Hey cool! It's great that you've gotten your friend interested in investing.
But I'm curious as to why you're looking at international options and not the local Philippine stock market. Since you mentioned she's at square one, it's a lot more convenient to start locally. The Philippine Stock Exchange is also doing extremely well right now. There are several options:
1. UITFs (Unit Investment Trust Funds)- Basically mutual funds under a different name
- Offered by all the major Philippine banks
- The two largest banks (
Banco de Oro and
Bank of the Philippine Islands) give you the option to peso cost average (regular automatic debit from a savings account). I invest regularly in the Banco de Oro UITFs (one bond fund and one equity fund).
2. Mutual Funds- Offered by
Sunlife,
Philamlife, etc.
- Typically more expensive than UITFs because they charge a "sales load" on top of the regular fund management fee
3. Direct investments in the stock market-
COL Financial is the most popular online broker right now. They offer a week-long demo account for free. However, if your friend is an absolute beginner, this may not be the best place to start.
Naturally this only skims the surface of the pros and cons of each investment. If you two would like to do your own research, you can visit these Filipino personal finance sites:
Beginner level sites:
www.readytoberich.com www.pinoymoneytalk.com (they also have a forum)
Intermediate level:
www.investorjuan.com (he has some old articles for beginners, but has recently moved on to more advanced investment math topics)
There's also been talk that
ETFs (exchange-traded funds) will finally launch early next year. If you're dead set on the closest thing to an index fund, that might be worth the wait.
