Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Manner of Speaking]

I want to try to start socking away a lot of money for the future...either for grad school or ("shudder") retirement. I can easily save 65 - 70% of my monthly income here in Korea, but where can I put my money here that will earn around 10% annually?

[TECO]

are you canadian?

if so, you might want to talk to Mellon Trust and open up some DRIP accounts.

I started about 3 years ago and opened up a DRIP with CIBC and BC. GAS (now called Teresan).

I can purchase stock commission free and they take the dividends and use them to purchase more shares when dividends are called two or three times a year.

Kind of like a compounding effect.

More DRIPS are vailable in the States like Ford and some big pharmaceutical companies.

Creating your own mutual fund, in a way.

[chronicpride]

Hate to sound all broker-esque, but you should take a risk tolerance test, and that will give you a clearer picture of what your recommended asset allocation should be like. Also, establish a time horizon. When do you want to pull this money out of your investment vehicles?

Equities markets look to be steady for this year, particular in emerging markets like Taiwan and India, and have reasonable valuations (stock price is realistic to the company's earnings, and is in a comfortable position for growth).

If you are fairly risk tolerant, but patient enough to not read too much into the week-to-week, month-to-month price volatility of your holdings, I'd recommend putting 60% of your assets into aggressive growth areas like tech and biotech. Balance the rest out with steady growth like consumer goods and pharmaceuticals. If you are a little more conservative, then reduce the aggressive growth a bit and add more blue chips that pay out dividends.

If you are serious about this and want to do it yourself, I'd highly recommend subscribing to Value Line, as their stock analysis is top-notch and easy to follow. You may get a little intimidated by the technical analysis that they offer, but they do a good job of nut-shelling it in layman terms, too. They analyze 100s of stocks and they are very reliable and have very good rates of return on their recommended equities. The subscription is pricey, but is worth it, if you are serious about your investing. It'll be like having your own analyst department without having to pay big commission at a full-service brokerage. (Just a tip, but if you find a university in Seoul that has a big finance department with their own library, you are likely to find the monthly Value Line books in their research section, which you can print off for 10,000 won or so, in printing charges.)

Once you lay out your groundwork, I'd recommend going through Etrade or TDWaterhouse. You can review brokers further at
http://www.ndir.com/SI/brokers/discount.shtml
http://www.fool.com/dbc/tables/compare.htm?ref=60broker

These places are no-frills discount brokers. You do your own research and trade online yourself.

If you want to use a discount broker that offers advice, I'd recommend going with Schwab, but you are going to pay extra. But not as much as having a full-service broker, which you don't need.

Hope this helps.

[John Henry]

This guy, James Cramer, really knows what he is doing. Might be a bit over your head at first if you've no financial background. might want to see if you can download one of his radio broadcasts.

www.thestreet.com

[chronicpride]

[Manner of Speaking]

Thanks guys!

[gmat]

Good advice by Chronic, however if you want a discount broker with no advice choose Interactive Brokers (www.interactivebrokers.com) as it is much cheaper than Etrade or TDWaterhouse.

If you want to earn more than 10% per year with part of your savings, PM me for a suggestion.