rich379

This is an old article but explains what might be called a hack, pump&dump scheme: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301257.html Cheers Rich

I have an acount with Boom Securities in Hong Kong. They deal in most Asian stocks including South Korea. They open sccount s for non resident foreigners. I opened an account with them to buy a particular stock in Malaysia. Unfortunately they told me afterwards that trading in Malaysia is not possible with joint accounts (only account held by single individual). I still have a funded account with them but have yet to complete a single trade (the other stock I was interested in is very thinly traded on the Nagoya Stock Exchange and price keeps going up...). I may buy some Posco soon to deploy the cash. I note that the Korean stock is a bit cheaper than the US traded ADR. Probably not once the extra forex (unknown) and brokerage costs (0.5%) are taken into account though. Rich

Interesting thread, although it is always difficult to compare between different family situations and cities/countries Here are our expenses 2 adults, 3 kids ages 7-15 and the dog Living in Switzerland, near Geneva We are, I think, relatively spendthift compared to many of our friends. However for the big ticket items (nice house with garden, healthcare) we spend what is needed, but otherwise we are very careful about our expenses (eg. clothing, car, phone, dining out, vacations). Over the last decade and until last year (when I quit work to start a new business), we were managing to save about 50-60% of our combined income. Mortgage $3'000 Utilities (electricity, water) $2'000 Heating $2'400 Phone, internet, tv $1'200 Medical insurance $9'200 Medical and dental bills $2'400 (we have high $2'500 deductibles) Kids activities $2'000 Vacation $4'800 Vehicles $2'400 (car + motorcycle, incl. depreciation) Groceries $10'000 Clothing $1'800 House maintenance $4'800 Other insurance $600 Gifts, dining out $2'400 Other $2'400 Total (without income taxes) $46'600 (although I suspect it is more like $50'000) Regarding our kids education, we are lucky because local university fees are publicly funded and still very low ($1'000/year) so there is no need to save for that purpose. Cheers, Rich379