Customer Reviews

The Offshore Entrepreneur: Profit & Opportunity Have No Borders

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I grew up in a country where the palm trees danced melodically to the wind and "tomorrow" was the most used word in the language. A place where electricity and running water were luxuries, not a right; and paved streets and working telephones a dream, not a reality. Those were reasons enough for my father to feel that moving to the USA was the most appropriate move if we wanted to live like modern humans. So he did what he thought was right and moved his family to Florida.

I remember vividly the day we arrived to America. The crisp blue sky and the luscious green of the vegetation blended in perfectly to create a spectacular scenario. What a sale that day! US 1 was packed bumper to bumper with shiny new cars. All the drivers patiently waited one behind the other following the instructions of a battalion of police officers who regulated the afternoon rush hour. No trash, no noise, no chaos! The perfect scenario, the picture-perfe! ! ct view. Welcome to America, land of law and order. What a welcome to our new home!

As I write these lines, back where I was born, I cannot thank the USA more for the opportunities and the chances that great land and it's people gave me. It would not be fair to say that I do not feel a great sense of gratitude and that I do not owe what I have left to that great land of opportunity.

Today, almost 20 years later, that beautiful picture and that great scenario my father introduced his whole family to is not there. I worked hard for twelve years and was able to accumulate less than 62% of what I earned. The few dollars I was able to keep and I "wisely" invested were taxed again. And when I decided to look for my financial freedom and become my own boss, the regulations and demands of the system kept me "in line", unable to fulfill my dreams.

My wife and I had a dream. We wanted to own and operate a small bed and breakfa! ! st in a coastal area in Florida. Nothing fancy, nothing ! big, just a quaint little place that we could call our own and guests could call heaven. We started looking for the perfect spot and after a few months we found it somewhere on Florida's east coast. We had the money to purchase the place and what we thought would be enough to wait until the business took off. Then we found out about the reach of big brother's arm. We started looking at permits, health department compliance regulations, bureaucratic red tape and the list went on and on and on. Thousands of dollars were to be allocated to satisfy bureaucrats who probably were on the big corporation's pay rolls. Our cash reserves were suddenly coins and we could not live our dream. Months later, we found out that a large corporate hotel chain was looking to open a hotel in the same area we were hoping to. You draw your own conclusions.

Because of this I went offshore to start my own business. I found out through The Offshore Entrepreneur that the g! ! overnment of Panama had passed a law that favored those who invested in fomenting tourism. The Panamanian government granted tax benefits to start tourist oriented ventures as long as I generated employment for it's people and complied with very logical rules. So I, just as my father had done years ago, packed up my family and moved to Panama. I now enjoy a tax free status for 20 years which will allow me to get a solid business started as opposed to a book of regulations and a list of compliance items that are enacted to "dissuade" the middle class American dream.

As much as I hate to say it, it is true; the land of opportunities is now the land of regulations. The American dream has become the American nightmare, and the land of the free has become the land of the policed. Perhaps you do not have to flee the country to make your dream come true, but what you do not know is that dreaming offshore is a lot easier and the nightmares are ! ! fewer.

Can you really spend a week in Morocco, bargaining with Bedouins, exploring the casbah, and wandering ancient caravan roads -- without spending a single penny of your own money? Can you fly off to London at a moment's notice, take tea, see a show, and go on a shopping spree at Harrod's -- while someone else picks up the tab? In a word, yes.

The answer is that it takes a bit of creativity, a dose of old-fashioned ingenuity, a little leg work, and, most important, a great deal of reliable information.

You'll have to come up with the imagination. And you'll have to invest the time and energy. But Adam Starchild has provided the information in The Offshore Entrepreneur. With this information, you have everything you need to know to travel wherever your dreams may take you... without ever worrying about the cost. In fact, you may even be able to make money on your next trip.

Take charge of your own wealth and well-being. No government is going to provide you with a secure and prosperous lifestyle. At best they will protect you while you accomplish your goals -- at worst you will have to protect yourself from them. The Offshore Entrepreneur provides you with everything you need to achieve financial security and prosperity.

Broaden your horizins, and see the whole world as an orchard ripe for harvesting. When you do this you will always -- I repeat, always -- find tremendous opportunity for profit in different areas of the world.

