Financial Planning

It also doesn’t work because something growing at 8% interest p.a. will take nine years to double, not five or seven. The idea of it doubling in nine years is still inaccurate, however, because it doesn’t take into account inflation. Taking into account inflation, it’s actually going to take somewhere in the vicinity of twelve years to double.

And as Slater mentions in that interview, the possibility QE causing runaway inflation - maybe even hyperinflation - is very real, hence his relatively low cash allocation. Keeping all your savings in cash or bank deposits is a very ticklish situation to be in, although I must admit I’m in the same position since I’m not really sure what else to do at the moment.

Slater’s recommendations seem quite sensible to me; I was especially surprised to see him mention agriculture, which almost nobody talks about, as if food just magically appears on supermarket shelves. Fact is, in a doomsday scenario, it’ll be Cargill and the like that rule the world, not Goldman Sachs. I suppose his “5-10%” allocation reflects his perceived risk of serious financial turmoil.

Ironically it may be better to purchase assets like houses with debt and hope inflation eats away at the debt. You have to have confidence you will keep your job in a downturn and hope that deflation doesn’t take hold instead.

just checking, but this isn’t available to non-resident Canadians working abroad with no income domestically and who don’t want to be taxed worldwide, yes?

I was going to open a new thread, but this one seems to be fine…

So guys, our family (my wife and I) were reviewing our finances and checking the money distribution. We were advised that there should be mainly three pots, if you want to get things balanced:

  1. Emergency funds; about 6 months expenses
  2. Insurances; life/illness insurance and retirement
  3. Wealth; money reserved and invested to built one’s wealth

Based on that, I’d like to hear your opinion on two things:

  • Do you agree with such distribution?
  • Where should one put their emergency funds in Taiwan? Just leave it at the bank?

No one? I thought people would be more interested in this topic…
Or perhaps I’m asking in the wrong thread?

Heres my 2 cents

  1. Emergency Fund- 6-12 months. Leave in the bank (not in stocks, funds, timed deposits etc)
  2. Insurance- I’d say only if youre over 40 or have kids. Retirement: Save approx 12-15% on top of Taiwans employee 6% govt program or on top of Social Security
  3. Wealth- Pay down Principal on mortgage. Buy Index funds, ETFs, Retirement funds, Investments etc.
  4. Save up to Buy everything cash (dont finance) other than a house.
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This is about 10years old - I’m amazed anyone is still using Forumosa?

You mean just leave it in my bank account, losing value? Back home we had some bonds that could at least a bit above the inflation. But I can’t find anything similar in Taiwan.

That’s pretty much what I do, except I pay everything with credit card. It’s the same as cash, and I also get done benefits for using it. If course, one must have a good control to not spend more than one should, but it’s worthy.

Yep, to me emergency money is something I can get in a pinch, easily accessible. It will lose value each year true, but unless you can access it without hassle its not really an emergency fund. I put some money in a similar bond through Betterment.com which gets above inflation. To me its just terminology since I consider this 3. Wealth to offset riskier investments like stocks

Yep by Cash I also mean Credit cards that are paid off each month.

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I see.
I agree that emergency money should be easily accessible, but I’m okay if I had to wait one or two days to get the money if I got and interest in return.
I could do that in my home country but it would take even longer due to time zone and exchange rates.
But if there’s no similar option on Taiwan, then better leave it in the bank add you suggested than risking not getting the money when needing it.

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Cashing a fixed time certificate and most bonds takes less than 10 minutes. I keep most of my emergency money like that because anyways you cannot draw large sums of money from an ATM if an emergency happens at night/weekend.

Where you get those? And which ones do you usually get?

@Icon Please share your investing knowledge :hushed:

Forumosa is the new facebook.

Post Office.

Financial advice from Icon? :rofl::runaway: Not really, but I can share my experience. Mostly what @bluejasn said.

1.Emergency Fund- 6 months. Part in bank, part in timed deposit
2.Insurance- health, retirement
3.Wealth- business investments, riskier ventures
4.Save - what is left… to travel and have fun

Thanks :smiley:

Do you use a TW bank to invest in any stocks/index funds etc?

I think most banks should offer SPDR SPY and you can often bargain on the commission. It’s not a DRIP fund so you’ll need to meet the minimum to reinvest the dividends each time (or just spend them).

Dividends will be taxed at 30% so Ireland-domiciled ETFs are better (15%) but I’m not sure they’re offered here.