Sub-Prime Crisis Have Your IRA Down? Move To Nicaragua
With many 401K’s and IRA’s affected negatively by the recent sub-prime crisis and its affect on the stock market, imminent retirees may wonder what they can buy with what remains of their retirement nest egg.
A recent article in The Financial Times suggests that plenty of beautiful land is available in Nicaragua and there are already quite a few ex-patriates living in relative luxury on personal finances that support one-fifth the cost of a comparable set-up in the United States.
One of the people featured in the FT piece, Chris Renshaw, had originally planned to stay in Costa Rica but found it too crowded for his linking so he moved to nearby Nicaragua which was much cheaper and less developed.
Nicaragua’s populist president and former Marxist revolutionary, Daniel Ortega, may seem as prohibitive for investment in the country in that land has been indiscriminately re-possessed in similar situations, but a local real estate consultant, Raul Calvet, counters to FT that this is only perception, “We are worried about the effect this could have on prospective investors who don’t know better.”
Regardless, a Coldwell-Banker broker in the area suggests that one must have a good lawyer.
If everything works out for current investors in Nicaragua, they will continue to have access to both beautiful, natural landscapes - some formed by volcanoes - and a rich cultural heritage that includes Grenada, a potential UNESCO World Heritage site according to FT.
September 20, 2008 – 2:14 pm