The death rate from the coronavirus won’t make a dent in the global population even if 100% of us catch the bug.
That is: The human race is not going to become extinct.
Economies and markets will recover, too… eventually.
We’re in for a lot of pain and hardship, but, eventually, the world will return to something resembling normal.
So my advice to you today is to focus on your Plan B and do everything you can under the current challenging circumstances to continue moving it forward.
Any Plan B has two parts—what and where.
Right now, where might seem complicated.
Panama is part of my Plan B.
This country shut down quickly after its first coronavirus case was diagnosed. Panama City has excellent hospitals but not enough hospital beds and doctors to handle a full-blown epidemic.
And distance from the epicenter doesn’t seem to be as helpful as I might have believed when a pandemic like this hits. My development community in Panama, Los Islotes, is far from Panama City. It’s far from everything. That’s part of its appeal for Kathleen and me. Yet I’m told that a case of coronavirus may be as close as a small town about 45 minutes north of us.
Belize, meantime, has just one confirmed case. I worry for this country whose health care system will struggle to handle an outbreak.
Colombia closed its borders and isn’t allowing residents or even citizens back into the country. That’s a punch in the gut for someone with Colombia as their Plan B destination… their escape hatch in a situation like this.
In other words, no Plan B haven is foolproof.
The bigger complication is transportation. Getting to your safe haven can become the ultimate challenge… as it has right now.
Kathleen and I are locked down in Paris. We tried to change our flights to return to Panama sooner than planned, but Panama acted quicker, restricting flights from Europe and Asia before shutting down the international airport and closing its borders completely.
The ultimate Plan B leaves you with more than one backup plan… but even that’s not a guarantee in a time of global crisis.
Kathleen and I have multiple residencies, citizenships, and property options available to us. However, if we’d been in Italy when it shut down, we’d be stuck in some hotel.
We were lucky. We weren’t in a hotel in Italy or Spain but in our apartment in Paris when Europe rolled out its quarantine programs. I hope you’re somewhere comfortable, as well.
Kathleen and I and our children have been lucky with regards to where we’ve ended up as we all now hunker down.
However, I’ll go a step further with our what.
It’s not only luck that’s allowed us to create a fully diversified offshore plan. We’ve been working hard at this for decades.
And I have to admit… the downhill roller coaster ride of U.S. stock markets the last couple of weeks makes my preference for investing in productive land feel smart.
Landlords (including me) may take a hit. The United States, Panama, and other countries are talking about not allowing property owners to evict tenants who get behind in their rent and perhaps even formally stopping rent payments.
Definitely resort and short-term rental owners will see a fall in yields this year…
But the owners of productive agricultural land hold the world’s most valuable asset.
Lief Simon
