International Living Celebrates its 30th Anniversary
It has grown from a single-fold, black-and-white newsletter to a 48-page full-color magazine, but International Living is still delivering the same message it did when it started in 1980: it’s possible to live better, have more fun, and make more money by broadening your horizons and looking abroad.
“The great thing about the world,” says Bill Bonner, founding publisher of International Living, “is that the more you see of it, the larger it gets. And the more you take advantage of the opportunities it presents, the more opportunities it offers.”
Bonner says the benefits and opportunities of living internationally have turned out to be greater than he expected when he launched the publication 30 years ago.
“I imagined, for example, that you might make more money investing in emerging markets than you would by investing in the mature markets of home. That turned out to be truer than I thought. Indian stocks are up some 17,000% since IL began publishing.”
International Living currently goes out to 54,000 magazine subscribers around the world. Via email and through its website at www.internationalliving.com, International Living’s daily e-letters are read by more than 500,000 online subscribers. International Living is now recognized as a global leader in providing information and resources on living overseas, and major news outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and AARP site International Living stories and indexes.
International Living’s 30th Anniversary issue features the stories of three subscribers who took the plunge and moved away from their own hometowns to try life abroad.
Joel and Anna Moskowitz left Los Angeles four years ago to live on the tropical island of Roatan. They built their dream home on a beachfront lot they found during an International Living tour of the Bay Islands of Honduras. Instead of retiring, they spend half the year in Los Angeles working and the other half relaxing near the Roatan surf.
Derek and Lesley MacPhail are still searching for their piece of paradise. In fact, Derek recently resigned from his job, and he and Lesley sold the house and bought an RV. They’ll start out from Canada and scout through Mexico, Belize, and possibly as far south as Panama. They plan to enjoy the search as much as they’ll enjoy whatever they find.
Scot Smyth and his partner Kristine first visited Little Corn Island off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua in 2007. Looking for a change from their business in Colorado, they now own and run their own eco-friendly resort on the little tropical island that has no airport, cars, motorcycles, even golf carts.
Bonner says these stories show that the original message of International Living is just as fresh now as it was when the magazine began.
“The point we made 30 years ago was that life was short, so why limit yourself to what you can find in your own home town? Three decades later, we’ve seen a lot of what other hometowns have to offer, and we’re going to continue to explore.”
Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can live a happier, healthier and wealthier life overseas.
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