RetireJapan

Newbie here. I have a LOT of questions about investing but for now just a specific one, about TD Ameritrade.

I'm an American expat here in Japan. I have a U.S. Bank account with some funds I want to use for trading. I set up a TD Ameritrade account and used my parents' U.S. address, which is also my "home" address for similar things, like said bank account.

I was able to open up a Ameritrade account with no problem, and send a bit of my bank account funds there (next business day anyway). It was almost too smooth, actually, which is what's giving me pause. Are there any potential problems doing trades this way? Tax issues, for example?

There are quite a few reports to the effect that you can open a TDAmeritrade acct using an address in japan... But if it's open and functioning, then that's a great first step (and congratulations!). Some cautious advice would be to use it a while as you now have it set up, and then maybe a year or so from now switch your address to here.

I can't think of any problems offhand (I use a US acct, too). It's not a tax "issue", but just the standard thing--you'll have to do your tax reporting here 'by hand', so to speak. Doing that is actually pretty easy compared to doing US taxes. For that I buy turbotax, which costs some money, but it also really streamlines US reporting (you need the 'premier' version for investments, about $60-65 via US amazon).