[The Korea Herald] How wealthy is 'wealthy' in Korea?

This isn't necessary directed at anyone, but from my experience with Koreans and investing, it usually only ends in one way: with said Korean person hiding the truth of their catastrophically poor "investments" from their spouse and family, eventually leading to taking out extremely predatory loans to try and "recoup" their losses before declaring bankruptcy and then starting all over again with bank accounts in the name of their spouse and/or child.

I think it was around the first or second semester that I was teaching online due to coronavirus (late 2020, probably), and a bunch of my university students kept talking about "the coins", meaning money (probably from their parents) that they'd dumped into crypto. I wonder how much of that has been squandered. One even wrote me a woe-is-me letter at the end of the term to apologize for his low participation (in other words, begging me to show mercy on his grade) because he was very distracted by "the coins" all semester.

I knew it would rise and that it will rise in the future.  Folks are losing confidence in the current currencies due to insane money printing. 

I guess I will see what Coinsmart does.  I only dislike they don't have XRP.  So, am falling back on Shiba Inu now since it is still dirt cheap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbI31x3FpS0

This isn't necessary directed at anyone, but from my experience with Koreans and investing, it usually only ends in one way: with said Korean person hiding the truth of their catastrophically poor "investments" from their spouse and family, eventually leading to taking out extremely predatory loans to try and "recoup" their losses before declaring bankruptcy and then starting all over again with bank accounts in the name of their spouse and/or child.

Can they still do that? I remember stories of family members
taking out huge second mortgages on co-owned properties
and then losing it all resulting in ruination for the family.

I would have imagined banks had tightened their security
and basic policies since then.

Good thing is, none of us have to worry about a spouse who is showing signs of starting to despise their unwitting co-signer and who would do something shifty like this, with us also oblivious to the family finances due to lack of fluency.  After all, those assets we're counting on for our retirement are in our name and were paid for by us, not our spouses.

Sleep easy tonight!

That reminds me...

Once we bought an apartment from a guy. The property was entirely on his wife's name but we never saw her or spoke to her. The husband had a photocopy of her ID card and a hand written paper with the wife's personal stamp on it. Anyone could produce those without their spouse's knowledge as long as they don't keep these items locked away or hidden.
My wife was genuinely worried that this woman would show up one day and claim that she is the rightful owner of the place. It's been a while and nothing like that happened, so I guess we are safe.

That reminds me...

Once we bought an apartment from a guy. The property was entirely on his wife's name but we never saw her or spoke to her. The husband had a photocopy of her ID card and a hand written paper with the wife's personal stamp on it. Anyone could produce those without their spouse's knowledge as long as they don't keep these items locked away or hidden.
My wife was genuinely worried that this woman would show up one day and claim that she is the rightful owner of the place. It's been a while and nothing like that happened, so I guess we are safe.

That's what I mean. You would think by now banks would require
two pieces of valid ID to match the exact person doing transactions.
In other areas of commerce Korea requires nauseatingly annoying
and difficult procedures for even the simplest things.

I started with stocks. I just put a little bit in there, about $1000 - to $1500 between 2 accounts. I dunno how it works, I can buy / sell stocks, but I'm also generating passive income. I've made $0.22~ USD so far without selling anything xD (that's money that has come into the account from the companies paying dividends or something).
I've also been looking into a reputable investment firm, one that a friend's father has been using for years, and has consistently ranked the highest within NZ. :o
Other than that, I've been sticking to the NZ govt run kiwisaver.

Yeah, you're braver than I am. I can't even dip my toes in. Doesn't help that I've watched a couple of KTs lose a bunch of money in stocks because they kept panic-selling their shares. xD

I've thought about taking a class on stock investment. It would make me feel better about the whole thing.

But all in all, an investment firm is probably my best option. I have enough saved up to open an account. Just need to do some real research before I take that plunge, I'll probably get around to it in another couple of years.

If you're worried about buying/selling stocks and keeping track of them all, just put your money into an index fund or an ETF and sit on it. In the long term the large ones like SPY or Vanguard trend up, so it's pretty risk free. Even 2008 was a blip overall. Since the market  has done pretty poorly this year (short term) now is a good entry point.




You can go the investment firm route too but they will take a cut.

If you're worried about buying/selling stocks and keeping track of them all, just put your money into an index fund or an ETF and sit on it. In the long term the large ones like SPY or Vanguard trend up, so it's pretty risk free. Even 2008 was a blip overall. Since the market  has done pretty poorly this year (short term) now is a good entry point.

You can go the investment firm route too but they will take a cut.

I can live with that, they're the professionals and I'm not. xD

But I'll have a look at index funds, too. Thanks for the suggestion.

Index funds are a good option. Do your research before taking financial advice from me (or anyone else), but I've spread my investment money across four index funds, some shares in big tech companies and maybe $500 give or take on riskier stocks - penny stocks that other people (whose advice is far from expert) have recommended and companies that just seem kind of interesting. The index funds have been the best performers by far. Adobe and Netflix had a couple of high peaks but seem pretty flat for now, so I expect to hold onto them for a long time, and the cheap stocks are basically just roulette table money. A few of them have increased in value, most of them haven't, and none have made me rich.

Personal cash that is available to start some sort of venture.

That's a lot of cash to have on hand. That's a lot of money to have in the bank or in the Korean equivalent of T-bills.

.sigh.

Or 14 million a year at 5% would get you there...

You are missing the point. Which would be: it is very much doable! Is there only a tiny chance to accomplish it? No!
Is HG anywhere near the target figure? I very much doubt that.

Missing the point is li's specialty.

Question- If my wife has title to the W1,000,000,000 apartment we live in that I bought back in 2016/2018 for 250,000/500,000 and I have my pension of 10 years (first 10 were wiped out when I pulled the pension scheme and had that crazy month in Thailand)+the 50,000 allowance she gives me for this month for booze, do I still qualify as wealthy? I think I do.

What if you gamble it all away while boozing?

I'd be very surprised, given his prowess in crypto markets, if he hasn't reached that figure.

That's a low blow.

Anyone who is in or who came to Korea for financial reasons should be saving and then investing a goodly amount every month. Otherwise, what's the point?

There's always something pitiful and pathetic about these types of thread. The small midwit fry talking like they're players when they don't realize how far behind they are. Double lols to SPQR who accidentally got lucky on the generational property lottery and now thinks he's a baller.