Anyone live abroad and have a brokerage in another country?

[TokyoLotus]

Hi!

I live in Tokyo. Banks have zero interest.

I want to get into investing but the options here are complicated. I want to look into having a brokerage abroad that I can access online, where I can store my money in yen and that won't cost so much for wire transfers and other fees that might eat up any interest the account brings in.

Maybe a brokerage in Singapore?

If any if you have experience I would love to hear!

[johnintaiwan]

if you arent american then this might not work for you.

I live in Taiwan, and wire my money back to my bank account in the states every few months or so. Then I make payments or transfer it into a brokerage account from there. This seems to be the best way. I pay a flat fee of around 15 usd to complete the transfer. I would suggest this as the way to do it if you are able. You wouldnt be able to keep your money in yen, but im not sure why you would really want to do this anyway. I would caution against opening accounts in other coutries that you either dont live in or are not a citizen of.

[JamesAt15]

I live in Tokyo too, so I can relate.

Cutting and pasting from another thread I posted in:

For investing, I had a Charles Schwab account that I kept open when I moved here, and I continue to use it. Schwab has a local account at Citibank Japan, so it is quite easy to transfer funds from my Citi account to Schwab's account and have it automatically deposited in my Schwab investment account. It's also a lot faster (usually overnight) and cheaper (300y versus 3000-4000yen for an international wire transfer). The only downside is that I have to visit a Citibank branch to put in the form.

I believe you can open a Schwab account while living outside the US - check their website and maybe give them a call or email. I find it's a pretty easy way to go. You can do pretty much everything via the website, and they have low-expense funds that pretty much mimic Vanguard funds and are very acceptable substitutes.

I don't think they handle yen accounts, though, so you would probably be converting to dollars when depositing with them. So you would have a certain amount of currency exchange rate risk, I suppose, but it doesn't really bother me. I figure I am essentially dollar-cost-averaging by making regular deposits, so it probably won't be a big deal in the long run.

[TokyoLotus]

I live in Tokyo too, so I can relate.

Cutting and pasting from another thread I posted in:

For investing, I had a Charles Schwab account that I kept open when I moved here, and I continue to use it. Schwab has a local account at Citibank Japan, so it is quite easy to transfer funds from my Citi account to Schwab's account and have it automatically deposited in my Schwab investment account. It's also a lot faster (usually overnight) and cheaper (300y versus 3000-4000yen for an international wire transfer). The only downside is that I have to visit a Citibank branch to put in the form.

I believe you can open a Schwab account while living outside the US - check their website and maybe give them a call or email. I find it's a pretty easy way to go. You can do pretty much everything via the website, and they have low-expense funds that pretty much mimic Vanguard funds and are very acceptable substitutes.

I don't think they handle yen accounts, though, so you would probably be converting to dollars when depositing with them. So you would have a certain amount of currency exchange rate risk, I suppose, but it doesn't really bother me. I figure I am essentially dollar-cost-averaging by making regular deposits, so it probably won't be a big deal in the long run.

Thank you both for the info!! It helps immensely!

I too have Citibank so I think looking into Schwab would be the better bet as I dont currently have a US bank account.

It's just been tough to figure out how to put my money into something that gains interest without costing a ton of transaction fees.

JamesAt15, I'd be curious to know your break down of expenses living in tokyo, (sorry if it's too personal to ask!)