admittedly, i am a dummy when it comes to things like that.

first question,

is the HKD still pegged to the USD?

i heard the USD dropped a lot, so do i expect the rise before i convert my savings to RMB?( i can do it online from here)

the other thing, to withdraw via atm, the process fee might not be worth it, but for 150K HKD, it is worth the trip to hong kong to carry it physically back?

thanks for any advise. ok, i am stupid, dont flame me!

Yes, HKD is still pegged to USD. Four years ago it was 7.7 HKD for 1 USD, and it still is four years later, while RMB went from 7.4 to like 6.3 now. RMB was also pegged at one time. I remember it stays at around 6.8 for about a couple of years or so.

I'm no finance whiz either but common sense appears to say that the RMB is a better long term bet than HKD. The orthodoxy says that the RMB is under-valued against the USD and has room to rise. I also think it's important to remember that while there are certain rules surrounding currency trading the PRC govt controls monetary policy and by de-facto the HKD. It seems unlikely that the govt here would allow the HKD to strengthen as they've made it pretty clear that they want Hong Kong to be sidelined and Shanghai to replace it as the premier Asian banking centre.

thanks guys!

Forget paper, buy gold.

Think RMB is going to stay at 6.2 to 6.3 rate against the USD for the next 6 months. Quite flat movement for now so it woulnd't matter much in the mean time.

Gold is a speculating currency this day and age. But hasn't been promising in the past months. Hopefully it will go up slowly again. The question is whether gold actally has a bubble to burst or is the supply just that short to make it continiously go up every year?

^^Gold will continue to climb as paper fails. Buy gold bars and store them under your mattress. The problem I can see in having large stock piles of RMB is a sudden crash in Chinese real estate and export markets or war in the S. China Sea. Also, it's not so easy to remove large piles of RB from China or to convert it here. If you buy paper, buy Canadian Dollars. I better bet than the HK version.

investing>saving.

jlee,

ya right...so do i just google online for an investor and hand him or her all my cash?

buying gold is good...then i will have to post my next question...where can i buy a good safe? hahaha

a bank.
safety deposit. wealth management.

and well, i didnt really dwell into my advice but it really depends how much money you're talking about. if its a larger amount i dont see why anyone would save over a low risk fund. you just lose money putting it in savings if you adjust for inflation. interest rates are jokes.

paper gold is absolutely useless....

however stashing at least 30% of your savings in RMB is a good idea.

investment options are limited for expats anyway, so it would be stupid to keep too much RMB in deposit accounts. transfer the rest in HKD and buy securities with a hsbc bank account.

AUD

I guess I am confused on how the HSBC Gold Scheme is useless, but you recommend to buy Securities? I get the whole Physical Gold vs Paper Gold argument, bu then Securities were recommended. Has Warren Buffet joined SHExpat?

I just drop most of my stash in the short term bonds. You can usually find one that pays 6% or so.