Newson’s skyrocketing prices prove that some contemporary furniture is now every bit as collectible as Chippendale side tables or Queen Anne armoires. For the most part, however, furniture by prominent 20th- and 21st-century designers remains a relatively accessible field. Whether you have a few hundred dollars to spend or tens of thousands, you can acquire an acknowledged classic or a piece by an internationally renowned midcareer designer. If you’re lucky, or you’re gifted with a fine eye for design, you may even find furniture that, like Newson’s Lockheed Lounge, will one day be worth many times what you paid for it.

For a lot of 21st-century people, a love affair with modern design begins with an interest in the enduringly popular work of the most prominent design innovators of the mid-20th century, such as Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen. Seemingly immune to passing fads, many of these designs have remained in steady production for 50 years or more. Yet many are surprisingly affordable.

Take, for example, Charles Eames’s sumptuous moulded plywood and leather lounge and matching ottoman—still starring in reruns of Frasier as the most conspicuous furniture in Dr. Frasier Crane’s living room that isn’t plastered with duct tape. The Eames lounge and ottoman marked their 50th anniversary in 2006, and they’re still made by the original manufacturer, Herman Miller. To acquire an original set in good condition you’ll probably have to go through a dealer or an auction house, and pay around $5,000. If you’re more interested in the look of the piece than its historic provenance, you can buy a brand new Eames lounge and ottoman in stores or through online retailers for $3,500 to $4,500. There have been some changes in construction techniques and materials over the decades—for example, Herman Miller has substituted more readily available woods for rosewood, the increasingly rare species originally used for the lounge and ottoman’s moulded plywood shells—but essentially the new pieces look the same as their 50-year-old counterparts.

As with any purchase, the more you know about what you’re buying, the better. And there are lots of ways to start learning about modern furniture classics. Online sources for purchasing modern and contemporary furniture, such as Canada’s Gabriel Ross and its U.S. competitor Design Within Reach not only sell a huge range of current-production and reproduction classic designs, but also post designer biographies.

Another excellent resource—particularly for people who are primarily interested in collecting pieces by today’s top designers—is the website for Vancouver’s Inform Interiors, which provides links to the websites of dozens of leading furniture manufacturers, such as Italy’s Moroso and Holland’s Moooi. Or check out the Design Boom website to read up on today’s top international designers, such as Spanish-born, Milan-based Patricia Urquiola, or France’s Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

If you’re serious about spotting a new Newson, visit design shows and keep an eye out for prototypes—the hand-tooled originals that are produced before a design can go into production—or for small-batch production items. A big reason that Newson’s Lockheed Lounges are worth a million today is that only 10 of them were ever made. While you’re extremely unlikely to wind up as fortunate as the early buyers of the Lockheed Lounges, you increase your chances of seeing your furniture appreciate in value if you concentrate on items that are one-of-a-kind or a few-of-a-kind.

Rachel Gotlieb, a design curator and co-author of Design in Canada, suggests that those in search of something unique should consider working with designers who also build their own furniture. For prices starting at a few thousand dollars, you can obtain locally made furniture, sized and finished to suit your specific requirements. Gotlieb is a fan of Speke Klein, a firm of designer-makers in Durham, Ont., and the Toronto store Made Design, which can put clients in touch with several accomplished young designer-makers.

Well over 100 years ago, the great British designer William Morris said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” That’s still good advice. Bruce Ferguson, a New York art curator, was at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York when he saw a prototype of a striking new lounge by Matthew Kroeker, a young Winnipeg-based designer. Ferguson asked Kroeker to name a price for his Splinter lounge and bought it for $2,500. Since then, a U.S. manufacturer has picked Splinter up for production, and earlier this year the lounge won an award at the enormous NeoCon furniture fair in Chicago. Those are good indications that Kroeker’s stock is rising and that Ferguson’s Splinter prototype may turn into a valuable acquisition, but Ferguson says the financial considerations are beside the point, really. “When I saw it, I loved it,” he recalls. And after living with the Splinter prototype he still loves it, which is ample reason to consider it a good investment.

No doubt some of these investors really are geniuses; others, though, just happened to be in the right place at the right time. How can you tell who’s smart and who’s just lucky? Simple. Follow them over the long term and see what happens to these geniuses when their chosen sector falls out of favor.

That’s what we’ve been doing with Canada’s Best Small Investors. We began profiling these private investors a couple of years ago. There was a former pipe insulator from British Columbia who had made more than $4 million by jumping in and out of energy and natural resource stocks. There was a retired school principal living north of Toronto who had amassed more than $2.5 million by diligently scouring the market for literally hundreds of solid, quality stocks. There was a former ESL teacher who retired at 34 with a small portfolio stuffed with high-dividend stocks. And there was a Winnipeg investor who turned $35,000 into more than $2 million by betting big on a handful of firms.

Some of our Best Small Investors have continued to do well. Others had a rough year. Whether you’re a whiteknuckle gambler or a play-it-safe risk avoider, we think you’ll find that their stories offer intriguing glimpses into what makes a great investor. The lesson that emerges is that successful investors follow many different strategies, but each of them diligently sticks to whatever works for his own personality and interests. We can all learn from their perseverance—and maybe even take away a couple of interesting stock picks to boot.

Bengt Kaus was a new addition last October to our investing hall of fame, and the 61-year-old Winnipegger has demonstrated over the past year that he richly deserves his place. Kaus’s portfolio gained 26% in 2006 and a further 6% so far in 2007 to stand at $2.2 million, after a $100,000 withdrawal. Not bad for someone who largely sticks to conservative investments and keeps a quarter of his portfolio in cash.

His buttoned-down approach makes Kaus indifferent to the market’s tremors. “The violent swings we’ve been seeing are more indicative of a market top than a temporary low,” he warns. But although he expects the market may tumble, he isn’t running for the hills. Instead he’s sticking to a small group of value stocks, loading up on cash, and taking profits where he can.

For instance, he sold off about 20% of his holdings in Brookfield Asset Management, his second-largest holding, early this summer when he felt the shares had hit a short term high. The shares have since dropped further and Kaus thinks the next few months could be rocky as the property and power generation company rides out the shocks from the sub-prime mortgage implosion in the U.S. “Still, it’s always a good time to buy Brookfield, if it’s for a long-term investment,” says Kaus.

Kaus’s largest investment is ING, the international Dutch banking and insurance giant. It, too, has dipped a little in recent months, but Kaus doesn’t seem concerned. “ING is my defensive position in case we have a bear market,” he says. “The P/E ratio shows that it’s still very cheap. Unfortunately, in the U.S. the ‘E’ part of the ratio—the earnings—hasn’t held up because of the mortgage crisis.” The stock still commands a full 20% of Kaus’s portfolio and he says he isn’t planning on selling it any time soon.

