monex tokutei

[ChapInTokyo]

So for English speakers, investing at a non-Japanese broker has much to recommend it. It’s not just for Americans living here imho.

Maybe. I think it's a bit niche though. Hassle to transfer money, much more complex tax reporting, exchange rates, no access to NISA/iDeCo.

Unless someone can't use Japanese at all, or plans to leave Japan in the short to medium term, or wants to do more active investing, I don't see much appeal.

If you want to invest in US stocks and ETFs, you need to do kakutei shinkoku to take advantage of foreign tax credits. This is so regardless of whether you're at a Japanese broker or at a US online broker. Obviously, there is no NISA/iDeco but for taxable accounts, the free trading, the free DRIP automatic reinvestment of dividends - even if the dividends are less than the price of a single share - make it pretty compelling choice for a long term investor.

Monex does have a kind of automatic dividend re-investment, but they specifically state on their site that this is not DRIP and so you'll get charged the regular fee for the transaction and also you can't re-invest into fractional shares either so pretty useless imho.

配当金再投資サービスとはどのようなサービスですか？
https://faq.monex.co.jp/faq/show/7682?c ... in=default

I think that most people in Japan invest at places like Firstrade because of the lower fees and the DRIP and of course the larger selection of ETFs. Probably not much use if you are happy with going all in on eMaxis Slim All Country, but for someone who want to have compounding returns for shares and ETFs and of course lower fees than mutual funds, it's a pretty attractive choice.

To be clear, I do buy 'whole haystack' index funds in NISA/iDeco at Monex, but at the same time I have ETFs and closed end funds not available in Japan at Firstrade (dividends automatically DRIP re-invested), and am now buying isome ndividual Japanese stocks at SBI where Japanese stocks trade for free. Different tools for different ends.

[RetireJapan]

Probably not much use if you are happy with going all in on eMaxis Slim All Country

I would say 90%+ of the people I talk to would be in that group, which is why I think it is pretty niche. In fact, most people are probably going to have trouble filling one or two NISAs (for themselves and their spouse). And even if they did, they are likely better off paying 0.05% in fees for something like the All-Country fund in a tokutei account instead of 0.07% for VT in a US broker.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

Probably not much use if you are happy with going all in on eMaxis Slim All Country

I would say 90%+ of the people I talk to would be in that group, which is why I think it is pretty niche. In fact, most people are probably going to have trouble filling one or two NISAs (for themselves and their spouse). And even if they did, they are likely better off paying 0.05% in fees for something like the All-Country fund in a tokutei account instead of 0.07% for VT in a US broker.

Their is also currency spread, exchange fees and transfer fees. The cap closes to be about even for major index funds.

But again everyone is missing the context, OP is a complete beginner, these recommendations are simply not suitable.

Open, set, and forget is the most successful strategy for the overwhelming majority.

[ChapInTokyo]

I am of the opinion that a beginner should get informed about investments. After all it’s your own money and your own retirement. Surely that’s worth a bit more effort than going on an Internet forum and going by the advice of its members?

As for Ben’s observation about All Country at 0.05% ER versus VT at 0.07%, I did say that I have my “whole haystack” mutual fund at Monex and used Firstrade for US ETFs and closed end funds which are not available in Japan.

Diversification really is important.

I believe that even Jack Bogle was concerned about the growth of passive indexing wrecking corporate governance and I would say, by extension, market efficiency.

Investing Legend Jack Bogle Says There’s a Big Problem With Index Funds
https://money.com/jack-bogle-index-funds-problem/

As for the belief that AWCI will provide enough diversification, I think that other asset classes need to be looked at.

International Equities: Diversification and Its Discontents
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor ... scontents/

At the end of the day, I think that a well diversified portfolio is what we should be aiming for.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

I am of the opinion that a beginner should get informed about investments. After all it’s your own money and your own retirement. Surely that’s worth a bit more effort than going on an Internet forum and going by the advice of its members?

As for Ben’s observation about All Country at 0.05% ER versus VT at 0.07%, I did say that I have my “whole haystack” mutual fund at Monex and used Firstrade for US ETFs and closed end funds which are not available in Japan.

Diversification really is important.

I believe that even Jack Bogle was concerned about the growth of passive indexing wrecking corporate governance and I would say, by extension, market efficiency.

Investing Legend Jack Bogle Says There’s a Big Problem With Index Funds
https://money.com/jack-bogle-index-funds-problem/

As for the belief that AWCI will provide enough diversification, I think that other asset classes need to be looked at.

International Equities: Diversification and Its Discontents
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor ... scontents/

At the end of the day, I think that a well diversified portfolio is what we should be aiming for.

When it comes to equity investment diversity, I highly doubt any individual investors could replicate that offered by FTSE all cap/VT. Not without occuring unreasonable extra costs. Even MSCI ACWI exclusion of small caps matters little when compared to FTSE funds.

Other assets classes are well worth researching, but for most investors the data is fairly clear on the importance of equities for sustained long term growth.

The ESG stuff is another argument, most investors don't vote regardless. There are plenty of ESG funds out there, but most are simply fee traps.

