Buying, Building or Renting

colinoscapee wrote:

Many people do just that, be with someone for the lifestyle and money provided.

BE with someone does not mean LOVE someone, does it? Being with someone just for lifestyle and money provided kind of wasting your time and yourlife for very simple thing, it's not worth a LIFE which is much much much more expensive!!!

Well that was the whole point, the person doesnt really love the person, they love the lifestyle and money.

How many relationships have you been in, have you been married or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

colinoscapee wrote:

...or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

Ouch!

Read somewhere ... we all go through three relationships.  First one is for sex, second for love, third for companionship.  Maybe some luck out with all three in one but my life has sure followed that pattern.

Money has been an issue in all three.

colinoscapee wrote:

Well that was the whole point, the person doesnt really love the person, they love the lifestyle and money.

How many relationships have you been in, have you been married or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

I bet you are not reading woman magazine. In woman magazine, they only discuss about brandname/luxury fashion items, some expensive things which can help you feel you look "expensive" (which is totally cheap actually ) that's why a lot of women who read such magazine think that they only need fancy stuffs in their life and forget more important things in life. No worries, I do not read woman magazine neither

"in a relationship" is not complicated, and more than 1 will be counted in "plural form" - you do not need a marriage to talk about this. When you experience things much enough, you will realise which is important in yourlife. I trust you old enough NOT to agree with me but, being old does not tell that you got "enough experiences in life". Have a happy life

aibiet150204 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Well that was the whole point, the person doesnt really love the person, they love the lifestyle and money.

How many relationships have you been in, have you been married or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

I bet you are not reading woman magazine. In woman magazine, they only discuss about brandname/luxury fashion items, some expensive things which can help you feel you look "expensive" (which is totally cheap actually ) that's why a lot of women who read such magazine think that they only need fancy stuffs in their life and forget more important things in life. No worries, I do not read woman magazine neither

"in a relationship" is not complicated, and more than 1 will be counted in "plural form" - you do not need a marriage to talk about this. When you experience things much enough, you will realise which is important in yourlife. I trust you old enough NOT to agree with me but, being old does not tell that you got "enough experiences in life". Have a happy life

Oh, looks like we have a worldly 20 something in our midst.

colinoscapee wrote:

aibiet150204 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Well that was the whole point, the person doesnt really love the person, they love the lifestyle and money.

How many relationships have you been in, have you been married or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

I bet you are not reading woman magazine. In woman magazine, they only discuss about brandname/luxury fashion items, some expensive things which can help you feel you look "expensive" (which is totally cheap actually ) that's why a lot of women who read such magazine think that they only need fancy stuffs in their life and forget more important things in life. No worries, I do not read woman magazine neither

"in a relationship" is not complicated, and more than 1 will be counted in "plural form" - you do not need a marriage to talk about this. When you experience things much enough, you will realise which is important in yourlife. I trust you old enough NOT to agree with me but, being old does not tell that you got "enough experiences in life". Have a happy life

Oh, looks like we have a worldly 20 something in our midst.

No....Like Austin Powers's movies, she's a mini me. Or maybe better yet soon someone will label her as a "feminist" like someone else here.

aibiet150204 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Well that was the whole point, the person doesnt really love the person, they love the lifestyle and money.

How many relationships have you been in, have you been married or are you speaking from things that you may of heard and read in some womans magazine.

I bet you are not reading woman magazine. In woman magazine, they only discuss about brandname/luxury fashion items, some expensive things which can help you feel you look "expensive" (which is totally cheap actually ) that's why a lot of women who read such magazine think that they only need fancy stuffs in their life and forget more important things in life. No worries, I do not read woman magazine neither

"in a relationship" is not complicated, and more than 1 will be counted in "plural form" - you do not need a marriage to talk about this. When you experience things much enough, you will realise which is important in yourlife. I trust you old enough NOT to agree with me but, being old does not tell that you got "enough experiences in life". Have a happy life

Like I tell my college daughter, "Mommy loves you baby." 

The women here are very practical. Before wasting time on dating, determing physical attraction and building a relationship they want to know if you can take care of the family she wants to have and live a better life than her parents. There is nothing wrong with this. If I had a daughter, I would wish she would be this practical.

It's not only the woman who is practical. More often it is her family. Marriage in Vietnam is still very much a family decision outside the large cities. In middle-class and up American society in the 1930s and 40s, that too was often the case. It had started to change in the 20s and really took off in the forties. Of course, down in the working classes. the future husband's trade, work, or farming prospects carried weight, but families were under pressure to marry daughters off early to increase the amount of food on the nightly dinner table.


As for Vietnam, my wife's father ran away from home to marry her mother as his father was against the marriage.

Quoting a long post with three levels of nesting just to add a one-line funny rejoinder is kind of rude.

