3/28    tom, can you please tell me how to invest overseas?      -anon coward
        \_ Give all your money to John.  -tom
           \_ come on, I'm being serious.
              \_ So is Tom.  -John
        \_ Mutual funds/bond funds, of course.
           \_ Vanguard Pacific Stock Index Fund,
              Vanguard European Stock Index Fund,
              Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund
              (Disclosure (Recommendation?):) I have holdings in all of the
              above funds.  I particularly like the Emerging Markets fund
              because it has been aggressively growing the percentage of the
              fund that is invested in China and Taiwan over the last few
              years. -dans
              \_ Thanks dans. I checked all 3 and they're available from ETrade.
                 Is that what you're using? Also, how come I can't see any
                 historical data? Also, what is the monthly fee I have to
                 pay (I plan to just buy and hold for a while), and what is
                 the tax implication on EFT? Thanks.-ok thx
                 \_ If you're planning to buy and hold (especially for
                    retirement), put the first $nk (I think n is currently 4
                    and will be 5 next year, but double check) in as your
                    yearly IRA contribution.  Unless you're planning to retire
                    in less than a decade, you should get a ROTH IRA (pay tax
                    now, don't pay taxes when you withdraw) as opposed to
                    Traditional IRA (pay no taxes now, pay taxes when you
                    withdraw).  If you're investing in anything you should get
                    a prospectus, this will include historical data.  You can
                    order a prospectus (free of charge) via Vanguard's
                    website, and I believe you can also download a prospectus
                    in PDF form.  I don't know all the tax implications since
                    all of the mutual funds I hold at present are retirement
                    savings in ROTH IRA's so the tax implications are nil in
                    my case.  Otherwise, I believe that it's your standard
                    investment taxation rules for capital gains.  My holdings
                    are directly with Vanguard.  Their fees are very low
                    compared to other long-term investment oriented firms
                    (Charles Schwab is comparable, many supposedly premier
                    fund firms, e.g. Oppenheimer are much higher). -dans
                    \_ The miniscule tax advantages of a Roth IRA are not
                       enough for me to keep numerous accounts like that.
                       So I just max out my 401k at work.
                       \_ So there's really not much effort involved with
                          keeping IRA's/ROTH IRA's.  From a tax standpoint,
                          the 401k and Traditional IRA are identical.  You pay
                          no taxes now, but you pay when you withdraw your
                          funds.  The nice thing about 401k vs. IRA is that
                          the yearly cap for 401k contributions (I think 25%
                          of gross income) is much higher than that for IRA
                          ($4-$5K).  That said, the tax advantages of a ROTH
                          IRA vs. Traditional IRA/401K are *huge* if you're
                          not going to be retiring for at least a decade.
                          ROTH IRA, you pay no taxes when you withdraw your
                          funds which has been compounding exponentially for
                          30+ years.  One useful trick is that after changing
                          employers, you can rollover your 401k to a
                          Traditional IRA, and then convert the Traditional
                          IRA to a ROTH IRA.  This allows you to have a ROTH
                          IRA where you contributed more than the yearly IRA
                          cap. -dans
                          \_ $3k/yr is not much money, even over 30 years.
                             Even if the tax difference was 25%, I don't
                             think I would find it worthwhile to deal with
                             the extra hassle. Unless tax rates go way up,
                             in which case I will wish I had done what you
                             are doing.
                             \_ Ahem interest compounding *exponentially*.
                                Run the numbers, what you have at the end is
                                not chump change.  And a 25% cut of $100K is
                                25K, which is not the kind of money I can
                                throw around with reckless abandon.  YMMV, I
                                guess. -dans