There are many new builds as the Panamanian government aims to take greater advantage of the tiny nation’s geographic good fortune. Developments like those in Bocas del Toro are liable to catch the attention of any potential real estate investor, whatever the price. When one discovers that luxury apartments can be had for less than a quarter of a million dollars – and that prices will rise as demand does the same – it makes total sense that investment is a consideration for many.

For anyone looking to purchase real estate in Panama, there is good news in the fact that laws allow outside real estate investment to run very smoothly, with almost no restrictions on the process. If you are looking for an investment in an area with geographical importance, which attracts tourism and business, and will not cost you the Earth, then Panama is a very worthwhile place to look. There is every chance to turn a profit or just find a retirement or holiday property here. It’s really up to you.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on May 30, 2009.

More Ahmed Dawn Articles

How Credit Cards Work

Credit Cards

First Published Date: January 11, 2009

With the amount of talking that is done about credit cards, very little pertains to the actual details of how they work, how they should be used, and the different kinds of cards available. It is known more or less by everyone that when a person is in a lot of personal debt they tend to owe large amounts on credit cards – what are less widely known is how this situation comes about, how to avoid it and how a borrower can use a card to their advantage.

As short a description of how credit cards work as possible, first. A customer looking for greater spending power enters into an agreement with a bank, where the bank issues a card allowing a certain amount of spending (a credit limit). Any purchases made go on the balance of the card, against which a payment must be made every month. Should the balance reach or exceed the credit limit, no further spending will be possible until a payment is made to bring the customer in line with the agreement.

Debt problems with credit cards occur when a customer borrows beyond their means or their circumstances change. In theory, the bank will not lend an amount that the customer will not be able to pay back. However, the checks put in place to prevent this happening are not foolproof, and circumstances are always liable to change. A credit agreement is given based on a customer’s earnings, but should they suddenly lose their job they may find themselves unable to make full payments to their card. For this reason, it is wise to have some savings should you take out a credit card.

There are now more choices than ever for a customer looking to take out a credit card – these different options take into account the varying circumstances and needs of customers. A popular type of card is the low-interest/no interest credit card, which allows the customer to borrow money for a large purchase and then use a “zero interest” period to pay off the balance over the course of a number of months.

Interest-free periods when they were first introduced tended to last three months, but as banks compete for an increasingly crowded market it is becoming the norm for banks to offer as long as a year interest-free. When this period is ending, a customer will often transfer the balance to a new card. If done assiduously, this can see the customer avoiding having to make a payment for years at a time.

Other cards take account of the spending habits of the customer by offering cash back on purchases, Air Miles when the card is used in certain locations, and reward points for frequent use. A recent innovation making it possible for the customer to use plastic even when they find credit hard to come by, the Secured Credit Card allows the customer to “load” money on to their card and use it like a bank account – meaning they never spend money they do not have. These cards also enable the customer to build a good credit rating through regular loading.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Jan 11, 2009

Which City Has the Most Skyscrapers?

Is It Hong Kong or New York?

First Published Date: June 15, 2009

Very few subjects on the topic of architecture divide opinion as much as sky scrapers. For many, a sky scraper is a demonstration of the art of structural engineering taken to its ultimate level – both literally and metaphorically. For others, there is an impression that the presence of sky scrapers on a skyline is as much a demonstration of an absence of imagination as anything else. As children, we look upon a sky scraper in wonder. How could anything be that tall? How could anything man-made reach that high? It is hard to avoid being impressed even as you get older. So many sky scrapers are still built today because people continue to be amazed by what structural engineers can do.

Where there is scope to impress, there is also competition. This fact, whether it occurs to people or does not, has inspired human behaviour in countless and varied ways. Witness the space race. Witness dance-offs. And, naturally, witness sky scrapers. These buildings exist, in no small part, because someone did it first, and someone else wants to beat them. City authorities and private companies are certainly not above asking aloud the question “How tall was the one they built? OK, let’s make ours one foot bigger!”. The concept of competitive ambition collided with the practice of architecture, and the sky scraper was what resulted. In terms of advertising a holiday destination or a business city, one of the most powerful images any advertiser can use is a picture of the city’s skyline. If that skyline is dominated by sky scrapers, the city is deemed successful and interesting. People will want to visit a place with a lot of sky scrapers, even if they are not quite sure why.

This has led to an interesting (if you like this kind of thing) dispute over the question of which city has the most sky scrapers. Believe it or not, this is the source of no little controversy, with figures from the website Emporis (considered experts on the topic of building) suggesting that Hong Kong is at the top of the tree with more than seven thousand buildings and counting. However, if you could one sky scraper as being a building from its own unique platform, then New York’s 5,000+ total will be more than Hong Kong’s.

The source of the controversy is that, for counting purposes, some will use the number of towers that reach a certain height (150 meters, as often as not) as the number of sky scrapers. Others will only count one skyscraper even if multiple towers of sufficient height spring from the one platform on the ground. So some will say that New York has the most sky scrapers, some will argue that it is Hong Kong. Others still will point out that Dubai is building the world’s largest sky scraper, and will argue that this is at least as important, as it is more groundbreaking. Then still others will argue that sky scrapers are a blot on the landscape and should not be encouraged. This is the nature of debate.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 15, 2009.

Canadian Student Loans

Personal Finance For Students

Published Date : January 25, 2009

Third-level education is becoming more and more important in terms of getting a job in many sections of the economy. Some employers are unwilling to consider applications from candidates without a college diploma, and some of those employers will only to consider applicants with diplomas from certain schools. The problem for the prospective scholar is that college education doesn’t come cheap, with tuition, course materials, travel and accommodation costs often being prohibitive for the many students who cannot attend a college close to home.

Fortunately, for the needy prospective student, the Canadian government does have a program where they fund Student Loans for eligible scholars. Eligibility is decided on a number of factors including location (both of the pupil and the learning institution), current living costs, savings and parental income. For students who fall into the bracket of eligibility, a government-backed student loan is a godsend, allowing them to concentrate on their studies free of at least part of the worry of funding their education.

A student loan, as the name suggests, does have to be paid back when the student has graduated and is earning a salary, so it’s not free money and its use has to be priority-based. These priorities are in part, much the same as those that require the attention of a home owner – keeping a roof over one’s head, putting food on the table and paying bills. Even in subsidised student accommodation, these priorities are non-negotiable and in large this helps a student prepare for life after college.

Being responsible for your own budget teaches you to look after the pennies, which becomes all the more important when there is a mortgage to keep on top of and failure to pay that may result in your home being repossessed. Having to set aside cash for tuition fees keeps the importance of your studies at the forefront of your mind, reminding you why you’ve taken this step. When there are parties to attend most nights and a level of freedom beyond what you’ve known in the parental nest, it’s easy to feel that student life is all about the social side of things. But without responsible financial behaviour you could end up having to drop out and, without doubt, the restrictions of living back at home are felt all the more when you’ve lived without your parents for a spell.

If you don’t qualify for a government-backed student loan, there are still options available. Private student loans are one such option. Although they are not quite as secure an option as a government loan – being based on credit and therefore often necessitating that a parent acts as a co-signee- they are given by lenders at a low rate of interest and tend to be generous enough to cover the important costs of student life. Then, depending on the intensity of your course, it is possible to take on a part time job – which will often provide adequate money for as many toga parties as you want to attend.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Jan 25, 2009.