Investing money in China

[Harv31]

Have any of you put your money into any investment funds (基金) here? I know that with banks, you just need to prove that you've been working here for at least 1 year and then you can get access to it's investment features - and it can all be done online through mobile banking.

 

I recently did this with one of the big banks in China... but then found out that most of the Investment companies it acts as an agent for don't actually allow foreigners to purchase funds unless we have a permanent residence card (green card). 

 

[mungouk]

What do you mean by investment funds?

 

If you mean ETFs then there are plenty based on China equities that you can invest in from outside of China. 

 

Since I have a Singapore bank account I have a portfolio of China and other Asia-based ETFs with DBS bank that's very easy to manage, and has a level of diversification that makes it somewhat less nerve-wracking than watching individual stocks leaping up and down.

 

I also used to have equities (BYD and TenCent) that were traded on the HK exchange, but China stock is incredibly volatile, and especially this year it felt like random regulatory changes were falling out of the sky every few weeks (which inevitably affect the markets), so I gave up on those and sold up.

 

 

[Harv31]

On 11/15/2021 at 7:47 PM, mungouk said:

What do you mean by investment funds?

Yea, ETFs. I plan to be in China for a while. Just wanna avoid the hassle of exchanging my money into pounds, then investing it through a UK bank. 

 

So, after spending a lot of time carefully choosing which Chinese ETFs I wanted to buy through the local banking app, I found that my transactions always failed. There are like over 100 of these investment companies. I called up around 10 of them, and 2 have said that they accept foreign passports as long as we meet the other criteria of working here for at least 1 whole year ... the rest want green-cards. 

[carlo]

this is no investment advice -- if I were you, I'd convert your savings to a convertible currency, open an account outside of China, and invest through that. The offshore investable universe is much larger, especially as long as you're likely to continue facing restrictions based on nationality, not residency.

 

I worked 13 years in China. Advice to my younger self: do it sooner...

[889]

Common sense says working in China and getting paid in RMB you've got enough exposure to China. Diversify!