One great benefit in Ecuador is the wonderful, low cost… but efficient and caring labor.

Success usually requires many forms of assistance.

I was reminded of this when a reader asked this question.

Hi Gary…your article here lists the many properties you have bought, fixed up and sold.   Very intriguing.  Since you are so busy running your publishing business, it is hard to see where you find the time. How do you set it up so you can get the fix-up done the way you want it without lots of “hands-on” time spent at the property making day-by-day decisions?

My reply.

This is a good question and I have to say that at the moment we are stressed on this point. Our business has sort of exploded upwards in the past several years so we have had to create an organization and delegate more than ever before.

We have our publishing business… sales have doubled since the beginning of 2007. We have added 11 rental properties in Ecuador and we went crazy and bought a hotel… which was empty and in pretty bad shape but is now pretty full most of the time and looking very good… more hot water… the best beds in the country and great food.

Plus an incredible staff.

Now we are working on our Florida project also… plus of course keeping our North Carolina farm going.

Here are three tricks I am learning to use as we grow.

First… I personally stick to my priorities… publishing… getting good messages out to our readers…. building our list of readers.

Second… I find good people and leave them alone to do their job… and keep things small, diversified and simple so errors are not fatal.

Here for example is our staff at the hotel.

Our hound Ma provides security and keeps cats away.

Eduardo and Consuelo serve the food better than I ever could.

Here is Franklin… the boss man at Meson de las Flores. He has forgotten more about how to run the hotel than I will ever know. Whenever I have a hair brained scheme, I always check with Franklin first.

Our two Rositas are the …

mothers at Meson.  They clean. They launder. They fix the flowers. They care.

I could never stand the pressure like our two chefs Alberto and Santiago… so I stay out of the kitchen!

Mauritio speaks five languages, looks after the hotel at night and helps Alberto Verdezoto guide our real estate tours.

Here is Mauritio and Alberto (left) at International Living’s last Ultimate Event and…

guiding a recent coastal real estate tour.

Our business has grown so quickly that when we added Christian to help at the hotel but have not taken his picture yet.

Bonnie Keough looks after our Ecuador export tours and all our tour coordination. Here she is with Consuelo at Meson.

Plus Richard Goebel…

keeps the office going and oversees all of our construction work in the US.

Lester Pennington and Dempsy keep things shipshape at the farm and help with our selective logging.  Right now they are shoveling snow just to keep the horse fed.

None of this would accomplish much without the carrier of all that we share.. our websites.  For these we depend totally on our webmaster David Cross and some Ecuadorian programmers.  Here is David with our daughter Cinda… his wife… a serendipity that blossomed from the business. David was our webmaster first!

Finally I have to mentioned the countless friends and contacts… attorneys… bankers…accountants… business people… butchers… bakers and candlestick makers who are on hand to answer questions, provide advise and throw in a helping hand as a subcontractor when required.

All have skills in their areas that are way beyond mine and I let them use them.  Nor are they limited to just one job.  Merri and I try to give an overall picture so we all move towards a common goal.  In this group we have accounting, secretarial, electrical, plumbing carpentry, marketing  and each is willing to do what is required towards that goal.. so in a day any one of us might process credit cards, do some computer work or fix a plugged toilet.

My major rule in working with everyone… is that in any and every transaction I look for ways that everyone is rewarded for their help. If I ask a question, I try to figure out how the answer can help the provider of the knowledge… as well as the recipient, The reward is not always immediate… but somehow favors are always returned.  One way I do this is by knowing what I do best and accepting pay only for this… providing information and contacts.  We do not try to make anything on business we send to banks, hotels, real estate brokers, products, travel agents, cruises or whatever and we send people a lot of business.  This means they are happier to assist.

Third, as just mentioned, I try to maintain a vision for all.

How to do that?

Yesterday’s message Ecuador & Electric looked at investing potential in the company Kyocera.

“Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera, fine tunes a point on creating vision in a new book.

Inamori is now 78-years old and is showing no signs of slowing down! I chose to quote him because he is such a great example of creating and sticking to a vision.

Inamori was born in  Japan and at age 27, he started Kyocera. His company is now a high-tech multinational maker of cellphones, office document equipment, solar power products and ceramic components that employs 66,000.  He founded KDDI in 1984, which is now Japan’s second-largest telecom network.  He is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk. His priest name Dai-wa, means “great harmony.” 

Here is an excerpt from a CNBC article,”One CEO’s Story: Do The Right Thing, Always” by Gloria McDonough-Taub that helps show how to reate and stick to a vision.

As Japan Airlines, Asia’s behemoth airline, flies closer to bankruptcy we’re learning more and more about the man tasked with leading the company during the restructuring.  Taking control now is Kazuo Inamori who the WSJ hailed as one of Japan’s “most revered entrepreneurs and management gurus… a man whose biography and style offer a stark contrast to the hidebound managers who have led the troubled airline in the past.”

Mr. Inamori, turns 78 years old next week and has no experience in the airline industry – BUT is considered a national treasure. His is a rags to riches story – one that includes the founding of two blue-chip Japanese companies: electronics component maker Kyocera Corp. and the No. 2 telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp.

He’s also the author of “A Compass to Fulfillment: Passion and Spirituality in Life and Business,” which was a bestseller in Japan.  McGraw-Hill has just published the English-language edition of the book.

In the book he shares his management philosophy weaving together his Buddhist faith and personal experience to create a life/business philosophy based on the simplest but most profound of human concepts: do the right thing, always.

In “A Compass to Fulfillment,” Inamori tries to help you develop your own personal philosophy for success by:

•    Recognizing your deepest desires and using them to create a better reality
•    Informing all decisions with simple truths and principles
•    Elevating your mind and practicing humility
•    Living your life steered by an attitude of selfless service

•    Controlling the trajectory of your life by accepting the “will of the universe”

“A Compass to Fulfillment” is about strategic thinking, but not in the sense of business and management technicalities. It is about, first, understanding yourself, and then using that knowledge to get to the point you want to be— in your career, in your business, and in your life.

I could not have said it better.  Success requires many forms of assistance and anyone creating a vision who uses the principles above is likely to easily find that many want to help.

Gary

Join Merri and me March 11-14 for   Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15   Travel with our staff to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

Ecuador has a pretty good internet infrastructure. I have better response in Cotacachi than I do here in Florida.  Every time it rains hard here in Lake County Florida… my DSL goes haywire.    The speed is just barely capable of providing streaming on hulu.com… sometimes. Other times it is not adequate.

In the larger cities of Ecuador… the infrastructure is excellent.  On the coast… out of Manta and other larger cities, it is workable but slow.

A reader just sent me this note.

Dear Gary:  I have been seriously considering moving to Ecuador, but I have a few questions. I am working connected to the Internet all day. If there are frequent power outages, this would seriously interfere with my business. Also I have to send out some work every day. If I participate in the tours (including the Shamanic tour), will I always get back to the Meson in the evening so that I can send my work out that day?

Here was my reply:

Today, according to Alexa, my website is ranked pretty well in many countries around the world:

This means I work on the internet.. a lot… at most hours… every day of the year. I live many months of the year in Ecuador and find that I often have better internet access in Ecuador than in Florida. You bet the tours are back in time to send out and or receive data over the net.

Part of the rest of the time…when we are not traveling…we live in a remote Andean Village at our Cotacachi Hotel, El Meson de las Flores.

We can run our internet business from any one of these places…now more easily than before.

Ecuador internet services continue to develop at a rapid pace and the latest development is mobile internet in Ecuador.

Three cell phone operators now offer an internet connection via a USB modem that receives data from cell phone networks. In other words wherever in Ecuador cell phones work there is access to broadband.

If you have the little modem and a lap top computer you can hook up to the internet anywhere in Ecuador where you can receive a cell phone signal from an Ecuadorian cell phone supplier.

This gives you the freedom to go anywhere that has even a hint of civilization. You won´t receive a signal in deep ravines or the remote jungles – but just about anywhere else is going to work just great.

We have a full report about internet connections for Ecuador Living subscribers. Learn how to subscribe here.

One frequent question I receive from those interested in Ecuador is “How can I earn income there?”

One answer is… “with an internet business.”

This is why we share a free course from Michelle Toole who, after attending our self publishing seminar and Ecuador tour started and built her first web success and has started another. She shares her 43rd lesson here.

I hope you enjoy and gain from it.  We give special thanks to Michelle for sharing it.

Does Your Local Business Need a Website?

By Michelle Toole

Do you have a small business that is not using the Internet? Is your clientele mostly local?

Perhaps you think the Internet offers few opportunities for businesses with a customer base clustered in a small geographic area; after all, the Internet is “world wide”… a “global medium.” If you do, you might be surprised at how profitable a web site can be for your local business.

Yes, it is true.  As a local business, if you’re not on the web, you’re leaving money on the table!

