Where the growth is now (hint: not the U.S.)

Canadian chartered bank stocks are the place to invest. They’re solvent and have limited exposure to American sub-prime mortgages. They are very hightly regulated.

Back when Canada & most of the world
was in a similar situation as the U.S. is in now, low currency compared to the
mighty U.S. $, buying local stocks & funds while depressed along with some currency hedged international funds was the long term smart thing to do.
Now is a great time to build U.S. multi
national holdings up while the world,
including the U.S., is looking the other way.

put your money under your bed

The problem is that most foreign markets are like playing russian roulette. If teh US does go into recession, teh demand for Chinese goods driving teh asian bubble will plunge, taking the insatiable need for energy to drive the factories that provide those goods with it.

The EU is perched right now on the top of the same cliff the US just fell off and buying into the Euro bubble now is the same as buying Countrywide shares in July 2007.

Now is a very good time to buy foreign stocks, if you use dollar cost averaging. Decide how many dollars you are willing to commit to foreign stocks this year, and every three months buy 25% of that amount. Make sure you by a couple of different kinds of stocks or ETFs to give yourself some diversification. You’ll probably miss the highs and the lows with the dollar cost averaging, and you may end up with a dog or a star in the mix, but they will average out with the diversification. It’s as simple as that.

No, I’ve been about 60/40 foreign/U.S. for several years and may add back some U.S. at this point because of valuations (Morningstar tells a very different story than what’s presented in the article) and because I don’t think the dollar has stopped its freefall for now.