Protect your wealth, sheltering it from individuals and governments. With your wealth spread out in safe places, it's easy to have it build more wealth for you while it's very secure. Use the whole world as your vault, and build your own personal fortress of wealth and safety.

Adam Starchild shows the best ways to multiply wealth, and the best places to keep it safe. We can contribute to the prosperity of the world by being the most prosperous people we can be. It's as simple as that.

As I said in my own book, The Offshore Update, published by Eden Press:

Of all the financial experts who have demonstrated literary talent, Adam Starchild is perhaps the least appreciated. This is unfortunate because Starchild is not only a lucid writer -- he is also a credible and conscientious reporter working in an area that until recently has belonged in the same chapter of financial literature with Fort Knox, Howard Hughes, and the Gnomes of Switzerland

It seems like most of the reader reviews are talking about the privacy and tax haven aspects of this book. The author included "profits" in the title, and there is much solid offshore investment information to be found here.

Due to recent political, economic and technological changes, the world economy has entered a very dynamic and exciting era. Today's savvy investor no longer just limits himself to the opportunities he finds in his domestic marketplace but rather looks all around the world for his investing opportunities. Formerly stagnant economic systems of the excommunist bloc countries like Russia or Poland and the developing nations of regions like Latin America are all embracing the free-market capitalistic system and are opening their doors to global investors. Access to capital is critical for these economies to grow. This is not a short-term fad but rather a long-term economic need and a growth opportunity for the astute investor. Clearly, if your portfolio is not invested in foreign markets, you may well be missing out on significant investment opportunities from around the world. Furthermore, if you look overseas for investment opportunities, you can invariably discover that you have a vastly greater basket of funds, markets and interest earning, tax-deferred possibilities than those on offer to the domestic investor. That means that there are many exciting, dynamic investment opportunities not currently available in the US. They are only available offshore. Thus, an international component may actually increase your portfolio returns, reduce overall portfolio volatility over the long term through diversification and take advantage of market capitalization outside the United States since international investing can take advantage of equity performance demonstrated during various stages of foreign economic development.

For those who are not familiar with international investing, global or international equity funds can be divided into several broad categories, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive and are rather easy to distinguish from each other. Emerging Markets Funds are those funds that invest in those countries that are evolving to a primarily industrial economy. Global Equity Funds invest in both foreign and US securities, with the ratio of domestic to foreign securities varying from fund to fund. A Global Index Fund invests in a portfolio of foreign stocks that is designed to yield a return closely approximating a benchmark foreign stock index. International Equity Funds normally invest in the foreign stocks of "established markets" such as those of Western European countries, Japan, Australia, etc. Regional Funds are those that invest in the stocks of a particular region, such as Latin America or the Caribbean. Finally, as opposed to Regional Funds, there are Single-Country Funds, which invest solely in stocks of a particular country, such as Mexico or Japan. Of particular interest are emerging market funds and the opportunities these funds present to the international investor.

Starchild is making an excellent point in this book -- if only enough people are listening. He is trying to move people away from packaged offshore companies and trusts into developing real offshore businesses that are unquestionably tax free instead of just being holding companies or trusts that might be subject to challenge by the big country tax authorities.

If you live the international lifestyle and build a real offshore business -- perhaps tourism or import-export -- you have a much higher income and don't have to worry about problems.

This book was years ago and I am delighted to see that he has now followed up the concept in some of his newer books on places to retire and on places to put an international tax free business.

Some of those who failed in dotcom enterprises would have done well to heed the ideas and inspirations of this master entrepreneur who has been building global enterprises for over 30 years, and writing books about it for over 25 years. It is experience and insight that is valuable in all economies at all times. I especially liked his suggestions on using travel businesses as leverage to build other international enterprises, such as import and export. The chapter on finder's fees was worth the price of the book alone.

Interesting read but the same warnings as many of the less credible authors and that is, "You better get more money out of the US before the IRS or some creditor gets it." Enough already. Let's see some concrete examples and strategies! There are many better books on the market.

Does 'amassing unlimited insurance premimums and interest income' sound a little too good to be true? Read the book for other humorous and not so humorous get rich quick pipe dreams. And when you're done, throw the book away, think clearly, and work hard. That's the only road to wealth.