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Hi Bdk, Thanks for the infos on your friend. Your comments on the haves and have nots touched me deeply as I too am bothered by the easy monies garnered thru corruptions at the expense of those truly in need. That said, there are now many wealthy businessmen in Vietnam who got there on their...

Hi Enuff, Having lived and worked as well as visited recently in the end of 2005, I concur with the numbers posted by Sam. These numbers are very realistic and doable. There are backpackers who spends significantly less than 1000 per month. This is with hotels, meals and transportation. With an...

Hi Sam, My family came to the US (Florida). Hi Bdk, Has your friend 'Hoi Huong' or is he merely living in the country? Does he have a family in VN? What are his plans regarding visa renewals? How does he handle the monetary issues? Does he use an ATM card, have money wired transfered from...

Bdk, My family left VN in 1970. I was 8 at the time so I was not there when things were bad (1975 and immediately after). I did however returned to Saigon to manage our company's rep office from 1996-1999. By this time, the conditions were much improved compared to those earlier years. After a...

Hi Bdk, I do look at both Ngoi Sao and VNExpress. I agree that it can get depressing at times. However, in all fairness, often my friends from abroad believe that all we have in the US are guns and sex. This is based on what they have seen in the news headlines, movies, etc... We all know that...

Hi Sam & WRBT, Sam is right on about the visa situation. One can get a 6 mos. visa and can renew 2 additional times before you need to do a visa run outside the country. This means 18 mos. at a time. We plan to use this approach (no financial proof neccessary). Besides, a visit to neighbor...

Sam, it's Van (as in the middle name). You are right about Mui Ne being known these days as an up & coming resort town. It is I learned about this region during my assignment in VN from '96-99. Wind and Kite surfing are getting to be real popular sports among the visitors and locals. I have...

Sam, I am planning to ER in VN at the end of this year. We plan to settle in Mui Ne, Phan Thiet. Have you decided on a location for your retirement? Van

There are advantages/disadvantages regarding investment mixes for a retiree with a fairly long horizon (25+ years). Given this scenario, how do the board members allocate your REAL LIFE investment options?

Thank you Perinova. I am 45, so my horizon is fairly long. Does this means I should favor long bond? I read the article by Bernstein and understand that long bond carries a higher standard deviation but am I correct that this usually is countered by the equity portion? If this is truly the case...

Alec, Thank you for the links. I will digest the information and try to come up with an appropriate bond strategy. Van

Using a bond ETF is my plan, but which one? Long term bond or intermediate or short term? Do I switch based on climbing or declining interest rate or stay put ? Van

Much appreciations for everyone's input on my newbie questions. I have learned a lot here. Just wished I have discovered this forum a few year earlier. Would have save me a very EXPENSIVE lesson. Okay to further my education, this time regarding bond. We know that a good balance portfolio need...

Thank you Charles. It looks like the question remains basically unresolved. We have many supporters of low fees. We also accept that we can not predict the future performance. Since most early retirees favor a balance approach (this means that it goes down the middle and does not favor a style...

Thanks for your answers. Actually, here is my quandry. I am considering MPT for the taxable account but planning to use a balance fund for the pretax account (amount here is not great enough to justify the hassles of annual rebalancing). I am considering Vanguard Star fund and Trow Price Capital...

Here is a true newbie question. I have read lots of posts about the significance of mutual fund expenses. Since the performance numbers of mutual funds have already reflected funds expenses (am I correct?), then a high cost/high performance fund is prefered over a low cost/low performance fund...

Thank you everyone for your help with my question on MPT. I truly appreciate the details of the answers. I think Alec is right! It is time for me to break out the formulas (ha ha). Thanks again. Van

Hi Everyone, As a newbie to the board and someone who is very close to ER. This is my second attempt at ER and I want to do it right (I was burned badly during the Nasdaq 2000 crash). I have been studying MPT as the basis for my assets allocation during ER. I would like confirm my understanding...