When we checked in with Kaus last October, he mentioned that he was doing some research into the shipping sector. His research paid off when he decided to load up on a Greek shipping company called Euroseas. “It was trading over-the-counter at $8 a share when I bought it, and I sold it for $15 this past summer.”

Kaus has recently been dabbling in the shares of Chinese manufacturers that are trading over-the-counter in the U.S. as they wait to be listed on North American exchanges. He bought a basket of six such companies, including China-Biotics, which produces live probiotic bacteria for use in yogurt and other food products. (Its flagship bacteria goes by the moniker “Shining Essence.”) “I like these things because I can buy them for less than 10 times earnings, and they’re primed for a high rate of growth,” he says. “Plus they’ll get an immediate boost once they’re trading on the North American exchanges.”

Dale Johnson endured the scare of his life last Halloween. When we last talked to the 51-year-old former pipe insulator, he had built his portfolio’s net worth to about $4.7 million by using truckloads of borrowed cash to invest in energy income trusts and junior mining companies. Then, late last October, he was at his home in Coldstream, B.C., when disaster struck. Ottawa announced it was going to tax trusts. The announcement obliterated billions of dollars of investors’ wealth—and more than a million dollars of that wealth belonged to Johnson.

“I only slept about three hours that night,” says Johnson. “I woke up at 3:15 in the morning, but the markets don’t open here in B.C. until 6:30 a.m. So I sat in front of the computer and drank coffee. I remember thinking to myself that if I get out of this with just a 30% loss today, I’ll be lucky. But I wasn’t that lucky.”

By early afternoon, Johnson had lost $1.2 million on the accounts that he manages for himself and his brother, and the losses didn’t stop there. He spent the day madly selling off his weaker trusts to avoid a margin call, but prices continued to drop well into the following month. “By mid-November, I had bottomed out at about $2.7 million,” he says. “I think if I had hit lower than that, I would have turtled and protected my nest egg.”

Many investors would have sworn off income trusts altogether. But Johnson, who lost a total of $1.6 million, jumped right back in. Over the following 10 months he has traded aggressively to rebuild his portfolio to $4.3 million. His portfolio has almost completely recovered from the damage of last October—and Johnson has already built his leverage back up to significantly more than $1 million.

What lessons did Johnson learn from the experience? He says he went back to fundamentals and now focuses on trusts that can pay their distributions out of net income; he avoids trusts that have to borrow money or sell more units to pay existing unitholders the yield they expect. He has also put more money into Canadian miners, especially firms looking for copper and molybdenum.

His top holding is Trinidad Energy Services Income Trust, just as it was at this time last year. Trinidad, which builds and operates oil and natural gas rigs, makes up a full 65% of Johnson’s holdings, and he still considers it a buy, despite that fact that it’s been falling since mid-May. “I’m still bullish on it for the long term,” he says. “It might be weak for the next little while, but I recommend it for anyone with a window of two months or more.”

Johnson’s second-biggest holding at press time was Roca Mines, one of the companies he mentioned when we checked in with him in our October 2006 issue. Back then, Roca was trading at about $1; at press time, it was around $2.50. Roca’s main product is molybdenum, a silvery metal that’s added to the steel used in pipelines and oil drills to make it stronger and more heat resistant. The price of molybdenum has recently gone on an epic tear, soaring from $5 (U.S.) a pound in 2003 to $35 (U.S.), and Johnson says Roca should do well as long as the price stays high.

Johnson’s not alone in liking the prospects for moly. Sprott Asset Management in Toronto recently started up a molybdenum fund, which is Johnson’s third-largest holding, and Johnson feels the metal’s price will continue to soar. “Sprott’s very smart and the fund they’ve set up doesn’t have a closing date,” he says. “That indicates to me they’re bullish on moly over the longer term.”

Despite his million-dollar loss last Halloween, Johnson hasn’t slowed down one bit. In June, he switched in and out of various holdings more than 120 times—and he says that he has no plans to ease back on the throttle, thank you very much. “I still have about $1.7 million in margin right now,” he says. “I know that what I’m doing is pretty dangerous, but I’m aggressive and I like playing the game the way I play it. It’s been a bouncy year, but I can’t complain about things. I’m not too far off from where I was the last time we talked.”

Jim Chuong has achieved a 9% average return over the past year, much better than the year before—but he’s far from excited about it. One of his holdings, the California sunglasses company Oakley, is in the process of being bought out by Luxottica, the eyewear behemoth, and he’s not taking the news well. “I can’t believe it,” says the 35 year-old resident of Mississauga, Ont. “That company was a cash machine. The worst part is they’re buying it out for cash. I would have much preferred shares in Luxottica.”

Still, Chuong is taking some solace in the fact that Oakley is being bought out at $29.30 (U.S.), more than double what he bought it for. Plus, he seems thrilled that one of his other holdings, K-Swiss, has dropped by about 8% over the past year, thus presenting him with a buying opportunity. “I think that’s really awesome,” says Chuong, whose day job is working as a pharmaceutical rep. “I haven’t had an opportunity to buy K-Swiss in years.”

Otherwise, Chuong’s portfolio has been pretty much unchanged, and his other holdings are doing very nicely. Fossil, which makes watches and accessories, is up by a whopping 75%, The Buckle, a casual apparel retailer, is up 60%, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (class B) is up 24%.

Meanwhile Chuong is getting more and more interested in real estate. He has devised a methodology for evaluating income properties that involves coming up with independent estimates for property expenses and ignoring most of the numbers provided by sellers. Based on this method, he believes he’s finally found a winner, a 12-plex in Kingston, Ont., that he snapped up in late August to join the two rental condos he already owns in Toronto.

Thanks to his property holdings, Chuong estimates that his net worth is now $1.1 million, up slightly from last year. He’s taking his success in stride and seems almost indifferent that, at 35, he’s already achieved what many never accomplish in a lifetime.

Carl Anderson, a 76-year-old retired high school principal in Toronto with a portfolio valued at $2.7 million, had a year that many investors will find eerily familiar. His portfolio of more than 200 blue-chip stocks and income trusts took a dive in late October when the government announced that it would tax trusts. Then his stocks enjoyed gangbuster returns until July. Finally, over the late summer, “I just got hammered,” he says.

That hammering reduced his year-over-year return to about 5%—not bad, but well below Anderson’s long-term average annual return of almost 20%. Still, Anderson, who plans on eventually donating most of his portfolio to children’s charities, is unconcerned. That’s because he’s much more interested in the dividend income his portfolio spins off than capital gains, and his dividends are steadily marching higher. Anderson calculates that they’re up by about 8%, this August over last, meaning that the roughly $65,000 in income Anderson gets from his portfolio is still growing at more than double the rate of inflation.

