Should
I open a brokerage account for investment?
Can I open one from
overseas?
Stock
brokers? Who needs them anymore? Everything is done
online.
If you think
you might want to invest in stocks, mutual funds and/or
bonds with your savings from working overseas - open a
brokerage account before you go.
Look on the
Internet for a good company. Almost everything can be
done online once you have the account set up.
It is
usually much easier to do it before you go. Once
overseas, it is usually difficult to open a brokerage
account. You will be the square peg that doesn't fit
into the round hole. Many financial regulations are
based on WHERE YOU LIVE and where the brokerage company
is based. And, while you might not consider Japan or
Korea or Saudi Arabia to be your real "home" - brokers
will not know what to do with you - so they won't
typically do anything. This will still be true
even if you pay property taxes, vote and even own a home
"back home".
Managing your
investments online
Get it done
before you go - and sort out any and all the problems of
using the account online while you are still in the same
time zone as the "help" or support people.
Most
brokerages (and banks and credit card companies) these
days have "paperless" transactions and statements. This
is where your statements are sent to you via e-mail, or
you can download them from the Internet. This avoids
having your family swamped with mail. It also avoids
the problem of having them decide what should be mailed
to you - and what isn't really needed and should just be
thrown in the trash.
Get online
with your bank too
Arrange your
brokerage account to be interconnected with your bank.
Most brokerage accounts - and most banks - will allow
you to set up back and forth movement of your funds.
Then you can do it all online - and you won't have to
make those 3AM phone calls to the brokerage - during
their business hours.
Caveat:
These are only my opinions, I am not a financial
consultant - but I do have online brokerage and banking
accounts. And things are a WHOLE lot easier now
then 15 years ago during the Internet Ice Age . . .
