Thai Savings Bonds

[Aujuba]

I wonder if anyone knows about government savings bonds in Thailand. Are there any? Where can they be purchased? What denominations do they come in? I'm interested in buying them for my kids.

[junkofdavid2]

I wonder if anyone knows about government savings bonds in Thailand. Are there any? Where can they be purchased? What denominations do they come in? I'm interested in buying them for my kids.

It's easy.... I think.

I have an account in Kasikorn Bank, and the last time I inquired about something and the assistant inevitably saw my passbook and account balance, she suggested to me that I should buy government bonds instead of keeping it all in a savings account.

She then even pointed to some sort of small poster within the bank advertising such bond. If I remember right, it was like 4.5% interest or something.

However, I politely declined the offer and prefer not to invest in any Thai government bond, for my own reasons. If you think it's a safe and good investment, then you can try Kasikorn.

cheers,

junkofdavid2

[Aujuba]

I'll check it out. Thanks.

[prighas]

I wonder if anyone knows about government savings bonds in Thailand. Are there any? Where can they be purchased? What denominations do they come in? I'm interested in buying them for my kids.

It's easy.... I think.

I have an account in Kasikorn Bank, and the last time I inquired about something and the assistant inevitably saw my passbook and account balance, she suggested to me that I should buy government bonds instead of keeping it all in a savings account.

She then even pointed to some sort of small poster within the bank advertising such bond. If I remember right, it was like 4.5% interest or something.

However, I politely declined the offer and prefer not to invest in any Thai government bond, for my own reasons. If you think it's a safe and good investment, then you can try Kasikorn.

cheers,

junkofdavid2

I understand you do not want to share with us the reasons behind not investing the Thai market. Could you only suggest some tips as to why we should refrain from these investments? I currently buy kasikorn long term equity funds for the mere purpose of tax deductions.

Is that too risky? Should I refrain from investing in index funds? I thought index funds are meant to be considered as 'smart' investments when compared to hyperactive investing?

Edited December 29, 2006 by prighas

[junkofdavid2]

I wonder if anyone knows about government savings bonds in Thailand. Are there any? Where can they be purchased? What denominations do they come in? I'm interested in buying them for my kids.

It's easy.... I think.

I have an account in Kasikorn Bank, and the last time I inquired about something and the assistant inevitably saw my passbook and account balance, she suggested to me that I should buy government bonds instead of keeping it all in a savings account.

She then even pointed to some sort of small poster within the bank advertising such bond. If I remember right, it was like 4.5% interest or something.

However, I politely declined the offer and prefer not to invest in any Thai government bond, for my own reasons. If you think it's a safe and good investment, then you can try Kasikorn.

cheers,

junkofdavid2

I understand you do not want to share with us the reasons behind not investing the Thai market. Could you only suggest some tips as to why we should refrain from these investments? I currently buy kasikorn long term equity funds for the mere purpose of tax deductions.

Is that too risky? Should I refrain from investing in index funds? I thought index funds are meant to be considered as 'smart' investments when compared to hyperactive investing?

Smarter? I think the word is safer.

Index funds are definitely generally safer than investing in individual stocks, simply because they are more diversified, meaning they contain a lot more companies and thus, if any one company in the fund were to go bankrupt, it will only have a small negative impact "overall" on the fund.

Likewise, if any one of the companies were to to skyrocket, that would also have only a small positive impact on your money, overall.

There are 2 main schools of thought here.

The first is "Don't keep all your eggs in one basket", which would thereby endorse the index fund mentality. The second, which was and is Warren Buffet's philosophy, is "Just choose a few very good eggs, put it in just one basket, and then watch that basket closely."

Personally, I don't like index funds because when most stocks go down, so does your money. I personally believe it to be lower risk and higher return to choose a fund which doesn't just "blindly" invest in the entire index, but instead picks out the best stocks to invest in.

Unfortunately, if you wish to invest in Thailand, there aren't many resources which you can use to "investigate" and verify a particular fund to see it's long term performance since inception... and you are forced to rely on what the fund marketer says... and they usually just show a particular period of time where the fund did well (and don't show the years/months when it was disastrous).

Ex. XXXXX Fund! ROI of 12% per annum!

and then in the fine print it will say:

*for the period October 2003 to July 2006

Edited December 29, 2006 by junkofdavid2

[lopburi3]

Another option you might consider is the special saving accounts banks have for education - you can deposit a set amount each month for a period of years and get above normal interest rates. If you wish to invest bulk amounts the fixed deposit accounts run months to several years and offer normal 4.5% or so interest. Unfortunately there do not seem to be accounts available for children themselves - they can be named on these accounts but account primary name has to be an adult I believe.

[Aujuba]

Thanks for the ideas.