sophie
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Post by sophie on Jun 17, 2018 15:48:25 GMT 7
Hi there, quite new to this, but i gather it's time to think about the future. My situation: have about 1m THB savings and 80,000 per month that i can allocate for investing. However i don't think i will spend the money in Thailand - planning to go back to Europe in 2 years or so. What would a skilled investor do in such a case? Is it even worth setting up an investment account in Thailand? Better to send the money to Europe? I have no idea where we will live in Europe though, and definitely no plans to go back to my home country. Any advice?
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Post by Soutpeel on Jun 17, 2018 16:25:48 GMT 7
Hi there, quite new to this, but i gather it's time to think about the future. My situation: have about 1m THB savings and 80,000 per month that i can allocate for investing. However i don't think i will spend the money in Thailand - planning to go back to Europe in 2 years or so. What would a skilled investor do in such a case? Is it even worth setting up an investment account in Thailand? Better to send the money to Europe? I have no idea where we will live in Europe though, and definitely no plans to go back to my home country. Any advice? I dont know your legal staus here, but getting cash out of Thailand can be quite challanging, personally if your not staying long term, your most likely better getting your cash out. As to where you would put it, my first reaction would to say Singapore, but this is not an option for you these days, as for a non resident "offshore" account one needs in the order of USD 200k on account ( blame the US IRS) Not sure what the state of play is these days in HK, but that might be an option I personally would try and keep it away from those thieving barstewards in Europe at all costs
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Jun 17, 2018 16:26:20 GMT 7
Welcome to the forum Sophie! I will leave the expert advice however to those on here who have it to offer.
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Post by Soutpeel on Jun 17, 2018 16:29:02 GMT 7
Welcome to the forum Sophie! I will leave the expert advice however to those on here who have it to offer. Sophie if you want to know about THB 99 breakfasts or going Dutch at MK...Smokie is your man
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Jun 17, 2018 18:48:11 GMT 7
Welcome to the forum Sophie! I will leave the expert advice however to those on here who have it to offer. Sophie if you want to know about THB 99 breakfasts or going Dutch at MK...Smokie is your man My scrambled eggs on toast is the finest in Bangkok and priced at 50 Baht a portion...all organic mind. Please bring decent coffee though!
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Post by Soutpeel on Jun 17, 2018 19:00:41 GMT 7
Sophie if you want to know about THB 99 breakfasts or going Dutch at MK...Smokie is your man My scrambled eggs on toast is the finest in Bangkok and priced at 50 Baht a portion...all organic mind. Please bring decent coffee though! Is this an invite for Sophie or me ? Inviting me for breakfast ?...i am flattered, didnt know you cared Uncle Souties preferred breakfast
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chiangmai
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Post by chiangmai on Jun 18, 2018 5:18:02 GMT 7
My scrambled eggs on toast is the finest in Bangkok and priced at 50 Baht a portion...all organic mind. Please bring decent coffee though! Is this an invite for Sophie or me ? Inviting me for breakfast ?...i am flattered, didnt know you cared Uncle Souties preferred breakfast A seriously protein heavy breakfast, where's the veggies, the salad, you've gotta have your greens soutie.
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AyG
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Post by AyG on Jun 18, 2018 5:23:08 GMT 7
Sophie
They key point here is, when do you expect to spend your savings? Do you want to make long term investments, perhaps to buy a house in 10 years time, or for your retirement? Or are you likely to need to spend the money within, say, 5 years.
Let's start with the latter case, needing the cash within 5 years or less. In this case you shouldn't invest in stocks and shares (since markets might crash and you won't have long enough to wait for them to bounce back). You need to keep your money in cash (basically bank savings or deposit accounts). Since you're planning on living in Europe, it's probably best that you keep your savings in Euros. This avoids THB/EUR foreign exchange rate volatility. Open a foreign currency account with your Thai bank and transfer your current savings and excess monthly income into it. Then, when you're ready to leave Thailand, transfer your money to a Euro account in Europe. Note that you will almost certainly need proof that all the money you're transferring is from your salary in Thailand. If you already have an account in Europe in Euros, it would probably be worth trying to transfer the 1 million Baht (or part thereof) now just to learn how problematic (or otherwise) it can be to transfer money out of Thailand.
If the money is for longer term investment, then I'd suggest opening a brokerage account in Europe and start transferring the money now. (Probably not monthly, but perhaps every six months, to keep down transaction costs.) I would suggest opening an account with Internaxx, which is based in Luxembourg. You'll need to get your money exchanged from Baht into one of the currencies Internaxx supports before transferring it. I would suggest exchanging it for British pounds (GBP) which you could then use to invest in the London Stock Exchange without having to make further foreign exchange transactions to make purchases.
