Successful Investment Abroad

G

Glenbhoy

Registered User
Messages
435
Hi all,

I have read many posts by persons wishing to invest abroad. I wonder would anyone like to share their success (or otherwise) stories with us.
Basically, I would appreciate knowing:
1. Year of purchase
2. Location
3. Price
4. Problems - local taxes, hidden costs.....
5. Profits (realised or paper).

I would be particlarly interested in stories relating to Bulgaria, Budapest and Turkey.
 
Good question Glenbhoy. It's surprising (perhaps ominous?) that there have not been any answers in the 9 or so hours since you posted the thread. I was hoping to hear some success stories. Have you invested in any of these countries yourself?
 
I have'nt actually, but I know a few people who have been toying with the idea. Personally, I'm too busy trying to scrape up my pension and preliminary tax (got married earlier this year too) to have any money to invest anywhere:D
 
I purchased a property off plan in portugal 2 years ago.
I put down 43,500 deposit and sold recently with profit of 22,500(after tax)

I was strongly advised not to by (virtually)everyone on this site when I did it 2 years ago. but did my research and am happy with the results.
Would i do it again? not so sure. Buying off plan isnt as easy as I thought.
Getting in is easy peasy. Getting out not so.

Am amazed by friends who talk of buying property in France. When I discuss getting out of the property they look at me like I have 2 heads.
 
Glenbhoy said:
I have read many posts by persons wishing to invest abroad.
Click to expand...
I've received a good return over the past decade or so from shares in companies based abroad bought through unit linked funds that I invested in if that's of any use.
 
nopotatos said:
I was strongly advised not to by (virtually)everyone on this site when I did it 2 years ago. but did my research and am happy with the results.
Click to expand...
Are you sure that you were advised not to or was it more a case of people pointing out possible risk, pitfalls, alternatives etc.? I have rarely seen people here rule anything (other than obvious scams) out unequivocally but rather most try to tease out the issues in a bid to test the hypothesis that a particular investment opportunity might be viable and the most suitable one for a particular individual. This can involve an element of Devil's Advocacy but this does not necessarily mean that people are advising others not to do something.
 
Nopotatos,

What sort of issues did you encounter in your buy and sell in Portugal ?

I would be very interested to hear about your experiences as I am at the initial stages of considering a similar transaction. I have an opportunity to buy an apartment pre public launch at an alleged 10% discount to the initial launch price. I would be looking to make a quick turn and sell asap if possible so your experiences on selling Portugal would be very much appreciated.
 
Clubman,
I dont wish to start a debate on the whole issue, becuase i have read so many of them i find it tiresome. however i found the tone quite negative in general when sounding out investment ideas. i appreciate devils advocacy and it made me think twice about buying in Portugal. Nearly all posts pointed out the negative, not one suggested it may be an okay idea, which it was. My point, devils advocacy is super but it should be evenly weighed with encouragement. IMHO most people on this site are beginners and need advice which is mixed with both caution and encouragement in equal measures.

EFM,
i bought from Oceanico, The purchasing side of things was easy. they were helpfull and the process went relatively smoothly. It was one of their first developments (in Luz) which is a superb development. The only issues i had with them was when selling time came, I was made to feel like an annoyance. They got a little snotty towards the end and the process dragged out over the last 6 months. Glad to say I received the money, although I dont think I would deal with them again. I was at their new prelaunch with 10% discounts about 5 months ago in Dublin, couldnt believe both the prices and the demand. let me know if their is anything further I can help you with.

also with reagrd to flipping. the charges for selling are quite high. I have been told that setting up your own website and linking it to the developers and advertising yourself can be just as effective. Sounds like a lot of work but they charge over 5% to sell which is alot. e.g. 400,000 5% = 20,000.
 
No problem - but remember past performance is no guide to future returns. Well, for example - the following invested in January 2004:


  • Smart Stocks 15 fund +5.16%
  • Gilt +11.43%
  • EuroSTOXX 50 +16.58%
  • S&P 500 +9.48%
  • Nikkei 225 +14.74%
  • FTSE 100 +22.07%
  • NASDAQ +5.22%
Added to my Irish Equity Fund Series 8 +49.02% my overall gain on all funds is 19.94%. In fact the gains are even higher as the quoted prices do not reflect the preferential deal that I got on charges and the waiving of the year 1-5 early encashment charge.
 
