Placing you savings, investments, assets or businesses outside your home country within one of the many tax havens is sure way to protect and retain more of your hard earned money. A tax haven is a country that has favorable tax advantages. Going offshore in one of these countries means that your savings, investments, assets or business profits can grow free of almost any taxation

It should be noted however, that there is a big difference between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion. You can read more about this topic here, “Legal Tax Avoidance vs Criminal Tax Evasion”.

While taxation is one reason why many individuals may decide to go offshore, other individuals and businesses find the following advantages as important reasons why having accounts offshore as a part of their wealth protection strategy.
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Contrary to what your government and misguided media would like you to believe, investing offshore is not illegal as long as you are following the rules and pay your taxes. They would like for you to believe that offshore investing is not safe and that you are tax evading. This is far from the truth and subscribing to this myth will cost you great profit potential.

If you have never considered investing offshore here is one good reason why you might want to reassess your strategy. Examine the three offshore funds offered by the Tramita Financial Group and ask yourself if being invested in the major U.S. indexes paid off in the past 5 years.

Did your investments give you annual returns of 99.7%, 86.42% and 86.31% in 2007? Well, the Tramita Global, Tramita Real Estate and Tramita China funds did for its investors. These same funds have returned an amazing 1,492.90%, 2,342.40% and 1,171.00% respectively since their inception.
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Investors with a long term savings outlook now have an opportunity to do both social good and make a profit while at it with the help of Better Globe Ltd. Headquartered in Norway, Better Globe’s vision is to help eradicate poverty in Africa through tree planting, agriculture and education.

“We do not believe in just charity, but we do believe strongly in “self-help” and will support poor people in Africa based on principles of profitability. This way they can be self-sustained and able to work themselves out of poverty.” – Better Globe

Similar to other investments regarding hardwood or bio-fuel tree plantations where the purpose is to both help the environment and turn a profit, Better Globe’s plans involves adding an objective to fight poverty in Africa.
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A new investment program just launched on June 6 called Tradedfund.com and supposedly it is not like the other “HYIP” scams online. These are only our observations; we do not endorse or recommend any “hyip” programs. The final decision and risk taking is up to the investor.

“What we will provide you with is a steady and stable return of 7% monthly uncompounded. This allows 84% each year. Making your total profit of 252% in 36 months. These returns are based on 12 yearly payments. The term of investment is 3 years, after which you can WD your principle.” – TradedFund

It has to be noted that this new investment opportunity was started by former members of the PIPS Ponzi fiasco. One of the principals in this program is the admin and owner of the investing forum, ROLClub.com, which has been running for a few years. (Maybe after losing money in PIPS, they can do better.)
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If you have a big pile of capital sitting around and years of business experience under your belt, consider being an Angel Investor and invest in startups or early-stage businesses. This type of investing can be both financially and socially rewarding. Imagine being one of the first investors to help an unknown business become the next international powerhouse.

The average Angel investor deal commands 7 to 10 times ROI for the investor over a period of 5 to 7 years. Promises of a huge return on investments can be enticing, but do you really have what it takes to be an Angel Investor? It takes a lot more than just being an accredited investor to be an Angel Investor.

Most investments in startups or early-stage companies will require long term patience, a high-risk tolerance and hands on approach from the Angel Investor. This usually means not only capital funding, but business acumen in providing guidance and mentorship to help the entrepreneur in growing his venture.

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Researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College recently measured that more than 40% of households may be at risk for seeing their standard of living decline in retirement. They also found that people born after 1955 have an increasing risk of living in poverty.

It is a depressing statistic that should scare you. Four out of ten “retirees” will probably not be enjoying their golden years and may have to continue working just to get by. If you have not thought about or prepared for your later years, there is no better time than the present to start saving and investing.

Since I am not a professional financial advisor or money manager, I cannot give personal investment advice; however, I can give you a starting point on saving and investing so you do not end up being a statistic.
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We are not going to rub it in or said we told you so. Really, we are not laughing at the duped “investors”, but feeling a bit saddened. How many times should one lose their money with some pie in the sky promises before one realizes that an online investment is too good to be true when it lacks transparency? Run as fast as you can if an investment insists on hiding in anonymity or doesn’t discloses the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ of the so call investment.

Legisi.com had high promises of big returns monthly, yet never said how the money was being invested to give such returns. Well, it appears that it was an elaborate Ponzi scheme after all. Half of the 72 Million dollars taken in was being paid out to earlier investors. The other half was either lost by the admin, Gregory McKnight, or spent for his own personal use in buying cars and gifting to family members.

If you are one of the 3000 to 4000 investors who lost money on Legisi.com, you can read all about the SEC’s litigation and complaint against them here. Contrary to popular belief, government intervention and the requirement for securities registration serves a purpose. There is a reason for an individual to be qualified and passing SEC exams to be able to manage investors’ money.
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Results look promising for 5 of the 6 IPAM Managed Systems offered by IPAM Inc. at Powerforex.com. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, they have six different managed Forex trading systems that are available for investors to choose from. The systems are split between two brokers, FXCM and IFX.

“Income Plus Asset Management, Inc. was founded in January, 2004, to assist clients by offering the management of funds. Although started as a traditional investment advisor, Income Plus Asset Management, Inc. (IPAM) is now focused solely on the Forex market and manages funds for clients from around the world.” – IPAM Inc.

The six IPAM trading systems to choose from are as listed: Platinum, Master and Select at FXCM. Armada, Power S-80 and PA5FX at IFX. The current performances in 2008 for each system are listed in the table below.
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