[quote user=cammeray]
Q. Is this doable with the money I have? Kits and close to the beach just sound really expensive.
For around $4M you can find one. $1.5M cash plus $2.5M mortgage or so. Here is one, there are others:
http://www.goodmanreport.com/print.php?id=1046
Another discussion to have (with yourself or others) is how
a) how much time to invest for each investment, i.e. how active do you wish to be, and
b) how to allocate the money
re a: You can usually make more money combining your own knowledge, your own time and your own money with access to credit. See more here on these
"Five Ways to Make Money". [I say usually as you need to know what you are doing in a chosen space, and that is not always the case. But if you not only invest cash, i.e. green $s, but also time/knowledge/expertise/credit i..e blue $s you need to get additional return for that second category] Obviously you were able to do that in Asia - so why not here or from here ? [btw: what did you do in Asia]. So a decision how to allocate your time and knowledge across these 4 (or perhaps 5) ways is critical, too, and may shift in time as you gather more local knowledge and contacts.
re b: Our firm offers investments, many REIN members offer JVs or RTO deals, there are private equity investment offerings (also referred to as the "exempt market" in Canada), there are stocks or ETFs or mutual funds you can buy, or MICs, or all sorts of esoteric, excellent and dubious investments. So, if you wish to allocate say $1M, I'd create at least 10, perhaps up to 20 buckets of $50,000 to $100,000 each, and then invest each bucket in various asset classes. This is referred to as "asset allocation".
This is not investment, tax or financial advice. This is only an (informed) opinion of how I organize my own life & investments.