Carpe diem…seize the day.
That was the unofficial theme of our recent conference in Quito, Ecuador. At the question-and-answer session at the end, one of the attendees asked our entire assembled panel of experts and expats to give their single best piece of advice for anyone thinking about living or investing abroad.
We were all meant to come up with something different…but the truth is: Most of our suggestions were variations on “seize the day.” Invest overseas now. Don’t wait to diversify your holdings. Retire sooner.
Time is the most precious commodity you have, and if you don’t use it, you truly lose it. The time you wait to embark on your life’s adventure is time you never get back.
One curious thing I’ve noticed during my years abroad is that in times of crisis, the value of seizing the day doesn’t diminish…it actually increases. That’s when you’ll find some of the best opportunities for investing or launching a new life.
That may seem contrary to common thinking. But that’s why we here at International Living often call ourselves “contrarians.” If the masses are moving one way, we look the other.
My friend and colleague, Ronan McMahon, editor of Real Estate Trend Alert, does this every day. World economic downturn? Time to go shopping!
Many of the opportunities he finds are available precisely because of the global recession. Wait for “better times,” and you almost guarantee they’ll disappear before you get a chance to act on them.
Ronan is just back from Brazil…a country gliding under the radar of the “doom-and-gloom” mainstream media. It’s probably better positioned than any other country on earth to weather the current economic storm. But few people are talking about it.
And that put Ronan in the right place at the right time. He came back talking about how key mega-resorts going in today along Brazil’s “Gold Coast” will raise nearby property values in their wake. He’s pinpointed spots likely to benefit most…places where, today, you can still grab a village house just off the beach for as little as $10,000…
He took a helicopter ride to get a bird’s-eye view of the area and said it was easy to see how a bridge (stalled for some time over a legal dispute but under construction again now) will slash the drive time to the region’s best beach…and open up whole new areas to development. And you can get ahead of that “path of progress” to position yourself for profits as those areas come into their own.
On one beach Ronan walked, the wind blows an average of 12 meters per second, year-round–nice for kite surfers, ideal for wind turbines. He says there’s an easy way to benefit from clean energy profits along this stretch of coast–and the yields are incredible…
You see, in troubled times, opportunities DO exist. It’s just a matter of seizing them.
So get moving. Start realizing your dreams. Don’t ignore the current crisis…use it to your advantage.
Carpe diem.
Stay happy and healthy,
Dan Prescher
Publisher, International Living
P.S. Ronan is going to give me and Lee Harrison (our Latin America correspondent) a full debriefing about his Brazil trip this coming Tuesday, May 5th at 1.00 p.m. Eastern Time. You’re welcome to listen in. There’s no charge. It’s free. I just thought you might like to get the full story right from Ronan himself. You can sign up right here.
