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Messages - andre

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1
Shares / Re: Shifting ZAR to $
« on: March 29, 2020, 01:52:49 pm »
No easy answer.  Things seem to change quickly nowadays.
I moved ZAR to USD asap this year but still lost 15% in the process (measured YTD) - right now it would be closer to 25%
It's hard to say if ZAR will bounce back at some point but you still have to weigh up the potential recovery vs opportunity to buy into the market close to a bottom?
Personally I'm holding on to USD for now and will phase in some buys (20-30% at a time) over the next 4-6 weeks.
I guess it will still depend on what we see in the USA over the next 14 days...

2
Off topic / Re: Preparation for an Offshore Relocation
« on: February 04, 2020, 09:20:03 am »
Sounds a lot like our own (ongoing) journey. I'm very interested in how others are thinking and their progress.
Just about 2 years ago my wife and I stopped working and kicked off the process of full-time nomad life.
What I have learned thus far is that you should never make any assumptions as to how things will turn out and to prepare yourself for every curve-ball imaginable.

3
Shares / Re: Going offshore
« on: January 26, 2019, 11:00:13 am »
Quote
What kind of costs would I be looking at if I wanted to fund an account with, say, the USD equivalent of R2000 monthly?

Here's your biggest challenge. You have no way of transferring such a low amount cost-effectively - most FX options really only make sense over R100k
Swift will have a spread of 3-4% and along with the fee could eat as much as 10% off your R2k. Apart from that Interactive Brokers will charge you $10 per month (minus what you spend on commission) until your portfolio reaches $100k

Besides, the obvious question would be why do you want to invest directly in foreign currency? You could easily spend much more on fees than anticipated and unless you plan on eventually using USD/EUR directly it might be better to invest in low-cost ZAR based products which just gives you the global exposure. Something like the Satrix MSCI World ETF (0.33% TER) with Easy Equities .

4
Shares / Re: My retirement blog.
« on: October 29, 2018, 09:17:36 am »
arguably the best type of marriage  ;D

5
Shares / Re: Offshore broke4s
« on: September 28, 2018, 08:53:43 pm »
About a year ago I sent a mail to Just ONe Lap regarding this https://justonelap.com/community-post-buying-etfs-offshore/
Note that De Giro allows the first trade executed in an ETF of the "Free ETF Selection" free of charge (every calendar month) regardless of size of trade.
You can, however, have more than one free trade in a month as long as the trade is in the same direction (i.e. buy) and for more than 1000 EUR

I'm also still feeling my way around the pitfalls of direct offshore and still need to figure out the will issue - but from what I understand you do need a will in the domicile country of the broker - where your trading account is held?


6
Shares / Re: Investing in US Stocks?
« on: August 02, 2018, 07:09:17 pm »
Quote from: gto52 on August 02, 2018, 04:31:40 pm
Also just thinking about dividends tax say I managed to register with DeGiro with Irish passport.
Ireland I see also has a tax treaty with the US like SA, how would that effect my tax situation?
Would I have to pay tax in Ireland?

As long as you have a forwarding address in any of the supported EU countries (Euro based) you can open an N26 bank account with your SA passport
Once you have the N26 account created you can open a DeGiro account. (Send me a PM if you want referral links to either.)
Make sure you understand what a custody account is and choose accordingly.

As long as you are considered 'ordinarily resident' in SA you will be taxed in SA.
Dividend Withholding Tax will be deducted by the broker before it hits your trading account - depending on your SA tax rate there is a potential to get a slight rebate when you declare it to SARS. If the product/share you sell is domiciled in Ireland then CGT will be collected by SARS when declared - if it's not done by Ireland already. Make sure you have a will in place to deal with offshore assets.

