How crazy is this investment fund?

[loxs]

Hi Folks,

I am new to the whole idea of investing and I come from a poorer country (Bulgaria) that doesn't have lots of wealthy enough people that are able to invest. So, if I want to invest in my home country, my options are really limited. I have yet to start looking for options abroad (maybe still in the EU) and most of the theory I know is from US websites.

This is probably the best investment broker that I have found so far in Bulgaria. Best, mostly as in "not shady".
Here is a google translate of one of their funds:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pioneerinvestments.bg%2FFund%2FBasicInfo.asp%3Ffund%3DPFGlobalSelect%26class%3DEUR&act=url

What you should see is: 5% buying fee, 0% selling fee and 1.5% management fee.

So what do you think? How bad is that? Especially comparing to other EU countries? I'm not asking about the fund's profitability, only it's fees.

[marty998]

I'm not sure you are going to get many replies here. I can't profess to be an expert on the Bulgarian funds management industry and I doubt many others here would be.

But that is no excuse. So in keeping with the time honoured traditions of the internet where random idiots can post whatever they want I will say that I would immediately walk past a fund that charges 5% up front.

DYOR

[Stache In Training]

I'm going to agree with Marty, in the fact that 5% upfront fees does seem high.  However, I they are the only broker you actually feel you can trust, then I guess a 5% sales fee is better than no sales fee, and then they take your money and you never hear from them again. 

However, I thought that Vanguard is starting to grow in to more countries, and especially the EU.  So I'd check to see if they offer anything.

Since you have slim pickings for brokerage, maybe you don't invest in stocks, and do something a bit different.  Invest in companies or real estate in your local town?  I know nothing about the laws or economy of Bulgaria, but maybe go talk to banks or investment centers to see if you can start loaning out money at a higher return than just a savings account.  I know in USA, you have to be an accredited investor (net worth of like 500,000 or something like that), except luckily p2p lending allow a way around that, in order to loan money out like that but maybe your laws are more relaxed.  Are there p2p lending businesses in Bulgaria?  Or to at least invest in? 

I'd say that if you feel there are no reputable brokerage houses to invest in, or that you feel comfortable in, I'd go with some of the examples I said, or maybe some other people will think of some other examples.  Just trying to get your mind working.

[loxs]

Thank you both for the kind replies.

Well, yeah, I am certainly not investing via Bulgarian funds, as it seems. Hell, we have banks with better deposit schemes (like 4-5% interest in BGN - the Bulgarian currency). They are no less shady, but they are still banks and still in theory the deposits are guaranteed by the government.

So I guess I'll start looking to invest abroad, at least from a diversification point of view. Probably something like the "offshore supermarkets" I found from another thread on this forum:
http://the-international-investor.com/comparison-tables/offshore-fund-supermarket-comparison-table

I wonder how trustworthy these are, especially the ones based in Luxemburg (part of EU).

[pom]

Certainly Charles Schwab is trustworthy.

Internaxx is owned by Toronto Dominion, a large Canadian bank so is probably trustworthy too.

Keytrade is owned by Credit Agricole of France.

I am not sure how trustworthy the Singaporian funds are, maybe someone else here has used them.

You can also look at Interactive Broker. I think that they accept non-US clients.