Real Estate Property in Costa Rica

Costa Rica? Si, Muy Rica.

First Published Date: July 18, 2009

It would probably take most people quite some time to guess which country recently finished top of the pile when Happy Planet decided to list the happiest countries in the world. Admittedly amid a recession it may not be easy for anyone to guess, because the impression we are generally led to have is that everyone in every country is walking around under a massive dark cloud. It appears, however, that one place in which people are smiling their broadest smiles and talking about the future with optimism is a country with a name that – at least presently – seems perfectly appropriate. Costa Rica – “the rich coast” – is being touted as the place to be. It is green, it is thriving and it seems that nothing can wipe the smile off its face.

To buy real estate property in Costa Rica currently is to join in with an increasing number of American and Canadian citizens who are drawn by the promise of Paradise on Earth. It would be easy to point fingers and laugh at the hubris, the cliché, but unless there is something in the water in San José then it would appear that this is a country with an awful lot going for it. Certainly it appeals to more and more people as time goes on, and business investment as well as real estate are both seeing money being pumped into the country. The fact that there are tax breaks for foreign investors surely doesn’t hurt, but you don’t need to come from elsewhere to see the benefits of Costa Rica – when surveyed, Costa Ricans themselves revealed the highest life satisfaction in all the world.

Property prices for a condo are, in general, slightly lower than you would pay for one further north, with the added advantage that property taxes are low in Costa Rica as a means of attracting external investment, but it is in the housing market that you will really see your dollar go further, with houses of real beauty and luxury in splendid locations costing on average half of what you might expect to pay for similar in the United States. The cost of living in Costa Rica is reassuringly affordable, too. This may have something to do with the fact that the country long ago disbanded its military and puts every penny that would have gone into it towards social programs. As a result healthcare and public services are extremely good.

If you have the patience to live in a country that seems to be a lot more relaxed than most, yet doesn’t fall down on getting things done efficiently and effectively, and can speak Spanish (English is spoken here and spoken well, but it would be a shame to come to somewhere so welcoming and not assimilate at least a little), then Costa Rica is a place worth investing in. The work/life balance is pitched just about perfectly for anyone who likes to enjoy themselves but knows that this is only possible through earning the money to do it.

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 July 18, 2009.

Top Ten Emerging and Frontier Markets

Bloomberg’s 2015 Top Market Lists

Published Date : March 22, 2015

Bloomberg Market recently published its lists of top 25 and 19 emerging and frontier markets. These lists are made based on several factors, such as investing climate, ease of doing business, GDP growth, and so on. Let’s look at the top 10 countries from both emerging markets and frontier markets lists.

Top Ten Emerging Markets

1. South Korea
2. Qatar
3. China
4. U.A.E
5. Chile
6. Malaysia
7. Panama
8. Peru
9. Latvia
10. Poland

Source: Bloomberg Market

Top Ten Frontier Markets

1. Saudi Arabia
2. Estonia
3. Slovakia
4. Lithuania
5. Bahrain
6. Slovenia
7. Bulgaria
8. Vietnam
9. Kazakhstan
10. Romania

Source: Bloomberg Market

The term “emerging market” refers to market or country that is not yet fully developed, but has some elements of a developed market and on is its way to become a developed market in the future or was a developed market in the past. A frontier market or country refers to a developing market that is slower than an emerging market.

For example, MSCI, a leading provider of indexes, considers Saudi Arabia a frontier market, but considers Qatar and UAE emerging markets. South Korea, a widely considered developed market, is still considered emerging market by MSCI due to market restrictions in Korea.

Budgeting: The Dos and the Don’ts

Strict Budgeting Does Not Work

Published Date : March 07, 2009

It would seem that anyone giving financial advice always begins by saying “use a budget”. Unfortunately, this to many seems restrictive and cloying, and few people do it when times are good. Budgeting is associated with periods of low income, but in reality, if you budget during the affluent times too, the benefits can be huge.

If budgeting does seem to be too restrictive for you, then introduce a flexible budget. Instead of saying that X amount will be spent on X every month, try saying between X amount and X amount will be spent on X every month. For example, a strict $300 for groceries can become $300 to $350 a month for groceries. Studies have shown that even this slight difference is enough to make people feel released from the confines of a budget.

A budget doesn’t need to be strict. Instead, it can be more of a general guide If you aren’t struggling financially, then you can make your budget as vague as you like, while the practice of actually having a budget and sticking to it will be stored for future use should your circumstances change. There’s no need to write down the exact amount of money for everything you could possibly spend it on; some budget “$10 per month for magazines”, which is a little extreme.

Why not budget just for the essentials?  . These are simply amounts that rarely fluctuate and are essential. When you know roughly how much you need for these each month, the real budgeting begins.

At this point, the most common mistakes of budgeting arise. People make the limits of their budget too strict or not strict enough. The only way to avoid this is by trial and error. Split your non-essential expenditure into different groups, rather than specific sets, to begin. Allow amounts for entertainment, going out, clothing and other such variables. At the beginning, it really is best to just guess – find an amount that you think “sounds” right. This might sound a little pie-in-the-sky, but there’s no set figure that is ideal for each person. You have to find out what works for you.

