capturing visitors and second-home buyers for decades and has become an international draw no longer driven solely by Americans and Canadians. Not only is land plentiful, exotic, captivating, and beautiful but also it is typically more affordable than most of the property found in America’s getaway areas.
Much has been written about the kidnappings, roadside hijackings, crooked cops and ever the infamous bandidos in some of the regions of Mexico. Most of the violence south of the border, however, is directly related to the drug cartels and the authorities who are trying to eradicate them. There is absolutely no pattern of any innocent U.S. citizens being randomly murdered in drug violence.
Though much of the violence occurs in border towns, Mexico City has had major problems as has the community of Culiacan, two hours north of Mazatlan. In reality, Mexico needs and wants tourism, and the country is doing a much better job protecting foreigners.
Let’s remember that the United States is plagued with inner-city crime. Guns are commonly used in the U.S. and convenience store clerks should receive combat pay. Tourists in the States also are attacked, often with more violent consequences than are found in many "uncivilized" countries. While kidnapping has been a problem faced by some wealthy Mexicans, it rarely is a problem for tourists. There have been a few cases of tourists being forced to withdraw money from an ATM in the evening and then held until after midnight when a second withdrawal could be made. And, this situation can happen in the evening in any country.
Mexico is still a relatively safe place to live and visit. However, some gringos continue to leave their brains at the border and behave as if all of Mexico is a safety zone – acting totally differently than they would back home. Public drinking may be tolerated, and even encouraged in many Mexican tourist destinations, but public intoxication can easily lead to a spectacle and arrest. As with anywhere on Earth, think twice before walking home alone at 3 a.m. Play it safe and smart, no matter where you are.
“There have been no incidences of drug violence in our little beach community of 15,000,” said Glen Triplett of his 5,000-square foot villa at Rincon de Guayabitos, 45 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. “The local people are very friendly and it is a great place to live. We have spent the summer in Oregon and Washington and have frequently been asked about the ‘drug violence’ much more so than in the past.”
Hill has been going to Puerto Vallarta for more than 30 years and has owned property there for more than 11. He estimates 10 percent of his rental clients ask about the drug violence.
“So what do I tell them? If you are a major drug dealer transporting drugs and money back and forth between the U.S. border states and the Mexico border states, then you should be very concerned about your safely in Mexico, or in the U.S. If you are a tourist coming to Puerto Vallarta to soak up the sun and put your feet in the sand, then it’s a waste of your time to even think about the drug wars impacting you in any way. There is absolutely no connection between drug issues and tourism in resort locations like Puerto Vallarta.”
Chapter Two
Understanding the Need for a Less Expensive Alternative
The Boomer Moment: When the Wheels Really Came Off
In a three-day period starting on September 14, 2008 Merrill Lynch was sold in distress, 158-year old Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, setting off a worldwide panic. On the following day, the Federal Reserve loaned $85 billion to AIG, the first of four bailout payments.
September 16, 2008 was “The Boomer Moment.” And, the flames were fanned soon thereafter when President George W. Bush uttered “The D Word” (Depression) on national television.
The Boomer Moment was the precise point at which consumers began to seriously consider if they would be able to retire at their planned age. This moment got the boomer tag because this particular group was the least prepared, in the greatest denial and had the least amount of time to recover. Although the signs had been there for some time, the Boomer Moment turned out to be the perfect storm.
Several events occurred within the same timeframe:
•Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giants of the mortgage industry, were placed into conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, taking approximately $6 trillion of the mortgage market with them.
•The Dow Jones fell by over 500 points in one day.
•Uncertainty over the $700 billion bailout put together by then President Bush sent stocks into freefall for the majority of September and into October 2008
•Various other institutions closed before the end of the year
Rumors of economic collapse spread like wildfire throughout the world. It later emerged that the U.S. had been in recession since December 2007. Then President Bush sent most of society spiraling into panic with:
"I was in the Roosevelt Room and Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson, after a month of every weekend where they're calling, saying, we got to do this for AIG, or this for Fannie and Freddie, came in and said, the financial markets are completely frozen and if we don't do something about it, it is conceivable we will see a depression greater than the Great Depression.
So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the President during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression."
If you are one of the 79 million of people in the United States that are heading into retirement in the next 10 or so years, you probably thought you were most likely on track to live a decent lifestyle during your retirement years. Your investments were good, the value of your property would continue increase and you could rest easy knowing that the hard work over the years had paid off.
Until . . . The Boomer Moment hit you in the face like a Sandy Koufax fastball.
The bitter truth is that many people - not just the boomers - relied too heavily on home equity and certain investments to bank a return without actually considering what would happen if the world economy sank like a stone. Most did not save nearly enough, relied too heavily on U.S. property appreciation and were lulled into the belief that the good life would always last. As a result of the global economic downturn, however, the use of retirement funds targeted for carefree leisure years had to be reworked. Some were lost altogether. Now, patterns must change.
The baby boomer generation never met a loan it didn’t like. That cohort is now paying the fiddler. This generation, born between 1946 and 1964, effectively changed everything it touched. Start with cars, jeans, ice cream, houses, home loans and health care. The oldest of the generation will be aged 65 in 2011 and the youngest of the generation will be hitting their 60th birthdays in the year 2024. Both of these ages represent the approximate time most baby boomers wanted to retire. In fact, according to the personal accounts of many baby boomers in various newspapers, magazines and other media outlets, many wanted to be retired by the age of 55 if at all possible.
We are now informed that these people will have to work longer into retirement. Many will work for the rest of their lives. Why is that? There’s more to it than the dot-com bubble and low down-payment, adjustable-rate mortgages. The boomer generation was the first generation to break many of the financial rules that previous generations had lived by for decades:
Save in your middle age. Boomers did not save. It is as simple as that. Previous generations have spent their 20s building businesses, raising families and enjoying themselves