More and more, your potential clients are forsaking those local telephone books and Yellow Pages for Google and other search engines on the Internet.   Why?  For example, if you were looking for “lawn care service” in the town of Tarpon Springs in Florida, and did not find one, you can widen the search to “lawn care Florida” to get instant results.  Try widening your search with the Yellow Pages!

According to Entrepreneur.com “Websites are perhaps the most overlooked vehicle of advertising for local, owner-operated businesses. Yes, every retailer needs one. Every dentist, lawyer, accountant and minister needs one. Every café, restaurant, coffee shop and nightclub needs one. Every wholesale supply company needs one.  Not every local business needs to transact business online, but everyone listed in yesterday’s Yellow Pages needs to also be available on the internet today–it’s where your customers expect to find you.” 

And it’s not just making sure that the potential customers find you, more and more of your competition is coming online.  They are using the Internet to:

#1: Build trust and deepen relationships with existing local customers by providing friendly, personal information about the business, great content (ex., valuable “do-it-yourself” articles), “web site only” specials, etc.

#2: Raise their local profile above that of competitors

#3: Promote locally and gain new customers from competitors

#4: Continue to stay “top-of-mind” and deepen relationships with customers through an e-zine (and build sales, too — ex., “It’s spring, which means it’s time for aerating and fertilizing your lawn.” – OR – “Announcing our Web-site-only-10%-off-your-next-oil-change coupon”)

#5: Build targeted traffic to find new customers, even add entirely new income streams

#6: Leverage their local expertise and knowledge for global clients, selling their goods online, even through online auctions.

Bottom line?

If your small, local business does not have an Internet presence to promote itself, to keep in touch with its customers, extend its reach, and increase your customer base, you are losing out on a great opportunity for profit.

Building an Internet presence can help you to grow locally, create new global revenue streams or do both! Either way it is fast becoming an essential business tool in today’s economy.

You can check out Michelle’s web sites at http://healthy-holistic-living.com and http://home-remedies-and-natural-cures.com.  To get more great tips, like the ones above and to see how and what tools she used to create a successful on-line business go to sitesell-sbi.com

Learn more about our emailed course on how to develop your own internet business.

Gary

July Special Save $299

We provide three e-courses that can help you develop a micro business that can help you earn anywhere you live in the world.

International Business Made EZ

Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher

Tangled Webs We Weave – How to Create Your Own Internet Business

July Special.

Enroll in our October Quantum Wealth course October 7-10, 2010 or any of the Ecuador real estate tours below and choose one of the three $299 courses above for free.

Pre enroll for our October 7-10 North Carolina Course click here for details.

See Ecuador tours for August, September, October, November and December below.

Learn more about how to invest and do business abroad.

Find ways  to have more fun as you earn more in investing and business. Join Merri and me with Thomas Fischer of Jyske Global Asset Management, Jean Marie Butterlin, who we support to conduct Ecuador real estate and shamanic tours,  and Bonnie Keough who we support to conduct Ecuador export tours at our upcoming Quantum Wealth – International Business & Investing Course October in West Jefferson North Carolina. Click here for details.

You enjoy discounts by attending multiple seminars and tours.

Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Ecuador Shamanic Minga

Sept.   2-6   Ecuador Export Tour

Sept.   8-9  Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 11-12  Coastal Real Estate Tour

Sept. 14-15-16 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Oct.  7 Quantum Wealth plus International Investing and Business North Carolina

Oct.   8-10   International Investing & Business North Carolina
Oct.   11-12  Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Oct.  13-14   Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Oct.  16-17   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Oct.  19-20   Quito Real Estate Tour
Oct.  22-23-24 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Nov.    4-7   Super Thinking + Spanish Course Florida
Nov.    8-9   Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Nov. 10-11    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 13-14    Coastal Real Estate Tour
Nov. 16-17    Quito Real Estate
Nov. 19-20-21   Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Dec.   3-5    Ecuador Shamanic Mingo
Dec.   7-8    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Dec.  10-11   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Dec. 13-14    Quito Real Estate Tour
Dec. 15-16-17    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Yesterday’s message Ecuador FARC Thoughts inspired many comments I would like to share.

Plus after the comments, I hope… is a provoking thought on why…

bears get rich… sometimes. Bulls get rich sometimes. Pigs always get slaughtered.

First, the comments on Ecuador FARC & drugs.

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #1: Hi Gary and Merri,  Of course Ecuador like most other countries had a ‘drug problem’ simply because drugs are in evidence all over the world. I found less evidence of drug-related stuff in Ecuador than here in inner-city Sydney where drug sales have been prevalent for the the last 30 to 40 years – mixed with a lot of alcoholism at the same time so this makes for a hight crime rate plus the odd racism riot from time to time which in turn makes for interesting anthropological studies as well. The Kooris here “explode” from time to time – thus venting their frustrations – but to their credit – don’t  import/export hard drugs to exploit countries like the US. Most Kooris are soft drug users (eg Marijuana etc) and only a few are hard core users/dealers to which quite a few blind eyes are being turned by some in the know. Sad really – many suffer from the activities of a few…  Ecuador is lot better than other countries – especially first world countries……

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #2: Gary,  Relentless good news, when discussing any area in the world, is misleading and dishonest to those trying to learn about an area in which they may wish to visit or invest and eventually live.  Too many promoters would have us believe it’s just a rose garden paradise, but as so many U.S. Country singers have covered, “Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometime”.  Thank you for respecting the need to “keep it balanced”.

I did want to offer a comment to a statement in your recent article regarding “Ecuador drugs, military and FARC”.  Your statement was: “Yet my opinion is that this problem with the Farc is minor and strictly limited to remote parts of the Ecuador Colombia Amazon border.”  (I underlined the word “strictly” myself for emphasis).

I was in Ecuador in Jan. 09 and focused most of my visit on the central coast (an amazing place for many reasons and I will be back).  I based myself in Bahia and explored north and south from there.  While sitting out front of my accommodation one perfect evening, enjoying a cervesa with a couple of expats, I was told a story about a recent incident in San Vicente, just a few minutes ferry ride north of Bahia.  It seems that two FARC rebels made it this far south and attempted to do the business they do.  San Vicente residents identified these two for who they were and, publicly, beat them to death.  This is a violent story and I couldn’t imagine standing there and watching it happen; however, it does seem to say a lot about the attitudes in Ecuador (in San Vicente anyway) toward FARC.  They were hoping this would send a clear message to FARC that their business is not welcome there.

As we all know, it seems every rule has its exceptions.  I thought this was a good opportunity to remind your readers to expect the unexpected and remain aware of your surroundings (without trembling in paranoia) wherever we go in life.

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #3:

Hi Gary, Congratulations! I couldn’t imagine a more thorough debunking of the article. You really pummeled it. Of course there are always those who will keep their noses down in the dirt believing to have sniffed out a conspiracy. But there is nothing you can do about them. I happen to own pigs as you know and though I hear they are quite intelligent, mine, I’m afraid, also just keep rooting around in the garbage, never convinced that somewhere underneath  a conspiracy is lurking. The analogy is purely intentional.

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #4:

Hello Gary, You can go to www.snopes.com and locate these rumors or request they be checked out. Good site for debunking stuff like this.

This is a good suggestion I use www.snopes.com a lot.  Another site for quick accuracy checks similar to www.snopes.com is www.factcheck.org

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #5:

Hi – I KNEW you would be the guy to cover ALL the bases!  Thx for a great report!  Hope all is well and NC is getting thru this crazy weather OK!

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #6:

Gary, Here’s my 2 cents worth to the discussion about Ecuador and the FARC:

1)  When we were there in 2007, we planned to visit Tulcan to see a famous topiary garden, but were stopped north of Ibarra by the federal police, who strongly suggested we not go because of the danger of guerrilla activity. There had also been a recent kidnapping of foreigners in the area.

2)  My workers, who come from Suzcal, not from anywhere near the border, insist that narcotraficantes are either taking over Ecuadorian farms near the border for coca production or chasing out the owners off them if they resist.  This, of course, is hearsay.

3)  A more interesting (at least to me) issue than the FARC is the rise of criminal armies who are replacing the 37 right-wing militias that Uribe managed to get rid of. Apart from the uncertainty of running for a third term, he has his hands full with the dilemma of either moving to control them (and having to admit his demobilization program has failed despite $5 billion of US anti-narcotic aid) and the hold that the US Congress has put on signing the treaty granting Columbia favored trading status until Uribe demonstrates a successful policy against drug gangs both right and left.

You may remember that the original purpose of the right-wing militias was to protect landowner interests against both peasants and the FARC. Over time, they morphed into drug trafficing and competition with the FARC.

My personal belief is that Uribe is unable to move against the criminal armies because too many members of his government, prominent businesses, and leading families are involved. If so, then Colombia is on its way to becoming Mexico 2.0. There’s so much money to be made that it becomes impossible to trust either the police, the army, the politicians or anyone else.

If you have access to today’s NYT, there an article on the above in the first section.

