What if you could collect your paychecks from the beach? Or from the terrace of a café in Rome? Or both? What if you could spend six months living la dolce vita and the rest of the year working on your tan…? Good news: It's not such a pipe dream.

I can’t tell you how to turn water into wine, but after my recent scouting trip to Asia I can tell you how to turn it into money.

If you want to travel and work without restrictions, then one of the most useful tools you can have is a second passport. Dual passports aren’t just for people born overseas. Millions of American citizens potentially qualify. And many of them don’t even know it.

Costa Rica. Just the name conjures up blissful memories of sun-drenched beaches, dark jungle nights, adrenaline-fueled adventure and hopeless romance. I’ve visited there many times over the years, but the first time…well…

In 2008, the time felt right for Eric and his wife Stephanie to leave their Chicago jobs—his in an auto body shop and hers in human relations. They spent nine months traveling Central America, from Panama to Belize, from beaches to mountains. “But we never found good bread,” Eric says.

Arenal is a secret corner of Costa Rica. It’s gorgeously scenic. Rolling green hills slope down to the lake shore…the calm surface of the lake mirrors the wide blue sky and soft clouds overhead…and the sharp flared cone of a volcano steals the show.

My husband and I wanted to be ready for an affordable and truly enjoyable retirement. And we wanted it sooner rather than later, too. But being at the tail end of the baby boomers, we knew we had to get ahead of the curve and seek out a retirement spot before the real estate prices got out of reach.

Morocco's imperial cities—Marrakesh, Fes, Meknes—conjure up images of silk-clad sultans, mud-brick marketplaces full of spices, leather and all the exotic goods of Africa…and with good reason. Each of these cities has served as the capital of Moroccan empires; kingdoms stretching down into the Sahara as far as Timbuktu and up across Spain to the Pyrenees.

My ambitions were modest when I moved abroad, at least financially speaking. I planned to hang around town, explore South America and learn to speak Spanish. Like most expats, I didn’t plan to work.