overseas investing
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How does one invest in overseas markets? Retiring abroad is a dream of mine. However, I wasn't able to seriously consider the possibilities until my 50s due to life getting in the way, so I got a late start on saving up. The Golden Visa program in so many countries really appeals to me. The problem is that every country I'm remotely interested in and researched seems to want potential retirees to invest minimum $300-500K in their economies through real estate, the arts, or business, with some also allowing investments in their stock markets. By the time I retire, I'll have the necessary minimums or more. I don't have that kind of free capital just sitting around, but I have a great job and make a great salary, so I have a certain amount of free capital that I can invest on a month to month basis in order to build what I'll need by then. Plus, I'll make a very tidy profit when I finally sell the house I'm currently living in. The problem is that all of these countries also require a local bank account in order for one to invest in their markets. I feel like this should be a simple problem to solve, but can't get one of those without a local address, which I won't have until I purchase property and/or move there. So how do I make this happen?
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Hello there. Sorry about the technical difficulties.
Let's start with the golden visa issue. The type of programs you are referring to have mainly abandoned real estate as an option. But there are plenty of other visa types that will work for you as well. There's no need for you to start investing little bits into foreign stock markets to get residency abroad.
Of course, if you have money in an IRA, you can convert some of it to a self directed IRA, and to use that to invest in qualifying assets in whatever country you want to live in. As you note, it's quite difficult to get banking and brokerage facilities in a foreign country unless you have a close connection there, or until you've got a residency visa.
If your goal is to retire overseas, then your best bet is to focus on getting a financially independent person's visa, sometimes called a non-lucrative visa. In all countries, this requires that you demonstrate a regular flow of passive income from pension or investments. As long as you have enough coming in, and you have all the other paperwork in order, that allows you to live in the country indefinitely. And it doesn't require that you open up a bank account ahead of time.