Personally, I doubt Correa is involved with the FARC: They have little legitimacy left as a populist, left-wing movement. I don’t doubt there are members in his government that support either or both sets of drug traffickers in Colombia. But as for specific fears about the FARC, I would be more worried about groups with deep connections in the political establishment.

Certainly Correa’s politics have led him to some dumb things like his deals with China. (You may remember the 2007 scandal where a chief minister was selling work visas and residency permits to Chinese employees of a company with a major contract in Ecuador). If he was awake, he would know that all over the world, China promises jobs, training, technology and support for local economies, then brings its own staff and stuff. If he imagines that China will be a better environmental steward in the Amazonian oil fields than Phillips and Texaco were, he’s in for a rude awakening.

I agree with this reader that the border areas of Ecuador should be avoided. We recommend that delegates do not visit Tulcan north of Ibarra nor Esmeraldas.

Ecuador FARC & Drugs Comment #7:

I follow your site with interest, having my own love affair with Cuenca while still living retired in New Mexico. Thought you should see this from today’s Los Angeles Times…gives quite a lot of detail on recent drug-related issues in Ecuador.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ecuador-drugs4-2010feb04,0,3107970.story

Perhaps someday we will cross paths down there.

Best regards

That article in the LA Times is worth a read and begins:

Cocaine trafficking keeps Ecuador anti-drug authorities busy

Seizures set a record last year for the country, which is growing in importance as a hub for shipments to the U.S. and Europe.

An Ecuadorean police officer guards containers of cocaine-laced molasses at a news conference in Guayaquil last May.   Reporting from Guayaquil, Ecuador – The beat cop quickly discovered why the three men at the entrance to the storage yard had bolted as he pulled up in his patrol car.

Inside the walled enclosure he saw 3 tons of cocaine and a large-scale processing lab, evidence of Ecuador’s growing importance as a trafficking hub for illegal drugs.

The mid-December raid in this port city’s Bastion Popular industrial zone capped a record year for Ecuador’s counter-narcotics police. They seized 63 tons of cocaine, twice as much as in 2008, and destroyed seven drug-processing laboratories, up from two.

Thank you readers for your comments.

Now, here… I hope… is a provoking thought about pigs.

The comments above about the intelligence of pigs reminded me of the aphorism  Bears get rich… some times. Bulls get rich sometimes. Pigs always get slaughtered.

I began thinking about La Selva Jungle Lodge which has been owned and operated by Eric and Maggie Schwartz for 25 years. Imagine what vision it took that long ago to invest heavily in a lodge deep in the Amazon… hours from anything.   Ecuador was very primitive 25 years ago compared to now.

Yet despite plenty of turmoil… including a war with Peru in the Amazon… they have built an incredible business. La Selva Lodge is an inspirational place and…

beautiful.

This thought conjured up two ideas… the first about the pig farm at La Selva Lodge.

Eric and Maggie have not only stuck with this project through thick and thin, and profited… they have come up with some aware winning ideas… like their pig farm.

Here is an excerpt from the La Selva Lodge website.

The Pig Farm – La Selva Jungle Lodge

Our indigenous neighbors from the community of Pilche raise no animals which is very good for La Selva for it means no forest needs to be cut for grazing or to plant crops for fodder.

Occasionally they have taken to hunting over the years as it is both instinctual and satisfies a need for protein. We wanted to come up with a viable solution to this pressure, however slight on our ecosystem and so devised the following proposal that you will find below as it was presented and won the 2007 Ecotourism Award.

Goal

To use food that would be wasted ; table scraps left uneaten by the tourists, parings not used in cooking, fruits and vegetables past their prime for usage as food to guests as fodder for a pig farm.

The pigs when grown from this ample diet are given to our indigenous neighbors.

Pigs

Objectives

1. In return for the pigs (protein) we eliminate hunting in the area since their dietary needs for protein have been satisfied and the agreement under which the pigs are given to the natives has been settled by contract.

2. Fertilizer is created from the pigs from which a tropical fruit will eventually be grown in an area of land on our property that was cleared many years ago and serves no use and is not big enough for a reforestation effort.

Project Description 

For over 20 years La Selva Jungle Lodge has made agreements with incentives to our indigenous neighbors to dissuade them from hunting and also from having domesticated animals larger than chickens (so as not to destroy the forest for grazing land.)  But as their population has grown and their taste for wild meat has not abated- while we have had much success in this area- the problem is far from solved.

Tourists come to eat three times a day, as does a staff of about thirty. This provides enough food waste per day to fill three 55 gallon drums which all these years has been composted with the byproduct only occasionally used; especially in the butterfly farm. This amount of food waste will feed a large amount of pigs, bought in ascending size and to be grown and gifted to our indigenous neighbors at regular intervals. We built a pig farm, use tourist food scraps for pig feed, gift the pigs to the natives and by so doing save more rainforest animals and plants.

The Pig Farm is a simple well-drained cement floor located near the same spot as the former compost heap with ample space, an attendant, and a water hose as needed. It is covered with a kind of rebar cage to ward off jaguars.

What a great idea and this exemplifies the fact that international investments can be enhanced by value… because pigs want perfect.

Eric and Maggie instead recognized problems… took risks… worked hard and created a paradise within a paradise and continue to keep the area a paradise.

You can reach Eric Schwartz with questions about La Selva Lodge at lscentral1@cs.com

Click here for La Selva Lodge’s website

Perfect rarely exists and the reality is that fear creates value.

Many readers write to me with their fears and seem to be looking for a perfect, easy to attain, low cost… totally safe… place where there is unlimited opportunity and where they will not have a worry in the world.

I have found and lived in some great places… Gresham Oregon, Petaluma, California, Hong Kong, London, Nailsworth Gloucestershire, Geneva Switzerland, Naples Florida, Cabarete Dominican Republic, Douglas Isle of Man, Lansing and Murphy North Carolina, Quito, Latacunga, Calacali, San Clemente, and Cotacachi Ecuador, Mt. Dora Florida.

These are all wonderful places…  but I have not yet found Shangri-La.

Sometime back, a sharp reader noted that Merri and I stepped up our international investments in Ecuador real estate investing exactly at the same time the new left sounding President Correa was elected.

He missed the fact that I had stepped up real estate tours when the country crashed in 2000 as well.

This reader sent me an article about Venezuela.

Here are excerpts from this article about international investments entitled “Rich Venezuelans heading to Florida.”

“They call it ‘Plan B’. As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez further tightens control of the South American country’s economy, wealthy Venezuelans who once thought they could live with his socialist edicts are turning to their backup plan — flight to the United States, particularly Florida.

“First the people who come are the businessmen in the highest circles, then the losing politicians, then the military and then the professionals,” said Miami-based immigration attorney Oscar Levin. “You’re beginning to see the (Venezuelan) professionals.”

“This latest and largest potential group of emigrants say they fear the effect Chavez’s socialist policies will have on the economy and on proposed educational reforms that could mirror the ideologically imbued education of Chavez ally and mentor, Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

I share this story for several reasons. First, I want anyone considering international investments or residence in Ecuador to understand what could happen if things go wrong.

Second, I want the same readers who are interested in international investments to note what is happening to Chavez and the Venezuelan currency.

Third, I want readers making international investments to understand the value of fear.

To understand fear generated value better… remember that my career started selling mutual funds and living in places where terror was taken for granted. I quickly learned that fear creates value. This simple fact should seem obvious, but is easy to forget. Arriving in Hong Kong for my first time in 1968 there were communist riots and bombs being set off in the streets. The first day I arrived a motorcycle policeman had his leg blown off by a terrorist bomb. The Chinese army was massed on the border and there were continual talks about an invasion. Hong Kong businessmen were fleeing. Real estate was literally being given away.

Life went on. We all figured out the fastest route to the British and American war ships in the harbor for a quick exit in case the Chinese decided to invade.  We watched out for boxes in the street that could be bombs. Then we just got busy with life. I rented a huge apartment on Shouson Hill Road overlooking the ocean and the village of Aberdeen. The owner wanted to sell this block of apartments but I had no money or experience then. He was so desperate that he made a deal. Instead of paying him $250 a month rent I invested $250 into mutual funds for him.

So how much value did that fear create? I decided to look see and checked out equivalent apartments for rent on the same Shouson Hill Road in Hong Kong now. Here is what I found that apartments which ran $250 a month to rent then cost now:  The ad said Features:

Sea views
Central Air-Conditioning
Size: 3000 – 3600 square feet
Bedrooms: 4
Rental Costs (approx. per month): HK$ 130,000 – 140,000 (US $16,667 – $17,949)

So rent jumped from $250 to $17,949 a month. Not bad if you are the owner. I was too young then to understand the value of fear and missed that opportunity.  Now I know better.

Not all the profits in Hong Kong were caused by fear.  Much of it was.

Those who made heavy investments in Hong Kong during that time of fear made huge fortunes. Had I understood the value of fear in the late 60s and early 70s, I could have made tens, even hundreds of millions of extra dollars.

