Here’s an interesting article on how to retire early…
finance.yahoo.com/retirement/art … -Retiremen
Some of it might seems unrealistic to some of you, but I think the gist is that one should change one’s normal consumerist habits, but still be able to live a fulfilling and fun life.
Great article. I think I’m a little late to get in the investment game but I know I must do it.
What is a low-cost index fund?
I’m 27 years old and want to start putting away about 5,000NT a month for investing. This month I’m counting EVERY New Taiwan Dollar that I spend so I can see exactly where I’m spending too much money on beer. 
Any good tips for a newbie?
Thank you Rascal, that put things into perspective.
From a quick scan, I think this gives the best definition of indexing:
The other points about the financial industry remind me of my life just before I came to Taiwan.
I was just fresh out of college and my family was riding my ass about getting a job. I had an interview with American Express and thought I’d see what their recruiter had to say. I did a quick search on Google about the investment arm of their company and read all of the negative things people were saying about commissions, hidden fees, unethical blah blah, etc.
So I wasn’t too impressed about going to the interview. (Ended up getting too drunk the night before and slept through my alarm.) Eventually got kicked out of the house for being a bum and then moved to Taiwan.
So I guess I can see how mutual funds and other investment practices really turn the common guy away from the industry.
Does anyone here do indexing on the Taiwan stock market or are the US markets the safest?
Neither.
Choose something more broad, like the MSCI World. You could add some MSCI Europe or DJ Stoxx 600 to it and perhaps MSCI Emerging Markets, with a weighting of e.g. 50/30/20% respectively.
Well… I’d say for a newbie, in order to track your expenses, you’d need something like MSN Money. However, that COSTS money… so go with GNU Cash, which is open-source software and therefore totally free. It’ll only take about an hour to read through the explanation of how to use it… and in no time, you’ll be tracking exactly where every dollar goes! It even has nifty charts that you can print out to give you a visual of exactly how much you spend each month.
That’s the first step, at least.
raccoon check out www.investopedia.com, I would reccommend reading as much as you can or learning as much as you can before you use your money to play with. Investopedia is a good website with some basic terms, and examples.
Rascal,
How does a person in Asia invest in the MSCI index? I talked to a few people here in HK, but no one seems to be helpful.
[quote=“Jack Burton”]Rascal,
How does a person in Asia invest in the MSCI index? I talked to a few people here in HK, but no one seems to be helpful.[/quote]
Just get a brokerage account that gives you access to markets world-wide *) to buy any Index-ETF you like, the iShares (Barclays) MSCI World ETF for example is listed on the LSE and others, see this factsheet.
*) which probably means you have to open it outside of Taiwan (if you are in HK anyway it should be no problem)
Seems easy to me. Don’t drink at the pub, don’t invest in high risk and don’t have kids.
Usually works until someone gets really ill.
I retired when I was 35; then I started to have kids as a sideline to ward off emotional decay.
That article seemed like a desperate attempt to make a story out of essentially nothing.
Well, it is something, but it’s not for me.
$400/month. That means no eating out, no new computer, TV, camera, or other electronic gadgets, no nice art, furniture, home appliances, no airtravel, no major illness, injuries, dental work or pharmaceuticals, no “what the heck, let’s splurge/have fun”, etc. Always counting the beans and praying for a good crop. And, in the event of the common occurence of long term illness/disability as a senior, there’s the possible shame of having to mooch off of family or others.
Too bad for them. Sure, I’d love to work shorter hours and have longer vacations, but I love my job. I enjoy the mental stimulation, the constant learning experiences, the feeling of accomplishment as I become more and more skilled at what I do, the interactions with others who share the same skills, and the sucessful resolution of complex challenges. I look forward to retirement some day, but for now (just a few years away from 50), I find my career very exciting, I’m pleased to be socking away cash for my eventual retirement, and I’m thankful that when that day comes I won’t be scrimping on just $400/month.
I am with MT, those stories all sound nice but if you look closer then you find that most of those people live close to poverty (that’s of course a hyperbole, but you get my drift). Sure, if you don’t mind such a lifestyle then that’s fine, but many people would not be able or not want to live on USD400 a month only. I rather work so I earn more and can save more for my retirement, notwithstanding that doing nothing is rather boring as I know from being unemployed for a few months (and I had my government pay, so money wasn’t a problem).
[quote=“Fox”]I retired when I was 35; then I started to have kids as a sideline to ward off emotional decay.
That article seemed like a desperate attempt to make a story out of essentially nothing.[/quote]
Russel Baker at our commencement speach told us to have kids as it will make our expose novel more interesting - sounds like you’re right on.
A bit too extreme, and not for everyone, I agree.
That said, what I took from the story, is that you don’t have to have the latest and greatest of everything to live well and at moderate cost. ie the latest car, phone, etc.