What can I invest in?

[stubuzz]

2 hours ago, MarleyMarl said:

For in Thailand, a mutual fund is not a bad option. Personally I am invested in Krungsri's Dividend Stock Fund (KFSDIV), https://www.krungsriasset.com/EN/FundDetail.aspx?fund=KFSDIV

How do you get started with mutual funds?

[Tom89]

16 hours ago, Kinnock said:

Listen to the advice of anyone calling themself a 'Financial Advisor' and do the exact opposite.

There are good ones and bad ones. The first one I had was worthless. The second one, who I've been with since 2004, is excellent. I couldn't have retired early without him. Research thoroughly before choosing one. 

[GreasyFingers]

On 5/27/2021 at 1:44 AM, xzyv said:

I'm a teacher. I don't make much but I am able to save a little a month. So what can invest in with 50k i.e stocks, shares or anything.

A good wife to keep you happy.

[Lacessit]

On 5/27/2021 at 12:47 PM, BenDeCosta said:

Keep saving cash in the best savings account you can find until you have enough saved to cover all your living costs for 6 months, then start looking at stocks, shares, bonds, funds etc. 

Yours is probably going to be the best advice going on this thread.

For someone who knows nothing about shares, I'd suggest the OP look at exchange traded funds

( ETF's ) after following your advice.

[Pilotman]

On 5/27/2021 at 3:09 AM, fdsa said:

invest only in stuff you understand well.

If you do not understand stocks or cryptocurrencies - do not invest in them. If you can only teach - invest in a decent PC & good microphone & webcam and supplement your "offline" teaching in the school with paid consultations online.

That's the best idea put forward for that kind of investment. As an  Online teacher, if you put in the time and effort,  the OP will be able to double that 50K in no time. You may have to invest a bit in a TESOL course, if you haven't got that  qualification already, which I'm sure that you have . Other than that, maybe gold, but that is so up and down its hard to predict its future in terms of return. .

[Lacessit]

10 hours ago, ding said:

Precious metals possibly. Try checking out silver coins. I like minted coins that are actual currency and you can travel with them - declaring face value - in case a certain western nation's currency crashes/inflation occurs... bringing others down with it.

 

A bank account will have low interest rates, especially in the US, and your currency will lose value in relation to the cost of living increase/inflation. It's a place to park money for a bit.

 

Then I'd buy gold when I had more saved up. But I wouldn't drag my feet. You need more money and the immediate way to do that is to cut costs, hard.

Precious metals are not investments. They are hedges against currency devaluation.

Investments earn income, precious metals do not.

Minted coins are worse value than bullion, because the buyer is paying a premium to whatever mint has made them, to have a pretty picture on a round piece of bullion.

Mints love the coin market, why do you think they make so many of them?

Edited May 28, 2021 by Lacessit

[charliechoc]

bitcoin and ethereum. Keep buying every month. Move it to a trezor hardware wallet. In 5 yrs you will have a huge investment. Big gains in the coming yrs. Join bitkub crypto exchange in bkk. 

[Lacessit]

3 minutes ago, charliechoc said:

bitcoin and ethereum. Keep buying every month. Move it to a trezor hardware wallet. In 5 yrs you will have a huge investment. Big gains in the coming yrs. Join bitkub crypto exchange in bkk. 

Governments worldwide don't like cryptocurrencies, because they compete with their fiat currencies. China has already banned transactions in bitcoin, it won't be long before other countries follow suit. In 5 years time, the opposite of what you are claiming could equally be true.

[skatewash]

16 hours ago, ChrisP24 said:

 

The logical place to start would be to build a "cash reserve" using shorter-term time deposits with your Thai bank.  Then once you have 3-6 months of living expenses saved locally in Thailand (in baht which is what you're planning to spend for the next <10 years ), look to your home country and open a Rand-denominated mutual fund account.  For the Thailand-based time deposit, the interest rate will be low but at least will be something, and you have stable principal and short-term access to your money in case an emergency happens or you have an employment interruption and need it to liv eon for a while.  Right now Kasikorn Bank is offering 0.32% in a 3-month time deposit and 0.40% on a 6-month.   You bank probably offers similar terms.   Maybe break your $50k into staggered maturity dates so that you have a six-month time deposit maturing each month (that is called building a "ladder" ) so that if you have to start living on savings at least you're not incurring early redemption penalties to access your money.  While you are working you can add to each month's renewal amount until each month you have one month's worth of living expenses maturing. 