As for selecting individual funds, sectors or stocks long term underperformance with this approach is basically statistically guaranteed. That data is very clear.

[Deep Blue]

As for selecting individual funds, sectors or stocks long term underperformance with this approach is basically statistically guaranteed. That data is very clear.

This is obviously incorrect. It’s perfectly possible to pick and mix and beat the index. Most won’t, and I’d recommend using low cost passive index funds for virtually everyone but to say you’re statistically guaranteed to underperform is patent nonsense.

Anyone simply investing in a S&P500 tracker for the last couple of decades would have beaten a world equity tracker for example.

It would be true to say everyone taking this approach aggregated together will underperform due to fees and lack of skill but within the set there will be folks who beat the benchmark… some through investment skill, some with dumb luck.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

As for selecting individual funds, sectors or stocks long term underperformance with this approach is basically statistically guaranteed. That data is very clear.

This is obviously incorrect. It’s perfectly possible to pick and mix and beat the index. Most won’t, and I’d recommend using low cost passive index funds for virtually everyone but to say you’re statistically guaranteed to underperform is patent nonsense.

Anyone simply investing in a S&P500 tracker for the last couple of decades would have beaten a world equity tracker for example.

It would be true to say everyone taking this approach aggregated together will underperform due to fees and lack of skill but within the set there will be folks who beat the benchmark… some through investment skill, some with dumb luck.

A study by S&P Dow Jones Indices has given them a report card for the last 5 years.

It examined how many of them managed to deliver an above-average performance each year over that period. Its conclusion is so bad as to be startling: not a single one of the 2,132 funds examined managed to do so.

....

That’s why the authors decided to relax the success criterion and look at how many funds managed to stay in the top half of performers during each of the 5 years examined. LESS THAN 1% of all funds managed to do so.

https://www.finax.eu/en/blog/how-many-a ... the-market
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/busi ... funds.html
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/spiva ... -scorecard

Arguments over which index to pick though will continue no doubt until the end of time. 50% of boglehead posts are essentially.
A. VT//VTI or VOO
B. Bonds or no bonds

[Deep Blue]

As for selecting individual funds, sectors or stocks long term underperformance with this approach is basically statistically guaranteed. That data is very clear.

This is obviously incorrect. It’s perfectly possible to pick and mix and beat the index. Most won’t, and I’d recommend using low cost passive index funds for virtually everyone but to say you’re statistically guaranteed to underperform is patent nonsense.

Anyone simply investing in a S&P500 tracker for the last couple of decades would have beaten a world equity tracker for example.

It would be true to say everyone taking this approach aggregated together will underperform due to fees and lack of skill but within the set there will be folks who beat the benchmark… some through investment skill, some with dumb luck.

A study by S&P Dow Jones Indices has given them a report card for the last 5 years.

It examined how many of them managed to deliver an above-average performance each year over that period. Its conclusion is so bad as to be startling: not a single one of the 2,132 funds examined managed to do so.

....

That’s why the authors decided to relax the success criterion and look at how many funds managed to stay in the top half of performers during each of the 5 years examined. LESS THAN 1% of all funds managed to do so.

https://www.finax.eu/en/blog/how-many-a ... the-market
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/busi ... funds.html
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/spiva ... -scorecard

Arguments over which index to pick though will continue no doubt until the end of time. 50% of boglehead posts are essentially.
A. VT//VTI or VOO
B. Bonds or no bonds

Not to be vulgar, but who gives a flying fuck if your fund outperforms every single year, or is above average for five years straight? Long term investors couldn't care less about either of these. The key thing is the total return of your investment, and equity investments should be for the long term - a bare minimum of ten years, not one or five. It is also disingenous to suggest that only active funds are under dicussion - it is perfectly possible to beat the eMaxi world return with passive products if you get the allocation right.

And anyway, we are not talking about a fund beating it's benchmark, we are talking about if it is possible for investors to outperform a passive world index tracker, something you claimed it basically statistically impossibe.

Simply buying an S&P500 passive tracker would have outperformed the eMaxi product.

It's just wrong to say it is impossible to beat a passive index - of course there are ways to do so. I don't recommend them and I don't try to do so myself but I am honest enough to say there are ways to do it and some people do - it's not impossible, just very difficult.

[RetireJapan]

And of course as an amateur investor I am not competing with any benchmarks, there are no performance reviews, and no one cares if I outperform an index. The only thing that matters is whether or not I end up with enough money to do what I wanted.

And the 80:20 version of that is to save as much as possible and stick it in a reasonable index fund. Most people are not even doing this.

Of course weird people who are interested in investing will do more than that, but I don't think it is good advice for the general public. I have small amounts of physical gold, cryptocurrency, narrower focus ETFs, meme stocks, individual Japanese stocks, etc but don't tend to mention that in public. They are a tiny % of our net worth and probably an unwise thing to do with my money

[sutebayashi]

I have small amounts of physical gold, cryptocurrency, narrower focus ETFs, meme stocks, individual Japanese stocks, etc but don't tend to mention that in public. They are a tiny % of our net worth and probably an unwise thing to do with my money

At least as far as the gold goes I think you are on to something