In Hong Kong’s case there was fear that politics would go wrong. They did not and this pushed the value of HK international investments through the roof! Yet even when politics do go wrong investors can do well.

Take international investments in Chile as an example. This country went through one of the worst imaginable political scenarios beginning in 1973 when Pinochet led a coup d’état deposing democracy and using military power declared himself president and remained in power 17 years. The global press did not write as much negative news then because this dictatorship was against communism and this had the support of the United States. Hundreds, maybe thousands of dissidents were killed. Even more tortured. Yet those who invested there made fortunes.

In the early 80s, a really nice house in Santiago’s fashionable suburbs was worth about $25,000. Now the same house will be worth well over $1,000,000. Real estate throughout Chile has appreciated enormously over these years.

No one likes uncertainty. But there is uncertainty everywhere. As populations grow, as the rich and the poor become more divided, it becomes impossible to have real control anywhere.

If we are faced with change everywhere, there is a logic to investing in places where there is enough fear to at least create a nice risk premium.

Ecuador offers special value in my opinion. There is fear internally, but as an outsider I see this as a nation of sweet, pacific people. This country was formed by a combining of many cultures and has always been adept at forming a consensus. Democracy is strong. The military has refused on numerous occasions to become involved in political affairs and the population has shown itself to be adverse to violence.

Chances here are that whatever political change takes place, it will be calm. If I am wrong, that’s why we get extra profit potential to take the risk.

Here are a few of the properties we’ll see in our February and March 2010 Imbabura real estate tour.

Studio condo.  Huge balcony. Some of the best views in town.  $49,000.

Yellow townhouse. Recently completed.  Just off leather street behind San Francisco park.  3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, great rooftop terrace, all very

good materials and finishing, $55,000.

Three bedroom condo. 2.5 bathrooms…hardwood cabinets and closets… furnished. $59,000.

San Miguel house.  3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, office, inside and outside fireplace, fountain, flowers.  Great condition.  Owner has the lot next door
and is building another place.  $104,000.

We hope to serve you on our 2010 tours.

Gary

Join Merri and me plus nine other speakers and contacts this February  at a seminar that shares ways to invest, do business and live in Ecuador or globally February 11-14  at Quantum Wealth -International Investing & Business Made EZ, Mt. Dora, Fl.

You can also come on with us to Ecuador.

February 15-16 Travel to Quito and tour Quito

February 17     Travel Quito to Manta

February 18-19  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

February 20 Travel Manta to Cotacachi

February 21-22 North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

February 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour

February 25 Travel Quito Cuenca

February 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Or join us in March 2010

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

The Ecuador airfare war makes it cheaper to get to Ecuador than ever before… and there is still time to enjoy great Ecuador tour savings.

You enjoy discounts by attending multiple seminars and tours. Here are our multi tour adventure discounts.

Two Pack… 2 seminar courses & tours $998 Couple  $1,349 Save $149 on couple

Three Pack… 3 seminar courses & tours   $1399 Couple  $1,899 Save $98 single or $348 on a couple or more

Four Pack… 4 seminar courses & tours   $1,699 Couple $2,299 Save $98 single or $697 on a couple or more

Five Pack… 5 seminar courses & tours  $1,999 Couple $2,699 Save $496 single or $1,046 on a couple or more

Six Pack… 6 seminars courses & tours  $2,199 Couple $3,099 Save $795 single or $1,395 on a couple or more

Even Better.  Greater Savings. Our 2010 International Club membership allows you and a guest to attend as many of the 51 courses and tours we’ll sponsor and conduct in 2010  (fees would be $40,947 for all these courses individually) is only $3,500.

If you join the International Club, the entrance fee for 2010 is $3,500.  Your attendance fees at all courses will be waived. You and a guest of you choice can attend courses worth $40,947.You can calculate the savings as our schedule of all 2010 courses here.

International Club 2010 Membership $3,500 Enroll here

International Club Three Monthly Payments of $1,190

Our Spring 2010 schedule starts:

Apr. 12-15   Ecuador Export Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 17-18   Imbabura Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 20-21  Coastal Mid Coast Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)

The multi tour discounts remain effective for the April tours.

An Ecuador India connection can help you enjoy greater wealth and better health.

As I was checking the weather online yesterday I noticed that the most read article at the weather channel was on how to reduce stress.

We change accelerating, we live in a stressful world… so we need every way possible to reduce stress.  This is important because stress is a great inhibitor of wealth and the root of a great deal of disease.

In a moment I’ll share ways to reduce stress by visiting sacred sites in Ecuador or staying at a sacred location in India (the Indian stay can even be free).  First let’s look at how the Ecuador India connection began and how this ancient link it can help reduce stress.

One reason to enjoy Ecuador or India are these country’s very cosmopolitan low stress attitudes towards earning and living in tune with nature.

For eons, Ecuador’s unique position and coastal existence allowed interaction with the people of areas we now call  India, China and Japan.  A great deal of the wisdom in the ancient Asian cultures passed into the Andean and Equatorial Pacific cultures… and vice versa.

The root of one of Ecuador’s indigenous languages (Quichua) for example is Sanskrit… or vice versa.

You can see the Ecuador India connection in many ways.  When Merri and I hiked into the LLanganatis with friends and a Taita Yatchak, one of these friends was Jay Glaser M.D.,  an MD who specialized in Ayurveda (the healing science of India).  He (along with Dr. Deepak Chopra) was medical director of the Ayurvedic Health Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  Jay helped us see how similar Andean words and health philosophies were to India’s .

Here we are with the yatchak in the LLanganatis.  Jay and his wife are far right.  Chuck Hunner is in the first row middle (with a camera).  We’ll hear  from Chuck how to enjoy a free stay in India in a moment.

On that trip, Jay helped us learn that both Andean and Indian traditions describe and use many medicinal plants in similar ways.

Anther example of the Ecuador India connection we discovered was  the name of valley where we hiked… “Llanganatis.”   This name is pronounced “Yanganatis” which Jay discovered means “Repeated Sacred Action”.   The Sanskrit word for repeated sacred action is “Yagya”.

Yagyas, in India, are repeated sacred words, sounds or thought with astrological roots.

Ecuadorian shamans also have sounds based on the sun, moon, stars, month, weeks and days, in the form of  chants that they use in ceremonies and combine with exercise. 

These sounds can help reduce stress.

Recent messages Ecuador Shamanic Imagination & Longevity and Imagination for Ecuador Real Estate Profit looked at power of thought… intention… imagination.

One view that can be taken of the universe is a manifestation of an infinite number of frequencies of time through space.  Frequency may be everything. Frequency certainly affects markets of all sorts…energy commodities, equities, metals, crops, currencies.  Many traders study frequency (charts) minutely.  Most technical trading is based on frequency.  Market momentum is almost everything to technical traders”.

Those who look at the universe in this way are viewing quantum aspects of existence.  Quantum mechanics is the part of science that tells us that our world is not anything like we expect or can even imagine.  The quantum state is the world where our intention turns energy into matter. At the quantum level everything comes from nothing. The present, future and past are one. Atoms spin up and down at the same time but when observed, choose a direction to spin depending on the universe we are in.

Quantum thinking is impossible in logic, but learning to function from this level of our existence can improve our lives at every level.

This is why Merri and I have use Andean chants, Andean and Indian exercises and meditation for years. We have found that they help unify us with the human part of quantum existence.  This union is invaluable when it comes to eliminating the stress of making decisions, that are beyond our logical abilities, about health, wealth and family.

The inability to measure the results of quantum thinking used to bother me enormously until I observed how well this thought modality worked for us.

There is plenty of support for this thinking as well.

Years ago I read an article about Aristotle Onassis. He was asked about his use of astrology. His reply was that to be a millionaire, astrology wasn’t really needed, but to become a billionaire, it was essential!  This struck a chord as I lived in Hong Kong and saw the most successful businessmen there (often billionaires) look beyond logic. To make billions one has to take enormous risks. Taking such risks require us to see in ways that go beyond our logic, reason and understanding.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” touches on our ability to think beyond logic. He explains how humans have the ability to spot patterns and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. He calls this process “Thin Slicing”, a way to make fast, accurate decisions.

The President of Hypnotic Marketing, Inc., an Internet marketing firm in Texas is one of the top marketers in the world. The president, Dr. Joe Vitale uses this type of thought process and yagyas in business.

He has written so many books on how to succeed I can’t list them all here. He is the author of the international best-seller, “The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History!”, the best-selling e-book “Hypnotic Writing”, and the best-selling Nightingale-Conant audioprogram, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing”, along with numerous other works. He has written books for the American Marketing Association and the American Management Association, including The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising and his clients include small presses to large publishing houses, such as Doubleday Books in New York. He has also helped large companies, from The American Red Cross to Hermann Children’s Hospital in Houston.

He shares two heart-warming stories about astrology, one of a life saved and the second about a new business paradigm. Here is how yagyas affected Dr. Joe Vitale.