Since his dividend income is unthreatened by market fluctuations, Anderson has changed very little in his portfolio. His biggest move was to sell off $14,000 worth of Shiningbank Energy Income Fund, a gas trust that’s been swooning since early 2006 and recently merged with PrimeWest Energy Trust. He used the proceeds to buy into the AltaGas Income Trust, the Enbridge Income Fund and The Consumers’ Waterheater Income Fund, which he sees as much stronger trusts for the future.

Derek Foster retired three years ago at 34 with a portfolio valued at just over $400,000. That didn’t seem like a lot of money to make ends meet on for the rest of his life, but so far he’s not only supporting himself, but a growing family as well.

Foster’s fourth child, a little girl, was born in July, prompting a move to a larger 3,000 sq. ft. detached house in Ottawa. “I’ve been busy with the newborn, and we went to Disney World again, and we’ve just been taking it easy,” he says. “I haven’t really spent much time looking at my portfolio.”

That’s because things seem to be working fine. Foster’s plan was to build a portfolio that spun off enough income for him to live on, and then ignore it. So during his late 20s and early 30s he loaded up on safe, high-dividend-paying blue chips and trusts such as Canadian Oil Sands Trust, EnCana, Royal Bank, Manulife, and Johnson & Johnson. Since he never plans to sell off any of these major holdings, he doesn’t care how much they’re worth. All he cares about is making sure that the $35,000 or so in income his portfolio produces each year though dividends, distributions and tax credits goes up faster than the rate of inflation, and so far it has.

During the past year, Foster made just one big buy, The Consumers’ Waterheater Income Fund. “I picked this one because regardless of the economy, people will rent water heaters,” he says. “And the trust should be able to raise prices at least at the rate of inflation. So for me it’s like an inflation-protected bond.”

Outside his portfolio, Foster’s big project has been a sequel to Stop Working: Here’s how you can!, a book he self-published in 2005 and sells through bookstores and his website, www.stopworking.ca. He has sold over 20,000 copies and he hopes that a new book, The Lazy Investor, will do even better. His only complaint is that the money from his book sales is raising his tax bracket. “My tax credits have been reduced because of the extra income from the book,” he sighs. “I never thought it would do so well.”

How did he do it? Like many successful investors, Morrison searches for bargains. When he’s buying his clothes, he waits for them to go on sale. When he buys his stocks, he waits until the price drops below what he feels a company is really worth. But while that bargain-hunting approach is standard for any value investor, Morrison takes the notion one step further.

He loves the types of companies that give professional investors nightmares. His favorite targets are companies snared in multimillion-dollar lawsuits, or threatened with nationalization in unstable countries, or hit with seemingly unmanageable inventory control problems. One of Morrison’s companies just saw its main source of revenue ruled illegal and that’s fine by him.

You might think that a man who invests in such high-risk situations would be an intimidating brute. Morrison, though, looks more like a bookworm than a bruiser. He turns 51 in January, but he could still pass for a smart-aleck college kid. It might be his elfin face, long delicate fingers or the shirt collar that’s way too big for his long, thin neck. It might also be his attitude. At an age when many of us have settled into middle-aged complacency, Morrison is always thinking, always challenging conventional wisdom, even when it comes to the most banal of activities.

Take the simple act of boiling an egg. Morrison, a passionate environmentalist, thinks that most people do it the wrong way. They fill the pan with water and waste energy heating all that water to 100°C before they drop in the egg. Morrison prefers to pour just 1 mm of water into the bottom of the pan, turn on the heat, and add the egg right away. The egg, which is mostly above the water, is essentially steamed. “It makes a perfect egg every time,” says Morrison. “And it uses a lot less energy.”

Morrison’s egg-boiling strategy has nothing to do with investing, but it speaks volumes about why he’s a success in the stock market. Whether it’s boiling eggs or picking stocks, he never assumes that the usual way of doing things is the right way. By insisting that conventional wisdom is flawed, he often stumbles upon fascinating discoveries.

Morrison was born in 1957 to an affluent Toronto family. At a young age, he began to display a fine mind and a penchant for analyzing complicated problems. His first love was chess. Morrison was so good at this classic game of strategy that at 24 he found himself playing against Garry Kasparov, the best chess player in the world, at the World Youth Olympiad in Graz, Austria. Morrison lost, but says that as far as he knows, he’s the only Canadian to have ever played the Russian Grandmaster and World Chess Champion in a tournament game.

Morrison shone just as brightly at school. In 1980, at 23, he graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Toronto. That same year he bought his first stock. He had just landed a job as an equity analyst at Laurentian Financial in Toronto, and his boss had assigned him to study the airline industry. Morrison boned up on the sector and, eager to put his new knowledge to work, bought 100 shares of US Air (now US Airways) for his personal portfolio at just over $19 a share. He had crunched his numbers and figured the airline was worth far more than his purchase price. He was sure he was getting a bargain.

Unfortunately for him, the market didn’t agree. After his purchase, the stock dropped by more than a third to $12 a share. Still Morrison stuck to his assessment. Indeed, he felt US Air was even more of a bargain at $12, so he bought 100 more shares. Then the stock dropped to $10 a share, and Morrison thought that was crazy. According to his calculations, the stock shouldn’t be trading anywhere near that low.

Still he held on, and, little by little, the stock began to rise. When it finally edged back to $19, Morrison sold his entire stake, relieved to have gotten out without losing his shirt. “That’s when I made the mistake,” he says. “It’s one that young investors often make. The mistake is that you’ve suffered with a stock and then it goes back up and you have your first chance to get out for a little higher than your cost, so you do. In that case, I was relieved to get out at $19. After I did, it went up to $35.”

Morrison says his first major lesson as an investor was that you shouldn’t worry if your stock drops like a stone after you buy it. If you’ve done a proper assessment of its worth and you believe in it, stand by that assessment. Don’t sell just because your stock has taken a beating; sell when your calculations show that a stock is fully valued in comparison to its likely future earnings.

Morrison learned his second major investing lesson in 1984. His teacher was Valero Energy, an independent oil refining company that had just developed a new “catalytic cracker” that could turn a dirty, sludge-like refinery by-product called residual fuel oil into pure gasoline.

Morrison bought his first Valero shares at about $18. Then the British coal miners’ strike slammed into the coal market and residual fuel oil suddenly became a sought-after replacement fuel. “It was unbelievable,” recalls Morrison. “The market was horribly distorted by this strike and Valero was losing money hand over fist.” Morrison’s stock plunged, but he stuck to his assessment and bought even more shares on the way down. Valero went as low as $4 before the strike ended and the market got back to normal. This time, however, when the stock recovered to $18—Morrison’s original purchase price—he didn’t sell. He waited. The stock shot up to $32 and he made a mint.

