Does anyone have any recommendations? I did a search but only came up with a recommendation for an overseas fund (not managed in Taiwan). Any comments welcome, even from those that recommend avoiding mutual funds.
I have VTSMX, thats a Vanguard total stock market index and it tracks some 3000+ stocks in the US. It gives me no worries as it is long term. I feed it bimonthly and basically forget about it. An index fund or a mutual fund is not to be sold, it is to be saved.
That said, do You want an index or a managed mutual fund?
Also, are you american, taiwanese or other? That would make a difference come tax time.
I prefer vanguard funds, low rates and some integrity. There are many funds. You need to specify, REIT, bond, stocks, international stocks???
I am a US citizen but my wife is Taiwanese. I’m a complete idiot when it comes to these issues so I don’t know whether I want an index or managed fund. I had my hand in Korean stocks at the height of the financial crisis (1998-9) and did okay. I know from that experience that putting your money where your mouth is gets the learning process going. From what I read recently, most of the managed mutual funds in the US (75% or more) underperformed the index. So maybe an index fund is the way to go. Any comments? And I am most interested in funds that deal with stocks, preferably Taiwanese stocks so I can learn about Taiwanese companies and eventually do things myself. I know the overseas’ financial houses just kick ass in Korea. I wonder if this is true in Taiwan.
go to fool.com and read fool.com/mutualfunds/indexfu … unds01.htm
they’ve got lots of good information about index funds.
I prefer them. And if you are inexperienced, but want to do something, vtsmx is a good place to start. 
Also DRIPs are good for the long haul. fool.com/dripport/about.htm
oh, and doing tw stocks is much much harder than us stocks. there is little transparency in tw stocks, when compared to US stocks.
[quote=“jdsmith”]go to fool.com and read fool.com/mutualfunds/indexfu … unds01.htm
they’ve got lots of good information about index funds.
I prefer them. And if you are inexperienced, but want to do something, vtsmx is a good place to start. [/quote]
Good information. I appreciate that. But I wasn’t completely impressed with the performance of vtsmx as outlined here:
google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& … cks:VTSMX+
I see now that with index funds you’re betting on the overall trend. I know I’m stating the obvious but I don’t see big upturns in the US market anytime soon. But you’re in it for the long haul so this isn’t important to you.
I’m a bit more interested in some of these:
forbes.com/free_forbes/2004/0726/144tab.html
Vanguard is included but it’s a different fund than the one you directed me to. There’s probably more risk with these funds but the international nature of these funds stokes my interest more than what’s going on back home.
And I’m still interested in Taiwan, even with the transparency problem you talked about. I’m here, the high-tech companies I would be interested in are a bit work-related, and I think I can get a feel for the market once I do things for a while (I hope!).
Well, honestly, if you’re betting on “big upturns” and you want to direct your money towards such things you had better be ready to accept risk.
I don’t know how much experience you have and I don’t want to overstate the obvious, which is, get invested in more secure things first, then as you learn, push into individual stocks…yadayada
There are lots of international mutual funds, but not many that have a lot of Taiwanese stocks, maybe TSMC, chunghwa telephone, AUO…and some others. start here: biz.yahoo.com/p/tops/dp.html
anyway, it’s your money. Here’s the webpage for the Taiwan Stock Exchange: w3.tse.com.tw/docs/eng_home.htm
happy hunting
BTW,my vtsmx was purchased 1.5 years ago, and with dividends, I’m up 27%.
All good information, jdsmith. My comments are that, first of all, 27% in a year and a half is a big upturn in my book! It looks like I’ve got a bit more homework to do. The international funds I gave a list of all seemed good from what I saw (not so risky as I made them sound). My last point is that I think the NT dollar will appreciate and so it might not be smart converting to dollars for funds that operate in the US currency at this point. I’ll look at the info you provided for local funds, maybe a foreign financial house working in this area. Thanks!
Well, there are a few ETF’s that might be a good way to balance risk…
Check these out…
You should find something to your taste their.
Be careful though, don’t buy etf that have small volume trades, they could be difficult to sell again… of course, each etf will have its own risk profile.
I used to own QQQQ and DIA, both were fine.
Kenneth
how often do you trade those ken?
Don’t really trade those. QQQQ have been in and out twice… but I don’t purchase often because my trading costs are quite high… so I restrict my purchases opportunities to fire sales and obvious discounts!
Both have some kinds of dividends/distributions, too.
Quite nice bonus at the end of the year…
Kenneth
I’d agree with the ETF recommendation. The fees shouldn’t be that much and you can buy if from any brokerage. Tracking the S&P500 (SPY) is probably the easiet and beats most mutual funds.
Shawerma
I think it really depends on something that has come up a few times already in this thread: do you plan on holding it for a while, or trading it?
I hate to say that you previous experience in Korean may have been all market and not you. After the crash, of course it was going to come back, and it did.
I only say this as a precaution. Taiwan is not Korea and there a several things that can unexpectadly hit the market…for example, China.
Sorry to sound like a grandpa. Invest for stability first, then play your smarts against the market’s. If your wife is Taiwanese, then she can open an account and you can trade TW stocks. Your tech knowledge may help. Hope so.