Thanks that Clubman, looks very interesting.
may i ask how much of your overall investments have you put into BIAM?
 
Probably about 10% or less of my overall portfolio excluding property (PPR). Basically a similar proportion of my money that I used to put in things like An Post Savings Certs/Bonds when the guaranteed and tax fee returns were a lot better over the last decade or more (e.g. the last of a number of such investments matures next year paying 8.3% for the final year and yielding 164% in total over 16 years).
 
Is 164% the total return over 16 years? I'm reminded of that ad running on the radio at the moment where an 18 year investment was worth double what was invested. (Gasp!)

Have you done the math on the APR on that? I thought I was doing poorly with quadrupling my investment over 11 years. Maybe I'm being unrealistic.
 
extopia said:
Is 164% the total return over 16 years?
Click to expand...
Just to clarify the return is 164% so the encashment value is 264% the original amount invested. IR£2,000 (€2,539.48) originally invested in Savings Certificates in 1990 will be worth €6,470.59 at maturity next March. The original return was 40% over 5 years. Rolled over at the same rate (40% over 5 years) in 1995. Rolled over again in 2000 at 34.5% over 5.5 years. I haven't worked out the CAR (not APR?) but would be interested in knowing what it was. Anybody know how you work back from the end maturity value and term to get the CAR?

Have you done the math on the APR on that? I thought I was doing poorly with quadrupling my investment over 11 years. Maybe I'm being unrealistic.
Click to expand...
Maybe not. The above investment would probably be categorised as low risk/low return since the capital was guaranteed and the returns fixed but has probably outperformed in its class as far as I know. A reasonable comparison might be to a deposit account but not an equity investment over the same period. As ever there are few absolutes in this game. This was just one investment in a diversified portfolio. What do you invest in that you quadrupled your capital over 11 years - and which 11 years?
 
nopotatos said:
I dont wish to start a debate on the whole issue, becuase i have read so many of them i find it tiresome. however i found the tone quite negative in general when sounding out investment ideas. i appreciate devils advocacy and it made me think twice about buying in Portugal. Nearly all posts pointed out the negative, not one suggested it may be an okay idea, which it was. My point, devils advocacy is super but it should be evenly weighed with encouragement. IMHO most people on this site are beginners and need advice which is mixed with both caution and encouragement in equal measures.
Click to expand...
I missed this bit ... I'm not looking for a debate on the issue either but just some balance in the description of the feedback that you got. My view is that if people post asking for feedback/advice they should expect quite a lot of Devil's Advocacy and expect to supply the encouragement themselves once they have addressed the issues raised and determined that the investment opportunity is (a) suitable to their needs and (b) viable. My gut feeling (not being able to recall the specific thread in question) is that you probably got a lot of feedback pointing out potential issues/flaws in the plan but nobody told you that it was a crazy idea or anything like that. Nothing untoward there in my opinion. If people want a pat on the back and to be told that they're doing the right thing regardless of their situation or proposed investment strategy then AAM is probably the wrong place for them. By the way, I'm delighted to hear that your investment has worked out for you.
 
Thanks for that. But I'm a bit confused by that page and can't seem to find a "reverse" CAR calculator on it. Can you point me in the right direction please? :eek:
 
Are you seeing any of the calculators towards the end of that page? It's the third one down. If you enter the initial sum, the period, and the final sum it computes the CAR.
 
OK - not all of the calculators appear in FireFox and I had to temporarily switch to IE to see them. Thanks. And, as it happens the actual CAR is more like 6.02% (possibly a bit more as the investment term may be something like 15.5 rather than 16 years). I think you mistakenly used €2,000 rather than IR£2,000 (€2539.48) as the initial investment amount.
 
By the way - that page is very useful and interesting so I have added it to the compilation of useful links thread. Also - the calculators are actually Javascript and not Java based and don't appear in FireFox because the HTML source of the page is malformed (comment block around script code extends into some of the HTML before being closed too late) but IE tolerates this. I've uploaded a corrected cleaned up version of the page here and will send it on to the original site/page owner.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top