The Offshore Investing Hot Tips You Really Need should only be taken from professional Investment advisers. The offshore investment industry in South Africa is still growing and for a number of good reasons. Many inexperienced investors are always on the look out for what they might call ‘hot tips’. In fact there are plenty of people out there – some honest, some not so much – who make a pretty good living running websites, newsletters and investment clubs that offer their ‘hot tips’ on a regular basis, often at quite a price.
Those aren’t the kind of hot tips we are talking about here. While offshore investing from South Africa is more than feasible for the average person it is still as much of a gamble as any other form of investing and decisions about just where your money should go are decisions to be made with careful research and the assistance of an experienced financial professional, one on one, not taken from a blog post.
What we can offer however is something just as valuable to the prospective new offshore investor, some ‘hot tips’ on just how – and why – you should consider offshore investing and the best ways to go about getting started.
Determine What Kind of Investor You Are
South African law currently allows an individual investor to invest up to R4 million in offshore markets every year and obviously any amount below that. (Minimum investment US $10000-00) But it is up to the individual (with help from their financial advisor) not only to determine – realistically – how much they can afford to invest but also how aggressive they want to be with that money.
While every investment carries a risk there are many that are far ‘safer’ than others but they won’t offer the potential returns that a higher risk prospect might. At this point it is up to you to decide, what kind of ‘gambler’ are you and just how much risk can you tolerate?
Be Open to the Lesser Known
There are plenty of places that a South African can choose to invest their money overseas and each one of them offers something different of course. Some new investors prefer to stick to countries they are at least vaguely familiar with – the US, the UK – but you don’t have to be so narrow just because another foreign option is more of an unknown to you. There are a lot of excellent offshore investment opportunities out there and that may very well pay off in the long run so be open to them all.
Beware of Snake Oil Salespeople
As we have already mentioned there are a lot of people out there who make money offering their expert opinions to people about just where and how they should invest their Rands offshore. If those people are your licensed financial advisors then that is fine, you should listen, take it all on board and then formulate a strategy together. There is a whole different group of people though that you should be more cautious around; the ‘gurus’.
Gurus come in many forms and a quick Google search will bring you results for dozens and dozens of them. Some really are seasoned investors and may have interesting information to share. Many more though have ‘devised’ a ‘foolproof’ strategy that will ‘make you a fortune’ and they can share it with you, for a price. These tend to be the snake oil salesmen (and women) to be avoided. We’ve seen systems based on complex mathematical algorithms, ‘secret’ strategies and even on astrology (really).
If you are a relative newbie to the world of offshore investing then yes, you’ll probably need some help and advice, just be careful where you get it from. Eventually you’ll gain the knowledge you need yourself – you’ll learn how to research an opportunity, how to spot an underrated ‘gem’ – but until then stick to the people who have credentials to back up their expertise, and not just a fancy website and some great stock photography of yacht they claim to own! The Investing Hot Tips that You Really need can be found by speaking with one of our Professional Financial advisers, request a call back now.
What is Offshore Investing?