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Hi Jim, best of luck with your new endeavor. Having been born in Houston and living most of my life there while eating a lot of “Texas BBQ”, and then spending a bit over 20 years between Tampa and Atlanta I have enjoyed what they called “Southern BBQ” which I always thought leaned more toward Carolina-style BBQ. Although they were all good, they were definately all different. I’m glad I am typing and not talking because my mouth is salivating just thinking of all the great brisket, sausage, ribs, etc.
So what type of “Southern BBQ” do you plan on having? I guess another way of asking that question is which region of the south will most influence your style of cooking “Southern BBQ”?
I know Scott doesn’t allow advertisements on this forum, 😀 so when you get open and have your menu nailed down perhaps you could take a few minutes to send me a PM and let me know the name of your restaurant, the location, and your specialties.
Again, best of luck with the opening and operation.
Sprite – you may indeed be right that there is no God and all religions are a farce, but I can only fall back on what my mom taught me when I was young….. [b]”Wouldn’t you prefer to live your life as if there is a God only to learn in the hereinafter that there is none, rather than to live your life as if there is no God only to find out in the hereinafter that indeed, there is”.[/b]
You don’t need to answer or respond, you already have and I respect your right to believe as you do. I only wish you would do likewise.
And by the way, I am hoping to get Jack Nicholson on board to play the part of “Sprite the Heathen”. Is that OK with you?
[quote=”DonDiego”]Who will play the irrepressable Don Diego, Do-Gooder David and Sprite the Heathen?[/quote]
I am working on that but can’t make much progress because I can’t stop laughing……”Sprite the Heathen” – that is hilarious! I can see it rolling across the big screen now!
I told you to stay tuned! Most enjoyable, I must say.
I just want everyone to know that I have just bought the book & movie rights to “Even Paradise Has A Dark Cloud”.this is not intended to alarm you, but I too had occasional bouts of swollen ankles back in ’03-’04. I don’t know anything about your age, medical history or condition, but my swollen ankles were the first sign of blocked arteries which led to a triple bypass in ’04. if you haven’t had a recent stress test, you may consider it time to do so. hopefully your swollen ankles are symtomatic of some other cause or condition, but take time to be sure – and if there are no problems then the prescription for feet up/cold cerveza is a great remedy!
[quote=”Scott”]We’re clearly two very different people costaricabill and I respect that but, there’s simply no way I would spit out a good single malt Scotch on an iPad, computer screen or on anything else for that matter…
What can I say? It’s the Scotsman in me…[/quote]
Touche’
I am embarassed to say it happened, and also embarassed to say it was a ‘blend’. Had it been a fine spirit in the class of Macallan or equal I would have been much more careful!Come on Scott – Give us a break! In the thread “[b]Serial killers from Panama in Costa Rica?[/b]” there were 27 responses – 6 of them by YOU! Granted, several of your responses were to direct the reader to the wonderful investigation work and series of reports by the reporter from Panama, who admittedly has done more to further this investigation than anyone since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein!
Tonight, when I sat down to read your diatribe (which was solely intended to criticize your morning competition) I did in fact “spat” my scotch onto my iPad!
News is News, and it is important for those of us that live outside of the Central Valley to know what is going on throughout the country, including other beach communities, whether you think so or not.
A great deal of the success of your web site is due to the folks that take the time to pose (and answer) the questions on subjects that many (most) of us are interested in, so I too find a problem with your selective “censorship”, and hope that you exercise more respect for ALL of your 17,000 members.
I have no problem with you posting a reply that discourages additional responses or criticizes the respondent (as you have done before and no doubt will do in response to this (my) response), that is the priviledge of those editors who have the last word.I am considering an INVESTMENT opportunity in Panama and received this info today from the company soliciting the investment. I have not heard back yet from my US-based CPA, so I can’t attest to the validity of the information, so it is presented below solely for your consideration….
crb[b]All the World’s Investments in Your Retirement Plan[/b]
A retirement plan is now the only way a U.S. person can own offshore funds tax efficiently and make buying or selling decisions about those funds. This is a consequence of an obscure provision of the U.S. tax code that imposes draconian interest charges on tax-deferred dividends or capital gains from most offshore funds.
Your retirement plan can invest in raw land, office buildings, mortgages, even tax lien certificates, both inside—and outside—the USA. An international business. Your retirement plan can own interests in one or more international businesses, as long as this interest doesn’t exceed 50% of the total value of all classes of the businesses’ corporate stock.
