Tips On Buying A Second Home Abroad

What You Need To Know Before Buying A Second Home Abroad

First Published Date: Oct 21, 2009

Buying a second home is something that, for a lot of people, means they have truly arrived on the scene. Buying a second home abroad adds that little bit to the mix, giving you a spread in the world, a base from which to travel further. For a Canadian or American, the immediately obvious choice would be a home in the Caribbean, while anyone living in Europe has an enviable range of choices too, as do Australian residents. But before you choose to move to a new country, you need to keep aware of some important principles.

Firstly, it is essential to do some research before you move anywhere, but all the more so when you are moving to another country. However many similarities there may be between your first home country and your second home country, there will be subtle differences that can be quite disruptive if you have to face them every day. They are always surmountable, but only if you do prior research and make sure you are equipped to face the changes.

Secondly, it is necessary to become a part of the community wherever you move to. This does not mean you have to hold a party immediately on moving in and invite everyone to it. What you do need to do, though, is be active. Even if it is just going out for a walk in the morning to buy the newspaper, dining out every so often, or joining some clubs locally, it will vastly aid the settling in process.

You should also learn the language, if you are moving somewhere that has another language. There are many ex-pat communities in countries all over the world. Without a doubt, there are varying levels of welcome extended to them by the host communities, and by far the greatest level of welcome is that which is extended to those who can be bothered to learn the local language. It is simply common sense. If someone makes the effort to speak a second language, it demonstrates a level of courtesy which will be appreciated and reciprocated.

You should not expect to fit in immediately in your new country. No matter how prepared you are, how prepared you feel you are for the change of moving to a new country, there is always a settling in period. It is something which always makes demands of a person, because there is a total change. Things you have taken for granted are no longer there, little things that you didn’t realize you appreciated about your home country will suddenly become big things. Does it slightly irritate you when you are treated in a certain way in your home country? When the locals of your new home country fail to treat you in that way, you will resent it slightly. A lot of little changes go together to make a big change. Does this mean you shouldn’t go for it? No, it certainly doesn’t. The challenges we face in life make it what it is. Go for 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 Oct 12, 2009.

Global Millionaires Number Hits Record High

New Stats About Millionaires

First Published Date: June 24, 2015

How many people became millionaires last year? About a million, at a record pace for the sixth consecutive year. A recent report published by the consultant Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.

India may be a poor country, but millionaires seem to be shining in India more than anywhere else. Millionaires rose at a record pace at 26 percent, which is the biggest percentage increase among all other countries.

Here are some other highlights from the report:

– World millionaires rose by 920,000 to a record high of 14.6 million.
– One third or more of the new millionaires live in the US (345,000).

– Global assets held by the millionaires reached a record high $56 trillion.

– The richest millionaires, those have $30 million or more, held 35 percent of the wealth, but only 1 percent of the total millionaires.

– The U.S. is where the most millionaires live followed by Japan, Germany, and China.

Financial Speculation & Reading the Signs

Financial Speculation Is Generally Not To Be Encouraged

First Published Date: May 17, 2009

As a child, a lot of your early reading practice comes from signs. There is only so long you can get away with walking on the grass in direct defiance of a sign before the groundskeeper asks you, often quite forcefully “Can’t you read?” and points to the sign in question. The meaning of the “Wet Paint” sign is often learned in a manner more practical than academic, and results in the need for one’s parents to buy a new pair of trousers. But we learn from these signs and we learn to look out for them. As we get older, the signs change in a practical sense – sticking to speed limits, age restrictions at clubs and so forth – and also in a figurative sense.

We are in a global recession as things stand. As much as some of us will have seen it coming, there will be many more who did not. It is hard to blame them, as there were very few messages coming from a high level saying “Look out – there’s a recession afoot”. Lots of us were busy doing something else and didn’t see the sign until it was too late. In order to avoid compounding our mistakes, the most important thing we can do is be more careful about looking for signs and ensuring we understand them. The problem with economic signs is that they are not plastered everywhere that we might spend money, quite unlike the road signs that adorn every intersection. We need to be actively seeking them out.

Being aware of the financial situation at home and abroad takes work. Some of it may be outright boring. There are, many of you will agree, only so many stories about x industry in y country that you can read before the only letters you see are clusters of zzz – it does not help that economic news is treated by so many in one of two ways. Either it is delivered in a solemn baritone with countless abbreviations that make sense only to investment bankers, or it is dumbed down to insulting levels on news broadcasts and in newspaper articles that may as well be entitled “Finance for Cretins”. The average citizen is not, contrary to popular myth, a cretin. Nor are they a financial whiz kid. Hence the unsurprising lack of information that you feel you can use.