Morrison’s experience with Valero was a great reminder of lesson No. 1. He had stood by his initial valuation, and he was rewarded for his persistence. But Morrison also learned an important second lesson: it’s easier to stand by your falling investments if they are leaders in their industry, especially if they have a unique advantage over their competitors. If the advantage is real and provides a sustainable increase in profits, your company will be rewarded for that advantage, even if it runs into bumps along the way.

“I could give you a list of companies that I’ve owned, in a whole variety of industries, where I can point to something in which they were a leader,” says Morrison. “I first learned about that approach by reading Competitive Strategy, a book by Michael E. Porter. He talked about the whole matter of ease of entry and ease of exit within industries. Basically you want an industry with high barriers to entry, and low barriers to exit.”

By this time it was 1988. Morrison’s personal investing was going well, but he was growing weary of the groupthink and office politics he often encountered at work. “At the end of the day, I discovered that I wasn’t really a Bay Street person,” he says. “I’m not really a team player. I realized that I wanted something new.”

Morrison was 31. He could have looked for a new job in finance, but he wasn’t sure that was what he wanted after so many years spent on solitary, analytical pursuits. “Investing and chess are very good for the ego if you’re good at them,” he says. “But it’s not clear that either one is good for developing a sense of one’s self—or developing social skills. I felt that there was something missing from my existence, and I came upon the thought that I wanted to be better educated in the humanities.”

Morrison decided to go back to the University of Toronto, this time to pursue a degree in English literature. He ended up completing a masters in the subject, as well as part of a Ph.D., before growing tired of the pursuit. “I wanted to learn about the humanities, and I did, but I wasn’t really passionate about it,” he says. “Force of will can carry you a long way, but a more effective motivation is that you really enjoy what you’re doing.”

Morrison decided that what he really enjoyed was investing. Besides, he was really, really good at it. By the later half of the 1990s his portfolio was already closing in on $1 million, and Morrison decided to become a full-time investor. Soon afterwards he made the investment of a lifetime.

It started with a tip from a friend who worked in the high tech industry. The friend was impressed with a company in San Diego called Qualcomm. It was developing what would eventually become one of the two leading cell phone technologies in the world, called CDMA. Morrison looked into the company and “became quite confident that this was a company run by high-energy, passionate geniuses.” In late 1996 he bought almost $200,000 of the stock and advised another friend to buy in, too.

For two long years, not much happened. Morrison had made his initial buy at about $2.30 a share. (All share amounts and prices have been adjusted for subsequent splits.) Qualcomm’s stock would sometimes shoot up to $3 or $4, but would always fall back to $2.50, largely because two telecom giants, Ericsson and Nokia, were developing a competing technology called GSM and were accusing little Qualcomm of patent infringement. The fight came to a head in early 1999. “Believe it or not,” says Morrison, “it was going to be a complex patent case determined by a Texas jury.”

Morrison predicted that when the case was resolved, Qualcomm’s stock would soar. He felt that even if the company lost, just getting the patent issue settled would clear the air.

Morrison was right, but he didn’t realize how much the impending dot-com bubble would supercharge an already astounding recovery. Ericsson decided to settle out of court in March, and Qualcomm’s stock started to head up. As it climbed past $4, Morrison’s friend called him asking if he should sell and get out with double his money. “Don’t you dare,” said Morrison.

By mid-April, Qualcomm’s stock had climbed to $10. By August, it was at $20. By November it hit $30, by December, $60. As 1999 ended, Qualcomm peaked at $88 a share. Morrison held on all the way up. By then Qualcomm accounted for more than 70% of his portfolio. He started to sell. When the dust settled, he’d turned a $200,000 investment into $3 million and earned a one-year annualized return of 554%.

Some investors might have treated themselves to a party, but Morrison was more interested in finding another big winner. He decided to invest a big part of his newfound wealth in Jo-Ann Stores, a drab 64-year-old chain of fabric and craft shops based in Hudson, Ohio. If Qualcomm was flashy and high-tech, Jo-Ann was the precise opposite.

“I first stumbled on Jo-Ann Stores in an article in Forbes magazine in 1998,” says Morrison. “At the time, I thought it was an interesting story, but I didn’t think it was particularly cheap. So I just watched it for a bit.” Jo-Ann Stores was struggling to install a “just-in-time” computerized inventory system and the stock plunged from $13 to $7. At $7 a share, Jo-Ann was Morrison’s type of company: a proven industry leader with a long history of profitability that, for various reasons, was being hammered by the market.

Morrison started buying in 2000. Jo-Ann’s stock continued to swoon. It hit bottom at about $3 in early 2001, and Morrison invested all the way down. By mid-2001 Morrison was seeing signs of recovery, and in August that year he bet the farm on Jo-Ann.

It was a gutsy move—and a masterstroke. Toward the end of 2001, as Jo-Ann Stores sorted out its inventory problems and secured new financing, its shares rose from $3 to $6. By late summer 2002, they were in the mid-$20s. Later that year, when Jo-Ann hit the high $20s, Morrison began to sell. At that point he had 94% of his holdings invested in the stock.

How could he bet nearly everything on a single distressed company? Morrison says he protected himself the best way he knew how—by paying much less for a good company than he knew it was worth. He had researched every aspect of Jo-Ann Stores. He had even driven to the U.S. with a friend to check out a dozen locations and chat with the sales staff.

Morrison began his analysis by ascertaining that Jo-Ann Stores had about $80 a share in sales. He then looked back at the margins that the company had achieved in the past to see what kind of profit it could earn on those sales if margins returned to normal. He calculated that it should be able to earn $2 a share. Assuming the stock should trade for about 12 times earnings, he figured the shares would be fairly valued in the mid-$20s. And so it turned out. When Jo-Ann Stores hit that point in late 2002, he began to sell, making an annual return of 140% on his investment.

In addition to supplying him with millions of dollars in profit, Jo-Ann Stores taught Morrison his third, and most important lesson: the importance of looking for good companies in trouble. By trouble he doesn’t mean missing an earnings target. He means natural disasters, lawsuits or serious political strife. The truth is, Morrison had been following this rule all along. He had made his most profitable Valero buys during the period it was depressed by the coal miners’ strike. He had made his most profitable Qualcomm buys when it was threatened with a huge lawsuit.

Morrison now focuses nearly all his attention on such troubled companies. His portfolio typically includes no more than 15 holdings and most of his money is concentrated in his top half-dozen or so ideas. He is fearless about leveraging his own money with borrowed funds if he believes in an investment.

While most Bay Street analysts shy away from companies embroiled in political strife, Morrison believes that such situations can be a gold mine for small investors who are willing to do the necessary analysis. Take PetroKazakhstan. Originally a Canadian oil company called Hurricane Hydrocarbons, it was renamed PetroKazakhstan in 2003 because nearly all its operations were in that troubled Central Asian country. Morrison began looking at the company because it was trading far below what seemed reasonable, given its balance sheet and reserves. He discovered that its price was depressed because the company was in danger of being nationalized by the Kazakhstan government. “That meant it was really a politics story, more than an oil story,” says Morrison.

