I just joined this forum after reading Andrew Hallam's book, The Global Expatriate's Guide to Investing.
Like him I am a teacher working abroad, currently in Shanghai, China. I have just opened and transferred some funds into an Interactive Brokers account. I was wondering if you could help me...
I am 32 years old, British. My wife is also 32 and American. We have no debt and manage to save approximately 60% of our net income. We want to invest for our retirement. I have no idea which country I will want to retire in (maybe in Asia), and I will most likely be paid in RMB for next 4 years at least. We have no plans to work or live in the UK or USA.
Our investable assets:
$20,000 in my IB account (not invested at the moment)
$30,000 in USD cash in my mothers house in the UK (which I have to convert into GBP and then deposit in my IB account as USD)
$15,000 in RMB in my Chinese bank account.
We can also add about USD$5000 more every month from our salary in RMB.
I want an 25/75 bond/stock allocation in some type of Couch Potato style portfolio with low cost index funds (not sure I understand EFTs).
I am thinking:
25% bonds (for stability)
25% S&P 500 (US exposure)
25% Europe???
25% Worldwide excluding USA??
I would re-balance my portfolio each month by purchasing the lagging fund.
My questions are:
- Is there any point having USA, Europe and Worldwide separately, or should I just have 75% in a worldwide tracker?
- I am not sure how to choose a suitable bond. How do I decide this?
- As the currency I will earn in is currently RMB and likely to change in the future, and I have no idea where I will retire, should I always convert my money into USD and only buy funds that are listed in USD?