It is clear enough that now is a time when speculation is generally not to be encouraged. If you have a “can’t miss” prospect lined up then it would be positively rude not to investigate it further, but vagueness on how it will pay out, when it will pay out and why this is a certainty – or at least a probability – are the least you should be looking out for. Anything less and you need to proceed with extreme caution. At some point, the signs will change, and when they do there will be scope to take advantage of the new, encouraging signs. These will be things like employment levels rising, a boost in the travel industry or fresh investment coming to the local area. These are the kind of signs anybody should be happy to see.

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 May 17, 2009.

Real Estate Property In Croatia

Shopping the Beachfront in Croatia

First Published Date: Nov 18, 2009

Have you noticed the turning fad to buy foreign vacation property is booming once again? One of the premiere hotspots is the Adriatic coastline of Croatia. If you have not checked out the realtor sites or the available properties then you should at least view some general pictures of this outstanding coast. It is absolutely beautiful and if the available prices are with in your ballpark it is a treat you cannot afford to miss. Not only is this Mediterranean country an interesting as well as beautiful vacation spectacular but the investment potential of owning real estate for personal or business ventures is looking to be very promising.

One may wonder why this magnificent country had not been available until recently. In the late 90’s, once the war had ended and the communistic government had fallen it became more open to foreign land purchases. The property was fairly inexpensive yet several down falls kept most investors at bay. Buying property could take almost 5 years to finalize the excruciating processes. Problems with original ownership ensued because of the original owners such as Serbs had left many properties abandoned after the war. These giving great grievances to those buying from faulty owners who had assumed residence and later tried to sale. The government now though is going to great lengths to make these land values more available.

Not only is the coastline of Croatia amazing but there are also 700 some plus outlying islands. Not all of these are available for sale, as some 300 plus are already owned under private sanctions. Many of Hollywood’s elite have snatched some of these islands already, giving the beautiful Islands and Croatian Coast a glitz of paradise. Many like to follow the trends of Hollywood only adding to the increasing value of this amazing country. Some areas such as the popular city of Dubrovnik are unavailable, in which you would be hard pressed to find properties. This area began soaring in popularity in 2000 and prices have been increasing every since.

However many of the remaining areas are still offering several available properties and lands for sale. The islands of course are made available first to the Croatian government for sanction or resale, so owning your own Mediterranean island may not be impossible but prospects are thinner than to purchase private properties from owners. Current property owners have the rights to sale to whom ever they enter into contract.

While researching your new vacation prospects, include that the Croatian country is soon to be joining the European Union and has been in process since it has been invited in 2005. This may change or alter the market and land availability, which in turn may also drive property prices sky high. If the opportunity presents itself to become a Croatian landowner, investor or vacationer, then it is best you seize the day.

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 Nov 18, 2009.

New Credit Card Rules

What New Credit Card Rules Mean

First Published Date: May 23, 2009

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is unveiling new regulations which will force credit card companies to behave in a more transparent manner – including a strict disclosure policy on penalty fees and interest rates. The move, announced Thursday (May 21), is intended to bring an end to or at least limit the incidence of Canadian consumers becoming saddled with excessive interest payments on their cards. In the midst of a global recession, more consumers than ever are struggling with debt repayments, and in Canada as elsewhere, the banks are being blamed for this situation.

Short-term special offers regarding rates and fees have long been used as a way to persuade shoppers to take out credit cards – leading to even reluctant customers finally agreeing to go plastic, then finding out some way down the line that the special offers are not worth the paper they are printed on in many situations. The new transparency regulations are intended to give customers a better chance of spotting the worthless offers and only accepting a credit card that they will be able to benefit from in a substantive manner. The way of things up to now has been that customer obligations regarding the special offers are couched in the cardholder agreements using the old obfuscatory methods of small print and impenetrable jargon.

Among a comprehensive raft of legislation, Flaherty is also set to introduce an industry-wide 21-day grace period for interest on new purchases, so that if customers pay their balance in full by the due date they will not incur interest. Up to now this period has been practised by some banks but not by all, but the new legislation will make it a blanket rule. The limiting of certain business practices that are not beneficial to customers will form a major plank of the new legislation. This will also hit the banks who have recently shortened their purchase-to-payment interest-free period, a move already condemned by the Consumers’ Association of Canada.

The ideas are intended to give Canadian customers a bit more breathing room on monthly bills – meaning that customers who do not pay off their bill in full will no longer find themselves penalized by interest. A large majority of Canadian households do pay their bills off in full every month – estimates put this in the region of 70% of homes – but with belt-tightening becoming a competitive sport in most of the Western world there are a number who simply cannot.

Opinions on the moves seem to differ widely, with opposition critics having derided the minister’s measures as nothing more than an “information campaign” which will do little or nothing to protect customers who are already struggling. Others have dubbed the moves “weak” and suggested that the minister is actively seeking to favour  his “bank buddies on Bay Street”. Opposition proposals which have not been adopted included a cap on credit card interest at 5% above the prime rates enjoyed by commercial banks. The NDP, who suggested this move, say that the government’s latest move will “send working families into more debt”.

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 May 23, 2009.