For those of you who read this blog regularly, you might be asking yourself if there is a good source of simple, easy-to-read information on investing available. The books I write are more technical nature and discuss specific topics about living overseas. While they do discuss how to invest, they are not solely about how to invest.
My recommendation
The best blog writer I’ve seen on the internet is Mike Piper of the Oblivious Investor. He writes in a succinct and clear style, and his knowledge of financial topics is as far as I can tell, nearly perfect. He is an index investor like I am.
In addition to his blog, he has written short books that discuss the various aspects of being a successful investor. I’ve read two of them, Can I Retire? and Oblivious Investing. Both are excellent guides that give you a general view as to where to place your money. I recommend them both.
They are written with American audiences in mind, but the general philosophy of investing is really applicable to virtually any country and every financial exchange. Stocks are shares of ownership of companies and they go up and down in value based on the earnings and speculative influences of the underlying companies they represent. This is true everywhere, though there are differences in equity returns from country to country.
Investing while living overseas
The main purpose behind investing is not to get rich, but to save for retirement. Investing on your own is of the utmost importance if you are an expat who is not receiving a pension from your employer. This is true of the vast majority of expats, particularly those who are working for local companies in the developing world. You must be disciplined and save on your own.
There aren’t any good books in print right now that detail how to invest if you are an expat. I’m considering writing one right now, but time is an issue. It’s a very important topic, however. The best I can do for the expat community is comment on personal investing from time to time.
The other problem with writing about expat investing is that the issue of taxes is always present. But because taxes are different from country to country, it is virtually impossible to write a book that takes them into account for every expat situation and nationality. Instead, you can only write generally on the topic.
I’ll discuss more about this in a future blog post. For now, take a look at Mike’s blog, and use it as as a well written reference for how to invest and save for the future.
