My Big Picture in 5 minutes

Lee-Wang’s story is not unusual these days. He and his family have been living in Asia for more than 25 years. But as his business expands globally, he spends more and more time shuttling between countries. The globetrotting businessman is in the process of getting his citizenship through a Portuguese golden visa program that offers a real estate investment route to gaining residency and potential citizenship in the country and hence European citizenship. A big driver is for his two children to have the ease of travel a European passport offers in the future. The golden visa program in Portugal is the most popular in Europe. It was launched by the Portuguese government in 2012 to stimulate investment into Portugal and has since encouraged several billion Euros in real estate investment and over 2,000 family applications each year. An investment of €500,000 is required in real estate in Portugal. The property, either residential or commercial, can be rented for income. Any ...

Investing around the world is much like discussing money issues with your spouse. It can be difficult sometimes. The bulls and bears are still arguing over a number of issues – never mind. The year is ending soon and it is always easier to look back after the fact. Well, money this year would have been to load up everything in January and then go on vacation. It was as easy as pie. Risk assets for the most part of 2017 performed well, the zombie economy improved, the “grass-eating” North Koreans failed to puke the markets with their missiles and inflation was benign according to the central bankers. Commodities range-bound and bond yields did not surprise anyone. No one knows. I certainly do not know what is going to happen in 2018. As an early Christmas present, here are some of the bets on my wish list and you have to grab the rest especially the sh*t list at my private client talks. Higher volatility will rear its ugly head. There will be a reversion towards making sense. T...