Joe is a fiery and inspiring speaker. He has spoken before hundreds of business groups, including the Sales and Marketing Executives, and the first Houston Publishers and Authors Association conference. You read earlier about his publishing and consulting successes. The point is Joe is very much a man of the modern, Western business world. He is well into the ideals of Western wealth, money and success in materialism.

Yet Joe was going through a transformation and was writing new books about the spiritual aspects of wealth. He needed help in marketing these new books. Since we do not know Joe, we’ll use his exact words from his best selling book (it outsold Harry Potter at Amazon.com) about how he used astrology.

Success Guidelines Tale

“Karmic Surgery” by Dr. Joe Vitale

“Dr. Marcus Gitterle is an emergency room physician and anti-aging specialist. We met after he read one of my books, love it and emailed me, saying he lived in the same small town I do. We had lunch and became quick friends.

“One day, he told me about a way to do “karmic surgery”. This was new to me and made me aware of a new tool that was almost magical. It could help you release any troubling problem, or heal any condition, or achieve any intention, and do it without your doing anything. In fact, others did it for you.

“Marc explained it like this: “Just as you have a problem and go into the surgery, the problem is taken out while you are asleep. When you awaken, the problem is no longer there. You might be told to rest more, to drink more fluids, but in essence you are now free of the problem. All you did was agree to let others remove it for you.”

What that doctor was talking about was yagyas.

A yagya is a Vedic mantra, a sound of correct pronunciation and rhythm that creates a frequency aimed at influencing specific imbalances.   One could call it an organized, specific prayer.  Viewed in a scientific manner a yagya is a dedicated frequency.  A recent message Ecuador Wonders took a view on frequency and its role in our quantum existence.

Joe gave a testimonial on how yagyas influenced his best friend. He wrote:

“Saved from Death”

“My best friend of two decades was on her death bed a year ago. After being in a near-fatal car accident, having both knees replaced, her back broken, suffering from depression, then becoming suicidal and anorexic due to medication she never should have accepted, she was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she lay unconscious and dying.

“We had already tried everything. She had gone to healers, doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists. I hired home health care for her. She prayed, meditated, listened to tapes. I asked 500 friends of mine to pray for her and send her healing energy. Nothing was breaking her free. I feared I would lose my best friend of 25 years.

Joe then tells how in desperation, he used yagyas to find ways to help her. He writes:

“Within two days she woke up in the hospital, sat up, and stood up. The day before, she could not move or even turn over in bed! Now she was ready to go home. The hospital was stunned. The doctors couldn’t explain it. They kept her for further testing and observations.

“She just got better and better. A week later, this same woman who was near dead, was released from the hospital. She is now walking, talking, smiling, driving, and very glad to be alive. I saw her yesterday. I thought I might never see her again. This is a genuine miracle.

Joe says that this is the power of yagyas.

Then Joe tells how he used yagyas to help create a publishing miracle as well. He wrote:

“As you know by now, this book you are holding is based on a popular little work I released a few years ago called, Spiritual Marketing. I knew the book contained a powerful five-step process for manifesting your heart’s desires, and I knew it from all the people who emailed me every day, telling me their miraculous stories.

“What frustrated me was the fact that the book was basically available only online. I knew that it needed to reach a wider audience. So I set the intention to find a strong publisher, with distribution abilities, and the power to get my book out there into the world.

Joe tells how he used yagyas and says: I didn’t know how this would work, or if it would. But I trusted. I took action. “Within a few weeks, I received an email from the senior editor at Wiley who is now the publisher of this very book! Now stop and think about this. My original book, titled Spiritual Marketing, had been a number one best-seller at Amazon twice. Its success had been written about in the New York Times. The e-book version of the book had been down-loaded an estimated one million times. The e-book had been translated into seven languages. Thousands of people wrote me about it. The best agent in the country shipped the book to major publishers for two years. “Yet” nothing!

Joe explains that nothing ever happened to bring the book to a global audience until he used astrology to help his intention and to clear any inner blocks preventing his goal from manifesting. He explains that yagyas are a way to clear current blocks “whether those blocks are from this lifetime or another” so you can go on to attract whatever you want.

There are wild, weird and wonderful ways that you can use our global contacts and experience to reduce stress with quantum thinking as well.

One way is through the free stay in India.

Years ago, Merri and I helped Dr. Deva Shankar Dixit and his Vedic Life Foundation to buy land near the Ganges River to create a yagya center .

The Vedic Life Foundation is a non profit organization established to share traditional Yagyas and with the world.

The yagya center is close to the Ganges River in one of India’s holiest places, Brahmavarta (Bithoor), in Kanpur, U.P., India.

This is the yagya center that provided the yagyas mentioned above for Dr. Joe Vitale.  Today Vedic Life Foundation is the second largest Vedic yagya organization in India. Around six thousand people globally have received Vedic yagyas from the center.

Dr. Dixit with Vedic priests at the yagya center.

Now Dr. Dixit has finished construction on a four bedroom guest house for guests used to European or American style hotels.  Because he is having an inaugural visit for guests at the guest house… there is an opportunity to stay there free.

Our friend, Chuck Hunner, who hiked into the LLanganatis with us and has been the US representative for the Vedic Life Foundation since it began explains.

Chuck invited us to be on this inaugural visit but due to seminars we are conducting this is not possible.  This leaves an opening for others… perhaps you.

Chuck explains:

Ever dream about visiting an exotic foreign country? Have you ever imagined a land that is closely wedded to the Spiritual Life? Come with me to Brahmavarta, just 20 km north of Kanpur, India and enjoy the ceremonies for the Nine Nights of Mother Divine.

I intend to fly out of Newark on the 11th of March and return on the 27th or 28th. We could meet in the airport and catch the same plane. This way my friend, Ashish Tiwari, can meet us and take us to a comfortable hotel. We’d get a good night’s sleep and visit a few interesting temples the next day. Early to bed that night and up at 5 am to catch the early train to Kanpur.

Pandit Dixit’s daughter and office manager will meet us at the Kanpur station and drive us out to the Ashram.

First, we get to stay in the Vedic Life Foundation Ashram! The atmosphere is very sattvic there. Sure, air quality is the same as all India, but there is a very special mystical feeling about the grounds of the Ashram. Nearby on the banks of the Ganges is the Brahmavarta (brahma = universe, avarta = rotation) Ghat. It is a holy place where Brahma created Man and Woman on Earth!

Second, Pandit Dixit has extended this hospitality free of charge to our yagya clients who participate fully in the Vasantik Navaratri, the Springtime Nine Days of Mother Divine. Begin a one month Royal yagya at this time and you are welcome to stay for free.

Third, expertly prepared Ayurvedic vegetarian meals will be served each day.

Fourth, we’ll get to meditate together each day.

Fifth, we’ll take tours around Bithoor to the Ghat and other local places of interest.

Sixth, …I almost forgot! The new Shiva Temple is almost complete. It has been dressed in white marble and the specially commissioned marble statues of Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Kartikeya, and Nandi will be delivered from Jaipur in a few days. We will get to participate in the dedication ceremonies on the 23rd of March.

This will be quite an adventure so if you are feeling spontaneous and feel you need some yagyas or need to reduce stress, contact Chuck Hunner at hunner@charter.net

Change creates stress and we live in a world of accelerating change.  We however do not have to be victims of excessive stress.  Getting in touch with our own quantum reality helps us know change and understand how to gain health and wealth from it in this modern world.

Gary

Another way to learn more about eliminating stress through quantum thinking is at our upcoming Super Thinking + Spanish seminar and at our March 2010 Ecuador Shamanic Tour.

Ecuador shamans use music in their ceremonies.

like at this Ecuador shaman minga.

Join us for all or part of our March split session that begins in Florida with our Super Thinking plus Spanish course and learn how to use music to enhance intelligence and longevity as well as to speak Spanish.

Then attend our March 2101 Ecuador Shamanic Minga tour. Here is our March 2010 tour schedule.

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

Or learn about quantum thinking  this February  at a seminar and share ways to invest, do business and live that protect wealth as they bring joy, satisfaction and better health.  We have only four spaces left for this seminar in Mt. Dora.

Join us with our investment advisors and tax attorney February 11-14  at Quantum Wealth -International Investing & Business Made EZ, Mt. Dora, Fl.

You can also come on with us to Ecuador.

February 15-16 Travel to Quito and tour Quito

February 17     Travel Quito to Manta

February 18-19  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

February 20 Travel Manta to Cotacachi

February 21-22 North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

February 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour

February 25 Travel Quito Cuenca

February 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Ecuador tourist visa enforcement has changed.

The excerpt below from our Ecuador Living Visa Update shows something important  about Ecuador visas that you should know.

Ecuador is a beautiful country and offers many benefits… such as excellent low cost housing.  Here are delegates on one of our real estate tours looking at real estate in Imbabura.

