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Jeff D. Opdyke is an American financial writer and investment expert based in Cascais, Portugal. He spent 17 years covering personal finance and investing for the Wall Street Journal, worked as a trader and a hedge fund analyst, and has written 10 books on such topics as investing globally and personal finance.
Today, he travels the world in search of unique income and investment opportunities—the kind of opportunities you are absolutely not hearing about in the mainstream (or even alternative) financial media. To get his latest boots-on-the-ground research and analysis delivered direct to your inbox, sign up to receive his Field Notes.
“This isn’t what I was hoping for,” my fiancée Yuliya grumped as we strolled a mundane street from the train station of Karlovy Vary, the 650-year-old Czech spa town founded by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, Charles IV. Five minutes later, as we approached the town center, she had drastically recalibrated: She was in love.
Whether it’s banking, opening an overseas brokerage account, or access to opportunities such as my $21,000 crypto play, Uncle Sam is an albatross around our neck. He either paternalistically prevents us from investing our money as we see fit, or he imposes such numbingly burdensome rules that financial companies see Americans as liabilities to actively avoid...
If the global pandemic has done anything—and frankly it has done more than I can quantify here—it has changed people’s perceptions of their own life and their own ideas of personal happiness. Which bring us to Thailand…The tropical Southeast Asian nation is one of the world’s most desirable destinations for digital nomads...
And, so, there I sat—a digital nomad doing his digital nomad-y thing—for a couple hours. I downed a couple of very frosty Alfa beers, met my writing deadline, and then relaxed in the afterglow of work, content with a life earning my keep from anywhere in the world. At that exact moment, there was no better place I could think to be.
Finding Perast felt almost accidental. Only, it wasn’t really an accident because we were looking for the place, and because there’s only literally one road into and out of the village—one side bordered by mountains that loom ominous on a gray day, the other fringed by the placid, beautiful Bay of Kotor.
In the summer of 2018, I was given the chance to write, as a contract freelancer, from anywhere in Europe I wanted to call home. And, so, I set about a task that increasing numbers of Americans are undertaking these days: looking for a country that would accept me not just as a long-term resident, but as a legal remote worker...
No matter where you end up in the world as an expat, a certain challenge confronts all of us: How to manage your finances when you spend your day to day in a foreign country, and some of your money remains back at home. I’ve been operating in that world for over two years now as an American living and working from Prague...
You know that old saw about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks? Yeah, that’s a lie. Turns out, the old dog has a few tricks of his own—or her own, as the case may be. Consider Steve Wilson, who at 50 years old and after a career in technology, joined his wife Rebecca in starting a business selling...
Americans—perhaps you among them—are increasingly asking the question: “How do I protect myself and my family in this current environment?” I’m not talking about hand-washing or social distancing at a local restaurant. I’m talking about “structural” ways to begin building a moat of sorts around yourself and your family...
Whether you’re looking to live and earn legally in another country, or if you simply want to find a safer, happier place abroad where your nest egg will stretch further, there’s one question that might very well determine where you should focus your efforts: How much money do I need to bring in every month?