Safe investing is really about keeping both your information and your money as secure as possible. Many times, these two items go together.
The recent Equifax breach clearly illustrated that no personal information is entirely safe, no matter how many security protocols are in place. As many as 143 million customers may have been affected when hackers apparently broke into the system from May through July in 2017. Data breaches are costly for the companies as well, because remediation — including things like credit monitoring and the civil litigation that inevitably follows — are incredibly expensive.
In terms of financial security, municipal and other bonds are usually the safest kinds of investments. Many of these accounts are just now recovering from the hits they took during the Great Recession, which means that it may be a good time to sink some money into them.
Information Security
This area is a real concern for many EB-5 foreign investors. One way to decrease risk is to make yourself less of a target. In most cases, these individuals have up to two years to invest the capital minimum. Take advantage of this loophole by providing cash gradually instead of all at once. Thieves will be less tempted to target your data, and the company will probably appreciate having a reliable income stream as opposed to a lump-sum infusion.
Furthermore, take advantage of your ability to travel with your EB-5 visa. Conduct as much business as possible on a face-to-face basis. If you store financial information in an electronic format, which you probably must do at least occasionally, use a removable flash drive and stay off the internet.
If you have more questions, you can go here for help with the EB-5.
Financial Security
Once you arrive in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where should you put your money to help ensure a good return? Investopedia has these “new” rules:
- Buy and hold. Don’t let short-term downturns in stocks frighten you, no matter how bad they are or what the talking head commentators say about them.
- Reassess your appetite for risk, because to make up for losses, you may need to be bold. After all, the EB-5 program requires a minimum investment in America, not in a single company.
- Leverage with caution. Although it is usually a bad idea to make bets with money that you do not have, leveraging investments is also a good way to increase returns.
Basically, the rules for investing in the United States have not changed much, and there are still opportunities here.
Investment Visa Issues
To a significant extent, an EB-5 is more than a financial investment. It’s a personal investment, because this program is a path to citizenship for both you and qualified family members.
For this reason, this program has been quite controversial, especially since its 2011 expansion. While some claim that foreign investment prevented the Great Recession from being even worse than it was, there are others who claim that the EB-5 programs is essentially citizenship for sale.
There is currently some uncertainty in this program, as the current regional center program is set to expire in December 2017. If the government changes the rules, and there is a fairly high likelihood that will happen, it may be significantly harder to obtain an EB-5 visa in the new year.
So, if you are considering an investment visa, now is the time to act.