rjb123 automated robo ETF investing is going to be launched in Singapore.

Smartly - June 2017
Stashaway - 2017

Yup only for american. That's why need ask brokers whether they accept international client or not.

TD ameritrade for US citizen.
TD ameritrade.sg for asian (less choices) There are other cheaper options. TD ameritrade is overated.

Interactive brokers is for those who do frequent trading. If you are the buy and hold type, look elsewhere. There are other better US brokers.

Got so many. Have your pick.
Options house, Charles Schwab international, 8 securities

Robo advisor help you to buy, sell allocate the etf basically auto mode. You don't need to do amything other than give them money + pay them small % of fees a year
US based ETF, is you yourself manually decide which one you want to buy, how many % you want, when to sell.

If you are a programmer, you can create your own algorithm to automate the process of buying and selling those ETF without paying any fees except electricity bill. That's your very own DIY robo advisor. Robo advisor is just fancy name for program which help you to decide what to buy, how much to hold, when to sell, how much to sell. Nothing more

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 27 2017, 12:24 PM

Now you are catching on.

Better returns in terms of what? Beat the market? No. ETF investing means you are getting market performance/average performance. You won't be able to outperform the market. But you won't underperform the market either.

You will underperform slightly (due to all the fees).

While waiting for his reply,

WBEN8 won't exclude you from the dividend 30% tax. Why? Malaysia does not have tax treaty with the US to let you claim back the tax. However, Ireland have 15% tax treaty with the US. That's why if you read the first page of this thread + turtle investor page, both said invest in Ireland domicile ETF which invest in the US so your dividend tax is only 15% instead of 30%.

You cannot escape the 30% dividend tax if you invest in the US. The only way around is find a country with tax treaty with the US and invest via that country.

CGT means if the price increase, you sell it off for profit, that's where CGT comes into play. CGT is only for US citizen. Hence the WBEN8 is telling the IRAS that you are not US citizen. So the CGT doesn't apply on you.

rjb123, correct me if I am wrong.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 27 2017, 05:07 PM

Who say cannot run away? Buy those irish ETF which invest in US. 15% tax.

You only sacrifice liquidity a little vs going with 100% pure US. Liquidity is nothing if you are buy and hold person.

When you are going with ETF, you are trying to minimize cost and get market return. Paying extra for tax means increasing your cost whch means less money inside your pocket.

Why should you pay US govt extra 15%?
- Too rich?
- Feeling generous?
- US is your grandfather?
- Are you using any US social stuff?

That 15% you pay to the US govt can be channelled back into the ETF further increasing the amount of your dividend by extra 15%. Overtime, compounding will work it's magic.

If I invest in ETF, sorry. I won't pay them extra. The extra I keep.

For every USD100k you invest, assuming dividend is 3%, you are entitle to USD3000.

30% tax = USD2100
15% tax = USD2552

If USD450 savings is nothing to you, be my guest and donate it to the US govt. US govt says thank you.

Of course. Eg. Malaysian can invest in Canada but their WTH is 25%. Because Canada have tax treaty with us, we actually pay 15% (although I have no idea how to go about it. I am doing my homework on this).

That's why investors are taking advantage of of tax treaty to reduce their tax. This is particularly true for those foreigners who follow Boglehead forum

Depend on how you look at it.
- Trader = no brainer to choose US based ETF
- Dividend investor/boglehead investor = choose ETF which need to pay less tax.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 27 2017, 11:40 PM

FATCA only affect US citizen/pseudo US citiizen (those born in the US) but not those working in the US.

I could be wrong. These are bits and pieces of what I pick up from blogs & articles.

FATCA was created so that some rich americans who park their money overseas will be force to declare and eventually bring back the money to stimulate economy after 2008.

This is because of all a sudden banks all around the world are closing down anything to do with US citizen accounts. With no place to put their money, it's hope that they will bring back the money (since no country want anything to do wtih FATCA - expensive to maintain a US citizen account with FATCA in force).

In the crossfire, those who born in the US but never stayed in the US at all are recognised as US citizens

I never read about anybody who work in US kena FATCA before.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 28 2017, 08:55 PM

1. Why do you want to apply for US ITIN? Do you get any benefits? CPT? We as foreigners don't have. DWT? 30%. Cannot run unless Malaysia suddenly have tax treaty.
2. By answering even one yes, require more scrutiny on you and most likely the financial institution will deny you. (more work for them so they just deny you to make their life easier)
3. Opening a US ITIN means opening yourself up to IRS and IRS have wide arms. Better I keep myself out of IRS way and pay the full 30% when they have wide reaching arms.

Now tell me again why do you need a US ITIN again? Too much free time

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 29 2017, 09:41 AM

No problem. Limit depends on whether you use online or counter. If online than RM30k. If counter, then it's unlimited.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Sep 28 2017, 01:47 PM

If you are dividend investing using ETF, best to pick Ireland domiciled ETF which track US index. That way, your tax is now 15% instead of 30%.

More info can be found on first page and http://www.turtleinvestor.net/get-to-know-...ithholding-tax/

Stashaway uses only US ETF for increase liquidity.

All SG brokers charge dividend fees + maintenance fees if you buy foreign stocks/ETF except standard chartered.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 20 2017, 10:35 AM

Interactive broker. Beware of inactivity fee of USD10/month if you have less than USD100k with them/your monthly commision does not exceed USD10.

For US ETF can consider buying from the following broker:
- Charles Schwab
- 8 securities

For global, best choice is IB.

Er, his previous post was about buying US ETFs. And most SG brokers charge that. The ones you mentioned are US brokers which are based in SG. So they are not exactly SG brokers. They are more like branch.

Actually most brokers are already doing that. The only one not doing are Maybank, SCB, FSM, IB.

If SGX introduce that, they can say further goodbye to their customers as more people will move to HKSE.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 20 2017, 01:54 PM

It's a broker registered with Hong Kong SFC.