Norway is uniquely placed to protect wealth. It is outside the euro zone, has low public debt, ultra-low unemployment, and a strong and stable currency. It also has the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund…with a staggering $664 billion under management. Think of Norway as the Saudi Arabia of Europe.

You’ve found your perfect retirement paradise overseas and your attorney has recommended that you establish a foreign corporation and have it own the property for you. You’ve looked at the legal side of this and it makes a lot of sense. However, as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations take effect, you have additional tax and reporting issues to consider.

Take a typical New York City studio apartment, then halve it. That gives you an idea of the living space of 44-year-old Mark and 36-year-old Amélie Meadows and their son, 18-month-old Zephyr. They call The Blue Goose, a 38-foot sailboat, home. Far from feeling constrained by this living or work arrangement, the couple feels it’s helped them strip down to the essentials.

After 25 years as a union glazier, Craig Pearlman was ready for a change. “I installed windows in commercial buildings, sometimes as high as 42 stories up,” says the 47-year-old New Jersey native. “We worked right on the window ledge of high-rises in Jersey City and Hoboken. I almost fell a couple of times. That scared the hell out of me.”

Across from the beach near Avenida Roosevelt, where I ride my bike to the mall, is the completed sales office for Trump Tower Punta del Este. Construction is scheduled to start in June. Prices for condos start at $700,000, and the sales people say “it will redefine what is meant by luxury living.”

John Frogge doesn’t have a car, since everything he needs is found in the little mom-and-pop shops within a few blocks of his home. He pays $60 a month for private health insurance and the personal care he gets from his doctor, “where I never have to wait,” he says, “is outstanding.” He eats well. Food is locally grown and all natural…no chemicals added.

Ireland is a fisherman’s dream. As your flight descends you see its glittering lakes, sometimes large, sometimes secret and small. Lazy rivers meander through green fields toward the wave-lashed coast. Countless spring-fed streams tumble and rush from high in the wild mountains.

Unsurprisingly, Paris offers fashion mavens a clothes-shopping adventure like no other. Just passing the glitzy fashion houses like Chanel, Prada, and Dior on the Avenue Montaigne or Faubourg Saint-Honoré will make you feel as if you’ve tumbled inside the pages of Vogue. But if you don’t have $400 to blow on a napkin-sized scarf, you’re better off heading to the Marais neighborhood, where you can find classic Parisian chic at more affordable prices.

Oak floors, chandeliers, large fireplaces, and exposed wood beams are things you’d expect to find in a chateau. And this perfect country getaway in Normandy has them all. Built in 1881, it’s set on five acres and surrounded by a mixture of lush green pastures and the forest of Eu. There’s a fruit orchard and the Yres River runs through the property, with a bridge leading to a private island.

Panama’s a place of sunshine, 365 days a year. You have hundreds of miles of beach…highland retreats with green valleys where the weather is spring-like, even in January and August…and a genuinely cosmopolitan capital city, too, with one of the world’s largest financial districts. And Panama offers the world’s most generous retiree benefits.