 

Once your three-to-six months of living expenses are in place in time deposits, for your longer term money I'd suggest going with one of the larger brokerage firms in South Africa, and investing in a broad-based stock index fund, steadily adding more as you're able and not reacting to short term price fluctuations.   I don't know specifically what South African or Global index mutual funds are available, but a larger brokerage house should offer an ample selection. 

 

Having read all the previous replies this one above seems the most sensible to me.

Open a Krungsri Bank Mee Tae Dai Savings account.  If you do it online you will get 1.5% apr, interest earned daily, paid monthly.  It's a regular savings account not a fixed deposit account.  The interest rate floats.  If you open it at the bank you will get 1.1% apr interest.  This is where I would put my money until I had 3-6 months of living expenses. 

Then, look at investing in SA as advised above, or if you are determined to invest in Thailand I would investigate investing in the SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand) index via a mutual fund or ETF.  You can ask at your Thai bank how to get started doing that.

 

 

[Antonymous]

I can hardly believe how awful or plain wrong alot of the advice has been on this thread so far.

 

I'm not going to add to the confusion, but would just like to let you know that while you are researching where else might be better long term, you can be attracting some interest on your money in a Thai bank .

 

No need to open a Fixed Deposit account. You can open a 'No Fixed Account' at any branch of TTB (was called TMB until recently) and get (currently) 0.9% pa interest. You are free to draw or add funds at any time.

 

If you really want to lock up your money for long periods then check out the best rates on a Fixed Deposit at IB (Islamic Bank of Thailand). Not only do they pay (usually) the highest rates in Thailand, but they also will open a Savings Account for you at the same time as the Fixed Deposit. Each month the interest is transferred automatically to the S/A and so you can at least draw that and use it if you wish. I currently enjoy 1.6% interest at IB on a 24 month Fixed Deposit that I opened last year. I have had a number of Fixed accounts with IB for many years.

 

 

[Logosone]

On November 4, 2010, speaking at Balliol College, Oxford, Rogers urged students to scrap career plans for Wall Street or the City, London's financial district, and to study agriculture and mining instead. "The power is shifting again from the financial centers to the producers of real goods. The place to be is in commodities, raw materials, natural resources."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rogers

 

Personally I prefer the short term gains of Forex, but if you're looking long term than investing in farms, farm operators, commodities is probably the safe long term bet. 

[khunPer]

On 5/26/2021 at 8:44 PM, xzyv said:

So what can invest in with 50k i.e stocks, shares or anything.

***P.S*** I'm really new at this and am very clueless.

Historically stocks have been the best investment with an average 6-7 percent outcome a year, looked over (very) long term.

 

Just buying stocks from big healthy, preferably dividend paying companies listed on the stock exchange, with a little spread of risk, but not too many companies (Warren Buffet says no more than 10), you will normally be Okay.

 

Money is a relative size, what's small money for some, might be big money for others; especially when you are saving up from a normal income. However, small money can grow, if invested carefully, and if you never stop saving up, as long as you can, even small amount s can make a difference.

 

There is an easy hand rule, I call it "the rule of 72", or just 70 for easy calculation. If you divide 70 with your annual outcome, for example 7 persent, then the result equals number of years to double your savings; i.e. 70/7 = 10, so in 10 years 50,000 can grow to 100,000. If you keep adding up with new savings, it begins to be something.

 

Warren Buffet did quite well with stocks, so a fellow worth listening to for inspiration. He looks for example at P/E, which means "Price/Earning" and how much a shareholder will overpay (price) for a company's profit (earning). Buffet says that never buy with higher P/E than 15; so something in that level might be of interest.

 

Another figure to look at is P/BV, which means "Price/Book Value", i.e. how much overprice do you pay, compared to the real value of a company. Often a figure around 2 is acceptable, but it depends of the business, a medical company with an interesting pipeline might not have a huge book value, so it's the potential future you are buying, and the P/V could be 30; if their potential product pass phase III test the company might be worth a fortune, whilst if it fails, it might mean a huge loss. My point is that what shareholders are buying is normally future performance, high potentials equals high risk, steady companies with a well branded product line equals lower potential (almost same as last year adjusted for inflation), and thereby low risk.

 

With 50k money I would look at 3-5 stocks, don't buy too small lots. What market are you specific thinking about; i.e. are you talking US and $50k, or Thailand and 50k baht?

