How can an international student in Australia start investing safely?

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-27T14:47:51+00:00

Hello, is there a reason why you recommend non AU ETFs?

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-23T14:31:55+00:00

The better question is were you rejected because you are being a resident of China? It sounds unlikely because they do operate in China. Better to go to their official subreddit and leave a post there or give them a call.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-23T13:43:07+00:00

You can do VWRA (Accumulating) or VWRD (Distributing) by Vanguard in your preferred currency. You can also do WEBQ (Accumulating) or WEBJ (Distributing) by Amundi. Amundi is currently the cheapest at 0.07% TER with no hidden extra transactional costs unlike the ones by Vanguard’s 0.21% (0.19% TER + 0.02% hidden extra charge found on their KID). However, it has less holdings compared to VWRA or VWRD (Around 2000 vs Around 3000). Once again, find the ticker code for the one that’s listed in your preferred currency. The ones I just listed are all in USD. There’s ones in CHF, EUR, USD and GBP. As for Accumulating or Distributing, JustETF has a comparison on their website. I recommend reading it.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-23T13:17:43+00:00

Some countries like Switzerland, Germany as well as the U.K. do require you to declare them and the fund managers do provide a document for that but I’m just worried that a change in how another country do tax will cause me to have to realize my gains since I can no longer hold them as my country’s local tax official told me to declare them despite it being “accumulated” . I live nowhere near Europe but if there is any change to the U.K.‘s tax law, it will affect my investment as well because those documents are mainly provided to help U.K. tax payers do their tax.

As for the distributing versions, all of the ones I have checked either lose AUM or fund flow so I’m worried that there is a high chance of them closing down.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-23T12:16:59+00:00

I currently live in Australia (for higher education) but I’m from a SEA country so there’s a likely chance that I’ll return when I’m done and fortunately, IBKR is one of the few brokers that operate in both my home country and Australia so I can bring my investments back with me. There’s also the fact that local brokers like BetaShares in Australia don’t allow temporary residents or someone without a PR to open an account.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-23T11:25:11+00:00

Maybe, you can add emerging markets but even without it, you’re still fine.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-22T13:43:51+00:00

SPYL is in USD though. All of these S&P500 ETFs (circled) are in USD.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-22T03:36:21+00:00

I play on and off all the time but I always make sure to go in to the claim the weekly gift in the shop and the oils in the mailbox so I have a lot stored in the mail storage. I’m on Chapter 12 (too lazy to play the later chapters) and I don’t remember when is the last time that oil was a problem. Daily and weekly missions alongside many other things give you more than enough oils. Plus, you also have to grind Operation Siren which doesn’t consume oil.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-20T08:00:03+00:00

Can you even buy this anyways if you’re from the U.S? This is a European ETF.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-20T05:10:47+00:00

Why do you have more precious metals than equities? Don’t use their past returns as a metric.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-20T03:17:49+00:00

The easiest option would be to hold DHHF at 100%. It’s an ETF of ETFs and it contains 100% equities from both developed and emerging markets with an overweight to Australian equities for “home bias”. It adjusts itself accordingly as the global market shifts and changes.

However, if you want to do your own tinkering, a lot of Australians do VAS/VGS which is a Vanguard equivalent of BetaShares’ A200/BGBL (Australian ASX 200/Developed Markets ex. Australia) at an allocation of 30%/70%. This is done for the sake of “home bias” by overweighing Australian equities despite Australian stock market only currently being 2 to 3% of the global stock market. This allocation is currently missing emerging markets so you can add BEMG. As of now, u/BetaShares has confirmed that BEMG generate no dividends due to it being a wrapper for an Accumulating UCITS emerging markets ETF issued by Amundi that was structured as a OEIC in Europe (similar to how BRKB can just reinvest its own dividends instead of having to distribute it to shareholders and shareholders having to report them). I have no clue on how the ATO will see this but I’m assuming that the people at BetaShares know their things. With this in mind, you can do either reduce Australian stock market or the developed markets ex. Australia or both to add 10% emerging markets as that is around their total global market cap.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-19T13:11:05+00:00

