How to invest as an expat if you do not know where you will eventually settle What is the best money investment in India for an expat?

How to invest as an expat if you do not know where you will eventually settle What is the best money investment in India for an expat? 

If you are living in India, or most other countries, the facts aren’t different.

You want

1. Portability. Regardless of whether you are Canadian, British, Japanese, Korean or America, you will probably leave India. You might even move to five or ten countries if you become a “career expat”. This means your investments need to “move with you” when you move. The last thing you want is for your investment account to be closed down if you move
2. Globally relevant. Many people get in the habit of “familiarity bias”. In other words, they would never consider investing in Indian property in their home country. Then they see some people make money in it and think it is the way to go! Another example of this is “home country bias”. People are more likely to invest in their home country even if it doesn’t make rational sense:

3. Tax-efficient. For Americans that often means investing back home, but for most other expats it isn’t efficient to send money back. Not only that, but many tax authorities, like HMRC in the UK, could consider you to be tax-resident in the UK if you have many “ties” (businesses, real estate, investing accounts etc) back home. The days of the “91 day rule” of automatic residency are long gone

4. Long-term. Investing in ETFs like the S&P500 can be great, if you are long-term and diversified.

5. Emotionless. Or at least close to emotionless. The biggest reasons clients get better returns investing through advisors isn’t technical knowledge. It is emotional support as Vanguard has shown -Putting a value on your value: Quantifying advisor's alpha. People who DIY need to have almost robotic-like reactions to events like 9/11, 2008 and 2020. Most people can’t deal with the ups and downs of the market, especially if the media is screaming about it, without a bit of help.

So, the bottom line is, good investing as an expat in India shouldn’t be any different to China, Greece or any other country apart from maybe the United States which makes overseas investments very tax-efficient for most people.

The same applies to Indian expats living overseas as well - non-resident Indians (NRIs).

Some Reading

• How to become rich by investing
• To Humanize The Securities Markets As Rational Is a Mistake
• Investing as an expat; how to invest from overseas in 2019
• The best way to handle your investments during times of uncertainty