£10k- how to invest

[Matt_Black]

I have some money sitting in my UK back account and not doing much work. I'd like to use £10k of it and invest.

I currently live and work here in Japan and have no plans to leave. I also max out all tax advantaged investment options and put some extra in my taxable Rakuten securities account.

The first thing that comes to mind is to leverage the cheap yen, move the money to Japan and put towards maxing out the new NISA. I am keen to hear if you have other ideas either in Japan or outside.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

It depends on your age, risk tolerance, and portfolio.

If you want to keep it in pounds, why not lock in a 4% risk-free return?

Or exchange it for yen and continue with your normal investment strategy.

https://markets.ft.com/data/bonds/tears ... y?s=UK10YG

[Beaglehound]

It depends on your age, risk tolerance, and portfolio.

If you want to keep it in pounds, why not lock in a 4% risk-free return?

Or exchange it for yen and continue with your normal investment strategy.

https://markets.ft.com/data/bonds/tears ... y?s=UK10YG

Is it easy to buy such gilts from Japan? How would one go about it? I have cash in a UK account paying ok interest for now but would like another option.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

It depends on your age, risk tolerance, and portfolio.

If you want to keep it in pounds, why not lock in a 4% risk-free return?

Or exchange it for yen and continue with your normal investment strategy.

https://markets.ft.com/data/bonds/tears ... y?s=UK10YG

Is it easy to buy such gilts from Japan? How would one go about it? I have cash in a UK account paying ok interest for now but would like another option.

If his bank will not let him buy Gilts, there should be a CD or something of similar yield available I would think. Depends on the bank I guess.

I have not seen UK bonds on any Japanese online brokers. American treasuries, Canadian, Italian, etc. but not UK.

There seems to be little to no demand. No UK market access here, maybe 1 or 2 FTSE100 ETFs? That is basically it.

[northSaver]

Is it easy to buy such gilts from Japan? How would one go about it? I have cash in a UK account paying ok interest for now but would like another option.

If you don't mind tying your money up for a year, Conister (Isle of Man) offer 1-year fixed term deposits that pay 5%. Very easy to set up an account as a UK citizen living in Japan.
https://www.conisterbank.co.im/savings/ ... e-savings/

I have not seen UK bonds on any Japanese online brokers. American treasuries, Canadian, Italian, etc. but not UK.

IBSJ offers VGOV (Vanguard UK Government Bonds) according to their ETF list.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

Is it easy to buy such gilts from Japan? How would one go about it? I have cash in a UK account paying ok interest for now but would like another option.

If you don't mind tying your money up for a year, Conister (Isle of Man) offer 1-year fixed term deposits that pay 5%. Very easy to set up an account as a UK citizen living in Japan.
https://www.conisterbank.co.im/savings/ ... e-savings/

I have not seen UK bonds on any Japanese online brokers. American treasuries, Canadian, Italian, etc. but not UK.

IBSJ offers VGOV (Vanguard UK Government Bonds) according to their ETF list.

I was checking through direct offerings not etfs. But when on the subject, have a look at this hideous offering with a massive 1.4% fee.
https://site0.sbisec.co.jp/marble/fund/ ... =118312155

[sutebayashi]

Putting this 10k GBP toward maxing out the 2024 NISA seems like the eminently sensible thing to do.

I find making money offshore to be annoying when it comes to paying tax, so if you want to make lots of money, doing it in Japan based accounts will keep the tax reporting easier. Just IMO. And NISA of course is tax free anyway. Fill her up.

In Japan, the other things I do with money are
- buy US dollar MMF - the interest is not bad, the tax rate is 20% I believe
- Gold tsumitate via my bank (never sold any yet so not sure how to report tax…)
- FX accounts - interest equivalent can be had, but the main attraction for me is to speculate on currencies and I do that here, away from my investments. Tax rate is again 20%
- Futures trading - same as FX but instead trading gold and platinum mini contracts in yen terms… getting more niche
- CFD trading - yet more things to speculate on… you could do much of this via a tokutei account too though

The last 3 options may not qualify as “investing”, and it is easy to lose lots of money, so not recommended and maybe don’t count as answers to the question. But outside the sensible NISA path these speculation options exist and some crazies like me indulge in them. At least in my case, besides my core NISA and tokutei account investing, that’s what I do on the fringe. (No doubt some people are buying crypto too.)

[Bushiman]

I have an Online BNS Saver account with HSBC that is paying me 4% right now and the money is not locked in -I can add/withdraw instantly...

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

- FX accounts - interest equivalent can be had, but the main attraction for me is to speculate on currencies and I do that here, away from my investments. Tax rate is again 20%
- Futures trading - same as FX but instead trading gold and platinum mini contracts in yen terms… getting more niche
- CFD trading - yet more things to speculate on… you could do much of this via a tokutei account too though

Oh, very spicy! Any luck with CFDs?

[northSaver]

I have an Online BNS Saver account with HSBC that is paying me 4% right now and the money is not locked in -I can add/withdraw instantly...

I still use NS&I Premium Bonds for my almost instant access account (it takes a day or two to get the money transferred to Lloyds). Their average rate at the moment is 4.65%, and the last time I checked I was getting about that (average luck I guess). I expect that rate to drop fairly soon though. It's a bit of a thrill to check how much I've won each month using their online prize checker... also the faint glimmer of hope that Agent Millionaire will call me personally I was a bit doubtful that overseas folk were treated the same as UK residents but I see that at least one overseas resident won £100k in November so I guess it is truly random.