So first thing: obviously I love it when people buy Rich by Retirement. But if you can’t afford it, or if you like to support your local library because libraries are great, I’ve found it’s available at a few branches of the National Library.
The reservation list is pretty long (so obviously they should buy more copies, am I right?!), but it’s here!
Hey FCS - I’m pretty disappointed that you posted this, and then went on to post more spam in the thread. In case I haven’t made it clear already, this is the wrong thread for you to post in; you’ll be better received in the FX threads on SSI, but posting more in this thread is just going to lead to you getting reported even more and banned even more.
Thanks for Shinythings and your reply!
But to be clear there is estate tax (or tax paid upon death by the beneficiaries) correct? And the figure I recall is 60k.
This ONLY applies to US-listed stocks. Not to IWDA, VWRD/A, whatever.
How about ETFs in HK - are these taxable? How do these compare with IWDA/VWRA ? thanks
As above. Not US-listed, no estate tax.
I think the UK-listed Irish-domiciled ones are better, because to the best of my knowledge I don’t think HK has a tax treaty with the US that gives the preferential dividend tax rate that the UK/Irish ETFs get. Happy to be proven wrong here, though.
Would like to ask if anybody has any opinions on this.
Let's say I'm DCA-ing IWDA (which I am) and the market dips. It is advisable to invest let's say 1 month worth when the price drops below a certain parameter (5-10% current average price) to lower your average price?
Nope. The point of DCA is to invest as your money comes in. If you're investing a bit out of each pay-check, you shouldn't really have a lump of extra "war-chest" cash sitting around.
Does it still make sense to continue with my POSB Invest Saver?
Oh yeah totally. It’s worth it as a cheap way to buy ES3. That said…
In terms of where I will retire, I am not sure yet, probably Australia(spouse is an Aussie) but i do not intend to give up my SG citizenship.
Retiring in Australia makes the investment decision easy, because there are really good Vanguard ETFs for Aussie stocks and bonds, and you can buy ‘em all through Interactive.
The key to the “where are you going to retire?” question is that it determines which currency you’re going to spend in your retirement. If that is AUD, then it makes sense to buy AUD assets.
I don't have faith in stocks or bonds. Only heavily weighted in precious metals mining stocks currently. It should be well positioned for subsequent fed actions unless we are falling into a deflationary environment.
Eeeeee. Gold and silver miners, boy that’s a mine-field (see what I did there).
I’m sure you know this well, but for anyone else: gold and silver miners have tended to dramatically underperform the price of the stuff they dig up, especially over the past few years.
I’d say that rather than being a moving average of the gold price, mining stocks are a call option on the gold price, struck at the cost of extraction.
Then you’ve got exposure to the miners’ hedging strategies, which tend to be abysmally bad! I learned from five years of sitting next to the gold desk that when gold prices are low, shareholders don’t want exposure to the gold price so miners will aggressively hedge; but when gold prices are high, shareholders
do want exposure to the gold price so miners will tend to under hedge. Effectively, gold miners sell low and buy high, which is… not a winning strategy.
To be frank, I dunno why are major central banks buying gold
It’s cargo-cultery and US dollar avoidance. Last I checked, the biggest central-bank buyers of gold have been gilt-edged names like… uh… Russia and Venezuela.
I’ve always been a bit cynical of central banks’ investing prowess. With the exception of the Fed and the RBA, most central banks and SWFs I dealt with are terrible traders - they buy high and sell low, they chase hot sectors, they invest like muppets.
Just ask Gordon Brown, who you may remember hit the bid for the BOE’s gold at multi-decade lows, or all the EM central banks who kept enthusiastically buying gold all the way from $2000 down to $1200.
It’s an ETF of high-grade SGD corporate bonds. Yields about 3% if memory serves.
The fed couldn't even raise rates if trump didn't cut taxes last year propping up stocks.
Er, they already did. The Fed hiked four times before the TCJA was signed in Nov ’17: end-2015, end-2016, and March and June 2017. The TCJA was signed in November 2017, and the Fed hiked again in December, well before anyone would have seen any meaningful stimulus.
If stagflation comes back to haunt,
I disagree with this. Stagflation (high inflation and high unemployment at the same time) is basically done and dusted in most G10 economies. Pure demographics mean that economic growth is going to be slower in the future than it was in the past, and central banks have been much better about keeping a lid on inflation than they were in Nixon’s day (the occasional Donny Two Scoops tantrum aside). Paul Volcker changed the game for modern central banking, and everyone still generally works from his and Greenspan’s playbook.
stocks still provide a better alternative than fully in cash or bonds. Keep up the good informative work here
Now this I agree with.
Cash is a terrible investment. Bonds work well as a stabilizer. But over the long term, it’s hard to beat equities.
Hi all,
Considering the turmoil that is happening right now, I believe the market is a little messed up right now.
We’ve had one noisy down day but we’re still less than 5% from all-time highs. I wouldn’t start panicking right now - but I do like your view that this is an opportunity.
I am considering to invest into unit trusts that invest into these regions. Do you guys think it would be a good idea?
Hmmm… on the one hand I think you’re directionally right, but on the other hand I think you’ve probably been beaten to the punch. I haven’t checked, but I suspect the big bean producers in Brazil and Australia are already trading a lot higher. (And if the trade war gets resolved, you’re going to be the wrong way around…!)