In the past… visitors could stay for 90 days on a tourist visa.  Then they could renew the tourist visa with a one day exit. This meant that tourist visas allowed stays in Ecuador up to 180 days a year.

No more.

A new type visa has been made longer stays easier but the relaxation of tourist visa enforcement has been withdrawn at the same time.

One reader discovered this in a very harsh way when leaving Ecuador after spending the Christmas holiday at their condo in Euador. This reader had been in and out of Ecuador three previous times in 2009 attending to renovations and furnishing the condo.  No one stay was longer than 30 days.  The between times on visits was a matter of months.  On the fourth trip the total time for 2009 was 104 days. None of those stays was for more then 30 days.

At Quito airport the reader was prevented from leaving the country and was told by the immigration official at the exit booth, that the maximum annual stay could be no more than 90 days.

The reader had to pay a fine of $200.

Even worse was told not to return to Ecuador for nine months and that to be allowed back would require a special visa from a Ecuadorian consulate in the US.

One of the immigration attorneys we introduce to our readers explained:

Usually non Ecuadorians have been able to stay in Ecuador as a tourist for 90 days. After they used these first 90 days, they used to get 90 days more as a tourist if they requested an extension at an immigration office prior of expiry of the first 90 days.

Several months ago immigration changed its policy. Now instead of renewing a tourist visa for 90 days they grant a 180 day Commercial Acts Visa.

In a way this new procedure makes it more convenient (though more expensive) to stay for longer periods

If a non Ecuadorian wants to stay in Ecuador in any one year for more than 90 days with a tourist visa, they can still apply to the immigration authorities for an extension.  If they leave Ecuador in their first stay of the year before reaching 90 days, BUT anticipate returning in that same year, and that return stay will take them beyond 90 days total in that year, before leaving, they should petition the immigration authorities either prior to leaving the first time, or before returning to Ecuador via a local consulate office near our overseas home (USA, Canada, England etc).

These changes in immigration policy are actually changes in strictness of enforcement of the procedures, not the procedures themselves.

The easiest approach though is for those wishing to stay more than 90 days a year in Ecuador to go to an Ecuador consul and apply for the Commercial Acts Visa, good 180 days travel in a calendar year.  This allows a total of 180 days stay in Ecuador without any extension beyond the 90 day maximum under a tourist visa.

The fee for the Commercial Act Visa is $230 per person.  Given the growing restrictions and/or increased enforcement on the tourist visa and extensions beyond 90 days, this is a good  option for those who want to maximize their time in Ecuador but who do not with to apply for a full resident visa.

There are some other immigration points to observe. These are outlined along with an explanation from our immigration attorney on how to use Ecuador visas now.   You can obtained the Ecuador Visa Update as an Ecuador Living subscriber.  See details here.

Make sure that your visas are in order and that you understand all the procedures if you plan to stay in Ecuador for more than 90 days in a year.

Gary

Join Merri and me plus nine other speakers and contacts this February  at a seminar that shares ways to invest, do business and live in Ecuador or globally February 11-14  at Quantum Wealth -International Investing & Business Made EZ, Mt. Dora, Fl.

You can also come on with us to Ecuador.

February 15-16 Travel to Quito and tour Quito

February 17     Travel Quito to Manta

February 18-19  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

February 20 Travel Manta to Cotacachi

February 21-22 North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

February 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour

February 25 Travel Quito Cuenca

February 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Or join us in March 2010

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

The Ecuador airfare war makes it cheaper to get to Ecuador than ever before… and there is still time to enjoy great Ecuador tour savings.

Our Ecuador real estate tours help you learn about Ecuador real estate in a safe… non biased, fun and efficient way.

You enjoy…

beautiful places from mountains to…

the sea with hidden…

treasures like this thermal spa near our hotel in Cotacachi…. where you can soak and relax as you learn about Ecuador real estate.

Return to a life of simpler times with the people of Ecuador who are…

friendly and…

wonderful from many…

cultures.

Find good value with Ecuador real estate.

Condos for example in Cuenca for example are as low as $42,000.

One high rise near Quito offers condos for $29,999.

The living room of this Quito condo.

The dining room leading to the kitchen area

The bed room comfort

On the coast the condos near the beach have an asking price of only $23,000.

These condos near a nice beach are under 500 square feet in size. Yet have three bedrooms, one bathroom… plus

this living kitchen area.

Ecuadorian rooms…

are often…

small,  but I guess you would not expect a mansion for $23,000 US dollars.

In Cotacachi… a three bedroom, three bathroom unit in Prima Vera I is available for $59,000

and a studio condo with this huge balcony and incredible views is offered at $47,500.

You’ll see houses like this…

with this view for…

for $69,000.

Yet my guess is you’ll not buy the lower priced units because Ecuador offers the opportunity for luxury at affordable prices that are no longer available up north.

First, let’s consider other benefits you gain… such as chances of a better price… no matter where you are at any price level.  A big benefit in our Ecuador real estate tours comes from the fact that we are not real estate brokers. We do not accept commissions and do not allow our staff to accept commissions on the sale of real estate.  We have been buying and selling our own real estate and doing business in Ecuador for 14 years and ask those whose property we show on the tour to give discounts to our delegates (as we are known to bring many buyers and do not charge commissions).

You are also more efficient! There are few road signs in Ecuador… few organized brokers and even fewer who speak English… multiple listings are almost non existent.

We review what real estate is on the market and plan routes in advance so our delegates can see the most in the shortest time. We have English speaking staff with delegates on the tours at all times.

We make sure that sellers have their properties available. (A bad habit Ecuadorians have is often to not have the property open on time.)  Our staff are with you on the tour at all times… calling ahead… making sure that sellers are at their properties… or diverting to a property where an owner is prepared.

Visitors who try to find Ecuador real estate on their own drive around… get lost… see little…  and without inordinate amounts of time have no price basis on which to compare.  When they plan to buy they have little experience to know if the people they are dealing with are trustworthy.

You reduce your chances of being ripped off. We avoid showing property that in our experience is out of line price wise or quality wise.  We provide contacts with brokers, attorneys architects etc who have shown themselves to be trustworthy.

We share 41 years of experience investing globally and 14 years in Ecuador.  When we arrived in Ecuador nearly a decade and a half ago, we have already been conducting real estate tours for decades in many other countries including England… Switzerland, Isle of Man…. Belize and the Dominican Republic. We had bought and sold dozens of properties, including many abroad.  So we already knew what to look for… kinda… yet…

here is a check for $72,000… I lost this payment completely because I did not know one simple rule about buying Ecuador real estate.

I just outlined that error and shared that one simple rule with our Ecuador Living subscribers. Learn how to subscribe and get that rule here.

The friendships you gain on our Ecuador real estate tours can be invaluable.

You gain the power of sharing in many ways… from Merri and me… we have trained out staff and speak with tour delegates with televised conferencing.

People on tours tend to have common interests and be like minded souls

A delegate at a previous tour described this benefit when she wrote:.

You were so kind to make arrangements for a ride with the other delegates from the Charlotte airport. They were so nice to me and so helpful, by the time the weekend was over I felt like they were my long lost brothers. Monday morning we all had breakfast at the airport together and I was so sad to see them go, I was sad the weekend was over, perhaps sad is not the right word for how I was feeling perhaps Gratitude is a better way to describe it. Grateful for having the opportunity to share the weekend with such wonderful, like minded Human Beings. Thank you Merri and Gary…………..Thanks to you I now have new hope and a new direction to move forward in my life. Thanks to you I am so ready to move to Ecuador and begin a new life. I just have to figure out what I am going to do and how to do it……… I know by attending your classes and conferences that through education and due diligence I will make the right choices.

This delegate’s comments about “belonging and feeling like a brother” to the other delegates is a wonderful refrain we have heard from our readers, year after year.

The importance of delegate friendships first showed itself decades ago when we took a group to Vienna, Austria. One of our older delegates, had some sort of attack. The first fear was heart trouble. Several delegates took him to the hospital. Others stayed with him there. I don’t think that delegate was alone for a minute!

What impressed Merri and me was that no one asked the delegates to help this man. The friendships of delegates sharing many courses had just grown so strong that it was a natural reaction, just as if a family member was ill. Fortunately, it was only travel fatigue and the delegate didn’t miss a session of the course!

When you join our tours, you become part of a special family. Another delegate at one of our seminars wrote about this and said:

“Thank you for the enjoyable and informative courses. I am pleased to be part of your international family and look forward to continuing my education at the next course.”

His feeling struck a familiar chord. It has always been one of my greatest satisfactions to see how much fun delegates have getting together, sharing information and making friendships. These courses somehow draw together like-minded souls. For this reason some delegates come back again and again. They come to learn, but also to be with their many friends made at the courses.

When like-minded souls get together again and again to discuss a common purpose, magic happens! I can’t explain it in any other way-but it is true. In a way our meetings are almost like family reunions. Perhaps it is getting together and reflecting on what has been said and what has been happening. Learning with those who are also interested in the world creates thoughts that multiply the value of what we gain. This is hard to describe but results are most powerful and wonderful!

