Should You Invest While Living Abroad? As an Expat, especially if you are a Western Expat general assumptions will be made about your wealth. Specifically that you have lots of discretionary income. Move to any Expat Enclave – Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Paris, etc, and you will find yourselves surrounded by “financial advisors” who want to help you manage your money while you are living abroad. Before signing on with one of these Financial Advisors, to decide if you should invest Abroad, here are a few questions to ask yourself and the Financial Advisor:⠀
1. What financial results are you trying to obtain? Is this compatible with your current financial goals and investment strategy?⠀
2. Are you comfortable putting your money into a foreign country that has different, maybe even less regulation than your home country? ⠀
3. What professional designations, qualifications, and certifications does the financial advisor have? ⠀
4. What percentage of their client base are U.S. citizens? Do they have an understanding and significant experience in dealing with the nuances of U.S. citizens and their foreign investments and the specific tax treatments? ⠀
5. What types of investments do they usually put foreign nationals into? and why? In many countries, foreign nationals and non – permanent residents are not allowed to invest in the local stock market. ⠀
6. Will you be able to exit these investments when you need to or before the scheduled date, and what are the penalties, if any, for doing so?