Morrison decided to do a political analysis. He read up on the company and the country and discovered that while several parties were interested in acquiring PetroKazakhstan, the most likely buyer was the Chinese government. “I felt that the Kazakhstan government would have no problem thumbing its nose at PetroKazakhstan, but it would not thumb its nose at the Chinese government,” says Morrison. He poured money into the oil company while it was trading in the mid-$30s and made a small fortune in August 2005 when PetroKazakhstan was bought out by China National Petroleum Corp. at more than $60 a share.

Morrison’s experience with PetroKazakhstan demonstrates that there are areas where individual investors can have an edge over the pros. “Institutional investors often don’t want to own a stock that can be an embarrassment,” he says. “I call that the reputation factor. Even if an investment is essentially betting a dollar on a coin toss where you get $10 if it comes up heads and 50 cents if it comes up tails, they won’t go near it. Because if it comes up tails, there’s an added cost to them in terms of the firm’s reputation.”

Since his success with PetroKazakhstan, Morrison has continued to buy companies in unusual situations. For instance, he’s investing in Gold Reserve, a U.S.-based firm that owns promising gold and copper mines in Venezuela. “The risk here is whether Hugo Chávez is going to try and turn Venezuela into another Cuba,” says Morrison. “Well, maybe. But so far, the company has been very positive about its dealings with the Chávez government.”

Another example is tiny ESI Entertainment Systems in Burnaby, B.C. The thinly traded company provides payment processing services to the gaming industry, most notably to Internet poker sites. Unfortunately for ESI, payment systems for U.S. online gaming sites were shut down last October by Washington’s crackdown on Internet gambling. ESI’s stock plunged so low that it began trading for even less than the cash on its balance sheet.

At that price, it’s a steal—but only, of course, if the U.S. law shutting down ESI’s core business is lifted. “I bought some ESI a little while ago at 40 cents,” says Morrison, “because I think that there are good reasons for the law being reversed. I think the U.S. will eventually allow Internet gaming, it will just be regulated.”

Other stocks that Morrison likes include CEVA, a technology licensing company in San Jose, Calif., that Morrison calls “the Intel of digital signal processor core licensing,” and Belzberg Technologies. Belzberg, based in Toronto, provides brokerages with computerized trading systems, especially for options trading. “I think it’s an extraordinarily well-managed company,” says Morrison, “but it has very little following.”

Given his millions, Morrison lives a surprisingly low-key life in Toronto with his wife. He has many interests, including history, psychology and politics, and occasionally attends local seminars. He’s also passionate about environmental issues. He takes the subway or bus if he can, and when he has to drive, hops in his Honda Civic Hybrid. He tries to avoid flying, so as not to produce unnecessary carbon emissions, and when he’s shopping, he still loves a good deal. “I don’t spend much money,” he admits. “I’m not investing to become a big spender. If anything, I kind of abhor much of the profligacy that I see around me.”

He doesn’t have any kids to leave his money to, so why does he invest, if it’s not for the money? “Some of it is just the satisfaction of understanding something that the market has failed to understand,” he admits. “And yes, it does have a game aspect.” In the end, asking Morrison why he invests is a lot like asking him why he plays chess. He plays for the sheer thrill of the game. And, naturally, to win.

That combination of size and style proved to be irresistible to John Manalo. “I didn’t want a minivan, but we needed something that was versatile and not thirsty on gas,” says the 42-year-old IT administrator at the University of Toronto. “There’s only my wife and our six-year-old son right now, but every now and then we have visitors and we are thinking about having another child down the road.”

The Manalo clan decided to buy the six-seater Mazda5, one of two new miniature minivans available in Canada. The alternate choice for anti-van families is the similarly styled Kia Rondo, which can seat five or seven passengers. Both vehicles are clamoring for the title of best compact minivan, so we let them slug it out in a side-by-side comparison.

MAZDA5 – $19,995 to $26,125: Introduced to Canadians two years ago, Mazda’s entry is the veteran in the field. An early recall hobbled this athletic wagon after its launch, but it has since proven to be a reliable family hauler. “This is the perfect car for a family of four,” says Mohamed Bouchama, executive director of the nonprofit Car Help Canada. “It’s good on fuel, it’s reliable and it’s not a bad price.”

Powered by the same 2.3-litre engine found in the sporty Mazda3 GT hatchback, the Mazda5 gets four-cylinder economy without feeling sluggish. It burns a modest 8.3 litres of regular fuel for every 100 km of highway driving or 11.2 litres of fuel per 100 km in the city.

What really sets this vehicle apart is its seating configuration. Open the sliding, minivan-style side doors and you’ll find bucket seats in the front and middle rows. The middle row is easy to step into, even for the booster-seat crowd, thanks to the low floor. A tall roof line offers welcome headroom for parents who have to lift in young ones and secure their seat belts. The third-row seats are accessed by a lever, which slides the second-row seats forward—a neat trick, although spending any time in the third row is best left to children because of the limited legroom.

When not in use, the third-row seats fold flat to create a generous cargo space. The second-row seats and even the front passenger seat can also perform the same fold-down trick, making the Mazda5 your best friend on those antiquing trips or visits to Home Depot. However, with all six seats in place there is only room in the trunk for a handful of grocery bags or a couple of small suitcases.

Though it may be dwarfed when parked beside full-sized minivans, the Mazda5 is still big on value. For prices starting at just under $20,000, you get standard features such as an AM/FM/CD player with steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, power doors and windows, keyless entry and an engine immobilizer. The GT model, starting at $22,895, adds fog lights, anti-theft alarm, larger 17-inch sport tires, power moonroof and, most importantly, side impact air bags and side curtain air bags for all passengers. A fourspeed automatic transmission and air conditioning are options costing an extra $2,100 on both the GS and GT models.

KIA RONDO – $19,995 to $25,995: The Mazda5 had no real rivals until this upstart burst onto to the scene for the 2007 model year. The Rondo is based on the mid-sized Hyundai Sonata platform and tops the Mazda5 in size, power and seating. In fact, the Rondo boasts more interior room than even some compact SUVs such as the Honda CR-V. However, nagging quality concerns and low resale value make this newcomer an uncertain bet, says Bouchama, the car expert. “Kia sells average cars with an above average warranty, but they depreciate like crazy,” he says. “If you buy the Kia you’d better plan to keep it for a long time.”

Two engine choices are available for the Rondo—a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder powerplant and the optional 2.7-litre V6. The four-cylinder engine is adequate for most uses, but anyone who plans on towing a trailer or carrying a full complement of passengers may want the bigger engine. Despite its heft and hauling ability, the Rondo still retains car-like manners, though it does feel bulkier than the Mazda5. Both engines offer comparable fuel economy to the Mazda5.

