Author Topic: Canadian Expat attempting to Invest in Australia  (Read 1490 times)

seranade

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Canadian Expat attempting to Invest in Australia
« on: July 06, 2017, 09:11:46 PM »
Hey all,

I am an expat living in Australia and am looking for a low-fee online stock brokerage company. My goal is to:

- invest about $1000/month (or hold off, and invest quarterly lump-sums)
- be able to invest in international stocks (US, Canada, Europe, Asia etc)
- would like to convert to US dollars if needed (cheaply)
- have a decent user interface (I'm a newbie, so simple is good)
- mainly invest in index/etf funds
- the goal is to buy and hold with my investments (long term)

Any suggestions as to what brokerage is appreciated, and if anyone knows of the tax implications of having US money invested, I'd love to hear more about it.

A side note, I am with CommonWealth, and it looks like their fees are pretty high in comparison. I am also looking to invest in my super, but don't know about the implications if I decide to leave the country at some point (the taxation is about 60% to withdraw funds).

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.

Matz_70

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Re: Canadian Expat attempting to Invest in Australia
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2018, 04:19:46 AM »
I have the same question. Looking for the best way to park $200k in index funds in Australia.

mrmoonymartian

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Re: Canadian Expat attempting to Invest in Australia
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2018, 02:15:09 AM »
I have no idea how the US dollar conversions and accounts would work (do your homework!), but the other stuff should be straightforward with standard internet brokers operating in Aus such as Saxo, IG, CMC, etc. Saxo should be cheapest out of those for low frequency investing. Interactive Brokers has a monthly activity fee which makes them more expensive than these others for people like us. CMC seems to be the cheapest with Chess holding instead of custodian.

Unless there is a screaming sale on I would do it quarterly, because at $7 per trade with Saxo that equates to 1.40% fees to buy and sell $1000. That doesn't even include the spread/MER. Quarterly is a more reasonable 0.47% trading fees on $3000. Not that you are selling for a long time, but you get the idea. Bigger is better, at least up to the point where the flat minimum fee is the same as the variable fee ($8750 for saxo).

Try this link for super if you are a temporary resident: https://www.superguide.com.au/accessing-superannuation/accessing-super-early-temporary-resident
I guess the thinking is that if you are silly enough to want to leave then you deserve to pay a silly amount of tax.