Hi everyone,
I’m a digital nomad from Europe and considering going PT.
One of the things that I’d like to make sure off is to put money aside while traveling and to also explore investment opportunities internationally. Especially when reading blogs like nomadcapitalist.com it appears to be financially interesting to spread out your investments geographically, but little practical advice is offered where to start. For reference, so far I played around with mostly P2P platforms such as Bondora or Mintos, with good experiences so far (Disclaimer, the links before are referrals links here are the non referral links Bondora and Mintos which you could obviously use as well, just added the other ones in case someone genuinely heard of these platforms for the first time here).
I would be very interested to hear what other digital nomads and PTs are using as investment vehicles and where.
Cheers!
Lukas
I would also be very interested in that answer.
Since when I buy stocks or similar over my swiss bank account (I’m swiss, not rich…) they charge me the withholding tax of 35%, which I can’t reclaim, since I’m not resident of Switzerland (or anywhere else). The same problem with my German bank account.
So I would be interested in an investment platform which doesn’t directly charge me any taxes and doesn’t want any proofs of residence (I do have an address in Switzerland where I can receive mail).
Really depends on your risk appetite and the available cash you have on hand.
Any individual should be diversified to have various degrees of income. Apart from your main source of income, whatever that maybe.
There is active & passive.
- Property investments
- Private Equity (“less” risk vs VS, and more stable returns)
- Venture Capital (more risky, higher returns / or complete loss)
- You can actively trade for yourself, stocks, options and forex.
- Or get someone to trade for you.
- As mentioned in the OP P2P
- Hold “hard assets” such as precious metals.
- Or just get someone credible to manage your spare cash.
And after all of this, it will depend on your risk appetite, as mentioned earlier.
First of all, you (had better) invest yourself, should be smart and healthy, read books and know the stupid history of human being like war, dictator, religion, nation etc.
Investment is not a job. If you spend your life in economic crisis, you get tired and loooose your money and life like LTCM.
All you need is KISS, “Keep it simple, stupid!” like Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett.
Investment is not a science nor math nor academy, simply buying equity that company works for you day and night all over the world.
Good company gives you share 
of cash flow 
. For example, Amazon ipo at $18, split to 60 and reached to $2000, so that gave 59 shares of $2000 with a share of profit $1982 (6,666%).
You have to do nothing except click and this is the only way to beat over not only professionals also inflation by earning maximum capital gain and minimizing investment fee. That’s the true low risk high return investment.
For stocks I like Onvista.de, it’s cheap and have not had any issues.
If you are living abroad (not in Germany) they do not deduct taxes:
Steuer für Bewohner außerhalb Deutschland
Bitte beachten Sie, dass die onvista bank als deutscher Onlinebroker die Steuern für die im Ausland ansässigen Depotinhaber nicht abführt. Sofern Sie außerhalb Deutschlands steuerpflichtig sind, müssen Sie für die Abführung der Steuer im Rahmen der Steuererklärung selbst Sorge tragen.
None German (cheap online) brokers (Saxo, degiro)…
For invesing in the US there is Charles Schwab International, they also should not deduct taxes
Thanks for the platform tipps which do not deduct taxes, I’ll take a look at them 
What about robo invest EFTmatic? Any experience with that?
Lukas as to what you specifically invest in, it’s a very personal choice.
I have a very conservative portfolio, composing of bond ETFs, REITS and index ETFs. The sole purpose of this fund is to be highly passive, relatively stable income. As a result, returns aren’t as huge as they could be, but that’s the price I pay for being passive.
I have then taken a view that I should invest in what I know - websites, or “internet real estate” if you will. This is higher risk, higher returns and much more active income.
This is all personal preference up until now but as others have touched on, taxes and fees are a major concern. Almost everything you read online is about US investors, which isn’t suitable for us nomads as a “low cost index fund” that see 30% of it’s dividends taken in taxes when sent to a non-resident.
What made my journey a lot easier was thinking of myself as a resident of Singapore. I am not a resident of Singapore (I’m in Andorra), but if you read their guides on investing and the products available to you, you’ll realise that many Singaporeans invest in UK domiciled funds, which have a 0% dividend withholding tax. There are other regions as well (this is just an example)…
If you’re planning to invest in more traditional assets, I suggest checking out some Singapore money blogs and FIRE stuff. It is quite insightful.
My portfolio is quite similar to @jase’s (very passive), except I’m more heavily invested in equities (broad global index ETFs).
@Casio since you’re from Europe, you might find this site useful when reading up on index funds: https://indexfundinvestor.eu/
EDIT: Now that I’ve published my article on the topic, I’d recommend that you check it out as well: The Ultimate Retirement Savings Guide for Expats & Nomads | Nomad Gate
Eu investi na Uber e tenho um rendimento médio de 8% pagos semanalmente com um investimento de 15000€
I love nomad capitalist as well. I would start with the right structure first.
Setting up a trust for instance (get advice from a good tax expert) which (or another entity from the trust like family limited partnership) would hold your assets like brokerage account, real estate…
Then consider your risk profile and your asset allocation. There is a lot of information about the right asset allocation. (Stock market, real estate, commodities)
The question then is how to start with which investment type…
It depends on a lot of factors… But having an asset type where you have a huge reward chance is important to start boosting your wealth building efforts. Maybe having something between 10 to 25% of your portfolio in such an asset type can be interesting.
And of course have a good portion of your portfolio in safe assets: life insurance and some funds …dimensional funds, Vanguard.
Considering Bondora… and the worst case scenario, what happens when the platform is going bankrupt.
Is everything lost or is there any protection ?
Hope that helps.
Yes this is something not often discussed. You can have the best asset class in the world, but what’s your actual ownership rights and the “platform risk”?
How did you get started with bank account etc as a non-resident of Singapore?
Hi Michael, I should be clear here: banking or using a brokerage in Singapore is not required.
In fact, when it comes to investing, UK/Ireland is often great, Hong Kong is good as well (along with Singapore).
I found this blog helpful back when I was researching… VWRD FAQ on Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF - Turtle Investor
Take note: both of the index funds he discusses are not in Singapore. And yet they are some of the more commonly purchased funds by Singaporeans (as you’ll find, the US based one is not as good as the UK based one).
Hope that helps.
Thank you!
Hi David, you mentioned private equity in your post, but how would someone get access to private equity funds without being a high networth individual? They’re usually reserved no?
I’ve tried out a robo investor for ETFs (ginmon) and so far it seems easy enough. Although I’m currently in the negatives due to bad timing.
Hello, I manage Forex daily with a nice daily return. Every 10 days I take my interest. Manage 10 customers in my portfolio. I have several options for investing. The ideal solution for a good life
It really depends what you are seeking? Cashflow, safety? Growth, high risk, low risk. How much capital you have?
Stocks: I believe for most simply put into a Vangard index fund and forget about it for 10+ years.
Property: I am not a lover of. Too much hassel in my opinion
Bonds: Can be great…but do you D.D. on the company behind them
My favourite is investing in companies that go public. That offers the best risk/reward ratio
Gold - Isn’t really an investment more of safe diversification.
Private equity: High risk/High reward - again do you D.D.
I’d say 95%+ of the “exotic” investments, teak plants, bank instruments, horses, cars, etc…are only ways to lose money
NEVER trade. Trading is gambling.