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Normally when I think about investing, my advice is very US-centric. Investing is something that can be done from anywhere in the world, but when I begin thinking of the correct way to go about it, many of my thoughts are on US tax laws and regulations. This is my attempt to view investing while living in the US as a non-resident alien. I have some friends who are non-resident aliens in the USA who have the opportunity to invest. I will try to answer this topic as generally as possible, but due to the specific laws and treaties between the USA and other specific countries, I cannot give exact advice for people from everywhere. My examples will be for a non-resident alien from Colombia currently living in the USA who will eventually return to their home country.
Usually when I give beginner advice for investing, I start with 3 things.
All of these are very US-centric. Luckily there is a Getting Started for non-US investors
A lot of this information I will explain can be learned starting there, but I believe Boglehead's advice is given as abstractly and as correctly as possible. The problem with this is that this abstraction can lose beginners when clear steps are left undefined.
I advise someone who is young and has money that is not needed for at least 10 years to invest in a low cost, passively-managed, total world stock market index fund. If one can consistently invest in a fund like this, it will backend.lambdas.blogMessages.build wealth in the long-term. Let me break down each of those phrases since they probably don't mean much to someone who is just getting started.
A fund is a managed portfolio of securities that can be invested in.
Index Fund
An index fund is a managed portfolio of securities that seeks to track a particular market index. An index contains a basket of stocks that represent a market, sector, or other identification for companies.
Total World Stock Market
Total World Stock Market refers to investing in stocks that are from all countries instead of a specific country.
Passively-Managed
This is to be compared against actively-managed. Active managers pick-and-choose which stocks to include in their fund, and charge higher fees for this "service" which almost always underperform in the long term. Read more in the Little Book on Common Sense Investing for arguments why passively-managed funds are better than actively-managed funds.
Low-Cost
Low-Cost refers to the expense ratio, the percentage of the value of the investment, that must be paid annually for owning the fund. Low-cost funds typically have fees under 0.10% of the assets under management.
I don't recommend solely believing me on this strategy. I do recommend reading my included links to convince yourself.
I still recommend investing in a low cost, passively-managed, total world stock market index fund. How you manage to do this is a bit different for a non-resident alien. There are two differences that can affect a non-resident alien. These differences only apply to investments made in US-domiciled investments. US-domiciled investments are investments that are made into US-held funds.
More country-by-country information in this table on Bogleheads.
Ireland and Luxembourg do not impose any extra taxes for foreign investment. I'll specifically speak about Ireland, but many of this applies to Luxembourg as well. Ireland also has a tax treaty with the USA, which allows for dividends on US investments to be taxed at a favorable 15% rate. The main benefit of Ireland-domiciled funds is that there won't be the punitive estate tax for assets over $60,000.
The first step is to choose a broker. Here is a helpful article on broker choices for citizens of Colombia. Interactive Brokers is a good choice for most countries, but individual research should be done. Look for different fees and available products for brokers depending on your country.
A good choice of investment would be something like an Irish-domiciled all world etf. The expense ratio (or as labeled: Ongoing cost [OCF]) is 0.22%, which isn't the cheapest around, but seems pretty cheap for a fund that isn't domiciled in the USA. Individual research can be done for a good ETF to invest in.
Being a non-resident alien of the USA has potential pitfalls some issues if one wants to invest in the USA. These pitfalls come in the form of punitive dividend taxes and estate taxes for countries without good tax treaties with the US. The punitive dividends can be minimized as well as the estate tax removed by investing in ETFs domiciled in the USA. Those who wish to invest and expect to live outside the USA for most of their lives should invest in funds that are not domiciled in the USA. This is to avoid the taxes that come with investing in funds in the US.