Inside the roomy cabin, a second-row bench accommodates up to three people, though the middle seat is tight for adults. Like the Mazda5, a single lever and a bit of muscle slide the second row forward so passengers can access the optional third row. But again, larger guests should not be assigned to the back row unless you are trying to dissuade them from coming along for the ride.

All Rondos come with standard air bags for the front and rear passengers, power doors and windows, ABS brakes, electronic stability control and an AM/FM/CD stereo. Upgrading to the EX four- or six-cylinder model adds a bunch of other features, including air conditioning, cruise control, car alarm, fog lights, roof rack, heated mirrors and heated seats. However, only the six-cylinder EX Premium and Luxury models offer the third row of seats. The V6 models, which start at $22,995, also add larger 17-inch alloy wheels, power moonroof, and leather seats.

CONCLUSION: Although the Rondo is shorter than the Mazda5, it does have more room for heads, legs and shoulders. And when it comes to cargo space, Kia claims to have double the room for your groceries and other gear. However, with its so-so reputation, rapid depreciation and the lack of a third row in all but the most expensive models, the Mazda5 overtakes the Rondo where it counts.

She was right. Once Grant was aboard ship and taking part in a MacMania cruise for fellow Apple Mac enthusiasts, he couldn’t get enough of the experience. “It was fabulous,” he says. “Imagine having lunch with one of the founders of the World Wide Web. How great is that?”

As Grant will tell you, cruise vacations are no longer just about playing shuffle board and pigging out at the buffet table. Themed cruises give all types of likeminded folk a chance to come aboard and share a common passion—whether that passion happens to be fitness or film, scuba diving or salsa, computers or cooking.

What happens if your spouse doesn’t share your interest? No problem. Cruise organizers go out of their way to ensure a wide range of activities are on offer. For instance, while Grant hunkered down with podcasting lessons and digital photo applications, Leong got physical with aerobics and yoga classes. In between their classes, they enjoyed the view from their cabin veranda and joined other couples in touring Key West, exploring Mayan ruins in Guatemala and viewing the cheetahs at the Belize Zoo.

Themed cruises come in two types—ones that take over most of the ship and are usually connected with the cruise line, and others that are privately organized and occupy just part of the ship. Food and wine cruises sponsored by Holland America Line (www.hollandamerica.com) and Food & Wine magazine are a good example of the first type. You and your fellow foodies watch while chefs work in specially equipped Culinary Arts Center facilities, complete with plasma screens and state-of-the-art appliances. You then practice hands-on culinary skills under the eyes of one of the ship’s executive chefs. “This program is fantastic,” says Toby Saltzman, a veteran cruiser and Toronto travel writer, who watched as a tentative student produced a restaurant-worthy rack of lamb. “You come away with excellent recipes and know-how.”

On the other hand, if you would rather hone your skills on a keyboard instead of a chopping board, a Geek Cruise might be just the thing for you. Neil Bauman, a former computer programmer in Palo Alto, Calif., runs cruises like MacMania, Photoshop Fling and Aperture Aura for digital camera junkies. Bauman books cabins, meeting rooms and some of the top people in the computer industry, but his events only occupy part of the ship.

Bauman got the idea for Geek Cruises when he took his family on their very first cruise in Alaska in 1998. They found they were sharing deck space with Trekkies on a Star Trek cruise. He’s since captained 37 geek weeks at sea on voyages to Hawaii, the Mexican Riviera, Alaska, the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea and Central America Captain Neil, as he’s known at sea, is quick to emphasize that his techie participants are not an introverted lot. They break for round-robin dinners and shore explorations. “Yes, we love our Macs,” says Bauman. “But we’re an active, adventurous, full-of-spirit kind of group who are also addicted to life.” His next voyages include Aperture Aura en route to the Eastern Mediterranean, and Photoshop Fling to the Turks and Caicos and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As for Grant, he and his wife have already booked their next cruise for November—the MacMania VII offering some 60 Mac-intense hours. This time, they’ll be sailing to the Panama Canal and Grant needs no convincing to pack his bags. “When my wife first mentioned a cruise, I thought I’d be locked up on a ship for a week,” said Grant. “But I discovered that I was a prisoner in Fantasyland!”

WHAT’S ON DECK

For fitness enthusiasts: The Mind/Body Cruise with Shape and Men’s Fitness magazines will get you in shape to get in shape with a week of aerobic workouts, sunset meditations and one-on-one consultations with nutritionists. The fitness fun takes place on Carnival Cruise Lines’ Conquest as it sails from Galveston, Tex., to the Caribbean, beginning Dec. 2. Your shipmates will include experts such as Jon Giswold of the Reebok Sports Club in New York City and Kent and Maria Burden, authors of Yin Yang Fitness. Prices start at $659 (U.S.) double occupancy if you quote fare code CSSH. For more, call 800-227-6482 or visit www.carnival.com.

For yoga fans: The Holistic Holiday at Sea will mend your body and soul with yoga, meditation, vegan and macrobiotic cooking. Organizers such as Sandy Pukel, author of the Greens and Grains on the Deep Blue Sea Cookbook, and speakers such as Deepak Chopra will participate in the search for enlightenment aboard Costa Cruise Lines’ Fortuna as it sails through the Caribbean beginning March 30; prices start at $1,195 (U.S.). For more, call 828-749-9537 or visit www.atasteofhealth.org.

For scuba divers or snorkellers: Some Caribbean voyages on Princess Cruises offer snorkeling and scuba instruction, as well as open-water dives. Complimentary snorkeling sessions for those 10 and up are part of the New Waves package, which costs $359 (U.S.) for certified scuba courses. Also offered are scuba refresher courses and underwater photography courses (888-919-9819 or www.newwaves.com.

For magazine junkies: A Most Civilized Literary Adventure allows you to swap mots justes with New Yorker magazine contributors including writer Adam Gopnik, film critic Anthony Lane and humorist Andy Borowitz as you sail from New York to Southampton, England, aboard Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2. You’ll have a full week to discuss the creative process with these literary luminaries during group conversations, lectures and readings. The ship departs Oct. 7, 2007; prices start from $1,349 (U.S.) (800 728-6273 or www.cunard.com.

Margaret Wente had no clue that her life was about to change on a crisp autumn afternoon six years ago. The Globe and Mail columnist and her husband, Ian McLeod, had driven to Creemore, Ont., a farm town an hour and a half north of Toronto, to visit friends who lived on a nearby country property. As they sipped martinis on the farmhouse porch and gazed out at the brilliant sunset, Wente and McCloud raved about the beauty of the spectacle in front of them, until their friends asked them the obvious question: why not get their own piece of paradise? “Before we knew it,” says Wente, “we had bought 50 acres of farmland that everyone said was useless for farming but for us was just the most picturesque place we’d ever seen. And our life has been transformed ever since.”

