International Is anyone moving from international shares due to North Korea vs US problems?

A chart might help. It shows the wars including the Korean War in early 1950's. Provided part of the human race continues to exist after wars productive enterprise manages to somehow continue to prosper. Besides if a nuclear war of a major scale takes place the last thing you will be worried about is if you have too much in International shares:

 

Really popular topic in Western media, most Koreans could care less. Propaganda at work or you could sum it up to ratings.

 

You would have hated the Cold War saber rattling.

I think you are making the news fit your own concerns / risk tolerance. You don't have the sleep at night factor, but don't want to give up on growth either. No free lunch there I'm afraid. It sounds to me that you should likely dial down your stock exposure...didn't you post something similar in the last year about another event?

 

The book i read from Bill Bernstein The Age of the Investors stated something along the line of it takes longer for your portfolio to rise in later years than when you are still young.

If you don't need to access the funds for the next 10 years then living in Intl shares should be OK, but less than that it maybe better to hedge by having say 60% in Intl shares and 40% in a less risky option?

 

Very good book and great suggestion. But if she reads the Bernstein book(s) she's likely to end up with the lot in cash.

 

Not necessarily. Used carefully, cash is a useful safe haven.

We rode out the GFC with virtually no loss by switching to cash and bonds for the duration. We got out of shares very early in the downturn when hubby got nervous (working in financial circles) and switched back in once the market stabilised.

However, cash and bond returns were significantly higher then than they are today.
Marg

 

Nope. I just wish I had cash to load up if it happened.

 

Certainly no loss at our end as a result of the GFC. We just stuck in there and continued buying shares with whatever cash / borrowed funds we could get our hands on. That's why I'm such a fan of investing for dividends, it's a lot less scary staying put when most of the income continues to flow into the bank accounts.

Of course total return investors will argue that the focus on dividends is basically a mental thing. But during these scary times I would suggest that it's the mental aspects that dictate success or failure. So it's critical that each investor knows what works for them psychologically. Unfortunately most won't know until they experience such an event or worse.

 

Essentially you need to make a call on what you really think will happen, or what you think is most likely to happen. If you think the chances of war are high, then the best bet is to move a substantial portion into cash so your capital is both safe and more importantly prepared to take advantage of buying opportunities once the dust settles.

However if you are just nervous and think actual war is unlikely, best to sit tight with your current investment strategy.

Personally, I am smack bang in the middle of the fence. I think trump is a liability, potentially more so than Kim Jong-Un. But I am an eternal optimist and think that both of them understand the enormity of the consequences of this type of war.

Kim must surely enjoy his life the way it is and would be under no illusions that a post war life for him will be much less cushy. No matter how many targets his nukes manage to hit.

And trump, well, his life probably won't change very much, unless he makes an ill timed trip to Guam...

 

There is not much difference in opinions within the share sites..Only that they know the stock market can crash but I would not use any of those sites as a measurement tool each poster will use a different number to anchor off thinking they are right..

 

@wylie I was along a similar line of thought recently and then read this very good comment on Reddit which I think sums up the situation: Trump: If North Korea Escalates Nuclear Threat, 'They Will Be Met With Fire And Fury' • r/worldnews

A nuclear war benefits no one so the chances of it happening are very low, but not zero.

 

I sold all my US ETFs (denominated is AUD) a few months ago due to the political risk.
Best decision ever, not long after, AUD appreciated against USD and if I haven't sold them, my profits will be significantly less.
The Dows are at a historic high, forgive me for not having a lot of confidence in Trump Administration. That said, market crash usually happens when no one is expecting it was going to happen, so the world may experience a boom it has never seem before.

 

What happened in the last Korean War? - Cuffelinks

 

another day, a different problem....

Don't you love it.