As for what you then invest in, that is very much dependent upon your attitude to risk. Are you looking for better long term returns, but a lot of ups and downs along the way? Or would you be more comfortable with lower returns, but a steadier increase in your investments? Or maybe somewhere in the middle?
Anyway, this is a pretty large subject area, and I've only sketchily outlined some of the options. Post any questions you have and I'm sure I or somebody else will be able to offer some wisdom.
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smokie36
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Post by smokie36 on Jun 18, 2018 12:58:53 GMT 7
My scrambled eggs on toast is the finest in Bangkok and priced at 50 Baht a portion...all organic mind. Please bring decent coffee though! Is this an invite for Sophie or me ? Inviting me for breakfast ?...i am flattered, didnt know you cared Uncle Souties preferred breakfast Shhh Soutie the grown ups are talking!
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Post by Soutpeel on Jun 18, 2018 13:32:19 GMT 7
Is this an invite for Sophie or me ? Inviting me for breakfast ?...i am flattered, didnt know you cared Uncle Souties preferred breakfast Shhh Soutie the grown ups are talking! Oh oh...listen to Mr Maturity now there a girl on the forum
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Post by Soutpeel on Jun 18, 2018 13:34:10 GMT 7
Is this an invite for Sophie or me ? Inviting me for breakfast ?...i am flattered, didnt know you cared Uncle Souties preferred breakfast A seriously protein heavy breakfast, where's the veggies, the salad, you've gotta have your greens soutie. There is real wood in the BBQ which is vegetable...doesnt that count ?
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sophie
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Post by sophie on Jun 18, 2018 18:54:37 GMT 7
thanks AyG
I'd like to spend my savings partly (50%) between 5-10 years from now and the rest is for retirement ...
You recommend Luxemburg, is that the best choice in Europe? Why would you recommend that particular country?
What Id probably be looking for is something low maintenance, where i can invest my money in some funds for a long term without having to play around with it too much...
I read somewhere that passive index funds usually perform as well as actively managed funds is that so? Is that a good option for me?
Thanks for the advice!
One more - of course i can prove that the money comes from salary in thailand - with that no problem to transfer abroad? I heard from a friend here that the bank wanted to see some kind of invoice, proof that youre buying something abroad, otherwise they wouldnt let him transfer. (That was SCB i think)
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AyG
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Post by AyG on Jun 18, 2018 19:06:37 GMT 7
thanks AyG I'd like to spend my savings partly (50%) between 5-10 years from now and the rest is for retirement ... So the sensible thing to do would be to keep 50% in Euros and invest the other 50%.You recommend Luxembourg, is that the best choice in Europe? Why would you recommend that particular country? Luxembourg is a tax haven. It has a broker (Internaxx) that is experience with dealing with expats. (It's become very difficult to find a broker that will open accounts for people who are non-resident.) Internaxx is relatively cheap (certainly compared with brokers in Hong Kong and Singapore). It's got staff who speak a wide range of European languages. It's in a convenient time zone.What Id probably be looking for is something low maintenance, where i can invest my money in some funds for a long term without having to play around with it too much... I read somewhere that passive index funds usually perform as well as actively managed funds is that so? Is that a good option for me? Good actively managed funds typically outperform passive funds over the medium to long term - often by a very large margin. However, there are a lot of actively managed funds that are not good. You need to do your research.
Generally the sequence I recommend is: (1) decide on your high level asset allocation (equities, bonds), (2) decide on your suballocation, e.g. US equities, Eurobonds, (3) within each suballocation, look at the actively managed funds and passively managed funds/ETFs and see what you like. When you get to that stage there are a few people here who can give solid advice.
Thanks for the advice! One more - of course i can prove that the money comes from salary in thailand - with that no problem to transfer abroad? I heard from a friend here that the bank wanted to see some kind of invoice, proof that youre buying something abroad, otherwise they wouldnt let him transfer. (That was SCB i think) I have no personal experience of sending money out of Thailand. All I have is largely anecdote. I hope someone else can give you a good heads up in this area.
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zoomies
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Post by zoomies on Jun 18, 2018 21:01:21 GMT 7
Interesting questions and tips.
Any advice on the kinds of things that are important to look out for when doing research on funds? Also, I noticed in an earlier post AyG you mentioned that it's better to convert baht to GBP and trade on the London Stock Exchange, is there a particular reason for this?
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sophie
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Post by sophie on Jun 18, 2018 21:19:16 GMT 7
OK so let's start at the very beginning:
I think id be comfortable with something not too conservative, not too aggressive. Somewhere in between.
How about
Equity: 60% Bonds: 20 % Property: 10% Cash: 10%
Is that a good place to start?
Internaxx in Luxembourg seems to be a good option. Anyone here on the forum advice / concerns around them? Will contact them tomorrow to see what it takes and see what they offer...
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