Wente and McLeod, who both work in Toronto, now spend almost every weekend rambling around their faux turn-of-the-century farmhouse, chopping wood, raising bees, bottling honey and birdwatching. “Everything in the country is relaxed,” says Wente. “I do a bit of casual cooking and some light reading while my husband putters around re-queening his bees and taking care of his hives. Last year, he even won fifth prize for his honey at the Canadian Royal Winter Fair. Beekeeper — that’s my husband’s other identity.”

Like Wente and McLeod, many other urban couples are also discovering the joys of having a country estate. They’re turning quiet communities — Creemore and Prince Edward County in Ontario, Lunenburg County, N.S., and Invermere, B.C. — into weekend havens for a surprising number of power brokers.

At least for now, country properties are both accessible and affordable. Even in the most populated regions of Canada, you only have to drive an hour and a half to get to beautiful countryside. And the farms you find there tend to be far cheaper than places by the lake or the ocean. Sprawling acreages with houses go for less than $250,000. “No one’s paying full price for country property these days,” says B.K. Haynes, author of How I Turned $50 into $5 Million in Country Property — Part Time. “On average, country properties are selling for tens of thousands less than their asking price. It’s a great time to be buying.”

An emerging trend in Nova Scotia and PEI is for extended families to buy a country home and share it as a common getaway, says Menno van Driel, a Halifax realtor. “Some people come for three weeks of the year while others come for six months and use their farm as a family retreat. There’s always a parent, grandparent or other family member using it at one time or other.”

Before you buy, a word of caution: owning a farm isn’t the same as owning a cottage. “Farm lovers are self-sufficient people who like their own company and love to putter,” says Paolo Visentin, a realtor in Rosemount, Ont. “I you buy 100 acres and put a house in the middle of it, it’s pretty secluded. And with a small pond and river running through it, it’s totally self-contained.”

To make sure a property is right for you, ask yourself if the commute is reasonable. (Anything more than an hour and a half tends to become an ordeal if you plan to visit the property every weekend.) Also, how much land do you really want? “A lot of people start out wanting an acreage,” says Lydia Ingles, a real estate agent in Newmarket, Ont., “but then they see how big 10 acres really is and realize that half an acre is what they really want.”

Ingles suggests that you research an area before buying. Phone the local municipality and inquire into development plans. Also, ask if there are any restrictions on building because of greenbelt laws. “You want a feel for where the town will grow,” says Ingles. “The local municipality can tell you if your country road is slated to turn into a main road.”

You can view rural properties on the Multiple Listing Service and rural property websites such as LandAndFarm.com. Once you’ve focused on an area, try to find a real estate agent who specializes in selling country property, since rural markets can move slowly and often through word of mouth. “We were slow buyers,” says Susan Chapman, 46, a nurse in Alliston, Ont., who owns a country house on 2.5 acres north of Toronto on the Nottawasaga River. “It took us about four years of tootling around in the car on weekends. Our agent stuck with us and made sure that we found the right place.”

It’s that sense of place that also enchants Wente and her husband. On Saturday nights they like to throw together a casual potluck dinner for friends they’ve run into that day at the Creemore farmers’ market. Kids and grandparents are always included. “It’s all about casual, last-minute socializing, like people used to do in their backyards,” says Wente. “No dressing up, no lipstick and no talk about work. It transforms your life.”

Green acres

A selection of rural gems across the country:

1. Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia; $269,000; 152 acres
Expansive fields and manicured pastures surround this three-bedroom farmhouse. Deer and bald eagles are daily visitors. The pond behind the home is stocked with speckled trout.

2. Hillier, Ontario; $169,000; 30 acres
This storey-and-a-half brick home comes with four bedrooms, one bath and plenty of room to roam.

3. Hallowell Ward, Ontario; $235,000; 32 acres
This 1,800-sq-ft home comes wtih a pond, three outbuildings and excellent well flow.

If you think owning your own private island is only for billionaires or Hollywood celebrities, it’s time to reconsider. While waterfront properties in popular areas such as Ontario’s Muskoka region or Nova Scotia’s Chester district can easily fetch $1 million or more, you can still buy a nice-sized island — one to 10 acres or more — in areas close to those glamor locations for as little as $50,000. Adding a three-bedroom cottage boosts the price to $250,000 or more, but that’s still a bargain for being able to truly get away from it all and luxuriate in your own private island kingdom.

If you’re willing to spend a little more, the possibilities are next to endless. Just ask David and Valerie Webb of Cleveland who fell in love with the rocky beauty of Ontario’s Georgian Bay on a visit two years ago. They found that they could buy an island in the area with a rustic cottage on it for no more than they would pay for an older cottage on a waterfront lot — except that for $530,000 they got four acres to themselves and complete privacy. Their purchase included a quaint three-bedroom wooden cottage built in the 1930s, complete with a stone fireplace and screened porch. “We love the view,” says David, a retired 47-year-old investment banker. “Smaller islands surround us, which makes the vista a lot more interesting than simply looking out at miles of water. My wife’s an artist and paints when we come up during our summer vacation. My 12-year-old daughter explores the small forest and writes endless entries in her journal while I take charge of the cooking and the tool shed. I’ve discovered that I’m actually quite handy.”

If you think you might want to follow in the Webbs’ footsteps, the best way to sample island living is by renting an island for a week or two. Prices range from $500 to $5,000 a week, depending on the location. If you enjoy the experience, visit websites such as Private Islands Online or vladiprivateislands.com to see the selection of islands for sale.

Always visit an island before buying: you may be surprised to discover it’s surrounded by acres of mud flats at low tide, or that it’s so far away from grocery stores and parking that it’s next to impossible to live on. A realtor who specializes in island real estate can help guide you through the practicalities of island living. (The websites above offer numerous links to island specialists.) A good real estate agent should be able to estimate how big a structure you will be able to build on your island and how much it will cost you to do so. Expect construction costs to be double what you pay on the mainland because of the cost of transporting materials, warns Michael Gerhardt, a real estate broker with Gerhardt Realty, in Parry Sound, Ont. But those high building costs tend to be offset by low land prices. You can find listings in Nova Scotia starting as low as $30,000. Other bargains can be found off British Columbia and in Lake Huron. Wherever you buy, you’ll find that setting up your island refuge is much easier than in the past, thanks to solar energy and prefabricated homes. Install a satellite dish and you can even enjoy high-speed Internet access.