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, Tom89 said:

There are good ones and bad ones. The first one I had was worthless. The second one, who I've been with since 2004, is excellent. I couldn't have retired early without him. Research thoroughly before choosing one. 

If someone is a good 'Financial Advisor', why is he/she wasting time seeing potential clients hoping to get commission from whoever he advises you invest your money. Why don't they put their own money where their mouth is? Been there and scammed badly.

Edited May 28, 2021 by KannikaP

[skatewash]

As far as a nice introduction to investing I would highly recommend listening to or reading JL Collins.  He's a big believer in low-cost index funds, buy and hold, and simplicity.  I enjoy listening to the guy and reading his stuff.  I've been doing this type of investing well before I ran across this guy so of course I think his is a sound plan.  However, he is much better at explaining his investing philosophy than I am.  One caveat he is a big advocate of a particular Vanguard Stock Index Fund (VTSAX) which is a broad market based fund available easily only to US investors.  However, there are similar broad-index mutual funds/ETFs that do the same thing that you can purchase in nearly any country.  That's a detail.  The investing strategy is useful to people outside the US as well.

https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

Or, if your prefer this video is a good introduction to the index fund investment strategy:
 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by skatewash

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Investments earn income

Some

 

others are purchased because of hopes/expectations of appreciation in value

[1FinickyOne]

13 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

If someone is a good 'Financial Advisor', why is he/she wasting time seeing potential clients hoping to get commission from whoever he advises you invest your money. Why don't they put their own money where their mouth is? Been there and scammed badly.

Yes, too often that is the case - - self interested or incompetent people in a position of trust... 

 

I did get lucky and had an amazing financial adviser... an amazing human being... so, good things can happen

[KannikaP]

15 minutes ago, skatewash said:

As far as a nice introduction to investing I would highly recommend listening to or reading JL Collins.  He's a big believer in low-cost index funds, buy and hold, and simplicity.  I enjoy listening to the guy and reading his stuff.  I've been doing this type of investing well before I ran across this guy so of course I think his is a sound plan.  However, he is much better at explaining his investing philosophy than I am.  One caveat he is a big advocate of a particular Vanguard Stock Index Fund (VTSAX) which is a broad market based fund available easily only to US investors.  However, there are similar broad-index mutual funds/ETFs that do the same thing that you can purchase in nearly any country.  That's a detail.  The investing strategy is useful to people outside the US as well.

https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

Or, if your prefer this video is a good introduction to the index fund investment strategy:

https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

There are so many of these guys on You Tube and other online places. All absolute BS, why are they doing it instead of investing their own money? 

Because they can make more from their posts than from actually investing. Steer clear.

[1FinickyOne]

28 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

If someone is a good 'Financial Advisor', why is he/she wasting time seeing potential clients

sorry you got confused.. this lady is wealthy and I lucked into her accepting me as a client, not by extent of my portfolio but because she is well acquainted with my family... she is dedicated to helping people and our relationship became 99% friends. she does not charge commission but did get a .25% kickback from the mutual funds she had me invest in - - - that was enough for her... I very much prospered in my long relationship with her... 

 

She considered her clients, family. A fascinating lady. 

 

Atypical for that profession, but there are good people in the world. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by 1FinickyOne

[khunPer]

On 5/27/2021 at 4:12 AM, xzyv said:

Investment timeline I want it to be for at least 10 years too. 

Yes, it's 50k Thai baht. So I would like to make the investments here in Thailand. 

Thank you.

You can open a SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand) trading account with most, if not all, bank in Thailand: I use Bangkok and SCB, and both are excellent, and probably so are other banks.

 

Some banks might have a minimum for opening a trading account, either 30k baht for opening, or 10k baht for transferring funds into an account. You need a normal savings account in same bank connected to your trading account, a account from where you move funds into the trading platform, and gains out. Dividends will automatically be paid to your connected savings account after 10 percent tax has been withheld; you don't need to report anything further for income tax.

 

SET has to my experience a number of fine dividend paying companies to invest in. In average you can expect around 3 percent dividend after tax – some companies pays more, and some pays less – and a gain of the trading value of the stock, depending of the level of paid dividend and business sector, so the 6-7 percent I mentioned in my earlier comment fits quite well. You might however be able to beat that 6-7 percent level by choosing the "right" stocks, a gain of 50 percent is not impossible, depending of the risk you are willing to take; but higher risk also means risk of bigger loss.

