possible, but I prefer something close to home, and since I see myself here long term I’m looking for local options.
It’s easy enough to invest through international online brokerages such as Interactive Brokers.
Local brokers charge way too much. Also their online interfaces are often better in Chinese.
But please investigate and report back what you find in terms of funds.
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This is an interesting question overall. Do insurance company based life annuities exist here? If so, maybe you could buy one with your investment money when ready to retire? They are not really popular these days, but are pretty much the same as a pension.
For people who are not familiar with them, you give a specified amount (generally $100K+ US) to an insurance company. Most give back a 6+% annual rate (not great but guaranteed for life) on your base investment, which you do not get back. However, you have guaranteed income for life - the same as a pension.
If you can’t get this in Taiwan, you could likely transfer the money to an overseas account and buy one in your home country.
Personally, I am not crazy about the idea of annuities (I want control of my investments), but if you want guaranteed income (especially when in your 70s/80s), it is an option that many people overlook.
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Of course they do and they were extremely popular and probably are quite popilar still.
The problem is that due to low interest rates their payouts are crap these days. They’re also useful as life insurance of course.
I am not sure how much better the rates of return with private pension plans are really (compared to annuities)- the thing that often makes them worthwhile is the employer match on contributions.
I’ve been searching quite a while, and couldn’t find one in taiwan. what are they called in Chinese ?
what I’ve been able to find are whole life insurance policies where you pay every month, but not an annuity like Noel suggests.
This is what I mean, you pay every month to get health insurance/ life insurance coverage and then it pays out after 20 years or so. All I heard was the current deals are poor compared to the past when interest rates were higher.
its not exactly what Noel meant, this is a whole life plan, and I only want the annuity part of it. but I cant find the option here.
@izzy did you end up finding anything?
I’ve been looking at something like this. It seems like you pay into it for X amount of years and let it it sit for Y amount if years then you can start getting payments?
My Chinese isn’t good enough to read it but that’s what the google translation sounds like. Is this what you were looking for?
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No, I didnt find anything that i wanted to pursue.
The product you found is an annuity, not exactly what i was looking for, but can also be an option if it is good for you.