MIA2013 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

aibiet150204 wrote:

I bet you are not reading woman magazine. In woman magazine, they only discuss about brandname/luxury fashion items, some expensive things which can help you feel you look "expensive" (which is totally cheap actually ) that's why a lot of women who read such magazine think that they only need fancy stuffs in their life and forget more important things in life. No worries, I do not read woman magazine neither

"in a relationship" is not complicated, and more than 1 will be counted in "plural form" - you do not need a marriage to talk about this. When you experience things much enough, you will realise which is important in yourlife. I trust you old enough NOT to agree with me but, being old does not tell that you got "enough experiences in life". Have a happy life

Oh, looks like we have a worldly 20 something in our midst.

No....Like Austin Powers's movies, she's a mini me. Or maybe better yet soon someone will label her as a "feminist" like someone else here.

Interesting you said that MIA.  When reading aibiet150204 posts, I keep thinking she's alot like you.  Mini-me...in Việt Nam.

Guys, could you please stop quoting 10 lines messages for a 1 line reply ?

This is really important

thanks

colinoscapee wrote:

Oh, looks like we have a worldly 20 something in our midst.

At what age does one's opinion become valid?

milkybunnyHCM wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Oh, looks like we have a worldly 20 something in our midst.

At what age does one's opinion become valid?

Opinions some  like warm beer others like it cold. Both are valid because they are opinions. No right or wrong answer. Discussions about relationships and home ownership are connected. All relationships are successful. They have a beginning, middle and an end. In regards to the topic, I am still convinced that renting is the way to go after bta87 ran the numbers.

not sure about VN girls or Phillopino girls, but Pg`s not worry about who is partner but the relationship that is important ?????? 

aibiet150204 wrote:

Vietnamese has a sentence "tiên trách kỷ, hậu trách nhân" (first blame yourself before blaming other for any thing happened).

Now that's funny. They blame everyone else but themselves.

That seems about right, I am yet to see a VN take responsibilty for anything they have done

ancientpathos wrote:

In regards to the topic, I am still convinced that renting is the way to go after bta87 ran the numbers.

If you do not have a citizenship, I would agree. I have met too many people that have put property in someone else's name here and none have a happy ending.

That's a destined rule

milkybunnyHCM wrote:

I have met too many people that have put property in someone else's name here and none have a happy ending.

Colinoscapee,
   I was thinking of far more than a simple interest bearing account. In reality this to can be risky. It is best to divide the funds up equal into quarters and invest in what we call a permanent portfolio. Each part being inversely affected by the inevitable moves in the economic of the day. For example gold is an inverse investment to equites (common stock). So you would put 25% into gold and 25%
into equities. One only has to look back a few years to see that return on CD's or any type of bond derived investment sunk to vary low levels, yet gold soared. This is the inverse correlation at work and protects us very well. A permanent portfolio has return 9% over the long term for many many years. Sorry to slide a bit off topic, but this point  was part of my original response to the question of buying a home as opposed to renting. So again I it is best in my opinion to look at all the opportunity costs and learn the different terms of measuring them. For instance in real estate we call it the cap rate, in bonds we refer to it as yield , in in business ownership we call ROI. It would be pointless to invest a 1/4 milli0n dollars in a business that gave you an ROI of ,say, 4 % when you could get a 9% yield on a permanent portfolio.

Yes all of that is fine, as long as the OP has an understanding of investing. If they dont, then a deposit account is viable till they know what they are doing. At the moment you can still get 9 % for 12 months deposit, not bad if you are putting a large amount into a depsoit account.

Between land and construction we put in $140K, land in 2006 and building in '10.

Appraises now at 12 tỷ.  Not that it matters, we aren't selling.

Portfolio, not so good,  land and gold both down.

CF,
  Then you simply don't understand the investment arena. In that case your best to stay away from it
all. I can show you manifold times that gold was not so good, in fact terrible. Whereas I can show you no time that a "Permanent" portfolio ever was bad. Yet it is YOUR money you are speaking of so go right ahead. We run into this mind set over and over in the investment business. They come to us paying us good money to invest, yet they leave and invest THEIR way. They only come back when they have lost everything and ask us why. THICK HEADS is all I can tell them.

Ok, so now the truth comes out, your an investment advisor bta87.

Diversifying is a foreign terminology to Vietnamese people.

So has anyone bought or sold stocks directly on the Saigon or Hanoi stock exchange?

khanh44 wrote:

Diversifying is a foreign terminology to Vietnamese people.

So has anyone bought or sold stocks directly on the Saigon or Hanoi stock exchange?

Gold buyers/sellers everywhere, that's all they want to invest in here, but I know of a few people around here that have done very nicely out of lending money, ( at 30% interest ), and a few that have been buying up a lot of small allotments around the place, some have doubled in value in the last 3 yrs, ( undeveloped ).

