RetireJapan

Hello

From my understanding, as a non-Japanese, if I will need to leave Japan I will have to sell my portfolio which can come during bad times and cause loss.
So, I'm looking for a way to invest from different location, prefer Vanguard, can I invest with Vanguard without living in the same country?
Or, if you have a better idea, please share it with me.

Thanks

It may depend on where you are leaving to--will a vanguard account be accessible there. (Are you a US citizen? That also makes a big difference.)

I don't think even US persons can set up a new vanguard account from japan, IB is good (interactive brokers), and is usually recommended for US citizens. IB also serves quite a few other countries besides japan with no issues, so there is that, too.

I don't think investing in Vanguard from Japan outside of Japanese brokers is practical for a non-US citizen, because you will pay 30% US withholding tax, if I understand correctly, or at least have to do additional paperwork to get it down to the 10% that applies for residents of Japan. Maybe the Irish domiciled funds are better, but I'm not sure about brokers that offer those to residents of Japan.

There is definitely a risk of being out of the market for a few weeks if closing your brokerage account. But the market tends to drop quickly and rise slowly. So considering you will be re-purchasing the funds again in your new country, it might not be too bad. If there *is* a sudden movement, it's more likely to be down rather than up, which would actually benefit you. However missing out on even a small rise could be quite a loss if you're talking about your whole portfolio. I would certainly find the process stressful. I wonder if there are clever ways to mitigate the risk. For example: prepare some funds in advance, then migrate your portfolio in batches: making equivalent sell orders in Japan and purchase orders in the new country, thus minimising time out of the market. Of course there's a catch-22 there because you need a brokerage account in both countries.

captainspoke wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 3:14 am It may depend on where you are leaving to--will a vanguard account be accessible there. (Are you a US citizen? That also makes a big difference.)

I don't think even US persons can set up a new vanguard account from japan, IB is good (interactive brokers), and is usually recommended for US citizens. IB also serves quite a few other countries besides japan with no issues, so there is that, too.

Thank you, no, I'm not a US citizen.