With this done, go through a month on your non-essential budget, then evaluate it. Are there areas where you have a lot of money left over, or areas where you spent more than you were expecting? Within reason, simply alter your budget for the next month to fit the discoveries you’ve made. After three or four months of this, you should have a pretty good idea of the patterns to your expenditure. After six months, you’ll have learned enough to set a semi-permanent budget. After all, if you keep changing your budget forevermore, the point of it is lost slightly!

With your personalized budget in hand, you’re ready to begin. But there’s one final addition that should be in every budget; miscellaneous. You can never know what exactly might appear over the coming months – be it an unexpected bill, or something more exciting like a gadget you just can’t resist – so by always including a miscellaneous amount, you’ve got that covered. If nothing of this type appears over the course of a month, simply roll this amount over. With a plan designed to suit you and a miscellaneous figure allowed for, you’ll soon wonder how you ever managed without a budget.

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 Mar 7, 2009.

ETFs Birthday and New Dividend ETFs

Canada Invented ETFs 25 Years Ago

First Published Date: March 29, 2015

Canada is the country that invented peanut butter, walkie-talkies, insulin, garbage bags, basketball, alkaline batteries, sonar, and the telephone, among many other things. Included among all of these is, of course, ETFs. The Toronto Stock Exchange launched the world’s first ETFs called TIPs (for Toronto 35 Index Participation Units), similar to the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF that trades these days.

Today, global ETF assets have reached a staggering record high of $2.919 Trillion. In Canada alone, the amount is more than $85 billion, and it has a lot more to grow in the future.

New Canadian Dividend ETFs

iShares recently launched 5 new Core ETFs, including one U.S. Unhedged Dividend ETF. Let’s look at these ETFs.

iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF: XUU MER 0.10 – U.S. large, mid, and small cap exposure. Holds 1500 stocks. Similar to Vanguard U.S. Total Market VUN that holds 3800 stocks.

iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF: XUH MER 0.10 – Same as XUU, but hedged to the Canadian dollar.

iShares Core MSCI All Country World ex Canada Index ETF: XAW MER 0.20 – Large, mid, and small cap exposure to US, developed, and emerging markets, excluding Canada. Holds 5000 stocks. Similar to Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada VXC that holds 3000 stocks.

iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI Index ETF (CAD-Hedged): XFH MER 0.20 – Large, mid and small cap exposure across developed markets, excluding the US and Canada.

iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF: XHU MER 0.30 – 75 high quality, U.S. dividend stocks. The Canadian dollar hedged version of XHU is XHD.

More ETFs mean more competition, more choices, and lower MER for you. However, before loading up your portfolio with any ETFs, make sure you are not holding similar ETFs from different providers. Keep your holdings minimal and simple, as simplicity applies even when it comes to your finances.

The HSBC Main Building – A Landmark Of Modern Architecture

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (HSBC) Main Building

First Published Date : July 25, 2009

Anyone visiting Hong Kong will be unable to miss seeing the most expensive skyscraper in the territory and one of the most expensive in the world. Built while Hong Kong was still under the control of Britain, but during the normalisation period during which its return to Chinese control was assured, the headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – HSBC for short – is a quite impressive building. Actually, that rather undersells it, as it is one of the most fascinating structures in Asia and the world beyond, for many reasons.

It became apparent that a building such as the HSBC Main Building would be necessary in the 1970s. After more than a century during which headquarters were built, knocked down, moved and rebuilt, in 1978 it was decided that the bank might as well tear down its headquarters which were, in any event, too small to hold all of its departments. People and sections were scattered in far-flung parts of Central Hong Kong and it was felt that a proper headquarters would be needed – one which could hold all departments and provide an element of streamlining to the city. It would take another seven years to have it built, and when it was completed it was the most expensive building in the world. Although it may have since been outstripped in this respect, it is still an impressive edifice.

The final cost of the building is believed to have been 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, close to US$670million. The architect who conceptualized the building was none other than the legendary British architect Sir Norman Foster, and it has many of his signature touches, not least its epic size but minimalist design. 30,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction, and from the outside it is one of those classic skyscrapers that looks like a glass palace. There is good reason for this transparency, too.

The building may have taken place between 1979 and 1985, before ecological concerns became quite as big a consideration and quite as fashionable as they are now. It is, however, an excellent example of how one can build a skyscraper without excessive damage to the environment nor waste of energy. Due to the glass edifice of the exterior and the bank of giant mirrors which sits atop the atrium, much of the indoor lighting is provided naturally. The coolant for the air conditioning inside the building (which can be a godsend in a glass-based structure – is natural sea water.

There are many things which make the HSBC Main Building a building quite unlike any other. Not least of these is the fact that it relies very little on elevators inside the building, and people moving between floors tend to do so by way of escalators instead. This kind of personality makes the building one of considerable interest. Built with the principles of Feng Shui in mind, the building has a vast expanse of open ground in front of it, with only Statue Square separating it from Victoria Harbour, meaning that workers can look out onto water (in Feng Shui this is important for personal wealth. All in all, it is an interesting building indeed.

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 July 25, 2009.