Living in SE Asia
Replying to posts received to date:
re: SAM
Hi, Sam. Thanks for the inquiry. First of all I am not recommending that anyone follow my footsteps. By 'maverick' I mean that I try to make my own judgments as for what is best for me.
re: Emeritus
Hi Emeritus, Agree with your comment. I am aware that favorable time frames can be 'chose' to show favorable results. I am only reporting my results of the past 6 months. I can only hope I can stay ahead of price moves by paying close attention and adjusting my portfolio as needed.
re: Onward
Hi Onward, Dealing with the weakening dollar is doubly difficult in Thailand since it's THB is very strong and rising as well. All SEA currencies are rising but Thailand is rising faster. I expect to see 25/1 soon.
re: Bestwifeever
Hi Bestwifeever, Is that you or your spouse? I am afraid the days of living in SEA on pennies a day are long gone for the westerner. The Thais can do it inland but you and I would never want to live the way they do.
Perhaps i can illustrate that to you in different thread sometime.
In past years i trusted my various financial advisors. I sometimes found that they had other agendas or just poor advice. Am now gunshy!
Back in the 80's I was advised to put a lot of inheritance money into tax shelters and Real Estate Limited Partnerships. The advisor, a CFA, had been recommend to me by a trusted friend who himself has been doing fairly well under his guidance. These all required K1 forms which were impossible for me to figure out. I then was not at all experienced in investing. Bottom line the investments were not liquid and could not be exchanged for better deals without a loss on the sale.
Some of that inheritance was invested with another firm, Schwab. Through a 'connection' I my account was handled by a VP of the firm. He advised I put the money in some Oil & Gas Trusts. Three of the four were bankrupt with 6 mos.
In the mid-90's I began working in South Korea under an excellent salary plus a local daily allowance. I was able to live in Korea very comfortably on the daily allowance, so my entire salary went into my bank every paycheck for 8 years. In retrospect, I should have at least invested that money in some secure bonds, Treasuries, or CDs. But I was still a novice that has been burned twice and did not trust anyone anymore. Big mistake and I know it now.
In 2001 I was 65, my Korean consulting contract terminated and sent home to look for another job assignment. They asked if i wished to retire. I said no. So, after three months of searching to no avail, the company took the opportunity to lay me off along with a change in the Division structure. But by forcing them to do it that way I became eligible for a 'termination package" that i would not have received if i had 'chosen' to retire. That gave me another fairly large cash dump.
With that cash infusion on top of 8 years of significant wages in the bank, i was I though sitting pretty. I decided to leave my retirement account and my 401k alone. I was of course not able to put more funds in the 401k, but it did earn dividends and interest on the holdings. The retirement account continued to draw interest at 4.7%. Wow! I had never been that well off before in my lifetime. Soon after I received the cash from the 'termination package' I talked to another so-called 'Financial Advisor'. We talked at his home, with which I was very impressed. At least he was doing well.
This was mid 2002. He was distraught with the market and could not/would not recommend anything. He tried to talk me into an annuity. Then he suggested AIVSX, an American Fund that pretty much tracked the S&P500 and which has a 5.75% upfront fee. Well fine! Why not put the money into the Vanguard SP500 fund that did not have any fee. We would not give me a straight answer. I lost $1500 on his retainer fee. But did not invest with him at all.
So, for the next year and a half I lived off the non-invested bank account.
My 2 br apartment in San Jose CA was costing me $1000 per month as was an old, drab building. Private homes of the same size were renting at $2000 so i was being brainwashed that I had a good deal. In Sept 2003 I pulled up stakes and moved to Thailand.
In Thailand I rented a condo for 25000 THB/mo. (about $600 at the then exchange rate of 42 THB to 1 USD). The condo was/is on the 23rd floor of a beautiful high-rise right on the beach overlooking the Bay of Thailand.
My American style breakfasts at the local were 120 THB or less than $3 USD. In San Jose they were approaching $11 at a coffeeshop.
OK, sorry to get off the subject but it does explain that I had then lost faith in Financial Advisors. These days, I follow the internet so-called gurus but do not often believe their constant hype. I have taken on-line courses in investing. Some of those are worthwhile I think but I carefully assess what they recommend.
I have decided that I now need to focus on income rather than growth, although I would like to have some growth oriented investments.
I know I will have to be lucky. I also know that to succeed I cannot be conservative. I shy away from Mutual
funds now, in lieu of ETF's and CEF's that pay high yields. Dangerous? Yes, one has to stay ahead of the game and move to another investment before the first one crashes. You cannot do that with Mutual funds.
So, all in all I am a maverick because I need to be. That 42 THB to 1 USD has dropped to 29 /1 and I am sure it is headed lower.