Of course, many island owners buy their islands precisely to escape from the modern world. Ken Storm, Jr., a 55-year-old wholesale distributor, purchased his 600-acre island in Lake Superior four years ago. He says the island, five km from the mainland, offers a welcome sanctuary from his hectic travel schedule. He prefers to spend his island time in solitude, studying birds, botany and geology. “It takes me an hour and a half to kayak in — and that’s if the weather’s good,” says Storm. “I view the island as my personal, private refuge, my home away from home.”

Do the wave

You, too, can have an island kingdom:

1. Clamshell Island, British Columbia; $195,000; 1.1 acres
Clamshell Island is among the famous Gulf Islands of B.C. It lies directly opposite Saltspring Island’s ferry terminal, about half a kilometre from the mainland.

2. Peter Island, Nova Scotia; $298,000; 2.5 acres
An hour from Halifax, Peter Island is covered in pine and fir trees. It comes with a two-bedroom, one-bathroom log cabin, a working solar-energy system, and a small motorboat.

3. Isle A La Croix (Lake Matapedia); $250,000 (U.S.); 57.4 acres
Isle á la Croix includes a two bedroom chalet with living room, dining room and bathroom. The island boasts great moose and bear hunting; also excellent trout fishing.

Thomas and Donna Dawson show what’s possible if you broaden your real estate search outside of Canada. In March 2006, the couple from St. Albert, Alta., visited Panama City for the first time. They loved the hot, sunny climate and were impressed with the efficient banking and phone systems. When they returned home, they decided to sell their Alberta home and buy their own place in the tropics.

Today they live in a three-bedroom, four-bathroom condo that overlooks the Panama Canal. Cost of their new abode? A mere $160,000 (U.S.). “We sold everything and took just a couple of suitcases full of clothes with us,” says Donna, 50, a horticulturist. She earns a living by arranging European gardening tours while Thomas works as a manager at a software company. “The great weather and amazing plant life makes it all worthwhile for us.”

As the Dawsons will tell you, looking at real estate outside of Canada can change your life. But navigating foreign legal and tax systems demands patience, say people who’ve done it. Research is vital and it pays to visit any location you’re considering at least a couple of times at different times of the year to ensure that you’re not falling for a one-season wonder.

To help you find your own foreign paradise, we asked six experts to name their top choices for safe, reasonably affluent parts of the world where attractive properties go for $250,000 or less. Our panel included Paul Owen, chief executive of the Association of International Property Professionals as well as author Roberta Giesea of Baja, Mexico, Paul Reynolds, owner of Reynolds Real Estate in Buenos Aires, and real estate developers Kevin Young of Kirkland, Washington, and Larry Schneider of Progresso, Belize. Their picks:

Languedoc, France

Culture, history and great cuisine have made France a perpetual winner in the foreign property sweepstakes. Languedoc, a region in the southeast of the country that borders on the Mediterranean coast, offers some of the best current bargains. Small two bedroom country houses in the region go for $250,000, while similar homes in the interior fetch even less. “The best deals,” says Owen, “are away from the coast, in places like Aude, Herault and Gard. You can’t beat the great hillside views, butcher and pastry shops and all the other aspects of French country life. Visit French Property Guide to see what’s available.

Progresso, Corozal, Belize

This Central American country — bordering the Caribbean Sea between Mexico and Guatemala — is a former British colony, where people speak English, the political system is stable, and a new 1,539-sq-ft, two-bedroom, two-bathroom bungalow sells for about $75,000 (U.S.). “The whole country is drop-dead gorgeous,” says real estate developer Schneider. As well, Belize has no income or capital gains taxes, although home buyers pay a one-time 15% purchase tax at closing for new homes. Visit the Belize Tourism Board’s website for more info.

Rosarito and Encinada, Baja Peninsula, Mexico

The Baja is a 1,500-km-long peninsula that borders California and sweeps into the Pacific. Cities such as Cabo San Lucas and La Paz at the southernmost tip of the peninsula are popular cruise ship destinations where homes go for $1 million or more. But if you head north, you can still nab great bargains in lesser known places such as Rosarito, just 30 minutes from the U.S. border. “Rosarito and Encinada are the unpicked plums of Baja,” says Young. Here, nice homes in the hills with an ocean view start at $120,000 (U.S.) and brand new two-bedroom, two-bathroom homes in a recently developed gated community start at $189,000. Visit Baja4uproperties.com for more info.

Bulgaria

“Five years ago,” says Owen, “no one was in Bulgaria. These days, it’s the third-largest property market for the British second-home buyer, just after Spain and France.” Why this sudden rush of interest in such an unlikely destination? Because prices are dirt cheap, the mountains and beaches are magnificent, and buyers hope for big profits. Bulgaria became part of the EU on Jan. 1 of this year and is working to align its laws with those of other EU countries. This has set off a mini gold rush, especially in the coastal areas along the Black Sea where the coastline is still largely unspoiled by development. But the interior is stunning, too, with some of the best ski resorts in Europe. In some areas of the interior, you can buy a small village for what it would cost you to buy a house back home. Visit Bulgarian Dreams – 1 bedroom properties to get you started.

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo, the seaside capital of Uruguay, enjoys a temperate climate, historic buildings and maritime air. The narrow streets and weathered houses of Old City look as if they were flown in from Europe, while the grass-fed beef at the local restaurants is reputed to be some of the best in the world. Dinner for two with appetizer, roast beef entree and wine goes for $40 and most other costs of living are just as low. Apartments go for around $110 (U.S.) a square foot (average size 1,200 sq ft). Check out EscapeArtist.com for more info on life in Uruguay.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires is a cosmopolitan city with opera houses, art galleries and cafes, but because of the country’s recent economic turmoil, you can pick up a simple one-bedroom apartment in this beautiful metropolis for prices starting as low as $75,000 (U.S.). The deals get even better the further inland you look. Bariloche, a two-hour flight south of Buenos Aires, is a resort town surrounded by towering mountains, lakes and trails. A 1,700-sq-ft house with hill views goes for $120,000 (U.S.). (Go to Argentinahomes.com for more deals like this.) But watch out for scam artists. “Put no money on the table when buying real estate in Argentina until certificates of inhibition of the owner are clear,” says Reynolds. “Some property owners in Argentina are inhibited from selling because of liens against their homes. Wait for these documents — usually no longer than 48 hours — before you buy any property in Argentina.”

Say goodbye to winter

A peek at what $250,000 or less will buy you outside Canada:

1. Reef village, Belize; $129,999 (U.S.)
This one-bedroom condo is under construction in Ambergris Caye, 30 km off the mainland of Belize. The development is slated to be ready for fall 2008.

2. North Caye Caulker, Belize; $35,000 (U.S.)
This 50 ft x 1,000 ft lot is a five-minute boat ride away from fishing and scuba diving. Every lot in this new subdivision has seafront access.

3. Montevideo, Uruguay; $79,900 (U.S.)
This two-bedroom apartment with patio is in a modern building with nice façade and garage.