Plus: Options For Financing Abroad

I missed out on the Great Recession. In fact, since I moved abroad in 2001, those recession years actually produced my highest income.

My home in Punta del Este, Uruguay, jumped in value during the U.S. housing crash, as did our beach house in Brazil. My Brazilian reais jumped almost 39% against the U.S. dollar, and my Uruguayan peso-denominated CDs paid over 9%, while the pesos themselves also gained in value.

Meanwhile, during the depths of the recession, I bought a foreclosure condo in Arizona.

I don’t mean to give the impression that Brazil and Uruguay are better bets for investment than the United States. I don’t know if that’s true… or how long it will remain true if it is.

In fact, when the Brazilian market flattened unexpectedly a couple of years ago, that cheap condo in Arizona jumped almost 73% in value. So in this case, the Scottsdale market outperformed both Brazil and Uruguay.

I like to sound brilliant as much as the next guy. But, in all honesty, I’ll have to reluctantly admit that my good fortune was not a result of any special talent on my part.

In fact, I didn’t accurately predict any of those economic swings.

The reason I came though the recession as I did was because Continue reading →