You could always look into Taiwan Fund (TWN) I have played this thru
the years as it’s an easy way to trade the Taiwan market but using the NYSE to do it.
finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=TWN&t=5 … z=l&q=l&c=^TWII
and compare with the Taiwan Index, too.
finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ewt&t=5 … z=l&q=l&c=^TWII
Kenneth
I decided on a fund that is spread across various Asian countries, with significant percentages in South Korea and Taiwan (its managed by Fidelity). I decided to go with a certain amount every month so that I’m buying with increasingly appreciating Taiwan dollars. Hope it works out! I’m also going for a fixed savings accoung (CD), but the extremely low interest is bumming me out. Anyway, I’m spreading my risk in this way.
jdsmith, you mentioned something about how doing well during the financial crisis was a sure thing. Well, you know what they say about hindsight! I guess you had to be there to appreciate it. The mood was very, very poor in '98 in Korea- doom and gloom everywhere. And to make the market all the more unattractive, you had banks offering interest in the high teens (this was one of the IMF conditions). If you look at the history of the Asian funds, they all lost in '98 then came back in '99 with 60-100% returns. People that gambled, like me, did best in '98. It was a most interesting time, but in the midst of all, nothing seemed certain, definitely not the stock market.
[quote]
jdsmith, you mentioned something about how doing well during the financial crisis was a sure thing. Well, you know what they say about hindsight! I guess you had to be there to appreciate it. The mood was very, very poor in '98 in Korea- doom and gloom everywhere. And to make the market all the more unattractive, you had banks offering interest in the high teens (this was one of the IMF conditions). If you look at the history of the Asian funds, they all lost in '98 then came back in '99 with 60-100% returns. People that gambled, like me, did best in '98. It was a most interesting time, but in the midst of all, nothing seemed certain, definitely not the stock market.[/quote]
Well, it wasn’t a put down! Luck is luck and courage is courage. I was buying in to the US markets in October 2002…the absolute bottom, as it turned out.
Luck and courage can be very rewarding.
peace
I did some work for some very successful funds managers a while back. Prudential Assurance had the top fund managers at the time. It’s nice to be able to hand it over to someone else when you are not smart at the game. I sold policies, but I had no idea how to do it for myself.
[quote=“jdsmith”][quote]
Well, it wasn’t a put down! Luck is luck and courage is courage. I was buying in to the US markets in October 2002…the absolute bottom, as it turned out.
[/quote][/quote]
I didn’t take any offence. I was just clarifying and I think also reminiscing. It really was a wild atmosphere with takeover rumors flying around and overseas funds buying in then bailing out after they made enough on just the currency, etc. By the way, I see from the posts you were at the event yesterday (Sunday). I didn’t get aroud and work the crowd too much so I didn’t get to meet you. I was pretty much in and around the back room with the kids (where my wife and daughter were) and so just talked to others doing the same thing. Maybe next time I’ll get around and meet more people. Good quality beer. I feel perfectly fine today.
This thread began with one poster mentioning a US large-cap mutual fund and someone else stating a preference for foreign mutual funds. Of course those are apples and oranges. To be truly diversified one would own a little of each. I like this guy’s approach:
[quote]‘Laziest Portfolio’ 2004 winner
Ted Aronson scores repeat win with 15% returns
. . . Ted also won the 2003 award, with returns of more than 30 percent, beating the S&P 500 by a wide margin both years, with less risk. What’s his secret? No secret! Like all the other “Lazy Portfolios,” Ted’s uses a simple, no-nonsense, passive, well-diversified asset-allocation strategy with no trading, no tinkering and no rebalancing.
First, his background’s important: Ted heads up AJO Partners based in Philadelphia. They manage about $20 billion. All institutional tax-exempt retirement funds. No retail/taxable funds like Fidelity and Vanguard. And that’s why Ted’s “lazy man’s” portfolio got my attention several years ago.
Ted’s “Lazy Portfolio” is his family’s personal investment portfolio: “All of my family’s retirement money is in AJO funds,” says Ted. “But because the fund trades a lot, it’s not suitable for taxable investments. So all our taxable money is in Vanguard’s no-load index funds.” Good advice from one of America’s most successful money managers.
Ted is one of the rarest of America’s 70,000 money managers. Why? Because he’s one of the few that discloses his own portfolio assets and allocations. The 99.9 percent of the rest of them are too embarrassed, afraid their investors won’t like what they see. Not Ted. In our interview he broke the fund managers “code-of-silence” and disclosed his own personal investment strategy, something I’ll bet your fund manager won’t do.
So here’s Ted’s 11-fund Lazy Portfolio, the one that did over 30 percent in 2003 and 15 percent in 2004. . .
The asset allocations percentages are in front of the fund’s name and the 2004 annual returns are behind the ticker symbol of each fund:
Domestic stock funds (40%)
(5%) Wilshire 5000 (VTSMX: news, chart, profile) (12.5%)
(15%) S&P 500 Index (VFINX: news, chart, profile) (10.7%)
(10%) Wilshire 4500 Mid-/Small-Cap? (VEXMX: news, chart, profile) (18.7%)
(5%) MSCI US Small-Cap Growth? (VISGX: news, chart, profile) (16.0%)
(5%) MSCI US Small-Cap Value (VISVX: news, chart, profile) (23.5%)
Foreign stock funds (30%)
(15%) Emerging Markets SCI-EMGFree (VEIEX: news, chart, profile) (24.8%)
(10%) Pacific Stock Index MSCI-PAC (VPACX: news, chart, profile) (18.8%)
(5%) European Stock Index MSCI-EUR? (VEURX: news, chart, profile) (20.8%)
Fixed-income funds (30%)
(10%) IPS: Inflation-Protected Securities (VIPSX: news, chart, profile) (8.2%)
(10%) High-Yield Corporate? (VWEHX: news, chart, profile) (8.5%)
(10%) Long-Term Treasury? (VUSTX: news, chart, profile) (7.1%)
. . . aggregate asset mix for 2005:
U.S. equities: 40% (skewed to small- and midcaps)
International equities: 40%?skewed to emerging and Japan)
Bonds: 20% (skewed to TIPS) [/quote]
aolpf5.marketwatch.com/news/stor … olpf&guid={BC3B7AE7-713F-4933-AF20-7E8CE0128457}