High fee funds, the only option in Perú

[untalcesar]

Hi.
I've been reading all articles in Mr. Monet Mustache for the last six months and applying the philosophy to my life. Both my wife and I have become more frugal and our savigs are while our expenses are down.

The tough part is investing. I'm from Perú and the fees in mutual funds are high compared to tge funds you usually speak about. For example, if I wanted to invest in a stocks fund there is a 3% yearly fee (plus taxes). The lowest fee I could find for a similar investment is 1.92%. The lowest fees are for very short term funds and they are like 1%.

Financial Independence for my wife and I, realistically, is about 15 years away. My guts tell me that I should invest anyway. What do you think? I'll be grateful for any feedback.

Cheers.

César.

[Barbaebigode]

Are there any other options that are not funds to invest in?

I live in Brazil and here funds are something that really don't attract me for the same reason: out of the roof fees but also because the returns are very variable. So what we do is keep the money in saving accounts, buy stocks of profitable companies and buy federal government bonds. Usually the returns are higher than the funds mentioned by MMM, fees are lower, or no fees at all.

We just have to adapt to our local conditions. What about real state funds in Peru, also bad?

[untalcesar]

My wife and I have been keeping an savings account with a 6% yearly rentability (I don´t know if this is the correct term). We're lookng at options like that, because there are some banks that offer better returns.

Some extra cash I've made this year, I have put in mutual fund accounts to see how they do and some are not that bad, but the high fees kind of put me off of investing more. I mean, it's sort of OK too see they charged me 5 soles in a month but I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to see a charge for 50, you know.

I have never heard of Real State Funds; I'll check it out.

 I'll also make inquiries tomorrow on buying stock or EITF's; from what I could see on soe websites, you end up paying 1.25 per trade in commisions (there were like 7) and taxes. I googled stocks Perú investing and got some info, not that much. A few years ago I heard that you had to have like 25 thousand dollars to invest in stocks, but in the news I have seen that now you can get in with less.

The main problem in Perú is that investing, from mutual funds to stocks, is not a common thing. It's become a thing recently but people are wary of such things because of our history. Maybe that's why the fees are so high. That and just plain greed.

Thanks for the reply. Obrigado.

[AssetGrinder]

Might be best to try and get your money out of Peru into a good International bank. At that point you can try and open up a brokerage account. There are ways around many things in investing, Just do your homework and dont be afraid to move your money around and out of country. Plus investing into a more stable currency might be your best bet to beat inflation in unstable countries.