Friday, March 24, 2006

International Barriers and Bridges

Yesterday I decided to cancel a trip to speak at a university in the southern US. They told me that as I wasn't a US citizen (but am an H1-B, green card approved but no card yet, have a SSN, and am resident for US tax purposes) they couldn't reimburse my expenses. Instead they would have to pay through my university but I would have to fill out a pile of bureaucracy delving into my tax and visa issues and then set up all kinds of bureaucractic stuff between the universities.... I just wasn't going to put up with this and even though it will cost me $130 in cancellation and change fees on the flight I decided to pull the plug. Was sorry for the guy who invited me as he is an H1-B himself. Just wasn't going to put up with more of this stuff. At a committee meeting at this university today we were presented on the barriers the US is putting in the way of foreign researchers and students and how foreign competition in the university sector is catching up and overtaking the US.... nothing really of news to me on that (unlike some of the Americans at the table...)...

Anyway, have assembled a pile of US dollars in my HSBC account and tomorrow will transfer them to Australia. The Australian Dollar has been falling sharply this month. Ostensibly because the Fed is going to raise interest rates much more than the Reserve Bank of Australia will. I have saved $A15,000 so far this month, but am down in US Dollar terms as a result. So at least make lemonade from lemons and try to buy more Aussie Dollars cheap... They will then go to paying down my margin loan in Aus. Last night I sent a fax to my broker in Aus to withdraw $A8000 from two Aussie mutual funds and put that towards margin loan reduction. The Australian All Ords index reached the magical 5000 mark for the first time. My technical analysis model is "flashing" a sell signal. So I have to act. I need to keep some money in those two funds as they are closed to new investors like all good funds eventually are. Large size in mutual funds is detrimental to performance. Good managers call a halt to the inflows at some point.

My mother and brother went to see a potential money manager yesterday. Got the info he sent on fees and performance of managers he outsources to. We know this guy from his previous job with Citibank. Could be good.... need to hear more details from them on what they discussed.

3 comments:

StealthBucks said...

Sorry about the whole green card thing. When I went to school in Sydney we septic tanks couldn't stay passed our school visa's expiration either. If I had been a Crazy Canadian.... no worries; you're in. But alas, I was not. My point, for two very similar countries our two governments suck at letting the average guy pick up and move. I hear though that if I get substantially wealthier the gov guys down under would be happy to take my money should I choose to move...... Still reading your blog.....

mOOm said...

Actually, last night my lawyer e-mailed me and asked me if I'd heard from the National Visa Center yet. I e-mailed back and said no, I hadn't... not sure if she was planning something. We'll see...

I have an American friend who did a PhD in Australia and because of professional experience in the US was granted immigration status when she came to study in Aus. She became an Australian citizen after the two year period. Now she lives in California.

StealthBucks said...

I am fixing my site. I hit some kind of preview button. A lot of people do this so they can delete anything that messes up their ad business If you disagree they simply don't post it. I am also backing off on my approach. People think I'm too negative..... Not so but hey.....