Have you got some time on your hands these holiday weekends....
Are you starting to think about investing for the New Year...
Investing is important to Expat retirees and Serial Expats -- with the exception, of course, of anyone scraping by on Social Security who has no discretionary capital.
(By the way, this thread is not intended to be about Las Olas; that project has its own thread and we're not trying to duplicate it here.)
So, let's talk stocks. Easy enough to buy and sell equities from your computer with a U.S.-based brokerage account.
Forbes reviewed the numbers three years ago, looking at the historical, long-term best times to buy.
The article was titled "Is November A Good Time To Buy Stocks"...and the period studied was the 60 years starting in 1950.
"Historically, stocks have generated their worst returns in the period of May through October and their best returns between November and April," Forbes reported.
The historical November-April return for the Dow-Jones Industrials was 7.4 percent for the average year. In contrast, the average May-October return for the blue chips was 0.4 percent.
(Source: Stock Trader's Almanac for the years cited in the Forbes article.)
2015 investment tips, anyone...
Expat Investments For 2015
Buying stocks or mutual funds, wait for the coming correction. If history is any indicator, the market will be correcting by thousands of points soon (about 20% is normal).
I read through that very quickly at first and thought you said 'socks'. And then I mused to myself why you'd be thinking that socks were the next gold mine of investment. Socks my boy, buy socks!
Like the line from 'The Graduate" about plastics.
I have had several internet conversations lately about socks, they do seem to be the current rage. Everybody is into socks right now.
But since I finally deciphered you said stocks and not 'socks' I don't have much wisdom to add. Except that if the Swiss people vote Yes on the gold backed currency referendum November 30, I'm buying me some Swiss Francs.
Sorry for the mixup.
BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- Voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected plans to protect the country's wealth by investing in gold and drastically limit immigration, according to polling firm gfs.bern.
A proposal to require the Swiss central bank to hold a fifth of its reserves in gold was opposed by 78 percent of voters and supported by 22 percent, projections based on tallies provided by selected voting districts indicated.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ … 0-07-26-25
I'm crushed. 
Plan B time
Real estate blogger Dom Buonamici says he'll be coming out with a guide to macadamia farming in Ecuador. See what you think of this investment.
According to Mr. Buonamici, writing from Los Bancos, EC, and promoting such farming in a promotional email, what the new "mac nut" farmer will need for starters includes:
$100,000 for land in the right area of Ecuador...
$50,000 to prepare the land for planting and build a small plantation home...
$24,000 for macadamia seedlings...and...
$15,000 for a used tractor.
Also figure $400 per month per worker for possibly five workers, plus some part-time seasonal workers for the harvest time.
Mr. B's estimate for annual revenue is 132-198K.
Have you guessed "the biggest benefit to growing Macadamia in Ecuador..." He says it's that it's "an uncommon product that most locals don't even recognise, thus repelling the common thieves. Plus, the product cannot be consumed until processed by expensive machinery which few have, further repelling the thieves..."
Drawbacks:
"You won't see any production in the first four years" and the peak production on which the revenues above are based occurs starting in Year 8. The trees live and produce for 50-60 years if well maintained.
Macadamia farming in Ecuador: Road to Riches...or Nutty Notion...
I like it. I like Macadamia nuts too.
Ecuador has some pretty prohibitive agricultural import laws. Where is he going to get the seedlings?
It sounds like it could be a stable long term business. Not a bad plan.
gardener1 wrote:I like it. I like Macadamia nuts too.
Ecuador has some pretty prohibitive agricultural import laws. Where is he going to get the seedlings?
It sounds like it could be a stable long term business. Not a bad plan.
Every year we get chocolate coated macadamia nuts from our family in Hawaii. One would think Ecuador could produce them cheaper.
gardener1 wrote:I like it. I like Macadamia nuts too....Where is he going to get the seedlings?
He said, get the seedlings from somebody already growing mac nuts.
"No electricity is needed on the farm and there is no irrigation system, the trees are fine with natural rainfall. (The farmer Dom spoke to) drives from Quito every weekend to manage the farm himself. On the way back to Quito he fills the back of his pickup truck with the week's output of mac nuts.
"He has a processing plant and oven in Quito he says cost him around 200K. Bu he said the plant is not necessary, most growers just sell wholesale. He said he'd buy your nuts at the wholesale price if you produced them."
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