| Spotlight: real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran |
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 You also mention the growing number of incentives being offered abroad to lure U.S. retirees. What's your favorite?
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| Where do you fit? |
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 The best example is Panama City, Panama. Listen to why people should be going to Panama City: If you move there, they have no requirement as to how much net worth you need to have, unlike other countries. In Panama City, the most expensive real estate you can buy there is maybe $200,000. What does that buy you? It gets you a three- or four-bedroom penthouse with terraces on the ocean. You can't spend more than that. Put with that the fact that the government, as an incentive, charges no real estate taxes for 20 years. That's a long time. Your carrying costs on something like that are so minimal because there are no real estate taxes. The government there loves Americans. At every restaurant there, with drinks included, you would be hard-pressed to spend $20 for two people to have dinner, and the government mandates that anyone over 61 gets 50 percent off the dinner tab, the same with movie tickets and the theater life. Panama City now is like South Beach on speed: People are dancing in the street late at night, there's a great party nightlife and sexiness and theater and culture and it's an easy-in, easy-out flight. And because of our Panama Canal, all the hospitals were built and run by Americans with American doctors. You've got it all there for nickels on the dollar.
You list several destinations for people who want to make a positive contribution to the planet.
There is one place on the other side of Costa Rica (Southern Nicoya Peninsula) away from the tourists that I think is a gem for those among us who want to have more meaning or purpose in life. There is a section of Costa Rica that is in dire need of Americans or any population to help teach in their schools there. It's a poverty-stricken area, plus it's losing its rain forest. The nature lover might just like to go there and help replant that rain forest. Costa Rica is done as a tourist destination in my mind, but it's a place that's perfect for the do-gooder who wants to really make a difference.
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