In the old days, living in the northeast meant at times thinking and sometimes going south for the warmer weather. It seems this winter, to get the warmer weather, you needed to go further south than the southern states. If you did, you would come across countries that look and do similar things to what you are doing are trying to do. In countries outside the US, there are many families trying to earn a living, grow their savings and have a reasonable safe experience. After you notice that, then you ask what companies are the people dealing with? and are there any opportunities?

In an article by Elisa Marinuzzi and Brad Haynes of Reuters, the fintech that created Latin America’s most valuable lender is called Nubank which is owned by Nu Holdings Ltd. The founder and CEO David Velez is considering expansion into the UK.

The company was started a decade ago in San Paulo, Brazil and has grown past 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico and Columbia, making it one of the world’s largest digital challenger banks.

Under President Trump’s administration, Mr. Velez said it has signaled a likely embrace of regulation for digital services which should create a more favorable environment for Nubank to consider entering that market.

Nubank is headquartered in the Cayman Islands has 40 people working for it in Berlin, Germany. Nubank recently made a $150 million investment in a Singapore based digital bank Tyme Group which has 15 million customers in South Africa and the Philippines.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you examine your portfolio, you will likely have a bias toward the country you live in. There are many good reasons, you can easily follow them, there is a market for them, some of them will have exposure to other countries. It is important to remember outside the US there are companies doing the same thing companies in the US do. In this example, if you happen to go south to warmer climates, one of the things you can do is examine who the companies are that people are dealing with? When you get back, you can do your homework to see if you could invest in them. There are always multiple opportunities, sometimes it is better to have a bias toward your area and country, sometimes it is good to stretch your horizons.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.