 

On SET you buy stocks in lots of 100, so if a stock is priced 10 baht each, you cannot buy for less than 1,000 baht – or preferably buy 1,000 shares for 10,000 baht – whilst if a stock is priced 400 baht each, the minimum lot will be 40,000 baht, and might not be of interest with a 50k baht investment. To make a spread of risk, and not buying to small lots, you should look in buying lots of 10k baht to 15k baht, for example buying stocks in 3 to 5 companies.

 

Reinvest your dividends, if you wish your savings to grow...????

I wish you good luck..????

[Nanaplaza666]

You can invest in me , don't know your return rates but i will let you know when it's finished . 

[charliechoc]

2 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Governments worldwide don't like cryptocurrencies, because they compete with their fiat currencies. China has already banned transactions in bitcoin, it won't be long before other countries follow suit. In 5 years time, the opposite of what you are claiming could equally be true.

Just bc communist china tries to ban something doesn't mean a western democracy will. The oz govt seem to be ok about it as long as their citizens pay CGT tax. The west rarely follow China on anything. Much the opposite

[tomacht8]

50K is not much.
You can try to open an account at the Country Group Securities.
www.cgsec.co.th
They are in the Wireless Road opposite from the US Embassy.
Tell them you want first try 50K to see how it works.
If they accept you, you can trade at the Thailand Stockmarket.
https://www.set.or.th/set/mainpage.do?language=en&country=US

You can buy Shares then, what Thais love to do:
Shopping by 7 Eleven = CPF : CHAROEN POKPHAND FOODS PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
Play with there phone = ADVANC : ADVANCED INFO SERVICE PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
Drive motobike = BCP : BANGCHAK CORPORATION PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED

You will get approx. between 3% - 6% dividends a year.
Make yourself smart and see which companies are good.
The set page is very informative for beginners.

[Iron Tongue]

At your age and price range, I would suggest an Index Fund like the US' S&P 500.  I don't know if you have access in LoS, but in the US, buying into an S&P 500 index fund has no commissions, a very low management fee (less than 1%) and a historical return of 8-13% per year.

[Logosone]

50K is actually the perfect amount to trade in Forex. You could open a nice account and make a fortune trading foreign currencies, Bitcoin, Gold or even Indices.

 

Good luck!

Edited May 28, 2021 by Logosone

[Destiny1990]

Buy a lease on a bar for example at Nana plaza or Walkingstreet you will probably double ur investment soon. ????????

[BenDeCosta]

12 hours ago, skatewash said:

Open a Krungsri Bank Mee Tae Dai Savings account.  

 

They told me that they don't offer this account to foreigners.

[covidiot]

11 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Because they can make more from their posts than from actually investing. Steer clear.

I'm with you regarding financial investors. 

They make their money by taking 2-3% of people's savings. 

 

[ding]

14 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Precious metals are not investments. They are hedges against currency devaluation.

Investments earn income, precious metals do not.

Minted coins are worse value than bullion, because the buyer is paying a premium to whatever mint has made them, to have a pretty picture on a round piece of bullion.

Mints love the coin market, why do you think they make so many of them?

Things are about to change drastically. Hold on to your assets. I wish everyone the best, really.

[ding]

11 hours ago, charliechoc said:

Just bc communist china tries to ban something doesn't mean a western democracy will. The oz govt seem to be ok about it as long as their citizens pay CGT tax. The west rarely follow China on anything. Much the opposite

Maybe. China was the first to use paper currency. It follows, they invented paper... and printing.

 

I can imagine a scenario where the USD suffers deflation due to excessive QE, the US economy suffers severe inflation and not from increased demand, interest and bonds are 0 thereby eliminating the Fed's levers, Americans rush to dump their USD for say... toilet paper, and the US government sees crypto as a threat to the USD position as currency of reference in the world and its hegemony.

 

The US* blocking crypto wouldn't be the silliest thing done in history.

 

The price of toilet paper:

There's more paper in the pile of Venezuelan Bolivars to wipe your bum with than the equivalent worth in actual toilet paper.

 

*Any ally could also block on-ramps and off-ramps for blockchain assets.

[mjnaus]

On 5/27/2021 at 2:29 AM, GrandPapillon said:

keep the 50K in cash, that's your best investment at this stage, at least you are not losing money ????

 

I guess someone hasn't quite wrapped his head around the concept of inflation and zero/near zero interest rates. Perhaps understand those concepts first before giving out "investment advice"?