The Expat Files - Currency Primer - 01/12/14

-Now for some straight talk about expats and US dollar bank accounts in Latin America. These days practically every large and small Latin bank offers US dollar accounts, though surprisingly enough only about one in 80 accounts are in US dollars.

 

-A streetwise Central American money and currency primer

 

-There are many assorted, beautiful and endangered birds in Latin America. Some businesses, restaurants, hotels and resorts have them as pets and mascots. You even see many of the endangered ones as pets in captivity. So how is that possible? Well the fact is anyone can have one or more of them in the house or garden. But don’t do it. It’s NOT recommended and there are many reasons why…

 

-With all the bad economic news coming out of the first-world on a daily basis: job losses, cuts in hours, benefits lost… you’d think that Latins living in the states would be feeling the pinch as well. But the fact is that for the past 3 years, the remisas sent back to friends and relatives in Latin America have been on a steady increase year over year. So it seems the Latins up north are either getting hired more frequently, their earnings are up, or both. Does that make sense? I shouldn't.

 

-Politically correct language, phrases and terms are just now beginning to creep into Latin society. Even so, us expats and gringos stumbling along in the Spanish language are generally clueless about such things- we just hope to get our basic conversational points across. But there are some hotspot PC things to be aware of.. even if they don’t make much sense to us.          

 

 -Follow the link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com to schedule a private consultation with me. If you want to discuss the details of living, working, playing, doing business and/or retiring in Latin America, now you and I can talk about your situation one on one.