As people consider their retirement plans, some will find that their funds will not stretch as far as they had originally thought.  A prudent move is to consider moving to a country with a lower cost of living.  Nicaragua stands out in this regard.  It has the lowest cost of living in Central America.  You can live comfortably while eating out, traveling and visiting attractions for well under $1000 a month.  And that includes a full-time maid!

Nicaragua is beautiful.  The volcanoes tower above the lakes and the jagged headlands point far out to see.  Retirees and investors are charmed by the colonial town of Granada and captivated by the San Juan del Sur sunsets.  Best of all, the real estate in Nicaragua is cheaper than elsewhere in the region according to surveys carried out by RevealRealEstate.com.

The Tourism Board is pulling out all the stops to woo investors.  They’ve campaigned successfully for better roads to main tourism spots, improved retirement incentives (Nicaragua’s program ranks with the top programs in the region) and for better port facilities at San Juan del Sur for port visitors.

Visitors enjoy the company of friendly locals.  It’s a country with a warm heart, rich in culture where ‘everyone’ is a poet.  There is also a growing community of expatriates – adventurous people each with a great story to tell.  And in the capital city and other main towns you’ll find world-class restaurants, shopping centers and brand names that you’re familiar with at home.

It’s no surprise that Nicaragua is attracting a growing segment of lifestyle buyers who are looking for a cheap, tax-friendly place to retire and embark on a new life.

What goes up must go down, and inevitably what goes down will eventually come up. It doesn’t have to, but it always does. The trick is to read the signs, and prepare your self and your portfolio for the change. All markets including stocks, bonds, real estate, and technology work in cycles. The only thing you can count on, is that they won’t remain static. They always change. If you keep investing and borrowing the way you’ve always been doing, eventually your going to get burned. Just ask all the victims of mortgage for foreclosures and the sub-prime fiasco.

Probably one of the hardest lessons learned from this particular recession, is don’t gamble with the big stuff. In other words, don’t take stable big dollar funds (like college education funds) and go big on emerging technology startups. The risk is just too great. Sure, someones going to pipe up and tell me a story about how they had a friend of a friend who made hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight doing just this sort of thing. The problem is, nobody ever talks about the times they gambled and lost. It doesn’t make for nearly as interesting a story. Know what you can afford to lose, and don’t go beyond that.

Things can happen pretty fast these days when it comes to investments. Thanks in large part to the role computers play in investing. I was looking at some software the other day, that automated Forex trading for day traders. It’s pretty remarkable how a computer program can watch fluctuating stock prices, and buy and sell all on it’s own. It’s also a little bit scary, when you realize that this is real money it’s playing with. You really need to know what your doing, before you let computers empty out your bank account.

Another painful little lesson we investment types have learned from this downturn, is that there is no such thing as a sure thing. The traditional conservative blue chip stocks were also hit painfully hard this time. Diversification is important here, even if you stay away from the riskier start up stuff the venture capital types like to dabble with. The bottom line is do your due diligence, and always be aware. You need to stay current and don’t always listen to what the experts have to say. Eventually, even they get it wrong.