You save hard earned dollars because our $499 tour fee is a bargain. Your alternative s to do what Merri and I did when we first arrived in Ecuador.  We hired a nationally certified guide and had him drive us everywhere… to the big cities… the jungles… up and down the coast.  We traveled with him for weeks to create our report.

This was okay… because this is our business… but…

if you hire driver with a car driver for just four days… you’ll have spent MORE just on the guide and transportation as you would have on an entire tour.  English speaking guides with a car normally cost $130 a day plus hotel and food.

You also be more comfortable and save in other ways. Our Ecuador real estate tours help you learn the ropes in Ecuador. We know which hotels are good and which are bad. We know which restaurants will serve good food quickly and which are tourist traps.   You’ll be safer and more comfortable because the very personal nature of our service not only helps you save money but makes your trip to Ecuador more comfortable and secure.

One delegate on a recent tour sent this note.

Merri,  I don’t know how you and Gary give such great individual attention, but I sure appreciate it.  Preparing myself for this trip and the even greater spector of preparing for a life outside the US does not come without a bit of anxiety.  I am so thankful for yours and Gary’s kindness, attention to detail, and responsiveness.  It makes it all seem a little more manageable!  I’ll plan on spending at least the first 2 nights at the Radisson unless we are day two out of Quito.  I will verify my flight with Bonnie.  Thanks again Merri.  Jim

We hope to help you in Ecuador soon.

Gary

Join Merri and me plus nine other speakers and contacts this February  at a seminar that shares ways to invest, do business and live n Ecuador or gloabally February 11-14  at Quantum Wealth -International Investing & Business Made EZ, Mt. Dora, Fl.

You can also come on with us to Ecuador.

February 15-16 Travel to Quito and tour Quito

February 17     Travel Quito to Manta

February 18-19  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

February 20 Travel Manta to Cotacachi

February 21-22 North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

February 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour

February 25 Travel Quito Cuenca

February 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Or join us in March 2010

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

Imagination is one of our most powerful assets that can help create Ecuador real estate profits.

In fact imagination can help create profits anywhere.

Right Handed Conch

Thoughts on imagination sprang from a recent message about Ecuador Wonders and how right handed conchs reflect a reality though the  golden mean.

That recent message mentioned a very old and dirty, but perhaps rare, Lightening Whelk found in our back garden.  A friend, who is a jeweler, sent a note about how to make this whelk a beautiful decoration and added this thought.

Great, Gary,  Sounds like the right place to display it.  I love the metaphor.  It echoes your and Merri’s stated love of old things and bringing them into service!  Chuck

His comment led to a thought about Ecuador real estate profit because this is how Merri and I use our imagination to create profits in real estate.  We buy old properties we love and bring them into service.

Profits and fulfillment in business depends on knowing thyself AND knowing your position on the business bell curve.

Recent human evolution has come in increasingly fast bell curves… sped along by technology that introdcues new and new ways to become more efficient.

The pace of  each new idea’s introduction begins when an innovator spots how the new idea can create a trend.  Innovators rarely bring products to market profitably.  They are too early in the curve.

The profit in the trend starts to accelerate when early adapters catch on. Early adapters are forward thinking members of society who have the respect of the establishment.  When they begin to use an idea, the chances of it catching on drastically grow. This is the time to invest before the early and late majority accept the new mode of thought.  Finally the skeptical mass and laggards come on board.

Merri and I are early adapters and despite having written about why I am investing heavily in Florida AND in Ecuador right now, readers continued to ask questions like this:

I read with interest your e-mail regarding your reasoning for disposing of some of your Ecuador real estate holdings. Perhaps I missed something. I didn’t see where you actually came out with your rational on this decision. While I understand that no investment is “for ever;-)”  Is it your position that the market there is about to crest or, is it your feeling that there may be substantially more profitable investments in the other markets you refer to?

Here is my standard reply:

Our Ecuador property is doing really well.  For the last year or so our vacancy has been almost zero other than occasional days when one renter is moved out and another in. Rentals are hard to find and I have 18,991 (as of today and growing) readers who are interested in Ecuador.

Our rental properties and hotel are doing very well, but Merri and I are not good landlords. There are two types of business people… pioneers and settlors. Pioneers… that’s us… who buy, fix and move on. Settlors keep and rent.

We travel too much and love fixing things up… but hate dealing with tenants so have always made our wealth via capital gains buying low… fixing and selling as we are doing with our condos.  Plus there is a US tax consideration.  US Income is taxed at about 50%… US Capital gains tax is 15%.

For a variety of reasons, beginning with our grandson turning seven at the same time that Florida property prices collapsed , we are now investing in Florida and spending less time in Ecuador.

This reply does not mean I believe that Ecuador real estate prices are high or that they will fall.

In fact the history of my real estate investing suggests the opposite. Merri and I usually sell way before any peak.

Take a history of some of my better purchase and sales as an example.

I purchased a house next to this one in London for $35,000…. bare floors… no light fixtures… panels streaked… leaky roof… unkempt yard etc.

I fixed it up, painted, carpeted, tiled,  french polished the paneled room  and sold it for $253,000. Yet the buyer (who still lives in the house I think)  could now sell it for millions.

Merri and I have done very well and are perfectly happy because we know where we are on the bell curve… as early adapters.

We bought this wonderful Naples, Florida home for $265,000. The house was built in 1914, had not been lived in for 15 years and was almost in ruin.  Yard gone… old knob and tube electrics frayed…. galvanized plumbing rusted… roof  leaky. We fixed all this (and more) and sold it for well over a million dollars.

The purchasers sold it two years later for twice as much!   Then the price rose even more.

I bought this condo building when it was a concrete shell, without windows… without doors… without plumbing or electrics…. without pant or tile or finish on the floors.

I completed the construction and sold the units for a profit. Now these units are at a premium and rising.

Our publishing and real estate activities have done well for 40 years from three simple steps.

Step #1: Spot new trends.

Step #2: Enhance that trend with imagination.

Step #3: Take profit early and find the next new trend.

There is plenty of space for early adapters in Ecuador.  There is plenty of space for early adapters in Florida as well… and California and Arizona and many… many places around the world.

The key to your success is to know yourself… do what you love and keep adapting as these infinite variety of trends we call the world evolve.

This reality applies to all industries. Here in Florida we have orange groves. We grow oranges and sell them. Yet others take orange seeds and raise saplings. They sell saplings… not oranges.  Other nurseries take the saplings and grow them larger and sell small orange trees.

In the real estate business, I know brokers. I know some developers that buy land and get it rezoned to sell on to another developer who will build.   Each has a place in the curve.  Each does well…  especially when they know what their role is and enjoy serving in this specialized way.

Gary

Join Merri and me and our webmaster, David Cross, Thomas Fischer, my investment adviser Anders Nielsen, Joe Cox, my tax adviser and many other contacts for business, investing, health and Ecuador this February at a seminar where we share ways to invest, do business and live that protect wealth as they bring joy, satisfaction and better health.

Ecuador beach condos at $23,000?

See below why this is the last day to gain the largest savings on our courses and tours.

First, on the subject of the $29,999 Quito condos mentioned at Ecuador California, a number of readers have questioned how this is possible.

See Ecuador beach condos at $23,000.

I have not seen those Quito Ecuador condos, but here I am with Ecuador real estate tour delegates looking at Ecuador beach condos just off the beach for $23,000.

When we first began looking at these Ecuador beach units a number of years ago they were $18,000.

These condos near a nice beach are under 500 square feet in size. Yet have three bedrooms, one bathroom… plus

this living kitchen area.

Ecuadorian rooms are small.

can be small,  but I guess you would not expect a mansion for $23,000 US dollars.

Regards

Gary

This is the last day to gain the largest savings on our courses and tours.

See a review of last week’s messages below.

Ecuador Valentine’s roses can be ordered now for delivery on either Wednesday, February 10 or  Thursday, February 11, 2010.

Here is what one reader shared aboutthe Ecuador roses he ordered.

Gary,  Here’s what my mom had to say about her roses: “I can’t tell you how many people have enjoyed the beautiful roses you sent. Every other day I have taken a few up to the Big House and then I change them. Can you believe they are still so pretty? I keep them in the sunroom so I can see them as I work in the kitchen-cold in there and just right to keep the roses. You do not know how many lives they have brightened including my own.”

This was her 4th thank you email! You can use the quote if you want- it’s not a sales pitch, just a real response to those Ecuadorian beauties.  Bruce

See more about Ecuador Valentine’s roses here.

Important note: There is just one more day to join the International Club & save $501 extra. See how to save $501 here.

Weekly Review.

Saturday, January 23, 2010. There are many Ecuador wonders such as…

these shoes that tell a tale of…  Ecuador Wonder

Friday January 22, 2010. Ecuador beach house near Salinas for sale.

