A Korean index fund explainer
April 25, 2022 6:02 AM Subscribe
People who are literate in Hangul: Can you recommend a good index fund explainer?
My dad is concerned about inflation, and he tends to think savings and real estate as the only places to put your money. I tried to explain what index funds are and that they're a fairly reliable way to beat inflation in the ~5 year time frame, especially if he contributes to it via an IRA. I'm not sure it totally sunk in. He speaks English, but I feel this may be easier to understand in Korean, which I can't read in any practical sense. Is there a good index fund explainer written in Korean that I could send him?
My dad is concerned about inflation, and he tends to think savings and real estate as the only places to put your money. I tried to explain what index funds are and that they're a fairly reliable way to beat inflation in the ~5 year time frame, especially if he contributes to it via an IRA. I'm not sure it totally sunk in. He speaks English, but I feel this may be easier to understand in Korean, which I can't read in any practical sense. Is there a good index fund explainer written in Korean that I could send him?
Best answer: The Namu Wiki explanation (suedehead's link 2) assumes already knowing something about mutual funds, so it might not be the first explanation to start with unless your dad is comfortable clicking various links to get to other Namu Wiki entries explaining the terminology used.
Link 1 is a nice, beginner-friendly explanation, as is this one. From there he could read #2 and then leave #3 for last, as that one is an index fund vs. ETF comparison.
How old is your dad? Is he in the U.S.? If he is concerned about inflation, he could look into placing some of his savings into U.S. Treasury I-bonds. Nice explanation from /r/personalfinance subreddit.
And here's a Beginner's Guide to Mutual Fund Investing from the Korea Council for Investor Education.
posted by needled at 4:03 PM on April 25, 2022
Link 1 is a nice, beginner-friendly explanation, as is this one. From there he could read #2 and then leave #3 for last, as that one is an index fund vs. ETF comparison.
How old is your dad? Is he in the U.S.? If he is concerned about inflation, he could look into placing some of his savings into U.S. Treasury I-bonds. Nice explanation from /r/personalfinance subreddit.
And here's a Beginner's Guide to Mutual Fund Investing from the Korea Council for Investor Education.
posted by needled at 4:03 PM on April 25, 2022
Best answer: Maybe you did this already, but looking at YT real quick, the following looks pretty good. They are fully Korean and short:
YT Link A - Explains what fund is in simple terms and recommends index & bond funds. Somewhat entertaining.
YT Link B - A quick explanation of IRA.
YT Link C - Really good advices on how to invest from an interview conducted by the most liked Korean.
As needled mentioned, your dad's age probably plays a big factor here. Do you have Roth IRA yourself? If not, maybe you can make this personal like suedehead said and set one up for you with your dad. You can go to your or his bank together and talk to someone for free about IRA without committing to anything. Look at charts of funds together in 10, 20 year periods.
posted by dogstoevski at 10:54 PM on April 25, 2022
YT Link A - Explains what fund is in simple terms and recommends index & bond funds. Somewhat entertaining.
YT Link B - A quick explanation of IRA.
YT Link C - Really good advices on how to invest from an interview conducted by the most liked Korean.
As needled mentioned, your dad's age probably plays a big factor here. Do you have Roth IRA yourself? If not, maybe you can make this personal like suedehead said and set one up for you with your dad. You can go to your or his bank together and talk to someone for free about IRA without committing to anything. Look at charts of funds together in 10, 20 year periods.
posted by dogstoevski at 10:54 PM on April 25, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! This all looks great, especially the I-bonds, which are way easier to understand.
I'm super busy with packing right now, but I'll be looking through this in the next couple of days and just want to say I greatly appreciate these resource-rich answers.
posted by ignignokt at 7:39 PM on April 27, 2022
I'm super busy with packing right now, but I'll be looking through this in the next couple of days and just want to say I greatly appreciate these resource-rich answers.
posted by ignignokt at 7:39 PM on April 27, 2022
Response by poster: I offered to help him get I-bonds and sent over the explainer videos, but he said that he "wasn't that serious." Come to think of it, I think his inflation concerns were probably support for his suggestion about what kind of house my partner and I should buy. Thanks for the help, though! The subtitle technique will help me out in the future, and it's good to know about I-bonds in general.
posted by ignignokt at 4:37 PM on August 28, 2022
posted by ignignokt at 4:37 PM on August 28, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
Instead, I'd recommend actually sending some youtube videos that are in Korean with English subtitles, or in English with Korean subtitles. That way, you could actually watch the video and see if the financial advice accords to your own understanding.
Here's a list of search results for that. Looks like this video / channel specifically has a lot of financial advice with well-translated captions (seems like the creator themselves is Korean). Or a Korean explainer with english subtitles.
BUT really. I wonder if there isn't something else, more personal at stake here. Presumably your dad could look up / do research himself. Maybe he thinks the stock market is volatile, based on sone past experience?
posted by suedehead at 8:56 AM on April 25, 2022