Any international business is permitted, so long as it’s not carrying on activities contrary to U.S. law. For instance, your retirement plan could own up to a 50% interest in a company with an offshore website that sells books, tapes, medicinal herbs, or just about anything else.
It doesn’t matter for U.S. tax purposes how the business is organized—as a partnership, international business company or other entity. All profits attributed to your retirement plan accumulate tax-free, safe and secure, until you actually receive the profits in the form of a distribution from your retirement plan.
What’s more, with a Roth IRA, you can actually gift your retirement plan’s interest in the offshore business to your children or other beneficiaries, free of any U.S. tax obligation, other than estate tax.
There are considerable asset protection advantages in moving the assets into a retirement plan offshore. That’s because when your retirement plan purchases offshore investments, while your U.S. custodian remains responsible for complying with IRS reporting requirements, the assets are now held by a non-U.S. entity that is under no obligation to comply with the orders of a U.S. court. In many countries, it is against the law for the holder of an asset to comply with a foreign court order!
There Must be a Catch… Actually, there are a few eminently reasonable ones:
You must have a self-directed IRA, 401(k) or pension plan, or be able to convert your current retirement plan into a self-directed plan. If you don’t have one, it may be possible to “cash out” of your current plan and reinvest it in a self-directed plan. There is no U.S. tax liability if the funds are reinvested in a tax-compliant retirement plan within 60 days.
No self-dealing is permitted. For instance, you can’t lend yourself money from an IRA and then use it to invest in your own business. However, there are numerous exceptions to the self-dealing rule.
You can’t benefit from the investments in your plan until you actually retire.
You won’t be able to credit foreign taxes you pay against your U.S. tax liability, since this income is tax-exempt in the U.S. The countries you invest in will all have their own tax laws, and your retirement plan income is only tax-deferred in the U.S. However, with foresight, you can often mitigate or even eliminate these taxes.
Distributions from a U.S. retirement plan don’t benefit from the 15% tax rate for dividends and capital gains. Instead, when you cash out, you’ll pay tax on the income at your marginal tax rate—which may be substantially higher than 15%. However, it’s often possible to plan distributions so that they take place in years when income from other sources is minimal. And of course, if you’re taking distributions from a Roth IRA, there’s no income tax to worry about at all.
[quote=” Our 7% mortgage costs an after-tax rate of about 5% since we’re in the 28% marginal tax bracket. That’ll go up when the “LIBOR Plus” rate kicks in.[/quote]
David – that is a very interesting statement. Do you have a US-based mortgage that is financing the CR home and you are claiming the interest on your US taxes, or is a CR-based mortgage and home and you are claiming the interest on your US taxes? Either way that is pretty clever and I would like to know how you are doing it!
If it is possible, I may want to follow your lead. Although I don’t have a mortgage presently, it may well be worth the effort to get a loan and “negatively arbitrage” the proceeds at a point or two loss in exchange for the piece of mind of having several hundred thousand dollars in the bank during these troublesome economic times. And who knows, the negative may turn into a positive if I can lock into a low interest mortgage and then the economy turns around and CD interest starts climbing.
I would really like to know how you are doing it – or if your comments relate to property owned back in the States.
There have been several attempts by Minnesota groups to get developments started near Camaronal. Are you affiliated or familiar with those efforts?
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]
Of course, if you want to pay utility bills online you’ll need a colon account to debit, but you still don’t need a dollar account.
quote]Thanks David for the clarification, advice and suggestions on how best to satisfy the requirement for migracion. I too thought it had to be a straight deposit from the source back home and was working on how to get that big fat monthly social security check transferred through the international monetary system and into my account at BNCR.
The only comment I have to your long list of great advice is that BNCR does allow online payments from a dollar account. The bill comes up in colones and once you process the payment the receipt is available to print showing the amount debited from your account in both colones and dollars.
Try JetBlue’s “JetPaws” program – it may work for you. You would have to get the dog(s) to Orlando.
http://www.jetblue.com/jetpaws/BNCR can be easy, or it can be a real hassle. The experiences we have had in SJO have been much more frustrating than with our local bank in Samara.
Also, if you are opening an account in the name of a corporation, in addition to the items mentioned above, you must have your corporate documents with you including a cedula juridica that is les than 90 days old.