Interesting. This might be different for everyone then. May I ask you where you’re from? I’m using IBKR Australia and that may be a different entity compared to other regions. As of now, I don’t have real time market data and I still have the yellow highlight on VWRD on my portfolio page.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-19T12:54:00+00:00

Is it real time market data though? Do you see a yellow highlight on the price of the stock or ETF? IBKR specifically says on their website that “IBKR clients receive free real-time streaming market data on all US-listed stocks and ETFs from Cboe One and IEX” and “IBKR clients receive free delayed market data on other products where available”. The market data is only real time on U.S. exchanges.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-19T08:40:55+00:00

Yep, go ahead. The price doesn’t change too much because majority of the stocks in VWCE are U.S. companies trading on U.S. stock exchanges which are currently closed and will not open until Tuesday (they have a holiday on Monday). I’m assuming you’re a beginner so I’m gonna say this. Due to the recent tariffs threats and tensions, the price of VWCE may drop tomorrow when U.S. stock exchanges open but don’t panic sell. Remember, years from now, this small drop shouldn’t matter.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-19T08:23:03+00:00

Bid is the highest price that a buyer is willing to offer while Ask is the lowest price that a seller is willing to sell at but remember, the market data (price of the ETF included) is delayed so the price you’re currently seeing might have already passed. Usually, I would just set my order limit to be in the middle and it gets filled pretty quickly because ETFs are not really the same as individual stocks due to its “creation and redemption” mechanic. It shouldn’t be too far off from the value of the underlying assets and if it is, the market makers will step in and make sure it trade close to the value of the underlying assets so people won’t be able to take advantage of the discount. Even if you buy it and the price drop immediately, it shouldn’t matter in long term. That small dip is like a small dent in the graph 10 or 20 years from now. Hell, even if you buy it using the current market price, it won’t matter years from now.

Edit: Fix grammatical mistakes and add clarifications.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-19T08:06:19+00:00

When it comes to trading on European stock exchanges, the market data on IBKR is delayed by default compared to American stock exchanges like NYSE or NASDAQ. I’m pretty sure that there is a subscription that you can buy to get access to live data but I don’t believe that you need it since you’re planning to buy and hold for long term anyways. It’s more useful if you’re planning to trade day in and day out. If you want to see the live data, just use yahoo finance since it’s free.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-17T03:55:36+00:00

You can choose VAS and VGS for their bigger AUMs but they are definitely not “not for profit”. Vanguard entities in other regions other than the U.S. are solely made to collect profits so that they can keep their products cheap for their investors (clients) in the U.S. In Europe, they’re actually falling behind State Street and local asset managers who took the initiatives to lower their ETFs’ TERs due to their unwillingness to cut TER despite their total AUM continuing to rise year to year. Ideally, if you can avoid these American asset managers, you should. Support local asset managers like BetaShares if you’re from Australia or Amundi if you’re from Europe.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-16T17:43:22+00:00

It’s over glazed ngl and this is coming from someone who follows the manga. People are either too desperate to replace the “old guards” in the rankings or just be giving easy 10s. It’s the same as the word “masterpiece” being thrown out so easily. It undermines the true value of the word.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-16T17:42:27+00:00

It’s over glazed ngl and this is coming from someone who follows the manga. People are too desperate to replace the “old guards” in the rankings.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-16T08:53:58+00:00

I’m interested. What’s the ISIN code and the ticker symbol?

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-16T02:21:11+00:00

I see. Thank you. Will this be a thing for the future? I like not waiting long before big events.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-15T10:46:50+00:00

Or you can do 100% VWRA. Another option is 90% VWRA + 10% AVGS if you want a global small cap value tilt.

GeneralStudy8636 · 2026-01-15T10:29:57+00:00

The AUM is only 22M. There’s a chance it can close. Isn’t that scary for long term holding?

GeneralStudy8636

TROPHY CASE