How To Diversify And Grow Your Investment Portfolio Even If You’re On A Budget
Here's How I Would Build A Global Property Portfolio Starting With Less Than US$150,000
In a make-or-break year like 2021, it’s critical to make the smart investment choice.
Property is a safe bet, but where offers the best return on your money?
Let’s go about this using a question I get often:
“What would you buy right now if you had a budget of US$150,000 to invest in real estate?”
The answer is that I’d put the bulk of it into agriculture and the rest into rental property.
I’d strive to ensure the agriculture is diversified, and I’d make sure at least half of my investments generate cash flow.
Specifically, based on opportunities I know of available right now, if I had US$150,000 to invest, here’s what I’d do with it:
- US$7,299 in a teak plantation in Panama…
- US$34,585 for your own slice of a lucrative truffles farm
in Spain… - US$49,000 toward a hard money loan in Panama…
- US$57,000 on a beach property in Northern Cyprus…
That’s a total investment of just under US$148,157.
The Impact Of These Investments On Your Portfolio
This would be a well-rounded portfolio, diversified by asset type, country, and currency. With this portfolio, you’ve got four investments in three different countries paying out in different currencies.
Your agriculture would be well diversified, with quick, mid-term, and long-term payouts.
You’d own your own Mediterranean island bolt-hole, a place you can escape to for year-round sunshine and beaches, or a rental asset that hands you a turn-key 10% ROI.
That hard money loan in Panama offers a fixed return of 23% in just 24 months.
And with the truffles project, you’ll lock in annual paychecks of up to US$16,000 over a full 30 years. Choose to reinvest any one or two of those paychecks and you can expand your portfolio even further…
My favorite investment in recent years is agriculture for cash flow. Over the past 20 years, I’ve accumulated considerable land assets and I’ve built a diversified portfolio of rental properties in several different countries that includes both residential and commercial units.
The rentals throw off cash flow, but, as I move closer to retirement, I’m focused on expanding this income stream. Hence agriculture.
Productive land always retains its potential to make money. It is an excellent option for investors who want cash flow that can amount to a self-made retirement pension.
If all of my other investments were to fail, my agriculture investments should generate enough annual yield to cover my living expenses through retirement.
Then I’ll leave them to the kids when I don’t need them anymore. (The teak investment, in particular, is perfect as a legacy investment, as it’s a long-term investment with a lump payment of US$94k.)
Each of these investments stack up for different reasons. When you are looking with your own portfolio in mind, diversification should be key.
To a safe and prosperous 2021 and beyond.
Lief Simon