Dont consider the above as complete information on the matter of tax without following your own due diligence - I'm no expert and only offer my opinion



7
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: July 10, 2018, 03:12:59 pm »
It will take a year or two for the tax situation to become clear. I was still employed until May so mostly standard tax for this year. For the following year things should be more interesting as until now I've never sold equity or drawn much interest on cash or savings.
The strategy is to take advantage of the upcoming lower tax bracket we'll fall in from this/next year and share the burden between us as best as possible. Relatively speaking we'll each become 'low-income' earners for at least the first few years or so there should be no other tax implications that just rental income, interest and DWT. The challenge will be to leverage the foreign DWT to lower local income tax a bit.
I don't foresee the need to sell off equity for a while but this might change once we've made the complete transition to nomads.
Will keep you guys posted though.  :TU:

8
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: June 27, 2018, 06:50:40 pm »
Quote from: Nivek on June 27, 2018, 05:27:00 pm
Quote from: andre on June 27, 2018, 12:50:15 pm
Suddenly those RSA retail bonds at 8.5% doesnt look too bad  ;D But that would mean accepting the low-risk option and market FOMO. 
With the currency swings and you living offshore it might not actually be low risk...

Exactly! We spend Euro / USD and just the inflation differential could mean 2% p.a. against ZAR



9
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: June 27, 2018, 01:12:28 pm »
One thing that plagues me is my desire to move money offshore. This dampens my enthusiasm for being too invested in ZAR land.
However the moment we move money into another currency it pretty much HAS to go into equity to have any chance of growing..

10
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: June 27, 2018, 12:50:15 pm »
Interesting times indeed. That said, if we always wait for the perfect moment we might just wait forever?
For us, this is as much a lifestyle choice as it is a financial choice. We need to make the absolute best of at least the next 10 years - and the time is now. Not later.

But yes. There might be a continuation of sideways market action and I guess an expectation of closer to 7-8% is more realistic right now. Who knows how things will look in 10 years from now. Fortunately (for us) it's not an all or nothing approach and we can evaluate our position every few years and if need be even hit the grindstone again for a while. But that's far from a first choice...

To be honest, right now I'm not too certain on the best course of action ito investments. We have some property liquidating this year and it's a frightening prospect to lose a chunk of the capital right away if we dump it in equity.  :o What's the 'safest' route for the next 5 years? Suddenly those RSA retail bonds at 8.5% doesnt look too bad  ;D But that would mean accepting the low-risk option and market FOMO. 
I'm thinking that it would be best to find a balance somewhere in the middle of Bonds, REIT's and Equity. I'd probably stick to a low-cost offshore world based ETF for Equity and look at Bond and REIT options in ZAR. We'll keep the property we have left for the next 5 years at least.

I'm all ears for any advice though  ;D


11
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: June 24, 2018, 10:45:26 pm »
What pushed it forward? I blame Steinhoff   :D Partly tongue in cheek but my wife had some involvement in property development with them and that ground to a halt. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  8)
Many balls in the air at the moment and although we're traveling full time right now we have to finalize some property sales and find a sustainable way to manage the remaining issues. We'll be back in CT in October for a few months to wrap up a few things and at least enjoy a bit of Cape summer before heading off early next year - for what would probably be indefinite.

12
Shares / Re: Investment Strategies for Nomads
« on: June 21, 2018, 10:34:18 pm »
It's been quite a while since I've posted here or even visited the forum..
We were planning to have a short holiday in Italy this year to attend a family wedding but in the 2nd week of January things changed radically.  ;D
Our schedule got pushed forward rapidly and ended with me quitting my job effective end May. My wife ended all projects at the same time and we took off from 1 June - starting our nomadic journey.
The last few months was 'interesting' and although we put a few properties on the market we actually bought one as well - go figure  ;D
Hopefully, things will start to settle down and we will figure out how (and if) the puzzle fit .  ;D

13
Shares / Re: My 15 minutes of fame
« on: June 21, 2018, 10:18:34 pm »
Pity you didnt get a bit more time  :TU:

14
Off topic / Re: Transferring money overseas, any tips?
« on: June 21, 2018, 10:08:45 pm »
If you have a postal address in any EU country then you should be able to create an N26 account using your SA details. You don't need to be a resident and they will use your SA tax details and SA passport for verification. But you must have an EU address available to receive the associated Mastercard.
The basic account has no fees and I have funded my N26 multiple times with discretionary allowance from SA. From there I fund my DeGiro trading account and have set up the same for my wife.
If you want to give it a go send me your email address and I will send you an invite link.

15
Shares / Re: TFSA
« on: February 21, 2018, 05:26:11 pm »
Although anticipated it seems there is no change to the annual limit or being able to transfer to another fund (yet).

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