Khanh44,
  I was not really speaking to the Vietnamese population when I made my original comments. The OP is an American. In addition, a Permanent Portfolio as no emerging market holdings in it. That is not to say that there is not money to made in that sector. However, the intent of such a portfolio is primarily for those that do not know, understand, nor can they navigate the investment field. CF suggest land and gold. He however would be hard pressed to show many land investments that did not show a negative yield. Bare land generally is nothing but a drain on your finances via taxes etc.
Certainly once improved then we can realize a positive cap rate. Gold is a good hedge to the vagaries of the market, and indeed 25% of the Permanent Portfolio. Yet you must buy gold wisely, especially when we speak of US citizens. Bullion or gold itself is taxed at the same rate as are etc. and this reduces the return greatly. Yet there are some great gold mining companies that American's can own that do not bring these other costs into play e.g. taxes and storage costs.
Yet we drift far afield of the original post and perhaps far away from the intent of this forum. So I will shut up.

khanh44 wrote:

Diversifying is a foreign terminology to Vietnamese people.

So has anyone bought or sold stocks directly on the Saigon or Hanoi stock exchange?

I for one have not bought directly on any exchange in the world. If the Vietnam exchange is like all the rest one could not buy directly. However, I have held VN equities. My self I do not have the data base in order to analyze VN equities, so I let those that do handle that. Now in the USA it is a different matter and I can analyze my own stocks. Emerging market stocks are a good investment to have in a balanced investment portfolio as long as you do not exceed 5% of your total investment fund, for most. Now if you are getting up there in years we must look at it a great deal differently.
Although even then you should have a growth element to your portfolio or inflation will get you.

Land: you need connections.  Like the guy who had a buyer for a huge piece but awaiting the red book, needs cash now to uh expedite the paperwork, so sells a smaller piece at fire sale prices.  Or the family whose son went gambling in Kampuchea and got in over his head and family needs cash before they start chopping things off. 

Or just a whisper from someone who happens to know the government intends to buy a parcel for some reason.  Otherwise, no, the margins are too small.

ChrisFox wrote:

Or just a whisper from someone who happens to know the government intends to buy a parcel for some reason.  Otherwise, no, the margins are too small.

I remember my cousins would have maps and know when the government would be building new roads so those would be the land to buy.

I too buy stocks on the North American exchange through 3 different brokerage with my Asian and International exposures indexed. There's also a Vietnam stock exchange index that can be bought outside of Vietnam. But I think Vietnam has more potential to make a good return if you know someone or have inside information. I'm thinking insider trading is prevalent in Vietnam and not enforced as much if at all.

Just some wild guesses but I guess I'll find out first hand soon.

khanh44 wrote:

...

I too buy stocks on the North American exchange through 3 different brokerage with my Asian and International exposures indexed. There's also a Vietnam stock exchange index that can be bought outside of Vietnam. But I think Vietnam has more potential to make a good return if you know someone or have inside information. I'm thinking insider trading is prevalent in Vietnam and not enforced as much if at all.

Just some wild guesses but I guess I'll find out first hand soon.

You are right khanh44.  As it is an interest to you, here's the info I found for you.

http://vietnomics.wordpress.com/categor … ck-market/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5085054_invest- … arket.html

Be wary since I have read many stories of brokerages shutting down due to the sluggish economy....I think clients simply lose all their money when a broker goes bankrupted.

Since I bought most of my gold at $800/oz I am not doing too badly.

And I have made 80% profit on land in four months so I'm not doing too badly there either. 

I'm looking long term, not a day-trader.

But you're right about one thing: I am not an investor.  I would rather watch continental drift than study finance.

MIA2013 wrote:

No....Like Austin Powers's movies, she's a mini me. Or maybe better yet soon someone will label her as a "feminist" like someone else here.

How sweet to hear that and I am eager to meet you in person already...

MIA2013 wrote:

Like I tell my college daughter, "Mommy loves you baby."  top

Thanksssss… oh, if you're 45, I would prefer call you “chị” it will definitely make you feel “younger”… yes, it is, a “Vietnamese style”

ChrisFox wrote:

Quoting a long post with three levels of nesting just to add a one-line funny rejoinder is kind of rude.

I guess you refer to Colinoscapee's post earlier…  it's very nice of you… but yeah, “I don't mind” [*waving hand, lower tone like an old man*] – old man is very sensitive… let him do whatever to make he feel better I don't mind honestly

Does the old guide  that if you can buy 25 oz of silver for 1 oz of gold still apply?

Hi all,

Please note that the off topic posts have been removed from the thread and the same treatment will be given to any post that doesn't respect the original poster's topic.

Thanks
Armand
Expat.com Team

It's one of the things that used to drive me nuts here -  along with zero forward planning. When something  goes wrong , blame storming is the first thing that happens.

I actually posted that very same point not so long ago about nobody here taking responsibility.

colinoscapee wrote:

I actually posted that very same point not so long ago about nobody here taking responsibility.

and you were / are dead right.