MikeKO said:
If you want perfect safety, you can't get that much. If you have a 3-6 year horizon, 10% is very attainable. 600K would be better than the 500K in this thread though. Take 400,000 invested in 30% bond funds, 70% value & growth funds spread across market cap. Take the remainder (200K), and split it about 60 / 40 Bond/cash and very conservative mutuals. Live off of the 200K. By the time it is depleted, your 400K will have grown a bunch. Repeat forever - you'll die very rich. There are some high yield possibilities in DR (or other foreign countries). Escott has posted a lot on this. I wouldn't invest squat in DR until I've lived there awhile. Something else to keep in mind. The IRS gets antsy about taxpayers moving captial into areas of the world where it can't extort information on your income. So, if you are going to maintain your US connections, you need to be careful. Can't speak for Canada.
Mike
No such thing as PERFECT safety. There is risk in everything but you try to qualify the degree of risk.
30% in bond funds presently will return about 4% if you are lucky. As the interest rates rise from this 1/2 century bottom the price of the funds will drop so you will realize capital depreciation to get this return. Same with Bonds. A little too late to advise bonds and bond funds for appreciation and not depreciation.
I bet you recommended Cisco and Intel along with Sun Micro 5 years ago. I will forgive you the Lucents and Worldcomms of this world along with all those companies that have failed over the last 5 years.
I wouldnt invest squat in ANYTHING unless I had a bit of confidence in the investment. For years I preached right here against investing in Real Estate. Just do a search under Jazzcom and real estate. I even did speadsheets and related it to how many Presidente beers you would make by NOT buying and taking my advice. Evidence doesn't lie, bullshit doesn't fly. Look it up.
I started buying in the DR 9 months ago when I felt that there was some capital gains to be had instead of capital losses that have been going on for years. It may even turn out that I was right on the bottom of the market when I made the change in heart. I think I have been spot on so far.
I have been investing in one particular Finance house in POP for 3-4 years now and have been very happy with my investment. I know many others right on this board that have invested also and have the same thoughts and happiness as I do.
As far as the US IRS goes, as an American with a Dominican Residency I am able to make 78-80k off shore tax free as long as I declare it on my income taxes but still have to pay all taxes on income made in the US. I just sent in a 25k check towards NEXT years taxes so I don't suffer any penalties. So far I have paid in 38k in taxes to the US government without even knowing what my obligation will be. I have corps in the DR that manage investments in everything including Real Estate. I draw a salary from these corps. The IRS frowns on NOTHING I do. If I ever made 80k in the DR I would move that offshore because that would be prudent. I don't need that much income in the DR to live like the pig that I am.
Keep the good opinions coming. Opinions are just like assholes, everybody has one.