In the recent survey, a few people left comments with specific questions. Since there isn’t any connection between the survey and the person who answered it, I don’t have their e-mail address to answer. But it’s probably better to answer their questions here anyway, in case you were wondering the same thing.
Question: Where can I open up a brokerage account in Asia or South America?
Answer: I’m going to assume the person asking the question is from the US, since almost 60% of the visitors here are.
When it comes to overseas brokerage accounts, it gets difficult for US citizens. Besides all the reporting requirements on the account owners, they also make the banks and brokerages go through additional reporting (if they want to trade on any of the US exchanges). So many places refuse to accept US clients, unless they have million dollar accounts.
Personally, I took all of my money out of the stock market and am investing it in building my own businesses. So I can’t give you first-hand experiences with any offshore brokerages.
The name that keeps coming up for offshore brokerage accounts is Boom Securities, out of Hong Kong. The last I’ve heard is that they still accept US clients, although they aren’t allowed to trade on the US exchanges. You can trade stocks in a dozen countries, and hold your balance in six different currencies.
There is also a blog I sometimes follow, written by an investor who travelled to several countries and opened up accounts in each of them. His name is Jeff Opdyke, and you can find him writing at Sovereign-Investor.com. He has some stories about how the stock exchanges in several foreign countries operate. I don’t know if his strategies make any money, but his information is interesting.
If anyone reading has a recommendation (or warning) about specific offshore brokerages, please share your experiences by adding a comment below.
Question: One reader noticed that ice cream was a big part of my personal expenses, and mentioned that she’s developed a non-dairy ice cream for a family member’s special diet requirements. They were wondering if something like that might go over well in Uruguay, and how difficult it would be to open a business there.
Answer: I know that I’d be willing to try it out, but I’m not sure how it would go over in Uruguay.
My two big concerns are that, from what I saw, most Uruguayans aren’t adventurous when it comes to eating, and opening a business in Uruguay is not exactly smooth or efficient.
One thing I really missed when living in Montevideo was foreign restaurants. I only found one place that made anything like Thai food. I don’t remember seeing any Indian restaurants. Uruguay is pretty much a meat, potatoes, and pasta place. So I’d be cautious about starting a business selling a new, unique type of food in Uruguay.
As far as opening a business in Uruguay, it ranks in 124th place for ease of doing business, according to doingbusiness.org. That’s very low. The expats I knew who opened, or tried to open, businesses in Uruguay all said it was extremely frustrating.
Of course, I have been wrong before (a friend of mine came up for an idea similar to LoJack, years before it existed, and I said that dealing with the various government agencies would make it too difficult to ever get started). But I’d suggest starting out slow with a business like this, and prepare yourself for some frustrations.
Question: Are there any reliable books on Uruguay? Is Lee Harrison a good source for information?
Answer: If you’re looking for a general travel guide to Uruguay, the best I’ve seen is Uruguay (Bradt Travel Guide Uruguay) (Amazon affiliate link).
If you want a guide for expatriating to Uruguay, I’d be cautious with what you get. If you look at the Uruguay books on the Escape Artist website, they include the dates when the books were published. Lee’s book was published in 2005 and David Hammond’s book was published in 2008.
If you get either of those books, you’ll probably learn some useful information. However, don’t read any of the prices form those older books and expect to find them to be correct this year. In the sales page for Lee’s book, it says that you can buy ranchland in Uruguay for US$ 100 per acre. I’d be surprised if you can get any good land for less than US$ 1000 an acre today. I’ve even seen some go for over US$ 3000 an acre. Homes and apartments in Uruguay have also gone up in price drastically over the last few years.
Lee does have a book for sale on International Living’s site that says it is the 2010 edition. I believe I bought an earlier copy of that book, before I went to Uruguay, and it was useful. It seems like Lee focuses on real estate. So if you plan to buy real estate in Uruguay, that book will probably be more useful to you than if you expect to be a renter.
Of course, I’ll mention my Uruguay book that you can get here. It’s a relatively small book that focuses on the residency process, opening a bank account, current cost of living, etc. Although, if you’re looking for a guidebook of all the cities, how to buy real estate, or how to fix up a house in Uruguay, my book won’t help you with that.
Additional questions from the survey
There were also some requests for more information on specific countries, and several that involved real estate (buying, financing, building, renovating, zero-footprint construction, renting out, etc.) I’m currently working on a plan to get more information about those subjects.
Do you have answers for these questions?
If you have any experiences that might help the people who asked these questions, please add a comment below. Thanks!
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