See Near Salinas Ecuador house for sale

Thursday January 21, 2010. Learn Ecuador earning ideas and image updates of the Falconi homes being built in Cotacachi.

See Ecuador Earnings Update.

Wednesday January 20, 2010.  Ecuador’s land is rich. Food is produced in every nook and cranny.

See Ecuador and Economic collapse.

Tuesday January 19, 2010. Here is an idea for the ultimate small overseas business freedom:

See the Ultimate Overseas Small Business Freedom

Monday January 18, 2010. See why breakfast at Techo del Mundo is one of my favorite meals and why earthquake worries will not stop me from going there.

Ecuador may be a great place to be if there is a global economic collapse.

Ecuador’s land for producing food is rich.

Food is produced in every nook and cranny.

and available in markets and every village.

Corn, beans and potatoes are the basics in the Andes.

Excerpts from my latest multi currency portfolio lesson explains why this is extra important at this time. The lesson says:

This message is about risk and the chances of economic collapse.

Every investment adviser I work with is nervous… due to the massive debt that has been created in the last recession…  without a lot to show for the spending.

For example… an article in the telegraph entitled “Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for potential ‘global collapse” provides a big warning.

Société Générale is one of the oldest banks in France and is one of the main European financial services companies and is active all over the world.

The Telegraph article about this bank says:

Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible “global economic collapse” over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction.

Explosion of debt: Japan’s public debt could reach as much as 270pc of GDP in the next two years.  In a report entitled “Worst-case debt scenario”, the bank’s asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems.

Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private. It must be reduced by the hard slog of “deleveraging”, for years.

Under the French bank’s “Bear Case” scenario (the gloomiest of three possible outcomes), the dollar would slide further and global equities would retest the March lows. Property prices would tumble again. Oil would fall back to $50 in 2010.

Governments have already shot their fiscal bolts. Even without fresh spending, public debt would explode within two years to 105pc of GDP in the UK, 125pc in the US and the eurozone, and 270pc in Japan. Worldwide state debt would reach $45 trillion, up two-and-a-half times in a decade.

The underlying debt burden is greater than it was after the Second World War, when nominal levels looked similar. Ageing populations will make it harder to erode debt through growth. “High public debt looks entirely unsustainable in the long run.

We have almost reached a point of no return for government debt,” it said.

Inflating debt away might be seen by some governments as a lesser of evils.

If so, gold would go “up, and up, and up” as the only safe haven from fiat paper money.

SocGen advises bears to sell the dollar and to “short” cyclical equities such as technology, auto, and travel to avoid being caught in the “inherent deflationary spiral”.  Emerging markets would not be spared. Paradoxically, they are more leveraged to the US growth than Wall Street itself. Farm commodities would hold up well, led by sugar.

Mr Fermon said junk bonds would lose 31pc of their value in 2010 alone. However, sovereign bonds would “generate turbo-charged returns.”

There are several ways for governments to solve debt problems.

Excerpts from an article last week in USA Today by John Waggoner entitled “Depression, WWII lessons for economic recovery? Sacrifice” explains:

Even during the Great Depression, federal spending was never more than 11% of GDP.   The last time the nation’s debt was this big compared with gross domestic product — 70.4% of GDP — was immediately following World War II.

How did the Greatest Generation pare it down? It didn’t.

It grew the economy faster than the debt, pushing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and making debt payments easier to manage. But that generation also did some things that U.S. citizens and politicians don’t seem willing to do today. It paid higher taxes, and it had a smaller government — and, at least until the 1980s, it kept annual budget deficits small.

The citizens of the U.S. owe $12.3 trillion in Treasury debt to banks, individuals and foreigners. That’s about $40,000 per person living in the U.S., and it’s not counting the amount our states owe — or, for that matter, what we owe to our individual creditors.

Although the U.S. is currently handling its debt comfortably and pays remarkably low interest rates on it, there’s mounting recognition that sooner or later, we must move the debt-to-GDP ratio in the other direction. And that will involve hard decisions on taxes, spending and sacrifice — something the World War II generation knew much about.

Even during the Great Depression, federal spending was never more than 11% of GDP, according to the Economic Report to the President, an annual government publication by the Council of Economic Advisers.

By 1942, spending climbed to $35 billion, or the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $465 billion. Annual spending peaked at $92.7 billion in 1945, or $1.1 trillion in today’s dollars. By 1945, the U.S. debt was 121.7% of GDP, vs. an estimated 70% today, according to the Economic Report to the President.

Then and now:

How did the government repay the war debt? It didn’t, really. Much of it was rolled over when it matured, but new borrowing was limited. “During the early postwar years, the federal government ran either small surpluses or small deficits,” says Anthony O’Brien, professor of economics at Lehigh University. The federal debt was $260.1 billion in 1945 and $274.4 billion 10 years later in 1955.

But the economy grew faster than the deficit did. GDP was $221.4 billion in 1945, and $394.6 billion in 1955 — despite high tax rates, which persisted. Because of economic growth, the ratio of debt to GDP fell nearly every year from 1947 to 1981. As the nation’s debt became a smaller part of GDP, the debt became much less burdensome, much as a fixed mortgage payment becomes more affordable as your income grows.

What’s different between then and now? Plenty.

World War II was a finite event, and it’s pretty easy to stop war spending and bring the budget back into balance — or close to it — when the war is over.

“Government spending went down by a dramatic amount,” after WWII, says Steven Hess, lead U.S. debt analyst for Moody’s. And government was far more limited: In 1945, there was no Department of Education, no Environmental Protection Agency, no National Security Agency, for that matter.

Today, the U.S. is involved in two wars: Both have lasted longer than WWII, but they have been far less expensive — about $1 trillion so far. So there’s no one dramatic event that will reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, Hess says. “It’s going to be much more difficult.” The problems:

•Recession. When the economy falters, so does the government’s income — that is to say, the taxes it collects from corporations and individuals. The government collected $2.5 trillion in 2008, and it collected $2.1 trillion in 2009, a $400 billion shortfall.

•Spending. Federal spending has jumped from $1.8 trillion in 2008 to an estimated $3.1 trillion in 2009. Unlike World War II spending, however, there’s no quick end in sight to current spending. Much of the growth in spending since the end of the war came from entitlement programs, such as Social Security, and military spending. In 1963, for example, Social Security and Medicare were 14.8% of all federal tax receipts, and defense was 50.1%. In 2009, Social Security and Medicare are an estimated 40% of federal tax receipts, and defense is 25.7%.

•Taxes. The maximum federal income tax rate in 2009 is 35%, down from 39.6%in 2000.

Lower taxes stimulate the economy, and raising taxes in a recession is a nearly sure-fire way of deepening the recession. Nevertheless, tax cuts add to the deficit if the government doesn’t rein in spending. “You can’t raise spending and cut taxes,” and get a balanced budget, says David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor’s. Estimates of how much the tax cuts have added to the deficit range from about $1.8 trillion to $1.35 trillion.

•War. Fighting a war is one of the most reliable ways to create a big debt. The British, for example, finished repaying their World War II debt to the U.S. in 2007. Germany will finish repaying its World War I reparations in 2010. Every Allied nation except Finland defaulted on its World War I debt to the U.S.

The article goes on to point out that there are three ways to solve the problem… Raise taxes, cut spending, or grow the economy fast enough — and grow the deficit slowly enough — that debt becomes a smaller portion of GDP.

Currently, the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio is in line with most other developed countries and well below Japan’s.

This does not mean the US debt is good. This means that the global debt is bad!

And the US debt is headed higher towards the 100%, level where it is difficult to grow out of.

The way to cut the deficit is a combination of tax increases and budget cuts. Yet because neither of these options are politically popular…. expect inflation… the loss of the purchasing power… around the world.

There is a warning signal in the markets now… the rising US dollar.

The chart below shows how the euro recovered after the past panic shift to the greenback and how the dollar is now rising again.

End of excerpt.

My latest Multi Currency Lesson explains more about why there is extra risk now. Learn how to obtain this lesson here.

There is little we can do about the global economy.  That fate is beyond our control.  Yet there is a lot we can do for ourselves.  The common refrain among good investment managers is “do not waste the recession”.

These economic worries and concerns, pressures and tensions in countries everywhere are problems and problems create opportunity. Whether you live in Ecuador… full time or part… you can gain extra opportunity investing in commodities… real estate… stocks and your own small business.

Gary

Join Merri and me this February  at a seminar or tour and share ways to invest, do business and live that protect wealth as they bring joy, satisfaction and better health.

Join us with our investment advisors and tax attorney February 11-14  at Quantum Wealth -International Investing & Business Made EZ, Mt. Dora, Fl.

You can also come on with us to Ecuador.

February 15-16 Travel to Quito and tour Quito

February 17     Travel Quito to Manta

February 18-19  Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

February 20 Travel Manta to Cotacachi

February 21-22 North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

February 23-24  Quito & Mindo Real Estate Tour

February 25 Travel Quito Cuenca

February 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Or join us in March 2010

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour